Ah and so starts the sequel to 'Separated.' If any of y'all haven't read that one, go read it so you're not too too confused on what's goin on here. If you have, then enjoy the second installment to the series. The Histories will be uploaded within the next couple weeks I hope starting with Alec's and working my way through the rest of the major characters. Hope y'all enjoy!
Chapter 1- Ordinary World; RED
'And I don't cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world somewhere I have to find. And as I try to make my way to the ordinary world I will learn to survive.'
"Time turns the old days into derision, Our loves into corpses or wives; And marriage into death and division Make our barren lives."- Algernon Swineburne
"Get down!" a blonde haired Smoker hissed, ducking behind a scrubby bit of bush. He was tall and lanky, gangly legs and a single bony arm ending with long thin fingers. His hair fell to his shoulders and covered a scarred over eye partially while the other was a milky yellow color. His five other companions crouched behind him, one crawling on all fours up to his side, red eyes blazing in the coming darkness showing him as a Hunter. He had a muscular form, tall and well proportioned with long claws on his hands and thick calve muscles made for running and leaping great distances. His dark chocolate colored hair shone slightly in the disappearing sunlight and his angular face was curious as to what the Smoker had seen.
"What's wrong Philo?" he growled in a voice kept low in his throat.
"Military convoy going down the highway." Philo nodded down the scrubby dune they were situated on. He sniffed lightly in slight disgust, scowling as the Hunter beside him growled, baring long sharp fangs. "They're going toward Vegas. Looks like that plan was all for nothing there Spirit." he turned around and stared at the single female among their group who scowled back at him. She was of average height with a stocky frame, broad shoulders and long legs. Her silver-brown hair was cut raggedly above her shoulders and her gray-blue eyes were cold with weariness and anticipation of the possible showdown between their group and the military convoy if they were spotted. She looked young, maybe about sixteen or seventeen and stood unevenly from a recent leg injury she had just recovered from.
"And who says they took over the entire town?" she demanded in a low voice. "They're probably spread between the dam, the city and the air force base north of the city." she moved forward and squinted down at the line of flashlights down the hill, her poor eyesight hindering her in the dark more than it normally did. "We could probably get past them."
"And we could also probably get shot up." muttered a taller male behind her, rubbing the pad of his thumb over his shotgun absently. He was long bodied and had brown hair with scruffy reddish-blonde facial hair accompanied with blue eyes like a sky before a thunderstorm. "I say avoid Vegas and get to LA." He also appeared young, possibly about eighteen or nineteen years of age and had a hidden hardness to his stare from several past run-ins with untrustworthy people.
"Let's try and be optimistic here shall we?" Spirit murmured over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow.
"Well its about time we stopped for the night anyway." a man with curly brown hair and bright blue eyes piped up. He sat down on the sandy desert floor and sighed, taking one shoe off and shaking some sand and twigs from it. "I've got blisters on my blisters and we've been travelin' all day. I think Josh's just about ready to pass out." he jabbed a thumb at a black haired and blue eyed man who scowled at him.
"Speak for yourself Ellis. If you didn't have Alec to cling to you'd have bit the dust a long time ago." he spoke irritably but quietly, impatient from the long day. "We've been traveling for almost two months now. I think its safe to say we've left Gregory and his army in our dust. For all we know they're still stuck in the frozen wasteland that is Colorado." he sat down across from Ellis and sighed, thinking back. Gregory was a Smoker, an insane one at that, who was a former scientist in the labs that had developed the Infection. He had declared war on all humans and decreed that any humans found by any Infected were to be killed on sight, no questions asked.
Ellis frowned at the shorter man but shook his head, understanding the normally timid person's short temper. The Hunter, Alec crouched beside him, staring at him with analytical red eyes before turning on his heel and bounding down the dune opposite the military convoy. He shifted his blue eyes to the brown haired male who had sat down near Spirit. "Don't worry Wolfen. They'll have passed by morning. Until then I think we just need to relax a little and get some rest."
"Well one of us should remain on watch." Philo grunted, still crouched on the crest of the hill. "I'll take first watch and at midnight I'll wake Alec up." he ran his single hand through his shock of dark blonde hair and sighed. "I guess the good thing about traveling like this is we haven't really had time to run into any real trouble."
"Hey, don't jinx it now." Spirit snapped, over-exaggerating her horrified expression for effect before grinning. "And don't worry, once we get through Vegas and across the Sierra Nevada's its a straight shot from there. Smooth sailin' and all that." she yawned widely and stretched her arms above her head, puffing out a sigh and sweeping her eyes over her companions.
"You said the exact same thing when we left Denver and how did that turn out?" Wolfen accused, frowning lightly at her. "We get chased by a Tank, run into a military group and get caught between the two. I'm amazed neither of us wound up getting shot to pieces with all the chaos that went on."
