Sorry this update took so long! Promise the others will be sooner! Only 3-4 Chapters left.
I woke with a start, nightmares of what we had witnessed plaguing me. Robbie jolted awake as well, startled by my sudden movement.
"You okay?" Robbie grumbled, wiping his face groggily. I nodded as I looked around at our surroundings. We were in some type of Forest. The trees were spread out and bare of leaves from the winter. "You sure?"
"Ask me again once this is all over and I'll answer you truthfully," I responded. Robbie nodded reluctantly. "Where are we anyways?"
"Just a day's walk from Boston. That's if we don't rest a lot, or look for food." Robbie still leaned casually against the tree, eyes trained on the gun I had taken earlier.
"I would kill for a poptart right now," I mumbled. Robbie hummed in agreement. I opened my mouth to ask Robbie what he was thinking about, but the sound of the tripods horn spurred us into action. We jumped up, Robbie grabbing my hand and the gun with the other. We ran silently and quickly, easily able to see a tripod crushing the trees behind us. Lucky for us the tripod had yet to notice us, but it was getting closer. We panted, already running out of energy quickly in our run. It had been almost 36 hours since our last meal and I was beginning to feel it. Still, we pushed on, stumbling as we came to a small town. We ran to the side of a building as the sun began to set. We were stuck in an alley as the tripod began to roam the streets.
"What do we do?" I whispered desperately. Robbie just looked at me, completely lost.
"Pssst," We heard someone whisper. Our heads jerked down to the end of the alley. A guy was sticking his head out of a side door, motioning us in. I looked skeptically at Robbie, shaking my head no. The sound of tripods left us no choice but to run inside.
The doorway led us downstairs, a horrid stench growing stronger with each step. I could hear our unnamed rescuers heavy breathing in front of me, but couldn't see him. I couldn't see anything really, it was pitch black. I felt along the walls to give myself something to feel. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I could feel the airflow open up more, meaning a large room. I felt Robbie behind me breathing on my neck. What normally would have made me turn around to smack him now gave me comfort of another presence in this dark abyss. The smell was now overwhelming, making my eyes water as I drew my hoodie up over my nose. I felt the person in front of me grab my wrist, starting to pull me along. I quickly reached behind me, grabbing for any part of Robbie. I managed to grab a fist full of some clothing. Catching on, Robbie took my hand and let me lead him. We dared not talk as we could still just barely hear the tripods above us. The winding pathway made me feel utterly lost, but we could no longer hear any noises of the tripods. Finally we stopped. The sound of a door opening and sudden light made us blink. The unnamed man yanked us inside before quickly closing the door. The stench was at least lessened.
"What's this then, Frank?" A man asked. He was a short, white man with beady eyes that were always squinting so you couldn't see the color. I turned to Frank, our apparent rescuer. The man looked in his early 20's. He was black, of average height, and looked decidedly of average muscle tone. His most prominent feature was the scar across his right cheek.
"Found 'em running from the aliens. They look like fighters, don' they Phil?" Frank turned with Phil to eye us. Phil's eyes lingered on me longer than Robbie, making me uncomfortable.
"Oh, yes. They'll be great assets, so long as they share everything they have." For some reason Phil's statement made my skin crawl.
"Well, are you two gonna share?" A person I had previously overlooked stood up. The man was huge; broad shoulders, big muscles, at least 6'4", and a scowl that could scare Voldemort. I nodded in fear, despite the fact that I was sure Phil had a double meaning to what he said. "Good. My name's Mark. We can put your gun with the others." Robbie hesitantly handed it over.
"I bet you two are hungry, thirsty," Frank stated. In response Robbie's stomach made a gurgling noise. Chuckling, Frank motioned us over to a stock piled area. There were about a dozen cans sitting around. Frank opened us both a can of beans, passing them over with spoons. I have never loved canned peas so much in my life! We gobbled them greedily as Frank passed us each a bottled water.
"We're stocking up, looking for fighters as well as supplies to try and take those aliens down. The only way to get past the shields is for it to bring you past them. That's what we're gonna do. We're going to get caught, so we can kill them from the inside," Mark told us. I nearly spewed the water.
"You want us to get caught and killed by one of those things? What are you insane?" Robbie questioned. Mark's face grew dark at the insult. Frank passed me a can of Vienna sausages.
"Watch your mouth, boy. I oughta beat some respect into you. You're here, eating our supplies, and you think we ain,t gonna ask for something in return?" Mark growled as a slightly southern accent emerged. Robbie shied back a little. I paused in the middle of the bite of sausage. Oh, God. They aren't going to let us leave.
"You sure like sausage, girly," Phil commented in a way that made me know he wasn't talking about sausages at all. I quickly put them down as Robbie glared at him. Suddenly the thought of fighting the tripods was not appealing at all. I just wanted to be as far from them as possible.
"I think there's been a misunderstanding here. We're just kids. We'll find some food and water to replace what we took, but we aren't soldiers," I begged.
"Everyone's soldiers now," Frank told me. "We strike at dawn."
"How about a pre-fight ritual that soldiers use to do before they went off to a fight?" I looked at Frank in confusion. "Making love to their women." I felt Robbie draw me into his side as I looked at the men in fear. "Come on boy, you said you'd share."
"We share possessions, not her." Robbie argued firmly. Angry, Phil walked over, yanking me from Robbie's grasp and throwing me into Franks. I watched as Robbie punched Phil across the face, before Phil retaliated by punching Robbie hard in his side, knocking his breath out. Before either of them could continue, Mark stepped in, pulling the two apart and throwing Robbie against the opposite wall.
"Enough! Tonight she's yours boy but tomorrow after we take one down, you share." Mark took me from Frank's grasp, shoving me toward Robbie. I scrambled to his side as Frank lowered the lights down. Robbie winced as he moved to sit leaning against the wall.
"What are we going to do? We don't know the way out, we can't win in a fight against them. We're screwed," I whispered in his ear, panic lacing everything I said.
"Don't worry. I'll take care of you. We'll think of something," Robbie whispered back, wrapping his arm around my waist in comfort. How were we going to get through this?
