I looked back at the crowd of people, who were just beginning to react to the travesty placed in front of them. And I could now finally feel the tears begin to pour down my face, as everyone in the camp turned to stare directly at Ethan.
They are gonna kill him.
My body stood paralyzed with fear. They are gonna kill him! I turned toward Ethan, who sat down on the ground, his brown eyes frozen in place, and his tall, slender body shaking erratically with shock and terror. I want Ethan to get what he deserves. I want him to face his consequences. A cold sensation percolated down my spine. But I don’t want him to die!
Most of the crowd stayed a good ten yards back from the body, not wanting to get to close to catch some of the sickly diseases, or have some of the countless number of maggots, that were bound to be roaming what was leftover of John, infest their bodies. But there was another group of men and women, all of whom I recognized and knew by name who began to storm across the mountain toward us. Oh, shit. Ethan’s dead. I glanced over at him as he sat helplessly, an expression of despair and hopelessness still visible in his wide empty eyes. He knew well enough what he did, and he also knew what he deserved: death.
I found myself holding on to Ethan’s hand, trying brace him for the fury that was about to be unleashed upon him. I can’t help you with this one. I felt a sharp pain course through my heart, as I realized how weak and futile I was. This one’s all you, man.
The narrowed eyes of the livid people were not just focused on Ethan, they were focused on all of us. Oh shit, we’re dead!
I felt an empty look of shock and defeat glaze over my eyes, and I turned toward Dulce, who began to cower in fear. What do we do?! My hands began to shake as the thoughts whirled madly through my mind, propelled by the intense amounts of anxiety and panic bundled up inside of me.
“Explain this!” yelled Anna, a younger woman who was probably in her mid-thirties, with bright red hair and pale white, freckled skin.
We all stared blankly at her in response, the terror that had inundated my body beginning to numb everything and turn my mind into a pit of ice.
“Explain this!” she repeated, pointing a shaking finger at the putrefied body that had its head still faced toward us.
No response again. I gulped, swallowing an ear-splitting scream that threatened to explode out of me.
“Who is responsible for it?!” This time a man named Liam, who was a burly, biker-looking dude, screamed at us. I could almost feel the intensity of his voice pound against my face.
Ethan shivered. His body now finally shifted, and I could see the drive in him, overcoming the paralyzing fear and shock that overwhelmed his senses.
“It . . . ” Ethan paused, and I had to look away from the evil glares that people were drilling at him. “It was me.” His voice was barely audible, and the shame and guilt began to pour out of him in tears that fell from his eyes.
For the first time, the sadness and true regret was visible in Ethan, and I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. He will have to live with this for the rest of his life. Then another dark aspect of his reality hit me. He won’t be living much longer.
Suddenly, all the suspicious, truly bone-chilling glowers shifted onto Ethan. There was an unsettling feeling to the air, as I could hear the people silently debating whether they should just kill him now or try and give him a chance.
Please give him a chance. Even as mad and disgusted with Ethan as I was, I didn’t want to see him die. I didn’t want to see anybody die. Wait, no, that was actually a lie. I would love to see President Ash die, but in my mind, he was barely even considered a person, and even if he was one, he certainly was lacking a soul or any sort of human heart.
I could see a bunch of faces suddenly change expressions from looks of shock and anger, to just pure anger. Knowing John and Ethan’s long history of arguing and disagreements, it came as a surprise to no one that things somehow escalated just a little too far. But that didn’t mean what Ethan had done was justified.
“You are a dirty, sly motherfucker!” This time another man named Daniel yelled in a heavy Spanish accent, that made his words slur together. His dark caramel skin looked almost like it was going to melt from the heat of his anger.
“You fucking lied to us!” This was a younger boy with bright, hazel eyes, and he yelled in exasperation.
A girl spit into the dirt in Ethan’s direction.
“Sick bastard,” she said.
“So tell us . . . ” Anna spoke with a sinister tone again. She looked over at the body one more time, just to emphasize the horror in which Ethan inflicted upon another person. “Why would you ever do this to another human being?!”
