~Sage~

              I awoke to the slamming of doors and shouting outside of my door. I groggily sat up rubbing my eyes with my hands and then sat in my bed for a bit. Silence. Maybe it was just my imaginatio-

              "Jett take Kora out into the backyard! Now!" I heard Juniper scream in a panic. Nope, this wasn't my imagination, that's for sure. I didn't hesitate to jump up from my bed and swing open the door to the hall. I saw Juniper sprinting back and forth through the rooms with a backpack full of what looked like food and water. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me. "Oh thank god, you're awake. I was gonna wake you up when I had grabbed what I thought we needed, but this is even better." Her breaths were ragged and there was sweat beading down her forehead as she tried to explain. I put my hand on her shoulder,
"Hey, calm down. What's going on?" I questioned. I then heard a loud banging noise coming from the front door. Juniper's gaze flipped to the sudden noise, and I'm almost certain she swore under her breath. Without explanation she grabbed my arm and pulled me to the backyard. Jett and Kora were hiding behind the large oak tree shaking in a hug, and I heard faint shouting coming from back in the house.

               "C'mon guys, we're going to have to take the hard way out. We can't let them get to us." She whispered. What on earth is happening? I looked towards Juniper with worry etched across my face. She could sense I was confused to say the least. "The hunters Sage, they found us. We have to go now. But to get out of here, I need your help.

               And so she told us the plan, I'd blow a hole through the wooden fence with a blast of fire, and she'd protect us with a thick plant barrier. Once we tunnel our way through the main street we can run them off by splitting into two groups in the nearby alleys.It may not be a full-proof plan, but it's the best we've got as of now. I looked at Jett and hugged him quickly, as he'd be splitting up with Juniper, he could handle himself, he's a strong kid. I just need to watch over Kora, she's way too young to have to go through this. After I took one last look at the other two, I put Kora on my back and readied myself. I looked at Juniper and she nodded back at me. And the chaos began.

               Fire shot from my palms towards the fence and nearly obliterated the entire back side. A tunnel of thick vines with thorns sprouted from the ground covering us as we ran towards the alleyways. I could hear shooting from the outside of the vines, some bullets breaking through into the inside. How did I know? Well, that may be because one just hit my leg. Searing pain shot through my right calf, but I couldn't stop. If I stopped we'd be goners, so I willed myself to continue. I could tell Juniper was tiring, but she continued to keep the walls held tall. She's amazing.

                 We finally got to the end of the tunnel that split us into two alleys. I gave Jett and Juniper one last glance then started my sprint down the left alleyway, Kora still on my back gripping onto my hoodie for dear life. I heard the quick footsteps of the following hunters and glanced behind me. There seemed to be about four or five of them, and at the pace I was going, they'd be catching up sooner than I would've liked. My leg wasn't helping me much either, but in order to lose them, I'd have to make a wall separating us. This could either end really well, or really terribly, but it's not like I have a choice, I was getting close to the end of the alleyway anyways. I spotted a ladder leading to the top of the buildings and set Kora down on the ground.

                 "Kora," I looked her dead in the eyes, "I have no clue if this is going to work, so I need you to run to that ladder over there, and don't stop climbing, hide on the roof. Don't stop, not even if you see something happen to me. Jett and Juniper will find you if I can't get to you." Her eyes widened in disbelief, but we didn't have time, so I pushed her towards the ladder and turned to face the hunters. Okay, walls of fire, you've got this. The four hunters stopped to laugh at me.

                   "This is what's left of the famous Dayholts? You would've thought of something better than him." They all chuckled to themselves. I just grimaced, the pain in my leg throbbing. I held my hand out towards the group. C'mon just a single wall of fire will do. "I'm glad they died, they wouldn't want to see what a disgrace their son had become to their entire pathetic race." his voice dripped with so much malice and it set me off. What was supposed to be a simple wall, turned into four giant pillars of burning flames. I stumbled back in shock but then turned and started to sprint towards the ladders. That wasn't what I meant to do, but It definitely worked. I felt extremely weak, but I'm still alive, so it was worth it. I raced to the top of the buildings to see Juniper, Jett, and Kora, all safe. I breathed out a sigh of relief, everyone was okay. Jett had spotted me first and ran towards me, tears brimming around his eyes. Next to come was Kora,

                 "Sage! I thought you were hurt! Those mean guys were scary!" She whimpered. I hugged her in response.

