I jolt awake, breathing heavily. I whip my head in all directions, forgetting where I am. When I find Forrest on my left, I let out a relieved sigh. He's lying beside me protectively in between me and the room. He sits up, eyes adjusting to the light. His hair is ruffled up, his brown eyes finding mine. He smiles gently, moving his hand across the blankets to hold mine.

"I thought we were clear on the sleeping arrangements, Forrest." Darius' voice makes us both jump. Forrest turns around, pushing the blankets off of himself.

"Well maybe she wasn't as safe as you told me she would be." He stands up.

"I don't understand." Darius hesitates. Forrest shoves Darius, not too hard but not a love tap either. Darius stumbles a few feet back.

"You better let us out of this prison or I will knock down the door myself." Forrest growls.

"What is your problem? I am trying to keep everyone safe! The least you can do is to respect me!" Darius shouts.

"Is pulling a teenage girl out of her bed in the middle of the night to beat her and torture her until she threw up your idea of safe?"

"Forrest." I mutter.

"What?" Darius asks, clearly confused.

"Yeah, that's right. While you and me both were having sweet little dreams, Willow was getting tortured by your friend Connor. We should've never came here or trusted you in the first place!" Forrest is mad.

Darius widens his eyes in disbelief before walking out of the room without saying a word. A few other people in the room rush out as well, clearly not wanting anything to do with Forrest.

Forrest turns back to me, trying to soften his gaze.

"I'm fine, Forrest. You didn't have to do that." I tell him, throwing the blankets off and standing beside him.

"No, you're not fine. It's not fine." He shakes his head, not meeting my eyes. I bury my face into his chest, wrapping my arms around him. He gently moves his hand in a circle on my back.

"Stay strong for me, okay?" I whisper, repeating his words to me from when I had shot the little girl.

"Okay." He mumbles in my hair.

I part from him, walking into the bathroom. There was blood on the tile from last night, and I ignore it, running the water in the small, open shower. There was no curtain, just a faucet hanging from above. I slide off Forrest's flannel and the rest of my clothes. I get under the water, shivering at how cold it is. I go quick, getting all the puke out of the ends of my hair.

When I'm finished, and in the process of pulling on my shorts, I hear a knock on the door. I hurriedly pull on and button up Forrest's flannel before opening the door. Forrest walks in, looking down at me. The corners of his mouth twitch upward when he sees I am still wearing his shirt.

"Take all the warm water?" He asks, grinning.

"There wasn't any in the first place." I shrug. He slides past me, turning the cold water back on. I bend down and pick up my clothes before leaving.

"Don't go anywhere without me." Forrest says before shutting the door. I bite my lip. Nope, not today. I walk out of the room and walk back to mine. I drop my dirty clothes down by my backpack when I hear someone enter the room. I flip around to see Walker.

"Hey," She looks at me, "Is that your shirt?"

I look down, she must've noticed that it wasn't one of the things I picked up yesterday. I slowly shake my head, "Forrest's."

She grins, almost too happy. She whistles, before taking my hand, "Well, it looks so good on you."

"I was wondering-" Her eyes widen, resting on my scar. "What the-"

"I don't want to talk about it." I immediately say, cutting her off. She nods slowly, still not moving her eyes away from it.

"As I was saying, is that I want you to help me out with something." She says, and I nod, asking her to continue.

"I need to go on a secret mission, and I need your help."

"What? You need my help? That's the first." I say. She rolls her eyes, before pulling me out of my room, "Malik's coming too." She adds.

"Wait, what about Forrest?" I ask.

She rolls her eyes again, "He would say no, guaranteed. And he definitely won't let you go, therefore, I asked you in private."

"You don't know that. And I make my own decisions." I state, "So what is this mission anyway?"

"There's some Insane circling our base, and we need to get rid of them." Walker shoves me towards a door that reads, 'Emergency Exit'. She passes me a gun, and soon enough Malik runs up next to us.

"Where were you this morning?" He asks me. I shrug, as if to keep him guessing. Walker opens the door easily. There was another way out. Forrest and I could've left.

"Come on, Leaves." Malik ushers me outside, and I follow them.

"Wait, guys. Maybe there's another way. Maybe we don't have to kill them." I encourage the idea, but Walker shakes her head and motions for me to be quiet.

I don't listen to her. "Don't you two find it odd that Darius wants to kill millions of people? That would mean there are only thirty some left to repopulate the earth. Do you really want that?" I keep pushing.

Walker scowls at me, but Malik puts down his gun to look at me.

"This isn't right, Walker. And you know it. There has to be another way. Maybe we could go to the hospital and check it out like maybe there's clues to what went wrong."

"Shut up!" She whisper-yells at me.

There's a rustling in the trees and all of our heads flip towards it. Malik raises his gun back up. An old man, maybe in his eighties, comes limping out. His left leg is bleeding out fast.

"Help." He croaks out at us. I run to help him, catching him as he falls backwards. His blue eyes look into mine. "Don't trust him." He mutters, and I look at him, confused.

"Don't trust who?" Malik asks.

Walker looks down at the man, like he's some psycho.

