Brandy Creek (Book One Completed)

Finding Sarah (Part 13)

Natalie

Walking out of the barn I hear something. Not sure what it is I lift my hand into a fist, Lex stops immediately he stays quite and I slowly turn back to the barn. Another sound, soft and I'm not sure if its a animal or person. I slowly make my way back in tilting my head.

I hear a shuffling to my right, in one of the stables with hay. A knife is in my hand as I rip open the door, and I don't know what I was expecting but this wasn't it. A small child, just slightly older then a toddler. I can't really tell the ages of children.

She's a little brunette with huge blue eyes filled with tears, streaks of tears had carved through the dirt on her face. Her denim dress is covered in dust and hay is in her hair. She looks at me with fear and horror freezing her in her spot of being half in the hay. The knife she was glancing to, so I slowly put it away and raise my hands to show her they were empty.

"I'm not here to hurt you." I slowly crouch down, she starts shaking where she is. Something in my dead heart breaks a little for her, because she reminds me so much of myself. "I'm Natalie, you can call me Nattie."

I raise my hand to Lex who was inching closer to me. I kept my eyes on the girl. "I have a friend with me, we have more people at Brandy Creek." When her eyes loose a little fear I know she recognizes the name of the camp site. "We have a group of people their, with other kids and animals. We are going to take the chickens and horses up there to keep them safe."

I'll be honest, I didn't know much about kids. I just knew that she needed to know whats happening and to know she had a option. I brace my arms on my knees and said. "If you want to go with us you can."

She let out a loud sniffle and her little body started shaking. All the adrenaline in her system must be wearing out. She starts to push of the hay from her lower half, I slowly move closer to her still crouched doing a weird almost crab walk. When she doesn't object I help her clear hay off of her and pluck some from her bright pink leggings. When she reaches around my neck I pull her to me, it being a little awkward with the weapons. I make it work as I stand.

"Lets find you something to drink maybe even a snack." I walk out into the barn Lex quickly schools his shocked face into a grin. "This is Lex, he's my friend."

Lex is grinning at her and does that fake hat tip thing. "I'm happy to meet you, may I know your name?"

Her face burrows into my shoulder, face red from embarrassment only barley looking at Lex. Her voice comes out soft and somewhat muffled. "Sarah."

Her arms and legs are wrapped so tightly around me, she reminds me of a koala. I wouldn't even need to support her for her to hang onto me. Its a little awkward walking her to the house, shes like half my height. I click the radio when we get to the door and Lex opens it for me. "Alpha one, we found a chick."

The kitchen is just past the laundry room we enter into, I place her to sit on the counter and she lets me go. Looking through the cabinets I grab a glass and fill it with water. When I give it to her she starts chugging it but I pull it back a little. "If you drink to fast you'll puke."

She nods in understanding and starts to sip the water a little less fast. Lex goes to the fridge and opens it to see whats in there. Mato's voice comes over the radio. "Copy, Bravo one will pick up Casey on the way there."

"Casey?" Sarah asks brows furrowing. I grab a wash cloth, getting it wet and squeezing it out.

Rub it on her cheek to start to get some dirt off. She doesn't stop me, just sips the water when she can. I answer her question. "Casey is one of the girls that watches the kids."

"She's a really nice girl." Lex says from the fridge. He pulls out a bowl of fruits to show her. "Do you like anything in here?"

"Grapes." She says. Lex begins picking out the bundles of grapes to set aside. I take the glass from her hands.

"Lets wash your hands before a snack."

With the help of the wash cloth we scrub her arms up to the elbows, and I wipe down her face some more. While she starts popping grapes Lex pulls out things to scramble eggs. I try to be helpful by pulling hay out of Sarah's hair and off her leggings. Lex manages to scramble a ton of eggs by time I hear cars outside. The kitchen window faces the gravel drive way, I recognize the SUV from the parking lot at Brandy.