Reality

Chapter 11

It's been 17 days since we left New York, and we're about halfway to Chicago with no signs of guards. I think we're in Ohio right now, and heading to Indiana for our next state. We already walked through a small part of Pennsylvania which only took a couple of days. Indiana is going to take the longest to walk through. Along the way we found some diners that we ate at, and luckily Thomas brought money. 

Over the past weeks, Thomas and I have become much more distant while Lydia and Josh have become closer. We are all way more comfortable with each other. I think so, but ever since Thomas told me his feelings about me, I can't help but feel awkward every time we talk.

It's been a couple more days, and today we saw a group of campers heading up to one of the forest preserves. This journey has actually been kinda fun. I got to learn a lot of things about Lydia, Josh and Thomas. Once I got Lydia to talk more, she is so fascinating to listen to. She's told me so many stories about herself, and it's interesting to listen to her talk so much, since she has been pretty quiet before this. 

Once Josh started to calm down, he told us some pretty funny stories and jokes that he heard from other people. Thomas though, has become a bit more casual now with me. He's still kind to me even after I rejected him; though we don't talk much. He still checks up on me every now and then. 

I've learned something about myself too. Over time I've started to understand that I really can be strong and independent; I realized that I don't need someone to make me feel happy. The rest will come to me as time goes on. It still sucks that me and Jeremy aren't together anymore.

After a couple more days, I've tried to act like things are normal between Thomas and I, but it's still hard. I think I do have feelings for him, I just don't want to get hurt again. "Hey Thomas, I have an idea about the map." He looked at me warily and got out the map, "what is it?" I took the map from his hands, "what if we do something fun. We've been walking for 17 days straight and I think we deserve a reward. Look at this." 

On the map there looks to be a trail that leads to some sort of water. "See, maybe we could go swimming to cool off." It's basically the middle of July, and we're heading into August. It's now or never for the nice weather. You never know when it comes to Chicago. It's either freezing all the time, or burning; there is no in between. Thomas grins, "hey guys, how about we take this trail and go swimming to cool off." They turned around very quickly, "where?" They both said this at the same time and we all laugh, "it's this way."

We arrived at the lake, but it isn't just the lake that's here, there's a huge waterfall. "Wow" this is amazing, I've never seen one up close before and it's beautiful. Josh looked super excited, "come on then!"

The lake was so calm and peaceful, that I thought time had stopped. "Isn't this amazing Harper?" I think Lydia is talking to me, but I kinda spaced out, "what?" she chuckled, "I said isn't this amazing. I can't get over this view and-" There was this loud noise again just like the one we heard the second day but- "There they are!" 

All of a sudden, the time started again and all four of us swam as fast as we could out of the water. We put our clothes on as quickly as we could. Thomas, Lydia, Josh and I grabbed our stuff and kept sprinting so it would be hard to catch us. They had guns and were shooting at us. Jeremy wasn't kidding when he said they would try and kill us. We kept running until there was a loud bang, and all of us stopped.

I looked around and saw Josh on the ground. I sprinted over and tried to stop the bleeding but I couldn't. Lydia and Thomas were trying to fight the guards who were there, and luckily there weren't many. Lydia and Thomas grabbed the knives out of our bags and flashlights. I heard one of the guards groan, I looked over and Thomas stabbed the guy in the leg. Lydia had the flashlight in her hand, and I had no clue why she would-. There was a loud thud on the ground; Lydia must have knocked the guy out with the flashlight.

I screamed for them once the rest of the guards were unable to stop us. "HELP! I can't stop the bleeding! Look for a hospital or someone to help us!" Before I got to Josh, I hit my head hard on something, but I couldn't focus on the pain; I tried to calm down but I couldn't. "Here! On the map there's a hospital only half a mile from here." 

We all helped Josh up and carried him all the way. The wound was in his leg and he could barely move it at all. God I really hope he'll be ok, "we're almost there, hold on." We are so close to making it to Chicago, why did I have to come up with the idea of taking "a break". We should have just kept walking. Finally we got to the hospital. "Help, Help! He's been shot!" The nurses took him away and that's all I can remember.