The Third War

Chapter Thirty Five: Kristy

"OI!" Chip's surprised cry yelled right in my ear. I felt hands pull me off her and I turned around to be face to face with Dustin. Phoebe helped Chip looking over her with concern while Chip glared at me.

Dad coughed from his chair in the back, "Well, it seems you already know each other."

Dustin let go of my arms without saying anything and I turned to my dad, "Of course. How I could forget dear Chip n' Dip."

Chip snorted at the name. Dad turned to Chip, "You never mentioned meeting my daughters."

She rolled her eyes, "Didn't think it was that important to call in two siblings, one half dead."

"Turns out you were wrong," I remarked and Chip ignored me.

"I never guessed they were your daughters, but now that I'm here I see it. Kristy and you both have that same arrogance and desire to be in charge of everything."

"Oh don't act all innocent Ms. I can remove you."

"You deserved that Kris."

Zoe was still standing in the doorway obviously trying to recover from the shock of seeing everyone and probably me tackling Chip to the ground. I looked at her and decided my disagreement with Chip could be solved later, "So why are we here?"

"Well, we I just wanted to let you know why the alarms went off. We had seen a group of people and had to prepare for the worst until I noticed it was Chip. Since you all know each other so well, why don't you show Dustin and Phoebe to the rooms across of your's and Zoe's. Chip can have the one at the end of the hall."

"Rooms?" Phoebe piped up, "we don't need all that! What about the others, what about-"

Dad cut her off, "I will talk to Chip about that privately and she can tell you what she wants later."

"I think I should stay, I mean Chip, you know-"

This time Chip cut her off, "I'll be fine Phoebe."

Zoe backed up and I walked out. Looking still reluctant, Phoebe followed with Dustin in tow. "Well, hi again, I guess," Phoebe smiled a little then glanced at Dustin then me then back at Dustin.

"Hey." Until then I had carefully avoided looking at Dustin, but it seemed inevitable as Phoebe decide to quickly walk ahead with Zoe and discuss her hair.

"Sooooo, hi," it was weird seeing Dustin so, calm. It was something had sobered him.

"You probably have quite the story to tell huh?"

"So do you," his remark seemed closed off.

"We can go up on the roof," I suggested quietly.

"Sure." He followed me up and I pushed open the door. Remembering how I got trapped, I put a rock to keep it from closing entirely. I sat down and stared at my shoes, "How did you guys get here?"

Dustin sighed and sat beside me, "It was...not pretty. We had done a raid on their camp and we decided to bring one of the younger ones. She was thirteen and wanted to have her first one. We made a mistake somewhere, haven't really thought it out yet, but they caught us off guard. We had to run. She didn't know what to do, she ran straight back to the tunnels. I was supposed to have watched her. I didn't pay enough attention and they had stuck a flare in her hoodie, except, it was more than just a small flare. She died. We all just sprinted in to warn the others, abandoned her body. Next thing we know, a bunch of soldiers are swarming the tunnels, we're trying to get the kids out of the way but the emergency tunnels collapsed on us. We were trapped, had to work our way all the way so our backs were to the exit and then just screw it and run."