"Were you Insane?" She asks. The man can only nod and say one word, "Before."

The three of us stare down at the dead old man quizzically. What did he mean?

All of a sudden, Malik is being dragged into the woods by an insane middle-aged woman. I dart after him, screaming his name. His gun drops out of his hand and I pick it up, aiming it at the woman.

"Let him go!" I shout at her.

"She can't hear you." Walker jogs up beside me. I glare at her. She's not helping.

"I'm not shooting her. She doesn't know what she's doing!" I shout at Walker. Malik starts yelling as the woman holds his arm in the way Connor's jerk friend held mine last night. I drop my gun, sprinting towards her. I kick her in the stomach, and she growls at me as she stumbles off of Malik.

"Walker, get Malik and go!" I scream.

"No way! We have to kill her, Willow!" Walker shouts back. I shake my head.

"You'll have to kill me before she dies! She doesn't know what she's doing, and neither do the rest of us! We're killing just because we are thinking about ourselves! But think about it. All these people wanted was to get cured, but instead they got something that turned them all Insane!" I shove my foot down on her stomach, as she flails her arms around.

"Run!" I shout, as the three of us sprint back to the door. We all freeze when a piercing gunshot reigns through the air. We whip around, spotting Darius. He holds a gun to the woman's head and she's now bleeding out from the forehead.

"What in the insane world do you think you're doing?" I shout at him, angry as ever.

"I might ask you three the same question!" Darius spits, walking towards us. He flings the door open, and chucks his gun across the floor.

"I gave you one task, Walker. And you had to blow it, didn't you? But before you start making excuses, I know whose real fault it is." He turns towards me, sweat drooling down his face.

"Go back to room, Willow. I'll come talk to you later. I can't... deal with you right now." He points to the stairs up to my room.

"You're not in charge of me! You're acting like you're my dad, and you're not." I shout.

"But I am." My father walks out of the shadows. I almost had forgotten he was here.

"Willow, do what he says. He knows what's best." My father tells me.

"What the heck is going on here?" I yell, anger boiling.

"Can't you see that all Darius is trying to do is save the world? Why do you keep resisting him? He's not the enemy here." My father says sternly, but gently, as if he was talking to something that might break any minute.

"I can't just stand by and watch as millions of people die! Don't expect me to join your missions, and don't expect me to agree with you! You convinced me to stay for one night and I've already done that! So either let Forrest and I go, or stop fighting me on what I believe!" I argue.

I look over at Walker and Malik. Malik has moved next to me, as if to say I'm not alone in this. Walker's head is down, clearly deep in thought.

Darius shakes his head, "Willow, we have no other choice. The longer we hide and do nothing about them, the more innocent they kill."

"You're just as bad as them. You are so convinced there is no other way, that you have become blind to any other choice." I turn and run up the stairs, Malik at my heels.

"You're right." He whispers, following me into my room. I begin packing up my things, swinging my hat over my head.

"Where are you going?" He asks.

"Anywhere but here. I'm going to see if I can get to the nearest hospital. There may be nothing, but it's worth a shot." I shrug at him.

"What do you think the man meant by he was an Insane before?" Malik asks, clearly not forgetting about him.

"Either he was dying and he converted back to normal, as they all do, or he was trying to tell us there was a cure." I explain, knowing that the first solution is more reliable.

"I'm coming with you." Malik decides.

"You sure?"

He nods, "I didn't realize how stupid this whole thing is until you came." He turns, leaving the room. Ashton walks in. Gee, I almost forgot about him too.

"Hey." I smile.

"Willow, long time no see. How you holding up?" He asks, running his hand through his sandy hair.

"Barely. But I'm leaving... soon." I tell him.

He nods, as if he totally understands. I was about to ask him what he was going to do when Forrest comes walking fast into the room. His hair is swooshed to the side, as usual. The usual dirt on his face is gone.

He looks like he's about to slap me but instead wraps his arms around me, embracing me. "You almost gave me a heart attack. I thought... I thought Con-"

I reach up on my tippy toes and give him a small kiss. It's my turn to shut him up. "You worry too much." I look at him out of the corner of my eye, as I grab my backpack. He's smirking now, watching my every move. Pain surges through me, reminding me of my bruised stomach as I bend down. I shake the pain off.

"Heading out?" he questions.

"Oh yeah." I smile, a full smile. He nods, walking out of the room to gather his things. Ashton is still standing there, watching the ground like it's really interesting.

"Are you coming or?" I question.

"I go where she goes. So if she's staying, I'm staying." He tells me. He really likes to annoy Walker, doesn't he?

"Well, have fun with that. I have no idea if she's coming or not. But Ashton?"

"Hm?"

"You're doing good with her. You're showing you that you care." I tell him, meaning it.

"It's the least I can do." Ashton looks away.

"Is this goodbye then?" I ask. He turns back and I can see sorrow in his eyes.

Walker comes striding into the room wearing her leather jacket, beanie, backpack, and gun. "Let's roll." She demands.

I almost laugh. It feels good to have so many people on my side. Ashton looks brightly into my eyes and I can tell what he's thinking: Thank God she chose to go.