by Fitch, E. M.
"He's stalling," Quinton murmured, his hands steady, wrapped around his gun. He had it pointed at the metal shelves. "Come out, Marsden! Let's talk face to face."
"Barrel to barrel, you mean?" Marsden rasped. He rolled out from behind the shelf, his shot gun pointed at the group. It was only now that Kaylee saw the wisdom of Quinton's plan, spreading them out in a long thin line. Andrew was closest to the door, his gun aimed at Marsden, Quinton was more towards the center. Marsden couldn't shoot the both of them at once, and if he even got one shot off, hitting either Andrew or Quinton, the other could take him down. And if that failed, the rest could charge past him and get to the door. He couldn't get all of them at once. Not alone.
"You're out gunned, Marsden," Bill spoke, his eye darting from his son to the man aiming at them. "Put it down."
"And let you take my plant?" Marsden asked, one eyebrow raised. "No, I think not."
"You can't kill us all," Quinton said. "There's no fight here for you."
Marsden smiled. There was no joy in the way his lips curled, but there was a gleam of triumph. The door nearest to Andrew kicked open and Danny burst through, a small revolver gripped in his fist. He was as bloody as Kaylee was, smears running down his cheek and matted into his hair and clothing. But, unlike Kaylee, none of this blood was his own. He lunged towards Andrew and then seemed to think better of it, slinking back and closer to Marsden, his aim trained on the group. Marsden laughed.
"We're better matched now," he said. "You alright?'
"They knocked me out, I'm fine," Danny said. "Better than Cynthia anyway."
Kaylee chanced a look at Quinton, his jaw muscle was working in anger or frustration. They should have tied Danny up in the very least. Or locked him in there. They had taken his rifle.
Kaylee could have smacked herself in the head. Cynthia's gun. She had completely forgotten to take Cynthia's gun. And now it was trained on her once again, only not just her, her family as well.
"What's going on? What's wrong with Cynthia?"
Kaylee felt her stomach drop as a group of footsteps sounded behind Marsden. Rose, Maggie, Mario, and Paul strode into the room from behind Marsden. They were coming from their sheds, in from the yard through the kitchen. They were probably wondering why they had slept so soundly all night, maybe not even realizing they were drugged with dinner.
Or maybe they weren't. Maybe they were all in on Marsden's plan, maybe they were fine with locking Emma in chains next to those infected men and testing her, draining her blood, cutting her up like an experiment. It could go either way, Kaylee thought. Their arrival was either a blessing or a curse; a way out or a death sentence. But even if they were a blessing, facing Rose now was the last thing Kaylee ever wanted to do, covered in her daughter's blood.
"Demasiado ruido," Mario muttered.
"Why's all the volume up?" Paul asked, his expression confused. Mario was already leaning over one of the main plugs and yanking it from the wall. Half the televisions cut off, the noise reducing to a lower buzz. Both men stopped dead when they took in the standoff in front of them, when they saw both Kaylee and Danny filthy with blood.
"What the hell is going on?"
Marsden ignored Paul's question, his eyes locked on Kaylee instead. She couldn't bring herself to stare back at him.
"Kaylee, what's wrong with Cynthia?"
"Rose, I-"
How did Marsden know? Had he doubled back without any of them knowing it? Seen the mess Kaylee had made through a window using binoculars? Or was this a blind guess, just him knowing that if Kaylee and Emma were standing in front of him, but Cynthia was not, that it meant one of them attacked her. None of that really mattered. Rose was staring at her, making her own conclusions from the blood that was smeared all over Kaylee. She didn't know what to say, or how to say it, so maybe it was better that Danny cut her off.
"She chopped her up!" he screamed, thrusting his gun in Kaylee's direction. Paul and Maggie froze, staring. With the amount of blood congealing on her clothes, there could be no doubt who Danny meant. "With a freaking axe, nearly took her head off."
The color leached from Rose's face, drained from her wrinkled skin as though an axe had been swung through her. "No," she whispered, staring at Kaylee. This was a face Kaylee couldn't look away from, it was disbelief and desperation in a glance.
