"Sometimes you search so hard for words. You look for a way to interpret the language of this heart and the unspoken bond you feel. But in the end you are left with nothing but silence. And deep down you hope it's understood." -- Yasmin Mogahed.

- - - - -

The heavy rain sounded thunderous as it poured down upon the little cabin.

Lightning struck through the air. Once. Twice. And again, leaving a blinding white flash behind. The sky was made up of shades of black and dark blue. The Sun was hidden behind the angry clouds and the houses lights were left on, illuminating the sidewalks in an eerie yellow glow, and not one car was seen on the road nor was one person.

The expected rain showers had finally arrived, but had very, very bad timing.

"Come on. Now of all times," Lucas repeated for the umpteenth time.

He pressed his palms against the cabin's window and leaned his forehead against the cold surface. The rain trickled down and the mist made it difficult to see what was happening outside.

He shivered and rubbed his arms to gain some warmth. The cabin was cold since there was only one heater. Everyone was dressed warmly besides Reece who was wearing a thin shirt.

Reece rolled his eyes. "Would you chill out? It's not the end of the world, you know."

Lucas turned away from the window to look at his friend.

He gave him an irritated look and blew out a breath. Reece pushed him out of the way and stood by the window. His vibrant green eyes stared back at him as he looked outside.

He gave Lucas a side glance and then asked, "Why are you so worked up anyway?"

Lucas sighed. "I don't even know."

Reece grinned and crossed his arms.

"Something's up with you," he paused, thinking.

"You never help someone unless it involves money or something you want, so why are you helping this girl? As far as I know -- which is everything -- she's not giving you anything in return."

Lucas tensed and didn't reply. Reece gave him a knowing look and broke into a fit of laughter.

Lucas, clueless as to what he's laughing at, raised an eyebrow. "And what exactly is your conclusion?"

That made Reece laugh harder, and after a few minutes he looked at Lucas who was impatiently waiting for an answer.

"Dude, you can't be serious. Are you that dumb?"

Lucas blew out a long breath and tried to figure out what he was thinking. He knew Reece had a tricky mind, and he could never figure out what he was thinking. But majority of the time, Reece was always right. He could do almost anything he wanted to, and that's a lot of things.

Reece noticed Lucas' impatience and looked him straight in the eye. "You like her. That's why you're helping her."

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Anything I say isn't going to make a difference, so I won't say anything."

Reece chuckled and gave him a knowing look before walking out of the room.

He went into the kitchen, recalling the last place he saw Sam.

She was the only other person awake; everyone else was still fast asleep, including the housekeeper. He found her sitting at the table with an untouched cereal bowl in front of her. She looked tired and distressed and was staring into the bowl, mindlessly stirring its contents.

He called her a few times, but she remained unresponsive, lost in thought.

He sighed knowing that what he was going to do next would make her jump out of her skin, even though it's just a tap on the shoulder.

When he did it, however, she simply carried on as before and said, "Yeah?"

He was surprised that she responded differently to everyone else and it took him a few seconds before he pulled out the chair next to her and sat down.

"You okay?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. Why you ask?"

"No reason," he shook his head making his untamed blonde curls bounce.

She nodded again.

Reece sighed. He never dealt with this before, so he didn't know what to do.

"Are we just gonna stay here the whole day?" he asked.

He normally took things into his own hands, but this was her group and he couldn't just take control and decide what to do. It was difficult, but he managed.

She shrugged. "We can't go out in this weather, it's better if we wait. We can plan in the mean time."

He nodded. "Yip."

After a few minutes of silence he asked, "Why exactly are we doing this? Luke didn't tell me a lot."

She sighed. "The week after school ended, we went camping at Forest Hills with all of our friends. Only a few days later, we found Sally. Chief's crew investigated it all, but found nothing. Then her boyfriend, Drake, was beaten for info on me. I was told that they were after me. Chief made me stay in the house all the time, I wasn't allowed to leave."

"But you're here now."

"Yeah. I need to figure out why they're after me. They're dangerous, they kill innocent people. I don't know why they want me."

"Do you have something that we can follow? A lead? Anything?" he asked.

"I have a few things. We just need to find out where their location is," she replied.

Reece nodded. He started formulating a plan. Sam only looked up then and saw him deep in thought.

She rubbed her tired eyes and stifled a yawn.

