“I’ll be right back. Just going to see if they need a hand or anything,” he called back.
Vincent quickly cleared the distance to the men. “What is going on? Is someone hurt?”
Two of the men were from the First Division and quickly intercepted him. “Nothing to see here. Just an accident.”
A sheet was pulled over the body. “Looks more like death than an accident.”
“Yes, well. An accident that led to a death, sadly.”
Vincent tried to look past them. “Who died? How? What happened?”
“Step back, Vincent!” Decan growled, pushing him back a step. “This isn’t anything to do with you. The council will address what happened and to who in the morning. Until then, let us do our job.”
Vincent watched them go, noticing a hand slip out from the sheet. A hand with a bold ring on it… he knew who it belonged to. His heart sank and his blood ran bitterly cold.
He turned and walked back to the house, each step darkening his mood.
“What happened?” Kelli asked. “Is everything alright?”
Vincent ignored her and walked into their house and straight to her coat. He searched the pocket and pulled out the piece of paper. “Meet me at the water tower at midnight, P.”
“What the fuck is going on…” he whispered.
“You weren’t supposed to see that.”
“What is going on, Kelli, why would you hide this from me?” He turned around and Kelli was standing in the doorway, her revolver pointed at his chest. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Tears streamed down her face. “Why couldn’t you just accept it and let it go! Auska wasn’t meant to die, she just got caught up where she shouldn’t have been! Why couldn’t you just leave it alone, damn it!”
Her words stole his breath and he stumbled back a step. “You knew… you knew this whole time what they were doing.”
“Not the whole time,” she countered, as if it would somehow make things okay. “Only the last few years. I was brought into the secret because I came across the tunnel they use. They almost killed me, but I told them I’d never tell. Then they told me they are thinking of adding someone else to the council! Me, Vincent! Me, so long as I reported to them, told them what was happening, what the people were saying, doing. Do you know what that would do for us? The life we could finally enjoy?”
“You knew, you knew and you let it happen.” He had never felt so sick and betrayed in all his life. “We could have stopped it, could have made things right.”
“No, Vincent, I couldn’t have,” she countered, her tone darkening a little. “Neither could you, neither could Preston. No one can. Things are too hard, supplies too thin, people too crowded. This makes sense, this works. It’s not perfect, but it works. It keeps the balance. All those traded are those who weren’t pulling their weight, were causing problems, stirring the pot. They weaned out the weak and dangerous to make sure the strong and faithful survived, Vincent. This is about survival.”
The note slipped to the floor. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe you. That you would allow this, be alright with this, even embrace it.” His eyes hardened. “What now, now that I know the truth?”
“You forget it,” she told him, desperation in her voice. “You pretend you never figured it out and you let it go. We go on living a good life, and everything returns to normal. Can you please just do that?” Her eyes were begging. “For me, for us?”
“And if I say no?”
Kelli’s lips quivered as she blinked away several more tears. “Please don’t.”
“If you truly loved me, you wouldn’t be pointing a gun at me, nor would we need to be having this conversation,” he told her, knowing full well he was about to die.
“Don’t make me do this Vincent. Don’t throw away the last ten years.” The gun shook dangerously in her small hands.
Vincent’s eyes were distant and emotionless. “Kelli, I’m not making you do anything.”
“Just let it fucking go, Vincent!” she screamed. “Just forget it all, just accept it and let’s move on!”
“I can’t…” he whispered, “… I won’t.”
Kelli’s eyes hardened. “Then you leave me with no choice. You did this to yourself.” The gun raised to his heart for a brief moment then lowered again. “I… I can’t”
“It’s okay,” a rough voice said from behind her as Marshal, the captain of the First, stepped into the house, his gun drawn. “No need for anyone else to die tonight.” He glared at Vincent. “But you will be coming with me and you will do so quietly and calmly, or unlike her, I will shoot you, but I won’t make it quick.”
Vincent held up his hands in surrender. “So how many people are in on this?”
“Enough,” the captain replied. “Now let’s get going. Put your arms down and act natural.”
Vincent walked passed Kelli and stopped, his eyes looking into hers, disappointment and resentment clear on his face. With a shake of his head, he left.
Auska leaned back against the wall of the apartment room they were holed up in. Looking across the street from the broken window, she saw the diner where so long ago Vincent and she had hidden while waiting for Archer to return from his suicide mission. He had returned, bloody, beaten and nearly dead, but he had survived.
She smiled. He had seemed larger than the world, stronger than the gods, and harder to kill than death itself, yet he had been just a man. If she could have relived those days again with him, she would have, all of it, every second, right up until the end.
“So, what are we going to do?” Wren whispered, breaking her concentration.
Auska rubbed her eyes. She was tired, so very tired. She had cleaned her wounds as best she could with the stale rainwater they had found and wrapped dirty curtains around the wounds. It would work for now until something better could be done. “We hide here for a few days, then move out.” She shrugged. “See if we can find some of the others. Then you guys make a plan on what you want to do.”
