Wars and Lies

Chapter Two

"Good morning you two," my mum said as Ashton and I walked into the kitchen. Our kitchen's a decent size and we have everything we need, we've got a dinner table with four chairs, a make-shift stove with a fire pit underneath and poorly made cupboards. My mum's a small blond women that's the kindest person ever, I get my blond hair from her but I'm more platinum. "Katie pass your father his breakfast please," I did as my mum asked then me and Ashton sat at the table.

Food's hard to find. We grow crops but our main food source is from hunting. In my family it's usually me that goes hunting as I'm the best at it. We get taught in school how to hunt and survival skills and I've always been a quick study. Ashton often comes with me as he's very good with a bow and arrow, my guess is he's the best in the tribe. I'm the most skilled at hand-to-hand combat, Brandon's a close second. Before the wars, me and Brandon used to take karate lessons and luckily, our instructor joined the tribe and continued teaching us plus some other students. I'm only one who gets taught advanced stuff. I'm also a skilled swordsman. Every once in a while, Brandon and my two other best friends, Emily and Stephanie, are allowed to join us hunting. Stephanie's family make clothes and Emily's family are fishers so when they're not in school they're usually stuck helping their families. Brandon is the son of the chief so he's rarely allowed hunting or do anything fun due to how overprotective his dad is. I met Emily and Stephanie in the first days of the tribe, we met in a town hall and instantly became best friends. Emily's a blonde, school orientated, sweet and bubbly girl from San Francisco same as Ashton. Stephanie is a sassy LA girl with jet black hair who takes no one's bull and is big into fashion. Me and Brandon are from New York. We have people from all over the country.

Suddenly, the door knocked. My dad answered. I tried to see who it is and listen in but my dad stepped outside to talk and closed the door. After a few minutes, my dad finally came back in. "Who was it honey?" My mum asked.

"Just about work, nothing important." My dad answered, "Katie, Ashton why don't you two go hunting?"

"Sure dad, we'll go after breakfast" I answered.

"No now please."

"But we've only just got up and haven't eaten yet," I protested.

"Just go!" My dad yelled.

"Fine we'll go." Me and Ashton grabbed our gear and headed out.

We reached the caves entrance and I stormed all the way here. "You okay?" Ashton asked already knowing the answer.

"No. Clearly something's going on."

"It must have something to do with work and it must be something important for him to get like that."

"I don't get why he's sent us out."

"Let's just hope it's for a good reason and try to do some good hunting." I agreed and we were about to head down the mountain when two girls started running towards us.

"Hey Em, hey Steph" I said.

"You off hunting?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, wanna come?" It's Ashton this time.

"Our parents are busy so sure, we have a bit of time," Stephanie laughed.

We went down to the beach. The maintain range we live in is on the coast. Being able to fish is so helpful as even though we're surrounded by forests, most of the animals still hide in the cities and it's forbidden to go into the city or get too close as it's considered too dangerous. My friends and I have gone a few times but only when we're extremely desperate for food. One time when Ashton and I were hunting along the edge of the city we found a bear and only managed to kill it because it was already half dead. Ash and Emily went down to the beach whilst me and Stephanie stayed in the woods. Whenever we get food, we either keep it or sell it or trade it at the market. You wouldn't expect money to still be a thing in an apocalypse but Philip thought it'd be a good idea to try to keep some normality. I usually just stick to trading. We have money as every few months Philip sends a few members that are known as guards into cities for supply runs to try to find medicine or any food or anything else useful such as school supplies. We still have school. I think only a few tribes got rid of school. We're currently on summer holidays and next year is my last year of school. We learn all the basics like maths and English but also learn how to hunt and basic survival skills. Emily and Brandon thrive in school as they're both very academic whereas I'm much better at the physical and survival classes. Stephanie struggles with school as she's dyslexia but really thrives with anything creative, she's really good at fashion and art. Then you have Ashton who's really good at both.

We'd been hunting for about thirty minutes and haven't had any luck. Usually, we manage to find at least a bunny or catch a couple of fish but today's been a fail. It's probably because it's so early in the morning. We usually go hunting either mid-day or in the afternoon. We decided to give up and head home.