Chapter 17

"Ha! Got ya!" We heard not too far away, it sounded like Carlos.

"Why?! Are we the first ones?" Alexa's voice asked a distance away.

"Yep. Come on Gabsters!" James's voice rang out happily.

"You call me that again, I will literally light up your world by shoving that flashlight up your ass." Gabby replied. I wanted to giggle so I hid my face in Kendall's neck as he covered his own mouth. We could hear them getting farther away and still talking. That meant we were close to winning, Dustin and Logan were still out there so who knew where they were. I lifted my head not realizing that my face was millimeters away from Kendall's. He looked into my eyes I could see hardly.

"Wanna make a run to a different spot as they walk Gabby and Alexa back to the cars before they come back out again?" Kendall whispered, his breath on my lips. I nodded. I stood up then and Kendall followed. We locked hands again as Kendall led me in a sprint down aways into the open. We ran a little before we saw flashlight flickers from behind us. I gasped and Kendall then ran closer to me.

"Movement!" Carlos called. Dang, they saw us moving around out here. Then suddenly there was movement to my right. I looked at Kendall who was looking in that direction as well.

We kept running deeper into the forest. Then was two bodies running. Dustin and Logan. Then there were two more bodies with lights. I grabbed a hold of Kendall and we instantly fell to the ground covered in leaves and camouflage. Dustin and Logan were being tracked by Carlos and James. I was lying on top of Kendall as he held me protectively and we tried slowing our breath. "I don't think I want to be Katniss anymore, Kendall." I complained. He sighed.

"We can surrender." He whispered. I shook my head.

"No, that's not an option." I told him. "We're gonna win." We waited awhile until we couldn't see anyone for a couple hundred feet around. I stood up and then Kendall grabbed my hand again.

"We should come up with a plan." He whispered. I nodded looking up at him. We were covered in leaves and dirt. We smiled at each other as Kendall gently then took his hand and raised it up to my hair where he plucked a whole lead from it. He let it fall to the ground.

"We can head back to the tree line. If we can see where everyone is, then we have the advantage." I told him as we walked quickly back into the trail we had just made.

"Have you climbed a tree before?" Kendall asked as we approached where we could see Alexa and Gabby chilling by the cars just talking and waiting for the rest of us to come back. They were covered in leaves just as bad as Kendall and I were. We stayed hidden as we found a tree easy enough to hide in.

"No, never." I told him looking doubtful up at the limbs of the big tree. He then got on his knee and let go of my hand.

"Just pull yourself along the limbs until you're covered in leaves on every side." Kendall offered as he formed a step with his hands. I took a deep breath and put my foot in his palms. He lifted me up enough that I could harness myself around the lowest limb and pull myself up and into the tree. Kendall followed shortly and we were sat on a very flimsy feeling branch, but it was too late to move because we saw flashlights. Kendall held me close with both his arms around me.

"We lost Logan and Dustin when they sprinted deeper into the brush. We can't find Kendall and Sophia at all." Carlos said panting. They were just as dirty as us as well.

"If you idiots lost my best friend, I'm going to be pissed." Gabby added. James waved her comment off.

"She'll survive until morning if she has to. She and Kendall can hug each other for warmth." James added. I glanced at Kendall as he looked awkwardly down.

"This isn't the damn Hunger Games, Maslow! It's really life, I could've sworn I saw a bear out there!" Gabby said loudly. I tensed and grabbed onto Kendall's torso as he hugged my waist.

"We checked these woods earlier, there hadn't been a bear sighting in the last couple decades. So unless we were farther out than we thought, that's impossible." Alexa assured her. Gabby shrugged.

"Sophia isn't built for survival. She's had everything given to her." Gabby said reluctantly. That stung. She was my best friend and she was making that comment right after she wanted them to not have me spend the night in the forest.

