Chronicles of the Fall- #1- Empty Night

Chapter 20: The End is the Beginning

Weeks pass once more. The air grows colder, the days shorter, and the nights impossibly longer.

The Elites, consisting of Hampton, Faith, Talon, and newly annexed Owen, have made their new camp out of an abandoned ranger outpost. Seated high on a peak overlooking the valley of the zoo, it provides a good vantage point as well as a challenge to anybody who tries to get to it. After several raids to the surrounding pit stops and gas stations, their food stockpile is replenished. However, they are not happy.

Who would be happy during this crisis? Who would be truly happy when they knew something could happen and they would die. Nobody. Nobody sane or in their right mind, so perhaps happy isn't the word to use...

Regardless, the group is downtrodden.

Despite their good food situation and the advantageous position of their new camp, the Elites are dejected.

Hampton sits inside, on the old park ranger's desk, his back against a wall. His gun sits in his lap and his bat leans against the wall below him, easily within arm's reach. His hair has gotten far too long to keep its original styled quiff, so he's gone to smoothing it straight back across his head, and a sparse beard has begun to grow across his jaw and chin as well. Dark circles perpetually circle underneath his eyes.

Faith sits cross-legged in the rolling chair of the desk, spinning around in it idly. Her ginger locks are matted, and though she will never have as skeletal an appearance as Todd, she looks thinner than ever. Her pocket Bible sits open in her lap.

"Owen," Hampton snaps, his eyes flicking to the boy. Owen starts violently, his foot still raised as he was walking. "Stop pacing. You're making me nervous."

Owen casts his eyes down like a scolded dog. "Sorry, Hamp," he replies. Hampton rubs at his temple, sighing deeply. Normally, only DJ called him Hamp, but as of late, the nickname seems to have caught on with other members of the group. He misses DJ and Laken, and, despite himself, he misses Lucas, Todd, and Jackson.

'I wish we were still together,' thinks Hampton sadly.

"Me too," Faith sighs. Seeing the look on Hampton's face, she gently reminds him, "You said that out loud." Hampton gives her a slight smile, and shoots another glare at Owen when the boy begins to pace again.

"It's too quiet out here," Owen says, scratching at the back of his neck.

"Agreed," comes Talon's voice from outside, where he has been taking watch.

"Why don't well tell stories, of the days Before?" Faith asks, stopping her spinning in the chair. Owen perks up at this, finally stopping his incessant pacing and sitting down on the floor across from Faith.

"That sounds good," he agrees, smiling, making his chestnut shaped eyes crinkle happily. Hampton gives another small smile, glad to see some happiness in the otherwise dejected group.

Hampton tells the story of how DJ had won one of her state championships by saving every single penalty kick that came her way, and they scoring one on the other goalkeeper. He then explained the time when some drunk girl at a restaurant tried to buy him a drink, only to begin crying when he told her he was underaged. There was a resounding round of laughter iu response to each story.

Owen told tales of his college days, and how he came from Korea in the seventh grade due to a situation in his family. Upon learning that he spoke Korean, everybody bade him to speak a few words for them. Much to everybody's delight, Owen complied.

"I was working on a scaffolding one time," Talon started, "and I was putting a piece of wood onto the side of a house. Some guy called me from the hole in the side of the place that would be a window, so I looked over. Wasn't paying attention, and hammered the nail right into the meat of my hand between my thumb and index finger." He held up his right hand, and pointed out the round, lighter coloured scar that marked his hand. "Hurt so bad, and I couldn't sit down since I was two stories in the air. It was the worst."