Chapter Three - Spontaneous

Hayden

Fury burned through my veins as I ran after Jett, my strong legs allowing me to draw even with him quickly while he fled. He shot me a terrified look out of the corner of his eye while we ran, and I slowed my pace to allow him to keep up. My jaw clenched in anger as I tried to hold back from cussing him out for being so incredibly reckless.

'Stupid,' I couldn't help but mutter. He didn't reply, but I could hear the heavy puffing of his breaths as he ran, his body unaccustomed to the physical exertion required for a raid. The edge of the tree line was quickly approaching, and I knew Kit and Dax must have been hiding just beyond sight, waiting for us. I slowed enough as we approached to let Jett run through the gaps in the trunks before me.

As soon as we were covered, I reached forward to grab his arm and yank him back to face me.

'What the hell, Jett?!' I demanded, struggling to keep my voice quiet. Even though we were covered, we still weren't completely safe. I glared down at him, his pitiful expression doing nothing to soften the hard anger I felt.

'I said I was sorry!' he protested weakly. His wide brown eyes stared up at mine, remorse filling them completely.

'Jett, you idiot!' Kit interjected, appearing from behind a tree. He looked absolutely livid. 'Are you trying to get yourself killed?'

'No,' he murmured sheepishly. He hardly even dared glance at Kit as he glowered down at him.

'You can't just follow us, little man. It's not safe,' Dax said, his tone the kindest of the three. It took a lot to piss Dax off, but it was still clear he disapproved of Jett's recklessness. I watched Jett as he chanced glances at the three of us. He looked intimidated, the glares from we older and bigger men breaking down his tiny bit of courage.

'I just wanted to be tough and brave like you guys,' he said quietly, dropping his gaze to stare at the ground. I let out a heavy sigh and crossed my arms over my chest.

'Being patient is being brave, Jett,' I told him. He lifted his soft gaze from the ground to look at me.

'You guys went on raids at my age,' he said quietly. That was true: Kit, Dax, and I had been going on raids since we were hardly ten years old, but we had always been better than those our own age. We were smarter, faster, stronger, and just as lethal as anyone else years older. Jett didn't understand that no matter how much he wanted to be, he wasn't like us.

'We'll know when you're ready,' Dax said, saving me from telling Jett the embarrassing truth: he just wasn't cut out for it yet.

'Okay,' Jett mumbled. 'I really am sorry. I didn't mean to put anyone in danger.'

'Keep that in mind next time,' Kit said harshly, hitching his bag over his back. 'Now let's get out of here before they come after us.'

'Good idea. We hardly got away as it is,' I said. I readjusted the gun beneath my waistband to make sure it was secured after running so quickly. Everyone nodded as we started our trek through the darkness of the trees, heading back to our own camp. We were silent until we'd moved a good distance away from Greystone.

'Wait, how did you get away?' Dax asked suddenly as if just realising what I'd said. 'Did they catch you or what?'

'A girl did,' I said. Her face flashed before my field of vision, the burning green eyes narrowed at me in determination. 'She had a gun but she let us go.'

'What?' Kit asked incredulously. He glanced at me sceptically, his face barely decipherable through the darkness.

'She let us go,' I repeated, shrugging.

'She was pretty,' Jett piped up from between Dax and me. 'But really scary.'

'Why the hell would she let you go? I've never heard of anyone getting caught at Greystone and making it out alive,' Kit questioned.

'I don't know,' I said honestly. Her actions were mysterious to me, but I remembered the annoyance her voice had held when she'd asked about Jett. 'I think it was because of Jett. She didn't wanna shoot a kid.'

'She must be the only one over there,' Dax muttered. Greystone was notorious for being brutally heartless when it came to those they killed.

'So I saved you?' Jett said suddenly, his voice lifting excitedly.

'No. You were the reason we got caught in the first place,' I snapped, quickly shutting down his irrational thought.

'Oh.'

No one else spoke as we carried on, our journey nearly complete as the flickering lights from our camp blinked through the trees. The quiet sloshing of the kerosene in the few barrels we had managed to steal on the raid accompanied our soft breathing while we moved. It was much later now and completely dark, so I assumed most of the camp would have retired back to their individual huts for the night.

