Decimation of the World-Fighting to Survive

Finding Fighters - Chapter Two

“Azalea?” someone spoke.
I walked into the room and before my eyes was one of the only people in this town I trusted with my life. My best friend. Her name is Valencia. She’s always been resilient and a force you wouldn't dare recon with.
“Hey!” I said happily, “Are you going with me today or are you helping here?”
“Umm actually I’m coming with you,” she responded.
“Ok!” We gathered weapons and food along with some medical supplies. After we gathered everything we set off on foot.

As we walked Valencia and I talked until we heard some leaves rustling and branches breaking. That's when we saw them. People, fighters. They were taking on a herd. I immediately jumped in to help. Valencia hesitated, why is beyond me. But we helped. There was one main man, he seemed to be the leader of the group. There were about eight of them. One baby, one boy about the same age as me and Valencia, four women and two men.

        The boy who had light brown, almost blonde hair that was definitely overgrown and messy was carrying the baby on his back, the ginger headed woman had a machete, another lady that was a bit older with long grayish hair in a thick ponytail, had dual knives. Another woman was a bit shorter than the others and looked a lot younger than them, maybe about my age or a little older with strawberry blonde hair. The last woman was absolutely covered in blood, she had it all on her face and body. She looked as if she had just gone through a war. She had dark shorter hair tied in a half up-half down hairstyle. The men were staying in front of the group; they both were painted from head to toe with blood. The ones farthest from the group had scraggly hair that was longer in the back and had a crossbow and a knife.

“Come on! I know somewhere safe!” Valencia shouted.
“Ok!” the leader hollered in response.
We ran to the gas station we have been to before to hide from a herd. We all ran in and blocked off the door with shelves and hid inside the building waiting for the herd to pass through. I put my finger up to my mouth to shush everyone. If we want to make it out alive we have to be silent.

        After the herd passed the leader spoke to us and introduced himself to us.
"My name is Luke Matthews," he said while shaking my hand, "and this is my group. That's Blaine," he claimed as he pointed to the man with scraggly hair, "and this is Lynn." He stated and pointed to the woman with short hair and covered in blood.
"That's my boy Conrad and that's my little girl Hadley." He pointed to the boy around my age and the baby on his back.
The boy smiled as he slightly waved while getting Hadley off his back.
      "This is Althea and Jane." He pointed towards the lady with gray hair and the shorter girl with strawberry blonde hair as he spoke. Then he pointed towards the last girl.
"I'm Emery" she responded harshly.
"It's nice to meet you all!" Val exclaimed happily.
"Thank you for saving us," Luke said.
"Do y'all have a camp or something, y'all are clean and in nice clothes." Blaine asked.
"Umm, yes actually. We can take you there if you would like. We just have a few questions for you to answer." I responded.

      "How many people have you all killed and why?" Val questioned.
"Two because they tried to hurt me and my mom." Jane responded as she looked at Althea, who I assumed is her mom.
“Fourteen because they tried to hurt my sister" Conrad said in a dark voice almost as if he were ashamed. His dad looked at him sorrowfully.
"Seven men that tried to hurt this group." The leader said.
"Ten. They tried to do things that no man should do." Blaine stated plainly.
"Twenty two." Emery stated as if she was proud.
"Why exactly?" I pressed her.
"They simply got in my way." She said with a smirk on her face.

"Umm ok. How long have y'all been together as a group?" Val asked them, trying to ignore what Emery had just said.
"Most of us have been together since the start of it all the rest we found over time. We're like a family now. We are a family. We protect each other." Luke explained.
"Sounds like that's a family worth being a part of." Val said.
"Ok I'll lead the way. Val, I need you to stay in the back to make sure we stay together." I told her.
We started walking out of the gas station and headed for the place I don't call home, Fort Benning.
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Don't worry there's sooooooo much more and so many twists you'd never think of.