CHAPTER TWO
Seeing red

LUCI'S HEAD WAS POUNDING AS HE FORCED HIS EYES TO OPEN SLIGHTLY. Light flooded his vision, bouncing off of white walls and being all the more illuminated. He shuffled his hands slightly, feeling the rough bonds of rope, feeling the back of a wooden chair firm against his back. Voices could be heard ahead of where he was sitting, he tried not to move too much, not wanting to alert them of his consciousness.

"Why did you bring him here? And where did Randall go?" The gruff voice of a man was heard, with a similar Georgian accent.

"Yeah we have children here, what if he's dangerous!" The stern voice of a woman piped in, with a more hushed tone, as though protecting said children from the conversation.

"I told you... Randall escaped, I followed him, but was ambushed... musta had some of his group looking for him." The voice of the man who hit his daughter answered, causing Luci's anger to flare.

"But I thought you said his group left him for dead?" An older voice asked, confused as to the previous story told.

"Yeah, why would they come looking for him?" A more timid female voice chimed in.

"I don't know! Maybe they planned it or sum'. Look Rick, we have to go out and get the rest of this group before they get reinforcements." The dickhead answered, getting more aggressive as his lies were on the edge of being exposed.

"We don't know that, maybe it was a coincidence the he was there, are you sure it was a group?" The calmer tone of the other make, presumably this 'Rick', asked the agitated male.

"What? You sayin' I'm lying, huh?" He barked back, it sounded like he took a couple steps forward. He was obviously a threat to this group, it alluded the curly haired male why they kept him around.

"Why don' we just ask 'im, he's bin awake this entire time." A new voice piped in, grabbing a fistful of the caramel locks and forcing Luci to look up. The restrained male grunted, shooting a glare to the man who just spoke. Blaring ember fiercely meeting the oceanic blue that were above him.

"Well? Who are you? Why're you here?" The man wearing some form of police attire stepped forward.

"Why don't you ask that bastard." Luci nodded his chin towards the man with the buzzed hair. "Maybe he won't lie this time."

"You have something to say?" His tone was threatening as he marched forward, the other man dropped the grip on Luci's hair, standing forward slightly to prevent any attack the other male may have wanted to act out.

"Don't know, do I, kid killer?"

The man's anger flared, having to be held back from hitting the smirking man.

"Untie him!" A small feminine voice yelled from her position by the front door. Moon had a fierce look on her face as she held a gun up against the back of a young Asian man. He looked to be sweating bullets as he looked around the room.

The two women gasped, holding eachother. Another woman, who had been sat down talking quietly to a blonde teen stood up, clearly distressed as she exclaimed, "Glen!"

"Do as she says!" The boy from before, Randall, was holding a machete to another teen's throat. The slightly older boy with the blade to his neck whimpered as it was pressed down. They had entered from the back door.

The group froze, two of their own being held at gunpoint.

"I told you to stay put." Luci growled to the girl, though his eyes softened as he turned to face her, and the obvious bruising on her right temple.

"Couldn't. Thought we'd get you before we left." She huffed, not intimidated by her father's stern tone. She pushed the gun into Glen's back, as if forcing her point. "Do as I say, we have both exits covered." As if on cue the two other girls entered, standing by the exits with guns raised.

Jellybean covered her sisters back, though a shocked look spread on her face as she gazed across the room, causing Luci to turn his attention elsewhere to Sophia who was covering Randall. She had lowered the gun she had pointed at the group.

"Mommy?" Her voice was almost a whisper as tears threatened to spill from her eyes.

"Sophia!" The short haired woman gasped, breaking herself away from the hold of the brunette as she hastily stepped forward to wrap her arms around the thin girl.

Others seemed in shock, murmuring amongst themselves at the appearance of the young girl they had thought to be dead.

The reaction the girl had didn't stop the three kids in their stalemate, guns had not been lowered as had Luci not been untied.

Randall shifted uncomfortably as he lost his backup, glancing to the trio he sided with, unsure of the path they were going to take. Though he knew that if his hostage was to change up the situation, with his bad leg, he'd go down pretty easy.

The mother was crying as she hugged her child, muttering small apologies and 'I love yous', refusing to let go of the young girl.

"You had her this whole time? Why didn't you bring her back?" Rick asked, stepping towards the tied up man, although wary of the hostages and the gun trained on him. His tone wasn't threatening, just desperately confused.

"Went to the highway, no RV, just undead goons." He responded, monotone although the glare remained it had softened some. "She's back, we'll call it even, be on our way."

"Yeah? And how can we trust you, you still have two of ours at gunpoint!" The man who he had fought with spoke up, his bloody nose making him seem all the more dangerous.

Luci shrugged, clearly not intimidated by the man, he glanced to the side, signalling Jellybean over to him. She put the glock away, instantly taking out her Swiss army knife to cut him loose. "Let 'em go."

The older girl and boy did as told. Glen running back to the side of the young women with the bobbed hair, the other guy swiftly moving to the blonde she was with and an older man. Randall shifted awkwardly without the support of the boy he had a knife to, his leg on fire due to the action of the day.

When Luci stood from the chair, Sophia broke away from her mother, handing the man the handgun, taking her pack off to remove the spiked bat from her bag. "Do you have to leave?" Her voice was quivering, as though she was on the verge of tears, glancing down from the man to his youngest daughter, the other girl with a similar look on her face at the implication that she was going to have to leave her friend.

"You know why we have to, kid. If your people are smart they'll start packing their things too." He ruffled her hair as he spoke, glancing up to her mother and sending her a nod.

Glen and his girlfriend looked up from their small reunion, a confused look on his face, matching a few others in his group. "Why would we leave?"

Luci took a look around at the faces that were trained on his, meeting looks of confusion, worry and glares from two men and a blonde women in the group. He turned back to Moonshine, the girl swiftly taking his pack off her shoulder when he caught her gaze.

"There's a herd moving this way, coming from the highway, 'bout... thirteen hundred heads?" He slings the pack over his shoulder, switching his handgun for the rifle that Moon held, knowing if they had to run it'd be easier for her to carry. Some shocked gasps were herd from the news, few others started crying, many had looked to the man named Rick.

Rick ran a hand over the back of his neck before looking to the brunette woman he had previously been standing next to. At the news she had pulled a young boy close to her. The boy, no older than Sophia or Jellybean, was the spitting image of the group's leader, to top it off he even wore a sheriff's hat.

"We're just gonna let them leave? They held two of ours at gunpoint, how do we even know they're telling the truth!?" The buzz headed man yelled, arm gestures a little erratic. Rick looked about fed up with him, giving him a look that told him to back down. Luci turned slightly, glancing to Randall and his injured leg. The boy was attempting to hide his struggles, but it was painfully obvious that he was in agony, the blood running from his busted lip probably only worsening it.

His eyes once again caught those blue orbs set in an ever present glare. Though it wasn't as hard set as before, wasn't as threatening or driven... more like a smoldering fire. Looking the man up and down, noticing a crossbow at his side, a hunting knife on his waist.

"They ain't lying!" Sophia piped up, her high pitched voice being heard clearly across the room.

"You should listen to her..." another young voice announced across the room, everyone had turned to the girl in the doorway who had previously held a rifle to the back of the Asian male. "We don't have long."

The group descended into a series of hushed whispers, the older gentlemen having an extremely troubled expression as he spoke amongst the more country looking of the group.

Mere minutes later, a gunshot was heard outside, before a large man came barrelling through the front door.

"Walkers!"