War Zone [h.s] //

♠ 5 ♠

What seems like years later, I notice large groups of people coming towards the river from different directions. They look exhausted and starving. Starving. I suddenly realize how hungry I am; before all of this happened, I was going to sit down in the Zone and have breakfast. I glance towards the sky and notice the dark atmosphere; rain is due soon. Heavy rain judging from the clouds.

"Oh, they're here!" Lara jumps up, now excited which is a huge contrast from her previous mood which was bored and moody.

"Really?! You don't say, Sherlock!" I reply sarcastically.

Her grin fades to a frown, "oh piss off Mr Smartass."

It's true though; we had been waiting for almost an hour and a half or so. We were bored out of our minds and at first, were on guard but then we kind of settled down. Lara sung, she tapped her nails, she leant over the bridge which gave us all a scare, she fake slept, she danced, and she even acted out some scenes from Romeo and Juliet! Kyle just sat there, very deep in thought. I guessed he was thinking about his family, after all, if I was in his shoes I would too. Brax had a poker face throughout the whole thing and was half asleep; he moaned that this was so uncomfortable. I suppose it wasn't his fault, he had been to a raid the night before; we were running out of medicine. And well, he woke up to a very eventful day I guess.

I blow my whistle, and the people who are still making their way suddenly are alert again and quicken their pace. I notice that at the front line are all the strong fighter, also around the sides and the back are the strong fighters. This leaves the weaker ones in the middle.

They all gather around me.

"Okay, is everyone okay?" I ask. They all nod, tired.

"Right, well, you all just chat amongst yourselves, I need to speak with a few people." I say, relief flooding their faces at the fact that they can relieve themselves of the horror they've just witnessed to their friends in peace.

I instantly go to the front line: Danny, Liam, Ronnie (Ronald), John, Joe, Callum, Samuel (Sam for short), Ezra and Zak.

"Right, what happened back there?"

"What do you mean, weren't you there? Oh wait, sorry, I forgot that you, the head, abandoned your own team." John blurts out angrily.

I look at him and notice blood spurting out of his arm. He got shot.

"Hey, calm down!" Sam interjects, "it's not his fault and anyway, we survived didn't we?" Sam, always the optimist.

"Yeah, survived, didn't we," he gestures towards his wounded arm.

"Oh, boo hoo, poor wittle John just can't handle a little wound, when other people have evidently suffered worse." I want to say but the good, sensible part of me doesn't let me.

Instead, I say, "I'm sorry but I had to. If I didn't clear the area, then we would've all been down by now." And I walk off.

I hear loud wails and sobs from somewhere. I do a 360 degree turn before clocking where it's coming from: it's Rose. She's like the mother of the camp, she looks after everyone, makes sure they're fed and takes care of everybody. Even me. Sometimes, after an exhausting raid that has emotionally drained me, I forget to eat and sometimes even sleep and she always waits until I get back to make sure I take care of myself. So, I can't bear to see her crying. I stride towards them and they all look at me before turning back and trying to comfort a sobbing Rose.

"What happened?" I ask, but get no response.

"What happened?" I try again, louder but still get no response.