"Let's get started," I said.

"Alright, if you give us our friends back, we will tell you where the 'Men in Grey' are located," Scratchy told us.

"So you know where they are located?" Liesal asked. The question was followed by a void of silence. Scratchy broke it.

"Well, not exactly, we are pretty sure we know where they are located," he said.

"Then how can we take your word for it?" Liesal asked.

"You have to," Scratchy said between clenched teeth. Clearly he was getting annoyed.

Liesal leaned towards me slightly and whispered in my ear, "You know we could just leave now and find this place ourselves! If we hand over the robbers they could attack us and we would die!". She was right, if we let all three robbers go we would have no guarantee they would keep their word.

"Well Meredith? What's your choice?" Joey asked with a twisted smile plastered on his face.

"Fine you get them back, but first you have to tell us their location!" I shouted.

"No! Give us our people back! Then we will tell you!" Scratchy shouted back.

"We can argue back and forth, I have all day Scratchy! The question is, will she?" I said as I placed the knife on Carrie's neck. Gasps were heard form the distance and then murmurs. "You've got five minutes to decide," I told them. People started whispering and I knew that the robbers had no other choice. How was Eric doing? Was he okay? I haven't heard him in a while. I turned around to see what he was doing. To my surprise and shock, he was completely still. He was seated on top of a rock and he was looking up into the sky. His face was emotionless, he was looking up into the night sky as if expecting something to appear. His face was pale and devoid of any sign of life. When he sensed that I was staring directly at him, he turned around impassively and looked back at me. His gaze was cold, his eyes had no passion in them, no fear, no sign of distress. Just empty. The only other time that he had acted this strangely was before the aliens had appeared.

"May I help you," Eric asked in a monotonous voice.

I shook my head embarrassed for some weird reason. "Umm no, I mean yes you can. I just want to know if your fine. How are you handling all of this?".

"I am handling all of this fine sister, please continue your excellent negotiating," Eric replied with no expression. Since when does he talk like that?

"Okay!"Scratchy shouted snapping me out of my thoughts. "After lots of thinking we finally came to a decision,".

"So what will it be? Are you going to tell us?" Liesal asked.

An unusually loud sigh was heard from the other side and then Scratchy spoke,"Yes, we will tell you. The 'Men in Grey' are located near a tourist attraction here in New York. It's tall and apparently wears a crown," he told us. Obviously it was 'The Statue of Liberty'. But why didn't he just tell us that? Did he really have to make it into a riddle?

"You mean 'The Statue of Liberty'? " Liesal asked.

"The what?" Scratchy asked. I would have thought he was just messing with us but something in his voice made me think otherwise. "Look girl, I told you where they are located! Now give them back!".

I nodded, they had been true their word, so far. Joey sneered, "Time to let us go little rat! Just remember my promise Liesal!".

"Shut it Joey!" Carrie scolded. Yes, now I'd decided which of the three robbers will stay back. I motioned for Liesal to push the two wheel chairs forward while I hold onto Joey's.

"What abut the other one?" Scratchy asked.

"Yeah, what about me?"Joey whined when he realized that he was still with us.

"We will give him back when we find our parents. Till then, he stays with us," I told them. On cue Liesal pulled out an extra large knife and secured it under his chin.

"What was that you were saying! A promise?" she snickered. There was silence and finally Scratchy spoke.

"Fine you can have him! He was never much use to us anyway," Scratchy spat. We then heard multiple footsteps and soon everything was quiet. Even though Joey was a robber, and he was extremely rude, I felt sorry for him. His pack just left him, the alpha just said he wasn't any use. Liesal however found this funny and decided to make fun of him.

"Did you hear that buddy?" she laughed. "You're no use!". My face grew hotter and I couldn't hold it in anymore, she didn't need to be so mean.

"Lay off!" I told Liesal. A somewhat hurt expression was on her face but she did as I said.

"Hey rat! I don't need you to defend me! got it?" Joey asked annoyed. Wow, and here I was feeling sorry for him!

"Fine, I won't defend you! You know what, roll your own wheelchair!" I told him. This was successful in making him irritated.

"But my arms hurt!" he whined.

"They can still move can't they?" Liesal laughed. "Can't they?".

