My thoughts were currently occupied with two things that afternoon- My mission, and food.

I was sooooooo hungry. All I'd had to eat since we (Sim, Mark, and I) had started our Journeys was someone weird berries that really hadn't tasted very good. I hoped they weren't poisonous.

"I'll race you guys across the fields." Sim said with a grin. She'd been doing her best to keep our spirits up since we started walking that morning, and while she'd succeeded with Mark (wink wonk) I was too mopey to pay too much attention. I wanted food, and I wanted answers to my questions, and I wanted some water too.

Wow, that sounded really demanding.

Didn't mean it wasn't true, though. I was quite the whiny brat in my head. I was also way more childish in my head than I cared to admit.

"But I'm too tirrrreeeeedddd...." Mark said, letting the last word drag on with a smile.

"You're just lazy." Sim teased, grabbing my arm. "How about you, Kayla?"

"Not really feeling up to it." I said. "Y'know, I'm just tired because I'm starting to feel like a third wh-"

"Don't be a downer!" Sim said, speaking over my last few words and giving me a glare. It was one of the few things that had brought a smirk to my face that day so far.

"Seriously though, we probably shouldn't be racing with not having had water and food and stuff."

Sim sighed, her smile fading. "I guess you're right... I'm really thirsty."

"And I'm really hungry." Mark declared. "We need to do something."

"But- Ah!" I stopped, startled, as I tripped and stumbled down a hill that I hadn't seen in front of me seconds before. At the bottom was a clear, peaceful looking stream that had definitely appeared from nowhere. I slid down to my knees at the shore, sticking a hand in to make sure it wasn't just a figment of my food and water deprived imagination.

"Am I dreaming?" Sim asked, kneeling down next to me.

"This wasn't here a second ago, right?" Mark questioned, coming to join us.

"Maybe the scientists were watching and wanted to help us." Said Sim.

"But why would they be watching us when there's, like, a thousand other kids in the same simulation?" I argued. The answer hit me as soon as the words slipped out of my mouth- the hacker. They must have hacked the system again to make sure I was okay.

But would they be so worried about me? Would they really risk hacking again just to make sure I was okay, just so I could complete their mission? Once again, why had they assigned it to me? Why was it so important?

"Kayla, snap out of it! Whoever gave us a random stream, we should enjoy it." Sim said cheerfully as she and Mark splashed water on their faces and drank from their cupped hands.

I hesitantly did the same, still kinda lost in my thoughts. It felt really good to have some water, though. I wonder if the scientists would have given us water themselves had the hacker not done it. Would they just take us out of the simulation and say we failed instead?

We got up a few minutes later, feeling refreshed. "We should make some sort of camp here." I blurted out as Mark and Sim began to climb the hill.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea, but what are we going to use?"

I shrugged in response to Sim's question. "We can find something nearby. It's better than just walking endlessly." I said eventually.

"Alright. I'm going to go find wood... Or something..." Sim replied. "Hopefully I'll find something actually helpful."

"I'll come with you!" Mark said eagerly. Sim glanced back at me as the two walked away, and I gave her a knowing look. They were totally ship worthy.

And here I sat, a forever alone third wheel apparently. I had no idea what I could do that would be helpful. Couldn't the leaders have, I don't know, given us surviving in the wild lessons? Maybe a handbook at the least?

Sighing, I took a jump across the stream, stumbling a bit on the stones as I climbed the opposite hill. More fields stretched out endlessly, with nothing but a line of trees in the distance and... Was that more people?

I started a quick walk towards the figures, definitely human. (Opposed to what, mutated cows? I think the hunger is getting to me.) They weren't too far, and it looked like they had seen me too because one was walking towards me.

A boy about a foot taller than me (I had never considered myself short- Don't make me start now!) looking quite stuck up, with a disdained expression on his face, stopped in front of me.

"Who are you?" He said, sounding a snobbish as he looked.

"Kayla." I scrunched my nose- as well as looking stuck up, he also looked foreign. "Who are you?"

"Andrew Crae. From Japan. My father is the owner of Crae industries."

It sounded familiar. "Isn't that, like, a toilet manufacturer or something?"

He looked honestly offended. "No, it's the biggest international phone company!"

Oh yeahhhhhh... I think my phone was from them, but I didn't use it too often. Ann would know more about this stuff then I did. I ran a hand through my hair, wishing Sim and Mark would get back.

"Who's that with you?" I said after a moment of awkward silence, with him staring down his nose at me, looking all judgemental.

"Jess. She's quite annoying, so you're welcome to take her with you." Andrew replied.

I gave him a glare in return. "She's not something you can just give away, Mr. Snob. Then again, I don't know why she'd ever want to stay with you."

"Maybe it's because I have shelter and food." He said smugly.

I gaped at him, impressed. "How'd you get that?"

"My father."

I frowned. Wasn't that against the point of the Journey? You were supposed to find your own way, not take stuff from your parents. Then again, the trio of Sim, Mark, and I wouldn't have made any progress at all without the hacker giving us a stream. And we still didn't have food and shelter.

"I'll give you some food... For a price." Andrew offered, smirking.

"What makes you think I'd take anything from you?"

