Meacamlau: Oooooh I picked the worst time to start the storty back up! So sorry about deleting all the chapters, I'm hoping to fly through the editing at a decent speed so hopefully you won't have to wait too long to pick back up where you were.
Goldenfightergirl: Exactly. I had thought of having W & A put other attachments on to make them a bit more stealthy, but then didn't look forward to having to explain what each one did. I take long enough deciding on attachments in Rainbow Six Siege, trying to write about them would be a nightmare.
Ewokling: Fingers crossed!
Stiltedxriver: It felt so weird coming back and reading this story again haha, I was just sitting there going, ooh that was a good line, ooh I like that idea lol
Italics = German
Alana gawked at the motorbike, wondering why anyone would be comfortable, first, riding the loud thing at all, and with how high one had to reach to grip the handlebars. After a pause she rethought, thinking perhaps it was just her that'd find a hard time trying to reach them. But she still stood by the absurdity of practically riding a dinner bell for the dead. She found herself cringing at the loudness till the engine was cut off.
The man got off the motorcycle and looked around, looking like he had driven through the desert, his clothes covered in dirt and weathered. His skin was toasted by the sun, but Alana felt fairly certain that half of it was simply months' worth of weathering the elements. His face was scrunched up as he squinted, searching the area. Reaching for the crossbow slung over his back the man began walking forwards through the strewn cars. Coming to a hatchback, he climbed atop to the roof and looked ahead, muttering something to himself. Jumping down, he got back onto the motorbike. Weaving through the cars he disappeared from view a couple of times.
Wilhelm turned to Alana from his perch, both straddling large branches of a tree. Normally when coming across others on the roads, they'd hide and play the waiting game. If the people turned back, they'd wait for at least half an hour then get back on the road. If the people continued on in their direction, they'd wait a day before moving on, either following the road or turning back.
"The CD's will have to wait," Wilhelm whispered with a sigh and small smile to his sister. He scooted carefully back to the trunk of the tree and leaned back. Alana remained where she was, keeping watch. Wilhelm checked his wrist for the time; 11AM. They had been stuck in that car since first sunlight. He decided they could wait a couple hours once the man left to move out. He pulled a small word search puzzle book from a pocket in his pants, along with a blue crayon.
The backfire of the motorbike was fading slowly, telling the siblings the man had found a way through much easier than they had. A tidbit of jealousy was shared between the two, but just a tidbit.
At one point the pause of the engine could be heard faintly. It kicked back up and just as it had begun fading completely, the rumble of the motorbike began growing louder and louder. Wilhelm held up his rifle, searching through the scope while Alana did the same.
The man was coming towards them again, slower this time. Alana stiffened as he continued driving past their car, heading back the way he had come from. Perplexed, she craned her neck, trying to figure out where he was going. Surely getting through the cars wasn't impossible for him. It was a glorified bicycle, how could he not get through all the cars? Alana turned to Wilhelm seeing he was thinking the same. Both returned their eyes to the direction he man had headed, not trusting he was gone. Alana released the breath she'd been holding when the engine again grew louder, this time the man reappearing with a caravan trailing behind him. Wilhelm shook his head; the man on the bike alone could easily make it through the cars, but the ones following him—it was pointless. The RV would get stuck and if not, it'd take the entire day to gain much ground.
The group was slow moving, so much slower than they had been in the Honda. The motorcycle had inched ahead of the group bit by bit and was slowly passing by the siblings. Neither could believe the group was actually going to try to get through. They'd be stuck there in the trees for much longer than anticipated. There was no doubt they'd be turning round and not following this route any longer.
A thin hissing sound erupted from the RV and smoke quickly seeped up from the hood.
The crawling caravan of cars came to a stop, people exiting from them as if they were used to having to do so. Alana and Wilhelm watched, accounting for each person. An older man came out from the RV, shaking his head. He was quickly joined by a young Asian man and a woman with blonde hair that peeked out from the door. Two women, one with long dark hair, the other with greying short hair, walked up from a car, their arms wrapped around the shoulders of a young boy and girl. The girl clutched a doll in her hands. A man appeared behind them, a determination in his steps that instantly signaled to Alana and Wilhelm that he was the leader of the group.
