The sputtering of an engine was what brought us all to life.
I sprang up, eyes wide and truly despising myself when I slid the hatch open to see we'd slept through a lot of the day…
Were we truly that tired?
I stuffed my necklace into my personal bag, quickly scrambling to get my equipment on and leading the way out of sight. I didn't bother to check and make sure Annabeth and Cleo were behind me, I could feel their panicked breaths brushing across the bared skin of the back of my neck. I'd pulled my hair up while looking for supplies yesterday, and it truly seemed to fight its way through me tossing and turning into the night. I motioned towards the woods, my eyes set on a man—clearly well aged, judging from the stark white hair on his head—who looked around on top of his little RV… Possibly scouting…
Rustling sounded in the trees to my right, and I held back a grumbled response to air out my frustration. I kept my eye on the survivors, seeing them convene and became relieved with the fact that they didn't hear Cleo and Annabeth sneaking off. I watched them go through the cars, repeating a routine that myself and Annabeth worked through—though they were scanning around more thoroughly, ready to grab anything and everything that appeared to be of use. That, and they had a lot more range from the amount of people.
A male—possibly in his late 30s or early 40s—was getting too close to me for comfort, so I grabbed a chunk of asphalt big enough to get someone's attention and threw it as fast as possible, far away from me. There was a black man, bulky appearance and readied stance who picked up on the rock clattering to the ground. He called for the attention of the male, which gave me just enough time to slip into the woods.
"What took you so long?" Cleo was a little bit annoyed, as heard in her hurried whispers when I joined them just behind the brush. It was thick enough that we could stand and remain unseen, which was precisely what we did. I gave Annie the boost to assist her in climbing a tree, figuring that she'd have a better chance of keeping herself hidden and getting up faster with her naturally small form. Cleo and I stood at the base of the tree, Cleo keeping a lookout for the survivors and myself with my bow readied, staying prepared to shoot down any freaks.
"Uh, guys?" Annie murmured, her voice just a little bit louder than what I would've preferred. I gave her a dirty look for that, taking her silent reaction as apology before she pointed out past the brush and whispered;
"There's a horde working up the highway."
"Fuck" was the first words that slipped from Cleo's mouth, and I sighed in frustration. I told Annie to stay up in the tree, and brought Cleo further into the woods with me. If the horde remained on the highway—which was something we desperately needed to happen—we'd be fine here.
And to our extreme luck, only a few zombies had wandered into the forest. It was simple fir me to take them down, and all it took was three quick arrows to their heads. I removed the arrows from the corpses, wiping them off on the ground before returning them to my quiver—
Then, the voice of a panicked child ripped through the silence.
It was a sickening, shrill noise that rang in my ears and forced me to her Evie's cries once more. I gasped, really just stunned by the noise, and slammed my hands over my ears. I crouched to the ground, slamming my eyes shut and grinding my teeth together and willing it all to go away.
… But I deserve this.
I broke through the tree line, gaining just enough time to watch a couple of men run after something before I had a gun pressed against my temple.
"If ya want to live, you'd best be gearing down," A man with black, curly hair and eyes void of any emotion said with all seriousness. I sighed, my nostrils flaring as I hoped that Annie and Cleo stayed behind. I did as he said, handing over my bow and arrows.
"A pleasure to meet you too, sweetheart," was my quick retort, and it was enough to have him showing signs of anger—which it wasn't as if it mattered. Shooting me would be doing me a favor.
"Lemme ask you somethin', sweetheart," he said, turning me to face him, and shaking the gun he held at my head as emphasis that I was, in fact, in danger "Does this look like a joke to ya?"
I sighed, looking between that gun and those lifeless eyes as I searched for my answer.
"You look a bit like a joke to me, probably because I prefer buzz cuts."
His eyes narrowed as he looked at me, probably searching for some sort of fear. I do admit that there was a bit of fear inside, but it was so overwhelmed with the desire to just have him pull that trigger that it didn't even have a fighting chance.
"C'mon," the man grumbled, securing my weapons around him before he took strong hold of my arm and tugged me back to his little camp—and the first one to greet me was the elderly man, followed by an Asian and some blonde that really looked like she needed to pull the stick out of her ass.
"Who's this?" The man asked, and I motioned to my not-quite-attractive captor.
"Hello, you ordered the meathead?" I was nudged, likely a warning to shut my mouth—which probably wouldn't happen.
"Found her at the tree line—"
"And you dragged me to your place without even introducing yourself," I tsked, completely cutting him off and acting as if what he said wasn't anything close to important.
"Is it too difficult for ya to shut the hell up?" I tugged my arm from his grip, and then turned to face him.
"Is it too difficult for you to avoid a pissing contest and allow a girl to pass through? Whether it'd be some live-action target practice or a waste of time and energy, I wasn't going to shoot you down or anything. This isn't your territory, so leave it be."
There was a lingering silence hanging over us, rearing its ugly head as I got into a staring contest with this prick. His head tilted the slightest bit, eyes narrowed, before this smug grin painted itself onto his lips.
"You aren't alone, are ya?" He said tauntingly, then instructing one of the men—Glenn was the name—to keep me here while he went off to find the group that I honestly believed I never hinted to.
I waited there for what seemed to be an eternity, my head resting against the side of the RV as I forced myself not to attack the older guy. His bewildered stare was grating on my nerves, challenging my self-control. I wouldn't let that fucking stare win, and that was a promise. My fists clenched and unclenched, just wishing that asshole would either come back with or without Annie and Cleo. Eventually the Asian went off to look for the man—who I'd learned was called Shane—and I was left in silence with that blonde woman holding her gun like it was meant to be some sort of threat.
"Who's this?" a woman with black hair appeared, her brown eyes scanning over me as she held back a young boy. She was followed with a woman boasting short, gray hair—and honestly, she looked like her dog had just died.
"Can we not go through this again?" My voice was more demanding than anything, despite the fact that I was the one being held captive.
"Did we even go through this in the first place?" the blonde challenged. I sighed, picking at the dirt caked into my nails when the muscle head returned with the rest of my group.
"About time."
"You guys, I'm really sorry if we came off as threatening to you," Cleo began, her palms flat and facing our captors in a sort of peacefulness, "We just ran out of gas and had to spend the night here." There was a long pause, one that Cleo obviously disliked. "I'm Cleo, that's Lillith, and this is my sister, Annabeth."
"You ruined the surprise," I muttered, pushing myself off of the RV and taking my bow and arrows off of the man without any hesitation. He seemed a bit surprised with my actions, which was probably the only reason why he allowed it.
And, of course, the men that went out to follow whatever came back then, looking my group and myself over in caution.
"Oh, great," I muttered, returning the glare that the brown-haired guy with the crossbow had fixated on me.
"She's not introducing us again," were my first words towards the group, quickly followed by a "So when can we leave?"
"We can't just let you go, you know where we are—how many men we have…" the capturer said, hand resting on the gun that now rest in its holster.
"Like I care about anything you have," I retorted, instinctively retrieving an arrow and setting it in place on my bow. Capturer noticed this, and he had his gun aimed on me just as fast as I had that arrow, fully extending the string of the bow, aimed right between his eyes at point blank range.
Cleo gasped softly, keeping the same gesture with the flat palms and all as she stepped between us.
"Like Lillith probably mentioned already, we were just passing through," she assured, ushering me towards the forest in which crossbow guy and the sheriff came from. I studied Capturer, realizing he was kept on a tight leash when the sherrif sent him a pointed look. That was when I put my bow back in the quiver, and turned my back on them to lead my group into the forest.