The Survival Games (Book 2): Hide & Seek

by Everheart, AJ

  “Until this evening’s prayers.” Avery takes her glasses off and pinches the bridge of her nose for a moment before exhaling slowly. “She’ll be okay,” she whispers, more to herself than me as I barely catch the words.

  “Should we give her some water? Or something?” I ask, reluctant to leave just yet.

  Avery nudges me forwards again, guiding us along the river’s edge, her glasses firmly back on her face. “Only if you want to be strung up alongside her. Kaleb will do whatever he must to maintain order, and you can’t upset the balance here or you’ll be punished too.”

  I nod. Forcing my feet to move, I try to gauge how much my ribs hurt, and wonder how much longer I’ll have to stay here. I don’t like it here, something is off, and I’m tired of feeling so on edge. I just want my son.

  “This is mild, back in London, the Wharf Rats would have done much worse.” Even as I say the words, they feel wrong, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth like burnt coffee or a damn pill you just can’t seem to swallow. I lived in a world where being hung by your wrists was mild. Where were her human rights now?

  Avery raises an eyebrow. “Wharf Rats?”

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” I chuckle, even though I feel hollow inside. “Fucking rodents was exactly what they were.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Donovan

  We try to stay hidden as the hours drag by but also maintain a watch over the services. We need to get to Lily, but we don’t have a clue how to do that. A bedsheet with ‘Invictus’ has been hung from one of the sign posts, and it’s been spray painted on almost every free wall. I guess that’s the catchy name they’ve given themselves, and I have to admit, it’s better than Wharf Rats. Still shit, but better shit.

  The camp is always busy, there hasn’t really been a time during the day when the activity dies down, and it makes me wonder how all these people got here. Were they kidnapped? Sold or traded? Seeking refuge? How many of them were on the motorway when the outbreak started spinning out of control? All these questions are pointless, I have to remind myself. All that matters is that they have Lily, and I need to get her out and reunite her with her kids. I need to find Anna too, but without Lily, I don’t even know where to start, she’s the first piece in my Luke puzzle.

  “It looks like things are getting calmer down there,” Galen comments as he lies on his stomach next to me in the mud. He looks as tired as I feel. This simple raid has turned into a scouting mission of epic proportions, and I know it’s making him antsy.

  We watch wordlessly for a moment, and I can see he’s right. But why? It’s been like a hive all day, why is it now going quiet? There were still a few hours until the sun went down, and they’ve already eaten—they do that in batches, we watched them earlier. Something catches my eye, but then it’s gone as people start retreating indoors.

  “Can you hear that?” Sonia asks, and we all hold our breath to listen as if that makes any difference.

  The low rumble of engines carry in the air. Two minutes later, two cars pull up to the gates. These vehicles aren’t tagged with the tell-tale Invictus circle and line, so who were they?

  “They can’t see us, right?” Luke asks with a small voice, his hand clutching at my sleeve again. It was becoming his favourite habit on this trip; for some reason, holding on to me seemed to calm him.

  “We’re safe here,” I lie. Nowhere is safe. Especially not on the edge of gang territory, but some lies were necessary.

  The gates Invictus constructed out of metal fences, signs, and other scraps of metal slide open and the vehicles enter. They roll past slowly, and instead of watching, I look at Luke, drawing his attention and giving him a small smile.

  Fischer tugs at my other sleeve. “Donovan, look.”

  I turn over to where Fischer is pointing and see none other than fucking Sammy. Alex’s brother was as untrustworthy as they came. I had no doubt back in London that he would have let Leo kill Alex if Alex didn’t have skills they could use. He was scum, there was no other way to think of him. Like a cockroach, he’d somehow survived the end of the world, and now he scuttled around like he was a bloody king.

  “What’s he doing here?” I hiss, and Fischer frowns. “And why is he just walking into their base?”

