I subdued the anger that boiled in the pit of my stomach, breathing in and out slowly. I slowly opened my eyes and closely examined the necklaces, they were splintered and had some blood drops on them. I kept them in my hand and started to wander into the woods behind the trailer home. I wasn't quite paying attention and tripped over a fallen tree and face planted into another tree. I rolled over onto my back and covered my face with my hand, I could already feel a bruise appearing. I blinked really hard a few times in an effort to blink past tears that were threatening to spill from my face.
It didn't take long for my efforts to fail and tears to start pouring from my eyes. It was too much all at once. I wasn't made to be a leader, it's not the way I am. I dont have a backbone have the time and when I'm being "brave" it's just a show of false strength. The only reason I'm still alive is because I'm bulletproof and my friends are there to save me when I do something stupid. Half my friends are missing, the other half are broken and emotional, and I'm sitting on the ground in the middle of the woods crying like a baby because I hit my head on a tree.
I shook my thoughts from my head, I needed to focus on what was going good in my life if I was going to be a good leader. A decent leader. Okay I'll probably be only half decent but we can work out the schematics of all that when we rescue everyone.
I slowly started to stand up, my head was pounding from a little bump starting to form on the front of my head. A little rustle in the fallen tree I tripped over caught my attention shortly after I stood up.
I reached in my pocket for a pebble in case it was a ravenous animal trying to kill me. I small light tan blur bursted out of the backside of the falled tree and under some shrubs a few feet away. The sudden line of events had my heart beating out of my chest because I didnt think it would run like that. I put the pebble in my pocket and walked over so I was a few feet from the shrub; carefully stepping over the fallen tree to avoid face planting again.
"Catalina?" I called out in a light and peaceful voice, trying to coax the puppy out from under the bush. I had recognized some of her markings.
The puppy came running out of the bush towards me, causing me to fall to my knees so she can jump into my arms. Her tail violently wagged back and forth, jumping up into my lap and continuously licking my face until I told her to stop. I started to pet her as I moved my legs so I was sitting on my butt. I curled her between my chest and my arms as I gave her a hug. She nuzzled her snout into my neck, hiding her face in my hair.
I pulled her off of me and set her down in mylap, "Baby Girl, hey, babygirl look at me."
She looked at me.
Smart dog.
"Where's Carter?" I asked.
She didn't make an effort to change any kind of body language.
"Where is he at?" I repeated in a high pitched, sweet voice to catch her attention.
She stepped off my lap and started walking deeper in the woods. I quickly got up and followed the puppy. My judgement was clouded by the fact that I missed my friends. I was following a puppy that I had literally just met that day. She stopped and turned her head towards me, letting out a small whine. I looked ahead to see a very small clearing, only about twenty feet by twenty feet.
"Its okay."
She ducked her head low and pushed through a bush that wasn't even up to my waist. I walked around the bush and into the clearing. A tint of red splattered some parts of the grass; the sight made my stomach churn, I knew exactly what the red was. I crouched down, making sure that my shoes were the only thing touching the grass, and picked up a familiar looking cross out of the bloody grass. I stood up and held the necklace in my hand, the string had been snapped but that was the only thing wrong. I swallowed hard, trying to get the lump in my throat to go away.
There was no way for me to see whose blood it was.
But this was Carter we were talking about, he definitely wouldn't go without a fight. I shook my head and turned back towards Catalina. She was hunkered under the bush still. I walked over to her and leaned down to pull her into my arms. She didnt struggle as I lifted her off the ground and held her in my arms. I carried her back to camp, it took me about thirty minutes to navigate myself there but we made it nonetheless.
I got to the edge of the forest to see Liam, Axel, and Ryder holding guns and walking through the open field we walked through to get the camp the first time. I turned my head to the cabin.
It was big to say the least. It had two floors and a front porch with a porch swing. The windows had decorative red shutters with a matching brick colored roof.
