Darkness Falls (Book 1): Rise of the Fallen by Martin W. Francis Page B

having a blast but were out of ammunition. I told him to lose the firetruck before they ran out of fuel as well. I reminded him to make sure they are not followed and to meet back at my house.
    One of the boys in the back of the truck tapped on the glass. Jerod pulled over for a moment. I got out to find out what they were trying to get our attention for. On first inspection it appeared as if the three of them hadn’t eaten a decent meal or bathed in ages. Two of them were obviously siblings maybe even twins. They had an extremely white complexion like they didn’t see the light very often, sandy brown hair, and hazel eyes that seemed to change from blue to green depending on the angle. The other boy was of Asian descent, with black hair and brown eyes.
    The boy whose voice I recognized as David’s asked if we could stop by his place so they could grab some of their things. He said that Starlette and Michael had been staying at his place for a while now. I told him that we most definitely could if he had an address for us to head to. He gave me an address which I memorized before hoping back into the passenger side of the truck. At David’s house they gathered a few bags that were tossed into the back of the truck before heading off to my cabin. Back at my place the others did not return for another thirty minutes.
    “Sorry ditching the firetruck wasn’t a problem. However hoofing it back from a distance to our vehicles and then making sure we were not followed took a while. It was also a bit of a challenge with Fallen hanging about here and there,” Dan said.
    “Glad you all made it back safely. Everyone this is David, Starlette, and Michael.”
    Introductions and conversation lasted a while. Turned out that Michael and Starlette were in fact twins. Both were seventeen being born an hour apart. David was barely a year older than the other two. The three of them had all gone to high school together. We had a large dinner to make sure our guests ate all they could. Afterwards we let them pick one of the three cabins that were left since they were already used to living together. Jared showed them how to pump water from the well so they could fill a tub to take a bath. Everyone brought supplies to share with the new group so they would feel more comfortable and be more self-reliant. I eventually had to send the others on their way since it had been a long day. I left last telling them to get some rest.
     
    -2-
    Things went smoothly as they possible could for the next couple weeks without incidents involving the Fallen . Over that time we became a little closer with the new members of the group. We chose a day out of the month to get together to discuss situations on the home front. Suggestions, problems, and needs were a few of the many topics held at these meetings. Since I did not want to be the sole appointed leader I suggested that we use the old system of voting on anything that we did not agree on as a whole. The others still looked to me regardless or occasionally Jessie for guidance in all manner of things. Delegating responsibilities for everyone had never been an issue until the arrival of our new guests. Michael was a major slacker and hardly ever reliable. Starlette was reliable as far as showing up for whatever she was assigned to, but had a bad knack of daydreaming. David was the only completely responsible one. It became clear that he was the only reason the other two had survived as long as they had. David’s only somewhat problem was that he often was obsessed with technological gadgets and electronics which was why they had gotten into the situation at Alluring Gadgets.
    Our days without direct issues came to an abrupt halt on the night I assigned Michael to tag along with Sam for guard duty. Getting him to realize why it was something everyone had to do was the first problem. Then he didn’t show up like he was supposed to once again for an assignment. Knocking on their cabin door Starlette let me