  We watch as he enters with a group of men and women, there’s eight of them all together, and some of their faces look familiar but others are strangers. Have they come for Lily and Anna too? Would they really chase them from London? No, that would be a waste of time and resources. It’s fair game out here in the wild, away from their fortified encampment, and that made them dead men. Unless...they had friends.

  “We need to get Lily out of there, and we need to do it soon.” Fischer growls, eyes burning into me as she comes to the same conclusion I do. Someone is out here making dangerous alliances, and that wasn’t a good sign. We didn’t need crazy psychos like Sammy and Leo running the show.

  “Tonight, we’ll go in tonight.” There’s a certainty in my voice because I know that no matter what Galen says, I’m going in. And I know what he’s going to say.

  “Fuck no.” Galen grunts as he pushes himself backwards towards the trees and finally stands up. He stretches his arms as he lets out a soft sigh, he knows that I’m not just going to leave this alone. We’ve been on too many raids and worked closely together since I got to Litchfield, he knows I can’t let this lay.

  “Look, Galen—” I start, but he cuts me off.

  “I said no, Donovan. It’s that simple.”

  I bite my tongue and choke back the attitude I know is going to come out with my words otherwise. “With all due respect—”

  Galen silences me angrily with a raised hand and a look that says he’s not going to listen to whatever I’m going to say. I used to be a teacher, I’m the master of that look, but right now, I can see why my pupils hated it.

  But it’s fine. Let Galen think he’s in charge, if it makes him feel better. He forgets one thing, I’m not a fucking soldier.

  I walk away and sit down at the base of a tree, roots digging into my back as I try to think and get comfy at the same time. Comfy. What an idealised concept right now, I haven’t been truly comfortable in a long time. These days comfy meant not sleeping on the cold floor or out in the rain.

  “Please tell me you’re going to tell Galen to suck it?” Fischer whispers as she sits next to me, watching Galen and Sonia talk out of the corner of her eye.

  “You’re becoming a regular rebel, you know that?” I chuckle gently.

  “The old rules don’t apply anymore, they can’t. Chain of command doesn’t mean the same thing when you all need to pitch in just to make it through the next week.”

  “Now, why aren’t you the boss with a mindset like that,” I say wryly. Fischer would run that base with surviving at the forefront and improving the situation close behind. She wouldn’t be tied down by the bureaucratic bullshit that still seemed to linger even though the hierarchy had crumbled. She wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty either. That wasn’t to say Galen was a bad leader, but he followed orders dutifully, and in this world, that helped no one.

  She bites her lip before saying, “Because the higher up you get, the more you forget about the people below you.”

  She’s clearly thought about this before, maybe I’m not the first who’s noticed her potential for being in charge. I wonder what’s going on back at Litchfield for a moment, has Alex pushed all of Kelp’s buttons? Has Mia slapped him yet for his wandering eyes? I miss them, and that’s strange. I know better than to get too attached, but I can’t seem to help it. They’re my family now, even if they drive me crazy. I glance over at Luke, and breathe easier seeing that he’s napping, sat up against a tree. Kelp wasn’t going to protect him or help him find his mother.

  “Like Kelp.” He didn’t give a shit about anything unless it was on headed paper from head office.

  “Like Kelp,” she agrees quietly.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Anna
>
  One of the younger girls, Sasha, had started to come to the school building several times a day. She was almost nine months pregnant with her first, and despite the serene smiles, we could tell she was scared. Why else would she stop by so many times a day?

  “Come on, Sasha, I have to help Anna with a check-up,” Avery says as she ushers Sasha back out for the second time today. The girl smiles at me with a huge grin and waves us goodbye. There’s a strange pang in my chest. I’ve been here for about a month, and I’m getting attached when I shouldn’t, because I don’t plan on staying.

  I laugh softly. “She loves coming here, doesn’t she?”