"Yeah," he said as he began to roll the wheels. Maybe I was being a little cruel but I didn't care.

We continued walking through the humid forest, the air was thick and smelt of mold. The trees were huddled close together and sunlight barely made its way through the leaves. My face was covered with a thin layer of sweat, as was everyone else's, and I was silently pleading for some fresh air. We walked for hours together, each step hurt more than the one before.

"Let's take a break," Joey announced. His face was colorless and his hair stuck to his scalp because of all his sweat. He was rubbing his blistered hands against his shirt.

"Fine, we haven't eaten in a while," I said as I distributed some of the food. We sat down and ate in silence. While I chewed on my granola bar, I heard crying. It seemed to be coming from nearby. I got up with Liesal and we began searching. Finally we found a little girl huddled up behind a tree.

"Are you okay?" Liesal asked as she bent down. Startled by her voice the little girl looked up, fear was clearly shown on her face. She got up quickly and leaned against the tree.

"D...don't hurt me..please, I don't have anything!" she told us as she continued to cry. Liesal looked up at me confused.

I knelt down beside Liesal, "Why do you think we would hurt you?".

"Because they did!" she said pointing to Joey. "They hurt my mom and dad!" Joey's face flushed a deep read color.

"Well don't worry, we aren't going to hurt you, okay? You are safe now, you can come with us," Liesal assured. The little girl's eyes darted back and forth, she looked at Liesal, then Joey then me. She was unable to decide weather to trust us or not, but finally her growling stomach gave in. She followed us to our resting spot and I gave her a granola bar.

"So what's your name?" I asked as she sat down.

"Ileana," she said, her mouth full. Her hair was black and was quite curly, it was about shoulder length. Her face had multiple scratches as though she had been running away, and she was tan. Her large brown eyes wore sags underneath as if she hadn't slept in a long time. She wore a shirt and a long skirt.

"So Ileana, how old are you?" Liesal asked.

"5, I think," she said as she finished her bar. "Can I have some water please?". I handed her a bottle and watched as she chugged almost half of it.

"So can you tell us how you ended up here in this forest?" I asked her.

She nodded, "Me and mommy were at home, I was helping her cook! Daddy came running through the door, he said there were robbers. Mommy was really scared, so was daddy. We all packed our things for some reason and we escaped trough the back door. Mommy and daddy were saying something about how they were really mean people. We took a break on a road somewhere, that was were mommy and daddy got hurt! They robbers found us, they hurt my parents! I ran away but they chased me. I haven't eaten or drank anything in two days! It was all their fault!" Ileana yelled as she pointed to Joey once again. Poor girl, she is way too young to experience this! How cruel can robbers be? They tried to kill a child! I was disgusted by the cruelty of the robbers.

We didn't know what to say really. Well, what were we supposed to say? It's all going to be okay? Why? There was no point in saying that because the truth was, nothing would ever be okay. Nothing we said could possibly make her feel better. All we could do was let Ileana join us and continue our search.

"You can stay with us, we will take care of you," Liesal said. This brought a priceless smile onto Ileana's face. I couldn't help but smile back. "You'll also have someone you can play with! Eric is seven!". This made Ileana more happy as she ran towards Eric.

"Do you know how to play tag?" she asked him.

"I don't care for games," Eric replied. What the heck was going on? Of course he cared for games!

"Eric what are you talking about? You do..." Liesal was cut off by a high pitched beeping. What could that possibly be? Where was that coming from? Before we could answer these questions, smoke began to flood the space around us. What's happening? Who are...? The smoke sent us into a deep state of sleep. Upon waking up, I was terrified. I didn't know what was happening. Where were we? The room was completely white. It seemed to have no walls. It made no sense at all. What was this place. Eric, Liesal, Ileana and Joey were all there in the room with me. They all looked equally as shocked. All of them, except Eric. He didn't seem to care. WHAT WAS HAPPENING? Then all of a sudden, the wall became transparent like some sort of glass. And there, behind the glass, there they were, watching us, 'Men in Grey'...

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Thanks for reading chapter eight. If you liked the story please vote and comment below ,feedback would be much appreciated. I will be adding the next chapter in about a week.
-chihiro_07