Birds chirp as the afternoon sun shines in the sky. It doesn't offer much warmth, only drying some of the mud around our feet. Tears sting my eyes, although it's due to exhaustion instead of dread. Each step is torturous, but there has been nowhere safe to set up camp to rest. So, as per Stanton's order, we've kept moving.

While I know it's because of the fact that I haven't slept in nearly thirty-five hours, the anger and resentment I feel towards the red-headed commander grows stronger with every second.

"It's okay, Paul," Lawrence murmurs as the man limps along, just as tired and spent as the rest of us. "Stanton and I have got you."

He nods, his face pained. It took us nearly an hour to get him from where he fell. Thankfully he just twisted his ankle, and after checking his shoulder, we were relieved to see his healing wound didn't reopen. He'll be okay, but lack of rest is getting to us.

"I can't-I can't walk much further," He grunts out in discomfort.

"What happened to you all last night?" Charlie asks through a speaker on our device so everyone can hear her. A sour chuckle passes my lips. I'm surprised she waited this long to ask, but I suspect she wanted us to focus on the traveling so we could find a safe place to rest.

"We were visited by the spirits," Emma states lowly, her bloodshot eyes wide open.

Stanton rolls her eyes. "We succumbed to hallucinations brought by stress and tiredness and suggestion by Emma."

"And by you, Charlie." Lawrence scowls and places his free hand on his hip. "I mean, why-why did you say, 'They're coming for you?' Why? I'm going to have to say that it-it-it wasn't really that helpful under the circumstances."

"I didn't!" She exclaims. "I didn't... say that. Oh, but something was interfering with my transmission. Waves of interference that did seem to be getting closer. I might have said 'They've coming towards you.'"

I rub my eyes, pouting a bit. "Well, that still was terrifying seeing that we didn't get the context. Please don't say that again. You're lucky I didn't spaz out."

Lawrence's eyes widen. "Oh, right. With your... uh, thing. Is that why you kept covering your ears?"

I nod. "'S better to block them out before since the suggestion could have led to worse things for me."

"I thought you had medication," Stanton says, and I sigh.

"Medication helps treat an illness, but it doesn't cure it. Outside factors can have an influence. Stress makes the meds not work as well, and last night... plus lack of sleep-" I cut off with a yawn.

"Did you take your medication today?"

"As soon as light came up," I reply. "But uh, Charlie, back to topic, please don't say anything like that again if we ever get into a situation like that. I didn't like it."

"I mean, I didn't know it was going to come out all distorted, did I?" She sputters, but her excuses of defense don't do much more than make me blink tiredly. I don't have the energy to fight with her on this, despite the fact that her words made things much worse for us last night.

Stanton points ahead at a barn. "There, two o'clock. Anyone around?"

"Scanning... nothing."

"We need rest. I'll see if there's a hayloft in there. Come on. We'll need somewhere to sleep."

"Oh, praise God," I mutter, and I think I hear a few words from Lawrence and Emma. I don't try to figure out what they might have said, focusing all my brainpower on making it to that barn that I'm sure is not as lovely as my mind is making it to be.

Stanton leaves Paul to Lawrence and heads towards the barn a few steps ahead of us, saying something about wanting to scout it out just in case. None of us wait for her to do so, instead just giving her the small bit of time that she gets there before us to look around. When we reach the barn, she points up to the hayloft, saying that it is an acceptable place for us to sleep, although we'll need to be careful with how rickety the ladder up to it is.

Whether she says anything more is a mystery to me as I scramble up the ladder. At this point I've abandoned most of my care for modesty as I peel off my mud-crusted clothing and put on the first change of clean clothing I find in my bag. After shoving the dirty clothing into one of the zipper pockets, I grab two blankets, one to lay on top of the hay bales that are up here, since I would rather not twist and turn in discomfort due to hay poking me, and one to cover myself up with.

