by Lilly Black
"I don't know yet. I still haven't had much time with her since I got back," he said.
"Alek's a really good guy," Jax assured him. "You need to know that. He would never do anything to hurt her."
"Yeah, that's the part that sucks the most. This would be easier if he was an asshole. Of course, he's sleeping with my wife, and soon he'll be sleeping with my girlfriend, so I'm really having a hard time not thinking he's an asshole for that alone," Reid said with a laugh.
"Man, I don't know how you're dealing with it. I'd fucking kill any other man who laid a hand on Dani," Jax said.
"I used to be like that. Fuck, I still am. Every time I see him, I just want to knock his fucking teeth in," Reid said. "I won't, but I want to."
"Yeah, I'd like to knock his teeth in half the time myself," Aiden added.
"You just don't agree politically," Jax said. "It's not like he's fucking your wife."
"She's not my wife. Not yet. Have you thought about that? About asking Dani to marry you?" Aiden asked.
"I'm already married," he complained.
"Does it matter?" Aiden asked because he knew how Jax felt about his wife. Jax had told him and Alek. The person he hadn't told was Dani, and lingering nearby as a gentle breeze after following them the entire way, she waited excitedly for him to elaborate because she wanted to know what Aiden and Alek knew. It didn't happen. While the question made Jax think, outwardly he only laughed along with Aiden.
It was a long night with nothing to do but talk and wait. When John's drone finally picked up the men moving through the burned-out section, Reid started sending the audio drone out again, but over the course of the next couple of hours, he mostly just picked up a great deal of snoring from the drunk and drugged occupants of the prison. Then just before the sun began to rise, he could hear voices coming from the room they had mapped as the leader's. He took the drone as close as possible, to the glass. It was slightly muffled, but they could make it out surprisingly well in the stillness of the early morning.
"Shhh...listen," he hissed to his companions, switching the sound of his laptop from the headphones to the speakers.
"...if the bitch is going to bleed out, throw her out in the yard," said a harsh, male voice, and a second man began pleading with him.
"Rundo, please. I can save her if you just let me use a little..."
"You're not wasting our medical supplies on these stupid whores, you hear me?" Rundo demanded.
"Then give her to me. I won't use any supplies. I'll just..."
"You want her, Doc? All you got to do is give up that pretty, little fuck toy you have now, and this one is all yours."
"You know I can't do that," the doctor argued. "What difference does it make anyway? You just told me to let her die."
"What happened?" Aiden asked Reid.
"Apparently, one of the women is miscarrying, and she's lost a lot of blood," he whispered as Rundo continued talking.
"Look, Doc, if you don't like the way things are run around here, you're welcome to take up residence in your own cage on Death Row," Rundo spat, and after a pause, he added impatiently. "Now get your ass out there and feed that wasted bitch to the dead fucks!"
"Yes, sir," the man gave in grudgingly, and Aiden scrambled to get his night vision drone back in the air so they'd know the rest of the story. By the time it reached the prison yard, all they saw was a woman being pushed out the door, and they did not need the audio drone to hear her screams.
"Oh, God," Reid cried, looking away and covering his mouth, feeling like he might vomit. In the early morning hours as the infrared automatically switched off, they could see that her lower body was covered in blood, and she looked young, like his own daughter. She tried to run but quickly fell to the ground, weak and exhausted, and as she lay there for the dead to consume, there was nothing the people from the Deadfall could do but watch in horror.
"Shut it down," John said to Aiden, and he turned off the camera and recalled the drone.
"See?" Jax demanded. "That's why we're going to come back and kill every last one of those motherfuckers!"
"I know this looks terrible," Aiden said calmly. "But we need to be practical about it. The man who was trying to save her sounded like he might be a doctor. We need a doctor at the Deadfall."
"He's no doctor. A doctor would have known how to kill her quickly before just leaving her out there to suffer like that," Jax shouted, getting angry. "And I don't fucking care if that guy was the head of Zombie Virus Eradication at Johns Fucking Hopkins! He needs to die like all the rest of those pieces of shit in that prison!"
