Chapter 6 Game Over

I hurriedly walked back to the tent to get the survival knife I always keep in my bag, then, I heard footsteps approaching me. I felt like I was sweating excessively because of my uneasiness, so I tightened my grip on the knife.

When I felt that the person was right behind me, I raised my knife and turned around quickly, ready to plunge it deep into his hand, but before I could, he caught my hands, stopping me from stabbing him.

My eyes widened to see that it was just Rafael, looking at me as if I'm crazy. I looked behind him to see the rest of the guys all shocked and weirded out at what just happened. I shut my eyes tight, feeling embarrassed.

"There's someone else here, Raf." I explained. Although I didn't see anyone, I was sure.

"No one's here, babe," Matt approached me and rubbed my shoulders. "You're just being paranoid."

I quickly shrugged my shoulders to get away from his touch and glared at him. I turned to face Rafael, "You need to believe me. I'm not crazy, Raf, I'm sure of it." I begged him to do something.

"We should look around, in case she's right." Hayden said to Rafael. I let out a breath when he said that, glad that someone believed me. "Hayden and I will look around. Axel, guard the camp." Rafael ordered.

They started walking away when I chased after them and held his arm to stop him. "Wait, I want to come with you."

"It's too dangerous. Go back to the tent." He pulled his arm away from my grip and started to walk away again but I ran to block his way.

"I know it's dangerous but I can protect myself. Let's not forget who saved your asses when you guys almost got killed. I saved you all from those soldiers, I killed six of them. You haven't killed before, nor fought a real enemy. All you have are practices."

I walked past them as I said that and they had no choice but to follow me. It felt good to speak up and put these boys back to their positions.

"If you're coming, I want to be there for you. I'm sorry for not believing you." Matt apologized. I just smiled at him. I'm glad he realized he should be sorry.

We've been walking for minutes now and I could feel my legs getting weak. I felt Matt nudging my shoulder with a water bottle. I looked at him as he raised it in front of my face, offering me to drink.

The others also paused to wait for me to finish drinking. I offered them to drink as well when I finished and they took it.

"This is ridiculous. Are you sure you heard something?" Hayden frowned as he wiped the sweat dripping down his temples with a towel.

"He's right, babe, why don't we just go back to the camp?" I looked at Matt disappointedly when he spoke.

I was about to argue with him when Rafael suddenly raised a hand and shushed us. He was a few steps away from us so we approached him as he signalled us to look into the woods.

I looked at the direction he was pointing at to see a figure of a woman standing behind a tree, watching us. When she noticed that we are all looking at her, she suddenly ran away.

We all ran fast to catch her, but this only made her run faster. When she finally stopped running, we were all out of breath. I looked around, surveying the place she led us to. It's a camp. She's living with seven women, all looking frightened at our sudden appearance here.

The four of us looked at each other, wondering what we should do next.

"Unbelievable," one of the girls spoke. "There's other humans here."

With that, they all ran to us and inspected us very carefully like they can't believe we're real.

One of them stared at me deeply, not even blinking, while smiling widely. She wasn't moving and I was honestly creeped out by her expressions.

I was shocked when she raised her hand and was about to touch my face, but she was stopped by Rafael who suddenly reached for his gun and pointed it at her. "Move your hands away from her!"

The rest of the girls screamed and backed away from the sudden act of violence.

"What the fuck are you doing, man?!" Matt yelled at Rafael, grabbing him by his collar. "Didn't I tell you to stop using the guns?"

Rafael smirked at him and let out a short laugh. He then raised the gun and put it back on his holster. "Sorry about that, boss," he apologized sarcastically.

Matt let go of Rafael, slightly pushing him, before turning his attention to the woman. "What's your name?"

"It's Imelda, sir. My friends and I have been here for almost a week now and we are very scared. Can we come with you?" I raised an eyebrow when the girl suddenly made a request.

Matt sighed. He turned back to us and stepped away from her so we could talk privately. "Should we?" he asked us.

"Are you out of your mind? No." Hayden said without thinking twice about it.

"Look at them, Hayden," Matt pointed at the women. "They need our help."

"They're not our responsibility." Rafael hissed at him. "You seriously think we can help them? We can't afford taking in eight more people, we're barely sustaining ourselves! Let them learn and be strong."

