Chapter 22: Safety Off
Sunny found herself circled. Gunshots rang out around them as more people joined her side of the fight. She kept backing up, until her back hit something. Sunny already had an arrow loaded as she looked over her shoulder. The person who backed into her had a handkerchief around their mouth and nose as well. Sunny looked forward eyeing all the people looking at her.
"I thought I told you to go home." She growled.
"I guess I've been around you too long. I'm picking up some of your habits." Jesus dryly jested.
"But you're not me." Sunny pushed. "You know how many people are dead because of me?"
Their argument was cut short as more gunshots ripped through the morning air. The Saviors rushed forward separating the two, but Jesus threw Sunny an extra clip beforehand.
Putting her bow around her, Sunny picked up her gun and knife. She was being pushed back. Gunshots filled the air as someone grabbed her arm. Ian pulled Sunny into the gas station. It had been remodeled, more rooms had been constructed, but hardly any doors.
"Fuck!" Ian yelled. He slowly sat down, his back sliding on the wall. Ian put his hands on his face. "Shit. Shit. Shit."
Sunny was still standing, staring at her comrade. Ian ran a hand over his face.
"Ok, ok. Tank'll be around this area soon. He could help. Ah shit."
Tank was one of Ian's friend from Guard. Sunny had only met the man a handful of times, but whenever he saw her, he'd wave. The guy was much more a gentlemen when she first met him, unlike Ian.
"Shit Demon, what have we gotten into?" Ian stood, starting to pace. Sunny had never seen him like this, and hoped she'd never have to again. "We're in some deep shit." She knew that tone, it was the very tone she'd use with him. Sunny would only use it when she knew something was hopeless, especially in Ian's case of going after her.
"This is great. I've backed us into a corner. Ya know, for a nineteen year old, you know how to hold your ground."
That was the first time Ian verbally acknowledged Sunny's age. But she was to swallowed up by anger to notice. She grabbed the older man by his shirt collar and smacked him.
She pulled down the handkerchief, pointing down the hallway. "You think that out there is tough? Give birth to twins without anything for the pain, raise them in a damn world like this. Then get back to me on that one. Oh hell, why stop there?"
Sunny continued. "I have been sexually assaulted. Almost killed. Bitten. Beat. Shot. Held captive. I have only one real full leg damn it! I've had to put down more friends than I've ever had in a lifetime. Did you not see, I had to put my own daughter down. And who knows about my son. I have no damn clue where their father is, or my family. Fuck I'm a walking sob story. But am I standing in front of you?"
Ian nodded, his eyes wide.
"Does it look like I gave up, just because things got tough?"
He shook his head.
The truth of the matter, if Sunny had given up and stopped going on, she would have died a long time ago. Her kids would have never been born, or been motherless.
Sunny placed the black fabric over the bridge of her nose once more. "So either man the hell up, and come help me. Or you stay right there and cower here in the dark. If you stay, then you sit there and ask yourself: if you don't, who will? Because sitting on your ass is going to get you nowhere."
With that, Sunny walked out the back way, bow in hand. Most of the large group they had faced were either dead or went away. But a handful lingered. The numbers of them was enough to be a handful, but Sunny still went on with the battle. She had already hit five when Ian rushed from the front taking out some I the back. Sunny felt proud of him, until the group split, driving the two Rebels away from each other. Then help arrived.
Tank was a large built man, his skin a golden brown. He had shaved down black hair along with a matching stubby beard. He shot the last couple before rushing up to Sunny.
"Hope, you okay?"
"I'm fine. Did you see Ian?"
"No, there's a bunch of Saviors on the main road.. Didn't look too good."
"Shit." Sunny realized now, that Ian was gone now too.
"C'mon, we need to get the hell outta here." Tank took Sunny by the arm, guiding her behind buildings.
Keira sighed at the news of more deaths.
"It's a full out war out there."
"You have no idea. But honestly I think it's better this way. The people here wouldn't work well under this Negan guy's thumb. Especially Hope."
Eugene made his way over to Keira as she tried to interject. "He has a point." He put his hands on her shoulders. The two had gotten closer within the first three days they were stuck out here. Eugene was there for Keira when Nate came with the news that Luke and Preston were dead. He had told her how his friend Abraham wouldn't believe him once they met back up when he would tell the redhead about her. She looked back at him, now seeing the point.
"I just wish all the good people didn't have to die in the crossfire." Keira shook her head. "Damn it."
"Better to die by fire then by the dead." Eugene said softly.
"Yeah, listen to your boyfriend Keira." Nate tried to lighten the conversation. Keira blushed violently, while Eugene smiled. The comment had even caused a small chuckle from CJ and Aaron. Daly raised an eyebrow and tried to look anywhere but at them. Keira's blush made Nate laugh harder.
"Oh, shut up!" She punched Nate in the arm.
"Ow, that hurt."
"Then you can cry a river, build a bridge, get over it, and get the hell away." Flustered, Keira retreated to her room.
Nate smirked, jokingly raising an eyebrow at Eugene.
Finally getting what Nate was trying to ask, Eugene muttered an, "oh. I'll go... Calm her down?"
"You go do that sport." Nate waved it off before going the small distance to the door.
"I'll be back in two days with a restock of supplies."
And with that, Nate slipped outside.
