Running Away - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 4) (12 page)

P
enn’s eyes
popped wide open. He had heard the noises outside the shed. His body was absolutely still. It was like he went from being completely asleep to fully awake in less than a full second. He stared at the door, looking like he was ready to launch himself at it.

I turned and kept my focus on the door too. The dryness of the air stung my eyes since I refused to blink. If I looked away from the door for even a second, I might miss whatever was about to happen and that could mean life or death.

Whoever was outside of the shed wasn’t saying anything. There were noises of something being moved around and then I heard rattling at the door. It sounded as if they were undoing the locks.

I stepped back. Everyone looked scared, except for Penn who looked neutral. I’d seen the look before and I knew he was getting ready to act, should he need to.

I wanted to be ready to help him, but I was clueless on how to flip my switch into the on position. I probably didn’t have one. All I could do was wait and watch.

Dean was on the floor somewhere behind me against the wall. I was about to nudge him with my foot when something reached out and grabbed around my ankle. It took a second, but I realized quickly that it was Dean, and thankfully I had been able to stop the scream that had almost escaped.

He stood up silently and stepped out in front of me. We watched the door as it was pulled open. I expected someone to step inside, but what entered the small shed was the barrel of a rifle.

“Up against the wall,” a deep voice said. It sounded as if whoever was speaking was trying to disguise their real voice. Or maybe sound tougher than they actually were. Maybe both.

The gun bobbed and pointed at each one of us in turn as I stepped back and pressed my back into the wall. If I could have backed through the wall, I would have.

When I tried to see the person behind the door, I noticed that it was dark outside. It was night, but I didn’t know what time of night it was. All I could say for sure was that it was too dark to see anyone clearly.

“Put your hands where I can see them,” the voice said in a false low octave.

My body reflexively jumped as a plastic tray slid across the ground and into the middle of the room. Before I looked back up at the gun, I noticed there were bottles of water on the tray. I wanted to dive for one of them and thank the gun for bringing us the lifesaving liquid, but I didn’t.

The barrel of the gun slowly disappeared from the room and then the door slammed shut. Penn leapt towards the door, but whoever had been on the other side was prepared. They had the locks back in place in record time. It was as if they’d expected that reaction.

“If you are going to do stupid things like that, and we can’t trust you, maybe we won’t bring you food any more. If you aren’t going to be good little boys and girls, I won’t be opening this door again and you can bet your short little lives on that one,” the voice said. This time I recognized the voice. It was the same one from earlier today, the one that had said his name was Cy. The one that I presumed was in charge of this place. Whatever it was.

Penn slammed his fist into the door once and hard. The door rattled and shivered to a stop. I knew what word he wanted to shout out at our captors based solely on how he had hit the door. But he didn’t yell it… although I imagined he was saying it repeatedly in his head. He probably wanted to tell Cy everything he thought of him, but maybe he decided against it because he didn’t want to get anyone killed. They had the guns. For now, they had the power.

I waited until I didn’t hear the movement outside any longer before opening my mouth to speak. “What did they bring? We can’t drink that water can we?”

“Why not?” Sienna said, her voice was thick with saliva. The desire for water was apparent even in how she spoke. She looked at the tray but she didn’t move towards it. None of us did. We all thought it was some kind of trick, maybe a bomb or some kind of booby trap. No one wanted to find out what would happen if we touched it.

“Maybe it’s unsafe… contaminated or something. Or maybe it’s poisoned,” I said crossing my arms in front of my chest. There was probably nothing I could do or say that would stop any of them, myself included, from drinking the water. No matter how paranoid I was about it, I had no doubt that I would soon gladly be drinking down my entire portion.

“Why would they bother poisoning us? They have guns. If they wanted us dead, they could have killed us by now. Instead they are feeding us,” Penn said with a shrug as he crouched down and examined the things on the tray. He poked at the water bottles as though he thought they might decide to just walk off of the tray.

He was right. The water was probably fine, as was whatever else was on the tray.

“Not much there,” Carter said as he slowly moved forward to have a look at the other things on the tray. Sienna held onto his shirt and followed along as they inched closer.

There were two paper bowls filled with questionable looking baked beans, and another bowl filled with what I hoped was an open can of uncooked clam chowder. There were random chunks sitting in the gelatinous soup that maybe were potatoes.

But what we were all most interested in were the six plastic bottles filled with water. It looked so pure and clean it practically sparkled in the poorly lit shed.

The three metal spoons on the tray were the complete opposite of the water of life. They looked as though they hadn’t been cleaned after the last time they had been used. It appeared they were coated in dried ketchup.

