The War That Never Ends

Chapter 3

!!!WARNING!!!

This part contains depictions of gun violence and violence in general. If you're uncomfortable with that, just be careful with this chapter! It's not super in depth, but it's still there! Also, from here on out, the violence gets more intense and there will be much more in depth descriptions of gore, so if this chapter makes you uncomfortable, later chapters will be harder to digest. 

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The group moves quietly through the city with lowered bodies and their eyes prying around the dark streets. Adrian leads them with his now amber eyes and hyper-sensitive hearing. James shuffles around quietly when they stop behind a building and he pulls four clips and guns from his bag. He loads the pistols before handing one to each of the group members.

"The clips are fully loaded, but we only have one clip for each. Adrian, take the flare gun." He whispers, Adrian hissing at him to be quiet, but takes the gun either way. As they continue to walk through the city that sits in shambles, Adrian often shoves them into a building, behind a wall or near a dumpster. Several powered charge by them, spits of fire expelling from their hands and some weidling guns. Adrian continues leading the group in their stalk through alleyways behind and through buildings, Zoey whispering directions behind them as she stares at the map.

Adrian suddenly stops the group, pausing them behind a wall as he listens to murmuring voices not far ahead of them. Tyler leans from behind him to listen as well. Powered sit around the corner of the wall, around a fire as the cool night sits around them, guns on their hips.

"Damned Animals." A man grunts as he takes a swig of water, sat before the fire made from trash on the ground. His comrade hums to him. "They keep coming but keep getting themselves killed cause they don't understand technology."

"City Rats do." The other man comments. "It's just the clans that are the primal little shits." A chuckle comes from the two for a moment. They silence as something in the building next to them that the group leans on crashes. There's a pause before the Powered jump up, pulling out their guns and the group quickly lower themselves. Tyler's nerves fly, James watching the man carefully, his body tensing to grab him. Adrian steps back, holding his hand out as he listens around with his tail resting on Tyler's thigh. "What the hell was that?"

"Light this." The first Powered thrusts a stick toward his comrade, the other doing so. Fire ticks on his finger and lights the dry stick quickly. "Hey who's there?" Nothing, but Adrian freezes, looking back to the group and pointing to himself. Animals. "Hey, who the fuck is tha- AGH!" The man is shoved to the ground, with a blur of creature on him and animalistic screams as the Animal rips its claws and teeth across his body. The other man screams and his flames go crazy, Adrian turning around and violently waving his hand for the group to go. They follow his order and quickly run the opposite way, the screams of Animals echoing behind them.

"Goddammit." James grunts once they turn a corner into a large alleyway. "That's been too many-,"

"Hey, shut up!" Zoey hisses and James looks over, freezing and quickly pressing himself to a wall when they see a patrol of Powered rush by. Adrian sticks close to a shaking Tyler as an attempt to keep the man calm.

"Holy shit, they're going to find us we're going to die!" Tyler begins to stress, his voice slowly raising and it quakes nervously, James grappling at him and covering his mouth. Adrian keeps sticking close to the shaking man to keep him calm despite his own overwhelming stress. Tyler pants heatedly and nervously, his eyes watering with fear. Adrian freezes, his ears swiveling and trying to catch the sounds around them.

"Run." The Animal says quietly and looks behind him before yelling. "Run!" The group takes a glance back, but a group of about five Animals are poised there, screaming. It doesn't take them another moment to run from the alleyway and dart into another, the screams of the animals echoing behind them with wooden arrows flying at their backs. They keep running as fast as they can, James sticking with Zoey and placing a hand on her back to push her forward. They quickly stop themselves short as they run into a Powered camp, trying to stay from the firelight, but the screams of the Animals are too close.