Through the Eyes of Blue

IV

The convoy rolled into the town, stopping at the store they were looting last time. The same team I met last time dismounted, spreading out into a semicircle encompassing the front door of the store. The rest of them went into the store, leaving the two outside with the vehicles. Exiting the house, I walked towards the group. Turning the corner to the street containing the group, I was instantly spotted. Having super senses was cheating, not that I wasn't a cheater by that definition. The one on my side of the cars playing lookout was Ellie. Her hair today was in a tight bun, with just a few strands loose and barely covering her scar.

'Hey.' I spoke, once I was into a suitable speaking range. To be honest, she could hear me just fine when I just rounded that corner, but that seemed... improper. I didn't know the convention of speaking etiquettes of them, but I don't want to make a bad impression. 'How long would you guys linger here? I have my stuff packed in a house over there,' I pointed to the house, 'I'll bring them over.'

'Sure, we've a bit left before we're ready to leave.' Ellie told me, 'Don't take too long though, we have a long way to go and I prefer it if we made it back before sunset.'

Walking back into the house, I cast my surroundings a last glance before hauling my cargo to the convoy.

Walking over, Ellie raised her eyebrows. 'Are you trying to move a library here?'

Hearing that comment, Olyvia bounced over, picked up a box and slid it into a truck. 'Yep, definitely a library.' She grinned at Ellie and bounced away.

'That girl... Honestly sometimes, I don't know why I put up with her.' Ellie sighed, exasperated by Olyvia's antics.

'Is she like this all the time?' I asked, moving the rest of the boxes onto the truck.

'Always at the edge of bouncing off the walls? Yep.'

'The horror.'

'Alright, let's pack it up people, we're leaving!' Dan yelled as the last of the loot was moved onto the truck.

Piling into the vehicles, I ended up with Olyvia on the rust bucket, with her behind the wheels. The redheaded woman twisted the keys, with an almost silent whine, the jeep came to life. With tyres crunching on the asphalt, the jeep was off leading the convoy. Looking out the window, I gave the retreating forests that once housed my dwelling one last, long glance, silently committing its image to my brain, as a final farewell. I turned my head back around as we turned a corner and the forest slowly disappear out of sight, my patch of green blending in with other patches of green colour, all subtly different from each other. Well, this is it, I'm once again around people after so long, I am a bit rusty in the socialising part of being a human – oh wait...

Anyways, let's see how it goes... 'Alright, now that we are slowly trudging along on the road, may I ask how you ended up with these people?' I turned and blinked at Olyvia.

'Oh?' She took her eyes off the road long enough to glance at me, 'I was driving cross country when this all happened and came across a town that managed to beat off the infection, so I stayed.'

'Oh. How did they managed to not get overwhelmed?' I asked, that piqued my interest.

'They have a delay in vaccine delivery, most of the town didn't got the shot and remained uninfected, plus Ellie was turned early and retained control. That girl helped them fight off the uncontrolled long enough for them to build a wall.' Olyvia replied, with another glance at me. 'You? How come you ended up there?'

'My batch of vaccine must be one of the uncontaminated ones, 'cause I didn't turn, neither did my friends. We were hiding out in my house, barricaded inside and preparing to break out when a group of infected broke in and bit me. Ash and Kailey managed to escape, leaving me behind. The next thing I know was that I was six feet underground, with someone very nicely carved a headstone for me.' I replied, stretching my legs, as we dodged a stray infected on the road.

Olyvia winced. 'That must suck, having to dig yourself out. That cannot be pleasant.' She righted the jeep back on the road, glanced at the rear – view mirror before slowing down. Glancing at the mirror on my side, I saw the infected shuffle towards the trucks, lagging quite a bit behind.

'Yeah, definitely not recommending that.' I said, 'Well, less of that, tell me how things are run in this little town of yours.'

'Sure.' We turned another corner, slowly winding our way down through the valley. 'The Outpost have a circle of people acting as the head, made up from people in charge of each area. Kitchen, Acquisitions, Maintenance, Hospital, Education, Security and so on. Each section chooses their head, some by seniority, some by election. We, belong to Acquisitions, the way we chose ours was by each team choosing a team lead, then the team leads chose the head.'

'I see. How many of you are there?' In front of us, a truck was lodged between two trees, mangled beyond repair. Its trailer spraying out onto the road, blocking half of the available road space. I turned and passed through the open side of the road, behind us, I could see the trucks doing the same.

'300. Most of the infected are on these foraging and gathering teams, a few are with the guards. We had built quite a high palisade, so it's safe enough, the guards' job is mainly to lure the uncontrolled away. Fights do occasionally happen, it's their job too, to break up fights and uphold the peace.'

'Huh, that was quite a bit fewer than I expected.' I said, pondering over the information. 'How many of these foraging and gathering teams do you have?'

'There's two teams of five that focuses on raiding, then there are five teams of twelve that dig up plants and hunt. Nine of the infected are on these parties, one each for plant diggers, two each for us raiders.' We finally left the valley, turning into a highway, heading south.

We passed the rest of the journey in relative silence, each of us focusing on the passing road. Time steadily passed; soon enough, when Helio's chariot near the horizon, a wooden wall appears before us.

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Homework is starting to pile up. Ugh.

I also did't finish the chapter I was working on this week. Thank fuck I had stocked up a few finished chapters.

Anyways, press that little star button if you enjoyed this chapter, and leave your thoughts here!

L. H. Y. T