Spirit stared almost blankly at him before replying airily, "Oh yeah, that's when you crushed my glasses and almost shot me when I was jumped on by a Hunter." her tone got more and more threatening as she talked. She stared at him a second more before snapping her head back the direction Alec had crawled off as the Hunter came back with an armful of scrubby firewood.
"Behave now you two." the Hunter sighed, setting down the wood in the center of the group. Philo tossed him his old cigarette lighter as Alec got it situated into a semblance of a tee-pee set up. Alec lit one scrubby branch and tossed it into the pile, allowing a small blaze to light up the faces around him. "You can bicker and squabble all you want when we find an actually safe place to stay for a couple days but for now at least pretend to get along." he smirked lightly as they glanced at each other and snorted at the same time. He had watched the two of them since they had joined up with their motley crew a couple months ago. They bickered constantly but had a close bond that came from months and months, nearly a year, of traveling and surviving together. It also appeared that they both watched the Infected closely because sometimes, in order to get out of a pinch, they'd fall back on whatever knowledge they possessed of the Infected and the way they behaved to scrabble their way through a tough area that a Hunter or Jockey would have a slightly hard time getting through. They moved as a team, moving with surprising nimbleness for a couple humans but that could also be contributed to almost a year of constant movement. Now that Spirit had been able to remove the splint that she had had on her leg when it had been broken they moved especially well, like a well oiled machine.
It was much like how Alec and Philo worked together when they got into a tight situation. It was almost like a mental link was developed and they moved on their own yet in sync with each other. Attacking and defending each other without a word uttered. Moving together to a better vantage point or a strategically better location. All of it was learned behavior and absolutely vital during the Infection. The more you worked as a team, the better a chance you had of surviving. Alec had also witnessed that sort of fluidity between Ellis and Joshua whenever the two humans had to move without the two Infected. They would time their reloads on their weapons almost perfectly to where one always had his fingers on the trigger while the other reloaded. Those times were rare considering Alec stuck to Ellis like they were attached at the hip and only left his side when he absolutely had to. They had been pushed apart too many times in the past and the Hunter was determined to make up for it now.
Their current goal was to first get through Las Vegas to see what had been done to it and possibly stock up on supplies and then cross the Sierra Nevada's and find the house of Spirit's aunt in Los Angeles. They should be safe there for at least a month if not more if they got really lucky. None of them were sure how fast Gregory's army was advancing which also made them unsure if they could even linger for a single night without the risk of being overtaken. Gregory had made it clear he wanted Alec in his army because of his greater speed, strength, agility, and intelligence and was also determined to get rid of the humans he was traveling with. Philo's fate was undetermined if they got caught but he would probably be welcomed into the ranks as well thanks to the intelligence and insight he could possibly offer. The Smoker may act like a dunce at times but he had all sorts of knowledge stored away in his mind that could be put to good or bad use. He and Alec both learned fast, were able to figure out puzzle-like situations quickly, and could infer and make and opinion on something quickly and accurately about a wide variety of things that could be extremely valuable to Gregory if he managed to get his hands on the two of them. Ellis, Joshua, Wolfen, and Spirit would all be killed because of Gregory's insane hatred for humans and because of the damage they had already done to his ranks just in taking out small regiments they had run into periodically.
Alec flicked his blazing red eyes over to Philo's back as the Smoker stared down the hill at the vanishing convoy and the dark city in the distance. He could already feel the temperature dropping around them as the sun disappeared completely and the moon began to rise, just a thin almost claw-like shape in the sky. The air around them was silent aside from the slight whistle of the wind and the crackling of the low fire. Joshua and Spirit had both already collapsed onto their backs and were asleep, Joshua's mouth open in a silent snore and Spirit's clenched shut tightly. Wolfen sat near her left side, watching the moon as Alec was and Ellis was watching the fire at Alec's side. Without a word, Ellis wrapped one arm under Alec's and leaned against his shoulder with a quiet sigh. "Something wrong?" the Hunter asked in a whisper, pressing his chin to the top of the other's.
"Not really. Just thinkin." Ellis murmured back, tightening his grip for a brief moment. "Hopefully when we reach LA, hell even when we get into Vegas, we'll be able to relax a little." Alec glanced down at him, sensing that there was something else that Ellis wasn't telling him. He could always tell when something was on Ellis's mind but normally didn't press him on it but this time he went a little further.
"There's something else isn't there?" he asked quietly, pressing his cheek to the side of Ellis's temple and breathing in his scent. Ellis was quiet for a long time, playing with the fabric of his shirt lightly before sighing and pulling away from Alec to look him in the eye.
"I'm kinda worried about Philo. Ever since we left the mountains he's been acting differently. He's been real quiet and serious and its a bit concerning." he glanced at Philo's turned back and back to Alec. "I can't even begin to imagine what he thinks about but whatever it is is changing him."
