Maddy devoured the last Jaffa cake with a moan of satisfaction, her cravings at their highest peak. Well, she had to admit: she had a sweet tooth. And an incurable addiction to vanilla ice cream.

Jaffa cakes might not be vanilla ice cream, she thought, but they are definitely chocolatey enough to take you to the moon.

She licked the tips of her fingers with her rosy tongue, the deliciousness of the sugar rush taking her stomach on an ambrosial rollercoaster.

"That was heaven," moaned Logan, lying back in his seat after stuffing his mouth with handfuls of salty, unhealthy, extremely tasty and crusty crisps.

He had pulled over near a green field, the smell of freshly-cut grass dancing in the invigorating cool air, providing a perfect disguise for the car among the pasture. It was now dark outside the vehicle, the night a black pit of shadows lurking in the corners. But the dome light was beaming bright inside the Ford, a bearer of hope and reassurance. It was a stupid idea, if you asked Maddy, like a huge LED sign indicating their exact location, but she didn't say anything to the others. They had travelled a long distance anyways, so why bother?

"Do you think we should keep moving?" asked Sia, passing the Hobnobs to Mia.

"We can't risk it. Let's stay on the move," said Mia in response.

"I don't wanna drive anymore. I need to get my beauty sleep," contemplated Logan, running a large hand through his insanely soft-looking blonde hair.

"Let's take shifts," proposed Carter, then volunteered by saying: "I'll drive for the next few hours."

Maddy tensed at his unexpected recommendation. She didn't like the idea of taking shifts, and she had an undisputably good reason for it.

"Ok, but I'll sleep in the back," negotiated Logan.

"As you wish, Your Highness," teased him Sia. "You're so spoiled, Logs."

"Will you massage me?" he asked, but quicky hasted to add: "Please?"

"Ugh, fine."

"I'm not sitting in the front. I can't stretch my legs in the front," stated Mia, her voice determined.

"But-" started Maddy, but Carter didn't let her finish her sentence.

"Come on, princess, I don't bite," he told her, but the look on his face was all but reassuring. "Unless you want me to, of course."

Maddy's eyebrows shot up, her mouth a round O, yet no words would come out.

I'd rather sleep in the truck, she thought, but said nothing.

Instead, she just kicked the panel door of the Ford open, allowing Logan to take her seat, and sat next to Carter in the front.

"Good night, guys." Carter turned the ignition key, the grumbling of the car engines instantly filling the silence of the night.

Maddy stretched out for the dome light switch on the panel door, and, as she turned it off, the car was swallowed by a scary, neverending blackness. It took a long minute for her pupils to fully adjust to the thick darkness around her, until Carter finally turned on the headlights, showing the way.

Carter drove fast, so fast that Maddy felt her stomach twisting.

She tried to close her eyes and sleep, hoping the smooth sound of the wind scratching the windows would lull her to dreamland somehow.

That was when her thoughts ambushed her: the moment she shut her eyelids.

What the hell was going on? She was riding in a car packed with strangers, she had jumped off a window and almost killed two cops by throwing a wrench on the windscreen of a freaking police car. She was wearing that idiot's hoodie, and she was on the run. She had chosen to drop out of school and leave her home, her own mother, all because of a stupid vaccine. The police were after her. And so was FROST.

What am I doing?

She tried to stabilise her shaky breath.

Stupid.

Why didn't you just do it? Clarke did it. She's fearless and strong. Why aren't you like her? Why were you such a coward and messed it all up?

Then she unwittingly dove into another bottomless pit of questions.

FROST. Federation of Remedial Organisations and Scientific Testing. What do they have to do with all this? Why are they pushing it so much with the vaccine? That woman... Harper Max... She wanted to speak to my mum about me. What are they going to discuss about me exactly? But she's the Assistant Director of FROST, so she must be important... What the hell?

She couldn't make head nor tail of the tangled ball of yarn her life had become in only one god damn day.