"She's wanting to branch out of her comfort zone, she obviously wants more out of life than getting things handed to her." James commented leaning against the hood of his car. That shocked me. He had never really talked to me like that to my face. He had always made it seem like we weren't anything but acquaintances. I shifted my position uncomfortably as the branch made a very weird sound. Kendall looked wide eyed at me as James and Carlos were now on guard.

"This way." James whispered and he and Carlos sprinted under our tree and into the forest.

"Don't move." Kendall pleaded quietly. I nodded.

"Sorry." I whispered back. We clung to one another as the branch continued to creak and bend. We heard yelling in the distance. Logan and Dustin had been captured. As I thought, they walked under our tree saying how they we just moving from a log to a boulder when the other two spotted them and went all 'Rambo,' as they said, on their 'asses'.

"It's part of the game my friend." James said patting Logan on the back. Dustin stopped in his tracks when he saw there was only Alexa and Gabby in the meadow with the cars.

"You've got to be kidding me! Kendall and Sophia are still out there?!" Dustin said as if he expected we would've been captured already. I rolled my eyes as Kendall stifled a chuckle.

"Yeah, I have a feeling the whole not giving them flashlights was a bad idea. What if they're calling out for us right now and we aren't hearing them?" Carlos asked looking into the forest sorrowfully.

"They'll be fine." James said again leaning on his hood. Logan sighed.

"This was pretty fun." Logan said smiling at Gabby. Gabby giggled. Then reluctantly, I giggled at her little flirtatious grin. But I put a hand over my mouth to stop myself. That was enough movement to cause the branch to break. Kendall and I started screaming as we fell a good ten feet out of the air and onto the grassy meadow side. I was still clinging to him as we lied side by side. I winced as I felt my arm crack weirdly. Everyone rushed over to our sides.

"You were that freaking tree the whole time?!" James asked furiously which made Kendall and I laugh. Gabby and Logan helped me up as Carlos and Dustin helped Kendall up.

"Most the time. You guys ran by us once when we were in between a boulder and a log. Then you ran past us out in the open when you were chasing Logan and Dustin." Kendall said. Then I groaned feeling my back turn sore as I stood, but my arm throbbed more so.

"Then we figured in order to not get lost, we needed to hide close to the meadow and so we couldn't be seen, a tree was the next best thing." I continued our story.

"We won." Kendall said holding his own back since we had landed on them. I literally felt like crap.

"That's crazy!" Logan said shaking his head.

"Well, I'm done. I don't know about you guys, but I want a shower and then go to sleep." Alexa said as Carlos came to her side and grabbed her waist. We said our goodbyes. Gabby was riding with Alexa and Carlos again as they would drop her off. I on the other hand was still standing still while Kendall, James, Logan, and Dustin discussed our strategy and how we stayed hidden. I could feel real pain in my elbow in my left arm.

"We should get going too." Kendall said smiling to me. I nodded.

"Hey good job out there." Dustin congratulated me and put his arm around me and squeezed me. My elbow was burning with a sharp pain.

"Ow!" I said stopping everything and dropping to the ground. I couldn't stand the pain, so I decided to lie down in the grass. I groaned as the guys gathered around me.

"Are you okay? What hurts?" James asked in a frantic tone on his knees on my left side. Kendall then was by my side to my right.

"Your elbow?" Kendall asked me. I nodded not even trying to speak. I was holding my entire right arm a certain way so the pain was numbed. "We have to get you checked out then." Kendall said with a sigh. I closed my eyes and nodded reluctantly again. Kendall helped me up gently as the other three guys watched worriedly. "I'll take her guys, she'll be fine." Kendall assured them.

"Well, let us know tomorrow how she's doing. Hopefully it's just knocked out of place and will heal fast." Logan said with sincere eyes. I nodded with a weak and painful smile. Kendall helped me into the passenger seat of his car and then closed the door.

The guys exchanged a few more words and soon they got into James's car, James offering me a wave before getting fully inside. I smiled sadly in response. Kendall came back around and into the drivers seat.

"Now we go to the ER." Kendall said as I nodded suddenly very tired.

"Okay." I said before I couldn't control closing my eyes.