Ethan's POV
We had arrived at the next town over, the town was similar to our previous one, crumbled down from the outcome of the war. Bryant created a big circle around the way we came in to ensure us the way to go back. We headed into house after house, checking for supplies and heading into buildings of any kind for something of use.
We were currently in the grocery store, aisle five checking out the stale-hard cereals when the door chimes open and multiple footsteps were heard entering the building.
Not knowing who it was, Bryant had a look of freight and immediately ran to an opening behind some cases of crackers and cookies to hide behind, dragging me by the wrist and crouching down keeping our breaths quiet as the people rounded into our aisle.
People dressed in army gear holding guns came in sight, they kept them aimed and looked determined. With scrunched eyebrows I continued to look out, wondering if maybe there here to help and are looking for any survivors.
I was about to head out when out of the corner of my eye I see a girl hiding on top of a stacked pile of cereal boxes barely holding her up, I squint my eye at her to see her staring directly at me, shaking her head back and forth mouthing unclear words.
I continue to look at her when suddenly the boxes concave on themselves and she's falling to the floor, tumbling down and landing in front of the unidentified people.
The girl looks up at them with wide eyes and heavy breaths, "please, I-I'm sorry, please don't, I-I don't have any part in-" she continues to plead for her life, her hands up in the air as she trembles, tears running down her face, I stare in confusion as she suddenly gets shot in the head and is sent flying back.
Bryant whimpers loudly and jumps back making some noise, I quickly turn back and hug him from behind as I clasp my hand around his mouth to silence any other sounds. Tears are streaming down my hands as silence takes over, the people staring in our direction with their guns pointed straight at us. After nothing is heard for a while they move out and continue with their search.
I slowly unhinge my hand away from Bryant and release a breath of relief, placing a hand over my heart as I try and calm my frightened heart. Bryant's staring at the dead body, breathing heavily.
I look over and see her lifeless body slumped down on the ground. I hear the doors open and close, I slowly crawl out of the crawl space and into the aisle. Being careful of my surroundings to not make any noise, I head over to the little girl and check to see that she is certainly dead.
I head over to the front of the store and see the people heading into a car and driving towards the direction of our town. I quickly run over and tell Bryant where they're going and trying to figure out where we should go next.
"Wh-who were they! What did they want, why were they-" "I don't know! Just shut up for a second!" I yelled in panic just trying to figure out what to do next.
I stared down at the map, red lines running everywhere, green patches splattered around, everything was coming together, becoming one, the words not making sense as everything faded within itself.
"Ahh!" I screamed in anger, throwing the map on the floor and scrunching up my hair with closed fists. I don't know what to do. I thought those people were here to help. What do we do? Where do we go?
What's going to happen to us?