The sun was setting before they finally reached the building for Trade. It was strange to think they couldn't go around the town in broad daylight very easily. Granted, they hardly had time to think of such things. Saviors were almost everywhere, and after that morning's fight the last thing either of them wanted was another one.
Sunny quickly opened the door as Tank watched out for anyone. She only had a second to notice how the windows were blocked out, before she was inside and Tank closed the door. There was a chorus of snaps and clicks as guns were readied. Sunny and Tank were stock still. There were several guns pointed at them, those who didn't have one at least had a knife. Sunny scanned there area, while her companion hardly even drew in a breath. Tank was froze to his spot. But Sunny looked around, knowing theses were people of EastHaven. She looked around with an unknown air of confidence. There was a boy to her right whose hand shook just the slightest bit as he pointed the gun at her. She could practically smell the hidden fear radiate off of him. The kid was no older than her, maybe fifteen.
Most of the people toward the back of the small crowd were putting their guns away along with some up front. Sunny let out a sigh. It had been a long day. She reached over wrapping her hand around the gun causing the kid to almost jump out of his skin.
"Point that at me again." She could sense the fear in the boy growing with the harsh warning in her tone. "Have it loaded," she pushed in a release, causing the clip to fall to the floor. "And safety, off." Before Sunny released her grip on the gun, she pushed the safety forward.
"W-what?" He lowered the weapon, looking from gun to clip, and back up to Sunny.
"I didn't stutter." Her glare burned into the boy's eyes, before she stepped forward.
No one pointed a weapon at the two newcomers, they knew who they were. Sunny walked forward, most of the men stepping back, clearing her way.
"Hope." One muttered not believing it was true. "So the story is.."
"Yeah yeah. Everyone thought Bow was just seeing shit." Sunny told as she walked toward the back of the room. She settled in the back corner in the large windowsill. She pulled down the handkerchief letting the fabrics settle below her chin. Sunny set her bow and quiver down, but not to far away from her.
Most of the eyes in the room went from her to Tank.
"It's uh, been a long day." Tank said, rubbing his neck.
But a certain redhead and woman with him kept their stares at the woman in the corner for a bit longer. Sunny flipped up the collar of her jacket. The group near the front of the room had made a small fire for the cold night. And it was suppose to be spring. Winter still had a death grip on this end of West Virginia. But the days would contrast and get warmer than it had been.
Abraham still glanced to the back of the room as most of them made light conversation, the boy did as well. Sunny's face was mostly hidden by the darkness, but a little bit of the firelight glow lit her features.
"If I would have known she was Hope, I wouldn't have pointed my gun at her." The boy told.
"Well from her reaction I don't think she was too fazed." Rosita spoke up from the other side of him.
"Point that at me again, have it loaded, and safety off." Abraham quietly quoted the young woman. "Sounds like something Sunny would say." He whispered across the kid.
"And just think, she doesn't seem like it, but she's only about three years older than me." The kid said in awe, not having heard the redhead. This caught the duo's attention.
"What's your name?" Abraham questioned.
"Chance." The younger boy answered happily.
Sunny could heard most of the conversation, but her corner was mostly silent. She caught herself reaching for the angel wing necklace around her neck a few times. When she did, she could hear the clear tick of the watch she always wore. Sunny had forgotten she had put it on by pure habit. The kid was telling two people the story of how Sunny had saved Bow, and first became 'Hope'. The sound of her watch had her in a small transe before something Chance was saying caught her attention.
"Some people say her sister was a lady everybody called Hawna. She was on the council, and had two kids, twins. But it also got around the day after the Saviors took over, that she had been killed, one of her kids too." The boy paused, looking at his two uninterested listeners before coming up with something more attention grabbing.
"There's also this rumor that Hope's been bit, and shot four times."
I have, and it's five dumbass, Sunny thought.
Chance's words only slightly interested Rosita and Abraham. The kid racked his brain, trying to prove he actually knew something. But he was interrupted by another man.
"This kinda gives a 'The Battles End' type feel to it all." There was a chorus of 'yes' and 'yeah's. "How did that old march go again? The march of six hundred men, beats that of a thousand. Something like that."
Then, the room froze as the only person who hadn't spoken, recited the words, finishing the old battle poem and song.
"They sing their songs and beat their drums
Voicing the sounds of war
In the eye of the enemy they will fall
With hardly an army they lack a many guns
But those eyes are blind
For the fire in their hearts and wits of their mind
Is their dangerous weapon of choice
The beat of the drum sounds their promise
To fight till the very last man
The sound of the trumpet marks their march
It tis not without a fight
Will this battle see its end
Oh, through the wind and the rain
The six hundred will march
Braver are the few and courageous is he
Who steps in time with them
For even a thousand men
Cannot match their will
Their fight for freedom is not theirs to win
But only theirs to gain
So six hundred men bested the thousand
For their soldiers never quit
They only marched on
Continue the fight
And the battle will be won
Their fire and fight had gave defeat
For only men win wars, weapons only drown them
No it was till the last man
Is how they came
to The Battle's End."
A/N
... Wellll...
- 7 chapters left not counting the epilogue -
Is this fight as hopeless as Ian said it was?
What's up with Keira and Euguene?
How will Sunny find out about Braxton?
Please remember to vote and comment
Annnnnddd until the next chapter!