by W. A. R.
Instantly her eyes widened and she let out a yell, sidestepping the long axe that swung at her, slicing through the air where she had just stood. She turned to face the perpetrator, the incident happening within a second, and before she could get a good look, the axe came at her again. She avoided it, barely, and lost her balance in the process, falling from the high porch to the hard ground below. She cried out as a sharp pain ran up her back; her tailbone and the back of her head connecting hard with the solid ground. Two seconds and she fell to the ground, taken by surprise. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find air and the wind carried with it her desperate gasps for breath. She forced her eyes open, looking up to see Buddy jump fluidly from the side of the porch. He faced her, his eyes angry, his posture threatening. Amber swallowed and scrambled to her feet as George came slowly from the barn to see what the ruckus was about. Amber stood, her body aching and her vision swimming slightly. She took a step back as he advanced her and she studied him. George did the same, seeing something different about the man before her. It wasn’t the first time that he had prompted her to fight with a sneak attack, but it was the first time he had appeared so furious, so vengeful. His right hand held his one long sword tightly, a sword he had gotten from the other house to help Amber learn, practice while his left held the axe. His knuckles here white and his face was red. His breathing was heavy and even, and his eyes were wide and determined, wild and unrestrained. He wasn’t seeing clearly, wasn’t seeing the world. He wasn’t Buddy anymore. He was a stranger. A sharp pain ran down her neck and she winced, grabbing at it, even as she knew she couldn’t alleviate it.
“Buddy! What are you doing?” she demanded hotly, hoping to find some reason in him, hoping against hope that he wasn’t delirious, but just as soon as the words left her mouth he lifted the sword up, swinging at her. He released a rebel yell and Amber barely had time to realize what was happening before she ducked and sidestepped him, falling to her knees. Pain radiated up her spine at the contact and she grunted, turning once again to face him as he rolled his shoulders and swung the axe in a wide arc towards her. She needed to withdraw her own weapons but she couldn’t. He was too angry, too quick, too crazed. She needed to put some distance in between them. He swung again and she rolled, but the sharpened point of the blade sliced through her jeans, connecting with her thigh. She cried out loudly, scurrying away and limping from him. Warm, sticky blood flowed down her leg, flowing easily into her shoe. She grimaced and panted heavily, basically running from the man. “Buddy!” she exclaimed, turning to see how far back he was. He continued to advance and she quickly reached back and drew her own swords from their scabbard. This made him hesitate for just a heartbeat but it didn’t stop him. “It’s Amber! Remember me?” she demanded to know. Her lungs hurt as they continued fighting for the air that they had lost only seconds before. She gripped her weapons tightly and narrowed her eyes at him. It was the first time his blade had touched her and damn did it hurt. Before, he had stopped before he hurt her, teaching her a lesson with his words and his actions. Not anymore.
“Amber? What’s going on?” George asked as he neared them. Suddenly he stopped as Buddy growled and lunged at her. Amber looked around her, searching for something, anything, that she could use without actually harming the man with her swords. She saw nothing and quickly threw up her sword, the sound of metal on metal grating against her ears as they collided. She used all of her strength to shove his sword away before dropping to her haunches and kicking his feet from under him. He fell to the side in surprise with a loud ‘oomph’ before immediately scurrying to his feet. Amber used this split second as a chance to limp away, her leg throbbing. Fifteen seconds since he had first struck at her.
“Katie spiked the food! Hallucinating! Find Derek!” Amber exclaimed in a clipped response to George’s question. His eyes widened at her response when he realized the gravity of the situation and he watched the two, unsure of what to do before he quickly disappeared.
