I went to sleep as the others sat to enjoy some cattail pollen pancakes and some chamomile tea. The siren woke me up. I grabbed my bag and climbed a tree. The others ran for their lives. Unknown persons kept firing at a distance. The men and women smelling like dried blood walked into the clearing. By then everyone was gone. They looked around for food and found none. The guys had packed everything and was cleaning up any evidence of their presence when the gunfire happened. I stayed hidden and watched as soldiers appeared from the bushes. I thought they were going to kill the conscripts but they shook hands and talked casually. Once they left and I came down and went looking for my friends. They were doing a headcount when I came. I explained what I saw. They were shocked. Conscripts and haulers were friends. This is unnatural. Until one mentioned how people pretend to be conscripts so the army can kill them. The corpses are burned but sometimes a few are taken to a facility for study. They don't take live specimens. They take dead ones. On the other hand people are joining the army so they can help the vampires stay hidden. There are those who are paid to invent ways to track, hurt and kill them. There are inventions design to find us too.
We spend an hour there and kept walking. We saw a different batch of gypsies moving in the direction we had left. Aldridge gave them a heads up before we kept going. The others gypsies use vehicles and weapons. They depend heavily on people from farms and cities. We only carry essential and we spend our time on foot. So they call us walkers. We prefer hush since we are the record holder. No vampire got us and no army has gotten us. I asked Pete if they were caught by the army. It turns out the army had captured London. So Patrik and Aldridge joined forces to rescue them. The army didn't catch us. I pulled out pine bark and slowly cooked it to pull out the resin. I collected it in a tin and went looking for twigs. I can use the knife to shave off pieces and mix it with the resin to make fire starters. It or maybe make candles. I collected wood ash and used the fat from the deer to make soap. The others used it as laundry detergent. Others used it when they took a bath. I had already washed my clothes. And placed them to dry. One of the new ones asked me if I could show him how to forage for mushrooms. I shook my head recalling the last time someone tried to forage instead of me. Thankfully he was summoned to help with the laundry.
Virga warned him say it is best of I handle it since there is a chance we all might die or get food poisoning. I am the one who forages for a reason. I went looking for Queen Anne's lace and some blueberries. I made sure to walk on stones and other stuff so no one can trace my path. I found a bush filled with wild strawberries and blueberries. I picked as much as possible and stored them in a ziplock bag. As I kept walking I found queen Anne's lace and it's lookalike. The poisonous hemlock. Queen Anne's lace has hair on its stem. The flowers are close together. Hence the name. The root is edible. Hemlock has flowers in clusters but they are not too close together. The stem has purple spots and the roots might smell like carrots but it is deadly. I picked up the lace and went looking for anything else useful. I found a patch of dandelions. I plucked a few plants and went back to camp. The others were enjoying the last of the ramps and dried chanterelle mushrooms. I processed everything and the others started to pack everything up. Virga carried me since I was tired. He didn't seem to mind. He seemed so happy. I wished he would stay that way. He had lost his family to cancer and road rage. He came here to hurt himself but he gained a new lease on life. He spends most of his days guarding Aldridge.
We were enjoying the night sky when I smelled rust and salt. I wiggled my hand as a warning. I ran to one of the defenders. I managed to make a face depicting vampires. They came out of the trees and brushes. Jake managed to blow the danger whistle and everyone managed to back away. The defenders use flamethrowers. And sent them away. We quickly grabbed whatever possible and moved towards a different camp. Most of them carried torches while I carried a tinder fungus which had a few embers left. Aldridge ordered everyone to keep moving while he distracted them. Virga stayed too. I collected moss and other essentials as we went along. Jake grabbed me and ran towards the Buckley bridge. We got to the other side and the guys used a saw to cut the tree bridge. Pete explained that both Virga and Aldridge had died. Now we need a new leader. The most responsible one in the group was Porter. We decided we will try a new route since London and the Mavericks never really trust us. They will withhold information. We usually take a quiet and long route. He was taking us through gang territory. So we pretended to go along. And when we were certain he won't look back we took our usual route. A birdie signed that he just heard gunfire which means Porter might be injured.
There is nothing we can do. We do take new routes but we avoid ganglands to avoid being mistaken as someone from a rival gang, the authorities or a spy. We kept going till we reached the area filled with collapsed buildings. We stayed on the top floor while the guys checked the place top to bottom. I was briefed where we were going next before I left to find anything useful. I found a soldier injured and he wasn't bitten. I walked over and helped him splint the leg. He looked at me with surprise. I gave him some water and he kept talking. I put my hand on my mouth and my ears and shook my head. I signed and he understood me clearly. I pulled out some venison jerky and a handful of berries. I fed him and then searched the place for something that would double as a pair of crutches. I found none so I helped him up and we kept walking till he heard someone I told him to be quiet and looked out to see soldiers. I told him his friends are here. He happily called out for help as I quickly ran from them. I quickly made it to the buildings and hid. I felt vibrations as the drones flew around trying to find me. After an hour the flying spy left and soldiers came with dogs to search. Since some were anti tech centric. They like to conduct manual searches. Which is a nightmare so I had to hide in the air ducts. I was sure they would go away but they didn't. The dog found me and it came into the air ducts to find me. I had to find a way out. I did. Thankfully nobody was there to capture me. I walked till I reached the group and we left for our next stop. Which was the scrapyard.