"But you heard him. He wanted to save her! He put her out because he didn't have a choice, and you think we should kill him for protecting his own life?"
"Look, I get his predicament, but goddamn! He could have at least slit her throat before leaving her there to get eaten alive! Are you even listening to yourself?" Jax demanded, furious.
"Are you?" Aiden countered, his own voice growing deep and loud. "And what about us? Are we any better as we just sat out here watching it and did nothing?"
"There was nothing we could do for her, but we're sitting out here watching so we can come back and make sure that it doesn't happen to anyone else! And from where I stand, the only way to do that is to put every last rabid dog in that place down!"
"And that makes you no different than them," Aiden hissed with an accusatory glare. Reid could see that Jax was on the verge of lunging at him, so he grabbed his arm.
"Come on, man," Reid said. "Let's pack up and head home. We have what we need."
Still staring each other down with narrow eyes, Jax and Aiden collected their equipment. Reid and John nodded to each other, both knowing they were splitting the other two up for the ride home, and as Reid walked with Jax, John kept Aiden a few yards behind them, engaging him in conversation until Reid and Jax reached the first vehicle together.
It was almost 8:00 AM by the time they got back on the road, and it took another two hours for them to get home, following a different pattern of backroads than before. But the long trip did nothing to make either of them any less angry.
Last night, when the recon mission left the Deadfall, Rena called Olivia, Dani, Liana, and June to listen to the audio from the wire she had put on Widow the day before. Olivia brought Alek with her, but after waiting for the others, only Liana and June showed up.
"Where's Dani?" Olivia asked.
"You tell me," she said. "She's been disappearing and acting really weird lately."
"You have bigger problems now," Rena said. "Listen to this." Sitting in front of an audio sound board that had been looted from Sylas Gun and Pawn, Rena played the conversations from the wire tap. She had to enhance them because Billy had been careful to speak softly, then they heard every single one of the men who had been rescued from the solar farm being asked to join in his plan to take over the Deadfall. Other than Widow, who played along so she could be with Billy and record his conversations with the others, only one person agreed to help, a young man named James who was only nineteen.
Everyone else claimed they were too afraid of being crucified by the Bloody Queen, but they had also assured Billy that they would not report him. Unaware that this was a sting, they only spoke in whispers, the fear in their voices evident, and even though they blamed their fears on Olivia, everyone who listened had to wonder if they weren't just afraid of Billy himself. The things he was saying were disturbing as he spoke about Olivia and Liana, using language that made Alek want to march up the hill with a semi-automatic and wrap this up neat and tidy.
"So, what are we going to do?" June asked.
"We're going to have a trial," Olivia said.
"Why?" Alek asked. "I get that we're a democracy, but this guy is actively recruiting people to take over our home, and he's apparently willing to bring in the rapists at the prison to do it. I'm tired of this shit. It never fucking ends! Let's just put him the fuck down and move on."
"You can't d
o that!" Liana protested.
"Why not?" Rena asked. "There's no grey area here. This guy wants to kill you, Liana. Not just kill you, tie you up and slit your pretentious fucking throat while he grudge fucks you - his words."
"I heard him," she said, "and believe me, I wanted to kill him in that moment, but we can't just start acting as judge, jury, and executioner."
"She's right," Olivia said. "Out there, there is no law, but within the Deadfall, we have to remain civilized."
"Then send the motherfucker on a mission with me," Alek said.
"Tempting though that may be, why don't I just send you and a few guys up to arrest him. Get James, too. I'll put Austin in the supply closet off the main hall, and we'll keep Billy and James in the cell until the rest of the founders get back from the recon mission," Olivia said.
"Alright, but I'm at least going to punch the fucker for the things he said about you."
"I'm okay with that," she said.
"You can punch him in the balls for the things he said about me," Liana added, and though she was joking, that is exactly what Alek was going to do.