"It's not that easy, they're in the middle of the woods! They don't have access to supplies, the stores are located far from here." Matt defensed.

"Exactly. Don't you think that's weird?" Rafael caught my attention when he said that. "Did they wake up here with tents and camping supplies? Or did they take them from stores? If they did take them, that means they know how to survive." Matt opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it again when he thought about everything Rafael said.

"We need to be open to all possibilities. They've been here for a week, that means they had enough time to explore this place. They could've moved to the town but chose to stay in the woods. They could be werewolves, Matt." Rafael's theory shocked me. Could they really be wolves?

"That's bullshit!" Matt suddenly exclaimed. I was even more surprised when he looked at me, waiting for me to say something. "Come on, Asteria, we need to save them."

I looked at him, then at Hayden and Rafael. "I don't think so, Matt." I mumbled.

He turned away from us and covered his face with his hand out of frustration, disappointed in our decision. "I can't believe you," he pointed at me as he said that, and though what he said wasn't as serious as saying 'I hate you,' I felt every word pierce through my heart.

I looked back at the girls to try to convince myself to change my decision, but when I saw that Imelda was holding a wooden plank, ready to hit Hayden in the head, I got even angrier.

I was quick enough to grab her hand before she could hit him. She looked at me with teary eyes, and I glared at her with spite as I twisted her arm, even digging my nails deep into it, making her shriek in pain and drop the wood plank.

Matt grabbed my arm away from her, "That's enough, Asteria!" Me? He's angry at me, not her?

"I was so scared, I'm sorry." Imelda cried. "I didn't mean to. Please forgive me."

Matt took a deep breath before speaking. He knows this is the right thing to do. "Listen, Imelda, it's not just the four of us, there are 12 of us in our group, we need to talk to them first. Let us leave for now, but we'll return."

"Promise you'll return?" I hated how she gave him the puppy eyes, as if they're so close already. Matt nodded.

We were all quiet on our way back to the camp. I'm not sure if Matt and I are on good terms right now, he never spoke to me or even just looked at me. He acted like I was never there.

Even when we returned, the four of us were quiet. We told the rest of them about what we found in the woods and we all agreed to just leave them and leave this weird place immediately in the morning.

"Hey, I think we need more wood." Damien told us while they tried to set up a campfire. "I'll get some more." Wilhelmina volunteered.

After a long time, Wil finally came back with the woods and a bag filled with mangoes. That's probably why she looks so exhausted, she picked them fresh from a tree.

"What took you so long?" Axel said as he grabbed the woods from her.

"Got lost a little," she chuckled and for some reason, she looked kinda nervous. "Hey, Matt, there are more woods back there, do you mind getting them for me? Just walk straight ahead, there'll be a mango tree in the middle of a pathway, I placed the woods below it."

"Okay," Matt agreed quickly.

"I'm coming with you!" I called.

He stopped walking and finally looked at me, "No, you're not. Stay here."

"Oh yeah? Stop me." I dared him, walking past him and led the way into the woods.

Silence wrapped the whole forest. My pride is keeping me from talking to him and I hated how he refuses to make the first move.

We've been walking for a few minutes when I decided to finally talk, "You're seriously won't talk to me? That's childish." I waited for him to reply but he didn't. "If this is because I disagreed with you earlier, I'm sorry that you were offended, but I'm not sorry that I stood up for what I thought. Just because we're a couple it doesn't mean that I have to always agree with you."

"I know, and I'm not disrespecting your opinion, but how could you just agree to leave them in the middle of nowhere? They obviously need us!"

"Because Hayden and Rafael were right! These people are strangers, we don't know what they're actually capable of!" He shut his eyes with what I said, and he still disagrees with me. "You know what, if you think Imelda is hot just say that."

He stopped walking and turned around to face me. I also stopped, catching my breath. "Why would you think that?" he asked in a more mellow tone this time.

"I don't know, you seem to want her to be a part of us so bad." I closed my eyes as I said that, realizing how dumb I sounded.

I looked at him and he seemed hurt, but angry at the same time. I was expecting for him to lash out and defend himself so I was surprised when he suddenly hugged me very tightly, I couldn't even hug him back.

