by W. A. R.
Nothing was said, they couldn’t. She couldn’t blame them. Michael and Rusty, breathing heavily from their struggle with Buddy and Miles, looked at her with sympathy. She shook her head frantically, the tears brimming and flowing over. Her eyes were burning and a red heat crawled up her neck. Their eyes widened in horror. Miles’s eyes, however, never left hers and she felt frozen, frightened. It hurt, this admission, this confession because honestly, it was her biggest secret, her biggest flaw in an otherwise immaculate plan. She tore her eyes from Miles, from them all, unable to deal with their revulsion. She closed her eyes tightly and shrunk into herself as much as she could in the tight space and whimpered. She couldn’t escape them, couldn’t turn from this. She needed to explain and there was no going back.
She swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat and grit her teeth, recalling the anger and smug satisfaction that she had felt on the bridge. “I’m the cure Adrian has been looking for.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Brian stared in surprise as one by one the prisoners were loaded up into a large truck. The sides of the truck were thick, made with a sturdy and sound steel. It was created like something he had never seen before, so very thick and seemingly impenetrable. Though he wanted to ask about the modernized building of the steel cage, he didn’t. Instead, he watched in anger and shock as the other prisoners, all forty some odd beaten and broken prisoners, were lined up and piled into the back of the truck. Cries filled the air, mixing with his other sense, the smell of filth and death, and Brian grimaced. So many innocent men, women, and children were walking and sobbing, stumbling and begging to be released. Brian felt tears prick the backs of his eyes. He understood why they were so upset…why they were so beaten. They were walking the final leg of their journey, on their way to meet imminent death and torture and there was absolutely nothing that anyone could do about it.
As he watched, he witnessed the horrified and defeated face of Jasper’s sister, Haley. The men and women around them with guns jeered at them. As he watched, he felt another presence sidle up beside him, watching with saddening interest as well, the scene before them. Brian shook his head, his hands trembling in front of him in their binds. It wasn’t fair, he thought as he stood there. He was being treated with respect, the binds on his legs free, his arms no longer behind his back; he was given food and water, just as the other prisoners, but he was kept apart and alone for the better part of his time in the camp. He was given the opportunity to become stronger and livelier, but these prisoners were not. They were continuously ignored, neglected, though since Ryder returned they were fed and no longer abused. Still, he felt guilty for his position, as a prize to the man that will slaughter them all. He still wasn’t sure why, as Ryder had barely spoken to him since he beat the hell out of Justin.
Now that was a remarkable sight. Justin’s face, a week later, was still swollen and bruised, cuts scabbed over. Every look he passed at Brian was rigid with hatred, anger, and accusation. Brian thrived in it, though he hoped he was never left alone with the man while still bound and unable to fight. That wasn’t the case however; Ryder constantly had a watchman over him, guarding him and “keeping him from venturing off”. And so, Justin never bothered him aside from sending him the looks that only the devil could give. He had a bad feeling about how things were going to go with him.
“How are you feeling?” he heard Ryder ask from beside him. Brian sighed and lowered his head before glancing sideways at him. Ryder, his friend. He had saved him from so much…from Justin’s beatings and mental torture, he had saved him from his own depressing thoughts of losing his family and friends, and he had saved him from losing all hope for the future. Brian respected him whole-heartedly.
“I’m fine, thanks.” He sighed and turned back to the prisoners. “I guess it’s time to go, huh?”
“Yep.” Ryder replied before turning and roughly grabbing Brian’s shoulder, shoving him forward. Brian understood that it was something that he had to do, needed to do, but it didn’t mean that he had to like it at all. Brian remained silent, however, walking with heavy feet towards the truck that they were going to arrive in. He felt his stomach twist into a giant knot, dreading the inevitable meeting of the man that everyone either wanted to kill or worship.
