Chapter Four
~ Lexa ~
We sat around our little unsteady table, laughing like we did most nights. There was barely enough food to fend off our hunger, and what we could save, we had to; winter was coming. Sooner or later food would become even scarcer. It wasn’t like we had any money to just go to the market, like the people who lived outside our woods. It wasn’t like we could get jobs. Not in this country.
We were all wanted. Every single one of us within these woods. We all had escaped prosecution. We all had a kill order on us. But we chose to live our lives unafraid. Me, Jaxon, Grey, and Will had all made the decision a long time ago that we were our people’s first defense. Many of the people we were protecting were grown-ups. But they were scared, so they let kids take over. Grey’s little sister, Gracelyn lived with us too, but she was too little to understand the role we had to play yet.
We had talked briefly of retreating deeper into the woods. To be more among our people. But that would defeat everything we had stood for for so long. No. We would stay, and we would continue to try and fight. But I have to say, it had been really hard since Will got taken from right under our noses.
“Lexa,” Jaxon commented. “You’re not eating.”
“I’m not hungry.” I answered, bringing my attention back to the table. It wasn’t necessarily a lie. I hadn’t had much of an appetite lately.
“Not eating won’t save Will,” Grey responded gently.
Grey and Jaxon were like brothers to me. They teased me relentlessly, especially when I was younger. But they were also fiercely protective of me. They had been since the day we all met.
8-years-old and I had run into the woods to tell the others what had happened to my mom. The group was a mix of young and old. I told my message to the small village of us and went to return home. Will was the one who asked me where I was going when I turned to leave.
“To my home.” I had responded. “I need to be there so I can warn everyone if there’s danger.”
“We’re going with you.” Will had answered.
And the band of unwanted kids, Will, Grey and Jaxon. The troublemakers of the village, the ones who pillaged off of everyone else’s stuff came home with me and never left.
“I wasn’t thinking about Will.” I lied.
“Then why did you get that far away look in your eyes?” Gracie asked.
“I was just thinking about what our next move is going to be,” I tried to smile. “How we’re going to save Will.”
“And everyone else?” Gracie asked, her voice small.
“And everyone else.” I replied with a sigh. “One problem at a time though.”
I jumped at the sound of a knock at the door, before grabbing a knife from my belt. It was strange. We had sensors set up so only people with powers could get through without triggering it. There were very few people without our protection out in the world now, and there were signals used if there was an emergency in the villages of the woods.
I saw Grey move toward the door, his short sword out and ready as the knocking got more urgent.
He nodded at us, and Jax and I nodded back as Gracie ran to her hiding spot by the fireplace. We were ready.
Grey threw the door open and had his short sword to the throat of a girl about our ages.
“Name?” Grey asked menacingly.
“Wait!” I called out, placing my knives back in my pocket. “Let her go.”
“What?” Grey and Jax said at the same time.
“I know her.” I answered.
Grey lowered his sword but didn’t let go of her.
And I took a good look at her. Her straight blonde hair was matted and messy. Her clothes were ripped. She was a mess of a person. Not put together like the girl I knew. Or even the girl I had seen earlier in the day. But I would know those eyes anywhere.
“S.” I said through clenched teeth. “What are you doing here?”
She didn’t answer at first, but she eventually looked up and met my eyes.
“Thanks for not letting them kill me.” She said finally.
“I haven’t decided what they’re going to do yet.” I stated, trying to keep myself looking tough and fearless, but my heart was racing.
Her eyes got big at my comment, but she seemed to pull it together.
“I came to tell you something.” She answered, but Grey still had her arm.
“How did you find me?” I interrogated.
“I had help.” She answered, still trying to sound elusive, full on knowing it wasn’t an acceptable answer.
“Won’t your parents be worried?”
This time she shifted as she reached for something in her pocket.
“Yea. I risked everything to come here.” She answered, pulling her hand back out, and to my surprise, it was empty.
“Okay.” I sighed. “Let’s get you cleaned up. You can borrow some of my clothes.”
“No.” She stated firmly, unmoving as Grey released her arm.
I froze. “No?”
“No.” She repeated. “I can change my clothes later. First, I need you to tell me everything you know about what they do to the sick, and why all three of you have a bounty on your heads.”
I froze. She knew something. She had to. But I wasn’t sure if I was ready to risk everything on her yet.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I know where Will is.”
And in that moment I swear my heart stopped, and I thought for a second it might never beat again.
