by Dawn, M. K.
Sloan took Britney’s free hand and squeezed, both their hands trembling as they approached David.
Britney wanted nothing more than to point her gun at David’s head and fire. The bastard had gone too far. She prayed Mia was right and the weapons they carried weren’t loaded. As soon as she got her people away from David, she would kill every last one of them, alone if she had to.
“Let our people go, David.” Britney knew how important it was to show no fear in the presence of their enemy. “You’re outnumbered and in our territory. Leave now while you still have a chance.”
David laughed as he made a show of moving in a circle with his hands held wide. “How do you figure? I see no one else around.”
Britney refrained from rolling her eyes. Her people should be out there, hidden in the shadows, guns ready.
“What do you want?” Britney asked, ready to get this over with.
David’s eyes narrowed. “My people. How many times must I repeat myself?”
“You really think we’re just goin’ to hand over those two kids? They want nothing to do with you. Them running away should have made that clear.”
“They?” David clicked his tongue. “Funny how you keep saying that when we both know Eli is dead.”
Britney’s knees buckled as she studied both Archer’s and Axel’s faces. Neither of them had divulged their secret; they knew Jerry and Barbara’s life depended on it.
“Are you going to deny it?” David asked with a smug smile.
Axel subtly shook his head; a warning that it was time to fess up.
“Eli is dead,” Britney said.
David cocked his head. “How refreshing it is to hear the truth. How did he die?”
Britney opened her mouth to speak but David continued, “I warn you, lying will only make things worse.”
Britney dug her nails into the palm of her hands, desperate to pick her words carefully. “Eli confessed to murder and was sentenced to death but took his own life.”
“I see.” David retrieved a gun from its holster, put the barrel to Jerry’s head, and pulled the trigger.
“Jesus Christ!” Britney stumbled back.
Barbara’s scream filled the air. She sobbed and threw herself on her husband’s lifeless body.
“Wh-why...,” Britney stuttered. “Eli fuckin’ killed himself! There was nothin’ we could do!”
David tsked. “There was plenty you could have done. Now,” he raised his gun and pointed it at Barbara, “I want the girl. Bring her to me.”
“I...I...” Britney didn’t know what to do. Trading one life for another felt so wrong.
“Hesitation is equivalent to gluttony in this new world.” David pulled the trigger, silencing Barbara forever.
“Oh, my God!” Britney screamed, falling to her knees. Makayla and Sloan cried quietly on either side of her. “You didn’t even give me a chance to think.”
“Bring Mia to me now, or it’s eeny meeny miny mo.” David moved his gun between Archer and Axel.
“Stop it!” Sloan yelled. “I’ll go get Mia. Just don’t kill anyone else.”
“Thank you, my dear. Hurry along now.”
Sloan took off running toward the campers.
If David wanted to invoke fear in them, he was doing a damn good job. Britney’s arm brushed the gun in her waistband. She hadn’t even thought about pulling her weapon on David. Considering how bad her hands were shaking, she’d probably miss and hit Archer or Axel.
“Now that we have about cleared this up, I think we need to address the proverbial elephant in the room.”
Britney wiped the tears from her cheeks. “What are you talking about?”
David snapped his fingers, and half his people took off in every direction of the farm, two heading for the house. “How many should we expect to find?”
Britney forced herself to stand, knowing she needed to be strong if they had any chance of getting out of this alive. “How many what?”
“People. Weapons.” David moved closer to Britney. “Hand over your gun.” His eyes shot to Makayla. “Yours, too.”
Britney slammed her sidearm into his hand. “What are you goin’ to do to my people?”
“Your people?” David glanced back at Jerry and Barbara. “I see how much you care about their wellbeing. Sending them out into the world alone and defenseless. We would never do that to those who join us.”
“They weren’t—”
David cut her off. “They jumped at the chance to join us, but when I found out where they came from and started asking questions...well, that’s when things got complicated. You might not have cared about them, but they cared a great deal about you and this town. Even defended your decision to exile them. I admired their loyalty. Too bad it was misguided.”
Tears ran down Britney’s face, the guilt of their deaths weighing heavy on her heart.
“Looks like we have company.” David waved in her scared and now unarmed town’s people. “Come close. Gather around your fearless leader and get a glimpse of the sacrifices she made to keep an outsider safe.”
Britney kept her eyes focused on the ground, unable to face the people she’d vowed to protect.
Most would have been in a position to witness first-hand what David had done to Jerry and Barbara. The guards had practiced this sort of drill many times over the past few years.
She wished someone would have made the decision to fire but understood why no one did. Taking a shot at David would have put their own people at risk. Most here, even the soldiers who had been under Archer’s command at The Bunker, couldn’t have made such a difficult shot.
It wasn’t until the people who’d taken shelter in the RV park showed up that the crying started.
“Yes, yes. I know you all are hurting from the loss of your friends,” David said in his best Southern preacher voice. “But you see my people and I, we have a very strict, eye for an eye policy. We have made good on Eli’s death and the delay of Mia’s arrival, but the problem we now face is that these two men broke into our camp last night and took out several of my men.”
