by W. A. R.
“She knew Damien was going to ambush us. But how?” he asked, in frustration. They sat silently, debating this for a long moment. How could she have known? Damien was gone with them, and the only person not there who could have even heard or seen something and come back with welcome arms was…Miles’s heart began beating rapidly with the excitement he felt.
“Rick!” he exclaimed in a loud whisper. Brian gazed at him for a long moment, waiting for him to continue with his train of thought. Miles licked his dry, cracking lips and tried to find a way to formulate his ideas into words; which was a monumental task in and of itself. “What if Rick knew and that was why he was gone? What if Damien didn’t kill him?” he asked and Brian stared at him in confusion.
“Well, if that is the case…the only time Damien would have had to do that was…” Shelly began, lost in her thoughts before she realized where they were going, what she was saying. Miles’s eyes widened in understanding. Jackson; it meant that Jackson’s death was on Damien’s shoulders as well. Brian lowered his head, refusing to acknowledge what she had said for a long moment. The silence reigned on as Miles and Shelly watched him. He seemed so bruised emotionally, so crushed, and Miles knew then that he suspected his entire family was gone, regardless of the circumstances.
“Alright.” Brian began, shifting a little and staring hard at the two on the floor. “So, if they knew what was going to happen they may have had a plan…they may have made it out.” He effectively changed the subject and Miles knew he was feeling regret at having an entire day since his father’s death when he could have easily taken Damien out and yet didn’t. Brian glanced at the door. “Let’s assume that they did. What are we going to do?”
“What can we do? We are tied here and locked away. God knows where we are…” Shelly began, her skin looking flushed and her brow creased with worry. She looked almost feverish and ill. He swallowed, recalling the few hints that Amber and Shelly had given out that he had caught onto. She was pregnant and was being mistreated. There would be possible malnourishment, possible abuse…things could go very bad very fast if they didn’t find a way out of there and away from those people.
Miles turned from her and shook his head. “We can’t be too far. Brian woke up last night in this room. They had to have had time to load us up, bring us to a place that was already set up for them, unload us and lock us up. That takes time.”
“So, what are you suggesting?” Brian asked and Miles began sliding his fingers against the wall behind him, searching for something, anything that would benefit him in the removal of his confines.
“I’m suggesting we get out of here.” Miles stated, shifting slightly away from Shelly, and fumbling along the wall. “How many men did you see when you were interrogated?” he asked of Brian, who again glanced at the doorway.
“Four. There were only four that I saw, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t more out there.” He told Miles and Miles grunted with the effort it took to move to the right in search of a protruding nail, or even the corner so he could balance himself enough to stand. “They were talking last night about how long we have here before they take us to the compound that Lance mentioned. They said we have a week before we head that way, two weeks in reaching it. That’s our time limit.”
… “We have a compound that is working on…change.” The man began, never looking at them. Miles bit down angrily on the cloth. “To work on this…change…we always need more people. So, we look. We release the experiments that had not worked, or had gone wrong, and we look for living humans. We have done this countless times. Some that we find become part of our growing community, some die, while others…” the man paused, his eyes resting intently on Miles. “Well, you’ve seen the hybrids.” …
…The Biter that ran…
…The Biter that had dug at the dirt…
…The two gargantuan monsters with impossible strength…
…The Biter that could talk and feel….
Miles felt his blood run cold. In the chaos of getting captured and the concern of the rest of their family he had forgotten it all. He had forgotten about the monsters, the hybrids; he had forgotten about the compound. He had forgotten about their intentions for them, their experiments, and their community. Their family was going to become part of these experiments. “Fuck.” He muttered, struggling a little more to find relief. “We have to get out of here.” He growled, his fear escalating at the prospect of any of them, of their family, the children becoming anger and hunger fueled cannibals. No…he thought…if they were alive they were at risk of being taken in for their experiments, for certain death.
