Did I have any clue what just happened?

Not really.

My mind was still reeling when Max seemed to appear out of literally nowhere with a frown on his face. He noticed how close the two of us were standing and narrowed his eyes a little. I quickly stumbled away from Asten. I didn't know why; it's not like it mattered if Max knew what had just gone down between us. I guess it just felt kind of...sudden. I needed some time to process it first.

"So, uh, there wasn't a vending machine," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "But I did find some really gross dead rats if we're desperate. Of course, I'm not desperate. Not yet at least, but-"

He froze. I didn't realize why until the sound rang out again.

Clang.

Clang, clang, clang.

I frowned and look at Asten, but he was just as much at a loss for words as I was. Scanning our surroundings gave away nothing...it still looked exactly the same.

It came again.

Clang.

Clang, clang, clang.

The pattern itself was proof that it was more than just a metal can being blown around in the wind.

Something was definitely up.

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a knife I'd found in the playground earlier that day, my fingers tightening around its taped up hilt. A soft wind blew through my hair, brushing it away from my face as I squinted into the fog, trying to see in the direction the noise was coming from.

Max's face had gone white. I wondered if he even had anything to protect himself with. I nodded my head at him, trying to tell him without speaking to get the hell behind me. He didn't need my words to understand.

At this point, Asten, too, held a gun in his hand. I heard him click the safety off as the noise came one last time.

Clang.

It stopped.

It happened too fast for my mind to process.

Whereas I'd been so focused on the noise and the direction it'd come from, I hadn't bothered looking up. To my dismay, that was exactly where the attack had come from - the bare trees just above our heads.

My chin slammed into the paved ground as I felt a heavy body fall on top of my back and grab at my arms.

I bucked underneath the weight and was surprised when I was actually released. I turned to find a small girl who looked to be about ten years old holding pointing a knife at me. My eyes widened as she came at me again.

I dodged.

There was no way I could beat up a ten-year-old.

"Hey! We don't want to hurt you!" I yelled, trying to get her to calm down. Now that I was standing, I could see that Max was on the ground with a teenage boy on his back and Asten was still trying to fend off another girl who looked about fourteen.

In my distraction, the girl jabbed again, but I moved to the side, barely avoiding being stabbed. I tried grabbing her around the waist, so she couldn't stab me again, but she was better than I was expecting. She dodged me just as easily as I'd dodged her. Before I could think, she roundhouse kicked me in the stomach.

It was a good kick.

I bent over, clutching my gut and trying to regain air. Any second now, I imagined her knife slicing through my throat and that being the end of it. I looked up but was shocked when she'd actually stopped moving. I frowned. She wasn't even looking at me.

She was staring at something behind me.

Clang. Clang.

Only twice.

Different hands grabbed me from behind and somebody roughly ripped my hair away from the side of my neck. I fought back vehemently, worried they'd try shooting something into my bloodstream. I couldn't even see who they were. The hand left my neck and I yanked my head as far away as possible.

"Check the others," ordered the deep voice of whoever was holding me. My breath came in heavy gasps as I finally noticed Asten and Max both pinned to the ground. The teenage boy who had Max and the fourteen-year-old girl both went through the same process of checking our necks...the spots just behind our ears...

To make sure we were fully human.

"Hey, you mind letting us go, so we can explain everything without you doing a full body check? We're not one of them," I mumbled with a lot less conviction than I'd intended. Obviously, they weren't exactly with the Equator. It made it a little easier to trust they wouldn't kill us on the spot.

Also, the girl in front of me with her arms crossed was ten. I couldn't tell how old the guy holding me was, but I would assume on the younger side.

After all, the Equator had already taken care of all of the older people.

"Don't talk," growled the guy holding me. I wanted to say it didn't scare me, but it kind of did.  Asten was looking up at me from where he was still pinned to the ground, concern etched into his features. I wished I could tell him it would probably be okay.

Hopefully.

We'd been through so much, how much worse could it even get?

I hoped I wasn't jinxing myself.