Notes

CHAPTER ONE: First Morning


We stopped and took at second to view the sunrise, "Our... our very first independent morning!"

As we walked we all looked at the forest, I can't believe we're finally out, we walked throughout the forest and stayed back to help the youngest ones get over the roots, I noticed the younger kids were getting tired, mostly cheering each other on.

"Okay everyone! Time to rest! Let's eat breakfast here!" Everyone sat down, I noticed we all had bread, 'so they weren't able to take that much food either', "Emma, aren't you eating with us?" I turned to see Emma talking to one of the younger kids, "No, I'll stay here and keep watch."

I got up and started walking towards her when one of the younger kids stopped me by tugging on my sleeve, I turned to see Evelyn, "Aren't you gonna eat?" I kneeled down to her level and pat her head, "Yeah, just give me a minute okay? Why don't you try talking to the other kids?" She nodded and went off to the others.

"Emma, right?" She turned to look at me, "Yup! And you are...?" I looked up at the clouds in the sky, "Rosalina, just call me Rose or Rosa, it's easier," she smiled, "Got it!"

"Heyoooooo," I saw her get hit with a jar of water from the corner of my eyes, "We're fine, at the very least there aren't any wild predators in this area, I can't find any footprints or droppings in the area, tracks are always, just like they are in tag, go rest a little I'll take your place," she looked over at me and smiled, then she walked away, "Thanks,"

"I'm sorry, if I had been part of the plan from the start, maybe you wouldn't have had to hurt your hand and ear," that's when I remembered, 'THE TRACKERS!!!' I reached for my ear and sure enough it was still there.

"I apologized to Anna, but her response was, 'More importantly, happy birthday', I can't believe I was ready to let them die before, despite that everyone is so nice today," 'he was really gonna leave them behind? Now that I think about it, didn't Angel say something like that, about how we'd only make it if us three, or five considering Ava and Avery'

"Emma, I'm going to live," I feel like they forgot I was standing here, "I'm going to live and protect my family, same as you, I'm going to protect every single one of them, this time... this time I truly promise, no matter what happens I won't cut them off," I started thinking about Sal, 'I wonder what she's up to now...'

My eyes watered and all I could think about was what the others are up to, "Rosa! Are you okay?" I turned to see Emma, "Huh? Yeah I'm fine, just thinking," I wiped the tears off my face, "I should've mentioned this before, but, the trackers, Lewis never found out how to get rid of them,"

"What? You idiot! We're gonna get caught now!" Emma told him to shut up, "Don't worry, I still have this," she got out this device, I couldn't quite make out what it was, "Put this behind your ear and press this button, you and all your siblings, it deactivates the trackers!"

I smiled, thanked her, and took the device, I deactivated my tracker first and passed it around letting all the others use it, after they were done I went to hand it back to Emma, "Emma-" One of them opened a pen and a hologram hovered over it, "B01-14?"

"LANI!" One of the kids started screaming, we ran back to him, "What's up, Thoma?" The kid they called 'Thoma' was visibly freaking out, "Emma! Ray! This is bad! LANI DISAPPEARED!" My eyes widened, 'disappeared? Wait I've heard about this'

"WHAT'S GOING ON? WAS HE ATTACKED? OR DID HE GET LOST?"

"NO, NO, NO! HE JUST SUDDENLY VANISHED INTO THIN AIR! We were walking together, just a second ago, but then, I looked over and he was gone!" Everyone started looking for him, and calling out his name.

"Ray! I'm gonna look for-"

"WAIT!" We both yelled out simultaneously, "I think I know where he is..." Emma looked over at me, "You do?!"

"There's no response from anyone, they didn't get lost or attacked, they're..." my eyes widened in horror, no way this was real, I read a book about something so similar but still, "THEY'RE RIGHT BELLOW US!" The moment I yelled we all fell, Emma grabbed one of the younger kids who was with us, and Thoma latched onto me.

"Where are we?" I looked over to the kid that was with me, "Thoma- You okay?" he nodded, "Yeah!" Emma looked at me, "So you were right, but how did-"

"HOW DID YOU KNOW?! DID YOU PLAN THIS OR SOMETHING?!"

"What- no! I just-" Emma stepped in between us, "Okay- why don't we- calm down!"

"Emma, you can't just let a random group of kids join us and expect me to be so calm about it, what if they were sent by mom! You saw her talking to mom-" I was tired of all these accusations, "I DID IT TO HELP MY SISTER! I'M NOT A SPY- AND NEITHER ARE ANY OF THE KIDS IN MY FAMILY!"

"AND I'M SUPOSSED TO JUST BELIEVE THAT!" I sighed, "Alright then, you don't wanna get along, that's fine with me, but I'll be getting my family out of here, the rest of you can die here if that's what you want," Emma rushed over to me, "Rosa! Wait- look just calm down, if you really know how to get out we're gonna need your help- please?"

I looked over at Ray and back at Emma, "You're not gonna leave us are you?" It was the younger kid that stuck with us before the fall, I didn't really care about anything else but protecting my family, but all the kids with them seemed to be really young, I couldn't leave them behind, that would be a horrible thing to do, leaving young children to die.

I sighed, "Fine, follow me," Emma smiled and cheered, we walked through the darkness for a while before hearing voices, "EMMA!!" That voice I didn't recognize, but I did recognize the one I heard after it, "ROSA!!"

"LEWIS!" I ran towards the voices and the others followed, soon we found everyone, "I-I was scared that you got hurt.." I looked down to see Evelyn, she was looking down at her shoes, probably crying, I pat her head, "Hey, you don't have to worry, I'm fine, if anything I want you to worry about the others more, okay?" She hugged me and smiled, "Okay!"