I met Frypan and Newt out in the scorch. They were scouting out an area around where they chose to make camp for the night and it had been about 17 feet from the nook that I normally sleep in during the day. ( I sleep during the day when its safer, and stay awake during the night when the freaks come out.) Their foot steps and conversation woke me up. I got up cautiously ready to fight if they were a threat but when I peaked over the 5ft boulder that covered me, I was surprised to see 2 guys my age just as surprised to see me too. They stopped walking and stared at me and I grabbed my dagger still prepared to fight. I'd heard of some unpleasant experiences some women have had with desperate men, and I was more than capable of protecting my self by any means necessary. Newt spoke first, introducing himself and Frypan then asking who I was. When I remained silent he told me that they weren't going to hurt me. Of course I didn't completely believe them, but I did let down my guard a little. But then Newt called the others to come and that was a no for me. Two capable guys is already enough, but a group of who knows how many is way to much. I bolted and Frypan ran after me, and when Newt turned back around and saw us running , he and the others started chasing us too. There's this cave that I know of, it's about 30 yards from the boulder where I sleep, its where I keep my food and long term stuff. If I could make it there I knew I could loose them. The opening to the cave is only about 3 feet high, and if you don't already know where it is, you'll run right past it. So I went there and ran around to the entrance and crawled right on in, but Frypan was close enough to see where I went, and he came in right behind me. After you crawl through the narrow entrance the cave opens up to this huge cavern that I keep lit with oil that leaks down off the walls. So as soon as I made it through the entrance I stood up to run and get a gun I keep hidden in the back. But when Frypan made it through the entrance and tried to get up, he tripped over some of my water jugs that I keep by the door and fell forward knocking me down with him. His upper body covered my legs and I couldn't get up, so turned my self over and put the dagger I had in my hand to his throat. He was naturally going to try and get up, but when he felt the metal at his throat he froze and stared up at me. We were both breathing hard. And we could both hear thomas and the others start to call out Frypan's name to find him. I could tell he wanted to answer but I shook my head telling him no, then slowly I pressed the blade up further and further until he slowly leaned up, trying not to get cut, and gave me enough room to move my legs from under him. Once I was free I slowly stood up still holding my blade at his throat until I was in a standing position and he was strait up on his knees. I could tell he was scared to death, he thought he was going to die, so I apologized, and he looked at me like I was crazy. I lifted the knife more and more until he was also standing up, then I put it away. "I didn't mean to scare you, I didn't expect you to follow me in, so I panicked. Sorry." He put his hands to his throat as if he were feeling to see if I'd cut him. I listened to his friends continue to call his name as I walked to the back of the cave to put away my knife. "My names Aviey by the way." I said watching him as he watched me. "You can go if you want." I said, noticing him look towards the entrance every time he heard his name. I could see him trying to decide if I was good or bad. I must admit. I generally think I'm a good person, so having people also think I'm a good person meant a lot to me. He walked over to the door as his friends voices started to sound further and further away. "I'm alright guys, I'll be out in a minute!" he yelled right at the entrance. They apparently heard him, because we started to hear them get louder and louder and Frypan leaned back up and looked around the cave. "You live here?" He asked noticing the many things I've collected hanging from the walls. I nodded. "You live here all by yourself?" he asked now looking at me a bit surprised. "Yeah….I don't know many people out here, and there's even fewer I can actually trust. So by my self is safer." He watched me for a moment longer before looking back at the cave entrance, seeming like he was trying to decide on something. "Well, me and my friends are trying to get to the mountains, we hear there's some kind of safe haven up there….. If you want, you can come with us, we'll start back first thing in the morning." I shook my head and turned away. "No thanks…. I've heard of people trying to find this so called safe haven and then never being heard from again. I don't think there's any better safe haven than this cave right now for me." He was silent for a little while, then I saw his shadow graze the wall as he bent down to crawl back through the entrance, he paused, "If you happen to change you mind…..we'll be camping out right around the corner…" He lingered for a little bit, but when I didn't answer or turn around he crawled through the entrance and left. I sat on the floor and listened to him walk away from the cave and then hear his friends shout and ask where he had been. He told them no where, and when newt asked if he'd found me , he said he didn't.
