"Keep walking, guys," Charlie urges. "Fast as you can. Can't risk hanging around, not with those flyers around."

"Those flyers offering an award for us alive or dead, you mean?" Lawrence scowls as he limps along. That ankle's still bothering him, but he doesn't want to keep using me to help him along. For a while he wound up his old pocket watch as a way to distract him from the pain. "Funnily enough, I hadn't forgotten about them."

I would laugh at his sarcasm if the situation wasn't so grim.

"The Burn can't have spread them over the whole of Scotland," She reasons. "If you get far enough, you should get out of range of anyone who's read them."

He nods, still looking concerned. "Well, I mean, I just-" He sighs in frustration, "Well, I mean it's good that we're worth more alive than dead, right?"

"It's because these boxes will turn off if we die," I reply, and he nods again.

"Well, yeah, I know that. But I mean it's good in a way, because like it-it someone finds us, they're gonna be paid half a million pounds. That's a lot. How did they get that money? But like a half a million pounds each to keep us alive-in a way, everyone in Scotland would want to keep us alive."

"But they would still be getting a quarter of a million pounds for us dead," I point out, and guilt stabs at me when Lawrence's face drops. Pointing out the bad was something I'd gotten mad at Stanton for a few days ago, and here I am doing the same thing. I push on. "It's best to hope that we're not found by anyone. That faster we get away from those flyers and somewhere safe, the faster we can rest that ankle."

"Even if you can't get beyond their range, the next snowfall will probably cover the flyers anyway," Charlie states. "They'll wash away, turn to mush. In four days' time, no one will be able to read a single one."

My stomach twists. Everything that's happened so far has only happened in nine days, so who can tell what can happen in four.

We keep moving, slower than I'd like because of Lawrence's ankle, although I don't blame Lawrence. If Charlie had actually done our job and warned us, we wouldn't have tumbled down that slope in the first place. Still, Lawrence's involuntary lagging makes me anxious, that ever worrying feelings that something is coming, and we've got to move faster to ensure safety.

And then Charlie speaks.

"Uh, guys, I really don't want to alarm you, but I think-"

"What?" Lawrence lets a sarcastic laugh. "Is someone offering the crown jewels and a date with Minnie Driver in return for turning us in now?"

I send him a weird look. Isn't Minnie Driver like fifty?

"Don't look at me like that." He frowns, and I raise my hands up in surrender. "I happen to like Minnie Driver, okay? Also, her names sounds like a declaration of the car she prefers, which I think is attractive in a woman."

"I'll be sure to take note of that," I murmur, and he raises a brow.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Guys," Charlie interjects, sounding agitated, "there are two men following you, five o'clock and seven o'clock. Not the Burn. At least, not in uniform. Something else..."

I get a bad feeling as she says that, so I pick up the pace. Lawrence tries to keep up as best he can, but he's always a few steps behind. I finally stop and wrap my hand around his waist, cutting him off before he has time to protest.

"We need to keep moving, and you leaning against me will help you go faster." I smile softly. "I don't mind."

He doesn't say anything for a second, but then he clears his throat. "Uh, yeah. Thanks."

Satisfied with that answer, we keep moving along. Silence fills the air soon after, a bit heavier than I would like, but I have no words that could break it bring ease to the three of us. All of this is tense, worrisome. Just because they aren't wearing Burn uniforms doesn't mean they aren't Burn.

How do they keep finding us? We've been pretty well in hiding, or at least, we've tried to be. You'd think that blizzard would have put them off our trail for at least a day. What do they know that we don't?

Snow crunches under our feet, and I lick my painfully chapped lips. Something is picked up off the ground by a gust of wind, the paper flying through the air and landing smack onto my chest. I grab it with my free arm, surprised it's not another flyer talking about us.

The Great Blackout: What We Know

In the wake of the incident that has caused a massive failure of telephone and internet service, many theories have been raised about precisely what is going on and whether there are further dangers. Here are the facts as we know them.

1. The Blackout was caused by an 'electromagnetic pulse,' often associated with nuclear bombs. However, relief officials say there is no danger from radiation.

2. The affected area is roughly 400 kilometers in diameter and centered on Inverness.

3. The effect has entirely destroyed most power plants, transformers, switching stations, and substation. The recover effect will require essentially rebuilding the whole power distribution and telephone networks. Unfortunately, this could take several months.

4. Until them, relief efforts are often disturbing supplies via airdrop. If you feel you may have trouble surviving even with dropped supplies, please make your way to a relief center. A list of locations follow on page A4.

