Lane already threw a dumpling in his mouth "Ian's pretty stubborn so you two should stop trying to convince him besides, these are snack food types, they won't give him any strength
While they were eating, Dorian spread out the palm leaves in a way that he used three each for a person to make a place for everyone to lay down on for the night
After they were done, Yilao tried to call their parents so they wouldn't worry but there was no service "Dang it, Dad, Uncle and aunt are gonna be worried if they can't reach us"
Dorian said "We'll call them first thing when we get to Philadelphia and find a phone booth or something like that"
Yilao sighed then lied down "Alright if you say so"
Lane yawned and went to sleep too with Milky resting on his back when he dozed off
Paul glanced at Dorian who was already tapping away on his computer and leaned in "What are you doing?"
Dorian raised an eyebrow at him as he closed the laptop "What do you want to say?"
Paul sat back upright "Well, I just wanted to say thanks for earlier"
Dorian shrugged as he opened his laptop "No problem"
Paul asked "I know the snake bit you before you killed it, why didn't you tell anyone and just used your sleeves to cover it up"
Dorian shrugged "It had no venom and only scratched my hand"
Paul inquired "How are you so sure?"
Dorian closed the laptop then placed it aside and showed Paul his hand which had slight scratches on it
Paul held the hand and wanted to turn it over which made Dorian immediately retract it "What are you doing?"
Paul answered "I saw blood on your sleeves, let me see it!"
Dorian hid his hand "No need, just some scratches from getting the boulder"
Paul leaned over as he tried to see it but Dorian kept pulling which made Paul fall on Dorian who then fell onto the ground
Paul was lying down on Dorian's body and their lips were an inch apart but neither of them realized the position they were in as Paul finally grabbed hold of Dorian's arm who winced
Paul gasped and Dorian used his other hand to cover his mouth "Don't shout, you'll wake them up"
Paul nodded and Dorian released his mouth "What happened to you?"
Dorian glanced at the three claw marks under his forearm "Nothing"
Paul was worked up "You have this kind of injury but you didn't tell us anything about it and now you're not telling me how you got it??"
Dorian was looking at something else when Paul was talking so he groaned "Get off me first"
Paul then realized he was on Dorian and immediately sat up with his cheeks heating up "S-sorry"
Dorian sat upright "It's nothing"
Paul anxiously looked at Dorian's injured arm "Ian.. what happened? Please.."
Dorian glanced at him "A tiger attacked me so I portaled myself away before it attacked again"
Paul held Dorian's arm "You applied something on it"
Dorian replied "Some herbal mixture to stop the blood but I removed it so you guys wouldn't notice"
Paul glared at Dorian intensively "Why would you think of hiding this from us?"
Dorian sighed "You guys would worry and will see me as weak and pity me whereas I need to be strong for all of us and watch out for us till we get out of this forest safely"
Paul remarked with fury "So we're only teenagers, Sister Lao's the only one who's a college graduate among us and has her own job. It's fine if you're weak, there's no one to impress here and we're all family, we support each other no matter what"
Dorian didn't say anything and Paul wanted to tear the edge of his shirt to tie it up but Dorian stopped him "I'll deal with it myself, don't tear your clothes"
Paul had tears in his eyes when he looked up "Then you must tell the others tomorrow morning or-"
Dorian cut him off "I'll tell them now you go to sleep"
Paul asked "What about you?"
Dorian opened his laptop "We're in the forest, we can't all go to sleep, someone needs to stay watch"
Paul immediately offered "I can do it"
Dorian stared at him in confusion "When did you become so troublesome to deal with? Go to sleep, I'm tired of talking already"
Paul wanted to say something but Dorian knocked him out "Geez, what's his deal?"
Dorian lifted him and placed him on his bed of leaves 'You're too underdressed for this'
Dorian looked at his shirt and pursed his lips 'But I can't take off my shirt'
Dorian then spotted the backpack "There should be a jacket or cardigan in it"
Dorian went back to what he was doing
The next day, they washed up by a nearby stream and changed their clothes
Yilao wore a light multicolored cotton top which became a crop top for her and blue jeans which barely reached her ankles while Lane wore a light green polo shirt and smoke blue shorts. Paul wore a baby pink jacket, rosy lace short sleeve top and raspberry pink flare jeans
The trio laughed when they saw Dorian who wore a short sleeve lilac body hug top and lavender shorts which didn't even reach his knees
Yilao joked "You look like a boy who wore his younger sister's clothes!"
