Tundra stared at Olly, who was sleeping peacefully. He didn’t want to leave his brother alone in the woods but they were out of food and he wanted to take him back into town even less. At first it had been fine but now there was a strange group of crazy teens who called themselves the Founders of the New World. They thought everyone who wasn’t dead yet had been chosen to survive and build a new society. They’d tried to recruit him to their cause, a little more forceful about it each time. Maybe it would be best to just leave and move somewhere else…

He sighed, and left a note for Olly, before heading out.

He slipped into the sewers as soon as possible. The Founders had total control of the surface but they hadn’t ventured below yet, as far as Tundra knew. He walked past the spray painted dick again, turned right then left and surfaced in the shop.

Before heading for the food, he followed the now familiar scratching sound to the animal aisle. The cat was nearly always there when he came, and they’d gotten used to each other. It wasn’t scared of him anymore. When it saw him, it meowed hungrily. He stroked it gently and stabbed another bag open for it.

‘‘I’m gonna be leaving now, kitty. I won’t be able to open your bags of food anymore. You’re gonna have to figure something out. You’re a cta ? Don’t you know how to hunt ?’’

‘‘Meow.’’ it declared curiously.

‘‘You don’t understand what I’m saying anyway…’’ he sighed. ‘‘If I leave you alone here, you’re not gonna just starve to death, are you ?’’

‘‘Meow.’’

‘‘Come on now, kitty, I care about you, I don't want you to just die. You helped with my mental health a lot these past few months.’’

It rubbed itself against his foot, then went back to eating.

‘‘Fuck. Look at me, kitty, talking to a cat. It’s not like I’ll ever see you again anyway. I’m better off just leaving and forgetting you ever existed. That’s how the world works now. Things die. Not a big deal.’’

He stood up, stabbed two more bags open so it could at least make it a little longer, and turned to leave. It meowed to attract his attention, then rolled onto its back, staring up at him.

‘‘Fuck it. You’re too cute, I can’t just leave you behind like this. You’re coming with me.’’

He picked up the cat.

He was almost back at his exit when he ran into a group of Founders. So, they’d finally gone down into the sewers. Great. He sighed.

‘‘I’m not interested.’’ he said before they could start.

‘‘Tundra ? Is that you ?’’

‘‘Damian ? Whoa, you survived ?’’

‘‘Er, yeah, why d’you sound so surprised ?’’

‘‘Well, I mean no disrespect but out of all my friends you’re the one I least expected to see again after the Spark.’’

‘‘Oh. Wow.’’

There were a few laughs among Damian’s new friends. Tundra liked Damian, but that didn’t mean he was planning on losing any more time with the Founders. Olly would be waiting. And the cat probably wanted to get out of its transport bag.

‘‘Anyway, I don’t have time to talk, I’ve gotta go, Olly’s waiting for me. It’s nice to see that you’re not dead.’’ he said, before walking away.

‘‘Hey dude, we understand that you don’t wanna join us, and we can’t force you, but you can’t stop that kid from coming too. He’ll need a stable place to grow up, and if you don’t come we’ll have to take him by force.’’

Tundra froze, speechless. What did he just say ?! He turned around to face the group.

‘‘Who said that ?’’

Silence.

‘‘I want to know who the fuck just said that. If you come after Olly I won’t hesitate to kill every last one of you. You hear me ?!’’

‘‘But dude, we have to take him.’’ one of them spoke up. ‘‘It’s like before the Spark, when a kid’s parents couldn’t raise them right the government took them away. You can’t take care of him properly on your own, he needs a big group, and other kids and-’’

He never finished his sentence, because while he’d been speaking Tundra had taken his pack off and put all his stuff on the ground so he could punch the guy. Then he pulled out his metal pipe.

Everyone immediately reacted. He received a punch on the side of his head and he retaliated by swinging his weapon at them, clipping someone’s arm with it. Chaos erupted. Everyone was shouting. Some girl fell on the ground and he stomped down hard on her hand, probably breaking a bone or two. Someone punched him in the stomach and he doubled over but punched back before they could bring him down. He hit someone’s head with his metal pipe and then Damian snatched it away. So, he pulled his knife out, and everyone cleared out. The pipe was dropped onto the ground with a loud clang. The girl he’d injured raised her hands, trying to calm things down.

‘‘Okay, it’s okay, he didn’t mean it, he didn’t mean it. Isn’t that right, Derek ? You didn’t mean it, did you ?’’

‘‘I didn’t mean it.’’ His tone said otherwise.

‘‘Right, he didn’t mean it. So, we’re all gonna leave, and we’re gonna leave you and your brother alone. Right everyone ?’’

The other Founders voiced their agreement or nodded, staring nervously at his knife.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

‘‘Right.’’ Tundra said.

He picked up his pipe, put the knife away, grabbed all his stuff, and walked away. He heard them share a few whispers before leaving as well. He could feel his heart beating very fast. He’d really thought he was gonna have to stab someone for a moment. But luckily the Founders thought that anyone who had survived this long had been chosen, so they would do anything to avoid bloodshed. He practically ran all the way back to Olly.

When he got to the tent, Olly was busy drawing all over the note he’d left him. As soon as he saw that his older brother was hurt however, he dropped his pencil and painfully jabbed at the place he’d been hit.

‘‘Thundra, what happened ?’’

‘‘Ow ! Stop it, that hurts ! I’m fine, Olly !’’

‘‘Did you get in a fight ? Mommy said violence isn’t the answer !’’

‘‘No, violence is a question and in this case the answer was yes. That bunch of-’’ he stopped himself. ‘‘... bad people…’’

‘‘What does that mean ? And why are they bad people ?’’