I frown. So much damage just because of these little boxes. Charlie says the data on the Burn are on these boxes, but just what information on here is so important that they would do this much damage, destroy so much?

"It doesn't look like they have guns, does it?" Lawrence asks, and I drop the paper, letting it fall back into the snow.

"Can't see any, no," Charlie replies. "They're in... I guess I'd call it all weather gear. Waterproof jackets, walking boots."

Lawrence hums. "They're probably hikers. This is gonna be that thing with the bird watchers again. They're just ordinary hikers on a lovely stroll."

She clicks her tongue, not seeming convinces. "Could be. I'm pretty sure one of them... has one of those purple flyers in his pocket though. Just... look, they're flanking you to the west. Just head east, along that narrow path there."

We start to do as she said, but then pause a few seconds in. The path leading upwards around the cliff is blocked by a rockfall.

"You can walk around the edge of it," She says when we tell her just that. "There's a clear space strewn around the bracken there. Probably a lot of people have walked that way."

He looks at me, as if silently asking if we should argue it, but a just shrug. A sigh leaves his lips. "Just to be on the safe side?"

"Just to be on the safe side," She says, and I slowly start to move around the edge of the path. Lawrence follows, his hand in mine to ensure he doesn't slip. I can see the discomfort on his face as he has to place more pressure on his ankle. I wish I could tell him we'd be able to rest soon, but that would probably be a lie.

I keep my eyes on him, only half listening to Charlie's words of encouragement as we continue to move around the edge.

We nearly make it around the rockfall and back onto the clear path, but when I take another step back, I find no ground.

A scream tears itself from my mouth as I fall backwards, and Lawrence scrambles to keep hold and pull me, but his fingers slip from my grasp.

"Walker!" He shouts, and my back hits the hard ground moments later. I look up, all sides surrounded my dirt and snow.

"What?" Charlie shouts. "Walker, are you okay?!"

I grunt as I sit up. "I'm fine. Just feel down a hole. Lawrence, you were looking ahead. Why didn't you warn me?"

"I-I'm sorry!" He stammers. "I didn't see it. It-it was covered by leaves and snow. " He gets on his knees and holds his hand out. "Here. Grab my hand and I'll pull you up."

I take his hand, and with a grunt he pulls me up, grabbing my arm with his other one. He gets me mostly out and I start using what little arm strength to push myself up and swing my leg to pull me out.

"Come on," Lawrence says. "We need to get you out and get away before whoever laid this devious trap..."

He trails off, and I look over my shoulder to find two men staring right at us, both of them having rifles.

"Stop right there," One of the men says. "We've got you covered."

Lawrence swallows thickly. "Oh. So, they did have guns after all."

"Get up, slowly," One of them says. He's about Lawrence's height, blonde hair, brown eyes. He looks a bit awkward holding that rifle, as if he's not used to it. He looks at me. "You, take that gun off your back. And if you make any odd moves, I'll shoot you where you stand."

"Okay, okay," I say with a nod, taking off my rifle that I have strapped to me. I'm sure they would have taken Lawrence's too, if the Burn hadn't already.

"Now hand it to my friend," He says, and I had it over to the other man. He's much shorter than the blonde, just a few inches taller than me, with dark skin and green eyes. He smirks as he takes the gun from me, but he doesn't say anything. "Now, put your hands behind your heads, and walk forward."

Lawrence and I do as we're told, and I wonder if they can hear how fast my heart is beating.

"Keep going, and don't try to run," The green-eyed one says. "I have to say, they really made it easy for us, didn't they, Giles?"

The blonde, or Giles, chuckles arrogantly. "I can't quite believe they fell for it, Magnus."

Lawrence scowls. "Nor can we. We thought we had better intel than this. We thought someone was watching out for us."

Magnus clicks his tongue. "Can't rely on religion, old boy. God helps those who help themselves."

"And we're about to help ourselves to a cool half million in reward money," Giles states. "Who said the profit motif doesn't work? Greed really is good. That's the credo at McKenzie DeVincent."

Lawrence's eyes widen in realization. "Oh. You're bankers. Well, that... that makes it worse, actually."

I yelp when Magnus nudges my back with his rifle. "Come on, you two. Pick up the pace. We'll collect the others and then we'll start off the rendezvous for Aberfeldy. I wonder if they'll pay us half a mil for each of you."

"I don't see why not," Giles replies. "We have all the power here, all the bargaining chips. That's the kind of negotiation I like."

"And we're helping out the country. We'll be heroes for a change. No one will complain about our bonuses now. Just what kind of terrorist scum are you anyway? Anarchists? Animal lovers? Socialists?"

