I wake up to screaming and the smell of campfires. As I look around me, I notice that I'm in a tent with some clothes neatly folded next to the bed. The bed is just put together with wood, string, and a sleeping bag. With a sigh, I sit up, in said sleeping bag, and someone opens the tent flap. As I turn to look at the opening, my body slips into a gap in the string and I get stuck.
"Be quiet." A rough hand covers my mouth. It seems they came in from the back since they are facing the front of the tent. There is a little push on my throat, like a blade. I don't dare to breathe, and I squeeze my eyes together. "Such a pretty R.O.S.E, I wonder how much I can get for you." He whispers as he plays with my hair in his hand. Suddenly I hear the sound of the front flap opening and the blade is off my neck. The open flap makes the noise outside seem louder, but the voices seem to be inside of the tent.
"What are you doing, Zander?" The voice is rough and hard. I hear a slap yet don't know who hit who. I refuse to open my eyes.
"No need to hit me. Don't make me give you a second blind eye." This voice is the guy with the blade, and I'm guessing the other is Adryan. I open my eyes slowly, making sure not to make any sudden moves. And both sets of eyes are on me. Adryan looks so.. worried. He looks at Zander, the other man, who I can now see due to the light streaming in from the open flap. He has curly red hair and is the palest person I've ever seen. Adryan punches Zander in the gut.
"Get. Out. Now." This is the first time I heard Adryan speak so harshly, he was so.. arrogant. Yet, now I feel like that was all an act. Like he really cares about others more than himself. Or.. was it not an act and he just punched him to look cool?
"Bitch." Zander mutters under his breath, holding his stomach, and walks out of the tent. The sounds quiet down as Adryan smiles and picks me up by my armpits. "Up you go." I shimmy the sleeping bag to my feet and step out of it, one foot at a time. I am a little unsteady once on my feet and start to fall over slowly. Ad holds me up. "Still light headed I'm guessing." His smile fades as he turns his head to the open flap. Everyone, even the ones mid-fight, have stopped and are staring at us. He steps to the front of the tent.
"I will be taking full responsability-" He begins, in a loud and respectful tone, but I interrupt him. I walk up to the front of the tent.
"I would like Adryan to take watch of me! You all seem so reckless." My voice is low yet can be heard if they listened. The group of people start yelling, cursing, and start running towards the tent. I flinch and move my hands to cover my head as they run right into me. Well- at least I thought they were. I removed my hands to see and they all stopped at the front of the tent.
"Adryan, what will you be doing with her? Will you π΄π¦ππ her?"
"Why is everyone trying to π΄π¦ππ her?"
"I think she would π΄π¦ππ for a good amount! We could split the reward!"
The word 'π΄π¦ππ' rings in my head. I tear up and fall. I don't fall because I'm scared of being sold to someone but because I'm light headed and can't endure standing. I fall into a 'w'-pose and Adryan sits next to me. He pushes my head onto his shoulder. As he rubs my head he shouts out for Atlas. A memory flashes through my head but fades as quickly as it came. The only thing I caught from it was a boy cradling me and he was.. crying. I close my eyes and rest my head.
"Why am I so light headed?" I whisper to Adryan.
"You had a rock thrown at your head yesterday, someone was aiming at me but missed. It hit your head really hard and you lost quite a bit of blood. Atlas is the closest we have to a walking first aid kit." Just as Adryan says this, Atlas comes walking through the crowd. I touch my forehead, open my eyes, and look at my hand to see it covered in blood.
"Don't touch it. You might make it worse." Atlas sounds so rude, like he is forced to help me.
"If you're going to be a grump, Atlas, I can handle myself. Thank you very much." I start to stand up.
"Indigo, sit back down so Atlas can wrap your head.
"You don't tell me what to do."
"I'm not asking you to." Adryan grabs my handcuff chain and pulls it downwards, forcing me to sit. He holds down the chain which kept me from touching my head or standing up. "Go ahead Atlas."
The crowd dismisses themselves and we are left to ourselves. Atlas holds my bangs with his right hand, sometimes tilting my head to get a better angle. He takes out a flask, tilts my head back, and pours some alcohol on my head. I let out a whimper and he stopped. Atlas puts away the flask, and wraps my head with a mix of an old shirt and bandages. He nods and starts heading off. "Make sure to be ready tonight, Adryan. And don't get too close to her, she might turn."
Adryan lets my cuffs go, stands up, and turns around to face me. He is.. crying. Or at least he looks like he is going to cry. His eyes are watering up but he is flushed. But did he turn to me because he wanted to shield his face from the others or for a different reason?
"Adryan.. what's wrong?" Our eyes meet and I stare at them like they can unlock what's going on in his mind.
He wipes his eyes and nods at me. "I'm fine, don't worry about it. There should be a pair of pants and a shirt in the tent. It's mine but you can use it, I'm fine in these and you're dirty. So take them and I'll take you to the lake."
I smile at him and I can feel my cheeks burn up but I could care less. I stand up, and try my best to hug Adryan. It turns out to be more of a nuzzle but he got the idea and wrapped his arms back around me. I quickly pick up the clothing from inside the tent and follow a few paces behind Adryan. He keeps gazing over his shoulder, making sure I was still there. I look around us, we get further and further away from the camp and his fire is getting smaller and smaller as we walk.
"Why do you stay with them? You seem like you can handle yourself. Do they offer things you can't get yourself?" I ask, while still looking around.
"They promise me food and something to drink. Whether that would be alcohol or water, that depends. You know, you're pretty lucky to be found by us. Most of the gangs are heartless and act like the other members. Most of the R.O.S.Es they find don't last long. There are some bad people out here, even worse on the other side. You probably don't know so I'll save you the time and just tell you. R.O.S.E stands for something. The R is Renewing, O is Operating, S is System, and E is Emergency. Renewing Operating System of Emergency. They wanted to further expand human capacity, make us better, with some vaccine adjustments. While it did, and the more you got the better you were, but then it made a turn for the worse. People started turning and started this mess of an apocalypse."
"We made it. No one from the camp knows about this ravine, therefore it is our ravine." We walked for a while and we were finally at a ravine. Our ravine. The ground looks like it just shattered and the pieces went missing. The ravine is filled with water, well at least most of it is. I set down the clothing a good distance away from the ravine. And then turned away from Adryan.