External (Book 1&2)

23|Three Guns in a Haystack

We walk around the back of the Capitol. Conveniently, the building is pressed closely against the back wall. It leaves just enough room for two human bodies to walk side by side, but not much else.

We make our way to the right corner of the building, since from our collected memories, there is a side door as well as a plethora of windows. It's our best chance of figuring out what room the guns are being held in. Of course, this is only an educated guess that they would even be in this building. But, it you were a leader who is in possession of seemingly powerful weapons, where else would you hold them other than your own home?

Before we turn the corner William stops us. He signals for us to put away our weapons by placing his own pocket knife into his pocket to conceal it, Jacob follows in suit with the same sort of weapon. With my pocket knife already put away I furrow my eyebrows at my extra weapon of choice. Holding the machete in my hands I question how I would even hide this from outside glances. It's not as if I could place it into my pocket as the two men had done with their own.

By now Marcus has also hidden his Bowie knife, another smaller weapon compared to my own. I look at them in confusion of what I should do. Thankfully, Marcus grabs one of the shirts we had used to protect our faces to wrap around the blade of the knife. Somehow, the machete hadn't come with a cover in itself, or else this situation would have never occurred.

I nod my head in thanks before slipping it under my bra strap to give me easy access to it under my loose tank top, but it is still concealed behind my back. The position of my weapon reminds me of how these people in this community keep their own. But, of course, they all of real cases that strap to their back, so it's not much like my rag and bra strap.

I move around a little to make sure that it won't move around or fall. Once I'm confident of its position, we continue moving forward. I watch as William peers around the corner. It's only for a minute since he quickly walks out from behind the building. We follow, careful to stay quiet. No one is around where we are. I can see some people working outside their homes, but they are too far to notice us as long as we move quickly. It seems that we came early enough that most people are still asleep. We would've come at night, but we don't want to run in to any nocturnal animals in the forest or city, especially those creatures from night one.

I look through the first window with William. The room is a library, empty of people. The walls are covered with floor to ceiling bookshelves, books of all shapes and sizes held on them. It surprises me on how well held up these books are, since they are mostly all pre-war books. Though, even from here I can see the cracked spines and faded colors.

We move onto the next room, since that one had a low probability of holding the weapons. The window just perpendicular to the previous one showcases a living room. There are white sofas around a coffee table. A record player sits in the corner of the room. Half of the wall has a white trim that moves across it with designs running down, the top half is a plain pale blue.

Though no matter how ordinary the room looks, something confuses me. I go to the last room to confirm my suspicions, ignoring the curious looks that the others are giving me. I furrow my eyebrows as I move back to the living room, then they widen.

"There's a room in between these two." I whisper to the others. The width of the rooms didn't match up with how far we had walked. There must be at least a six feet across room in between the two. Yes, it could easily be a bathroom or storage closet, but I want to make sure I mention everything.

"Okay. Let's go inside and check." William says, but his voice shows that he isn't convinced that we will find what we're looking for.

I follow him over to the side door with the others on my tail. William turns the knob, unsurprisingly it's locked. The ghost of a smile appears on my lips as I realize that this is my time to shine. This is where I show my worth to the group.