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Chapter 1 The Night We Ran
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We Were Never Meant to Stay Chapter 8 The World Beyond the Cage
I had already tightened my grip on the flamethrower. The instant Julian moved, I pulled the trigger. A blast of fire burst from the nozzle. Flames roared through the darkness, swallowing both figures whole. Their screams ripped through the night. "Run!" Julian shouted. He seized my hand, and we ran. Neither of us dared look back. The screams behind us slowly faded, but the stench of burning flesh lingered in the air, thick and nauseating, clinging to the back of my throat. We ran through the forest in complete darkness. Branches lashed at our faces, and roots snared our feet, but we did not stop. Only when the eastern sky began to pale did we finally collapse beside a narrow stream, gasping for breath. We had lost most of our supplies in the escape, and the little food and water we had left would not last much longer.But we were alive. And we were close. … Two days later, dragging our exhausted bodies forward through sheer will, we finally reached the place mark
We Were Never Meant to Stay Chapter 7 The Masks Came Off
I squeezed my eyes shut in despair. Then, without warning, a blinding beam of light tore through the darkness and struck us full in the face. I threw up an arm to shield my eyes. The light wavered for a moment, then slowly lowered. In that reflected glare, I finally saw who was standing there. For a second, I froze. The shock was so overwhelming that, for a moment, it nearly smothered my fear. The figures standing before us were not monsters, but two people I knew all too well. "How are you here?" The ones who had found us were our homeroom teacher and the dean. Both of them were splattered with mud, and neither carried any gear. Seeing them there in the middle of that wilderness, looking pale and utterly out of place, only made them seem more unnatural. Our homeroom teacher spoke first. "You two little idiots, what do you think you’re doing out here?" he snapped. "Do you have any idea how long the school has been looking for you? How worried your families are?"
We Were Never Meant to Stay Chapter 6 Where It All Began
"Me too," Julian murmured. "We both lost those two days, but do you remember what changed after we came back?" I froze. 'Changed?' His question struck something buried deep in my memory, and suddenly it all came rushing back in a dizzying wave. Before that trip, I had been an ordinary child. If I were being honest, I had been less than ordinary. I was slow, forgetful, and clumsy with schoolwork. I could spend hours memorizing a single poem and still fail at simple math. I was always near the bottom of the class. Julian had not been much different. Back then, he had been a restless troublemaker, always coming home with dirt under his nails and an endless need to run wild. But after Southmere, everything changed. When my fever finally broke, my mind felt sharper than it had ever been before. Books that once confused me suddenly made sense at a glance. Problems that used to leave me struggling seemed to unravel the moment I looked at them. It was as if someone had flippe
We Were Never Meant to Stay Chapter 5 The Truth About Us
The air between us seemed to freeze. Julian stayed silent for what felt like forever. At last, he let out a long, tired breath and gave me a smile that held more bitterness than warmth. "Autumn," he said quietly, "you figured it out sooner than I expected." His voice carried no relief, only a tone of resignation. "They aren't human. They're farmers." His eyes met mine, and the sorrow in them was so deep it made it hard to breathe. "And we… we're the livestock they've been raising for slaughter." For a moment, I could only stare at him. My body went rigid, caught somewhere between shock and disbelief. "Farmers? Livestock?" I echoed. The words twisted through my mind, grotesque and impossible. Part of me had already suspected the truth, but hearing it spoken aloud still made my stomach lurch. Julian's gaze shifted past me, toward the dark edge of the forest beyond the road. "Have you ever wondered why our school cares so much about rankings? Why is every year filled wit
We Were Never Meant to Stay Chapter 4 The Road South
My eyes burned as I looked at Julian. I threw my arms around him, holding on as if he were the only solid thing left in the world. For a moment, he stiffened in surprise. Then, he wrapped his arms around me just as tightly. "We're going to make it," he said quietly. "As long as we stay together." I nodded, even though my throat was too tight to speak. By then, I understood. This was not a wrong turn or a nightmare waiting to end. We were already on a road with no way back. The only direction left was forward.… After that, we never stayed anywhere for long. Julian kept us moving, taking back roads whenever he could and changing our route at every opportunity. The farther south we went, the smaller the towns became. The roads grew rougher, and the world around us seemed to come apart, becoming emptier with every mile. At one stop, we found a black-market dealer and bought a used off-road SUV with cash. We packed the back with far more supplies than any normal trip would
We Were Never Meant to Stay Chapter 3 Where They Couldn't Follow
Tears blurred my vision as I stared at Julian. My voice came out almost as a whisper. "Why didn't you warn anyone? If you knew something was coming… they might still be alive." For a long moment, he said nothing. He looked away, his jaw tight, as though the truth was too painful to face. At last, he broke the silence. "Autumn, I couldn't save them." The words hit with brutal finality. "If I had tried to warn anyone or told them what was coming, it wouldn't have changed anything. We would've died there too." His voice fell lower. "Or maybe worse." His hand tightened around mine. "I couldn't risk our only chance to survive. I couldn't save them. I could only save you. Nothing matters more to me than keeping you alive." I didn't know what to say. He looked exhausted, worn down by something deeper than fear. There was still something boyish in his face, but now it was buried beneath strain, grief, and sleepless dread. And the more he revealed, the less anything made sense
