We've finally reached a decision. Actually no. It's a compromise. Kendra, Jay and Tristan were certain we should go to the town. Mitch and Greyson we dead set against it. And me, well, I'm somewhere in the middle.

But the final decision is that we will walk towards the town, and find somewhere in the nearby woods to stay for the time being. We all want to be out of this area that the people were searching for us.

We're ready to go. We can continue on our escape now. I don't really care where we go, I'm just happy that we're walking away from the ADCCG complex.

"Everyone have their backpack?" Jay asks.

We all confirm that yes, we have everything.

"Amber, how's your ankle?" Kendra asks me. "Need to rewrap it?"

"Uhh..."

"I'm gonna take that as a yes."

I roll up my pant leg. "Yeah, it's definitely not doing much right now. We need to have your ankle wrapped tighter if you want it to be supported," Kendra tells me, and expertly wraps the bandage.

"You're really good at that," I tell her.

She smiles modestly and says, "I always wanted to be a doctor. The ADCCG stole that dream from me."

Mitch puts his arm around her. "But we're out now, love."

"We're not out of the woods yet guys."

I groan. "Greyson, why? Why do you torture us with your horrible puns?"

Tristan laughs. "Oh come on. It was pretty good."

"No it wasn't. You deserve to be slapped for saying that," I tell him, and of course, slap him.

"You know you love me."

"Come on you guys. Let's go," Jay urges. The sun is setting, and it's time for our departure.

Greyson leads, since he's the only one who knows where we're going. Jay is beside him, Tristan and I behind, and Mitch and Kendra are bring up the rear.

"So," Tristan says. "Are you still undecided?"

"Yeah. I really don't know. Like-I'm scared that if we go into the town we'll get caught, because we would be suspicious looking. But staying in the forest, we'll never know exactly where we are, and we're gonna run out of food eventually. There's good and bad for both, and I just can't decide which option I like better." I stop. Another reason is that I would like to see my family, but I don't know if I should say it, with what I know about Tristan's family.

"You want to go home eventually, don't you?" He asks me, thinking one step ahead of me, like always.

"Yeah," I mutter.

"Amber, it's fine. I'm used to it by now. I don't want to go back to my family. But maybe someday I'll meet yours."

"Well you've already met Greyson," I say with a smile.

"I think he hates me."

I laugh. "Nah, I think he just decided to play the role of the overprotective brother."

Tristan laughs.

We walk in silence for awhile. One of my favourite things about being with Tristan is that we don't need to always be talking. There's no pressure to fill the silence with him.

I'm mulling this over when I feel a drop of rain hit my forehead.

"Did you feel that?" I ask.

"Feel what?" Tristan asks me.

"Rain. A rain drop just fell on my face."

"I think you're going crazy Amber. There's no rain."

"I swear, I felt rain."

We continue walking, no one else feels the rain.

"Wait, guys!" Mitch calls out. "Amber was right! I felt a raindrop too!"

Soon enough, we're all feeling the light rain on our heads. We've been pretty lucky with weather so far, so we can't really complain about a little rain.

I've always liked rain. The smell, the feeling on your hair, the raindrops on plants. Rain-the symbol of new beginnings. A dirty slate wiped clean. We will move on. Aria will always stay with me in my mind. I'll never forget how she was always willing to talk in the bathroom, even if I was too stupid and chose my other "friends" over her.

"Whatcha thinking about Amber?" Tristan asks me.

"The rain. It lead me to thinking about Aria."

He pulls an arm around me. I don't need to hear words to tell that he cares about me. This simple gesture is more that enough.

"Do you ever miss them?" I ask. "Your family?"

He looks down at the ground and doesn't say anything. Crap. Why did I even ask.

"Sorry. I-I shouldn't have asked."

"No-no, sorry Amber. It's fine. It just made me think." I return his previous gesture and squeeze his hand. "I had a little sister. When my parents left us alone, I tried Amber. I tried really hard. All I wanted was for her to be safe. But when they took me-"

"The government?" I ask.

He nods. "When they took me I had to leave her. She was nine. Five years younger than me. I'm sure they found her and took her too."

