The Last Legacy (Season 1): Episodes 1-10

by Lavati, Taylor

  “You shouldn’t feel safe anywhere, Lana.” I could practically hear him roll his eyes. I turned around, not seeing who was following, and trekked back to the SUV, a little fire under my feet. I didn’t wait to see who was sitting where, I just got into the front seat and grabbed the door.

  “Here,” Jim growled as he threw a bag in the back seat, where Scarlet was climbing in, and one over to me. I caught it easily against my chest and shined my flashlight in the bag. Ruffles. I moaned with delight.

  “Where’d you get this?” I asked him as I popped the bag open, pressing my two hands against the sides. Scarlet already crunched in the backseat. I pulled out a large chip and stared down at it before I ate it. Drool dribbled down the front of my shirt. Scarlet chuckled from behind me as Jim got into the driver’s seat.

  “There’s a convenience store a couple blocks up. Mostly looted, but I found those in a store room. Took the box.” He shrugged, pulling the keys from his front pocket.

  “You roamed without us?” I couldn’t help the snark in my voice. I scooted against the window and angled my body to face Jim. He shouldn’t wander off alone in the middle of the night. He constantly hounded me for being reckless, but that was the definition right there.

  “You were both asleep, and I didn’t want to wake you up.”

  “Well, don’t do it anymore,” I said with a hardness in my tone. I crunched another chip, the saltiness instantly making me thirsty.

  “Lana…” Jim chided. I glared at him, though I doubted he could see in the thick shadows of the truck. I shut up and bit into another chip, taking mini bites to savor the flavor. I ate these too fast. My stomach gurgled, but I ignored it. “I’m going to start driving again. I’m not tired.”

  “You haven’t rested at all,” I said with a shake of my head.

  “I can drive,” Scarlet offered, but I knew he wouldn’t let one of us. If I knew anything about Jim, it was that he needed control. I used to think I was a control freak, liking things a certain way, not wanting to rely on people, but Jim—he was a whole new definition. Plus, Scarlet admitted to being a terrible driver just a few hours ago.

  “I’m fine. I’ll stop and rest when I’m tired.” I didn’t know what had upset him in the time I was asleep, but he acted stranger than usual—usual being the few days I knew him.

  My stomach churned as a thought floated through my head. Was he planning on leaving again? Was I being paranoid? I couldn’t let him leave me with Scarlet, alone. I knew the outcome.

  I reached across the console and placed my hand on his knee. I didn’t dare look up to see his reaction. But I had to reassure him that being here was worth it. I stared out the front windshield as Jim started the car. It sputtered, making a loud rumbling sound, and I hoped we were gone before any eaters wandered by.

  He didn’t protest to my hand, so I left it hanging there. A dense fog hung over the pavement, curling in waves of white. Jim was forced to drive extra slow since the conditions were so poor.

  About ten minutes into the drive, he slowed down to a near stop. He flipped on the low beams, igniting a few feet in front of us. There was a lump on the ground in front of the car. A dead person or eater lyed prone in the center of the yellow line.

  Jim stopped the car and hunched over the wheel. The man in the road sat up straight and turned. He stared right at me, like he searched for me. I covered my mouth with my hand as I screamed.

  His left cheek sunk in, broken down to the bone, dried blood across that entire side. The red eyes ran wild, but remained glued to me alone. He tried to sit up, shuffling and using his arms to push around. But he failed. He flopped over onto his side. Then he dragged himself, using just his arms to pull towards our car.

  The deadly quiet car filled with fear. I could taste the bitterness. The man’s eyes flashed as he pulled again. His left arm snapped, his body falling over at the lack of support. My mouth fell. He didn’t look like eaters we had seen before; he was decaying, yet he wouldn’t stop coming towards us. He lacked any sense of self-preservation.

  “Go,” I said to Jim. His midnight blue eyes met mine and I nodded. We needed to get out of there. I didn’t know how much longer I could look at that poor man, just lying there, yet still wanting to kill. Jim pressed on the gas and ran right over the eater, the tire crunching his already dead body. I jerked to the side as the truck adjusted.

