Chapter 10

Quinn, Daria, Jane, Trent and Jesse stood in the living room of the old abandoned house arguing. It had been a week since the raid and there were still no sign of Nick or Max. They were on edge, with little less than ten hours until Sam was due to return, Trent and Jesse had decided that a warm welcome was not something they should extend to the rogue soldier.

"Why do we need to ambush him? If he wanted to hurt or capture us he could have done it last night." Quinn reasoned.

Trent shook his head and looked at her earnestly, "Are you really that naïve?" He sighed in frustration and began to pace. "He knew that there were at least two men travelling with you, and he knew that we had at least one gun. He also knew that we blew up the motel and killed the rest of his patrol. I don't know about you, but if that were me I'd be out for blood. Besides, we're more valuable than you three, we-"

"Excuse me?" Jane huffed, "So what, our lives aren't worth as much as yours? Since when did you become such a chauvinist?"

Trent groaned and ran a hand through his mussed-up hair as he looked at Jane. "I didn't…Look, how many women have you seen patrolling the streets and capturing survivors?"

"I don't," Jane started and sighed in defeat as she looked at Trent. She cast her gaze to the floor and mumbled something under her breath.

"What was that?" Trent asked audaciously, despite the tense mood a slight smile parted his lips as he looked at his sister.

"None." She almost yelled. She took a deep breath and continued in a more subdued tone. "I haven't seen any women in any patrols." She answered.

"Exactly, from what we've been told they use the women and children as bait and bargaining chips to get the men that are fit enough to fight to co-operate." Trent paused and looked at the three girls, "Which is why we need to be careful. For all we know this guy is using you three as bait and fooling you into thinking he is a good guy to lure us out of hiding."

"Why would they go to all of that trouble? It sounds like a waste of time; this isn't one of those cop drama movies or whatever." Quinn said.

"Really? 'Cause last I checked we were running around in a would be war zone. Didn't it cross your minds that this Sam guy is playing the good cop role, promising to bring back news on your folks so that we would welcome him back, only to realize that it was an ambush?"

Quinn stood silent and looked helplessly at Daria, "Well?"

Daria stood silent and seemed to reflect on what Trent had said, "It couldn't hurt to prepare for another raid, we can't be too careful. Sam, if that is really his name knew we were responsible for the attack on the patrol at the motel even if we did save his life…" Daria paused and looked at the rest of the group, they were all frightened and shell shocked from the drama of the last week. She didn't know what to do, she had never had to make life or death decisions before. She drew a deep breath and continued. "We could find hiding places around the house perimeter and up the street. It should still be daylight when he returns, so we will have an advantage in spotting the soldiers," she paused and looked at Trent, before adding, "if there are any. We only have two guns though, which won't be much help if Trent is right about Sam." Daria hated to admit that she too had had the same bone chilling thoughts about Sam and his motives. It scared her that Sam now knew her parent's identity and she was having huge regrets on being so trusting of the man without knowing anything solid about him. She shook her head to try and clear her mind of the dark thoughts and looked at Trent. "So how do we do this?"

It had been decided that when day broke we would pick a spot around the house to hide and wait for Sam's return. Jesse took one of the rifles and chose a spot at the intersection at the start of the street, if Sam returned with a truck load of people we figured that he would have time to fire a couple of shots before the soldiers knew what was going on. Trent had taken the other rifle and insisted on hiding in the house, Daria, Jane and I hid within eye range of each other in and around the gardens of other houses along the street.

As the sun got higher in the sky the group began to get anxious. Quinn groaned as she stretched out and peered toward the house. She was sitting in the front garden behind a dense green hedge on the opposite side of the street. A hundred feet down the road she could just see Jane, who was also hidden from the street and Daria was across the road a few houses from their temporary base. Quinn hated being alone at the best of times and hiding in the bushes in the middle of the day in a stranger's garden waiting for a soldier was frightening. Just as she began to think that Sam wouldn't show, Quinn heard the scuffing footsteps of boots hitting the bitumen of the road. She felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle as she shuffled forward and caught a glimpse of their soldier.

It was the first time she had been able to get a good look of him. Sam had a lean, athletic physic and stood at least six feet tall. As he walked slowly toward their house his eyes methodically swept his surroundings. He was dressed in an army-green camouflaged uniform and Quinn noticed that he was armed; his rifle was slung over one of his broad shoulders and his hand loosely gripped the strap that was secured to the gun. His hair was a short scruffy crop of dirty blond that contrasted against the healthy golden glow of his skin. As he looked in her direction, Quinn pulled back but had enough time to notice that he was young she guessed he was in his early twenties.

She had been so distracted by Sam, that Quinn didn't know Jane had approached her until she felt Jane's hand on her shoulder. Stifling a yelp she turned toward Jane wide-eyed.

"What the hell!" Quinn hissed. She could feel her heart beating a million miles an hour as the adrenaline coursed through her veins.

Jane held her hands up in surrender and tried not to smile, "Sorry, are you okay?" She asked.

Quinn nodded in response. "What are you doing?"

"As far as I can tell he's alone. We should wait until Trent gives the okay and we'll make our way back to the house."

Quinn nodded mutely and turned to watch the house.

Sam paused at the front step of the house and looked around, so far there had been no sign of the group he had come across the night before last, he hoped that they had stayed put and not moved onto the next town. Hopefully the promise of news on the Morgendorffer's was enough to make them stick around. With one last fleeting glance toward the road he took his rifle from his shoulder and made his way to the entrance.

The door was unlocked and as Sam turned the handle and gave it a push, it let out an exhaustive moan as it swung open. He stood in the doorway hesitantly, he was taking a risk coming alone; he had witnessed what this group were capable of. He took a deep breath and walked into the living room.

No sooner had he entered he felt the muzzle of a rifle pressed into his back, right between his shoulder blades. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, "Oh Trent, we just have to stop meeting like this."