promise of survival

Our Stories

( Sorry in advance, this chapter is mainly just conversation. Since this is no longer for school I don't give it as much thought and am simply continuing it for fun. Hope you enjoy anyway. )

-----------------------------------

I keep tugging and trying to free myself; I hear one of the men say to the other, "Just knock her out." Before I could even say anything, everything went black.

I wake up in a grey, cemented room. I quickly realized I'm tied to a chair. My vision is blurry, I couldn't see anyone, I must be alone and my first instinct is to try to escape. I start moving around, trying to make as little noise as possible.

I look up to see what's in the room. I see a man leaning against the wall looking at me, I freeze; It only takes me a moment to realize it was Martin.

As I stare back at him, he says "Elle, I'll untie you, but we need to talk. Okay?"

"It's Maria that you should be asking all the questions to, I did nothing wrong."

"Just let me talk to you, it won't take long."

"Fine, untie me then."

and he does. Afterwards he pulls another chair over and sits in front of me.

Before he could say anything, I needed to ask "So, where's Maria?"

"She's not here. She's out, gathering more supplies... we're running low."

I lean forward, "Why did she have my sister's necklace, Martin? Can you explain that?"

"I can't. I don't know anything about her, about her past. She doesn't want to tell me either. As for the necklace, as far as I know, she already had it before she joined us."

"Why did she come here?"

"I picked her up like I picked you up, walking in the desert, desperate for help. She said she was running from someone-"

"And she didn't tell you who?" I interrupted.

"No, we didn't really question her either. We don't have many people, we need more. I just brought her here, I didn't decide if she could stay or not."

I didn't speak, he continued "No one really knows her, yet she's gained a lot of power here in almost no time at all. A lot of people respect her."

"She manipulates people, tricks them. She's good at that." I say.

"..So, my only question is, can you tell me what happened between you, your sister and Maria? If I was to help, I'd need to know the situation better."

I take a deep breath, "Me and her, we used to be in the same group. We let her join because, like you said, she seemed desperate for help. Or she was acting to gain our sympathy. She pretended to trust me and Olivia, but I know she never did. Many times she came close to telling us a personal story, then she would suddenly pause and make an excuse. I didn't think much of it at the time, when it first happened, but she kept repeating it."

"I'm listening." 

"She was always very popular, but she'd no special friend. She did become quite close to this one guy, though. They'd sit and talk a lot. His name was Richard."

"Richard who? what was he like, similar to Maria?"

"Richard Gray, He wasn't at all like Maria. He was a bit of a loud mouth, It's like he didn't know how to keep a secret. Turned out to be useful. At one point everything started disappearing into thin air. Our medicine, food, drink. We suspected it was Maria, she was very suspicious and quiet and she never questioned why our supplies kept disappearing."

"So, was it her?"

"I'm sure it was. Everything pointed to her, but when we started asking her questions, she obviously didn't like it. My sister was the one that kept pointing the finger at her, Maria seemed shocked we were blaming her. The leader of the group even threatened to take all her supplies and throw her out of the camp. Until we had proof we couldn't do that, though."

"Did anyone find any evidence?"

"I did. I started talking to Richard one night, he didn't seem alright. After a long chat, he revealed that it had been Maria all along, even though she was trying to cover up her tracks and had been forcing Richard to come out and take all the blame."

"So, what happened to Richard?"

"Oh, nothing. He stayed with us. He told me she was selling our supplies to bandits to make a quick buck. He said, at 2 in the morning each night she'd meet up with those bandits and that's when they'd 'trade.' He even told me the exact location."

"Were you the only one who knew?"

"For a while. I told Olivia, of course. Olivia straight away wanted to let everyone know, I told her it would be safer if we made sure Richard wasn't lying. I observed Maria each night through a small hole in my tent. Richard was telling the truth, each night, she'd get out the tent with a small bag of stolen goods and wondered into the woods. One night I even stood outside my tent, leaning against a tree by the campfire to see how she'd react when she saw me up at that time. Olivia was watching me from our tent to see if I was okay."

"How did Maria react, then?"

"She turned around and smiled at me. I could tell it was a fake, forced smile. She asked me what I'm doing up so late, I told her I couldn't sleep and asked her the same question. She told me, 'Oh, yeah, me too.' She sat by the fire with me for a while, instead of walking off into the forest. Obviously she didn't want me to become suspicious. Once I decided to go back to my tent, she said she was going to try to sleep too."

"So, she didn't go that night?"

"Oh, she did. I think she had to, or they'd get suspicious as well. I heard the leaves crunching beneath her feet quietly. I then went on to tell the leader and everyone else, they observed her for a couple of nights like I had been doing. Once they had seen it for themselves, her getting out her tent with a bag of stolen supplies, they knew for sure it had been her."

"Who did she share a tent with, didn't they notice?"

"That was Richard. I think that's why they became 'close.' She had to have him keep her secret, watch her back. We had a fair amount of supplies, so we never really had to worry about running low. She obviously thought we wouldn't notice.

Anyway, after that Olivia agreed to follow her into the forest and see the trade. Maybe identify the people she was trading with, but it all went wrong, we heard screaming and even a gunshot. My blood ran cold. We all ran into the woods looking for Olivia, including me. But Olivia was no where to be seen. No one was there, not even Maria."

"So, this is when you lost Olivia?"

"I don't want to say lost, that makes it sound like she's gone, dead. We never found a body in the forest. Yeah, though, that's when she went missing. We searched for ages, I ran around shouting and screaming for her. we kept looking for her for a few days until everyone said they didn't feel safe. We'd often hear gunshots in the distance. We knew we weren't alone, everyone wanted to move on but, I was determined to find Olivia. I got angry and said I wasn't going. I wasn't going to give up trying to find her for a second, she's the only family i have or had left. I was angry because they didn't seem to make much of an effort trying to find her. They didn't want to leave me behind, and told me where they were heading in case I decided to re-join. I set up camp on my own, but it didn't turn out well for me. A few days ago I got ambushed, close to where you picked me up. They stole everything off me, I don't remember much of it either. I was knocked out and woke up with nothing. I was able to find my machete, stuck in the head of a nearby zombie. They probably forgot to take it, I still had my bag with one chocolate bar left. I started following the main road. My group said they'd be doing the same. When I saw the signs, the slogans of Terminus I thought they may be here, and even if they weren't, I had no where else to go."

"Sorry to say, I don't think they're here."

"Well, that's when you picked me up. Now I'm here. Now I want to know how Maria ended up here."