“A bottle of water for each of us… they must have a supply nearby,” Penn said, looking at the bowls of food. Half a bowl of food wouldn’t be nearly enough but it was better than nothing at all. “So who’s going to eat the white, lumpy one?”

I was pretty sure everyone was thinking the same thing I was, that it looked like regurgitated food. It made the baked beans look like fillet mignon.

Dean stepped forward scrunching his eyebrows together. He was volunteering to take half the chunky soup, or so it seemed.

Penn raised his eyebrow and pushed the bowl of white slop towards him, “You want the white crap?”

“I’ll take half… it’s food isn’t it?” Dean said reaching out his hand to accept the bowl. A look of regret washed over his face as he sloshed the soup and watched the chunks move around heavily.

“I think that’s up for debate,” Penn said curling up one side of his mouth. He put his hand on his stomach and turned away from the bowl of thick white goop.

Dean pinched the paper bowl slightly so he could pour the soup into his mouth. He stopped every so often to chew the chunks I had originally thought were potatoes, but now I wasn’t so sure. He looked at Penn and rubbed his belly, “Mmm, mmm!”

“OK… any volunteers for the second half of the white stuff?” Penn asked, and I figured I might as well take one for the team because of the whole Dean and I being a couple thing. I should support him, but I was surprised when I didn’t have to. I didn’t even get a chance to volunteer.

Alice stepped up next to Dean. She tilted her head slightly to the side and put her hand on her hip. She smiled at Dean and I couldn’t help but feel somewhat annoyed.

“I’ll take it. I don’t mind… I’m sure I’ve had much, much worse,” she said pulling her hair back and twisting it around her left shoulder. I shook my head and narrowed my eyes. Was she showing some kind of interest in Dean? If she was, it wasn’t going to work and she sure wouldn’t be winning any favors with me. Then again, maybe she was just trying to make things easier for everyone.

I let out a puff of air that blew a strand of hair out of my face. “Well then, I guess that’s settled.”

I watched to make sure Dean completely finished his portion before handing her the bowl. I didn’t want her contaminating the bowl with her germs and increasing his chances of catching whatever it was she had. Although, we were all so close together most of the time that we were all likely to catch it anyway.

I didn’t have to worry about it because she stood next to him patiently waiting for her half with a big, dumb smile on her face. She looked at him, blinking her eyes while she waited, but the only part I really cared about was that she waited.

Once he finished, he handed her the bowl and smiled back at her. He picked up one of the bottles at random and chugged it down. Then he stepped away from the group and sat back down leaning his back against the wall. He looked unhappy, frustrated and as though he was trying to devise a plan to get us out of here.

Penn and I shared one of the bowls of baked beans. We didn’t bother with the dirty spoons either, surely using those disgusting things would have gotten us sick too. A different kind of sick, maybe, but definitely sick. Penn bent the bowl in the same way he’d seen Dean do it and ate his portion.

After I finished mine, I grabbed a bottle of water and drank it down. At first I was going to save it… make it last because I didn’t know when I’d get water again, but I couldn’t help myself. I drank it far too fast and even though it helped my stomach feel full, I thought that maybe I was going to get a stomach ache.

I sat down next to Dean with my hands on my slightly puffed out belly as I watched the others drink from the water bottles in much the same way as Dean and I had done. Fast. They all had the same look on their face. Eyes closed with a small smile, not wanting to reach the bottom of the bottle.

Dean and I were against one wall, Carter, Sienna and Alice were to our left and Penn was straight across from me. We didn’t really look at one another. Everyone was quiet as we stared at the door as if waiting for something to happen.

Penn reached forward and pocketed the dirty spoons. Then he collected all the empty water bottles and lined them up next to him on the side furthest from the door. I was pretty sure the guys holding us would take them away first chance they got. They probably reused the bottles the same as they had the spoons. Penn could probably use the tray for a weapon, and it would surprise me if someone hadn’t already tried that.

I didn’t know if he had a plan in mind for his collection or if he was just hoarding them in case he came up with an idea. He started tracing around the pattern stamped on the tray and I watched as his finger lazily moved around the indents and grooves. It slowed down each time he started the pattern over.

I looked up and saw his eyes as they were slowly closing. He fought to keep them open, but he was losing the battle. I was happy he was getting some rest, even if it seemed to be odd timing. Then again, we were all tired, maybe a mildly full belly helped him get some shut-eye. But it didn’t matter… if anything happened he’d be instantly awake to try to save the day. It was just how his brain worked.

