Surviving or Living

Chapter 20: The Farm

"You again?" A man exclaimed while he was opening the gate, allowing the two cars to enter. "You have to stop to go outside like this everyday. It's dangerous!"
Meghan rolled her eyes while she was stopping the car, and get out of it.
"Relax we know what we're doing. Besides, we found our friends."
"Friends? I thought there was only one."
"Well they're three" she said with a smile, looking at Elyza, Alicia and Elena who were exiting the car.
"Perfect" the man said rolling his eyes, and walked away.
Alicia took a look around her. She was standing next to a little farm house, and there were a few cabins and tents around, and a barn. They were only a few trees and fields around them, and the tall homemade fence made the place safe.
"We never saw infected around here" Kyle said with a little smile.
"Yeah that's the only reason why we stay here" Jacob said.
"Why ?" Alicia asked raising an eyebrow. "You don't like the group?"
"They're cool" Meghan said in a low and uncomfortable voice, her arms crossed on her chest. "But their leader is a real dick"
"Here you are !" A man with an Australian accent exclaimed at the distance.
"Speaking of " Adam sighed, and turned around to face the man who was approaching.
The man seemed to be in his late forties, his hair grey, and was wearing glasses.
"Mister Roberts" Adam greeted him with a fake smile.
"I see you finally found your friend" he said, looking directly at Elyza, just like if he already knew it was the friend the others were looking for. "Elyza Lex, am I right?" He extended his hand to her.
"Yeah" Elyza said a bit confused, and shook his hand. "And this is Alicia Clark, and Elena"
He slowly nodded, looking at the girls.
"I'm Jason Roberts. And welcome in my camp"
"Thanks" Alicia said, moving aside so her shoulder was touching Elyza's, and the older girl took her hand without thinking, making Jason frown in disgust, but he quickly hid it by raising his look and glaring at the girls. Then, without saying a word, he turned around and quickly walked toward the barn.
"What's his problem?" Elyza asked a bit aggressively. "He's homophobic or what?"
"It won't surprise me" Josh said chuckling sadly. "He's racist, maybe homophobic, well everything bad"
"But don't worry" Olivia quickly said. "It's not hard to avoid him, he spend most of his time locked in the barn."
"What does he do in there ?" Alicia asked.
"I've no idea" Olivia said. "But we can't enter it, it's forbidden. Only a few people are allowed in."
"I don't like this" Elyza said.
"Neither do we" Meghan said. "But the good news, is that we can enter the house, where you can sleep if you want but there is already a lot of people, or you can come and share our big tent with us"
"Depends, does someone snore ?" Alicia asked.
Everyone turned around to look at Ricky, who raised an eyebrow.
"What ?" He asked. "I don't snore."
"No, not at all" Kyle said ironically.

The next morning, Alicia woke up against Elyza. She yawned and stretched out her arms and legs, then looked around the tent. It was this kind of big tent with four little parts that were used as bed rooms, tied at the main part. The previous day, Adam had insisted that Elyza, Alicia and Elena take his bedroom, and he slept in the main part of the tent. Alicia frowned. The entrance of her bedroom was open, and Elena wasn't here anymore. She stepped in the main part of the tent and looked around. Adam wasn't here, Josh and Olivia had left their room, and so did Meghan and Kyle. Only Jacob and Ricky were still sleeping, judging by the loud snores coming from their room.
"Princess?" Elyza called from her room.
Alicia turned around, to see that Elyza was sitting up, looking at her with her sleepy eyes.
"Hey" Alicia said with a smile, and she approached her girlfriend to kiss her on her lips. "I was going to look for Elena outside. I don't know where she is"
Elyza nodded without saying a word, and followed Alicia outside.
The sight outside made both the girls smile. Olivia was sitting on the floor, looking at Elena who was standing in front of her, laughing.
"What's going on?" Elyza asked with a smile.
"I guess I just made a new friend" Olivia said, and started to tickle the girl playfully.
Elena laughed and let herself fall, and Olivia quickly grabbed her and hugged her, laughing. But this lovely moment was suddenly interrupted by some angry voices. Olivia turned around, and the girls noticed that some people had gathered around two persons who were facing each other. They didn't need a lot of time to notice it was Josh and Jason.
"What now ?" Olivia sighed angrily, and quickly stood up.
"Stay here" Alicia said to Elena passing her, following Elyza who was following Olivia.
But as the little girl didn't understand, she decided to follow them.
"Hey !" Olivia yelled, pushing some people aside so she could approach her boyfriend. "What's going on?"
Nobody answered her question, Josh and Jason were still glaring at each other without blinking an eye.
"One more time" Jason said between his clenched teeth. "One more time, and you leave my camp"
"You'd like that wouldn't you?" Josh asked.
"Enough!" Someone exclaimed, and Adam made his way through the crowd, followed by Kyle and Meghan. "Josh please. Let's go"
He grabbed his friend's arm, and they started to walk away. But the noise of someone spitting made Josh stop to walk. Glaring straight ahead of him, he clenched his jaw and clenched his fists, then quickly turned around to face the man who had spat, and his fist met his jaw.
"Josh stop !" Olivia yelled, and ran toward him.
But Josh didn't listen to her and the men continued to fight, while Jason was watching, his arms crossed on his chest.
"Enough mate !" Kyle exclaimed and grabbed Josh's arm, while Adam was grabbing the other.
They succeed in making him pull away, and Josh fell on his back, making the crowd pull away. A child's cry was suddenly heard, and Alicia turned around to see that Elena was on the floor, crying as she had fall.
"Elena!" Alicia yelled running towards her, and quickly took her in her arms.
Josh stood up at this moment, and Olivia, who was standing in front of him, raised her look to examine his bleeding noise.
"I'm fine" Josh told her, and Olivia turned her head to glare at Jason.
"What's the hell is wrong with you?" She asked angrily.
"You should ask this to him" Jason responded still glaring at Josh. "And you should probably choose your friends more carefully, Miss Swift."
Olivia glared at him clenching her jaw.
"Come on" Adam said pushing her little sister aside, to make her move away from the crowd.
Josh wrapped a arm around Olivia's shoulders, and they walked away with Adam, followed by Meghan, Kyle, Elyza and Alicia who was carrying Elena.
"Let's get out of here" Josh said. "I need fresh air"
Olivia nodded, while Alicia was looking at Josh a bit confused.
"Get out of here, you mean ..."
"For some hours" Josh responded. "We need to hunt"
"I'll go get the guns" Adam said starting to walk away.
"Wait" Elyza suddenly called, and Adam looked at her. "Can Alicia and I come with you?"
"Sure" Adam responded, then walked away.
"But we can't let Elena alone" Alicia said with a frown, looking at Elyza.
"Don't worry" Meghan said with a big smile. "I'll keep an eye on her"