Beside the Dying Fire

Leo's POV

I finally woke up inside of my cell as Sarah and Henry were being thrown in. Henry was still unconscious, but Sarah was awake. She was obviously injured from being restrained, but she was indeed awake.

"They got you, too?" I asked her.

"What does it look like?" she was so very pissed.

I looked around. In the cell to my left was Tyler, Gavin, and Hannah. To my left, a bunch of randoms.

"We need to get out of here," Sarah whispered to me.

"You can't get out of everything, Sarah," I told her. "Sure, you may escape now, but they will come after you. As you keep running so will they. You'll both keep running until you can't run anymore and you die."

She contemplated for a minute before ultimately saying, "If we don't get back, the Flickers will take over San Diego. We need to be there to fight."

I continued to think about that until Henry began to wake up.

"Sarah, where did they take us?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," she answered, "but it isn't the same camp as last time. They used to just have a bunch of tents in the forest. It's very clear that we're not in a tent."

We scanned our surroundings. Sure enough, we were in a very dark room of a building with a furnace which was pumping heated air into our cells.

As a guard passed by, Henry stopped her, "Ellie?"

"Oh my God," she responded. "Henry, I'm so sorry you were taken."

"Who cares?! Last time I went to the graveyard, there is a grave with your name on it! Who, what, where, why, when, and how are you here?"

Ellie sighed, "Because of Nate. I cut a deal with the Flickers: I would work for them as long as they didn't hurt Nate. So he thinks that I'm dead so that he wouldn't go after me."

"But where's his sister?"

"Excuse me?"

"Becca? Where's Becca? Is she not with you?"

"Of course not!"

"Well, somehow there's a rumor going around that Becca was trapped by the Flickers in their first attack and she can't be released."

"Well, she isn't. She's... you know what I mean. I saw it happen myself."

"Damn," Henry pinched the bridge of his nose. "That means that Nate doesn't know."

Ellie approached the bars.

"Do not tell him-"

To end the confusion there, I ran up to the front of the cell. i reached through the bars, grabbed Ellie by the collar, and yanked her into the bars. Her head collided with the metal, knocking her to the ground. While she was still dazed, I grabbed the gun off of her belt. I poised her pistol at the lock on the cell door and squeezed the trigger.

Bang!

Sarah pushed the door open. Once I escaped the cell, I handed the gun to her. She kept it pointed at Ellie while I took off my belt and bound it around Ellie's hands. To stop this war without much violence, we must get them to forfeit in exchange for their hostage. The four of us meandered towards the door when a voice spoke up.

"What about us?" Tyler asked while he looked through the bars with his very innocent face. Gavin and Hannah joined by his sides.

"If this will become a war," Sarah started, "then we need fighters. We don't want you to die, which you will if you return with us. We will come back for you if it's the last thing we do."

We burst out the front door into the frigid cold. The gunshots brought five men to our position. Sarah tossed the gun back to me as she ran over to a car to begin starting it up. She placed Ellie in the backseat so that she wouldn't interfere with Henry and I's fighting. Each man was equipped with a knife, but good thing I had the pistol.

Bang! One down.

Bang! Two down.

I spun around to where the other three came from. I aimed past Henry and those oncoming.

Bang! Two more to go.

Click. ...shit.

The only weapon that we had was out of ammo. Sarah honked the car's horn.

"IT'S TIME TO GO!" she yelled to us.

I ran for the car but before I opened the door, I spun around and saw Henry. One man grabbed his ankle while Henry tried running to the car. He cascaded to the ground, giving the other man the perfect chance to stab him right in the back.

"HENRY!" Ellie pounded on the windows. I didn't want to see him get stabbed in the brain, so I got in the passenger side and somberly told Sarah to floor it.

"YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HIM! HE DIDN'T DESERVE THIS!" Ellie kept yelling for the entire trip. Sarah remained silent, which was a first. I, on the other hand, just stared out the window, watching each road sign pass by in a blur until San Diego was in sight.

Sarah drove the car up to the front gate where a tall boy was keeping watch. Ellie began hyperventilating upon seeing this boy, but he responded differently.

"ELLIE?!" the boy I assumed was Nate rejoiced. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"

She didn't answer.

"SO YOU WEREN'T ACTUALLY BURIED BENEATH THAT TOMBSTONE?!"

She slumped down in her seat.

Nate scanned the vehicle.

"Is-Is my sister with you?" he asked.

She didn't speak for ten seconds before finally saying, "No, Nate. She isn't. That grave in the center of town, I'm not buried down there. However, there is a body down there."

He looked confused for a moment before realizing what she meant.

"B-Becca's..." he stuttered.

"I'm so sorry, Nate," Ellie sympathized.

"How long have you known?" he spat out in anger.

"W-wha-"

"HOW LONG... HAVE YOU KNOWN?!"

"S-since I was d-declared dead," she seemed frightened.

"SO YOUR TELLING ME THAT MY OWN SISTER HAS BEEN DEAD FOR OVER A MONTH AND YOUR WAITING UNTIL NOW TO LET ME KNOW?!" Nate screamed.

"I'm so sor-"

Nate pulled out his gun and aimed at Ellie's head.

Bang!

I heard her body flail against the backseat behind me. Next, he poised it at Sarah and I. Luckily, he was standing right next to the car. Before he could fire, I used all of my force to swing open the car door, knocking him to the ground. I picked up his gun and held it to his temple.

"J-just do it," he began tearing up.

I took the gun away and holstered it.

"No," I told him. "Our bargaining chip was just destroyed. This will be a war. We need everyone we can to fight those who killed your sister. Will you be strong and stand with us?"

"I'll do the best I can," he stood up and took off running away.