(A/N: Not my best chapter, but though I was dead tired from driving for the whole night, I hope it's good enough for you people.)
What could be worst that sleeping in the middle of the enemy territory? Being caught outside when it was raining…barely an hour after I decided to sleep until the morning, the rainfall down through the trees upon us as if the planet hated us, but something rather unnatural was slowly getting closer to us. Next to me, Finn who I share a tent was having trouble falling asleep, most likely as a consequence of what he did back in TonDC.
The closer the strange noise was coming, the more agitated I became and before my worst fears could be proven, I reach over and shake Finn until I saw him turn his head towards me, a little bit confused as to why I was waking him up. Right as he glanced at me, I tap my gun, a signal that we used made when we saw or heard a grounder which made him wake up in an instant before he grabbed his rifle.
We quickly get out of our tent only to see a group of grounders approaching our position from our left side. All of them were bare feet, most likely to diminish the sound that they would make, even if the rain was covering the noise they made. Out of nowhere, Mike walked out of his tent and went towards one of the bushes, when suddenly a tall shadow appeared in front of him from within the closest bush, standing upright in the rain with a sword in his hand. All at once, a sudden battle cry woke up our entire camp before arrows and spears flowed from within the forest. Without wasting any time we opened fire. Our guns unleashed hell upon the grounder and not even a whole magazine later, we heard the grounders yelling out in pain or frustration as their friends were being killed by our bullets.
As soon as we fired our guns, John cursed out loud our luck before yelling at the rest of his to grab a gun and camp-made grenades.
Sadly Mike was killed instantly by the grounders while Nana got her chest pierced by a spear which lowered our firepower as well as slowly destroyed the morale of the whole team. While I was looking at the now-dead woman, a spear flew toward me, and luckily for me, Finn dragged me out of the way just in time for both of us to miss it. We both let out a few short bursts, sitting upright, before we sweep left, then further left to cover that flank. There's no telling where the grounders were and no matter how much we fire, it was a mystery if we will kill or break the grounders until our munitions run out.
When I fired almost all of my bullets and used my only grenade to kill a group of four grounders, I was forced to go into melee against the grounders. John and May, the only survivors, regrouped beside us, while I decided to sneak behind the archers, dragging myself through mud, blood, and grass, holding my knife tightly in my right hand.
Just as I made my way towards the back line of the grounders, I saw an injured grounder dragging himself away with his spear under his arm just in case one of us was dumb enough to charge him head-on. Before I could hide properly, he catches sight of me and before I could react, I was hit in the back by someone, but that wasn't going to be the end of me.
As the wounded grounder and his friend were about to leave, I get on my knees and fall forward, still a little bit dizzy from the hit, but before the man could run away, I grab his pants before I stabbed him in the other leg as I dragged him into the mud. He tried to reach for my arm, my eyes. But I wasn't going to give him a chance, so before he could succeed, I raise myself above him, bringing the knife above my head. As simple as it may seem, I just brought the knife down, straight into his chest, and snap his breastbone. The grounder tried to say something before he died, but I couldn't understand him.
Meanwhile, his friend was about to help him, but a sudden burst of bullets hit him, killing the last grounder that attacked our camp.
A few seconds later, Finn followed closely by May appeared from behind the now dead grounder, before both of them rushed towards me, just in case I was injured.
"I'm fine, who come you two are here?"
"John was killed by one of the grounders. We three are what remained out of our team."
"I'm sorry, May."
"Don't you start as well? I had enough of Finn's apology already, save it for when Byrne would yell at us."
"Leon, we have to leave now. Who knows how many of them may hide in the forest, besides, our fight would surely bring some unwanted attention and I'd rather be back behind our electric fence than right here."
I simply nodded at Finn, before we gathered all of the guns, leaving the rest of our now dead team behind. Maybe it was a bad call or maybe it wasn't, but leaving behind the people that even for a few hours were watching back has definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.
By the time we made our way back to Camp Jaha, the sun had already risen up in the sky. When the guards saw our bloodied attires and the exhausted state of my companions, they quickly called for Abby before two guards run towards us to help us. Not even a minute later, Byrne and Abby rushed to the gate, before Byrne dragged me away.
"What the hell happened?"
"We got ambushed in our sleep."
"Then…"
"I'm sorry, mam, we are what's left of the team that you have put me and Finn into."
"No, Leon, I should be the one to say that. I didn't though that grounders would attack you guys, and even though some of my people told me that, I decided to ignore their worries and send your team to death. "
"Even though Sergeant John and the rest of my team died in battle, we managed to kill a total of forty-one grounders before we were forced to retreat because we were low on ammo as well as the possible threat of being attacked by another grounder force."
"You three did well and before you go and change your clothes, you should talk with your friends, they are back, but… I'll them tell you the bad news."
Byrne left afterward, while I waited for Finn before we would go and talk with Raven and Clarke about their trip.