Page 86 of Rebel Rising: A Dystopian Romance

From the porch we could see the tops of the corn stalks as waves of movement rippled back and forth as around ten shapes moved within its depths.

The door opened behind us and Alicia stood there with her hands on her hips.

“Really? What happened to 'stick together no matter what'?" She raised her eyebrows at us, waiting for an explanation.

“I tripped and by the time I righted myself you were gone," I muttered to my feet as I dragged my eyes away from the field behind us.

“Sure, whatever. Are you going to stand out here all night and wait for those coyotes to try their luck with Kaloo or are the three of you coming in?"

We stepped past her and Kaloo trotted up the steps behind us. Her tail was in the air, wagging profusely as she strutted through the door and I had to admit she had good reason to be proud of herself.

Hunter laughed for a solid fifteen minutes when we relayed our story to him. I was beginning to think that near death experiences must go hand in hand with life outside The Wall and it was certainly better to laugh about it than cry.

He headed back to our truck with Coal and they towed it to the farm house so that it could be charged overnight. The plan was to reach the end of the road around midday, at which point Hunter and his men would split off and start a series of small fires to draw the attention of any Creepers that happened to be nearby.

The four of us would then head for the bunker, hopefully uninterrupted by terrifying mutants hellbent on killing anything that crossed their path. Easy.

As we packed up our things in the morning, Alicia approached me.

“I know we haven't had much time to talk, but I was thinking about what we were saying back in Franklin," she said.

"About the way a small child could overpower me in a fist fight?" I asked, though it was irritating to admit it out loud.

"Yeah, and though you really should work on that at some point, you obviously don't have the time to do so right now."

"So what's your point? I'm not staying behind," I said narrowing my eyes at her.

"No, I know you won't do that. I just noticed that you only carry a few weapons on your belt plus that shotgun on your back and seeing as, without weapons, you're pretty much screwed, I thought I'd just show you how to carry a few more." She flashed me a grin.

"That's perfect." I looked at her with surprise. "Thank you."

“Well it's for my benefit as much as anything else." She sat down next to me and produced several knives which were held in various types of sheathes. She then went about showing me how she hid knives in her boots and how to strap them to my forearms.

“It's worth keeping some weapons concealed, especially knives, because if you're captured, they'll take anything obvious away from you." She seemed to be speaking from experience and that was all kinds of concerning.

“In what circumstance might we be captured?" I asked.

“Well, not everyone out here is all that nice. If we ran into some nomads, say, they can be a little aggressive at times. Or the travelling gangs, or the territorial gangs for that matter-"

"Okay I get it," I stopped her before she completely terrified me. Maybe in this case ignorance was bliss.

Alicia laughed and then made me prove how quickly I could reload my guns and corrected the way I loaded my pistol. There was a technique which involved careful timing and quick wrist action that meant I could load a new cartridge in the same move as ejecting the old one.

I dropped the new cartridge nine times before I did it right and then she made me repeat it until I had it perfect.

"Okay, I feel better about you risking your life now," she said finally.

“Thanks, me too."

“Are you girls ready to head out?" Hunter called over to us. Alicia jumped up and ran to the waiting truck, her long, white-blonde hair swishing around her as she went.

I followed more slowly, getting used to the feeling of the knife in my boot, glad she’d given me the holster so I could be sure I wouldn't impale my foot.

Laurie was already sitting in the truck and Coal opened the door for me to climb in before him.

"I found something pretty cool in the farmhouse," Alicia said as we all settled into our seats.

“I'm not sure that I trust your judgement on what's cool," Coal replied.