“Miles calm down. We will get out of this.” Shelly tried to reassure him as he scooted further and further from her and towards a darkened corner, trying his best not to lose his balance and fall to his side. He was desperate, the roars of the monsters, the cries and laughter from the female Biter all sounding in his ears like a cacophony of horror.
… “Amber’s a smart girl……she’s…special…obviously. Can’t you just wait to see how she turns out? What will she become? … Just imagine what we are going to do to her and that lovely daughter of hers…what we are doing to them…right…this…second….”
“No!” he exclaimed roughly, his throat on fire. “If they aren’t already…dead…they are alone. I left them alone and they shouldn’t be.” He told them frantically and Brian gazed after him sadly, his eyes knowing. And he sat there for a moment, reflecting back on his words. They were true; he had left them to possibly die, to be brutally murdered by the hands of the enemy they were too afraid to face.
“Miles, we both left them alone.” His voice was harsh and yet gentle simultaneously, as if comforting Miles and yet admonishing himself.
Shelly looked between the two of them. “Freaking out is not going to help them or us. We need to calm down or else we aren’t going to get out of here. George, Derek, Buddy, and Amber can handle this.” She told them, almost scolding them. Miles stopped moving and stared at her. “They aren’t alone. They have each other.” She bit out and things grew silent once more.
She was right. Of course she was right. He lowered his head and released a trembling breath. He knew what they would have had to do to achieve that win, that freedom, and it hurt him. But there were always two sides to any coin and he felt immense pride and faith in them. He knew they could make it, but the memory of the fear he felt in his dream, seeing them all dead, watching Amber die at the hands of his son…well, it haunted him. His son. He felt his heart cinch just a little tighter. Where was he? Was he amid the people they had killed? Had the people he loved most warred against one another? It hurt him beyond reason to consider. Miles shook his head and focused on calming his breathing, his racing heart. Why was he panicking? He knew it would do no good…and yet, his concern, his worry, and his depth of caring were getting the best of him. He couldn’t help it. He had found where he had always belonged, he just happened to find it at the end of the world. Slowly, he began searching once more for something, anything. His bound wrists prohibited much of his movement but he ground his teeth together and did as much as he could. His fingers searched spastically for something, anything, along the floors, the walls, and the baseboards. In his frantic movements and thoughts, his hand scraped hard against something protruding from the carpet. His hand sliced open and he gasped, sharply inhaling against the sudden pain. Warm blood filled his palm and flowed down his finger before dripping from the tip of his pinky. He quickly pressed his shaking fingers against it, feeling its shape and the warmness of it.
“Hey. I…I found a piece of glass.” He stammered out nervously. He ran his fingers down the length of it until his fingertips brushed against the carpet where it was embedded. He glanced up to his left at the wall, seeing a boarded-up window. He squinted up at it, attempting to peer out through the cracks of the board, but he could see nothing…not even the slightest hint of the sun.
“A piece of glass?” Brian asked and there was
no mistaking the hope lacing his words.
“Yeah. It’s stuck in the carpet. I think I can use it to cut whatever it is keeping Shelly and I tied up and then we can figure out how to get those chains off you.”
Brian shifted, the chains rattling. “The short, stout man with a neck tattoo has the key to this damn thing.” He growled, fingering a lock that Miles hadn’t taken notice of before.
Miles nodded. “Alright.” He stated, storing that piece of information in his memory before moving onto his next question. “What is the layout of this place?” he asked, trying to formulate some shoddy plan to begin building on. He needed something to settle as a foundation, and they needed to get out of there. As soon as he could figure out how this place was set and determine the exits, maybe he could figure a way to get safely out and reach their own people.
“Well…” Brian began before footsteps were heard from the other side of the door. Brian’s eyes widened and his entire demeanor changed as he tensed. “Sleep!’ Brian whispered urgently as Miles maneuvered as far as he could from the glass. He couldn’t draw attention to it. Shelly immediately lowered her head, eyes closed, and breathing even. He marveled at how quickly she had pulled that off, appearing legitimately unconscious. Miles’s heart pounded against his chest as he wriggled further away from the glass. He felt a thin sheet of sweat coat his brow and his lungs began to ache from his rapid breathing. “Miles!” Brian seethed as the footsteps drew nearer. “Now!” Miles knew he was trying to save him from the pain that he had been dealt, but he needed this.
