Clara and Kevin glanced at each other. Jamie felt that it was a good call to call Sawyer. He knew what to decide.
"You are right!"
He stood up and his demeanor changed. Gone was the worried look, it was replaced by a smirk.
Kevin changed from a harmless good guy to an evil guy.
"Hand over your vines and I'll let you go."
He had a gun in his hand. So, guns weren't replaced. Nice to know.
Maybe because no one batted an eye, he looked confused for a second.
"That gun won't help you!"
Sawyer answered.
"I'll know once I try."
"I wanted to stay calm for one more day. You shouldn't have interrupted me."
Sawyer bent back and kicked the gun out of Kevin's hands.
He straightened and fixed his collar and glanced at Clara.
"You should drop the gun too."
She dropped it.
"Let's talk."
"It's our first time robbing. Like I said, we need money for our sister. This vine can fetch us money."
Jamie wanted to believe them so bad. She felt that everyone was innocent until proven guilty. But that was the thing. Who could prove who was innocent and who was guilty?
"And you thought we have vines?"
Clara looked down.
"We thought you were weak. Three-person team and teenagers."
That made sense.
"You are lucky that you targeted us. Otherwise, other teams won't let you go out alive, you realize that?"
Kevin answered.
"No, Guild One promised to save us by giving these marks."
He produced a small sheet like object. Jamie didn't know what it was. Leo went closer to it and then shook his head.
"This is empty. They didn't sign so the beacon and locator aren't working. They cheated you."
Clara sobbed.
"How is this possible?"
"Guilds aren't made of good people!"
Jamie was struck. Guilds aren't made of good people. She looked at Sawyer wondering what he knew and what made him say this.
"What should I do?"
Kevin clutched his hair and nearly howled.
"Don't yell here. We don't want unnecessary people or animals or zombies or plants coming here."
Leo spoke in a hurried tone. It was comical to see Kevin's face. He froze and then closed his mouth.
"We are sorry!"
Clara was the brains of this operation. Jamie was sure because by the time Kevin figured out stuff, she had already acted.
"Yeah, because you haven't harmed us and because we are feeling friendly today, we won't retaliate."
Leo was the one speaking. Sawyer stood there behind him like a silent protector.
"We will leave. Thank you for the help."
They walked away. At least they weren't injured.
"How come their injuries are better? We personally bandaged and now they leave as if nothing is paining them?"
Sawyer sat down and yawned.
"You noticed it now. They are the group of people who don't have modified genes. In simple words, they have ancestors from before the Apocalypse and they haven't taken those gene serums. Be it vaccine or anything else."
Jamie winced at the thought of serums.
"Are those serums good or bad?"
"Some are good."
Then what are the bad ones?
"Then what's the matter with them?"
"The council doesn't want them to take serums now. Pure human from before the apocalypse agenda! And because no one essentially cares for them, they are suffering."
That wasn't right.
"You said that the council cares about their origins then I'm sure they are allocating so many funds to them."
Sawyer shook his head at her.
"Then you must understand why the funds aren't reaching them!"
Right! Corruption. Even this Apocalyptic World was the same. Maybe even more because they have zombies to blame everything.on.
"Let's start getting ready. Today will be tiresome."
Yeah, it was the day. The day they were all going out. And the day the hell will break loose. Ominous feeling overcame them.
Jamie dressed herself in her standard apocalypse outfit. Black pants, black shirt, and a black jacket. Her jacket had so many hidden weapons for her to use. She strapped knives on her thighs and hidden ones in boots.
Her hair was short now. That was good.
And when she appeared before Leo and Sawyer, they were dumbfounded.
"Wow, you look like a warrior goddess."
Leo's starry eyes made Jamie blush.
Sawyer coughed and Leo looked back in a daze.
"Brother Sawyer, I want to get ready like Jamie."
"Do you have so many weapons? If you do, dress like her!"
Leo pouted.
"Jamie, where did you get so many knives? I want to buy some."
This is called hitting yourself in your foot, Jamie thought.
"This is a knife set and I had it in my, you know what!"
Leo stopped focusing on her knives.
"Then I'll make my own weapons. Let's see, I can trap my power in some balls and then I can explode them. Sometimes I marvel at my brain. I'm so clever."
Jamie was confused seeing how Leo went from worrying to praising himself.
"You don't have anything that can absorb your powers."
Sawyer ruthlessly broke Leo away from his dream.
"I have an idea."
Jamie took two of the zombie crystals and gave them to Leo.
"Try these."
Leo took them and then looked at Jamie with confusion evident on his face. Well, "smart" Leo didn't figure it out.
"You can add your power to this."
"Right!"
He enthusiastically took the crystals and then exploded one.
"You idiot, Leo, you are supposed to store your power in them, not use your power on them. Both are very different."
Sawyer admonished him.
"It's harder than it looks, brother Sawyer, you try!"
Sawyer took the intact zombie crystal and then covered it with both his palms and closed his eyes.
Jamie knew it was hard because only few people had succeeded the power transfer in her past life. Those people were the base leaders then.
"See!"
And just like that, Sawyer was done.
Leo picked it and then threw the crystal at the bonfire they had extinguished. The crystal exploded and the wood caught fire again.
Jamie was happy to be proven wrong.
Sawyer was just different!