“We knocked them out, not killed them,” Archer spat.
David shrugged. “Our doctor said it could be touch and go for a couple of them.”
“Motherfucker.” Axel made a move toward David but was stopped short with a punch to the gut that brought him to his knees.
“Axel!” Britney cried out.
“Such language.” David hovered over him. “Someone should really teach you some manners.”
“Wait!” Britney yelled. “Mia’s here. Please, leave him alone.”
David whipped around. “Finally.”
Sloan guided Mia in their direction, arm wrapped around her shoulder as the poor girl cried. Juliet hovered on her other side, rubbing a hand down her arm.
Whatever Sloan whispered in Mia’s ear must have reassured her in some fashion. Mia wiped her face but kept her head down.
“My child!” David opened his arms to Mia, and she stepped into his embrace. “Are you well?”
Mia nodded and took a step back.
David studied the three women for a moment before breaking out into a belly laugh. “My, my, you are talented, aren’t you?”
Mia snapped her head up, eyes wide and full of terror. “Wh...what?”
David continued laughing. “Not you, my child. Her.”
A smile broke out across Juliet face. “You don’t think it was too over the top, do you?”
David’s eyes fell on Britney, and he chuckled. “No, my dear, I believe your performance was spot-on.”
Britney’s breath hitched as Juliet ’s sweet demure faded.
“Performance?” Sloan sputtered, backing away from Juliet with Mia still clutched in her arms.
Juliet flipped her hair and moved next to David. “My Savior.”
He cupped her face. “My sweet child. You’ve outdone yourself.”
“I don’t understand.” Britney’s throat tightened. “Shifter and Eli
...”
“To be fair,” Juliet smirked, “I’m very talented. I just signed a multi-million-dollar movie deal when the world went to hell.”
“She was born to be a star,” David gushed. “Such a beauty and talented, as you’ve all witnessed first-hand.”
“So, Eli and Mia?” Britney asked.
Both Juliet and David chuckled, but it was Juliet who answered. “Both poor country kids we picked up on the side of the road in desperate need of a human connection. A lot like Nathaniel.”
Britney bared her teeth. “What did you do to him?”
“Get your damn hands off me!” Angie screamed from behind them.
Britney spun around terrified her children had been found, but it was only Angie.
“You found us a feisty one,” David said.
Two men held both of Angie’s arms; a third followed close behind with a gun aimed at her head.
“Angie?” Britney’s voice cracked. Her tear-stained face sent Britney’s heart racing.
“They killed Rainey, Evelyn, and Mac.”
Sloan gasped. “You killed a sick woman and her doctor? What kind of monsters are you?”
“We put the sick girl out of her misery,” one of the men said. “The other two pulled guns on us.”
A coldness ran over Britney’s body as yet more of her friends fell victim to these people.
“The rest of the house clear?” David asked.
“We searched the entire area around the house as well and found no one. There’s a shit-ton of supplies in the basement and a nice Hummer and other vehicles full of stuff.”
“Good, good.”
More tears slid down Britney’s face knowing her kids were safe at the moment.
Britney turned back to Juliet and David. “What now?”
Juliet ignored her. “We should get this over as quickly as possible. These people are smarter than others you’ve encountered.”
“Agreed.” David made a circle with his finger. “Round them up. Put the prisoners with the two women.”
“What are you doing?” Britney yelled.
The guards in charge of Axel and Archer shoved them toward Britney, Sloan and Mia, both stumbling.
Britney caught Axel and helped him regain his balance. “Are you okay?”
“Where are the kids?” Axel whispered.
“Safe...” Britney swallowed hard. “For now.”
“Four at a time,” David ordered. “Leave the four leaders for last. Let them witness where their disobedience has led their people.”
Mia collapsed on the ground and sobbed. “Not again. Not again.”
“Come on!” a man snapped. “You four, you’re up.”
Britney peeked around Axel, unsure what was happening. David’s followers had lined up four of their people, including Makayla and Terrance.
“What are they doing?” Britney’s throat tightened.
Makayla’s eyes locked with Britney, and she forced a smile.
David’s people raised their guns, aimed, and fired.
“No!” Britney screamed as Makayla and Terrance slumped to the ground.
“You don’t have to do this!” Britney screeched. “Take the farm. Take everything we have. Just let the rest of the town live!”
“That’s not how we do things.” David snapped his fingers. “Next four!”
“Son of a bitch!” Britney threw herself at David, ready to kill him with her bare hands, but Sloan caught her.
“Don’t,” Sloan held Britney tight.
“Listen to your sister,” Juliet said in a smug tone Britney had never heard come from her before. “You know, the smart one.”
“Bitch!” Britney spat as four more shots rang out. “Tell me what happened to Nathaniel! What happened to Shifter!”
If they were going to die, Britney wanted to die knowing the truth about the boy she’d cared for like a son.
Juliet snorted. “Your town is being executed and that’s all you can think to ask? What about your children? Don’t think for a second it has gone unnoticed that they and Tyler have not been found.”
“If you hurt them...” Axel threatened.
