Silver Lining - The Host fanfiction

Chapter 131 The Wanderers

Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another:
"What?! You too?! I thought I was the only one!"

-C.S. Lewis

Burns

We hide ourselves within the rock shelter that holds the two vehicles. If there's really another group of humans then we don't want to scare them with our presence.

If for some reason, this happens to be a place that Seekers use, then of course we don't want to be discovered by them.

We settle behind the vehicles and try to get comfortable. I look at Nate. "How did you find the other groups?" It's something I've always wondered.

Nate chuckles. "Also by accident. We came across Max while raiding the same place. Theo and Will almost ended up fighting, but in the end we decided it would benefit us if we started working together. With Gail, we stumbled on Ellen first. She was running from Seekers, tried to find a place to hide and found us. They already knew about Russell's place."

I nod at his story, glad to finally have the answer.

Nate seems to hesitate for a moment before speaking again. "You be careful when we meet this lot, yeah? We don't know what kind of people they are. They might not be willing to listen when we explain things."

"Nate..." I start.

"No Burns," Nate cuts me off, "it's our turn to protect you. We'll test the water first, you hear me?"

"Yeah," Blake agrees, "I don't want to have to explain to squirky if you're not with us when we go home. I've seen her mad before, thank you."

I sigh. "You shouldn't be risking yourselves for me."

"We've gone over this," Evan now cuts in, "you're one of us, Burns, and we protect each other."

"Might as well give in, Burns," Rachel sighs, "you're not going to win this."

I offer them all a smile. "Thanks guys."

It grows quiet as we settle in for the night. Evan takes up first watch. I wonder what this group of humans will be like and how many of them here will be. Will they accept me?

Slowly I doze off.

...

We wake up by Tom's soft warning. "There's people coming."

It's still dark outside. Only more than a few hours could have passed.

"Alright," Nate mutters, "stay out of sight. Let's see what we're dealing with first."

We hide when they enter the small space. Six of them. Two girls, four men. They seem to be in a good mood as they load up the van. The smallest girl, hardly bigger than a child, is laughing along with a broad build man that's holding her hand. He mutters something about having to hold her or she might float away.

Nate signals the others and within seconds they have their flashlights aimed at the newcomers' faces.

Human faces.

They freeze as they take note of our appearance and the weapons my friends have aimed at them. A second later they all start fumbling around in their pockets and that's when Nate steps out of hiding. "Steady now," he says, "everybody just keep calm. Wait, wait, don't be swallowing anything! Jeez, get a grip. No look!" He shines the flashlight at his own face. "See?" he says, "okay now. You don't shoot us, and we won't shoot you. See?" He places his gun on the ground and tells the others to follow his example. "We found your cache here, clever that, we were lucky to find it, and we decided we'd hang out and make your acquaintance. It's not every day you find another rebel cell." He laughs. "Look at your faces! What? Did you think you all were the only ones still kicking?"