She heard a soft snore. She opened her eyes. Turning back, she saw Logan sleeping like a log, his mouth half open in Sia's lap, slightly drooling. He looked adorable. Sia was also asleep, her head resting against the back of her comfortable leather seat, her curly hair tickling Logan's nose. And Mia was stretching her legs like an aristocratic cat, half-asleep, half-awake, leaning towards Logan a bit, who was in the middle.

Great. It's just me who's overthinking. Stop, Maddy.

"Why so serious, princess?" She started at the sound of his voice, intimidated as hell.

Isn't that supposed to be Joker's line or something?

"Just thinking," she uttered, unwilling to open up about her fears in front of a jerk she truly despised. "And don't call me that."

"Thinking about how your life is literally falling apart and you can do nothing about it?"

She stared at him.

Is reading minds another hidden talent of his?

"No..." she lied, looking outside the window at the passing scenery.

"You're a terrible liar."

"I'm not lying," she said, but, hearing her own voice, she knew she couldn't even convince the biggest fool on the planet. "Where are we going?"

"Where do you want to go?"

She took a second, then whispered: "Home."

He snorted, and Maddy lifted her eyes on him.

"Why, don't you?"

He remained silent for a while. "Are you still cold?" he asked suddenly, taking a sideways glance of her palm rubbing her thighs on top of his hoodie.

"No, I'm fine."

"Will you stop lying?" He laughed.

Maddy thought it was the first time she heard or saw him laughing. But then she remebered the first time was when she was walking like a grandma because of her stupid Oxfords.

"Will you just shut up and drive?"

"No. Look, there must a pair of sweatpants-"

"Just what exactly did you do in this car, you perverted womanizer?" she shouted.

He first looked bewildered, then his laugh echoed louder. "I was gonna say there must be a pair of sweatpants to buy somewhere nearby, but I guess my reputation precedes me already."

Her pupils dilated. "Oh." Maddy felt her embarrassment painting her whole face and neck and ears red. She slid her flushed cheeks under the fabric of her -well, his- hoodie, silently wishing to die.

"You're too innocent to even imagine what I did yesterday, princess."

His words made her blood boil.

What's that even supposed to mean? You don't know me, you idiot, she wanted to tell him, but eventually didn't. "I don't wanna know," she said instead. Her voice got muffled inside the sweater. She rolled her eyes, but he couldn't see it.

He scoffed. "Are you so embarrassed to be hiding your face inside my hoodie?" he mocked her.

She took her head out of his hoodie. Hopefully it was dark enough for her red cheeks to remain undercover. "Can we just change the topic?" she begged, her shame rising, her blush intensifying. "Or better not talk at all?"

"Sure," he shrugged, then peeked at her face which was now fully exposed. "Are you blushing?" he asked with his most arrogant smile.

Shit, how did he even notice?

"No."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"But you're red."

"Shut up."

"Make me."

She breathed a sharp breath. She hated him, it was official.

"Just drive the car, Carter."

"Your wish is my command, princess."

She snorted, but couldn't stop a little smile from forming on her plump, bitten lips. She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to hide it.

"I told you not to call me that," she said.

"You'd better get used to it." He paused to draw his eyes away from the road ahead and rest them on her, then smirked. "Princess."

"Ugh, you're getting on my nerves." She went to sit up on her seat, but her toes sent a torrent of raw pain slicing through her entire body. She winced, trying to catch her breath.

He cast a quick glance at her. "Take your shoes off."

"Don't tell me what to do," she hissed at him, her eyes narrowing.

"Then do it without me having to tell you."

If he wasn't driving, she would've punched him.

She unlaced her shoes, then held her ankle gently and took one Oxford off, her face contorting in anguish. She did the same with the other, sweating at the pure agony she was going through.

She gaped at her feet. Her white socks were now red around her toes and heels, a hot, crimson liquid almost dripping from them. A metallic smell tickled her nostrils, making her scrunch her nose.

"Shit," she cursed, her voice barely anything more than a gasp.

Carter gave her an indifferent once-over, as if he was looking outside the window. She went to take her socks off as well, tucking two fingers under the dirty cotton fabric reaching the height of her knees.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warned her.

"Why not?"

