Shadow of Nevermore

by Lilly Black

  "Wait. What do you mean Jax had them tied up?" Reid asked, and Alek took over.

  "By the time we got there, he had already sorted the good men from the bad, taken out most of the bad ones, liberated the women, and tied up Rundo, his second in command, and the doctor Jax claims is a monster. By the time we arrived, Jax had handled the entire prison and was sitting in the cafeteria like Conrad Birdie singing 'One Last Kiss'."

  Everyone who knew what that mean snickered as Jax glared at Alek.

  "Who the fuck is Conrad Birdie?" he demanded, but it only made them laugh harder.

  "Liana, could you put a copy of 'Bye Bye Birdie' on the supply request list?" Olivia asked.

  "Actually, I may still have it on my iPod," Ravi said, reaching into his pocket, pulling it out, and scrolling as he explained why it was there. "They did the play at my college, and I was trying to date this theatre girl, so I downloaded it, and... Oh, here it is. 'One Last Kiss', right?"

  "Yeah," Alek said, and Ravi dragged the progress bar until he found the scene. When he handed Jax the device, Jax watched for about ten seconds before his eyes started rolling.

  "You fucking dick," he hissed at Alek, laughing harder than anyone.

  After that, Olivia tried to wrap up the meeting as quickly as possible, but there was more to be discussed about the prisoners. Even though Jax requested that the doctor be given an actual trial and kept separate from Rundo and Brock, he still made a point of telling everyone why he considered him deserving of the death penalty in the first place. He also admitted that Dr. Gorely pleaded that he not be judged by this one act as there were mitigating circumstances.

  "Do you think it would be safe to put him in the cell with James?" Olivia asked.

  "I don't think he'll be a danger to a fellow prisoner, especially if he thinks he'll have a chance to live," Jax said.

  "And besides," Alek added, "we'll know James' fate soon enough, won't we? If his girlfriend was one of the women we saved, she should be able to corroborate his story."

  "I doubt she was still there," Jax said. "Unless she was taken away by the Sinner, she's probably long dead. Except for this woman named Frisco who was there since the beginning, the women on Death Row rarely last more than a few weeks."

  A gloomy silence followed that Olivia had to break.

  "Okay. Let's put the doctor in with James," she said, forcing thoughts of Death Row out of her mind in order to remain strong. "I'll go talk to the women and see what I can find out about either of them."

  "And I'll make sure Rundo and his right hand man are covered," Liana offered.

  The founders disbanded, and Liana went outside the wall where Reid had left a small group of their best soldiers to watch over the three captives. She ordered the doctor to be taken to the cell, then she asked one of her men to get two planks that were two feet wide and long enough to make a bridge over the zombie pit. She had Rundo and his lieutenant tied to the planks and laid across the trench with armed guards on both sides.

  "If they give you any indication that they might try to escape, or if they open their vile mouths, flip the planks over and let them lie facing the dead," she commanded.

  "Yes, General Navarro," the team leader said, and the others nodded, the two women in the group smiling gleefully as Liana went inside the gate and left them to care for the prisoners.

  Meanwhile, Olivia entered the living room to meet the women they had saved, and things became surreal. From descriptions, they already knew who she was before she spoke, and as she passed by them, they reached out to touch her, praise her, thank her for saving their lives even though she had been nowhere near the prison. Though their reactions were far beyond anything she would have ever wanted, realizing that they needed a heroine, she didn't fight it. Perhaps she should have. Perhaps Liana should have been the one getting this attention, but Liana was a soldier. These women wanted a queen.

  She stayed with them all afternoon, listening to their stories and promising them that she would fight to her last breath to keep them safe now that they had come to the Deadfall. She spoke with Dr. Gorely and learned what she had to say about the male doctor, who presently sat in a cell. She talked to them about Rundo and Brock. She asked them what punishment they believed these men deserved, and Missy, one of the granddaughter's of Randy Sylas who had died after they raided the gun shop cleared her throat and raised her hand.

  "What is it, Missy?" Olivia asked. She didn't even understand why the girl was there, but because Missy had seen Brock's face while playing near the front gate when the prisoners arrived, she had something important to add.

