Innocence Lost

by T A Williams

  He saw movement on the roof and then gunfire. It started on the roof and then spread out along the entire building. Ben raised his assault rifle and got it to the ready. Occasionally there would be breaks in the gunfire and yells and screams filled the void. After a few minutes it went quiet.

  They had done it. It was over.

  Ben got up from his cover and began to walk towards the building when the front door burst open. A shirtless man limped out, blood covering his entire right leg. The man was within twenty yards before Ben managed to raise his gun.

  “Freeze!” he yelled. Despite the fact it was something a cop would say, it came out loud and strong.

  The man paused and lifted us his hands. “Please man, I didn’t do nothing, don’t kill me.” He limped forward a few more steps. “I’m not with these guys, I was just here asking them to leave us alone.”

  Ben looked up slightly from the sights. The man looked fit and well fed, nothing like the regular people they had seen before.

  The man took another couple steps forward.

  “I said don’t move.” Ben said again and returned his full attention to the sights.

  The man squinted his eyes. “You….you’re young. How old are you? Look, I’m not with these guys, you have to let me go.”

  “Stay where you’re at. I’ll let my friends decide what to do with you.”

  The man’s jaws clenched and his hands fell down.

  “I’d put those back up if I were you.” Ben warned.

  “You going to shoot me kid? You can’t be any more than what? Fourteen, fifteen? You’re not a killer.” The man took another step forward, now within throwing distance.

  Ben glanced to the building: still no sign of the others. “You really want to chance that?” His finger hovered over the trigger.

  The man reached behind his back and pulled out a knife. Ben put his finger on the trigger and stepped back.

  “I’m either going around you or through you. Which is it going to be?”

  “I’ve given you a chance,” Ben said, taking another step back. “You take another step forward and you’re a threat.”

  The man paused, looked Ben up and down, and then lifted the knife in the air.

  A short burst.

  The kick lifted the barrel slightly in the air but he managed to bring it back down for another shot, though he didn’t need it. The shirtless man lay on the ground. Ben looked for evidence that he had hit him and then he saw blood begin to show from a small spot on the man’s chest. The man left out a ragged breath that sounded wet. His eyes shot open and a look of panic appeared on his face. He reached up for his chest and grabbed at it, another wet breath. The man struggled and looked to Ben with a plea in his eyes, but there wasn’t anything he could do. Somehow the next breath seemed even wetter; it sounded like the man was drowning. The man grabbed his throat and reached out to Ben as his face turned a dark shade of red. Then Mason walked in front of him.

  The man’s face was like stone but his eyes looked at him knowingly.

  “It’s already done. You already know the ending, no need to watch it through.”

  It took Ben a moment to find his breath. He felt his hands shaking and considered dropping the gun but decided that would look even worse. “You trying to protect me?”

  “Just as much as I’d try to protect any of my men.” Mason said.

  Ben heard another final gurgle and then nothing. He was gone.

  “So….is it….clear in there?”

  “Clear as water.” Mason turned him around and slapped him on the back. “Time to get our ass to Kentucky.

  Ally

  She pulled on the chain link wires again but they wouldn’t budge. She had been trying for hours and the only thing she had to show for it where blisters all over her hands. Ally gave it a good kick then sat down against the far side. It was hopeless. She wasn’t leaving until the men decided she was.

  The sound of the front door opening echoed throughout the empty house. The sound of multiple people walking through the house met her ears and she wasn’t surprised to see Ethan round the corner, but she was surprised to see a bound woman being dragged behind him. Ethan tossed the woman in front of Ally’s cage, causing the woman to land on her stomach where she lay crying.

  Ethan’s smile beamed from ear to ear. “Told you I’d make us a family.”

  Ally ran to the front of the cage where the woman was lying. The woman looked up and she could see the bruises all over her face. Past the bruises and the dirt, Ally recognized the woman. It was the lady she used to always trade with in town, the one that always gave her oranges. The woman’s eyes were full of panic and looked right past Ally.

  “I remember watching you with her. You two seemed to get along nice so I figured she can be your replacement mom for a time.”

  “No.” Ally shook her head. “No, you take her back.”

  Ethan looked surprised. “What do you mean? You need a family. You need a mom to help watch over you. I know how bored you get by yourself and now you have company.”

  “My mom is dead. This is just a nice lady that you beat up and kidnapped. Take her back.”

  “Ally?” the woman asked looking at her a second time.

  “You’re ungrateful.” Ethan said as his face reddened. “This wasn’t easy to do. I could have gotten into a lot of trouble and you don’t even care. I can’t bring back your dead momma but I can give you the next best thing.”

  “I didn’t ask for you to bring back my mom!” Ally yelled, now on her feet. “I didn’t ask you to make me a new family. I didn’t ask for you to kidnap me or to kill my dog. The only thing I asked you for was to let me go and you won’t do that. So until you can, quit doing things I don’t ask.”

  Ethan looked like he was on the verge of exploding when the sound of the front door opened again. Ethan’s face went from uncontrolled anger to shame in a spilt second. He looked towards the lady on her stomach and waited until Roy came into the room.