I gasp in offense. I can only imagine what anyone from home would think about me being called such a thing.

"We're-" Lawrence sighs. "Look. None of this situation is what you think it is. Really, really it isn't."

I look over my shoulder to see Giles rolling his eyes. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure what they all say."

Up ahead there is a tent, and when we reach it, Magnus steps ahead and shoots us a warning look. "Don't move. We'll get the others, take down the ten, and be on our way."

I frown. "Others?"

He smirks at me, and the unzips the tent opening. Inside are three people, all tied up.

"Hello, Lawrence. Hello, Walker," Paul sighs.

Emma forces a smile. "It's nice to see you both again."

"I rather wish it were in better circumstances," Stanton adds.

•

"Come along," Giles says in a sing-song voice. "No loitering back there. Only ten miles to Aberfeldy. We can cover that easily today, have you all delivered into the hands of the authorities by suppertime."

"Super time, more like," Magnus says, and they both laugh.

I don't get it.

"Seriously?" Lawrence scrunches up his nose. "That's what you call a joke?"

Stanton shoots him a look. "Don't antagonize them."

"Why not?" Emma whispers. "Why not just antagonize them? We're captured, arms tied behind our backs marching to meet with people who probably want to torture us, and probably kill us. Why shouldn't we antagonize the stupid, posh bankers who somehow managed to capture all of us?"

"We want them to feel relaxed; no threat at all," Paul replies, and Lawrence tsks.

"That'll be easy, because we are no blooming threat at all. How did you lot-how did you lot managed to get captured too? Why didn't..." He lowers his voice even more. "Why didn't Charlie warn us you'd been captured."

We both go silent, waiting for her to answer since thankfully the bankers haven't noticed anything odd about three of us wearing similar earpieces. She answers after about five seconds of silence.

"I didn't want to worry you and Walker. I just wanted to get you away, then work out a rescue plan."

I scowl. "Oh, so you'll tell me when you think Lawrence is dead but won't tell us when the others are alive and captured? What kind of logic is that? And look how well your plan turned out to be."

She doesn't say anything, and if I wasn't so angry, I would feel bad. But she kept this from us, and it might have helped us stay more alert. I would have at least had my gun ready.

"We'll find a way out of this," Stanton states. "Don't worry. There's always a way if you look for it."

"Stop talking there!" Magnus barks. "We know your little game."

Lawrence gives Stanton a raised brow. "Oh, yeah. And what exactly is the way out of here?"

"That's what I have to work out."

That's not exactly an assuring statement, but I keep my lips sealed. I look around at the others, and they all seem tired, drained. Stanton is thinking, trying to come up with some kind of plan. Magnus and Giles keep looking back at us, looking more than willing to pull the trigger on those guns if need be.

It obvious though that this isn't what they're used to, which I guess is expected from bankers. Lawrence's face is twisted with anger, although I can't tell if that anger is at Charlie or the bankers. It's possibly both, but if Charlie had warned us, this wouldn't have happened.

Same as if she had warned us about the steep slope. She's slipping up, making mistakes when she's supposed to keep us safe. She doesn't have any malice intentions, but that doesn't make this okay. She's our eyes! None of us were trained for this, meant for this. Stanton is the only one with experience in this kind of thing, but I don't even think military training prepared her for this.

I wish I'd listened more to my dad as a kid. He'd know what to do.

I shake the thoughts out of my head as I turn to Paul. He's paler than normal, taking in slow, even breaths, as if he's trying to focus on them instead-

"Are you okay?" I ask softly, and he looks at me. Something swirls in his blue eyes, and he looks like he wants to say something, but he just forces a strained smile and nods. I chew on the inside of my cheek. It's obvious he's lying.

I look ahead again, glancing over at him every minute or so. Either he doesn't notice, or he pretends not to.

We keep walking, with only Magnus and Giles talking about numbers and money and all the boring business things that make my glad I decided to get my degree in kinesiology. Although, it might be their arrogant attitude that annoys me more than the actual subject of their conversation.

I'm not the only one that is getting tired of their talking. Emma is glaring holes right into the back of Giles's head, and Lawrence is sending both of them nasty looks that are only broken by grimaces of pain.

I glance down as his ankle. It's covered by his pant leg, but I can tell by comparison to his other one that it's still badly swollen. He's hiding his grimaces better than Paul is, who's looking worse and worse by the minute.

And yet he still doesn't say a word.

That is, until Emma stumbles, falling to her knees into the cold snow.

"Emma," He looks at her in concern, whereas Giles and Magnus both turn around to see the commotion.

