Point of view chart:
-

John- Normal
Sam- Normal/Bold
Marina- Italicized
Six- Italicized/Bold

The night air is half as hot as it was during the day as the three of us escaped the everglades in the fan boat. A Six drove us out of there I used my new legacy to cool the air so maybe Nine's temperature would go down. I tried to heal as much of him as I could. I only got as far as his legs before we reached our landing place.

After leaving the rental shack we ran for about two hours, everything sounded like a Mogadorian space ship so we tried to stay near thick foliage in case we had to hide at a seconds notice. When we finally felt safe enough to stop, Nine was completely out of it despite the quick healing I was able to give. As we feared his back was broken and several ribs were fractured. Gingerly Six had laid him down under the thick shelter of trees in an area lit up by a lone light pole so I could go to work.

The long walk helped me to cool down and I could feel the bloodlust that fueled me in the everglades retract into hibernation. The truth was that I felt powerful. A new legacy that I found could be deadly and incredibly useful as well as unique to me alone. Other than powerful I felt exhausted and due to the long walk of silence I was exposed to my emotions and the grinding pain that spreads across my body as a response to the horror I feel that Eight's body had been stolen. Absolute horror when I can't even imagine the things they are capable of now.

Eventually after re-clearing my mind, the iciness of my legacy flowed regularly out of my hands. I saw his ribs reset and his back made cracking sounds as the disks were put back into place. Soon all the bruises and cuts were gone. He was then breathing normally again which relieved Six and I. She put her hand on his shoulder and shook him back into consciousness.

He laid on his back for a moment to regain his focus. For a moment he looked oblivious.

"Nine?" I call, hoping he recovered alright. I think I may have hoped too hard.

"The next f****** time I see that son of a b****I am going to kill him with my bare hands." He roared.

Six scoffed. "Not until I break his jaw first. I'll make Five sorry he ever crossed me." She stood beside me and angrily scraped the mud off her nails.

"I never liked the traitorous bastard since the moment I laid eyes on him." He spat. "Shoulda kicked him out when I had the chance."

"So he was a little weird when he came." I mutter. "No one could of saw this coming, he was one of our own-."

"He was never one of us." Nine interrupted harshly.

"But he was, Nine." I counter. "He was brainwashed by them and now Five is on their team. Whatever they told him he believes it enough that he tried to kill the rest of you."

"Why didn't he try to kill you?" Six asks.

"Because she coddled him all the time." Nine snorts.

I catch Nine's eyes. "Because I was nice to him, I did what never occurred for you to do and made him feel welcome."

"Yeah, well what good did that do in the end?"

"More than treating him like sh** ever did." My voice catches in my throat and I tear my gaze away from him.

Six put her hand on my shoulder. "We really don't need to be fighting right now. I have no idea what direction we are going and if we should even go back right now."

"What do we do then?" I ask, moving to my feet.

I doubted that Chicago will be an option for us now. Five had taunted Nine with the fact that his penthouse was being destroyed and it makes me feel more disdain for him.

"I say we should at least get out of Florida." Six replies. "That way if they can still track us with the tablet everything will go smoothly."

"If they even have the tablet." Nine says pessimistically as he digs his already mud covered fingers into the Florida soil.

Six shakes her head. "We better hope they do or else we are screwed."

"How will we even know?" I ask. "There isn't any way to communicate."

Six thinks for a moment. "I don't know. All we can do is hope they can find us, if we had our chests it would be different but…"

"S***." Nine interjects. "Please tell me the bastard doesn't have his chest."

"Marina froze the entire island. I bet it was trapped under ice, but they had enough time to take Eight's body from the ice, so I wouldn't be too hopeful."

Nine was in the middle of pushing himself up, but his strength faltered at Six's words.

"They have him?" He asked with disbelief.

Six nodded slowly. "I was useless and Marina was fighting them off by herself. Neither of us even saw them go."

Nine dropped his head and the breath was knocked out of him. "That's-no." he murmured.

Six sat down next to him and laid down on her back. "We can figure this all out with the remaining group alright. Let's get some rest because until John finds us we are going to be walking."

"We can sleep later." Nine jumped to his feet. "We've got to keep moving."

I dropped down next to Six. "I'm exhausted." And I was. For a moment I stared pointedly in the dark wondering if I really wanted to let my subconscious take over. It took a lot of effort to wave off any thoughts that tried to poison my head.

Nine wanted to disagree but his jaw set instead, the fight seemed to have been drained from his spirit. "I'll keep watch then."