When I looked over and saw Sienna sleeping on Carter’s chest and his head tilted sharply to the side, it surprised me how quickly everyone had fallen asleep. Alice, too, was laying on the ground next to Carter’s legs with her eyes closed and her body gently rising and falling with each breath.

“Isn’t that weird?” I said nudging my elbow into Dean’s side. He didn’t answer. There was a soft rustling noise as his body tipped to the side, and he fell awkwardly into the corner of the room. “You too?”

I scooted forward to look at him. He looked scrunched up and uncomfortable in the corner but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to adjust him myself. His neck was cranked towards the side so far that I could see the muscles and tendons in his neck stretching to their limits.

I tried to pull him back into a more comfortable position but either he was too heavy or I was so weak that I couldn’t move him myself. He was out cold. I couldn’t even remember that last time any of us had slept that deeply.

My heart jumped for a second. I was worried that maybe something had happened, but he was still breathing. He was taking shallow, sleepy breaths that moved over his chest like a gentle wave.

“Dean,” I whispered as I shook him. I felt a little scared being the only one awake. “Wake up!”

He didn’t wake up. He didn’t even come close to waking up. I shook him harder, but it didn’t make any difference.

I scurried across the floor like a frightened critter towards Penn. My fingers gripped his arms tightly, and I shook him aggressively. He didn’t wake up either.

“Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no,” I whispered shaking Penn even harder. He started slumping down towards the ground. I couldn’t stop him from sliding, all I could do was try to make his movement a touch gentler.

I buried my face into my hands at the same time I heard someone at the door. It sounded like they were we going to come inside. I quickly looked over my shoulder at the door like a wild animal and I did the first thing that popped into my head.

I played dead.

I
didn’t look up
, move or breathe when I heard the door open. There were at least two people inside the shed. They didn’t talk, but I was sure I had heard the scuffles of more than one pair of feet.

“What the shit?” one of the voices said in a hushed, deep voice. Bobby Lee. “Did we screw it up again?”

“Did
you
screw it up again,” a second voice, Cy, said. It seemed as though they were trying to disguise them, but I was getting better at picking out their voices.

I wondered what they’d do if they didn’t find what they were looking for, which I assumed was me because I was the only one that hadn’t fallen asleep. Would they start killing us? But that wouldn’t make much sense. They could have done that without drugging us.

“Oh shit man, I bet they shared again,” Bobby Lee groaned.

“Don’t think so. Then we’d probably have two awake instead of all asleep. Hmm,” Cy said as I heard the movement of feet.

“This one’s out cold,” Bobby Lee said in a dopey voice. He’d given up on trying to disguise it. Why would they need to disguise their voices anyway? And why were their two voices the only ones I’d heard? Where was everyone else? I guess, for whatever reason, Cy and Bobby Lee did all the dirty work.

“This one too,” Cy grunted.

“Come out, come out wherever you are!” Bobby Lee said in a voice that chilled my bones.

I didn’t need to open my eyes to see they were moving their way towards me. Somehow I managed to keep myself calm and unmoving, even when they poked me with what I assumed was the same rifle I had seen when they brought the food into the shed.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Bobby Lee said as he kicked the dirt. I was pelted in the back of my head with several little pebbles.

“Let’s just shoot them. One by one. Start with the one by the door,” Cy said and I could imagine him grinning as he looked around.

I could feel my heart rate increase, and I was having trouble controlling my breathing. When one of them grabbed me by the arm that had the bandage on it, I knew they had noticed my body movements. I managed not to scream out in pain even though it felt like bee stings on my arm where he touched the burned skin.

My eyes popped open, and I saw Bobby Lee standing by the door. His gun at his side. He didn’t have any intention of shooting any of us. I wanted to slap the ear-to-ear smile off of his chunky face with a piece of steel wool.

“Clever little girl aren’t you?” Cy said, nodding as though he appreciated my attempt. But not enough to let me go.

Cy dragged me out of the shed as I kicked and struggled against him. I shouted for Dean and then for Penn, but they didn’t budge.

Bobby Lee slammed the door shut, and they were out of my sight. I managed to get my arm free, and I crawled across the ground towards the fence even though I saw it was closed.

“Help me with her,” Cy said trying to grab my arm again, and all I could do was swat and kick at him to keep him away.

Bobby Lee haphazardly put the lock in place, keeping his eyes mostly on me. The look on his face was a creepy, slimy grin that made my stomach hurt. It was like he enjoyed watching me fight even though there was no hope for me.

“Did you lock it tight this time?” Cy growled as he reached for my leg. I kicked at his hand with the other leg.

