Luke’s POV

I lay awake in my tent. The wind is so strong I can feel the tent straining to stay on the floor. The rain is beating down, echoing through the enclosed space I’ve had to live in for a few days. I turn on my side and curl up. It’s freezing. I wonder if the rain will begin to become hail, I’m sure in this cold it’ll freeze as it falls! I pull my sleeping bag around me tightly but I’m still shivering. If only I had someone here to sleep beside, to share body heat with… This is fucking ridiculous. This is not an afterschool activity. This is torture! In the background I can hear Tom and Faye talking. She’s stayed with him all night. It’s the first time I think I’ve ever seen her care about someone else! It’s amazing – and scary! She’s even been getting along with Abbie. Maybe this is what it was, this was all some big scheme for us to learn we should get along with everyone. That we shouldn’t have ‘gangs’ and ‘groups’ and hate on others because they’re different. I’ve been accustomed to that for a while now – because my brother is the lead ‘Jock’. They hated on me for a while, saying I was too geeky and telling Dan he should dump me before I gave him a bad name… Luckily he told them where to stick their comments. I was bullied into becoming a ‘half-jock’ while I hung around with him, and that’s where I met Faye, Erin and Helen. Bitches the lot of them. You have no idea how many people they bullied and spoke down to every day… I got sick of it. Especially Abbie. I never really knew until now why they bullied her, but it went on for years and it was every day she got on the bus to go to school. She suddenly disappeared for ages – months – and I wondered if our group had finally driven her to insanity. Then, when she arrived back at school last week, I was relieved. I’d spent months trying to find out where she’d been but no-one spoke to her at school and no-one could tell me anything! Then she came back with this new attitude, she fought back and I liked it. I had wished for someone to put them in their place for ages!

“NO!” I suddenly heard an ear-piercing scream. “NOOOO!” It was Faye. I jumped out of my sleeping bag and out of my tent to see Faye holding onto a limp hand, bent over Tom’s body… Crying… Abbie ran over and dropped to her knees beside him. She felt for a pulse on his neck, then his wrist.

“No, Tom. You’re not doing this to us!” She mumbled to herself while Faye sobbed. Abbie began chest compressions and even mouth to mouth… I froze. He can’t die. He can’t be dead… my stomach dropped and I felt like my heart stopped. Everything was going  in slow motion. “Luke! I need you!” She shouted, snapping me back into reality. I ran over and skidded onto my knees next to her. “Keep the chest compressions going. Remember that advert?” I giggled a little, remembering the advert where they did chest compressions to ‘Staying Alive’. Ironic, right?

“Well, where the hell are you going?” I questioned.

“Jonny! We need some help!” She said. When she said his name, I felt angry. Who was this guy? Why did she care about running to him when Tom was dying… When he was dead. I knew he was dead. We weren’t going to bring him back. Chest compressions aren’t going to help a bullet wound. I knew that and I think Abbie knew that. She was doing it to help Faye’s mental state.

“No. Don’t leave us!” Faye sobbed. “I don’t want anyone to leave.” She looked up at me and my heart sank. Her normally perfect hair was tangled and messy, her normally perfect makeup was running down her face, her eyes red and swollen. She looked over to Abbie, who stopped still and thought for a second before she walked back over and sat beside me.

“Faye, don’t worry. No-one is going anywhere.” She said solemnly. Faye stood up and walked to the outskirts of our camp, where she sat, her back facing us.

“He’s gone, isn’t he?” She said, barely audible over the sobs and quivering in her voice.

“I’m afraid so.” She sobs resumed. Abbie put her hands on mine and pulled them off his body. We both knew now. We had the same thoughts, I swear. The way we looked at each other, we had the same meaning behind our eyes. We both thought it. ‘We’re going to die out here. We’re going to have to watch the rest of us get murdered, and we can’t do anything about it.’ We sat in silence, all three of us. I stared down at Tom’s lifeless body. He looked like he was sleeping. This was wrong.

“We’ve done the same to so many people…” Abbie whispered. “We’ve shot people… With real bullets. We’re making people go through the same thing…” I shut my eyes. Please don’t say that… I don’t want to know…

“Hey gang!” An all too cheery voice said. I looked round to see Jonny grinning. “How are we all today?” I clenched my fists.

“Luke. Leave it.” Abbie whispered to me. “He doesn’t know.” I shook my head.