  Not even a minute later, two more eaters appeared in our lane. They stood, one staring into the woods, the other towards a small cottage. The first was a woman, her breasts not covered, cut and dirty and caked with mud. She swayed a little, her legs missing chunks of flesh. The man was right behind her.

  As Jim stopped the car, the man walked into the woman in an attempt to get to us. She stumbled backwards and cracked her head against the pavement. She got right back up. Blood covered the back of her, but she refused to stop.

  “I’ll deal with it,” Jim said as he threw the car in park. “I’m not risking the car getting damaged.”

  The woman slammed her arm against the hood. The man pressed behind her, moaning, clawing through her to get closer. But I couldn’t hear him through the thick glass, only see his lips moving.

  The headlights spotlighted Jim as he knifed the woman through her right ear. I couldn’t hear, only see, and it was like a dream. She fell onto the ground, out of my sight. The man grabbed onto Jim’s arm. I grabbed the passenger side door, ready to jump out and help if he needed it. But Jim wrestled the eater to the ground and stomped on his head. Luckily, the front of the car hid me from witnessing the kill.

  Despite the death, I was relieved. I sat back in the seat and looked back at Scarlet. She shook her head and took a sip of her water. Jim was all right, and his life mattered more than the eaters.

  That’s all they were. Eaters. I didn’t count them as human anymore. I couldn’t. After what I’d seen, it was obvious we were now divided—the eaters and the humans. People always say things are gray, but this was as black and white as you could get. I wasn’t sure why it took me so long to understand.

  I turned back to the front of the car and watched as Jim wiped the knife on his jeans. The blood covered his upper thigh in crimson. I watched in silence, minus the sound of Scarlet’s heavy breaths. I sat at the edge of my seat as Jim walked around the car. He stepped out of the light of the headlights, and I lost him.

  “Where’d he go?” I said aloud, mostly for myself. I bit my nail as I pressed my face to the window, searching for him. I couldn’t hear much of anything. I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me due to the fog.

  The driver’s side door ripped open, crashing. I jumped backwards and pressed my back to the window.

  “We need to go. Now.”

  I widened my eyes, but was frozen in my spot, unable to move.

  “Lana. Eaters are coming this way, a lot of them. The entire road is blocked ahead. It’s like the whole fucking town came out. We’re ditching the car. Let’s go!” he barked. I flinched. He slammed his door shut.

  “Where are we going?” Scarlet asked from the back seat.

  “I don’t know. We have to go, though.” My heart raced in my chest, hard thumps that moved my entire body. I grabbed the bag of food from the ground and twisted the handles so I could sling it over my back.

  I jumped out of the car, clutching Jim’s knife to my side. An eater came at me from out of nowhere. It appeared in front of me, clawing near my face. I swung the knife up, jabbing the man right in the mouth. He gurgled as my knife lodged inside of him. I grabbed his head with my free hand and pushed it down, dragging the knife upwards. He wouldn’t die.

  I kicked the eater on the shin to get him to fall. But his entire leg broke, snapping backwards and falling limp. I kicked the other since he still stood. This time, he fell to his knees and then onto his side. I bent down with him since my knife stuck in his face.

  I shoved it further into his head, ending him. He collapsed in a pile of flesh at my feet.

  “L
ana!” Jim yelled from near the back of the car. I ran to him, past another eater, spinning to get away from its needy fingers, until I was at Jim’s side.

  “Where’s Scarlet?” My head darted around, searching. She climbed over the back seats, still in the back of the truck. She jumped out the trunk, her knife and gun out and ready. Jim spun me around and put a bag over my back, then did the same to Scarlet. When he was ready, he nodded.

  Jim grabbed my hand, his fingers intertwining with mine, and I grabbed Scarlet’s. We ran. For some reason, at a completely inappropriate time, I smiled. We had each other, and it felt right—meant to be. We didn’t know each other, but I would’ve rather been with these two than anyone else.

  Jim pulled us to the left towards what I thought was the main highway. During his driving, he tried to stay as parallel with the highway as he could. Of course, it wasn’t always possible, but I knew we were close.