The heat beating down from the sun caused beads of sweat to drip down my face, and saturate the dry earth beneath me. I stood up and followed Hunter and Dulce to the edge of the circle of people, who were now encasing Ethan. Friendship and loyalty was one thing, but the fear of getting flogged with a bunch of rocks was another, and I wasn’t about to let that happen.
“I didn’t mean to!” Ethan was also beginning to slur his words, crying hysterically. The grief he was feeling appeared to be too much for him to even manage to speak. His mind and body were just in complete shock. His nostrils flared with every wheeze that followed a new round of tears, and his slender, almost hollow cheeks matched the empty look in his eyes. The hair on his face was apparently unshaven for at least a few days, and as result it began to form a stubbly beard, that looked like it was there to mask the despair and regret, that was beginning to overcome him.
“That’s what they all say.” Anna rolled her blue eyes.
She had always had a problem with Ethan. She was always one to take control and want to keep things in order. In fact, she was often John’s right-hand woman, if that’s a thing. But the problem was Ethan often disagreed with her more conservative approach, and he began to try and battle her for that control. Now it looked like Anna might have finally won.
“You know what? Who gives a shit why he killed John!” Anna bellowed.
Ethan’s body went limp with fear.
“It doesn’t matter anyways,” she said. “What’s done is done. And what is due, is coming.” There was a maniacal look on her face. She had somehow mastered the expression where she looks at the person with an evil grin, yet an icy scowl.
I tried to yell out something, as two massive men, who were about the same height as Ethan but twice as wide, grabbed onto his arms. There were many different groups of people, even inside the camp, and both these middle-aged men were part of the group of about a half-dozen guys, and more recently a single girl, who worked out the entire day and took testosterone pills that supposedly heightened their withering libidos so they could grow muscles the sizes of pumpkins from their arms, legs, and chest. In my opinion, it wasn’t the most effective way of channeling their anger, but they at least seemed to get a sick enjoyment out of becoming more gorilla-like each day.
I shivered as I saw the look of sheer terror strewn across Ethan’s face. He didn’t even try to fight back as they mercilessly carried him toward the edge of the mountain. I could just imagine them sending him tumbling down the rock face, like a skinny, brown boulder. Don’t do it! The thoughts echoed madly in my mind, but in the heat of the moment, I couldn’t bring myself to yell out. Even as his body began to dangle off the mountain helplessly, I couldn’t bring myself to try and stop it.
I turned around, at the horrified onlookers. Most of them would probably admit that this punishment was a bit too cruel, but none of them would speak up.
“Any last words, leader?” I could hear one of the men utter through gritted teeth.
“Pl-please, stop.” Ethan stammered, and I closed my eyes awaiting the last scream that would mark the end of his life. But it never came.
I opened my eyes at the sound of wind whizzing all around me. I could feel the air and dirt being pelted against my face, like we were in the middle of a dust storm. What is happening?! A surge of
panic coursed through me as the tension in the air suddenly snapped into a bunch of frantic screams. People began to run all around me, until one person finally yelled to stop.
I took a deep breath, trying to let my eyes process the chaos around me. The two huge men had put Ethan down, and were now staring up into the sky in awe. The rest of the camp was beginning to run away in a frenzy, and I could even feel Hunter grab my arm, urging me to follow him. I quickly realized the most logical thing to do was to look up into the sky at the thing that everyone was running away from, and instantly when my eyes connected with it terror exploded inside of me.
It’s the government! My first instinct was to run, at the sight of the black, sleek helicopter that loomed overhead, but I felt my body freeze. It was helpless. The jet-black death chariot that death had chosen to drive today, was headed right toward us, and there is no stopping it.
