The Shock of the New

Chapter 60: Old Friends and New Beginnings

Sam Hopkins aged 17 awoke to find he was in a tent in the homeless community that Charlie had brought him to. Very quickly, he realised that the sound of a great commotion could be heard outside the tent.

Sam immediately began to panic. Suppose the W.E.R. forces had tracked him down. Sam shuddered at the thought of ending up back at the correction centre. And that was if he was lucky. If not, there was a very good chance that he'd end up with a bullet through the head.

Sam staggered out of the tent and looked around to see that most of the community were gathering in the centre of the town. He then saw Wanda hobbling past him

"Hey!" he said, lightly grabbing her sleeve "What's going on?"

"There's a bunch of intruders in the village!" Wanda replied "We're gonna go see what's going on and decide what to do with them!"

As Sam followed Wanda past the tents and shacks that made up the communty, he wondered who the intruders were. Maybe Mitchell had somehow staggered into the community in a desperate attempt to preach the ways of the W.E.R. to them. Or maybe one of the staff from the camp had arrived to try and resume Sam's indoctrination. Sam snorted.

"No way in hell am I gonna go back with them!"

When he arrived at the centre of the village, Sam pushed his way through the crowds. As he did so, he heard a familiar voice yelling

"I'm telling ya, we're on the same side! We're not gonna cause any trouble!"

Sam's eyes then widened when he saw that Krueger was standing in the middle of the village. With him were Jamie, Victoria and Mark. Immediately Jamie noticed him

"Sam?"

"What the hell are you guys doing here?"

Krueger heard this and turned to Sam. The moment he saw him, his eyes widened and he sighed with relief

"Thank god you're ok! We all thought you'd died in the riots!"
As Krueger stepped forward, one of the village residents held up a hand

"Stay back! Until we know exactly who you guys are, you ain't going nowhere!"
"It's ok!" Sam said to the resident "I know these people!"

At this, the village denizens all looked at Sam as he walked up to Krueger. When he reached them, Krueger held out his hand

"It's a real honour to see you again" he said

"Yeah!" Mark added "We've been worried sick about you for the last few days"
Sam looked at the quartet uneasily. Noticing this, Victoria spoke

"You're still mad at us about your parents aren't you?"

Sam averted his eyes. Every part of him wanted to scream back at them. He'd finally found a little place where he could live the rest of his life comfortably, and now they'd walked right back in. But he just couldn't bring himself to do so

"It's fine" Sam looked at the floor "I don't really think I can stay mad at you guys"

Krueger shook his head "Hey I can understand if you're mad about the whole thing. And on behalf of the L.S.E.I., I apologise"

Sam blinked in surprise "Really?"

"Yeah" Jamie added "Looking back, I guess we really could have done more about your parents"

"Hey" Sam held up his hand "Don't sweat it. In hindsight, I guess you were right. It doesn't make their deaths sting any less, but I guess there really wasn't a lot we could have done"

After the hatchet had been buried between Sam and the L.S.E.I., the group took a little walk back to the tent Sam had been sleeping in. While they made their way there, Krueger explained what had transpired in the outside world