Running Away - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 4) (13 page)

“What about that guy yesterday?” I said so softly I wasn’t sure if either of them had heard me. And I wasn’t even sure if I cared. Why did it matter?

“Hmm?” Cy said, cupping his hand around his ear and leaning slightly in my direction.

“The guy yesterday… you just took him. You must have enough food that you don’t need me yet,” I said, my stomach turning at the thought of being their meal. I couldn’t even believe those words had come out of my mouth.

Cy leaned back against the counter and dragged his thumb across his bottom lip. I felt like he was trying to show me that the taste of the guy was still lingering on his lips.

He shook his head, “That kid was just skin and bones. He probably would have died out there on his own in a day or two. There was nothing left on him.”

“Tasted too much like beef jerky,” Bobby Lee said, clearly not as pleased by the taste of the guy as Cy had been.

“Ha! Indeed, he did. That moron had been wandering around by himself out here without anything. He practically walked himself inside the shed,” Cy said, tapping his palm against his forehead.

“Idiot,” Bobby Lee added unnecessarily.

“He said he came with friends…,” I said narrowing my eyes at them.

They looked at one another and laughed again. Bobby Lee held his stomach as he leaned back, looking as jolly as Santa but as evil as Satan.

“Yeah, imaginary ones!” Bobby Lee said between his slowing laughs. He looked at Cy as if he was waiting for a high-five.

I scraped my bottom lip with my teeth. My eyes darted around frantically and stopped on a blood stain on my bandage. It made me realize how desperate people were getting. No one valued another’s life any more. Talking and begging wasn’t going to get me out of these shackles. Nothing would. My blood would soon be mixed into the blood from the others that was splattered around decorating their wall and floor.

“Enough of this nonsense,” Cy said as he reached over and picked up a medium sized ax. The blade was maroon tinged with the blood of those who’d been murdered before me. I couldn’t help but wonder how many others there had been. Who were they? What had their lives been like? “Don’t worry, this will be quick and painless. Wait, I’m wrong… you’ll definitely feel it, but eventually you’ll pass out.”

Cy’s expression changed slightly, and he stopped moving. He looked serious and rested the ax against the side of his leg. His eyes darted towards the ceiling and he folded his hands together so they pointed upwards.

“Let’s not forget to thank Him for his glorious bounty. Bless us, Oh Lord,” he said as Bobby Lee closed his eyes and joined in. I squeezed my eyes together so tightly I was able to fuzz everything so much I couldn’t hear Cy’s words.

When I couldn’t hear any mumbling through the haze in my brain, I opened my eyes to see Cy lifting the ax and moving towards me once again. His expression turned back into the crazed, hungry one I’d seen before.

Bobby Lee took a step forward and tilted his head, “Well, hold on there now, Cy. I’ve thought of something.”

“What is it?” Cy growled. He was already licking his chops imaging what my cooked flesh would taste like smothered in their barbecue sauce.

“Well, it’s not so often we get one this pretty, Cy,” Bobby Lee said almost blushing. He glanced at me timidly and I saw that he too looked hungry, only his appetite was for something completely different. “We could keep this one for something else.”

I wanted to scream again, but I couldn’t find my voice. Cy looked like he was considering it. Death would be better. Being their meal would be better. I was in hell.

C
y looked
at Bobby Lee and then at me. It appeared he was giving Bobby Lee’s proposal serious thought. After several seconds he shook his head, and I actually felt relieved.

It seemed as though Cy’s stomach had won out over the other thing he was considering. He drew closer, moving slowly, almost as if he was afraid I might bite him.

“There are two other girls out there for you, and that pretty boy too… I’ll let you have your pick of one of those,” Cy said as he gripped the handle of his ax tighter. He approached me as if I was a wild animal, but there wasn’t much of anything I could do since I was chained to their wall of horrors. I felt weak, even though my mind still searched for escape, my body had given up. Cy looked directly into my eyes and he could probably see the disgust I had for him looking back. “Or all of them if you want!”

Bobby Lee grinned and took a step to the side so he could have a better view of what Cy was about to do with the ax. My heart was pounding so fast and so hard I thought I was going to pass out. And I was certain it would be better if I did.

Cy was so close I could smell his putrid body odor. They had water for drinking but they apparently didn’t bother wasting any of it on cleaning themselves.

He lifted the ax and something inside my flipped. I don’t remember even thinking about it before I thrust my leg forward and kicked him as hard as I could manage in the groin.

Cy doubled over and I pressed my back against the wall. I kicked my right leg upward wrapping it around his neck, as I swung my other leg up and twisted it around the other side. Then I squeezed my calves together as hard as I could.

My movements not only surprised me, they surprised Cy as well. He dropped the ax as both hands reflexively reached up to try to peel my legs away from his neck. I watched as it fell towards the floor. It seemed as though it was happening in slow motion as the blade slid alongside his leg and landed on his foot.

