We ducked as soldiers opened fire on us.
Then suddenly- all of a sudden!
The sound of a body dropping behind us made everyone turn around. My eyes widened in horror when I found Mika's lifeless body lying on the ground.
"Mika!" I called out to her.
"She's dead, Hailey! We have to go!" Oliver yelled before pulling me along with him and everyone started running again.
"We can't just leave her there." I tried to run back to her but Oliver refused to let go of my arm.
"Hailey-Jade! Pull yourself together, we need to keep moving." He angrily yelled at me.
After running for a few more minutes we finally got to Dead man's bridge.
Dead man's bridge is closed off because it caved ten years ago.
But then five years ago, my brother and his friends decided to mend the bridge and deemed it as their new hangout spot. Long story short they got high one day and Cole, Oli's best friend fell off the bridge and died. Hence why it's now called Dead Man's bridge.
They tried to cover up the murder and went to jail for it.
Crazy I know and now we're at this stupid bridge, that has always ruined so many lives, again.
Even before it caved, a lot of car accidents happened here. Which is why I really don't think that we should be here right now.
"Come on, Hailey-Jade." Oliver uttered before holding his hand out to me.
"No. Are you crazy? We can't both cross at the same time."
"We can. I checked the bridge earlier, it's safe." He tried to convince me but I shook my head at him.
"Alright, Ellie. Go on over." Ronan told Ellie and she nodded at him before she quietly crossed the bridge. The sound of rocks and sand falling suddenly became audible as Ellie got to the other side of the bridge.
"You can go before me." Ronan uttered from behind me and my heart skipped a beat at his closeness. His hand gently brushed against mine so I sucked in a shivery breath.
"You don't have to-"
"I want to, Hailey." He interrupted my sentence before staring deep into my eyes.
"Okay." I softly uttered. I watched as Oli and Cooper crossed the bridge, one after the other. I held onto the straps on my backpack before I quietly made my way over the bridge.
I reached the other side of the bridge and could finally breathe again.
Ronan was next, he safely crossed the bridge and blankly looked at me.
"Are you okay?" He asked me and I just simply nodded at him.
"I'm fine." I softly uttered before looking back.
"She's gone, Hailey. There's nothing we could've done for her."
"I know, Ronan. I'm just not used to things like this so just don't be surprised if I take a little longer to get over them." I explained to him and he nodded in understanding. We fell into a fit of silence as we walked behind the rest of the group.
"I saw an empty cabin on my way here but it seemed old and abandoned so we might have to get down and dirty tonight." Oli uttered as he led the rest of the way.
"Thanks for saving my life." I told Ronan and he smiled down at me.
"Don't mention it." He ushered me.
"No, I have to." I argued.
"You really don't have to, Hailey-"
"Ronan," I uttered before taking his hand into mine. "Thank you for saving my life even though we're not friends anymore." I told him.
"We were never friends," he blankly uttered.
"Whatever. You know what I meant," I blushed before letting go of his hand.
"You're welcome, Hailey-Jade." He uttered with a smirk on his face.
"What happened between us?" He asked me after a while. A light frown settled on his forehead as he watched me.
"I don't know- my mom died and I was in a weird place so I distanced myself from a lot of people." I softly uttered.
"Why?"
"Because I was scared of losing them too." I told him.
"You're lying." He knowingly told me. "If you were so scared of losing anymore people why did you go and make new friends? Why weren't you scared of losing them too?" He asked me.
"I was, Ronan but I was mostly scared of losing you, my dad, Luke, Oli, and Cooper." I softly uttered. "So, I distanced myself from you."
"I did something wrong didn't I?" He asked me and I removed my gaze from his.
"Ronan, please." I pleaded with him.
"Just tell me what I did, it's been three years, Hailey-Jade." He told me in a gentle tone and I shook my head at him.
"It's nothing." I softly uttered and just as the words left my mouth I looked up and found that we've reached our destination.
An old cabin in the woods.
"Ronan?" Oliver called and Ronan made his way over to him so I just quietly watched him leave.
"Hailey!" Ellie called me, snapping me out of my thoughts, I walked over to her before taking my backpack off.
"I think I just got my period," she whispered into my ear.
"Oh, uhm- I think every backpack has an emergency kit in it. Each kit should have tampons and pads in them, as well as some wet wipes." I informed her. "Do you want me to come with you?" I asked her since it was already dark and she nodded at me.
"Please do." She desperately uttered.
"Hey, Coop! Can you tell Ronan and Oli that we had to go pee? We won't be long." I told Cooper and he narrowed his eyes on us in suspicion before reluctantly nodding at us.
"Don't go too far." He warned us and we nodded before walking back into the woods.
"Sorry about your friend." Ellie softly uttered.
"Thanks." I shortly responded to her words.
"Listen, Hailey-Jade, I know you've never liked me and you probably have your reasons but who would've thought that we would survive the apocalypse together. I mean I guess what I'm actually trying to say is that life is short and I think we're gonna lose a lot more people than we already have. So, let's just try to get along with each other and make the most of our days left here on earth." She told me so I smiled over at her.
"Who said I didn't like you? I mean you have to be cool if you're best friends with Ronan and Cooper." I smiled at her and she laughed at my words.
"Wait so you never hated me?" She asked me in disbelief.
"No, why would I? You're a great athlete, a smart student and you've always been nice to me." I pointedly stated. "Besides, I don't think I have the capacity to hate anyone."
"Well thank God." She uttered with a smile on her face and I laughed at her.
Ellie finished her business once we were far enough from the cabin. She was done within five minutes then we decided to head back.
We got back to the cabin and saw that the guys had already started a fire.
Ellie went over to hug Oli so I went to stand near the fire. Ronan came walking up to me and I quietly watched him. He was perfect, from his head to his toes. I finally took the chance to take all of him in- again. He was wearing a white vest that didn't sit too tight on his body paired with some army green cargo pants.
He was covered in tattoos, from his neck down but his hands had no ink on them, just two black rings. He had a Patek Phillipe watch on his arm along with a few rubber bands. There were three chains around his neck, one of them had a key hanging from it.
He had raven brown hair, and dark features, fair skin and an earring on his right ear. He had the perfect nose, lips, and jawline.
Everything about Ronan screamed danger.
His eyes were red so I assumed that he just came from smoking with Oliver and Cooper. Still, there was a burning cigarette between his lips. I grabbed the cigarette from between his lips before throwing into the fire and he frowned at me.
"What's your deal with me, Princess?" He asked me while watching me through narrowed eyes.
"You do know those are bad for you, right?" I asked, referring to the cigarette he was just smoking.
"And since when do you care about my well-being?" He asked me in amusement.
"You're an asshole." I uttered before walking away from him but he pulled me right back into him.
"I asked you a question earlier." He reminded me so I looked away from him before running a hand through my hair. "Tell me where I went wrong so that I can fix it, Hailey-Jade." He told me but I shook my head at him instead.
"It's not something you can fix, Ronan. It already happened." I said while looking into his eyes. He frowned at me but I didn't give him the chance to ask me anymore questions and just walked away from him.
Sometimes the truth is better left untold.