Coming Back Down

Savior

    The wall was finally built and was being reinforced as the area surrounding the ship was beginning to look like an actual fort. There were make-shift containers full of stored water, but food was still scarce. Once I could lift my arm at least to a 90-degree angle, I began to go out and forage for food. I'd collect anything that looked edible and bring it back. Monty was the one to determine what was actually edible or not, though, since he apparently had a history with plants and the sort.

  Wells had died, getting killed by some little girl, and Atom- whoever the Hell that was- had been killed by the fog. To be honest, we were already down by at least five or six people, and I was worried we'd lose more to starvation. Even though I didn't like most people, that didn't mean that I was willing to lose them. I wasn't stupid and knew that my own survival depended on most of them as well. So, I went out and looked for food whenever I could, which happened to be all of the time.

  I'd go out during the day and come back as night was falling. By doing so, I managed to see many things out in the woods. Some were good, some bad, but overall, I managed to learn a few things. I learned that most of the animals were strange due to the radiation, and many things glowed for the same reason.

  There were also a few times I caught glimpses of something moving just out of the corner of my eye. It was as if the woods were haunted and I was seeing ghosts, but I chalked it up to it simply being Grounders that had thankfully not seen me.

  As I was picking berries and nuts from a few bushes, I heard a twig snap behind me. Quickly looking over my shoulder, I saw what could only be described as Death itself standing a yard away. Dressed in furs and tattered clothing that was dark and stained, the figure wore a mask that looked like a melted skull strapped to its face. Locking eyes with them, I momentarily froze.

  They raised the sharpened metal that was shaped like a machete above their head, and I scrambled to my feet to jump out of the way. The Grounder gave a battle cry while coming at me, and I barely managed to dodge the sharp blade. Instinctively swinging my arm, I punched the Grounder in the jaw. His head jerked to the side, and a searing pain in my shoulder exploded through my nerves and made my throat clench.

  "Oh, God!" I groaned while holding my shoulder. I could feel blood slowly coating my fingertips as part of my wound had reopened. The Grounder spun on his heel and swung once more in a downward motion as I was hunched over in pain. Scrambling back until my back hit a tree, the deathly-looking person continued to savagely come at me as if killing me was the only reason for their existence.

  Just as they swung once more, their shout cut off halfway while the machete was right above their head. There was a second of silence as their wild eyes locked with mine again, but something seemed to fade just before they fell to the ground like a puppet with the strings cut.

  My throat seemed to constrict as my breath paused in my lungs. The Grounder had fallen face-first into the dirt, and sticking straight out of their back was an arrow. Frantically looking up as I still held my shoulder, I saw a tall man holding a bow.

  He just smirked at me while looking at me with his dark eyes as his face was mostly covered in what looked like mud for camouflage. He simply put a finger to his lips as if telling me to keep quiet, and the simple shock of seeing one Grounder kill another had me dumbfounded. The reason for my shock, to put it in a simple way, was due to the fact that it seemed as if the Grounder with the bow and arrow had saved me.

  And, without a single word, he simply walked away, disappearing into the woods while leaving backward to keep an eye on me. Looking down at the dead Grounder, I then glanced back to where the other had been. After about a minute of dead silence, I stepped toward the body and knelt down.

  Grunting as I rolled it over, the arrow snapped under the dead weight. Looking over the Grounder, I took a deep breath and reached out a hand toward the mask. The bleeding on my shoulder wasn't too bad since the wound only opened a little bit as far as I could tell, so I guess the stitches weren't as crappy as I had previously thought.

  Grabbing the mask, I managed to pull it off. Like the other one, this one had mud on his face as a form of camouflage, but there was something off. For one, if this killing had been what it seemed like, that meant that the other Grounder really had saved me. But why?

  Sighing through my nose, I quickly glanced around once more before checking the body for any food. Finding only a handful of dried meat and some fruit, I put the fruit away with the nuts and berries while stuffing the meat into my mouth. If I went back to camp with it, they'd ask how I had gotten it and why there wasn't more, and from how that Grounder had acted, he didn't want me blabbing about this encounter.

  Also, from the way I hadn't even been able to tell that they were here, unlike the big cat, it terrified me to think that the man with the bow and arrow could come back and shoot me whenever I was out foraging. I left the machete with the body- It was too obviously Grounder-made and clearly not from the dropship, but I did take the knife I found in his pocket, and that was all. Everything else would be a dead giveaway to 'Grounder', and I didn't feel like putting my life on the line with the knowledge that these guys could come after me without me even knowing.