“Sam, wait,” He looked down and shook his head, “how are you still alive after all of this?”
“I don’t know. Luck I guess?”
“You believe in luck?”
“No, but I do believe everything happens for a reason.”
“Interesting to see you’re still a believer.”
“I have to be. I have a family out there that needs to know I’m alive. That’s why I have to get out of here.”
“It’s good to see you still have family. AJ was the only one I had left. I lost everyone else. I have no one else.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I thought I was too, but when I think about it, they’re better off! A world like this isn’t a world worth saving anymore.”
Sam just stood silent and tried peeking through the wood covering the window. Suddenly they heard commotion from the wall next to them. Manny jumped up and walked towards the wall. They both put their ears against the wall and heard a man and woman yelling while items were being thrown around and destroyed. Someone kicks a door in, and shots were heard. Manny backed away from the wall while Sam slowly moved his ear and looked at Manny.
“What?”
“They just went in there and killed them. We’re going to die in here!”
“Manny! No! We are not going to die. We’re getting out of here, and when we do, we’re not going to look back!”
“You can’t guarantee that.”
“No, I can’t, but I am not dying here! If I die, it is because I was fighting my way out of here. I’m not forcing you to come with me, but I’m giving you a choice. Be their slave or fight with me?
“Nothing is good in this world anymore. I was convinced of that. I’ve been on my own with AJ and that’s how we survived,” Manny walked up to him, “but you’ve turned out to be good. It’s rare, but exceptional. I will help you, but when this is all over, we’re parting ways.”
“I can live with that.”
Manny extended his hand out to Sam and shook his hand. Sam smirked and patted Manny on his shoulder. He knew it’s what Manny wanted, if he can get them both out. Gunshots fired outside and alerted Manny and Sam to rush to figure out what was going on.
“What the hell is happening?”
Sam managed to peek through a thin crack in the boards, but he only saw men running towards the front of the gate and guns firing. They both stood there confused and wondering what was going to happen to them.
“Move!” one of the men yelled.
The building shook and Manny jumped back while Sam looked around. Manny grabbed his chest as they stepped away from the window; screams and gun fire filled the hollow room while Manny paced back and forth, but Sam saw this as an opportunity. He rushed to the door and listened for anyone inside. The room sounded empty, so Sam stood back and kicked the doorknob.
“What are you doing?” Manny asked.
Sam kept kicking and eventually kicked the doorknob off. He slowly opened the door and found no one was in the room. He turned around to Manny, but Manny didn’t move.
“You said you would help me! Do you want to get out of here or not?” Sam asked.
“Yeah.”
“Well let’s go!”
As soon as Sam turned around, one of the men walked in and pointed a gun at Sam, “Get back in your room!”
“Hey, just let us go.”
“I said get back in your room!”
A shoe flew past Sam’s head and hit the man in the face. For a second, the man looked away in pain and Sam took no time and charged after him. He grabbed the man’s gun and kicked him in the groin, pushing him to the ground. Sam pointed the gun to his head and shot him. He turned around to Manny walking with one shoe, but staring at him surprise.
“Are you sure killing him is a clever idea?”
“They don’t ask. Why should we? Clever idea with the shoe by the way.”
“Thanks. I kind of wondered how you were going to handle it.”
“Just know it would have been handled. It certainly wasn’t that way.” Sam chuckled.
Sam peeked around the corner and found no one wandering the halls. He saw the shadow of the stairs on the ground, so he began to run there. While running past the rooms, he heard people inside wishing to get out, but he felt conflicted. All he wants to do is get back to his loved ones, but he wondered if they may feel the same way about their families or loved ones. He kept running for the stairs and stopped at the corner. As he peeked around, all her men were facing the same way firing at a group of people in front of the gates. One of the men were approaching Sam from the upper stairs, but he quickly shot the man and watched him fall down the steps. Manny rushed over to him and grabbed his gun as some of the men ahead turned around and noticed Sam. Sam took no time and began firing at all of them. Manny watched as blood spewed from their bodies and all of them fall to the ground lifeless. When he looked at Sam, all he saw was blinded rage. Desperation.
Sam constantly looked around for anyone, but there was no one around. He looked to his right and noticed a burning body on the ground. The right building had a large hole in it caused by an explosion. It was one of the hostages. Ahead was a line of people with the woman standing over all of them. Sam noticed and immediately pointed the gun at her, but before he could fire, a group of her men surrounded him and Manny and he knew from there, they wouldn’t get out of it.
“Drop your guns!” the man shouted.
“Eve!”
