by Kip Nelson
She assumed Lisa would be in the main community center, because that's where she always seemed to be. So, Annabelle made her way there, and thankfully was uninterrupted. She opened the door carefully, hoping it wouldn't creak. Then she stalked like a cat through the corridor until she heard a loud cackle coming from one of the rooms. She crept up to the doorway and saw Lisa sitting down, talking to a woman and a giant of a man. Annabelle did not know their names. The door was open, so Annabelle listened in on the conversation.
“I would have thought they'd be back by now,” the woman said.
“No, it's still too soon. Let Lee enjoy himself. You know he likes doing things like this,” Lisa said.
“I wonder how many of them will come back,” the unnamed woman said. The man seemed to be remaining silent, and Annabelle wondered if he could talk at all.
“There are always more where they came from,” Lisa said dismissively, and then rubbed her gnarled hands together. “Those bastards aren't going to know what hit them. They'll finally have to surrender to us and that whining little boy of a leader is going to know his place.”
“Aren't you worried they're going to fight to the last man?”
“Then they'll all be dead, and we won't have to worry about them any longer. Either way, I'll win. That's all that matters. They said no to me and that cannot be allowed to stand.”
“Well, if Lee goes forward with his plan of burning it to the ground, I hope they still manage to get the food out of there first,” the woman said.
“Oh, he will. Lee is a resourceful man. It's just a shame I'm not there to see it, really. I'll have to make a point to go down there when the battle is over to see all of my handiwork.”
“And what if anyone discovers the truth of the attack, that it wasn't them who attacked us first?”
Lisa brushed her away with a flick of her hand. “Nobody cares enough to think that. They're all just grateful for a place to live.”
Annabelle's heart froze. She knew then she definitely had heard something she was not supposed to hear. The people Diana and the others had gone off to fight were not the enemy after all. The enemy was right here. Annabelle turned away and tried to think. She had to act quickly, but there was nobody she could turn to...except Tara. She wasn't sure about the teacher yet, but Annabelle got the feeling that Tara didn't much like Lisa either. Annabelle had to go tell her, but before she could move a hand clamped down on her shoulder. Annabelle gasped and looked around to see the big man, who apparently had moved across the room silently. Annabelle almost screamed because as she looked up at him she saw that one half of his face had been burned, the flesh was wrinkled and scarred, and one eye was faded. Annabelle tried wriggling away but the man gripped her like a vice.
Chapter Seven
Adam watched Lee sprint away. He still was holding the gun aloft, pointing it where Lee had been standing, but now there was only an empty space. It all had been there in his own hand, the chance to kill Lee, his life’s mission, but he had chosen not to do it. Was it the triumph of morality over base instinct, or would the decision come back to haunt him? Only time would tell. Adam wondered where Lee was running to, but the mystery soon was solved as he came running back with a number of other people, and they started loading food into duffel bags and backpacks. It seemed as though a vast number of their forces had survived, but Adam didn't feel like he was on the winning side. There still was fighting in the background, and Adam was just standing there dumbfounded. So much had happened in such little time, he honestly wasn't sure how to process it all.
“Are you okay?” Pete asked, standing in front of Adam. The man was dripping with sweat and there was something different about him, but Adam couldn't quite put his finger on it.
“Adam, are you okay?” Pete repeated after Adam didn't respond. Adam nodded and became more aware of his surroundings, of the people moving around him, of his own feet on the ground. He still was alive. And so was Pete. Adam smiled at him out of relief.
“It's going to be alright. I know this is a lot to take in, but you're going to be fine,” Pete said. Adam nodded again.
“Diana?” he asked, choking again when he spoke.
“I don't know where she is,” Pete replied in a somber tone. Adam tilted his head back and quickly snapped around, looking everywhere for her, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“The last I saw of her was when you came and rescued her,” Adam said, jerking his head this way and that every time he spoke.
“Yes. But then I saw you come this way and I followed you, although I got a bit sidetracked. I thought she was right behind me, but when I turned around to check she wasn't there. She must have gotten turned around. You can't keep track of anything in these conditions,” Pete said.
While Adam was glad for the respite so he actually could catch his breath and talk, he was worried about Diana and wanted to go find her. There were more people loading food and Lee was shouting to everyone to be quick about it. It seemed as though they had dealt with most of the enemy, but Adam didn't want to take the chance that there were others left. Many dead bodies were strewn across the ground, but there weren't enough for it to be the entire camp, and he could hear more fighting on the other side of the buildings. They were on their way to the food stores, to try preventing their food from being stolen. Adam braced himself and pointed his gun in the direction he anticipated they would appear, and he wondered if there ever was going to be an end to any of it.
In the back of his mind he worried about Diana, too. The chances of her having survived all this, of all three of them making it through alive, were minimal, and all he could think about was what he was going to tell Annabelle. She already had lost so much. Now she was left with only him and Pete. Everything he had done to lead them to this moment had been a mistake. How could he take on the responsibility of looking after a child? Diana was a far better role model than he ever could be, and it seemed as though everyone around him was made to suffer.
