Chapter 1
Trudging through the mud and rain, a group of lost teens walked through the woods.
"Should we be out this late? Or more importantly out here?" A scrawny, pale girl with shoulder-length, black hair and dull, green eyes shivered in the brisk wind while checking her surroundings.
"It wasn't supposed to rain either but here we are..." She added, clenching her jaw to stop her teeth from chattering.
"Quit stressing, Natalie. I know it's storming but we never get to leave the facility... So at least just try to enjoy the fresh air." Another girl, a few paces behind the one called Natalie, reassured.
Both the girls resembled to be around the age of sixteen or seventeen.
The second girl had dark, almond-colored skin and wavy, chestnut brown hair that v-cut a few inches past her shoulders. Her round, curved eyebrows flattered her chocolate brown eyes as her dimples complimented her smiled. She was short and plump with a thick body, curves, and muscles.
"I'm not like you, Marly. I'm not really for 'living life on the edge' so.." Natalie, which seemed to be the scrawny girl's name, shuddered under the blanket of rain pounding her.
"Tal, when do we ever get o-"
"Shh! Guys..." A boy several paces ahead of the girls hissed as he swung his hand up to silence them.
The mushing of the mud below their boots stopped as they came to a halt.
The rain forced the boy's dirty blond, messy hair to be flat on his face and slightly over his eyes, covering up the bluish-grey hue in them. His build was strong and lean, it matched well with his tall height of around 5'11-6'.
The boy surveyed the area, his fear relaxing once the coast was clear. He proceeded to take a step but instantly stopped.
A dark figure approached the lost teens in the woods. As the boy lifted the flashlight up to the figure they prepared to run.
Every moment felt painfully slow as the seconds felt like hours. The pounding of the boy's heartbeat began to be louder than the pounding of the rain. A drop of sweat dripped down the boy's face in worry but was immediately washed away by the rain.
Then finally his flashlight reached its face.
"G-Gilly?!" The boy stammered in confusion and worry.
The figure, known as Gilly, walked into the rays of the flashlights, "Gabe??"
Gilly quickly surveyed the area and saw not just Gabe -the kid with the dirty blond hair- but Marly, Natalie, and another boy as well.
The other boy's hair fell almost an inch past his brows from the rain pulling on it. When not wet, his hair was a curly, freelance mess with dark brown locks about the length of Gabe's hair.
His height seemed to be almost six feet tall. The rain-soaked his light blue, long sleeve shirt causing his sleek and well-defined muscles to peek through -his build was like Gabe's but taller and thicker in muscle.
His complexion and skin were very tan and dark with a nice bronze tint, which complemented his piercing, emerald green eyes.
Both the boys, Gabe and the other, looked at the age of seventeen or eighteen.
"What the hell are you guys doing out here?! This is strictly against rules!" Gilly barked, his hand resting tightly on his gun.
"Okay, hold up. Chill." The boy with green eyes interrupted Gilly's rant as he began one of his own.
"I can see how things look bad, but..." He trailed off, his demeanor was chill and almost playful- well, kind of immature. His features and personality didn't look like the serious or plain type but more of 'let's just have fun' type.
"First off: It's fine." He continued.
"Second off: You know us, like, what are rules??"
Gilly rolled his eyes and tilted his head in frustration at the boy's comment.
"And third off: We can obviously handle ourselves, right?" The boy nudged Gabe's arm. Gabe smiled and gave a reassuring nod.
Gilly rubbed his rain-soaked head while releasing a deep stress-filled sigh. "I swear one day you guys are gonna get yourselves killed."
The kids scoffed while a few let out some sarcastic comebacks at his comment.
"Especially you, Izon," Gilly added with no care of how the boy he called Izon would respond as he did another perimeter check.
The boy with green eyes, Izon, pointed at himself, his eyebrows knitted in disbelief as his face said, 'um, bro, what the heck??'
Marly, rolling her eyes, snapped at Gilly, "Really, Gilly? I think you're being a just a little melodramatic, don't you think-"
The sounds of twigs snapping and heavy breathing in the distance set silence among them. Getting defensive, Gilly pulled out his gun. Gabe put his flashlight at its face to show...
"A girl?!" in surprise, Marly and Izon whispered in harmony.
All the kid's lights, plus Gilly's, flashed on the girl's face. She instantly squinted from the harsh lighting change and flinched, stealing a step back. Her body trembled in fear causing her limbs and bones to be paralyzed.
This mysterious girl, just like the others, was soaking wet from the rain. Once the flashlights hit the girl's skin it shined a fluorescent white from how pale she was.
Marly gasped as her hand clasped over her mouth, her face showing a high level of shock.
As the numerous flashlights scanned her up and down, the group noticed how very malnourished she was.
She showed signs of being beaten and abused from the purple and black bruises staining her thighs and upper arms while scattering in other various places about her body.