Buddy began racing at Amber and she shifted on her feet quickly, turning to him. She jumped on the wood stack to her left, balancing precariously on the rotting logs as he once again swung at her. The blade sliced through the decaying wood easily, causing Amber to once again topple and fall back. She grunted as she fell, watching as Buddy launched over the pile at her, lifting his sword. She lifted her own, both of them crossing and clanging against his. He applied pressure, gritting his teeth as he did so, and Amber felt a pain run up the length of her arm. She yelled and kicked at his knee, shoving him over to the side. He stumbled and rolled as she lifted herself to her feet. She felt a warmth run down her arm and as she looked, she noted crimson liquid flow from her fingers to the hilt of her weapons. A nail was protruding from the flesh of it. Ignoring it, she turned back, realizing it had been at least a full second since the altercation. That was too long. She panted, feeling lightheaded, as she witnessed his slow rise to his feet. He glanced down at his axe, his sword on the ground at his feet, before dusting himself off. He did so with a devious thoughtfulness and Amber knew immediately that she needed to run. She took two steps back, her breathing heavy and her heart pounding, when he snapped his gaze to hers. His expression was so dark that it was frightening.
“Why aren’t you fighting me, Amber?” he asked of her, taking slow, meaningful steps towards her. She glanced at the barn, watching the door swing open and close shut with the force of the wind. She wasn’t sure where George had gone, and for a moment she wished she knew. She swallowed, continuing to take the steps back from him.
"You know who I am?” she asked of him and he tilted his head to the side in amusement, as if she were asking the most ridiculous question he had ever heard.
“Mom? What’s going on?” Cassie then asked from the back porch, worry etched onto her face. Amber glanced at her briefly before turning back to Buddy, taking another step back.
“Cassie, honey, get in the house and lock the door. Now.” Amber commanded, and immediately Cassie was going. Buddy glanced at the back porch, and Amber saw from the corner of her eye Rick and Bobby-Jean watching. Buddy growled and without a second thought, Amber began running. Her boots pounded against the ground as she did this, and she didn’t have to look behind her to see if he was following her. She knew he was; there was no doubt about it. She raced towards the barn, her heart slamming painfully against her chest. It wasn’t far, a few yards, and she had a few yards gained on him.
“Where are you going? Back to him?” Buddy exclaimed viciously and Amber wondered what he had meant by this. She wasn’t about to stop and ask. “You need to learn to fight with what you have Amber! Stop and fight me!” he exclaimed and though he was right, she knew there was something underlying this battle.
Amber reached the open door and quickly slammed it closed behind her, turning and searching for something, anything to lock it with. Damien’s wide, curious eyes watched her as she gasped for breath and grabbed a chain from the wall. She made quick work of securing the door to the wall before she heard him slam up against it. Without thinking, she jumped, startled.
“Buddy, please snap out of it. Don’t you see what you’re doing?” she asked loudly, hearing a commotion from the house. People were protesting something, screaming and crying for Buddy to stop. It became quiet, eerily quiet and Amber took another step back from the door. The chain no longer rattled and he no longer banged on the door. Her heart was pounding and she felt like crying. He was still out there; she could see his shadow under the door, blocking the sunlight as he moved. What was she supposed to do? He was her friend. Could she really hurt him…kill him if she had to? The sudden sound of wood splitting reached her ears, causing her to start. She watched as an axe protruded from the old door.
“Come on out Amber.” He told her, and she witnessed the axe hit again, the hole becoming bigger, old dry pieces of wood littering the floor at her feet. “I only want to talk. The enemies are in the house. They are watching. They are always watching.”
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��Buddy stop!” Bobby-Jean exclaimed and Buddy hit the door again, ignoring her. His face was clearly visible and Amber began searching around her for something, anything, but they had removed any and all weapons. All she had were the swords in her hands. Her guns and knife were still in her room. She grit her teeth then, ignoring the sounds of the axe chopping away at what was left to the door. It would only be a moment or two before he stepped through the hole, kicking down the rest of the rotting wood and only then would she be left at his mercy.
“Buddy, stop. Please.” Amber called out nervously to him. Silence reigned for a brief moment, and she turned, her eyes locking with Damien’s. He was clearly worried then, hearing everything that was happening around them. Dammit, why had she even run in there? To get him away from everyone else? She wasn’t sure. Still, when the sound of his boot connecting with the wood startled her, she spread her feet, bending her knees slightly. It was a reflex, this defensive stance, and she felt her muscles tighten at the sight of him. He stood in the doorway, staring at her. He looked intimidating with his shoulders set back.