"She was trying to kill me!" Emma shouted. Kaylee could hear her, could register the words, but she couldn't look away from the pain spasming across Rose's face. Emma's words drove acceptance home, made Danny's wild accusations solid truth. "She had me chained up, draining my blood!"
"Yeah, 'cause you're one of them," Danny sneered. "Infected, rotting! I don't know why you're still walking around or why no one's killed you yet. You're bitten!"
The shock from the Marsden's group was palpable. Jaws dropped and they gasped as one, stepping back and away from Emma as though she could infect them through the air.
"She's not infected! She's immune!" Nick roared, stepping forward. Quinton put an arm out and Nick stepped back again, seething. The line held, each individual shifting, but keeping their space, forcing Marsden and Danny to target only one of them at a time. Quinton's aim remained unyielding, as did Andrew's.
"No one's ever been immune," Maggie whispered, she was clutching on to Rose's hand now, keeping her upright as quiet tears slid down her face. "It's not possible."
"She's probably just slow to develop it," Paul added, looking wary. "Where's the bite mark?"
"Your people took Emma," Quinton said, ignoring their statements. "They took her and chained her in a shed. There are others chained there, other people who are infected. They've been doing experiments."
"No!" Rose said, her jaw set. "Cynthia wouldn't-"
"She did," Emma said, rolling the sleeve of her jacket up to show a deep bruise in the crook of her elbow. "They took a whole bag of blood from me. I heard her and Marsden talking about what they thought would happened if they drained me dry. They've tried with the things they have chained up but apparently they clot too fast, they were wondering if I'd survive without any blood."
"She wouldn't," Anna interjected in a low voice. Kaylee glanced over quickly enough to see the shock and outrage on her face, the grief and fear lancing through Nick who was beside her. "Just in case any of you are wondering. She wouldn't. That would have killed her."
Marsden's group paused collectively. Paul and Mario eyeing each other, Maggie and Rose gripping hands tightly. But Kaylee could see the direction of their thoughts. They must not have known about this. Danny knew, Marsden and Cynthia orchestrated it, but the rest had remained in the dark, content with the food and the electricity and the safety of The Mill and never wondering about the outer sheds that Marsden warned them away from.
"We could go now," Quinton spoke into the silence, not looking at Marsden but at the faces that surrounded him. "We mean no one any harm."
"No one except Cynthia, right?" Danny asked maliciously. "Seems to me you meant her plenty of harm."
Kaylee clenched her teeth as a searing hatred towards Danny burned through her. She did not mean Cynthia harm, did not want to kill her or anyone. She was shot at, Cynthia was trying to kill her, would have killed her little sister without Kaylee's intervention. She was left with very little choice. She hated him for making her seem like the monster.
"She shot me," Kaylee spoke through clenched teeth. "I found Emma and someone knocked me out. When I woke up, Cynthia shot at me." She reflexively clutched her shoulder, wincing as her fingers found the grazing wound from the bullet. "I didn't want to... I never wanted to hurt-"
"But she's dead," Marsden sneered quietly. "She's dead and you're alive. You did kill her."
"I did," Kaylee said, nodding. Her vision was blurring with the spark of tears. "I did, I killed her. Rose, I'm so-"
"Don't," Rose murmured, her features hard. Kaylee clenched her teeth and lowered her gaze.
"We can leave, right now," Andrew said, nodding towards th
e still open door.
"And come back to attack us in our sleep?" Marsden insinuated.
"We would never!" Anna hissed. "We're not like-"
"So, a working power plant, electricity and safety, they all mean so little to you? Your morals are so strong that you could give this up? You could just walk away?" Marsden asked, eyeing their group like he had won.
Kaylee watched as the group behind visibly tensed. The meaning behind Marsden's words was clear. He wouldn't let them leave and he couldn't let them stay. He wanted to kill them. He wanted his group's approval, their agreement that Kaylee and her friends should be shot.
"They killed your girl, Rose. This one here," he gestured towards Kaylee with his barrel, "what she'd do exactly, Danny?"
