Bird's Eye View

Chapter Two

The city fades into view as Raven and I walk side by side. There hasn't been any more disturbances regarding those people from earlier, nor have I seen any trace of Red. I want to see him again to thank him, maybe even become friends. He clearly knows what he's doing and he'd be a great asset to our group once we get back together.

"What's on your mind?" Raven suddenly asks.

"A side mission," I joke.

"Finding the man you spoke about?"

"I want to invite him to join us," I say quickly, staring straight ahead.

"Woah, woah. Join us? Already? You met him once and he was going to kill you!"

"But he didn't. Besides, it's not your choice Raven, it'll be Grayson's."

"Right. Your boyfriend. The one you're scared to leave because he's the leader of our group," she scoffs.

"It's not that bad."

"He calls you a girl all of the time!"

"It's not that bad."

I'm not sure who I'm trying to convince, Raven or myself, but it isn't that persuasive. Grayson can be awful to me at times, but that's only if he's in a bad mood. He cares about me and I care about him.

"Why don't we just separate from the group?" Raven suggests.

I turn to her, horrified at her suggestion.

"No way! They're all I know, if we left I'm not sure what I'd do."

She mumbles something but I don't catch it and I don't ask her to repeat. I know it wasn't something good. She's never been too fond of the company we keep and it resulted in her starting arguments and despising Grayson more than anything. Her and I had become close friends when our group ran into her while she was fighting some cannibals. We helped her and offered her a place, then soon after her and I got pretty close.

We walk along the suspended bridge and enter the city with caution, making sure to check our surroundings every minute to ensure no one is watching.

"Do we just go straight through?" I ask, staring into the abandoned city.

The buildings are all dark, casting shadows onto the street so it's incredibly hard to see. Broken lamp posts litter the asphalt, as if someone purposely broke them.

"We should camp for the night. Visibility for us is poor, but probably not for any Unkempt residing in this city."

I nod and we head for a building, but as we turn the corner we're stopped by four men, all holding knives. How did we not hear them? The group looks just as surprised as Raven and I, all of us freezing in place, not knowing what to do.

"Shit," I curse under my breath, my hand instinctively going to where my knife used to be attached to my waist.

That's when I realise that it's gone. I remember now that I never went to pick it up after throwing it earlier. Can't I catch a break? I've been in Ottawa for a total of one day and I've been hunted, threatened, and hurt. It's almost like my entire journey up to this point was just to trick me into thinking that this would be easy.

"Stop right there!" One man shouts.

"Boss, we've got two Wanderers at Straightwing," the one in the back talks into a walkie-talkie.

He's got dark brown hair and freckled skin, his eyes are wide and green. He looks like the type of guy I'd normally like to date. I give Raven a concerned look, then notice her reaching for the knife attached to her hip when suddenly an arrow flies through the air, splitting one guy's neck and piercing the other who was standing right next to him. The guy with the radio gets punched hard in the face and a knife is thrown into the eye of the fourth. It all happened so fast that none of us could even react. I hear the unmistakable crack of a bone and look up from the three dead bodies to see a familiar shape dropping the fourth body to the ground after breaking its neck.