“That’s not what I was talking about. I am talking about him.” He pointed to the back room where Jennifer had put her brother after cleaning his wounds, which she still claimed were from falling. “And wait, what? ‘We’ make a plan? You make it sound like you won’t be here.”
“I’ll stick around until I make a plan, then I am gone. What the others choose to do doesn’t matter to me. Then can try to go back to Sanctuary or try to make a go for life elsewhere. Either way, it won’t include me.”
Wren looked at her strangely. “You really don’t plan on sticking around with people, do you?”
“Not if I can avoid it,” Auska replied. “At least not yet. I’m not ready for that. Don’t know if I ever will be.”
“Guess it’s pointless for me to ask if you want a tag-along,” he grinned sheepishly.
Auska chuckled slightly, making sure not to hurt her side. “And if I told you no, would you believe it was because you’d be better off with others than the world I will live in?”
“I’d believe it,” he replied. “But would you believe that I’ll likely just follow you anyway? Which will make thing a little awkward, but I can accept that if you can.”
This time she couldn’t stop herself from laughing and grabbed her side. “You are a strange little man, you know that, Wren? But I like you all the same.”
“I take that as a compliment, since from what I have gathered you don’t like anyone.”
She forced a small smile. “It’s not easy for me.”
A moan from the other room drew both their attention back to the next real problem they faced. A dangerous and trying problem, one with a ticking time limit.
“So, what are we going to do about that?” Wren whispered again. “He’s been bitten, he’s going to turn… I’ve seen people turn within hours, sometimes it takes almost a day. But they always turn and it’s always bad news.”
“Jennifer isn’t stupid, she knows what will happen. When the time comes, she will
do what needs to be done.”
Wren stared at the closed door to the room. “I’m not sure I share your optimism.”
Auska tapped the rifle beside her. “If it comes to it, I’ll kill him.” Resting her head against the corner of the wall, she yawned. “We should all get some rest. Tomorrow we will need to see what we can find for food and supplies, or we are all dead anyway.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
Auska sighed, wondering where she’d open her eyes to this time. Who would be dead, or dying? What traumatic scene would be burned into her memory from the past?
“For once, it’s peaceful,” Archer told her, knowing her inner thoughts.
Opening her eyes, she was almost happy to see he wasn’t lying to her. They stood on top of the old hospital, where they had stayed for several days while Archer had been near death. It was where they had met Kelli and got the first real taste of what life could be like when people worked together towards a common goal. It had been beautiful, peaceful and everything young Auska had ever wanted.
“Had we not had that psycho Blare hot on our tails, this might have been a good place to stay,” he told her as they watched the fish in the pond swimming.
Auska nearly laughed. “You would never have stayed.”
Archer ran his hand through the water, scaring the fish to the far end of the pond. “Once I would have agreed with you, but truth be told this was a good place. The people were good. They weren’t lazy, they weren’t ignorant, they weren’t pretending. They had a dream, a goal, and together they were seeing it through, making it real. Had it not been for us they might still be there, might have survived, grown, expanded.” He shrugged. “It was a good place.”
“Sanctuary is a good place, much the same as this had been.” The words slipped from her.
Archer scoffed. “You hate it there, have said it aloud to me a hundred times or more by now!”
It was true, she did. She couldn’t remember a time she had thought about it where she didn’t get a feeling of anger. But now, now that the words had slipped out, she didn’t feel so much bitterness, so much anger. “It’s not perfect, never could be, but it could be better, a dream made real for people, to live, to really live.”
“And how could that happen?”
“The cancer corrupting it needs to be removed.”
“The council?”
“Yes.”
Archer stared back at the pond. “That can’t happen if no one ever knows the truth.”
“I know.”
“Someone has to give them hope.”
“I know…”
A rage-filled scream broke through the early morning, snapping Auska and Wren wide awake.
“You fucking bitch!” Jennifer screamed from the room, kicking the door open, her rifle leading the way. “You fucking monster! You thought I wouldn’t notice? That I wouldn’t care?” A shot fired.
Auska had known by the way Jen was moving that she meant to kill her and had thrown herself to the side just as the bullet slammed into the wall behind her. She landed in a roll with her bad shoulder, fresh agony ripped through her and instead of rolling onto her feet she crashed into the rotting couch. Her rifle slipping from her grip and skidded against the wall.
“What the fuck are you doing, Jen!” Wren cried out, scrambling to his feet.
Jen fumbled with the bolt, trying to empty the casing and load another. “She killed him! She fucking killed my brother in the middle of the fucking night like a coward!” Seeing Auska recovering, she dropped the rifle and pulled the glass knife she had made the night before and charged.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Auska cried back, dodging several wild swings, knowing she was running out of room to back up.
“Don’t you dare try to deny it!” Jen hissed, scoring a light hit across Auska’s forearm.
Wren wasted no more time and grappled Jennifer from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. “Calm down Jen!”
“Let me fucking go, you piece of shit!” Jen screamed. “You would protect a murderer!”
“Jen, Jen!” Wren cried out, struggling to contain her. “He was bitten! He would have turned! It needed to be done!”