“I am only going to hurt you. I won’t kill you. I can’t kill you.” He told her as it that should be reassuring. She shuddered as he stepped carefully into the barn, not taking his eyes off of her. “As long as you’re damaged they won’t take you.” He cracked his neck easily. “Cassie and Elliot are next.”
Fire spread through her. Keep him talking. Keep him talking and he won’t hurt anyone. “You won’t hurt me.” She informed him and at this he grinned. It last for just a moment before a shift behind her alerted him to Damien’s presence. It was as if he had completely forgotten that the tortured man was still in there, which considering the circumstances, wouldn’t have been too far-fetched. Amber wouldn’t look at him, couldn’t bring herself to take her eyes off Buddy. She needed to distract him.
“What are you talking about ‘damaged’?” she asked and suddenly he turned and lashed out at her. His punch was powerful, and she shrieked and stumbled back into the table. He was on her in an instant, bringing his axe down at her and she caught it with the teeth of the serrated edge of one of hers. He pressed against her, his hips against hers, pressing her into the table and his legs pinning hers as he forced her to bend back on the top of the table. She exclaimed her protest and tried to kick at him, to shove him away. She brought her other sword around but she was stopped whenever his free hand caught her wrist and slammed it down against the table. She cried out, her sword clattering to the floor and quickly he maneuvered her arm behind her back, bending it at an awkward angle, and using her own body to keep it pinned. His other hand, now free, came to rest on her neck, squeezing her windpipe noticeably. He stared down at her with flaming blue eyes and she felt disgusted, angry.
“You have been hiding something from us since that day. Don’t think…” he spat out. “that I haven’t noticed. And knowing you, you are willing to offer yourself up for the others. So as long as you are damaged, they won’t take you.” He leaned a little closer, putting more weight onto the axe, causing Amber to flinch with the force she was using to hold it back. “And you are no fucking hero. Stop acting like one. I promised to protect you and that is exactly what I am doing and what I plan on continuing to do. That’s why I have to incapacitate you and take you away from here. The enemy is in the house.”
She winced, feeling tears of pain spring to her eyes. “They aren’t Buddy. That is our family.” She bit out against the agony of her bent arm, of the pressure of pushing back at him to keep his axe from hitting her.
“No they aren’t!”
His eyes flared. “Is it really so fucking hard to trust me? You haven’t had a problem with it before!”
His hand squeezed her throat tighter. “That was before you became friends with the enemy.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” she demanded to know. She needed to keep him talking until she could find a way out of it. She swallowed thickly, feeling her arm tensing against the pressure. It was beginning to hurt.
“You want to tend to Damien? Care for him?” Amber grimaced. “He killed your son!”
“I know that!!” She screamed at him then, surprising him. He didn’t waver his hold on her, no matter how she struggled. She was losing.
“He killed your father!”
“And I am going to kill his!”
His eyes suddenly darkened with something else and Amber shuddered. His hand traveled from her throat down to her waist and he watched every move he made. She whimpered against the pressure of the axe feeling her arm slipping. “You aren’t going to kill his father.” He told her, slipping his fingers under her shirt, their callousness brushing against her skin and she felt sick with worry. His eyes softened. “I already did.”
And she went cold. “You…you killed Adrian?” she asked numbly, playing along with his game and immediately she began wondering where Derek had gone to. Had he killed Derek by accident, thinking he was Adrian? He eased his hold on the axe and she felt relief from the removal of pressure. “Can I see?” she asked thickly, needing to know who had been hurt and he leaned a little closer to her, his cold fingers gripping her waist, hard enough to leave bruises on her pale skin.
“On one condition.” He told her and she nodded, waiting for him to finish whatever he was going to say. He grinned, no longer angry it appeared. Her nerves were still running rampant however and she needed to see who he had actually hurt. He quickly pressed his mouth to hers, the meeting hard and forced. Amber grunted and tried to turn away but he held her there, his mouth grinding her top lip against her teeth painfully. She tasted blood and he pressed harder against her. Thwack. Buddy’s body suddenly fell to the ground and Amber fell beside him, weak and hurting, breathing heavily. The axe and her other sword clanged against the hard ground. George stood there, gun in hand, watching as Buddy’s head lolled to the side, blood dribbling from his head where George had hit him. Amber turned to George, who quickly lowered his gun to the table and reached for her. Amber stood on trembling feet trying to reign in her fear.
