As Lenora lets go of birdie's hand wiping her tears still, she stands up as she peeks out the window. She watches as are being lit on fire as well as people running in all different directions.

She looks at the unlocked door, then back at birdie before opening the door, stepping outside. A person is running by but as soon as they see her, they grab her shoulder's and say.

"Honey, what are you doing you can't stay here." She say's looking back in the Tv shop at birdie.

She grabs Lenora's hand dragging her, while Lenora has a blank expression on her face like she's numb. The women run's up to this group, grabbing another person's hand.

They all arrive to this man's car, all fitting into the back seats as well as the front seats. The women let Lenora get in first. Lenora sits in the back clutching her arms, still bloody. The women notices as the man gets everyone in, then driving off to who knows where.

Lenora watches out the back window as her town lights up in flames, not even thinking about her parent's.

"Here." The women said holding her hand's out for Lenora to put her arm in her hand's.

Lenora hesitantly followed through, wincing as the women pulled her sleeve up.

The lady winces as well, peeling back the blood-soaked sleeve.

"So, what's your name?" The women ask's wrapping Lenora's arm in a bandage.

"Lenora." She says rolling her sleeve back down before rolling up the other one, also getting bandaged.

"Lenora? Thats a pretty name." The women says rolling Lenora's sleeve down again.

"Thanks." Lenora says as she holds her arms again.

"My name is Bettie, that's Pete, and this here is squid." The lady says pointing to the guy driving then to the man sitting in the front seat.

Lenora lets out a little nod as the women looks back to her.

"So that girl back at the TV shop?" Bettie asks while rummaging through her bag.

"None of your business." Lenora says in an enthusiastic tone showing her a smile then going numb emotion again.

Bettie noticed the second knife poking out of Lenora's pocket.

"B.S" she read out the initials on the knife while Lenora let out a chuckle.

"Stop looking at my shit." Lenora says with a smile then giving her the finger.

Bettie looks shocked then she leans up, tapping squid on the shoulder. Before whispering in his ear "Find a place to set up camp." then leans back after squid nods.

Lenora stays sat in her seat, strangers all around her, looking at each of them thinking what their gonna do once they find camp.

Lenora jolts forward as Pete brakes hard, Lenora looks out the window only to see a dirt paved road with minimum lights shining down on the car now in park.

"Get out." Bettie say's reaching over to open Lenora's door.

Lenora watches her hand open the door "What?" she asks confused after these people were so nice. "What do you mean?" she continues "I'm just a kid, you can't just abandon me like this!" Lenora screamed as Bettie forced her out the car.

"Yeah, a kid who's fucking ungrateful." Bettie says as she gives Lenora one last push, watching her hit the ground.

Pete gets out of the car as he grabs Lenora by the hair, lifting her up. "You tell anyone where we went, I'll come after you myself." Pete says spitting in Lenora's face.

"You don't scare me asshole." Lenora says before spitting in his face.

Bettie and squid watch as Pete's fist clenches into a fist. He then brings his fist up to Lenora's face but drop's it as he sees the fear in Lenora's eyes. He drops her back down hitting the ground once again.

"Get back in the car." He says after he's done sighing.

"What? Pete she can't come with us!" Bettie say's leaning back in the car.

Leanora lets out a breath of relief as she grabs the seat of the man's truck throwing herself inside, once again.

"Lenora, where are your parents were not gonna be hunted down right?" Bettie asks as she scooted closer to Lenora.

"Bettie lay off." Squid speaks up then looking back at Lenora before letting out a smile to which Lenora returns one.

Bettie looks at squid then Lenora seeing them both smiling at each other.

"Well, aint you two peas in a pod?" She says holding their heads together.

"But unfortunately, that aint gonna save us from those flesh eaters." Bettie says as she points outside the car to a herd coming right for us.

"Step on it Pete!" Squid yells grabbing a gun from under the seat, aiming it towards the flesh eaters.

Bettie grabs the gun stuffed underneath her seat as well also aiming it towards the herd.

Lenora looks at both of them, wondering who these people are.

"Did you guys used to be in the army?" Lenora asks softly.

Bettie lets out a laugh, "We are the only army you're ever gonna see again." Lenora looks around wondering if she should laugh as well or be concerned.