Hunter frantically tugged my body with him, as he began to run away with the rest of the people. No! I felt myself pull away from his arm with mad desperation. I am tired of being a coward. I glanced over at Ethan, who stood with his eyes transfixed on the helicopter. He was literally the only one still at the edge of the mountain, and he looked like a lunatic hermit, who had come out of the shadows to accept the second coming. It is time I come face to face with my reality. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. There was no point in trying to delay the ineluctable fact that death would swallow me whole, dig its fangs into me and blind me with the pain.
The amount of anxiety, panic, and sheer terror that coursed through me all culminated into an icy liquid that numbed my senses. I looked up at the helicopter, that was now just yards above the surface of the mountain, and squinted as thousands of specks of dirt continued to be pelted at me.
My heart rate was beginning to pick up rapidly as sweat dripped down my face. The panic inside of me was coursing to new levels, and it was only a matter of time before I began to shake uncontrollably and succumb to the anxiety attack.
Then I felt the emotions whipping inside of me suddenly stop, as I looked up at the aircraft and noticed something new. There was the distinctive, single, white stripe across the front of the helicopter that represented the White Knights. They had finally come to Camp Camel.
Oh, damn. I thought back to the one time that John had warned us about this and described what the helicopter would look like when it pulled up, but I never thought that moment would become a reality. I gulped, shock beginning to overcome me, as the propellers on the helicopter began to slow down, and the tornado-like vortex of wind that surrounded us started to fizzle out.
“Stop!” I yelled back at Hunter, who was looking at me like I was bat-shit crazy.
The wind roaring in my ears disappeared, and now the only sound was the screams of terror from the dozens of people attempting to run the steep path down the mountain.
Ethan stood just about ten feet from the opening door of the helicopter, and I shuddered as I imagined a man appearing from the helicopter, and just taking Ethan right with him. What is happening?
My mind raced through all the possibilities, as I tried to figure out why the White Knights were here. Most of the time talk about the White Knights was kept to low whispers; most people weren’t even quite sure that they existed, due to their lack of presence. But they were here now, and that couldn’t be good.
The door of the helicopter slid open, and I gasped as a horrible image of a man holding a machine gun crossed my mind. However, I could hear some of the screams from behind me wane, as a man stepped out from the helicopter, with both hands on his waist, surveying the landscape. The man had a white golfing cap on, and a pair of black sunglasses with navy blue tinted shades. His face looked weathered; there was an energy that was visible emanating off the guy that I instantly connected to. I could instantly feel all the pain, and sorrow that this man has been through, and I felt bad for him. His gray, scruffy beard was unkempt, yet of a manageable length, and it appeared as if it was there to hide something. The rough skin on his face looked like a shell around himself that protects him from the horrors of the outside world. When, I looked at him I felt an odd feeling tingle down my spine. Even though he had a formal black suit on with a blue striped tie and most of his facial features were covered, I still found something oddly familiar about the man.
“Does anyone know where John Hackley is?” The man cupped his hands around his mouth, so his voice could echo through the dry air.
I turned around, and watched as the faces of the entire crowd instantly turned white. I know why he is here. I shivered, as my mind tried to predict what would happen. Will he get mad at all of us, or just Ethan? I glanced horrified at Ethan, as he just stood there with an expression of pure terror across his face.
“Oh.” Just by the sound of the sappy voice I knew it was Anna. “Are you looking for John?” She smiled and began to run from her position at the center of the camp, toward the edge of mountain, where the helicopter was parked. “Well, Ethan is your man to talk to.” She pointed a cold finger directly at him.
I watched as Jacob’s gaze shifted from the crowd of people, onto Ethan.
He gracefully, well as gracefully as a fifty-year-old man could complete any sort of task, hopped off the helicopter and down onto the coarse dirt next to Ethan. I could see Ethan gulp, as the man shook his hand and began to talk to him. I tried to read the man’s lips to decipher what he was saying, but he shifted his position so that his back was faced to most of the camp.
Shit, he’s dead. Fear exploded in my veins, causing my body to shake, and my eyes to dart around erratically. My eyes kept moving around in a haze until they landed on the one large wooden shack that contained all the stores of clean water, and food that the camp had. I didn’t often go in there, for fear of having an anxiety attack the second I saw how empty the room was.