Magnus rolls his eyes as Emma shifts and tries to stand. "Come on. Hurry up. Haven't got all day. Scramble up on your hands and knees if you hand to."

"My hands are tied behind my back," She spats, but she manages to get back up to her feet. She sends him a nasty glare.

"Charming people, these bankers," Lawrence says, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Honestly, I don't know why everyone is so mean about them. They're definitely not as bad as everyone says."

Neither Magnus nor Giles seem amused by his words, but their eyes slide from Lawrence to Paul, whose head is hung low, as if he doesn't want us seeing his face.

"I just need a hand to..." He starts, sounding out of breath. But then he sucks in a sharp breath and lets out a scream before falling into the snow.

"Paul!" Emma shrieks, bottle green eyes going wide. "What is it? What's wrong?"

He stays on his knees, gritting his teeth in pain. "It's my arm. I didn't want to say anything, but it's been getting hot and painful as we've walked."

Stanton's sigh isn't reassuring. "It's probably infected. There's no antibiotics in the med packs we're carry. Let's get the jacket off and we'll take a look."

"There's no time to stop," Giles starts to argue, but Emma sends him another glare.

"You do realize that you're losin' a quarter of a million pounds if Paul dies, don't you?"

"I thought that was just for the people carrying the devices."

"Could be that they're right," Magnus say. "It's a lot of money."

The two look at each other for a moment, before Magnus goes and unties Paul's arms so he can get the jacket off. He then unties Stanton, but not before giving her a firm warning to not try anything.

"If you try anything, we'll shoot you." He glances at Paul. "Or better yet, we'll shoot him in his uninjured arm."

I gasp. "What is wrong with you?!"

He scoffs. "Asks the terrorist."

"I'm not a-"

"Doesn't matter." He unties Emma's hands as well but leaves Lawrence and me bound. "I think two should be enough to help him. You can examine it as you walk, slowly if you must, but we must keep moving."

Emma looks like she wants to choke him, but instead walks over to Paul. Stanton does the same. We all start moving again, and Magnus and Giles both keep their tight grips on their guns. They keep looking back at us to make sure we aren't doing anything, only pausing in their suspicious glancing when they find a letter in the ground.

"Is this one of yours?" Giles asks, and I step and read the letter, scribbled rather messily, as if the writer was hurried.

Darren,
Bad luck with the old woman. We have to get out of town. Leave before we're all caught and strung up. They're going to work out it was us eventually. Sneak out through the south tonight and meet us under the bridge... if we don't see you by dawn, we'll go out on our own.

Good luck... see ya on the flip side,
Isabel.

"Sorry to disappoint, but no," I reply. "No one in our group has those names or knows someone with them."

He quirks a brow at me. "And what exactly is your name?"

"Walker."

He scoffs. "Right."

"It is," I lie. "Like Walker: Texas Ranger."

He rolls his eyes at me. "You Americans think the world revolves around you, you know. Why on earth would I know whatever that is?"

"Because any civilized person would," I reply.

"You little..." He's cut off when Paul screams as Stanton pulls his jacket down his arm. I look back to see him nearly collapsed against Emma.

"Sorry, sorry," He says when Giles sends him a glare. "I just-it hurts."

Magnus rolls his eyes. "Good Lord. Do we really need the theatrics? Can't you just be a man about it? You didn't see me making that kind of fuss when the bottom dropped out of the lithium market."

"Lost the company fifty mil on that one," Giles states.

"Don't remind me."

"We've got to get the jacket off so we can look at the wound," Emma states harshly, although it changes completely when she addresses Paul. "Do you want to hold my hand? Squeeze as hard as you like while we pull this final layer off."

Stanton rips at the fabric of his long-sleeved shirt, and I can see Paul's neck tense as he tries to keep from crying out. Finally, he lets out a breath.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I..." He looks at his arm. "Oh. That's not good news, is it?"

Stanton lets out a deep breath as she looks at the wound, the skin around it red and swollen. There's an abscess from pus buildup. "Oh, it is definitely infected."

Giles nearly gags. "I can't look at it. It's all... yellow and red and green. Oh, for goodness' sake, cover it back up again."

Lawrence scowls at him. "We can't just cover it up. It needs treatment."

Magnus smiles at him sarcastically, all teeth. Teeth that I want to knock out, which is uncharacteristically violent of me. "Well, we don't have any doctors of any medicine, so you'll just have to grin and bear it."

"You don't understand," Stanton stresses. "An infection like this, is blood poisoning sets in..."

"What?"

"He could be dead within hours."

A/N: Here you go guys. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Please be sure to vote and comment. Have a blessed day!