  "I don't know about the other two guys," she began, "but the tall one with the light brown hair and mustache is a very bad man. When everything started, he came to Grandpa's store with a bunch of other men and tried to steal from us. Then he also tried to..." She fell silent, afraid to even say it out loud and give the horror of that night credence, but Olivia recalled what Randy had told them in the back of the truck on the way home from the gun shop. Those men had tried to rape that little girl.

  "I remember your grandfather telling us that one of those men got away," Olivia said.

  "Yeah, and I'm sure it was him. He even walks a little funny where Grandpa shot him in the butt," Missy said.

  "He did have a bullet in his left ass cheek when we were taken to the prison," Hannah said. "It was the reason they sent men out looking for doctors. Dr. Farrell and I had to remove the bullet and stitch him up. We should have let him die."

  "Yeah, but that's not who Dr. Farrell is," Michelle said. "I've known him longer than anyone because I worked with him for years. Dr. Gorely just happened to be at the hospital the day the shit went down. Hank Farrell is a good man."

  Everyone in the room seemed to agree, and nobody wanted Olivia to kill Dr. Farrell, even when she told them what Jax said about putting the woman out in the yard during a miscarriage. They insisted that if he did that, it had to be for the greater good. Farrell had been like Austin, sneaking supplies and medication to them when he could, and he had never raped anyone. He had even saved Hannah from getting raped the first night. They had been kidnapped together from a medical facility where they had been hiding, and he convinced their captors that he and Hannah had been exposed to a rare and highly contagious STD.

  "And they believed him?" Olivia asked. She had expected them to believe Jax when he used that ruse, but given the circumstances of the doctors at the time they used it, the kidnappers should have seen right through it.

  "Not at first. I had to show them my vagina," Dr. Gorely said with an embarrassed grimace, and Olivia looked at her confused. "Dr. Farrell's nurse had come in hung over the day the plague started, and he had some Alka Seltzer tablets in his coat pocket for her, so he told me to slip one up in there and..."

  "Oh, my God!" Michelle cried, laughing. "So, what exactly happens when you plop, plop, fizz your schniz?"

  "It gets foamy and gross looking, but it worked. They left me alone. Dr. Farrell said we both had it, and that's why they gave me to him when we got to the jail. My pH was off for a week, but it was worth it."

  Michelle giggled, and though Olivia only smiled, unable to laugh given the circumstances, she was happy to see Michelle able to make jokes after what she had been through. She was also beginning to see Dr. Farrell differently than she had when her only image of him was what Jax had described. He was resourceful and smart, the kind of person they needed at the Deadfall...if he was also a good person. That remained to be seen.

  "So, what about you?" Olivia asked Michelle. "If Farrell protected Dr. Gorely, what happened to you?"

  "I wasn't captured at the same time. A bigger group of us saw them coming and hid, but after that initial trip to find a doctor, they came back to clear the hospital and found me and the others," she explained. "When I arrived, Dr. Farrell tried to claim me so I would be safe, but they wouldn't let him unless he let Hannah go, and now that I know they thought she had a disease, I see that it wasn't even
a real choice. They would have just killed her, so it wasn't Dr. Farrell's fault that I went to Death Row. Besides, doctors are more valuable than physicians assistants these days."

  "Everyone is valuable," Olivia said. "But I'll speak with Dr. Farrell when we're done here. I just have a couple more questions before I leave. I'm looking for information about a seventeen-year-old girl named Serena. Does anyone know anything about her?"

  No one recognized the name.

  "Nobody?" Olivia asked, looking around to make sure she had everyone's attention, zeroing in on Frisco, who seemed to know more than any of them

  "No. There was never a Serena on Death Row as far as I knew," Frisco said, and as Olivia was about to move on when her eyes fell on a skinny girl in a black hoodie who had been keeping her face hidden until now. Slowly, she lowered her hood and met Olivia's eyes.

  "I'm Serena," she admitted quietly.

  "Oh, thank goodness," Olivia said. "Austin will be so happy to hear that you survived."

  "I'm not sure I want to see him. He didn't come back for me."

