August Burning (Book 2): Survival (9 page)

When she awoke from her nightmares, she was alone. Adira approached the metal vat of water they had ferried up from the river behind the school. Vigorously, compulsively, she washed herself. She didn’t like to be alone, in the dark room. Where was Jaxton?

She found them in the gymnasium. All of them.

Terrence was kneeling on the wooden floor with his hands tied; his bulky form stripped to the waist and bleeding. Wilder stood before him, his fists dripping. Everyone was watching. Fifty people cheering and jeering, an insufferable mob of curses, spittle, and fists. How quickly they abandoned their civility, Adira knew.

“You took the gasoline. Cause you’re a selfish fucking bastard. You killed Tessa. And you put the lives of four others at risk. One of whom, is still missing. If Elvis has died, you will die.” Jaxton paced before him, a police baton in his hand. “Again.”

Wilder unloaded his right fist into the swollen face before him. The crowd roared.

“He went behind my back! He went behind our backs!” Jaxton cried.

“Hit him again!” Harley cried. Wilder struck again, and the thunder that came after was deafening under those vaulted ceilings.

Adira spotted Liam and Joseph, speaking together at the edge of the proceedings. They alone looked disgusted.

Terrence spat blood. “I didn’t take the fucking gasoline.”

“Don’t fucking lie to me!” Jaxton roared and raised the baton. A second later a spray of blood spattered his own beard.

“I will not permit the breakdown of order here. Are you with me?” Jaxton asked the crowd, arms extended. They cheered their vicious assent.

Terrence remained squatting, his defiance evident. “I did not steal it.”

“If not you, then who?” Jaxton drew close to the mangled set of cheekbones.

“STOP this!” Adira yelled, her pulse hammering. “Enough! He has been punished enough. No one of you here killed Tessa.
They
did.”

Jaxton sputtered, but Adira continued, drawing the eyes of them all. “If there is any blame to be had, it is mine. I should not have taken us so late in the day.”

“Don’t waste your time defending him. And we need to find Elvis.” Harley spat.

“We must strike back at once!” Jaxton roared.

Adira stepped in front of her lover, and raising her hands, noticed they were still caked in red residue from the night prior. “Wait. Just fucking wait. We don’t want to rush into anything, especially while they might have Elvis, captured. They will cut us, and him, to pieces.”

“What are they?!” Someone shouted.

She trembled slightly, remembering the floating tendrils of greasy hair. “They were bitten, but they didn’t turn like the others…. I don’t think. They had crude weapons, and they tried to use them. They were from beyond the factory, in the backwoods.”

“We need to get together. Attack when they don’t expect it. Yes.” Wilder exclaimed, his eyes frantic as Jaxton nodded thoughtless approval.

“No we do not. I fucked this up. I think we should at least try to see if they can reason with us. I should try and communicate to them.” Adira didn’t want to go anywhere near the backwoods again, for as long as she lived. But she saw the way they were looking at her. She was the one to blame, the one who had failed the group. Only a remedy enacted by her would force a turn of opinion. But she found herself half-hoping someone would save her from the obligation.

“You would be killed. No. We send him. To test the waters.” Jaxton indicated the chained beast.

“I’m not doing anything you fuck-“ The baton snapped out like a viper.

“Terrence goes. And maybe Terrence dies. Now take him to the basement. Chain him there.”

Wilder and several others ushered the bleeding giant away.

“You need to think about what you’re doing, Jax,” Liam pleaded.

“Liam, I don’t want to hear it. There’s no place for doubt now.”

“Good for you Jax.” Harley nodded.

…

“What the fuck are we doing? Why did you take the gasoline?” Leeroy asked Bennett, as they stood afar from the others.

“I’m creating a little chaos,” Bennett snarled.

“Does anyone else know?”

Bennett shook his head. “They wouldn’t be willing to do what’s necessary.”

“How far are the police?”

Bennett smiled greedily. “One day. And his little kingdom will come crashing down.”

…

Harley slammed Liam against the concrete wall in the old classroom they had made their bedroom. She kissed him hungrily and pressed her voluptuous body against his. Without stealing her attention she undid his belt and shoved his camouflaged hunting pants off.

Biting his lip, she pressed him into the desk. Liam recoiled slightly. “Easy,” he whispered.

She shoved him harder and grinded against him as if he alone could cure her famine. She snatched his hand and made him touch her, as she reached down herself. Liam drew back, “easy,” he said, a little firmer.

She touched him more vigorously, not relenting a fraction. His hot skin incensed her further, and she tingled, sensing what she wanted was close at hand. Harley grabbed his lower neck, before placing her stomach against the desk. She looked back. “I want it. Now. Hurry.”

Liam struggled to adjust himself. His skin wasn’t flushed like hers. His spine didn’t tingle like hers. His mind was still processing other things. Her voice interrupted his thoughts. “NOW! C’mon! What the fuck are you doing!” She demanded, her pants hanging around her thighs.

Liam stepped back, feeling his blood boiling. “What is wrong with you!?”

“What’s wrong with
you
? You don’t want to have me?”

“Jesus fucking Christ we just watched a man get half beaten to death with his hands tied. Tessa died last night. Elvis is still missing. Did you forget all that?!”

