"Well I guess you're apart of our group now." I hear Zoe say to Tyler.
"Yeah, I guess I am."
It has only been a few hours since I shot Jacob. It was starting to get dark now, but we were quite a while away from the Snakes territory. All of us trudging along, the guilt of killing those people was starting to kick in.
"We-we killed people." The shock in Amelia's voice made me turn around and pull her into a hug as she started to cry.
"We had to do it or they would have killed us." I whispered into her hair while gently rubbing her back.
We decided that we should set camp for the night here, everyone seemed to be sapped of all energy after what happened. We thought that lighting a fire wouldn't be a very good time, because if some Snakes wanted to come after us, having a fire burning would be like a beacon showing them where we are.
I said that I would take first watch and Jess told me to wake her up in a few hours so she could take watch too. Everyone grouped together under their blankets and fell asleep. I stayed, leaning against a tree so that I wouldn't doze off, scanning the surrounding trees, watching and listening to see if anything was anywhere near us.
I was starting to doze off when I thought, I should wake up Jess now.
I got up from my spot and quietly stepped over to Jess and gently shook her awake. She mumbled something before taking my spot at the tree and pulling her blanket up around her. I decide to go and lay down next to Amelia.
It was around fifteen minutes before I heared hushed whispering.
"Can't sleep?" I hear Jess' hushed voice.
"Nope, what about you?" I was surprised to hear Tyler's voice.
"Bastien woke me up about 15 minutes ago to change shifts."
"Oh. So how long have you all been on the ground for? I can't remember if I have already asked this question or not." I hear a small laugh from the both of them before Jess replies.
"About a week. You said that you had lost your group about a few months ago, does that mean that you have been down here for three years?"
"Yeah, I have. I can honestly say, that you will eventually lose track of how long you have been down here for."
"So why didn't you go back up to the Ark?"
"Well. I guess that being out in the open, surrounded by trees, makes being in the confined walls of the Ark seem like a prison."
"Yeah, it is better being free to do whatever we please than having to be confined in the Ark."
I hear Tyler hum in responce.
"So what was your first year on the ground like?"
"Well, we went straight to the Lion Clan, knowing that we could still stick together as a group, but also be apart of a Clan and not have all the reponsibilities of being in a Clan. The Wolves and Snakes have always been at each other's throats, and by the middle of my first year, the Lion's had been dragged into what they started to call a war.
"It's funny how war almost killed off all of humanity, yet here we are, back on Earth and we already have our first war." Tyler chuckles.
"Yeah, it is weird. I guess war is inevitable for us humans. It's in our blood."
There is some silence before Jess starts speaking again.
"When do you think everyone else from the Ark will come down? Like not another group, but everyone?"
"Not in our lifetime that's for sure."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, they have been having people surviving being on the ground for years now. Why haven't they already all came down? It's because of the Clan war. They didn't expect everyone to split into Clans, they thought that everyone would band together and form one big group. It was like that at first, but then more people started going off on their own and soon Clans were being formed and now there is a war."
"How- how do you know all this?"
"I asked the same question three years ago."
"Oh."
"Well I'm going to see if I can get some sleep. You can wake me in a few hours to take a shift if you want."
"The last time we let someone we thought we trusted take a shift, they stole some of our stuff and left us."
"Ahh. Well that is a story you have to tell me about tomorrow."
I heard some shuffling around and then silence. In the silence, I drifted off into what I was hoping was going to be a dreamless sleep.
I opened my eyes and I was back at the clearing infront of the shack. Infront of me was Jacob and the six others that we had killed. They were standing in a semi-circle around me. Their eyes were dull and lifeless.
"You killed us." I heard one of them whisper.
"You killed us." Another one whispered.
"You killed us. You killed us. You killed us." Others were joining in and it was getting louder and louder. Soon all seven were yelling.
I couldn't move. I couldn't run away. All I could do was watch them. I couldn't even cover my ears.
As I looked around them again, I could see patches of red blossoming on their clothing. When I got to Jacob, I saw blood running down his deformed face. It was in the same place I shot him.
As I was staring in disbelief, they pounced on me. Tearing at my clothing and skin. They would not stop yelling. I was finally able to move, so I quickly turned and ran, but it seemed like I was going nowhere. I turned to look behind me and saw all seven standing in the semi-circle again. I hadn't even moved from my original spot.
I gave up on running and faced Jacob. Looking him in his lifeless eyes and bloody face.
"Bastien." I heard him say.
"Bastien. Wake up." I cocked my head to the side.
"Wake up Bastien."
"WAKE UP."
I felt Jess shaking me awake.
"Bastien, we have to leave now. We think there are Snakes near by." Jess says seeing that I have woken up. Not everyone else is awake yet. Only Jess, Tyler and I were awake.
I quickly get all of my gear together and wake up Amelia who was the only one not awake yet.
"Amelia. Come on, you need to wake up. We have to leave." She stirred in her sleep and opened her eyes.
"Come on, get up. They think there are people from the Snake Clan near us." I say as she starts to get up.
