“You’ve probably guessed by now, but I’m Aila, and this here is my boyfriend, Mikhail.” She spoke as she looked at Mikhail and he looked back, before blushing and looking away but holding hands together.

It was nice that they were all lovey dovey with each other and all, but I didn’t want to see that. This just showed me they didn’t care about wasting other people’s time. After a while, Aila coughed and then they started to get serious again.

“I know this war has impacted all of us greatly, and many of us have losted our loved ones. As a soldier, I understand how most of you would feel. That’s why me and Mikhail have made promises.”

She began to list usual things that leaders would give after the war. She promised to let the soldiers home, for shelter and a safe place to stay, no more hunger, and a livelihood for the young.

She also promised everything would start tomorrow, and that soon we would see our families and have a feeling of safety again. Although it seemed very fake, I could still feel a little part of the naive me believe in her, hoping that I’d see my uncle and cousins again.

I quickly suppress that thought though and when the announcement ends, we tuck Charlotte and Claude into their beds and leave. We go to the 2nd bedroom, which was mine and Jane’s, and we talk about what we just heard.

“Well, if what they said was lies they will be branded as liars for the rest of history, so I doubt they’re making things up. Stretching the truth, yes, but not lying.” I entered my opinion in the conversation, and they both thought about it.

After a while, Sam nodded. “Alright, so we won’t board up the house and stay protected in here. But next week is the bi weekly meeting and I’m sure the other groups want to press it closer. What should we do?”

“The Anderson’s will likely send us a representative. If they don’t, we can just go to their territory and see what’s going to happen.” Jane made a good point, and we agreed before Sam went back to his room and we went to sleep.

After 4 days, I saw Emile scurrying across our street while hanging the laundry, looking back and forth in fear while making his way to our house. I quickly sent the kids up to the 2nd floor and made sure I had everything in my utility belt before opening the front door.

Before he could speak, I half dragged half threw him into the house before locking the door. I looked around the street to see if there was anything or anyone, before turning to Emile. “What were you looking out for, Emile?”

He’s already gotten up by the time I turn to face him, looking exasperated. I lead him into the living room and he quickly tells me the answer. “Apparently, there’s a new group who claimed to be backed up by those heroes, and when Nora went to visit the Jorges’, they were all beaten up by soldiers sent by those new kids.”

I frowned. For what reason exactly did the heroes and soldiers have to back a group and use them to abuse other existing ones. Emile relayed me a bit more information and soon I sent him off, wishing him good luck and processing the news.

When Sam and Jane came home, I relayed the news that Emile gave me. Their expressions were grim, especially Sam’s. “I told you we should board up the house,” he argued with me.

“Even if we board up the house, what good will it do for us? One of the other groups might rat us out in exchange for food or something, so we might as well prepare for it.” We argued back and forth, until it became so heated that we didn’t realize it was dinner.

“Guys, do you want food or not?” Jane shouted, and we both whipped our heads toward her. I turned to look outside, and the sun had already started to set. I blushed in embarrassment and quickly sat down, thanking Jane as I began digging in.

Thankfully, Sam and I silently agreed to stop fighting about it, and after dinner I throw out the trash and washed the plates before settling in for the night. 2 more days. I thought. 2 more days before we get more information and uncle Max, Adena, and Straton come home.

These days, not much food can be found in stores, abandoned houses or warehouses. We had food stockpiled up, but it would at most last us 3 months before we ran out and died of hunger or something else. We also had to go to farther places now, and not only did we sometimes come home late, we were also approaching unknown territory.

Sometimes there would be no group there, sometimes there would and it would be mostly peaceful, and sometimes there were skirmishes were at least one of us gets hurt. And it’s not particularly fun.

Like today. I glared at the knocked out people in front of me, disdain plastered across my face as I clench my fists to relieve some of the pain. “Almost done El.” Sam murmurs and I nod, continuing to glare at the group in front of me.

I had to admit, I had lost my common sense when I saw the 2 of them team up against Sam, but if I didn’t go crazy we probably would’ve been the ones beaten blue and purple while also losing.

After I went savage on the 2 boys, Sam managed to beat the 3rd and we looted them, finding some ointment we could use for our wounds. They had managed to slice my back, and although it wasn’t deep it was still bleeding quite heavily.

I had already applied the ointment and wrapped it in gauze for Sam’s wounds, so he just needed to help me with my back, as the rest weren’t life threatening or something that could affect my performance.

I checked all their pockets and bags one more time before leaving with Sam, trying to go home as soon as possible. We would’ve been able to arrive home while the sun was down if we were fast enough, but now we could only hope to have a slimmer of light before we got home.

The fighting with the other group had taken quite a lot of energy and strength, as well as time, and we had to make it home before daylight disappeared, since this was a new place we were going, which meant we weren’t familiar with the area.

Even worse, although we had flashlights, we barely found any batteries over the few months here, and all of them were at home. We quickly ran through the streets, and my anxiety slowly mounted as the sun went down.

“Come on El, go faster!” Sam shouted and encouraged me, and I gritted my teeth as I put more strength into running, my muscles already aching. By the time we reached our territory, the sun was gone.

I was huffing and panting, and called out to Sam as I stopped in place. “Sam, you go first. I’m afraid something might happen to the others while we’re gone, with the new group on the prowl.”

He stopped and turned towards me, frowning. “What about you? It’s going to get dark soon, and you’re not exactly the bravest person I know in the dark.” I felt personally attacked when he said that, but I knew it was true.

“It’s fine. By now, I know the way home, and the darkness will motivate me. Just go first.” I waved him off, and he nodded before starting to run. When he disappeared from my view, I dropped to the ground.

I watched as dusk slowly started to slip away, and I got up and started running again. Everytime I felt like stopping, I looked at the remaining lights in the sky and forced myself to run faster, until I got home.

I slowed down when I started to see the all too familiar houses and was about to call out to them when I realized they were outside, and then I stopped. We never went outside at night. I quickly went behind a bush, and started to looked at the scene, and realized there was another group of kids in front of them.

4, to be exact. Although I couldn’t see anything this far, I noticed they were wearing a blue uniform, like the soldier I saw before. I narrowed my eyes, and started to think up a plan.