“Well that went to shit fast.” She said, her voice shaking badly, he reached out and took her hand, bringing her close to him, he could tell she was very shook up about it, as was he.
“Just wait Sarah, it’s only going to get worse. We need to get our stuff and get the hell out of here.” He pulled her along, his stride stretching out, and he knew she was having a hard time trying to keep up.
“Where are we going to go? We can’t get out of this place.” Sarah said, nearly breathless, her pace fast.
“We are going to find another cave, we have to find something bigger and more hidden. In about five days, they are all going to realize that they are well and truly screwed, when no one from the other side of that gorge comes. They will implode instead of working together.”
“How do you know Aiden?”
“You saw how combative Connor was already and Matt, and that is within five minutes of learning that they are screwed. It was Matt who probably stole your ginger. When I told them, that they needed to work together, they didn’t want to hear it at all, they were more concerned about grabbing what they could and Matt didn’t care that he shoved a woman to the ground. He didn’t care that he was taking food from someone else.”
Aiden paused a moment, looking back. He wanted to give Sarah a moment to catch her breath. Her long hair was coming out of its braid and the red strands caught the last glints of the sun. It looked as though her hair were on fire.
“Even when I suggested that we could work together because of all of our combined knowledge; they were thinking on how to take from others.” Aiden continued. He still had her hand clasped in his, he didn’t want to let go of her, for fear they’d get separated in the growing darkness. He looked down the trail but saw no one following. His shoulders relaxed.
“I’m glad you buried the water bottles. We’ll need them. Let’s get everything and get lost in the woods, we’ll go back in four days and see if anyone is left alive and if they are going to the gorge. We can go as well, but I’m making us weapons. I won’t go back there without something more to defend ourselves.” He said, his voice strangely calm. He didn’t know why he was calm, but when he’d figured out what had happened, he’d wanted to rage, but it wasn’t time for that now. He and Sarah were in danger, because he’d seen it throughout his career. People were most dangerous when they were afraid and where there was no ready solution.
There wasn’t going to be a clear solution here and certainly no quick fix. It was going to be the rest of their lives; it was a paradigm shift in their existence. Fear was like a virus and it was spreading below.
“Look Sarah, these people aren’t desperate yet, but when they become desperate, they will become deadly. Their fear will drive them and they will stop thinking, and as you saw, they’ve already stopped thinking. I’ve seen it, desperate people will kill you for whatever they can take from you and if they are desperate enough, they’ll kill you and eat you. You see, most of them have no clue how to hunt or look for plants to eat, most of them have been looking around their camps instead of spreading out. They came into this woefully unprepared, and they are now caught in a death trap. They can survive, easily, if they work together, but from what I witnessed, I don’t want to be near them, they don’t want to learn, they want to take. We need to get away and make sure no one follows us.”
“Maybe once they calm down, they’ll realize it. Maybe they’ll work together.”
“Maybe, but I’d rather not be near them while they try to figure that one out. Like I said, we’ll come back in four days. See what’s what.”
¤¤
Sarah didn’t know if she wanted to cry or scream or throw a tantrum. She just walked as fast as she could, holding tightly onto Aiden’s strong hand. She’d been so shocked that Matt had knocked Marla down, just knocked her down! She wasn’t used to that kind of violence and certainly not toward a woman. Over a few packs of salty food. There was so much food out here in this land, they just had to find it, work together like Aiden had told them, but they didn’t want that, they only wanted to take and take it brutally. They’d panicked so quickly.
She thought that was what shocked her the most. That they weren’t even that hungry, it had only been a day and a half. It wasn’t as if there had been any time to process what Aiden had said and they had immediately jumped to violence. She was glad Aiden and she had left, when she’d turned to look back at the group, it was almost a free for all. Everyone except for Leo, Gabe, Henry Diana, William and Hunter, the others had jumped in there.
Even Carol as weak as she was, was scrambling to get to the supplies. Marla was standing by Christian, like a frozen statue, the cameramen behind her, their hands on her shoulders. And where the hell was Grayson? He’d been nowhere to be seen.
They got to their small cave and Sarah went in and dug up the bottles. They gathered some of the wood and Aiden took his belt off and wrapped it around the wood bundle. They both looked around, she heard nothing and saw nothing, she hoped that no one had followed them and she was glad that she
