by A. P. Madden
And Naomi was waiting for him. He couldn’t die before he got back to her. They had too much left to do.
He refused to let this be the end.
“Listen, Myles, if you just told me how you felt, we could have talked it out. Communication is key to any relationship. We could have sat down with a coffee and talked about our feelings. And afterwards, we would have had a pillow fight and braided each other’s hair.” Luke grinned at him, and blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. “It’s a bit late for the rest, but I can still braid your hair if you want.”
The other men were surprised by Luke’s casual tone. They exchanged confused, nervous glances, obviously wondering why he wasn’t worried about dying. He was unarmed, on his knees, in a locked room and surrounded by several armed men who wanted to kill him. He should have been begging for his life.
Myles glared at him and grabbed the gun from the table. “Let’s just do it now,” he said, grinning savagely. “Just kill him now and get it over with.”
The men hesitated, and they looked vaguely concerned by Myles’ behaviour.
“We’re not killing him,” one of them said. “He’s a hostage. He has to be alive, or else this doesn’t work.”
“Why did you pick me, Myles?” Luke asked, appealing to Myles’ obvious desire to talk about himself and his plan.
“You’re Caelan’s favourite,” Myles hissed. “And so naive. You were the perfect person to lure in here. With your life on the line, he’ll be powerless. What do you think, Luke, are you worth enough for him to order his men to fall back? Are you worth more to him than defeating Morgan and taking this place?”
Luke laughed. “Morgan’s already gone.”
“What?”
Luke shrugged. “Yeah, he ran out of here with his tail between his legs. I saw it myself.”
“Sure, he did. And you just watched him leave, did you?”
Luke had heard once that the best lies contained parts of the truth.
“No,” Luke said. “He was going to kill us, but Naomi offered to treat his bullet wound in exchange for letting us live.”
Myles hesitated. “You’re lying.”
“Believe what you want, but I’m telling the truth.”
There were noises outside the room, and Myles turned towards it with wide, excited eyes. “Right on time.”
“Myles?” Caelan’s deep voice was muffled by the door. “What’s going on?”
Luke glanced around the room while Myles sauntered over to reply. The men looked more nervous than ever, and he tried to hide his relief - they believed him. They thought the fight was over, and the man in charge of the victors was standing on the other side of that door.
While Myles was talking to Caelan through the locked door, Luke looked at them.
“Morgan is gone,” Luke told them quietly. “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but he is. Caelan has won the fight, and you’re the only ones left.”
Luke didn’t know if that was true, but he needed it to be.
“You can hear the quiet outside, can’t you? The fight is over, and Myles is talking to Caelan right now, which means he won. Morgan never would have let him live, would he?”
They exchanged nervous looks, and Luke knew he was getting through to them.
“If you’re part of this, Caelan will kill you,” Luke said. “He won’t even hesitate. If you’re lucky, it will be quick, but I wouldn’t count on his good mood today. Have you heard the stories about what he does to his enemies?”
The last part was a bluff - there weren’t any stories - but the men didn’t know that.
“What should we do?” one of them asked Luke.
Luke started to speak, planning to tell them to free him, but another man spoke first.
“We need to prove ourselves,” he said. “We need to show him that we weren’t really part of this.”
“If we save his friend from Myles, he’ll have to let us live, right?”
“Right.”
“Yeah.”
“Definitely.”
Myles was laughing at something, and he was facing the closed door, basking in his moment of glory.
He didn’t even see the men raise their weapons.
Luke winced at the display of violence, but the screams stopped quickly. Myles only managed a few weak noises before he lost consciousness. The men didn’t stop - they were urged on by exhaustion and fear and anger. They kept going until Myles was dead.
Luke wondered if he looked like that when he killed Warren.
He didn’t plan for this to happen, and he didn’t want to play a part in Myles’ death, but the alternative was letting Myles put Caelan in danger, along with everyone else in their group.
The door broke open, and Caelan burst into the room, flanked by Jackson and Simone. Jackson was sporting several new bruises, and Simone was pale and bloody, but they were both standing strong.
“I’m okay,” Luke said. “Don’t kill them,” he quickly added, and Caelan hesitated with his gun pointed at the closest man.
“Why not?”
“They’re surrendering.”
Caelan narrowed his eyes at the men, and they all scrambled to nod and agree and drop to their knees.
“What happened to him?” Caelan asked, nodding to Myles’ body.
The men looked at each other for a second.
“We proved ourselves.”
***
Chapter 38 - Reconsider
Luke and Caelan stepped into the corridor outside, and Jackson moved to disarm the men and take them prisoner.
“It’s over,” Caelan said with a smile. “Finally. We won, Luke.”
“What about Morgan?” Luke asked.
“See for yourself.” Caelan grinned and nodded down the corridor. Luke turned and saw a large group of people who had surrendered or been subdued. They were filing into the large open space in the centre of the building, and the end of the corridor opened onto it.