"I'm sorry I made you think of it that way." That was when I realized that he wasn't hurt because of what I said, he was hurt because he thought he hurt me. "I love you, my Asteria. I'm sorry. You're right, I was being immature."

I'm glad that we both fixed this. At first I thought that this fight was serious but now that I think about it, it was pretty stupid and I think we should never let anything like that go between us again. I love him, and he loves me, and it's okay if we have misunderstandings sometimes. No relationship is perfect.

"Hey, I think we're here. Why did Wil choose to get wood here? It's a little far from our camp, no wonder she got lost."

I was confused to see that there are no woods under the tree. What the hell is this?

I heard footsteps on the other side of the forest so I crept there, making sure to not make any noises as I peeked to see what's in there.

"Matt..." I whispered to call him. I was too stunned to move.

In front of us was a camp filled with soldiers, the same ones who chased after us and wanted to kill us.

We were all foolish to think that we're safe now, just because we lived peacefully for the past months. We were foolish to be so neglectful and naive to think that everything will be okay. I can feel Matt's hand holding mine, both of us scared.

I suddenly felt someone push me and Matt from behind, revealing ourselves to the soldiers in the camp.

"Ah, what do we have here?" one of the soldiers held Matt by his chin to raise his head so he could see his face. "You must be Matt?"

"How did you know my name?" Matt looked very puzzled. "We stumbled upon your good friend... Wilhelmina, I think." he looked up as he tried to remember her name. "I told her to bring me her group's leader if she wants to live. I assume you are the leader."

That traitor. So that's why she looked so tired and nervous. She was caught and she gave them Matt instead to save her cowardly ass.

"What do you want from me?" Matt asked, acting tough. "I'm looking for someone. Actually, it's not just a normal person," that caught my interest, so I looked up to listen to what he had to say. "I'm looking for that special person who is strong enough to save humanity but also has the power to end it. Tell me, Matt, do you notice something weird going on with your members? Is there anyone acting, hmm how should I say it? Differently. Is anyone showing unhuman strength, speed, or maybe even powers?" he laughed after he said all that, so both of us were left confused, wondering if he's serious.

"How can I help you if I don't understand? Can you go straight to the point?" Matt crossed his arms.

"Angel. We're looking for the angel," the soldier giggled again, and it's one of the most horrifying laughs I ever heard. "Now I think that's too straight forward for you."

What does he mean by angel? Like, an angel with actual wings and is sent by a god?

I thought about everything for a while, then I remembered the guy I encountered in the cottage hidden in the woods. It possesses unhuman strength and speed, could he be the angel they were looking for? Should I tell them?

"Hey, you," the soldier called one of his guys who was standing behind him. "Call the boss. Tell him the leader is here."

Just then, a man went out of the tent and walked towards us and I immediately looked down when I saw his face so he wouldn't recognize me.

"Matt, we meet again," it was the same soldier leader from before!

"You." That was all Matt could say. He glared at him, obviously enraged by their second encounter.

"I won't hurt you, Matt. You're obviously not what I was looking for otherwise you would've killed me already," the leader chuckled. "I want you to bring your group to me so we can inspect them, that's all." He made it sound so easy, but I know that couldn't be just it. He was torturing them before, he even killed one of them.

"No. You're going to kill us all when you're sure the angel isn't one of us because we're no longer of use to you," he answered as if he read my mind.

"I'm not giving you a choice. You bring me your group and I might let you live longer, or you don't and you die now, and I'll still haunt your group because surely they're just somewhere around here." He threatened, I glanced at Matt who doesn't show any sign of fear at all, meanwhile I am trembling.

"I am not giving my friends to you." Matt said, emphasizing every word.

"Matt," I called him out and held his arm because he isn't thinking this through.

"Wait," I was shocked when the leader suddenly grabbed me by my arm and pulled me close to him to take a good look at my face. "What a pleasant surprise."

"Don't touch her, you bastard!" I was shocked when Matt punched him in the face so he accidentally let go of my arm, but then all other soldiers around us aimed their guns at Matt, so he had to stop punching their leader.

The leader took this as an opportunity to be in control of the fight. He grabbed him and held his knife aimed against his neck, threatening to slit his throat if he made one wrong move.

