Silent Fighter- ENGLISH VERSION

Escalation

Jodie woke up in the same place where she was knocked down. Slowly, groaning, she stood up. Ashley lay beside her, still unconscious. Vince and his brother had disappeared.

Her backpack was gone. And so was Ashley's. Fuck. They had really taken everything. The food, water, guns, clothes and whatever little medicine they had left.

While Jodie was still struggling with the headache, she crawled on all fours to Ashley and shook her gently.

"Ashley...Ashley!," she whispered.

Ashley moaned and finally opened her eyes. It took a moment for her to recognize Jodie and sit up.

"Shit, that guy totally knocked me out! Where are those two now," Ashley asked as she slowly sat up.

Jodie shrugged her shoulders. She looked out the window, the sun was a little lower now, but it couldn't have been that long ago that they were gone. There was still a chance they could catch up with her if they followed their tracks.

Jodie stood up while Ashley looked around the room.

"Hey, what's that?" she then asked, pointing to a corner of the room.

Jodie went closer to inspect it. She had been wrong, Vince and Toby had not taken everything. In a pile lay a small part of their things. Two of their jackets, Jodie's crossbow, a knife and a half-full bottle of water. And Jodie's pen.

They had only taken what they could use. Nevertheless, with half a bottle of water and without food, they would not get along for long. They needed their things. Jodie put the crossbow around her neck, threw Ashley her knife and jacket, and took the bottle and pen.

"Half a bottle of water, did they leave us? Thanks a lot, I'm sure we'll get by fine with it! Those jerks! We want to help them and they steal our stuff," Ashley cursed as she gathered up her stuff.

Jodie wrote on her arm: "If we find their trail, we could catch up with them and then we'll get our stuff back."

"You can do that? Track people down?" Ashley asked in surprise.

"Daryl can do better, but maybe I can see where they went," Jodie replied to her arm.

Ashley nodded as she took her knife.

As they left the house, Jodie immediately started looking for clues. And indeed, only a few minutes later, had discovered the boot prints. It had drizzled a bit yesterday and the ground was still damp, so the prints were still fairly easy to see. They led out of the village and back to the tracks.

It was clear where they were going. To Terminus.

"What are we going to do with them when we find them?" Jodie asked Ashley on her arm as they walked quickly.

"We'll get our stuff back, what else?" Ashley said curtly, glancing at the path in front of them.

"What are we going to do WITH THEM?" Jodie repeated her question.

"We'll do whatever it takes," Ashley answered grimly.

"They haven't killed us either."

"I'm not saying we kill them. I'm just threatening them, like they did to us. But if it should come to the worst, I will not shed a tear for that."

She looked at Jodie and she didn't say anything.

"Is that a problem for you?" she asked, almost heatedly.

Jodie shook her head. No, that was no problem. It might sound heartless, but actually, she was right. She wasn't planning to kill, but she'd also been left behind and robbed. She just wanted her stuff back and if possible, no bloodshed.