October 5th 2026, 6am.
Hi,
This is already weird and I haven't even started writing yet.
Luke told me that It'd be easier to get over losing our friends if I wrote a diary, though I've never been one for writing. Writing was always Cara's thing. It's been about a week since we had to flee, found another abandoned building and set up camp which is very our style. But it's started to get cold now. Last time we were in this position it was warm August and we had the equipment to prepare for the winter but there's only so much you can grab when you're on the run.
***
I felt ridiculous writing in the book. Because In reality who would ever see it beside myself and possibly Luke if he decided to be a little too overbearing? But part of me had to admit that it was slightly helping.
However, the 5th of October turned into yet another eventful day when somebody turned up banging furiously on the doors which we'd managed to seal off with some old cupboard. Of course, my immediate reaction was to panic and hide myself away but realistically I could hear one person behind the door. For a split second I saw myself running to go wake up Lucas, yet somehow, I found myself picking up a stray piece of wood in both hands and holding it over my shoulder.
It's insane how much the promise of feeling powerful could control my entire body.
I dragged the cupboard backwards, leaving a small gap for me to fit through, hearing whimpers and cries coming rom the other side of the door. My heart softened, but for all I knew it could be a trap so I had no time to feel empathy. I took one deep breath in, grabbed the handle with one hand whilst balancing the wood on the other and yanked open the door.
"Cara?" I yelled, watching her limp body make an effort to pull herself up. She was soaked, had tears streaming down her face and large gashes covered her body.
"No, don't move, I'll go get help."
I stopped caring in that instant and burst into the room Luke was sleeping in, shaking him until I saw any sign of him being awake.
"Elle, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, but somebody just showed up at the door who isn't." I said frantically, begging him with my eyes. Panic stricken, he dragged himself out of the pile of cushions he'd created and followed me to the front of the house where Cara had just managed to crawl through the doorway and had passed out on the ground.
"Cara, oh my god."
***
Two hours later Cara lay on the floor, breathing heavily, barely conscious. Luke had cleaned her wounds, and we'd done everything we could to clean her up without putting her through too much pain.
"What happened to you?" I whispered; concern laced in my voice.
Cara swallowed deeply, and motioned for Luke to help her sit up until she was leaning against a crate. I didn't know whether to cry, hug her or be scared of her.
"They got everyone. Noah, Bryony, Hunt."
"Kieran?"
"Kieran too."
I sighed, too heavily than I should've. And I think Lucas cast his gaze away from mine for a split second. He feared that I never made my choice, the universe chose for me. Fate chose for me.
"But, Elodie, Kieran is alive."
"What?"
"He's okay. They took us to some compound about an hour from the old place. Sat us all down and quite blatantly told us that we were dead. We were in cells for two days with no food." She paused, swallowed, then looked down at the ground for a second almost as if she was finding it difficult to maintain eye contact. Whether that was a nervous thing or because she was losing vision, I wasn't sure.
"You know Kieran enough to know he wasn't going to sit there and let them kill us all."
"He got out?" Lucas said.
Cara nodded. "Managed to knock a guard clean out with something in the cell when he was leaning against his cell, taunting him. Straight through the bars. He took the guard's keys and let everyone out, we left together and let Noah, Bryony and Hunter go off on their own."
"So, they're okay too?" I whispered, hope filling my voice.
Her face contorted into a pain-filled expression and she shook her head. "I watched them grab Hunter." And then she stopped speaking and started sobbing instead, tears beginning to well up in both mine and Luke's eyes too. So, we didn't push it.
"Kieran and I found somebody to take us far across the country, to you."
"To us? How?"
"He got your signal Elodie. The ring."
"Oh my god." I covered my mouth. "He put something in the ring."
Lucas remained awfully silent. "A ring?" He mumbled.
"A tracker. Everything was supposed to work out perfectly but at last second, he tried to push me into the van with one half of the tracking device and told me he was sorry. Said he'd done something and couldn't put me in any more danger than he had already." And then she burst into tears again, putting a hand over her mouth to silence her own cries. I understood her agony.
"But he's alive, C! And hopefully Bryony and Noah too. We can find them!"
She shook her head and sighed. "That's why I said tried. He must've given me both parts of the tracker. She pulled it out of her pocket and held it up, and surely enough there was two parts to the device. I slumped down next to her, disappointment and dismay building in my chest, my heart seemingly only pumping those feelings around my body.
Finally, Luke spoke up. He stood up and let the start to a smile creep onto his face.
"I think I know how we can find Kieran."