He had asked Ryder what he needed to do, what he could do to help. Ryder informed him that the best he could do was try to boost the morale of the prisoners, try to help them build some bravado and be prepared to fight, make them want to fight. He also told him that should there be anyone that he come across that could possibly be swayed, to give them a reason to become angry with Adrian. He wasn’t entirely sure what he had meant by this, but he was sure that he would soon find out. And so, he was prepared to handle anything that was thrown his way, and even more prepared to see his sister and Miles, though it wouldn’t be the happy reunion he wanted. Though he was unable to see Shelly, he understood and was grateful for the fact that he couldn’t see her. Seeing her would mean that she was going to the compound and he couldn’t handle that. His sister coming to the compound was enough to drive him mad with worry, but Amber had Miles and Buddy and he knew she would be safe. She had risked a lot already for this; he knew that she wouldn’t stop until she accomplished what it was she was setting out to do. That thought was something he had been relatively focused on as of late. He considered Haley and Jasper and how they were, both as brother and sister and individually, and he couldn’t help but think that that was not how things were supposed to be.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t wait just a bit longer? Jasper and his men might…” There was a woman on the side of the truck they approached with a gun slung over her shoulder, watching as Brian and Ryder advanced the truck and she spoke with a relative easiness with Ryder. Brian lifted a brow at her.
“They won’t. They were supposed to be back a few hours ago. They are always late. Odds are they were goofing off and ran into something or someone they couldn’t handle.” Ryder shared as he opened the back-passenger door for Brian to climb into. “And if not, they know the way home.”
Brian furrowed his eyebrow in confusion but remained silent. He wondered if Haley knew this. Silently, he hoped that Jasper and his hellacious bunch were dead…though he knew that Haley might would lose her mind. Oddly enough, the woman was seemingly a bit overly-attached to her brother. Maybe she was just lost and clinging to the one thing that she had left of the real world before the outbreak, then again maybe not. Brian never asked for fear he would receive an answer he didn’t necessarily want.
Ryder closed the door and the woman opened the passenger side door. “Let’s go. We have to be at the compound by dusk.” He stated to the woman before rounding the truck and aiming for the driver’s side.
Brian studied the woman, recognizing her as the woman that had spoken up whenever Cory was murdered. She seemed to be in a constant state of anger and irritability but Brian had never witnessed her disobey Ryder’s command or mistreat a prisoner. She must be somewhat decent he reasoned. If there was such a thing. Ryder climbed into the driver’s side, slamming the door behind him. He sighed and with a quick turn of his wrist, he turned the key in the ignition. The truck roared to life as five other men lifted and closed the gate on the steel truck. Within minutes every vehicle they had was filled and shifting into gear, Ryder’s truck included. Ryder took the lead, the other vehicles falling in line behind him.
“You alright back there Brian?” he asked after a few minutes, once they were on one of the main roads. Brian gulped back the nervous knot in his throat.
“I’m not sure.” He admitted, “I feel like I’m gonna vomit.” He paused and glanced at the rearview mirror at Ryder’s gloomy expression. “Those innocent people are going to die, aren’t they?”
“Well…some of them…yes.” Ryder said, and there was no mistaking the regret in his voice. Brian shifted in seat. Forgetting that he should be angry and resistant, his eyes shot up, open wide. His panicked stare skated over the w
oman who stared out of the window with remorse in her eyes. Ryder glanced in the rearview mirror at him and chuckled at Brian’s expression.
“Its fine, she’s with us. This is Jamie.” He said motioning to the woman. Brian turned his eyes to her nervously. She sat, looking at him then, her wild curly brown hair in disarray behind saddened hazel eyes.
“Hi Brian. I’m sorry we are meeting under such horrible circumstances.” She stated evenly. Even her voice was tinged with a sadness he could relate to all too well. He wanted to know her story, and was about to ask when he decided better of it. He was sure that in time, he would learn what he needed to know. He sighed in relief then, sagging a little against the seat. So, it wasn’t just him and Ryder until the others got there. That made him feel a little better.
“Hi. And…nothing we can do about that now is there?”
She shrugged and turned around to face the road. “I guess not.”
