Chapter 29: Destruction

I woke up, realizing that it was still dark... I had been having terrible nightmares the last couple of nights, first because of the little girl we had found, and now I was having even more just thinking that I had killed guys the other night.

Christian told me not too think to hard about it, they were bad people and there were plenty more too come. It didn't make me feel any less worse about doing it though. Im sure before all of this happened, those people that Tony was with were not all bad people.

The world had changed everyone, and the people he was with had not changed them in a good way. I sat up from the mattress or "bed" as you could call it and saw out the corner of my eye that someone was walking into the room that I was in. The lighting was very bad so I could not see who exactly in was.

Maybe it was Kristin, she had walked in earlier, that was the lady that had pulled us in with her little group that was with her earlier. She didn't seem to be that bad of a person, but once again, like everyone else, this world had changed her.

It was definitely a lady, I could not tell who exactly, but she was a bit to small for it to possibly be Kristin. I didn't want to wake up Tony and Christian, they needed their sleep.

I lightly walked over to where the lady was standing and whispered to her quietly, she jumped as soon as I she heard my voice.

"Hi, can you get me some more water?" I said to her. She looked a bit startled and I could not blame her, she probably did not know that I was awake. She probably had just came in to check through some laundry or something else.

There was another inmate downstairs, he was locked up worse than we were. I could tell why though, he was yelling all night about how he was going to kill all of them. The dude must have had some sort of mental issues or something, he was pure crazy.

"Yes sorry, my bad... I wasn't expecting anyone to be awake at this time. Just give me a few moments..." She said to me. When I saw her face it seemed like I had met her from somewhere, but I could not quiet tell from where. She looked at me a bit scared like she might know me as well.

I couldn't remember where she was from so I just took it off like it was nothing. I then walked back to the bed I had been sleeping at, I could tell it was still not anywhere near daytime as I could see through the cell window.

I sat there not wanting to go to sleep, I let time go pass and then I heard the lady whisper to me and she threw the bottle of water over to me.

I thanked her and then sat down beginning to drink it. The lady went back to the same corner that she was in before. She was a bit of an older lady, but there was no way she was younger than 45.

Her job was to probably take care of the inmates, so I took it off like it was no big deal. I sat down and began to rest for a little bit longer. I didn't want to, afraid that I was going to have some more nightmares. But I was just so tired. I needed my rest, I had slept just a couple hours over the last couple of days.

After a few short moments I then fell back to sleep.

"God damn it! How the hell did he get out?" I heard, as it woke me up from my sleep, the sun was just rising into the sky and I saw Tony and Christian were already up, but they were not quiet out of bed yet. It was the same lady that had brought us in yesterday.

I got up from the bed, and so did they, I went up to the front of the cell that we were in to try and catch a couple of glances at maybe what was going on. I heard a couple of people yelling from downstairs.

Kristan than walked up into the room that we were in. She was looking right at Tony as if she was blaming him for something. But he did not look like he had any idea what was going on.

"How the hell did you let him out..." She said pointing right at him. Tony looked just as confused as me and Christian did though. He shrugged his shoulders as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, you're damn yelling woke all 3 of us up!" He said to her. She shook her head and turned around for a few seconds. She said something to the people that were right behind her. I could only catch the end part however.

"Go and find him, he cant be too far away, he has a broken leg!" She said to them. It was all starting to make since now, I was still a bit confused however. The person that they had locked up downstairs had somehow escaped. I could see how they could blame that on Tony... They had told us that he was part of the group that Tony had been forced into.

The people with her nodded and then they ran out of the prison cell, I heard them yelling to the people outside and then I heard a bell begin to ring. Something like that would be super bad to our community, but I could see how it was useful to theirs.

The dead did not often seem to be coming up the mountains so there would be hardly any if any at all that would have heard that and head over to their fortress. People wondered why would didn't just move the community up to the mountain.

My mother told them the obvious answer, "How could we? Our community is miles wide! Have none of you ever been on a mountain before? You think we can find a flat area up there miles wide?"