Sam lowered his gun and dropped it. Manny stared at Sam with disbelief and dropped his gun. Eve slowly turned around and smiled at him. Her men tied their hands together and led them in front of the people she had lined up.
“Well, isn’t this a turn of events.” Eve chuckled.
As Sam was thrown down, he noticed the people in front of them. One of them had blood dripping across his face, but he easily knew it was Simon. And down the line was Christine. He was confused as to why and how they were here, but he couldn’t do anything about it.
“Our friend here says he came looking for you Sam. Seems like there’s a price for your head. First Jason, me, and now him! You certainly know how to get around.”
“Lady, you don’t know what you’re doing. I only want Sam. Just give him to me and we will go.”
Eve snapped her fingers and each individual man stood behind them and pulled out knives. They each held it up to each of their throats and waited for her call. Christine began crying and Sam couldn’t look at her. He couldn’t handle seeing her die if Eve gave the signal.
“You came in here and killed some of my men, including some of the workers I had in that building you blew up with your fancy little RPG,” she crept up to Simon’s face, “you might want to teach your men how to aim first.”
“Ma’am, we’ve counted 10 dead, including the workers.”
“Well look at that, there’s 10 of you. Maybe it was meant to be. A life for a life.”
She looked at one of the men and he slit the person’s throat. The man fell to the ground gurgling on his own blood while Simon watched him die. Sam looked down and tried to shut out the noise.
“That’s one!”
“Wait!” Sam shouted.
“I’m sorry, did I ask you to speak?”
“You don’t have to kill them. You said you lost some workers. Well, you captured them. You have workers here. It makes no sense to kill them.”
“That’s a good point, but I only lost two workers. Which means I only need two of them.”
She signaled another person to die, and the group kept weeping at the sound of the blade going across their throats. Sam tried to help, but he knew there was no talking her out of this.
“Let me work for you! That adds an extra worker! You were already thinking about it.”
“Now see I could do, that, but who exactly are you trying to protect?”
“No one. I don’t care for any of them, but as a leader you’re not making the right decision.”
“I decide what’
s right and wrong! In fact, I should kill all of them!”
“Not Christine!”
“There it is! No one stalls like for nothing! Which one is Christine?”
Sam looked over to her as she cried and looked Eve’s way. She chuckled and walked in front of Christina, “So this is who you’re trying to protect? Pretty.”
“She’s innocent in all of this. Just let her go.”
“I respect your bravery to speak up. So, for that I will leave it up to you. You obviously want her alive, so I’ll give you her, but I need two workers, so it’s time to choose.
“Choose what?”
“A second person.”
She walked behind Manny and held a knife up to his throat. Another man also walked up behind Sam and held a knife at his throat. Sam gasped and shouted at her to stop, but she simply smiled.
“You can only choose one other person to survive. Which one will it be?”
Sam wanted to save his own life, but he never wanted to sacrifice others for his personal reasons. It tore him inside. He kept gasping for air as the knife seemed to get closer to his throat. He couldn’t breathe. He knew if he chose himself, no one would be around.
“I choose Me and Manny. He doesn’t deserve this either. But I don’t want to die!” Sam crackled voice answered.
Christine cried even more due to shock, but Sam couldn’t look at her. The guilt was too much for him. Eve looked at all of them and nodded her head. She leaned over near his ear.
“I said you can only choose one other person. Christine was already a choice,” she looked at her men, “save Christine!”
Sam closed his eyes as he watched everyone’s throat open and fall to the ground. Blood splattered on his face as tried to think of something else; anything other than what he was hearing. Someone screamed and Sam couldn’t keep his eyes closed anymore. He opened his eyes and saw the bodies shaking trying to breathe, the constant sound of dirt being kicked around and suddenly stopping until he heard nothing but blood pouring from them. He found Simon looking at them with such despair and shock, but there was no more life in his eyes. He glanced over and saw Manny looking away crying. Christine looked over to Sam with anger and he knew it.
“I said I needed two workers, and that doesn’t include you. Take them back to their rooms. Add her with them.”
─
The men tossed them in a different room and slammed the door. Christine fell to the floor and cried while Manny and Sam just stood where they were. Manny walked away and sat in the corner. Sam couldn’t move. The guilt he felt when he looked at Christine was unbearable, but it made it worse knowing he wasn’t lying about his decision.
“Christine, I-”
“Don’t,” she stood up and held her hand at him, “don’t do that. You know what you said!”
“I know what I said, but I’m sorry!”
“You were going to let them kill me, but you had just told them to spare me. For him!”
“You left us! When we were attacked, you left us! All of us! You put yourself first and didn’t think twice! Don’t sit here and think you’re some saint! None of us are!”