Seeing as more people came out from the caravan, Alana and Wilhelm released the safeties on their rifles. A man with olive skin, wide shoulders, and a black man with thick upper arms came next. One held a gun and the other carried a baseball bat. The group appeared to be discussing the RV as they slowly gathered around the hood. Alana watched as the elder man with white hair climbed atop the RV using a small ladder at the back. The young Asian wearing a cap was hunched under the hood, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. The others began stretching out through the cars, going to each one and peering in, grabbing what supplies and food there was left behind.
Alana moved her rifle as the black man and the man from the motorbike had walked by. She knew there was no need to ask Wilhelm what they would do now. They'd definitely wait up in the trees for as long as it took. Long as those newcomers didn't come into the woods and find the packs, the plan would stay the same. Stay hidden for the day before moving on.
It was quickly realized that the group would be turning around. They were moving cars out of the way around the RV. Judging by the hand and arm movements the leader was making, Alana wagered they were going to try to turn the RV around, assuming they'd manage to get the thing running again. Abandoning the large vehicle didn't seem to be an option for the group, at least not for now.
Alana had looked for too long to the RV and when returning to look for the two men that had walked past, could not spot them. She moved her sights to the edges of the woods. She could hear the footfalls of the people as they wandered about. The women and children had made it past their flipped car, not paying it a second glance. Alana became edgy seeing that none carried any sort of weapon. She glanced over to Wilhelm; he had his aim trained on the elder man atop the RV. He had binoculars and as he scanned over the woods Wilhelm placed a finger along the trigger, ready to curl and pull. It wasn't until the man turned completely round, dropping the binoculars, that Wilhelm relaxed.
Alana continued growing agitated as the group continued to spread out amongst the cars. And without weapons for every member. Something would go wrong, she knew it. It just had to.
As moments kept adding up, Alana gave the smallest ground to thinking they'd get away with being so obviously reckless. And then the moments abruptly stopped.
Something had changed in their demeanor one by one, beginning with the man atop the RV. He'd taken the binoculars back up, looking fully around. Turning to end on the road behind there was a falter in his arms, binoculars dropped slightly before being jerked back up. Wilhelm looked to horizon and could see a herd of the dead coming out from the woods, heading towards the group. He signaled to Alana. They remained there in the tree as one by one the members of the group realized what was upon them, everyone moving quickly to find safety. Moving back to the cars would have put them within sight of the dead. Hurriedly they hid under cars and in the footwells of cars that were unlocked. Alana watched as the long-haired woman ushered her boy into a car, softly closing the door behind them. She turned to find the other mother and child. Neither could be seen.
A glance to her brother and Wilhelm signaled he estimated some fifty moving on the road. Likely more.
Alana looked up the route, searching for the other members of the group she hadn't already spotted. The blonde woman had gone back into the RV, the elder man lying flat atop it. The Asian man had slid under a car along with two others under their own cars. The black man and one with the crossbow couldn't be seen and then Alana spotted the slight top of a head peaking about a car off ahead, moving back and forth. The breaking of glass caught their ears and Wilhelm had his rifle repositioned and aiming.
The black man had slipped as he hurried to find a place to hide. Gripping the side of a forearm he kept moving to and fro in the same small spot. A trail of blood beginning to follow him. With all his moving it didn't surprise Alana that he hadn't heard the dead coming up behind him. Shocked at the sight when he finally turned and saw, the man took a step back, falling to the ground as the dead man approached him from behind a van. Alana and Wilhelm watched as it advanced on him, their trigger fingers lax. Neither flinched when the motorbike man came into sight suddenly and shoved a large knife up into the dead man's head. Wilhelm smiled wryly when he tossed the now certainly dead man stop the wounded one. He and Alana had used the same move countless times to cover their scent.
For as slow as the dead were, it wasn't long before the herd had passed them. With no distraction their speed did not falter, and their path remained the same. From the looks on the faces of the group, they hadn't encountered a herd before or perhaps not one of this size. Alana and Wilhelm head. They weren't sure why they stayed together as they did like that, only thing that made sense was the roaming. Looking for food. Likely the only thing that drove them, the want to eat.
