I was pushed into a chair near the table and the cuffs around my wrists were looped into the chair back, preventing me from going anywhere. Before I could object, more cuffs were placed around my ankles, shackling my feet to the bottom of the chair which really meant I was stuck.
Shaking my dirty and ratted hair out of my face, I looked up at the guy who’d been sitting and was now standing in front of me. He was maybe late 60’s with a full beard and average height. His hair and beard were white, which paired with his white button down shirt and black slacks just made him look like business causal Santa.
He took his glasses off and cleaned the lenses on a handkerchief he’d pulled from a pocket and put them back on, stuffing the fabric back in his pants before meeting my gaze.
“You must be Angie,” He said with a smile, crossing his arms behind his back and rocking back on his heels.
Without a word I just raised a single eyebrow at him. The Ogre smacked the back of my head and shouted, “You will answer!” in a deep southern drawl.
Running my tongue across my teeth to make sure none had become dislodged at the blow I cleared my throat, “Yes, I’m Angie,” I bit out between my teeth.
“Wonderful! I’ve heard so much about you and your…special situation.” The old man smiled revealing a mouth full of mismatched ivory and gold teeth. Ok, business casual gangster Santa it was then.
I was genuinely confused at his words; there was no way he could know about the injection, so what else could he be referring to? “If you mean the fact that I haven’t had a cigarette in the last 6 days and am starting to get cranky, then you’d be right,” I answered, still wondering what the fuck was happening.
He laughed at that. Not just a chuckle, but a deep belly laugh; the kind you hear from drunk people or someone really high. Or just plain crazy. God I hoped he was just drunk.
“Ah, a sense of humor to boot, you will be most useful, yes.” With that he pulled his chair closer to mine and sat, crossing one leg over the other knee and pulling a can of chew tobacco out of his shirt pocket. He held it out to me in offering and I shook my head. Shrugging, he placed a wad in his mouth and put the can away. “A nasty habit, I know. But the world doesn’t afford us much luxury anymore so one must take what we can when we can.” He leaned forward and stared at me for a long moment. “Do you know who I am?” He finally asked.
“Santa?” I asked. Before the ogre could strike me again, the man shook his head and motioned for him to stand down.
“I’m the Preacher and this is my compound. You’re on my land and God has brought you to us so that we may survive and rebuild.” My stomach didn’t just drop, it spiraled all the way down until it oozed out from underneath my toenails and formed a puddle in my socks. I could deal with the government, but overzealous religious types were worse than clowns.
“No offense, sir,” I started, trying to sound as calm and rational as my fear would let me, “But I have no idea what you’re talking about and please just let me and my friends go. We didn’t mean to end up on your land, our plane crashed in a tornado and we just want to leave, we don’t want to hurt anyone or take anything from you.”
“Mm, yes. Nasty business, tornadoes.” He stroked his beard and looked genuinely thoughtful about the tragedy that is a tornado. Holy fuckbirds this guy was nuts and we were all going to die is spectacular ways. “Angie, have you found Christ?”
“I wasn’t aware I was supposed to be looking for him but if you’ll let us go we will go out and absolutely start searching and report back when we do.” I knew sarcasm wasn’t going to help me, but I couldn’t help it, sometimes words just fell out of my mouth before I had a chance to stop them.
The ogre made another move to strike but the Preacher held up his hand. “I understand you were at the Alamodome and you were injected with something that has made you immune to zombie bites, is that true?”
Swallowing hard, “Ho-how did you know that?” I stammered. Blood was pounding through my veins so hard at his words I half wondered if I was literally going to explode. How on earth could he have possibly known that?! Did he torture Jack or Earl into saying something? If he had, surely they would’ve said something in the days we’d been locked up…
The Preacher nodded to someone behind me and I turned to see a few men pick up and carry the man tied to a chair over to us and sit him down in our circle. They removed a burlap sack from his head and I almost passed out.
“Austin! You’re alive! How?!” He looked a little worse for the wear but sure enough, sitting next to me was Austin Adams.
“I’m sorry Angie, I-“ before he could say anything else, the man who’d removed the sack from his head thrust a gag in his mouth, cutting him off mid-sentence.
I turned my incredulous stare back to the Preacher waiting for an explanation.
He looked amused at the exchange for a moment, waiting until the gag was secure before continuing. “Austin here is kin to one of my men and came from San Antonio with tales of government conspiracies, experiments and another survivor who’d been injected.
Son of a bitch!! Austin had been injected too, that’s why he’d been so quick to stand between the zombies and me; he knew the he wouldn’t die or turn if one bit him. I didn’t bother hiding the betrayal and astonishment from my face as I looked again at Austin. His eyes plead with me silently, but I didn’t hear any of it. His face was covered with fading bruises and it looked like he hadn’t slept in a few days but he was alive. I was glad he was alive but also pissed the fuck off that he didn’t tell me he’d been injected too and that he’d told these people who I was. Maybe he’d found out we’d been captured and thought telling them would save me. I doubted it though.
Turning back to the Preacher, I met his gaze without flinching, trying to quelch the rage that was threatening to spill over. “What do you want from me.” It wasn’t a question.