He was about to sprint away into the camp to search every nook and cranny for Diana because he didn't want to believe she was dead. He didn't want to accept it until he saw her with his own eyes. If she still was alive, he never would forgive himself if he just had assumed she was gone, but Pete pulled him back.
“You can't go back out there alone,” he said.
“Then come with me,” Adam pleaded.
Pete looked conflicted, but before he could answer there was a loud yell as Lee gave the order to retreat. Everyone poured out and made their way back through the broken gates. Adam looked longingly back at the camp. There still was a chance he could have run back and looked for Diana, but he only would be one man against a camp filled with angry people, people who were baying for blood and would show him no mercy.
“We have to get back to Annabelle,” Pete said, the anguish clear in his voice. As much as Adam hated to admit it, Pete was right.
It was bad enough that Diana wasn't going to return with them, but if none of them returned Annabelle wouldn't be able to cope. With a heavy heart he turned away from the enemy camp and turned his back on the fire. There was no way he was going to be a lone soldier fighting on. They ran out and Adam and Pete had to sprint to keep up with the rest of the retreating soldiers as they slipped away into the night. Adam looked back to see if anyone was going to pursue them, but from what he could tell they all now were focused on stopping the fire from swallowing up their homes.
Now that Adam was distant from it he could look at it with a dispassionate eye and see the horror of it all. They had caused hell, and it was not something to be proud of. They also were leaving with far fewer people than they had come with, and Adam lamented the fact that he did not know all their names. It reminded him of that first night when the world had gone dark and everyone had started fighting each other. There were so many faces it was hard to keep track of them all, and it was almost as though there wasn't enough room in Adam's heart to mourn everyone.
The camp was little m
ore than a smoldering ruin now, and Adam had a deep sadness in his heart. Lee and a few of the others were patting each other on the back and acting as though it had been a great success. Yet, others, in addition to Adam, hung their heads and walked with the heavy burden of what they had done. Many of those people never had been in a fight, let alone killed anyone, but now they had blood on their hands and would have to live with the fact that they were killers. They had been soldiers drafted into a war between two camps, told to fight by the woman in charge but was one woman's word enough to start a war? Adam only could think about the aftermath, about all the people who had to mourn their loved ones, about the orphaned children, or worse, the parents who had lost children. Life was a struggle in ordinary circumstances, let alone when people were attacking your camp, and Adam felt pity for the people who now had to rebuild.
Their bags were filled with food and weapons, but Adam's heart was empty.
“Is this what it was like for you back then?” he asked.
“Yes,” Pete said, knowing exactly what Adam meant.
There was a shared bond between them now, something that only occurred between people who had been through a battle. They never would look at the world the same way again, and whenever they met anyone who had been through a similar experience they would know instantly. They would see the same melancholy look in their eyes, a bittersweet feeling; happiness that they had made it through and were still alive, sadness that they had lived, while so many others had perished.
“Does it get any easier?” Adam asked.
Pete shrugged. “I guess eventually you learn to accept it as a part of you, but I wouldn't say it's easier. Even now I still think back to those moments when I was walking through the jungle, when I knew that my life could be over in a split second, when I had to watch my friends die and wonder why I survived. I knew then that there wasn't any kind of fate or destiny. I wasn't saved because I was special, it was just random chance. I tried to make a good life for myself and hoped that I gave my life meaning, but the world has moved on.
“Sometimes it feels as though I'm the only one who remembers. And when you get older you look back on your life and you start to wonder if you made the right decisions, if you're a good man. Without my Evangeline I just don't know. I have these voices in my head of all the people I've killed and they all whisper at me and tell me that I don't deserve this. That I've wasted my life and someone else who died would have made a better one.”
“You are a good person, Pete, and I know you haven't wasted your life because when you talk about Evangeline your face lights up. I've wasted my life. I had a good career, but outside of that I didn't have anything. I don't really have any special memories to keep me warm at night.”
“You've still got time,” Pete said, and both men smiled at each other. Adam's attention was caught by Lee laughing with some of the other men.
“How can they treat this like a victory?” Adam asked.
“Some men do. Some men are born for war. Maybe their hearts are cold, maybe they just have a different way of looking at the world, but some men relish it.”
“It's like the deaths of those people don't mean anything.” Adam said.
“And they're just going to be able to go on living their lives without ever knowing the suffering of one's own conscience. They're not like you and me, Adam. They won't wake up in cold sweats twenty or thirty years from now, shivering, thinking about this night and all the ones before.”
“It makes me sick.”
“It's best not to be bothered by them. There are always going to be people like that. You must focus on yourself. I just hope this is the only battle we have to fight. I don't like this. I had promised long ago never to pick up a weapon again and now I've been forced to break that promise.”
“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for all of this. Sometimes I wonder why anyone even listens to me.”
“Because you're the one who’s willing to make the choice, and sometimes that's all you need to become a leader.”
“Even when they're the wrong choices?”
