What Remains (Book 2): What's Left

by Fuller, James

  Kelli spun around and saw Auska peering out from behind Tavish, a pistol pressed up under his chin. “Auska! We thought you were dead!”

  “I’m a lot harder to kill than that.”

  “What the hell is going on in here?” Rogan asked turning into the kitchen from his post by the second door. His eyes widened at the sight of Auska. “Holy shit!” He went to reach for his gun, but he stopped himself, shoulders slumped.

  “What… what are you doing Rogan!” Tavish whimpered. “Fucking help me!”

  Rogan unstrapped his gun belt and dropped it onto the floor. “No. Whatever revenge she has planned now, she’s earned for what we did to her and the others.”

  “The fuck is a matter with you!” her prisoner shrieked. “She’s going to kill us!”

  “Auska put the gun down!” Kelli cut in before anyone else could say anything. “You are making a big mistake here, let’s talk this out before anyone gets hurt.”

  Auska ignored her. “Vincent, how are you?”

  His eyes were wide with wonder. “I can’t believe it… I watched them hang you… I watched you die…”

  “No…” Rogan muttered, shame coating his every word, “you watched Cindy Smith die that day…”

  “Jesus Christ…” Vincent whispered in more shock, “…what have we become…”

  Auska pressed her mouth close to Tavish’s ear. “…you should have stayed in bed tonight…”

  “Please don’t!” he begged, his knees giving out as he slumped to the floor. “I was only following orders…”

  “It’s just survival… survival is always hard.” She pushed her knife through his back into his heart. “Wren, get in here!”

  Wren stepped around the corner and rolled his eyes. “Everywhere you go there just seems to be more bodies piling up.”

  “Go get Rogan’s gun belt,” she ordered him, still holding her gun at the second in command of the First Division, though it seemed apparent he had surrendered.

  Kelli moved with a viper’s speed and grabbed hold of Wren as he walked by, a small knife pressed up against his throat. “Drop the gun, Auska! Now!”

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Auska asked, the pistol up and aimed as she looked for a clean shot. “I am here to save everyone from the council.”

  “You should have just stayed away!” Kelli snapped back nervously, her head staying tucked behind Wren’s. “We had things under control now, things were going to get better! Go back to normal, before you fucked it up with your bullshit!”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “She knew Auska,” Vincent replied solemnly. “She’s known for years what the council was doing.”

  Auska’s eyes burned with new hatred as she stared at Kelli in a new light. “How could you?”

  “Not everything is so black and white!” She licked her lips nervously.

  “You’re just as bad as they are!” Auska hissed, tightening her grip on the gun.

  “Last chance Auska! Drop the gun or I kill your friend!”

  “You forget so easily Kelli,” Auska replied, her face void of emotion, “I don’t have friends remember?”

  “Maybe you could make an exception this time?” Wren asked, feeling the blade bite into his neck and a warm trickle of blood dripped down.

  “I won’t ask aga…” Kelli’s voice stopped; the knife slipped from her hand as she stumbled back into the counter. Wren needed no more opening then that to bolt out of the way of trouble.

  Vincent’s face was pale, his grip absolute on the twelve-inch blade he had rammed into Kelli’s side, up into her lung.

  Blood trickled down her lips. “You… you… killed me…” Her eyes glistened with sorrow at his betrayal.

  “No,” he sniffed away the tears that threatened him as he twisted the blade, “you killed yourself, Kelli, when you forgot what this place was meant to be for everyone… for us.”

  Kelli crumbled to the floor, the life slowly fading from her eyes as they remained locked on Vincent’s. “I… st…ill… lov…”

  Vincent let the blade dropped to the floor.

  Auska ran over to him and pulled him into a tight embrace. “I never thought I’d see you again!” she whispered in his ear, breaking him from the scene he had just committed.

  Vincent hugged her back, hugged her with all the love and strengthen he had saved throughout the years for a moment just like this. “I thought you were dead… had I known I would have come for you!”

  “I know,” she told him and pulled away, finally hearing distant gunshots. “But that can wait. Tonight, Sanctuary will be freed from the council once and for all!”

  “How? They are well protected, more so now than ever before,” Vincent explained.

  Auska turned a violent eye on Rogan. “You deserve to fucking die for what you’ve allowed to happen!”

  He nodded. “I do.”

  “But maybe there is still a chance you can make things right before judgement is passed.”

  “Anything.”

  “There is a small army of cannibals attacking another small group right now just about half a mile away from the walls. Get the First and every other fighting man out there and put them down! Before they finish up and attack here!”

  Rogan looked confused. “But there is no way they could get in.”

  “I’m not worried about them getting in,” she replied coldly, “I want as many guns as I can get out there and not in here.”

  Finally, understanding hit him. “You’d trust me to do that and not betray you?”

  “You gave up without even an attempt of a fight just now.” She shrugged. “If you wanted to you could have tried, or even ran and gotten help. I truly believe you want this to stop and this is your chance to see that happen.” She took a step closer, her mood darkening. “But this doesn’t forgive the sins you’ve already committed. I would suggest once the fight out there is finished, you don’t come back.”