  The trees of the woods provided a good cover. Fallen branches, rocks, and stumps made navigating the unknown woods difficult. We weren’t able to run anymore. We slowed to a jog as we all stared down at the ground. I tried to predict my steps, focusing on what was a few feet ahead so I was more prepared.

  A jerk pulled me to the left. Scarlet fell, something hanging onto her leg. Since I held her hand, she dragged me down with her. Jim’s hold on me broke as our fingers ripped apart from each other.

  My head slammed against something hard on the ground. My vision spotted then went black. Excruciating pain boomeranged around my head like a pingpong ball. Jim grumbled, but it was like I listened through water. His voice was distorted, my head fuzzy.

  I turned so that I was on my stomach. With my eyes still unfocused, I tried to get up so the eater wouldn’t kill me. My fingers dug into thick mud, and I stared down at my hand. Multicolored leaves surrounded me as the fog enveloped me. Arms tugged me up until I was on my feet. Jim turned me against him. He moved my arm so that it was over his shoulder and helped me walk.

  “Where’s Scar?” I said through a fog.

  I couldn’t remember what Jim said in response. Out of nowhere, my feet clonked against hard ground instead of leaves. Pavement. My knees buckled at the change.

  We were back on a road, not in the woods. A light blue tinted the sky instead of just darkness. My heart picked up as my fingers shook. My head throbbed with each step, my focus wavering. We were walking towards the sun, instead of away from it, so that was at least something that told us direction.

  “Sit down,” Jim instructed me. I sat, but wasn’t prepared to fall. I caught myself with my hand, rubble from the pavement digging into my palm. My head bounced, the wound igniting with pain.

  Jim lifted me back up and dragged me by my armpits. He let go as my back pressed against something hard. I lay against it, my head against a cool metal. I smiled up at Jim. Here he was, saving me again.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “I have to get Scarlet. Can you just stay here for a fucking second? Please,” he begged as he crouched in front of me. “Just don’t go anywhere. Hold this up and first person that’s not me, just shoot. Okay?” I nodded even though I didn’t want him to leave me alone. Fear bubbled to the surface, and my eyes filled with tears. I turned so he couldn’t see me.

  His heavy boots retreated into the forest in the direction we had come from. Rejection settled over me like the warm mist. His steps soon faded completely away. I bit the inside of my cheek but hardly felt a thing. I did what Jim said, holding the gun straight up. My eyes weighed a ton.

  It really was a beautiful sight—the sun. I watched each second tick by, and each second, the sky changed a little bit. First just blues painted the darker areas. Then a bit of pink splashed. White clouds emerged and floated by, the fog lifting. I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect morning.

  I could see better now, my sight sharpening. The hardness of the pavement numbed my butt, though I didn’t dare move. Cars littered the highway, some piled onto each other. I looked over my back at the red Honda I leaned against.

  Highways should’ve been safer than driving through towns. Though, we did witness the man get eaten alive a few miles back. But if we assumed most people stayed in their homes, the highways would be clear. Or at least those on them would’ve run by now.

  A car alarm screamed not too far away. My ears rang as I covered them with my hands. Shit. Eaters were going to hear it and come for me. I was about to put the gun on my lap and stand when someone appeared in front of me. I glanced left and right. I hadn’t even seen him coming, but I sat on the ground so I couldn’t see much.

  Listening to Jim, I pulled the gun up in front of me, aimed at the man who was cast in a shadow from the sun behind him, and pressed the trigger. The gun was stronger than me. I had forgotten about the recoil.

  My arm jerked back. The gun flew from my hands onto the ground. My heart leapt into my throat as I choked on air. I had nothing to defend myself. The man reached for the gun faster than I did. I tried to get it, but he stood straight up, looming over me.

  I tried to sit, but my head spun. Appalled, I realized that this man couldn’t have been an eater. He reached for the gun. He moved faster than they did. Holy shit. I just shot a man. I wasn’t sure if I hit him or not. Panic made my head spin again, my eyes fluttered shut.

  When I re-opened my eyes, I was ready to plead my case. I just had to distract him long enough for Jim to come back and find me. The man had the gun pointed at my face, but I looked up anyway.

