I am so so so so so so so sorry about the month and a half long cliffhanger,and for such a short chapter now, but I was just completely stumped.
"Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learned here." -Marianne Williamson
"Y-you're..." I start, but apparently lost the ability to talk. "Blah!" I make a weird high-pitched noise that earns me a concerned look from Carrie.
"Yes, I'm the daughter of a former dictator." Rayna rolls her eyes. "Don't freak out or something."
"You know we could be arrested for this, Jamie!" Carrie says, and I make the noise again. "Tortured, even executed!" I put my hand to my mouth in shock. What have I gotten myself into?
"How much do they want me?" Rayna asks, eyebrows turned up in fear.
"A lot." Jamie says.
"We'll be thrown to the rats if they find out we know where you are." Carrie clarifies. Rayna gasps. I gasp. Jamie groans.
"We aren't gonna be thrown to the rats!" She says. "Come. On. Guys. You really think I'd let any of us get hurt?" I look at the ground, feeling guilty that I didn't trust her. "Now, I guess I should explain further. I used to work with Rayna's mother, Tina. She was Emmett Klaga's wife." Klaga. Still sends shivers down my spine. "Well, during the war, she was worried about Rayna's safety, moved upstate. But she died giving birth, and I've kept track of Rayna for the last sixteen years." Rayna stares at the floor, tense.
"Let's get some sleep, I'll keep guard." Jamie says. We each choose one of the beds, and I lay down on the worn, plastic-covered blue mattress. It's the most comfortable bed I've slept in in a long time, but not when we're in so much danger that we have to keep a guard.
Oh well... I sigh. I drift off to sleep.
When I wake up, it's not because it's morning. The moon is low and the sun will soon appear, but what wakes me is the knocking on our cabin door. I jump up and hit my head on the bunk above me, but freeze when Carrie snaps an angry "shh" at me.
"Hide in the bathroom, Rayna." Jamie whispers. Rayna does so as Jamie looks out the small hole in the door, I think it's called a peephole, then opens the door. I see Timberlake walk casually in, sit by Carrie's bed, and start licking Carrie's hand. Behind the goat, though, is someone absolutely shocking.
"I got your little sign." Jeb says angrily, dismounting his horse. Apparently, there's a bag wrapped around his horse's waist that held Timberlake. "I brought you food, and a couple blankets, it's damn freezing up here in the mountains. Anyway, next time you need help, don't come looking for me."
"Alright." Jamie says as he hands her the blankets and food, which, might I say, there is a lot of. "Thank you so much, Jeb!"
"Ugh." Is his response, along with holding out his hand. Jamie begrudgingly drops six, seven, eight, nine, nine quarters into his hand! Handsome price to pay someone who tried to get me killed. He remounts his horse, and takes off, disappearing around trees in a flash.
"I think..." Jamie turns to me, Carrie, and Rayna, who is just walking out of her hiding spot. "I think I'm getting through to him."