by Jay Ford
“No. The question is, what do you think you're doing?” I matched the intensity in his voice with mine. It had less effect, though, since I was tied to a chair, lying on the ground.
The man came over and grabbed me by the back of my shirt. He pulled me up as fast as he could, almost making me topple over the other way. He punched me on the face hard. I almost blacked out again. The pain shot from my cheek bone, all the way down to the soles of my feet. It also made the headache that I had the mother of all headaches. I grunted and chuckled. I tried to let him know that I wasn't afraid of him, and that it didn't hurt. It came out sounding like a dying cow, though.
“Malachi?” I heard a girl’s voice say. I looked up and a girl who looked to be seventeen was standing a few feet behind the guy. She was wearing a shirt and a pair of sweat pants—my mom's—and had straight brown hair that was long and covered her face. On closer inspection, however, I saw that her hair was actually a dark red that looked almost brown.
The guy, who I assumed was Malachi, turned around as fast as he could. “What?” He shouted at the girl. “Didn't I tell you not to come down? Get back upstairs!”
She rubbed her upper arm as she was staring at the ground. “I just...I just heard...”
Malachi was by her side in a second. He raised his hand and slapped the girl across the face. She whimpered in pain and let out a sharp gasp. My stomach turned, and I wanted nothing more than to punch him out.
Sarah, who was quiet this whole time, let out a gasp. “You're sick! You're nothing but a sick low-life!” she yelled.
Malachi stopped his hand right before it hit the girl's face again. He slowly turned to Sarah. “What did you say?”
Sarah, a lot less loud and enthusiastic, said, “You're sick.” Fear dripped from her voice, as she dropped her gaze.
He started making his way to Sarah.
Alex began to stir next to me. “What's going on?” he said groggily. His eyes grew wide as he saw Malachi walking over to Sarah with his hand raised.
I looked at him and then back at Malachi. This was not going to end well. I tried to do something, but before I could, Alex stood up as much as he could, and with the chair tied to him, he charged Malachi almost running me over in the process.
Malachi didn't see him coming. There was a loud crack as Alex's chair broke as he hit him. Malachi and Alex went tumbling to the ground. The girl and Sarah screamed, and I sat there in shock at what Alex just did. Only thing is, Sarah and I were tied up, so Malachi's girl was the only one who could break the fight up.
But there wasn't a fight to break up. Alex had knocked Malachi's head on the coffee table when he tackled him. Malachi lay on the floor with blood seeping out of his head.
Alex stood up, and the rope that was around his waist fell to the ground, since his chair was broken. His hands were still tied behind him, though.
“You killed him!” The girl shouted. She ran to his side and started crying next to him. She laid her head on his bare chest. “Wait, I feel a heartbeat!” Hope flashed across her face. “We need to get him to a hospital. Now.” He face grew long, as the hope rushed out of it. “There are no hospitals,” she whispered to herself.
“Actually, I know a good one,” Alex said, smiling at his joke. Even though he had just woken up from being knocked out, attacked a man who was ten times larger than he was (and won), and probably had a massive headache, he was still cracking jokes.
“Will he survive?” The girl asked, searching each one of our faces.
I stared at him for a moment. He was a no good low life who hit girls. He was the lowest of the low. He stole my house and attacked—or rather, tried to attack—Sarah, he did hit me, and most importantly, he could've attacked Alex.
But still, he's a human, and there aren't many of those left. “If you get something to wrap around his head to stop the bleeding, he should be fine.” The girl hesitated, as if she was having second thoughts. But she still jumped up to go grab one.
When Alex, Sarah, and I were alone in the room, Alex untied us. I stretched, and then patted him on the back. “Dude, that was awesome!” I told him.
“I know! That was the greatest thing ever!” He was practically jumping for joy. “That'll teach anybody to mess with us!” He said in a big voice, like he was some sort of super hero.
Sarah walked over to him and gave him a big hug. “Thank you so much,” she barely whispered.
