Oz

Her body was in a fit of nerves, with her knees shaking and heart fluttering as they ran through the odd looking city. The architecture was unlike any Marianne had seen before. Even in the thousands of hours she’d spent looking at homes in California online, she’d never seen anything as extravagant as the buildings around her. She hardly had any time to admire them, though, as the boy with the shaved head was dragging her through the streets, with Louis right by her side, and a few others trailing behind them.

She wanted so badly to stop the boy – to question him about what had happened and what was going on – but she knew that she couldn’t. There was something about the urgency in his voice that cued her into the danger around them, and even though she shouldn’t, she immediately trusted him to keep her and Louis safe.

After all, wherever he was taking them had to be better than being trapped in that dingy cell, which was covered in cobwebs and old soot. It had reminded Marianne of her basement back home – wherever home was – and she wished that basement had been enough to keep her and Louis safe from the tornado that had blown through Kansas and landed them in the strange city.

Ahead of them sat a large gate, which began to shine as the sun tipped back over the horizon. This caused the boy’s pace to quicken, and his feet were moving so quickly that Marianne wasn’t sure she could keep up, but she knew she had to try her best.

Her breaths coming less easily, her eyes flicked over to Louis, who was running directly beside her. She hadn’t a clue as to what he was thinking, but she knew his mind must have been racing just as quickly as hers was, which was ten times faster than her feet.

Of the both of them, he’d always been the one who was more cautious and more apprehensive, so she knew following the boy took a lot of courage from Louis. She didn’t know if either one of them would end up regretting it later, or even what would happen later, but she continued padding her feet against the cobblestone streets, until they reached the large gate that kept them trapped inside the city.

The boy looked at Marianne as he stopped, before cupping his hands and holding them out to her feet. Her eyes flicked between his own and his hands, as her eyelashes fluttered in confusion.

“We’ve got to climb,” the boy said, nudging her leg with his hands.

Louis scoffed. “You can’t possibly think that we’re going to hop over this gate and follow you all over god’s green earth.”

“If you don’t, those guards will look for you. They won’t stop until they find you, and you won’t like what will happen when they do.”

The two boys were at a stand-off, with Louis glaring down at the boy, who still held his hands in front of Marianne. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do, and she knew better than to wait for some sign to tell her, so she took a deep breath and shut her eyes.

Pressing her teeth against her bottom lip, she popped her foot up and placed it in the boy’s hands, before resting her own on his shoulder. He easily lifted her into the air, and she quickly wrapped her hands around the bars of the gates, and with one final push from the boy, she lifted herself over, before falling not-so-gracefully onto the other side.

She landed with a soft thud against the grass, which sent a sharp pain through her body, but luckily it quickly subsided, just in time for her to hear Louis scolding her from the other side of the gate.

“Damn it, Mari. What are you thinking?” Louis shouted, as he threw his hands to his side.

She looked at her brother, her eyelids fluttering open and closed. His eyes met hers, and she saw the anger drop from his face. He could never stay mad at her for long, and she was his sister, so he was going to follow her whether he wanted to or not. He had to make sure she stayed safe.

Letting out a deep sigh, Louis gripped the bars with no help from the others, and hoisted himself over, just as the rest of the group did. The seven of them landed on the other side, meeting Marianne, before the brunette girl pointed towards the woods.

“We can take cover under the trees,” she said, a far off look in her eyes. “They will keep us safe until we decide what to do next.”

The group nodded, and the five strangers took off for the woods, leaving Louis and Marianne standing by the gate. It only took a few seconds for them to realize Louis and Marianne hadn’t followed, and the tallest boy, whom Marianne had decided was the leader, quickly turned back around.

“We need to go,” he said, his eyes flicking between Louis and Marianne. “Before someone sees us.”

Neither of them spoke, still shocked by the whole situation. Marianne had wanted to follow them before, and it wasn’t until she was actually on the other side of the gate that she had any apprehension. Sure, what was waiting for them in the city didn’t seem hopeful, but those woods didn’t look any more welcoming.

“I know you don’t have any reason to, but I need you to trust me,” the boy said. “Please trust me.”

Louis wrapped his hand around Marianne’s squeezing it tightly. She knew he wouldn’t make a move until he knew what she wanted, even though she didn’t know any more than he did what would be right in the situation, simply because he was always trying to make his sister happy.

After a few seconds of weighing her options, Marianne took a deep breath, before looking straight into the boy’s eyes.

“What’s your name?” she asked, though she was nearly out of breath.

His voice was soft as he spoke, as calm as it had been the entire time. “It’s Liam.”

She simply nodded, before squeezing Louis’s hand, and taking a few slow steps forward. Liam smiled back at her, small but reassuring, and he took off towards the trees, with Marianne and Louis following behind him.