  “She just wanted to make sure...everything is perfect.” Avery looks twitchy as she pulls out my notes. Kaleb was being serious apparently when he said I couldn’t leave until I was fully healed, I’d been getting health workups weekly. I’d seen Avery in the last month more than I’d seen my own GP in the year prior to the apocalypse. But then again, it did take twenty million phone calls to get an appointment with Dr. Stockdale, and here, Avery was only too happy to look me over.

  “There’s no such thing.” I shrug off my jacket and sit on the bed. “Anyway, another check-up?”

  “We’re a little concerned, Anna, you haven’t had a period since you’ve been here, and I’d just like to run some more tests.” She refuses to meet my gaze, hand trembling as she writes something down.

  I frown. “Avery, I’ve been malnourished for the last two years. The world is falling apart. I was beaten and raped repeatedly. I’m glad I don’t have a period, and I’m not going to worry about it now.”

  Something isn’t right. Her hands won’t stop shaking, and she won’t look at me. If that isn’t guilt, I don’t know what is.

  “Anna—” She reaches out for me, but I pull away. What the hell was going on?

  I pull my jacket back on and stand. “No, I have a son waiting for me, and as soon as you give me the all clear, I’m going to go and find him. My fertility is none of your business.”

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t—” she stammers.

  I exhale. “Look, I know you want to take care of my health as a whole, but focus on the people who live here. I’m just passing through. Okay?”

  I am a guest, I don’t want to be rude, but I also wasn’t a guinea pig to be poked and prodded. At least now I know why they have so many pregnant women here, clearly repopulating the earth and fertility was a focus or something, but my womb wasn’t currently available. There was a no vacancy sign firmly on that motherfucker.

  She nods.

  A knock on the door interrupts us, and a shiver runs down my spine as Kaleb enters.

  “Good morning, ladies! What a blessed day!” He smiles at me, and there’s something about his wolfish grin that makes me want to heave.

  “I’m just on my way out, I’ll see you later, Avery.” I nod. “Good day, Kaleb.”

  I squeeze past him in the doorway and breathe a sigh of relief once his eyes are no longer on my skin. Good day? Did I really say that? What the fuck was happening to me that made me sound like one of the Bennett sisters?

  I walk around the building and sit on one of the benches in the small herb garden Avery keeps for medicines. I can hear her soft voice on the breeze and realise the window is open, just a crack. Pausing for a moment, I play with the idea of listening in. I shake my head, that wouldn’t be right to eavesdrop when they were looking after me, but my suspicious heart can’t shake the feeling that something is very wrong here. When I hear my name, I decide that I owe them no loyalty. Besides, if they weren’t doing anything underhand, then I wouldn’t hear anything bad, right?

  Kaleb’s voice cuts through. “So, is she fertile?”

  Avery hesitates, and I struggle to keep quiet, resisting the urge to shout, ‘Mind your own bloody business, you nosey twat,’ through the window.

  I hear her sigh softly. “I don’t know…”

  There’s a moment of silence, and I wait, why was he asking about me?

  His voice is low and gives me goose bumps. “What do you mean you don’t know? I asked you to test her. Take her blood. Examine her, do something!”

  He sounds frustrated, but I don’t know why. My body has nothing to do with him, and if he thought otherwise, then we were going to have a problem.

  “She wouldn’t let me.” Avery sounds scared, and for a moment, I feel for her, but the doctor was proving to be a slippery character. I didn’t trust her, because whatever she was hiding was big, and she kept pushing me away.

  A crack reverberates around the room, and I peek inside. Avery is on her knees, glasses knocked to the floor as Kaleb stands over her with his hand still poised for round two.

  “You have one job, Avery, help the women get pregnant and deliver babies safely. We had a deal, and you need to honour it, or on the next full moon you will be the one in the woods.”

  “Kaleb, I can’t do this…” She sobs, hand covering her face.

  I watch as he leans in, grabs her face, and pulls it close to hers. The tip of his nose is almost touching hers as he snarls, “I will not allow you to destroy what we have here.”

