Army of True Salvation

When Sheloah started walking away, all of them suddenly heard two gunshots. The parents and some of their classmates shouted in surprise. Veon suddenly went to protect Sheloah as he embraced her. Sheloah's heart started beating fast when her face bumped on Veon's chest, almost making her forget about the anger she felt a while ago.

After a few seconds, a dark, brown skinned, chubby man appeared in front of the crowd, just between Sheloah's group, and the other group who had killed Ace.

"What's this all about," he asked and the girl who had attacked Sheloah approached him.

"That bitch killed Paul! Come on, Ray! Kill her, too!" Ray looked at the girl and the crowd in front of him.

"Excuse me, but we cannot tolerate this type of attitude. Your group started this issue. One of your comrades killed one of ours," one parent said and another parent spoke as well.

"What he said was right. Of course, we also did something wrong when one of us killed someone from your group. But this wouldn't happen if only Ace wasn't killed." It was now Dannie's father who spoke.

Ray sighed before he spoke. "Understood," he said and he looked at the girl who complained. "Kathy, calm down. I'll handle this," he said and he returned his attention to Sheloah's group. "They are the intruders. I'll fix this so do please hear us out," Ray added as he pointed his gun at the group in front of him.

Sheloah pushed Veon, breaking away from his embrace as she butted in.

"Wait… how are we intruders? That 'Paul' killed our comrade and we were the ones who's really at fault? Your group started it," Sheloah said and Ray was suddenly taken aback when she spoke.

This made Sheloah raise her eyebrow at him. From his arrogant attitude, why did he suddenly go quiet?

"Kathy, it was your boyfriend at fault. He started the fight," he said and Kathy was suddenly baffled. Everyone who heard about Ray's sudden change of stand was shocked as well!

"Ha!? You're taking their side now? We're YOUR members, remember? You're our leader!" Kathy was shouting at the moment and some of the people in Sheloah's group started laughing silently.

'Stupid!'

Ray ignored Kathy's complaint as he talked to Sheloah. "What's your name?"

"Haaaaa?"

Sheloah reacted on the spot when Ray, the leader of the enemy's group, started asking for her name.

'Is he insane!?'

"Why the hell would I tell you my name? You're an enemy," she said and most of her classmates now started laughing by the sudden turn of events.

"Ray, are you crazy!?" Kathy hit Ray's head and he glared at her. "It was like you were bewitched by that girl! Don't tell me you've fallen in love at a wrong time," she said and Ray's face suddenly turned beet red when he heard her say this. Sheloah cringed.

'Seriously?'

"Can we get this over with?" Sheloah wanted the dispute between two groups to end rather than knowing Ray's "romantic interest", which she thought was completely irrelevant.

Ray cleared his throat before he spoke. "What are your plans as a group," he asked, being serious this time and Veon suddenly went beside Sheloah, being unusually protective.

"We will go to Manila. We just stayed here to rest," Veon answered briefly on Sheloah's behalf and everyone looked at him.

"I'm sorry, but we can't let you go further," Ray said when he heard Veon speak.

"Why? We need to escape," Isobel asked, a little baffled by his rejection. It's as if the enemy's group owned the place!

"You don't understand," Ray justified, while he shook his head in disapproval. "Since we were the only survivors of our school, now we own what's near our territory," he added and everyone went silent.

"Since this is our territory, everything that's here is ours," he said and he pointed at 7-Eleven. "Even that resting place of yours is ours. Even the food that you were eating is ours—the land your standing on is ours." Sheloah rolled his eyes at him.

'Who're you? President?'

"Maybe that's why your comrade was killed by our comrade because he was territorial. But I admit that he was wrong to do so when we could've settled about this in another way so I apologize," Ray said and everyone looked at him.

He's obviously the leader of the group that was in front of them. Because of what he said, his explanations, they somewhat understood the situation at hand. Mainly it was because this was their territory. But he was right when he apologized for killing one of their comrades since they could've talked about this in a peaceful way.

But of course, they won't forgive and trust them right away.