“It’s not what we’ll get from you, it’s how you’ll help us. With you being immune, you and Austin here will make the perfect bait whenever we need to hunt.” The Preacher’s words had me picturing Austin and I hanging by our feet from trees while rabid dogs vyed over our flesh below.
I couldn’t imagine a more “worst case scenario” than this. “I’ll help you willingly on one condition.”
He raised his eyebrows in question.
“Let my friends go.”
Shaking his head, “I’m afraid I can’t do that, my dear, but I tell you what, how about I make their stay a bit more…comfortable?”
“What exactly do you mean by that?”
The Preacher stood and stretched, spitting his tobacco onto the barn floor. “I’ll let them out of the cells and put them to work around the farm. They can sleep with the other help and as long as they do what they’re told, no harm will come to them.”
I glared up at him with as much hate as my eyes could possibly transmit across the space between us, hoping my hatred would manifest into laser beams toasting this guy. “Absolutely no harm. And if you or any of your men even try to touch one of those girls in any sort of inappropriate manner I will personally rip your testicles from you and feed them to a zombie while you watch.”
He looked startled at my words before giving a light chuckle. “You’re a very colorful girl, Angie. We have a deal.” With that, he sauntered off into the night, leaving me and Austin still sitting in a semi-circle and tied to our chairs.
One of the men removed the gag from Austin before they all left, closing the door behind them and leaving us alone.
“Angie I-“
“Shut the fuck up, Austin. I don’t want to hear it.” I turned away from him. I wiggled around in my chair, trying to scoot it away from him, but the damn thing was metal and may have actually weighed more than I did.
“But Angie-“
“I SAID SHUT UP!” I screamed at him, spit flying from my lips and splattering his face. The anger that had been welling up fell from my eyes in tears that coursed down my dirty cheeks and all I co
uld do was try to breathe. I wanted to kill him; I wanted to break the cuffs and strangle him with my bare hands for getting me and my friends into this mess. He just stared at me like a beaten dog; his misery and regret palpable.
He didn’t try to say anything else, just looked at me. Just like that the wind was let out of my sails and my shoulders slumped. I was too tired and worn down to be angry at him right now. The only thing I could think about was what would become of us and how we were going to get out of this clusterfuck.
Several hours passed and I was awoken to a bolt of sunlight shining in my face. Cracking open an eyelid, I saw a group of men come trooping into the barn towards us. The noise must have woken Austin too because he was now just as awake and alert as I.
“Rise and shine ladies, time to catch us some dead folk,” the first man said as he came over and started to uncuff us. I didn’t have the will to fight so I just sat still as they removed the cuffs from my wrists and ankles and stood slowly. Every muscle in my body absolutely hated me from sitting in the chair so long and there wasn’t a part of me that didn’t ache.
“Donny we haven’t eaten-“ Austin started to say before one of the men cuffed his ears.
“Shut up fucker, you’ll eat when I say you eat.”
The ogre, whom I was enjoying fantasizing about all the different ways I would kill, grabbed me and started to push me towards the door. “Lovely family you have there, Austin.” I murmured under my breath, giving the Ogre a dirty look when he grabbed me hard enough to leave bruises.
“Bitch!” The one Austin had called ‘Donny’ reached up to hit me when another one grabbed his arm and shook his head. “The Preacher said not to,” he said, casting a nervous glance at me.
Donny yanked his arm back, spit on the ground and pushed me to keep walking. So there were orders not to hurt me which was a good thing and at least one of the men was scared of me, which may or may not be good.
Stepping through the barn door, the sun assaulted my eyes in the most unpleasant of ways. With no sunglasses, I had no protection from the glaring orb. I couldn’t reach the lip balm in my pocket and my sunblock was in my bag they’d taken which meant there was a good chance I was about to get a lovely burn. This just kept getting better and better.
Fresh dew sparkled at me from the grass as we were led over to the gated entrance. We stopped and waited. Those around us argued in hushed whispers about who was going with who and once that was decided, they picked up some rope and started to tie us up.
I didn’t say anything, just watched casually as they looped the rope around my waist and neck and my hands, which would prevent me from untying myself but left my feet free. Once they were done, Austin and I looked like dogs at the end of a very long leash.
I started to look around and almost fainted with relief to see my friends being led out of the underground prison in a chain gang and into the barn I’d just left; that could only mean they were being brought up to speed. They were a good distance from me but they didn’t look any worse off than they’d sounded the day before. I wanted to wave, but the ropes around my wrists pulled tighter every time I moved my arms.
“Move!” Donny shoved a gun barrel into my back and I took that as my cue. Tearing my gaze away from my friends, I shuffled out the gates with Austin next to me into the forest.
The men spoke in whispers the 20 feet behind us they were at the other end of the rope and it left me and Austin to do nothing but shuffle along side by side. “So what exactly do they expect us to do?” I whispered at him.
“We’re going for supplies. If there are zombies, they’ll attack us first, which will give them warning. They kill the zombies and we live. Hopefully.”
I looked over at him in shock. “Is that what they’ve been using you for?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “More or less. I made the mistake of coming here and telling them all about the Dome.”
