Chapter 69 - Sam Taylor

The creature didn't wait for us to react before it run back into the bushes, making himself hidden once again. Soon more and more creatures appeared out of the darkness for a few seconds before running away or at least giving us that impression.

No matter how much I wanted to believe that this was just an unfortunate meeting, the truth was that judging by how many of the hefbis we have seen just now, we are definitely in the middle of an ambush.

"Don't let them approach us! Shoot them as soon as you catch a glimpse of them!"

Rifles shots began to crack, slashing through the woods and bushes, then there was a loud scream, and something heavy hitting the ground. Even Gustus, who was a born-grounder snatched one of the pistols from Sergey's waist and fired into the darkness, despite what he was thought from a young age as he signaled us to follow him away from this open ground. Leaving behind any reasoning, we follow closely after him, running as fast as we can from that place.

One hundred meters away from where we had just been ambushed, I saw what gave those creatures the courage to attack us. At least ten torn bodies were laying on the ground, most likely a patrol that was sent to scout the woods. Sadly, for them, the creature caught them by surprise judging by the lack of dead hefbis.

However, despite how gruesome this looked, I couldn't figure out where the creatures were, but we all could feel their eyes following us. Suddenly from up ahead, a blinding light illuminate the forest forcing us to stop and cover our eyes, before a man shouted something, followed by the sound of a machine gun tearing apart a hefbis. The firing continued, and heavy-set people in combat gear were taking aim with their rifles at the incoming group of hefbis as the four of us regained of composures just in time for the soldiers to shoot another creature. But unfortunately for us, these soldiers weren't the ones being targeted by the hefbis – for some reason, the creatures were adamant about getting us, no matter how many of them were going to die for that.

As soon as we made it next to the one, I presume was in command of this squad, he turned towards us with a confused look on his face.

"Four unknown people being chased away by the hefbis, what a nice night, right? So who are you four?"

For a few seconds, no one knew what to say, even though the man saved us, we didn't know who he was or what he was after.

"Let me guess, you four don't know where we are coming from and are scared that we may be the bad guys? Friends, we are close to hell. There's no point being enemies down here when we have to face wave after of these creatures on a daily basis, so do tell me, who the fuck are you?"

"Thank you for saving us. I'm Leon and these are my friends."

'Well then Leon and his friends, what can we do for you?"

"Can you tell us how to get to the Dam?"

"Would you look at that? You four are in luck. We are just returning to base. You four are free to join us if you want."

"Once again thank you…"

"I'm Sam, Colonel Sam Taylor of the Rangers. We are the first and last line of defense that keeps these creatures out of our home, as well as out of the woods that provide us with almost everything that we can't get from the dam."

As skeptical as I was about this whole squad of rangers, they are our best chance of making it alive to the damn and while I'd rather not say it, the truth is that I'm more comfortable against humans than against monsters. At least when I fight humans, I know that they would sooner or later surrender if they suffer casualties, while the monsters… on the other hand, don't really know how to surrender.

We boarded the vehicle and soon, the rest of the soldiers got on it before we left the place. Taking a closer look at the soldiers, I was surprised to see that some of them had the same familiar tattoos that the grounders use to mark their warriors. I may not be a genius, but you don't have to be one to realize that something must have happened for those people to change their ways and pick up guns to fight, especially when all of their lives they were taught how to use cold weapons and bows.

"Colonel, can I ask you something regarding your order?"

"That depends, young man. For me, you don't look like anyone that lives close to the dam, yet you seem to have one of them in your group, so until we reach my home, do you mind telling me your story?"

"Where do I even begin?"

We told them how we were sent to earth and how we fought against the grounders to survive, then we briefly talked about Mt. Weather and how we won that fight as well as why my friends and I, alongside Gustus, leave the area under Lexa's control. Like any other person that lived his whole life without knowing about the ARK, Sam was surprised when he heard that we lived in space for so long before we were forced to come back to Earth.

"Well, it only fair that I also share a little bit of our story, right boys?"

The soldiers let out a laugh before they shut their mouths waiting for their leader to start his story. "Believe it or not, I'm also from another place. While I wasn't in space like you guys, I was born in another country and lived most of my life on the road. My father told me how he lived his life. What was once Russia got the worst out of this nuclear war and the few people that survived were forced to live in the metro station, deep underground, as far away from the radiation as possible. Long story short, my father reached this place 40 years ago and that's when he met my mother. He created a group of people that were different from the locals and named them the Rangers. Their only task was to fight these ghouls and keep the people safe from both the ghouls as well as the raiders. After his death, I became the leader and three years ago, we are in a daily fight against those things. That's kind of it. Well then, we'll take later about our stories."

Sergey was the first to open his mouth before anyone of us could ask the same thing.

"Why?"

"We reached the dam. "

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