Last night, she hadn't been able to sleep at all. Everything that happened hadn't left her alone and it forced her to over think it all. And then she realised that she didn't even know what she was doing. It suddenly hit her that they could die if they went through with this.

Images flitted through her mind: Sally, Drake, the warehouse, the anchor, those pictures, plans after plans after plans, possible things that could happen to them, everything the Chief and her friends said about this, what their parents and Chief think about their stupid decision, the consequences they'll face when they get back and what would happen to her after she finds out the reason.

She placed her elbows on the table and put her face in her hands. She was starting to doubt this. She was driven by a whirlwind of emotions and wasn't thinking properly when she decided to do this.

She sighed.

Now what must I do? It's not like I can turn back after coming this far. Everyone trusts that you know what you doing, she thought.

That made her cringe as she realised that she wasn't getting anywhere with this.

Sam noticed that Reece had left the small kitchen without her realising. She yawned and her eyes closed automatically. And before she knew it she was fast asleep.

- - -

Several days passed and the rain still hadn't stopped. The streets were looking like rivers, the grass was moist with water and the air was fresh and humid.

But Sam didn't mind, unlike everyone else who was bored out of their mind, she used that time to catch up on sleep and plan non-stop.

Reece and Lucas helped sometimes, and everyone else popped in ideas here and there. Jay-Jay helped Sam feel positive again after he found out that she was doubting herself.

She also asked about his sisters, Nia and Jasmine, when she remembered that she hadn't seen them for very long. They would usually visit once a week, and when she asked why they hadn't, Jay-Jay said that they had visited their family in the countryside and stayed there for a while.

Brand managed to cheer everyone up for a while with one of his ridiculous 'methods'.

George and Natt kept each other occupied by bickering the whole day, which only annoyed the others.

Carter and Chris used things around the cabin to make traps, pranks, you name it, and Reece and Lucas listened to Chief and Reece's dad, Flynn, office and house phone conversations regarding the case.

They also prank called other people when they were bored -- it was very entertaining, Sam even stopped her planning to listen because their pranks were hilarious --, and the others pitched in here and there.

Some people got really angry, though, and started swearing and threatening them, but that only made it more difficult to keep in their laughter -- at some points when they did laugh, the person on the other line probably figured that it was a prank.

Sam decided that now was the right time to explain everything properly and show them the pictures of herself and the anchor on her camera.

She told them everything she did with the Chief and whatever useful things she heard. She gave them information from the office and also told them about the warehouse and everything that she planned over the last couple of days.

After much anger and confusion, they finally worked on the rest of the plan and made many assumptions of who the leader is -- apparently, they thought that the first three letters is the leader's name and the rest is the group's name.

The housekeeper did her job with much difficulty and left after the third day -- unable to stay in the cabin any longer -- and went back to her home.

It was a good thing she stocked up on the food before she left and she missed the rain by just a few minutes.

After two weeks of heavy rain and a house full of busy teenagers -- and not to mention a lot of planning --, the rain finally stopped.

The Sun broke through and the clouds cleared to show the blue sky which was now accompanied by the birds. Cars were back on the road and people came out of their houses to get a breath of fresh -- and still humid -- air.

Sam gave a sigh of relief, glad that she could finally get out of the stuffed cabin.

"Thank God," Brand said, stretching.

"Tell me about it," George added from the window, opening it.

"Let's get outta here," Jay-Jay suggested, all ready standing by the door.

"What are we waiting for?" Carter asked.

Reece chuckled. "You guys are acting like this is your first time going outside."

Lucas punched his arm and Reece gave him a glare in return.

George rolled her eyes. "Whatever. C'mon, guys, let's just go out."

Jay-Jay opened the door, letting out a satisfied sigh, and everyone else filed out after him. Sam smiled and followed after them, breathing in the fresh air and closing her eyes.

You guys are acting like this is your first time going outside. Reece's words echoed in her head and she chuckled when she realised it was true.

"God, you're so annoying," George rolled her eyes at Reece.

"You shouldn't tell God that he's annoying," Reece said.

"I was calling you annoying, not God," she huffed.

Reece just chuckled and ignored her heated glares.

They sat on the grass under one of the many tress that were there.

Sam felt normal again, she felt as if none of the events of the past few weeks happened, it felt like she was her old self again.

She was glad for the distraction because now that the weather's cleared up they'll be back on their journey again. And this time she was ready to face the consequences and had an entire plan worked out with the help of Lucas and Reece.

- - - - -

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Croc