The crowd parted, and Luke saw him. Morgan. He was on his knees in the middle of the room with half a dozen armed men surrounding him. His hands and feet were bound, and no one else came within several feet of him and the guards watching him. The guards were clearly under strict orders not take their eyes or weapons off him, and not a single one of them looked away from their prisoner.
“You got him,” Luke said, almost not believing his eyes.
“We lost some good people,” Caelan said. “But Morgan turned himself over to us when he finally realised that he couldn’t win. We had him trapped in a security office on the top floor, and he barricaded himself inside, but he knew it was only a matter of time before we broke through. So he surrendered.”
Morgan caught him looking, and he threw him a cocky smirk before people moved between them and Luke lost sight of him again.
“Caelan, there’s something else I should tell you,” Luke began.
“Trent got away,” Caelan said.
“... Yes. How did you know?”
“Naomi told me,” Caelan said with a shrug. “She was worried that you might try to take the blame for it, so she told me as soon as the fighting ended. It’s not a big deal,” he added, seeing the look on Luke’s face. “We’ll find him. The important thing is that we have Morgan.”
Luke nodded and they walked towards the prisoners. “How are you planning to process the prisoners?” he asked, stopping at the end of the corridor and looking around at all the people.
“Quickly,” Jackson said, startling Luke when he suddenly appeared from behind them. “We need to lock this all down before anyone tries anything stupid and someone gets hurt.”
“No,” Caelan said. “No prisoners. This ends here and now. These people are loyal to Morgan. They had every chance to leave, but they chose to stay. We need to snuff out the rest of this while we can, especially with Trent still out there. If he came back here, he could lead these people to come at us with everything they have.”
Luke stared at him. “We talked about this.
We’re taking prisoners.”
“We can’t risk it.”
“You want to execute them?” Jackson said. “There are women and children here. We can’t.”
“Not the kids,” Caelan said. “We won’t hurt them.”
Luke and Jackson waited for him to say more, but he didn’t.
“We’re not executing unarmed people,” Luke said. “They’re not a threat to us.”
“Everyone is a threat,” Caelan snapped. “You’re not thinking with your head, Luke. We have to do this.”
“I hate to admit it, but Luke is right,” Jackson said. “We can’t do that. I can’t.”
Luke didn’t think he had ever seen Jackson say no to Caelan before, and Caelan must have noticed it, too, because he frowned.
“There are families here,” Luke said. “Children, parents, loved ones. These people could be our people if the situations were reversed. They’re innocent. Most of them, anyway. We can keep them contained.”
“That would require a lot of time and resources.”
“And the reward would be worth it,” Luke said. “Look at how many people are here. People are a resource, too, and if they eventually join us, your numbers would skyrocket.”
Caelan looked over them, counting and assessing, and then he looked back at Luke. “You really want this, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“And you?” he asked Jackson.
“Yes.”
“Alright. I might regret this, but alright.”
Luke let himself relax.
“Except him.” Caelan stared at Morgan. The man was still wearing his smug smile. He looked comfortable and confident, a stark contrast to the stressed, scared people that were also being held prisoner around the room.
“He doesn’t get to live,” Caelan said.
Luke frowned. “Wait-”
Caelan walked past him and the crowd split to clear a path.
“Caelan,” Luke said. He turned to Jackson for help, but he just shrugged in reply.
Morgan smirked when Caelan stopped in front of him. “Hey, buddy.”
Luke joined them. “Caelan, wait a second. Let’s talk about this.”
“No talking. He needs to die.”
“We just talked about-”
“This is different,” Caelan said sharply. “The others get to live, but not him. He’s too dangerous to keep alive. He’s their leader.”
“We don’t have to kill him,” Luke said.
“Letting him live is a mistake,” Caelan said. “We’re just giving him time to escape and kill us in our sleep. He’s resourceful and ruthless. He’ll find a way.”
Morgan grinned. “I didn’t realise you thought so highly of me, Caelan.”
Luke ignored him. “We agreed not to execute them.”
“Not the rest of them,” Caelan told Luke. “Just him.”
“Caelan-”
Caelan lifted his gun and fired.
Morgan’s head snapped back and he crumpled to the ground. His face was turned towards Luke, and he couldn’t stop himself from looking into those glassy, empty eyes.
Luke looked at Caelan, and his heart sank.
Caelan was smiling.
Jackson moved past him, speaking loudly to the gathered onlookers. People from both groups, the attackers and the prisoners, had stopped what they were doing to stare. Jackson’s words kicked them back into motion. They returned to what they were doing, but there was a strange silence over the crowd.
Luke stayed with Caelan until he stopped staring at the body. He couldn’t tell what Caelan was thinking or feeling. The smile had vanished as quickly as it appeared, and Caelan’s features were smooth and unreadable.
Caelan finally realised that Luke was watching him and he cleared his throat. “We should get back to work.”
Luke helped them with the prisoners, but he made sure not to stray too far from Caelan. Luke refused to let him out of his sight. He couldn’t let it happen again. He knew Caelan, and he understood how his mind worked, but that came out of the blue, and Luke was starting to wonder if he knew his friend as well as he thought.
