ALIVE: The Aftermath Chronicles (Book 1)

Chapter 9 - THE CAMP

Paige returns to her base camp, wishing she had a minute to dwell in that colony and take a damn shower or steal a loaf of bread. Most of all, to spend time with James, to stay there with him till she's rectified all she's done in the past. Seeing him alive again, it gave her new hope. It tortured her, that she couldn't stay and it showed in the drag of her steps back here through the woods and to camp.

She'd be with him again when Russell Wolfe was dead and gone.

Warning James had been forbidden from Isaac and his plans, but Paige couldn't, no matter how much she supported his cause, let her ex-husband die in the crossfire.

After all, she still loved him, still thought of him every day, and wished she had been a better partner—a partner he deserved.

Isaac, their anxious leader, waits. All of them do, looking to her, looking for news on Dalton and Nick, on their chances of infiltrating the colony and killing that bastard, Russell, and that traitor, Ana Maria.

To Emma and her swollen belly, she glances. Paige's primary concern, that stayed at the forefront of her thoughts. Over James, even, which said a lot. Emma's baby would see new life, a better life. In a couple of months, Emma would give birth and a troubled one, at that, with her petite size and the size of the child inside of her. She'd deliver early.

"Well?" Isaac asks when Paige's agape mouth produces no sound in greeting him.
He knows where she was. He always knows.

"There are a few problems. The girl, Hannah, shot Ana Maria. I barely got out with all the guards on high alert," she replies and there is chatter amongst the group, one that Isaac shushes with the wave of his hand.

"She betrayed us. Ana Maria deserves what she gets. We no longer protect her. She's the enemy as for Hannah, I didn't really like her either," Isaac replies, but a young woman clutches the crucifix around her neck in response.

Normally, CiCi kept quiet, so her voice is foreign over the others that know the spotlight so well.

CiCi argues, "Ana Maria is doing what she has to do to survive. If she was really our enemy she would have told Russell our plans, would have hunted us down. Instead, she leaves us alone and hasn't ratted us out. Do they know we're here?" CiCi directs her last question to Paige as if needing clarification.

Paige shakes her head, still trying to catch her breath from all her running to get here.

Paige replies, "In the little time I spent in there, I can tell she didn't say anything, not even with Nick and Dalton there. It's been months and Russell is still focused on everything going on inside the colony with no plans to attack us or even fear us. No one knows we're here..."

Paige trails off, finding Emma's gaunt stare planted to the ground she's sitting on. Taking rest next to her, Paige's hand finds the poor girl's bony knee to squeeze in reassurance. She bites her tongue, winces, and tells herself she should've grabbed some bread for the poor girl.

"Then we do as we planned," Isaac says, his unkempt beard at all angles across his broad chin, "Sneak into the mansion. Kill Russell."

Paige finishes with fine notes of sarcasm, "Kill whoever supports him. Got it. Can we do this already?!"

They all knew the drill. It had been Isaac's obsession since his exile. Not everyone here knew the inside walls of the colony, but like Isaac, Paige's familiarity wasn't sweet. She'd escaped hearing District 4 was making their visit. In the middle of the night, she snuck out with a few other women that still remained with them out here in the woods.

Some of them even escaped from District 4, finding the colony here at Richmond Hill, then left when learning of Russell's connections to the district and the infamous general with his band of "masters"—soldiers that were rumored to be cruel. In District 4, it's said by those amongst them, that Masters and General Connor rule the world as if it's their own for the taking.