  Roy stepped into the room and his eyes fell on the lady.

  “What the fuck is this?”

  Ethan said nothing;

  Roy’s voice remained calm. “Ethan, why is there a bound woman on my floor?”

  “Little…..Ally needed a mommy.”

  Roy looked to Ethan in disgust. “Are you telling me you kidnapped this woman to give the girl we’re going to sell company?”

  “We’re not selling her.” Ethan said under his breath.

  “Did anyone see you? Did anyone follow you?”

  Ethan shook his head no.

  Roy grabbed the man by the throat and pushed him against the wall. Ethan didn’t resist. “You stupid piece of shit, you’re going to get us killed!” He punched Ethan in the stomach and the man toppled over.

  “Ally what is goin-” the lady began to ask before Roy walked over to her.

  “Did anyone see you?” he asked.

  The lady didn’t look at him but shook her head no. “I was walking to my house and he pulled me into the alley. I tried to shout but-“

  “Hush honey, you don’t have to say anything.” Roy said now calm.

  Ally watched as the man pulled out the same knife that he had used on Tiger and shoved it into the back of the lady’s neck. The woman made a gurgling sound and Ally began to scream.

  She screamed so loud it consumed every thought in her mind.

  She screamed as if the sound could drive away the horror that was happening right in front of her.

  Ethan jumped up from the floor and slammed into Roy. Both men crashed into the wall next to Ally’s cage, shattering the mirror that had been hanging there. Roy once again grabbed Ethan by the throat, only this time he used his other hand to pick the man up and slam him to the floor. Roy got on top of the man and she could see the knife was still in his hand, dripping with the blood of the lady. He raised it up in the air and it hung there. She waited for him to plunge the knife into Ethan but he didn’t. Instead he tossed the knife to the side
and began to punch Ethan in the face.

  Again.

  And again.

  And again.

  Until the man’s face was bloody and broken.

  Roy got up and made a motion as if he was dusting himself off.

  “That’s your last warning. Consider it strike two. You fuck up again, or you look at me the wrong way again and I will turn you into Swiss cheese.” He looked to Ally. “This is your fault. Fucking with his head.”

  Roy left the room. Leaving behind an unconscious Ethan and the lady she barely knew. The woman’s blood began to seep into Ally’s cage and in a daze Ally got up, walked to the far side and sat in the corner.

  She didn’t remember Ethan getting up and leaving but he must have because when she came to he was gone. She also didn’t remember the lady’s body being moved but it was also gone. The blood must have been wiped up because there was no sign of it on the floor outside or inside her cage, but she could still smell it. Over time the smell would eventually leave the room as it was overpowered by mildew and other strange smells, but it would never leave Ally. That smell would remain with her for as long as she lived. Whoever cleaned up the blood and the body failed to notice the large shard of glass that landed inside Ally’s cage.

  Ben

  There wasn’t a grand celebration or a parade to acknowledge their accomplishment, even the people in the town seemed to be glad they were leaving. All that happened was they slapped each other on the backs and headed out. Ben was ashamed to admit he had expected more. In the movies and on TV, when the good guys triumphed over the good it was a momentous occasion; in reality, not so much.

  They buried Rook’s body and marked where he lay so, as Zima put it, they could give him a proper burial when shit turned back to normal. Then they loaded back in the Jeep and headed to Kentucky. The rest of the trip there was unremarkable. They thought on a couple of occasions they stumbled upon another roadblock but they were all abandoned. The only thing of note that happened was they stopped at another hidden supply cache to reload and get some more gas. Ben enjoyed the lack of excitement.

  When they finally got to the base in Kentucky, Ben couldn’t help but feel disappointed. He had imagined they would pull up to a giant high-tech military outpost with jets, tanks, and all other kinds of military weaponry. Instead he was met with barbed wire fences, tents, trailers and from what he could tell, two helicopters off to the side. The only thing that made him feel better was seeing his disappointed reflected in Mason’s face.

  “It looks like they have seen better days.” Mason had commented to him.

  Ben had stayed off to the side while Mason and the others reported to their superiors. He knew what was probably coming after that. Mason had said before once they got to a safe haven he was sending him back home. Ben didn’t know how to feel about that. He felt like a different person now. He could readily admit that hiding away in Mason’s truck was a childish thing to do and he had put them both at risk, but all he had been through had changed him. He decided he would talk with Mason about it like an adult, it was the least he could do. When the men finally came out Ben felt his palms sweat.

  “Well, it looks like we are going to be here for a while.” Mason’s face didn’t show any emotion but his tone indicated that was not what he had been wanting.

  “What do you mean?”

  “They are short-handed here and winter is on the doorstep.”

  Ben had been so lost in everything that had happened he had not noticed the gradual approach of winter. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t remember the last time he had been hot.

  “So we are going to be stationed here until winter passes. Or at least until they can get some more help.”

  Ben wasn’t going to bring it up if Mason wasn’t. “Anything new with the war?”

  Mason’s jaw clenched just briefly. “At this time our unit’s services are not needed on the front line.”

  Ben waited for more but Mason wasn’t forthcoming. “So are we winning?”

