This War of Mine: Strength in Numbers

The Hard Part

"Now to the hard part," Kat says.

Roman gives her a hard look. "I thought disarming the traps was the hard part."

"Now we have to get out with all of this," She says glancing around with a large pack bulging with the items they had found strapped to her back. A similar pack on Romans back made them easy to spot.

Roman looks Kat over. "We do stick out like a sore thumb."

"No helping that, we can only do this once anyway before the Rebels figure out that someone made it in," Kat says. "We're just lucky that there is this safe area."

"This is the deployment area," Roman says. "Separated from the main base and the exit to give officers a chance to do one final check before they deploy."

"Fun thought," Kat says adjusting her pack. Taking a deep breath in she exhales.

"Lead the way (nickname),"

Kat huffs but slowly trudges forward.

————————

"It's almost morning, and they aren't back yet," Bruno says sitting near the back door.

"Give them time sweetheart," Cupid says.

Mark shrugs. "We planned for this, if they don't get back by morning they'll be here tomorrow night."

———————-

Roman and Kat weren't back that night or the night after.

———————-

"What do we do?" Cupid turns to Stacey and asks.

Stacey yawns, and shrugs.

"Jesus, that's your answer?" Cupid says shaking slightly.

"Cupid, I don't know," Stacey says a look of defeat on her face. "They've been away for three days now, I've driven off nine groups of scavengers, and killed too many people to count or think about right now."

"Stacey I...." Cupid stops and gives Stacey a hug.

"I'm going to say it's fine, even though it's not, because we need to keep going," Stacey says the look of defeat shifting to a look of determination. "So far no scavengers have come during the day."

"If you don't count the dusk and dawn attempts," Cupid says sighing half leaning on Stacey. "Those were horrible."

"Are you both sure that we want to wait the full five days," Mark walks back into the room with Bruno following closely behind.

"That's the time limit we gave them," Cupid says giving Mark a dirty look.

"We have to give Kat more time," Bruno says to Mark grabbing his wrist.

"No offence but it's not the three of us I'm worried about," Mark looks at Stacey.

Stacey is wearing clothing from when Kat and Roman first went out, and besides some ration bars and water she hasn't consumed anything else and it shows. But the worst is her face, which shows all of the horrors she's lived through the past couple of days.

"Five days," Stacey says with a nod.

A tense silence fills the room as each person looks to be contemplating their options.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Stacey tenses up and shifts the rifle in her hand now at the ready, pointed towards the back door.

Bruno starts to speak but Mark quickly clamps a hand over his mouth.

Cupid looks to Stacey who nods. And Cupid slowly slides over to the door.

"God damnit guys let us in!" Roman barks from outside.

Everyone freezes.

"Jesus Roman that's not the password," Kat can be heard saying.

"Take me to your leader," Roman says then a pause. "I want everyone to know that this is a stupid password."

Cupid laughs as he opens the door, and two overtly muddy people with packs walk in.

"Sweet baby Jesus, what happened to the two of you?" Cupid grabs his nose in disgust.

"Later, bath, and food first," Kat says dropping her pack into the floor with a squelch.

"Ew," Bruno says as the smell hits his nose.

"Oh no no no you are not walking through this house like that," Cupid puts himself between the two and the rest of the house. "Strip! Now!"

"What!?" Kat glares at him.

"I'll grab some towels," Mark says taking Bruno with him.

Stacey sits on a nearby chair and watches all of this with an amused look on her face.

The two proceeded to strip and go up for a bath.

Cupid found himself whistling and making a full meal with the food the two had brought.

————————

Roman walks into the kitchen and sees Stacey sitting on a chair leaning forward with her eyes closed. The rifle resting against her shoulder with both her arms wrapped around it.

"Shouldn't someone wake Stacey?" Roman asks gesturing in her direction.

"Don't worry, I dropped a pot and she didn't even flinch," Cupid says with a smile.

"Cupid she's holding a gun," Roman says giving Cupid a suspicious look.

"She's fine," Cupid says waving Roman off. "I'd be more concerned for the person who tries to wake her."

Roman looks at Stacey again, nods slightly, picks up some food items and then walks to the dining room.

"Let's eat," Kat says from the dining room and Cupid smiles again. Grabbing the rest of the food items, he gives the sleeping Stacey a soft smile and goes to join the others.

"Where's Stacey?" Bruno asks.

"Don't worry hun," Cupid says ruffling Bruno's hair. "She's just taking a nap."

Bruno nods and digs in.