“Of course I did. Go check it if you want,” Bobby Lee said as if he was offended by the question. But a look flashed across his face that I knew meant he had screwed up once before. He almost looked as though he wanted to double check the door but he nodded repeatedly as if he was confident and capable. To me, he just looked like a big, dumb cartoon character.

“Get her leg,” Cy instructed, and I tried to kick at them both. Once Cy got one leg, Bobby Lee was able to get the other.

I reached forward and tried to scratch Bobby Lee in the face, but missed. He caught my arm, and I was forced to give up. At least for now.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked looking around the camp. Were the snipers pointing their guns at me? Were others on their way to help them? I shifted my eyes around the camp as best as I could, trying to memorize everything I was seeing. If I got free, I wanted to know which way would lead me back to my friends and which way was out of the camp.

I listened, but I didn’t hear anyone else around. The whole place was so quiet it was eerie.

All of the buildings around us had locks on the outside of the doors. In most cases, there were multiple padlocks in place, I guessed for extra security. Maybe our neighbor would pop out at any second and confirm that he was, in fact, placed there to try to learn more about us.

“Shut up,” Cy said, his voice originating from his chest and rumbling out of his nose and mouth.

I looked over my shoulder and took a mental photograph of the shed my friends were in.

The shed was close to the front gate and as long as they didn’t take me too far away with a lot of twists and turns, I was positive I could make my way back to them. Every time I blinked it was like taking a new photograph that I hoped I could recall if need be.

They dragged me about three buildings away, taking only one turn to the right. If I had to get out of their building, all I had to remember was to take a left turn and then I could check one of the mental pictures in my head. I would be back with my friends in no time. All I had to do was break free from Cy and his dumb lackey and get back to my friends who needed me. Although I had no idea how I’d wake them up and get us out of here.

Bobby Lee opened the door to a larger building. This door didn’t have a lock on the outside.

Cy shoved me inside and I tripped over my own feet and fell to the floor. I tried to get myself back onto my feet, but Bobby Lee had his thick sausage-fingers wrapped around my wrist before I could even turn myself around. His dirty fingernails dug into my flesh as he dragged me towards the back wall.

He held my hand up as though he’d done this a hundred times. I felt the cold metal against my wrist. It made a
thunk
when he locked it into place.

Bobby Lee had shackled me to the wall. I swiped my free hand towards his face, aiming for his eyes. My aim was slightly off, but I’d made contact. I scratched his face, and I watched as the blood beaded up in a line across his cheek. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Uh! You stupid bitch!” he said and slapped me across the face. It stung, but I didn’t want to let it show. He hadn’t bothered to take it easy on me either.

I gritted my teeth and stared directly into his angry, hateful gray eyes. If I had been a bit braver, or maybe dumber, I would have spit in his stupid face. But I was almost certain that would lead me down a short path to a painful death. For all I knew I was already on that path.

If he was OK with hitting me, who knew what else he would do if provoked. My goal was to stay alive as long as possible and maybe get myself out of this so I could save my friends.

Bobby Lee gripped my free wrist and held it so tightly my fingers felt numb. He closed the shackle around that wrist. That’s when I saw the blood stains and blood splatter on the wall and ground all around me. I wanted to cry. How much time did I have left?

Against the wall, about four feet away from me, was a wood burning stove. The fire inside glowed and crackled. It seemed as though it was laughing at me. It knew what was going to happen, it’s seen it before. The fire was telling me that I was being punished for what I had done to Ryan. It was time to pay the price.

Next to the stove was a counter on which a knife was stabbed into the center of a stained cutting board. There was a small table on the other side of the room, near the door, which was holding a pile of guns. Our guns. Plus, maybe, the one Bobby Lee had been holding when they’d come for me and dragged me here.

I was sure that whatever it was they were going to do to me wouldn’t involve the guns. I’d probably be begging them to use a gun at some point.

There was only one thing in the room that seemed clean. A polished, pristine table in the center of the room, which looked completely out of place. I assumed they’d taken it from some upscale place and brought it back here. The candle placed in the center of the table made it look like a sacred location even though it was surrounded by ketchup, mustard and barbecue sauce bottles.

This was where the two men lived. It was their living quarters, their dining room, their kitchen and their slaughterhouse all in one. I wasn’t sure what was worse, this room or HOME.

Bobby Lee looked at me and shook his head as if he was disappointed. He was mumbling something to Cy that I couldn’t hear, and it looked as though Cy was mostly ignoring him.

“Just let me go,” I begged as I looked around the room frantically. I was trying to find something that could save me. But when I spotted the long thick bones sticking out of the trash can, I started to shake. The tears rolled down my cheeks and there was nothing I could do to stop them. I was pretty sure I was looking at human bones.

