"Well, what do we have here...."
The cold steel of the guns barrel was growing more and more unpleasant behind Louis' head, his breaths got shorter and quicker because of how frightened he was. He could hear the blood in his ears, the energy of fear surging through his veins as the deadly steel got shoved onto his head. Only centimeters parted a bullet in the chamber from his cranium, death could be here at any moment.
"Frank, Carl, come here and see whom I found back here!", the woman exclaimed loudly towards the yet peaceful looking caravan.
AJ was standing abroad, still hidden, powerless in the face of a gun put to the head of his best friend. He had a small switchblade in his hand, ready to chop into the enemies' leg. The rage was flaming in his eyes just as much as the fear for his friend. Lou signalized him to stop with a small shake of his head, it wasn't worth to risk the boy's life for his. There was nothing AJ could do; one pull of the trigger could end his life as well as Louis'.
The gun moved upwards and caught some of his dreadlocks causing him to hiss out in pain. His reaction was ignored by the person behind him, she pressed the weapon onto his head even harder. There was no mercy in her rusty voice as she spat out her next sentence.
"Stand up, slowly, don't try anything stupid. I really don't want to hurt you."
Cold sweat dripped down his forehead. Slowly rising, he saw the two men from the truck running towards them, their guns were ready to unleash a hose of bullets if needed.
Deadly machines of destruction but so primitive if you thought about it.
"Why are you doing this? I haven't done anything, I'm just a kid", Louis managed to ask after he stood on his feet securely. Even though his heart trembled, even though his knees felt like they would break apart every second, he pressed this sentence out of his throat.
"Sorry but we have to make sure that you are not a threat to our client."
Louis' thoughts raced. There had only been one person who would fit into the profile of someone who needed protection, the guy in the white coat.
The ground shook from the heavy footsteps when the men arrived. Judging by their outfits and stature, both of them were either soldiers or professional bodyguards. Their shirts stretched over their big muscles, it looked like they would be able to lift a truck single handily without leaving behind a single drop of sweat.
"Anne, what are you doing, don't scream so loud! I don't want to waste even more ammo on those rotting pieces of shit!", the man in front hissed with a suppressed fury in his voice. Deep laying eyes found their way towards the teenager lying on the ground and fixed upon him.
"Why are you lingering around here? Who sent you?"
The commanding cold tone of his voice made Goosebumps crawl down Louis' body; this man had definitely been in the army. Judging by the man's size and the calculating look he gave him; he was no person to joke around with.
"I'll not ask twice!", he bellowed again, pulling out a big revolver and pointing it towards his forehead.
"Okay okay, I live here. I needed more supplies and looked around the area. Then I saw your convoy and got curious. That's why I'm here", he lied, the intense fear of human survival instinct stole its way into his heart.
The man looked him straight in the eyes. "Well that would be a reason. But tell me the truth, I see in your expression that you're lying. Did the Delta send you?"
The seriously confused look on the boy's face told the man without any words, that he had been wrong.
"What the fuck, who or what is the Delta?", Louis asked with his eyes contracted to slits.
"Doesn't matter right now. I will explain later, but don't change the subject. You didn't tell us the truth yet."
He nodded towards the woman, who put her gun away and dropped Louis. The boy rubbed his wrists and head to make the pain more endurable.
"Ouch, you could have done that earlier, if you had asked nicely and used the magic word "please" I would have told you. We, uhm I mean I need to know that you're not a threat yourself though!"
His cheeks blushed significantly as he realized that he had blurted out that he wasn't alone. The other soldier scanned the area.
"No visual, chief."
Addressing the young man, the leader said: "My name is Frank by the way, that's Carl and the charming lady behind you is Anne, like you most likely already heard."
"Louis."
The boy wasn't interested in a long conversation, all he wanted was to return home to his girlfriend. He wanted to lie down next to her and forget everything he had seen and endured but it was too late now.
"Well then Louis, we don't want to hurt you or anyone else. Tell your companion to come out, but again nice and slowly, the threat is still not excluded.", Frank explained while putting away the long-barrelled weapon in his hand. It found its way into the holster with an audible click.
Even though the freckled teen relaxed a little he met the man's gaze with great mistrust.
"Why should I trust you anyway?"
Since the beginning of the outbreak, society had rotten away, leaving space for the raw survivalists beneath them. It was impossible to trust someone only because they said that they'd be friendly, many of them only waited for the right moment like a snake hiding in the sand till its prey was close enough to strike.
Frank patted his holster and grinned stupidly, it seemed like he tried to make a joke out of this situation but if that was the case then he had a terrible humor.
"You just have to I guess."
With his heart weighing tons, Louis turned to the location of AJ hiding and saw... nothing. Emptiness filled the darkness in which his friend had hidden in.
"Damn it!", he raged, the three people around him gave him funny looks as they saw his little tantrum.
"What's the matter?", Carl asked sheepishly, one eyebrow raised in suspicion and surprise.
"My "companion" just ran off to get help! Let me go, I can still stop them from attacking!"
With widening eyes and a drop of fury in Franks voice he bellowed: "What do you mean with attack? ARE you threatening us?"
"No, my friend's little, he thought you were bad because you captured me. He'll alarm the rest of my group. Let me leave, quick!", Louis tried to explain but failed to sound convincing. His voice echoed inside his own head and he realized how stupid it had sounded.
The soldier picked him up and drew his weapon to make his point clear.
"Well now we need to hold you hostage, should have told us sooner that there's more of you. Can't let you go now, we can't count on your word, you'd run off the second we free you and never come back. Without you we won't have anything to bargain with, we just can't risk it."
Powerless, Louis threw a look into the forest, his friends would come, and they wouldn't be very friendly.
