SEATTLE STADIUM

"I know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it."

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Seattle Stadium

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No nation that existed past outbreak day could compete with the WLF stadium. They were united by their wishes to take back their land from Scars, and their mutual hatred for the FEDRA governing systems. A group that stayed together was stronger than any singular hunters scattered around the apocalyptic world, and the leaders and civilians that lived among the large nation took advantage of that. They had created a whole world out of the remnants of FEDRA, they were the strongest group.

But slowly, their walls were breaking. Everybody knew that the Scars were slowly infiltrating more and more of their land. Isaac told everyone that he had a plan, but in truth, the closest thing he had come to was blueprints for an attack on their island. It was only a matter of time until the WLF fell to the Scars, and the members feared for their lives. The stadium they lived in was being attacked more often, they were showing weakness.

Robin shook her head, stretching her arms above her head and yawning. She had slept on the couch the night before, leaving Kam and his strange attitude to the bedroom. He was acting odd, but his girlfriend sighed and brushed it off, getting up from the couch and cracking her neck. As autumn approached, the days began getting shorter. That meant only one thing. More nighttime patrols and assignments, which the woman absolutely loathed.

Three loud knocks rapped against her door, and Robin turned around, sighing and stepping away from her living room. She ignored the ice pack on her coffee table that had completely melted over the course of the warm night. She opened the front door groggily, only to face her best friend, Ollie Peterson. His gray hair trickled with sweat, he must have just gotten back from his personal training and workout for the day.

"You look like shit." Robin remarked playfully, chuckling to herself. The man only sent her a glare in return. Ollie was in his late fifties, and he was a veteran at the WLF stadium. He still was considered Robin's best friend, though, as they had known each other since she was only a young girl.

When she first got hired to work at the WLF, she was fourteen. She had just lost her whole life to the Scars, and she wanted pure revenge. But Robin soon learned to put that past her, and she realized that preforming for herself was more important than preforming for her revenge. So, Robin made friends like Ollie and Kam. Of course, she cared for Kam in a different way than Ollie, but neither of them were more important than the other in her mind.

Ollie rolled his eyes, holding his hand against the doorframe and letting his long hair sweep over his cheeks. "And you look like you haven't got a wink of sleep." He replied with much more concern in his voice. His eyebrows furrowed as Robin stepped back a bit, trying not to let him focus on the dark bags looming under her eyes.

"Kam took the bed." She shook her head, seeing no use in lying to her closest friend. "He's been acting- strange ever since the assignment he took last night."

The older man across from him shook his head, scoffing a bit at the young man's behavior. Of course, he had picked up on all of the red flags in Robin's relationship. No matter how hard Ollie tried, he could never get it in her stubborn head that she was in an unrequited love situation. "Well, we're going on a patrol, anyway." He stated. "We've got reports of some stragglers from nearby counties dropping in and out."

Robin nodded lightly, grabbing onto her coat and shrugging it over her shirt. She pulled on a pair of work-safe boots and left into the hallway. Ollie followed her down the carpeted corridor, explaining the mission debriefing, but nothing was getting to her head. All the young woman could think about was her boyfriend's recent behavior. Maybe he was simply feeling remorse for killing a Scar? Isaac had told her about the brutality of their attack the night prior. What if he was in trouble-?

"Hey!" Ollie yelled out, snapping Robin's head up. They were standing in front of the stairwell door, a large sign beside it reading 'To Weapons'. "You still in there?" He asked, scoffing a bit.

She shook her head in return. "Let's just go."

The man skeptically gazed at her before turning to the door. He opened it, walking Robin down the long and winding staircase. By the time they got to the weapons room, her feet were aching from the harsh concrete she was walking down. They both walked into the weaponry, looking over the desk where a few of the weaponsmiths stood. All of them were sorting out boxes of ammo, first aid kits, and of course, guns and hand-held weapons.

Ollie approached the two WLF members working at the desk, leaning his hands and body against the slight overhang. "Hey, what do you have for us, Ralph?" He asked the red-haired man standing across from him.

"Scar assignment?" The weaponsmith asked.

"Yup." Ollie replied, sighing. "We're getting a lot of those lately. What the fuck is Isaac thinking?" He exclaimed. His voice dropped down to a whisper, so much so that Robin could barely hear him. She stepped up beside him, grabbing a spare backpack and beginning to load ammo into it.

Ralph shook his head, placing a few guns on the desk for the two to take. "He's been pulling more and more people off of patrols." He explained to the older man. "I'm guessing that he's trying to get the attack on the Scar island to happen faster."

"I hope he knows that he's putting us at risk." Ollie scoffed, grabbing one of the assault rifles and the handgun Ralph had given him. He slung the AR over his back and put his pistol in his backpack holster.

