Gone Forever by Brielle Kin (all ebook reader TXT) 📖

you before you could kill me. And yes, I do trust you.”
“You wish you had my skills don’t yah?” I asked sarcastically.
“Yes Kate. I sure wish I had your mad skills.” Jake said smiling at me. “But Kate, please don’t tell anyone this information. It’s not that it’s embarrassing, but it’s still useful information. If this information is put in the wrong hands, it could become a weapon to use against me.”
“Don’t worry Jake. I won’t tell anyone. Someone would have to kill me to get information out of me. You should know that I don’t spill any information out about anyone easily.” I said remembering when I first met Jake.
“Yeah, you’re pretty good at not sharing information out about someone. I knew I could trust you.” Jake said with a chuckle. “Looks like Austy is waking up.” I looked over to where Austin was lying. He started to move and moan again.
“Looks like your right.” I said still staring at Austin. “And really Jake, Austy?”
“What? He calls me Jakey. I have to have some nickname for him. He’s as much trouble as you.” Jake said getting up out of his seat.
“I’m not that much trouble.” I said getting up out of my seat too. “What do you mean that Austin’s as much trouble as me? Why do you say that?”
“Trust me. You don’t know him like I do. Remember, you just met him yesterday. I’ve known him for about a year and a half. He’s a huge trouble maker. He begged President Cove for him to do this mission. He must be very fond of you.” Jake said with a smirk on his face.
“Yeah, I’m sure he is. We’re just friends.” I said sitting back down. “Look Austin’s coming back.” Jake walked over to Austin’s side as he started moving.
“Hey Austin, feel better?” Jake asked Austin as he was opening his eyes.
“You could say that. What happened? All I remember was that I was going to get some logs for firewood and then I fell.” Austin said sitting up.
“You must have gotten scratched by that mutation when you were fighting it. Next thing we know, you’re on the ground screaming. Kate wanted to help you but I wouldn’t let her because, well, you know why you shouldn’t get close to a person who’s been scratched.” Jake said helping Austin to his feet.
“Okay, first of all yeah, you wouldn’t let me go close to him and second of all, you weren’t even going to do anything like you should of!” I said looking at Jake.
“Yeah, yeah, but we did do something.” Jake said looking at me back. “We saved him. Isn’t that all that counts.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I said looking a little embarrassed.
“Wait, so how did you guys save me if you couldn’t go near me?” Austin said trying to get into our conversation.
“Well, Kate insisted that I do something so I did. She was like yelling at me again.” Jake continued. I just gave him a long hard glare. He of course gave one right back at me. “After I shot you with medicine, Kate put matters into her own hands. She has had experience with snake bites before so she knew what to do.”
“Really? Well doesn’t that sound like the Kate we all used to know?” Austin said with a smile on his face. “It’s good to have the old Kate back.” The smile on my face disappeared when I heard Austin’s last words. It’s good to have the old Kate back. What does that mean? I knew I had changed but I didn’t think I’ve changed that much.
“What do you mean?” I asked a little puzzled and mad.
“I mean, a couple of years ago you would always help the school nurse. After your father left, you’ve changed quite a bit.” Austin said catching himself from falling.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said quickly. I knew exactly what Austin was talking about but didn’t want to admit it. I’ve never really talked about my life after my dad died. Occasionally I would talk about it but not very often. That’s one of those things that I only say aloud when I’m in the forest alone.
Before my father died, I used to help him at school. He was one of the doctors there so he let me help him in between classes. That’s how my whole interest in medicine got started. My dad always said that I was really good at being a doctor and said I should go into the field of medicine. I loved that idea at the time and wanted it more than ever. I decided right then and there that when I got older, I would follow in my father’s footsteps. Of course, that was before he left us. After he left I made up my mind that I would never be a doctor. I didn’t want to do anything that reminded me about the times I had with my father. Apparently everyone still remembers my love for medicine.