Lenora sinks into her seat while she starts messing with the engraved initials in Birdie's knife.

"B.S." Lenora whispers to herself as her fingers graze over the carvings.

Bettie watches Lenora as Pete is swerving the car, avoiding the flesh eaters.

Squid and Bettie stop shooting as Pete drove far enough away from the flesh eaters.

"Good job squid, could see your learning the way we do things around here." She says putting her hand on his shoulder then rolling her hand down to his hand.

Lenora watches as she can see the discomfort in the boys eyes but before she could say anything Bettie scoffed then sat back.

"Get ready to set up camp everyone, big patch of land up ahead!" Pete says while smiling.

Bettie grabs two bags from the bag as Lenora helped by grabbing the other ones.

They all reached the campsite as the truck came to a halt. Bettie carried the bags to the open plot as Pete helped her.

Lenora grabbed the bags as her door was swung open by squid offering her his hand, she took it as he helped her down to the ground as he took the other bag she was struggling with while they shared smiles with each other.

"Okay love birds hurry it up!" Bettie croaked as she saw them smiling at one another.

Squid's face immediately went blank as he sped up walking away from Lenora and dropping the bag with the other bags.

Lenora stood setting up a tent as everyone else was setting up other things, then Lenora looked as she saw only three tents.

"Three tents?" Lenora asked.

"Didn't expect company, sorry!" Bettie yelled from the other side of the campsite.

"Oh that's fine!" Lenora yelled back.

"You could stay with me." Squid spoke up looking at Lenora then at Bettie who was not happy.

"Absolutely not." Bettie started saying. "You think you could come here, seduce my son then leave?" Bettie continued as Lenora had a confused look on her face.

"I know what you are girl." Bettie kept saying as she got closer. "You are the devil." She said as she was now in Lenora's face.

Bettie then went silent before she grabbed Lenora's arm, dragging her over to a tree close to the campsite.

"Pete get the rope!" She screeched to Pete from the tree.

Lenora struggled as Pete handed Bettie the rope then Bettie started tying Lenora to the tree.

"You're not gonna hurt my family." Bettie say's as she finishes tying her up.

"I don't wanna hurt your family! Just let me go, I won't come back!" Lenora yelled as she struggled to get loose.

"Mom she didn't do anything!" Squid yelled from behind his mother.

"You wanna join her?" Bettie yells back.

Squid lowered his head as he looked away now focusing back on fixing up his tent.

Lenora sat there squirming as they all turned away from her, continuing what they were doing before.

The night fell as Lenora was still using all her energy trying to get free. Soon after she watched them eat before they went into their tents she heard something rustling around behind her.

She looked back to find squid and Pete emerging from the wood's with some type of animal in each of their hands.

"I'm thirsty, can I please have some water?" Lenora asked as desperately as she could.

Pete nudged squid as he turned to enter the tent Bettie was in, leaving squid outside alone.

"Here ya go." Squid say's placing a cup of water in front of Lenora but as he went to turn around Lenora spoke up.

"You dipshit, I don't have hands." As she let out a dry laughing while coughing through her words.

"Oh my bad." Squid says worried before he grabbed the cup and held it up to her mouth, tipping it back so she can drink it.

"Thank's." Lenora say's numbly as she wiggles into a more comfortable position.

Squid looks around him before leaning in close to Lenora. "I can get you out of here." He whispered quietly.

Lenora's eyes lit up as he held his hand over her mouth trying to keep all her excitement to herself.

"Tomorrow night, I'll distract them." Squid said as he pulled something out of his pocket, it was a small squid figure.

"This is where I got my nickname from, my real name is Hudson." Squid spoke up while then handing the figure to Lenora before laughing.

"Sorry I forgot." He said as he slipped it into her pocket instead.

Lenora laughs as well as she watches him slip his hand back into his own pocket then pulling out a piece of fish wrapped up.

He breaks off a piece as he hold's it up to Lenora's mouth, letting her eat it out of his hand.

They both laugh as Bettie peak's out of her tent.

"Squid go to bed!" Bettie yells from her tent.

"Yes ma'am." He says coldly while returning to his tent.

Lenora watched as he dropped the fish landing in the dirt. She watched it until the sun started shining on her closed sleeping eyes.

