Discernment

Chapter 31

It was now night and the gunfire was still active.  The horde of biters that Indigo spotted hours ago is stationed on our street, well, it's not ours anymore. This place we called home not even a day ago is not ours anymore. We failed, let the crazed minds, of an opposing group take over. We can no longer live peacefully, guess we never could have lived peacefully. We were so wrong, it's a terrible feeling. It's also a terrible feeling to have a bipolar teenager tell you that this was all going to happen a few days ago. Now, it was time to move on, and focus getting out of this hellhole.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Jess asks. "Indigo and I, we're going to take the glassware and fine china up to the roof. Chuck it across the street. The sound of that breaking draws the attention of the dead across the street, leaving space for us to leave." I tell her, looking at Fay and Indigo on the other side of the room making small talk as they prepared for escape, then down at my ankle that was bandaged up by Fay. She didn't want to bandage it up, but she was the only one who really knew how to do it. . "And if that doesn't go as planned?" Fay buts in on my conversation with Jess.

That caught the attention of Indigo and pulled him into the conversation as well. "I was going to say we could go out the back? Though if we did that, then it would require us escaping through District B's gate." Fay suggests. "Yeah, plus it's not that risky as the first plan." Jess says as she turns to me. Hearing a plan not only different, but better than mine, builds up a defeated feeling inside me. "Alright, we can do that, it's safer that way. I was thinking of timewise, though safer is better." I accept the counter offer. "When do we leave?" Jess asks. "I say we pack enough food for the trip, which I believe we already have, and eat the stuff we can't pack here, so we leave on a full stomach." Indigo says, holding his belly and shows off an awkward smile which would distract from the dirt and dried blood covering the rest of his face brightened by the lit candle.

"Did you only suggest we did this because you were hungry yourself?" Jess asks smiling at Indigo. "I sure did, girly." Indigo says and takes a bite out of his pathetic sandwich that included two slices of stale bread, squirtable cheese, and a slice of lettuce that we had been growing. Indigo knows how to lighten up the mood even in terrible times like these, don't know how, but he does it. "We should leave now.." Indigo with a mouth full of that sandwich. The rest of us nod in agreement. As we began heading out of the house, Fay stops to blow out the candle, then continues out the door.

"I can't see anything, Thomas.." Jess mutters to me. "Just stay close, and listen for anything obscure.." I tell her, squinting my eyes to see in the pitch dark around us with my grip tightened around the bat. Indigo stops us in our tracks and backs us up behind a couple mailboxes and newspaper despensers. "Movement in that building.. I see a light and shadows.. You three stay here while I go check it out." Indigo says and puts on his bladed brass knuckles and moves across the street. I between the public boxes at Indigo, seeing him peek into the house.

"What the fuck is that?" A man in the house says, pointing at the window. Indigo quickly ducks down, and moves to the side of the building. "What are you talking about?" Another voice says from the house. "I saw something.. It was too fast to be a dead one." The first man replies and grabs something. "Where the fuck are ya' going? You're going to get us all killed!" A third man says. "Just grab a fucking weapon and follow me." The first one says. I look at Indigo and he signals me to stay where I am.

"Who are these fuckers, Thomas?" Fay mutters to me and tries to get a better view of the men. "Zealots; I ain't ever seen these people in our community before.." I reply, but instantly return my attention to the men walking outside. "Whoever the fuck is out there, I suggest you leave!" The main man says. Indigo has unraveled his grappling hook and wrapped it around his arm, the hook itself in his hand tightly. Indigo's thinking of something, he's going to do something stupid.. I can't let him do this.