I shook my arms wildly and then stretched the chains out as far as they would go. The rusty metal dug into my wrists. I could feel them making little tears into my flesh as I moved too quickly against the rough, jagged edges.

I kicked and thrust myself forward. If I moved fast enough, perhaps I could pull the chains out of the wall, or break the old shackles, but nothing worked. I tried again, but the only thing that happened was when the chains hit their limit they yanked me back into the wall. The chains and the wall were far stronger than I was.

“No, please no,” I said looking at Cy who hungrily smiled at me. “Please! Just let me go!”

The tears flowed faster. There was no way to hold them back. I could feel them, warm against my skin, cutting through the dirt and grime on my face. It made the skin on my cheeks feel tight.

I took several deep breaths and then stared at my feet. It felt as though every ounce of hope and strength I’d ever had was draining out of my body down onto their scummy tiled floor. My slumped, defeated body felt twice as heavy as it should have.

“What are you going to do to me?” I said, even though I was pretty sure I had a good guess what they were going to do. The bones in the trash… the fire roaring… the now dried blood that had been splattered in the same spot I now stood in… it seemed clear. And after it happened to me, it would probably happen to my friends, one by one, in much the same way.

“You are probably aware,” Cy said, as he folded his hands behind his back and started pacing. He didn’t take his eyes away from mine. “Food supplies are dwindling at an alarming rate.”

Each step he took seemed timed and perfectly calculated. It was as if he’d given this exact same speech before. And not just once, many times.

He lowered his head and looked away from me as he took four steps in one direction before pivoting and turning back to take four more in the other direction. Bobby Lee stood several feet behind him with his arms crossed in front of his bulky chest.

For two men who claimed food was hard to find, they looked rather meaty. In fact, they looked healthier than anyone I’d seen in a very long time. What they were doing here didn’t seem like something they recently started because food supplies were vanishing.

My heart started to pound against my chest like it wanted to escape my body and get out of this room while it was still beating. I wondered if I was having a heart attack. If I was, it would probably be better than dying the way I imagined I was going to.

“Bobby Lee here and I, well, we found a way to solve all of our problems.” Cy hit the end of his step, clicked his heels together, and stopped so he could grin at me. His eyes looked so dark, I could almost see the evil pooling up inside of them. “You’ll be happy to know our plan is working perfectly. Bobby Lee and I couldn’t be more thrilled at how successful our little thing has been.”

“I’m so happy for you. Now let me go,” I cried out as I twisted my wrist, not caring about the little streams of blood I could feel dripping down my arms. The cuts barely hurt, and I didn’t give a thought to my burn injury. Was my body starting to go numb? Was it turning off so I wouldn’t feel what they’d do to me? Somehow I doubted that possibility.

“Well, we can’t do that now. You see, you and your friends out there, are an integral part of our plan. And all the other stupid folks that come snooping around here,” Cy said with a practiced chuckle. He looked over his shoulder at Bobby Lee as if it was a reminder to join in, and of course Bobby Lee instantly started laughing too. I wondered if every time they did this routine, did Bobby Lee forget to laugh along?

When Cy’s dreadful laughs stopped, so did Bobby Lee’s. It was as though they had practiced the ending time and time again. Perfectly choreographed so they’d stop at the exact same moment and Cy could go on with his spiel.

“When we saw the six of you walking up, we knew we had been blessed. We’d won the jackpot. Food for weeks!” Cy’s lips curled upwards showing his long, yellow teeth. I felt like I was being looked at by a hungry wolf and I was a poor defenseless little bunny.

I screamed so loudly I was sure that they could hear me in the shed. Only they were probably still out cold and couldn’t hear anything at all. Or maybe if they could hear me, they couldn’t move their bodies. I had no idea what these monsters had given them.

None of it mattered anyway. If they could hear me, they were still locked inside the shed. I was on my own and there wasn’t anything I could do but try to accept my fate, but my mind wouldn’t let me give up. It kept trying even though I knew it was pointless.

I pushed away from the wall and kicked around wildly. There wasn’t a single thing I didn’t do to try to break free from the old chains that held me. My raging outburst used up every bit of energy I had left. I was so weak I couldn’t even hold myself up. My body hung from the wall like a sad, pathetic little rag doll.

Even though it was diminishing, I could still feel the slightest burning pain from the little cuts and the stinging from my burn. As long as I could feel them, even a little, I knew I was still alive. I hadn’t given much thought to how I’d leave this world, but I was pretty sure this was the absolute last way I wanted to go. After everything I’d been through, I didn’t want to be these two monsters’ dinner.