Safe Haven

Bad Blood

The new group gets their bearings before leaving the house.

"Over there," Rob points to a green road sign. "Fairview, it's not too far away. We'd better get going."

They begin their trek once more. Griffin walks a bit behind the group, and Bradley slows down to match his pace, catching him while he's out of earshot from the other members.

"I saw what you did in the football stadium, while we were escaping," Bradley whispers to him. Griffin's face goes cold. "Look, I really didn't care for those people, but the one you intentionally tripped was part of our group, and Rob saw it, too. He was talking to us last night about what we could do to avenge them."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Griffin says. "I didn't trip anyone. He fell, and I just happened to be next to him."

"Regardless of what you say, we saw what we saw. You should watch your back, Griffin," Bradley warns.

Down the road, the group spots a few Wildcats siphoning fuel from a red pickup truck.

"Shit, looks like some of them escaped the stadium," Nathan observes. "I say we talk to them, but everyone, keep your guard up."

"That's a horrible idea," Rob disagrees. "These people don't want to talk. We need to kill them before they even see us, otherwise they'll radio in backup."

"We don't know if they'll be hostile until we talk to them. Hell, most of them were just following orders," Jillian suggests. "Let's just see if they want to talk."

Rob shakes his head, sneaks up on the Wildcats. With three targets around the truck, he shoves his knife into the throat of one leaning on the back, grabs his handgun, and fires it into the heads of the remaining two, dropping them instantly. He tears his knife out of the Wildcat's throat, and stabs him in the chest multiple times, taking him to the ground. He delivers a final blow to his eye, finishing him off.

"Alright, so this is how it's going to be," Nathan says to himself. "C-"

"Come one guys, let's get going!" Rob yells, interrupting Nathan. Chloe looks at Nathan. They both shrug their shoulders before continuing their journey.

"Not a whole lot to see out here," Valerie says, looking around at the vast open areas of nothing but trees and fields.

"It's kind of relaxing," Jillian replies. "Nothing chasing us, nobody hunting us, I could definitely get used to this."

"Let's head to this little town up here and see if we can find something to eat, or something other than our knives to defend ourselves," Rob says. "Oh, speaking of," he pulls out two handguns and hands one to Valerie and Bradley. "Grabbed these off of those Wildcats."

"Of course, he gives them to his own people rather than the few of us that are actually capable of firing them accurately," Jillian whispers to Nathan.

"It's no big deal, if things go south, we'll be able to handle it," Nathan responds.

They reach the small town, and Hunter stops dead in his tracks, sniffing the ground.

"What is it boy?" Chloe asks him, crouching down to his height. "You smell something?"

Hunter barks and runs towards a house. The group follows him, readying their weapons.

Hunter reaches the house and points his nose at the door. Rob kicks it open and points his gun around the corners. Xander grabs the gun and grabs Rob around his throat, pointing the handgun at his head.

"None of you move, or I will kill you without hesitation," X threatens. He pushes the gun against Rob's head and lets out a quick whistle. A Wildcat emerges from each side of the house, one equipped with a shotgun, another with an assault rifle.

"Put your weapons down, now," X smiles. Bradley draws his gun and fires at X, missing his head by a long shot. Griffin punches Bradley in the side of the head, and puts him in an armlock.

"Are you seriously that fucking stupid?" Griffin shouts, taking Bradley down to his knees.

"Now, I'll assume that was just some fluke, but rather than letting you go, how about you leave that cunt with me? Then you can be on your merry way," X suggests.

"Just fucking shoot him, Valerie!" Rob shouts. X strikes him in the head with his gun.

"Amazing," Xander laughs. "You are horrible at reading a situation. I'm offering to let you all go at the price of one member of your group, one that clearly can't shoot for shit, and you still try to resist? Your friends have guns on them, and they have knives, you honestly think you can win this?"

"Fuck you," Rob mutters, elbowing X in the side. Xander barely flinches, and strengthens his grip on Rob's neck.

"Boys, get these folks in here. We're going to have a little chat," Xander turns his head towards Rob, his mouth less than an inch from his ear. "As for you, I've suddenly come across a great idea. You're going to come upstairs with me for a minute," X whispers.

The group is herded in to the house. Griffin releases his grip on Bradley and offers a hand to help him up. Bradley swats it away.