Low growl. Jamie woke up suddenly. She tried to listen closely. It was a growl coming from near.
She never slept deep when she was outside. And she didn't leave her safety in the hands of others too. She lowered the partition and woke up the guys.
"Whaa!"
She answered.
"Listen!"
"Oh my god! These are the night rats!"
Rats? Rats growled?
"Sawyer, fight or no?"
Leo asked.
"We fight!"
He quickly went out and they followed him. Night Rats were bigger than Rats. They were the size of horses. And they looked terrifying. Sawyer had stabbed one and it was howling.
Seeing her stationary, two Rats came for her. Jamie jumped at the one in the front and inserted her knife in it's belly. It's blood was green. Mutant rat! Mutants were powerful and fighting with them wasn't easy.
Sawyer made it look easy. She and Leo were having a really hard time keeping them at bay while fighting. Because the one at the back swatted them with their tails.
"I hit, you electrocute them!"
They made an alliance.
Jamie stabbed one on its face and Leo used lightning. When the rat was rendered motionless for a moment, they did the same with the other ones.
Sawyer came and finished them.
"That's why it was so better here. We should move. Other Rats might come after us."
They fled the place.
"How do we know if a place has mutant animals?"
Jamie was curious.
"You don't. Trial and error."
Yeah, she found the result of the trail and error method. You get surprise visits from some animals.
"What other animals can be found here?"
Leo was far too happy to answer.
"There are Monsted goose, Sillypedes, and I think, there are Worrybats too."
The names sound silly but Jamie knew they were dangerous. Intuition. She was sure.
"Brother Sawyer once fought a Sillypede."
"Really, how was it?"
Sawyer shuddered.
"Very bad. Never get pierced by them. They have a numbing toxin. That makes it hard to fight them."
She understood. New world, new beings to fight. So she had to store their information in her mind.
"How long do we have to walk?"
Jamie found that they walked for two hours. It should be nearly three in the morning.
"Till we find a high place. Most of the animals prefer low places. And because of the quest, the animals should be in hunting mode."
Jamie shuddered. This was even more dangerous. When she was in the apocalypse, mutant animals didn't evolve. They were still in the starting phases so they didn't get what made them lethal now.
Now, they knew what advantages they had.
"Didn't anyone make any stuff that could allow them to hide from the animals?"
"Wouldn't that be cheating?"
Leo asked her.
"Not cheating, Leo. Only high-level people use those. That stuff isn't accessible to normal lower-level people."
"What exactly is the stuff?"
Jamie was intrigued. Maybe this was part of the reason why he wanted to annihilate the system.
"They have inhibitors. Most animals pass by and don't notice your presence. How do you think only inner-city people manage to win every year in the tournament?"
"Oh god, isn't that cheating?"
Sawyer shook his head.
"Winning by any means possible. And again, it will be called cheating if we use those things."
Jamie felt the injustice here. Privileged and nonprivileged people. The people at the top run the people at the bottom like some hamsters. And the people at the top, she knew some of them. And the reason, she was familiar.
They didn't treat people as humans. So why did it matter to them if some experiment went wrong?
"It's not that bad, okay!"
Seeing their pessimistic looks, Sawyer shook his head.
"Half of the council leaders care while the other half don't. We just need to remove that half. And then change with our people."
Did he just say that aloud? Without any fear? What if someone was eavesdropping? Wouldn't his plan be known?
"Don't worry, I have a signal jammer here."
Sawyer showed a bug-sized jammer. He had it ready always. Smart.
"You were from the Inner City, how was it like?"
Jamie was curious.
"It's like a paradise compared to the outer city. No worry about zombies, mutant animals, or anything. People are so happy there that it's said it is exactly like the world before the Apocalypse."
Huh?
Jamie scowled. She knew how someone could know what the world was like before the Apocalypse. Marc and Dana, were there, right?
So, they developed the place they lived into a comfortable heaven and treated everything else as hell. Understandable.
"You were there too!"
Sawyer looked at Jamie.
Yeah, her previous life was spent there. But in her memories, she didn't go out.
"My uncle and aunt, they locked me in a place. Because my parents weren't home, they didn't allow me to go out."
Sawyer didn't react but Leo was emotional.
"So bad. Why did they? How could they?"
Jamie didn't know. Her memories weren't clear.
"Let's sleep here for a while and then I'll tell you our plan."
Sawyer declared.
Jamie was happy to sleep. All that walk made her tired and that's why she dreamed about killer bats.
She woke up suddenly and found Sawyer and Leo exercising. It was great that she had prior Apocalypse experience. Otherwise, staying with two guys would be problematic. Hygiene wise.
"The other teams wouldn't want to kill, unless necessary."
Jamie and Leo nodded like students who were listening to a lecture.
"So, what ideas do you have?"
"We act like we don't have a vine?"
Jamie said.
"Will they believe?"
Sawyer answered back.
"Yeah, they may not believe."
"We go out after they leave?"
"Leo, that won't happen. They will wait till it's the last second."
"The fight cannot be postponed. Then, what else can we do?"
Sawyer replied in a soft and slow manner.
"Listen to me carefully. Here's what we will do."