~Patrick's POV~

I could hear voices echoing through my ears. I had to be okay...I recognized these voices...Right?

I forced my eyes open and saw Frank sitting criss crossed next to me. He must of seen my movement from the corner of his eye, because his head turned to me.

"Frank?.."

He gave a slight nod before turning to where the voices were coming from. I propped myself up on my arms and followed his gaze. The others were there. Josh and Tyler were sitting against a dirty wall while the others stood in a group, appearing to be in an argument. Pete was completely doused in his red energy's glow as he snapped something in Ryan's direction. Gerard was standing a bit off to the side by Spencer with a worried expression. Gerard's head suddenly turned, however, in our direction. He smiled a bit when he saw me and turned back to the bigger group. Pete stopped his arguing and turned to look at me. He hurried over and helped me to my feet, his red glow fading into blue.

"Patrick?" His hand went up to my cheek so he was holding my face as he looked into my eyes. His expression had changed completely from the main group to me. Now it was full of care and concern compared to the anger from over there.

"I'm okay." I smiled for him to reassure him.

He smiled back and planted a small kiss on my lips. He then turned back to the rest of the group.

"We can't separate... What if something like this happens again?"

So that's what this was about. I mean, we were a big group, but we were stronger together...Right?

"This large of numbers is exactly how they found us." Ryan argued back.

"We don't know that..." Tyler spoke up softly from the side of the group, "Maybe it was our scouting. We have no real idea of how these guys work..."

"We can't risk it again!" Ryan said in frustration.

The room grew silent. No one wanted to accept his logic. We had been together both in that place and the month we had been outside... We couldn't just split...

"Half and half." Ryan continued, "We split it like that."

"Baby..." Brendon looked a bit concerned. I doubted he wanted to split up either.

"How would we keep up with each other?" Pete asked.

"We have two psychics. One with a link to someone we can leave in the second group."

"NO!" Gerard stepped forward from where he stood. He had stayed relatively quiet during the whole conversation, but now he looked hurt. "You can't do that, Ryan."

"He doesn't talk to anyone but Gerard." Josh added.

"We all saw him communicate with Patrick." Ryan said simply.

"It was barely a nod!" Pete shot back, "Ryan, you're my friend and all, but this is getting out of hand.

"Just temporarily." Ryan's tone changed. He wasn't yelling now, he was pleading. I didn't know him very well, but this seemed oddly out of character for him. It felt strange...

"I can't..." Gerard sounded close to tears.

"We would meet up." Ryan said, turning to Pete, "Just like we used to. Before all this. We'll be careful. But we can't keep up such a bit group." He shifted his attention to Gerard, "If you stay with my group, you can send information to Frank and he can relay to Patrick."

Gerard shook his head. He looked scared. Frank wasn't alright. He was no where near okay.

"Gerard..." Ryan looked straight into Gerard's scared eyes.

Gerard froze slightly before his stance calmed. His eyes seemed to drain of color just a bit.

"RYAN!" Brendon yelled. He hurried to stand in between Ryan and Gerard. "Whatever you did, put it back." Brendon nearly growled at Ryan.

~Pete's POV~

The room was still as Brendon stared down Ryan. Ryan blinked a bit before it seemed that he truly saw Brendon. He blinked a few more times before Gerard stumbled slightly, nearly falling if Tyler hadn't of zipped over to catch him.

"You said you'd stay out of our heads unless we asked." Brendon said lowly, walking closer to Ryan.

"I'm sorry..." Ryan mumbled, looking down with...Confusion on his face?

"M-m-maybe we should all s-sleep on it..." Spencer spoke up. Where he stood was surrounded by a sheet of ice.

"We should." I agreed, looking around the abandoned wearhouse we had chosen as cover. It seemed safe enough... "I'll be scout."

"Pete, are you sure?" Patrick asked me softly, "You didn't really sleep earlier..."

I nodded quietly. I needed to think right now... This was a lot to take in at once...

"Yea!..We'll do that." Brendon agreed, grabbing hold of Ryan's arm. He tugged the brown haired boy to a far corner. Gerard sat beside Frank and leaned his head on Frank's shoulder. Spencer was looking around for a place to go when I grabbed Patrick's hand and pulled him to a set of steps to take lookout on the second floor.

I finally found a window with a decent view and stopped, letting myself plop to the floor. Patrick followed suit and sat next to me.

"What happened back there?" He asked me quietly, "I...I think I inhaled something..."

"Don't worry about it Patrick..." I said, turning to him. I let my fingers trail down his cheek as he looked at me with worry, "We made it out at least..."

~Tardis Noise Into Flashback~

We were running through the ally behind out hotel. The others were ahead and beginning to turn the corner. I was tugging Patrick along as he slowed and began to trip and stumble.

My mind flashed between the gas and my capture. This felt exactly the same. The glass shattering. The gas filling my lungs.

They wouldn't do this to Patrick. I turned to him just as he was beginning to fall again by swiping his legs out from underneath him and into my arms. I gripped his upper torso and struggled forward. I rounded the corner before I caught sight of the others again. I tried to hurry, holding the small unconscious figure in my arms.

"Help!" I called out. I saw Josh's head turn and he began to run towards me.

"Give me Patrick." He said as he hurried over. I held Patrick out just slightly. I was afraid I'd drop him. Josh carefully rushed Patrick into his arms with ease. He nodded in the direction of the others and continued going. I tried my hardest to keep up.

"Dude!"

Before I knew it, I was hanging over Josh's shoulder as he ran onward.

Well...that was a way to work it.

He only went a bit further before he dropped me onto my feet. He set Patrick down carefully. He was still unconscious, but breathing.

We were in an old wearhouse. Somewhere a few blocks from the hotel. How we weren't intercepted, I didn't know...We probably had Ryan to thank for that...

"How'd they find us!?" Brendon was doubled over, breathing heavily.

"They...they must of..." Ryan was shaking his head, trying to catch his breath.

Gerard was sitting on the ground with Frank. His breathing was relatively calm with that far away look in his eyes.

"What if they take us again? What if they take you away again?.." Tyler zipped over to Josh and just held him, shaking.

"Lite's dead." I said, "He can't come back..."

"But we're still being hunted, Pete." Brendon stood straight to look at me, "Our faces are on the news nightly. We need out..."

"Out where!?" I asked, feeling anger rise inside me. I hated this. We're being persecuted for how we were born. Still. How could we be the blame? We didn't even kill the people in that place. But because we were different, we were to blame.

We were the ones marked to die.

"We need to get out of this area...maybe the other side of the country is better..."

"THE WHOLE WORLD IS SHIT" I yelled. My body was slowly beginning to glow red. "WE CAN'T GET OUT OF IT!"

"Maybe our group is too big to avoid detection." Ryan snapped.

"We cannot split ourselves up!" I argued. Gerard walked over to the group with an unsure expression. I had the feeling he was on my side. That place didn't make isolation the road most traveled...

~Tardis Noise Back To Present~

I stared out the window as Patrick sat next to me. His head hung low on his shoulders, indicating he was sleeping. I gave the outside a quick scan before sighing. I pulled Patrick to his side and let his head rest on my lap.

"You're such a protective dork..." I laughed quietly, looking back out the window. "Oh...My cute little dork..."

There was hardly time for romance when you were running. There was time for holding each other...But more intimate things just didn't really happen. I was okay with that though. As long as Patrick was close to me, it would be okay...

As long as we could stay alive...

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A/N~ guys I accidentally uploaded chapter 3 before this cuz I upload at 5 am & I'm sick today so JUST IGNORE THAT IM SORRY FRICK

~Skittles Out~