The Syndicates

Seventeen

Tori

I'm suddenly considering myself much less of a skeptic compared to this trio. After everyone calmed down a bit we formed somewhat of a circle. That girl won't stop eyeing me and it's starting to make me feel really uncomfortable. Dude, you're the one that had the knife to my throat. If anyone should be giving evil eyes it's me.

Trying to ignore her I turn to Kyle. "Are you ok?" He asks looking at my neck.

"Yes, big brother. Just a scratch." It hurt more than a scratch, though, that's for sure.

"Why don't we try and get some facts right, huh?" Henri says, taking the lead.

"You're from Skorix aren't you?" One of the guy's asks. The girl slaps his arm.

"Parker." She says harshly, evidently not ready to trust us with any info.

"Yes, we are. I assume you are as well?" Henri ignores the girl.

"Yeah. I'm Parker. Parker Greer. That's my brother, Carter. And this is Ava." Ava sighs.

"Ava Murphy." She clarifies. Her face relaxes, I guess giving up on being difficult. "Yes, we're from Skorix."

"I'm Henri, again." He motions to Hayden and Gage. "Those are my sons Hayden and Gage." Hayden gives a half nod and Gage an awkward "hi". He looks to me and Kyle. "This Kyle Bryant and his sister, Tori." Awkward silence. "So, did y'all know Joe?" A nicer way of saying "What are you doing in my dead friends bunker?"

"Not personally. Parker and Carter's dad knew him, somehow. Before he...passed he told us he was a man we could trust." Ava answers. Henri looks a little puzzled, but continues.

"Who was your dad?" He looks between Parker and Carter.

"Adam Greer." Carter speaks up for the first time.

"Can't say that I know him. Sorry for your loss."

"We've all lost people." Yikes, ok.

"Anyways, we came here and found what remained of the house. We found this bunker by accident and decided to hang here until we found a better option."

"I guess we spooked you pretty bad, huh?" I say in a bit of condescending tone. My first instinct wouldn't be to put knife to someones throat. I guess you could say I'm taking it hard.

"Yeah. Uh, sorry about that." She looks a little embarrassed. "We were just raised to be skeptical." And a bit frightening.

Henri moves to retrieve a big binder thing off a desk. I'm glad they had better luck than we did. "Why don't we head out of here. I think we got what we needed." Henri suggests.

"And what is that?" Ava asks, the skepticism coming back in her voice. Henri smiles thoughtfully.

"Hope." I look to Kyle for explanation. He mouths "later". Probably wise.

We all agreed with Henri's suggestion to not stop for the night. We'd trade drivers and turn the AC on stun. Our new friends had apparently parked a ways away on one of the backroads, but they agreed to follow us back to Georgia. They had nowhere else to go. And I guess we should try and make friends with anyone who can help us.

"What do you think about them?" Kyle half whispers.

"I don't know. What do you think?" I'm really curious to know his opinion so that it might help me form one.

"I don't know. We really have no reason not to believe them." That's true, I guess.

"They're just kids after all." I gauged them to be a little younger than Kyle and I. Probably Daniel's age.