THE FIGHT

Zoe's POV

Scott noticed me shivering and walked towards me. He ushered me into the tent and I sat down. He took off his leather jacket and handed it to me.

"Thanks." I muttered.

I tugged on the jacket and managed to smile a little even though it was oversized.

"The rain..."

Scott interrupted. "There's nothing wrong with the rain, you only developed a slight fever. You'll be fine soon." He assured me and I nodded.

Jake turned and looked at us. "Your girlfriend always get scared a lot." He mocked and Scott laughed.

I shot him an offended look and he stopped laughing. The rest people started coming in, they were all wet with water dripping from their body to the ground.

I looked at Scott who held my hands and squeezed it gently. "I love you." He mouthed.

I wondered why no one seemed to understand me. Was it because they thought that I was crazy?

Jake clapped his hands, jerking me back to reality. "It's time to vote." He said and they all gathered around him.

I looked at Scott who also looked back at me, I felt weak and useless.

"Where's Noah?" Tracy asked sitting down on the ground near Jake.

"I asked him and Liam to make tents for us." He answered.

"Tents?" I asked, getting up.

Scott stood up too and tried to stop me from doing anything stupid but I was so pissed off.

"Any problem with that?" Jake asked, rudely. He looked vivid, eyes bulging, ready to smack me.

"There's every problem with that, we were always staying together in a building as teenagers before the pandemic. We don't want to be separated." I said.

"Speak for yourself, bitch." Tonia replied, standing up. She tried to shove past me but only succeeded in knocking us both to the ground. I sprang up quickly and clenched my fists as my body arched into an offensive stance.

"Come closer and I will fucking hurt you and rip you off." I snapped.

Scott stepped in immediately and held me. He dragged me to the edge of the tent. "Stop this madness, Zoe." He whispered.

"What madness?" I asked, angrily.

He frowned and scratched his cheeks. The rain stopped falling and the noise heard on the tent had also stopped. "They don't want you to be their commander." He answered.

"Whose side are you on anyway?" I asked and pushed him away, I walked out of the tent and sat on the wooden table Noah made. I saw Noah and Liam making the tents and silently hissed. Alexa came out of the tent and made her way towards me. She also sat on the table but I avoided her gaze.

"You shouldn't really be angry over unnecessary issues." She advised. I wondered if she was ever my friend, we were completely opposite.

I scoffed. "Really? James is trying to destroy everything we worked for back in Mars."

"He probably has a reason for that, they've voted already and they're counting the votes, it's likely James will win."

"I don't care about who wins, I want us to be united." I replied, a raspy breath scratched my throat.

"You should really get along with the others, having enemies amongst ourselves will only bring us down." She said.

I didn't answer her as I stared at the ground. I heard footsteps approaching me and I assumed James was there with his loyal people.

"Zoe, thanks for making things simple, your fight with Tonia proved to them that you'll only be a stubborn leader and a hypocrite." He insulted.

"You should tell her the results, man." I heard a boy say from the crowd.

"I won, majority of the votes were in my favor and that means I'm now the commander." He said and I looked up.

All eyes were on me, they totally expected me to become angry. "Congratulations man, I'm happy for you." I replied with a smile on my face and stood up.

"That's not all, there are some rules we must follow." He said and my eyes widened. Now he just wanted to make me angry, I looked at him and smiled.

"Fine, what are the rules?" I asked.

Scott came outside and wrapped his hands around my waist. I gently removed his hands and shifted a bit from him.

Jake let out a slight grin and looked at me. "We're now called Islanders." He began and I chuckled.

Islanders? Really?

"I love the name." I replied, a slight glimmer of humor in my eyes. I managed to stop myself from laughing out loudly.

"Of course, you'd love it. So we are you to be divided into four teams, we have the Fighters, watchers, Team science and the mercenaries." He said with pride.

"What the fuck! Are you bent on totally separating us?" I asked.

He ignored my question. "You'll be among the Fighters team, you're only five in that team." He answered. He handed me a paper and I looked at it.

"It's getting dark, we should get in." Matteo suggested as I looked at the paper. My heart skipped a beat when I discovered that Scott was not in the same team with me.

"What is this? Scott is not a fighter?" I asked, terribly shocked. James looked at me with a grin and I felt like punching him. I couldn't believe that he could do this to me. Looking at Scott, I wondered if he was even bothered.

He wasn't paying attention to what was going on, he was chatting with Alexa who seemed to be laughing at his jokes.

He snapped his fingers bringing me back to reality. "Scott is not a fighter." He answered and turned to look at the Islanders.

"I hope you're doing the right thing." I said and handed him the paper.

"One more special announcement," he said and grinned, twinkling his fingers at them. "Oh yeah, have fun and have sex with each other, I'm your Commander and I give the orders." He said and my heart stopped functioning.

They began jubilating and hugged each other. I walked towards him and dragged him to a secluded place. "What are you doing?" I asked in a low-piqued voice.

He zoomed in closer, the intensity of his eyes made me shiver for a second. "You heard what I said, that's exactly what I asked them to do." He answered.

"What if the girls get pregnant?" I asked.

"Then we kill them." He answered and walked away. I couldn't believe my eyes, I imagined when my mother was killed by Jake's father for prostitution and fell to the ground.

Tears filled my eyes as memories of my parents bubbled to the surface. I fought them away but it was impossible.

My heart sped up, whacking my chest until I couldn't breathe.