“Derek?” Amber asked and George nodded, breathing heavily, nodding towards the house.
“Found him in the front yard, celebrating Adrian’s death, which just so happened to be a brutally cut down small tree; he tried to kill us…said we were the enemy.” He told her and she felt relief cascade over her. A tree. They had murdered a little fucking tree. “So, what in the hell just happened?” George asked as he steadied her. Rick and Cassie then appeared at the door. George turned to them and nodded that everything was alright.
“Katie is gone. Just left, said she couldn’t handle it. She said the only way she could distract everyone enough was to put English Ivy in the food. Apparently it causes delirium and hallucinations.” She replied, staring down at the man that had hurt her.
“What was happening with him?” George asked, genuinely curious.
Amber shrugged. “He just attacked me.” She glanced at her arm and then her leg and winced. “Do me a favor?” she asked, turning her arm to George. He grimaced, looking at the nail that was embedded in her flesh closely. She closed her eyes tightly and clenched her jaw as his fingers found the head of it. In one quick movement he jerked it out. She cried out, her mouth remaining closed, and she knelt forward a little, letting go of the pain.
“So, she’s just gone? Like that?” George asked and slowly Amber nodded. He sighed then and shook his head. “Just the same, she was right; she couldn’t handle it. Maybe it was for the best…especially if she was going to poison the food just to get out unnoticed.” Amber agreed, surprised at how readily she was willing to do so. Still, it was difficult to accept the fact that yet another of their own was gone. They were once 18 people and were now whittled down to nine: one betrayer, four dead, three taken, and one left. Amber swallowed at the realization of their diminishing numbers and sighed. They had to make it through all of this. They simply had to.
“Well, nothing we can do about her leaving so f
irst things first: What should we do with them?” Rick asked then, surprised and confused, maybe a little irritated and amused by the turn of events. He stood by the door, Cassie beside him, startling Amber with their appearance. Amber sighed reaching up to wipe a bead a sweat from her brow. She was just as surprised as he was, if not more so.
She cleared her throat. “Let’s just take them in the house. Tie them up until they are in their right mind again.” She didn’t want to tie them up; they were, after all, her friends. Still, they needed to be watched until Amber could talk to them reasonably. George nodded as he and Rick lifted the man up and began dragging him through the now destroyed door. Amber sighed, glancing from Cassie to Damien to the now destroyed barn door. Cassie didn’t seem uncomfortable. Instead, she seemed comforted in the fact that he was still strapped down, as well as by his appearance. Amber sighed then, realizing that none of them were going to like her next decision either.
An hour passed as Amber, Buddy, Rick, Cassie, and Jacob carried Buddy and Derek in to the house, into the empty room that Amber had occupied, and bound them together on the floor, back to back. They had still not awakened, and for a moment Amber was glad of that. Her leg was still sending pain up her thigh, the wound feeling inflamed and tender. Her arm was also still sore, but what bothered her most was her lip. It was bruised and swollen from his mouth as he had tried to kiss her. The metallic taste of blood was still on her tongue and as she grimaced, she felt the sting of her wounded mouth. She shivered, remembering the entire incident and for just a moment a very moment she thought that it was probably best that Katie had not been there. Amber was sure that if she had been after what she had done, she would have probably hurt her; shown her what it was like to be attacked by a friend. It was childish, and not clearly too well thought out, what Katie had done. The consequences could have been dire. They could have killed them all, their bodies running on the poison high. It had been the absolute last thing they needed in the midst of what they were going through and yet she had done it so she could leave. She sighed quickly, forcing herself not to think of it anymore. She felt her anger growing again and she knew that for what lay next in their chaotic day, she was going to have to force it away.