“Who knows where we would be if we had made different choices? If we'd never come back from the forest, we might have starved or been killed by some animal. If we had stayed in those apartments, we might have ended up living like shadows. You don't know what else would have happened.”
Adam was struck by the change in Pete. It was as though a part of him had been unlocked. Almost as though he had been holding something of himself back through the years, blanketing his soul, giving up control of his life to try coping with all the trauma. Then once the gun had been put in his hands, his mind had cracked and it all had come flooding back, and now he was able to talk more coherently. It would take a little getting used to.
“All I know is that Diana probably still would be alive,” he said morosely.
“She might be alive now. If anyone could have survived in there she would have,” Pete said.
“And how long is she going to survive for? I'd hate to think what those people are going to do to her if she is, because we certainly showed them no mercy.”
“Maybe they're better people than us.”
“Maybe, but then why did we fight them in the first place?”
“That's a question for Lisa to answer.”
“You don't trust her, do you?”
“Do you?”
“No...” Adam said, wondering if there was something he was missing, something that would explain all of this.
“But I don't care about her right now. I care about Diana. I've got to tell Annabelle that we lost her, and I just don't know how I'm going to do that. I need to get her back. She'd do the same for us.”
“I'm not sure she would,” Pete said. Adam cracked a smile.
The joke was unexpected, and it helped to lighten the mood. He was glad to have a friend like Pete around so he didn't have to be lost in his own misery. However, the smile didn't last for long because Diana still wasn't with them. She was either dead, wounded, or captured by the enemy, and at that moment in time Adam wasn't sure which fate was worse. He turned back to look at the smoke rising through the air. The glow of the fire was fading. It appeared they were getting the blaze under control, and maybe they actually would be able to save their homes. Yet, it also reminded him of the first night, when everything had gone dark, and in their fear and panic, humanity had turned on itself. He wondered if they ever would be able to move past their savage nature and work together to make a better world. Looking at Lee and the others who were in good moods, he thought not.
They trudged back to camp with heavy hearts. Adam and Pete spoke some more, but Adam was disheartened by everything that had happened. Even though they had emerged victorious Adam didn't feel good, and it didn't feel as though they had won anything. People had died on both sides and they had burned the camp. Where was the joy to be taken in that? Moreover, he had a sinking feeling that he was fighting for the wrong side. He was starting to feel that he had made a big mistake in pledging his loyalty and service to Lisa and the camp she led.
Chapter Eight
Annabelle struggled to get away from the iron grip of the man with the burned face. She kicked and screamed for him to let her go, but he was implacable and would not listen to her. He grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and lifted her up off the floor. Her little legs ran in circles and she grabbed at his trunk of an arm, but it did no good. The man didn't even struggle to lift her. She scraped at his arm, but his flesh was like leather and the muscles were thick and sinewy. There was no escape from him at all and fear flashed through Annabelle's mind.
She wasn't afraid of him so much as Lisa. She didn't know what the evil crone would do once she discovered Annabelle had been listening in on her conversation and had heard the terrible truth that Lisa had started the war, and the attack on the other camp was not a retaliation at all. Annabelle wished now she never had left the classroom, and that she was back with Tara and the other children, all nice and safe, because s
he had no friends anywhere. Diana and the others were still off fighting and nobody else knew she was there. Lisa could do anything she wanted to Annabelle and nobody would be any the wiser.
She kicked and screamed and tried twisting her head around so she could bite the giant who was holding her captive, but he was unconcerned with her movements. The giant carried her across the floor to Lisa, who looked on with interest. The other woman stood by. Annabelle had not seen her before. Lisa looked at Annabelle, leaning forward, squinting at Annabelle with her beady eyes.
“Ahh, it's the troublemaker,” she said, cackling again, like some old witch from a fairy tale.
The giant placed Annabelle down and kept his heavy hands on her shoulders, ensuring she did not run away. Still he did not speak. Annabelle grimaced and scowled, but she did not speak either. She tried to look away from Lisa, but the old woman reached out her hand, with her gnarled fingers and dagger-like nails, and cupped Annabelle's chin. The old woman's skin was wrinkled and thin. The veins swam beneath her flesh and Annabelle was afraid she somehow was going to drain the youthful energy from her. There was an ugly black mole that sat just beneath Lisa's chin, and her white hair was thin and wispy. Her teeth were yellow, and her tongue was a vibrant pink, but her lips were thin and gray. Annabelle never had been as frightened in her life, because she thought Lisa could be capable of anything, and there was nobody there to rescue her.
“I think you should be with the other children hmm? Perhaps you ran away from class? Well that's very naughty, isn't it?” Lisa said, not giving Annabelle a chance to answer.
Lisa looked to the woman to her left and laughed. The other woman didn't. Annabelle didn't know what to make of the woman and the giant, but she knew Lisa was dangerous, and she didn't like being this close to her.
“But perhaps the thought does not lie with you,” Lisa said, narrowing her eyes even further so they were just two black dots lodged into her skull.