That night I was awake a usual, I sat in my cave with a cloth covering my entrance to hide the light inside. I could barely hear a whisper of their conversation as I sat and flipped through a book id read 100 times. After a while they were silent and I assumed that they were going to sleep. I myself was getting sleepy too since that little encounter got me out of six hours of sleep. I started to doze off, then I heard them scream. Who ever had been on watch, which I think was a girl, screamed loudly to warm everyone to wake up. The fire they'd started had attracted freaks like moths to a flame, and they were closing in fast. I scrambled to find my gun just in case something bad happened and I needed to defend myself. Frypan gathered the others and started to run away from the freaks and in the same direction he'd chased me earlier. I was trying to find my gun so hard I didn't notice how loud the foot steps were getting. Then next thing I knew Newt and some others I hadn't seen before started crawling into my cave, accidentally yanking up the pins I had holding up the cloth I used to hide the light from inside my cave. The last one to enter was Frypan and he and the others struggled to pin the cloth back down that used to seal my cave entrance. I just sat there for a moment or two shocked. There were 5 or 6 strangers in my secret place who may or may not have just exposed my only safe haven to the entire freak nation. I just held my grip on the handle of my gun, that I'd found just before they barged in. When they finally got the cloth secured, they waited in complete silence for a while until we heard the freaks safely pass by our entrance with out noticing us. A little while later we all took a deep breath, but theirs was cut short when they noticed the gun I'd been holding. Not pointed at them, but I just had it gripped tightly in my right hand against the floor. I was slightly shaking and still breathing hard even though I hadn't moved in nearly 15 minutes. When Frypan noticed the gun he made eye contact with me and we just stared at each other for a little while and a few tears started quietly coming down my face. Even if the freaks didn't find my hide out I knew that someone else noticed the light. The only safe place I've ever known was no longer safe, I would no longer be safe again. "I'm sorry." he said, "I didn't mean to expose your safe haven,…but I didn't know where else to go." I wasn't mad that he and his friends came here to save their lives, I'd rather have them here alive than out there dead or dying. But I've been trying to find a place like this all my life, so I could finally stop running and for the first time actually have something like a home. Loosing that was what I was sad about. I let go of the gun and put my hands to my face as the tears started coming down. Frypan came and sat next to me, handing my gun to Newt as he did. I didn't care, I felt hopeless now. The others watched in silence as Frypan attempted to comfort me by putting his arm around my shoulder and holding me gently as I cried. He nodded to the others letting them know it was ok for them to try to get some sleep, and that he was volunteering to take first watch. Eventually they all dozed off and eventually I fell asleep to, curled up in a ball next to Frypan who was sitting up against the wall. I guess now I had no choice but to go with them In the morning to find this so called safe haven, now it was the only thing I really had left to look forward to.
When I woke up in the morning almost everyone had left the cave, the only people left inside were me and Frypan who'd fallen asleep still in the sitting position. I heard the others outside trying to plan out their journey for the day. I sat up and looked at my cave, messy now from when the others came barging in. Frypan woke up as soon as I got up and started looking for things we could use on this journey. He startled me at first because I didn't know that he was awake. So when he put his hand on my shoulder I jumped. I could tell that he was genuinely sorry for what happened from the look on his face as he glanced over the mess in my cave. I sighed when he apologized again and just nodded my acceptance. A tear or two escaped as I glanced around at my precious treasures that made this cave my home and that I knew I'd never see again. When Frypan noticed me start to cry again he put his arm around me to try and comfort me once again. This time I actually leaned into his embrace and we ended up hugging each other standing in the middle of the cave. We stood there for a while until I noticed a shadow on the wall coming from Minho and Newt who'd come to tell us that it was time to start moving. I quickly pulled away and wiped my face as I started telling them everything that I had that could be useful to us on the journey. I left the cave to get the stuff I left at my sleeping nook near the boulder the previous day. Minho and Newt both watched me leave the cave then looked back at Frypan who nervously looked at their suspicious faces before shrugging and saying, "She just needed a hug!" and pushing past them to exit the cave and help me gather my things.