Trust Fall (Deadweight series: Book 1)

It starts with an X?

Jodi, Jay, and Mike never really left the small apartment complex that they fortified in Sinystok. So, it was up to the girls — Reena and Ella — to hunt and scavenge. It had been 3 months now and Reena still had her dogs and her cat but they mostly stayed at the base. They didn't like having to run around so often and that was understandable to Reena.

A few hours into this particular scavenging trip, Ella got lost from Reena due to mishearing the meeting area. Reena tried to contact her through the radio but didn't get anything but interference for 10 minutes. Her worry grew like a weed but it soon died out when Ella finally talked back.

"Mom?" Ella said through the radio, talking to Reena who she pretty much adopted as her parent at this point. "Mom, I'm okay, are you there?"

"Y... Yeah I'm here! You scared me! Where are you?" Reena said with a trembling voice.

Ella laughed a bit through the radio. "I met two guys, around your age maybe a little older. They let me go and apparently this is their turf, so when you're walking around be careful that they do-"

Reena couldn't hear the last of the message do to an instant blackout. She wasn't out for long, she forced herself to wake up and just in time to see a gun pointing at her and two military figures looking down at her speaking gibberish. She held her hand up and tried to form words but struggled desperately.

"Wh... who... I'm..." She grumbled in aggravation and fear until she made out the would "kill" and saw the hammer being pulled back on the gun.

She rolled out of the way just in time and only got a grazed shoulder as she rolled into a ditch line full of water. She breathed in some of the water, which must've jolted her, because she raised up and coughed with ringing ears. The two guys walked over to her and one of them kneeled down.

"Hey, are you Ella's step mom?" A guy asked with a rough voice. Reena nodded as the guys helped her out of the stream. "I am so sorry about that. We normally don't let people go but Ella was an exception, she told us about you but we didn't think you'd be this close."

Reena shook her head unable to make words as one of the guys handed over their jacket as she shivered.

"I can't believe you rolled out of the path of a .308 WIN round." The guy with the coat said with a laugh.

The coat less guy punched his arm and looked at her, her eyes growing irritated as she huffed a visible cloud of air from her lungs. "Um... My names..."

She blinked and it seemed like slow motion. She didn't catch the guys name so she looked up at him, he was closer.

"You okay? You teetered there for a second." The coatless guy said with a raised eyebrow.

"...na..." She nodded before shaking her head trying to speak again after her ears stopped ringing. "Name?"

"Oh... My names X—"

Reena fell to the cold concrete with a thud, this was the first day she had met anyone besides her group, the first day she heard a gunshot so close to her ear, and the first day she had passed out twice.

Whoever they were, she knew one of their names started with an X.