She looked to me and I nodded to reassure her I was okay. With a reluctant side-eye she hurried off, ducking beneath one of the sheets.
“What is it?” I asked Maliki once she vanished from sight.
“Help me get him down.” He gestured to Ace, making his way to the contraption he was being boiled in.
With no one to feed it the fire had died down significantly, but that didn’t make the metal container any less hot.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Undo that knot, I’ll pull him out.” He pointed upward where a knotted rope was all that was holding up the chain wrapped around his legs.
Okay, easy enough.
I used my scythe again, stretching up to cut through the rope, careful not to rub against the pot. I could feel heat emanating from within.
After a few see-saw motions it split in two. Maliki was fast and had hold of Ace’s body before he could go any further into the heated water.
“See, you’re not all bad,” I told him.
He made an amused sound in the back of his throat and then proceeded to drop Ace’s body onto the ground like it was a sack of potatoes.
“I only got him down because he was one of ours. Dumb fuck got killed before he could get the ink.”
I knew he cared a tad more than he was letting on. We could be the most savage, fucked up people in the world but what we couldn’t do is pretend not to give a damn about the people who mattered.
When someone was truly loyal, there was no time limit, death may have been final but it didn’t take that away.
Looking at Ace, I knew he didn’t deserve this either. Another thing about death, she could be swift and painless or cruel and agonizing. Seeing tufts of curls missing, his eyes gouged out, ears removed, and his lips sewn shut, I could only assume Ace’s had been the latter.
“This was more than simply cooking him Malik.”
“Yeah, I can see that now,” he replied passively.
Just like that, the anger and pain came rushing back like a thick cloud of steam. It burned in my gut and grew bigger the longer I stared. It tasted bitter and had my nails digging into my palms hard enough to draw blood.
Two people who fucked us over were responsible for this. The Stags never would have gotten him if they didn’t set us up. I was left again with same question. Why? Why did they do this?
“Oh, shit,” Greer mumbled, walking closer to where we were standing.
“Hey.” Maliki’s hand came up and pinched my chin, forcing me to look away from Ace. His earthy eyes peered into mine, and I wished I could climb inside them.
They had become my safe place, somewhere where the chaos couldn’t reach me.
“They’ll pay for everything they’ve done, I promise,” he said, as if he had just read my mind. As in tune as this man was with me I wouldn’t be surprised if he could.
I swallowed and nodded, stepping away when the sound of an engine became more prominent.
“We got some company,” Greer sang, jogging over to the gate.
He poked his head out and stated what he saw. “Big brown pick-up, see at least six ankle-biters.”
I quickly did the math on that. Six people wouldn’t be hard to take out but I only had two bullets left and a case-full in my bag back at the SUV. Who knew when I would be able to restock, wasting them on some cannibal fucks wasn’t appealing at the moment.
The sheet lifted, Addy, Zane, and Darrian coming through. The redhead was slightly hobbling. I knew right then that she would slow us down.
“He needs to carry her,” I said to Addy directly because this was her man. “We’ve got to go, more just got home.”
“The butcher boys,” Darrian gasped.
Addie’s eyes went from me to, Zane and Darrian. Without objection, “You heard her.”
The look he gave her could kill but there wasn’t time to deal with their bullshit.
Thankfully, he hoisted Darrian up like she weighed nothing and didn’t choose now to engage in an argument.
We slipped out of the yard, moving back the way we had come. Being it was dark now both a positive and a negative. It made it so that we could move stealthier. It also allowed the pick-up’s headlights to illuminate our rapidly moving forms.
Three different shouts followed us, but no one was stupid enough to slow.
“Through the abattoir, it will be harder to track us if they decide to come play,” Addy rushed out. “Stay behind me,” she commanded Zane, cutting in front of him and using both hands to slam the metal doors open.
I knew the smell would intensify because it seemed to be strongest when we passed the old warehouse, but fuck was it nauseating.
I was used to the stench of death and infections but this was nothing more than rotting bodies.
The doors slammed shut behind us with a loud echoing bang.
Before my eyes could begin adjusting to the new wave of darkness Maliki’s hand was wrapping around my wrist and he was all but dragging me forward.
“I can see, let me lead you.”
He wasn’t going to get a protest. How stupid would that be?
“Greer help Addy,” I told him, not giving a damn how Zane felt about that. My cousin wasn’t going to be walking blindly in a factory of graves.
Greer didn’t care either because he agreed and brushed past me to do as I’d told him.
From outside yelling grew louder.
They would either try to race around the building to cut us off on the other end or they’d come after us through the door we had just entered from.
With all the liter and barrels behind this place one route was obviously faster than the other. I gripped Maliki’s hand, trying not to breathe in too hard. The odor was tickling the back of my throat and making my eyes burn.
As my vision adjusted to its normal state in the dark I could make out multiple graffiti tags, and moss covered walls.
“Satanas this is disgusting,” Addy groaned when we got to the center of the building.