  "He couldn't come back for you," Savannah said suddenly. Olivia turned, surprised. She didn't even know that her daughter had entered the room. "He was sitting here in a jail cell because even after he killed one of the two guys who tried to invade this place with him, we weren't sure if we could trust him."

  "I see," Serena said, still uncertain.

  "It's true," Olivia confirmed.

  "I've got this, Mom," Savannah said. "If you want to go see about the doctor, I'll talk to Serena."

  "Okay. Thanks, Savvy."

  "Wait!" Frisco called out as Olivia headed toward the door. "We're all okay with you letting the doctor live, but we still get to punish Rundo and Brock, right?"

  The other women waited impatiently for Olivia's answer, even those who weren't verbalizing their agreement with Frisco, and Olivia took a deep breath before delivering her response. She had become suspicious that she wasn't getting more pushback from Aiden, but she knew that most of the people of the Deadfall would look the other way even if they didn't agree with her decision. And her decision was, in her mind, the right thing to do. These women had been through hell.

  "Absolutely," she said, and the room was suddenly filled with the sounds of relief and even a little joy. "All I ask is that you wait a day. Just sleep on it tonight in your new, safe home here under our protection, and tomorrow, we'll tie them up and turn you loose on them."

  "I don't need to sleep on it. I'm ready to take that motherfucker Rundo apart one tiny piece at a time," Frisco insisted.

  "Believe me; I understand," Olivia said. "I just don't want any of you to do anything that you can't live with, but I promise you this. If there is any punishment that you want to inflict upon these men that you cannot bring yourself to carry out, I'll do it for you because you have all suffered enough."

  Though their first instinct was to cheer, most found themselves brought to tears. They had been treated worse than animals for weeks, and now they had someone who was not only willing to protect them but to do the dirty work to let them keep their hands clean. Olivia made her exit, having forgotten to ask about James' girlfriend April after finding Serena, and as she walked past them, they all reached to touch her lightly, whispering "my queen" as Liana watched from the shadows of the hallway, jealous and disgusted.

  Day 58

  Yesterday was a long day. Today would be even longer with the executions scheduled for tonight, and the last thing Olivia needed was more of Aiden's bullshit because he was the one she blamed when Liana came barging into her office at the crack of dawn.

  "You're going to execute a fucking doctor? Are you out of your goddamned mind?!" she demanded.

  "We're going to introduce him and James to the community tomorrow at dinner, let them speak for themselves, and make sure people know both sides of everything," Olivia explained. "The people will vote, but they'll vote not to execute him. I have no doubt."

  "So why does he suddenly get a trial, but the other guys don't? Jax was pretty adamant about him deserving to be executed."

  "What are you pissed off about?" Olivia asked. "A second ago, you were mad because you thought he was getting executed, and now you're mad that he's not?"

  "I'm mad that you're making decisions without consulting anyone else!"

  "Jax didn't know the full story about Dr. Farrell. I spoke with him yesterday, and based on everything the women from the prison said about him, I don't think he's the person Jax thinks he is."

  "Ok, but you can't keep making those calls yourself! This isn't a real monarchy, Oblivia!" Liana spat.

  "I knew how everyone would vote, so I didn't see the point. Would you and Aiden really have voted to execute? No. So it would have been Jax and Dani against everyone else."

  Even though she realized Olivia was right, Liana rolled her eyes.

  "What about Rundo and Brock?" she asked. "I heard what you promised those women yesterday. You think everyone would agree with you on that?"

  "Really? After what they've done, if you think you can get five out of nine of us to say they should be put down humanely, go for it. You have until after dinner tonight," Olivia said with a smirk on her face, and Liana knew she was right. Reid, Alek, and Amina would do whatever Olivia wanted, and they just needed one more vote to win. That vote would be Jax who was so torn up over the video he had seen, it was a wonder he only brought back three men to torture instead of the whole lot.

  Frustrated, Liana left, but she knew what she had to do. It was like Aiden had said once. If she trained the army, they would follow her.

  Dani's Journal

  Day 58

  God, I love Jax! I only followed him to the prison to make sure he was safe because it never even crossed my mind that he would cheat on me under those circumstances, but even once he saved everyone and they were all calling him hero, he didn't act any different than he would have if he had known I was watching. He even told them that I was the reason he was there. Men from that group had tried to take me, and the thought of their fate ever befalling the woman he loved made him realize he needed to kill every, last one of those bastards.

