I woke up a hazy sort of day. I looked at the bodies lying near me. There were only five. I sat up and scanned the area. Lauren still wasn’t with us. It seemed like she hadn’t come back at all during the night. She could have gotten lost out there! She could have been waiting for daylight to find her way back. I had to give her some credit that she could have left marks for to find her way back to us. So I decided to wait a little longer for her before I went into the woods to hunt for her.
By noon, everyone was up and was functioning to the best of their abilities. We all ate a little of what we could find, but still no Lauren. The others were beginning to worry to make comments about Lauren not being there, so I went into the forest to go find her. I put Jill in charge since I never trusted or liked Cole. He seemed barely able to take care of himself let alone two six-year-olds, who had no problem testing their boundaries.
After what seemed like hours, I still couldn’t find her. I was just about to turn around when something caught my eye. Lying there limply was a bloody and dirty figure, bent almost in half. I walked closer and realized it was Lauren. I bolted toward her, leaping over whatever was in my way. My heart pounded, each bound echoing in my ears. Lauren didn’t seem to be conscious. Her eyes were closed, and her chest barely moved. She was gagged, and her hands were tied together behind the trunk of the tree.
Working quickly, I untied her arms and took the rag out of her mouth. I was afraid to touch her. I looked closer at her wrists that were tied. They were raw with specks of blood dusted across her pale skin. Her long pants were now ripped all the way down to her knees. Her shirt was torn in half in the front.
She was bruised and dried blood was. Anger built up in me as I tried to figure out who the hell would do this to anyone. I lifted her head a little, soothingly to get a better glimpse at her face.
“Lauren. Lauren? Please wake up,” I whispered to her as I stroked her cheek.
I heard her moan in pain. Hope shot through me as I heard signs of life within her. Slowly, the wounded eyes opened as though her own eye lids had become too heavy for her to move. Her body stirred, bit by bit.
“Aaron?” Her voice was hoarse.
“Yeah, it’s me. You’re safe now,” I answered, caressing her face and brushing stray hair out of her face, I refrained myself from kissing her forehead.
Lauren loosely wrapped her arms around my neck as she shook. I could feel her tears on my shoulders. She moved her head so my shoulder and neck cradled her face. Slowly and tenderly I put my arms around Lauren and she whimpered. My heart felt like it was coming apart at the seams.
“What happened?” I asked quietly, nuzzling the top of her head so she wouldn’t see the fury building within me.
“Those men… those men… that you saved us from… they… they… raped…”
“Shh… You’re safe now.” I spoke into her hair. I put one hand on her back and the other was behind her head. “I’m not going to let anything else bad happen to you. I promise. I’m so sorry…”
Slowly I shifted her so I could pick her up. I carried her to the small creak I heard in the distance. Most of the water was still frozen, but there were parts that had started to thaw.
“This might be cold, Lauren, but we need to wash the blood off you,” I whispered as I tried to put her down, but she held on.
“Please, don’t leave me.” Her voice was small and weak as she spoke against my skin.
Lauren kept her face buried in my neck as she held on. Her grip was weak. She had to be in a lot of pain. She began to shiver. I realized I didn’t pick up her sweatshirt that was thrown carelessly on the ground. I made a mental note to grab that on the way back. Slowly, I sat us down by the water and helped her out of what was left of her clothes. I knew we had to fix her clothes because it was too cold to wear the summer clothes that we kept in the backpack just yet.
Soon, I finished cleaning her up, which I knew she would have normally argued against me seeing or touching her nearly naked body if she felt better. Before I put her shirt back on, I grabbed a stick and poked two tiny holes at the bottom and top of her shirt. I then ripped the cloth the men gagged her with and slipped it through the two holes.
I helped her to slip her arms through the arm slots so what used to be the back of the shirt was now the front, then tied the cloths together. I looked at her jeans and knew there wasn’t anything I could do to fix those. They were done with and she was going to have to finish winter in her shorts. Slowly I picked her up again and headed back, but I made sure I picked up the sweatshirt before we went back to the group. I sat down on the ground with her to put her sweatshirt on her. She needed to wear it to cover up what seemed like hundreds of scratches and bruises on her arms, back, chest, and most of her body. Her eyes were drifting closed as she kept her head resting on my shoulder.