What she had told them made since but people still fought her on that. They must not be smart people, we would have to live in about 20 or 30 people in one house and we would have no fields for food to feed enough people.

My mother always came back from a day like that always super upset that people would get so mad at her for them making such a dumb idea. Eventually people did begin to realize that my mother was right however. But it was a rough time in the community and a couple people left because of that.

They were probably dead out there by now, those people thought they knew how to make it out there, but they realistically really did not know.

My mind came back to what was going on right now however. The lady was still arguing to Tony about the accusations that she had on him. But after a few moments of her coming back to reality she understood how it could not have possibly been Tony.

"You must have had a few of your friends following you! I know your group is evil! But your group is not stupid!" She said to him. Tony just kept on shaking his head telling her how she was talking nonsense.

Eventually she realized how it could be impossible for Tony to do all of this. She sat down at the bench and just shook her head. She almost seemed like she was about to cry, which probably would look bad if you were a leader. I could not tell if she was really the leader of this group however. It would not make since to have the leader go out there, if they died then they would have to find a new leader and that would take weeks to sometimes even a month.

When my mother died, it took several months for the community to rebuild everything and find a new leader, my sister stayed at home that entire time make us feel a little bit better and take care of a very young Liam.

Those were the roughest times of my life, I was too young when my father died to really know what had actually happened. But I had sat there in a storage shed for days when my mother had died.

Finally someone had opened it and found me, there was plenty of food and water to keep me alive for a long time, but my mother told me to stay in there until they found me, and even when the guy that found me told me that my mother was safe I told him I wanted to see her and then I would leave.

Eventually he got Angela, and Angela broke the news about what had happened, and my heart broke... It took me almost a year to feel like a human again.

"Alright all of you... Im going to take you out there... From there we will wait for him to come back... Tony, I think you will remember your friend Jose." She said to Tony. Tony eyes went crazy and he nodded to her. I felt bad for him, even though he had told me the stories, it all did not seem real to me.

This world that we lived in right now all seemed fake to me, even though in my head I knew that it was all real. I just wanted it to not be. She slowly opened up the door a bit cautiously, she still had one guy with her and he had his gun aimed right at Tony as we walked out of the door.

"Yes I remember him... He is not so great of a guy..." Tony said to her. She nodded and then we began heading outside.

As soon as the doors opened the sun felt so bright on me, and I had to close my eyes and put a hand on them for a few seconds. There really was not much light in the room that we had been in the past couple of hours. The sunlight felt like a big surprise to my body and my eyes.

We continued following Kristan to an area around to middle of their small fortress. She told us to sit on 2 pairs of benches I sat on the one with Tony and Christian still not trusting of this group. For good reasons of course, Christian told me to never trust anyone, not even Christian himself.

I trusted Christian though, I sort of trusted Tony, but I was still a bit iffy about that. Even though it seemed like he was still a good person you never know how badly a person can change.

"So if you are not the leader than who is?" I asked Kristan. She sat there looking at all 3 of us for a couple of moments until she finally seemed a bit more comfortable for her to respond the the question.

"I am a big person, but we do not have a leader, it is me and another man if you want to consider me as leader. But that other man is a long place away from us at the moment. He just tell me what to do and not to do, like I am a child in a little game." Kristan said to us. She smiled at the last part.

"Aren't we all though..." Christian said back to her. She did not respond to that, she acted like she had not even heard him talk in the first place. She looked right at Tony for a couple of moments. I still had no idea what had happened with his community and hers besides the fact that his attacked hers.

"You... I've got a lot of questions for you, maybe you can tell me some more than your friend Jose over there who somehow managed to escape." The Kristan said to Tony. Tony sat there for a few seconds as if he was still trying to take in what was going on in the first place. I could not say that I blamed him, I was still trying to wonder what all was going on.

"I don't know how he got out, I was asleep I have barely slept at all over the last couple of days." Tony said back to her. She still did not fully seem to believe anything that Tony had to say to her. I could not say that I even blamed her. His group had attacked hers.

After a few seconds of silence I realized what I had woken up to last night. At first I thought it was some lady just doing her job as an inmate worker. But now it seemed like maybe that might not be true after all.