"Butchered her with an axe, there's blood everywhere, you should see-"
"Enough." Quinton's voice rang quietly through the room. Every eye turned to him. "Stop torturing your own people, Marsden. The woman is dead, Kaylee killed her. No one here is arguing it. Don't make it more gruesome than it already is."
"We just want to go," Anna added. Kaylee nodded and saw her sister and Bill do the same.
"You killed one of ours," Marsden hissed. "The rest can go. Kaylee will stay. You took one of ours, we'll take one of yours."
Kaylee froze. Her limbs locking in terror. There was an outburst of argument, every one of the group that stretched in a line around Kaylee yelling, the words mixing together in an angry cacophony. All except Quinton. He gestured for them to stop, to quiet down.
"You're more transparent than you think," he said to Marsden conversationally. "You know we would never allow that. You are right about one thing though. This plant is a very nice set up. Electricity, food, good people, safety. I've been watching from the woods, keeping an eye on my friends here, because there's one thing that's not quite right in this set up, one element of danger."
Marsden sneered. But his eyes showed fear, Kaylee could read it from where she stood, all the way across the room.
"What?" Danny asked stupidly. It was the opening Quinton was looking for.
"Him," he answered softly, pointing his gun at Marsden. The leader of The Mill stiffened. No one spoke for him, in fact the room had gone shockingly quiet. "Jack and I have survived, roaming around, for quite some time. Nick and Bill and their group were stationed in the middle of a city, surviving. They can preserve food, hunt, fish. Anna is a registered nurse. We have a motor home that's stocked better than any pharmacy ever was and a person who knows how to use it all. We could keep this place going for a long, long time. Andrew knows power plants very well, he knows the intricacies of running a place like this and he would teach you. Am I wrong in assuming that Marsden has kept this information from the rest of you? Are you worried that without him this place would fall? It wouldn't."
Quinton fell silent, his eyes past Marsden and focusing on the confused faces of the people behind him. Paul, no longer fearful, looked pensive, thoughtful. Maggie looked confused, looking from Marsden to Quinton. Rose was despondent, leaning against Maggie and unable to absorb the rest of what was going on.
"Don't get suckered by-" Marsden began but Paul quickly cut him off.
"Why did you have this girl chained up?" he asked, pointing to Emma. "If she's infected, how come she doesn't act like they do?"
"She has a bite mark!" Danny shouted.
"From an infected person?" Paul hedged, looking from Emma to Danny. Kaylee looked to Emma who's mouth had opened. Quinton was shaking his head ever so slightly, just a small inclination of his head, and Emma shut her mouth.
"Did you ask her?" Maggie asked, looking from Paul to Danny. "What did she say?"
"I didn't ask," Danny spluttered. "Since when do we ask people with bites where they got them?"
"Since they walk and talk and don't foam at the mouth!" Paul shouted. "Marsden, what the hell? You lock this girl up, tell her family she ran, experiment on her-"
"Why was my Cynthia with you, what did you have her doing?" Rose interjected. Kaylee could see where this was going, where Quinton was gently leading the rest of them. Marsden was edging closer towards the back of the room, back to the door he had snuck through. His group was slowly turning on him, despite his best efforts at inciting them.
"I know you'd like to think I made her, but I didn't," he sneered. "She kept going on about a cure, or a way to protect us from turning. It's not my fault, I didn't make her-"
"She was a nurse's aid in a retirement home," Rose interjected wearily. "Terrible at chemistry. How could she have..." her voice trailed off as she shook her head in grief.
Maggie was supporting her, her face contorted in a strange mix of grief and fury. "You never told us what you were doing in the buildings across the dam, never told us there were infected chained up inside the fence. What if they got out?"
"They can't," Danny protested.
Maggie, Rose, Tyler and Mario were all edging closer as Marsden backed away. Disbelief was being overtaken by anger. They knew they had been deceived, probably had known that Marsden was keeping things from them for a long time, but until they were forced to acknowledge it, it hadn't bothered them. Now, Cynthia was dead. Kaylee and her group was larger than the whole of theirs combined. Guns were pointing across the shrinking space of the common room and Andrew was edging closer to the door that led to freedom. Danny's eyes wielded back and forth from Marsden to Kaylee to the advancing group. Marsden looked trapped.
