Mark Of The Raven

Chapter Twelve: Resisting Resistance

It had taken some time but we were finally close to our destination. Period from my understanding, is ding, Isaac believes that we are only a few miles away. And that would mean more than likely that the resistance has scouts placed everywhere in the surrounding area. And that simply means that they more than likely know that we are coming. Which is both good and bad for us.

" I think it might be better if we don't cause any big commotion until we know for sure what is going on" Isaac pointed out and the majority of us agreed. The only one that didn't seem to was Emery, which honestly had not come all that much of a surprise to the rest of us.

" When we get there, just keep your heads down, and don't do anything stupid. And unfortunetly, Val, that means no magic of any type. Same thing with you Astrid" Issac pointed out which bothered me a little. " I'm not a damn kid Issac. I know what to do and what not to do. I'm not gonna sit here and try to risk out necks " I complained. Issac assured me that he knew but it felt like he wanted to show some assertiveness with us considering how bad Emorys mood had been.

It didn't take too long before we could see the Fort in the distance. It I call it afford even though it's more of a city. This place was the size of a baseball stadium, which by today standards is pretty large for a city but for a city. After the collapse most cities completely shut down and no longer existed. The ones that still do, are completely run down with people looking for an escape from reality..which was usually never a good thing.

We pulled up to the city gates which were a combination of scrap metal and old tires that looked as though they had been melted together. We were met by a couple of guards, one being quite larger than the other, who greeted us with caution.

" What are you doing here? " the thicker guard asked. Issac placed his arm on door and smiled back at the guard. " We are here to help fight with the resistance if we can. We heard this is where they were located and we wanted to offer any aid we could" Emory rolled her eyes at his answer. " So much for keeping our heads down" She mumbled.

" You will have to meet with our captain. Pull through and park on the left" the thinner guard approached the car and motioned for us to pull our car into a makeshift parking lot, to which we complied.

After pulling in, we got out of the car and were taken into a nearby building where we were met with an even larger man that guard. This one, had a different uniform on though and we assumed him to be the captain. " I understand you wish to join the Resistance? " the captain asked to which we all nodded.

" Well, I have some bad news for you. There are practically none of them left" we all looked at one another in shock. " What do you mean there are none of them left? I asked hastily.

" what I mean is, is that the majority have either given up, or they have died. That's all there is too it. I don't know who told you that the resistance was still here but..well..it's not" the captain clasped his hands together before resting them on his belly.

" But we came all this way.." Issac sighed. " This entire crap was a waste of the time. I told you that we should have done this ourselves " Emory scolded.

" We can't do this on our own. We are only four freaking people you want us to take on thousands of those freaks by ourselves? We have been through this, it's not possible" Issac yelled at Emory who proceed to yell back at him.

" Can you at least take us to the last few members of the resistance that remain here? Maybe they can help" I asked and the captain nodded. After snapping his fingers, the two guards came into the room and proceeded to escort us into town. As we walked, we took note of how busy the city looked. There were tons of people here, shops, cafes, and even grocery stores, it's almost like time had stopped here and what remained of the old world was still in tact. But it most definitely looked nothing like a trained resistance camp.

Eventually we were lead to a small tavern called " The Shaken Leg" which, did not look much from the outside and looked even less like something on the inside. It was old, it was dirty, and it smelled like cheap cigars and the alcohol was more than likely watered down. But within the taken, sat a group of 5 or so people who looked to be old soldiers from back when the military was still around. They were even wearing the trademark green military uniforms from before the collapse.

As we approached closer we realized that most of the people there was old with the exception of a young woman and a young man who looked to be a tad bit older than us.

" Are you guys the resistance? " Issac asked to which one of the men turned around, with an awful frown painted upon his wrinkled, poorly tanned face " Who wants to freaking know? "

" We are here to help you guys out..we came all the way from the east to help you guys...but we were expecting more" Emory explained which made the old man chuckle. " Yeah well. I guess we were expecting more as well" the man confesses.

This group didn't look all that much like they could fight the battle we were hoping to have. But they would have to do. The young man and women didn't seem to say too much. But the old ones had tons of stories to share with us about how they use to fight the cult off. Even with the powers that the cult possessed, apparently at one point in time, they could still hold their own.

" I remember the first time I encountered them bastards" one man proceed to explain. " There was four of them and they had me surrounded. And some of them said they wanted to take me alive while the others thought I would look better being scattered in pieces. But they weren't expecting me to fight back. So that's what I did. I fought until every last one of them couldn't cause me or anyone else anymore harm" the man boasted.

" So you killed them? " Emory smirked. I could tell she didn't really believe his story all that much with her tone. And I had to admit, some of their stories sounded completely unrealistic. Though, if they were real, the embellished the stories quite a bit.

" I did what had to be done" the man glared at Emory who just nodded without offering any more critiques.

" So is there a place in town that we can stay. We are pretty tired and have been traveling for a while, we are exhausted" I finally decided to offer us a reprieve and the resistance thankfully showed us a small motel up the road where we could get some rooms.

I say motel, but it was more or less just an empty building with a few shipping containers off the side of it. I had hoped that the experience would be better than the look but, it wasn't. We ended up all cramped in one single shipping container, with tiny cots scattered around the edges of it.

" What the hell was that? " Emory finally laughed, and we all shook our heads.

" Half of those damn fools have never even been in a battle, much less a fight. We can't expect them to really help us! " Emory spoke the thoughts that had crossed all of our minds. Perhaps coming all this way was a mistake. But we had to at least try. Even if it didn't work out In the end. " I mean, maybe there is something to them and we are just missing it" I tried to defend them even though I had my own doubts.

" I would actually have to agree with the blonde on this one" Astrid said as he leaned against the wall of the container. " I don't see them being much help. If anything, they would probably just get in the way. Which is the last thing we need. I mean, we already have enough issues" he added, crossing his arms.

" Wow, you know it's bad when me and bird breath can agree on something" Emory said, shocked that for once, they had seen eye to eye.

" I don't know what we should do but what I do know is, is that we need to rest. It's late and we can discuss this tomorrow. If we all decide that the resistance can't help then I say we still stay here for a while, gather up the things we might need before we just leave" Issac proposed and we all agreed. " This is going to be interesting"