Hiya.

How's life?

It should be great because you're reading my new chapter XD

• • •

I can see the stars in the clear skies from my spot in the cave. If I wasn't so cold maybe I would have the heart to admire them, but for now I'm just sick of their shit, and I can't wait until they leave so the sun can emerge.

My teeth chatter as I curl my legs more tightly, tucking them closer to my chest. I miss the heat and the light given off by the fire that we would usually have lit. I mean, we have matches which is all well and good, but what are we supposed to burn? There are no conveniently placed trees to strip of their bark and branches. Also, with the great luck we have, Noah's pack was gone from where he dropped it to come to my aid. His pack just happened to contain most of the remaining food, and a couple of blankets.

So the current situation isn't exactly favourable, but I just keep reminding myself that things could be worse. Like if my imagination became reality. Then there would be flesh eating worms trying to make us into human sushi rolls.

I hear shuffling close to me and I tense up. "Noah, I swear to God, if that's not you I'm going to strike out."

"It's me, it's me. Please don't hit me," I hear him mutter.

I let out a breath, letting my muscles relax. "Please don't do that again, people who scare me usually end up being throat punched."

He doesn't reply, but he keeps edging closer to me until I can feel his breath on my face.

I frown. "What are you doing?"

"I'm cold."

I raise an eyebrow. "So?"

"Body heat," he replies simply, moving so close that I can feel his breath fanning my face. I can also hear his teeth chattering. A sudden burst of shivers travels down my spine, and I can't be entirely sure whether it's from the cold or my very close proximity to Noah. I shuffle forwards a little bit, so that my head can tuck under his chin. His arms wrap around me, pulling me closer to him, it's as if he's using me as a personal heater.

"Your heart's not beating," he whispers.

"Yeah, I'm aware of that. It did get stabbed, so maybe it's just taking it's time to recover, you know?"

"Why aren't you dead?" He mutters bluntly.

"Because I'm amazing."

"There is something seriously wrong with you-"

I cut him off. "Well yeah, you're a bit slow on the uptake if you're only just realising this now."

He sighs and I can practically see him rolling his eyes, even though I can't physically see his face. "You have super sonic hearing, you can survive with a stopped heart, not to mention the rate you heal at is abnormally fast."

"What about you though? You've healed really fast every time you've been hurt," I say, trying to divert the topic of conversation to something that doesn't involve me.

I feel Noah shrug. "I don't think I have any special healing powers."

I frown. "What about your foot, and those claw marks on your neck? They healed in like twenty minutes."

"Yeah, I've thought about this. Every time I've hurt myself, you've been there. You were the one who cut me down from that trap, and when I was technically dead, you were right next to me. Also, each time something like this has happened, we've had skin on skin contact. You held my leg to steady it when you cut me from that wire, and after that attack, you were holding my hand."

"So you're saying that I was healing you?" I ask, dumbfounded by this sudden realisation. My head spins as I try to digest this new information. So I can heal people with what, the power of my mind? Basically, I'm insane.

"How did you even come up with this theory?" I wonder aloud.

"Well when I was dead-"

Wow, what a great sentence starter.

"And I wouldn't wake up because I was dead, you got angry at me because I wouldn't wake up and you squeezed my hand really hard. I remember it feeling like an electric shock, and seeing a red light behind my eyes..." He trails off as if he's thinking, and pauses for a few seconds. I can practically hear the wheels in his head turning.

"You called me an ass before I woke up, right?" He asks.

I look at him questioningly, wondering how he knows that if he was dead when I said it.

"Well you are an ass," I state matter of factly.

"Whatever," he dismisses. "And you were angry right?"

"I guess."

"What about at the tree, were you angry then?"

"I was relieved that I found you, but it really pissed me off that you went out by yourself in the dark even after I specifically said not to go anywhere alone."

"Okay, so both times I've been healed you were angry. Maybe anger is where you draw your power from."

I nod slightly. "That would make sense, I'm not an overly tolerant person."

"I'm aware of that."

I scoff. What an ass.

"Ugh, you're so annoying," I groan.

"Uh...thanks?"

"That wasn't a compliment," I scowl, shoving his arm off me and rolling over so my back is to him.

Instead of staying in his spot, he shuffles up behind me so that his chest is flush with my back, and he drapes one of his stupidly long arms over me.

"What do you think you're doing?" I demand.

"I'm still cold, and you're warm," he states, as if that makes the fact that we're spooning perfectly alright, when it most definitely isn't.

I decide that if I piss him off then he might leave.

"I never pegged you for the cuddling type," I chirp.

"We all have past lives," he says mysteriously.

What the hell is that supposed to mean? And 'we all?' In case he hasn't quite noticed yet, but there are only two of us.

"What, were you a professional cuddler before this apocalypse thing happened?"

He snorts. "No, I just had a lot of fun in my senior year of high school."

I frown. What? Fun in high school that makes you a good cuddler...? Oh...not the kind of fun that I was thinking of.

"You mean, you slept with a lot of girls," I pause, my eyes widening. "You were a hoe!"

"I wasn't a hoe," he says disgustedly. "I just attracted the wrong type of girls."

To be perfectly honest, there weren't that many people in Mount Wescott to start with. Barely enough teenagers to fill two small high schools, so he must've done well to pick all of the girls who...well let's just say they were experienced in their trade.

"Or," I ponder. "You just have commitment issues, and you completely ignored the girl who would have been good for you."

"I'm not talking about this with you," he replies with a voice void of anything.

Just when we were starting to make progress.

"Why? What's wrong with me?" I ask, slightly offended by his lack of empathy, and his inability to exert any sort of emotion at all.