Chapter Five ~ Aspen ~ I was completely exhausted, practically falling over where I stood. It had taken way longer to find the shack Will mentioned than I thought it would. At this point, the sun was long gone. And I was in deep trouble. I’d told dad I would return his key card in only a few minutes, and now it had been hours. I didn’t know if he’d be worried, or angry, or both. Either way, I didn’t plan on seeing him any time soon to find out. “What do you mean you know where he is?” The guy to my left, the one who’d rudely pointed a weapon at me upon opening the door, asked with an edge. I rubbed my arm where he’d held it moments before. I didn’t blame them for being hostile. I was actually quite shocked at E’s kindness aft
Chapter Six ~ Lexa ~ “You’re being soft.” Grey growled at me. “I’m being human.” I answered, trying to think of what our plan could be. “Lexa, you won’t let them hurt her, right?” Gracie asked, moving from her hiding spot. “Gracelyn, you aren’t supposed to get up until we say it’s safe.” Grey reprimanded, sounding so fierce the little girl practically dropped back into the hole. “It is safe, Grey.” I told them tiredly. This day had
Chapter Seven ~ Aspen ~ That night, I got the worst sleep of my life. Shortly after E declared her brilliant plan, she went out to check that everything was okay around the site. That left me alone with Grey and, although I was exhausted, I didn’t feel comfortable letting my guard down around him. He was really intense and kind of scary, honestly. She got back soon enough, and I passed out on that dingy couch that had probably come from someone’s trash. Now, I was upright on that same couch, rubbing at the tight muscles in my neck. And, sadly, listening to a shack full of people bickering. “That will never work.” Jax sighed frustratedly, saying the same thing he’d been repeat
Chapter Eight :~ Lexa ~I didn’t slow down. I honestly didn’t know how. If Will had been there, he would have forced us all to slow down. He would have said it didn’t matter if we’re all dead. But the thing was, he was the one who was captured, he was the one who was going to be dead if we didn’t do something and fast. Ironic as it was, I pushed myself to fly even faster through the forest.I had covered those paths a million times. Most of the time without any shoes. I knew my way. But for some reason, I had a bad feeling today. The energy of the forest was off. There was something bad in the air. What it was yet though, I couldn’t tell.“Lexa!” Someone yelled.
Chapter Nine~ Aspen ~I moved through the trees quickly, coughing as smoke snaked its way into my lungs. I tried to cover my mouth as best I could, but it was my eyes that were getting the worst of it. I should’ve known something like this would happen. It’d been two weeks since I stumbled my way into these woods looking for an escape, and life had been anything but kind to us all in that time.I’d known it was coming. I heard dad talking about it when I was listening in on one of his meetings. When I was seen emerging from these trees, their suspicion that the sick lived here was confirmed. From that day on, they were talking about ways to get them out. To check them into our facilities. To put them in cages.I wante
Chapter Ten: ~ Lexa ~ I didn’t sleep a wink that night. Grey was curled up in my tent because he couldn’t sleep with “that thing” in his tent, and I had taken the first watch like I usually did. But instead of waking Jax and Grey up for their shifts, I just stayed up. I couldn’t sleep even if I wanted to. How could I sleep if Will was that damaged? I had gone over the plan a million times, as I paced the corridors of sleeping people. Their minds were probably as restless as mine, but at least they could sleep. Or at least many of them had been until about an hour ago. “What th
Chapter Eleven ~ Aspen ~ I stared straight ahead, unmoving. It was all I could do. It was all I’d been doing for hours now. My head was swimming with so many thoughts that it all jumbled together into indistinguishable white noise. A fresh supply of tears filled my eyes, but I blinked them away. I could practically still feel dad’s hand on my shoulder, squeezing firmly. “You’ve made me proud, Aspen.” He’d said. “She’s getting the help she needs.” It was all just so....there wasn’t even a word for it. At this point, I was mostly mad at myself for being naive for so long. This had all been happening the whole time, and I genuinely thought we were curing people. Or at least trying. It turns out I was very, very wrong. And stupid.
Chapter Twelve: ~ Lexa ~ The room was dark. Everyone was gone for the night. And for the first time in a while, I breathed. It wasn’t that bad yet. But they were rushing my ‘treatment’ along. I was a public enemy. I deserved to die. That’s what so many people had told me today. They didn’t even pretend to be treating me. They wanted something, but I hadn’t shown them that I was of use to them yet, which infuriated them. They knew I had powers. But they didn’t know how to access them without me being semi-compliant. And if there was one thing I was good at, it was not being compliant. I looked over at Will. He laid in the cell across from me, looking more dead than alive. His face when I had been brought in had def