“He does know. He knew yesterday. Did he stay and help?” I said through gritted teeth as I stood up, turned and walked over to Jonny, stopping inches from his face. “How are we all?” I spat. “Mourning, if that’s alright with you!”

“What?” He said, his tone suddenly dropping into shock and sadness.

“Tom died this morning, you prick! You’d have known if you stayed here and looked after him!” I shoved him backwards.

“Luke, calm down! I wouldn’t have been able to do anything!” He said, holding his hands up.

“Just being here would have been enough, you asshole!” I swung a punch which landed straight in his stomach and he doubled over, coughing. Abbie ran over and stood in front of me, her hands on my chest.

“Come on, Luke! Leave it. Go back and sit down…” She pleaded, pushing me a little. I wasn’t having any of this. This ‘Jonny’ prick has done nothing good for us. He bought us here, didn’t train us, just said a few words and walked off. That’s all he’s ever done.

“You think you’re tough, eh Luke? I could put you to the floor in a second!” Jonny suddenly said, standing square on to me. Abbie put one hand on his chest and pushed him back a little.

“Enough, you two! Fucking hell!” She tried to hold us apart, but I just wanted to pummel him into the ground.

“Come on then, Jonny-boy, if you think you’re hard enough!” I spat back, holding my arms out.

“Luke, shut up!” Abbie hissed at me.

“Hard enough? Against a girl like you?” He laughed at me. I could tell Abbie was struggling to hold us apart. I don’t know what she did, but she gave me this look, a look I hadn’t seen before, and I wanted to help her – I didn’t want to fight.

“Jonny, shut the fuck up!” She shouted at him, shoving him with her hand.

“You know what?” I said, looking down at Abbie. “It’s not even worth my time. I’ve got people to care about, unlike you Jonny. I’ve got Abbie and Faye to look after.” Abbie gave me a small smile and I turned round and began to walk back.

“Jonny!” I heard Abbie shout, but before I had time to turn round I had been shoved to the floor.

“Look after the girls? Please. You couldn’t look after a bunch of flowers, you fuck.” Abbie ran over and shoved Jonny in the back.

“What’s your problem? Huh? Tom died this morning and you just wanna have a fight? Do you care about anyone?” She shouted at him, but he just smirked at her.

“You didn’t seem to care that much about Faye when you were making out with me in the utility room…” He said in a low, quiet voice. Abbie looked stunned, speechless. I couldn’t help but feel anger.

“It was a mistake.” She hissed. “One I truly and utterly regret.”

“You said you wanted it.” He smirked back. I stood up and brushed myself off. “You wanted me.” He said, so full of himself. I walked over to him, and as he turned to look at me I put all my strength into a punch that I swung at his face. The impact was loud and heavy, my arm shook, the pain shot up my knuckles and into my wrist and I watched him fall to the floor.

“No-one wants you.” I spat on him. “Stay down.” Abbie pushed me away from him, back towards the  log seats around the campfire.

“Come on Luke. We gotta stick together on this! He’s the only one who knows what our missions are!” She pleaded.

“Yeah, and look where that’s got us, Abbie! Faye got shot in the arm and Tom is dead.” I snapped. Instantly regretting what I said as her face dropped. There was a pause and I sighed. “Abbie, I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to think right now… I’ve killed people. I’ve watched someone die!”

“I know, Luke. We all have! You’re not on your own with this!” She said, half sympathetically and half angrily. Jonny stood up and brushed himself down.

“Look, I only came here to say you’re going. All of you. You need to get on the coach now. Grab your shit.”

“What about Tom?” Faye asked from far away.

“He stays here.”

“I’m not leaving him.” She protested.

“Faye, you’re getting on the coach.” Jonny ordered.

“I don’t want to leave him here in this shithole!” She screeched. Jonny stomped over to her and grabbed her, pulling her up and over to us where he threw her over to us. She stumbled into Abbie who managed to catch her.

“Get on the coach. You’re going to another training site.” He ordered, but we didn’t move. He pulled his gun out and cocked it. “Move now, or I’ll kill you!”

“I’m not leaving without Tom.” Faye folded her arms.

“I will shoot you.” He said. “Walk to the coach now.” Abbie grabbed her bag and began to walk, I followed suit. There was no point in getting on his bad side any more than I already was. We grabbed our bags of toiletries and clothes and wandered to the coach.

“Where’s Faye?” Abbie said, suddenly looking behind us.

“I dunno. I thought she was there!” I looked round. A gunshot suddenly echoes through the woods.