"I have a question... Do people normally go into that jail place during the night?" I asked her. She looked at me a little bit confused what I was talking about. All the pieces of the puzzle seemed to be coming together in my had though, it was all starting to make sense now.

"I'm confused what you are talking about... Are you saying that someone was in there last night with you guys?" She asked me. I sat there for a few seconds wondering how I could respond to her without it making it seem like we were the ones to let Jose out of the cell that he was in.

"Yes sort of... There was a lady in there that gave me some water when I asked for it last night, but she seemed to be looking through some stuff." I said to her. Kristan then stood up looking furious about the situation that all of us were in.

"Wait what?! You're telling me that someone got into the cell last night? Impossible!!! We have it locked up during the night... This must have been someone from the inside!" She said to us. Christian looked a bit startled and so did Tony...

"I'm sorry I thought she was just some sort of cleaning lady or something..." I said to her. She turned back at me looking super upset. I hope that she was not blaming me for what was happening. I just thought it was some sort of janitor or some other lady that was making sure we were okay...

"Aidan! Ring the bell I want every single women in the middle of the community... I want to know if he can see if he remembers what she looked like." Kristan said to the guy we were with. He nodded and then ran further away, after a few moments the bell loudly began to ring and everyone began walking out of their houses a little bit upset.

I could understand why they would be upset, this would be the 2nd time today that the bells had began ringing, and if there were people on watch during the night I'm sure that they wanted some sleep.

"I need every woman to line up right now! We have a traitor in our in our group! I am about to find out who this is and the repercussions will not be too great!" She said to everyone. All of the women began to line up, there were maybe 50 of them... Maybe the lady was one of the people that went out to find her.

Kristan nodded to me and told me to look through them... When I was near the end it seemed like I could not find one. But when I was just about 2 or 3 spots left a noticed a lady that seemed like in might be the one that it could be.

I couldn't truly tell though, it was dark and I was so tired... I nodded to her and Kristan then began running over looking very upset.

"Jessica really! How could you!" She said to her. The lady seemed very confused as if she had no idea what was going on in the first place. I felt a bit bad, it might not have been her and the more I looked at her the more I seemed to remember and the less it seemed to be like her.

"I have no idea what you are talking about Kristan! What is going on?! And who are these people with you!" Jessica responded to Kristan, Kristan just looked at her looking disgusted and absolutely disappointed in her.

"I considered you as a friend... How could you betray the community like this?" Kristan said to her. I felt kind of bad for even thinking that might be who that was. I could tell she had no idea what Kristan was talking about in the first place. But you never know how good of a liar someone can be nowadays.

"Hold on... It was late last night... That just kind of looks like who it was, I'm not fully sure that it was her... It was just so dark... She also looks a bit to young for it to be the lady I saw last night." I said to Kristan. Kristan apologized to Jessica and then sat down wondering what to do next.

"Okay I can't all really tell who it could be, I'm going to wait till everyone is back from looking and if someone is missing we will find out who it was surely..." Kristan said to all of us. People began to walk away back to their houses but Kristan stopped them. "Hold on! I need everyone to stay still until we can find out who it was..."

I sat back and just began waiting everyone else sat back as well, I saw a couple of guys throwing what looked like a very beaten down football. We made footballs in our own community after we had some leftover pieces of older animals.

We repopulated the younger ones and then killed off the older ones, we also let them live in a big fenced in area so they at least had some sort of life. My mother told me about before all of this what they did to animals and the lives they lived.

I felt a bit bad for them, but in the end, they were not humans they were animals. Some people nowadays however did like eating humans, and the thought of that made me feel absolutely disgusted.

I go walked over to where all 3 of us were sitting and he talked to me to try and make me feel at least somewhat better.

"Don't worry about Kristan... She talks mean but she isn't... Thanks for the help though." The guy said to me. I nodded and then the guy walked away. I was tempted to ask for his name, but Christian said not to ask for names, that's how your heart gets broken. I wasn't at all in love with the guy but I could see where Christian was coming from.