"You look like you need it." I was gaping again, for a different reason this time. My hands balled up into fists at my side, and I desperately wished that someone would show up to intervene before I punched him and got myself totally screwed with some toilet- or phone, whatever- company manager who probably had a lot of money and-

My panicked, angry thoughts were cut off as my wishes were answered by a short girl holding a flower crown.

"Nice to meet you!" She said with a thick British accent. If Sim arrived, we'd be representing quite a bit of the world.

"You too. You seem much more pleasant than this idiot over here." I answered with a grin.

Before Andrew could say anything, the girl popped the flower crown on his head. "Don't be mean!"

I stifled a laugh as he looked at her, outraged, but making no move to take the flower crown of his head. She smiled smugly at him and turned back to me. "I'm Jess."

"I'm Kayla. Kayla Wilston." I said, attempting to sound cool (and failing).

"You sound like that guy from the old movies." She giggled. I smiled, but inwardly groaned at the mention of movies. Ann talked about being an actress sometimes at home, but that was a stupid sort of job to want nowadays. No one really watched new movies anymore, with the old and cliche plots, so they stopped making more, though she claimed that she would be so good that they'd have to make a movie about her.

Andrew pulled the flower crown off his head and threw it at me, which snapped me out of my thoughts. He gave a cold look to the both of us before stomping back in the direction he came from.

"What's got him so angry?" I asked, picking up the flower crown after having failed to catch it.

"I think he just doesn't like it when people stop paying attention to him. But it might be something else, because he gets mad when I mention movies, which I guess I do quite often."

"I suppose you want to be an actress?" I said with raised eyebrows.

"Nope." She smiled, her eyes getting a dreamy look. "I want to be a scriptwriter. I want to make new movies that people want to watch and to inspire people."

I smiled at her. It wasn't often you saw someone with such nice goals. Even I didn't know what I wanted to do when I got older. (If I didn't die of starvation here first.)

"Hey! Kayla!" I spun around to see Sim jumping across the stream and running to me, with Mark trailing behind, arms full of sticks.

"Look what we found!" She said, revealing a handful of blueberries.

I grinned. "Finally, something we know is safe!" I said. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of blueberries, I could still tolerate them. They were better than raspberries- those I hated with a passion, mostly because my mother always wanted me to eat them. Didn't she understand how gross those little seeds in them were?!

Enough with the mental rant. "Did you guys have some already?"

"Yeah, we found plenty in the woods." Mark said as Sim poured the majority of the berries into my hands. "Who's this?" He asked, gesturing to Jess.

"Oh, I'm Jess! Nice to meet you!" She said, sounding even more excited to meet them than Sim was about blueberries.

"Would you like some?" Sim asked, offering out what remained in her hands.

"Yes... But you do know you should wash them first, right? I used to go berry picking all the time in Wales, which is the country I'm from, and once my little brother got all queasy because he ate the berries right off the bush. I mean, not all berries are going to make you queasy, but just as a precaution it's best to wash them." She rambled. Berry picking sounded like a fun thing to do- This was one of the times I wished I didn't live such a closed off, sheltered life in Aden.

"Oh!" Sim looked shocked and just slightly scared. "You sure know a lot more than me."

"Hopefully we don't get sick." Mark commented as we moved back towards the stream, Jess easily fitting in after having just met us.

"Oh, I'm sure it won't be that bad." Jess said. She must have noticed Sim's slight panic- She was more perceptive than I would have thought of a bubbly, excitable girl like her. Then again, I'd just met her. I don't think I could make a real image of her just yet.

"So, were you travelling alone?" Sim asked as we washed the berries. I had a newfound respect for blueberries after shoving them into my mouth, not hesitating like I usually did when it came to fruit. I was more of a chocolate fan- though I was still somehow pretty average in terms of weight.

"Nope. Kayla met my friend, Andrew." Jess replied.

"I wouldn't exactly call him your friend..." I said, remembering his reaction to the flower crown.

"Oh, no, he was much nicer when he was sharing his tent with me. Maybe because he didn't know how to put it up by himself." She giggled.

Mark and Sim looked as surprised as I had. "He has a tent?" Mark asked dubiously.

"And food, because he's the privilege bratty son of the owner of Crae industries." I put in before Jess could answer.

"The phone company?"

"Well, it isn't a toilet company, as I learned." Surprisingly, the other three didn't question this, laughing instead.

"So, think he'd let us borrow the tent?" Sim asked. "We could share with him."

Jess shook her head before I could blurt out my definite no. "It's not to big. Also, he isn't really a people fan."

"How could you not like me? I'm fabulous." Sim said, doing an over exaggerated hair flip.

I laughed. "Sureeeeeee..."

A casual, joking conversation ensued- It reminded me of talking with Danielle, spending long days sitting in the park, or exchanging notes during class. I wished she was here- Not just because she was my friend, but because I needed her help with the whole hacker thing too.

Maybe I should just enjoy being here with my new friends for now. I could worry about that stuff later.

'Your time is running out, Kayla.'

A/N- Ooh, what will happen next? =3 Even though this isn't much for a cliff hanger, I still feel really evil.