I pay no attention to the others as I lay down, using my arm as a pillow and letting sleep overtake me as soon as I close my eyes.

I dream the dreams I've had before, of me in another life. I have a different name, but most people call me by Five here. I recognize these dreams, this world my mind made up. It's the one I visit most in my dreams. The end of the world has happened, and I'm trying to survive it all.

It's odd, these dreams. I do things that I would never do, yet it feels like I am the one making the decisions, even though it's not one I would make in a million years. This version of me is one I envy and pity. This version of me is brave, strong, and she has a love so deep for her friends and family it hurts. She's survived things I never could. I don't know why my mind would make such horrors, why my subconscious would put a version of me through them, but she's survived them, despite the pain and the loss it brought. I envy her strength.

But I also pity her, hate her even. She makes such horrible decisions, even when she means well. She hurts the people she loves, lies to them, keeps secrets from them. She lets her fear take hold of her and lets it influence her. Her decisions have even indirectly caused the deaths of people she cared for so much.

She is not a bad person, but I don't really know if she is a good one either.

Not that those around her are any better. This version of me is blinded by her own biases, but somehow, I am not. I can see flaws in the people she loves to a fault, as well as advantages to the people she hates with a passion. I can feel her emotions as if they are my own, but they are still somehow detached from me. I'm glad, I think.

I've had dreams before of her, how she felt when she first saw her sister when she came back after betraying her, stealing her voice. I remember that burning anger. If I'd felt those emotions fully, I don't think I'd ever want to sleep again.

But I'm dreaming of her now, of her desperately trying to save her dying leader who's been infected with a technological virus. She nearly lost her sister, nearly lost her own life, and she lost a close friend...

The scream she, I, give when we're out of danger, when we reach safety and finally realize what's just happened, who we've lost and how it is all our fault.... It's gut-wrenching.

Despite the ache in my bones from exhaustion, I'm grateful Charlie wakes me up by calling for me.

"Walker! Walker!" She hisses, and I blink blearily, not wanting to leave the warmth that swathes me. "Stir yourself. You have to get up. Quietly. Paul needs his rest. Stanton and Emma too. They're at the end of their reserves, but you're not quite so exhausted. A few beans left in you yet."

I give her nothing more than a yawn as I thrown my blanket off and reach for my socks and shoes. Charlie scolds me as I take a second longer than needed to fold up my blankets and put them in my backpack, but I simply roll my eyes and put on my jacket and backpack before climbing down the rickety ladder that's nearly rotted through.

"Honestly, getting you and Lawrence to go anywhere is like herding elephants," She huffs when I let out a grunt at hitting the ground.

At the sound of his name, the dark-haired man turns to me, giving me a weary smile. He doesn't look nearly as bad as before though, the circles under his eyes seeming to be a slightly lighter shade of purple than before we went to bed.

"She's roped you in too, has she? And she had me feeling all special," He yawns. "Come on. Might as well get outside now that we're up."

He opens the door, and to my surprise, it's light outside, with birds chirping and flying about. I blink rapidly. Did we sleep all the way into the next day?

I suppose it would make sense, seeing how long we went without sleep, and Lawrence is quick to confirm my suspicions.

"So, what's this about, Charlie? Do you just like getting us out of beds at the crack of dawn, you... kinky thing, you?" He cringes, seeming to already regret his words, but Charlie ignores it.

"It's nothing. Or it's nothing definite. Just a feeling. I'd like you to take a look around, see what you can find."

I frown as I fish my medicine out of my bag, popping a pill into my mouth and swallowing it dry It's a little unpleasant, so my voice is scratchy when I ask, "But you're not picking up anything on the satellite?"

"Not a sausage. No other people for miles," She replies, which makes both Lawrence and I scowl.

"So, no actual reason to worry?" He clicks hi. "Or, dare I mention it, drag us out of our beds?"

"Just... do a quick circle of the area for me? I can't explain it, but something doesn't feel right."

