Epilogue

It had been three weeks since she was forced to leave her father. These past three weeks had seen the girl mature and endure far more than her seventeen years allowed. Vanessa was a girl of the past. She was now the strong, confident girl who went by the name Riley.

Riley had spent most of her days walking around the bush land surrounding Wirrawee in an attempt to waste away her time in the best way possible. She had spent hours upon hours throwing her knife at trees and practicing knife tricks which resulted in an improved her aim and a nice assortment of scars and cuts along her hands. She climbed trees, went swimming in the lake, created a bathroom outside and slept in houses that she had searched and looted. The only thing that she didn't do was practice shooting her gun. She had practiced one round, but it made a lot of noise and wasted ammunition.

It would be wrong to say that the past couple of weeks was a waste because they had really helped her focus her mind. She had to admit, it was lonely, but it helped overcome one of her fears of being by herself. She felt stronger, both mentally and physically. She felt ready for what was to come. Her old self would have relied on luck to get her by and would have permanently relied on houses for shelter, but now it was the complete opposite. She could live in this quiet, natural sanctuary for the rest of her days and backpack through all the nature reserves around Australia and be fine. She was strong and independent. Agile and brave. Riley didn't know that something as simple as the outdoors could make a person so resourceful, but it did, and she felt so much more complete.

Riley didn't want to head back to city, to civilisation, to war. But she had made a promise that she needed to keep. She knew what she wanted, and how to get it. One thing was for sure though: she couldn't do it by herself. Who would listen to small blonde girl who wore shirts miles too big for her? She needed strength and authority on her side.

Riley had been tracking him for days. It had been a total of three days that she had watched him unnoticed. He had led her to food sources, neat hide outs and most importantly, the old abandoned shack that he lived in. Now she sat at his dining table in the dim light, twirling her dagger between her fingers with her muddy hiker's boots resting on the table. Riley knew that she had another twenty to thirty seconds to spare before he returned from his usual mid-day trip to the dilapidated home. Riley was staring intensely at the door when he made his appearance exactly thirty seconds later. She saw his dark brown hair that covered his mysterious eyes as he locked the door behind him. His long tanned legs were covered in ripped jeans and he wore an open flannel that was rolled up at the sleeves and supported a grey long-sleeved shirt underneath.

Riley stopped playing with her knife and slammed it down on the table so it stood upright.

Hunter didn't turn around.

Though Riley couldn't see his face, she could feel the smirk he was hiding behind his long locks of hair. "You're a wanted woman" he said quietly whilst slowly turning around. She looked into his playful eyes and found that she was short of breath. "You killed General Ts'ai and then you set a row of houses on fire" he told her as if she didn't know.

"How do you know that the fire was me?" She asked.

"I could guess that it was your work" he replied, his smirk stretching bigger on his face. Riley chuckled.

There was a moment of silence. Hunter crossed his arms "So did you come to 'shoot my balls off'?" he asked her.

"No," she began "quite the opposite actually." Hunter strode forward, pulled out a chair and sat directly in front of her. He leaned forward and studied her face. "I wanted to ask if you would join me" she continued.

"For what?" he asked.

"Revenge" she waited to see his reaction, but he kept a stern poker face. He looked although he was about to say something, so she waited.

"So why is it that you trust me now when you never even talked to me years back?" Riley froze. "I know who you are, Riley." He paused. "I've been in your drama class for years."

Riley's jaw would have dropped, but she clenched it tight. Hunter was the boy at the back of the class that just sat and watched. The main reason why nobody in the class ever noticed him was due to the fact that he kept to himself. She remembered how he always looked bored at everyone's performances. Everyone's but hers. Maybe it was her loud flock of friends that made her not notice him, but now, looking into his sturdy brown eyes, it seemed as though he was the only person she could trust.

"I don't trust you, and you don't know me" she said harshly, "I bet you can't even remember my name" she almost laughed.

"Vanessa"

Riley looked down before looking back up at him, her eyes searching.

"I thought you preferred Riley more so I called you that."

Riley didn't respond, she just looked through narrow eyes. He watched it intently while she put her hand on the dagger and pulled it free from the table.

Hunter stood up.

"Do you want something to eat?" he asked. Riley didn't say anything; she was shocked at his kindness.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"I'm offering you food"

"Why" she asked.

"Because I'm nice" he said to her, cocking his head to the side. Hunter moved towards the kitchen.

"So are you with me?" she asked confidently.

"What?" he asked confused whilst turning to look at her.

She raised her eyes to meet his.

"Are you with me or not?"