He sighs irritably. "Have you met yourself lately?"

"Not lately, no."

"Go to sleep," he says bluntly.

"You go to sleep," I retort childishly.

"I would be able to if you'd stop talking."

I sniff. "Fine."

"Fine," he repeats, equalling my level of snarky-ness.

We both lay still for a few moments, neither of us speaking. Eventually, the inevitable happens and I break the silence.

"You're not a very nice person you know."

He breathes in deeply and exhales with the same force, as if he's trying to keep himself from committing murder. Maybe I should have tried that. The saying 'better late than never' doesn't work in the case of murder prevention.

"With all due respect Princess, shut the hell up."

• • •

I submerge the plastic bottle in the small pool of water, enclosing as much of the liquid as possible before screwing the cap on tight, making sure that none can escape. I store it in my backpack, searching desperately for something, anything to eat. I stumble across a half eaten granola bar that I have no idea of the length of time it has been in this bag for. I shrug, breaking it in two and offering half to Noah. He eagerly accepts the mouthful of food, downing it within seconds.

"Thanks princess," he says, grabbing the bag from my shoulders and swinging it onto his own.

I frown. "What was that for?"

"I'm stronger than you, and I have nothing to carry."

Stronger than me, puh-lease.

"Whatever," I sigh, straightening up and dusting off my hands on my pants.

"We should go," Noah says, looking eagerly out the opening of the cave into the distance.

"Yeah," I reply. "But I'm walking in front."

He scrunches up his face. "Why?"

"Because you walk too fast, and if I'm behind you and I die of heatstroke, you probably won't notice," I say pointedly.

"I will so," he denies quietly, but he doesn't really try to argue his point because he knows I'm right. He's too focused on trying to find the rest of the group, Mae in particular.

"Alright, let's go," I decide. It's not like I actually want to walk anywhere, but we have to get going before it gets too hot.

I lead the way out of the cave and into the sun. There we have a dilemma. There are four directions in which they could have gone. They could have gone back down the hill that we walked up yesterday, which I highly doubt. They could have gone left or right, both ways looking as though all they provide is more sand. The final option they could have gone for is straight ahead, behind the cave, which is a steep downhill, the sand fading into thick forest like we had been walking in two says prior. The problem is, in this sand, as soon as you take a step, the slight breeze blows away your foot prints, so we have nothing to go on.

"What way do you think they went?" Noah asks from behind me.

"Straight down there," I point.

He bites his lip, shaking his head. "What if that was the obvious choice and they knew we would think they'd go straight ahead, so they went left or right?"

"You're over thinking it," I say, turning to look at him. "If you were running from someone would you pick the route where you could quickly get down to a forest where it will be easy to hide, or would you go in a direction where there's a chance you'll get stuck out in the open?"

He sighs. "As much as it pains me to say this, you're right."

I grin. "Of course I am, lets go."

We skirt around the edge of the cave, walking to the edge and looking down on the hill. Well actually, I wouldn't call it a hill, it's more of a really steep sand dune. I kick some sand over the edge with my foot and it creates an avalanche as it travels down.

I look at Noah. "Do you think we can just jump?"

He shrugs. "There's only one way to find out isn't there?" And with that he launches himself over the edge, landing in the sand below, only he doesn't really land, he just keeps sliding.

I gulp. Oh god, this is such a bad idea. My brain says no, my gut says no, and my heart doesn't care to comment.

"Hurry up Princess!" Noah yells from the bottom. He's already at the bottom.

"Okay Clover, you can do this. It's for the greater good of the group, this action could save someone's life," I say aloud, giving myself a pep talk.

I close my eyes and jump, my feet hitting the sand a few moments later, but they slide out from under me, causing me to fall on my butt. I continue to slide very quickly down the sand dune until I reach the bottom where Noah is waiting. I stand up, dusting the sand off my ass.

"Lead the way," he says, gesturing for me to go ahead of him.

I nod as we enter the forest. It is very similar to the other forest that we had previously been walking through, although there are subtle differences, like the trees which look almost the same as the other ones, although these ones have lower hanging branches and broader leaves. It's nice to be walking on flat ground for once instead of one extreme to another.

• • •

"I don't feel like we're going anywhere," Noah says, staring around. "Everything in here looks the same."

"Oh we're going somewhere alright, my legs wouldn't be hurting otherwise," I reply.

I hear his footsteps behind me stop and I turn around. "We're never going to find them, are we?" He asks defeatedly.

"Of course we are, I don't want to be stuck here with you for the rest of my life," I reply, slowly gazing around in a three hundred and sixty degree turn. I frown as something out of place catches my eye. Jogging over to the tree, I peel the tape from the tree. Blue duct tape. About twenty yards from the first piece, I spot another blue burst of colour, standing out against the dull shade of the tree trunk.

"What is it?" Noah asks as he approaches me.

I hold out the piece of tape. "Seen this before?"

"Yeah, I put that in Mae's bag. Why?"

I point to the next tree. "She's leaving us a trail of breadcrumbs."

• • •

So this is kind of turning into Hansel and Gretel, but whatever.

I cut myself shaving today. That little bastard bled for about three hours, no joke, and the cut is so tiny it's barely visible. I'm really disappointed that blood is red, purple would be a lot cooler.

By the way, I'm not up with the Trump, Clinton debate but RIP America if Trump ends up president. Actually no, I wouldn't worry, Kennedy was president and he seemed like an okay guy, but look what happened to him. Trump is a crappy person so he'll probably get beheaded by an angry sombrero throwing Mexican before he even gets a chance to start the construction of that wall.

Anyway...please comment, vote, and follow.

Until next time.