I kicked open the door turning to find Jadon in my kitchen. I sighed and rolled my eyes at him while his mouth was half full with a salami sandwich he just helped himself to making. “Oh hey Mac, umm… sorry I didn’t exactly tell you about coming over, I assumed you wouldn’t mind, but I didn’t exactly get a chance to tell you.” He started blubbering on and I hit him on the arm with the butt of my gun. “Ouch, what was that for?” He asked.

“You know what that was for.” I said my face set into a scowl. He looked at me with that crooked smile that made me never be able to stay mad at him, and I rolled my eyes and sighed. “It’s called communication.” I said.

“I know I sort of just forgot.” He said.

“Whatever Jadon.” I said opening one of the cabinets and grabbing out a can of spaghettios. I looked back at him and he was still giving me that crooked smile. I slammed the microwave shut and turned around to face him jumping up on the counter behind me. “So I know food isn’t the only reason you’re here though you wish it could be, so what’s going on. I feel like I haven’t talked to anyone lately.”

He swallowed a huge bite he was taking with a loud gulp and his face went more solemn. “We’ve been trying to keep less contact as of late. It’s been closer calls lately as you know and we don’t want to give ourselves away. Anyways who really wants to stay in constant contact with coldbloods? But I really came here to tell you that we’ve…sort of been compromised. Or we think that’s what happened to…” He paused and his face became gloomy.

“To what, happened to what Jadon?” I asked, he was trying to hide something from me and I could feel his mind which was always connected to mine, trying to shy away. I could still feel his pain though it seeped over to me through the strong connection we shared.

“To Jackson.” He said. I looked at him confused, I had been feeling a little weird lately, but if someone died, I think I’d feel horrible right? “He’s…well, he’s dead MAC.” My face dropped and I felt the blood rush down to my heart.

“How could I not know, I mean, have you guys been trying to avoid contact with me so I wouldn’t find out?” I asked.

“Well sort of, we knew that you’d go after whoever killed him in the first place, and since he was new, we knew it’d be a little easier to keep it from you since you didn’t have as strong of a connection.”

“And the point of keeping it from me was?” I still couldn’t see where he was going with this.

“So you wouldn’t go after him, so you wouldn’t try to find who killed him. We know how you are and so do you MAC.”

*
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*


I woke up laying next to a dried out bush the sun beating on my back. I coughed up sand for a minute having inhaled it during the night based on my sleeping position. When I was done I wiped the dry spit from the corners of my mouth and looked up my hand covering my eyes from the blinding sunlight. I felt my body temperature had already increased past breaking point, and I felt sore all over from my position on the ground. I stretched my aching limbs and felt my elbow pop and instantly I decided not to ‘stretch’ again. I looked towards the west and my destroyed hopes sparked at the knowledge that I had been walking in the right direction during the night. My hopes increased a little as I took in this fact and I felt myself walking easier, if still subconsciously. I looked towards the west and squinted my eyes in the sun. I thought I saw a distinct line at the bottom of the horizon. I realized now that I was walking up a hill, and that the line kept becoming bigger. My hopes increased as I almost started to run over top of the sand covered hill. The black line began increasing and my eyes were suddenly blasted with sun as I made my way over the edge and shielding my eyes, I saw the mountain ridge. Only a day’s walk, a day’s walk and I’d have water, food, shelter. I felt the pain in my legs and heart from climbing the hill, and knew at that instant that I needed to get there before tomorrow morning, or I wouldn’t get there at all.

*
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*


I heard a sound outside the house and turned to look at Jadon. He continued eating his sandwich but I knew he’d heard it too. I grabbed my gun from off the counter and cocked it into place. I put my back to the wall and edged myself out of the kitchen. Jadon likewise took his gun out of his jeans and silently followed me. I shook my head and pointed to the back door. ‘Stand guard I’ll check the front, you stay at the back.’ I thought through our connection, and he nodded sending me a picture of the plan so that he knew I’d understand that he’d gotten it.

‘Be careful.’ He thought towards me, I nodded and headed towards the front. I crawled onto the ground and peered out of the window. He was right, we’d been terminated. Finders were all over the front of my small yard. It was out in the middle of nowhere so I knew they weren’t there by coincidence. I sent the picture I was seeing to Jadon and I felt shock coming from his side. Someone either got captured and they got the information out, or someone willingly gave up, we both hoped it was the former. I saw the spotlight pan over to the front window and I ducked my gun secured in my hands. I knew they’d be breaking in soon and was ready for a fight. ‘Jadon, they obviously know what we are already, should we just change?’ I felt the opposition to that idea rolling through his head. ‘That’s the last thing we need to do. Only in last resort do we actually change in front of the Infected.’ I sighed silently knowing he was telling the truth. He could probably feel the sigh across the connection. I could make out the other members of the pack from across the connection if only slightly. I searched but didn’t feel any panic with their lines. I only hoped they were ok. I tried looking out the window again and suddenly my chest felt like it exploded. My heart contracted and I grasped my shirt as if to stop the pain. I could feel the pain coming from Jadon’s connection too, and I knew suddenly that one of ours had been killed. Stabbed probably in their sleep. The war had begun and Jadon and I were on the front line. As we both recovered from the blow of a friend, colleague, and companion’s death, we tried to work out who it was while still watching the Infected outside. ‘Donnie?’ He suggested trying to keep his head as I was, I watched them talking quickly outside pointing to the house. I reached out for Donnie’s connection but it still felt strong. ‘No,’ I thought, ‘What about Geoffrey?’ I felt him reach for this one and saw that he also came up empty handed. I could still feel pain in my chest and thought, ‘Well I know it’s not Marcus, we’d know if it’s him, namely because you’d be the next-in-line alpha.’ I felt him agree over our connection. I felt realization hit him hard and he sent a name to me, ‘Clark.’ He thought and my heart that was hurting now ached painfully. Not Clark, it couldn’t be him. I reached out for the connection, but I couldn’t even find it. My eyes became wide as the spotlight came over to me again and I saw them pointing at the house. I was scared, I was actually scared. They’d already killed one of my own, and now, they were coming for us. We knew this day would come, but not so soon. I sent out a message to the pack as loud as I could from this distance telling them that we were in trouble, then I sent out a message to all of the coldbloods, and oddly hoped that they’d hear me. I heard them wiggling the back door handle, and made like I was going to go back there before I heard, ‘Don’t move, I’m fine watch the front.’ I sighed as I heard his voice, but was worried all the same. Sudden knocks on the door made me jump a little and I felt the need to look out the peephole, just to get a good look at the people who killed Clark but knew I shouldn’t. The knocks became harder and the wiggling in the back more pronounced. I could feel Jadon tense up through the connection, but I could also feel some connections become somewhat stronger, even some of the coldbloods became clearer as they all started to come to our assistance. ‘Live together…Die alone.’ Jadon finished.

I stood up on my feet and put my back against the wall on the side of the door. I held the gun up ready to aim it at whoever’s face walked through the door. I felt the door banging become more pronounced, and suddenly it blasted open…

*
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*

(To be Continued)