Chapter 19 - A new hope

(A/N: Sorry for not posting yesterday, unfortunately I got sick, like that type of sickness that makes you all dizzy and unable to get out of your bed without falling down's please don't kill me if the schedule would be chaotic in the next couple of days)

Running on the ground was a new experience for all of us, compared to how little we could run around the Ark, but at the same, that did come with a cost for my team. While I wasn't exhausted from all the running and jumping over fallen trees, the same can't be said about my friends. Almost all of them were dead tired from walking for so long in a single day. Almost the whole team on the back and head of Betsy panting and tired drinking water greedily to replenish a little bit of strength. Surprisingly, Sergey was the only one that could keep up with me to some extent, but even he and his monstrous stamina were slowly changing from running after me to walking behind me.

I smirked back at him, keeping our friendly completion going was a good way of gaining a friend that I could trust with my life.

"What? Out of breath already, Sergey? I thought you were tougher, brother!"

He just showed me his middle finger before we both laugh at each other attics. At the same time, Finn, who was on top of Betsy's head, noticed some small wild ducks and pheasants trying to hide from our good girl.

He quickly made our achelosaurus stop in her tracks, before quickly climbing down from her and rushing towards me. While these birds were far from enough for 91 people, it was still something, and depending on how harsh and long the winter may be, we will need every single piece of meat we can get to survive.

Even though I heard the birds, I still let Finn explain what he wanted to do with them.

"We can hunt those birds to eat right now, and even bring some back to our camp, what do you say, Leon?"

"I don't see any problem with hunting those birds. It will also be beneficial to us since we all need to learn how to properly fire a gun."

Somehow, I instinctively knew how to aim and how to hold the gun without injuring myself, and without any further ado, I pulled off the gun from my side and aimed it at the birds. Even though firing in this forest could add more fire to the conflict between us and the grounders, it was worth the shot, especially since can now retaliate. Done were the days when we would hide in fear that a grounder would cut our throats before we could impale him with a spear or arrows.

No matter how careful we try to be, the truth is that the grounders are already preparing for a war with us, even if we don't want to fight. Shaking those thoughts, I balanced the gun under my head and aimed, looking through the scope while taking a deep breath before pulling the trigger twice. For me, it felt strange as if my body already knew how it would be affected by the recoil and even more so how to fire a gun.

The two bullets flew and hit two of the biggest pheasant while at the same, the sound made the birds flee from their trees and branches. Soon after I fired, the dead pheasants fall down, with a hole in their heads.

Since no one said anything about me just hitting the head of these two birds, I didn't need to turn around to know that all of them were staring at me as if I was some kind of alien.

Suddenly, a shadow fled into the forest and before I or anyone from my team could react, Sergey opened fire fighting against the recoil to keep the muzzle pointed at the forest. What followed afterward was a symphony of piercing flesh and blood that shot out of what I believe to be another kind of dinosaur. The dinosaur made a shrieking noise before dropping onto the ground. As soon the shrieking stopped, we quickly moved to the woods and looked down at the now dead dinosaur. The whole body of the dinosaur was filled with bullet wounds which were both a good and a bad thing. It was a good thing since we now know that our firearms could easily kill those dinosaurs, but at the same time, we didn't even realize a dinosaur was near us until our guns scared him.

"That's the third species we met already, and if I remember correctly this should be dilophosaurus, a carnivore that could tear us apart as if we were made of paper. Who knows how many more are in those woods, hiding in plain sight?"

"We don't need to worry too much about them for now. Sergey had already scared most, if not all of them with his gun. As for the rest of the dinosaurs that live in this forest, we'll slowly meet all of them, for now though, we should take this guy back to our own dinosaur and tie it on Betsy's back."

"So, are we going to shoot more birds or are we moving on?"

"We can afford to waste an hour or so, shooting a few birds. I'll stay and watch our backs while you guys are having your fun."

Just as after we tied the dilophosaurus on the left side of our achelosaurus, something made my body tense, the same feeling I had when that woman was observing us at the lake. Someone was here and whiles not exactly an enemy, it was still a threat that I don't want to deal with later.

I tried not to be too obviously tense for both my friends and at the same time for whoever was watching us from afar. Even though it was better to act as if I didn't feel a gaze on my back, I still couldn't just wait for an ambush, so without wasting any more time, I went over to Monroe and Miller and leaned over to them, whispering to them.