“Sorry.” Brian apologized, glancing out of the back glass at the trucks following behind. “I’m just very nervous.” He gulped and turned back to face them. “Ryder said that I will be in the spotlight in there.”
Jamie glanced at him and nodded. “You will. But don’t worry, we will get you out of there before anything happens to you. With circumstances being what they are concerning you, you will be fine for a while until they get the answers that they want.”
Brian frowned. “What answers?”
She looked at him as if confused before turning to Ryder who sighed. “I haven’t had a chance to explain.” He stated and with that her eyes widened before she turned huffily in her seat and faced the road. She was angry with him for not explaining something? That was a bit irrational…right? Whatever it was, Brian knew that it involved him and that alone made his nerves stand on edge. He looked at her in surprise and frustration. “With Justin around I haven’t been able to! Furthermore, I was going to explain before we made it to the compound.”
“Explain what? Brian asked, but he had to admit that he had some idea what his friend was talking about. Still, he was definitely sure that he would not like the answer.
Ryder sighed and glanced at Jamie. “It’s about your sister.”
Brian tensed. His assumption was correct. “Is this about why everyone was so obsessed with her?”
“And why they are now obsessed with you. They think that because you are related that you may have it too.”
Brian shifted in his seat, clearly feeling irritated. Why was Ryder beating around the bush? “May have what? What is going on here?”
Ryder ran a hand across his face, one hand on the steering wheel. “What do you remember about the incident on the bridge?” Ryder asked and Brian grimaced.
“Not much.” He admitted, remembering how Justin had beaten him and withheld nourishment. He had been delusional for the better part of three days.
“I see.” Ryder replied, glancing in the rearview mirror. “Then do I have a story for you…one you need to know before we get to the compound.”
She had watched her family leave. She had sat in that damn truck and watched her family be taken away and she had let it happen. She wasn’t even sure it was the right thing to do, but her instinct told her to let them go with these people, to trust Michael and his three ‘brothers’, and if there was one thing that she had learned, that was to trust that gut instinct. So, there she was, six hours later, approaching Calion and turning off on a side road before she reached the bridge and the warehouse. She knew she couldn’t go there…hell, they weren’t even there yet. Zeus sat between her and Damien as they made their way down the gravel back road, his eyes scanning the environment around them. They crept along, Amber paranoid of making too much noise. She didn’t want to be surprised by anything because she knew that she was off of her game. The evidence of tears on her face and the trembling of her bottom lip told her so. All she could think was whether or not they had made it unnoticed, if Miles, Brian, and Shelly had gotten out and made it, and she also wondered how hurt and upset every single one of them were or would be. She sighed, gripping the steering wheel tighter as she neared the house that she was to occupy until the given time of her demise. Zeus glanced at her, his tongue hanging off to the side as he panted, and then even Damien cast his concerned eyes to her.
“I’m fine.” She sniffled at the two of them, unsure of whether Damien even heard her. She slowed the truck even more so, her muscles so tense and her chest so tight and piercingly painful that she worried she might have been on the verge of a heart attack. She slowed the truck to a stop and leaned forward, glancing up at the house before them. The house was a small trailer, pulled up from the ground on wide braces to keep the rising water of the lake from flooding the house. There was a wooden stairwell that led to the open front door and she parked as close as she could to the foot of it as possible. She sighed yet again, her nerves a panicky wreck.
After killing the truck, she opened her door and eased form the seat, watching as two Biters made their way towards her. She should have registered how disgusting they were, how deteriorated their flesh was as it fell in globs to the leaf covered ground, and she even should have registered how their eyes sunk into their sockets and oozed a black pus that stuck to their faces. She didn’t however; instead she merely removed her two swords, wishing to finally put them to use on killing something, anything. She wanted to inflict pain in recompense for her own agony, and though they couldn’t feel pain, she figured it to be close enough. She readied her swords easily at her sides as Buddy had shown her and she took a few steps toward the two of them, one coming from the front and the other coming from the left. Quickly, she swung her right hand, the sword slicing with no difficulty through the decomposing flesh and bone of the one in front of her. She had hit the creature at the knee and as if fell to the side, unable to walk, she turned and drove the pointed end of the sword in her left hand through the other’s skull. She straightened then, turning to look at the creature that clawed at the forest floor, reaching for her foot. It gripped her boot, its mouth chomping and desperate for flesh and blood and easily, disdain written on her face, she eased the right-handed sword into its skull. She removed her foot from its grasp before inhaling sharply.