Huffing in indignation, I start walking. The faster we get this done, the faster Lawrence and I get back to bed. Even though we probably slept a good ten hours, I feel like I could use another five or six to be ready to start walking again. Small embers of pain still shoot up my feet and legs, a reminder of the strenuous effort it took to get this far.

Today is the two-week mark, and I wonder just how much longer I can do this. It feels like this all started ages ago. I fiddle with the ends of my hair, the ends looking rather frayed since I haven't been able to probably take care of it. I liked how pretty my ombre hair looked, the natural brown slowly fading to a bright blonde, but without the ability of styling tools, it looks rather rough.

Same with my clothing. I know this is a life-or-death situation, but I rather do miss my pretty pink and white dresses that my makeup and nails usually match. I sigh. There is no time for aesthetics when it comes to survival, I suppose.

I knew that already though from my dreams. The version of me who I normally see, Runner Five, has no sense of style or fashion and has no desire to learn. It's a bit embarrassing, really, that even in my subconscious I would think about wearing some of the outfits she wears.

I look down when I step on a piece of paper. I find myself doing that a lot. It's some old newspaper, probably tossed and thrown away. It's got the title, "EnerWave Struggles to Keep Its Head Above Water." The only reason I pay it any mind at all is because EnerWave was the company that those two bankers invested in, I think.

But then I start reading.

"Startup venture EnerWave announced today that it would under major reconstructing, including the removal of CEO Fiona Willoughby..."

I blink. Fiona?

It can't... It can't have been the same Fiona that-

"It's actually quite nice," Lawrence hums, bringing my attention back to him. I drop the newspaper, not wanting to read anymore, not wanting to know anymore. "This whole, 'getting up with the lark' lark. In fact, I think that might actually be a lark, sitting on that branch there."

I smirk at him. "You gonna shoot it, or is that just for the endangered species?"

He turns red at my jab. "S-shut up." He points at a spider's web a second later, noting how the dew drops look like tiny crystals. "It's so pretty. But I can't see a single thing worth worrying about, unless you're afraid of spiders, which, frankly, I am."

"No, I can't see anything," Charlie says, but her tone drips with worry. My brows furrow. "Not a thing."

"That's good, isn't it?" I ask.

"No, you don't understand. I can't see anything. Including you! I don't know how, but someone's messing with the satellite feed. Whichever image I'm seeing isn't current. It could be days old, which means-"

"There could be a whole bunch of soldiers marching towards us, and we'd never see them-" I'm cut off when Lawrence claps his hand over my mouth, wraps his other arm around my waist and dives into a hedge. His eyes are wide, and he's gone pale, and faintly I can hear the sound of footsteps nearby.

"Charlie, you have to warn the others," He says, and what Charlie says in reply makes my blood run cold.

"It's too late! This is the feed from Emma's mic."

There's a second of static before a voice comes in. I can't quick hear what the soldier says, but I do hear the words, "Thirty" and "We'll stay on them."

My breath hitches. Do they already know where Lawrence and I are?

"Emma," Stanton whispers. "Emma, wake up."

"What?" Emma moans groggily. "What is it?"

She shushes her. "Keep it down. We've woken up in the hornets' nest."

"We've what?" Paul asks, confused.

"Take a look into the cracked in the planks."

There's a second of silence before Paul says, "Oh, that's not good."

"Not I know someone's been monkeying with the satellite link." Charlie groans in frustration. "I've gone via a different feed; I've got eyes again. Looks like soldiers decided to use this barn as a base. Emma, Stanton and Paul are trapped up there."

I swallow hard and remove Lawrence's hand from my mouth. "And what about us?"

"There are people everywhere. But I can see them now. Keep moving. I'll guide you out and... I'll think of something. Just keep moving."

•

My shoulders are tense, my breath caught in my throat as I sneak along the hedge with Lawrence. A soldier shouts something, and the sound of footsteps get increasingly louder. Lawrence and I crouch down, frozen stiff as a few people march by, weapons in hand.

