Dalton couldn’t sleep the rest of the night. I had sat and talked to him for a couple of hours about my friends that I was so desperately trying to save. I stopped when I started to get lightheaded. Eventually, I fell asleep, but he was worried. He watched me, terrified that I would stop breathing. I looked pale from the blood loss. He checked my leg before I went to sleep, and the clotting held pretty well. The painkillers wore off halfway through the night, though. Not to mention how painfully cold it was when the sun went down, too. I woke up a few hours before the sun was supposed to rise. I didn’t realize how intertwined we were, fighting to keep each other warm so we didn’t die in our sleep. I was so cold that sometimes I wondered if it was worth the fight. My leg, on the other hand, ached deeply from the lower temperatures, yet it was so warm from the outside. Dalton must have felt me tense as I awakened.

  “Figured you wouldn’t last all night,” I was so drowsy I barely understood him. He handed me a bottle of the half-frozen water we had, then two more pain medications to take. I bent my fingers a few times to warm them up enough to grab the pills. I sighed and leaned back against the wall. I was exhausted. My body was working to heal me, and it was draining me of everything else I had. “How does it feel?”

  “Like I was hit by a truck,” I slowly closed my eyes again, resting my forehead against my knee. I could feel the flesh throbbing. “Okay," I cleared my throat. "What’s the plan here?” I looked back up. My eyelids felt so heavy. “I don’t think I'll wake back up if I fall asleep, so we need to go,” He looked at me, trying to read whether I was being sarcastic or if I really meant it. I felt my body getting uncomfortably cold. I couldn’t keep myself asleep for longer than a few minutes. I was freezing to death.

  “Okay. What’re you thinking? How far can you make it?” He smiled. He knew he shouldn’t have asked that question. He already knew the answer. I would always push myself farther than I needed to go. Always.

  ”I have to get there, you know that.” This was the first time I was feeling a small amount of despair. How was I supposed to save someone if I wasn’t at my best? I was exhausted, in pain, and honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was able to be mobile. I couldn’t stay here, though. There was no choice, and I had people counting on me. “My family needs me.”

  “How far do you expect to make it, Amelia? You’re compromised,” I shook my head and leaned it back down on my knee. I was struggling to keep my head up. “I have something, but you're going to have to trust me,” He grabbed his bag.

  “I feel my life slipping away.” I hadn’t noticed how pale my skin was getting. I really was starting to slip away, and I was terrified. I wasn’t afraid to die; I knew I had seen enough death and lost enough people that I probably had more waiting on the other side than I had still standing here today. I wasn’t scared, except I was. I could have ended it a long time ago if I really wanted to, but I still have some family here. Until I knew they were okay, I couldn't give up. Maybe once I get them out, I could stay behind. That would be a better way to go out. I was living on borrowed time anyway. I watched as Dalton grabbed a strange box from the smallest pocket of the bag. I wondered if he would react the way I expected if he could read my mind. If he knew that, often, I would think about giving up. Would he think I was weak? Why would someone, while people are out there fighting for their lives, be willing to give up their own with no reward? The only reward was my own personal peace, and the loss of everyone else. If I died, the people would lose someone who could help them and someone they kept living for. I started to think about the domino effect while zoning out on the world around me. I was so disassociated and stuck in my mind that I couldn't hear Dalton talking to me. His hand was lightly on my shoulder, and he shook me a bit, but I felt so fuzzy. Like I was full of static. It wasn’t until he stabbed me that I looked up and could see him. I was gasping for air, lying on my side. I hadn’t noticed that I had ended up here. He looked almost scared, breathing just as quickly as I. I looked down at my leg, his hand still on it, and a shot in his hand. He had injected me with something.

  “When you said you were slipping away,” He pulled it out of my leg. It was empty. Whatever it was, he had fully unloaded it into me. That was terrifying. “I didn’t think you actually meant it.” My fingers were numb, but the feeling was coming back at the base. “You were dying. God, Amelia, “ He sat back and ran his hand through his hair. “That’ll help you, okay? It’ll help you heal,” I couldn’t manage to form the words I wanted to say, because I didn’t know what to say. I knew I should reply with something, but I had just felt like I was falling through the floor. I didn’t know what to do.