“And me.” I finished for him, looking down at the leaves and twigs under my sneakers.
“Yeah. And you.”
“How did you even make it out? The last time I saw you, you were, well… ya know.”
Austin took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah. That was bad. I fought them off and ran after you hoping I could catch you but then the bombs started going off and I had to go another way. I found a sight-seeing place and stole a helicopter and came here, knowing about this place and thinking it was probably safe. I should’ve known better; Donny may be my cousin, but that’s never stopped him from hating me and being an asshole.”
I let his words sink in as we walked. I felt bad that Austin had been alone this whole time and even worse that he’d been betrayed by his family, but that didn’t make up for him betraying me. “I’m sorry that happened to you, and I’m glad you’re alive, but I still hate you and given the chance, I can’t say I won’t kill you.” I looked him straight in the eye.
He smiled at me which threw me completely off guard. “I would expect no less from you, Angie Thompson.”
I sneered at his big dimply smile that would drop a weaker girl to her knees and focused on not tripping over tree roots.
“That doesn’t tell me how you got injected,” I continued. I still wasn’t about to trust him, but there were a lot of things that didn’t sit well with me about his story.
“When I saw how fast you healed after that guard attacked you, I stole a vial and injected myself before anyone found out. I was hoping it would make me strong enough to break you out.” He sounded genuine, but so did all liars.
“How did you know how fast I healed? I didn’t see you until after the breach,” I started suspiciously, listening for any change in the rhythm of his heart rate.
“You didn’t see me, but I saw you. I had clearance in the labs so I snuck in and checked on you while you were asleep after the doctor left. I wanted to make sure you were ok.” He turned and looked at me with a pained expression. “Angie, if I’d known what he was going to do to you I would’ve killed him before he’d had a chance, please believe me. I’d never wish that on anyone, least of all you.” His heart rate remained steady and my doubt was fading. He seemed legit, but then again…
“So why didn’t you try to rescue me when you saw what happened?”
He sighed in irritation. “Come on Angie, I wasn’t strong enough to take them all on and you know it. That’s why I stole the serum only all hell broke loose before I had a chance to do anything but stay alive. Just like you I didn’t know the full effects until much later. Besides, did I or did I not sacrifice myself to save you at the last minute?” Austin met my gaze with unwavering conviction.
“Fine, your story is plausible, I’ll give you that. But how on earth did you manage to get a helicopter all the way out here?”
With a chuckle he just shook his head. “Did you forget I’m a Marine? I do know how to fly, thank you very much.”
I stopped short and grabbed his arm, “Where’s the chopper now?” Excitement filled me with possibilities.
He gestured with his eyes behind us and pushed me gently to keep walking. “Not an option. It was a rough landing and I burnt out the engine.”
The hope I’d felt momentarily died only to be replaced with the familiar fear and dread. “So what are they going to do with my friends?”
“The Preacher keeps civilians like slaves to fortify the fences and take care of the farm. As long as they do what they’re told, nothing will happen to them.”
I sighed internally, relieved that I at least didn’t need to immediately worry for their safety. Of course, with Chloe’s mouth that wouldn’t last long. “So who is this Preacher guy? What’s his agenda?”
“Before the apocalypse he was just a really devout preacher. I’ve only been here a couple of times when I was young, but from what I remember it’s kind of culty and he’s real Old Testament. I think he thinks he’s leading the war against evil with his merry flock of followers. They treat him like some sort of Prophet.”
For f
uck’s sake. Not only did I have to worry about zombies but I had a cult leader enslaving what was left of humanity convinced he was a Prophet? There wasn’t enough weed left on the planet to get me high enough to be able to deal with this.
I let out a defeated sigh. “I never did like religion.”
Austin looked surprised. “What’s wrong with religion?”
“Nothing when it’s used to better yourself, but everything when used to control others.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment. “So you don’t have a faith?”
“Nope.”
“Why? You really don’t believe in anything? Even with all of this?” He tried to make a sweeping motion to encompass the forest around us.
I looked at him steadily. “It’s not required to believe whole-heartedly in something. I think leaving room for ideas to be questioned is a good thing; it helps us grow intellectually and individually. Beliefs should always be questioned and challenged. When you find yourself no longer doing so, you’ve stunted your growth as a human being.”
Austin smiled and bumped me with his shoulder. “I missed you and your convictions.”
I snorted at him and kept walking.
Chapter 10:
The morning went by without much excitement; that which I was grateful for. Austin hadn’t said much and the only real conversation between us was the growling in our stomachs. Since the outbreak I was pretty sure I was down about 20 pounds, which I was choosing to see as a good thing.
Donny and his goons had been leading Austin and me through the woods for a few hours while looking for homes to scavenge. It was nearing noon and the heat was unbearable. I was fine with heat, but it turns out the south is humid and my skin felt like it was suffocating under the sweat that wouldn’t stop dripping into my eyes.
The trees gave way and I started to catch glimpses of what looked like a rundown farm ahead. I stopped and waited for Austin to see what I did. He noticed and stopped too.
“Fuck you stop for?” Donny growled at me as he caught up to us.
This is the End (Book 2): Not Dead Yet Page 16
