Free Learning the Truth (Fighting for Freedom Series Book 1) by Jennifer Clay

Chapter 1
    Even though Louise knew it was coming the explosion still made her jump. She picked up her bow and quiver of arrows before making her way to the position that she’d been given when they first realized they would soon be under attack. As she was one of the best shots in the group it was inevitable that she’d be up in one of the towers, along with Cameron and Frank. They all knew it might well be their last battle. Rumors about their attackers had arrived at their stronghold months before, so they knew how difficult it would be to survive the next few hours. Maybe the fear they all felt would help them to fight them off. Breathing deeply she looked at the horde outside the walls, trying not to let the sheer number of them get to her, unable to believe that anyone had managed to gather that many people together.
    Of course they’d heard rumors about him as well. Scott was said to be charismatic and that was why those who survived his attacks chose to go with him. Louise thought they were just doing the most logical thing they could after their own groups had been beaten - following the person who proved he was the strongest. When she fired her first arrow someone dropped, but that was one out of… she believed there had to be at least four hundred fighters out there, which was more people than she had seen since the apocalypse had happened. Before it had been normal for there to be hundreds of people to gather together, for numerous reasons, but afterwards they hadn’t even known that many people had survived.
    It was good to see that they had, although Louise would have been much happier if they weren’t all attacking at the same time. She fired a second arrow, dropping another person, trying to work out who might be Scott. Taking him out would mean bringing an end to the attack without too much bloodshed. Not seeing him wasn’t a surprise, as she couldn’t imagine he’d be stupid enough to put himself where someone would be able to kill him, not when it was becoming more and more obvious that he was attempting to take over the world, for reasons only he knew, unless he had someone he trusted enough to talk to. Another shot caused someone else to drop, although she didn’t know if they were dead or not. Her hope was that she wasn’t killing them, when they were just following orders, but her group would want everyone she hit to die from that one arrow.
    Louise knew she was safer than those on the front line. They were the ones who were most likely to die and she didn’t blame them for wanting some of their attackers dead before they started fighting. She was more likely to survive, which was terrifying. If she survived she knew she wouldn’t have any choice but to stay with Scott’s group, especially as they would have seen how skilled she was in advance. Convincing Tristan to take her on had been much more difficult as he’d wanted proof of what she could do, which meant going out hunting and taking out as much as she could, including a deer they hadn’t been expecting. When she saw the surprise on their faces she couldn’t help smiling, because she knew what it meant. As she wanted to work alongside Tristan it was a relief more than anything.
    That had been five years before and one year after the end of the world. Like a number of people she still had nightmares about it. Louise had first heard about the meteor on the news, the same way almost everyone she met had, and no one believed it was actually going to hit Earth. All of the scientists that were interviewed said it wasn’t going to, so they were believed, because they were meant to know these things, but it turned out they were very wrong. She remembered looking out of her window to watch as it got closer, knowing that when it hit something very bad was going to happen, although there was no way she could have know how bad. It really did start off as a psychological apocalypse - some even went as far as shooting their entire family before