  “What did you just put in me?” I pulled myself up, gripping the leg on the chair. “What did you do?”

  “Trust me,” He stood up, grabbed the bag, and wrapped it over his shoulder. “If I told you I was going to make a run, would you stay here?” I looked up at him. I could feel the energy coming back to my eyelids. It wasn’t much of a hassle to hold them open anymore. A smile grew on him. “Yeah, I didn’t think so."

  “Just give me a second, the past few minutes are kind of a blur,” I pulled myself to my feet. I felt the pressure of the blood running through the veins in my leg. It was warm again, but the throbbing was minimal. I barely felt the pain anymore. Dalton grabbed my hand and helped me to my feet. “Where’s this run to, anyway?”

  “I just wanted to see if I could get you on your feet,” He let go of my hand. “I knew you would have if I just asked, this was just a better option.” I shook my head. What a stupid, stupid boy. “So, to the Nebraska base? You think we’re going to make it today?”

  “Give it a week,” I limped towards the door. It wasn’t hurting to walk, but there was still a strange amount of pressure on the wounded skin. “I don’t think we’re ever going to make it, realistically, if things keep going against us,” He grabbed my hand and helped me lower myself down onto the ladder. Slowly, I went down, rung by rung, then he tossed my guns down into the snow so I could sling them back over my shoulder. He came down and fell into step with me. “We came from this way, right?” I pointed straight ahead. In the woods, the snow was a lot harder to navigate through. I couldn’t tell where the highway was. We didn't keep track of our direction. Afterall, I did just blow up a gas station, and we did have to make a great escape. He pushed my arm to the side, making me point in a different direction.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “This was where we came from. I want to see the remnants of your makeshift plan,” He had almost read my mind. We started waking again, wading through the snow and heading towards the distance where the trees seemed thinner. Eventually, we made it to the treeline and could see over the top of the hill. There was still a faint amount of smoke rising from the rubble where there were embers blazing. We stayed low, though, because at the bottom of the hill were a lot of trucks. Trucks that looked familiar. They had the same green outer layer covered in armor plates. There were soldiers here. “How much do you want to bet that we could get onto that truck unscathed?” I looked over at him in his dark, noticeable clothes. I was the only one wearing white.

  “Not much, but I'll bet my life on it." I started to crawl down the hill, sticking behind the large snowdrift that was tall enough to cover us. He followed behind me, wearily edging forwards. We got to the bottom and looked at the closest truck. Of course, we couldn't get into half of these vehicles. All of them were enclosed and already full of soldiers. That would be suicide to sneak in to The bigger trucks, though, like the one that we rode in before, had the bigger open backs that we could sneak into. Dalton crawled in front of me, overtaking my position without warning.

  “I’m going to run up there, you follow, alright?” I nodded. We looked around, but all of the soldiers were either in the cars or behind the rubble across the way. They were looking for something. He ran ahead and crouched down behind a truck before motioning for me. I ran too, staying low. I stepped on his knee, and he hoisted me up, lifting me over the tailgate. He threw himself in soon after. His shoulder didn’t seem to be bothering him much anymore. These injections he had gotten really were working. We went to the back, settling in a similar spot to the previous truck we had been in. The only difference was the small slit of a window on this side of the wall at head level. We could hear people talking through it. They were heading back to the truck. We heard the beep of a radio they were holding. I looked over to Dalton. He was staring at the ground, gripping his gun harder than usual. I don’t think he wanted to be back here after what happened to Rosie. I pressed my head against the thin wall behind me to listen to the men getting into the truck. They were speaking on the radio.

  “He was here,” the man in the driver's seat said. “We found the little girl's remains,” I slowly looked over at Dalton. He looked up, now staring at the wall the voices were coming from. There was static coming from the radio until a voice broke through it.

  “Keep tracking him. Pull the cameras from the hillside and bring them back to base.”

