Scout's Honour

2

Hayden threw herself back when she heard her best friend gasp, her coffee eyes wide with confusion and fear as they landed on her 'deceased' best friend, her skin was a sick shade of pale white and moss green, her eyes was red, yellow and the veins were predominantly red, throaty groans and grunts left her lips occasionally as she glanced around, until her weird eyes landed on Hayden's terrified figure.

'Annabelle' wasted no time in launching at her, her arms out-stretched and her fingers curled in a scratching action causing Hayden to scream and push herself backwards and against a wall "ANNABELLE IT'S ME!" She shouted, "What's going on?" a voice called from upstairs attracting both Hayden and 'Annabelle' 's attention a small boy no older than 13 stood there with a frown on his face, "Annabelle?" he inquired frowning, instantly Hayden recognized the boy, Christopher Harris, Annabelle's younger brother, he had the same blonde hair that sat airily on his head and a pair of bright green eyes that contrasted his sister's gunmetal ones.

"Chris run, run to the other kids and lock the door behind you!" Hayden shouted at him as 'Annabelle' began to stumble her way to him and for a moment Christopher hesitated, he didn't understand what was going on but one thing he didn't understand, the would world was going batshit crazy and his sister wasn't his sister any more. And unfortunately that hesitation was all that 'Annabelle' needed to get close to her younger brother, three more steps and she would be able to scratch his face off, fortunately for Christopher that hesitation was all that it took for Hayden to raise the riffle, aim at 'Annabelle' 's head.

BANG!

The sound echoed through the walls of the cottage like house and echoed through Hayden and Christopher's ears, 'Annabelle' slumped forwards, connecting with the ground like a wet sand, Christopher stood in shock while Hayden dropped the gun, that clattered against the floorboards, and basically sped towards the stunned blonde teenager, pulling him into her arms and sliding down the wall as she held him to her chest.

And then like reality hit him.

It came crashing down on him.

His pale green eyes filled with tears, his chest heaved and his body trembled, Christopher's only remaining, in country, family member was dead, his big sister, saviour, guardian angel, mentor and mother figure was dead, she lay on the floorboards with open red eyes and a strange skin colour, "Anna..." he croaked, his mind was telling him to run to his sister but his body didn't obey, maybe it was because of the shock of the recent events or maybe it was Hayden's death grip on him, which one he wasn't sure.

"Excuse me..." a faint voice filled the air, but it fell deaf to both their ears, in which 'Annabelle' 's grunts and groans filled the air and were followed by a loud bang were the only things that they were able to hear, both of them completely oblivious to the group of children from grade 1 to grade 8 and a few Kindergartens starting to pool at the top of the stairs, "Sh-sh-she's g-g-gone..." Christopher cried, streams of hot salty tears dripping down his still pale cheeks, "I know... but she's in a place where no one else can harm her." Hayden forced out, the cloud of confusion and the thirst for knowledge and answers growing bigger by the second.

"Excuse us..." the same faint voice said, this time grabbing the eldest out of everyone's attention, her coffee eyes snapped to the person, the child, no older that 11, seemed to be the second oldest of the children standing in the middle of the stairs, fear cloaking her features, fear of the unknown and of the known, fear for herself and her friend, fear for her family and the stranger sitting at the bottom of the stairs, "Are you here to save us?" she asked, her soft and quiet voice quavering a lot.

Hayden gulped and looked behind the young girl at the other children who were eagerly awaiting her answer, "Yes." a voice said, it was hoarse, dry and it seemed like it had been screaming in the hot desert air for weeks, and it confused Hayden because there was no one there that could have answered that question for her, unless it was her. Which she knew it had been her to reply, her tongue ran across her lips, moistening them so she could talk better. "What is going on?" a kid from the top of the stairs inquired, it was impossible to see how in the mists of the 13 children, "I-I don't know." Hayden replied once more, she had no idea how to act, what to say or even how to think, she had been away from Scouts for a good solid 6 years, having joined the army when she was 18, all she could remember were the army rules.

Gather supplies;

Call for back up (which was out of option);

Find shelter;

Find transport;

Wait for the unit to pick her up (which was also out of option).

But of course those rules didn't apply to Scouts, boy and girl equally, her coffee eyes fleeted around the house, surveying what she had to work with to complete the first stage, when her eyes landed on her deceased best friend making her friend's last words come back to her 'The kids... are upstairs... look after them...'.

Breathing deeply she forced herself to get up, allowing Christopher to continued on the ground until she was ready to move on, she cleared her throat and walked to the front door, she locked it and pushed the entrance chest against it, "Miss?" the same quiet and soft voice called out, "Name's Hayden, Military, Senior Scout. I'm going to get us somewhere safer." Hayden replied looking at the kid from the foot of the steps, everyone nodded, at least everyone that understood so she added.

"But if we're getting out of here, we need to prepare and for that to happen there's only one way. My way, no highway option."