The Children Of Earth

3: THE WOODS - DAY 3749

My eyebrows were drawn together. In our Sector, we had around 25 people, ranging from ages 10-22. There weren't many kids born after the ships left, and the ones who had been, well... there wasn't an abundance of them that survived.

For the first couple of months, after I arrived, they had a doctor who helped the injured and sick ones. But apparently, after a successful supply run, he overdosed on the medicine that would have saved the lives of many. "What do you mean someone has been stealing supplies?"

    "I mean, I have been keeping count of our resources and someone has been taking double, sometimes triple, of their share," Cole responded, pacing back and forth. "You noticed the ammo, right? We used to have so much, and sure, those dumbass kids probably took some but that's not why it's so empty." He pinched the bridge of his nose.

    "Okay, so they're stockpiling or something. What's the big deal?" I placed my hands on my hips.

    Cole looked at me. "The big deal is that that will get someone killed, Kairi." He used my full name, revealing that this was a serious issue. "Someone is being selfish enough to hold it for just themselves, what happens if you got hurt and we didn't have enough bandages because that one person feels like they 'need' it."

    "I get it. Why are you telling this to me?" I hardly trusted him, what made him trust me?

    "You might be annoying, but you're not a thief." A small smile came to his lips, but it disappeared as a roar shot out in the woods, somewhere far away. I shut my eyes, sucking in a breath. Do not show fear. "We should probably keep moving," Cole said, nonchalantly.

    I scoffed, gesturing to the volume knob. "Uhh, shouldn't we check on Sonya and Aron?"

    "I told them that we should change our settings to outside so we don't miss someone yelling or a monster or something." Cole waved me forward, but I crossed my arms.

    "Why didn't you talk to them about this?" I questioned, tilting my head slightly to the left.
     He stared at me for a moment, then sighed, walking back closer to me. "Because I have a feeling it's one of them." I narrowed my eyes at his pitiful expression.

    "What? There's no way." I shook my head. "What proof do you have?" As he opened his mouth, there was another roar, but it seemed closer this time. The panic in my chest was beginning to rise the longer we were exposed out here. "Do we really-" I stopped myself before I said something I'd regret. If I asked him to leave, it would be only for my sake and I'd be taking away the chance to save our comrades.

    "Do we really what?" Cole asked, daring me to say it.

    "Never mind."

⋆☾⋆☽⋆

    My pistol had been glued in my sweaty gloved palms for the past thirty minutes as we crept down the pathway. The last pieces of hope inside of me were falling apart the closer we got to the center of the woods.

There were blood stains and torn pieces of clothes hanging in trees. Though the scene was quite graphic, I had seen worse, much worse. I was just thankful we were the ones finding this rather than Aron. He was already worried about Maddox disappearing.

    Aron had two brothers. Being the middle child had left him a bit neglected from his parents, but Cole, Geneva, Morgan and I had provided him with plenty of attention. Maddox was the youngest, he was  16 — three years younger than us. His older brother was Jared, an intern at NASA.

His entire family was filled with geniuses, but his parents weren't working as much when the war began. Jared was invited onto one of the rockets and since he was 19, he wasn't allowed to invite his parents since he was technically a single adult. Not even his girlfriend could come because they weren't married.