“You think you’re a man for trying to force yourself onto a young girl, you son of a bitch! That is my daughter,” I yelled.
He smiled as the men held me. The rest of the team overheard me yelling and ran to my aid. The men holding me back disappeared once the team began dragging them off of me. The man’s smirk turned concerned. My fists went into his other eye that Aurora hadn’t connected with. I clutched the collar of his shirt and threw him across the room. My team contained the other men to the ground as I approached the man while he laid on the floor. He stretched out his arm, but I did not hesitate. I pushed his arm out of the way and began hitting him. My hands made contact over and over again as he begged for me to stop. Blood cloaked my hands as I continued to hit him. My breathing became heavier and my chest tightened. I realized I was holding my breath with every punch. I halted for a moment to exhale. My eyes focused on the beaten and battered man who lay on the floor not moving. His face was destroyed by my hands and with no life left in him. I felt no remorse. Blood spilled from every hole his face contained. No breath was taken by him and his heart stood still. I rose from his body and looked at his friends while my team held them still.
“You guys want to come at me as well,” I asked while staring at them. “I will kill every single one of you.”
They stood there staring at the beaten man. Damian walked over to me and signaled Brock and Shaun to help him carry the body out of the hatch. I looked around the room and didn’t see Kiere.
“Kiere,” I yelled while looking around the room.
A woman approached me and said, “Chase wants to meet with you above the hatch.”
“Get away from me,” I said behind my heavy breathing. “Where’s my daughter?”
“He said now, Mr. Conrad,” the woman said.
“Where is Kiere,” I yelled.
“You will be with Kiere after you meet with Captain Chase, Mr. Conrad,” the woman replied. I stared towards her as blood dripped from my fists. “He is waiting.”
“I’ll be up there in a minute,” I responded.
As the woman walked away, I approached Justin. “Find Kiere for me.”
I walked into the bedroom, grabbed the other syringe, and walked towards the hatch. I opened the door and walked towards Chase as he stood with his arms crossed.
“So, I just saw your people dragging a body out of the hatch. I already handled justice towards that man, and you decided to deal out your own,” Chase questioned.
“What exactly did you do Chase? That man tried to rape my daughter, and he was allowed to stay in the bunker? Where is the justice?”
“We need all of the manpower we can get. We are going to war with this Warren Cross; besides, he didn’t succeed in his plan and I had people keeping an eye on him since the incident,” Chase replied.
“You have no control over anyone here! All of your people are doing whatever the Hell they want! That man should have never been able to attempt anything with my daughter,” I yelled. “You should have eyes on everyone if you want to be the leader. Protecting everyone. Not just protecting the ones you want!”
“You have no ground to stand on. More people have died under your watch than mine,” Chase replied.
“At least I watched out for everyone,” I yelled. “I watched out for you! You may not trust me anymore, but at least watch out for my family!” I felt my anger rising above control. This wasn’t my friend. This wasn’t Chase, but I had the solution in my hand that would bring him back. “You are not who you used to be. I need my friend back and we know what is happening to you. We discovered what is going on with you.”
“What do you mean what’s going on with me,” Chase asked. “I believe I am fine.”
Remembering how Aurora reacted with me trying to tell her what was going on, I decided not to attempt going into detail. I held out the syringe in the palm of my hand and said, “Amelia made this back at the hospital. It will help.”
“Help what,” Chase asked. “There is nothing wrong with me.”
“Chase, you are acting on impulse. Your eyes are blood shot. Amelia found something wrong in your blood and this will cure it,” I said.
Chase unfolded his arms and smirked. “I know what that is. You are trying to poison me.”
“No. I…”
Chase interrupted before I could finish my sentence. “I get it. It’s okay. I took your position and you still can’t accept it.”
Chase rapidly pulled out his gun and a bullet pierced my hand forcing the syringe to fall. It smashed against the ground and the liquid spread amongst the shards.
“What the Hell Chase,” I yelled gripping my hand. Blood dripped from my palm and a burn surrounded the wound.
“I would have loved nothing more than to have placed that bullet in your head, but as I said before, there is a war coming and we need the manpower.” Chase placed the gun back in his holster. “Just remember Atlas, the next time you try to kill me, will be the last time. Now go get that looked at.”
Chase padded me on the back as he walked back into the hatch. I stood on the straw covered ground cradling my hand. I looked around and screamed at the top of my lungs while kicking over a stack of tires.
“Hey, are you okay,” Aurora said as she walked from the hatch.
“Aurora,” I said behind a sigh of relief. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay. My head feels a little dizzy and I don’t remember much about the past couple of days but I’m okay. What happened to your hand?”
I noticed the red tint in her eyes had disappeared. I wrapped an arm around her and held her close. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
A loud scream appeared from outside the barn. I noticed the vocals of the tone.
“Kiere,” I yelled as Aurora and I ran out of the door. The tall grass shielded my vision of Kiere, but her screams guided me. “Kiere!”
I caught a glimpse of grass moving and the wind wasn’t blowing. Aurora and I ran towards it and I saw Kiere trapped under a body. I dragged the body off Kiere and helped her to her feet. Aurora grabbed Kiere and wrapped her arms around her.
