Brooklyn

I mutter curses under my breath as I walk away from them. I half expect Avery to run after me like he would've in high school, but he doesn't. I guess I'm not the only one who's changed.

I left, but I don't plan on actually leaving. I would've brought my stuff if that was the case, or at least my gun, since the food and water might be debatable. Maybe they'd consider it the cost of living with them. But I'll just walk for a bit, cool down, shake off Avery's pigheadedness and my own frustration.

I forgot my gun, I realize with a start. I haven't gone anywhere in half a year without a gun. Since my dad died, two guns. But I left it at the lip of the cave.

In some ways, the fear bringing shivers down my spine is completely irrational. I go everywhere with a gun and have only needed it a handful of times. But still. I walk another minute then I turn around and head back with a sigh.

I try not to trip over the rocks in the wet, gray sand as I walk. It's still windy and cold. I should probably grab a jacket too.

"I'm back," I call as I reach the cave, not bothering to keep the irritation out of my voice. I turn the corner.

I notice several things at once. First, that there are more than two figures standing in the darkness, and second, that the two shadows that should belong to Avery and Adam don't, because their bodies lay motionless on the stone floor a few feet in front of me.

I swallow my scream and dart for my rifle leaning against the wall. One of the figures steps forward and grabs me as I reach the gun. It's too big to angle around and shoot them. Going off of instinct, I swing the barrel of the gun around and hit my attacker in the head, instead. The attacker slinks off in pain. Two others leap forward and try to grab me, but I thrash and kick and swing the gun around. One of them punches me, hard, in the ribs. I swing my fist out as well, hitting something and hearing a grunt. The rational part of my brain is asking, human or Malefic? And then, thinking of the brothers lying motionless on the ground, dead or unconscious? But there's no time for that.

"Stop fighting!" A female voice yelps. One of them must be a girl.

"Pull her hair!" The other attacker, definitely a man, commands. I try to punch her but she reluctantly grabs a fistful of my hair. I yelp in pain. The man grabs me from behind. I use my fingernails to claw at his arm.

We all freeze at the sound of a gun being cocked, held by the one I hit with my gun earlier, now standing in the shadows.

I feel a bit of relief; only humans carry guns. Though I hadn't thought they were Malefic, anyway.

My attackers release me slowly, backing away, but not before ripping my rifle out of my hands. They've already taken out Avery and Adam, and I'm entirely outnumbered. So this is it, then, I think. I won't even be killed by one of them, it'll be one of us–monsters, too.

"Do it fast," I say through clenched teeth. I'm ready. They look at each other.

"We're not going to do any killing unless it's necessary," The one with the gun says. A woman. I pointedly jerk my chin in Avery and Adam's direction.

"They're not dead, just unconscious. We were surprised to find them here and they wouldn't let us explain, so we had to knock 'em out."

"And yet you didn't try to explain to me," I retort, not daring to hope that they're not actually dead. Sure, I hate Avery sometimes, but I care about him. And though I don't know Adam, he's been nothing but kind to me. My heart races with wild hope, contradicting my nonchalant thoughts.

"If you remember correctly, you jumped for the gun before we did anything to you."

"I saw my friends' dead bodies on the floor," I answer in a flat voice. "What do you expect? That I was going to ask if we could talk it out calmly over a cup of tea?"

The man whistles. "Sassy one, isn't she?"

"So you really didn't kill them?" I ask him.

The man kicks Avery hard in the stomach. He grunts and shifts a little.

"They'll wake up soon," The girl adds, smiling at me in a way that is probably meant to be reassuring.

"Huh," I manage, trying to hide my relief. "Well then, please explain."

The man and the girl visibly relax; the woman steps out of the shadows. The first thing I notice is that she's asian and pretty in a sharp way. Her slender arms are muscled and her black hair is cut to her chin, like me. I can't decide her age, though; mid-thirties, maybe?

She watches me as I study her, waiting. I meet her eyes.

"We use this cave often and didn't expect to find anyone else, definitely not other humans. These days, there's no time to think first, act later. Not if you want to keep your life. We weren't expecting those two," she motions toward the brothers, "and they weren't expecting us. The younger one jumped for his gun like you did. But we acted faster than him. We didn't think there could be more than three humans still making it in such a large group, so I'm ashamed to say you caught us off guard."

She takes my rifle from the man that grabbed it from me and turns to me. "If I give you this back, will you shoot?" I think for a moment.

"Not unless you attack me again." Her mouth twitches and she hands me the gun, the man and girl tensing. I sling it over my shoulder to put them at ease. "I'm out numbered anyway," I point out.
Avery groans again and we all freeze.

"That one gave me so many bruises," the man grumbles. I take a closer look at him. He's about Avery's height, but more muscled, and with short brown hair. If I had to guess, I'd say he's in his late twenties. I'm surprised he couldn't (or wouldn't) knock me out as well.

"Listen," The woman says, "I'll explain everything but we'll have to tie up these two before they wake up. Liam's not the only one with bruises. You hit me pretty hard in the head, too, but at least you've agreed to listen." I nod warily and they pull some rope out of a backpack. My anxiety kicks in the moment I agree as I think of how, once again, this could all be a trap. If Avery and Adam wake up, I won't be outnumbered anymore. But they haven't shot any of us, I remind myself. Shooting us would be a waste of bullets at this point, the part of my brain that has kept me alive says.

