Dead But Not Gone

Be Safe

Riley and the others fit in nicely. All three of them knew how to defend themselves and had distinct feats. Riley knew Martial arts, Stella was a self defense expert, and Violet knew how to handle guns really well. The downside for Violet expertise was that we were running really low on ammo and most of our guns were worn out.

I tried sparring with Riley and got my ass handed to me. She grabbed my arm and pretended to flip me over so when I went to counter it, she kicked me in the leg and shoved me to the dirt. She confused me and used it to her advantage.

"I thought you learned how to fight military style?" She asked me as she offered a hand to help me up.

I took her hand and helped hoist myself up. "Yeah but you did some next level Jet Lee shit. I can't top that."

She laughed and Xander came to the center of the group. He offered to teach everyone how to street fight while Riley taught some how to use their legs in a struggle. I went to the side and joined Alessandra.

"Why aren't you up there?" I asked her as I crossed my arms.

"I already know how to do this shit." She replied without looking at me.

"Then what's wrong? They're not bad at all."

"That's not the problem Derek. The problem is that we just met these girls and everyone's acting like they're good friends. We don't know anything about them and they could just betray us and then take our shit. It happened before so it could always happen again."

I frowned but remembered she was like that with everybody she just met. I pulled her to face me and her eyes sparkled with a mix of surprise and nervousness.

"Aless, I understand what you're saying but we got this. We'll be okay."

Just then, I heard the rumbling of tires approach our location. I rushed in to stop the little training session

"Everybody be quiet!" I panicked.

Star and Xander knew what I was concerned about. Star pulled out her knife while Xander un holstered his gun and aimed it into the dead woods. The crunching of leaves made my heart race and adrenaline pump.

"Derek? Star? Anybody?" A familiar feminine voice called out from the eerie trees.

"Is it just me or did that sound like-" I stopped mid sentence and saw her. Hazel stood in the opening we made of the trees.

I looked around to see if anybody else saw her and sure enough, they did. Hazel noticed us and smiled.

"Holy shit." Xander and I said in unison.

Star ran to Hazel and gave her a huge hug. When the others snapped out of their daze, they also ran to Hazel. Angelo stood behind looking confused along with the three girls.

I finally came back to my senses and joined the others.

"How? How'd you... I saw you die." Star asked in shock. When everybody cleared away, Hazel took a deep breath and smiled once more.

"Somebody saved me after you guys left. I was paralyzed from the bullet in my back but they gave me some kind of uh...er... I forgot what it was called but I have some with me. But basically it helped heal me really fast. I feel way better now. Speaking of which, Derek you need this. Your leg is gonna get infected with that dirty cloth."

"Slow Down Hazel. Where is this guy? We really need to thank him and give him some supplies-"

"No. He's gone, he didn't want to be thanked I guess?" Hazel cut Lucy off.

"But how'd you know where to find us?" Aless asked.

"Well I remember how Alex mentioned something about a woods with a beautiful sunset and I saw the sun setting from Gunther when I went to look for you guys. I got close to the forest and heard the murmur of voices so I decided to take the risk."