Discernment

Chapter 36

Lucas, in shock, lowers his gun slightly. "W-What do you mean?" He asks, and aims his gun back up again. "Sorry to tell you like this.." One of the soldiers replies. "These bitches are fucking with us." Athean says and has her gun ready. "Listen, if you want, we can drive by there and show you it's current state." One of them says. "It's getting light out, we should go with, just to see." Alyson says as her and I peer around from the ambulance.

"Take us. Now." Athena says. "Climb in back miss." One of the older soldiers says. I look over the group of them, seeing their nametags, and ranks. The main one, ranked sergeant major, his name was Warner. The next one, ranked Corporal, his name was Garrison. The younger looking one with his helmet at his side, his name was Flint, he was a private first class rank. The last two, the nicest looking of the bunch, was an older man and a young woman. Couldn't see their ranks. We sat their and just looked at them. Then the sergeant looks at the truck and raises his gun, shooting an oncoming biter. "Well, you people coming?" The sergeant asks again.

No one answers, we all just simply make our way to the back of the truck, Quinton and Lucas went back to grab Washington, and when we all got in the back, they started to drive off. I was sitting next to Jess and Kyanna. Athena, Alyson, Theodore and Lucas sat across from me. Fay and Indigo sat by each other, sort of away from everyone. Washington lays unconscious in the middle. Erin, Quinton and Abira were all in a separate car traveling behind us.

It was quiet, besides the loud truck engine and the frame occasionally hitting bumps or biters splatting all over the curtain that covered us after the sergeant hits them. Other than that, it was silent. Until Kyanna turns to me. "I don't trust them, Thomas." She says. "What's that, Kyanna?" I ask. "I mean, these random fucks just pull up to us out of nowhere, say this new community is destroyed and we have no choice but to go with them? I mean, really. It's not really something you just trust.." Kyanna explains. "Well, we have to actually see this, and all we can do is just to trust them." I reply. "Don't you get it? These.. People.. Who may not even be who they claim to be just came to us out of the blue, saying, 'Hey, your home's destroyed. Come with us!' Like, honestly, Thomas. It just seems so weird to me." Kyanna says.

"The bitch is right, Thomas. We have every right to not trust them. If my home is destroyed, then I have no idea what I'll do." Athena then says to me. "Alright, whatever, let's just wait and see what these people are about. Study them. Fill them lies about us. That's what we'll do." I say to them. The truck came to a stop and everyone rushed off. I was the last one to come off the truck, right behind Jess and Alyson. The thing I heard when I got off the truck was what let me know what was the current state of Athena's home, and that was just Athena falling to her knees and sobbing, crying. "Fuck.. Fuck me! Fuck everything! It's all.. Gone! So many good people.. Just.. Dead.."

I shake my head and put my hand on Athena's shoulder, though Alyson moves it away quickly. "Just leave her be." She mutters to me. Athena then stands up quickly and walks over to Sergeant Warner and punches him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Lucas quickly rushes over to Athena and restrains her, while she screams. "What did you fucking do to them?!" Is what Athena just repeatedly screamed. Sergeant Warner sat on the ground and chuckled. "Nice hit, ma'am. But, we didn't do a damned thing to your little community." Warner says. Athena's crying, and muttering words, Lucas helps her up and brings her away from everyone to calm her down.

I look over to Alyson and she wipes a tear, but only one. "Well, now you folks have no choice but to come with us it seems like. So load up!" Garrison calls out. "We're not going anywhere with you fuckers!" Indigo exclaims. "You have no choice!" Flint calls out from behind the two higher ranks. "What? You going to force us to go with you? We'd kill you before you even got the chance." Kyanna says and points her finger.

"You'd rather stay out here? When there's a safehaven only a couple hundred miles away? You people are stupider than one of the grabbers." Warner says. "Do you really believe that we'd just.. Follow you? You could have been the ones who destroyed our home!" Lucas yells. "You're accusing us?" Flint asks and steps forward. "Yeah, I fucking am accusing you." Lucas says and pushes Flint back. "We have every right to accuse you." Lucas continues and pushes Flint back again. Flint had his helmet back on again, put it on while they drove. "Boy, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into!" Flint threatens Lucas.

Lucas then swings for Flint, but Flint slaps his arm away and headbutts him with the helmet. Lucas goes crashing to the ground, holding his nose and tearing up. Grace, the female soldier, rushes to Flint to hold him back, while Alyson and Quinton rush to pick up Lucas. "Listen, we're not going anywhere with you fucks, you assaulted our friend and you're over all just not trustworthy." I say and step forward. The older man, Scruggs, steps forward as well and sighs. "Listen, Flint's an idiot. We didn't destroy your home. We just want to show you a place you can survive at. And, I truly want you people to make it there. Alive. Some of us may be uneducated and reckless, like Private Flint, but we're not all like that. Join us on our journey to Fort Braggs, and I promise you, you will not be dissatisfied."

I look at the ground, then the shocked, frustrated group behind me, then back up at the group of militants, then nod twice. "We'll be tagging along, lieutenant." I say, as I read off his arm. The group behind me nods, knowing that I'm good with decisions like these. Knowing I can take this risk, and deal with it if it goes haywire. "Well, that settles it, kiddies. Now, our next stop is Boise, Idaho. It's morning and we've a long way to go! So load up!" Sergent Warner claims.

While on our way, we introduced ourselves properly, Flint apologized, and we had hope. Though, most of the way there we slept. It was a nine our drive to Boise, but when we got there, we had been awake and ready for anything.