Robin smiled at the WLF weaponsmith and grabbed a shotgun, running her hands over the cold metal before pulling it against her back. She put some more shells in her backpack before grasping onto the revolver on the desk, as well. She already had a knife strapped to her thigh, it was simple common sense, so she knew she didn't need another melee weapon. Robin brushed herself off, fully armed and ready for the assignment she and Ollie were about to take.

Ralph turned to both of them, nodding lightly. "May your survival be long."

"And may your death be swift." Robin finished the motto, turning to Ollie.

"You ready to go?" He asked.

The woman nodded, cracking her knuckles. "Yeah, I'm ready."

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The two best friends sat in the front of one of the WLF trucks. Ollie took the wheel, elegantly driving down the patrol area and looking out for any stray Scars wandering around. Robin also kept her eye out from the passenger seat, letting her head fall back onto the not-so-comfortable headrest. It was no surprise that the military vehicles weren't the best things to sit in, but they had working trucks, it was a miracle for the time and place they were in.

Robin looked over towards the hills beside them, covered in old highways. "Do you think we'll see anything today?" She asked, turning her head back towards her partner.

Ollie immediately nodded. "Isaac assigned Kam here last night, I don't think he got much done." He replied harshly. Robin didn't want to believe that. She knew that her boyfriend was a diligent and esteemed member of the WLF, he would've cleared everything out with no problem.

Oh, how wrong she was.

Tons of horses began galloping against the back of the truck, they had ventured from the side of the hills. Each horse had a Scar placed atop of it, riding them towards where Robin and Ollie were situated. Panic ensued in both of them, the driver swerving the truck back and forth to try and lose their trail. But nothing worked. Adrenaline pumped through Robin's veins as she looked through the back window, arrows slamming against the glass and slowly cracking it.

She swore loudly, her arms aching from trying to grip onto the dashboard for support. She grabbed onto her handgun in her pocket, reloading it while trying not to let her head slam into the windows from Ollie's frantic movements. He began yelling, but his voice was blurred amongst the whistling of the Scars and the humming of the vehicle. They could hear the arrows punting into the metal of the truck, they needed to think of a plan, and fast.

"Fuck, Ollie?!" Robin yelled harshly, continuing to look back out from behind her shoulder. She unclipped her seatbelt and turned fully, ducking her head down every time the Scars took a shot at the back window. She looked up to the hills beside her, thinking hard. "I'll shoot them from the windows, you need to lose their trail!"

The man scoffed loudly. "What the fuck do you think I've been doing?!"

The woman only rolled her eyes, craning her body backwards. She grabbed her gun and shot once, breaking the glass of the window. Arrows began whizzing through the vehicle, but she needed to be able to make a clear shot. Robin lined up her pistol, still sitting down. She shot blindly, hoping that the whistles were ones of mourning and panic instead of triumph. The Scars didn't stop trailing them, but Robin could hear the cries of the horses as they bucked off their dead owners.

More and more arrows threatened to scrape against Robin's hair, making her heart thump louder in her ears and chest. As much as she hated to admit it, Ollie was right. Isaac was focusing so hard on the island that he neglected their regular patrols. The woman continued to shoot at the Scars, trying to keep the adrenaline pumping in case she got hit. Nothing was slowing the attackers down, they had to get them off their trail.

Gallops came from the window beside Robin, and she looked over just in time to dodge an arrow. It slid past her face and slipped past Ollie's, as well, lodging itself into the other window. She quickly reloaded her gun, ducking down underneath the window and propping her back up against the wall. Robin held her hand up, taking three shots and hearing the defeated screams of a dead Scar. She sat back up, turning around only to have two hands wrap around her neck.

She winced and kicked against Ollie, losing breath slowly. The two hands became the crook of the Scar's elbow, and the pressure began forcing more and more blood to rush to Robin's face. It was excruciating, she could barely feel her own mouth as she grunted. Her vision blurred, but she could just make out the silhouette of Ollie grabbing out his own handgun and taking a few shots at the Scar. He held one hand on the wheel, darting his eyes back from Robin's near-dead form slumped against the window.

Ollie took two shots, the bullets landing themselves almost perfectly between the eyes of the enemy he was facing. The grip loosened immediately off of Robin, and she gasped harshly for air. She sat back up and continued to breath deeply, rubbing the sore spot against her neck. The Scars had retreated, galloping off back to the hills where they had come from. The woman looked through her window, looking at the dead bodies of the Scars that she had killed from the rear-view.

"Shit..." Robin sighed, still grazing her neck with her fingertips. She wouldn't be surprised if it left a faint bruising from the Scar's hands.

"You alright?" Ollie asked, steering the truck back to the main, overgrown road.

She nodded. "Yeah, just a little winded." She breathed, shaking her head and looking down. Robin's hair was coated in Scar blood from where Ollie had shot them, it was gruesome. "Can we just get back to the stadium?" She asked.

The older man nodded, shifting the gears and doing a complete one-eighty across the road. "Yeah, let's get you cleaned up and back to Kam."

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