Thirteen's POV

"You know, when you said hike I immediately envisioned a tree-filled, shady, forest-"

"Your mistake." I interrupt but Devin keeps talking as if I'd said nothing at all.

"Not a one hundred degree heat, cactus-filled, rocky, sandy, dusty, desert."

"I told you to wear shorts. It's not my fault you decided not to listen to me."

"You also told me to wear warm clothes. I'm ecstatic I chose to ignore that suggestion as well."

"No, I told you to pack warm clothes. The temperature drops really low at night. You'll freeze, but that's not necessarily my problem."

"Uh, yes it is. If I freeze I'm suing you."

"If you freeze you'll be dead," Jason interjects before I have the chance to respond. "You won't be suing anyone."

"That's what you think." Devin retorts and I can practically hear the smile I know he's got plastered on his face.

I shake my head and continue on, kicking smaller rocks out of my way as I go. I'm in the lead since nobody else knows how to get there. Cody's behind me, Devin's behind Cody, Jason's behind Devin, Chase is behind Jason and...Elaine's in last.

Originally Elaine was in front of Devin. But with her constant complaints and irritating remarks....well, let's just say Cody could sense how close I was to turning around and snapping her neck. So she was pushed down the line to the back.

She also couldn't really keep up with us very well to begin with and was continuously asking for us to stop, to take a break.

Yeah with me in the lead...not ever freaking happening. This hike was already taking longer than I had thought.

Unfortunately, not taking a break was definitely taking its toll on me. I'm still not healed and every step, every breath, was causing me pain. Luckily since I'm in the front none of the boys can see that I've torn the stitches in my leg and the blood's beginning to run down the front of my leg after already soaking through the bandage.

My ribs are causing me pain with every breath I take, and the backpack on my pack is certainly not helping. But am I going to take a break, or even ask for one? No.

My shorts are doing absolutely nothing to keep the blood from running down my legs and soaking into the socks that end just below my knee. I'm actually wishing I'd wore pants. At least it would help soak up the blood.

Devin pretended to faint when I came out of the bathroom this morning wearing a white tank top and tan shorts. I had no intentions of wearing black while walking through a desert in constant sunlight.

The boys all chose to wear basically the same thing as me, tank tops, shorts, long socks, and hiking boots...well all except Devin. He wore pants.

"How much longer until we get there? My feet are killing me." Elaine whines and I roll my eyes and clench my teeth in irritation.

"Well maybe if you'd worn proper hiking shoes like I'd given you, you wouldn't be having this problem," I respond shortly.

It's not my fault she decided to wear a pair of sandals. Who wears sandals when going on a long hike? Unless it's on the beach.

And it's not like the rest of her outfit is any better. Short shorts and the smallest tank top she could find. I really hope she didn't bring any clothes for tonight...let her freeze.

"You didn't tell me we were going to be walking through rocks for hours!" She hisses back at me and I roll my eyes again.

"What do you think hiking means? I told you to stay at the hotel but no, you just had to come along."

"You would've left me alone! I could get killed or kidnapped!"

"Believe me if you got kidnapped, they'd return you, and nobody's going to put in the effort to kill you. They'd just be wasting their time. That's the only reason I haven't done it."

She lets out a sound that's like a scream of protest she's trying hard to keep from escaping her throat. I don't bother turning around to look at her, and I can hear Jason snickering from up here.

I take another step but the pain in my leg is suddenly too much. My foot slips out from under me and I fall forwards, landing on my hands and knees, rocks digging into my skin, dirt and sand mixing with the blood on my leg.

I feel a pair of hands grab hold of my arm, pulling me to my feet.

"You alright?" Cody questions.

I pull my arm from his grasp and wipe the sand off on my shorts. "I'm fine," I mutter.

His eyes scan over me before landing on my leg. He gives me a look that clearly says, 'yeah you're fine.'

"I'm fine," I repeat with a little more force in my voice than before.

"Just sit down for a second and clean up your wound."

I shake my head. "We're already behind schedule." I hoist my backpack up higher on my shoulders. "I'm fine Cody."

"It doesn't do you any good to keep going like this. Just take a minute." He holds up his hand to silence me when I open my mouth to protest. "We've brought enough supplies to spend three nights at this place if we have to. We have time, so take a break. You obviously need one."

"I'm fine," I reply again and he glares at me.

"I'm really beginning to hate those words."

I let out a sigh. "Cody-"

"Oh for the love of-" Jason cuts me off but doesn't finish his sentence as he grabs hold of the back of my backpack and drags me over towards a large rock. He places his hands on my shoulders and pushes me down so I'm sitting.

