Miles leaves the next morning. The twins hide in the tree deck as me and Chase talk in the van. He says we need to talk, but I don't think we do. I sit on the bed (I call the seats beds now, because they are) as Chase stands in front of the sliding door. He nails wooden crates to the walls this morning to make cabinets for our food and drinks. I admire his thinking ability, but he rarely uses it. He turns and closes the door and sits down across from me.

"Olive," he starts. "I've seen your notebook. These rules, they're completely stupid."

"You may think so but they're useful if you travel alone." I  stare dully into his eyes.his eyes are filled with pain and what looks like sorrow.

"You're not alone. You, me, August, June. We're a pack now; a family." I say nothing. "Can you please smile? I haven't seen you smile since this all happened and I just, I just need you to smile and laugh and have fun and not be a dictator. All we've done is work and we need a little fun to keep our minds off of this stupid world."

Rule #27
Always stay focused

"If we take our minds off of this then we'll die. I'm trying to keep us alive. You can keep believing I'm not helping you but I am." I start to try to move past him. He grabs my wrists, digging his thumbs into them. I wince and look at him.

"You're wearing yourself thin. You're working yourself to death trying to protect us so let me help you and say you need to fucking chill out and stop bossing us around until we need it." He glares into me. "So go treat yourself and take a freezing ass bath in the river because we both smell and look like shit. So you go wash up, come back and change into something clean like the twins did. Then I'll do it and I can clean our clothes in the river and set up a clothes line. I at least can do that but you need to fucking re-"

I lean forward and kiss his cheek, leaning away as he lets go of my wrist. I stand up and grab what I need to go and bathe. A towel, shampoo and conditioner, and clean clothes. "Thanks." I open the door and walk out of the van.

I hum as I walk out of the camp and down to the river, setting my things on a rock and looking at the slow moving river. It looks freezing. We should try to build a shower that produces warm water because it'll be one of the few reasons we even leave the van this winter. I take off my shirt and shoes, seeing something in the distance in the trees. I slide my shoes on and walk towards it, seeing the nine people dead before me.  We only saw them two days ago, and now they're dead. I take a deep breath and walk back to my things

I couldn't do anything. I was right, and knowing they'd die before they make it to the east coast. I just didn't expect their bodies to be at the river. The could have only been walking for two minutes down the river. I take off my shoes and pants, hesitating on my underwear and bra. If I take them off I know I'll be freezing but I do have another pair to change into. I take them off, grab the shampoo and conditioner and put them on a smaller rock by the shore.  It is cold, but a good cold.

A cold that tells me I'm alive. I dunk my head in and get my face wet, scrubbing off the dirt on my face then messaging shampoo into my hair. I put in my conditioner and then wash it out moments later. I wash it out and scrub my arms and legs free of dirt and muck. The river is surprisingly clean. Like there's algae under my feet that's cradling my toes, but it feels. By clean I mean there's nothing floating in the water. Well, it's the Colorado River. It's suppose to be clean.

I make sure everything's out of my hair before grabbing the bottles and standing on the small rock as I dry off. "Olive!" someone yells. It sounds like June and August. "Chase wanted us to bring you another towel to step on so your feet don't get dirty from the ground." I wrap the towel around my body.

"O-Okay. I'm covered up." They appear behind a tree and smile, placing the towel down on the ground and disappearing. I step onto it and continue to dry off, wiping off the bottoms of my feet and ringing out my hair, then tussling it in the towel. I don't like doing that towel hat people do. I like my hair loose so it can be wavy like it usually is. A red and wavy mess. I slide on my socks and underwear, clipping on a new bra and feeling arms wrap around my waist.

I flinch, then bringing my elbow back and hitting them in the chest then knocking my head up and hitting them in the chin. I turn around and see a new person. I don't like new people. I brought a gun with me in case I got attacked. It's under my shirt. I quickly grab it and point it to him. He looks up and his eyes widen as he puts his hands up.

"Not so strong now huh?" I bark as he quickly shakes his head. "Beat it before I shot."

"You won't," he laughs with a smirk.

I cock the gun and shot over his shoulder. His pupils shrink as I cock it again. "You were saying? Beat it!"

"Olive!" Chase runs down the hill to get to the river with a gun in his hand. I know he'll struggle to keep his eyes on the strange man.

"Olive?" He laughs. "Fitting name with a fitting body." He smirks.  He should be terrified with two guns pointed to him. He winks at me. I shoot his shoulder and he falls back with fear in his eyes.

"Beat it or else you're getting a bullet between your eyes." He scurries up and runs off towards the bodies, screaming and running past them. I growl and put on my shirt and sweatpants. I slid my arms through the armholes of my hoodie and then slide on my converse and pick up the towels and look at Chase as he stares at me.

"You shot him." Chase lowers his gun as I grab my clothes and the bottles and start to walk up the hill.

"He was going to rape me. I did what I did to survive." He follows me as I walk past him and too the campsite. the twins named it. They call it Campanemto de Niños Salvajes. I've had to ask them what it meant, and they still won't tell me. They say I'll get it when they finish their signs. I put my things in the van as he sighs and put his gun away.

"Well I'm sorry if I'm worried for other people."

"Just be worried for the three girls you need to protect." I glare back at him as I put the gun down on our bed.

"Protect!" He exclaims. "I can barely take care of myself!"

"Well to bad," I bark, making him flinch. I sigh and sag my shoulders. "Just. Go wash up I'll set up the clothes line so you can start washing our clothes when you get back." He sighs and nods, grabbing his clothes and heading to the river.