The End: Only The Beginning

[18] Abandoned

The gate to Sugar Tree swung open in sync with the wind. There were no guards posted here per usual. It also seemed deadly quiet minus the whipping wind.

"Where's everyone at?" Ryder thought out loud.

"I don't know. Keep going." I tell Kyle, who seems skeptical to drive through the empty gate.

"I don't know where they would be.. If they went somewhere they would have waited to make sure we got back and Julie got the stuff for the baby." I spoke quickly and to the point.

We drove through the gate while it was open, and continued up the long drive.

This was extremely strange. No one was here to let us in, and there is still no sight of any camp members or guards.

For a second I wondered if maybe we had just come in between a shift change, but I decided against it.

"So, where are the others that went for supplies?" Alyssa asks, staring out the window in confusion.

"If we knew we wouldn't be in this position." My brother's sarcasm is extremely evident due to his frustration. I can always tell when he's stressed because of the way he reacts to people and the things he says to them.

"Kyle." I warn him, scolding him with my eye contact.

We had reached the top of the usually-bustling camp. No one was anywhere to be found. The campfire placed in the middle of camp wasn't burning, and a single wisp of grey smoke reached from the ashes to the sky, curling up at the edges.

I jumped out of the still-running vehicle. We had pulled to a stop where we could and all had planned to look around.

"Hello? Ali?" I wasn't too sure why I called out my younger sisters' name. She was always the first thought to my mind when things like this happened. Maybe it's because of when she wasn't with us, or maybe I'm overprotective. Either way, my habit came into good use.

"Carter!" A distant shout from across where we stood echoed through the silent air.

I ran. I ran like I never had ran before. I didn't have my gun, my backpack, I didn't even have the slightest jacket, but I ran towards the voice.

"Alison." I was out of breath like none other. In retrospect, I didn't necessarily need to sprint as if I was running the last ten meters of a marathon, but I did for some reason.

"Everyone left. They left me here." Hot tears ran down her red face.

"What? Ali, tell me what happened."

"I don't know. Mason said that the barometric pressure dropped extremely low and also the temperature did, and I guess that means a storm or something."

"Okay? So why did they leave?" As she began explaining, a few of the others started trickling in through the trees that separated my sister from the rest of the camp.

Not everyone had went to the extremist measures of running, but at least we were all here.

"I don't know! Something like we were running low on food and they hadn't gotten back from the raid. Ferra was going to stay and wait with a car but they wouldn't let her. So I told everyone that I was riding with someone else but I just stayed."

"Alison Grace Nelson! That is incredibly idiotic! What if we hadn't came back?"

"I don't know. I had a feeling you would."

"Listen guys. She had a feeling." Kyle butted in.

"What was I supposed to do?"

"You could've left a note? I don't know Alison!" The others had stepped back and begun to throw a few sticks into the dead fire to warm themselves in the frigid wind that blew my hair into my mouth as I spoke.

"Do you know where they went?"

"They called it Plan-B. I think maybe somewhere in Virginia that's more equipped for heavy snow and winter storms."

"What the hell did you get us into, Alison?" Ryder stepped in. I almost gasped. I had never really heard Ryder talk very much, especially not in a harsh way.

She looked hurt as she gazed at the ground with her crystal blue eyes, her blonde hair had long since fallen out of the ponytail with a small, intricate braid up the sides of it.

"It isn't her fault. They practically left us." I had nothing to say, my mouth couldn't produce the millions of words my brain wanted to scream at her ignorance. Luckily Calum knew what to say. He always seemed to do that. He always knew what to say and when to say it. You could say it was a blessing and a curse.

"Wait. There's a laminated booklet in the console of the truck. Maybe this Plan-B is there." Calum says once more. I nod, following closely beside him back to the vehicle. Once or twice our hands grazed each other's frozen cold fingers. That was all I needed to know he was there.

We climbed into the truck to search for anything that could help us get where we needed to be.

"Got it." I said as I pulled out the brown laminated map with instructions on the back of it.

There was an address in blue writing. It wasn't in Virginia, but somewhere deep into North Carolina.

"Well, let's go scrounge up some supplies so we can get on our way." Kyle says, taking charge of the group.

A silent agreement is made as we all part ways to our huts to gather our things.

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I'm a day late on updates sorry

School is stressing me out so this chapter sucks and I haven't written that much so I'm sorry again lol

Happy VDay even if ur baeless like me

Vote & Comment if ya wanna know what happens next sooner (((;