The leader, however, looked at me and said, "You killed six of my guys under my watch. How can a tiny girl like you be so dangerous?"

"I'll do everything you want to make up for what I did." I said with my voice shaking, willing to do anything for Matt.

"I want revenge." As he said that, he pressed the knife to his neck, making it bleed a little. Matt flinched because of the pain.

"No, don't hurt him!" I screamed and was about to attack him when two soldiers suddenly appeared on both of my sides to hold me so I couldn't move. "No! Let go of me, you piece of shits!"

I was screaming frantically, panicking because while the soldiers are holding me, the leader is pressing the knife deeper, and I could see Matt's blood dripping down his shirt, his eyes starting to tear up, looking in horrible pain, but somehow, he looks like he's more concerned for me than for himself.

"I know something crucial that can help you with your search for the angel." I offered, hoping he would listen to me.

"You're bluffing. You didn't even know the angel existed." What I said somehow triggered him, and I was helpless as I watched him plunge the knife deeper into Matt's neck, then proceeding to slit his throat.

I was silent for a while, it took me some time to process what was happening in front of me and it wasn't until his head drooped that everything sank into me. He killed him. I screamed so loud, and though I knew it wasn't possible, it was like I could feel my heart shattering into pieces.

Everything around me was silent and all I could hear was my wailing. The man I love - the person I love the most - died in front of me and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

"Now we're even," the leader laughed, as if my sorrow is amusing to him, and I wanted to hurt him, kill him, so bad but I had no strength for that. I was heartbroken and two men were restraining me. "If you don't want to end up like your boyfriend here," he pointed at Matt's dead body "you will bring your whole group to me, Don't ever think of running away, I can find you and I will haunt you wherever you go."

I sprinted as fast as I could when they let me go, and I have no idea what I'm going to do next, but I know for sure that I won't bring them my friends. I will not allow them to hurt everyone I love.

I stumbled through the woods, branches hitting my shoulders as I ran. My vision was blurry due to my crying and I didn't know what direction I'm supposed to go.

I felt relieved when I was able to return to our camp, like a thorn was pulled from my chest.

"Asteria, where were you? We went to the woods minutes ago to look for you guys but we couldn't find you." Damien said as he ran towards me to guide me so I could join them sitting around the campfire.

He paused when he saw that I was crying and my clothes were bloody. "What happened?" He froze, obviously frightened.

The others walked in our direction as well, and when they saw that I was crying and Matt wasn't with me, they put two and two together and concluded that Matt was killed.

"Listen, we don't have much time," my voice cracked as I tried to speak in between my sobs. "The soldiers are here. We need to leave this place now!"

Everyone was panicking, we didn't have time to put out the fire and fix the tents, we rushed to leave this place having only one goal in our minds: get out alive.

By the time we reached the van, gunshots started firing in our direction, luckily none of us got hit due to the distance.

When everyone was in, Rafael quickly drove away, but to our surprise, the soldiers followed us, riding in their vehicle.

"Fuck, Rafael, can this thing go any faster!?" Axel screamed panicking when they suddenly started shooting at our vehicle.

He pulled his gun out and rolled his window down to shoot back at the enemies. Damien and Ryle tried pulling him back in but he wouldn't budge and kept shooting.

After a while, Hayden joined the shooting, followed by Ryle and Serena, hoping to slow them down.

I shut my eyes and tried to calm myself in between all this chaos. I thought about Matt, and how much of an angel he is. I remembered his hug, his kiss, his touch... I remembered every single moment that I had with him, and I hate knowing that someday, I won't remember how it feels having him around.

After realizing mourning won't help, I swiftly stood up from my seat and took a machine gun and shot rapid fires at them while having tears rushing down my cheeks. This is for Matt.

I was careful to not get shot, Rafael was also careful to make sure that we'll be able to escape safely. He continued to increase speed, making as many turns as possible, and everything felt dangerous. The way the vehicle was moving too fast, the gunshots hitting the van but luckily not the important parts, and us trying to shoot back at them.

We were lucky that we managed to escape when I shot at their tires, making them take a wrong turnm. Rafael quickly took this as an opportunity to flee.

We were safe, but it was only for a while. We need to figure out how to get rid of them next, but most of all, we need to figure out how to get rid of the traitor within our group.

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