“No.” he returned, hearing a hand settle on the knob and turn it. The gears were rusty and he could hear them turning in the dead silence. He refused to do as Brian asked him. Brian would not take the brunt of the pain. Miles wouldn’t let it happen. He could feel Brian’s eyes dig angrily into him as the door creaked open. He needed to see what lay around them, how the house was. He needed to learn about the people that held them and if there were any more than the four that Brian had seen. And honestly, he needed to see if his son was here…if he were one of the men that had locked them away to wait for torture, like pigs in a slaughterhouse. That thought alone tortured him beyond belief.
… “Don’t let them hurt my family.” He demanded of the man, his voice cracking with emotion even as he held his chin high. Miles was reaching out to him desperately, a man who held a rifle tight in his grasp. He was begging for some kind of mercy from this stranger that had held him at gunpoint and he didn’t care if he appeared weak. He only wanted everyone else safe. He watched as the man quickly reached up and pulled the hood back from his head and Miles’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Not my problem.” The man bit out; his eyes were so full of anger and hatred; so much abhorrence and disgust that it twisted his face into something almost unrecognizable. Miles couldn’t even get the name to leave his lips before the young man swung down as hard as he could with the butt of his gun. “Fuck you and your little girlfriend.” He leaned closer, sneering in twisted delight. “She’s next.” …
Sunlight blinded them for a moment and Miles flinched momentarily at the sight. His head was still throbbing from the blow to his cranium, though the ache was slowly ebbing away, reducing the pain significantly. Catching the silhouette of a tall man through squinted eyes, he felt his heart race, his nerves stand on edge.
This was the beginning, the start of more brutality and he could only imagine how it was going to end. He just hoped that whenever they did make it out of that room, they wouldn’t be too late.
“Well, well…someone finally decided to wake up.”
Chapter Two
Katie stood in front of the house, Bobby-Jean and Cassie on either side of her. Things were quiet and reserved, not a single one of them saying a word. Yes, tears coated their faces, stemming from their sorrowful eyes, but they did not make a sound. They couldn’t. Aside from the silence that came from around them, the only other sound was Biters begging to get in from the brick wall. For a moment there was nothing, no screams, no cries, and they reveled in the silence that came with it. That was their reasoning for being so quiet; that and the fact that they were attempting to move past everything that had happened and develop some sort of plan. They were becoming hardened, and none more so than Amber…Amber who had fallen to her knees beside a deep and wide hole that Buddy and George had dug. She was kneeling beside her son’s body, not ready to put her baby boy in the hole just yet. It was Amber who looked up to see Jacob doing the same with Brittany’s broken corpse as Rick and Derek were finishing digging a second hole, and Buddy and George were working on securing a cross in remembrance of another brave soul of theirs.
Elva Jo.
It brought a fresh wave of sadness to Amber as she lifted her eyes from her son and saw the cross, and again she felt like a failure. Here were three people that she had let down, three people she cared about, tried to save, only to have them lose their lives. She sighed against the pain, pushing it back until later because she knew that later…whenever she was alone…she would come out to her son’s grave and she would mourn yet again…she would grieve for all that she was worth. The pain would move past her lips and she would let it escape her, if only for a little while. Kyle had died by Damien’s hand, Brittany and Elva-Jo both from Biters. It tore at Bobby-Jean, Amber knew, and she worried for her mother. She lowered her head once more; aware that the images in her tattered mind were blurred and she vaguely recalled how they had arrived at the position they were currently in, one day after the fall of their friends and family. The memories came in clipped versions, her mind not recalling certain parts, and avoiding others.