The blade must have been sharp because he squealed as the blood started to gush out of his boot. Cy’s lips moved, but no words came out. He tried to find his voice and eventually choked out an order, “Get her… off me!”

Bobby Lee glared at me as he bared his teeth like a rabid animal. His feet pounded against the floor hard as he came rushing towards me.

This was it. My body wasn’t going to react in the same way it had when Cy came at me with the ax. There wasn’t anything I could do against the both of them while chained helplessly to the wall.

I was about to close my eyes and let everything happen when the door flung open so hard it hit the wall behind it with a clanging thud. At first I was worried it was going to be more of them coming to help so they could all feast on me. They’d all just start angrily gnawing on my raw flesh while I was still alive. But it wasn’t more of them, it was Penn.

He methodically walked towards the men, grabbing one of their solid dining room chairs as he passed by the table. Penn raised it up over his head and crashed the chair down over Cy’s head.

His eyes rolled back, and he dropped to his knees. Penn must have spotted the knife on the counter, because in a matter of seconds he yanked it out of the cutting board and threw it across the room hitting Cy in the side of the neck.

When Cy reached up and started feeling the knife, Penn was already in front of him with his fingers gripping the handle. Cy’s eyes looked blank, he didn’t seem to understand what was going on. I looked away, not wanting to see Penn finish what he’d started.

Bobby Lee stood there staring, his eyes filling with fear. It was like he didn’t know how to function without Cy telling him what to do. He started to slowly back away when Dean and the others entered the room, blocking his exit.

“I told you guys to wait outside,” Penn said sounding exasperated, but he probably just didn’t want them to see the bloodbath. Or get caught up in something dangerous.

I watched as the expression on Bobby Lee’s face shifted to one of aggression. It looked like he was going to try to plow his way through the door and bowl over anyone that got in his way.

“On the table!” I shouted and Penn’s eyes shot across the room to the table of guns. He started to make his way towards them, but Carter picked up one of the guns and didn’t hesitate.

He raised the gun and pointed it at Bobby Lee. Bobby Lee didn’t stop moving. Carter took several bold steps as he moved towards our captor. Bobby Lee changed his direction slightly and was about to launch himself at Carter when I heard the loud pop of the gun. Followed by another.

Bobby Lee froze in place as his anger vanished and turned into sadness, and then to complete devastation. He flopped to the ground as the life left his body.

Carter walked over to Cy and shot him, even though I was pretty sure he was already dead. I guessed he just wanted to be sure he was really dead.

Carter handed the gun to Penn. Penn nodded and looked the gun over before he stuffed it into the back of his pants.

“Get the guns,” Penn instructed and Dean started sorting through the guns on the table. He took his and, presumably, mine. Dean didn’t put them away, rather he held them and leaned against the doorframe as he watched and waited for others that may have been alerted by the gunshots.

Carter went to the table and helped himself to the rifle that I guessed had been Bobby Lee’s. Cy had a gun, but apparently it hadn’t been left on the table.

“Look around for Cy’s gun,” I said as my eyes quickly darted around the room. He must have hidden it somewhere, but I didn’t know where.

Carter walked towards the side of the counter and raised a second rifle. “Here it is,” he said, but he checked it over and shook his head.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s empty.”

There were no words for how I felt. I just wanted to get out of this hell hole as fast as possible.

“Don’t forget about me,” I said shaking my arms so the chains would rattle. Carter, Dean and Penn were armed, if anyone came around and ambushed us, at least we could fire back. Although I was pretty sure the guns were all low on ammo. Most importantly, if others did come I didn’t want to be chained to the wall when it happened.

Penn bent down and started going through Cy’s pockets. He pulled up a keyring with more keys than I could count. They were all different shapes and sizes… it would take forever to find the right one. For all I knew the right one wasn’t even on the keyring.

Penn examined the shackles and then yanked on the them to test how sturdy they were. He frowned slightly and looked down at the keys, “Hmm… I’m not sure which one.”

“Any of them look like they might be old or rusty?” I asked as I watched him scan through the assortment of keys.

“Not really,” he said picking one at random and tapping it against the lock, but it wasn’t even close the right size.

“The big guy put me up here… check his pockets too,” I suggested feeling as though I was grasping at straws.

Penn was about to ask one of the others to look while he kept trying keys, but Alice was already digging inside Bobby Lee’s pockets. She didn’t even look the least bit creeped out to be digging in the dead guy’s pockets.

Alice shook her head as she moved from pocket to pocket, but then she pulled out a dirty, old looking key and ran over to my other arm. She slipped it into the hole and turned it. I wanted to cry when I felt the shackle pop open.