I saw that I was right as we re-entered the camp, the pathways relatively deserted, apart from those making their rounds while on guard duty. I nodded at the middle-aged woman and teenage boy that passed, glad to see they had their guns ready in case a threat appeared.

'Jett, go to Maisie. You better tell her what you did, otherwise she'll hear it from me,' I told him. He let out a quiet squeak, anxious to tell her. Jett's parents were both gone, victims of the world we now lived in. Maisie had taken him under her wing, acting as his adoptive mother as well as the mother of the entire camp. She kept us fed, working in the mess hall to keep the camp well nourished. In her forties, she was gentle and kind, but strong-willed and highly unlikely to put up with any nonsense. Everybody respected her, and while he loved her dearly, Jett was a little bit afraid of her; surely he wouldn't be too pleased to tell her what he'd done. She would be furious.

'Yes, sir,' he squeaked, nodding at me and scurrying away before I could reprimand him for calling me 'sir'.

'You're too soft on him,' Kit grumbled from beside me. I glanced at him and raised an eyebrow.

'He doesn't respond to people being mean,' I said. Jett was too fragile to be helped the way Kit wanted me to treat him.

'Hmmph,' he muttered, switching the jug of kerosene to his other hand. We walked in silence until we reached the storeroom. Dax threw the door open and greeted the guard loudly, making him jump at our sudden intrusion.

'Not sleeping, are you?' Dax teased, raising his eyebrows at the elderly man who was on duty.

'Never, Dax,' the man said with a smile. There wasn't anyone in the camp that didn't like Dax.

I waited patiently for Kit and Dax to deposit their items, taking the one jug I'd managed to steal out of my bag and placing it next to theirs. I nodded at the man before we left the building to return our guns and supplies to the raid building. After several more minutes of walking in silence, we reached the building and went inside. Our guns were placed back inside the cases and our backpacks were returned to their rightful places.

Kit said a stony hello to the guards, a different man and woman from before, as we made our way out into the night. We walked together, heading back to our own huts that were situated on the right side of our camp. We were nearly there when a man of about fifty appeared from his own hut as we were passing.

'Hayden,' he greeted. He extended his hand, which I shook firmly.

'Barrow,' I said in response, nodding at him.

'Back from the raid, I see?' he observed, nodding at Kit and Dax beside me.

'Yep.'

'And it went well?' he questioned.

'I wouldn't say well but we're back,' I said. Dax snorted next to me, already finding our dangerous situation funny.

'Well, glad to hear it,' Barrow said, smiling at us. 'I tried to find you before you took off but I must have just missed you – we need wiring.'

I sighed, running my fingers along my lip in frustration. 'Wiring? What for?'

'The generator in the kitchen and mess hall is going out,' Barrow said. 'It's all burning up and we'll be out of power soon if it blows.'

'We'll have to go into the city for that,' Kit said from beside me. I frowned.

'I know.'

Barrow frowned at me apologetically. 'Want me to put together a team? I can go.'

'No, that's all right,' I told him. I could see Dax grinning beside me. 'We'll go tomorrow.'

Raids into the city were best done during the day, even if it meant we were more easily spotted. The city at night was the most dangerous place you could go, because it was when the Brutes came out to play. It was their territory, and they knew how to defend it.

Barrow nodded at me. 'Okay. Get some sleep boys, we'll want you all back safe.'

'You know it'll take more than a few Brutes to take us out,' Dax said lightly, grinning at Barrow as he nudged his shoulder. Barrow grinned, appreciating the enthusiasm. He still went on raids once and a while, but not nearly as many as he used to. After a trip to Crimson had gone horribly wrong, he'd wounded his left knee pretty badly and now found it difficult to keep up with the fast pace of a raid. He never said it, but I knew how much it devastated him to have to stay behind whenever we went on raids. He was the one who had trained us all.

'Yeah, yeah, the invincible trio,' Barrow said playfully. 'See you later, then.'

'Good to see you, Barrow,' Kit said evenly, grinning at him as much as he ever did. With that, Barrow went back into his hut to leave us to get to ours. We covered the remaining short distance before we found ourselves outside our homes, which all happened to be next to each other's.

