Wish You Were Here

44

So far, we had come across at least two different groups. One that had dressed in black and the other that had taken Cal. Aaron was most likely a part of the last group. Cal said she'd counted five guys in that group, not including Aaron. The other group we weren't sure of. One of them had fallen off a cliff when he'd attacked me, and the other we had left passed out after I'd given her one of Gina's shots. She was probably alive and out there somewhere. We assumed there were at least five in that group.

"If there are teams of about five people, we need to assume there could be at least one more team here somewhere that we haven't met yet," Grant said as we walked down a dirt path.

"I'd think we'd have seen them by now, wouldn't you?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Better safe than sorry. But, yeah, I'd think so, too. Let's just keep our eyes peeled, just in case."

We had gone through everything in our backpack, rearranging it all and keeping count of what we had left. I had my knife in my pocket, but everything else was in the backpack that Grant wore.

I pulled my hair up and wiped the back of my neck. I grabbed the corner of my shirt and knotted it. I caught Grant glancing at me and I blushed. Under normal circumstances, I wondered what Grant and I would be like together. I let my mind wander, imagining meeting him somewhere back home. Watching him as he led me along, I tried to picture him in regular clothes, doing regular things like hanging out at the mall or going to the lake. What were his friends like?

"What do you do for fun?" I blurted.

"Lead pretty girls into the woods," he replied quickly and then laughed. "That sounded super creepy, didn't it?"

I giggled. "Kinda, yeah."

He thinks I'm pretty.

"Actually, I used to like being outdoors. Swimming, riding dirt bikes, skateboarding...anything, really " he said.

"Why'd you say you used to like that stuff?" I asked as we started up a short incline. "You don't like that stuff anymore?"

"I still like all those things," Grant said. "I just think that once I'm home? I'll want to stay indoors for awhile. Maybe spend time with my family, you know? My mom's always saying how she rarely sees me because I'm always out. But now...I don't know, I just wish I would've spent more time with her, that's all."

He looked conflicted as he talked.

"Don't blame yourself for having a life," I told him. "Would you rather have stayed home all the time? You'd be missing out on all the fun things you like to do. Spend time with your family, but don't go home afraid to ever leave again. If you do that...then we're doing this for nothing because you'll lose regardless."

I was watching my feet as I spoke, looking out for rocks or whatever else I could potentially trip over. Grant glanced over his shoulder at me.

"How do you do that?" he asked me softly.

"I guess you just manage your time better-"

"No," he said. "How do you do that? The thing you just did. I can be feeling so down or sad, and then you say something to make me see it in a totally different way; a better way. How do you know what to say to me?"

"Because you do the same for me," I confessed.

His face softened and he stopped walking. Facing me, he looked down at his feet, kicked a small rock, and then met my eyes.