Trudging around barren wastelands of towns, and ruins of cities is what we have been doing for the past 3 years. I think.
It's getting harder to keep track of time the longer we are out here.
Survival has never been a problem for us. Having a reduced sense of fear combined with military training makes everything easier. A personal arsenal of weapons might have been a help as well.
When we were kids we would always use the phrase "us against the world". We just didn't expect it to be exactly that. I can't explain how we ended up in Illinois. We don't have maps or anything to help with our directions. We've just been wandering from city to city, scavenging and having the occasional roof over our heads.
The sight in front of me breaks my train of thoughts.
"Jax" I call out to her. "Come take a look."
She walks over to me, her backpack slung over her shoulder just like mine.
"Whoah," She exclaims. "That's one hell of a construction."
"You could say that again. We'll need to climb it to get to the city up ahead." It's a wall, or a fence. Not really sure which word would describe it best.
By the time we reach the monstrous construction, the sun has already set. I knew keeping a folding grappling hook would come in handy one day. Tying it to the thick rope Jax always kept, before throwing it. Let me tell you, the dark doesn't help with our aim. After several throws, the hook finally sticks.
"About time!" Jax exclaims happily. "Up we go!"
I can't help but laugh at her excitement. "Only you would be happy about doing this." I tell her as I grab my stuff from the ground.
"I know you like it too. If you didn't, you wouldn't have been carrying around that hook of yours." She tells me, sending me a smirk over her shoulder and I can't even deny it.
"Hey, let's make a bet." I tell Jax as I'm about to start climbing. "If there's people here, I get your chocolate ration. If not, you get mine."
She ponders on my words for a few seconds before nodding. "You're on."
Grabbing the rope and planting my feet on the wall, I climb my way up. Peeking over the edge to see if there's any sign of life, I let out a breath of relief when I can't find any. "It's clear." I call out to Jax and she starts climbing. When she gets to the top, I give her my hand to help pull her up.
"Looks like you're about to lose that bet Ace."
I can almost hear the smirk she definitely has on her face.
"We're-" My words are cut off when I feel something cold and hard pressed against the back of my head. I look over at Jax and I can see the outline of a person behind her.
I'm pretty sure the normal human reaction to having a gun pointed at your head would be fear, but instead a variety of ways to disarm a person runs through my brain.
Several floodlights turning on interrupts my thoughts. Blinking away the blinding feeling, I look over at Jax to see that she's in the same situation as me. Her eyes calculating as she glances over my shoulder to the person behind me.
The man behind her is tall, dark-skinned with cropped hair. His clothes are black, militant and sturdy looking.
Disarming one person with a gun would have been an easy feat. But two, not so much.
"Well, fuck." Jax seems to have come to the same conclusion as she mutters the words just as I do.
"Who are you?" The man behind Jax questions us. His voice is loud and authoritative, leaving no room to deny an answer. "Factionless?"
My brows furrow at his last word. "I'm Ace. And what the hell is a factionless?"
"I'm Jax. And I'm also curious, what the hell is a factionless? You mean like homeless?"
"They don't look factionless." The man behind me says. His voice is deep, and sounds bored yet it still manages to send pleasant shivers down my spine.
"Then where did you come from? By your clothes I would say dauntless, but I've never seen any of you before." The man behind Jax questions.
As if on cue, we both stretch our arm out, pointing towards the wastelands. "That way."
The silence that follows and the raised eyebrow from the man behind Jax indicates that they don't believe us. "There's nothing out there."
"Correction, there's not much out there." Jax replies.
"And why should we believe you?" The voice behind me sounds. I roll my eyes, already bored with the questioning even if their curiosity is understandable. "Unless you have a lie detector test, I guess you'll just have to take our word for it." My words sounds annoyed.
A large hand grabs my shoulder and spins me around.
"Watch how you speak to me." He sneers, glaring down at me. And I can finally get a good look at the man who's been holding a gun to my head. He's alot taller than me. My head reaching somewhere along his chest. His hair is neatly styled, slicked back on top and cropped short on the sides. His featuers are sharp and his blue grey eyes seems cold and calculating. His eyebrow piercing is gleaming in the light, and he has bold blocks tattooed down his neck.
His clothing is much like the man behind Jax, sturdy and militant looking.
My eyes meet his, and I keep his gaze not giving him an answer. His hand is still clamped down on my shoulder as he turns his gaze to the other man. "Let's bring them to candor."