“Are you all right,” I asked Kiere. “Are you hurt?”
All Kiere could do was cry and scream into Aurora’s chest.
“I’m going to get her out of here,” Aurora said before guiding Kiere back to the barn.
I walked back to the body and flipped it over to its back. Her face was covered in dirt with normal retinas and no cannibalistic features. The stab wound to her torso was oozing blood. Her breath was shallow, and her body trembled. She didn’t reach for my skin, but my hand. There was life in her eyes slowly fading away. She clutched her wound on her abdomen and drew a final breath.
“I didn’t mean to,” she murmured.
Her arm fell to the ground and her eyes stared into the air. I stepped over to her head and examined it for a moment. The matted tangles stuck together and rested on natures ground. The handle from my knife was warm and a shine from the sun onto the blade simmered as I lowered myself. I pushed some strands of hair from her opened eyes and jammed the blade into her skull. Using my fingertips, I closed her eyes and left her lying on the grass. I stood from her body and walked back towards the safe house.
Kiere was pacing back and forth in the room as Aurora and I stood watching her. She wouldn’t let anyone around her. I used to do the same thing when I would return home from Afghanistan. I would go off on my own and figure things out in my head. Pace around the room trying to figure out what happened, what went wrong and how did I end up there. We left her alone, even though both of us wanted to tell her it wasn’t her fault. As we stood and watched, Chase entered the room and walked towards Kiere. I felt my temperature rise and my fists clinch.
Aurora and I stepped towards him and I demanded, “You get the Hell away from her right now.”
Chase smiled and slowly backed away from Kiere.
“You have no right being near our daughter,” Aurora said as she grabbed Kiere’s hand
.
“Well it seems to me she needed comforting and none of you were doing it,” Chase said with a smirk. My fists clinched tighter as I stared into his red eyes. Chase looked down and saw my knuckles turn white. “Ok, I get it. Different form of parenting you guys are displaying. But just so you know, she really isn’t your daughter. She was basically a stray you took in. Hell, I could tell people I’m her father and no one would know the difference,” Chase said with a smile.
Aurora let go of Kiere’s hand and swung toward Chase. Her hand connected to his face and a loud pop coursed through the air. A trickle of blood slowly appeared from his bottom lip.
“She is our daughter you good for nothing jackass. And if you ever come near her again, I will bond your limbs together and leave you outside for the zombies to devour,” Aurora said.
Chase smiled and said, “You know, if a lesser woman hit me, I would probably react with the same display you showed me.” Chase wiped the blood from his lip. “You are just so damn hot when you’re angry, I can’t help but adjust my pants when you get like this.”
Aurora took another swing, but one of the men standing behind Chase stopped her by catching her hand. I shoved the man from her, and his grip left her wrist. I gripped Chase by the neck and forced him to the ground. My grip became tighter and stronger as what he said ran through my mind. The pain from the gunshot wound to my hand faded away. His eyes began rolling to the back of his head until I felt a sharp pain course through the back of my head. I fell to the ground and men began kicking and punching every inch of my body.
I heard screaming coming from Kiere as I tried to protect myself from every hit thrown at me. Each man and woman involved with displaying their force began to disappear one by one. I could hear glass breaking and other screams coming from around the room. My eyes partially opened, and I saw that my team came to my aide. I struggled to place myself back to my feet. Once I regained my balance, I looked ahead and saw Chase standing with his gun pointed between my eyes.
“Enough,” Chase yelled as he cocked back the hammer. Everyone halted their fight and looked towards us. “Tell me why I shouldn’t keep my promise to the advice I told you before,” Chase said as he rubbed his neck.
Attempting to catch my breath, being assured that my ribs were broken once more, I mustered the taste of iron from inside my mouth and spit the blood onto Chase’s face.
“Do it you coward,” I said while knowing my smile displayed my teeth covered in blood.
As I could see the pressure being applied to the trigger, Ophelia and Piper moved in between us and stared at Chase.
“Move,” Chase demanded.
“No, it’s over,” Ophelia said.
Chase stared around them and locked his eyes onto me. I held my smile and watched as he angrily turned away and stomped to the meeting room with his people following him. I began to collapse to the ground again as Piper and Ophelia caught me.
Amelia ran up next to us and Ophelia said, “Get him taken care of.”
I placed one arm around Amelia’s shoulders and placed my hand on Kiere’s shoulder as we passed her. The team followed us into Amelia and Mark’s room. She placed me on the bed and as the adrenaline left my body, I could feel myself becoming tired. I heard words such as, “They are definitely broken and get the stitch kit.” My eyes became heavy and the darkness fell over my mind.
Chapter 11
Weeks had passed and I spent most of the time in bed trying to heal. No matter what I tried to do, there was always someone on guard at the door keeping me in the room. Aurora and Kiere would stay with me at night, but Amelia had them leave me alone during the day. Members of my team would visit me in the room as they all took turns guarding the door, not allowing anyone else in. They didn’t trust any of the people following Chase.