  His chocolate eyes rang with familiarity. But not in a good way. I pushed back against the car, forcing distance between us.

  “Are you still with Jim?” It was the driver during my kidnapping. I couldn’t formulate words, so I just nodded. “Where is he?” he asked next. His words were clipped and angry. I pointed to the woods as the man continued to hold the gun pointed at my nose. “Are you mute?” I had to fight back a laugh.

  “No,” I shakily answered.

  “Shit, your head’s bleeding.” He reached towards my forehead, but I flinched back, nearly knocking myself out as I fell against the tire of a car beside me. I pulled my knees to my chest and circled my arms around them. My entire body shook with fear as I tried to focus on the man’s face.

  “Put the gun away,” Jim’s voice was like angels singing. I saw him perfectly in the yellow-tinted morning, his frame glowing. He stopped beside me.

  “She shot at me. This is her gun,” the man said. The man put his hands up with the gun in one. Slowly, he bent down and placed the gun facing towards him on the pavement. He stood back up, his arms raised, palms out. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

  “What do you want then?” Jim asked as he stepped in front of me. He never took his eyes off the man as he reached down for me and lifted me.

  Scarlet ran to me, tugging me against her chest. She stood behind Jim like he was a shield. I held onto her, using her for balance as nausea ran through my stomach. I swallowed, fighting the urge to lean over and retch. I pressed my hand to my forehead, trying to stop the ache.

  “I was hiding in that car.” He pointed a few cars down. “After the fire, we all got split up. I’ve been alone for days. I saw her, recognized her, and figured I’d see if she knew where you went. I swear, dude. You know me.” The man shook his head, his eyes pleading as his hands prayed.

  “You were with them, so I don’t know what to trust.”

  “You were with them, too!” Silence vibrated between us all.

  “You’re alone?” Jim asked. From behind, I saw him turn his head, searching all around us. The brightening light helped.

  “Yes.” The man nodded.

  “You won’t hurt them?” Jim hiked his thumb back towards us.

  “No.” The man shook his head vehemently. “I just don’t want to be alone anymore.”

  Jim turned and looked at Scarlet, his eyes flicking over me. I could feel her nod her head. Jim was going to betray everything he’d done for me and let this rapist join us. W
hat the fuck was going on here? Scarlet’s arm tightened around me.

  “You can stay with us. But anything shady and you’re gone.”

  “I’ll find my own food and weapons. I won’t bring you down. I promise, James. Really. I just can’t be alone anymore. I’m going crazy, man.” I peered around Jim. The man cocked his head to the side, shaking it. He ran his hand down the side of his scruffy face and smiled at Jim, nodding.

  “It’s fine, Kev.”

  “Where are you all staying?” Kev asked as he crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against a large moving truck.

  “We lost our car to a group of eaters. So, nowhere.” His voice trailed off.

  “I’ve got a working car.”

  “Lead the way,” Jim said.

  Jim reached back towards me and lifted me in his arms, stealing me away from Scarlet. He cradled me like a baby as we walked up route 91. I couldn’t believe this many people tried to flee Connecticut. Where were they going?

  Next thing I knew, we were stopping in front of a Jeep Cherokee. Scarlet got the back door and Jim laid me in the back seat. I didn’t like being treated like an invalid. It made me feel inferior, weak, and childish.

  “Push back so your head is on the other side,” Scarlet said, pushing against my feet. Someone opened the other door, the click of the lock startling. Fingers probed the back of my head and my forehead. I flinched with each movement.

  “She needs stitches,” Jim grumbled from behind me. I lifted my head and peeked at him, but his eyes were drawn together and shut. He pinched the bridge of his nose and then looked down at me, his eyes flashing anger. He quickly turned away. “Do you have a first aid kit in here?”

  “One of these cars has to,” Kev said from the front of the car. “I’ll go look around.”

  “I can help you,” Scarlet offered, her voice light.

  “Be careful,” Jim said. His fingers found my scalp again as he pressed random parts of my skull and pulled my hair off the matted part in the back. I winced as he pushed the spots that hurt the most. I had no idea what he did—only that I wanted him to stop already. “You doing okay?”