  He did a great thing, but it's going to be hard to integrate some of the survivors into our community now. Even though they adore Jax and Austin for rescuing them, they're so mistrustful of men, I'm not sure they'll ever feel as safe as they should because even with the large influx of women, the men still outnumber us. Last night, we even took their dinner to them in their new trailers because only Dr. Gorely was ready to meet the rest of the community.

  Maybe what Olivia plans to let them do to Rundo and Brock tonight will help them heal, but I doubt it. At best, perhaps it will help them start to shed the feelings of helplessness. I just hope Aiden stays the hell away. Of course he has "concerns" about it, but I've explained to him that regardless of how he feels, his presence there protesting will only hurt the women more. At least this time he's okay with killing them. He just doesn't think we should let the women torture them to death. I say throw them to the wolves after what they did, but unfortunately, I can't tell Aiden why. I can't tell him that I was there and saw the horrors of Death Row.

  I'm just glad I wasn't in human form. As the wind, even when I felt like I was experiencing sympathy pain, it was easily compartmentalized because at that moment, I didn't have a vagina or breasts or any of the other parts of the victims that were being violated. Plus, I didn't watch long. I didn't need to. I spent more time examining the faces and the bodies of the men themselves to see if any were turned on by watching the sexual violence and which ones were flaccid and playing along. When Jax went back, if he had mistakenly saved even one of the wrong men, I would have taken him out myself, and it would have been easy because I learned a lot about what I was capable of at the prison.

  I was there from the moment Jax and Austin walked through the gate. Rundo, a fan of his music, accepted him without question. The drugs he brought to share didn't hurt, and the first
round he handed over was exactly what they had been missing since the solar farm supply dried up. Jax passed the laced doses out individually on the second night after the party on Death Row died down and the men were more likely to be alone or in small groups. No one noticed when the junkies passed out literally dead, but it was different with the methheads, and one guy who hadn't taken his yet caught on when those around him started dropping off like flies. He was heading to rat Jax out to Rundo when I followed him into a deserted corridor and made sure he never delivered that message. I found that I could not only lift a grown man into the air and drop him, and I could break his bones as he ran - just wrap myself around his ankle in the right way, and snap!

  I shattered the bones in his legs and his arms, then I became human for a few seconds so I could tell him why he was dying and wish him bon voyage to Hell. I'm not sure I believe in Hell, but he did. I'd never seen such terror in anyone's eyes before, at least not because of anything I was capable of, and it made me feel so powerful, I wished Jax knew what I was so I could visit him in his cell when I was finished taking care of those who didn't die from his poisoned drugs or get bitten by those who did. I killed four men last night, and I have no remorse. Why should I? They weren't really men anyway. They weren't even human. They were the physical embodiment of evil that I sent back from whence it came.

  And believe me when I admit that I know how wrong this sounds, but it really made me want to fuck.

  As soon as we were safely back at the Deadfall with all of the good people rescued from the prison, it's all I wanted to do, but Jax was exhausted last night, his head full of the horrible things he had seen on Death Row. I wanted to beat my head against the wall! As a therapist, I completely understood his feelings, but, damn! It was killing me! I needed to get my hands on him before the power-driven urge left me.

  I went out into the woods last night after he fell asleep and took it out on the zombies. It's easy for me now because after I got back from the prison yesterday, I realized something. I hadn't eaten or bathed in days, but I wasn't hungry or dirty at all. I don't need showers or food or bathrooms anymore. If I get dirty, I can release the swarm and draw myself back together, leaving everything that doesn't belong on the floor. I don't even have to be naked to do it anymore. I can carry the molecules of my makeup and clothes right along with me and put them back in place whenever I'm ready. I'll never have to do laundry again or sit for an hour to straighten my hair. I have complete control of everything down to the microbes that used to live inside my body. They're gone now because I don't need them. Hell, I'll bet if I got bitten, I could even sort the zombie virus from my blood, though that is a risk I am not willing to take.