Hide and seek

All but forgotten

We all set off again as soon as it's sun rise, not wasting any time. However as we leave the small, crummy looking town it's complete silence between us all. Our hopes for Olivia surviving have begun to drop, no sign of life at all in the past two days in the places we have passed.

Forestry and trees cover most of the land now wherever we are, we will probably have to sleep in the trees tonight. If we can get Olivia up in them some how. I look around us and I can see mountains in the far distance, it is a beautiful area. This place reminds me of the where I use to go on holiday with mum, dad and Daniel many years ago. Mum always hated it because you couldn't just hop into a shower when she got cold, other than that we usually had a good time. In the day dad and Daniel would want to go hill walking and I would always beg to come, whine even until they let me. When it turned dark Daniel would sit me down next to the fire and tell me stories about ghosts and murderers to try and scare me. Thinking about it now those stories would probably help me sleep compared to what I have to deal with now.

Riley hasn't mentioned last night at all which I am grateful for, it would be incredibly awkward because I have no idea what I would say. I have no experience in the boyfriend book, back at school my friends would tell me all their conquests but I just didn't find anyone, which I didn't mind. However as we walk he holds my hand, which feels very odd but again nice at the same time. I don't argue or try and pull away because I think he's probably struggling with Olivia and needs some human affection. Which to be honest I have been missing too, in this world right now having someone helps just a tiny bit to deal with everything else.

Eli carries Olivia in his arms and for once Jennifer walks behind him. Thankfully both of them hasn't said anything about Riley and I, they must understand too. However sometimes I catch Eli looking at me and his expression makes me scared.

"Everything ok Jennifer?" I ask, attempting to be nice.

She turns her head briefly, "Yes i'm fine." She mumbles.

"Where are your parents?" I ask, curious. I had been wondering what her story was for a while, everyone seems to have one.

She looks at me and smirks. "I have no idea, they could be dead for all I care."

"How can you say that?" I ask, frankly my opinion of her couldn't be much lower then it already is.

"Both of them should have just took some fucking contraception! So they didn't have to have me and ruin their lives!" She shouts, her eyes full of rage.

"Oh..i'm sorry." I say, looking down.

"I ran away..before everything happened." She whispers.

Eli turns and motions for Riley to take Olivia but I take her instead. She's so light it's not hard at all to carry her. Eli puts his arm around Jennifer and whispers something in her ear as we walk. She nods and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

Again we walk for hours and the sun is still high in the sky when we all begin to feel quite hungry. We head off into the shelter of the woods and keep an eye out for food. After a while we get quite deep into the forest and find a small stream that runs through it. We refill our water bottles and rest beside it, enjoying the calming sound and just relaxing for now at least.

Jennifer looks at the stream with curiosity, "Do you think there would be any fish in there?" She asks.

Eli laughs. "Little ones yes but nothing that good."

"Worth a try though isn't it?" She smirks, giving him a gentle punch. Taking out a pocket knife from her trousers.

"Good luck babe." Eli continues to laugh, leaning back against a tree.

Jennifer crouches down next to the edge and waits, knife in hand. Occasionally she suddenly slashes it down into the water but never catches anything. I respect her efforts though for trying. Riley goes for a walk and comes back with an onion and some mushrooms he says are edible. Surprisingly we all become further relaxed as we set up a fire and Riley chops up the mushrooms and the onion with Jennifer's knife. Eli places a medium sized log on top of the fire and we cook our small meal. It tastes so good to have something warm for once and we all chat amongst ourselves. As the sun starts to lower and shadows begin to spread through the woods we head up into the trees. Eli carries Olivia over his back and manages to get up fairly high but lower than usual incase Olivia falls in the night.

It's quite early to sleep for us but we all find ourselves beginning to dose. Just as I am about to fall asleep too I feel a metal blade press against my neck and my eyes snap open in alert.

"You've got five seconds to explain what you are doing on my land." A rough voice says into my ear.

I look to the side to see a man holding Riley in a head lock, he struggles against his strength. "Eli!!" He shouts. I look over to the other tree and see Eli pointing the rifle towards another man whilst Jennifer holds Olivia.

"Time is up sweet heart." The rough voice whispers in my ear.

"Wait!!" I yell, my heart beat pounding in my ears. He pauses waiting to hear what I have to say. "We are sorry for being on your land, we didn't know we were doing anything wrong. Just let us go please!" I cry, too scared to even breath properly in case the knife cuts into me.

The man turns me around to face him, he looks about seventeen or eighteen. His face is tanned and his brown eyes study my face. "Hm.. because your so pretty ill take you all back to camp, where we can decide what to do with you there." He smirks.