Lawrence only speaks once they are gone, his voice shaking with nervousness. "That was too close. We can't go on doing in and out of hedges, Charlie. Apart from the fact that my bottom looks like a pincushion, we're bound to be caught eventually."

"I'd rather that eventually be as late as possible, if it's all the same to you," She answers with a bite in her voice.

"Are we even sure we need to avoid these guys? I mean, I know Stanton will be in trouble if the army catches up with her, what with the whole "dereliction of duty' thing, but they might actually be able to help us."

"But the army's been infiltrated. We know that someone gave the order to blow up the helicopter with Jo inside it, and I'm not sure... I'm not positive these people are the army."

I frown. They are wearing some kind of uniform, but it doesn't match the ones we saw Burn members wearing. It doesn't match military uniforms, either.

"Can Emma and the others find out?" I whisper, my words barely audible. "They are sitting right on top of them."

Charlie hums. "Hold on. I'll patch you in again. It will be easier than to just tell you what I'm hearing."

Static comes through for a quick seconds before I hear the voices of those in the barn. A male soldier is speaking.

"We're quartering the area, sir. We've found evidence that they walked around the house two days ago. Our electronic bafflers were in operation. We think they'll be confused, hungry, and frightened."

The voice that answers makes my blood run cold.

"Very well done," Adebayo says gruffly. "We'll catch them this time. Prepare to move out."

Charlie cuts the transmission, and I look over to Lawrence, mouth agape. The poor man has gone as pale as a sheet.

"It's Adebayo."

I nod, my chest suddenly feeling tight. He might not know Charlie's strategies, but he'll anticipate anything that Stanton might try to do. I want to smack myself for being so stupid as to have forgotten about him, about the threat that he is to us.

But we can't stay here, so we start moving again. We can't exactly run too far away, since there are soldiers everywhere and as soon as they decide to leave the barn and head out, chances are they'll become an obstacle between the others and Lawrence and me.

Not to mention neither of us are very stealthy. I am better on my feet than Lawrence, but I wouldn't believe that's enough to keep the both of us from being heard. I think the only reason we haven't been heard is because of the sounds of the soldiers moving and the animals that are in pens a little ways off from the barn.

If we tried to run off, even if it were just to save ourselves, chances are we would get caught and the Burn would do who-knows-what to us. They may need us alive to use these devices, but we've already discussed how easily they could torture us without killing us if they so pleased.

And after the trouble we caused them, it wouldn't surprise me if that was what they decided to do.

Bitter bile rises in my throat, and I do my best to swallow it down. It burns just as bad on the way down.

We stay hidden, watching people walk by with bated breath as the come and go, searching but not finding anything.

"Well, good news is the soldiers are starting to move out of the barn," Lawrence murmurs, watching as more groups start to leave than go in. "So that means Charlie should be able to get Emma and the others out fairly soon."

I nod. "Yeah, but the bad news is this definitely isn't the army. It's the Burn, and it's being led by Adebayo, who knows Stanton extremely well and will anticipate her tactics and may be able to guess if Charlie has anything planned."

Charlie sighs. "That's about the long and the short of it."

"On balance, I would have to say it's more bad news than good news..." My breath hitches as the pigs squeal in their pen, oinking loudly at the Burn solder walking by it. She gives them no more than a disgusted glare before walking on. Thankfully, it keeps her from noticing us.

Charlie hums. "I think I've got an idea. That solider looks like she's important. I want you to follow her."

My jaw drops as Lawrence sputters out a reply. "Follow?! Aren't we supposed to be avoiding them?"

"It's not enough to know where they are. I need to know where they're going, and they've got hellishly good jamming on their transmissions," She replies smartly. "I can't listen in, but Stanton's told me Adebayo will want to leave a radio operator behind, out of any potential fire zone. And I think that soldier's the one. Just be careful and don't get too close. Stick to the cover of the trees by the roadside."