"So I think we will spend maybe 2 more days back here... But I think we need to get back to the community, if they were really scouting out our community we need to get back before they find out about Tony's group..." Christian said to the both of us.

Tony and I both nodded and then we sat there and just watched until we heard a loud whistle from somewhere nearby. Everyone went quiet but no one looked scared at all. Thankfully... I was thinking it might be someone about to attack us for a second.

Knowing my type of luck for the last while it would not surprise me at this point... I don't die... Just the people around me are the only ones that do. I told Christian that and he just laughed, then he told me that was a good way to think about it... That way I did not get too attracted to one person.

I turned to the way Kristan was looking and saw a big group of about 30 walking in towards us... In the front I saw a lady hold down a guy that was trying to fight her off, but there were 2 guys to help her.

"We found him... But we are going to have a big talking to everyone about who might have let him out." The lady said to Kristan. She then looked at us, for a second I thought that it might have been her but then I realized that she looked nothing like the lady that I had seen last night.

"Awwwww... Well shit! Tony! Did they catch you too? Me and you are going to get out of here soon, we will tell them all about this group... This time we will finish what we started..." He said to Tony. Tony had his eyes lowered and I could tell he felt bad for ever being a part of that community.

All of the people I had seen so far had all had those scars, and not a single one of them was a good person besides Tony of course. I sat there looking at the guy looking absolutely disgusted, the guy looked absolutely disgusting, it looked like he had not been cleaned in months... Base off of the way I could see the group, I think they must have had him for longer than that.

They had showers in the room that I was in at least, maybe they didn't at the room that he was in downstairs. I looked at him, he was sitting there at Tony just smiling at him with some sort of evil smile.

"Yeah... Something like that Jose..." Tony said back to the guy. The guy was clearly not very smart, he could not tell that Tony was being sarcastic. He just smiled at him and then disgustingly began to lick his nasty lips over and over again.

If this was a normal guy it Tony's community I did not want to see the rest of the dudes that Tony was living with for such a long time.

"Help me take him back to the cell, I think I know the people that it was now... Don't know why they didn't have scars they must be expert scouters..." Kristan said to the lady that had them held down. The lady nodded to her and then through him over to her.

The guy, I wish I could feel bad for him fell over on the ground and I could see the spot where his leg had been broken. It looked disgusting and my body shivered just looking at it as the guy yelled when he hit the ground and began crying.

"Stop crying you little pussy..." Aidan said to Jose. A couple of the guys laughed at him, and Kristan looked at the guys who did and pointed her fingers at her eyes as if she was saying that she was going to be watching them.

"Alright... We still need you... Tony at least but you guys can follow, we can slightly trust you now..." Kristan said to us mainly looking at Tony.

Normally people talking to me like I was someone important would seem weird to me, but I was starting to get used to it... I was someone important, I had to start realizing that, even though I thought I would never be, and all the jokes that Jordan said about me to his friend when I was way younger.

She nodded for us to follow her and we walked back towards the same prison that we had slept in last night, this time however we were not going to be sleeping in there. We were going to find out some questions from this Jose guy, he seemed stupid so Im sure that he would not be lying to us... Christian said he could tell when someone was lying to him or not.

Once we were in the building I looked at the room that I was in last night, I hadn't realized how nasty it was, even the shower that was there for us looked absolutely disgusting, I couldn't blame Jose for looking so nasty. But he looked nasty like he hadn't even tried out the showers.

I had to stop feeling bad for the guy, he only brought that in on himself. It was his decision to be the way that he was, maybe not his decision to be a part of Tony's community, I couldn't blame him for saying yes. It was say yes or die basically the way that Tony had told me.

We began heading downstairs and once we were down there I could see how nasty the room that he was in really was. But it seemed like a lot of that was his own fault. Tony turned his head away and close his nostrils because of how awful the smell was.

I was used to it at this point so it was not that bad for me. I could still see how it was absolutely disgusting for Tony however, and Christian let out a bit of a laugh when he saw Tony's reaction to that. Jose began laughing as well but Kristan lowered his body to the floor when he did that and he let out a loud yell.

