| The Attack |

XXX Vanessa

We didn't find much food or water. We had to split our findings. I picked a little abandoned house for our camp. The house's furniture was molded but otherwise it was in pretty good shape. We found some old clothes in the closets, and we helped ourselves.

"I'm freezing!" A girl, whose name was Amanda, complained. Ugh! Enough with the complaining. It's like these kids don't have a mute button! I wonder why I am sixteen and they are all thirteen. It's like I'm the babysitter.

"Then grab another sweatshirt if you're cold." I snap.

"They smell." She said bluntly. Like I was stupid to even suggest that.

"Too bad! Deal with it cupcake," I grumble. "Everyone go asleep. I don't want to hear anymore of your loud whispers." I settled on my back and looked up at the ceiling. I had an uneasy feeling that someone had been watching us today. I pushed down my concerns and forced my eyelids closed.

XXX Chase

"Hey Adaline!" I yell in her direction. She snaps her head towards me and smiles. I smile back. "We need to talk to you."

"Okay!" She smiled and walked towards me. I turn to Axel, who squiggles his eyes brows at me. I felt heat creep up my neck and I turned away from him.

"So Adaline." Jack says. "We have decided to merge both our groups into one. Me, you, Chase, and Axel. Will be council members and lead our group."

"Okay, so what's next? What are we going to do?" We all looked at each other. I guess we didn't think that far yet. I guess that's why we have Adaline, she's always thinking ahead.

"Uh. I was thinking we should find weapons. We don't know how many other groups are out there, so we can protect ourselves. And you can't argue with me since I was just kidnapped last night." I say this as I glare at Jack.

"I guess that's a good idea. Let's put that as one of our main motives." Jack says thoughtfully.

"I think we should split up. Divide and conquer. I say we send Chase and Jack, they can try to find an abandoned police station or a gun shop. We can meet back at the magazine store in two days." For once Carson has said something useful. "Me and Axel will lead the rest of the group to a richer part of town, maybe we will find decent buildings." Carson looked around questionaly.

"Does everyone agree?" Axel asks. I watch as everyone nods, I nod last. I'm not too excited to go hang out with Jack.

"We'll leave next morning." I say. We had a plan, we were in the right direction.

XXX Vanessa

"Get up!" A voice snarled. My eyelids flew open. We were surrounded by five boys with rifles. What the heck was going on? "I said get up!" someone roughly grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. The guy, who pulled me to my feet, had curly red hair. He was tall and skinny but surprisingly strong.

"What do you want?" I demand, "and can you let go of my arm now?"

"No can do. The boss wants to see you."

"Why?"

"Because your the leader of this group. Why else?" He said. I watch as my group is forced face first on the carpeted floor. Guns pointed at them threateningly, my blood boils!

He basically drags me out of the house. Outside waiting for me, is a golf cart! Where the heck did they find a golf cart!? He motioned me to sit with him, seeing no other choice I sat. Who did these boy's think there were? Storming in and threatening people. My blood boiled at the thought of my group being manhandled. We drove through the abandoned city for about ten minutes in silence. We stopped at an apartment complex. I guess it was fairly decent. I didn't see any collapsed walls or roofs.

"This is our stop." The red head said. Adrenaline finally kicked in. What were they going to do to me? I step out of the golf cart. I see the red head struggling to detach his seat belt. Perfect. I bolt. I start running as fast as I can down the road. I hear the red head yell behind me footsteps in pursuit bounded behind me. Crap, what am I going to do? I turned into an ally. My feet pounded the ground as I sprinted. I looked behind me, he was tall and had black hair and he was running fast! I have to lose him before he catches up with me!

The ally ends and I can see another street, I turn left. My blood pounded in my ears. I looked behind me he wasn't there! I lost him! I smiled, and that's when I ran into the fire hydrant. Unceremoniously I rammed my stomach into the fire hydrant and I fell on my back. My head swam with dizziness, I felt like I would throw up. Then the world stopped moving, and there was a face above me. He snickered.

"Wish I had caught that on camera." He sneered with mock disappointment on his face. Then he lifted his booted foot and smashed it into my head. Blackness swiftly carried me away.