  “I doubt we would be hanging around here if we weren’t.”

  That logic made sense to Ben. “So where are we staying?”

  “We?” Mason asked and looked to Ben.

  He knew this was going to come up sooner or later. “Are you sending me back?”

  “No,” Mason said shaking his head. “This place doesn’t have the resources or manpower right now to allow that.”

  Right now, was the only part of that Ben could concentrate on. “Good, I want to help.”

  They walked over to a small hastily built building that had just enough room for four people. Mason told him this was where they were going to be staying for the foreseeable future. The base served as a military-policed community for close to a thousand people. Mason told him that until they were relieved he would be policing and protecting this community, and Ben had been given permission to help out.

  Ben had dinner that night with Mason and Zima, while Stevenson had reconnected with some old friends and ate with them. Ben hadn’t realized how much he had missed a regular home-cooked meal and he demolished his mashed potatoes and buttered corn. By the time they had finished dinner, night had fallen, and instead of going back to his bed, he went on a walk of the base with Mason.

  “Doesn’t look like much, but at least they know how to cook.” Mason said with a smile.

  “That was the best meal I’ve had in years.”

  Mason laughed and they continued their walk down the old streets. To house most of the civilians they used the leftover homes in the town. Interspersed in these blocks were military personal and patrols to keep the peace. There were a few civilians out on the street but most of them had already gone inside for the night.

  “You feeling okay?” Mason asked.

  “About what?”

  “What you had to do at the brick plant. Taking a life.”

  Ben would have lied if he said he didn’t think about it. He remembered the feeling of his gun kicking when he fired it and the man flying back when the bullets struck him. Seeing the man die in front of him had been rough, but it was the sound of the man struggling to breathe that he couldn’t shake.

  “I was as green as a twig when I deployed to Iraq for the first time,” Mason said when Ben didn’t answer. “I was patrolling with my unit when a man came out of the alley with an AK-47 in his hands, so I smoked him.” Mason shooed away a mosquito and continued walking. “Everyone congratulated me on losing my cherry and I gladly took the compliments. Despite all that, when it got dark at night all I could think about is whether that man was actually an insurgent attacking us, or just a guy with an assault rifle trying to protect his family.”

  Ben glanced up at the man who continued to walk while staring out at nothing in particular.

  “Did you ever find out?” Ben asked.

  “Nope, and honestly I will probably wonder for the rest of my life whether or not I should have fired. I even said something once to one of the veterans on my team, and you know what he told me? He asked if I would rather wonder my entire life if I killed an innocent man that was walking around with an AK-47, or if I’d rather wonder if I’d acted sooner if I could have saved the lives of some of the men in my unit?”

  “You mean, if the guy had been bad and you didn’t act?”

  Mason nodded. “Yep. You did the right thing. If you had not shot the man he would have tried to kill you.”

  Ben knew that but it still felt good hearing someone else say it.

  “It never gets easy Ben, and that’s probably a good thing.”

  The look on the dying man’s face flashed into Ben’s mind and he looked up at the starry sky and focused on the moon. He didn’t want to have to kill people but that wasn’t always going to be an option, at least not while the power was out. Knowing that Mason struggled the first time he had to take a life, and knowing the man still struggled with it put Ben at ease. He had spent so much time trying to prove himself and second guessing himself, it was nice to
know that everyone struggled with something. It gave Ben hope.

  “So what am I going to help out with?” Ben asked.

  “I’m not sure. There is a lot to be done so they’ll find something for you.”

  “Do you think I can help out with patrols and stuff like that?”

  Mason gave him a half-smile. “That’s possible.”

  “Because if so, there are still some things I would need to learn to do it right.”

  Mason didn’t try to hide his smile. “I’ll see what I can work out.”

  Alec

  With Clive out of the way, most of the drama had disappeared. There were still disagreements from time to time, but nothing like it had once been. The police force added a few members from Centralia but were still low on guns and ammunition. Things, for the first time in a long while, were peaceful.

  When winter came they were ready. The crops they had grown helped to make up for the days when the snares and hunting parties came home empty. Along with Jack’s pond, they had several others they took turns using to keep a constant supply of fish coming in. Sure, there were days when all they had was a stew with a microscopic amount of meat in it, but it was warm. Even providing heat for everyone seemed to come easy. The extra hands made cutting and providing wood a simple task compared to what it used to be. The only thing they couldn’t control was sickness.

  Even with the new additions from Centralia, a large majority of the people in their settlement were well over the hill, which meant that even a minor bug turned into a big thing. With limited medicine available, Trevor worked overtime to treat, and when he could, try to prevent the spread of sickness, but the man could only do so much. That was why Alec sat in one of the trailer’s they had set aside for people who weren’t feeling well. There were a few people in the trailer in good condition just resting the last of the bug away, but April was a different story.

  She had come with Alec and the others when their town was destroyed but their interactions had been limited. She was, for the most part, all by herself. She had friends from the old town and from their settlement but no family. She had her garden, helped cook a couple times a week and stayed to herself. A couple of weeks ago she caught a version of the flu that was going around and had gradually gotten worse and worse.