  With that, he shoves her back onto the floor and storms from the room. I wait for a moment, as his footsteps echo down the corridor, and then I dart around to the back of the building so that he won’t see me. Plonking myself down on the grass for a moment, I let out the breath I didn’t even realise I’d been holding, heart hammering away in my chest. What the heck was that? Why did I feel like I was about to be in trouble?

  I needed to avoid Avery and Kaleb while I worked out what I was going to do. I walk around the village for a little while before spotting Sasha over by the duck pond. She waves me over, and I sit with her in the sunshine.

  “Sasha,” I say softly. “I don’t understand what’s going on here…”

  Sasha stretches out on the bench, her swollen feet digging in the soil. In the early afternoon light, I can see how young she is, she can’t be more than twenty, and my heart aches. Twenty, in the zombie apocalypse, heavily pregnant, and living amongst these zealots. My own pregnancy hadn’t been a walk in the park, and I had support, a stable home. This girl is just another tragedy of the world we live in today.

  “What’s the matter, Anna?”

  “Who is Brother Haines?” Saying his name like that made my tongue feel heavy, like it was resisting the familiarity he was trying to force on us. “Why is he in charge? What makes him so special?”

  “He protects us, he performs the ritual that keeps the village safe.” She takes my hand in hers. “In return, we do as he asks.”

  I pause, letting the words wash over me before asking a question I’m not sure I want the answer to. “And what does he ask you for?”

  “To do our part.”

  I watch her carefully, she was still so young. I’d watched too many horror films and serial killer documentaries to remain ignorant...this was a cult. Brother Haines was manipulating them all. Using them for his own ends. But what was his end goal? What was he after?

  Sasha runs her thumb carefully over my skin. “We are performing the ultimate sacrifice, and in return, we are spared.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” I free my hand from hers and rub my forehead, trying to digest her words. There’s something hollow about them, like she’s just repeating something she’s heard somewhere. She gives me a sweet smile as she rubs her swollen belly, and it sinks in.

  I wish I had never found this place.

  I wish I didn’t realise what she meant.

  The sun gently bathes her face as she whispers, “And walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. It’s Ephesians.”

  “Don’t,” I growl as I try to contain my anger. They were carrying his children. All of the pregnant women, his. All the children, his. This was his own personal harem, and he was their saviour. Fuck.

  “I’m sorry?” She looks wounded. Confused by my o
utburst.

  “Don’t you take scripture and twist it to suit your little cult.” I may not have been religious, but my mother was, and the words Sasha regurgitated to justify what was happening in Redemption was killing any faith behind them.

  “Anna, it’s God’s will.” She nods patronisingly, and I want to shake her.

  “No. No, it’s not.” My mind is going at a million miles an hour as I try to process what I’m looking at. This can’t be our future. This is the twenty-first century, for Christ's sake, how is this happening?

  She tilts her face upwards. “These demons have been sent to cleanse the earth and only the righteous will ascend. The children are our sacrifice, our show of love to God.”

  Her words stop me short. “What?”

  In particular, one word.

  Sacrifice.

  Her smile has dropped now, but her conviction still shines brightly in her eyes.

  “How are they your sacrifice?” I grab her by the shoulders and shake her. “What happens to them?!”

  “Brother Haines takes them into the woods for the ceremony,” she squeaks out.

  The ritual. The damn cleansing ritual. The thing that supposedly kept Redemption safe and brought them back to God. I thought they just got drunk and had some weird religious orgy that no one would tell me about. No. No.

  “Do they come back?” Again, I don’t know why I ask. I know the reply. I know it down in my gut, where I feel like I’ve been punched.

  Her silence is my reply.

  I’m standing now, unable to control the whirl of emotions swirling through me. “God didn’t do this. Stupid, corrupt idiots did. And you are killing your baby for nothing.”

  My child was out there somewhere, desperately trying to survive in this hell, and this fruitcake was just going to hand hers over, like it didn’t matter. How could she be so delusional?