Everyone has their stuff ready in less than five minutes and we are making our way, further away from Snake territory. Hopefully, we have managed to escape from them.
"I wonder if the Snake Clan will have anything against us. We did kill seven of their people." I hear Amelia whisper. We were still being cautious about there being Snakes near by.
"Well, they will probably take it as an act of war and assume that one of the other Clans did it." I hear Tyler reply.
"But what about the ones that escaped? Wouldn't they tell them that we weren't apart of a Clan? I'm sure that Jacob told them Bastien's name, so they will be looking out for someone called Bastien and is with four or five others."
"Well, they won't know what we look like."
"The ones who escaped might."
"We don't have to go near the Snakes if we don't want to. We can stay well away from them"
"That's what I'm hoping we are doing."
We keep on walking in silence. The sun is starting to rise. I don't know if I have seena sunrise or sunset before, but the sky was slowly blooming with colour.
The sky was on fire with all of the oranges and reds. Even some pink and peach could be seen. We had all stopped to stare at the sky in awe as the colours brightened and became bolder. Filling the sky with their brilliant colours.
We had been standing there for a good fifteen minutes before Tyler snapped out of his daze and made us all start to walk again.
We had no idea how long we were going to be walking for, but we knew it was probably going to be for a long time. Luckily we had filled up our water bottles before Jacob and the other Snakes came after us.
Before we knew it, we decided to stop for some brunch. The meal that you would have if you skipped breakfast, but it's too early for lunch. We ate the contents or three cans and some of the "jerky" or whatever Tyler calls it. It had a really salty taste and I didn't like too much, but food is food I guess.
We had finished eating so we packed everything up, and got back to walking. All of our feet were raw and blistered from all the walking. Who knows how long we had been walking for when it was getting dark. We set up camp, not risking the fire again, just incase it attracts unwanted attention. I take first watch.
The next few days were uneventful. All we did was walk, maybe the occasional talk and stopping for short food breaks. We came across another stream, not wanting to stay too long, but we all filled our water bottles and took a quick dip to wash ourselves.
We hadn't looked at our maps for a while, so we had no idea what direction we were walking in. We could have used Jett's watch thing again, but nobody could be bothered. All we knew was that we were walking away from Snake territory.
We all dropped to the ground in exhaustion where we decided to camp for the night.
"Why is walking so tiring?" Jess pants as she rolls onto her stomach to try and get her pack off.
"No clue." I say as I lay on my back, the pack making an uncomfortable lump, but I'm too tired to move it.
"Can't we just go to a Clan? That way we don't have to walk as much. Plus we would be a lot safer." I hear Amelia say.
"You know we can't. We would get dragged into the Clan war and who knows when full out fighting is going to start." Tyler replies, taking the words straight out of my mouth.
"Then can we join a smaller Clan, the Wolf, Lion and Snake Clans are the only ones."
"Yeah I guess we can, but we have no idea what any of them are like." I join in the conversation.
"For all we know, they could be psychopaths that kill people and eat them." Everyone gives Tyler a horrified look. "It's true, some people have gone crazy and eat other people instead of hunting for animals."
"Damn. Let's hope we don't run into them." I mutter.
Everyone got ready to sleep, and Tyler takes the first watch. We have come to trust him and he now takes some shifts because Amelia and Zoe aren't up for it yet. In the morning, we take a quick look at the map, trying to figure out where we are. We couldn't find out where we were, but we could find out what direction we were walking in and just guessed how far we had walked.
We saw that there was a small Clan near by that we could scope out and see what they were like. We started walking in the direction we thought the Clan would be. All of us trying to be quiet because we want to watch them for a bit. We aren't stalking them, just watching to see what they are like before we join.
Just sitting and watching them in silence was very boring. They seemed to be quite boring, though when they went out to hunt for food, they all split up, but none came in our direction. It was a few hours until they had come back and we decided to wait for the next few days, we had to be one hundred percent sure that we could trust them.
It was the second day of watching them when we heard a snap of a twig behind us. All of us quickly whipped around, drawing our weapons in the direction the noise came from. We heard a low rumbling noise as three black feline like creatures emerged from the bushes.
Their mouths that had been separated into two lips like a plus, and had peeled back revealing a row of sharp teeth. Their eyes were a blood red and you could see the hunger in their eyes as the stared at us. Their feet slowly padding forward as we slowly stepped back, trying to get away from them without making any sudden movements.
"Panthers." I heard Jett whisper beside me.
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A/N: SORRY THAT I DIDN'T POST A CHAPTER LAST WEEK. SO HERE IS A DOUBLE UPDATE FOR YOU.
I had really struggled to write this chapter, but now that something exciting is about to happen, hopefully I can get back into the flow of writing. I am on the thirteenth chapter and I still have no idea how to link whats happening into the actual plot... Anyway, hopefully this chapter wasn't too boring...
Remember to vote if you like my story, and comment things that I could improve on or things that you liked! Follow me and add this story to your library if you want to get updates for the story whenever I post a new chapter!
-FlatMatesForLife