True North Rising || Ongoing ||

Chapter Seven

The van crosses the Zone border into an abandoned industrial area full of old factories, warehouses, collapsed buildings and various hidden Resistance hideouts. The drives through over the rugged, rundown industrial road towards an old warehouse. The doors open from the inside as the van approaches, after the van enters the doors are pushed closed by three Resistance Fighters wearing body armour, ski masks, two holding AK's and one with an M-16. Katlyn is the first to step out of the van followed by Clara, seeing the properly armed Fighters proves what she previously thought,

Looks like they do have some decent weapons. Guess it makes sense out here since we didn't pass a single checkpoint on our way here.

"We walk from here." Adam says while getting out of the van, he orders the others to grab their gear out of the van.

Katlyn watches as Clara and Adam grab bags and hand them off to the other Fighters who were already in the warehouse who take them to another room. Clara reaches back into the main part of the van and pulls out two pistols giving one to Adam, and checks the chamber of the second before tucking it into her own waistband. Katlyn's and Clara's eyes meet for a moment as Katlyn realizes that her best friend isn't entirely the person she thought she knew. Clara breaks eye contact, and says she's ready to leave.

She carries a gun? The Clara I know couldn't even kill a bug. Has she ever had to use it?

After several minutes the groups get what they need and leave the warehouse through a side door that leads into an open lot, after taking a moment to ensure the way is clear they dash out across the lot and begin making their way through destroyed, and rundown buildings. Serena and the others all make their way through with ease while Katlyn is having a bit harder of a time trying to keep up as they squeeze through narrow gaps in debris piles. They enter an abandoned factory building when Serena puts her hand up signaling for the others to stop, a whirring sound starts to fill the silence of the space: a small drone is flying over two soldiers as they make their way through the factory floor where they are. Serena signals for the others to spread out and take cover, Serena and the other Fighters take cover behind a wall while Clara, Adam, and Katlyn dive behind an old piece of machinery. Katlyn loses her footing causing her to cut her arm on a piece of metal, before a sound can escape her Clara covers her mouth as the soldiers close the distance, blood running down her arm. The soldiers pass close enough the chatter on their radios can be heard, Clara and Adam pull their pistols, Serena puts her hand out slightly as a sign for them to stay low and not make a move. Eventually the soldiers and drone leave the building and the group quickly make their way out of the building.

After venturing deeper into the Zone they reach an abandoned complex and make their way down into a sublevel where they reveal a hidden passageway, the further into this place they go the more almost excited Katlyn gets.

Even though we just narrowly dodged a patrol this is like something out of a movie! A hidden passageway to a hide out? This would be awesome if it wasn't absolutely terrifying.

"Take you back to when we were kids Katie? Always out playing Explorer?" Clara asks with a smile, Katlyn chuckles before replying.

"Oh I remember. You were always my sidekick." She replies with a cheeky smile as she follows behind Clara through the entrance.

"Sidekick?! I remember you were my sidekick." Clara says with a laugh.

The two go back and forth about who was truly the sidekick laughing as they make their way through the narrow passage, some spaces tighter and narrower than others where they are having to squeeze through and hand the bags to each other in order to get through. Eventually they enter a large, fairly lit open area filled with tents and makeshift shelters, people are walking around and down improvised paths. Katlyn looks in awe at the fact this looks like a proper town despite the conditions not looking the best.