The tree branches weren't the most comfortable things in the world, but Alana did her best to stay still and ignore the irritant. There were still a few stragglers in the back that were now passing. She almost lost her grip within the tree when someone screamed from the road. Rifles moving once more, in perfect unison, the siblings watched as two of the dead began chasing after the little girl. From what could be seen and heard, Wilhelm had thought perhaps the small girl had made too much noise and drawn their attention. Something caused her to leave from under the car and begin weaving through the road. Her screams drew more attention from the dead. Within a moment the leader of the group was spotted hurrying after the girl, jumping over a bit of railing and vanishing into the woods to find her. Multiple of the dead giving a slow chase. The entire herd didn't change paths, judging the group though, enough to cause an issue for them had. As the threat moved further away, the man with olive skin appeared and headed into the woods, being led by the man with the crossbow.
A silence remained over the group save for the quiet sobs from the little girl's mother. There was no wind. No birds announcing their presence in the trees. No rustle of leaves. Ignoring everything else, Alana could head the woman's cries clear as day.
"Sophia! My little girl is out there!"
She felt a pang of sadness, for the mother and daughter, but it was only temporary. Soon as it had been felt, Alana quickly felt nothing as the woman continued to cry quietly.
Wilhelm looked over at his sister and whispered, "We'll wait till they find the girl, or give up. If they stay the night we'll have no choice but to turn back or move further away." Wilhelm looked ahead to where the girl had run off to. He didn't think she'd find her way down to them. Likely she kept running in the same direction she'd started with. "If they get too close, we start moving." Alana nodded in agreement.
She no longer bothered with asking, when coming across a group that was in need of help but hadn't spotted them, if they would stop and help. If Wilhelm decided it was safe to offer help he'd tell her. He had rarely deemed it safe. Alana could not even recall the last time they'd made themselves known or even simply placed supplies in a spot that would be noticed. And this group now, they were not organized. If they were, they'd have never try to make it through the blockade of cars. It was never wise to help out a disorganized group. They never took it well when someone attempted to leave. It was abandonment in their eyes. In the eyes of Wilhelm, it was survival. Alana considered it a death sentence.
The last of the group they had left behind, some three weeks ago, tried to keep them from leaving. There were only four of them in the group. Wilhelm thought it was a waste of four bullets in the rifle and the dampened noise from the silencers was still a concern for him, but Alana had spotted the dead nearby and so he had to make sure the argument ended quickly.
Nightfall was coming soon and the group that had gone into the woods finally returned. Without the little girl.
The sobs from the mother started up again. There was an argument. Alana watched as the group began moving around the cars again. They were staying the night on the road, going to likely search for the girl again in the morning. That seemed to do little to soothe the mother. She wanted her daughter back right that moment. Alana and Wilhelm both knew the chances of that girl coming back or being found tomorrow. Chances were fairly high, that was true, only catch was that the mother would likely not appreciate the way in which she came back.
As night began to fall, the group members returned to their cars, hiding under blankets. The elder man set a folding chair up atop the RV, by the ladder. Wilhelm gave them a sliver of credit, having a night watch. The man with the crossbow walked back to his bike. He looked out over the road, to the right side where the girl had run off to. His face was still scrunched up, like he didn't know how to know furrow his brow. He started pushing the bike back to the RV.
He stopped.
Looking at the loose gravel at the side of the road he followed an invisible line into the woods. Alana's finger slid to rest over the trigger, her aim already set. Wilhelm was watching the elder man as he took his place in the chair atop the RV, resting a rifle between his legs, raising the binoculars to his eyes though the light was nearly gone for the night. Alana continued to watch as the man with the crossbow scanned through the trees. His eyes moved up at the tree tops.
For a moment it felt like he was looking straight ahead to the tree Alana was perched in. Alana went to curl her trigger finger.
His shoulders slacked as he sighed, casting his eyes down to his feet as he kept pushing the bike.
Alana relaxed a bit, shaking her trigger hand. Wilhelm looked over at her.
Her finger had cramped up.