There was a narrow split in the ground, the chute livestock was once sent through to be slaughtered. It had been filled in with human carcass. One piled on top of the other and from what I could see the fresh corpses were all on top, each missing something.
“They’ve been doing this a long time,” Zane commented, moving surprisingly fast for someone toting an extra load.
“Long enough they had something valuable enough to give a panhandler for two people,” Maliki replied.
I glanced above us and saw the old track was partially down, leaving meat hooks to dangle aimlessly.
“They aren’t chasing us,” Addy pointed out just as we reached the end of the building. “Why wouldn’t they be after us? You two just killed half their family.”
“Greer take her,” Zane demanded, passing Darrian off.
He walked forward and moved Addy out of the way so that he’d be exiting first. “Now you keep your ass behind me,” he directed at her.
The doors were pushed open with a forceful shove, and welcome nighttime air poured in, still not fresh or clean-like but a huge improvement nonetheless.
There was silence outside. No yelling, screaming. Nothing.
We silently crept out of the abattoir. As my boot crossed the threshold back onto muddy soil the hairs on my neck stood-up in warning.
“Someone is out here.”
On cue, a man screamed a battle cry and charged at us from behind the building, long machete in hand.
We collectively moved back as the machete was swung. Zane dodging it easily, grabbed hold of the man’s wrist and twisted it back with enough force that he snapped the bone, creating a bulge beneath the skin.
“Get back to Trix,” he demanded, taking hold of the machete and using it against the cannibal, driving the end into his stomach and the pulling it back out.
“I can’t leave you,” Greer refuted. “And why are you doing my job for me? I protect you amigo not the other way around.”
Maliki surged
forward, still maintaining his grip on my hand. He nudged Greer on the way, forcing him start moving down the drive. “He’s coming too dipshit, now move!”
That effectively had him co-operating.
Zane kept the machete in his hand and moved so he was beside Addy.
The descent was slippery, but spotting the SUV idling down at the end had us picking our pace up. We were almost there when the roar of an engine urged us to run.
I laughed as I nearly fell on my ass, skiing down the driveway. Maliki’s hold kept me upright, dragging me along.
“Hurry your asses up!” Trix yelled out the window.
We reached the SUV and all piled inside the back, practically on top of one another.
The door was slammed behind us in the fleeting seconds before a massive pick-up bumped the rear end, shoving us forward.
“Y’all always in some bullshit lately, you know that?” Trix grumbled, shoving the SUV into drive. Tires screeching, the truck shot forward, leaving the cannibals to follow.
Chapter Eleven
once
They didn’t tail us for more than fifteen minutes. In the middle of the street they made a U-turn and headed back the other direction.
That didn’t seem a natural thing to do unless they were planning to find us again with reinforcements.
A few minutes later Zane was telling Trix to pull over.
He tapped the interior light switch and twisted around in the passenger seat once we were fully stopped.
“I need you to tell me everything that’s important,” he said, staring at Darrian.
She shifted beside Greer, toying with the hem of the shirt he’d given her to wear.
“I didn’t see much. They had on those deer masks when they took me and killed…” she swallowed.
It was the first sign she was uncomfortable. Darrian had been through much more tragic shit than being held in a kennel and I knew she didn’t give a flying fuck about Ace’s death.
“Fuck what you saw what did you hear?” Addy questioned.
Darrian looked at her for four long seconds and then glanced away. It could have chalked up to intimidation; Addy wasn’t known for being sweet or gentle.
Or it could’ve been insecurities since Zane was fully on board with this relationship.
The two were complete opposites. One red haired and tattoo free for the most part, the other blonde, inked, and a princess.
Only problem was I knew Darrian and this wasn’t normal behavior. Had this been another time she and Addy would have had to be pulled apart.
“This is bigger than us. Bigger than what we thought. I heard the Stag’s discussing some other faction, some religious fucks called a..r…?”
“A-R-C,” Nyx spelled out, moving further into my side. “We heard about them on the radio. They’re new, supposedly.”
“What about them?” Zane asked.
“There’s a deal in place and someone being traded. They didn’t speak openly but I pieced together what I could.”
“All I know is that the Stags are not as strong as they think they are.”
From my peripheral I caught Addy and Nyx exchange a look I couldn’t decipher at the moment.
“None of that tells us much,” Greer stated.
“There’s something…a man they kept calling Cardinal. He has a house in Lake Placid, said he stays there every other week. He might be worth talking to.”
“If Glenwood is the lodging town near here, Lake Placid isn’t too far. It might be worth checking out,” Greer suggested.
Zane stroked his chin and nodded in agreement. “Alright. At this point it wouldn’t hurt.”
“How are we going to know which house is his?” Addy asked.
“The nicest one?” Darrian more questioned than asked.
“That was very helpful,” Nyx deadpanned.
With a sigh Zane turned around, tapped his fingers on the arm-rest, and then just like I knew he would, twisted back to ask my opinion. He should have learned by now to do this in the first place.
“What do you think?”
