Mali

Chapter Seven: Present

It all hurt. My feet were wet and numb, my steps continued to shoot sharp pains up into my shoulder, and the cold only made this whole thing even worse.

The rain continued to slowly drizzle down on us, keeping us between damp and soaked.

I wanted to go under the closest tree and just wait for the sun to come out before taking one more step.

We aren't even half way there and I already want to give up.

This is not me. I don't give up at the easiest opportunity, I try hard and harder till I get it done.

But...

Then again, I don't know who I am anymore?

I shook the thought of it all out completely and just kept walking. I looked up from the ground and counted the people in front of me.

Ryder, Riva, Mina, Joey, and Everett. They were all clearly ahead of me and getting further, but I just couldn't run and catch up. I looked back at the ground and watched the pebbles scatter with every step I take.

"Hey, you okay?", Ryder said stopped in front of me, almost running into him.

"Oh, I'm fine. It's just my shoulder.", I said readjusting the backpack strap on my other shoulder.

Ryder reached for my backpack, "Here.", he said taking it from me.

I immediately felt relief from the extra weight that was just lifted away from my shoulder.

I sighed, "Thanks.", we continued walking, "Do you think we'll make it by nightfall like we played because I am not staying outside here tonight."

"Why not? Don't you want to lay on your back and watch the stars.", he said illustrating the stars by pointing at different places in the dark grey sky.

I just shook my head, "Call me crazy, but I prefer not to get pneumonia tonight."

He laughed, "It won't get that cold, and besides if we do stay the night I'm pretty sure we're far enough away we can start a fire."

"You can start it, I don't want to do it.", I said.

"Why? You're just lighting some wood, it's not that hard especially for you.", he said.

He stopped walking and so did I. The group turned around and watched us.

"Come on, you haven't done anything.", he said.

It sent me a little bit over the edge, "I'm not doing it!", I tried calming myself down, I was raising for voice for nothing. Well, it's not nothing, but I'm not doing this now, "I just don't want to okay? You can.", I turned back around quickly and continued walking with the rest.

To be honest, I'm still afraid to use them because of what happened at Adiuva. They taught us things and did stuff to us that would haunt anyone. I can't even believe Ryder would be willing up use his.

They did more stuff to him them me, yet he's pushing it away like its nothing. It's starting to worry me...

"One more mile and I think we should rest!", Everett shouted.

"No!", Mina shouted back immediately, "We only have thirty more, we will make it by tomorrow morning."

Everett stopped walking, "I don't know about you Mina, but all of us aren't in perfect condition to be walking all day and night.", he turned around to look at me, to then turn to Joey.

Joey looked like he was about to fall over. He was pale and really sweaty. Even that little twenty pound medic kit was killing him.

Mina stopped and turned around as well, "Who made you leader? Nobody!We are continuing."

"And nobody made you leader! You can't say what we all can and can not do.", Everett said with a angry tone. Definitely a first for all of us to hear him like this, he was actually showing emotion for once.

"I assumed the role because no one else was willing to make any decisions!", her voice was getting louder.

"What decisions! Because all I've seen you done is assign who carries what!", he was getting louder too.

"Guys, just shut up!", Ryder said butting in.

"NO!", yelled Mina and Everett in unison at Ryder

They turned back to each other, "They are right on our tail, if we stop just once we are dead! I've come to far now to be taken back!", yelled Mina.

"But, what if we can't run! What if they do find us, even if we are still walking, and we are all too tired to run. Three hours of rest will not kill us!", Everett screamed back in rebuttal.

I've had enough.

"How about we all just shut up because the amount of time we've stopped for and screamed at each other just gave them that much more time to find us! Thanks for fucking that up too guys!", I yelled making sure I was looking at both Mina and Everett.

I bumped past them as I continued walking for Pittsburgh. Not looking back, I kept walking.

Soon enough, the dragging of feet was behind me. The sad sound of tired and wet ones. I wanted to stop more then any of them, but Mina was right. The more time we stay put, the less time they have catching up to us.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, "Good job breaking that up.", it was Ryder.

"I just wanted them to shut up. We could have stopped you know, but the ten minutes we took just for that wasted it.", I said still keeping my eyes focused on the road ahead.

Now, I just have to wait twenty-nine more miles till we finally get the rest we all need.