Regeneration

Chapter 39 - Who Will Fight?

I traced the tiny callouses that started to form on the palm of my hand from working in the green zone. The beds had come a long way, small patches of green were now sprouting from the dark soil. I felt a sense of pride knowing that those patches of green would provide food to the people here. Lucas and I had worked really hard and I knew he felt just as proud. Neither of us had addressed what happened, I could tell he was trying his best to make things feel comfortable between us and I was grateful for it. As for Romero since our conversation about the device we hadn't spoken much, except for brief exchanges or greetings. He wasn't ignoring me, but still, he felt far away even if we were in the same room.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

The sound of an argument pulled me from my thoughts. I recognized Dune's voice, the team must have returned from the supply run.

"What's going on?" Lucas appeared behind me.

"I'm not sur-"

"THEY DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!"

An instant chill ran through my entire body at Dune's words. Romero.

With urgency, I stood up from the porch steps and made my way towards the area the militia usually offloaded their finds.

A small crowd had gathered to see what the commotion was about, I spotted Sabina and squeezed in beside her.

"What's happening?"

"From what I've gathered, someone died," Sabina answered in a whispered tone.

At the center of the fallout were Reya and Dune. Reya's expression was heavy, her eyebrows drawn together in a mixture of what seemed to be anger and sadness.

"There was no way for any of us to know that would happen!" she fired back at Dune.

"You're not fit to lead us," Dune spat.

"ENOUGH!" Bawden's voice was commanding as he approached the two, "My office, now!" His tone was loud enough to silence even the birds that chirped in the tree-tops at this hour, scaring a few into flight.

Dune was the first to move, Reya gave her father an apologetic look before turning and stalking off in the direction of his office.

The crowd had started to disperse.

"I have to get back to the kids," Sabina said before leaving also.

The situation seemed to have placed worry in all of our minds and it showed on our faces. My eyes darted around, there was still no sign of Romero. My heart quicken and it felt as though a heavyweight was compressing my chest as the worse thoughts flooded my mind. I needed to find him or find out what happened.

I spun around and my face collided with a firm chest. The person held me by my shoulders to steady me.

As soon as we locked eyes I embraced him. His arms wrapped around me in a comforting hold that I didn't know I craved. 

"Are you okay?" Romero asked as he let go of me.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just thought..." I trailed off unable to say it, "What happened?" I asked instead.

"We lost three men," he said somberly, "We were checking out a grocery, Reya and a couple of guys went ahead, they came back and gave us the all-clear but when we got inside fifteen maybe twenty hunters attacked us," he paused as though he was remembering the moment, "They hid," his tone was disbelieving, "The hunters, they hid and waited till we were all inside, blocking the exit."

I stayed quiet trying to process what Romero just said.

"Have you ever seen them do something like that?" I said softly.