Chapter 2

New Friends

"My name's Jethro, but you can call me Jet" one of the twins said.

"Wow that's an interesting name, and what about you?" Daze asked the other one.

"Jack"

"Well I'm glad your sister didn't kill me cause its been an honor making your acquaintance."

"Ha! Me too. The whole ince…" Jet didn't finish.

"If you don't shut up!" Holly said angrily.

"Calm down okay? If your done fighting, I'd like to introduce you to some friends of mine"

"You mean there's more?" Jet asked.

"Four more to be exact."

Meanwhile the others had come up, or hopped down depending on where they had hidden, and were now introducing themselves to the others.

"So what are you three doing out here so heavily armed?" Daze asked looking at they're weapons.

Each of them had one old rifle that all looked to be of the same model. Apart from that Holly carried a Lancer on her back while Jack and Jet had a Hammerburst and a Gnasher shotgun respectively.

"Our parents were part of a resistance movement out near the Lethia Imulsion facility. We had taken up shelter in the mountains and woods where the Locust didn't usually go. Well me and my brothers went out early to go hunting for some berries and nuts and even a deer if we could find one. When we got back everyone was..." At this Holly choked up and looked away.

Jack continued "It wasn't just our mom and dad, we had lots of friends we were fighting with. All of em were dead, we found the remains of some emergence holes that had come up behind our blockade, we all lived in a cave, but there were also lots of dead Grubs outside the entrance. They must've launched an attack from the outside hoping to distract us. It must have worked."

"That was about two months ago." Holly broke in.

"I'm sorry to hear that" Daze said "I lost both my parents to the Locust as well, we all know how it feels. But why did you come here, I mean this is where most of the humans are left. So naturally there are going to be more Locust here."

"We stayed there about a month after it happened. Then we decided to leave. We just couldn't stay in the place where we buried our friends and family" Jack said "it was just too painful."

"So we took our guns, all the ammo we could find, some food and any extra clothes we had and just left." Holly said. "and here we are. But what about you. What's your story?"

"We're all orphans, like you, who were taken in by a woman who lost all her children as well as her husband on emergence day." Clara said "Her name is Teresa."

"What we're doing out here is another matter." Daze interrupted "these people want to get married, which isn't bad in and of itself, but traipsing around a war zone just to say your married

doesn't make much sense…too me…but they're my friends and I'll do it for them."

"Do you guys wanna stay at the orphanage with us," Susan asked "we have room."

Holly looked at Jack and Jet who both nodded.

"Well I guess its settled," said Daze "We'll bring you back quick so you can get settled, then get on our way. It's not too far back."

They turned back towards the orphanage.

When they were a couple hundred yards off they felt an earthquake and heard an explosion from somewhere up ahead.

"In here quick!" Daze shouted above the roar.

They all hurried into an old strip mall that backed right up to the orphanage. They ran through the hallways till they got to a broken down part that looked out over the house.

Daze froze.

What they saw nearly made him throw up.

A large group of locust had surrounded the house and were now in a firefight with the rest of the teens inside. There was firing from most of the windows and the roof. The locust were paying a heavy price for this as they tried to rush the front door.

The fighting slowed and it looked as though the locust might be giving up, they had retreated to the cover of the surrounding houses while they continued to fire.

"We have to do something," Daze said.

"There is nothing we can do" said Holly

"I'm not just going to let them die!"

"You'll just get yourself killed!" Holly replied "do you think that's gonna help anybody!"

Daze looked back out at the scene before them. He could see the Locust reinforcements start poring in from all sides. The outer walls of the house were filled with holes, some had even fallen down. He looked at one of the corners of the roof. Blood spilled down through bullet holes to the ground below.

"No!" he whispered. He leaned back against a wall. "No." How could this happen. Why would they attack now?

There was another earthquake. They could all see the house rumble and shake. An emergence hole was coming up right under the house. They could hear the screams. Firing had stopped coming from the house. Now it started again from inside the house. The locust on the outside were now advancing.

Suddenly All firing from the house quit.

They heard a scream. Daze jumped up. Mercy…one of the other girls…had gotten out the back door and was trying to get away, she was running straight for them. Just behind her was a wretch.

"I'm going out there" Daze said.

"You can't," Holly said "You'll get us all killed!"

"I'll distract them while you guys run" Daze started to walk forward.

At that moment Holly jumped up and tackled him into the side wall, grabbed his knife and put it to his throat. Jet jumped up as well and leveled his shotgun at the rest of them while Jack merely continued watching.

"Don't move" Jet said.

"You might as well sit down," Jack said "its already got her."

Holly loosened her grip as Daze pushed past her to look through a hole in the wall.

Mercy screamed as the wretch jumped on her back and took a bite out of her shoulder. A Locust with an odd scar over its left eye walked over to her after a few seconds. Daze noticed the scar because it looked exactly like the scar he had seen on one of the locust that attacked the orphanage the last time. It lifted her up by the neck. One arm was missing and so was most of the other. Clara buried her head in Justin's shoulder as Mercy's intestines fell to the ground. The Grenadier put his pistol to her head and was about to fire when an idea seemed to come to him.

"No!" whispered Susan "the monster!"

More wretches had gathered about. The Locust looked into Mercy's eyes, then with what looked like a hideous grin, threw her to the eager wretches.

"Let's go" Daze said turning away as Mercy's screams reached him.

They all started walking back the way they came.

"Oh yeah. I'd like my knife back too."

"I'm sorry about that, really I am, but there was nothing you could do."

"Maybe"

"Well, what are we gonna do now?" asked Jordan

"We stumbled upon what looked to be a hidden COG supply room a couple miles from where we met you." Jack said "That might be a good place to get some weapons."

"Sounds good enough" Daze said "Lets go."

"Here, take this" Holly said as she handed Daze her rifle. "It fires the same rounds as your revolver, and its very accurate at long range."

Jack handed his Hammerburst to Jordan, while Jet gave Justin his Gnasher.

"You be careful with that okay?" Jet said "It's not a good idea just to run in and go to blasting."

Justin promised he'd be careful while Daze gave his revolver to Clara. Holly tossed a pistol to

Susan, who quickly tied up her long brown hair into a pony tail.

"We ready?" Daze asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Then lets move out."