Survivors: Rise

Kill Or Be Killed

Recap-
Jack ran in front, "I'm going to find these pricks and kill them all."

I stopped, and looked at the porch again. Bella walked over next to me.

"He's gone, Carter. You have to let that go now."

"I don't want to kill anymore." I said.

"Kill or be killed, kid. Kill or be killed." Jack looked over his shoulder. Then continued on.
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Jack's steps got faster as we went along, it made me wonder how he was still able to follow the tracks moving that quickly.

Night was beginning to fall, hope was beginning to fade, I stopped walking.

Bella faced me,

"Carter, we have to keep moving. Come on."
I heard her words, but I couldn't process them, everything was a blur. Austin and Brian were gone, nowhere to be found, most likely dead. Their blood would be on my hands. My job was to protect Austin and I couldn't even do that.

I heard a loud shout that snapped me out of my train of thought, it was Jack.

"Hey! Get your shit together, were almost there and we need to be on our toes. Hear me kid?" He asked me. I nodded and we continued on.

The blood that was stained on the front porch of that cabin is an image that will never leave my mind. That man sacrificed everything for his kid, for his sister,

For me.

I have to find his boy.

I ran up next to Jack and we followed the trail together, Bella behind us as well.

We stopped suddenly as the trail came to an end, Jack knelt down to examine the tracks.

There were twigs snapping from behind me, I figured it was just Bella wandering around, I turned around.

"Bella? Bella!"

She had disappeared.

I looked around frantically for her, I saw movement from bushes about 30 yards away, I sprinted in that direction.

"Carter!" I heard Bella scream. I ran as fast as I could in that direction, I could hear Jack behind me as well.

Jack and I ran until we were stopped in a big open space, surrounded by an unknown group.

We were being held at gunpoint.

"On your knees. Drop your weapons, and get on your knees." The man had Bella in his grasp.

Jack knelt down immediately, not giving me much of a choice to do otherwise. The man was tall, had a gray, husky beard, cold blue eyes, holding Bella with a knife to her throat.

I looked around at all of the men surrounding us, all armed with assault rifles. Jack was looking around with me, and something caught his eye.

"Brian.. Brian!" Jack shot up to his feet and ran in the direction of Brian, who was tied up with duct tape on his mouth. Jack was stopped almost immediately by one of the men by hitting him hard across the face, then a strong kick to his ribs, sending Jack into retreat.

"Hmm, got your whole group here now don't we?" The man spoke once again. "Get on your knees, bitch." He threw Bella to the ground. I resisted the urge to run towards the man to avoid suffering the same fate as Jack.

"In case you were wondering, the name is Charlie. My group, we're here to remove those who are unworthy. We wander these woods hoping to run into vulnerable folks like you, and start making this world a better place. We thought we were only gonna get three today, but we got two big men along with us too. But, here's the thing, y'all are okay. You're going to survive, not so sure about your two amigos and amiga here."

Jack went to rush towards Charlie again, but collapsed from the pain of his ribs, and slid back to where he was.

"Oh, I dare one of you to try something, there's only two of you, and there's about 30 of us. So please, try something, make this better for me."

My fists were clenched, I wanted to rip this guy apart, but for the first time in a long time, we were helpless.

"Alright, let's not waste any time then shall we?" Charlie walked to one of his group members, who gave him a revolver, he walked to Bella first, and pointed the gun at her head.

"No!" I yelled in fear, desperation.

"Ah, none of that. Like I said, I dare y'all to try something. I may go down but I guarantee you'll go down with me. Nobody moves, I'm not going to say it again." Charlie pointed the gun at Bella's head once again.

"Please God, please help me please." Bella was pleading, praying quietly, but loud enough for us to hear.

"You praying girl? Shit, who the hell you prayin to? Ain't nobody up there. Your body's just gonna rot here." He cocked the revolver.

"Charlie!" One of the men yelled and pointed to behind Charlie. A giant hoard was heading in our direction.

"Alright! Two of you, stand here make sure one of them move. They try anything, plant a bullet in their skulls and to not hesitate.

The mass majority of Charlie's group went to deal with the hoard. Bella, Austin, and Brian stared over at us in fear.

I looked at Jack, he was terrified.

"Jack." I whispered, he looked over at me.

The two guards were focused on the confrontation of the hoard, Jack knew what I was getting at. I made eye contact again with all three of them, letting them know that we needed to do this fast.

One slip up, and it'd be our lives being taken.
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