Lilly, Joseph, Andrew, Mark, Mackenzie, and the rest of their companions didn't know which direction they were headed now. It had been a week. The whole group had taken a day and gone separate ways to see if any of their family was home. Some of Lilly and Mark's newfound friends had come back either in tears or shock. Four people hadn't come back to the group. This meant they now had a group of eight.
Lily still hadn't come to terms with everyone following her for some reason, as if she knew what she was doing. She chose a direction and drove that way, keeping in mind where the bombs had dropped. The only information Lilly had about where the group was going was that they were still in Massachusetts. She also knew she had no family to go check up on at home. Lilly couldn't identify if that was a good or bad thing. Mark didn't either though, his Mom had gone crazy.
Lilly suddenly became aware that she had begun to swerve off the road and snapped back to reality, yanking the steering wheel back to the middle of the road. The hot sun beat down on Lilly's small vehicle and warmed up her hands on the steering wheel. Though she refused to turn the air conditioning on because she was scared it would waste her battery. She honestly wasn't sure how it worked, for she wasn't informed about cars.
The buildings towered over the car easily but provided somewhat shelter from most of the sun. The group had spent the whole day looking around the city but found no one; although, they had all fell asleep half way through.
Lilly glances at Mark in the passenger's seat, who was sleeping as if it was the most important thing in the world. Joseph and Andrew also slept in the back. Lilly took another look behind her and saw the trail of vehicles behind her. They were following her in a bee-line.
"Me..." Lilly found herself whispering, questioning her sudden leadership. She wondered why they chose her.
A groan was heard from the backseat, and then a slight whimper.
"These seats are the most uncomfortable thing I've ever slept in," Andrew groggily stated. His tired eyes looked up in the rear-view mirror and met Lilly's. She sent him a small smile. Andrew sent one back, but it quickly fell.
Lilly almost immediately slammed on the breaks in surprise.
"Is that... are those people?" Andrew whispered, shock evident in his voice. In the distance by a gas station on the corner sat a white truck with a woman crouching in the bed of the vehicle with a long gun in her right hand. The woman was wearing green army pants and a white tank top, motioning violently in Lilly's direction. Lilly also took notice of another person standing beside her with a gun in his hand as well, holding his left hand up high and flapping it aggressively as well.
Lilly wanted to get closer to meet these other survivors. She wanted to know how they survived as well, and if the group could join them. Lilly finally came to her senses and realized that the man and woman were waving their hands for the vehicles to stop. After slamming on the brakes, Lilly glanced over at Mark, then Andrew, and finally Joseph.
"Be careful, guys. We don't know these people," Joseph said out loud, his gaze locked on the man and woman. The brunette woman hopped out of the bed of the truck with ease, loose hairs flying into her face from her ponytail. Lilly and her friends all got out of her small car with their hands wearily going above their shoulders. The rest of Lilly's group all followed suit as they shut off their vehicles and hopped out. The brunette woman and the darker haired man shared an obvious look before they began a light jog alongside a building as they made their way over to the new group. Lilly gazed at the two jogging over to the group, mostly in fear and weariness. She felt her antiperspirant not doing it's job and swallowed her fear with an evident gulp. Mark cast a side glance over to his best friend to see her clearly shaking, but he couldn't reach her from the other side of her car. The man and woman finally approached.
"You all need to quietly park your cars randomly on the street, quietly, and follow us if you don't want to cause a ruckus," The woman calmly suggested while motioning with her free hand while she spoke. The guy with dark brown curls side-stepped away from the girl with brunette hair to look at the group of people.
"A ruckus?" The guy questioned, dry humor evident in his voice. His eyes scanned Mark last, turning around to the white truck, then back to Lilly's friends.
The muscular brunette girl continued with her body turned towards the guy. "Yes, a ruckus," She turned back to Lilly's group. "We aren't going to hurt you. Pick up your feet and get movin'."
When the girl came to stand in front of Lilly's car, Lilly finally put her arms down slowly. She noticed that her breathing was erratic and tried to calm it. The girl with the brown waves stood with her feet shoulder length apart, her posture tall and wide while she examined the lot of the group. Lilly took immediate notice of this and tried to pinpoint what exactly they were looking for; regardless, she was thankful they were not pointing weapons at her. There was a sense of authority that surrounded the brunette women's stance and the way she held herself. Lilly couldn't figure out if it was because she was full of herself, used to being in charge, or both. "This is a big group. I would ask more questions but unfortunately we have an emergency."
"All you need to know is I'm Tristan and this is Brynn. You can follow us back or not; either way, we need to get out of the open." Tristan announced before turning on his heel and starting back to his vehicle. Brynn was about to follow suit but stopped, looking as if she were thinking quite hard.
"There's soldiers two blocks away. They look heavily guarded, fences, weapons, hazmat's. We don't know why they would be like that if they were going to help civilians..." Brynn trailed off, sharing eye contact with almost every person in Lilly's group. She swayed a bit as she put her sniper in her other hand. "You don't have to come with us, but there's safety in numbers."
Brynn's voice held certainty in it as she looked Lilly straight in the eyes. Brynn gave a nod to the group, but mostly to herself before she turned and began jogging back to her truck. Lilly knew what she was going to do, but it was a matter of what her small group wanted. Lilly took her time to look at the tall buildings around her. An empty salon, a clothing store, shoe store, and everything else the small strip mall could have. They all had their windows boarded up hastily and without care, yet some of the windows were broken anyway. The breeze blew warm against Lilly's skin, but she was shivering from fear.
"I say we go with them," Lilly concluded, reaching into her car and grabbing the bag full of her dead cell phone, pictures of her deceased family, keys, and her pocket knife she always kept with her. Lilly was unsure about these people, but if they were going to hurt them, she was ninety-five percent sure they would have already. She didn't need to move her car, because it was already pulled over hastily. The people in her group began to get in their cars to pull them over, while some people went far down the block. Lilly locked her car and stood up to catch Mark's gaze across the roof of her car. His face held uncertainty, she assumed it was about these people. "C'mon Mark. We have nowhere else to go."
Lilly exhaustedly flung her arms by her sides before shifting her bag over her shoulder. Mark looked down with his hands in his pocket. Lilly noticed he had his backpack over his left shoulder.
"I know..." Mark spoke quietly and delicately, as if he was walking on eggshells by speaking at all. "Let's just go."
Lily watched her group as they began to hurriedly walk over to the new people they met, desperate to get more information. She turned back to Mark to send him a small smile only to find he was already walking away to the new people they met. As she walked behind her group, she couldn't help but feel sad. Mark lost his only family just last week, and he had no one left but her. She needed to talk to him or make him feel like he wasn't alone. She just couldn't even try to piece him back together if she couldn't even figure herself out; moreover, she couldn't even figure out her group's situation. Lilly made a mental note to watch Mark closely and try to talk to him when she could.