Beyond What We Know [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 5 - Two is Better than One

As I approached the garage next to the house, I couldn't help but overhear an interesting exchange between the two brothers as I leaned against the doorframe, watching them through the open door.

"Hey, man?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Why do you think we're here? Like, we could be the chosen ones!"

"Bro, are you high?"

"No, you asshole! I mean, think about it, why do you think the people in our group survived? Like, I'm pretty there's a God and he likes us or some shit."

"What? Nah, that's crazy talk! We just got lucky."

I let out a muffled giggle, clearing my throat afterward, which turned their attention to me.

"Oh look, a third person! We can settle this. Ella, who do you agree with? Is there a God and that's why we survived the shitshow, or were we just lucky enough not to get fucked up the ass by those creepy-looking things?"

Rico Mendoza. One of two third-gen Mexican-American twins. A foul-mouthed mechanical engineer and a joker with a heart of gold. Once created a contraption and rigged it to the small portable generator we found in my uncle's basement so we could all charge our phones. Surprisingly enough, it still works to this very day.

"Hey, come on, don't drag Ella into this."

Diego Mendoza. The kindest soldier one could ever meet. Skillful in keeping his cool in the face of danger. Served for 3 years but got sent home due to a badly injured leg, which has since healed extraordinarily well.

"No, no, it's fine", I smiled. "I really don't know about that, but it's definitely something I'd like to find out. So, what are you two doing in here?"

Rico quickly answered, "Ah, just some minor adjustments to the main generator. Won't break down again for a while, that's for sure!"

Locke and I ran into the twins in one of our scavenge trips 2 months after we started running low on canned food. It had been a year and a half since we settled down in Eaglecreek. We were looking through a row of small abandoned houses – obviously not in ruins just yet – when we heard arguing in the street outside. We'd been alone for a few hours, the only sounds we could hear being our voices, birds chirping and the occasional gust of wind, so we had to prepare for the worst; we couldn't make out any words, so for all we knew the voices outside could be madmen. Locke readied his shotgun, I whipped out my knife and we walked outside. We looked at each other in confusion as we stood there for more than 3 minutes without being noticed by either of the boys. They were shouting back and forth about something along the lines of "who ate the last can of tuna they found".    

I cleared my throat and the twins immediately stopped. Rico lifted his hammer and his brother pointed a glock at us, which had Locke respond by aiming the shotgun.