  “Understood,” he replied, his voice wavering. “I will get as many of the First and every other Division as I can out there.” With that, he slipped out the side door.

  “Do you think we can trust him?” Wren asked.

  “Probably not,” she turned back to Vincent. “They have a tunnel, they used it to transport the ‘sick’ out to the slavers. I need to find it and I don’t have a lot of time.”

  “Then it’s good for you that I know where it is as of this morning,” he told her, his face a torrent of emotions as he looked down at Kelli’s body.

  Auska gripped his shoulders and forced him to look at her. “I need you to trust me, trust me like you never have before. I am doing something that is going to save Sanctuary and turn this place into what it should have always been. But I need you to trust me.”

  “Of course, I trust you, Auska, I’ve always trusted you.”

  “Good. Lead the way.”

  “The stairway down to the tunnel is through the infirmary,” Vincent explained as they moved through the hallways unhindered, with everyone fighting or hiding in their homes.

  Auska nodded. “Makes sense. One of the hardest places to get into and easy to transfer the ‘sick’ without anyone ever seeing.”

  “This place is amazing,” Wren whispered as he tried to take it all in as they sped past everything.

  “It’ll be better once tonight is over,” Auska told him.

  Wren grabbed her hand and stopped her. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Of course, I am!” Auska stammered. “The council needs to be stopped.”

  “I know that but letting Everett and his goons in to take over. You know they’re not going to be any better.”

  “Whose taking over?” Vincent asked, suddenly worried.

  “I don’t have time to explain this all to you both.” She looked from Vincent to Wren. “I just need you both to trust me. I know what I am doing, I swear it.”

  Wren took her hand in his and kissed the top of it. “Okay, I trust you. Let’
s get this finished so I can take you on a date that doesn’t involve killing people.”

  They stopped in front of the infirmary doors.

  “Date, eh?” Vincent winked at her.

  “Don’t start with me on that,” Auska muttered, feeling almost embarrassed by it. She tried the door, but it was locked tight.

  “I have a plan.” Vincent grabbed Wren and smeared the still damp blood over his face. “Play hurt and badly.”

  Auska stepped out of the view of the bulletproof glass window on the door.

  Vincent banged on the door frantically. “Open up! Hurry!” He cried. “We got someone who has been stabbed! Hurry, damn it!” He pounded harder.

  Finally, Tony from the Eight looked out, Dr. Brown and Nurse Whitney peering over his shoulder.

  “What’s wrong?” Tony asked, staring out at them.

  “Open up!” Vincent barked, doing his best to hold a limp Wren up. The man’s face was hidden so they wouldn’t be able to know it wasn’t one of theirs. “He’s been stabbed. There is fighting outside, someone got in!”

  “The door’s not to be opened during a lockdown,” Tony called out apologetically.

  “Are you kidding me? He’s dying, Tony! Just open the doors and get him in, then lock them again!”

  Tony turned to the doctor and things were whispered before finally the doctor nodded and ran off to get supplies.

  “Okay, I will open the door. We will get him on a bed, then you have to leave again, quickly!” Tony explained, unlocking the door.

  The moment the door open, Vincent hauled Wren within and Auska was right behind them.

  Tony turned back to the door to see a handgun pressed in his face. “What the hell? Auska, can it really be you?”

  Auska’s eyes burned with betrayal. “Did you fucking know?”

  “Know?” Tony asked confused.

  “Did you fucking know, damn it!” She grabbed his weapon and pressed hers further into his face until he was up against the wall. “Don’t you fucking dare lie to me, Tony. Did you know what they were doing?”

  “He didn’t know.” Dr. Brown said from the other side of the room where he and Whitney had been prepping a bed.

  “Then why is he here?” she questioned, her gun not dropping an inch.

  “I just got here, was told to make sure the medical supplies were safe during the lockdown,” Tony explained, his eyes still staring at her in wonder. “I watched them kill you… how can this…”

  “You can ask these fucking pieces of shit!” Auska growled, finally lowering her gun and pointing to the doctor and nurse. “How they have been helping the council sell people to slavers!”

  Tony’s eyes went wide.

  “So, what happens now?” Dr. Brown asked. “I’ll remind you, Whitney and I are the only real trained medical professionals here.”

  “You think that will save you?” Auska walked up to them, her gun leading the way.

  “Auska, he’s right!” Vincent cut in. “I don’t like it any more than you, but after what goes down tonight, we are going to need their skills more than ever before.”

  Auska glared at the doctor hard. “This is far from over, you piece of shit. Tony, I need you to watch these two and don’t let them go anywhere.”

  “What’s happening?” the veteran asked, taking his gun back and training it on his two charges.

  “The council is going to topple tonight for their crimes,” Auska told him, then followed Vincent to the back where the door led to the basement.

  Everett cursed while staring at the hidden tunnel door from their hiding spot. Out of his eleven, only eight were still with him. Brock was already over the wall, and two others had been shot down when the fight with Tonka had started.

  Gunshots, screams, and fighting could be heard clearly almost all around them as cannibals and Sanctuary fighters engaged. It had been an uplifting sight watching the gates of the walled compound opened and three dozen or so fighters pour out in trained fashion.

