Noah's POV
Bryony was ill. She'd picked up something in those cells, along with the affliction of losing our little brother. And it'd made her so weak, her body so awfully fragile. Barely functioning as it was. It'd been around two weeks since we'd seen everyone aside from each other. Cooped up in a makeshift tent we'd formed from logs and a single blanket Kieran gave us for Hunter, I watched Bryony's chest rise and fall: her body quivering in the cold.
She was supposed to be the strong one. She was older. She was the one that took care of us all, and now it was me trying to keep her alive. I'd never felt more alone in my life. And honestly, I missed our friends too. It'd been nice to have someone around who wasn't part of my family, somebody I could talk to about things who wouldn't already know about them. Would've been nice for someone to have been watching out for Bry too. I'd already lost Hunter; I couldn't lose my big sister too.
I shivered as a cool wind passed us, wrapping my jacket tighter around myself and hissing, watching as Bryony took in a sharp intake of breath and feebly attempted to roll over.
For a second I thought I saw someone in the distance, looking at us. But immediately ruled it off as exhaustion.
Then I fell asleep next to Bry, wrapped up in a layer of sweaters. Like we'd do at sleepovers as kids. But this was nothing like when we were little.
***
When I woke up the freezing cold wasn't as intolerable anymore, but Bryony was missing. I forced my body to pull itself up push through the layer of leaves covering the makeshift entrance and found myself in a state of both disbelief and relief as I saw her sitting round the fire sipping on a hot drink.
She was okay.
And then even more shock as somebody emerged from behind her. Kieran.
He was okay.
I ran over to him and he wrapped me into a tight hug, rustling my hair in the process.
"Happy birthday Noah. Fourteen, right?"
I nodded and smiled back at him. I turned back to my sister at that point, who was holding her arms out wide too. I clung tightly onto her as soon as I made my way over. "Happy birthday!" She said as she kissed the top of my head. "I'm so sorry I worried you like that. I'm feeling a lot better." Relief filled my chest as I nodded and sat down next to her by the fire.
***
Elodie's POV
"And how are you planning on doing that?" I mumbled, leaning my head against Cara.
"He gave you a ring with a tracker, but remember that phone I gave him two months ago? There won't be any numbers on it but the chances are he still has it and if so, I can track his location."
"Cara, did they take away any of your belongings when they locked you up?"
She shook her head. "Didn't have time. Kieran would've resisted too much. They planned to do it after a couple days without food when we didn't have the energy to fight back."
Lucas smiled. "Then he still has it."
But Cara wasn't sure. "Luke he's in the complete opposite direction of us. Back at our building and then further south."
I grimaced and bit my lip, looking at Lucas. "We came north, didn't we?"
"Yes."
Cara took a deep breath in and then shrugged. "It's Kieran. I think we should go." After a couple seconds Lucas nodded too and sat down next to Cara, watching my expression as I struggled to process my own thoughts.
Soon enough I nodded too. "We have a vehicle, crossbows and plenty of food that Luke managed to steal from the motel. We have an advantage this time, we'd only be going through the area and if necessary, have somebody on the wheel in disguise."
"We need arrows." Luke added.
"Okay," I whispered, "Then we don't go straight away, plan first. Collect materials like extra food and more arrows and watch Kieran's movement until we're sure we can leave."
All three of us nodded, trying to push out that distant feeling of hope that was beginning to sneak up on us for the first time in days.
***
We trained for days, Cara and Luke teaching me how to correctly fire a crossbow, and Cara herself teaching me the best way to use a blade. Which I hoped I wouldn't have to do. But again, I consistently reversed back to the thought of being weak and forced myself to push on until I was physically and mentally drained, but strong. To run on until my legs were collapsing and I had a metallic taste in my mouth. But I was powerful, and thought just for one second that this was a battle we may just win.
We sparred a lot, fighting each other to make for the chance that we may have to fight somebody else if the worse came to be. Lucas could really fight, which honestly, I never expected from him. He said he practiced karate as a child but I had a feeling something else had caused him to train like this. For the level he was on he had to have excelled professionally at some point in his life.
Between Cara and I, it was usually her that won. But there was the odd time I managed to land a good hit on her and they deemed it a loss. However, Luke seemed to be destroying the both of us.
On October 19th, I fell asleep that evening exhausted. Two weeks' worth of training having sucked the life out of me.
***
My eyelids fluttered open, my body feeling abnormally recharged. I pushed myself up and off the mattress, raising my arms up to stretch and listening out for the voices of my friends.
"Elle, you awake?" I heard Lucas yell.
"Yeah." I shouted back.
"Can you come in here for a sec?"
I followed the voice into the main room where Cara and Luke sat, perched on a crate.
"You need to look at this."
He pulled out some sort of navigation device and I watched as a single red dot moved ever so slightly towards the south.
"That red dot is Kieran. He's moving."
My heart dropped.
"It's time. I think we need to go."