Scratches completely overwhelmed her bare feet from running in the woods, making her feet soaked in blood. Not only that, but many other small cuts ran up and down her body, causing blood to trickle down them and smear over her pale skin from the rain.
The girl looked like an absolute mess. Her hair was knotted while in some places it was cut differently and unevenly. Her eyes shot a crimson red, while her pupils were dilated. Her outfit, which seemed to be a hospital gown, was torn in multiple places revealing more cuts and bruises on her torso; blood soaked her down where the cuts were. Her skin looked in the beginning stages of clinging to her bones from malnourishment.
As the kid's eyes wandered, even more, they also notice ugly, black bruises resting on the inside creases of her elbows and wrist.
A tear dropped down Marly's cheek as Izon forced himself not to look away. The mystery girl looked really bad. Really bad.
"W-who are you?" Gabe's voice stammered as he forced out his question. His face contorted in worry as he kept his eyes ok her hurt body.
She stayed silent as fear stitched her lips shut. No one noticed the tears coming down her cold cheeks because the rain fell so hard it soaked her skin.
"Hey! He asked you a question!" Gilly barked coming closer to her.
Glancing back she caught sight of Marly and Natalie. Finally, she forcefully coughed up something to say after the loss of words from Gilly holding a gun to her head, and what she knew was coming next.
"I..." she started, her voice shaking worse than a million tremors.
Because she opened her mouth to speak, they saw what looked like traces of blood stained on her lips.
"I-"
Bang!
The girl jerked down in fright as a taser shot right by her and hit the tree next to Natalie.
Then another shot was fired even closer to the strange girl, leading to rapid shots of both bullets and tasers soaring by the kids as they ducked down to avoid them.
"It's an ambush!" Gilly yelled, "Head to base!"
As they began sprinting, Gabe abruptly stopped and whirled around to see powerful lights flashing in his direction and distinct shouting among the people coming closer.
Good for Gabe and his friends, they were too far out to be caught in the rays of the people, mainly guards and security, coming closer.
But that's not the only thing he saw...
As his eyes gradually shifted down, he saw the strange girl on the ground, and what it looked like, she was in pain.
He dashed to her, taking no spare second, and grabbed her shoulder. He shook his head to each side to move his wet hair out of his eyes. Then he shook the girl by the shoulder a few times to see if she would respond.
"Hey? Hey? Are you okay?" He asked in an impatient and demanding tone.
"Miss?"
No response.
After looking up to see how close the people chasing them were, he turned her over to her back to reveal a bullet hole in her stomach.
Blood gushed out of the hole and soaked into the hospital dress she wore. Her skin color washed away to white as her lips turned into a faded purple and her eyes began to roll to the back of her skull.
She was losing blood. Too much blood. She couldn't have just gotten that wound right now. She must have had time for her to bleed out. She must have already got it before.
~'How did I not notice this?!'~ he thought in panic.
"Shit!" he shouted worriedly, "Guys! I need help here!"
His friends, being way ahead of him, stopped at his call of worry and glanced back to see the men getting closer and closer to them.
"Gabe, get out of there now!" shrieked Marly.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Gilly huffed in frustration.
"I can't leave her!" Gabe proclaimed looking back down at the girl. His hand gently touched her cheek. He flinched from the coldness, but again, he placed his hand on her cheek and left it there.
Sympathy filled his heart as he gently turned her head so he would look at her. The girl gently moaned in pain, startling Gabe.
"Let's go, Gabe, just leave her!" Gilly barked his command with no grace while his handheld his gun out in front of him towards the yelling of the guards.
"I can't, she's bleeding out!" He fought against Gilly's order.
Gabe slipped his arm under the girl's knees and his other arm under her back, bridal style, and began to lift her up. She groaned through her chapped lips at the sudden, painful movements forced on her body.
"Sorry," Gabe whispered as he readjusted his grip to hold her better.
While he began to run, a bullet flew by and dug deep into the outside of his arm.
Thankfully it wasn't too bad of a wound to majorly injure him, but it did make him yell out in pain and drop to his knees.
The quick and abrupt motion caused the girl to let out a small cry and whimper.
Natalie ran to him to see if he was ok, but even in pain, he picked up the girl.
By now, the girl's consciousness was pulling away. She stopped responding to anything and her limbs went cold.
"What in the hell do you think you're doing?" Natalie screamed through her teeth, "Go! I can hold them off!"
Without doubting her, Gabe caught up with the rest of the team, the girl still motionless in his arm.
As soon as the guards got close enough, Natalie swung her hands forward and with it, a gust of wind came and knocked the guards down, but there was still more coming.
With a lot of force and pain, she strained her hands apart from each other. The earth below them began to tremble. Guards started to trip over their own feet and not seconds later, the ground where the guards were split open and swallowed them.
Straining again, she pushed her hands together and in harmony, the earth came together as well.
After that, they all made a break for it.
By the time they got to where they were heading, the strange girl lost full conscience and looked at the verge of death.
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{Word Count: 2031}