The woman secures Adam's hands as the man, Liam, secures Avery's arms and legs with significantly more rope than what's being used on Adam. Sounds about right. I sit down and wait, still cautious. I'm surprised when the girl sits next to me, a few feet away.

"I'm Evelyn," She says, offering her hand, "but you can call me Evie. Everyone does." I stare at her hand until she lets it drop, then runs it through her sun kissed, dirty blonde hair. Except for her blue eyes, she looks exactly how I wished I did in high school. Pretty, nice, approachable. Maybe a year younger than me, seventeen? Eighteen? She looks like the 'real' version of me from a year ago. I'd be the knockoff. It's kinda annoying, though it's not her fault.

"My name's Brooke," I finally say with a sigh. She offers me a weak smile and I wonder how this girl is still alive. She looks like the type who would faint at the sight of blood.

"So," she says, "Are those two your...brothers?" She frowns as she finishes the sentence. We look nothing alike.

"No," I say, slowly. I watch her as she watches Avery, unconscious. It hits me how good looking he still is and I almost laugh. Desperate, are we? I point at him, "That one is my ex boyfriend back from highschool." She looks away from him, a little embarrassed. It's funny, watching her squirm as she realizes I saw her staring at him. "But don't worry, he's all yours. I hadn't seen him in at least two years when I ran into his brother a week or two ago. I've been with them since then, which isn't long. I can introduce you two, if you want."

"N-no, I wasn't-" she goes quiet and just looks down.

I try to hide my smile, feeling almost guilty, but mostly just amused.

To everyone's surprise, Adam is the one who wakes up first.

"Who-" he starts, and stops, staring wildly at all of us. He stares at the girl for one, long moment, then his eyes meet mine. "Brooke? What's going on here?" His expression looks betrayed.

"I'm not sure yet. They didn't kill you and Avery, so I figured I'd hear them out."

"We were afraid you two would try to attack us again before we'd have a chance to explain," The girl cuts in before I can continue.

"If you won't, we can untie you now," The leader says. Adam nods and she gestures to Liam, who carefully undoes the complicated knot. I guess they don't want to cut it and waste rope.

I notice Adam watching the girl as she peeks a glance at Avery. This should be interesting. When the rope falls off Adam comes and sits across from us, occasionally turning his thoughtful gaze to Evie.

"The heck," Avery yells, sitting up suddenly, fighting against the rope. His back is to us. Liam goes to restrain him but Adam shakes his head.

"Calm down, Avery," Adam quickly calls to him. Avery tries to turn and fails.

"Where's Brooke? Is she-"

"I'm here, I'm fine," I answer for Adam. "We're fine. Sit still and they'll untie you."

"How many?" He asks. I roll my eyes.

"Three." There's a long, pregnant pause while we wait for him to answer.

"...Dang. Only three? Am I that out of shape?"

"Probably. They couldn't even knock me unconscious, two at once." I'm totally exaggerating, but he doesn't need to know that. Adam raises an eyebrow, looking impressed. Why do people always do that? Though I can't really blame him.

"It's because you kept scratching me every time I got close," Liam accuses with just the barest hint of humor, examining the red marks on his arm. Ouch.

"Can someone please untie me now?" Avery grumbles. Adam stands and walks over to him, probably ready to restrain him before he can attack one of them and ruin everything. We wait until Liam has finished untying Avery and he turns around to face us, studying every face as if he expects to see an alien instead. He looks disappointed.

"Let me explain," The woman says, taking charge again. "My name is Harper. I run a group of survivors not too far from here. We come to this cave often and when we saw others, we were thrown off guard. You," She looks at Adam, "went for the gun, and we didn't have time to think over any other options, so we knocked you both unconscious. The girl," She looks at me.

"Brooke," I offer.

"Brooke came in immediately after and knocked me pretty hard on the head, so I had to take a moment to recover. I guess she had a short sort of brawl with Liam and Evie, but she stopped to listen after I pulled my gun. Smart." It's not a threat, but almost.

"How many survivors?" Adam asks, seeming to pick out the key part of what she said. She smiles. Barely.

"I can't tell you, just in case. But I can show you."

Avery, Adam, and I look at each other.

"It's a safe place for anybody willing to follow the rules. We can offer you food and shelter if you come with us. The alternative is us parting as unlikely acquaintances, you forgetting all about this, never breathing a word to anyone or anything, and leaving this area for good. We can't risk unwanted attention." Once again, the threat in her voice makes it seem like she won't let us leave alive if we say no. There's only one option. If another Malefic finds us, we might get tortured until we tell about the group of human survivors. They won't risk that.

Avery looks to Adam and he nods. He raises an eyebrow at me and I deliberate for a moment, death threats or no. If there's truly a safeplace, a refuge with other humans, then it's what I never dared to hope Seattle was. And I don't want this to turn into another fight. I shrug.

Avery looks Harper in the eyes. "We'll come."