Remains

...We had shot the French. Except for the...Patriot. The real Frenchman. He was still standing there with his gunning hand in the air and the other one shaking uselessly at his side. He wasn't one of them. He never seemed to be and now it was tested.

"hey where the hell is Dyrell?" Artcher let out, lowering his rifle. We had both forgotten about Dyrell completely when we heard Anna make a noise. "Pick that up, don't be and idiot and we wont shoot you." He said to the Patriot. The boy knelt and grabbed the gun and holstered it. "Take it out, and if someone fucks with us shoot them" Artcher insisted. The boy fumbled to take out the gun, he was nervous and thankful.

We all charged out of the trees and could see immediately what we had pondered. Dyrell and Anna were marching our way with rifles in hand. "who the fuck got shot!?" Anna shouted now jogging at us. She and Dyrell realized the answer as they got closer and saw only the three of us, weapons drawn. "What happened?" Anna asked. She lowered her gun and tilted her head. She was no longer in fight mode.

We explained and took them to the remains. They weren't shocked. Anna told us she had been slapped for disagreeing with Blush then the puke with the mustache pulled a gun- "Bitch walk away" and she did. Everyone stayed awake until the sun came up. Sitting on the porch with our legs hanging off, feeling surprisingly safe. That was alot more action than I had ever seen. I had never shot anyone. Artcher might have. Dyrell, yes. I knew thats what the world was going to be for a while, shooting people. We felt like there was no one left to betray us. Either we had satisfied, temporarily , our paranoia or we had actually saved our asses just in time. It didn't mater which. Especially  now since we had just enough ferry tickets for the lot of us. At first it felt bad thinking so readily about the possessions of the fallen. Then it felt natural. And it was. Man buzzards.

"We ought to sleep, and then pack our things and begin heading south mid day." I suggested. We all agreed and tried to get some rest. None of us got much. The Patriot gave up and took to wandering around looking at the plants on the tree line. He had been inspecting them for days and in-between stints of my dozing I could look out the window and see him foraging. Boyscouts.

Time came to leave and everyone was already awake. We packed our bags, hopped off the porch and never came back to the Compound.