Oblivion {n.h.}

Chapter 19.

We move out, filling the truck with supplies we'll need and leave the house. I decide to sit up at the front next to Josh, who is driving. The rest of the boys, plus Perrie, sit in the back compartment with the supplies.

The timber trees outside are layered with morning dew, and the sun still peaks through clouds, although it's a very chilly morning.

I think about if we'll still be alive to survive through several winters and harsh conditions, Winter nearing closer than we think. Autumn leaves layer the ground and my mind wanders to far away places, Josh only being the one to snap me out of it.

"Don't be scared." Josh breaks the noise of just tires on the road.

"I was before, I won't ever stop. I'm not even that scared for myself, I'm scared for Lottie. I can protect myself, but she doesn't deserve this." I tell him, looking out my window into the woods that seem to go on forever, blotches of evergreen that pass by quickly as we drive.

He doesn't respond, silence falling upon us once again like the morning dew out the window. So many questions flow through my mind and I can't help but ask Josh a few.

"Do you think Jesy's alive?" I ask him, still staring out my window with a hand on my chin.

"I hope. If this guy was being truthful, then she is. Either way we're gonna bring her back, dead or not." He replies.

"I hope you know I think of you as a dad." I say truthfully, and the small sentence could speak for countless others as well.

He chuckles loudly before tapping me on the arm. "Hey I'm not that old." He says between laughs.

"Pretty sure 32 is old." I say, annoying him again. "IM THIRTY-ONE. NOT OLD!" He yells between laughs, his smile lighting up the whole space. With this I crack, bursting out laughing at how annoyed he's gotten. The car slowly comes to a stop and I click my seatbelt unlocked.

We pull up outside the armory at a three-way 'T' road. I grab my machete and hop out of the driver's seat. The back door opening sounds and the rest of the mission group file out.

I send Perrie a smile as I walk past her, before Niall grabs my hand. I'm taken back, and turn to face him.

"Are you okay?" He asks, still holding my wrist.

"I will be." I tell him, releasing my arm from his. He returns me a smile, and I walk towards where Josh is by the armory door.

"What's the plan?" Perrie asks, walking up beside Louis. Jackson and Steven are soon by my side, ready for orders.

"Greg told me that if you face the armory from the front, Jacob took off with Jesy to the Right." He tells us, pointing to the right where Greg had told him to go.

"We don't know how far it's gonna be." I tell him, clutching my machete in my hand, the sun demanding me to squint, yet no warmth covers my face, only chill morning air.

"I'd say we take it by foot, just so we don't cause a distraction. We want to see, not be seen." Jackson speaks up, a great point.

All agree and head out to the right, we decide to stay in the woods a few feet away from the road, just like we had back at the log cabins in Chutenglen.

The walk was quiet, Niall moving up to walk with me, and back down to walk by Louis, repeating his process over and over again.

"Sh." Josh turns back and raises a finger in the air to stop us. All of the leaves that had been crunching beneath our feet no longer crunch, and everyone stays completely still, straining their ears to listen what Josh might have possibly heard.

Nostalgia washed over me as I stop in my tracks and move my jacket closer to my cold neck, I was back in Chutenglen again hearing the moans and groans of the dead just beyond the river.

Soon enough, two different masculine voices come into hearing range and I begin to wonder if Josh has special listening super-powers or something.

"So do you think Greg is actually gonna have those two girls at the armory tomorrow?" One of the guys asks the other, they're both holding heavy-weapon guns.

"Ak-47 for the one on the left, 48 round ammunition shotgun on the right." I whisper to my group as we all stay behind our bush. Steven nods, obviously knowing he and my father have taught me right with my guns.

"You kidding? We're gonna have to go get those bitches ourselves." The other guy chuckles. Everyone behind the brush is ready to attack, both of the men walking eerily slow down the road, and are soon enough going to be past where he hide.

The man on the right is taller, a beard shortly growing from the sides of his faces down to his chin and over his upper lip as well. He wears a green and red bandana over his dark hair and sunglasses protect his eyes from the chilling sun.

"You're right, and we get to take any other girl we want! Have you seen those women, they're all pretty good looking." The other guy jokes around. This guy much shorter, a bit chubbier and wearing leather and metal over his arms and legs.

Just hearing them talk about my friends- family, back at the house makes me want to chop them both in half.

Louis cocks his gun, obviously ready to shoot them both. But before  he could even pull the trigger Josh shushes him and points his gun down. Three walkers come up behind the men, escaping their coverage in the trees from the other side of the road, and take big chomps out of their neck and arms.

One of the guys screams and starts shooting walkers while the other falls, just then to be snuck up on by yet another walker and fall down right by his buddy.

"Let's get moving, they'll be more on the way thanks to those gunshots." Niall tells us, crouching past me and up next to Josh.

We all creep past the death scene before us, the walkers hungrily chomping and munching on the gory pieces of flesh like its a feast.

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME. STOP TOUCHING ME!" A familiar voice screams, echoing through the trees, and moving colors and figures are able to be made out from behind the brush in front of me.

"I don't wanna hurt you baby." A man tells her, clear lust in his voice. "GET OFF OF ME PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP!" The girl screams again.

Perrie then whispers the exact same thing I had been thinking.

"Jesy.."