Alex flushed a bright red. He tried talking, but he kept stuttering. “I-I-I, Well, y-y-you know,” he stopped and chuckled nervously. “It was nothing,” he finally got out.
I started laughing. “Anyways,” I started. “Alex, come with me to get our stuff from upstairs.” I walked over to Malachi and turned him over. Sticking out of the back of his jeans was my pistol that I took at the hospital. I pulled it out and tossed it over to Sarah. “Keep an eye on things down here.”
She nodded. She popped the magazine out of the gun and caught it with her free hand. She checked to see if there were bullets, and there were. She jammed the magazine back into the gun, and cocked it. She aimed the gun and shot the mirror that was on the wall above the couch, dead center. “It works.”
Alex and I had dumbfounded looks on our face. Our jaws were on the ground, and I think Alex was drooling.
“I'm never getting on your bad side,” Alex said dreamily.
She just smiled.
I closed my mouth and shook my head. “Come on, Alex. We need to hurry.” I grabbed Alex's arm and drug him out of the living room.
Once we were out of the living room, Alex started acting normal. Well, normal for him. We ran up the stairs—passing by the girl as we did so. She gave Alex a look of death that only a girl can give. But underneath that look of death, was a hint of thankfulness, and forgiveness. She stopped looking at him, and continued down the stairs.
“That girl gives me the creeps,” Alex said once we were at the top of the stairs. “There's something she's hiding.”
“Alex, we just met her and almost killed her boyfriend. We haven't even had a conversation with her. So, yes, I'm sure there's something she's hiding,” I said.
Alex shrugged, and we walked into my room. I flipped on the light, although it was bright outside, so there was really no need for it. Then, it hit me. The electricity was on. It wasn't on last time we were here. They must have brought a generator with them, along with their brand new truck. “Alex, the lights are on!”
A look of realization came across his face. “You're right!”
“Do you know what that means?”
He thought about it for a moment. “Not at all!”
“If the electricity is on, then the house phone will be working!”
“You're right!”
I ran to the bathroom, where we keep the upstairs house phone. “Who should we call?” I asked.
“Hmmm...911?”
“Uhhh...I mean, I guess. I can't think of anybody else. Although, I'm sure they're not there.” Still, I entered the numbers and put the phone on speaker. There was just a ringing noise, and nobody ever picked up the phone. I hung up the phone. “Who else could we call?”
Alex thought for a moment and then snapped his fingers. “Sarah's brother!”
We ran out the room, down the hallway, and downstairs, phone in hand. We slid across the wood floor and into the living room. Sarah was helping the girl wrap Malachi's head.
“Sarah!” Alex shouted. “Phone works! Call your brother!” His words were choppy in his excitement.
Sarah's face lit up, and she dropped what she was doing, and grabbed the phone from my hand. She punched the numbers as fast as she could and placed the phone to her ear.
“Put it on speaker!” Alex said.
She took the phone away from her ear, placed it on speaker.
“Hello?” A young boy said. I let out a small sigh of relief that the cell phones were still working. “Sam? Is that you? It's me, Sarah!” She said, ecstatic.
“Sarah! It's
you! Where are you?” Sam said, almost in tears.
Sarah started crying. “Don't worry, little bro! I'm coming. Where are you?” She wiped a tear off her face.
“I'm at the White House, Sarah! The real live White House! It's huuuggggeeeeee!” he said excited.
“White House?” Alex said. He fist pumped the air. “Yes! We're going to the White House!”
“Who's that?” Sam asked.
“Just some friends of mine.” She shot Alex a look, and he was quickly silenced. “What are you doing at the White House, sweetie?”
“Well,” Sam started. “These men came to the house, and they said that they were here to help me. I know that I'm not supposed to go with strangers, but I was running out of food; I was really scared being all by myself, and so I had to. They took me to the White House, where people from all over the place are coming to. I think one of the men said that they were seeking refthuge.”
“Refuge?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah! Refuge. Anyways, I've been living here. There's some scary monsters, but Liam, the man who takes care of us, says the soldiers will protect us.” Sam's voice lowered to a whisper. “Don't tell anybody, but it still kind of scares me. But there's no school, so that's good.”