With dawn imminent and still no one attacking the self-called "protectors" retreated to the trucks. With Frank in the front and Carl in the back, there was no way to escape. Even though he tried to go through every option, the teen concluded that he would get shot in every single scenario. A wonder would have to happen if he wanted to escape before his friends had been mobilized.
While he was lost in thoughts, the group escorted Louis to the third truck he had seen earlier. It looked like an old refrigerated truck without any spikes, only much thicker armor. Iron rods covered all windows of the truck as well as two welded steel shields, strapped to the sides of it.
A smirk stole its way up to his face as he thought about the old movies he had watched as a child in which some monster would be contained inside one of these trucks. A terrible idea entered his head, what if these people were hiding walkers in there and wanted to make a quick snack for them out of him? His hand wandered to his belt where a combat knife was strapped on. He hadn't thought of Frank behind him until suddenly a hand shot out from behind his back and ripped away the weapon.
"We are not that stupid, eh? Carl, search him."
After a quick search by the soldier, Louis was completely free of weapons, no knife, no bat, no way to defend anyone, not even himself. Anne stepped up and faced him, she had seen his expression when he saw the vehicle in front of him.
"You may have wondered whom we protect and why that truck is armored so nothing can get through its walls. We will introduce you to him.", with these words she opened the back of the truck.
A smell of some piercing chemical immediately reached Louis' nose. The truck was full of medical and chemical instruments, it looked like the laboratory of Dr. Frankenstein to him. In the back-left corner, he made out a small glass protected compartment. Inside of it, a man was working in a protective suit that made him look like some weird kind of insect. When Frank banged against the trucks metal side, the man looked up, his facial expressions covered behind a thick plastic mask. The guy opened a door that led into a small, shower-like compartment, where he pressed a button that activated small sprinklers to wash the suit. Louis recognized this procedure as a decontamination process, he had seen this on TV once. It was mildly amusing that he knew all that stuff from a device his parents had always talked bad about but the teen couldn't smile, he was too curious of who would step out of the weird suit.
The guy under hazmat was tall and slender, almost if as his growth had used most of his body mass. He ruffled through his dark blonde hair and walked towards the door Louis was standing in. When he opened his mouth, he started to talk with a gentle and polite voice.
"Oh, did you bring me a visitor? Hello my friend, wanna sit and drink something?"
Louis tried to judge this guy by his manner, even though he didn't trust the guys behind him this dude did seem like a nice guy.
"Thanks. Actually, I'm dying of thirst.", the teen joked and held out his arms.
Behind him, he heard a loud clicking noise as a weapon got rid of its safety mechanism. He didn't dare to turn around but the man in front of him shook his head.
"Sksksksksks, stand down guys, we don't wanna be impolite."
After another click from behind Louis' back the man held out his hand to help his visitor getting up in the truck. He accepted and got heaved into the air, he almost fell over a small barstool but was able to stop his fall. Behind him the metal doors closed and the man turned around to say:
"Let's have a little chat."
After the man had gotten him some water, Louis looked him in the eyes, seeing no trace of fear.
"Are you not suspicious, not even afraid I could do something to you?", he asked.
The stranger shook his head and smiled, he seemed to take everything as a joke more than anything.
"Well, Frank and Carl are very reliable in their choice of trust, if they trust you, I do too. The name's Adrian by the way"
"I'm Louis, nice to meet you.", the teen answered without thinking but cursed himself for being so open. The way the man talked in lulled him into a cocoon of safety, making his tongue loosen and his mind soften like alcohol would.
"Well Louis, let's ask the important question first, where do you live?", Adrian asked straight away without beating around the bush.
Louis shook his head in disbelief, these people had taken him captive and were interrogating him, there was no way he would give them any information.
"You seem like a nice guy, but years of mistrust have left their marks. I'm no child that blurts out every information it has, I can tell you that.", he told him with confidence in his voice.
The stranger looked at Louis with great calm.
"I know what you mean. I think we have much in common. We are both people, that want to keep their families save, even if it doesn't always work out."
A sad look seemed to have entered the man's eyes, but only for a split second. Louis knew, deep down in his guts, that this man was deeply scarred and that, like he said, they had much in common. He had a strange feeling that he could trust him, something told him that he was being honest and didn't want to harm anyone. He cursed himself once again as he broke the promise, he had just given himself.
"You know what, fuck it. I'll tell you, but I want to know some things in advance: First, what are your intentions? Second, are you really with those people or are they holding you hostage? And third, what the hell are you doing in here and why is that so important?"
The look on Adrian's face changed to hope, his language got a little bit sloppy. The man had a small accent Louis couldn't identify. The words seemed to flow out of the man's mouth at a fast pace, ignoring every barrier.
"OK, first, we are looking for some kind of save haven. Our home got destroyed by a rouge military organization called Deltas. We've been driven away in such a hurry that we had to abandon most of our stuff. It's a really long story to be honest. I will tell you about the details later if you want to. Second, yes, I am with those people out there. They may seem pretty harsh and rough, but even if their skin is thick, they are the kindest people on earth underneath it. I've been traveling with them for a while now. Don't worry, I know whom to trust. And third...well, that's a little complica-"
Out of nowhere they were interrupted by a loud explosion, judging by the volume something had detonated near the front of the armored truck at the front. The massive blast shook the ground beneath their feet and both of their eyes widened.
"What is happening here?", Adrian yelled in terror as he stood up, trying to keep his balance. Louis opened the back of the van and saw arrows sticking out of the trucks side. As he let his gaze wander over the scenery, he saw Carl getting hit in the shoulder by a self-made arrow. It buried itself deep down in his flesh, like a tick would do to suck blood from its prey. But Louis started to realize what tactics the attackers were using, he had fought like this once already, not too long ago. His Friends had arrived...