"Take a damn break before you die of blood loss, you idiot." He grumbles as he removes my backpack from my shoulders and drops it on the ground beside me. I glare harshly at him.

"How come she gets a break but I don't?" Elaine whines and Jason shoots her a glare that causes her to shut up.

"She's injured. What's your excuse?" Cody retorts and doesn't look up at her from removing the bandages on my leg. He pulls out some fresh ones from his backpack.

"Your ribs hurt?" He asks as he wipes away the blood on my leg and starts rewrapping it.

"No, they just miraculously healed two minutes ago."

He glares at me from where he's kneeled in front of me. His face clearly conveying how much my sarcasm is appreciated.

"A simple yes would've been fine." He mumbles, tying off the bandage.

"I thought you didn't like that word."

"Only when it comes out of your mouth." He gets back to his feet and brushes the dirt off his legs. I reach over to grab my backpack only to discover it's no longer there.

I look over to Jason, who's got his backpack slung over one shoulder, and mine on the other. I get up and walk over to take it from him. He holds his hand up to stop me.

"Not happening. I could push you over if I felt the need to and the extra weight is not going to do anything except worsen your leg. I'm carrying the pack, end of discussion."

"You're going to get tired faster." I protest. "Just give it back to me."

"Firstly, you clearly don't understand the saying, end of discussion. Secondly, there's this amazing thing we boys can do called taking turns."

I scowl at him and grumble a string of curse words under my breath.

"A thank-you would be nice," Devin speaks up, holding his hand behind his ear, waiting for me to say something.

I glare at him and start back on my way, carefully avoiding putting a lot of pressure on my leg. "Thank-you," I say without turning to look at him.

***

I push through the dried up and dead bushes less than a hundred feet from the entrance of the building. It's old and crumbling. All the windows are blown out and the door hangs there on its hinges. There are cracks and holes running all over the building, and whatever paint was used to cover it up has long since faded away.

"We came all this way, for this?" Devin throws his hands up and makes a face like it's the most revolting thing he's ever seen.

"Looks abandoned." Jason comments.

"I don't see anyone on the outside."

"It is," I respond simply, my voice soft.

"For someplace that supposedly has valuable information, it looks abandoned."

I begin to walk towards it slowly as if it's just going to crumble and fade away into nothing but dust.

"It's your call. Do you still want to go in or not?"

"Yep. Let's go..."

I pull open the door with little effort and walk in. The floors are covered in sand, dirt, and whatever else has been blown in throughout the years. I hear the boy's footsteps as they walk in behind me.

There are several desks, some broken, some still standing. There are computers on every desk, but they're all broken or completely covered in dust.

"There's no one here"

I take a few more cautious steps into the room as if something's going to jump out at me. I try my best to shut out the memories.

Chase walks up to one of the ancient computers as if he's planning on turning it on and seeing if it still works.

"You're not going to get anywhere with that," I announce, my voice echoing across the empty building. "The computers don't have anything on them."

"The computer's have all been wiped."

"How do you know?" Chase questions.

"They knew we were coming?"

"Cause there was nothing on them the last time I was here."

"When was the last time you were here?" Devin asks curiously. I look away from him and glance around, avoiding his gaze.

"You think someone betrayed us?"

"If they did what would you do?"

"Kill them."

My eyes lock onto the hallway leading to one of the other rooms. I repress a shudder, and my hand instinctively goes to my dagger.

"And what if it just so happened to be one of us?"

"A long time ago." I finally answer my voice almost a whisper.

"I'd still kill you."

"How long is a long time ago?" Cody asks, taking a step towards me. I still don't look at any of them.

Instead, I walk till I'm standing exactly in the middle of the room. I lower myself to the ground till I'm on my knees. I reach my hand out slowly and begin to wipe away the sand covering the floor. Nobody says anything.

There's a collective sharp intake of breath as I uncover the marks on the floor. The stains on the floor.

"What is that?" Chase questions, taking a step closer to look over my shoulder at the stains.

"Blood," I respond simply, my voice sounding cold and distant even to my own ears. Elaine lets out a squeal.

The gun goes off, and I hear her scream.

"When was the last time you were here?" Devin asks more forcefully.

I suck in a shaky breath and stare at the blood permanently stained into the floor.

"Drop the gun."

"Looks like I'm the one with the upper hand."

"I said drop the gun!"

I finally turn to face them, getting slowly to my feet as I do so.

"When seven agents walked in. But only one agent and a traitor walked out."

Just a heads up, I likely won't be updating again this week cause I'm going to be taking my dreaded finals...blame my school and teachers.

Sorry.

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