The 3 party members walked out of the meeting hall only to find a person waiting for them. She was a short girl about 5'6 and she was slender and basically straight as a board.
"Oh yeah, I forgot you turned 18 this year as well Attica!" Sarah says while hugging her.
Attica Straus is her name. Abel remembers seeing her around, but hardly ever talked to her. Apparently she went to the same school as Peter and Sarah, but before the monsters they hardly ever associated.
After the building of Edgeville, everybody was basically forced to befriend and know each other because if not how can anybody trust that they won't stab them for a drink of water?
Sarah was the first to befriend Attica because of her outgoing personality. Attica was mostly a quiet person, like Abel. People like themselves tend to stay away from people and only burden themselves with their problems.
Looking at the shy Attica, Abel walks over while the mood is still good and says quietly, "Welcome to the team. This is my first mission too, please let's take care of each other, ok?"
Attica wasn't expecting that type of reaction from Abel, but nevertheless it excited her that nobody wanted to push her out of the team. "Thank you, we will watch each other's backs!" Attica exclaimed excitedly.
Roger, watching from the door of the meeting hall, smiles in satisfaction. "I wish my Army buddies were here to see this. Making sure you trust each other is of most importance to any mission." Sighing after thinking that and trying not to let depression take over his mind, he whistles while walking deeper into the hall.
"So, is everybody ready? Being team leader I'd like to make it there before nightfall so we don't have to sleep in the wild. I think it would be safer sleeping in an abandoned house, would you?" Peter says while looking at everybody to see if they agree or not.
Everybody nods their head in silent agreement. Seeing this Peter smiles. The less time they had to spend time in the wild the better. It's a lawless land out there right now and the less conflict they have the better.
While walking out of town, Abel looks at everybody from behind and notices they all have weapons. Confused, he asks Peter, " Hey, Peter. Was I supposed to be commissioned a weapon or something? Even if a mutant attacks I won't be able to defend myself."
Peter looks at Abel with confusion then sees that he doesn't have a weapon. Confused as much as Abel he looks at his sister.
Upon listening to the conversation, Sarah suddenly speaks with embarrisment then extreme excitement.
"Oh right! I'm sorry Abel I forgot. Here this is your birthday present. I wanted to give it to you in front of everybody, but I figured it would be better doing it during the mission."
She pulls out a sheathed sword from her slender backpack only to hand it to Abel.
"Happy Birthday!" Peter and Sarah says at the same time, while Attica looks on giggling at the situation.
Abel pulls out the sword by the hilt and examines it closely.
"Wow the workmanship is great. The hilt is comfortable to hold and it's balanced very well." He excitedly thinks to himself while taking a few swings with it.
"Who made this? I don't remember there being such a skilled metal worker in town?" Abel asks after the excitement has worn off a little and his curiosity kicks in.
"Old man Smith down at the convenience store. Before the monsters he used to dabble in weapon making for extra money on the side"
Even in the old world where technology ran rampant, people would still buy beautiful looking swords and the like.
Remembering the kind smile and rugged hands of the store owner, it kind of made sense. He always wondered how a store owner who worked in retail had such big meaty hands full of calluses.
"I'll have to give him a big thank you when I get back." He seriously tells himself in order for him to remember.
The sword was a common little short sword, but the balance was impeccable. There was no awkwardness swinging it at all. Even if he got a different type weapon spirit module, he would keep the sword on a mantle to cherish.
Waking himself out of his imagination of the future, he realized that they have been walking for a few minutes now with Edgeville now barely within his sights.
This is the first time since his mom was killed that he was outside of the walls. He couldn't help, but remember the moment his mom looked into his eyes and said her last words to him.
Seeing his friends barely holding on to his emotions, Peter walk to over him and put his arm around his shoulders saying, "I can't imagine whats going through your head right now, but we know what happened when you arrived at Edgeville and can only guess what your thinking." He says while looking at Abel and saying with a soft voice once again, "Me and Sarah saw how you arrived and how you secluded yourself from us. You're much stronger than you were back then. Plus, we have your backs and also we're here if you need to talk."
Abel listening to Peters words eventually starts to calm down. Attica, not knowing what's going on, also says "I'm here too even though we don't know each other. My dad died protecting Edgeville, so if you want to talk to somebody who knows the pain you can talk to me too." Smiling at Abel the whole time.
Abel smiles and nods back acknowledging what she said. Peter and Sarah also smile seeing how everybody is getting along.
About an hour later, Peter begins to slow down. "We're reaching the forest. If we want to make it before dark, we have to take a detour through the woods. it'll take about 2 hours to get through. It isn't particularly dangerous, but there could be danger."
Everyone nods and unconsciously looks over their weapons and items just in case something has came out of place and they can't reach them in time.
Following behind Peter in a single file line, they make their way through the woods. The trees still have a lot of life in them, in fact since the portals came, the wild seems to be doing much better than before. Whether it's because all the factories stopped spreading pollution or because of something else any known yet.
Walking for about only 10 minutes, the group stumbles upon a small ant colony.
Attica speaks for the first time in a long time and says, "These are just your regular ant species. Just a little larger. They can bite, but they don't have particularly high power or strength. if there are less than 20 of them we can take them down one at a time."
Everyone surprised by her knowledge, turned to look at her with weird expressions. Attica just shrugged her shoulders and said lackidasically, "I wasn't popular in school so I read a lot. Ants are interesting to read about."
Peter begins to ponder about her words before voicing his decision with resolute determination. "She's right. we can defeat them easily if we separate them one by one. Hell even two by two would be fine. This will be a good training session for you two. You might even get a spirit module to compensate the weakness of our team!"
Sarah sighs at not being able to participate and potentially grab a module, but she knows training comes first and selfishness comes last.