A Short Story

Weeks ago.

Beaver Community.

"I'm serious, we were attacked by some crazy people, they were equipped with very advanced uniforms!"

A man kneeling on the ground was explaining the situation in detail. All of these men belonged to Julio's group and were known for having a bad reputation when they went out exploring.

Julio, who was too furious to hear how Tony did nothing even after dying, shouted: "We must look for them, we have to hunt them all down and then kill them."

"Are you listening to yourself?" A woman sitting in front of a large table where other people were said, "More than forty people died. Now you want to go to a war that we don't know if we can win?"

"What?" Julio raised his voice and pointed, "If it weren't for that group, you wouldn't be around a shell scared of being destroyed..."

"Those people..."

"They could be listening right now, damn it. I can't deny that some of us have already been influenced by the power of those people... All I recommend is to stick together," said Reginald as he touched his forehead in exhaustion.

More than a year ago, the end of the world began, both in  South Carolina and in other cities, the government made mistakes. However, many did not accept those mistakes and rebelled against the army, including Reginald, who was a sergeant at the time.

They slowly tried to form a group of survivors and wait for prudent action from the government, but weeks and then months passed. Now, everyone knew that there was no one who could save them from this hell. And by then it was too late to try to do anything, millions had died.

Reginald, as an experienced soldier, and together with his men, began to gather more soldiers who were under his command since the beginning of the breakdown of law and order, adding police officers, firefighters, and some other veterans, formed a group.

They began to merge with other groups, but these groups were of different natures, and now the entire community merged with seven different groups and reached a number of four thousand survivors, a little more.

These four thousand people are led by seven leaders who do everything possible to maintain calm, make everything work, and never lose the relationship.

But a few days ago, stability was lost with the elimination of three of the seven leaders who maintained control and the destruction of many places they had turned into their supply points.

Who were those people?

Well, they call themselves the salvation of the world, a group that everyone should know. The fireflies, who claim to be the rebels who disobeyed the orders of the new government, asked them to join their war against the CRM.

Why should they belong to a war that is not theirs now?

It is obvious that everyone refused, but the fireflies could not ignore a force as large as the beaver community, so they gave them a small amount of time to respond.

Don't they want to reclaim the world before the end of the world?

Don't they want to fight for absolute power?

Isn't anyone angry with the government for not being able to properly protect the country?

Everyone was, but going to war against someone who possibly is a hundred times stronger than them? But now that there were four leaders, two agreed to accept and two did not.

"A rift had formed, a clear fight could happen at any moment. And a few days ago, with the elimination of Julio's entire squad, who served one of the remaining four leaders, things were getting very intense.

Some thought it was the CRM because of those gray combat suits, but some had information and knew that the CRM soldiers' combat suits were black.

Everyone was disoriented...

...

"The Fireflies, are they really trustworthy?"

"We don't know, but we shouldn't get involved in a fight that we know very well we can't maintain... There are stronger walkers in the north of the country, how can we afford to join that group of crazies?"

Reginald was having a conversation with a group of subordinates, all of the utmost trust. He was unsure of what to do next, so listening to other people's thoughts always helps make an appropriate decision.

"That group that killed our men must have defended themselves from an attack, the area we reviewed was full of dead walkers and many impressive scenes."

"Yes, there is no doubt that they were attacked by Julio's men."

"Do you think it was the Fireflies who did it?" Reginald was doubtful.

"I doubt it, they say they have gray combat equipment and their firepower is so good that they left most of the weapons on the ground..."

"Maybe they didn't have time to pick them up..."

"Could be..."

"Whatever, but now we need to know that we can't face them. They should have a nearby base, they may even already know about our beaver community."

Reginald was about to end the meeting when suddenly the door opened and a guard said, "We received a report that a group of about ten people confirmed has appeared not far from here, there are at least twelve people and they all seem to be soldiers."

"Shit!"

"What do we do?"

"We can't afford to conflict with them, we have to start a conversation and find out their purpose in this place."

Reginald knew that he couldn't seek enemies left and right because the Fireflies had them by the neck, so if they now have the opportunity to be peaceful.

...

Now, Reginald knew that this group of unknown soldiers were not simple and all of them seemed to be actual soldiers who once served the country.

But if there was one thing that worried him, it was knowing that these people had very strong equipment. Clean clothes, guns, and magazines filled with cartridges, these men are not lost or passing by, they are fulfilling a mission.