Chapter 7

The initial thrill of having the new members along had long since worn off and we were, once again, walking in complete silence. There were meager attempts at normal conversation, but nothing stuck. The sun was beginning to set in the dark rose and orange sky and we had already walked past several other groups settling down for the night. We felt a ping of sadness when we saw people setting up camp in a blatantly obvious spot; as we knew what their inevitable fate would be.

This was a big part of adjusting to our newly reformed nation. Natural selection. If you were to live, you had to have a balance of skills; common sense, fighting, and hunting, among others. There was no more we could do for those already to be condemned by their lack of any one of these traits. Leaders were renowned in those times; those who were able to push through and guide those in their company into safety.
Most people with that specific skill set had turned corrupt when the reaping came. Control went from town to town, recruiting men and women alike to join their forces. Those weak willed enough joined; but those who were set in their ways refused at all cost. We fought to keep our loved ones out, and went into hiding at the first scent of our enemies. We moved into the mountains, taking only what was necessary for the short stay out of Control’s grasp.
Thinking back in the moment, it seemed as though we were backtracking. We had fought to stay out of the Capitol’s hold only to head straight into it. A head on collision approach where we could have gone and worked from the inside. Who knows what may have happened had we gone with that option; Hell, who knew what happened to those they took with them.
We found our way into a hollowed out section in the mountainside, blocking the mouth of it from view. Camouflaging our whereabouts from hawk-like eyes that would be patrolling, vying to find unsuspecting civilians to turn in; to please their ‘masters’. Whatever had been done to them in the Capital had messed with their heads; turning them more loyal beast than human. They were but a shadow of what they were in their past lives. What we hoped to find in the Capital, as well as national reform, was a cure. To save those who were lost to the brainwashing done by Control that had turned them to the loyal beasts they had become.
We were too wrapped up in setting up our makeshift beds and fire that we hadn't noticed that the content panting of the lab had ceased and had been replaced by a soft, yet menacing, growl. We heard the scuffing of a shoe on the rocky ground and we whirled around to greet our unexpected guest. He presented himself as a shadow, keeping back out of the dim, flickering light of our campfire. We saw the outline of a gun in his surprisingly small hand as he slowly crept forward into our lines of vision.