                 "It's okay, they won't be coming for us anymore." I quickly checked for wounds on anyone, and for the most part, all anyone had, were a few scratches here and there. "Good, no one got hurt too badly either." I commented. Juniper pointed towards my leg.

                  "Yeah, no one except for you." I looked down at my leg again, the realization of the bullet hole, relit the pain in my leg. I dryly laughed to hide the pain.

                 "Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that." My brother gasped at the sight of the gaping hole in my leg and covered Kora's eyes. "I'll be alright guys, honestly, we just have to find a place to stay." Juniper nodded, moving closer to the edge of the building. Her eyes squinted, and she pointed towards an abandoned looking store not to far from our building. I looked closer at the store, and it looked promising. Couldn't be much worse than where we were before. So we climbed back down in the streets, not until making sure that the hunters from earlier were nowhere near. We casually made our way to the abandoned looking department store, or well, as casual as four kids, one bleeding from the leg, could look. When we reached it, I was shocked to see that the front door was unlocked. Man, what luck. As we looked around there were about fifty boxes, stacked five high scattered throughout the store, they must just have been starting to move out? We continued to check around the place, it was pretty spacey, for a run down department store, that is. It reminded me of one of those small drugstores that you found back in the olden days. I know we probably shouldn't have gone through the boxes, because they might hold personal items, but at this point, it was life or death. Those standards don't necessarily apply at this time. The food and water we had brought in the bag wouldn't last us forever. Juniper seemed to have had the same thought as me, as she started to open the boxes. Inside were a mix of things, old video tapes, and medication. So I was right, this must've been a pharmacy of some kind. This is pretty good news for me, considering the fact that my leg is a bit damaged. Jett shot up after looking through his box.

               "Sage! I found a first aid kit! We can fix your leg!" Juniper rushed over and opened the kit.

              "Perfect, there's tweezers here and everything, Jett, Kora, go check around for more stuff." She waved them off while she patched up my leg.

               It took way longer than I had thought it would, mostly because the bullet was still lodged in my leg, but for what we had, my leg was patched up pretty well. I tried standing after it was fixed, there was still pain, that's for sure, but the burning had died down a bit. My siblings had returned from their trip around the store, carrying small snacks that'd you could find at the gas station counter. Reese's, Hershey's, Gum, and a few other candies. It wasn't exactly the "food" we'd been looking for, but at least it was something. Kora looked down at my leg and frowned.

               "It's because of me isn't it." Her lip quivered and she looked about seconds away from crying. I rapidly shook my head and shuffled towards her, pulling her into a hug.

               "Oh no, no it was my fault. I wasn't careful enough, don't cry, Kora." Poor Kora, she must've been traumatized. I mean, this whole week has been pretty rough. It started with the house fire, now this. Everything seems like it's on a downward spiral that'll never stop spinning.

                I was in the midst of comforting Kora and I heard a noise coming from the back entrance of the store. Apparently I wasn't the only one to hear it. Juniper tensed up and started to walk towards the door. I grabbed onto her arm and shook my head, I should go first, I'm already injured, this way if they attack, they won't be bringing down someone else in the group. I gulped and stepped in front of her waiting in front of the door. I was startled when I heard the faint sound of keys rattling in the lock from the opposite side of the door. I didn't even have time to move out of the way of the door's entrance before the door opened. I didn't really see who was there as I frantically tried to explain why we were here. "Hey, so I know this is strange to see random people in your store but we really needed to just stop in for a-" Whack! I stumbled back holding my head, what even was that? A brick? I looked up to see a stern faced boy with blonde hair. "Dude, what the heck? I know that it's weird for us to be in here, but I mean, at least let us explain before you go slap-happy, hitting me with whatever that brick thing was." I remarked, just slightly annoyed. I faced him again, still rubbing my head, but standing my ground. He peeked around me to see my siblings and must've reconsidered. He silently nodded and motioned me to explain, so I did. I'll admit, he looked taken aback, but I mean, it was the truth, couldn't say that was a lie even if I had wanted to. A look of guilt crossed his face as he rubbed his neck in embarrassment.

               "Sorry about that, I think my mind just kind of went into an attack mode or something." His voice was so calm for a guy. Not too deep, not squeaky and annoying either. He held his hand out towards us with a smile. "I'm Finch, it's nice to meet you all."

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A/N OUch OuCH whY iS it StiLL GoiNG