After determining their next destination (being the church), the group had left the side of the road, leaving the smoke, fire, and Biters behind; leaving some part of their sanity behind. They had left all of this and more and followed the winding road to the church where they were to meet Bobby-Jean, Elva-Jo, and Elliot. The wind had blown against her ears, taking away the sound of Damien’s pitiful cries as he slid in the bed of the truck with every turn they made. She hadn’t cared, as her eyes remained on the lifeless corpse at her feet. Buddy had remained beside her, refusing to leave her side whenever Derek suggested that the two of them get into the cab of a truck in case anything were to happen. George had disagreed with him and Amber readily ignored his statement, fully aware that he had only been trying to help. It wasn’t long after this they had reached the small church where the red Dodge sat in the vacant parking lot. They had been met at the trucks by Bobby-Jean, Rick, and Elliot before they had even killed the engines, Zeus watching from the window of the red Dodge. Tears coated everyone’s face, as did blood on their bodies and slowly they all climbed from their places amongst the vehicles and met. Embraces were held tightly between family as they came together. More tears were shed in the silence of their heartache. Amber expressed with vivid remorse what had happened with Kyle, what happened to Brittany, causing Bobby-Jean to collapse to her knees, unable to speak. Rick then spoke with a heavy heart, explaining that Elva-Jo was also gone.
Bobby-Jean had shuddered under the weight of the world then, unable to accept that so much loss had occurred to them. She hadn’t been able to save Elva-Jo from the Biters that came as they had neared the truck during their escape. It was too late and they took her down, screaming as Bobby-Jean and Rick had no choice but to leave with Elliot. There were five Biters at least and none of them were in any shape to take them down without either going down themselves or risking little Elliot’s life. She had lost her husband, her son, and her grandson within twenty-four hours and Amber feared that she would go off the handle. Still, she hadn’t, and after a shortened amount of time she had risen to her feet, no longer crying, and dove into a discussion of where they needed to go next. As they discussed this, Rick mentioned a house somewhere off some backroad that had a stone wall surrounding it. He was unsure how damaged it was, but the very least that they could do was check it out. And so, they had all loaded up
and made tracks to the house, Rick leading the way.
It wasn’t long before they had arrived, and though it was gaining on nightfall, Amber could clearly make out the sturdy structure of what appeared to be a cobblestone wall that surrounded a wide berth of land. It was surprising, really, that this had even been around before, and Amber was surprised that she had never come across it. Then again, it was plenty far away from any town, both Thurston and El Dorado, and the only reason Rick knew of it was because he had done some work there before the world decided to end. Most of the group asked Rick why he hadn’t thought of this place before, and his response?
“I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
Hell, none of them had been; none of them currently were. Still, they had pulled to a stop at the closed gates that blocked their path and Amber, Jacob, and Buddy all exited the vehicles to survey the area and find a way to open the gates. If she were honest, she didn’t remember the trip to the church, or the trip to the house; she didn’t remember how Buddy and Jacob had opened the gates, and she certainly didn’t remember watching as what was left of her family made their way through. Buddy and Jacob escorted her in with them, closing and locking the gates behind her with the chain and lock that they had taken from the front gate of the fence at their previous house. Still, Amber felt numb, with just the slightest hint of relief that only sanctuary for her family could offer.
They had scanned the enormous property with the help of Zeus, finding no bodies, no Biters, and a house that appeared as if the owners had left for work and simply never made it back home. It was a stark contrast to what her memory brought forward of the house that she, Brian, and Miles had visited. Most houses were like this one, she knew, but it was still obvious that there was a loss and pain within those walls; making it no less painful that that house from her memories. Amber wanted to feel sympathy then, but she couldn’t find any. Instead, she was grateful for their absence and for leaving their house in the shape it was in, accommodating for her broken family. This place and the turning of whomever lived there before allowed for her family’s, or what was left of it, safety. She may have considered that selfish if she properly cared. As it was, she knew in that moment with her current mindset that if the other people were still alive and in that house, she would kill them just to ensure her own family lived and stayed there.