“Of course you do!” Austin said bringing me back into reality. “Remember, you always helped your dad at the school and the…”
“Okay okay. I think we get it.” I said cutting him off. I didn’t want any more talk about my past being brought up. By now everyone was staring at me like I just did something really bad. “Um…are you hungry Austin?” I said trying to change the subject.
“Yeah, I’ll eat something if there’s anything left.” Austin said giving Jake and I a hard glance.
“Oh trust me Austin, I made sure Kate didn’t eat it all.” Jake said trying to cheer me up. I just lightly smiled and kept my head down.
“I can see Kate doing that!” Austin said laughing. Apparently, he didn’t see me behind him upset. Otherwise this conversation would have ended. I watched Austin make his way to a log. He stumbled a couple of times but he got himself back up. Austin seemed a little weird. He didn’t ever talk about my past to other people unless he had my permission. And I centrally didn’t give him my permission. I started to think that the venom got to his brain and made him go loopy.
“Kate?” Jake asked me. Jake slowed down so that he was right next to me as we were watching Austin make his way to a log.
“Yeah?” I asked realizing he was right by me.
“Is everything okay?” he asked. “You seemed a little upset after Austin started talking about your life. It’s almost like you didn’t want him to talk about it at all.”
“Yeah. I don’t really like it when people talk about my past. Especially if that person you’re talking about is standing right next to you.” I said shaking my head. “My life isn’t that great and no one really knows about it unless I told them.”
“I see. So you’ve had a rough past. We’ve all had one of those. Take my past for example. I didn’t want my parents to die. Do you think that was easy for me to just leave them there buried under all that rebel? I’ve had hard times just like you. I know what you’re going through. Trust me.” Jake said looking at me with his gently, kind eyes. I couldn’t help but smile. Jake was really nice and it’s glad to know that he knows what I’m going through.
“Thanks!” I said shyly.
“Don’t mention it.” Jake said smiling down at me.
“Jake?” I asked him as we were just about ready to sit down.
“Yes Kate?” Jake asked sitting down. Austin was on the other side of the fire so hopefully he wouldn’t hear me.
“Is it just me or does Austin seem a little strange?” I asked looking at Austin.
“What do you mean by strange?” Jake said grabbing a bottle of water out of his pack.
“I mean, does he seem like himself?” I asked while staring at Austin. He was now throwing all his stuff out of his backpack.
“Yeah, sort of.” Jake said looking at Austin too. “He seems a little loopy. It might still be from the medicine we shot into him. The medication should wear off. If it doesn’t, we’ll just take him to the medic’s in Sten.”
“Are you sure it’s because of the medicine? I was thinking it was because of the poison. I probably didn’t clean it out good enough and the poison is probably spreading as we speak!” I said starting to worry. “And if the poison continues, he could lose it. He could die! Oh Jake! What do we do?”
“First of all, calm down. He’s not going to die. Trust me!” Jake said looking at me in the eyes.
“How do you know?” I said quietly looking at him in the eyes.
“Because, we’ll get him to the medic’s in time. If we get moving soon, we can get there to save him. Like I said before, trust me.” Jake said still looking at me in the eyes.
“I trust you. But we need to go now. I can’t lose another friend.” I said almost about to cry.
“I know. He doesn’t have a lot of time left so we need to get going. We’re almost to Sten anyway.” Jake said trying to calm me down.
He doesn’t have a lot of time left. That simple sentence kept going through my mind. It made me worry even more.
“Austin! Don’t eat that!” Jake said getting up from the log. “That’s not food, it’s a rock!” Jake was now running to Austin trying to get him to put the rock down. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. I’ve got to say, that cheered me up a little. I decided to go help Jake out with Austin because they were fighting over the rock.
“Boys, stop fighting!” I said grabbing the rock from both of their hands. “We need to get going.”
“Kate’s right. Austin, grab your backpack. We need to get going.” Jake said standing up from his sitting position.
“Okay. Where are we going?” Austin said reaching for his backpack. Jake just looked at me with a concern look.
“Home.” Jake finally said.

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Publication Date: 05-16-2012

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