Lenora woke up to dirt being kicked at her. She jolted awake as all three of them are huddled around her.

"Jeez we thought you were dead." Bettie says letting out a laugh as well.

Lenora gives her a stink eye, showing her absolute hatred for her.

"You missed almost the whole day, girl." Bettie says as Lenora looked up in the air as she saw the sky getting darker as well as the sun which was not shinging anymore.

"All day?" Lenora asked struggling more against the tree.

Bettie got closer as she approached Lenora before getting on with one knee in front of Lenora.

"We're moving on tomorrow." She speaks out while looking back at Pete as well as squid.

"Been discussin' if we should take you with." She continued.

Lenora felt a pit in her stomach. "You're just gonna leave me here?" Lenora spoke up in fear.

"Mom we can leave her here." Squid spoke up.

"We can." Bettie continued. "No one will find her, not even her parents." Bettie said before she turned to walk away.

"They're dead!" Lenora yelled before Bettie could get farther away.

Bettie stopped in her tracks as squid looked at Lenora in shock.

"They're both dead." She repeated herself while her head sank down.

Bettie turned towards her as she saw the pain in Lenora's eyes before she continued walking away while squid and Pete followed behind.

Lenora kept her head down until she heard the fire go out as well as the tent zip closed, then one zipped open.

Before she could pick her head up she felt the rope on her hands loosen causing her to collapse on the floor.

"Come on you gotta go now." Squid says helping Lenora to her feet.

"My parents are dead." She repeats again stuck in a trace.

"Mine too." Squid says as he's dragging Lenora's malnourished body away from the tents.

"Those aren't your parents?" Lenora asks pointing back to the tents.

"No. They make me call them that." Squid says as he continues dragging Lenora. "After they killed my real parents." He continued before he let go of Lenora.

"holy shit. Hudson I'm so sorry." Lenora speaks out as she is handed her knifes back.

"Been a long time since I've heard that name." Squid says as he smiles then bringing Lenora in for a hug.

They were intertwined until they hear the tent rustling then it being unzipped.

"Go. Run. Now." Squid spoke out as he pushed Lenora towards the woods.

Squid is walking back as Bettie emerged from her tent.

"Squid what are you doing out this late?" Bettie asked angrily.

"I just had to pee." He says hesitantly covering up Lenora's escape.

Bettie made a confused face before getting in squids face. Squid backed up until he tripped over a rock.

"So you go to pee the same time the girl escapes?" Bettie says pointing to the empty tree.

"Her names Lenora." Squid speaks up as he stands up while brushing sand off of him.

"Oh so you're friends with her now?" Bettie speaks up getting angrier every word.

"No." Squid says after hearing the anger in her voice.

They stand still as they hear a rustle coming from the woods, where squid had taken Lenora.

"So you took her to the woods huh?" Bettie says as she started walking over to the woods.

Squid then jumped in front of her, holding out a knife. "I won't let you hurt her."

Bettie laughs as he stands still blocking her way.

Lenora notices they're coming right for her and has moved out of the way.

Bettie tries pushing squid away but he got back up as he still held his knife out.

"What? You think I'm gonna fight you?" Bettie says as she laughs.

"You killed my parents." Squid speaks out his voice now filled with anger.

Bettie's face goes cold.

"Were your parents squid." She says pointing to her then to the tent which Pete was in.

"No." He says. "You're just horrible, children torturing assholes." Squid says as he tries to jump at Bettie.

"We took care of you!" Bettie says as she dodged squid.

"We cared for you." She says still dodging as he keeps trying to go at her with his knife.

"We loved you." She says as she once again dodges but this time she missed the dodge as he stabbed her arm, leaving a big gash in her arm.

"I still love you!" She yells as she runs towards squid, jumping at him before plunging her knife deep into his head.

Lenora watched as the once sweet boy who was nice to her, had died that fast.

She watched as Bettie was sat onto of him, but she was crying into his chest, mumbling something Lenora couldn't understand.

Lenora sat as she cried, holding the figure squid before she stood up wobbling into the woods, clutching the figure.

⭐️ I hate all my writing so much!!!

Also don't be afraid to be a silent reader I love hearing feedback as well as your thoughts throughout the chapters🤍

Hope you're all enjoying so far!!

Chapter 3 out soon🤍