"I knew you were up to something, that you were a lousy excuse for a human being," Paul started, his voice threatening now. "But I never thought it was something like this, I never thought you'd endanger all of us, our whole setup, pick a fight with a group this big. I never thought you were that stupid."
Kaylee thought this would be the ideal time for Quinton to speak up, convince the others that their group wasn't looking for a fight, that it wouldn't need to come to that, but he was quiet. His stance was casual, though his gun was steady and still pointed forward. He was waiting them out.
Mario was muttering in Spanish, low and under his breath. Kaylee wasn't sure that even Anna could pick out what he was saying. Paul's features were twisted in anger, his accusations still heavy in the air. Marsden wasn't quick enough to defend himself.
"We could have made it work, Marsden," Maggie said, her voice quiet but harsh. "If you had just left all that alone. The fence, the electricity, my chickens and the gardens, we could have made it work. There's so much room. Now..."
"Where does this leave us now?" Paul continued, his jaw muscles flexing. "I see only two choices. Either they leave, or you do."
The finality of his tone left a ringing silence in the air of the common room. The whine of electricity and the static of the televisions and computers left on couldn't cover it.
Danny looked incredulously at the fellows in his group. Marsden blinked. The whole of the rest of the people standing around him were glowering in his direction. He had pushed them there, every one of them, with his secrets and his lies, with his attempts at manipulation and his refusal to teach them the basics of the plant. It was his fault they stared at him like this, with anger, revulsion, distrust. And yet, Kaylee felt a spasm of pity for him. He had had so much, a group to stand with, a safe place amidst the chaos of the world, and he destroyed it for himself. He put Kaylee in a position that forced her to destroy what he had built. All the respect, or tentative tolerance, he had garnered from the group now glaring at him had vanished. He didn't look nearly so smug any longer, he looked small, shrunken by this defeat, by the dismissal of the group he had once offered shelter.
Marsden's gaze swept the group, lingered on Kaylee, then he turned and ran, his gun clattering on the cement floor behind him.
Only Danny cried out in his absence.
"Oh shut up, you fool," Rose muttered, not even sparing Danny a glance. The rest of the group relaxed as one when she sank into the nearest couch. Her body slumped forward, her head in her hands. Kaylee's stomach lurched.
>
"You're all gonna let that-" Danny started, belligerent and angry. Marsden gave him position and power, with him gone, Danny seemed to shrink as well.
"If you want to join him, feel free," Paul said coldly, pointing towards the exit. Danny swallowed hard and then sunk back towards the wall, his gun held loosely in his hand. He might not have liked the shift in power, but he wasn't about to leave his safety net either.
Kaylee wanted to feel relief, she wanted her muscles to unclench the way she saw Anna's and her fathers doing. But she was held in stiff discomfort, her eyes darting from the door to Danny. She wanted to leave, to never have to face Rose again. She had been counting on it. But it looked as though they were staying, she couldn't escape the constant reminders of what she had done. As though he knew what thoughts were flying through her head, Jack's arms encircled her. She tensed initially, but pushed whatever gave her pause away. She needed his comfort right now.
Her muscles never got to unlock.
It was soft at first, low, and she thought, initially, that the trembling was coming from her, that she was finally breaking apart. But it wasn't. The very ground below her shook and then a noise, an explosion, rent the still air, blasting her from her feet and lurching her and Jack to the floor.
From under the arm that was flung protectively over her face, she saw the concrete crack and then split.
Chaos.
Screams could be heard mixed in with and drowned out by the second explosion. A great wrenching of metal tearing from metal sounded and Jack was hauling her to her feet and through the door, her eyes still to the center of the room where the giant crane that hung suspended from the ceiling was crashing, as in slow motion, to the center of the common room floor. Bits of electronics scattered like blown out glass in a storm and screams mingled and died out from inside that great room.
The outside light was blinding when she turned to face it, trying to see who had made it outside, count who in the group was alive. Emma was close to her, Andrew pulling her forward. She saw her father and then Anna. But something else was rambling closer, it's gait unsteady and yet familiar.
