The Salvation

Chapter 5

|Craig|

The group waited until the travellers stopped to make camp. There were six of them in total, two men, one woman, two babies and a German Shepard. The stalkers hid in the wreckages and debris when the travellers looked behind them. As they stalked forward, Craig peered through his binoculars. A woman approached his side, anxious to look through herself. The days had grown colder and darker, the food scarcer. They were getting desperate. Craig pulled the binoculars from his face and handed them to the woman.

Craig turned to the pack behind him, a group of thirteen men and women, all with weapons almost spent of their ammo and use. Craig stood at 6 foot tall, messy black hair and unkempt beard, broad shoulders and covered in all sorts of dirt and grime. "The quiet one's just come back from his rest, and the dogs on guard." Craig informed his followers. He had a British accent, the only thing he brought with him from his home country.

"We need to attack now! We can eat the dog, maybe even..." A skinny, scraggy old man, the one they called Bonez, began to suggest.

"We're not attacking. We don't know who they are!" Craig argued against his suggestion. Whilst Craig knew very well how to use the AK-47 strapped loosely to his back, he wasn't prepared to kill children or innocents.

Bonez groaned. "You don't understand! We're all starving and we'll die if we don't eat soon!"

"I don't understand?" Craig jumped down from the pile of rubble he stood on. He walked over to Bonez and starred down at him. He was an easy two feet taller and ten kilos heavier than the scraggy old man. "I'm starving too. Jane and her son inside her are starving too. But these people might be too!"

"So it's them over us, is it?!" A thin woman called Cutter intervened. She was named by the cuts on her face and body, along with her missing finger. The wasteland hadn't been kind in its forty-six days on Cutter. "We need to eat now!"

Jane, Craig's girlfriend who was also from England, stepped down from the rubble pile as well and handed Craig his binoculars back. She was five months pregnant, and showing. "Craig, what if they're right? We can't just starve ourselves! Think of your son... What if I don't make it to give birth?" She asked with only a hint of greed. Her accent was as strong as Craig's but her tone was twice as sharp.

"So what? We're just gonna go over there and murder the lot of them to eat their dog?" Craig asked sarcastically. He was exhausted with the greed and madness these people clung too.

"Yes you idiot!" Bonez snapped.

Craig gritted his teeth. "No." Craig replied firmly. Enough innocent people have died. Enough good people. The group of skinny men and women began to discuss his reply angrily. Bonez argued to kill him, Cutter wanted to cut Craig's fingers off and eat those and even Jane agreed he was being 'selfish' to the group. "You can't expect me to murder these people so we can eat their goddamn pet!" Craig argued defiantly.

"Then fine! We'll do it without you!" Cutter spat. "And when we're feasting on a big chunk dog, spit roasted, you can sit there and watch!" The mad woman laughed. They didn't give a chance for Craig to reply, all thirteen of them taking off towards the camp.

Only Jane stayed behind. She had thick black hair that ran down over her left shoulder, and a thin body (despite being pregnant). She was hungry. They all were, and her body was thinner than a pregnant woman's should be. But not a single valid reason for murder of innocence would occur to Craig. Jane's eyes were blue, very cold and disappointed.

"It's sad that you'd let your moral code get in the way of my survival..." Jane scolded harshly. "Would you do this when the child is born? If the child is born?"

Craig frowned in anger. "Don't you insult me woman! I've kept you alive since those fucking bombs dropped and you complain about my 'moral code'? What the hell is your problem?!"

"I don't have a problem Craig, you do!" Jane insisted. "We live in a wasteland... I'm going to get food myself if my own boyfriend won't provide..." And with that Jane barged past Craig.

Craig walked up the rubble pile again to see what was going. Bonez, Cutter and the others had surrounded the small camp now and Jane was fast behind them. Craig bit his lower lip so hard he broke the skin and his mouth tasted his own blood. I can't let them murder those innocent people. Craig's mind swam with conflicting thoughts. Maybe Jane's right. And what if they aren't so innocent after all? Craig shoved aside the thoughts. He knew what had to be done.

Craig snuck up beside Bonez and caught the skinny old man's attention. Bonez gave Craig a reassuring nod and quiet little chuckle. Craig sighed a deep breath and looked at the camp, only twenty metres ahead. One man was sitting on the ground, his left hand just below the brim of his pants. Guessing he's not doing anything fun beneath those pants, too likely to be a weapon below there. The dog was alert, he stood up and sniffed the air suspiciously as they moved closer. Then he growled. The dogs low growl alerted the man sitting down, and he popped up, producing a small handgun from his pants. Knew it.

"Andrew... Felicia... Wake up... Someone's here!" The man announced without trying to quiet his voice. Pretty loud there mate.

The dog came closer, growling louder and louder. From within the tent came a man with brown hair and a thin beard beginning to grow, beside him was a woman with auburn hair and a terrified look on her face. Craig sighed. Do it. He stood up and aimed his gun and fired... At Bonez. The old man dropped dead, a new hole between his eyes. The others all began to jump up, shocked as Craig opened fire on them. The man with the handgun joined in, as did the dog. The three killed the entire group, except for Craig and Jane. Craig grabbed Jane and threw her gun to the ground, doing the same with his.

"We aren't your enemies!" Craig pleaded, raising his hands above his head. "We came to save you!"

The man with the handgun snorted, aiming his gun directly at Craig. The other man, the one with the beginnings of a beard, took both Craig and Jane's guns away from their feet and the dog stood barely half a metre in front of them, his white teeth bared and growling.

"You'll have to forgive us for not giving you the heroes welcome but," the man who took their guns said, "but we were just attacked by the first people we've seen in awhile."

Craig gave a reassuring chuckle, hands still raised above his head and said, "The wasteland is like that."

"Who are you?" The woman asked.

"My name is Craig Farrant, this is my girlfriend Jane Port, she's pregnant and we're from England." Craig explained.

The man with the handgun rolled his eyes. "We gathered that much from your accent, but I don't care..."

"She's pregnant?" The woman asked again, looking at Jane who was giving Craig every dirty look she could. Craig nodded and gulped. The woman walked over to both the men and whispered in their ears. The man with the handgun rolled his eyes and lowered his weapon and the dog came back to them as the other man clicked his left finger. "My name is Felicia Pratt, this is my husband Andrew Pratt," she said pointing to the man who'd seized their guns, "and this is our friend Malcolm Howard." She introduced the other man,

"What brings you two out here? Just here to save us?" Andrew asked with a casual shrug.

"We were apart of that group, but they wanted to kill you three and eat your dog." Craig explained. "I rejected them and they left me, so I finished them off myself."

Felicia chuckled. "Thank you. Perhaps you could help us? We're looking for Gateway city?"

"Look no further..." Craig said. "You're in it..."