Betrayer.
Conspirator.
Murderer.
This was what she was and she was finding it relatively easy to accept with time.
She turned towards the truck then, glancing over her shoulder at the late afternoon sun, and nodded at Damien. Quickly, he opened his door with his one good hand and like a flash, Zeus was out and sniffing around. She replaced her weapons and walked over to Damien’s open door and offered him a hand, easing one arm around him. She could have waited, and probably should have, but she had no idea when Michael and the brothers would be there and she was not going to risk having him out at night when they were most active. He eased his feet out of the truck grunting in unexplainable pain before gripping at her desperately with his good hand. She looked around them and sighed.
“I’m going to leave the door open for you while I check out the inside. The place should be clear, but I will be watching.” She told him and he stared at her sadly. She sighed, already knowing what was on his mind. “Damien, this is something I have to do for the betterment of my people…their lives are worth much more than mine.” She told him and with reluctance he let go of her shirt, allowing her to leave the open passenger doorway and walk toward the stairwell. Michael and the brothers would be there soon, sometime later in the week, to take Zeus, the truck, and the weapons away. They would leave an unrecognizable truck with her so she could drive to the base of the bridge, and they would take any belongings she had, apart from a gun and a knife that could easily be replaced. After that, she would be alone. Zeus’s sudden bark caught her ears and she jerked to a stop, her feet no longer moving without her mind telling them not to. He barked again, his front paws spread out before him, his back end up and his tail straight up in the air. He bristled, his muscles t
ense and following his line of sight, she saw a Biter crawling toward them from the water. She sighed, hesitating for only a brief moment, glancing up at the small porch overhanging, and began under it to go kill the Biter that was crawling toward her loyal companion.
It had happened so fast…there was no creaking of old wood, no shuffled footsteps, and no moans. No…she had not heard a thing, and even Damien hadn’t known it was there until it was too late. She was under the overhang when she heard Damien’s muffled yell, his lost tongue prohibiting him from expressing anything. She paused, just for the briefest of moments because really, she had the time. The Biter coming after Zeus was crawling, was slow having seemingly lost a few limbs in whatever excursion he had before or after becoming a monster. This slight hesitation, this split-second decision to turn to determine what it was he was exclaiming about, what had worried him so, was what had cost her. She would later learn that there were three Biters in the house, and she assumed that they had been bitten and sought shelter before they died. She also assumed that they had remained dormant, unable to find stimulation in a talk house in the middle of nowhere. She would realize later that…in spite of everything, every little thing, every single action had brought her to that moment to show her what she really was. She would never be sure how or why those Biters were in there, or how they remained there after so long, but that was superfluous; it didn’t matter in the whole of things. What did matter, however, was that before she even realized what was happening a Biter had come from the door, not catching Damien’s attention until he tumbled headfirst over the railing. That was when he had exclaimed, and Amber’s brief hesitation had caused her to pause directly on his point of impact. He had hit her with such force that it had knocked her breathless. Her feet had come out from under her and she fell to the ground under the weight of the monster. Her head slammed back against the hard ground, her elbow taking the brunt of the fall, the bone hitting the jagged edge of a rock. Her vision swam briefly, her blood rushing through her veins as she felt bony hands feel up her body, searching the leaves for flesh. She struggled away from the decaying corpse, the blood roaring in her ears drowning out the moans. She couldn’t find his head, couldn’t find it to kill it and so she did the only other thing she could think to do. She kicked and shoved against the moving body, rotting flesh clinging to her clothes and fingers, embedded under her fingernails. She whimpered and hated the fear in her voice.
