Noxious

43 | she's dead

Charly 

Was this night ever going to end? 

It was something insanely wild, straight from some cheesy action movie that was overdone on the drama aspect.

 I felt like I was trapped in a never-ending cycle of you never know what the fuck is going to happen.

We split away from the area where the bullet had struck. Rowan and I moved as quickly as we could towards the wood line, into the dark, as Tommy had said would help us.

 I didn't realize Tommy and Kyle weren't with us until I heard Kyle shouting. 

He was taunting the bastards. 

And it worked because Rowan, Rue, and I slipped into the woods line. 

We hobbled as fast as we could. Rue was persistently losing energy and she grew heavier on our shoulders. It got harder to keep moving. I was growing tired from all the running, my lungs physically hurt, and I stumbled over things in the dark. 

Rowan grunted from time to time, constantly readjusting Rue as he started brunting most of her weight. I was basically collapsing, just like Rue. 

This night was crazy as fuck. 

"Just leave me," Rue demanded. 

"What?" I blurted, "We're almost there."

"No, we're not. It's obvious that I'm just slowing you down," Rue protested, her voice was firm, "Just leave me here, I'll be okay." 

"Rue, no," I snapped, "That's fucking nonsense. We're not leaving you to get murdered." 

"I won't, I promise." 

When Rowan and I made no effort to heed her pleading, she pulled her arms from around our shoulders. I struggled to keep ahold of her but she slipped from my grip and she sat down on the ground. 

"Are you fucking mad?" Rowan turned and hissed at her, "You're acting like a child! Come on, get up, and let's get the hell out of here!" 

"I won't let you risk your lives for me," Rue snapped right back, she was wrapping part of her torn t-shirt around her leg, "Please, go." 

"No," Rowan stood his ground. 

"Get out of here," Rue insisted, punctuating each word. She threw something at him and it struck him in the chest. She was forcing him away. I stood there, torn, and conflicted as hell. 

"Fuck, fine, if you're so sure," Rowan growled, his eyes flickering to the woods behind us, as I'm sure the two men would be following soon, "Charly, come on." 

He grabbed my wrist and started jogging away. I stumbled over something because my attention was still on Rue. My wrist slipped from Rowan's grip. I took a few running steps after him until I rooted my feet into the ground. 

I couldn't leave her. It wasn't right. 

I turned back.

"I can't leave you--" 

"Yes, you can," She sighed, "I can defend myself, there's a lot of things I didn't tell you." 

"You can't defend yourself against bullets!" 

I froze when I heard heavy, angry footsteps crashing through the forest. They were drawing closer by the second. I couldn't carry Rue by myself, and I didn't know what to do now. It fucking sucked to have conflicting emotions, that's why I hated feeling.