She loved their small day of silence, just being able to endulge in one another without any interruptions. She’d never had anything such as this, and she wasn’t anywhere close to being ready to let it go. She’d keep him with her if it meant giving herself up in the process—something she didn’t have the chance to do for her brother. To say she was disappointed when he explained his need to leave was an understatement, but she simply nodded in understanding. “Okay, be careful.” She gave him a gentle goodbye kiss, squeezing his hand as he left the room.<br/><br/>After he left she went about getting out of bed, deciding she needed to do something with her time before the day is up. She walked into the livingroom where all their frantically written papers lay, beginning to get them together in an organized stack. She planned to clean her gear while Carson was gone, however before she could fetch it, a knock sounded on the door.<br/>“Come in,” she called from her crouched position, looking up when a familiar face entered. The boy from the funeral, and the boy who thanked Carson—Luke. He had swept up blonde hair and striking blue eyes, with the same raven tattoo as her behind his ear.<br/><br/>“Hey,” He greeted her with a small smile, walking over and hugging her tightly, which she gladly accepted and returned. “I’m sorry about Ollie... we all are.” He stepped away, running a hand through his hair. “And as much as we all want to grieve, we’ve got a huge problem.” His ocean eyes held an urgency to them.<br/><br/>Within the next ten minutes, the Wood house was filled with about six other Land Runners, all standing around the table in the living room. Malia had long gotten dressed, minus the gear. She stood at the front of the table, Luke standing next to her, and the others around the sides. Luke cleared his throat, crossing his arms over his chest. “Alright, about three hours ago we got a distress signal from the Northern Oackley chapter. A small group up in Araphoe went ahead and checked it out and... they’re gone. They’re all gone. There was one survivor, most likely left on purpose who said a ground of Striders did this. Striders with skull tattoos. He said they’re wiped out three chapters so far, and then plan to take them all.” He looked to Malia, then back to the group.<br/><br/>“Okay, so what the fuck do we do?” A voice from across Malia piped up.<br/><br/>“We have to send a patrol, make sure that we can keep an advantage, we have to reinforce.” Another voice.<br/><br/>“Guys, just take a second here, we don’t know if we’re in immediate danger. I mean, Oakley is far from here, unless there’s more than one group we have time. Time to prepare, to band together.”  Luke snapped to the other two, but Malia held a hand up.<br/><br/>“Gregor had a skull tattoo.” Marie looked back up, glancing around the group. “He was trying to use a huntsmen to kill me, to get Oliver on his side but...” just as she was about to speak up, Carson walked through the door. “But we-“ she gestured to Carson after all heads turned to him. “Have been trying to find out what they mean.”<br/><br/>“Well we know they’re trying to kill us,”<br/><br/>“But we don’t know who they are.” Malia defended. “We can’t make any rash decisions. We have to double, to triple our security, no one comes in or out without going through us first.”<br/><br/>“Tell me something, if striders are wiping us out why the fuck is he here?” A deep voice belonging to a boy named Tanner pointed to Carson.<br/><br/>“Because I trust him, and that should be enough for you.” Malia snapped.<br/><br/>“Yeah, because you’re banging him.”<br/><br/>“Okay, Seriously? Enough.” Luke defended, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We can’t let the stress get to us,” he looked to Tanner, who sighed and nodded, reaching over and giving Malia’s shoulder a squeeze. “Besides, now that Oliver is gone, Malia holds place as Lead Runner.” He gave her a smile.<br/><br/>Malia returned it, running a hand through her hair to address the group. “We need to talk to the council, I know that other runners probably already have, but we need to as well. Luke will be Lead,” she looked to him, nudging him, “and I’m saying this because I’m going to be doing some pretty stupid stuff here soon. We need a Lead here while I’m gone.”<br/><br/>The group hummed in agreement, talking amongst themselves, until Carson walked up. They stared up to him, questioning eyes overtaking their angry ones. Malia looked up to him, gesturing to the arrow in his hand. “What’s that from?”