And that made the other two laugh even harder even Milky was laughing
Dorian had a slight frown on his face "The colours starts to hurt my eye when I wear it"
Lane said "Paw, your clothes are very colourful, haha! But not Ian's taste"
Dorian decided to shut them up by raising his hand and Yilao worriedly rushed over "W-what happened to you?"
He had tied it the injury up with a piece of fabric from his yesterday clothes but the outline of the injury still showed and the cloth was bloody too
Dorian retracted his arm when Lane wanted to poke it "I got injured yesterday while picking sticks but I applied something to stop the bleeding so need to worry"
Yilao was about to cry when Dorian walked past her "If you start crying now, we won't get anywhere and I won't be able to get to a clinic to properly treat it"
Yilao cleaned her eyes and hurried off with the other two, the luggages were less today because they drop the food container and the backpack
Yilao carried the sleepy Milky and Lane carried the laptops then the two of them walked in front chattering non stop about anything they saw
Paul was behind them still trying to get service on his phone while Dorian was a meter behind them so he could watch out for any sudden attacks
Paul looked behind him to ask Dorian something when he saw no one there "Ian?"
The other two in front stopped and Paul asked "Where's Ian?"
Dorian appeared in front of them with a bunch of fruits "Here"
Paul walked up to him "Where did you go? You cannot just disappear like that"
Dorian raised the fruits in his hands "Spotted an apple tree. Take it"
Paul sighed and distributed four for each and everyone
Dorian then went to the back again and they continued moving
But now, Paul was walking by his side so he wouldn't disappear again
Dorian rolled his eyes but didn't say anything
Eight hours later in the afternoon, they finally reached a settlement but there were no clinics
But they were able to get some good food and route to the nearest train station
Paul looked around "Where did Ian go to again?"
Yilao said "I spotted going towards the thrift store"
Paul checked his phone for the time "Sister Lao, there's a network now so try calling Grandpa, Dad and Mum while I go get Ian"
Yilao quickly did that and went to the side while Lane sat on the grass playing with Milky "Lan, aren't you going to change your clothes too?"
Lane shook his head "No, I'm good, I can still wait till we reach Washington and besides, it doesn't look bad on me"
Paul shrugged "Okay, I'll go get Ian"
Paul entered the thrift store and spotted Dorian who had changed into a dark blue jean jacket, white armless turtleneck shirt and dark blue straight jeans "Ian!"
Dorian turned around and walked to him then pulled up his sleeves "The attendant here is versatile in medicine, saw my injury and helped treat it then bandaged it up"
Paul said thank you to the old man who just waved his hand "No problem"
Yilao was able to hitch a ride for them with someone who was going to town so they didn't have to walk again
They soon reached a train station and thanked the woman that drove them there
Ten minutes later, they boarded the train and sat down satisfied while Milky slept off in Dorian's arms
Yilao smiled "Luckily, we got here in time or we'd have to wait another hour before we could board a train"
Lane asked "What did they say?"
Yilao responded "Dad, Uncle and Aunt said they didn't see any news of an accident but they did try to reach us last night but they couldn't get through so they thought that maybe we were asleep or something so they didn't worry much. They also said that for some reason, all the news stations in New York were down"
Paul glanced at Dorian who had his eyes closed 'Did he hack all the news stations to stop them from releasing the news so that the others wouldn't worry?'
Yilao stated "But the news did reach Washington and Molly and Sis Gaeul called but I reassured her that we got out before the truck hit"
Dorian squinted his eyes "Since when did Sis Molly watch the news"
Yilao replied "Apparently, it was Bro Will who saw the news and told Molly's husband, Jack and his wife who then told Molly. She even offered to come get us but I told her we were on a train already so she said she'll prepare dinner and wait for us then"
Paul looked at Dorian who went back to sleep 'Yeah, he was the one'
Yilao leaned against the back of her seat as she looked out the window "We'll be in Washington in less than three hours"
Two hours later when they were about to reach the border of Washington, the train shook extensively and the loco pilot tried to reassure them "Don't worry everyone! That was just a bump!"
Dorian frowned "That was not a bump. Train tracks don't have bump"
Lane whined "Oh come on can't we ever have a peaceful ride?"
Dorian gave Milky to Yilao who was beside him then pulled up his turtleneck to cover his face and only showed his eyes then walked up to the engine part of the train where the loco pilot was supposed to be but the guard stopped him before he could enter
The guard said "Entry access is limited for non staff"
Dorian looked at the guard then kicked the door open, the guard was about to shout at him when he saw something gory
The loco pilot was on the ground with blood seeping from his neck while someone was on the other side about to smash the controls
The guard went in and pointed his gun at him "Stop what you're doing!"
