End of Days

Almost a Confession

(14)

The second day of our little trip mimicked the first. Walking all day, setting up camp just off the road, sharing a tent with Enzo, and leaving early the next morning. My nerves began to grow as we got closer to the Republics camp. Enzo moved closer to the front to see where exactly we were, leaving Alec on one side of me and Franklin on the other. He was clearly worried for his daughter, today he would find out whether or not she was still alive. I couldn't imagine what he was going through. 

Suddenly Blake stopped us, whispering something in Sages ear before turning to address the rest of us. "Alright, this is where we split up. Henry take your people down this road, the outpost will be the first building you come across. Maybe three miles down, there shouldn't be a lot of them there, but they need to be taken care of. The rest of us will try to sneak into their base. I don't want to draw a lot of attention. We will meet back here by nightfall. I want to get back to the field we were in last night before we stop for the night." Blake nods at my father and we go our separate way. Blake and I make eye contact one last time before trees block our view.

Enzo slides into the space that slowly opened up next to me, slipping his hand into mine. "It's going to be okay. They're going to get Sam and we are going to make it out of this." I felt a strange sense of comfort raising in my chest. I just smile, giving his hand a small squeeze before looking ahead once again.

My father and Griffin were leading our group, guns raised and ready for soldiers to appear. We walk in silence once again, adding to the anxiety building in my chest. After what feels like an hour we can see the roof of a building in the distance. My father directs us off the road and into the woods. He quickly splits us into two groups telling the other to go around to the back of the building through the woods. The rest of us continue up the road right at the edge of the woods.

We slide further into woods as we come within sight of the building. The outside looks completely abandoned, no guards, no men period. My father nods us ahead and we quickly run to the side of the building, ready to charge in. I find this situation to be almost laughable, a bunch of barely trained civilians charging a literal army with nothing but pistols to defend themselves with. If I weren't here I wouldn't believe anyone would be this stupid.

My dad looks back at us, one hand on the door handle the other holding his pistol at the ready. It's hard to believe that a couple months ago he was just a store owner playing 20th century rock music and cheering on sports teams. Now he was preparing to possibly kill someone. Another human being.

Bang! The door flies open, one by one we step into the building. Nothing. There's nothing here. No men, no guns, absolutely nothing. The other group files in behind us, the same level of confusion floods their faces. "Maybe it's the wrong building?" Griffin wonders aloud.

"No Blake said it was the first building on the left. Maybe they moved on? What if they already went back to the main base? We should get back to the break off point and see if they have made it back." I say, looking to my father for a nod of approval.

"She's right, if they ran into trouble they could already be waiting for us. Let's hussle." We all quickly exit the building and start jogging back to the main road.

"We should have stayed together." Griffin huffs, clearly agitated, as we run. "I knew it was a mistake listening to that kid, we should have all gone to the main base. We shouldn't have trusted one of our own lives in their hands." He continues to rant on.

"Griffin just shut up! That kid has done nothing but try to help us. Frankly he's done more for Sam than you have." My father says from beside him. "If you had doubts you should have said something, but you didn't did you? No you just wait til it's already done then bitch about it for the next week. I don't want to hear it this time!"