Chapter 175 ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE

Chapter 175 ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE
Scarlett's POV

When we entered the shack, the first thing I saw was Blue lying on a raised, flat, padded surface near the center wall. The nurse was seated beside him, looking like she was carefully retying his white bandages.

Jax was knocked out cold beside him, resting in a seated, reclined position against the floor, his back propped against the wall. He hadn't woken up yet from the hit Blue gave him earlier. Tanner was also moved to lie down on a makeshift bed in another corner of the room, looking pale but resting quietly.

Rachael seemed to be making something over a small portable stove in the back corner. The air smelled strongly of hot soup. I walked over to her, offering a small smile. "What are you making?"

Rachael looked up, stirring the pot with a wooden spoon. "They had some herbs and local ingredients to make a simple broth, so I thought I could fix us something hot before we have to leave."

"Oh, we are leaving?" I asked.

"Yes," Rachael said softly. "Stan thinks it's too dangerous for us to stay here for long."

I nodded and walked away to meet Stan. He was standing by one of the two small windows in the shack, peering outside suspiciously through a narrow crack. I had no idea what had him so much on edge, but his posture was really stiff.

I took a quick count of everyone I could see in the room. Together with myself and Blue, there were thirteen people in total packed into the small shelter.

"So how soon do you think we should leave?" I asked Stan.

Stan looked at me, then carefully shut the window shutter, preventing the dim torchlights inside from making the shack obvious to any outsiders who might be looking in our direction.

"Some hours," Stan said quietly.

The nurse materialized beside us, wiping her hands on a cloth. "Tomorrow morning," she corrected firmly. "We must not move Blue or Tanner tonight at all. They need absolute rest and immobility to keep their wounds stable."

Stan frowned, clearly wanting to push on, but he eventually nodded in agreement.

"Why are you so worried?" I asked him.

"They might start checking the surrounding areas outside Bellamy for any escaping students," Stan explained, his brow furrowed. "This place is uncomfortably close to the perimeter."

"In my opinion, they have to get the main institute safe and secured first," I reasoned. "They need to find all the missing, dead, hidden, or injured students inside the institute and treat those that can be saved. Only then will they start to be concerned about those suspected to have escaped."

Stan hummed, considering my words. "We wait then. Get some sleep, Scarlett."

"Well, food first," I said. "Rachael is making something."

Stan’s eyes went over to Rachael as if just realizing what she was doing. He walked over to her, bent down, and wrapped his arms around her waist where she was seated on a low wooden stool.

I walked back to the padded bed and sat beside Blue, gently brushing his dark hair away from his face. He looked so peaceful while sleeping—it was as if, even in his unconscious state, he knew he was finally free from Bellamy, free from his father, and free from his old ways.

A little while later, Rachael dished out the soup. It turned out to be thick and surprisingly delicious, albeit having a somewhat ancient, earthy taste to it. I ate my portion quickly and carefully saved some in a small bowl for Blue when he woke up.

After eating, I lay down beside him on the narrow padded surface, being extremely careful not to jostle his shoulder, and fell fast asleep.

I woke up hours later to the distant sound of dogs barking and a firm hand pressing over my mouth.

I snapped my eyes open, feeling the familiar, grounding presence of Blue. He leaned in closer to me but whisper-shouted to the dark room, "Don't put on any light."

He pulled his hand off my mouth and gingerly pulled his tattered, blood-stained shirt back on over his bandages.

Everyone in the shack was awake now, moving silently in the shadows.

Blue stood up, his jaw set. "We must leave now."

He opened the rickety door, and I could see through the frame that it was almost daybreak, the sky turning a soft greyish-blue.

Day one of being free, I thought to myself, a small spark of excitement blooming in my chest.

We all filed out of the shack into the cool morning air.

Once we were outside under the trees, Blue turned around and addressed the group. "Does anyone have places they want to go off to by themselves?"

A couple of the guys from Blue's group raised their hands, including Jax, who stepped forward.

Blue looked at Jax, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Where are you going to?"

Jax gave a rare, wistful smile, rubbing the back of his neck. "I will go look for my mother first. I'll come find you later on."

"You sound pretty confident about that," Blue said, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure am," Jax replied plainly.

Blue turned to address the other guys who wanted to leave, asking them why and where they were planning to head. They answered briefly, shook hands, and started to leave one by one, disappearing into the morning mist.

Blue looked back over at Jax. "Alright then. I'll see you later."

Jax nodded, his hands twitching awkwardly by his sides as if he didn't know how to end the moment.

"Oh, hug it out already," I chimed in, rolling my eyes.

Both of them looked visibly uncomfortable by the idea, so I stepped up and physically pushed Blue closer to Jax. Forced into the moment, they shared a short, awkward hug, but it was surprisingly heartwarming to watch.

They pulled away, and Jax walked over to stand in front of me. "I don't know if I ever said this properly, Scarlett... but I am sorry for how badly I treated you. You came along and ruined the picture I had in my head of how things were supposed to be. I didn't know that there was a bigger picture."

I smiled softly at him. "It's fine, Jax."

"Please take good care of Blue, and take care of yourself," Jax said firmly.

He walked over, patted Tanner's uninjured side, and then sauntered away down the dirt path, blending into the breaking day.

Now, there were just seven of us left behind in the clearing.

Blue looked around at the small remaining group—me, himself, Tanner, Stan, Rachael, Orion, and the nurse. "I don't suppose anybody here owns a house we can go to?"

Orion cleared his throat awkwardly, stepping forward. "My grandmother passed away a while back and left me a ranch. But it's quite a distance from here... that's if I can even still remember the way."

Blue narrowed his grey eyes at Orion, staring at him intently as if trying to judge just how trustworthy the guy actually was.

Tanner spoke up quietly from behind us, his voice raspy. "Let's go, boss."

Blue looked back at Tanner and apparently decided that Tanner's faith in Orion was good enough. "Alright. We will go to Orion’s place to recuperate first."

Blue was obviously moving much more sluggishly than normal. The nurse looked to have pumped a solid dose of strong painkillers into both him and Tanner before we left the shack. Thank goodness she had brought her medical box along with her.

"I'll go with you for now to monitor your wounds," the nurse said to Blue, "but I will leave afterwards."

Blue nodded in agreement.

We trekked a long distance through the countryside, the sun fully rising into the bright morning sky before we finally reached a dusty secondary road. Up ahead, we spotted a middle-aged man stepping up to enter the cab of his open-bed truck. He looked to be a local fruit farmer.

Rachael immediately walked closer to the man, putting on a pitiful, helpless expression. She explained a convincing story about how we had gotten lost on a group camping trip and desperately needed a ride back.

The middle-aged man took one look at our tired group and eagerly gestured for us to climb into the open back of his truck.

We all scrambled into the wooden bed, sitting among empty fruit crates. As the engine sputtered to life and the truck started moving down the road, I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the cool wind rushing through my hair.

I leaned in close to Blue, resting my head against his uninjured arm. "What about the money Greg put in my name? It would be of huge use to us right now."

Blue looked down at me, a confident smirk touching his lips. "I already have a way for us to get it. We just have to make sure we don't get caught by any authority along the way. That would just put us right back to a bitter square one."