Alec let out a low breath through his nose and forced a soft smile. "I think he's just stressed out. We all are. There's an honest to God war hanging over our heads and four out of the six of us are human. Well," he glanced at Wolfen and Spirit a bit warily, still not sure if they were immune or extremely lightly Infected. "I'm not sure about those two but they don't seem Infected. Then again they don't seem one hundred percent human either."
"Oh?"
"I can't tell if they're immune, carriers, Infected or just odd smelling humans. Their scents are really muddled together, I think from spending so much time in the Infected world. The change in scent might be a defense mechanism that their bodies have learned to produce to make a slight cloak over their true smell."
"That's an interesting theory but wouldn't that have happened to me'n Josh too?" Ellis asked, his blue eyes shining with interest. "Or do you think its selective?" Alec blinked, slightly thrown off. Sometimes he forgot just how intelligent Ellis was when he normally either trying to cheer everyone up with hillbilly humor or making stupid jokes.
"I'm not sure. I kinda just came up with this." Alec grinned sheepishly, his jaws splitting into a huge yawn a heartbeat later. "Well, if I'm going to take second watch, I may as well sleep now." he chuckled, stretching out on his back. Ellis laid down beside him resting his head on Alec's shoulder and wrapping one arm around the Hunter's abdomen in a tight grip. Alec's eyes slowly slipped shut and it seemed like it had only been a minute when he felt Philo kick him in the ribs to wake him up. He swiped absently at the Smoker's leg, grumbling unintelligibly and squeezing his eyes shut.
"Get up frog-legs before I make you." Philo grumbled, exhaustion lacing his tone. Alec cracked open his eyes, growling deep in his chest up at the Smoker who just stared evenly back down, in no mood to put up with the Hunter's grouchiness. "Unless you want me to call in that debt that you still owe me." he sighed airily.
"What debt?-" Alec snapped his jaws shut, peeling himself away from Ellis and standing up. "I can't fucking believe you still remember that." he snarled, flashing back to when they had just entered Colorado before Alec had not only relearned how to speak in the human tongue but also before he had finally admitted his love for Ellis.
"I remember a lot of things." Philo simply replied, waving him off and sitting heavily down on the ground. "It seems like I'm the only one who doesn't have someone. Joshua's started padding after those two," he jabbed his thumb at Spirit and Wolfen. "I just can't tell which one he has more of an interest in or if its puppy love like what he had with me." he sighed and ran his hand through his dark blonde hair. Alec crouched beside him, patting him on the shoulder lightly. "and obviously you have Ellis and he has you."
Alec stared at the ground absently before shaking his head. "Well they do say bad things happen to good people don't they? Don't worry Philo, you're a good guy. You've got a lot going for you and I can't point out one person I've ever known that's been alone forever. Hell even my bastard of a father found someone to put up with him." he snickered some outwardly but on the inside his stomach was churning with resentment. Philo said nothing for a long time, drawing small circles in the dust below him quietly, lost deep in his thoughts.
"Well if you say so." he finally sighed, stifling a yawn. "Go take your watch. Kick one of those two open about an hour or two before dawn." he pointed over at the two humans across the fire from him before glancing at Joshua as he snored lightly. Alec noticed that Philo had somehow established himself as the leader of their group in a light sense. He didn't really mind but didn't much care for being told what to do when he was so used to being the one to be giving out instructions. But Philo was the oldest of their group, twenty-six as of two weeks ago if his estimate on the months had been accurate. Ellis would be turning twenty-four in about four weeks and Joshua twenty-three the week after that supposedly. Alec still had to wait until whenever March was to turn twenty-two and he wasn't sure about Wolfen or Spirit. He didn't even know how old they actually were. He never found the time or place to ask and really didn't care much. Both of them looked younger than Alec by a couple years though so he assumed they were both in their late teens.
Shaking himself out of those thoughts, he crawled over to the crest of the hill, peering down at the highway through the darkness. He couldn't see any movement aside from the shrubbery moving in the stiff breeze that blew and a couple snakes and small rabbits that hadn't been killed yet moving around quietly. Other than that small amount of activity, all was quiet. He vaguely wondered how far behind whatever regiments Gregory had moving west were and if the insane Smoker himself was with them. Had he stayed in Colorado? How had he reacted to Caden's death at the cabin? Had he cared? The two had appeared close. Caden had had an undying loyalty to the Smoker. He had appeared to be just a regular guy striving to survive and get at least a few people to like him even though he had appeared standoffish. Gregory may have corrupted his mind into believing that humans were the enemy or that idea may have already been planted and Gregory had just provided the incentive for that seed to sprout. Alec would never know and quite honestly, he didn't want to know, at least not at the moment. All that mattered at the moment was getting into Vegas.
And so ends chapter 1 of 'Purge.' I'm hoping this one turns out as good as if not better than 'Separated' did and that y'all enjoyed this first chapter. Leave a review to tell me what you think about it. I use any and all feedback to improve on the story and how it moves so any comments are taken into account when I'm writing chapters and are much appreciated.
