Oz

After a full day of walking, all the group wanted to do was rest. They had wanted to rest hours ago, in fact, but Liam insisted they continue on. “Just a few more miles,” he had said, but a few miles turned into a few more, and pretty soon by Marianne’s guess, it had been dark for hours.

“Please, Liam,” Cecily said, leaning her body against one of the trees that lined the path. “Please let us rest now.”

Liam, who had been a good couple feet ahead of everyone else, turned back to the group with his hands still wrapped tightly around his weapon. His eyes roved each of their hunched bodies and saw the exhaust that was clear in his eyes. Letting out a sigh, Liam nodded his head before pointing to a cluster of trees up ahead.

“There,” he said as he held out his arm. “It should provide us with enough cover until morning, but we’ll need to watch in shifts.”

The group nodded and together they walked towards the tightly packed trees. The group members dropped to the ground and leaned back against their packs as though it was the most comfortable place in the world. Marianne and Louis simply looked at them as they toyed with the ground beneath them.

“Well, go on then,” Rowan said, motioning towards an empty spot across from her. “Sit down.”

Marianne gulped before sitting in the open place, with Louis taking the spot directly next to her. They were packed fairly tightly together, and even though Marianne had her left leg pressed against Louis, her right knee still rubbed Liam’s.

“Sorry,” she apologized, tucking her hair behind her ear in nervousness. He gave her a soft smile and nodded his head before turning his attention back to his pack.

Marianne wasn’t sure how she was supposed to sleep in such close quarters with very little comfort, but she was exhausted so she had to make do with what she had.

Shifting in her place, she moved a little bit closer to Liam so she could keep out of Liam’s way. He was pulling things from his pack, moving them around, and counting them out in his own personal inventory. Marianne wondered if she knew the exact location of every item he had and then decided that he probably did. She was so focused on watching him toy with his gear that she hadn’t realized how much time had passed until she heard Louis snoring next to her.

She looked up and found that the rest of the group, like Louis, had already fallen asleep and they hadn’t even decided who was going to take watch and when. She wanted to ask Liam what his plans were, but he was so tough and authoritative that just thinking about it made her nervous.

After a long mental battle, she finally got the courage to speak.

“I guess you’re on first watch, then?” Marianne whispered, just loud enough so Liam could hear. He continued toying with items and for a moment Marianne wondered if he had even heard her.

When no one responded, Liam popped his head up, realizing that she had been speaking to him. He looked over at her with his eyebrows furrowed as he ran his fingers over one of his small knives.

“It looks like,” he said before turning his attention back to the pack in front of him. She watched as he continued to organize the dozens of things in front of him and tried to decide if she should say anything else. She could offer to take the next watch, but she imagined that she wouldn’t be much use.

Before she could say anything, Liam spoke again with his eyes still fixed in front of him. “Does he always do that?”

“Does who do what?” Marianne questioned as she titled her head in confusion.

“Your brother,” Liam said. “Does he always snore?”

Marianne chuckled and realized she’d laughed a little too loud. She clamped a hand over her mouth before gently nodding her head. “He does. It’s a bad habit.”

Liam nodded. “It could likely get us killed.”

“Louis’s snoring?”

He nodded again. “If an enemy hears it, we’ll be goners.”

“Do you want me to wake him?”

Liam shook his head. “He’s even more trouble when he’s awake.”

This time, it was Marianne’s turn to nod. She knew her brother could be a little loud and overbearing at times, but he always meant well, especially when it came to her. She didn’t know why, but for some reason she felt the need to defend her brother.

“He’s really a good guy,” she said. “Wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

For the first time since they had first stopped speaking, Liam dropped the knife from his hand and finally pulled his eyes away from it, looking over at Marianne. His eyes were the softest she’d seen them since the first time she had met him, and he paused a long moment before speaking.

“I know.”

He gave her a small smile, and though it was just a small gesture, it satisfied Marianne. She could tell that Liam was the quick thinking and calculating type, so she imagined that was the closest he got to being soft.

His personality made him a good leader. In fact, it made him an excellent one. But, it didn’t do much in the way of friends. He was closer to his group of renegades than he was with anyone else, but even with them, he’d never been the type for warm fuzzy stories and cuddling.

He was much more the type to spend the night rummaging through his pack than anything else, and that was what he did the entire night. He picked things up, shifted them around, and put them back in like he was never satisfied.

Marianne had watched it so many times that it became hypnotic, and as her eyes fluttered shut, the image of the scar on his right thumb was the only thing imprinted in her mind.