The New World

Chapter 4 : Signs of Life

I woke up on the couch next to Jaylyn, still asleep of course. I checked the time, 5:56, it read. I got up slowly to not wake Jaylyn, I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote, "Went out for a walk, be back soon, -Sparky" and left the note on the door for Jaylyn when she awoke. I left and closed the door quietly. There was still about half an hour of daylight left, so I decided I'd go around and meet people of the community. I walked up to the main building and into the cafeteria, I wasn't hungry, so I sat down at a table. I didn't really know what I was doing then, just kinda waiting. A younger blonde woman approached me, "Hey, you're the new guy, right?" She asked, sitting down across from me. "Yeah, me and three others." I replied softly. I had always been a little anti-social, so I didn't really know what to say after that. "Well, welcome to Utopia, you'll really like it here." She said, then getting up and going to another table. I got up to leave, as I left I saw Marcus walking towards the firing range. I caught up to him, "Hey Marcus, what time are Bird and Butch gonna be back?" I asked, "Well, no telling for sure. But probably tomorrow." He said assuringly. "Alrighty." I said worrying about my friends. As I turned to walk home I heard Marcus speak, "Hey, they're gonna be okay. I promise." He said trying to reassure me, "Alright." I replied. I began walking home, it was dark by then. I arrived home, thinking Jaylyn could still be asleep, I got my keys out and quietly opened the door. I cracked the door and peeked in and Jaylyn was sitting up on the couch looking at me, "Oh I thought you might still be asleep." I said, "Nah, woke up about twenty minutes ago." She replied, "Well, how was your sleep?" I asked, "Absolutely fantastic." She answered. I nodded my head and went and sat in the recliner, "Are they back yet?" She asked, "No, not yet. Marcus says they'll probably be back tomorrow morning." I replied. I guess I had a worried look on my face or maybe Jaylyn can just read people like books like I can, because she said, "You know they're gonna be okay, right?" "Yeah, I know." I replied, half lying. "I'm probably gonna hit the hay now." I said yawning. I went back to my bed and laid down on my side, Jaylyn came in a few minutes later and lied down. I noticed how she had gotten less skinny, how she looked a lot more healthy. When we found her she was practically skin and bone, I was glad we found her, she would've died had we not found her. I guess she read my mind again, cause she turned over and looked at me, "I would've died without you, even if someone would've found me, I still had no reason to live, all my friends had died and as far as I know same with my family, you gave me hope. I can't thank you enough for that." She said as she let out a smile. I just smiled back, "There's no need to, you've helped me a lot too." I replied, she just smiled. I smiled back, "Goodnight, sleep tight."
I woke up the next day with a headache, Jaylyn was still in bed so I just decided I'd stay in bed. I laid in bed for a while, just looking up at the ceiling, wishing I could go back to sleep. Eventually, Jaylyn woke up, she looked over at me, "I feel like absolute garbage." She said rubbing her eyes, I laughed, "you too?" I asked, "Well, do you want me to get you some medicine or something?" I asked, "No it'll be fine, I just want to lay here for now." She said as she cuddled up to me. "Yeah, me too." I said, before I knew it I was asleep. I woke up and Jaylyn was up, still laying in bed cuddled up to me. "What time is it?" I asked while yawning, "I think it's 12:00." She said softly. I sighed, "I don't want to get outta bed." "Me either." She replied. I thought about Bird and Butch, and if they had returned yet. I got up and got ready, I left to see if they had returned yet. I found Marcus outside on the wall, "Hey, are they back yet?" I asked. "No, not yet, they will be soon." He replied, while looking over the walls as if he was looking for something. "What are you looking for?" I asked, "Oh nothing, just observing." He replied. "Well, let me know when they get here." I left to go to the mess hall. I arrived and got my tray, sitting down at a table close to the wall. I saw Kat leave the kitchen area and begin walking towards my table, "Hi, have you heard if Bird or Butch is back yet?" She asked when she got to the table. "No, they're not back yet, Marcus says they will be soon." "Well let me know when they are, thanks." And left back to the kitchen. I finished my food and left the mess hall, hoping they'd be back by that time. I went to help work on the wall, we had been reinforcing part of the northeast part of the wall, since it was close to the gate, most vulnerable to attack. After helping build new parts to the wall, I left to go on watch. The watchmen were given military grade rifles with good scopes and suppressors, we had a lot of ammo, so we were ordered to shoot any Biter we saw. I saw a Biter come from the woods about seventy five yards away, so I lined up my shot, and fired a round through its left temple. Shortly after, I heard something that sounded like a car engine, I jumped down off my post and ran to the guard post next to the gate. I climbed up quickly, looking over and seeing the blue car Bird, Butch, Randall, and Breanna had left in. "Open the gate!" I yelled to a man close enough to open it. The man ran over to the gate and opened it quickly, the car passed through and he shut the gate. I, once again, jumped off the guard post, then ran towards the car. All four of them exited the car, they were all unharmed, and boy was I happy. Butch saw me first, "Man, have we got some news." He said after letting out a long sigh, "Good news or bad news?" I asked. Bird spoke up, "Well, could be either one." I nodded my head, signaling for him to keep going. "There's other people out there, we didn't see many, but there could be more." He said, "I think Marcus would want to hear about this." I replied. I saw Marcus waking from the mess hall towards us, "Well? Did you get us something good?" He yelled out, "Could be, might not be." Bird replied, "What is it?" Marcus