“Thanks,” I said, as my arm dropped heavily to my side. It didn’t even feel as though it was my arm. The muscles felt painful and stretched out. I couldn’t use my arm the way I normally did. I tried to move it up and down hoping to bring life back into it.

Alice handed Penn the key, and he released my other arm. Penn held my arm and scooped me up before I fell flat on my face. He saw the cuts on my wrists, and looked at them nervously, “How’s your burn?”

“Still hurts, but I’m fine. Let’s get out of here,” I said stumbling as I tried to move each leg in front of the other. Penn put his arm under mine and helped me to Dean and Carter.

“Help her… I’m going to look around for things we can use,” Penn said and dumped the bones out of the trash can.

He started moving around the room quickly. I watched as he tossed the condiments from the table inside the bin before Dean and Carter led me out of the building.

Penn was behind us before we were even ten steps away from the building. I was pretty sure everyone was extremely anxious to get out of this place. Even though no one had come after us yet, it wasn’t worth it to poke around. If we ran into others, it could mean our lives.

As we made our way out of the camp, I saw the door of the shed, the shed they had been locked inside of. It swayed back and forth in the light breeze. Somehow they had managed to break the lock off and escape. Bobby Lee must not have secured the door as well as he thought he had.

“What did you find?” I asked trying to look inside the blood stained trash can.

“Not much,” Penn said as he stepped in front of us and led us out of the fenced in area. It felt like my body was returning to normal even though my muscles were sore. I pulled myself away so that we could all move quicker. I felt unsteady, but I managed and when the car came into view, I ran towards it.

Penn pressed the trash bin against Dean’s chest before he dashed to the driver’s side door. “Get in!”

Everyone climbed inside the car as quickly as possible. Penn started driving away before Carter had even been able to close his door.

Dean set down the trash can between his legs and apprehensively started sifting through the items Penn had collected. He’d taken the ketchup, mustard, and barbecue sauce as well as three bottles of water and a kettle.

“Don’t drink the water,” Penn said as he glanced over at Dean. “Might be drugged.”

“Right,” Dean said with a nod.

“How did you guys get out of the shed?” I asked leaning forward slightly. I looked down at my cut up wrists. They weren’t as bad as I had imagined. I had cuts and scrapes but nothing deep, the burn on my arm had been far worse.

“Luck. And lots of perfectly timed kicking,” Penn said without taking his eyes off the road. He was driving much faster than he usually did.

Dean reached back for my hand and when I took it I felt overwhelmed. I had to bite my lip to hold back my tears. He didn’t look at me. “When I woke up and you weren’t there…,” Dean said his voice wavering, he paused and then he cleared his throat. “Well, that was my motivation to get the fuck out of that prison.”

“Then that scream we heard. I was sure it was you,” Sienna said rubbing my back. I couldn’t turn to look at her because I knew I would definitely start crying. It didn’t escape me how lucky I was to even be sitting in this car. In fact, maybe I was just imagining that I was here. Maybe I had died, but this was what I was telling myself had happened instead. It felt too good to be true.

“All I know is that we are never stopping anywhere ever again. We’re on our own,” Dean said squeezing my hand.

Penn nodded, “Agreed.”

Alice rested her head against the window. It seemed as though the whole adventure had completely worn her out, or maybe it was just the after effects of whatever the men had slipped into their water.

The sun was hanging low in the sky and I was beyond exhausted from what I had been through, but I knew finding sleep would be difficult. I didn’t have to ask to know that Penn was going to drive through the night.

Now that we had the kettle we’d only have to find a source of water. And maybe where there was water we could also find fish. Even though I hated fish, I’d have to learn to like it. Or at least learn to be able to keep it down. I was pretty sure that if there was a big, stinky fish in the car, I would have eaten some.

Alice started coughing before she settled herself against the window again. I could tell by her pallor she wasn’t getting better. In fact, I was pretty sure she was getting worse.

When she was back at her resistance camp, she probably had the option of laying down and resting. But now that she was out with us there was very little chance to rest.

Sienna broke the silence with her own coughing fit. I slowly turned to look at her. She covered her mouth and held up her other hand to show she was OK. When she was finished, she smiled and shook her head, “Swallowed funny.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if she was coming down with the same cold Alice had. After all, out of all of us, she had spent the most time near Carter and Alice. I wondered if she could see the worry in my eyes, “Sure you’re OK?”

“I’m fine! Promise!” Sienna said, and nestled back into Carter’s arm with a smile on her face. He looked down at her and I could see how much he cared about her. In a world of crap, she found something that made her happy.

I was glad we had Carter with us. He’d helped take Bobby Lee out. He’d probably also helped them escape from the shed.

Carter cleared his throat and then closed his eyes as he rested his head against the top of hers. I turned to face the road as we sped down the highway. My breath was still weird and my muscles sore, but I was happy we were back out on the road searching for our private sanctuary.