Reprecussions

Chapter 15

I feel my brows furrow. A military vehicle? How did one of those survive? Is the military running again? Does this mean adults had survived? It's just the vehicle and the helicopter, I can't see any people around the vehicles. The vehicle has stopped moving and is just idling in the middle of the street. The helicopter is a little ways ahead of it, probably scouting to make sure it's safe for the vehicle to continue.

I turn back and tap Ren to get his attention. He looks at me and moves to peek around the corner as well. I turn back to look at the vehicle and I feel him gently press against my back to lean around the corner. I retreat back behind the wall and Ren does the same. We lock eyes and without a word, his eyebrows draw together in confusion, and his head tilts to the side in confusion. My brows raise up and I shrug in response.

I grab his hand and he looks at me in confusion. I flip it over and spell out 'adults?' on his palm. He thinks for a second and then shakes his head. I tilt my head to the side to question him. He flips my hand and rights 'control', he pauses and looks at me. I nod and he continues with 'already'. He's right; if it were adults, they would've tried to regain control already. That means we're dealing with another group, probably with bad intentions.

I peek back around the corner and see that the vehicle has moved a little bit forward. That gives us enough space to move positions. I see the next alley isn't far away, and it had a sheet of metal up against the far wall which would be good for us to hide behind. I turn towards Ren and tug a little on his shirt. I start to creep forward, being cautious not to step on anything but still watching the machines. We stay close to the walls, taking advantage of the shadows from them.

We make it to the alley and crouch behind the metal. The vehicle has stopped yet again; about a block and a half away. There's another alleyway between us and the vehicle. I don't see the helicopter though. We sit for a couple of minutes in silence, just watching the vehicle idle. I hear faint voices but I can't make out what is said or who is saying it. A minute later the passenger door opens and a figure steps out. The voice is still muffled and I can't see the figure well. I turn to Ren and motion for him to stay here.

I creep forward again, being extra cautious now that someone is in view and the helicopter not being in view. I make sure to hug the wall of the building and I make it to the alley. I glance back and barely see Ren's silhouette in the shadows. I crouch and move toward the wall closest to the vehicle. I see that there's possibly another person in the car. The figure outside of the vehicle looks like they're dressed in military clothing and carry a gun at their side.

The sounds of a walkie-talkie go off and I watch as the figure holds one up. The voice coming through tells the soldier that the area ahead has a complication. The soldier lets the people on the other side of the radio know they heard.

"Boss, there's an obstruction ahead, it'll be a while," The soldier says. There's a muffled voice and then the back door opens. A figure steps out and stands next to the soldier. In the moonlight I can make out most of the features of who I'm guessing is the boss. By the looks of their build, it's a boy, who is about as tall as the soldier or a little taller. His body is more on the leaner side with little muscle. His arms are visible from the short sleeves that he wears, but he wears pants.

The moonlight gives away the dark brown of his hair, and that's when he talks. "Alright, let me know when it's clear, understood?" The voice, it's so familiar. It's deeper, but not like a man's voice. The soldier nods and turns away. The boss walks around to the front of the vehicle and he's illuminated by the headlights. My breath freezes in my throat, I know that face. I would know that face anywhere. I feel my body stand up and I start to shuffle out of my hiding spot.

"Ben," I whisper. My feet shuffle over the ground, the scraping of the dirt against the concrete is dull in my ears. Ben, my older brother, is alive and he's right in front of me. One of the soul purposes, since we got out of the bunkers, is now standing right within my reach. My foot catches a metal piece of debris and the sound causes the soldier and Ben to turn to me. The soldier holds the gun at me and tells me to stop. He backs up, still following me with the gun.

I finally stop in front of the passenger headlight, while Ben stands in front of the driver-side light. "Ben," I say a little louder. He looks at me for a second and then I see it click behind his eyes. "Ben, it's me."

"Brex?" He says, almost in a gasp. I nod a little and smile. He lets out a breathy laugh and tells the soldier to lower his weapon. The soldier lowers his weapon but keeps his eyes trained on me.

"Ben, oh my god. I've missed you so much," I feel the familiar burn of tears forming behind my eyes.

"I've missed you too." He gives a sympathetic smile. I walk to get closer but he holds out an arm and I stop, though confused.

"Ben, what happened? Where have you been? Are you ok?"

"It's a long story." He waves me off. "Where have you been hiding out, by the way? Are you by yourself? How have you survived?" He crosses his arms over his chest, curiosity twinkling in his eyes.

"Well, my bunker group broke out after a while and we all eventually formed our own groups. Most of the groups started diminishing, so we took in the stragglers. We're a pretty big group," My excitement coming into my voice makes me stop. Something in me can't bring myself to tell him about Ren and his group.

He nods a little, thinking about what I had just said. "Where have you been hiding out at," he asks again. He seems to fixate on wanting to know our location.

My brows furrow a little, those are a bit odd for questions. But all of these questions have been odd ones. A knot in my lower stomach starts to form. "Oh uh, just a hideout. I could ask you the same question though. I mean you surely can't hide very well with a vehicle like this."

He lets out a chuckle. "Come on Brex, you can trust me. I'm going to hurt you, you're my family," I stare at him for a second. Something isn't right, the tone of his voice is off and the pit in the bottom of my stomach is getting bigger.

"Where did you get these, Ben," I say firmly, "The vehicle, the helicopter, uniforms? What's going on?" I cross my arms in front.

"So persistent, Brex. Back then and now, you never let up, do you?" He smiles and shakes his head as he turns his front to the hood of the vehicle. He places his hands on the hood and looks down.

"Ben, what's going on here?" I say a little more sternly, "What are you doing?"

"Something that you wouldn't understand, Brexley," He turns his head towards me.

"Try me,"

"We can't live like this forever, Brexley." He turns his body towards me now. "We have to rebuild; establish a system, an order. We can't all just run around carelessly."

My thoughts run together. He wants to rebuild order, like a government. He wants to be in control, control of all of the nothingness that's left. "Ben, there is nothing left. There are few of us as it is. There's no use in building a government."

"Like I said, Brexley. You wouldn't understand, you never understood. You don't know the feeling of being in control."

"You would make yourself the ruler," I breathe. "A ruler of a government over nothing? There's nothing left to govern, Ben!" I throw my hands up. I hear the radio go off from the soldier saying the area is clear now. I glance at the soldier, responding back to the others.

"I knew you wouldn't understand. Sorry, Brex." Ben says as he reaches behind him. When his arm pulls around, he has a gun in his hand. Before I can react, I see him pull the trigger and hear the sound of the shot. I feel the impact of the bullet in my right shoulder and my body falls back. My head hits the concrete below and I blink a couple of times clearing my vision. The pain starts to flood my body as the shock wears off. I hear footsteps get into the vehicle and a second later it's put into drive. I hear the vehicle drive around me as I lay there, left for dead.