It's Never Too Late

Chapter 21: Exhibition

Lisa's POV:
"What the hell is that?!" I say loudly. Paul quickly puts his hand over my mouth. "Stay outside and make sue nobody comes in, I don't want people to be alarmed when they hear there may be others, plus these people could be dangerous."

I walk outside and stand in front while he talks on the radio.

Paul's POV:
"Hello, this is Paul, what is your location Jasper. Over." I say calmly and quietly. "In a school near the city of Valdosta, Gerogia." Jasper says. I take my hand off the radio "Shit they're near us." "We are holed up in a farm not to far from you. Looking at my map, we can't be more then 70 miles from you. We are well equipped to defend ourselves if you feel the need to attack." I almost choked on that lie. "My people are also heavily armed and are prepared to fight for our security." He says to me. "My people are not afraid to kill every last one of you." I say aggressively. "We will not die at the hands of you people." "We'll see about that." He says. Then all I hear is static.

I walk out of the tent and grab Lisa to the side. "What? What happened in there?" She asks me. "We need to get some people and head to Valdosta. The people in there seem dangerous." I tell her. Checking around the corner she asks me

"Okay so who are we bringing?" "We need you, Heather, Layne, Molly, James, Doc, Toban, Miguel and I. Toban and Miguel have proven themselves worthy with training. I'll leave Sophie in charge and have Donna watch Leeanne again." I tell her.

"Ok sounds good." she tells me. I run down to tell everyone else the news.

Doc's POV:
"Alright well your arm seems to be back in place, just make sure you don't do much heavy lifting for the next few days and it should be good as new in no time." I tell Callum. "Thanks man, you really helped me out haha." He laughs. "Ok now take your lollipop and get on out of here."

I tell him. As he leaves I watch Paul come in. "Hey buddy how's it going, need some Tylenol? Some Benadryl? What is it?" I ask him with a smile. "I need you to come with me for about a day. We are going on a trip. I found someone on the radio for the first time. They seem hostile so we are going to hold some of them hostage and discuss a potential peace treaty so none of us end up killing each other." He tells me. Immediately my smile went away and became serious. "So you want me to leave the rookie in charge of everyone's life here?" I ask him.

"It'll only be for a few days. Plus I know you're really good with that sniper of yours. Could put you in a tree and scout out the area." He says. "Alright sounds good, I'll get prepared, when do we leave?" I ask. 1 hour. It's still morning and it's about a hour and a half drive to where we are going. We should be back by around the afternoon." He says. "Roger that captain."

Molly's POV:
James and I were laying in bed upstairs kissing for a little. Then when we stopped I asked him "Wanna know what I wanna do most?" I asked excitedly. "Is it drive a car?" He said. "Yes oh my god how did you know??" "Because you've been talking to me about it for the past three weeks now." He says to me. I start giggling and he kisses me. Suddenly I hear footsteps loudly coming up the stairs and then Paul comes up in a hurry "Hey guys I'm sorry to break up this moment here but we are leaving in 1 hour, don't ask, just get stuff ready to go for at least 2 days.

"Dad what the hell is going on?" James asked. I'm pretty sure no questions means don't ask him anything. "We got a person on the radio...." He says nearly out of breath from running to us. "We might have to kill some people. I really hope not but they don't seem like the friendliest people alive." After that he leaves. "James why can't we just stay here? I want to stay here with you. I don't want to risk any of our lives out there."

"Baby I know, trust me I do. But they could die out there without us. We are more agile then some of them and it's easier for us to fit in tighter spaces. We have the advantage of our youth." He tells me

James's POV:
"I guess you're right." She tells me. "Good, now let's get packed and ready." I saw putting the ring back into my pocket.

Paul's POV:
I handled Molly, James, and Doc. Lisa got Heather, Layne, Toban and Miguel already. I go into the weapons cache and grab a pistol for everyone aside from Doc, he gets a sniper. I then run over to the storage bunker and grab enough food to last us all multiple days out there.

|1 hour later|

Layne's POV:
It's almost time to go. I have my machete and my pistol both ready to kill anyone or anything that gets in our way. I head to the front where many people are gathered. Paul gets up on the catwalk on the wall and begins to make an announcement to us all.

"Attention everyone. I am taking a small all group out to go investigate a new potential source for weapons. As you all know we are short on these so this may be a big win for us if we come back successful. Sophie is in charge until my arrival back. Do with that as you will and get back to work. We have a lot to get done. When I get back we will be rewarded generously."

With that he held his hand up and gestured for us to come over. So we did. We got in two cars and drove off. Molly, James, Toban, Paul and I in one car, Doc, Miguel, Lisa and Heather in the other one.

"So do we have any information about this group?" Toban says as we are leaving. "Aside from the fact that their leader sounds like a kid, not much." Paul said. "He couldn't be over 20 years old. He claims to be the leader of a group he calls the 'Stronghold'" he says using his index and middle finger to make quotation marks.

I'm a little upset we have to do this today, I can see the sun smiling down on me and the clouds dancing happily in the sky. There aren't many clouds which makes way for the clear blue sky. I always wanted to be a meteorologist when I was younger but this apocalypse had other plans. I think I was about a month off from receiving my diploma for graduating college.

Either way, this had to be done. I'll kill anyone who tries to hurt my people, I know everyone here feels the same way. With that thought I begin to get drowsy and fall asleep remembering something from before, maybe a month back.

-Flashback-
"1, now punch!" I scream to the 7 training to become true fighters. Some of these people have so much potential I can just see it. I look over to my right to see James approaching me. "Hey Layne, can we talk for a minute?" He asks me. I turn away from him and towards everyone else, "All of you may take a five minute break, go get water. Stay hydrated." I tell them

"So, what's on your mind James?" I ask him. He pulls out a ring, "I love Molly, it's ridiculous how much I think about her. Without her this world would be meaningless to me. Do you think now is the time I should do this? We've been together about three months and in this world, time isn't exactly on our side. I just want to ask her hand in marriage before my time comes. If something happens and we are met in a life or death situation, I'm putting myself out in front every time."

I smile, astonished at how sweet that was. While blushing I tell him "I will tell you when the perfect time is. Just wait until I tell you, 'today is the day'. Then you will know. I will keep this in my mind I promise. Some things are just meant waiting for." "Thank you." He says.

He starts to run off and runs over to Molly giving her a huge hug. I have so much faith that they will make it through this together.
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Then I wake up. I look over to see Molly is passed out and James is about to. Before he does I give him a little flick on the head to get his attention. "Hey James. You know this mission we are going on could be very dangerous, correct?" I ask him whispering as quietly as possible. Rubbing his eye with the one hand not on Molly's shoulder he whispers back. "Of course I do, why?"

"Because, today is the day." I tell him. He looks at me and has the biggest smile any boy could have. "Well noted." He whispers back falling asleep.

•Authors Note•
Thanks for the constant support everybody! Today we hit over 200 reads! This story has been getting more and more reads every day and I love it! It motivates me so much more when people read and vote so don't forget to do that either. Chapter 22 coming!