asked. "Well, we found people, I mean, we saw people. They looked like they were going somewhere." Bird said awaiting an answer from Marcus. Marcus got a look on his face as if he was thinking, and began to rub his chin and walking back and forth. He finally spoke, "We can't sit here and wait for them to come to us, let's watch them for a while, then we'll see what we need to do." "Alrighty, when do we need to head out?" Bird asked, "As soon as possible, but you need rest. Get some rest, gear up and then head out." He said then turning to leave, he then turned back around. "And take Sparky with you, he's a very good shot. If you get into any trouble, he'll get you out." He said and then walked back to the main building. "Well, I guess I'll be going with you guys." I said turning to Bird. "Yeah, I guess so." Bird replied. "You guys go get geared up, I'm gonna run back to the house and grab my rifle and tell Jaylyn we'll be leaving in the morning. I walked back to the house, I passed Anne on the way there. "Hey is Butch back yet?" She asked, "Yeah, I believe he was headed for the mess hall." I replied, "Thanks Sparky." She said beginning to jog towards the mess hall. I arrived home, pulling out my keys and unlocking the door. I walked in and saw Jaylyn sitting on the couch. I sat down beside her, "Bird and Butch are back, they found something, they're going again in the morning, I'm going with them." I said trying to explain it all quickly. She looked at me with a concerned look, "You're leaving?" She asked softly. "Yeah, but only for a little while." I said hoping to keep her from worrying. She slumped back on the couch, "You're gonna be careful right?" She asked, "Well, of course." I replied reassuringly. "I have to go grab a few things." I said, then getting up to go back to my room. I grabbed my rifle, and my pack. But I decided to leave my sidearm and my AR. I went back into the living room and placed my rifle by the door, "You wanna come with me to see Bird and Butch?" I asked turning to Jaylyn. "Yeah, let's go see them." She replied. As we were walking towards the mess hall I saw Breanna and Randall, they were holding hands, "Hey, what did you guys see out there?" I asked looking at Randall, "Well, we saw a bunch of guys get into a car, we counted four, we didn't know if they'd be good or bad, so we stayed out of sight." Randall said, "Well, I hope they won't mean any harm." I said, Randall nodded, and he and Breanna walked away. We continued to the mess hall, "They're a cute couple right?" Jaylyn asked with curiosity in her voice. "Oh well, I guess so, I never really thought about it." I said, she nodded. As we entered the mess hall I saw Butch and Anne sitting together, sitting across from them was Kat and Bird. We sat next to them. "So guys, what's the plan for tomorrow?" I asked, wanting to get everything planned. "Well, we gotta head back out to where we were, and we have to stay out of sight." Butch said. Kat spoke up, "You guys are gonna be careful right?" Then Jaylyn replied, "Yeah, that's what I want to know." She said looking at me. "I looked over at Kat and then back to Jaylyn, "Yes of course we'll be careful, I told you we would." I said reassuringly." Bird spoke up, "We're gonna be careful, don't worry about us." He said trying to help me reassure Kat and Jaylyn. Then Marcus entered and sat down across from me, "Bird, Sparky, Butch, I need to see your shooting abilities, Sparky is a good shot, I want to see you guys shoot as well." Marcus said scanning his view across the three of us. We all got up and went to the shooting range, Marcus handed each of us an ARX 160, a military grade rifle. And put us each at twenty-five yards, and gave us each a target to hit from that distance. He told us to fire at our specific target and to fire ten rounds each. We got into position ready to fire. We all fired off our rounds at the same time, we then went over to see how accurate our shots were. I got to my target to see that all ten shots had hit, four almost dead center, five just outside the center, and one at the top right corner. I then looked over to see Bird had hit the target seven out of ten times, and Butch had hit five out of ten. Marcus then approached me, "You'll be using your 308. for tomorrow, but keep the ARX, I believe it will be of good use to you." He said handing me a few boxes of 5.56 caliber ammo. "And as for you, I think you need a shotgun." Marcus said looking at Butch, Bird and I laughed. "I'm ready for this, Marcus, you have my word, I'll keep these guys safe." I said, I've always felt that I have to prove that I'm good enough to people. "I know Sparky, you're a good shot, I'm glad to have you." He replied. I began to head back to the house to put up my newly acquired weapon, it was a great weapon. Accurate, and very fun to shoot. I got home, unlocked the door and headed to my room. I opened the closet door in my room and hung the weapon up by two nails by the weapons strap, just below the AR. I looked down and saw my 45. sitting in its holster on the cabinet inside the closet, beside the pink 45. I planned to give Jaylyn. I picked up the pink 45. and tucked it inside the front of my pants to show Jaylyn later. I then checked the time, "6:56" I was about to leave to go find Jaylyn before it got dark but she came in as I was about to leave. "Where's Butch and Bird?" I asked, "Butch is at Anne's, and Bird is with Kat." She replied, she had a different look on her face, and I could tell something was wrong. "Is something bugging you, Jaylyn?" I asked curiously. "No, I'm fine." She replied softly, "Are you sure?" I tried hoping she would tell me. "Well, I'm just worried about you guys. You all mean a lot to me, I don't know what I'd do without you." She said, lowering her head. "Hey, we're all gonna be okay, I promise." I said, she looked up and then hugged me. "Just promise me you will not get hurt." She sad softly, "I promise, I won't get hurt." I said comfortingly. "You wanna go to bed now?" I asked yawning. I lied in bed, worried about the next day, I hoped I could keep my promise to Jaylyn, but I knew I couldn't truly guarantee anything. She cuddled up to me, "Goodnight Sparky." She said, "Goodnight Jaylyn."