“Fuck you!” she screamed, finally struggling free, turned and slashed at him, but Wren was nimble enough to jump back in time. She twirled back around, ready to launch an attack back at her target. But Auska was right there and a fist slammed into her midsection. She buckled back and a knee caught her face throwing her back to the ground.
“Didn’t touch your fucking brother!” Auska spat going to retrieve her lost rifle when another gunshot ripped into the floor beside it.
“Don’t you even think about touching that gun.”
Auska’s heart sunk knowing the voice. “How the fuck did you find us?”
Everett, his two men, and six cannibals entered the apartment, armed and ready to fight. “Well, your stupid friend here firing her rifle and screaming like a banshee was like a dinner bell for these fine gentlemen behind me.”
Glaring at Jennifer, Auska stepped back from the rifle as Everett moved closer. Already Wren and Jennifer were being bound. “I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to see you again.”
Everett slapped her across the face with enough force she crashed into the ground. “You’ve caused me a lot of fucking trouble with this bullshit little stunt!”
“I’ll try to feel bad for you,” she spat and got another slap for her effort.
“Enough talk!” one of the cannibals, a thin, wiry man said. “Tonka wants them back.”
Auska glared at Everett as he pulled her roughly to her feet. She could never hope to fight this group and win, not in her condition and not like this. She would have to find another way.
Jennifer and Wren were already being pushed out the door, as both Everett’s men and one of the cannibals stayed to bind Auska.
“I would have given you your freedom, you know,” Everett muttered taking the leather cord from one of his men. “You just had one more fight and everything would have been perfect. Now you are fucked, I am fucked! Your friends in Sanctuary are fucked! All because you just couldn’t do as you were fucking told!” He pushed her up against the wall and grabbed her arms, ready to tie them behind her back.
“Doesn’t have to be,” she whispered.
“What?” he asked, keeping his voice down moving closer.
“Doesn’t have to end like this, for either of us. Let me go, let the others go. We kill the savages and go our own way.”
“Then all my men die, and I lose everything,” he snapped. “I’m not so stupid as to allow that. You have no idea how long it’s taken me to build what I have!”
“Or you can gain everything and more.”
“The fuck are you talking about?”
“Hurry up!” the cannibal barked, watching them closely.
Auska turned her head and looked at him. “What if I could give you Sanctuary? You could be a king there, have your own little realm. Once the people know what the council is doing, they will latch on to the first person who frees them and promises them better.”
“I’m not that stupid, girl.” He shoved her to the doorway, his men flanking her.
“Well, that was fun, for a few hours,” Wren muttered as Auska was forced in beside him and Jen.
Jennifer glared hatefully at her. “This isn’t over between you and me.”
Auska just shook her head and looked at Wren, waiting for him to say something. He quickly looked away.
Four of the cannibals led the way through the outer ruins of the city, their eyes vigilant as they gripped their weapons. Cities were dangerous; infected ruled and bands of survivors seldom were any kinder to newcomers. Everett and his two men guarded the rear while the two other cannibals guarded each flank.
The city was eerie. The creaking of old buildings rotting at their seams, sections of roofs or walls crumbling, echoed off every building and each time the group stiffened, expecting an atta
ck or a horde of infected to clamber out of their hiding spot.
Within an hour, they had made it to the cities edge and back to the construction yard without incident. Shoulders sagged and tensions faded a little, knowing the most dangerous part of the trip was over.
“We will stop for a few minutes,” the leader of the cannibal group told them, “and scout back to make sure we are not being followed by anyone. Joshua, Mickel, go make sure we are clear. If you see anyone, report back and we will deal with them together.”
Auska, Wren, and Jennifer were forced to sit, while the other cannibals looked around for hidden enemies or things they could use. Everett talked quietly to his two men; his eyes continued to look over at her and she glared at him.
A shout from the side alerted them all to an issue.
“Infected! Come help me!” one of the cannibals called out and the sound of a fight could be heard.
“Go!” Everett told the other cannibals. “We’ll keep watch on the prisoners.
The cannibals wasted no time in running to aid their comrade.
Everett dropped down beside Auska and pulled her face to look at him. “Swear to me you will help me take Sanctuary, and you will have your freedom and whatever supplies you can carry when it is done!”
“Done. Now hurry up before they get back!” Auska urged him.
His grip on her jaw tightened violently. “Fucking swear it to me, cunt!” He pulled Archer’s skull from his pack. “Swear it on whatever the fuck this means to you, or so help me I will take you back to the cannibals and you will know true suffering!”
Auska’s eyes lit up; she had thought the skull left behind. “I swear it to you on the greatest man I ever knew, I will help you take Sanctuary.”
“No!” Jen gasped in surprise. “How the fuck could you sell everyone out like that, you piece of shit!”
“Boss, we better hurry. It sounds like they took care of the infected.”
Everett moved in closer. “I swear if you betray me, I will peel the flesh from your body and force you to eat it!” He cut her binding. “Let’s go!”
What Remains (Book 2): What's Left Page 17