'Shall we take off around nine tomorrow?' I asked them. Kit picked at his fingernail as he nodded.

'Yeah, sounds good.'

'Sweet dreams, boys! Glad your lucky ass is still here, Hayden,' Dax said lightly before turning to head inside. Kit chuckled deeply, the stress of the situation wearing off slightly now that we were home.

'Me, too,' I laughed, a grin breaking across my face for the first time in what felt like ages. With that, we each disappeared into our huts to get some sleep before the raid in the morning. Usually we didn't go on raids two days in a row, but the wiring for the generators was too important to put off. If we had no electricity in the kitchen, we didn't eat.

I reached my hand behind my head to grip the back of my shirt and haul it over my head, knocking my bandana off in the process. My hair fell forward into my eyes as I undid my boots and jeans before letting them drop to the floor. Within moments, I was falling into bed, my body crashing down onto the mattress. I was asleep the moment my head hit the pillow, the stress of the day knocking me out quickly.

It felt like only seconds later when I was abruptly awoken by someone pounding on my door.

'Hayden, mate, let's go!' Dax shouted.

'Yeah, get out of bed, you lazy pile,' Kit added. He sounded surprisingly happy for Kit. I let out a heavy sigh, pressing my face into my pillow before my arms flexed beside me to push myself up.

'All right, all right, give me a minute,' I called back. Without much thought, I pulled on the jeans that lay discarded on the floor before throwing a navy flannel over my chest. I grabbed the headband off the floor and pushed it onto my head, keeping my hair out of my face while I tied my boots. I moved to the makeshift sink in the little bathroom that had been added to my hut to splash water on my face.

As the leader of my camp, I was one of the few who actually had their own bathroom. A bucket filled with water served as the sink and a hanging perforated bag that could be filled with water to serve as a shower. People like Dax had managed to rig a rudimentary plumbing system that allowed water to drain from the floor and run outside. I even had a latrine with a system that drained the waste away from camp while the rest had to use the communal latrines. I was lucky; I had it better than a lot of others.

Sunlight blazed through the doorframe when I whipped open the door, revealing a surprisingly excited-looking Kit and Dax standing outside.

'Morning, sunshine,' Dax said, shoving a gun and backpack into my hands. 'Got your stuff for you, let's get on with it!'

'Where's my—'

I was cut off by Dax flicking open my switchblade inches from my face, grinning as I jerked back at his sudden movement. I frowned disapprovingly at him as I took it, closing the blade back into the handle.

'Thanks.'

'Let's get going. I wanna be back in time for lunch. Maisie's making that special chicken,' Dax said excitedly.

'All right, all right,' I muttered. I threw the backpack over my shoulders and pushed the gun under my waistband where I always kept it. My bag was considerably heavier than it had been last night, and I knew Kit and Dax had loaded it with more ammunition and supplies since we were going into the city. It was bright and sunny as we made our way out of the camp, our pace quick and purposeful.

Sometimes we chose to take one of the vehicles we had, but on days like today when our load would be light, we chose to walk and save precious gasoline. Before long, we were making our way through the trees that surrounded our camp, heading in a different direction than we had gone last night. The city wasn't much farther than Greystone, so the trip didn't take very long.

The ruins of the city rose before us, the decrepit grey buildings crumbing more and more with every visit we made. Weeds had started to grow through the cracks in the cement, making the once metropolitan area look even more desolate. We moved cautiously as we crept through the streets, our eyes constantly scanning the alleys and buildings for shifting shadows of those who could potentially harm us.

We hadn't moved far when we came across broken down bus, a prime target for wiring. I nodded at Dax silently and saw his eyes light up at the prize. He was the technology expert, so it would be up to him to get the necessary wiring out of the bus. With our guns drawn and extended, we moved toward it, never letting our eyes linger in one space for too long.

The door to the bus was yanked open, and I moved stealthily as I entered it slowly. I scanned the inside of it carefully, gun pointing ahead of me in case I needed to fire, but it was deserted. I nodded behind me, indicating Dax come inside and do what he needed to do. Kit positioned himself at the door, his back to us so he could keep watch for any incoming enemies.

