A few weeks go by and now I've gotten used to the routine of the job. I keep lookout during the day, just outside of the camp. They trained me the best they could on how to shoot, I only fired a couple of rounds though, they really couldn't spare the bullets. I haven't had to fire at a person or infected yet and I don't plan on it either. A long time ago I was warned about joining the military and the Fireflies that's why I lied about my age. I'm really eighteen but by the time you turn sixteen you usually have to join something. My mother wanted to keep me out of it so we lied about my age and I kept it up when I was by myself. I figured once they brought me here it wouldn't matter either way. Most of the people here seem to be good though. Hector the hispanic male I met on my first day here, seems to be proud of what we are doing here. He says the Fireflies are holding humanity together. I don't know if that is true or not, all I seem to do here is walk around in circles all day with a rifle laying across my chest. At lunch I get to see the only semi-friend that I have here. Lewis who works at the small kitchen that is setup here. I usually try and get him to sneak me some extra food but most of the time he doesn't. He said he joined the Fireflies because he didn't know what else to do. I guess neither one of us really had a choice.
How they found us I don't know I was careful I'm always careful. I can't see them though I can see their shadows flickering in through the sealed windows. Their feet stomping on the wooden porch. Their growls growing so loud that it is hard to think. "What do we do?" I ask my mother. She puts one finger to her lips urging me to be quiet. I think to myself it's a little late for that. Slowly but surely the wood boarded over the windows starts to give way. The hinges loosen as the doorframe starts to split. One hand then two sneak their way into our home. My mother and I stand there in the living room watching all of this unfold too shocked and frightened to do anything about it. It isn't until one of the infected is halfway in before we start to head for the back door. I'm scared to open it fearing more of them are waiting for us on the other side. She places her hand on my back "it's okay open it." I do and take a look before stepping outside. It's early evening and the backyard looks clear. I breathe a small sigh of relief. Just as I turn around to lead her out that's when they grab her. That's when they always grab her. Night after night I turn around and they always get to her. The sound of her screaming in pure agony, the sound of her left arm snapping backwards at the elbow. I wake up in a cold sweat. "Well there you are champ I was just about to wake you" says Tina standing beside my bed. "I'm going to need your help today, Roy said they came across some medical supplies a few days ago but the place was crawling with infected so they had to leave it behind." I wipe the sweat from my forehead expecting some sort of sympathy from here. "Roy and Hector are off on a search party, apparently one of his men has gone missing and they might not be back for a while so." She sits down on the bed next to me "I know it's risky but we need those supplies and I'm sick of being cooped up here and we need somebody who knows what to get so who better then myself." She pats me on the leg "so get your pants on and I'll get a few of the others and we'll head out before anyone notices." It seems like a bad idea, to put the only doctor that we have in danger. Against my better judgment I put on my pants and place the Firefly pendant around my neck. Lucky for me they already had a spare Alex pendant just lying around. Except the other Alex was a girl and her last name was Maes not Taylor. I asked them but they won't tell me what happened to her. As soon as I meet with the others we head out. We're heading to an abandoned nursing home. Apparently they use to keep old people there when their families could no longer take care of them. The military later turned it into a small camp before leaving it for good. I take the back of the line with the same rifle across my chest. Exhaustion sets in quickly and my stomach turns into knots. The trail leads us away from the town and into a wooded area. After an hour we exit the woods and make our way down a single lane road. The road is infected with potholes as far as the eye can see. It's not long until we reach the place. The weeds in front of the building are waist high. Both glass doors leading into the building are busted with blood stains on the pieces of broken glass. The lead man Henry and I enter the building first while the others wait outside. As soon as we enter we hear an infected. My first instinct is to hide behind Henry. "I see it, it's not a problem" he says. We walk closer to it, it's an infected female. She is trapped underneath an overturned desk. Both of her arms are pinned underneath herself. Henry violently smashes the bottom of his boot against its skull. She stops moving. Henry nods his head for us to keep going. We check the rooms and everything seems to be okay. The others come in and Tina shifts through what is left. We fill one bag up with medical supplies and are ready to leave. "Did any one check that?" Tina points to a corner of the room. Dammit I think to myself. "Alex did you check that?" asks Henry. This was my room to check and somehow I didn't see the closet. "You better go check it out" he says. I think to myself what's the point we got the medicine let's just go. He nods his head for me to check it out. My footsteps echo as I make my way closer. My left hand shakes as I reach out. I fumble the rifle trying to check if my finger is on the trigger without looking. The door opens and nothing but regular dust comes out. I choke and try to regain my breath before that sound overtakes us. That heart stopping screech and clicking sound. No one moves a muscle. "Where is it?" Tina whispers. Everyone tiptoes out of the room and into the hallway. It hard to hear anything with my heart pounding in my ears. We slowly make our way down the hallway. SMACK! against the door at the end of the hall. "It's locked, that was the first door that I checked" says Henry. More pounding, screeching and clicks comes from behind that door. Our pace quickens as we make our way outside. The breeze welcomes us back to safety.
Back into camp I carry the bag with the medicine into Tina's makeshift office. "Thank you so much Alex, this will really help us out." I don't know what to say to her I'm just glad we made it back in one piece. "A lot of the medicine that we find is too old to be useful but I think we might be able to do something with what we got today." She starts to pat me on the shoulder but changes her mind and instead walks back behind her small desk. "You know if you ever need a favor, you can always ask me" she says. As soon as I hear those words I know what I want from her. I have been wanting to ask someone but I could never figure out how and I figured no one would know anything about him. "Actually" I start to say. "Uh" I hesitate on whether or not to ask. "Say it" she says. "Is there any way to find out about someone who is a Firefly or maybe was a Firefly?" I twiddle my fingers nervously. "Maybe" she says. "Really" I say surprised she would say anything helpful. "Yes but we haven't created any new records in a long time." I take a seat in front of her desk. "I know it's probably a long shot but I would like to know about the man who saved my life" I say while trying to not choke on my words. "We do have some files here; we didn't want to keep all of our eggs in one basket." She takes a seat behind her desk. "I know we have lost a lot of records of the years, certain places get overrun or left behind so I'm sure our record keeping is not what it used to be." She puts her hands on the desk "a decent number of files came with me when I was relocated here." She continues "in fact if Marlene were to see the state that we're in now I'm sure she wouldn't be happy about it." I interrupt her "who is Marlene?" She smirks "she's the leader of the Fireflies, I'm surprised you haven't heard of her?" I shake my head "no, not that I can recall." Leaning back in her chair she continues "well you might meet her one day she's always moving from one place to another, we sort of grew up together or at least we came up in the Fireflies together." A short sigh and then she says "I thought things were going pretty well here until Roy took over, it seems like things have been going downhill ever since." A quiet moment is held between us before I continue "May I look at the files." She gives out a quiet laugh "no but I can search through them for you and if the file's really old it might have his picture with it, so what's the name?" Well here goes nothing I guess "I don't know his last name but his first name is Tommy."