STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

The moment was tense with five pointing the gun at forty-four, with no read on his current emotion. suddenly a smile crawled to Five's face "Hi friend."

forty-four smiled back and faked a breath of relief. "for a moment there, I thought you were going to shoot."

"it did cross my mind. "Five said in a mischievous tone and then threw the gun to forty-four who caught it and placed it back into his holster.

"I never knew your aim was that good." five said while pointing to the neo who was still lying down pretending to be dead.

"not really, I'm not the sniper."

he didn't need to say anything more for five to understand that the sniper had already been taken care of.

forty-four then went to where the sniper rifle was lying on the ground and picked it up, while five went to where his knife which was stuck inside the tree, and removed it. he cleaned it on his jacket and put it back in his thigh sheath.

he turned his head and saw forty-four, strapping the rifle to his back. with a thoughtful expression he said to him. "whatever you do, I need you to save one bullet in that rifle."

with a confused expression, forty-four asked him "You saving it for someone?"

"Yeah"

"I hope is not me," forty-four asked again.

"the bullet would be considered a waste if used on you."

"..."

forty-four didn't know whether to feel insulted or grateful. he knew five was just messing with him though.

suddenly with a serious demeanor, forty-four asked "So what's the plan?"

"is getting late, we look for a shelter and try not to get killed"

"sounds good." forty-four acknowledged.

"I need to do something first." five said while starting to move towards the dead neo and ransacked his pockets to obtain two energy bars from his cargo pant pocket, all the while receiving a death glare from the dead neo.

he didn't let it faze him though, but forty-four gave a mocking statement directing it to the neo. "those who are dead don't need food."

after pocketing the energy bars, five turned around and rolled his eyes at forty-four. he then proceeded to start walking towards the sniper's position.

"Are you going for this?"

five turned back and saw forty-four waving two energy bars at him.

"you know, if we survive this we will still have to try and kill one another." five stated the obvious.

"when that time comes may the best man win." five then put the energy bars back in his pocket and walked close to five then stretched out his hand for a handshake, which five took.

"Technically, we are just teenagers and not men yet." five stated the obvious, which made forty-four let out an exasperated sigh.

"you always know how to ruin the moment."

*

*

it wasn't only five and forty-four who decided to move in groups to increase their chances of survival.

A group of five expendables was currently chasing a young girl in blue camouflage she was a neo base on the blue camouflage she had on.

this neo is the now fourteen years old eighty, forty one's sister who was still looking for her.

when she woke up, she immediately started searching for her sister as well. for hours she saw no one until she unluckily ran into a group of six expendables.

the six expendables decided to move together to increase their chances of surviving in case they met with a neo, which has been successful so far after they had easily defeated two neos already.

when they came across eighty, one of them got too cocky at the young delicate girl before them and decided to attack her alone.

he paid the price, with a broken rib and an immediate knockout, dwindling their numbers to five, two girls and three boys.

the others immediately learned their lesson and attacked her together.

due to the overwhelming number, eighty had no choice but to run and hope for the best.

As eighty ran, she did her best to at least slow them down by breaking some not-so-big trees that came across her path with her super strength and throwing them toward her chasers, but they easily avoided each one.

suddenly she heard sounds of shouts and falling behind her, still running she looked back and saw all her chasers lying on the ground.

she stopped to get a clear view of what happened and noticed that the place the six expendables just ran past was made up of ice floor, which resulted in them losing their footing and falling.

"that's weird that wasn't there before." she wondered aloud.

"you guys should watch where you step next time." a mocking voice came from the side.

the fallen expendables quickly picked themselves up noticing the presence of another neo, who seems to have invited himself into the confrontation going on.

eighty stood a little distance away from the situation contemplating what to do. She has two choices either to run away now and leave this newcomer to deal with it all or stay behind to help him, but was confused about what could be his motive for helping him.

she finally made her decision and walked over, sinking the hopes of the five expendables who were giving chase, it would be very difficult to defeat two neos.

they still readied themselves for a fight that was almost impossible to win.

they divided themselves into two groups, the two girls in the group of five faced off against eighty, while the boys faced off against the male neo.

the male neo stretched his right hand out and gave a taunting gesture of "come on" with the hand releasing smokes of extreme coldness on it.