“Holy crap.” Hunter stared at me in awe. I could see his head finally connecting the dots on the weird events of the past few days. “Natalie.” His voice was a whisper, “What should we do?”
“Nothing.” I glanced helplessly at Ethan, who stood with his body limp and face tense with emotion. There was a part of me that wanted to go and try to help him, and try to prevent the inevitable from happening, but there was the more sensible side of me that knew that it would all be useless. It’s over for him. I looked up at Hunter, into his blue eyes filled with sorrow and regret, and then I glanced back at Ethan. The second my eyes connected with his caramel face, and bushy, black eyebrows, that were visible to the side of John’s shoulder, I felt a surge of sadness course through me.
Even though I hated to admit it to myself, I actually felt bad for Ethan, and in reality, I actually understood what he’d done. I felt a shiver diffuse throughout my body. I understand the mind of a killer. At first, the thought wouldn’t be so unsettlingly, but then you come to the realization that the killer happens to be one of your best, and only friends.
I looked at his long, wavy black hair for what might have been the last time, and felt a plethora of emotions erupt inside of me. For once I could feel a new connection between us, as I finally realized that the same monster that lurked inside of Ethan that had driven him to kill, lay inside of me. It was the monster that had ensued from the festering of all the emotions inside of me into an explosive bomb. And when pressed right, that bomb could be triggered into a massive explosion.
“Natalie, wait, oh my gosh.” Hunter nudged me out of my daze.
I looked forward, and at first my vision was blurry and unfocused, but then I immediately realized the mysterious, somewhat vaguely familiar man climbing back up into the helicopter. Oh, wow. My eyes were wide as I watched Ethan begin to walk in the opposite direction toward the rest of the camp, while the helicopter began to take off and jet back into the sky. The wind howled in my ears as the dirt pelted my face, and then just as fast as the helicopter arrived, it was gone. In less than a minute, its shiny black frame and singular white stripe were flying off into the horizon.
The entire camp stared at Ethan with a sort of awed, yet confused expression across their face. What did that man say to Ethan? What could have Ethan said to get that man to leave? My mind tried to run through some of the possibilities, but I couldn’t get over the feeling of déjà vu that overcame me the second I looked at him. It was almost as if I had seen this man in another life; a happier, more care-free life. Just the feeling of a warm energy made my body long to go back to the old days. But the pain and regret washed over me once again as the same thought defiantly crossed my mind. You can’t get those days back. You can’t get the happiness back; it’s all gone.
Even despite the thought, there was still a part of me that hid in the shadows, that truly believed that things might get better one day. And with the newfound hope of Danielle being released like a lone spark into my body, I could start to feel that single ember of hope beginning to erupt into a ball of flames.
“What was that all about, eh?” A man broke the silence with an angry, almost vindictive, shout.
Ethan walked toward the crowd, with a sly grin visible on his face. There was a cocky swagger to his step as he faced the dozens of angry, perplexed people in front of him head on. What is he doing? I felt an urge in my legs to run forward and try to stop him. He’s walking right into his death. Hunter grabbed on my arm to pull me back, even though I could feel the desperation practically strangling my insides to get out.
“He knows what he is doing.” Hunter shot me a confident look, and I could feel my body relax at the feel of his warm, comforting hands.
He’s right. I felt my nerves, that were practically screaming like a bunch of wild banshees inside of me, calm down. Ethan wouldn’t just walk into his death. My body stopped, as I anticipated his plump lips opening to say something. What the hell is he about to say?
“Now before you brutally kill me, I would like to at least share my last words.” Ethan finally stopped walking. He stood about ten yards in front of the crowd, who had begun to venture more toward the center of the camp, after realizing that their lives weren’t in imminent peril. I was taken aback by the unnerving calmness to his voice, and the way that his body stood straight up and unmoving.
Control Freakz Page 16
