The Runaways – Chapter 18

By MyNameIsCAL

Max and Fang's POV for this chapter. I'm trying to only use POVs that are necessary, but I do hope to let you all see things from Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge's POVs in the next few chapters, so I haven't forgotten about them, I just don't want to make it too confusing with all the switching.

-Max's POV-

We all surrounded the fire. It was late and we had been too tired to set up the tent. Nudge was curled up next to Iggy, his arm around her, hand still in hers as they slept. Gazzy and Angel had fallen asleep a long time ago. For siblings so close in age, they got along well. Ella and I always felt like something separated us. We were more like friends than sisters.

As for Fang, he had his head rested against my leg. I couldn't tell if he was asleep or not, but his eyes were closed. We were taking turns keeping shifts in case a park ranger came around, luckily for us there weren't that many around. After a hile, I pulled out a piece of paper and began my first letter to Ella and Mom since we left.

Mom and Ella,

It's been a month now. As far as we can tell, the news has been talking about all of us. We got attacked a couple weeks ago. We managed to escape. I don't want to write much, but I promise I'm fine. All of here are all okay, so you tell the cops and the FBI that. I'm sorry things have to be this way. I hope things will work out in the end.

Love,

Max

"Writing to your Mom?" Fang sat up, stretching his leg.

I nodded, stuffing it back into my bag. Over the past few weeks, we moved palce to place in Death Valley. Once I sent this, it would be time to get out of here, maybe move north. It was hard to believe that a month had already gone by since we had ran away. Sometimes it was hard, but we had each other. I guess we were lucky we all got along so well. Late at night, I'd often lie awake thinking how this had actually sort of worked out, like maybe we were all supposed to meet each other.

Fang stretched his leg. It seemed to be getting better. He was getting more weight on it and I was letting him drive short distances. Not that I didn't think he was capable, but at times, his leg would really bother and distract him.

"Why don't you rest?" he offered.

I shrugged. "I don't mind. You should rest if you're tired."

He handed me the blanket he had been using and I leaned in to kiss him. I smile escaped Fang's lips as I pulled away, tucking the blanket around me as I rested my head against his leg now. It was moments like this that made life as it was now worthwhile.

-Fang's POV-

The newspaper managed to at least have a small column about what was going on with the investigation of Max and the others running away. Why I never came up was a mystery to me. Either Max's mom had forgotten about me or there was a reason she wasn't telling the investigators about me.

"Max?" I whispered.

She didn't answer, already asleep. Quietly, I reached for her bag and found a notebook. We had gotten rid of our cell phones so the FBI wouldn't be able to find us, but Max had written down important numbers in case we ever did need to call someone. There was a payphone at the small store down the road. Our last day here, I think I was going to call her Mom. I owed her that much to at least call once and thank her. We'd be long gone by the time the FBI ever got out to this payphone.

I memorized the number and put the notebook back in, closing the bag.

As the sun started to rise, I put more wood into the fire, burning yesterday's newspaper. Gazzy was the first one to wake up and he looked up at me and then at Max who was still sleeping against me.

"Morning," I said to him.

"Morning," he said quietly. There was one thing I was sure of though. Gazzy was afraid of me.

"You hungry?" I asked.

He looked surprised that I was talking to him. "Yeah, sorta."

I reached for my bag, pulling out some junk food we had bought yesterday. "Chips aren't much of a breakfast. We'll probably be moving out of here today though. We can stop somewhere later maybe."

He took the bag from me hesitantly. "Ok, thanks."

Max stirred next. She looked up at me and I looked down at her.

"Well, good morning," I said quietly.

"Morning," she smiled, sitting up. Then she looked around, spotting that Gazzy was awake. "Good morning to you too."

Gazzy gave her a small smile. They definitely all liked Max better.

-Max's POV-

We sat around our little campsite for a while, the radio on the car turned on to the news. Fang was walking around, swearing under his breath as he tried to make his leg be less stiff. Angel took a seat next to me watching Fang.

"Do me a favor?" I asked Angel.

She looked up at me.

"Don't curse like he does."

She cracked a smile. "Of course not."

Fang finally took a seat next to me.

"Exactly what happened to you?" Angel asked.

Fang froze up. His father had done more than beaten Fang up, but none of them knew that. A couple nights ago, Fang had woken up from a nightmare, on the verge of tears. I told him if he ever needed to talk, he could talk to me, but I knew he knew that already, he just didn't want to. Or he wasn't ready to.

"His father beat him up," I answered for Fang.

"Oh, is that all?" Angel said. "Well, Iggy seemed to think there was more to it."

Iggy sat up straight, hearing his name. "Angel…"

"Sorry," Angel muttered. But I got this feeling that she knew there was something that Fang and I weren't telling her.

Fang suddenly stood. "We should get going."

-Fang's POV-

I held my breath as I walked up to the payphone. This was definitely a bad idea. I punched in the number to Max's mom's house. She probably wouldn't even be home.

"Hello?" I tired voice answered.

"Dr. M?" I asked gruffly.

"Who is this?"

"It's Fang."

"Fang? Is Max with you?"

I let out a sigh. "No, she's in the car. She doesn't know I'm calling you."

"But she's okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine."

"And…And the other kids?"

"They're fine too."

There was a pause. So I continued to talk. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Of course."

"The investigators…You didn't tell them about me?"

"Well…" she took a moment to think. "You know, maybe all of you were right to run away. I told them there was another person with Max too, other than the other kids, but I told them I didn't know your name so they wouldn't go looking for you too. It can't be easy going around when the whole country is looking for you."

"Thank you," I told her.

"How's your knee doing?"

"It's alright. Better now. Max won't let me drive too much."

She let out a laugh, making me feel relieved. I didn't know how she could deal with this.

"Be safe, okay?" she said after a moment. "You should go now. I won't tell them you called."

"Wait, Dr. M?"

"Yes, Fang?"

"I just wanted to say thank you for everything you did for me before, and that I'm…I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I know Max and I trust her…I…I know that she wouldn't have chosen to go with you unless she was sure she had to."

I didn't know what to say to her after that, but she filled my silence anyway. "And just know, when you come back, there's a place for all of you here."

I closed my eyes, feeling guilty to hear Max's mom be sad like this. "Thank you."

She said goodbye shakily and I put the phone back, feeling guilty. After putting Max's letter into the mailbox outside the store, I went back to the car, putting the food in the back with the others. I sat in the passenger seat and we headed off, heading north towards Yellowstone.

Thanks for reading! Next chapter will be up during the week.