It was just past 10:00 AM when the pair of camouflaged electric cars sped up the two-lane country road approaching the entrance to the Deadfall, and as soon as he was close enough, Reid called Olivia. They had long range radios with them for emergency situations, but what he had to tell her could not be discussed on the open airwaves. He asked his wife to call a meeting immediately, letting her know that Jax and Aiden were so angry with one another, they had to be put in separate vehicles. Reid was in the passenger seat while Jax drove, and Olivia could hear him in the background telling Reid what to say to her, determined to get a jump on Aiden, who was in the other car already on the phone with Liana.
When Olivia hung up, she called a meeting. Dani didn't answer her phone, and Liana was already en route, stressed out because she knew this was going to be a shit show. Frankly, she was more worried about the traitors than she was the prison, but even though nature itself had tried to sentence all of humanity to capital punishment by zombie, she had already expected that Aiden would want to try to find a non-lethal way of dealing with the prison gang as well as Billy and James from the solar farm, who now sat in the Deadfall's only jail cell awaiting trial.
Alek and the four women were discussing it when the others joined them in the war room, and though Jax and Aiden were sneering spitefully at one another, once Jax saw that his girlfriend wasn't present, it immediately became his top priority.
"Where's Dani?" he asked, suddenly anxious, but before anyone could answer, she breezed in, looking disheveled.
"I'm right here, babe," she said, kissing him on the cheek. He put his arm around her and squeezed tightly as they made their way to their seats, and though she had a twinge of nausea from transforming, it was little more than a nuisance by that point.
"Where the hell have you been?" Liana hissed under her breath, and Dani shot her a look that very clearly told her to drop it as Olivia called the meeting to order.
"The kid was right," Jax said before anyone else could get a word in. "We sent the drones to look through the windows, we found exactly what he said we would, and now we need to go in there and execute every last one of those sick, raping fucks!" As he eyed Aiden angrily, the argument that had caused Reid and John to separate them earlier reignited.
"You can't just go in there with guns a-blazing, you fucking stupid, American cowboy!" Aiden yelled back.
"Careful!" Dani snapped, standing up in a threatening posture. She didn't know exactly what she could do about it, but her new power was going to her head.
"It's okay, Dani," Jax said, amused that she was trying to protect him as he turned to Aiden. "Tell you what. When we go back to the prison, I'll give you a five minute head start, and if you have them all singing Kumbaya and weaving daisy wreaths by the time I come in, I won't shoot anybody. How's that, ya fucking dumbass hippie?"
"Easy," Alek cut in before Aiden could respond. "Listen, I agree with Jax. If they're doing what Austin said, they all need to die, but I'd like to hear Aiden's thoughts as well. So, can we please stop shouting and have a civilized conversation?"
"Fine," Jax spat, waving his arm to give Aiden the floor, and Aiden glared at him for a long moment before he began.
"I'm not saying they're not horrible people, okay? I'm not saying we shouldn't execute their leaders. I'm just thinking about Austin. If we discovered this some other way, and he was still in there, we'd kill him along with everyone else if we took Jax's approach. Was he the only one who got dragged into that situation against his will? How many men there are scared and would like to get out but don't know how?"
"Collateral damage," Jax said dismissively.
"We saw boys there, Jax! We need to help them, not kill them."
"Don't be so sure, Aiden," Dani said. "I'm willing to try to help anyone who needs it, but if they actively participated in the rapes at a young age, it could be well beyond my skill to heal."
"They weren't 'boys' anyway," Jax disputed. "They were at least sixteen, old enough to be tried as adults!" Immediately, Aiden and Jax started arguing again, standing and facing each other until Reid got up and pounded on the table.
"You're both right," he said as soon as the noise died down. "So, we let them choose."
"What does that mean?" Aiden asked.
"I'll go to the prison..."
"No!" Amina shouted.
"I'll be fine," he assured her. "I'll take Austin with me and say I met him after his companions died in a shootout, and I'm helping him get back because I want to join them. Give me a couple of days, and then I can figure out who we should target and who we might be able to save."
