Chapter 8

Instructions

Chapter 8 My knife. I still have my knife! I roll my shoulders, bringing my backpack in front of me. I bite the zipper and open it, bringing out my knife. I bite the knife and bring it to my hand and I saw off the ropes restraining me. I look up, seeing no-one has noticed my escape. My initial thought is to run away, leaving them behind, but I decide against it. I walk over to Nevada, shake her, and saw off the ropes. I go around the group, saving Shadow for last, wondering if I should help him. I look around at everyone, starting to realize the world exists, and they all groggily shake their head except for Oliver who nodded. Oliver and Violet were the only two people I fully trusted. I sawed off one rope, looking unsure at the rest of them, Nevada was shaking her head, Violet and Oliver where nodding, Jeremy was shaking his head. “Who’s willing to give up their weapon?” I asked. Oliver was the first to raise his hand and he handed me his dagger. I took it and left it in front of Shadow’s lap. In the wood of the table in front of him, I wrote, GONE. Everyone nodded and we headed out of the metal room up into a flight of staircases Jeremy had pointed out. Once we got to the top, we were in the woods, in who-knows-where land. We all fell onto a log as we let reality come to us after being knocked out. I closed my eyes and was quickly shaken by Oliver, “Get up, we’ve all been sleeping for way too long.” Sleeping? I had barely shut my eyes? I grabbed my backpack and followed Nevada as she led the way, so tired and weak and starving I thought I was going to collapse. Apparently everyone else thought that too because multiple times we had to stop and take a breather. At one point when we were taking a break, I got up and swiped some mint leaves from in front of us. I grabbed some raspberries and one of the sour berries. I sliced off 5 pieces of long tree bark and began to make an awful meal. I placed some mint leaves on the bottom of the tree bark, placed little seeds of raspberries on top, along with the whole raspberry, and then squirted just a tiny bit of the sour berry on top of it all. I passed out the meal and everyone devoured it. All the food in our bag was gone with it as well. We walked for a little bit and we got to a stream, Oliver passed on the water even though he seemed the most dehydrated out of all of us and we all drank the water. Even though it was the worst meal I’ve ever had, I felt like a king eating it. I looked up at Oliver, he was holding his head, and I saw a single tear fall down his face. “Oliver?” I asked. He looked up. “Drink.” He shook his head and went back into the position he started in. “Oliver. I hate seeing people suffer, and I’ve lived through it, why won’t you drink?” “I hate water,” He whispered. “I’ll spare you asking why,” I said, “Now I don’t care what you say, soon you’re going to faint if you don’t get water. I don’t care if water kills you, I think that would be better than what position your in right now.” He sighed and got up, shakily putting his hand into the water, and lifting it up, taking a drink. “Again,” I demanded. He repeated almost 7 times until thirst and pain won him over, he shoved his face into the water and started drinking it. I looked over at Nevada who was sitting against a tree, her arm folded tightly over her chest. She sighed quietly and looked over at Violet. I looked over too and saw that Jeremy was trying to console Violet who was hunched up in a ball, rocking forwards and backward. She was shaking her head hard at whatever Jeremey was saying. “She lost her family in the bombing too,” Oliver said, “Died internally, after losing her dog, she gave up.” I looked up at Oliver, shock coming over my face, “Will she ever be okay?” I asked. Oliver shrugged, “I have no idea, hurts my soul to look at her.” Nevada deemed it time to go to sleep, letting Violet stay in her curled up position. I pulled out my sleeping bag, crawling into it. I laid down and realized sleep would never come to me tonight. I waited for about an hour before I was sure that everyone else was asleep and crawled out of my sleeping bag, walking over to Violet. I sat down next to her, cross-legged, and just sat there. “They can’t fix me,” Violet whispered. I looked out onto the lake in front of us. The moonlight shimmered on the slightly rippling water. The rock we were perched on gave us a clear view of the beautiful scenery. “I don’t doubt that,” I start, “When I lost my mom and dad, my world fell apart. After I learned my brother was dead, I almost collapsed entirely.” She stared out into the water. “I miss them,” I sighed. “Me too,” She whispered. We looked out onto the water until I heard a rustling. Violet tensed, and I gripped my knife. Shadow appeared behind us. “Shadow?” I asked. “In the flesh,” He mumbled.