'Go, Dax,' I said quietly. He whipped off his backpack, crouching to the floor to dig out the necessary supplies and start taking apart the dashboard. I looked out the windows carefully for any signs of movement. I jumped as Dax pried open the dash, the loud squeak it let out setting my nerves on edge. He worked quickly, pulling wires from sockets and cutting what he needed out of the dash.

A sudden bang echoed out to reveal a familiar sound: a gun going off not far from us.

'Shit,' Kit cursed, arms tightening as he turned toward the direction of the sound. Dax cussed from his position on the ground as he shoved the supplies into his backpack and slung it over his shoulder.

'I'm done, let's get out of here,' he said. 'Guarantee that was a Brute and they'll be here any minute.'

'Get down!' Kit hissed suddenly, climbing swiftly aboard the bus and ducking below the dash. I followed suit, sitting just high enough to see out the windshield to figure out what Kit had seen.

'Ten o'clock,' Kit whispered. I averted my eyes and sure enough, a group of four was slinking through the ruins of the city, guns drawn as they peered around. One of them was limping slightly, and they all looked flustered.

'Bet they found some Brutes, yeah?' Dax said, appearing beside me to glance at the people. They hadn't seen us, too distracted by whatever they had just encountered. My eyes travelled down their line, taking in the two middle-aged men and a younger man of about twenty-five before landing on the final member of their party. A girl with blonde hair and striking green eyes who had held a gun to my chest only hours ago.

The girl from Greystone.

My jaw fell open slightly in shock as I watched her move, her body strong and well trained to avoid making any noise. Kit moved beside me, drawing my attention as he raised his gun. Dax did the same at my other side.

'I'll hit the first two if you can each take another,' Kit murmured, taking aim at one of the men.

'Got it,' Dax said. It was standard procedure to take out any enemies you may have encountered on a raid. The fewer raiders the other camps had, the better. My heart pounded, uneasy with at the thought of someone killing the girl who had spared my life.

'Wait—'

A gun shot rang out, the sound of the bullet echoing off the walls around us as I saw the first man fall to the ground. My eyes jerked to the side to see a surprised look on the faces of Kit and Dax. They hadn't fired the shot, but someone had just shot one of the four, and it wasn't us.

My eyes jerked forward again as a second shot rang out, the bullet ricocheting off the cement next to the younger man as he tackled the girl to the ground and out of the line of fire. The remaining man darted off, disappearing between two buildings before the younger one jumped to his feet to go after him. My eyes widened in surprise when the girl followed suit, setting off at a sprint after the two men, leaving the first behind. The pool of blood around him was already too large; he was dead.

She sprinted quickly, arms pumping and blonde hair flying out behind her as she ran. We all watched as yet another shot rang out from the unknown source. Almost instantly, she fell to the ground, landing heavily against the cement as the bullet buried itself in her leg. Without even pausing, she tried to push herself to her feet. Her face contorted in a grimace as her leg gave out, the slightest pressure she tried to put on it causing too much pain to allow it to support her.

Yet another shot echoed around us, landing in the dirt only feet from her head as she tried to crawl behind a broken down car for cover. My heart pounded anxiously, waiting for someone from her camp to come back for her, but no one did. She was alone in the street, injured and completely vulnerable to the attack from someone that would surely arrive soon.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my feet and throwing myself out of the door of the bus. I could hear Kit and Dax shouting my name in surprise and outrage as I sprinted away from them, but I didn't stop. I raced towards her as fast as I could, determined to reach her before someone else could. I jumped over a pile of rubble, landing smoothly on the other side before closing the remaining distance to reach her.

'Hey!' I shouted, reaching my hand out to her. She looked up in utter shock, her eyes meeting mine while her jaw fell open.

'What—'

'Let's go,' I cut her off, reaching down to grab her arm and pull her up as another bullet whizzed past us. She didn't argue as she threw her arm around my waist, using my body to prop herself up and move the best she could. Pulling my gun out, I twisted around to fire a shot in the direction the gunfire was coming from, hoping it was enough to hold off any more shots from whoever was trying to kill her.

Or rather, kill us.