Sarah laughed. “Stay on track, Sam. Are you in danger?”
“Ummm...Liam says we're not, so I don't think so,” he replied.
Sarah went on talking to Sam, while I pulled Alex aside.
“So. D.C. I mean, I know we had to go there anyways, but it sounds like they got a good thing going,” Alex said. He obviously guessed what it was I was going to ask him about.
“I was thinking the same thing. The five of us can't live by ourselves. The Grimms would eventually kill us. It sounds like they got some sort of army going on up there. Maybe we could join it or something,” I said.
“Yeah, join the army. Cool.” His face grew serious. “What I want to know is what's this 'the five of us' crap? There's you, me, Sarah, and once we get there, Sam, and...” He raised his hands in front of him and made a puzzled look. “Who's the fifth?”
I stared at him in disbelief. “You can't be serious! We are not going to leave that girl here. Malachi, yes. He is not coming with us. But the girl? We might as well kill her, if she isn't coming with us! She doesn't stand a chance on her own.”
“Oh, and what about Malachi? Why don't we kill him, if we're going to leave him, huh?” Alex said.
“Look at him!” I waved my hand where Malachi was lying on the ground. “He has to be in his twenties. He's an adult! He has a much better chance than we do!” Alex said nothing. “Why do you even care?”
Alex shook his head. “It's just that I think we have a better chance if we travel in smaller numbers.”
“Dude, look around you. Everything is in smaller number now,” I said.
“I know! It's just that...whatever.” He waved his hands in defeat. “You can have fun trying to convince her to leave her little boyfriend behind.” Alex walked away.
I sighed. I had not thought about how I was going to convince her to leave Malachi behind. I walked over to Sarah, who was hanging up on Sam, to ask her opinion. “Hey, Sarah. What do you think about askingher?” I pointed behind my back at the girl who was doctoring Malachi. “Coming along with us?”
Sarah thought about it for a moment, before responding. “Well, we can't just leave her here. From the looks of it, Malachi was forcing her to do whatever he wanted. I'm not sure if she'll leave him, though. My mom was a psychologist—” Sarah paused. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “She told me that even though some guys abuse girls, the girls still think that they ‘love’ them, and don't want to let go of them. They get too attached, and its hard for them to let go—even if the guy is beating the hell out of them.”
I swallowed my anger. I tried to keep it from bubbling out. Some of it escaped into my voice, as I spoke to Sarah. “How can somebody beat a girl like that? You've got to be some sicko to do that. Some guys just have no respect these days. I'd like to get him alone in a dark ally and teach him a lesson or two. If there weren't any girls around, I'd probably twist his balls off right now.”
Sarah burst out laughing. “Well, I feel the same way about guys who hit girls. Don't mind me. I'd probably help you out.”
“How are we going to get her to leave him?” I asked.
Sarah shrugged. “Maybe we can get her to listen to the voice of reason? I really can't think of anything else that would work.”
I nodded. “That's what I was thinking. It's worth a shot.” I turned to walk over to the girl, when Sarah placed her hand on my shoulder. “Charlie? Don't take too long. I have a little brother to get to.”
I nodded. Even though he was safe, I knew that she wanted to hurry up and get to him. “I'll make it fast.” I walked over to the girl and crouched down beside her. She was caressing Malachi's blood-matted hair. “Hi. My name is Charlie. What's your name?” Thought I'd start off with the basics.
She said nothing for an awkward amount of time—she just kept caressing him. Finally, she spoke. “My name is Rae Mage Simons, and I am seventeen-years-old.” She looked up at me and flashed a smile. Her dark red hair covered one of her blue eyes, and her teeth were lined up in a perfect white row. It looked almost as if she has spent countless hours polishing them. However, her face was covered in bruises and scrapes. She quickly realized what she had said and who she was talking to. She lowered her head, and her face turned red with anger. “I mean I'm Rae.” She turned her head up towards me but didn't meet my eyes. “How could you do something like this?”