‘‘They wanted to separate the two of us. But don’t worry, I’ll never let them take you away from me. I promise.’’

‘‘They’re bad people.’’ Olly agreed.

Tundra picked his brother up, sat him on his lap and hugged him tightly, kissing the top of his head. Then he smiled at him.

‘‘But hey, I have a surprise !’’

He opened the kitty travel bag. The cat had stayed very silent and still since the fight, scared by all the loud sounds. When he opened the bag it stared at him angrily.

‘‘Kitty !!’’

Olly happily smiled at it, trying to lure it out by going pspsps and waving his piece of paper at it like a toy for it to jump at.

‘‘Calm down, Olly, it’s scared because it heard me fighting earlier.’’

‘‘What is it called ?! Can I give it food ?! Are we keeping it ?! Oh please let me keep it, please !!’’

‘‘Yes, we’re keeping it, and yes, you can feed it when we eat later. And it doesn’t have a name yet, so why don’t you choose something ?’’

‘‘Yay ! I’m gonna call him, erm… I don’t know what to call him !’’

‘‘Oh, you’re gonna call him ‘I don’t know what to call him’ are you ? That’s a pretty original name.’’

‘‘No I’m not !’’ he laughed. ‘‘Oh, I know ! His name is Notch because that means night in Spanish and his fur is black !! Notch !’’

‘‘You mean Noche ?’’

‘‘Yeah, Notch, that’s what I said !’’

‘‘Right, sure. Noche is a good name !’’

‘‘Notch ! I’m gonna love you forever !’’

===

Tundra woke up in the middle of the night. Something felt off, but he wasn’t quite sure what. Olly was sleeping soundly, huddled against Noche, who was purring softly in his sleep. Everything else was nearly silent, aside from the usual sounds from the woods. Leaves rustling in the wind, birds hooting… Then a twig snapped. It felt loud, like a gunshot.

He sat up and looked around, alert, listening intently. Then, he realised there was a light outside. He got out of his sleeping bag and took hold of his knife, then quietly got dressed before carefully moving to the entrance of the tent. He slowly opened the zipper, so it wouldn’t make any noise, and got out, crouching low. Whoever was outside was probably some travelling survivor, and they would be either very friendly, or a threat. He looked around but couldn’t hear or see anything suspicious. He tightened his grip on his weapon.

That’s when a kid came up slowly and quietly, then stifled a gasp of surprise when she saw him staring straight back at her. Her hand was still bruised.

‘‘I suppose you came here for Olly ? Well, too bad. I made a promise to him and you’re not breaking it. You didn’t come alone. Where are your little friends ?’’

‘‘No, I- I am alone. It’s the truth, really, I swear !’’ she lied.

‘‘You’re a terrible liar, you know that ? There’s no point in trying to hide your group from me. I know they’re all here.’’ he said. ‘‘Hey, I know you’re here ! Come out !’’ he added, louder.

Damian came out from between the trees.

‘‘I’m gay !’’ he joked.

‘‘Yes, that’s very funny, isn’t it ? It’s just too bad that finding a bunch of people outside your home who came to kidnap your brother kinda puts you in a bad mood.’’

‘‘Listen here you little shit-’’ a man started.

‘‘Language ! My brother could hear you.’’

The group was smaller than the last he’d encountered in the sewers. There was Damian, the girl whose hand he’d stomped on, two men and a woman he didn’t know.

‘‘Okay, well listen here anyway ! It’s really simple, okay ? We came to get the kid. So now, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. You decide.’’

‘‘You want Olly ? Well if you want him you’ll have to kill me.’’

He cracked his knuckles and got ready to fight, holding up his knife. The woman immediately jumped forward and tried to twist the weapon out of his hand. Maybe she’d done self defence classes or something. That didn’t matter though because before she could accomplish anything he kicked her away. He lunged forward with his knife. He didn’t want to hurt anyone but Olly was his priority. Someone grabbed his arm to stop him, then managed to get the other one too, holding him in place.

The girl punched him in the stomach and he doubled over, but he didn’t fall, held up by a man behind him. Then someone else punched him in the jaw, and he tasted blood.

‘‘Hey guys, go easy on him. He’s confused, he thinks he’s doing the right thing !’’ Damian exclaimed.

‘‘Eat crap, Damian.’’

The girl punched him again. He lashed out and tried to fight back but the guy holding him back was strong. Damian sighed.

‘‘He just won’t let us leave as long as he’s awake. We’re gonna have to knock him out… Just, remember Tundra, you can join us and be with your brother whenever you want…’’

===

When Tundra woke up, it was daytime. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head with a groan. He stuffed everything back into his pack, put his knife in his belt, grabbed his metal pipe, and went straight to town. He didn’t know where the Founders lived but finding them wouldn’t be too hard.

In town, he didn’t bother with the sewers this time. He stayed on the surface. He didn’t want to avoid them. He was going to find one of them and make them tell him where Olly was. By any means necessary.

He started walking towards the park, which was a place he knew Founders hung out in search of new recruits. That’s when he saw a man run past, followed by Damian. So, he was attempting to manipulate someone else into joining…

To get new members, the Founders would scare someone with an unloaded gun or a knife, then offer them to join their group. Tundra didn’t think it was a very functional method. He certainly didn’t want to join some guys who had previously threatened his life, even if they didn’t mean it.

The man turned at the end of the street and Tundra tried to figure out where the two of them would end up. Then, following his speculations, he cut through buildings, trying to get somewhere he could ambush Damian. He was in a shop when he saw the man run past the window. In his surprise he nearly forgot to react. Nearly. Just when Damian came up he swung his metal bar, shattering the glass, then stepped out and stood over him.

‘‘Where the fuck is he ?!’’ he yelled.