I walked in the direction of the cabin, carrying a sleeping Catalina in my arms. I walked up the few steps onto the front porch, Kathy was sitting in the swing. She stood up and greeted me with a hug.
"You've been gone a while," She mentioned as she released her hug and took a step back.
"Yeah," I mumbled as I reached in my pocket and pulled out Carter's necklace.
Upon hearing my voice, Hannah came out the front door onto the porch. She too greeted me with a hug.
Due to all the movement, Catalina woke up and wanted down. I set her gently onto the ground and she proceeded to walk into the house.
"Where did the boys go?" I asked.
"They're going to go see if they can get some supplies from an old grocery store a mile north," Kathy explained. She seemed to know every detail of the trip they took which made me proud that they talked that over instead of just leaving.
I nodded.
"Hows everyone adjusting?" I asked as I looked over at all our people going back and forth between some of the houses we had checked earlier that day.
"They're doing better than I thought they would," Kathy admitted.
"Do they-"
"No," Kathy abruptly interrupted me, "They dont know that some of are missing. We agreed that it would cause more stress and chaos than needed."
I nodded.
They really talked over everything. We honestly functioned better when half of us are missing.
I frowned at my thought. It wasn't time for jokes.
"Also, you have two people to meet," Kathy added. I turned my head back to Kathy, she was smiling.
"Okay."
"Follow me," Kathy smiled as she walked through the front door, it was back on its hinges, and it was propped open. As I walked in, I turned my head to the wall behind the door and noticed the hole was still in the wall from the door knob.
Two girls were sitting at the table snacking on some dried meat. The younger one I recognized from when the boys brought her downstairs. She was a healthy kind of skinny with long dark blonde hair and slightly tan skin similar to Axel and Ryder. She was wearing a dark blue tshirt that looked two sizes too big, it was probably one of her brother's.
The other girl looked my age or slightly older, she had dark brunette hair down to her shoulders with slightly pale skin and bright blue eyes similar to the younger girl's and Axel's. Neither of the girls shared Ryder's green eyes. I assumed these girls were Ryder and Axel's sisters. What bothered me was the fact that they told me they only had one sister.
"Hey," I said with a smile and wave. The younger girl instantly stood up from her seat, the older one was slower to it but still stood up.
"Did you really take a sword to the chest?" The younger girl asked.
The older girl smacked the back of the younger one's head.
"You'll have to excuse Sage, Kathy was telling us about all the stuff your group has been through," the older girl said.
Sage rubbed the back of her head where she was struck.
"Oh its fine," I said with a smile. I looked down at my chest and moved the fabric of my shirt to show the scar I still had on my chest, "And yes, I did take a sword to the chest."
"Woah," Sage responded, "That's so cool."
I smiled and let out a short quiet laugh. Hannah maneuvered herself from behind me to infront of me so she could see the scar too. After a few more seconds I took my hands off of my shirt and put them in my pockets.
"My name is Sarah by the way," the older girl joyfully said with a smile.
"Hi Sarah, Hi Sage, my name is Carla," I responded with a cheesey smile. I looked back at Kathy who was leaning against the front doorway. She was smiling at me so I shot her a smile and looked back at the girls. They were so happy to meet me and it made me so cheery that Kathy spoke so highly of me to them that they actually got excited to meet me.
I noticed a large white paper that was draped over the table, I gave the girls another smile before walking towards them and the table. It was a handwritten map and a lot of notes.
The map was of our camp and to the south was a city looking area labeled in big letters, "San Diego."
"We're in California?" I asked. It was a dumb question but I knew where and what San Diego is from our USA class back on the island.
"Yes," Sarah answered in a cheery voice. Her voice suddenly go serious and it caught me off guard, "This is where the gang resides." She placed her finger on San Diego.
"Cool, let's go burn the city to the ground," I joked. Sadly I'd come to find out later that I wasnt joking as much as I had hoped.