"Thank you." Six sighed, snuggling up against her arm.

[~]

I stirred awake from my exhaustion, but I didn't feel all the way awake. A hard ground isn't exactly a comfy bed, but being as wiped out as I was I think I fell asleep as soon as I lied down. Before I woke up I was dreaming. In the dream I was floating in water peacefully. That's it. Just floating. Now I blinked a few times. In the distance, very far away I heard the sound of impact. Like someone was punching and object. As soon as I was aware of it the sound just stopped. I think maybe I felt like investigating, however sleep had pulled me under again. Maybe all of it was just a dream, I wouldn't remember come morning.

[~]

The next day we continued to walk until night fell. By that time our clothes stunk with sweat and swamp water. For the majority of the walk the three of us were silent. Each held captive by our grim thoughts and constant planning. When someone spoke it was usually to decide direction or to complain about their feet. After several hours we had come across a road sign informing us about a nearby camp ground. By the time we arrived, my feet were raw from where my muddy socks had rubbed continually on them. Every once and a while I offered to heal their feet, Six took this offer happily. Nine waved me off saying the pain helped him keep his head clear. Clear from what? I wondered. I never asked, just assumed it was because of what had just happened. I didn't press for confirmation. Along the way we had agreed to steal a car when we could find one, however we had yet to see any sign of life. Eventually we came to an area with a couple benches and a lot of trees.

We ventured into the deepest part of the clusters of trees until we found a sufficient camp ground. It was near a wide lake and had a picnic bench accompanied by a pre made fire pit from a previous camper. Not to mention covered almost fully by tall, bending trees with lush foliage.

"If we can find some more fire wood I'll start a fire." Six offers sullenly.

"Got a lighter?" Nine sneers.

"Better than that." Six replies cryptically.

The sun was already beyond the tops of the trees, casting a shadow which gave us just enough light to work with. We spread out a ways and picked up various sizes of wood and small twigs and trash for kindle. In the trash can there was a small bottle of lighter fluid that Six squeezed the remnants of all around inside the pit.

While she does this I start to thinking about the risk of a bright light in the middle of an empty camp ground. For some reason I don't point this out. If they want to attack us let them. I felt ready enough to turn a whole army to dust.

"Alright." Six warns. "You two might want to step back." While we take several steps backwards she lifts her hands to the sky and cooks up a small storm above us. The air cools and dark clouds swirl above. Tiny raindrops sprinkle for just a second before a massive lightning bolt shoots down right in the middle of the fire pit. Just as quick the clouds dissipate and a fire erupts as planned. Nine whoops and we hurry over to add more wood to the fire.

"Well, you said you wanted to go camping." Six says dryly.

Nine holds his hands up to the flame. "Now if only we had some meat." He looks towards the lake and then happily back at Six. "How about you bring another lightning bolt over the lake and fry us some fish?"

"I don't think so." Six says. "Last thing we need is attention right now and a lake full of fried fish won't help anything."

Nine curses.

"You can go one night without eating." Six sits Indian style on the ground next to the fire.

"Maybe the trash cans have something we can salvage." I offer. All the walking in the sun really took its toll on us. Something, anything sounded good about now.

"Help yourself." Six grumbles. "If you find something fresh tell me."

Before I can say anything Nine says. "Too bad Eight's dead, he could have popped into a food place and brought us something already cooked."

His blunt joke knocks the wind out of my lungs as if he had hit me with metal bat. My eyes began to sting, and I can't stand to even be with in the same proximity of him. The sun is almost down, but solitude is what I need right now. I look around me and catch sight of the pale blue lake illuminated by the last fleeting rays of a setting sun. Without saying a word I move towards the water.

"A little late for a swim isn't it?" Six calls after me.

One by one I take off my worn down tennis shoes and wade into the warm lake.

"Marina!" Someone calls after me, but I am already sinking to the bottom.

Lemon~Moon

Oooh, doesn't he just make you so mad! Before writing this of course I had to think 'How is each character going to react?' As someone who has gone through and witnessed various methods of dealing grief as well as depression I was able to put myself into their shoes and come up with different ways of coping as they all continue down a bumpier path than before.

As for updating I already have plenty of chapters pre-written, but I don't want to throw them all out all at once. So two or so a week will be sufficient, they are all about this size or bigger a couple smaller.

Thanks for reading and I hope you'll review with your opinions on any thing IANF related or more.

Also, I read that the next book's title is :The Revenge of Seven. I think we all know what that means! I am so ready!