"Why bother?" Olivia asked. "If I brought Austin in here right now, he would tell you that he'd rather have died than take the risk that any of the men responsible might survive."
"I understand that, Liv, but it's still the right thing to do," Reid said.
"But does it have to be you?" Amina demanded. "Let someone else go this time."
"She's right," Alek said. "I'll do it."
"Nah, you're too pretty, Hellström," Reid said. "They'd throw you in with the women."
The room went instantly silent, everyone waiting to see if a fight was going to break out as Olivia glared at her husband, irritated, but after a tense moment, Alek laughed.
"You're a real dick, Anders," he said, then he turned back to the group. "But he's right about one thing. I'm not the man for this job. Jax is."
"Oh, hell, no!" Dani roared, slamming her hands down on the table.
"Hear me out," Alek said. "Did you see Death Row? Was it like Austin described?"
Jax nodded.
"Then we need to send someone who can get out of performing in there. They'll know who Jax is, and because of his rock star reputation, they'll have no problem believing that he has... I don't know...syphilis?" As Jax looked on, hardly amused, everyone was snickering. "I'm sorry, brother, but you know it's a reasonable lie, and you can use that as an excuse not to take part in their gang rapes."
"There's just one problem," Aiden said. "I don't trust Jax's judgment."
"You know what? Fuck you!" Jax snapped. "Maybe if you had watched the footage from Death Row, you'd shut the fuck up and do what needs to be done, but as it stands now, if anyone's judgment is questionable, it's yours!"
"I'm not the one who wants to kill everyone in my path!"
"Oh, no! You're just the guy who thinks we should save people who've participated in gang rapes because maybe they didn't really want to do it," he shot back. "Look, Aiden, if there are men in there like Austin who found a way around it, I'll give them a chance, but I don't think it's fucking likely. Austin is just a kid, and he was already making plans to get himself out of there. If there are grown men in there who couldn't figure that shit out, then they'll probably end up dead as a direct result of their own stupidity no matter what we do."
"You don't get to make those c
hoices!" Aiden shouted.
"We'll see about that," Jax said cryptically, narrowing his eyes at Aiden.
"If Jax goes in, I'm going in, too," Aiden said.
"You'll get us both killed!" Jax argued.
"Enough!" Alek hissed, and Olivia felt a flash of excitement as she saw the demon character he used to play in the expression on his face. He pretended he was tired of listening to both of them, but he really just wanted Aiden to shut up. "Stop acting like fucking children. Unless anyone else has a problem with it, Jax is going in with Austin, and the rest of us will show up a day or two later depending on what Liana plans. Anyone got a problem with that other than Aiden? No? Good because we have bigger issues than the prison right now anyway."
Suddenly everyone's interest was piqued, and he brought up Billy and James and the plan to take over the Deadfall, going into detail about what they had heard on the audio recordings in Rena's shop.
"See?" Aiden said. "There's another reason we should be shoring up our numbers and building an army!" Liana nodded in agreement.
"You're right," Olivia admitted, "but right now we need to deal with Billy and James. They can't be trusted here, and we can't banish them because they've already made it clear that they want what we have, so honestly, I don't see how we can possibly keep them alive."
"And here we go," Aiden balked.
"What would you have us do, Aiden?" she demanded. "This is life or death, and I'd rather the death be theirs than mine and my family's!"
Aiden took in a breath to speak, but Reid stood up and took over.
"Are you going to bring this before the entire community?" he asked.
"Tonight after dinner," Olivia said.
"Then let them decide. Aiden can tell them what he wants to do, which I am guessing keeps them alive somehow, and you tell them what you want to do, which I assume means putting them down humanely."
"Humanely?" Aiden asked with a sarcastic laugh. "She wants to crucify them!"
"Olivia?" Reid asked, and she looked down at her feet before answering.
"If that's what the people decide is necessary," she admitted.