Discernment

Chapter 37

"We have enough room in the back of the cargo truck and the car for everyone to sleep. We'll stay here in Boise for tonight, leave in the morning. Anyone not here is being left behind. Do I make myself clear, citizens?" Warner calls out, and looks as we nodded. "Good! Now, I must go over ground rules first. We do not supply you. You want to eat? You find it yourself. Secondly, if any cars or blockages in which you have you stop behind us, like you running out of gas, we will continue without you. Thirdly, we are not responsible for any injuries that you people may hopefully avoid. Hope your journey with us is as promising as it will be for us." Warner says with a slight smile, standing in the back of the cargo truck looking at everyone on the ground.

"Well, since they're not supplying us with food and whatnot. We need to go look for some. We've this city on our right, it'd be risky, if there's not that many of them, but I say it's needed. I don't know how much medical supplies we need, and Washington's going to wake up soon with his bandages needing to be changed. So, who's the search party going in?" I ask. "Well, I will be, but who else? Quinton? You wanna go?" I continue. He shakes his head and points to Abira, who's still recovering. I then look around the rest of the group, and Erin steps up, as well as Indigo. "Just the three of us? Okay then, let's get a move on." I say, motioning toward the city. Since we're all on the road, we were all ready to go.

Indigo has his grappling hook wrapped around his forearm, and his mask down. Erin has a bullpup rifle, and OTS-14. She may have more, though I didn't wasn't looking. "Erin, I sure do hope you plan on usin' melee while in a large city which may possibly be filled with the undead?" I ask her as the three of us walked across the small plains toward Boise. "Saw you and Fay snuggling last night, Indigo. Seems like you two are really hitting it off." Erin says on the way. "Yeah.. I don't know why I'm so clinged to her.. Ever since I arrived at the subway community, it was just an instant thing to me." Indigo replies with a soft happily tone. "You two are good for each other, man. She's happy with you." I say to him as we climbed up the hill toward the city.

We sat on the hill, decided to look over where we were going to go first. "Is that another hospital?" Erin asks. I grab the binoculars from her and look through them. "That's a mental institution.. Maybe there's medical supplies in there, we should check it out." I say. "Don't we have enough medical supplies from the last hospital?" Indigo asks. "Not after the incident with Washington.. Plus, I don't think we ever grabbed Fay's medicine." I reply. "Shit, I knew we forgot something.. We were in a hurry to leave, we must have forgotten." Indigo mentions. "What else is there?" Erin asks. I move the binoculars around and notice numerous abandoned businesses such as corner stores and small markets. "We'll head to those first, though I don't expect them to be filled with food and supplies, since this was a fairly popular city." I tell them. "Alright, let's head out there then." Indigo says and stands up.

After we hit every one of the buildings, we heading for that mental institute, we stop outside of the walls of the asylum and squat down to go over our plans. "Do you think they let the patients out right when the apocalypse hit?" Erin asks. "Maybe, but we're only here for medical supplies. Can't risk anything other than that." I say. Indigo then throws his grappling hook on the wall and make sure it's locked on, then hands the rope to Erin where she puts her feet on the wall and climbs up the wall, and jumps over after she drops the rope back down to us. "What's it like over there?" I call out. "It's.. Clear.. I'd expect to have more biters in here." She replies. I then grunt and climb the wall after Erin and hop down, we then wait for Indigo and as he's climbing down, the gates began opening. My eyes grew wide and looked over to Erin who was sprinting toward vines that took over the left of the wall and hides in those, while I then look back to Indigo who was still climbing down. I yank on his leg and he falls to the ground. "Thomas! What the fu-" He starts to say but then realizes two cars were pulling in, then yanks his hook free and runs with me toward Erin and the vines.

Back at the group, Kyanna's walking around checking in on everyone, I let her be in charge while I was gone, she's obviously changed since the community downfall. Kyanna walks up to Alyson sitting on a rock, reading a book next to Jess who's doing the same thing. "Hey ladies." Kyanna says with a smile. "Hey, Kyanna." They both reply. "So, how are you holding in?" Kyanna asks, looking at Alyson. "Oh, I'm fine. You and your group seems cool. Especially Thomas." Alyson says chuckling. "Oh? Why's that?" Kyanna asks with a smirk on her face. "Well, he's determined to keep his people alive.. Strong, funny.. And he's pretty damn cute." Alyson laughs. along with Jess and Kyanna.

Kyanna looks as she sees Scruggs and Grace walking off alone. "Well, it's good to know you're getting along with everyone. I've.. Gotta go." Kyanna says, getting skeptical of the two soldiers, then walks off slowly behind them. They walked near a small pond and were talking quietly, Kyanna stays a small distance away and listens to them. "What are we going to do Grace? We destroyed these people's homes. We didn't even know what we were doing! Sergeant Warner just ordered us to open fire.. I don't know what to do.. We could just be leading these people into a huge lie." Scruggs says in a worrisome tone. "I don't know.. I'm thinking we have a ba- Oh shit.." Grace began to say. "Excuse me? You guys.. Did what?" Kyanna says as she peered from where she was hiding. "Oh, hey Kyanna. Grace and I were just talking." Scruggs says. Kyanna tilts her head and frowns. "You destroyed Athena's home? Knew you fuckers were liars!" Kyanna yells. Garrison and Flint come over and ask what's going on. "Get the fuck away from me, murderers!" Kyanna yells at the militants. "She overheard Grace and I talking." Scruggs said. "That's a damn shame." Warner says coming from behind Garrison and Flint, then smacks Kyanna upside the head with his automatic, knocking her unconscious.

At the mental institution, Erin was looking through the binoculars and points up to the window. "There's a person in a medical gown. They fucking see us." She says. "Over there, look. They're unloading more people, these people look healthy, trying to fight against them." Indigo says. We continued to watch, then flinched as a gunshot went off and one of the people they brought in fell to the floor. "They just fucking shot that guy, Thomas." Erin says. "We need to get out of here before that person up there either tells the group or the group itself spots us." I tell them. "The gate hasn't closed yet, run for it." I mutter, and take the lead. I was running, assuming the two were behind me, and I look back to see something fly at the back of Erin's neck, and she stumbles and flies to the ground. Indigo stops and goes to turn back for Erin, then a truck speeds passed me and rams into Indigo, launching him back into the gate. I ran, I didn't stay back to help them. I continued running back to the camp.

"Hide her body. We'll come back for it later." Warner says and wipes blood off of his gun. "I can't believe we're doing this.. These are good people, Warner." Grace says. "Yeah, but you imbeciles wouldn't keep your damned mouths shut, so we have to do this. And for the last time, hide her body, we'll come back for her. She should still be alive." Warner says.

I came running back to the camp, out of breath and I point back to Boise. "There's a mental facility in the city. They shot Erin with a tranquilizer and rammed Indigo with a truck, both are there still. We need to go get them." I say. "What's that?" Garrison asks as the five militants walked up from a small hill. "They have our people. We need to go get them." I say. "Thomas, that's too risky. You want to make it to safety in North Carolina? We have to leave your people behind." Garrison tells me. I laugh out of shock. "Then it looks like we won't be joining you folks." I reply. "Now, now.. Don't jump to conclusions! We'll help you get your people back Thomas." Warner says. "Sergeant, what are yo-" Flint begins to say, but Warner just ignores. "Fine, we go there in the morning." I say and walk off.

Now off to the side, Warner tells Flint and Garrison, "During the night, we're going to take Kyanna to this place. That way, when we go to get them tomorrow, she won't remember a god damned thing. Now go get her and put her in the car, make it look like she's resting."