  It had been then Everett had ordered his men to disengage to retreat to the tunnel entrance. They had done their part out here, and it appeared Auska had done hers inside. Now it was just a matter of getting in and finishing this dangerous game before the fight was over.

  “Fuck, she left us to die, I just know it!” someone grumbled from behind him.

  It was hard to think otherwise as he glared at the locked doorway and the battle raged closer. If that door didn’t open soon, they would have to fight again, and this time it would be with both Tonka and Sanctuary troops.

  “Boss, we are sitting ducks out here if we get cornered.”

  “I am well aware of that,” Everett replied, doing his best to keep the fear from his own tone.

  “We should accept the fact that she screwed us and try and make a run for it.”

  “Brock is with her; he will see she sticks to the plan.” Though deep down he wondered if Brock had been smart enough to keep himself out of trouble. If Auska pissed him off bad enough he might have easily killed her and now be wandering around aimlessly within. It wasn’t a favorable thought, given the likelihood of it.

  Seconds dragged by like minutes; minutes felt like hours. The smell of gunpowder and blood was thick in the air. Hoots and howls of nearby infected were drawing closer at the sound of the dinner bell.

  “You really think she could be trusted?” Jennifer asked, moving closer to the large man. “After everything she has said and done to prove to you she is a snake.”

  “Shut up, girl,” he growled. “I trust her no more then I trust you right now.”

  “You know if those doors do open, I will kill her before this is over.”

  “What you and she do once this is over is none of my business.” He turned a sharp eye on her. “But if you try and kill her before this is done, then I will ensure you suffer dearly for it.”

  Jennifer grinned. “Funny thing is you think you’ll still be alive at the end of this.”

  He was just about to order the retreat when a crack of light appeared from the heavy steel door and Wren poked his head out.

  “Time to move!” Everett ordered and his remaining men followed in a line behind him across the open ground and into the safety of the tunnel before the door was closed once more.

  “I was beginning to think you’d fucked me over, girl!”

  Auska ignored him. “Come, we need to take the gateway so the others can’t be let in!”

  Everett grabbed her arm and spun her around. “Where is Brock?”

  “He didn’t want to listen, so he’s dead now.”

  He cursed and stepped in closer. “You are testing my patience, girl.”

  “I guess it’s a good thing in another few hours we will be free of one another, then, isn’t it?” She pulled away. “Now, follow me and let’s finish this.”

  “What do we do about these two?” one of the slavers asked, looking at Wren and Vincent.

  “You do nothing.” Auska snapped. “They have their job to do.”

  “And what’s that?” Everett asked as they moved down the tunnel. Wren was a coward, but this other man he knew nothing about, and there was a hardness to him. He could be dangerous.

  “Someone needs to explain to the people what the council has been doing and that they are being put down and new leaders put into place.” She pointed to Vincent. “Who better than the person they all love, the cook.” She pointed to Jennifer next. “And who else better than someone they all have been told I killed because of all this mess.”

  They reached the end of the tunnel and into the hallway below the medical facility, kitchen and mess hall. It was quiet down here, eerily so. But everyone would be outside the walls fighting, manning the walls or safely tucked away into their homes.

  Soon they were at the exit of the building. A small handful of people were walking the perimeter of the wall, their eyes staring outward, bows and rifles trained on the open ground for enemy movement. Auska was pleased to see far fewer soldiers on
the walls then she had suspected. Due to where the fight was taking place, only three men were watching the gate.

  “I don’t suspect we will have very long before they begin to return,” Auska whispered. The gunshots were few and far between now, the battle coming to an end. They would stay out there another half hour maybe longer, ensuring the enemy was dead and to strip them of their gear. Then they would be left for food for whatever infected would find them. Tomorrow, what was left would be cleared away and burned. “You, me and one other will head for the council’s quarters and put an end to them. The rest of your men need to take the gates. Then slowly spread out along the wall and subdue the others, without killing them!”

  “That might be hard,” one of his men replied.

  “Be a lot harder convincing these people you are their saviors if you’ve killed their friends and family.”

  “She’s right,” Everett told them. “Subdue, do not kill, unless you have no other choice.”

  Auska turned her attention back to Vincent, Jennifer, and Wren. “You three need to sneak around to the homes, let everyone know what is happening, get them gathered. Make them aware of the truth.” She looked at Jen, who still wore an expression of hatred of her and everything that was happening. “I would think seeing Jennifer alive and being able to account for all that has happened should be enough proof they need.”

  “I don’t know how many of them are in on it,” Vincent told her.

  “If they expose themselves, do what you feel you must. We don’t have the pleasure of handpicking.”

  With that, the group split into three, all going to execute an important role in the task at hand.

  Auska stopped a little way from the council’s apartment complex. Likely the others that lived in there were corrupted as well, but that meant little to her. She didn’t need them, she needed to get to the council. Only once the four of them were either dead or dragged out in front of the town would a new start begin to happen.

  “There will be guards inside, men from the First Division, well trained and well-armed. We will need to move fast and strike hard.” She pulled the gun she had taken from Brock from behind her back; she still had hers hidden in her boot and wanted to keep it that way.