I raised my hands. “Hey, it wasn't me! That was all Alex. Besides, he was going to hit Sarah. We couldn't just stand around and let that happen.” Rae quickly lowered her head again—covering her face—and I realized what I had just said. “Oh, no...er...I mean, it's just that...” I had nothing. So, I popped the question. “Do you want to come with us?”
“No,” she said quickly. She didn't say much, but I could definitely feel the hate in here. There was something else in her voice, though. As if she wanted to, but she wasn't going to let herself.
“Come on. Malachi'll survive. It's just a scratch. They've got a thing going on in D.C. There's loads of people there, you know, rebuilding. It'd be a fresh start,” I said in the peppiest voice possible.
For a second, she looked as if she would come with us, and I was rejoicing on the inside. But the look quickly vanished. “No. I'm not leaving him.”
I had to step up my game. “Listen. He’s just an idiot who likes to hit girls. He doesn't love you. He just loves hitting you. Why do you love him anyways?”
“Because he was all that I had!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. She was spitting everywhere. “And he's still all that I've got,” she said, much calmer and quieter.
I placed my hand on her shoulder. I didn't know what she meant by that outburst, but I knew that staying with him wasn't going to be healthy for her. She flinched a little at my touch but didn't brush me off. “You have us now. It's much safer if we travel together. Plus, there's that whole thing in D.C. All Malachi will ever do is keep you attached to his hip and hit you mercilessly. If you come with us, you'll have a chance of freedom.”
Rae looked at me and then looked at Malachi. She began to open her mouth, like she had made her decision, when Alex came bursting in the room. “The Grimms are outside. And they're searching the neighbors’ houses.”
Shit.
Chapter Seventeen
“Are they doing what I think they're doing?” Sarah asked. Sarah, Alex, and I were pressing our foreheads against the window, watching the Grimms enter my neighbors’ houses. They went in, were in there for a few minutes, and then left to go to the next house.
“They're searching,” I said. I could not believe it. This has to be some sort of nightmare, I thought. First, almost everybody disappears. Then, there's these crazy zombie mons
ter things, and on top of that, they're searching houses? Perfect. I half-expected them to break into song. It wouldn't have surprised me at all. In those past few days, so much had happened. I hadn't even fully processed it yet, so I figured anything was possible.
“I know this is just so entertaining, watching those aliens search houses,” Alex sarcastically remarked, “but I think we're coming up on the list.”
I removed my face from the window and looked at the backs of Sarah and Alex's heads. They turned around to look at me.
“What are we gonna do, boss?” Alex said, letting out a deep sigh.
“Get the hell outta here, for one thing. High tail it to D.C.”
Sarah cleared her throat and looked out the window. “Right. Let's get going, shall we? That list is getting shorter by the second.”
I pointed to Alex. “Run upstairs and grab our bags.” I turned to Sarah. “In my parents’ room, there’s a bunch of stuff my mom got when all this stuff happened. It should all still be in the bags. Mind grabbing it?”
Sarah nodded. “Which room is your parents’?”
“The door to the bedroom is beside the back door.”
“Got it.”
I walked over to Rae. She was still on the ground, except instead of staring at Malachi, she was watching me with a scared look on her face.
“So, what are you going to do?” I asked her.
She looked up at me with sadness in her eyes. “I can't leave him here to die at the hands of the Grimms, but then again, I don't want him to come with us.”
I smiled. “So. You're coming?”
She nodded slowly. “It's like you said: it's a new start. I love Malachi...at least, I think I do.” She shook her head. “So much has changed in the past few days,” she said, and I realized that she was talking to herself. She looked up at me. “You made me realize I need to leave him behind. I was so tired of me being his punching bag. He always told me he would change...but...If it weren't for you guys, I probably would've been his punching bag forever.”
I reached my hand down to help her up. My heart went out to her. I felt so bad for her. Her life sucked even before all of this happened. “It's good to have you apart of our posse, Rae.” I smiled.