"What was her name?"

"Marissa," he whispers.

We walk in silence, hand in hand.

---

We arrive at clearing, and Greyson points at where the town is. It's just a bit down the hill. This will be a good place to stay for a bit.

"I don't think we should risk a fire," I say. "People will see."

"Yeah. And it's not too cold," Mitch agrees.

"What do we have for food?" Asks Kendra. "I'm hungry."

"I have an unopened pack of dried fruit in my bag," Greyson tells us. "Let's have that."

We sit down in a circle and pass around the bag of dried fruit. It might not seem like much, but we haven't had a lot to eat lately, so any food is good.

"Kendra, can you come help me wrap my ankle?"

"Yeah, of course."

"How do you do that so well?" Tristan asks.

"Just something I'm good at I guess," she tells him. "I've learned some tricks along the way."

My ankle feels a lot better with the added support.

"Thanks Kendra."

"Who do you think lives in the town?" Asks Mitch.

"Random people, probably," Greyson says, ever the practical one.

"Maybe they're witches and wizards," Jay guesses.

"Or what if it's a ghost town."

"Or maybe it's a bunch of criminals, removed from society."

"Or a group of illegal immigrants."

"You guys are crazy," I say. They continue making up their crazy theories though.

"They're crazy," Greyson says, "but we love them all the same." And he's right.

---

We spend the night camped out with blankets, and backpacks and hoodies as pillows under the stars.

As much as I hate it, because it's so, so cheesy, having Tristan beside me makes me feel safe.

Being under the stars makes me think of all the evenings Tasha and I spent on the balcony at her house; spending hours talking, laughing and living life. I miss her.

I hear Tristan roll over beside me.

"Are you awake?" I whisper. I had assumed everyone else was already asleep.

"Yeah. I didn't realize you were still awake."

I sit up a bit and prop myself up on my elbow.

"How's your ankle?" He asks me.

"Not hurting. I rewrapped it a little while ago."

"That's good."

Tristan goes quiet. There must be something on his mind.

"Tristan?" I ask, at the same time he says "Amber?"

"Sorry, go ahead," he tells me.

"No, I was just going to ask what you were thinking about," I tell him.

"Well, honestly, I was thinking about you." He stops. "I haven't had the balls to say this sooner, and maybe this isn't the time to ask, considering the fact that we're like, running away from a corrupt government and stuff, but I just have to ask you. Do you want to be my girlfriend, Amber?"

"Only if you want to be my boyfriend," I say with a smile.

He laughs at my smart aleck comment. "Of course."

I want to tell someone. I want to talk to Aria, or Tasha, or even my mom. But I can't talk to anyone. They're not here.

"Do you think I'll ever see my family again?"

"I don't know Amber. But I hope so."

"I hope so too. I miss them." Then I have an idea. "Tristan, will you tell me a story?" I ask.

"About what? I don't have any stories."

"Anything. I want a story."

"Well, once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl named Amber-"

"Not like that, dummy. Tell me a story that happened to you," I say.

"Okay, okay," he says laughing. "Um," he pauses to think. "Oh! When I was in grade three, my class took a field trip to the zoo. My best friend at the time, Will, well, he wasn't the smartest kid. I spent the whole bus ride to the zoo convincing him that there world be unicorns there. I had never been to the zoo either-both of us came from rough families-but I knew well enough that there wouldn't be unicorns."

I laugh. Little Tristan must have been so cute.

"So when we got to the zoo, Will runs straight to where the teacher is talking with the tour guide. And he's jumping up and down and shouting that he wants to see the unicorns first, and then everyone else got all excited and wanted to see the unicorns. It was my greatest elementary school moment."

"Who knew that eight year old Tristan was such a master mind?" I ask with a laugh.

Tristan joins my quiet laughter. I roll onto my back and look at the stars.

"It's so pretty out here. I never got that in the city," I say.

"It is. I always wanted to go camping. My parents didn't really care about what we wanted though."

I give his hand a squeeze. Eventually we fall asleep like that. Hand in hand, faces to the sky.

---