Despite what he said earlier, Wells returned, only to be surprised when he saw Leon together with a few guards preparing themselves for a fight. Before he came up to the surface, he saw the grounder that they had captured and that was one of the reasons he returned, the other one was a little bit scarier for him.
"Leon? What's going on?"
"Wells…we are going to take care of the grounders. Wanna join?"
"I-I'm not exactly soldier material ."
"Don't put yourself so low. You are doing great, even better than most I'd say, despite you being a brain guy rather than someone like us. However, that doesn't make you any less good than any one of us."
"Fine, but if I were to die, I swear I will haunt you."
After that little conversation, Wells quickly got equipped with a set of armor before leaving the bunker alongside Leon and the rest of the guards.
They moved slowly, making almost no sound as they were closing the distance from the bunker to the grounder camp. All of them had their rifles at the ready in case a grounder spotted them. Not long after they left, Leon took half of the guards and went to the left, leaving Wells in command of the other half. Thankfully for him, Mike was also on his team and with his help, they made it to the tree line before they waited for the rest of the guards to catch up to them.
By the time, they were deep inside the forest, the signs of some of the first assaults that took place here were found out by Wells. When he looked down at what he had stepped into before his eyes widen in shock. Under him stood the remains of a dead grounder probably abandoned or forgotten by his own. Some insects hummed over the dead body, and something told Wells that maybe this guy wasn't killed by Mount Weather. There were no bullet wounds on the torso or head, nevertheless, someone had killed the grounder somewhat recently judging by how "fresh" it looked compared to what a dead body that was at least a month old should have looked.
The closer they got to the grounder camp the worst Wells' fears become. What if the grounder knows they are here? What if they are the ones getting ambushed? What if Leon and his team couldn't make it to the left side? What if a grounder was watching him right now from up in the trees or even from the ground? If there were an archer or worst more than one archer in the trees, they would all be dead in minutes. Maybe coming here wasn't his smartest decision or his brightest moment.
No, no one should think like that, especially when he or she is supposed to be the hunter. No matter the outcome, Leon's plan was to disturb the grounders so that guards that are still in the tunnels would be able to get a day or so of rest before the next wave of grounders attacks. As soon as he and his team made it close to the enemy camp, they crouched behind a small "hill", as Wells breathed through his open mouth. It was exhausting to run and at the same remain unseen, but even if his entire body was screaming in pain from the exhaustion, Wells managed to follow the guards to their objective only to freeze when a grounder stood frozen in front of him, then all hell fell upon the camp as machine guns and rifles opened fire.
It was at that moment that Wells heard another machine gun, from his team as it shadowed the noise of the first one. Just as he was about to fire, his gun a stray arrow almost tore his helmet off his head in the best case, while another hit him in the leg missing the flesh by no more than a centimeter. Despite the pain and fear, he managed to overcome them and run across the open field to where Mike and another guard took cover behind a fallen log.
There was no way they would be able to regroup with Leon, but the least they can do is to retreat to the forest where they stumbled across that small hill.
"Mike! Gather everyone, we are going back!"
"Roget that!"
Just as he raised his head to cover them, he looked right into a tattooed face. One of the grounders managed to sneak below their log and was about to attack only for both hum and Wells to be shocked when they saw each other.
Sadly for Wells, the grounder broke free from his frozen state faster than the ex-chancellor's son, killing one of the guards before either one of them could react. For a brief moment, both Wells and the grounder stared at each other before a short bust of bullets almost hit the warrior. The man was about to open his mouth to shout out in warning, when Wells, amidst his fear and inability to find a better alternative, use the knife that he was given and strapped on his gun to pierce the grounder's throat. The man to the ground as blood spurted in swift dark jets over the cold dirt.
When he turned around to leave, Wells realized that he was left alone. Ahead of him was a pile of logs, presumably reinforcements for the walls alongside tens of dead grounders. There might be a few survivors on the other side of the camp, but that wasn't his concern right now. Just as he began to panic, the somewhat familiar voice of one of the guards brought Wells out of his dark thoughts before racing towards the trees where the guard was waving from.
On the other side of the grounder's camp, I threw my rifle away as an arrow impaled the metal weapon rendering it useless. However, I wasn't going to let the grounders gain the advantage as I drew my pistol and ran a round into the chamber, before blowing the head of one of the incoming grounders. As soon as the number of grounders that were shooting arrows in front of us dropped significantly, I charge forward after picking one of the swords, and with a sword and a pistol, I made my way inside the camp. Watching me madly charging right into the middle of the enemy, everyone followed my example. My team raise their rifles and opened fire at the grounders before charging after me.
Meanwhile, I just cut a grounder when one of the archers let out something similar to a war cry as he tried to reach for his bow alas to no result as a bullet hit the man in the chest. The shock and disbelief on the man's face when he saw his own people being slaughtered by what they thought to be easy prey to kill was priceless.
The rest of his friends were easily taken care of once we got inside the encampment. In the end, two people died from our side while more than forty grounders lay dead in their camp. Sadly this was nothing more than a scouting camp or at least that's what I guess it was, after all, I doubt the main camp would only have forty men remaining, especially since they hadn't lost that many warriors as of yet.