So he stayed where he could keep an eye on Caelan. Just in case.
***
Chapter 39 - Just In Case
In the days following the attack on Morgan’s compound, Luke kept a close eye on Caelan. He kept waiting for a sign, a red flag, anything that would show the same side of Caelan that took so much pleasure in Morgan’s death. The same side of him that advocated for executing unarmed men and women.
He kept waiting for it, but it never came.
Caelan was generous and kind to the prisoners from Morgan’s group, even though he had been suggesting their execution just days beforehand. Luke couldn’t get a read on him, and it was tempting to dismiss it all as a once-off incident.
Tempting, but impossible. Luke knew what he had seen, and he couldn’t ignore the previous warnings about Caelan. Every moment that Luke explained away and justified and accepted. Every dark choice and action that Caelan took. It all came together to paint a worrying picture of the man he called his friend.
Despite Caelan’s kindness to the prisoners, Luke couldn’t dismiss the rest of it. Being kind to them now didn’t erase his actions on the day of the attack.
***
It took almost a week before things settled down, and Caelan decided it was the right time to celebrate.
Once Luke was satisfied that the prisoners were being treated fairly, he returned to the factory and let himself be pulled into the festivities. They had food and drink from Morgan’s camp and the haul of supplies they got from Warren’s group in the lab, and there was music playing from speakers they set up around the room.
Everyone was in good spirits.
Naomi smiled at him when he walked up to her, and he grinned when she took his hand and led him through the crowd. They passed Eric and Simone, finally dancing together, although Luke wasn’t sure if they would ever actually admit how they felt about each other.
Seth was near the tables piled high with food, enjoying the party but not wanting to admit it, so he stayed at the edge of the crowd. His aunt had finally recovered from her injuries enough to be allowed to sit down at the edge of the party, and she smiled and laughed with a few women who had joined her to chat. Even Stanley was milling around the room and mingling with people.
Luke spotted Jackson, nursing a drink and brooding over his injuries - he hated to lose a fight, and apparently, three of Morgan’s men had got the jump on him. Simone had to save him. Some women were dancing nearby and sending flirty smiles at Jackson, so Luke decided that he couldn’t stay moody for long.
And Caelan was in the centre of the room, talking and laughing.
Luke reached into his pocket and touched the piece of paper he got from Stanley. His wife, Audrey, had verified the information about the super-city. Naomi seemed to trust her, and so did everyone else, so Luke knew it was real. The paper had the radio frequency and verbal password to communicate with the radio operators from the super-city.
Caelan told Luke to tear it up - they didn’t need it anymore, after all. Morgan was dealt with and the valley was theirs. No one else could stand against them or threaten the safety of their people.
Luke wondered how much of that decision was because Caelan didn’t want anyone interfering with his new position. No one else in the valley could hope to stand a chance against him, but if they involved the super-city, that could change everything. It could threaten Caelan’s power.
Luke told him that he tore the paper up and threw it away, but he kept it. He couldn’t bring himself to destroy it.
Naomi found some empty space in the crowd, and she stepped closer to him. He smiled, forgetting about everything that had been swarming his mind in the last few days. She pushed every thought away and replaced them, and he wanted to keep it like that forever.
“Oh, hey, guys,” Seth said, shattering the moment.
The kid appeared beside th
em, acting like he was surprised to find them there. As if he hadn’t just crossed a room full of people to get to them.
“Seth, hi,” Naomi said and took a slight step back from Luke.
“What do you want?” Luke asked, trying to hide his irritation.
Seth took the map to the military camp from his pocket and held it out to Luke. “Here, take this back. We don’t need it anymore.”
Luke hesitated for a fraction of a second before taking the map. “No, we don’t.”
Seth frowned at him. “You hesitated.”
“As subtle as ever,” Luke commented.
Seth shrugged. “It’s an apocalypse. We don’t have time to bother with being subtle. So why did you hesitate?”
“No reason. It’s just...” He scanned the room briefly, making sure no one was paying any attention to them. “We might still need it.”
“But Morgan’s dead.”
“He is.”
Seth followed Luke’s gaze, and his eyes landed on Caelan. “Oh, you mean-”
“Yeah, that’s what I mean.”
“Why?” Seth asked.
“It’s complicated.”
Naomi frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Have your parents shown their copy of the map to anyone?” Luke asked her.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she said. When he didn’t say anything, she sighed and relented. “No, they haven’t. It wasn’t deliberate,” she added, “it’s just that they’re both so busy. I don’t think they would have had the time even if they wanted to.”
“Should I do anything?” Seth asked, glancing between them.
“No,” Luke said. “And don’t say anything to anyone, either. I need to figure out how to handle it.”
“Cool with me,” Seth shrugged, and he turned and walked away.
Naomi looked at him. “Can we talk?”
Luke scanned the room until he found an empty seat. “Let’s go over there.”
He sat beside her on one of the many mismatched couches that were spread around the edges of the room. Music blared and voices rose and crashed together, forming a blanket of noise that stopped anyone from overhearing their conversation.
