The Invasion

Us

My palms were buzzing with electricity once again. Finn stepped forward once scanning the forest for what caused the noise. Another snap of the twigs echoed but this time it was much closer.

"Who's out there?" Finn called out confidently.

There stepped out was a duck, it was mallard to be more specific. It quacked and waddled towards us. It quacked again as if it was trying to communicate with us. It had a bright green head with a yellow beak with along brown and white feathers.

My shoulders sagged with relief as Finn became less tensed.

"Great, now we have dinner," Finn spoke.

My mouth hung open at Finn's words.

"We're not killing the duck," I replied as I started to walk away in the other direction.

Finn caught up to me easily and started protesting.

"Come on, it's a duck!"

I shook my head at Finn and continued to stride away. I could still hear the faint quacks of the duck as it seemed it waddled in another direction too.

"Now we let someone else have a dinner while we starve," Finn scoffed.

Even though we could have used a dinner from that duck, I still had a touchy feeling for animals in my heart. I didn't want to kill another living being.

Finn and I continued to stroll down the woods in silence. We had to find towns, cities, or something so that we could find supplies. We were back to our normal routine, always finding supplies and always finding a place to sleep. Except this time, now we had to worry about James kidnapping us again.

Suddenly after a few minutes of walking, Finn and I reached a flowing river. My mouth curved into a smile as I ran to the clean water. I dipped my hands into it and splashed my face clean. Finn did the same too as we sighed in relief of water on our skin.

"We should clean ourselves here, you can go first. I'll be on the watch over there," Finn declared as he stood up and started to go uphill to give me privacy.

I stripped down my clothes and left them in a pile near a tree. I rubbed my arms feeling self-conscious of being naked in public but I had to scrub myself clean. First, I dipped my feet into the slow flowing river. It was a sparkling blue and it was also a little chilly.

My body adjusted to the temperature immediately as I then went into the water from waist down. I went deeper until the water splashed softly against my chest. I began to scrub my skin clean removing all the filth.

I finally felt refreshed after what seemed like forever, but when I was done and satisfied with my cleaning, I got out. I didn't want Finn to keep waiting for me as I knew he wanted to get clean as soon as possible too.

I tried to get dry as much as possible as I reached for my clothes. I slipped them on quickly and went uphill in search for Finn.

"Finn?"

My voice echoed off the trees as I wondered around. After a few feet, I found Finn standing with his back to me.

"Hey, go get cleaned up."

Finn turned around at the sound of my voice and grinned excitingly like a small child.

"I won't be long," he said as he hurried down the hill.

When he was gone, I sat on a nearby log. I tried desperately to comb and dry my hair but it wasn't any use. It was still knotty and had fat droplets of water falling off the tips of my hair.

I inhaled a deep breath until I heard a quack. In front of me came forward the same mallard from before from behind a tree.

"Hello," I greeted, feeling a little silly of myself to talk to a duck.

The mallard quacked again as it started to waddle away. I guess it didn't like me but then again it did follow us here. I watched as its small shape then faded away. I stood up then because I was growing bored.

I started to wonder downhill by mistake without noticing. I heard the soft streams of the river and I curiously peeked down towards it.

My breath got caught in my throat as I witnessed Finn's muscular back glistening with water droplets. His hair was cleaned and sloppy as it was wet. He turned around and I could see his abs with tickles of water rolling down it.

I bit my lip at the scene knowing this was wrong, but I couldn't help myself. I watched as then I noticed Finn was climbing out of the water. I rushed back uphill knowing that if I saw the rest, it would be too far.

I went back to sit on my log pulling my knees up to my chin. I heard some ruffles downhill and then came Finn pulling his shirt down. He looked much better and nicer. I had to say, Finn pulled off the out-of-a-river look nicely.

Finn sat on the log next to me and stared forward. We could hear birds chirping and the gusts of wind. It was getting nighttime now but not necessary completely dark.

"Finn, why did James put us in the same room when we escaped?"

A few moments went by and then Finn spoke.

"I begged him to let me stay with you. Of course, I was surprised that he allowed me... he seemed almost guilty. I stayed with you as you slept the whole night. I'm not exactly sure if it was because I was furious or James was filled with guilt suddenly."

Finn let me sink in the information as I got lost in my thoughts. Why would James feel guilty? He murdered almost an entire population, it just didn't make any sense.

"Let's continue traveling now," Finn said after a couple of minutes.

Finn and I stood up and started hiking in the opposite way of the laboratories. It was about pitch black now so we both had our flashlights gleaming on the ground to see where we're going. It was peaceful going in a steady pace through the wilderness but it was frightening too.

James could be anywhere and it sent chills down my spine. For the most part, Finn and I seemed alright because it was silent in the forest as the animals slept. The only thing we heard from time to time was an owl.

We have been hiking for an hour now and we finally reached a back road. There wasn't any buildings nearby just more trees, but at least we arrived to a concrete black road.

"We should follow the road," Finn acknowledged.

I nodded my head in agreement. We were just on our way when a shadowy figure was in front of us. Instantly I swung my flashlight to the figure and there stood the one and only James.

He had a gun in his right hand too.