Chapter 9: Drown my sorrows.

Warren.

The sound of the creek relaxed him, it seemed like nature was the only place he felt comfortable nowadays. He was sitting on a high rock, thinking about the last few days, he had been fighting with Charlie again, but the group broke them apart before anything happened. He noticed Cole would take his side over Charlie's. It was getting colder, so he wanted to have a steady supply of food and firewood in case there was going to be a lot of snow. So far he hadn't shot a lot, just a few squirrels which he would use as food to survive the day. He grabbed one of the squirrels from his belt, cut it open and ate the eatable parts. When he was done he licked his fingers, and cleaned them in the water. 'Do you always eat squirrels when no one is around?' Warren looked down and saw it was Anne, she must've looked for him and finally found him. 'You always put your nose in other people's business?' he asked her, slightly annoyed. He swung his legs over the rock and jumped down. 'We need to talk' she said, Warren already knew what it was about, so he told her to jump to the case. 'Stop fighting with Charlie, he's doing a good job keeping us safe' She and Charlie had been friend since before Warren joined the group, so he knew why she was saying this, but there was no way someone who wasn't even at the camp could lead a group. 'Ain't my fault your boyfriend is out doing jack s**t all day, if he wants to lead then he should show some f*****g progress' the last thing he needed was Anne on his neck. 'He is NOT my boyfriend' she said, it didn't sound very convincing. 'whatever' Warren replied, he spat on the ground and wanted to walk away. 'You know, I haven't seen you do anything for this group either' Anne said. Warren stopped, and made a  fist. He wasn't annoyed anymore, he was just plain angry. 'Nothing?' he repeated, he turned around. 'Who's been going out here every f*****g day to hunt food for you, to get you the pelts that keep you warm at night? Who brought you the f*****g guns that you use to keep yourself safe, who prevented Dawn from dying? It sure as f**k isn't your boyfriend, none of it, it was all ME. Let me tell you, without me that camp wouldn't be so very safe anymore, now get the f**k out of my face.' He stared her down, she had a shocked expression on her face. She slowly backed away, and then she quickly ran back to the camp.
He had noticed that he was low on arrows, so right now he was using his nice to smoothen a bunch of twigs. He put feathers on the end and an arrow point on the front, it was something he could easily do in the camp, but he know that as soon as he arrived there would be drama because he flipped at Anne. He wasn't scared of Charlie, he was scared he would let himself slip and kill him.
It was late in the afternoon, he, Cole, Steve and Sandy were sitting in his room. 'I'm telling you, we should pack our bags and get out of here. Find another place and form our own group, we'll make it.' he looked at all of the people in the room. Cole was concidering it, Steve looked at Sandy, he already knew that they'd either both go, or they'd both stay. 'I think we could make it, you're planning to steal a car then?' Cole asked him, he knew Cole would have his back. 'It isn't stealing if we're the people that brought it in' The group didn't have any cars until Warren came back. 'I'm not sure, we have food, guns and shelter here, would leaving because of one a*****e be worth it?' Steve said, he had never really told anyone how he felt about Charlie. 'It'll be hard, but we can do it, we'll take some food and guns from here.' Warren tried to convince him. Steve grabbed Sandy's hand. 'Look, I just want what's best for my girlfriend, we can deal with Charlie, trust me.' Sandy gently removed his hand. 'Honey, I love you and appriciate you trying to protect me, but I can make my own choices.' Steve began stuttering, but nothing came out. 'Let's stay a week, and if s**t hits the fan, we'll leave at night.' she then said, all four agreed. 'I'm going to tell Abby, Charlie will kill her and Dawn if I'm gone.' everyone got up, and left the room.
'Ofcourse I'm in, I hate to admit it, but he makes me afraid.' Abby was feeding Dawn, it was one of the few times she didn't cry. 'You should pack a backpack with some stuff in it, a blanket, some food, weapons and ammo, and some stuff for the baby' Warren handed her a backpack, just in case. 'Thanks' she said as she accepted it, he left the room to do some more hunting.

Charlie.