What seemed like a lifetime of solitude, I was finally able to get out of bed and journey my way through the safe house. Nothing changed during my weeks of rest, but it seemed as if everyone was more on edge than usual. They took warning to what happened between everyone and were making sure there wasn’t another fight to ensue.
Kiere was pacing the room once again as I walked through, and I remembered her encounter with the woman outside. I hoped maybe she had gotten passed it, but it seemed to still haunt her. I pulled Aurora to the side and discussed taking Kiere out for a while, just me and her, to have some alone time and talk. Aurora wanted to come with us, but I asked her to stay because I know what PTSD can do to someone and it’s a topic not taken lightly.
I approached Kiere during her pacing and offered a road trip to a store I visited when I was younger. I told her it would do her some good to just get away from everything for a while and clear her head. At first, she was hesitant about it, but I was finally able to get her to agree to it.
Kiere stared blankly out of her window as the trees passed by with the sun beaming small streams of light through the branches and leaves. I could tell she wasn’t really focused on where we were going. To be fair I didn’t really tell her the place we were going. She didn’t seem too excited about traveling with me, and I noticed her hands were constantly shaking and her nails were chewed off. I wanted to protect her, and I wanted her to be a kid like she was supposed to be.
Her childlike sense of wonder began to vanish since the day I was shot in Louisville. The most traumatic event was the stranger that tried to take advantage of her. That was the final nail in the coffin I tried to keep her out of. With all the things that she has experienced I don’t blame her for changing, but I do blame the world. Kiere should have had a childhood instead of what did happen to her. This road trip was going to end at a destination that I hoped would bring back her innocence. I hope it would make her forget everything that had happened, and she could enjoy life once again.
I couldn’t help but stare at her adorable face while traveling. The black braided bracelet with a Celtic Infinity charm shined as the sun bounced off of it. She had found it attached to a car’s mirror during one of our travels. She reminded me of a little girl I once seen on tour in Afghanistan. This little girl wasn’t much older than Kiere. I never found out her name because no one cared to identify her after the I.E.D. took her life. It was a routine check around a village near Ak Toba. Our convoy was circling around looking for anything unusual. Everything was perfectly fine until a little girl ran out into the middle of the road screaming in tears. The convoy halted in the dirt and Staff Sergeant Walter slowly approached the little girl.
She kept waving her hands at us and Private Combs said, “I think she wants us to turn around.”
Before Staff Sergeant Walter reached her an explosion appeared directly in front of him and behind the little girl. We began taking fire from all around us. The battle began intensely, but quickly faded in a matter of minutes as their last man went down after Private Combs unloaded an entire clip into the man’s body. I stepped out of the convoy and ran to Staff Sergeant Walter and the little girl, but neither were breathing. I checked the Staff Sergeants pulse and felt nothing. The rest of the unit came to where we were and lifted his body from the ground and carried it to the convoy.
The little girl rested on the pavement with mud and black streaks across her face, but she was peaceful. I carried her body from the road and placed it in a clearing. My orders were to return to the convoy and leave her. I slowly placed her body onto the dry sand and walked back to the truck. On the trip back to base I kept telling myself if I could have saved her life then maybe she could have lived a life. She was too young to die because of dumb founded conflict and wrong place wrong time scenarios. To the rest of the unit it was called a Casualty of War, but to me it was forever known as a haunting. Her face has never left my mind.
“Dad,” Kiere chimed as it disconnected my mind from the past memory.
“What is it Kiere,” I asked.
“Why is Chase acting the way he is? I thought you were friends,” Kiere noted as she averted her eyes from the window to me.
&nbs
p; I dug deep into my knowledge to search for an explanation to Kiere’s question, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find an answer to give. “Honestly Kiere I don’t know. Something inside of him has changed, and no matter how many times I try to figure out why I still can’t come up with an answer.”
“He is acting like an asshole,” Kiere said.
I had never heard a word like that exit Kiere’s mouth and yet it still didn’t surprise me.
“Kiere, you can’t have words like that. You are too young to use that kind of language,” I told her.
“I heard mom say it. I know what it means and it’s true. With what you have done for Chase and Ophelia you would think he would have more appreciation for you like the rest of us do. Why did you let him take over command of everyone,” Kiere asked with a serious look appearing on her face.
“You know sometimes I forget your mind is smarter than your age. I guess you have really grown up, and I just didn’t want to see it,” I explained.
Kiere smiled and said something that I didn’t expect to hear, “11 is the new 20.”
“11 is the new 20? How in the world is 11 the new 20,” I asked.
Kiere smiled again and replied, “With everything I have seen, my actual dad dying, the dead rising and eating people, our home burning to the ground and all the murder that is all around us, I had to grow up fast.”
My heart broke with listening to her tell me the reasons why she grew up. Kiere should be having a conversation about growing up when she is 18 because she is going to college, she plans to get married or she plans to start a career and become the world leader. I didn’t want the reason for her growing up to be all the horrible things she just mentioned.
“Kiere, just because this world has gone to Hell in a handbasket doesn’t mean you shouldn’t lose something that you should have experienced,” I said while reaching for her hand. “You are not in the handbasket.”
Z.E.D.S. Series (Book 2): Z.E.D.S. Wayward Son Page 8