"Come on Tony... Don't be a pussy... It's not that bad." He said to Tony. Tony just ignored him, we then walked into the room and Aidan closed the door and locked it to make sure if he somehow stopped all of us there would be no possible way he could get out.

I don't that Jose could even get to me with the position that he was in right now, but it would not surprise me based off of how dumb he was if he really did try to come after me.

"Alright, we've got some stuff of his but we don't know all of what he has to tell us, now that we have you Tony we need to ask you some questions and I trust that you will respond correctly unless you want to have a broken leg like Jose over here." Kristan said to him, she then looked at Jose and then smiled at him. Tony nodded to her.

"Oh come on Tony! Really! I thought you weren't that big of a pussy!" Jose said to Tony. Tony then smiled at Jose and Jose looked around a little bit confused at the situation that he was in. Maybe he didn't know Tony as well as he thought he did. Or maybe Tony wasn't telling us the full story off of all the things that he had done.

"He should have a walkie with him, I know where their group is at and their leader, that's really all I can tell you, there's so much on the inside of that group that not even I know about..." Tony said to her. Christian got up looking right at Tony a bit confused and upset.

"If you were scouting us... You had a walkie on you surely right?" Christian said to Tony. Tony shook his head and then lowered his hand for Christian to sit down, Kristan waited for him to sit down as well.

"Yes we did, thats the reason we went back, Taylor, our one of our guys lost it somehow and we were on our way to find it when we found you just outside of that house..." Tony said to Christian... Christian nodded but he still did not look to sure if he was ready to believe him yet. I could not say I blamed him.

"Yes we have his walkie... But we only here about thing that are going on in their community... We haven't heard anything about them scouting or attacking anyone..." Kristan said to Tony. She threw the walkie over to him and Tony looked at her with a little bit of surprise.

"Well... There's 3 channels, 1 for the community, one for scouting and attacking and other important stuff outside the walls... I don't know about to other one that wasn't my job to take care of the walkies." Tony said to her. Christian grunted and then moved the chair he was in a little bit. It made a noise that kind of scared me and I almost jumped up.

Jose was looking right at me when he saw me and he began smiling at me when he saw that I had freaked out, he then pointed to me then pointed back to him in a gesture that I had no idea what he was trying to say no me. Maybe he was trying to say that I was scared of him... I was not at all.

"Well shit... We looked through those for a few hours and heard nothing... Jose told us that they weren't used for anything." Kristan said to Tony and then she popped Jose right on his nose and he fell onto the ground and began crying.

The dude was an absolute crybaby, I could tell it hurt him a bit but he just made himself look like a pussy every time he cried like that.

"Alright I will put it on the scouting channel, we will wait for a while to see if anything comes out, Im sure the community is wondering why my group has not said anything yet..." Tony said to her. She nodded and then sat back. She then walked over to Jose and then smiled at him.

"Well since you lied to us... We will find out what to do with you next..." Kristan said to him. He looked at her a bit scared but then he just smiled at her. He then began laughing. I was really starting to hate this guy. Im sure no one in here liked him at all.

"You didn't ask..." He said to her. She smiled at him for a few seconds and then she slammed her knee right into his face and he began crying again. The dude really was a crybaby...

"We did ask... And you lied, your about to have a lot of hell happen to you." She said back to him. She then picked him up and threw him against the wall. For a second I thought that she was about to kill him. But instead she just locked him into some cuffs I had not noticed that were on the wall.

"Well I guess that we sit back and wait..." Christian said. I sat back into a comfortable spot on the chair, I had not gotten enough sleep last night the make up for how little sleep I had been getting lately. I was truly exhausted.

After a few seconds of silence I began to fall asleep... But right as I did I heard something from the walkie and Tony pushed me to try and wake me up.

I wake up a bit scared wondering what was going on, Tony pointed at the walkie someone was talking from it and I had just missed out on the conversation...

"Taylor was found dead... Tony is missing, its a good thing that we had 2 scouting groups and they didn't know about that... Or else they would know what was about to happen to them... We've got them being sent already... They should be there in the next few days... Maybe more maybe less... They're about the feel the destruction..."