The door opened and Eve walked in, looking at them with disgust, “We have work to do. I’ll need my workers.”
The men grabbed Christine and Manny and pulled them out of the room. As they left, Eve stayed behind and closed the door with the two of them alone.
“You know I’m just waiting for Jason to come here. That’s why you’re still alive.”
“Why didn’t I hear about you and your group before? Especially if getting me is vital to him?”
“We made a deal under the table. We’re the only two that knows because that’s how important this is to him. I’m only telling you this because you’re not going to be alive much longer. I help him find you, and I get assistance with security and food.”
“You’re an idiot if you believe him!”
“Well, maybe he’s the idiot for trusting me.”
Eve turned around and slammed the door while Sam stood in the middle of the room and thought about what was going to happen next. He felt his ring finger and realized his ring wasn’t there. For a quick moment, he thought he still had it on, but knowing that Jess has it, or at least hoping she does, made him feel a bit better. However, that’s the thing that bugged him most. Not knowing if Jess and the others were okay. Part of him believes they are, but there’s another part of him that looks at the world as a merciless place. If they were alive, surely, they weren’t okay.
V
THOSE WHO SURVIVE
Steven looked through the binoculars and looked around for any more people and only saw the guard at the front of the gate. Lisa looked around them to make sure no one would spot them while she prepped a gun. The night had approached, and the darkness filled the sky, almost making everything seem pitch black.
“I think he might be there all night.” Steven whispered.
“Well, I could circle around the building and see what else we could find.”
“Lisa, I don’t want to put you in harm’s way. This is the only safe place for you right now.”
“We’ve already had the discussion Steven. I can protect myself.”
“Well, be safe. I’ll see if I can distract the guard.”
The front gate opened, and Steven dragged Lisa down with him. They stared as two men came out of the gate and proceeded to walk forward. From the looks of it, Steven knew they went out possibly searching for the missing men, but they were not his main priority at the moment.
“Okay, they’re going to be gone a while if they’re looking for the two men we killed, but we still have to make this quick.”
“Okay, I’ll go ahead and leave now while I can. Be safe.”
Lisa picked up the gun and left Steven to deal with the guard. He crept up slowly on his knees to the edge of the bush and kneeled on a rock. He grunted with pain but suddenly thought of something. He didn’t know what plan he had before looking at that rock. He simply smiled and began digging the rock out of the dirt. He looked closely to an area outside of the gate to throw and waited.
“Come on. Look away.”
The guard looked away behind him and Steven took no chance and tossed the rock and hit the wall near the gate. The guard quickly turned around and pointed his gun at the dark. He looked down and saw nothing. He focused heavily in that area and looked around. He didn’t see anyone or anything, but he felt inclined to search the area just in case. He climbed down the post and opened the gate slowly. He held his gun up and slowly approached the area. The quietness gave him an eerie surrounding as he clinched to his gun and felt his heartbeat traveling throughout his body, but it didn’t stop him from going to the area. Once he approached the wall, he noticed there was nothing around him, but suddenly Steven kicked his leg, causing him to fall on his knees and stabbed him in the head. The knife pierced through his eye as he fell to the ground. Steven quickly grabbed his arms and dragged him away from the gate and behind the bushes where he was. Steven dropped to the ground in exhaust and pulled the knife out of his head.
“My God, you were heavy!”
─
Eddy sat in the corner of the room while everyone slept. He kept thinking of everything that happened to them and now being in an impossible situation. He rubbed his head as he looked everyone sleeping peacefully. Or at least that’s how he wanted to see them. The fear of the unknown scared them all, but he knew they had each other. Marcus was wide awake and saw Eddy sitting up. Eddy saw him standing and walking towards him, sliding down the wall next to him while staring forward. For a moment they just sat there in silence. Marcus knew he was thinking of something dealing with what happened and now but chose to say nothing.
“What do we do?” Eddy whispered.
Marcus deeply exhaled and leaned his head on the wall, “Survive. That’s all we can do for now.”
“Do you think Lisa and Steven are safe?”
“I surely hope so. They know how to
take care of themselves. Just like we’ll take care of each other.”
“This time I’m not so sure Marcus. We’re not in our own community fighting the outside. Now we would have to fight our way to get outside this community, and we are severely outnumbered.”
“That’s all true, but how many situations have we been in where we all were outnumbered?”
“I can’t even remember.”
“That’s because we always fought through them. Just like we will with this.”
Z Island Series | Book 3 | Survivors of Z Island [Retribution Part 1] Page 9