Being as careful as I could, I walked back to camp with her sleeping in my arms. It took me a little bit, but I finally located the camp as the day seemed to be slipping away again. When I entered the camp, everyone was there so I didn’t have to worry about going on another search party. What I didn’t think about happening happened. Everyone was gapping at the limp form in my arms and I hadn’t thought of story to make up for the horrible truth. As lightly as I could, I laid her down where we had slept the night before, where she should have been if we hadn’t argued
“What happened to her?” asked Jill in a panicky whisper.
“I found her in a ditch. She must have fallen in it when she took a walk last night,” I spoke, my tone was monotone.
I kept gazing down at Lauren as I brushed a stray hair away from one of her black eyes. I didn’t glance up to see the rest believed my lie or not, but there wasn’t a chance I was going to tell them the truth, that she had been beaten and raped. Slowly I laid behind her and placed an arm around her to keep her close without hurting her.
The next morning, I knew we had to leave the area for our own safety. Lauren was still tender, so I carried her in the bridal style again. I wasn’t expecting for us to travel so far with her in my arms. So that meant Sean and Paige’s main holders were out of service. Everyone was still silent. No one knew what to say or if they should say anything at all about Lauren’s condition. The only noises were coming from Sean and Paige, who didn’t seem to know how to be quiet. They were whispering to each other, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying as Paige giggled.
There was a rustle in the trees as the wind danced through the woods. The trees waved above us making the shadows shift. That’s when I heard a faint crack of a stick. Lauren jolted, then held me tighter around my neck. My heart raced, and I hoped the men weren’t following us. I hadn’t even thought of that when I rescued her the previous day. We all stopped dead in our tracks. We didn’t dare take another step forward.
“You are entering the Lost Boys’ land! Go away. You’re not wanted!”
I heard a little kid’s voice and relaxed. Then I saw the body the voice had come from. There was a little boy around the same age and stature as Sean standing on a rock. He was in jean overalls with a blue shirt. He had a matching blue hat with blond hair underneath that came out under the brim, giving him a scarecrow appearance. A boy identical to that one came over wearing the same jean overalls, but with green shirt and hat instead.
“You two aren’t even four feet tall!” Cole barked.
“Watch it, Cole. We don’t know if there are adults around,” Jill spoke up.
“They said Lost Boys, which is from Peter Pan. The Lost Boy’s didn’t have parents,” Mandy said softly.
How did two little boys last this long without parents? We were having enough trouble and there were seven of us working together.
“What did I tell you two?” a voice was heard in the distance a little deeper than the twins.
“Shush, servant, and bow down before us!” yelled one of the twins, he had a tall stick that he banged on the ground he stood on.
That was when another boy came into sight.
He was around a foot taller than the two boys and was wearing glasses. His blond hair was darker than the twins and was in complete chaos. He looked between Mandy’s and Jill’s age.
“Who are you guys?” asked the other boy, his tone more frustrated with the twins than anything else.
“We’re a group passing through. Are there adults with you guys?” I asked.
“No adults. It’s just us three. And there isn’t anyone near here for miles. Just tons of rocks,” the older kid responded. He attempted to get the stick out of the young boy’s hand, which only failed and won a tongue stuck out at him.
Great, there wasn’t any shelter near here. I shifted Lauren in my arms a little and she winced. The three boys made their way down from the ledge to meet us, so I sat down with Lauren in my lap. When I looked up, the new ones were standing among us.
“So who are you guys, really?” I asked.
“I’m RJ and these are my little brothers Kyle, blue, and Tony, green. I’d watch out for them if I were you,” the older out of the three answered with narrowed eyes on the younger two.
“How old are you guys?” asked a hoarse Lauren.
“I’m eleven, and they’re six,” RJ answered.
“I’m Lauren, this is Aaron, Mandy, Jill, Cole, Paige, and Sean,” she said, pointing to each person, still sounding tired and hurt. Her hand fell into her lap and I interlaced her fingers in mine.
“Can we join you? I don’t think an eleven-year-old should be taking care of his brothers.”
My eyes widened at his boldness. I mean, no eleven-year-old should ever have to take care of his little brothers, but he just met us not even five minutes ago. We didn’t need more people to look after. Damn it! That was what Lauren was telling me. I looked down at her now as her eyes were open, staring at the three. If we hadn’t argued, this wouldn’t have happened to her.
That was first time that realization settled in on me. Lauren hadn’t said anything yet to blame me for what happened to her. But I knew if we hadn’t argued, she wouldn’t have gone in the woods by herself. I hated myself when I realized when I said I didn’t care what happened to her. My heart sunk down to bottom of my stomach as these rushed. I rubbed her thumb with mine. Lauren had been attacked because of me.
