ꜰᴏᴏʟ'ꜱ ᴍᴀᴛᴇ || ᴛᴡᴅ

141: ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛᴏ ʙᴀꜱɪᴄꜱ

●～●～●～●～●

At first, getting out of the truck was easy.

Maggie woke him, and cut the zip ties that help him to the bench in the back of the truck. Sami could smell the night air and diesel, and woke Rosita, who was across from them. A guard was there, sleeping, but the truck itself was loud enough that they didn't hear him. 

Rosita jumped out of the back the truck first. Then Maggie. Sami was about to follow, but in his drugged, groggy state, he found memories, flashing in front of his eyes like they were happening now. 

A trucks horn. A scream. Metal screeching as it was dragged along the tarmac.

A hand grabbed him and pulled him back into the truck, making him hit his head on the metal floor, hard. 

He got to his feet, quickly, and managed to kick the gun in the soldier's hand, but he pulled the trigger anyway, and as Sami dived on him, trying to pull off his helmet, he heard the bullets hit the driver, and the truck plowed into a tree. 

Sami, who was knocked forward and hit his head on the wall, now scrambled to his feet, and climbed out of the back of the truck, making his way to the front. There was the body of a soldier sprawled in the trees, another body at the wheel, rifle at his side. 

Sami was going to grab it, but heard the rev of motorcycles nearby, seeing their lights in the trees, and ran into the woods, out of sight. 

The night was long, cold, and honestly terrifying. Sami tried to find Rosita and Maggie, but he could hardly see anything once the trucks moved on. The thought of them out here was bad, but the thought of everyone else was unbearable. Where they were. Where Coco was. She was with Rosita and Sami.

A horrible thought crossed his mind. Of Coco in that truck, too small for them to have seen her, now dead. What if she was there, and he just didn't see? 

He shook the thought from his mind, and kept moving.

But they stayed, anyway. Of course they did. 

The sun rose, but offered little solace from the cold air. Sami only had a sweater, the one from Rachel, no coat, and could feel it all over, making his hands shiver. 

He couldn't stop thinking of Coco. Asleep in her crib, and her Papa failing to protect her from those men. What did they do to her? Did they stab her in the head, there and then? Did they pick her up gentle and sell her to some family in the Commonwealth, leaving her bunny behind?

Rosita was with Maggie. They were two of the toughest people Sami knew. He knew they'd be okay. He wanted to find them, and then find Coco together. But if it was the other way around so be it. 

He was exhausted. And it was a strange exhaustion, different to normal. Maybe because he was unconscious all night instead of asleep. Maybe his sickness was coming back. 

He found train tracks, and found himself following them. It was strange. It always seemed to come down to train tracks. The road to Terminus. Leaving Terminus. Walking with Rosita and Denise just before the Saviors made their first attack. Along the tracks to the Reapers. And now again, walking along them, maybe away from everything. He had no idea where he was going, except that the cars went in this general direction.

The roar of an engine, probably a motorcycle, came from a road on his right, and he jumped down a small ledge, curling into a ball to hide, ignoring the pain to his surgery scars. He had no weapons. No knife, no guns. He couldn't take on a soldier. 

But he heard it stop, just on the tracks, and engine turn off. Footsteps coming closer, and could see his feet through the reeds. 

"141 checking in." The soldier spoke into his walkie. "Crossing is clear. No sign of them. Gonna move to the next area for our sweep. Over."