Cameron thought about Justin’s questions for a moment before answering them and looked past him at the trees that rustled gently in the breeze. It’d be a great betrayal to tell all the secrets of Chesapeake to someone from another settlement, but then again, there wasn’t anyone left to betray. Plus, she was sick of turning a blind eye to the mystery that surrounded the elders’ agendas. 

“Well, when the elders’ decided to let guns into the village, they’d go on ‘trips’ frequently. They would be gone for two or three days and would come back with equipment. John, the one who gave me the box, would refuse to go. I never knew why,” her hoarse voice muttered as she remained seated, fiddling with a twig she had plucked from the ground. “The rifles they used looked the same as this group’s. But we didn’t have armor like that.” Cameron desperately attempted to claw back at the deepest parts of her memory to think of anything that could help. “I don’t think…” she trailed off as her mind began to place the pieces together. “I don’t think they would work with a group like that, because why would they destroy Chesapeake? Unless a deal went south, or they found out…” Her eyes moved up from the twig in her hand to Justin, “that John had the box.” 

If what she was thinking was true, that meant Chesapeake was in bed with these monsters and that John was the only one who didn’t approve. Maybe they thought that the elders knew about the box, and that was why they destroyed Chesapeake. Retaliation for betrayal, and also to find the maps and blue liquid. The settlement and those who led it were selfish – it would make sense that they would not care to save anyone but their own – but to this level? Cameron’s head was spinning.

She reached out a hand to signal him to help her up, and once she was upright, she brushed her pants on and looked him dead in the eye. “If Chesapeake was in bed with these assholes, then that probably means they had the same mentality – save your own. It’d make sense if that was their endgame.” Cameron didn't know what types of settlements were scattered along the coast, only what she had seen herself. They kept them in the dark to avoid members of the settlement leaving for a better place to live. 

After a moment of them looking at each other – a silent agreement that they were on the same page – a [b][i]snap[/i][/b] came from behind the rim of trees. Cameron immediately grabbed her knife from her thigh and the gun from her waist and attempted to spot where the noise was coming from. She figured that maybe she was just being paranoid, so she dropped her guard for a moment and looked to Justin. “Probably nothing,” she whispered, smiling and shaking her head at how paranoid she was being. She'd drive herself mad if she constantly expected an attack, she just needed to -- 

[b][i]Snap[/i][/b]. It was definitely branches breaking. But from where? She was back on defense, scanning the trees. “Do you see anything?” she whispered with her back to his to make sure they had eyes on as much of the landscape around them as possible.