“Aaron. Aaron… Earth to Aaron.” I heard a light laugh that snapped me out of my guilt trip.
“Yeah?”
“It’s not a big deal if they join us, right?” Lauren asked, looking up into my eyes.
“Um, yeah sure they can.”
I couldn’t say no in front of the kids; they’d be left alone and would have to defend for themselves. That was just plain evil, heartless, and I especially can’t do that in front of a Lauren. I didn’t know how they had lasted this long, since we were having so much trouble.
RJ fell over at our feet. “Thank you so much!” he praised, practically bowing before us.
“Is there something you’re not telling us?” I asked, a little afraid to know the answer with a raised brow.
“Um… my brothers are a bit on the… I think the right word is difficult side.”
“How hard can they be?” Cole asked the same question that was on my mind.
“Just wait and see, if you don’t believe me,” was all RJ said.
I heard small snickers and turned to look at the twins, who had smirks on their faces. This might have been a bad idea.
“Are you sure this is the right way?” I asked RJ.
I couldn’t believe we were taking directions from these little kids. We were weaving between trees and asteroids as we tried to get out of the woods. Lauren had decided to make an attempt to walk today, but was still in pain. I could tell from her facial expressions. Yet she stayed silent through her suffering. I stayed close to her in case she needed support. We hadn’t walked far, however, before I picked her up and held her close to me.
“I was fine with walking on my own, thank you very much,” Lauren responded, with the last four words stringing together.
“Just humor me, Lauren.”
She was calm as we continued on our way; it would be a little longer before we stopped again.
We sat around in a close huddle as the twins began staring at Lauren.
“What happen to her?” one of the twins finally asked.
“She fell down,” I answered quickly.
“Where did she fall?”
“Into a ditch,” I answered, the words shooting out automatically.
Lauren turned to glance at me and raised an eyebrow.
“You realize she is here right?”
Silence hung in the air.
“So do you two have a plan on where we’re going?” asked RJ.
“Well, we were thinking of going west.”
“Ha, that is a big mistake there, big guy.” A sad smile was on RJ’s lips as he shook his head slowly.
“Why?” I asked, afraid to hear what he had to say.
“There isn’t anything left west of here. We traveled that way for over a month and found nothing but one big grave yard and rocks with steam coming out of them.”
“Yeah, it was cool!” one of the twins yelled, high-fiving the other.
“But that jerk wouldn’t let us climb on the rocks!” the other finished as he turned to glare at his older brother.
The twins then stuck their tongues out at their brother.
“You two aren’t very nice,” commented Paige while frowning at the twins and holding the stuffed animal close to her chest.
“Being nice isn’t fun” spat one of the twins toward Paige.
“You’re messed up,” Paige answered with a disgusted face, leaning against me.
Lauren picked Paige up and held the little girl in her lap. Paige wrapped her arms around Lauren, resting her head against Lauren’s chest.
The twins laughed.
“How about we stay here tonight to sketch out a new plan? So are you serious that there's nothing out there?” I asked, watching Lauren next to me with Paige and Sean in her arms.
I hoped that they weren’t hurting her by climbing on her.
“It looks like another planet out there. There wasn’t anything living or growing over there. There were pieces of rocks, rubble, and people all over the place.”
“Should we go back to the house in Pennsylvania?” Lauren was oblivious of the fight between the little ones as she absentmindedly played with Paige’s hair.
“You think that it’s wise since we were found there once before or if we could even find our way back there?” I asked with a raised brow.
“Wait a minute. You were in a house and you left?” asked RJ, widening his brown eyes.
“We’re kind of on the run from someone,” I muttered guiltily.
“Great, I’ve made an alliance with criminals.” RJ yelped as he threw his arms up into the air.
“I would answer your question, but he still won’t tell me anything about it,” answered Lauren.
There wasn’t much to tell. “Don’t worry it’s not as bad as you’re probably thinking,” I responded with a feeble smirk.
“And when will you be sharing that information?” asked Cole sourly.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Lauren muttered.
I knew I had to tell Lauren, but I didn’t want to just then. I didn’t want to watch her face turn from shocked to dismay at me and ultimately to plain disgust. I knew I had to tell her, but I wanted to keep her as a friend longer before she wanted to run and hide from me. Was that so wrong?