Alice wasn't about to tell Noah what she was thinking. It wasn't that he hadn't been perfectly nice to her. He had. However, she didn't know him and she didn't trust him. Really, she didn't trust anyone, so it wasn't a personal thing. It was just... the way it was. The last people she'd trusted - the government - had betrayed her in a terrible, tragic way. She wasn't going to make that mistake again.
So instead of confiding in him, she simply shook her head. "I... I can't do this." She stopped walking then, the winds picking up as tears stung her eyes. Her gaze was focused on the ground; she watched as small bits of dirt at her feet were swirled around and around from the ever-increasing winds. Alice found herself wishing she was back in Coyote Sands. Back in the desert she knew so well. The place that had become home to her over the past few years.
She didn't like it here. She didn't want to be here. And she certainly didn't want to see her sister forty years older than she remembered her. Not when she was still young and they wouldn't have a thing in common. Not when she'd promised she'd stay put and simply by being here, clearly hadn't.
"I have to go," Alice finally gasped out, gaze snapping up. There was clear panic in her eyes. A sort of silent terror that she couldn't explain but that was prompting her to get out of there, get away, and do it fast. "I have to-"
It was as she was turning toward Noah that she saw them. A boy who looked about her age and a woman who was significantly older yet still familiar. Instantly Alice knew who it was and a whimper escaped her lips at the sight of her sister for the first time in three years.
"NO!" she shrieked. The wind gave a loud roar and all but lifted her off of her feet as she turned, blindly running back in the direction of the library. Debris stung her eyes and her skirt flapped wildly around her legs, stinging and biting at her ankles, but she didn't care. Alice couldn't stay here. It wasn't safe and it wasn't home.