Caught or fooled?

The day wasn't going well for Jamie because they were jumped by so many people. It was just ten in the morning and they were targeted by fifteen people.

Sawyer had a good escaping mechanism. He just showed them that they didn't have any vine. He made them all unpack their bags and the people left them. Because why waste time on nobodies when you can rob someone.

These were the easy guys, Jamie knew. The main problematic ones, they haven't met yet.

"Freeze!"

They stood still.

"Hand over your vines!"

"What? Can't you talk?"

"We don't have any vine."

Leo answered.

"Huh, you can only fool those idiots. I know you are lying."

How did he know?

"I can smell the vine. Give it."

So, someone had some plant-related powers.

"Are you from Team One?"

Sawyer asked him.

"Yes, you wouldn't want us as your enemies."

Sawyer nodded.

"Will you allow us to pass without any harm then?"

Seeing Sawyer turn around, Jamie also turned. She wanted to see what the guy who was threatening looked like. He had caught them unaware.

The guy was a tattooed man. He just had some black ink smeared on his face as if he was hiding his identity but Jamie felt that she could identify him if she saw him when he cleaned himself up. She wasn't going to tell him that.

"I can."

Sawyer shook his head.

"I don't believe you. You give us some kind of guarantee otherwise we won't hand over the vine to you."

He didn't need to worry. Sawyer had so many vines at hand. And if those all were gone, he could still ask his contracted vine to get one.

"You dare to question me?"

"I know the location of the vine. My teammates don't. You can't get rid of us. So, you gonna take us to your leader?"

The man thought of the pros and cons and finally took them to a really hidden place. Jamie never thought that this guild one would set a camp near the entrance. They were really cocky about their strength.

There were seven people here. Jamie gathered that the others were out hunting for unsuspecting people, unlike their team who suspected this a long time ago.

"Boss, these guys want a guarantee from us."

The boss didn't look like someone who kept his promises.

"Capture them!"

Jamie wanted to fight but Sawyer shook his head at her. They willingly allowed them to catch them and cuff them. The cuffs now were different from before. Sleek bracelet like and the cuff responded to the fingerprint of the person who was cuffing.

Nice improvement! What else had changed? Jamie wanted to go into the inner cities and see what the Apocalyptic World looked like now.

But in the current time, she had to stay cuffed up and quiet.

As often as these things went, someone would come to interrogate Sawyer.

It was a different guy who came to ask questions.

"Give up the location of the vine and we will let you go. Otherwise, we don't mind letting three less people out of this forest."

It wasn't that this guy was scary but the way he said bad things with a calm voice, that was scary. It made Jamie think about how many others these people robbed of opportunities. The Apocalyptic World was already unfair and people like these guys made it more and more wrong.

The two years she lived in the apocalypse, it was all spent fighting zombies and stocking up supplies. She never got to check out the safe bases. Marc was responsible for that because his father was a business giant and he handled the diplomatic aspects.

This should have been the indicator. Marc never made her learn stuff. It was like he was cutting all her ways and making her rely on him. It worked well for him.

Because when she disappeared, no one came looking for her. She was unconscious but she was in that lab for more than ten days.

"I'll tell you when the door opens. Otherwise, you will kill us."

Sawyer and Leo shuddered. Jamie was slow or she would have followed their shuddering actions too.

"It won't be long anyway."

He left with a taunt.

Jamie looked at the changes in Sawyer and Leo and she wondered how they could act so well.

They didn't have to wait long and other groups of people were escorted in. This group was not in good spirits. They were injured.

"A little girl wants to fight me. Tell her, I'll make her mine when she wakes up."

Jamie shuddered. She turned her face to get a good look at the person speaking this.

She saw a boy supporting an unconscious girl and he glared hatefully at the speaker.

Jamie felt sad. No matter before or after, so many girls couldn't escape this fate, right? She decided to use ammo and get this bad group get what they deserved.

Because she was the only girl, the boy sat near Jamie.

Jamie found that the girl was hurt by some object.

She turned to Sawyer beside her.

"Can you take out a bandage from my front pocket?"

Their hands were bound forward so Sawyer could wriggle his fingers and get out something from her front pocket. There were no bandages in the pocket but she could get it out of space.

Sawyer felt the inside of the pocket and suddenly he touched the bandages. He didn't react but his idea was right. He felt quite accomplished because he was right.

Jamie felt it was because he got the bandage out despite being handcuffed.

She gave it to the boy beside her to help the girl.

Sawyer shook his head at her softhearted personality. But he didn't stop Jamie.

She was brave, she was cunning. She was ruthless but she was caring.

And she was the variable who was going to change the world. It was his luck that made him witness so closely.

Sawyer felt that Jamie had a light surrounding her.

"Alright, let's start getting rid of people now!"