We were back where we started.

It was like nothing had even happened. Poof. Right back outside the school, staring at its brick walls and wondering what on Earth had just happened.

We'd just been let out...right?

"You know, they're probably sending spies after us or something...," Max mumbled. He'd been ranting about how much he did not trust these schoolkids since we'd walked out the front doors.

"Sure, but for what? They have their own worries to deal with," Asten replied, seeming a little exhausted. He looked worn down...like too much had happened and he was finally done.

I thought back to what he'd said when we were still in the glass. It disturbed me. I didn't think right now would be the right time to talk about it...

Or talk about what had happened right before our capture...

We had one thing to focus on right now: getting our friends back.

"How are we going to get anywhere...?" I mumbled, realizing how bad this was going to go. Our last transport option had been completely luck-based, and we didn't have any nearby vehicles to use. Well, other than the run-down car we'd slept in, but I doubted it had a working engine.

We'd managed to walk back to our little campfire where we'd been at before everything had happened. Max had dropped his pack there before getting captured (fortunately, mine had stayed with me the whole time).  Some granola bars had also been left by the dead fire. 

I focused instead on packing all that up, knowing that the situation we were in was pretty hopeless. 

"Walking...I guess," Asten replied belatedly. "Maybe find a populated area. Try stealing a car..."

"Really? That's the master plan? That sounds like a ninety nine percent chance we'll die. We can't just walk in there with barely anything and steal a car Grand-Theft-Auto style. That's insane," Max ranted, eyes wide. His hair was disheveled and there were some dirt stains on his face. It reminded me that we all probably needed a bath of some sort.

"What else do you suggest? Walking back in there and asking them for transportation, too?" Asten asked, eyebrows raised.

I sighed and shoved a handful of granola bars into my backpack. "Actually, yes."

Asten stared straight at me like I'd lost my mind. "Excuse me?"

"I said yes, we should do that."

He narrowed his eyes. "I thought you were on my side."

I rolled mine. "There are no sides. But we need to survive. And we don't have anyone else to turn to, nor anywhere else to go."

There was nothing else to do. Even though a strong side of myself screamed against walking back in there, I knew we had to. I knew that we might get locked up by little kids again, but what else could we do?

Asten crossed his arms. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Max just seemed pensive. "Eh. As long as we won't die."

"They have guns. We could easily die."

"Then, let's also bring guns. It'll be fine."

Asten didn't seem like he was going to budge. He stared at me incredulously as if I'd betrayed him or something. "You've got to be out of your mind. I'm not going back in there."

"Okay, then tell me what to do? Leave our friends behind? Wander the woods alone until we end up back in the freezing cold and die?" I snapped back. I don't know why I was suddenly in a bad mood. Well...it probably had to do with me simultaneously hungry and hopeless. And suddenly remembering that this wasn't going to be easy...and we definitely were screwed.

January and Kyan and Elijah.

Everyone else we'd left behind.

Whatever intensity that had been in Asten's gaze slipped away. He seemed exhausted. He seemed like he couldn't stand arguing for another second, even if it went against his better judgement. A pang of guilt rushed through me at having snapped at him. Max was wide eyed and looked slightly uncomfortable.

"You know what, I'm just going to...uh...go...uh...over there," he said, awkwardly, before backing away quickly towards the abandoned car where we'd set up again for the night.

Asten uncrossed his arms and sat down on a rock by the now dead fire.

I didn't know what to say or do with myself. I wanted to run after Max and forget everything through basic tasks such as setting up a new camp, finding food...

But I couldn't escape the truth.

"I'm sorry...sorry about that. I didn't mean to get irritated," I commented, before sitting on the hard ground across from him, the stone circle between us.

He stared down at his calloused hands for a moment, before looking up to meet my gaze. His gray eyes were stormy and sent a shiver down my spine. "It's all right. I know how you feel."

I nodded slightly. "I just wish we had a plan. A way to reach them. Anything to save them." Because inside..

Inside I knew it probably wouldn't be possible.

We weren't superheroes. I couldn't just snap my fingers and teleport to whatever helicopter they were being taken away on. I couldn't shoot fire from my palms and destroy everyone who'd ever hurt me.

I knew that whatever the Equator wanted with them...god, they'd have it. Because the only way we'd ever gotten into the Equator before was because they wanted us to.

That's what happened when one group had all the power -- they could do whatever they pleased, and it didn't matter how many people shouted and threw pebbles, nothing could stop them.

The Equator was this invincible, unyielding force that we were nothing compared to. If they wanted, they could destroy us in an instant.

And that scared me most. The realization that we simply weren't worth their time to kill.

Asten met my gaze, and I think he knew what I was thinking. Somehow. Some way. I think we both knew that we were completely utterly lost. At an absolute low.

"When I lost my brother, I didn't know how to live with myself," Asten started quietly. I frowned. He hadn't talked about his brother in a while. Despite everything that's happened...

I remember how he'd tied me up in the snow, doing anything he could just to get his family back.

"It felt like it was my fault. Like I was supposed to take care of him. Even though I barely knew how to survive myself...it just seemed like that's what I was supposed to do. But I failed. I failed. I lost him and all the months I spent surviving in the snow, I kept trying to find some way to get him back. Any possible way. I held onto this useless hope even though I knew it was insane. He could be anywhere in the states, anywhere."

He picked up one of the stones by the fire and began inspecting it, as though it would hold the secrets to the universe, an answer to his questions.

"But I kept looking. And I told myself I'd do anything to find him. Anything. But one day...I don't know why, but I gave up. I'd been trudging through the snow, searching for somewhere to stay for the night...and I stumbled upon a bird's nest on the ground. A dead bird, and three frozen eggs. It made me realize how useless it was. Nothing was surviving. Not the birds, not the insects, not civilization, nobody. I was alone and my brother was probably dead. My parents and friends were dead and thing would never be how they used to be."

"And so I gave up. I gave up and told myself my brother was dead. There was nothing for me... Nothing. And when I saw the slave trade, I..."

He paused, as if he were trying to recompose himself.

"I told myself that, you know what? If I'm going to die anyway, I might as well have a choice. I might as well do it attempting to save someone in my brother's position. Maybe...maybe there was a flutter of hope that one of the slaves being traded would be my brother...but..."

He dropped the stone in his hands and looked up to meet my gaze. I remained quiet. I didn't have words.

I didn't know what to say.

Instead, I stood up, walked over, and slowly wrapped my arms around him. I felt his heart beat against my own, felt his head lean into the curve of my neck. We sat there, me hugging him like a lifeline, his own hands gripping the back of my shirt like it was the last thing he'd ever hold.

It was hours before I finally let go.