“You two idiots have a real interesting conception of friendship. Elvis probably hates you. Fuck. Forget it Liam.” She raced to put her clothes back on. “And Terrence, he beat the shit out of you! Are you saying you didn’t enjoy seeing him hurt?”

“That’s not how my mind works, Harley. I don’t get off to beating a bound man.”

“Learn to love it. That’s as close you’re ever going to get to beating him.”

Liam recoiled, stung. “What the hell does that mean?”

“You know damn well, what that means.” The door slammed behind her. Liam sank down, his bulky frame hunkering over the miniature desk. He tried to exhale smoothly, but he couldn’t do it.

…

Her footsteps clacked loudly on the shiny tile floor. Adira held a torch aloft; it sent shadows dancing on the lockers around her. Two of the other girls followed closely, lest they be left behind in the blackness of the night.

“Adira.” Bennett emerged suddenly from the side door.

She nearly dropped the torch. “Jesus. You scared me.”

“Can we talk?”

Her eyes were openly suspicious, but they were unwavering. “Go ahead. Start cutting it up. I’ll meet up with you.” The two women scampered off into the kitchen, straight to the supply room where they kept all the canned food.

Bennett adjusted the straps on his backpack absent-mindedly.

“What is it, Bennett?”

Bennett nodded, laughing slightly. “Who would have thought, five months ago, this is how you’d greet me?”

Adira sighed. “Look. Things are tense, alright? You can’t blame me if I’m a little on edge.”

He shot a glance behind him. “Well, I needed to ask you. Are you satisfied with the way things have turned out? I mean, with Jaxton and all. I just needed to hear it from you. We never get to talk anymore.”

She exhaled, exasperated. “This is what you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Of course it is. I was fine for a while, I mean fine. I wasn’t thinking about you. I was doing a pretty good job of avoiding you. Well, remember how we used to talk about how lucid our dreams could be?”

She regarded him softly, unsure whether she should walk away.

He stepped a bit closer, and the words came out softly. “I’ve been having these dreams. Not like that, don’t make that face at me. Just dreams with you in them. And it’s totally fucking my thing up. I mean, I wake up and its like we just spent hours together, and my brain can’t tell the difference. I’ve been dreading going to sleep. I never moved on like you did, you know?”

She couldn’t hate him. She didn’t hate him. “Bennett I’ll never dislike you. There’s gotta be a better way to say that…I mean, I still care about you. It’s not like you did anything wrong. But, things change. Things have changed. This whole thing, it’s changed you.”

Bennett retreated once more, his bright teeth flashing in amusement. He chuckled. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve forgotten empathy, you’re aggressive, and selfish. And you think it’s ok because everyone else is doing it too. And it’s not.”

His smiled vanished. “You owe me more than that.”

Adira stammered. Bennett cut her off. “I worshipped you for a while. You liked it, don’t deny it. I never treated you wrongly. I made mistakes but I was always there for you. Was I not?”

She could smell him, and she didn’t like it. It made her mind move more slowly.

“I’m still in love with you, Adira.”

“Stop it! Stop it. In love…Bennett we knew each other for what, two months?”

“I didn’t realize there was a time requirement,” he said softly.

“My god. What are you even doing? Look I’m sorry it turned out like this. I obviously never intended for it to. But you can’t do this.”

“Why, because it confuses you?”

“No! Not even! Because…Just stop. And if Jaxton ever finds you doing something like this, especially how he is now, he’s likely to shoot you.”

“That’s the other thing. How can you stand by and watch this barbarism go on? Are you ok with this? We’re all going to die. And the infected are going to have nothing to do with it.”

Adira set her jaw angrily. “No one fucking asked Jax to run the show. He’s the one they look to, of their own accord.”

Bennett guffawed. “Please. We both know Jaxton. He wants to be in command, he needs it.”

She was breathing deeply. A moment of anxious silence lingered between them, as the shadows bounced off the sputtering torch.

Finally, she spoke. “You’re like a child, greedy and scared.” She exhaled. “I don’t like this violence between us all any more than you. Jaxton just needs to calm down. He will calm down. I need to go, Bennett.” Adira’s steel-tipped boots snapped briskly on the tile.

She heard his voice following her. “If you think you will be able to change his mind, you’re a fool.” She slammed open the door, far harder than she would have liked.

…

“Boys. What are you doing up here?”

Jaxton approached the silent pair, perched perilously atop the third story clock tower overlooking the main driveway. The American flag was absent, as he had ordered.

Duke and Wilder sat four feet apart, their typically boisterous humor gone. Duke shivered in his heavy sweatshirt. Their rifles had been left haphazardly a few feet away.

“You wont be much use on night watch without your guns.”

Jaxton received no response. He took a seat calmly, in between them, content to feel the cool breeze cutting into his light jacket for just a moment.

Jaxton felt lonely on the roof, above the world. “I’m still not used to seeing zero lights. It’s eerie.” The expanse that stretched before him was vast and cold.

“I wonder. I wonder what other intelligent life, if they’re watching us, would make of all this.” Jaxton said, looking skyward. He swept his arms in grandiose fashion, in an unworthy attempt to encapsulate the trillion pixels that burned furiously against that lonely tapestry.

Wilder snorted. His eyes were red, Jaxton could see in the moonlight.