The person turned around and laughed then a sword sliced at the guard's neck from the side
Dorian realized that there was two of the attackers then pulled up the hoodie of his jacket to cover his hair
Dorian entered and locked the door from inside with his psychic ability
The person laughed "And who the hell are you, kiddo?"
The sword was about to slice Dorian's throat but stopped just before his neck
The swordsman on the side tried to move the sword with all his strength "Boss, it won't budge!"
The person stopped smiling "Kid, what are you?"
Dorian didn't reply as he snatched the sword then broke it into two without touching it
The swordsman backed away in fear and the person gasped "How did you do that! Witchcraft?"
People became frantic when someone saw the guard fall and the boy enter the engine room
So the other three tried to calm everyone down
Dorian used his psychic powers to lift the two men "Why did you attack us?"
The person grinned "You think I would tell you?"
Dorian opened a small portal beside the person "Speak or you'll get it"
The person struggled to get away but to no avail "What sorcery is this?!"
Dorian made the person's arm enter the portal and closed it then the person wailed in pain "Argh!! My arm!!"
Although no one noticed, Paul saw an arm fall to the side of the train and wondered 'Who the heck's in there and how many'
Lane patted Paul's shoulder "Ian will definitely call us if he needs our help"
Paul nodded and continued calming the other passengers down
Dorian stated "Now speak"
The person gritted his teeth "You'll have to kill me first!"
Dorian nodded "Okay" then he chopped off the other arm and the man screamed
The swordsman already fainted from Dorian squeezing his body
The person frantically said as Dorian was about to chop off his leg "Okay! Okay! I'll tell you!"
Dorian paused "Speak"
The person spat "Go to hell!"
Then he realized that the train was about to reach its next track so Dorian called Paul "Can you drive a train?"
Paul nodded then Dorian unlocked the door for him to enter
Paul saw the two people hanging in the air, one without arms who was bleeding profusely and seemed like he was about to faint while the other one had fainted already
Paul could tell what happened and just went to control the engine first
Dorian turned his attention back to the person whose head was hanged down already "Dead yet?"
The person didn't respond so Dorian used his psychic ability to bring his private part out then cut off which made the person awaken and screamed "Ahhhhh!!!"
Dorian asked with a cold stare "Will you talk now?"
The person shouted "You son of a bitch!!"
Dorian's veins popped out as he burst the guy into pieces before he completed his sentence "Don't you dare"
It was Paul's first time seeing Dorian so angry that his veins showed 'T-that's scary'
Dorian got so angry that he smashed the other one who was about to wake up into bits with his psychic ability "Ahhhhh!!!!"
Dorian was the one screaming as he held his head because the past was coming back to him 'Daddy got Milk a muffin! Goodnight sweetie. You're gonna have your sight back. We'll finally be able to go on that rollercoaster you want. Mum's tired, giving birth to your brother, Zach was no easy task. Mum, don't worry, Milky and I will be here for you. Milk, they're all gone! The fire took them! Arghhhhh!!!!'
Dorian fell onto his knees screaming and crying
Paul wanted to comfort him but he had to control the train or they would go off track and luckily Yilao and Lane came in
Lane was staggered by the scene and Yilao rushed to her nephew "Ian? Ian! Wake up!!"
Dorian was still screaming and Yilao couldn't even reach him because he didn't let anyone come near so Paul called Lane to come take control of the engine and hugged Dorian tight no matter how he tried to push him away
Paul shouted "Ian! Wake up!! You're with us now!"
Dorian snapped back to reality and collapsed in Paul's arms
Yilao was worried "H-how did his PTSD recur?"
Paul shook his head "I'm not sure but I think it's because of what one of them said"
Lane gritted his teeth "What did he say to Ian?"
Paul sighed as he knelt and hugged Dorian "He called him a son of a b-bitch"
Yilao gasped and furrowed her eyebrows in anger "That bastard!"
Yilao took a deep breath and tried to calm down then gave Milky to Paul "Hold Milky for me while I clean up this mess"
When the train stopped at the station, the four of them quickly disappeared before anyone called them out
One of the train attendants asked one of the passengers "How did you get here without a loco pilot and what happened to the guard?"
The middle aged man replied "We were attacked mid-way but some kids saved us"
His four year daughter shouted with excitement "Superman! Bang!"