"It will feel like peeling your own skin off. And you don't strike me as a masochist."

She pulled her hand back. "And what am I supposed to do, Mr. Know-it-all?" she scowled.

"Just wait until we can get somewhere safe and-"

"Nowhere is safe right now." The words ran out her mouth before she could filter them.

Long minutes passed, and Maddy didn't think he would answer. She cocked her head to the side, looking outside the window without really seeing anything.

"We'll find a way. We have to," he whispered finally.

She twitched, then gave him a sideways glance. He was facing straight. She went to turn back to the window, but her gaze protested, eyes burning with the desire to look at the ebony-headed boy next to her. She couldn't help it, soon turning back to dart a glance at him.

His side profile was breathtaking. His dense, slightly arched eyebrows looked fierce, the glow of something metallic glistening on the right one. Underneath them, his raven eyes looked like two marbles behind his long-ish black eyelashes, a childlike shine inside of their endless blackness. The line of his nose came to a curve at its end, which crinkled when he sniffed. His lips were split and cut in the middle, the lower one fuller than the upper one. His jawline was sharp and intimidating, and lower was his neck, Adam's apple sticking out. His pale skin contrasted with his messy, ebony-black hair and the darkness of the night itself, a completely unfair combination.

"Stop staring, princess."

Maddy looked away, all panicked and embarrassed after being caught red-handed.

"I wasn't staring, don't be such a narcissist."

"You were totally staring."

She darted him a deathly glare. "You're lucky you're driving right now."

She turned back to facing the successive fields outside the tinted, half-open window, crossing her hands in front of her chest.

Her toes hurt like hell, her blistered heels were killing her, and her mouth felt extremely dry after all that running. She licked her chapped lips, tried to swallow, but it just felt worse, her throat screaming for even a single drop of refreshing water.

"I'm thirsty," she complained. Then she caught his dirty, sly glance.

Pervert.

"Don't we have any water in here?" she asked, ignoring his suggestive look.

"No, all the bottles are empty... But I've got an idea." He slowed down the car.

Her eyes went round, shooting giant warning signs at him.

"Come on, let's wake up the others."

He pulled over near a field, the blackness of the night wrapping itself around the car when he turned off the headlights.

Maddy looked confused. What does this idiot have on his mind again?

"Hey. Wake up, man." Carter smacked Logan's chest, and the boy jumped up, looking around panic-stricken. "Good morning, sleeping beauty," mocked him Carter.

Maddy gave Sia a gentle shake on the shoulder. "Sia, get up."

The girl opened her sleepy eyes, her eyelids protesting at the sudden awakening. She groaned softly, then looked around befuddled. "Where are we?" she asked, her voice hoarse from the sleepiness.

"Carter, you bastard, why did you have to wake us up?" yelled Mia, who had dozed off a long time ago.

"We need to get some water."

"We're literally in the middle of nowhere," she objected.

"Just get out of the car. All of you." Carter opened the door and got out, closing it behind him with a thud.

Maddy exchanged confused glances with the other three, but got out right after she tucked her feet inside her shoes anyway.

They followed Carter closer to the fresh green grass, and Maddy clutched his hoodie tighter around her as the wind whipped her hair backwards.

They were in the heart of spring, but ever since the virus broke out, they had only known winter. The flowers didn't bloom like they used to, their fragrance wasn't drifting in the air and the birds weren't chipping their melody with the same spirit anymore. The sun was always rare in London, the city of rain, but now it had become a luxury of a phenomenon. But even if the sun was shining in the sky, spreading its rays on the earth's surface, the weather was still freezing, or at least chilly, if not biting cold. The first few months of the pandemic, about a year ago, Maddy had found herself wondering how it was possible for a virus to affect the weather conditions, but now she had grown used to it, to asking questions nobody answered.

With each step they took, the girl trembled from the piercing cold.

Then she finally solved the mystery of what Carter had in mind. She froze.

The irrigation system was on, overhead high-pressure sprinklers rotating in full circles to send the water away in long, forceful cascades spread uniformly across the field.

She looked at him. "You can't be serious."