'Tonight, tonight is going to be the night.' Charlie sat in Lutece's office, they were talking about the plan. 'My men are loading a bunch of those things in a van, it'll be  nice suprise for them' they both laughed. 'I'll be killing the new boy, then I'll join you, I doubt there will be a big fight, the only ones that can actually shoot are Warren and the boy I'm going to kill, the rest can't do anything.' he took a sip of his whiskey, he could get used to this life. 'So where am I staying?' he asked, Lutece made a hand gesture to get up and follow him. He followed him down a hall, and they walked into a classroom. 'This is it.' the room was huge, there was much more luxery than the hotel had, he had a sink, desk, paper and pen, a nice bed and more. 'This is amazing!' he almost shouted, he was very excited. 'Just don't forget to kill off your entire group' Lutece said, and then he walked off.
He sat behind his desk, and picked up a map, making a plan. ´Our hotel is here´ he pointed to a small island, then he went north with his finger, until he reached a creek. ´Yes, excellent´ he said to himself, and he started laughing again.
He was back in his own group, and he brough some supplies from Lutece so Warren would shut his mouth, when he was done handing out supplies he got on the wall and asked for everyone´s attention, the only one missing was Warren, who was out hunting. ´I know I´ve been a s****y leader´ he started, he could hear people mumbling and they agreed. ´But I´m going to change that, I´ve talked to the leader in that old school,  and I´ve got him to meet me and someone else from the group in the woods.´ he stopped again, he heard that the people were happy. ´So I´m going to do something I should have done a long time ago.´ he turned to Cole. ´Cole, do you still want to prove yourself to me and the group?' he asked. 'Ofcourse' Cole replied. 'Then I'm taking you with me, if this goes right you'll have earned your place, now go back to your jobs everyone!' he jumped off the wall, and everyone went back to doing their thing. 'Let me get geared up and then we'll go okay?' Cole asked him. 'No, he said there would be no weapons or he would call off the meeting, we can't risk that.' little did the boy know he would only be easier to kill. 'Alright, let me just put away my sidearm then' Charlie nodded and told him to be quick, then the boy went to his room.

Cole.

He was in his room, putting his gun away. 'Hey man' it was Steve. 'What's up?' Cole asked him. 'Just be careful man, no weapons mean that you're easier to kill, and in a fistfight Charlie will surely beat you.' Cole laughed, he put on his sleeveless jacket and rolled up the sleeves from his shirt. 'He said he changed, I'm going to give him a chance, if I don't return you make sure to put a bullet in his head, okay?'  Steve said he understood. 'While I'm gone, get everyone to wear a sidearm, make them carry a backpack with a blanket, some food, some ammo and their personal belongings, also put some guns in the cars, if you have to move quickly you won't die within a  week.' it was a lot of info, but he was sure Steve understood, to avoid making Charlie pissed he said goodbye to Steve and went down.
They were walking in the woods, they were a large distance away from the camp already. 'Why're we so far away?' Cole asked, Charlie told him it was to avoid the other leader from finding their camp. 'How'd you find his camp?' he then asked, wanting to know what Charlie had been doing all these days. 'The boy Warren brought in told me, it took some convincing for him to tell me though.' Charlie said, grinning. 'Yeah, we heard' Cole still remembered the screams. 'So how are you holding up after your dog died?' This time Charlie was asking the qeustion. 'I felt s****y, but the group is very supportive.' Cole replied, not wanting to go too deep into the subject. They were approaching the creek. 'I should tell you something.' Charlie then said. 'I was the one that killed your dog.' Cole was shocked, he knew Charlie was an a*s, but didn't expect him to be that bad. 'Why?' he then asked. 'Because I really can't stand you, ever since day one.' Cole realised this wasn't about meeting the leader from the other group, he was here to get killed, Steve was right. 'And now you're going to get rid of me?' he said it as a qeustion, but he already knew the answer. 'yes' Charlie said, smiling. 'And what about the rest of the group?' he asked, but he was almost certain they would also be killed. 'All of them are going to die, it's going to happen tonight, but I got the honour of killing you. In return for getting them all killed I'll get a place in their group.' Cole nodded, he wondered why he wasn't dead yet. 'So what you're saying is they gave you a chance, more than I ever got.' if he was going to die, he atleast wanted to piss of Charlie. 'Indeed' he said 'But that won't matter now, because soon, you won't feel anything' he swung his arm at Cole, hitting him in the face. He stumbled, and landed against a tree. The other man then quickly rushed him and tackled him to the ground. He knew Charlie was going to make this as painful as possible. Cole grabbed a large stick from the ground, rolled over and swung it at Charlie's knee, he hit him and then he kicked him in the crouch, and then he quickly got up, still holding the stick. He wanted to kick Charlie, but the man avoided his kick and grabbed him by his collar, smashing him against a tree again. Cole felt the man's hand around his throat, he felt them closing. He couldn't breath. His vision slowly turned black, with all the power he had left in him he swung the stick against Charlie's head, he then felt that his grip wasn't so firm anymore, he kicked the man against his knees a few times, then he pushed him away. It felt good getting air to his lungs again. He pointed the stick forward, uisng it as a ram. He charged at the other man, and they both fell in the water.
Cole landed on top of Charlie, the water was deep, and because Charlie fell on his back his head also went underwater. Cole placed his arm on Charlie's chest and kept pushing down. Charlie's grabbed Cole's arm, trying to remove them, but he failed. Cole could feel Charlie kicking him, but he ignored it. After a few minutes of struggle, Charlie's let go, his hands fell into the water, the kicking stopped. Cole knew that he was dead.

Author's Note

Literally.