  “Copy.” The man set the radio down on the dashboard. I looked over to Dalton again. He had to be the man they were talking about. I shrank back a little further into the crates. The truck started to move a bit, and we felt an incline. Some of the crates shifted back toward the tailgate. I leaned closer to the wall until we came to a stop. It wasn’t more than five minutes until we were moving again. Moving towards the base. This was going to be perfect. We were going to be delivered exactly where we needed to go. I glanced out behind us to look at the snow-plowed road. The gas station was behind us, but we were at the front of the convoy now. We couldn’t peek out to look at our surroundings anymore, or the car behind us would give away our position. Glancing out on occasion would be the only thing I could do. I could hear the engine of our truck, but also the ones behind us, very well. That's why it set me off guard when I heard them starting to fade. I looked back out and saw them turning down an already plowed route. The rest of the highway. Our truck started to slow down as it began to plow through a new route.

  “Dalton, we need to get off,” I said, looking over at him. “They’re going the right way. This is the wrong route!” I pointed to the other trucks.

  “They’re going to be looking for you, too, after they see that footage,” I stood up, looking at him with confusion. “Amelia, you need to jump. Go down the highway and stop at the fourth off-ramp you find, okay? I’ll find you. Give me three days. I’m going to get that footage,” He was still on the ground. I couldn’t believe him.

  “No, Dalton, I don’t care about them knowing. I-” I didn’t know what else to say. I wanted to tell him not to leave. I didn’t want to be alone out here. I didn’t want to lose someone else again, even if I knew I could do it alone. I didn’t want to, but I could. “Dalton,” He looked up at me. He had to do this. He threw me his bag.

  “Three days. Any more than that, then you need to keep going. If they find you, you’re never getting your family back,” I bit my lower lip underneath my scarf. Every part of me wanted me to stay in this truck. Jacob needed me, and my chances would be better with Dalton by my side. My duty was to Jacob and my friends, nothing else. If I wasn't doing this for myself, I was doing it for them.

  "I'm not leaving you here. You have a better shot with me by your side, and you know it. If you're going to get rid of me, you'll have to force me out of this truck." His eyes were locked onto the floor. He slowly got up off his knees, then aimed his gun at my head. I laughed. "You won't shoot me." He slowly stepped forward. "I know you better than that-" His foot suddenly met my ankles. I fell to the ground, and he kicked the tailgate down. I tried to get up, but he slammed the butt of his gun against my head. I was knocked back down. Upon acceleration, we both rolled forward, and that's when I felt his foot on my back. The floor vanished from beneath me.

  The ground hit me with a hard thud, and I rolled, but I stayed still. I balled up until I stopped rolling, and remained until the truck’s engine was no longer in earshot. Slowly, I stood back up and rolled my shoulders back. All around me were vast plains of snow, and the truck was very far in the distance. I knew where to go, but I couldn’t step. It was utterly silent. No vehicles, no people. Nobody’s breath but mine. I watched the truck fade out of my sight. I swear I could hear my heart beating in my throat. I slowly sank to my knees, one at a time, and sat back on my heels. What was I doing here? My head fell forwards and I couldn’t stifle the cries any longer. I pressed the butt of my gun against my head to lean against it, and I cried. My friends were gone, Jacob was gone, and I didn’t know where my family was or who was alive. Now, the one person I had left who was willing to risk it all for me had left me, too. I started to yell, jamming my gun into the ground until I rolled to the side. I was never getting out of here.

  I looked at the snow from ground level as I lay, some of the flurries getting stuck in my eyelashes. When I blinked, they would melt against my face. I used to love the snow. I loved to play in it, young and old; I always enjoyed it. When it turned into somewhat of a natural disaster, I was still one of the only ones who enjoyed it. I found peace in it. But now, it was trapping me. I was stuck in it for miles and miles, and I realized that I couldn’t keep holding on to the little good that was left. There was no good. Here, everything was out to get you. You were going to die, and it was entirely inevitable. I was going to die, and it was entirely inevitable.