"Don't panic and don't make any noise. Don't look around. I think we're being watched by Grounders or more exactly one single Grounder. Monroe, I want you to tell the others about this, as for you Miller, I want you, Sergey, and Finn ready for anything. We don't know what purpose grounders have with us, but I'm not going to wait and find out."

As soon as I told them about the gaze, I felt how both Monroe and Miller tense, but a pat on their shoulder and a joke told strategically calmed them for now. Hopefully, our stalker didn't realize that he or she had been found out. Monroe made her way towards the rest of our group while Miller remained for a while with me, as it would be too suspicious if the two of them would left to talk with the others immediately after I talked to them.

"What about the rest?"

"Fox, Harper, and Monty would be fine since they are smart and with Monroe's warning they would be more careful, but Jasper is…"

"A loose cannon, one that we can't truly trust completely."

"Exactly and sadly, he won't change any time soon."

"Well, we can always keep him inside the walls, and since he knows how to make alcohol, we can make our brewer."

"C'mon Miller, you think we can keep him locked to make alcohol for all of us?"

"Hey, even though it tastes like shit, it's good for something and from what I saw, there are plenty of girls back at the camp that would love to drink with you some night."

"Sure, sure. I'll just make a harem of women for me, ruler the rest of you with an iron grip like some tyrant. All hail me."

"Hey, you say it yourself."

"Fuck you, Miller."

While we were still cautious, that didn't mean that we can't laugh or relax from time to time. After a few more minutes of pointlessly waiting for something to happen, we decided that we better start moving or else we will have to spend the night in these woods.

"Leon! Someone's coming from your left. And…I don't think it's one of our people."

"Everybody, prepare yourselves, we may have to fight our way out of here."

Something was wrong or else why a Grounder would let herself be seen by us, even when they attacked us at Mount Weather, they stood hidden amongst the tree, showing them only after all of my friends left the area. I quickly kneeled behind a rock, tightly holding my rifle pointed at the grounder that was slowly walking to us. My eyes never left the approaching figure cloaked in shadows that just started revealing her figure, entering our line of fire. On my left, Sergey kept his LMG trained on the trees behind the figure just in case her friends were hiding behind those trees, at the same time Monroe and Miller positioned themselves on our flanks while Finn and the others were defending the other side.

As soon as the figure was just a few meters away from us, I saw that my eyes were right. It was a tall woman that had her hair in braids, but strangely enough, the woman didn't seem to fear us or even resent us from the way she walked toward us.

She was clearly a hunter or at least her family had one since I could see the outline of furs covering the woman. The more she approached the more visible her beautiful body was to us, and to be honest, for a grounder, the woman was clearly a hot exception especially her ample bosom and wide hips that definitely showed that she didn't have to live a harsh life.

When the woman was just five meters away from our position, I signaled her to stop, and thankfully she did understand my words since she stopped walking.

"That's close enough. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"My name is Niylah. Of the Trikru tribe. You're from that ship that landed miles from here. Aren't you?"

Other than me, who already knew that the grounders or better said the people of the Trikru spoke our language, but for my friends, this was the first time hearing a grounder speaking English to them.

"You are right, Niylah. We are indeed from the sky. But that still doesn't tell me why did approach us?"

"Since you aren't from down here, that means that you people don't really know much about us, so if you are in need of anything I can help, if there's anything that you want in exchange for furs, blades, maps, Skai people, I could help you. Not all of my people are warriors, there are plenty of good people as well that don't see a war as a way of living."

I would lie if I'd say that I was the only one shocked by what we had just heard. Usually, grounders don't talk, they just attack us without any warning and now, a grounder had actually come to us to propose a trading deal. That's a first, but that also made me see the grounders in a new light, at least this particular one.

"I can understand why you would like to trade with us, but why would approach us when your people were the first ones to attack us?"

"My people will see you as threats just because you are on our land. Please believe me when I say that I don't wish for any of my people to harm any of yours. So I would like it if we could avoid a war. So I would like to help everyone to coexist without fighting a war that would result in losses for both sides. Of course, that also implies that you would have to trust me, a stranger that's from the same people that attacked your camp on multiple occasions. So, what do you say, leader of the skai people?"

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