Juliet smirked. “Aww. Don’t worry, they love children and all those who accept their truth. As you might have noticed, the other children, including my dear brother, Diego, have already been taken away. We wouldn’t want them to witness all this ugliness.”
“They’ll hate you!” Sloan growled.
“They won’t. We’ll love them and protect them and make them believe that we saved them from the infested that killed their loved ones.”
Britney sank against Axel’s chest, wishing he could hold her one last time.
Every fiber of her being wanted to fight, but she saw this was a battle they couldn’t win. The Children of the Apocalypse had them surrounded, guns ready to fire. They were trapped with no foreseeable way out.
“Tell me about Nathaniel?” Britney asked again. “Please.”
Juliet rolled her eyes. “Seriously? You’re so damn annoying. The short version is I did what I had to do to be Saved. I fucked him, made him believe that I loved him, just as I did with Eli. But Nathaniel never did fully trust me. He was loyal to this town to a fault. He went as far as going with me to the cut fence line but refused to meet the scouts at the tree house. He was going to rat me out so I turned him into an infested using the same type of injection I gave Eli to kill himself. Then set him loose on this town he loved so much. He never even knew that he was infested.”
“How?” Sloan asked.
David joined their conversation. “I believe you found our little operation at the hospital? And the bullet you pulled from Jesus. Infested blood makes an excellent weapon.”
Guilt mixed with relief washed over her. Nathaniel hadn’t betrayed them. But how could she have been so wrong about Juliet? “What about Shifter?”
Juliet groaned. “He caught me letting the infested in during the wedding. One of David’s followers helped me tie him up and kill him. We dumped the body during the commotion and cleaned his camper. Jesus spotted us, which is how he got the infested bullet lodged in his chest. To cover our tracks, I convinced Eli to confess to the murder to protect Mia, who I hit and threatened to kill if she didn’t blame Shifter and...well, you know the rest.”
Bile burned Britney’s throat. “Why?”
“They saved me at the tree house from an infested and promised if I became one of them, I would be immune to the infested and would never turn. Never have to fear them again,” Juliet confessed as another round of shots were fired. “All I had to do was get you people to leave this farm and I would be Saved.”
Britney had no idea how many or who else they had killed. Her stomach and heart couldn’t bear to look. “You know that’s a lie, don’t you? No one is safe from the infested.”
Juliet brushed her off. “You know nothing of our faith. We are the future. Chosen by God to lead this new world.”
“Can you cut Archer and me loose?” Axel asked. “If we’re going to die, I would like to hold my wife one last time.”
Juliet studied his face. “How sweet. A last request.”
David hesitated for a moment. “Don’t ever say we’re not a merciful people. Make one move against us and your children will pay. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes,” Axel said.
David nodded to the nearest guard, and he cut them free. He draped an arm over Juliet’s shoulders. “Come, child. You have much to show me.”
Axel wrapped his arms around Britney and held her tight. “I heard something.”
“What?” Britney could hear nothing over the agonizing screams of her people.
“Where are the kids hiding?” Axel whispered as he continued to hold her.
“Angie took them to the Hummer, though I’m not sure if they’re still there. Why?”
Axel let out a heavy breath. “Shit.”
“What did you hear?” Britney mumbled against his chest.
“An engine.
”
Britney moved from his embrace. “You don’t think?” Fear rolled her stomach as more shots rang out. “I don’t know how much more I can take of this. I need to see the kids again. They must be terrified.”
Archer moved closer, Sloan by his side. “We have to stop this.”
“We can’t,” Britney tried to keep her voice low, but she was on the verge of panicking. “They’ll hurt the kids.”
Sloan’s eyes widened. “They found them?”
Britney’s stomach turned. “Not yet, but they will, and we won’t be around to protect them.”
Archer’s nostrils flared. “We can’t leave them alone with these people...they’re fucking nuts.”
Another round of gun fire rang out, and Britney had to force the bile back down. “We don’t have any weapons. If we attack, they’re going to start firing on us.”
Archer bounced his foot. “We need a distraction.”
“Any ideas?” Axel asked. “Because I’m not sure what we can do to stop all of this, even for a minute.”
Archer stared down at Sloan. “I’ll make a move on David. Their attention will be on me, and that will give the rest of you a chance to attack the guards.”
“They’ll kill you.” Sloan’s voice quivered.
“Better me than leaving the kids without Britney and Axel.”
Sloan trembled. “Please don’t do this. There has to be another way.”
Britney took Axel’s hand. “You don’t have to sacrifice yourself, Archer. We’ll figure something else out.”
“No.” Archer kissed Sloan. “We’re out of time. Now, if I could figure out a way to tell Smith and the others—”
The roar of an engine cut him off.
Britney spun around. The Hummer barreled toward them, swerving and skidding in the mud.
“What the hell?” Axel shouted. “Is that Carson driving?”
Britney couldn’t get a good enough look inside the front window to tell for sure.
“What are you waiting for?” David shouted. “Fire!”
The Hummer continued toward the crowd, bullets ricocheting off the sides.
“Mia, get up!” Britney shouted. “We have to go!”