“I think we need to drop our handicap off in the lodge town with Greer, because we’ll need Trix, and continue on our way. Come back for them when we’re done.”
“You’re going to leave me?” Darrian asked, sounding offended.
“We’ll Zane isn’t going to keep carrying your ass around,” Addy snapped.
“You can’t—.”
“She’s right, I’m not. You can either go to the town and wait, or get the fuck out and I’ll see if you’re still here on my way back through.”
I laughed at the baffled expression on her face. What had she been expecting? She and Z were friends; nothing between them would ever develop past that. He wasn’t going to piss off Addy to please her. Siding with any woman over yours, even if she was wrong, that was reasonable grounds to have your balls removed.
You either pretended to agree or shut the fuck up until further notice. It was that simple.
In the end, Darrian wisely chose to keep her mouth shut, settling the debate with silence.
Turned out Lake Placid was closer to the town than Greer had estimated.
We dropped him and Darrian off and ensured they had a room at the town lodge, and then continued on our way.
Approximately twenty minutes later we were leaving the truck in an old alleyway and footing it through a lucrative neighborhood.
“It’s really quiet,” Trix said, turning her head left and right to take in the massive houses surrounding us.
The silence didn’t bother me. If anything it gave me the time to reflect on everything that had transpired over the last twenty-four hours. It was one thing to assume someone was dead, another to see that person’s dead body. No amount of amount looking at the past would change the future, though.
Ace was gone, and the only positive I could make out of his demise was that he no longer had to suffer in silence like the rest of us did. He was free from the hell we called Badlands.
I couldn’t pinpoint why Ace’s death was bothering me on the level it was. I barely knew the kid, but it sure as shit put some things in perspective.
Nothing in life was guaranteed, things could change in the matter of a few seconds. That mutilated body could have been any one of us, but as long as I was around it would never be Nyx.
As if she knew where my thoughts had gone, her soft touch traveled down my wrist to my hand, dainty fingers thread through mine. Neither of us said anything or looked down to acknowledge the gesture, but I made sure her hand wouldn’t slip away from mine.
“There’s no sign of life here,” she said, drawing me out of my head.
“Not a single house has a light on,” Addy added, “Do you think there’s no power in this area?”
“Could be possible, but look.” Zane pointed upward, bringing attention to the fact the street lights were on.
“So it’s possible Darrian gave a false lead?” Trix checked.
“Why would she do that?”
“Because she’s a woman and we’re sometimes known to be slightly psychotic when it comes to the men we love,” Addy answered confidently.
“You were psychotic before I met you.” Zane laughed. “And that makes no sense. Why would she switch sides then?”
“She said we were slightly psychotic, not that we weren’t impartial to making shitty ass decisions,” Nyx replied. “Think about it Darrian has been alive this entire time but Ace is suddenly dead. Those wounds on his face were fresh and his body had not been in that pot very long,” she continued, saying verbatim what I had started to think since we left the farm.
“Sounds a little sketchy, Z,” Trix said.
“It does,” he mused. “If one of you could have brought this up before I left Greer alone with her it would have been appreciated.”
“Greer isn’t stupid. He would have noticed it. Worst case scenario he’ll kill the bitch before we do if she tries anything.”
Nyx looked up at me a
nd smiled. “That sounds like a best case scenario.”
I wouldn’t disagree with that if this all panned out how we were thinking. I was more concerned about this lead having come from her, though. Who knew what we were walking into.
This neighborhood reminded me of the last gated community we were in, only nicer. These houses weren’t so invasively close together and the lake didn’t smell like a cesspool.
“Do you think people live in any of these?” Nyx asked, glancing over at me.
“Maybe a few, some of these houses are definitely being looked after, but others look in bad shape.”
“He’s right look at those two.” Addy pointed towards two stuccos with overgrown lawns, one had a busted front window.
We came up on a street that split off in three separate directions leaving us with the option to go straight, left, or right.
Zane came to a stop and sighed. “How are we supposed to figure out which house is this Cardinal assholes?”
“If A-R-C is supposed to be religious then I’m guessing the one with the giant cross in its front yard.”
Eight eyes followed Nyx’ stare to the left, and there, caddy-cornered, partially hidden by an old oak tree was an off white house with a cross in its front yard.
“How the fuck did we miss that?”
“All the light’s are off, so I’m guessing that means our mystery man isn’t home,” Zane said. Adding a minute later, “Let’s go.”
With a set destination we moved a bit quicker, making our way through the silent neighborhood.
“This is not the nicest house in the area,” Addy quipped once we reached got to it, eyeing the split level from the road.
It had vines going across its front window, in major need of a trim. There was wood sticking out of the ground where a mailbox had been.
The driveway was full of cracks with weeds sprouting between them. Dirt was caked all over a once white front door. The cross seemed to be the only cared for part of the property.
“I got to agree with you, Addy. This place looks like shit.”
“You say that about every house,” Zane replied.
“Not ours.”
Hellions: Badlands: Next Generation Page 12