He makes a face of disbelief. "So, you want me and Walker to steak the radio from the radio operator without letting her know that we're doing it? Which she'd probably find quite easy to do since, as you may have noticed, she's got a radio!"

"Just keep after her," She sighs. "We'll think of something."

Lawrence looks like he wants to say something, but he holds his tongue, letting the irritation slowly drain from his face as we start moving. I almost suggest that he stay behind, and I go after the soldier, so that way there's less of a chance of getting caught because there's only one person making noise and if I do get caught, only one of the devices would be in the hands of the Burn.

I don't though, simply because I know I probably would get caught. I mean, I could try to sneakily take her radio, but I'm not exactly a master pickpocket. And while I'm handy with a rifle, apparently, I don't know if I'm good at anything else. And Lawrence and I were so stupid as to not grab any weapons before we left the barn, so that wouldn't help much anyway.

We keep following the soldier, silently following as she makes her patrol and eventually walks back to the barn. There are no more surrounding soldiers, all of them having appeared to have moved out, which is both good and bad. Good because we don't have to worry (as much) about them spotting us now; bad because we will have to worry about them spotting us as we move out and try to get away, because they probably will be spread out as much as they possibly can.

A cow moos in the distance, the sound almost amusing in this situation.

"Okay, while you were following her, the others were able to make it out of the barn, but they'll need our help to make it past the patrols," Charlie states. "It's up to your guys, and it's now or never."

Lawrence inhales shakily, sending me a wavering smile. "She really knows how to pile on the pressure, doesn't she?"

Adebayo's voice crackles to life in the soldier's radio, addressing one of the patrols. "Take the east sweep. Ratley, take positions in the stables and monitor transmissions."

She nods and heads into the barn. "Sir. Taking position now."

"Sector GH, clear?"

"Receiving loud and clear, sir."

"Lawrence, you cover the exit," Charlie instructs. "Walker, head inside after her. See that pitchfork? I'm not normally in favor of violence, but we really need to take her down quickly and quietly."

As I follow her into the barn, I lean down to grab the pitchfork, focusing on the feeling of the rough wooden handle under my fingertips as I inch behind her. I can hear my blood thrumming through my veins as I inch closer, closer, closer.

The soldier tenses, sensing my presence, but before she can turn around to see me, I swing. My pitchfork slams into the back of her head. Thankfully the sharp points miss her. Lucky for her, and I suppose me as well, since I don't want another life on my conscience, even if the people I've killed are bad guys.

The soldier lets out a grunt as she falls to the ground, and I raise the pitchfork again, ready to hit her once more, if necessary, but she doesn't move. A sigh of relief escapes my mouth as Charlie cheers.

"You got her! You can come in, Lawrence."

He does, his eyebrows rising when he sees the soldier face down on the floor. "Nicely down, Walker. You're a real pro." He pauses. "Now that I think about it, maybe you are a pro. It's not like we know anything about you."

I force a laugh, desperately wishing I could tell him the truth, but if I did, I would be telling Charlie the truth. And I can't do that.

"She got the job done. That's what matters," Charlie says. "And now..."

I bend down and take the radio from the unconscious Burn soldier along with another note that's in her hand. I frown when I read it.

"The Gerkan's aren't amenable. She says she's going to make one final go on them and if not, just use them for testing."

What?

The word "testing" leaves me with a disturbed feeling, one that creeps into my mind and brings up ideas I don't want to think about.

Needles and leather straps used to tie you to chairs flash before my mind, as well as the burning feeling of it rubbing against your skin as you try to get away. My chest flutters with anxiety as I hear my own screams. They sound almost like a memory instead of something of my own imagination.

"We're advancing on the church," Adebayo reports, turning my attention towards the radio. "Pier Company, where are you?"

"We've got a way to listen in on them," Lawrence finishes. "Time to collect the others and get the hell out of here."

A/N: Here you go, guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!