“I need to use the bathroom.” I pushed the chair away from the table, the sound of metal against floor shrill and jarring.
“You know where it is.” Stash nodded his head in the direction of the door. As I walked away from him, tears threatening, he spoke low and slow again. “Ain’t no windows in there. Just in case you go getting any ideas.”
I stopped in my tracks, half turning to glare at him. “I don’t have a choice to run away. If I did, you fucking bet I would.” The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them, and a quirk of surprise flashed across Stash’s face. Of course, he didn’t know the deal I’d made. He’d probably try to find out what I meant by my words, but I just didn’t care. He’d probably pat Barrett on the back for securing such a grade A piece of tail. Apocalypse was a lonely place—what was a little twisted manipulation to keep a partner chained to you? Stay with me and someone you love gets to be safe. Don’t stay with me, they die.
It wasn’t a choice.
It wasn’t a threat.
It was a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” situation.
Only it wasn’t a scratch Barrett wanted. And I certainly wasn’t the damn beneficiary in return.
But again…
I had no choice.
The causal reality was—if I didn’t do what he said, then Rose wouldn’t stand a chance.
I was willing to lose my freedom for her.
I walked into the bathroom and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My chest hurt, sharp pains pulsing from the middle of my body to radiate out into my limbs.
“God…oh my god.” I slammed my hands over my heart, palms pressing hard against the thin shirt. “I’m stuck here. With him. Forever.”
I sunk down to the floor, back against the cold metal door.
And I closed my eyes against the pain and I tried to control my breathing so I wouldn’t suffocate against the reality that I had danced myself into a corner and there was no getting out, no returning to center stage. This was going to be my life now.
Drugs.
Romantic perversions.
Humans against zombies in death battle cage matches.
And Barrett.
Who’d always shown exactly who he was, but somehow I’d convinced myself he was better beneath the skin. My own idiocy had led me here, made this bed, and I was going to have to sleep in it, fuck in it, and die in it.
Somewhere past my suffering and wallowing, I heard the whine of the storage building door opening and closing again, and then Stash talking with someone. Barrett had come back. I didn’t want to see him, but Stash hadn’t been lying—the bathroom had no windows, no egress in the ceiling in case of fire. Nothing.
I stood up, legs shaking, and I used the bathroom and washed my hands with soap that stung the cuts and bruises decorating my skin. Wincing, I dried them gently on my clothes before swiping the remnants of tears from beneath my eyes.
Steeling myself, I opened the door and walked out, shoulders brushing the supply shelves as I exited. I looked down at the ground as I moved, delaying the inevitable.
But it wasn’t Barrett’s voice that said my name.
“So, hiding little Sam out here so I don’t take my revenge. Is everyone protecting this bitch?”
Gaze wide, heart pounding, I looked up and found not Barrett, but Jackson staring at me. His fists were clenched and he stood like a menacing, rage-filled statue next to Stash.
“Now, now, Jackson. I heard you tangled with one of the boys. You telling me it was this girl that did that to you?” Stash pointed at Jackson’s face, mocking him in nearly the same fashion as Barrett had.
And, as before, I wanted to tell him not to poke the bear, not to make it worse.
“Fuck you and Barrett. This bitch is going to pay. I’m not letting this go.”
“Great. Why don’t you go tell Charlie what happened and maybe he’ll give you a go at her in the arena? She can be next after that British pussy.”
My heart pounded more erratically at the mention of Rose.
But I didn’t need to worry about her.
I’d done what I could to make sure she was safe.
I was the one looking down the barrel of a gun right now.
“I ain’t telling Charlie a bitch kicked my ass.”
“Why not? Charlie will give you justice, Jackson.” Stash gazed at the boy, arms crossed casually and body language calm. “Or…he might laugh in your face and ask if you’ve become a worthless sack of shit.”
“What the fuck did you just say, old man?” Jackson whirled on Stash, hands coming up and ready to fight.
“You heard me.” Stash didn’t move a muscle. “And go ahead. Hit the only guy here who knows the inventory system, our buyers, and where to get the shit we need. Hell, tell Charlie I offended you. Maybe he’ll put you in the ring with me and Barrett’s bitch.”
Jackson dropped his hands, but they stayed fisted. He looked away from Stash to me, and he took five steps toward me.
Five. Because I counted each one as I pressed my body back against the bathroom door.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
A few more steps and he’d be close enough to hit me.
“I’m Barrett’s woman,” I spat out in fear, hands moving to grip the storage shelves next to me. I tried to shake them, to see if I could pull them down on top of my would-be attacker, but they didn’t budge. Secured to the walls.
And nothing on them to save me.
No weapons or anything remotely useful.
“I ain’t leaving until you pay for what you did, bitch.”
“Now let’s talk about this, Jackson. You know Barrett’s not—”
Jackson half-turned, glaring at Stash, who was trying to save me.
“I’m done talking, old man. You want to stop me? Just try.”
Jackson took another step toward me.
Six steps.
He was going to hurt me. Stash wasn’t going to stop him.
Help, I thought.
And I don’t know who I thought it to…not at first.
But then she was there. The monster.
With her vision washed in pink.
Chapter Two.
Rose
Barrett had taken Nolan back to his own holding cell and I was left alone with nothing but my anxious thoughts to keep me company. I didn’t trust Barrett to save my life—and this whole situation was in fact to save my life. And of course Nolan’s. But the point was still the same: I couldn’t trust Barrett. Heck, I didn’t trust Barrett, despite our deal.
He'd shown me over and over again his true character and I wasn’t about to fall for his lies ever again. Though what I could actually do about it remained to be seen. For the moment, at least, I needed to act like I believed him.
My thoughts strayed to my life before all of this. Before zombies and plane crashes, before fighting for survival and fearing for my life. I thought of my mom’s home baking and how I’d never get to taste her homemade jam roly poly again. I thought of my dad and how handy he had been with his tools. He’d made me my own tree house when I was a kid and I’d always sworn that one day when I had kids, they’d come and play in it too. But now it was all a pipe dream. God, it wasn’t even that. It was nothing but a dream, because it could never ever happen. I would never see my parents. I would never marry and have kids. And I would never climb the steps to that treehouse again.
I wasn’t one to wallow. I was a doer and a thinker, and a get-shit-done kind of girl. Or at least I’d always wanted to be. So the fact that Barrett had asked me to sit there and wait—to trust him, no less… I shook my head, wondering why I was putting all of my faith in him when he’d done nothing but show me that he couldn’t be trusted.
Because I have to.
Because there’s no other choice right now.
The minute I saw an alternative to trusting Barrett would be the minute I dropped him like the sorry sa
ck of shit he was.
Barrett was an asshole before, but this place had brought out an even darker side than I’d thought possible.
A small part of me, buried way down deep and fighting to get out, whispered that maybe he wouldn’t let us down this time. That maybe all the misplaced trust Sam had put in him might prove to be fruitful. God, I hoped so, because if not, both Nolan and I were dead.
Sam…
An image of her popped into my mind. We were changing our clothes, laughing. A moment’s respite from the terror of the airport we’d left behind.
Shaking my head, I stopped thinking about her. I refused to think about her. She’d betrayed me. Chosen to save herself.
I fell into a fitful sleep, my dreams consumed by monsters and men alike until I was waking in a cold sweat that had me sitting up and gasping for air. My clothes were sticking to my sweat-soaked skin, and I sat up, a sob stuck in my throat.
The screech of the lock on my door echoed around the small room, and I stumbled to my feet and pressed myself into the back wall, as far away from whoever came in as possible. Not that it would do much good in the end, but the fighter in me wasn’t ready to surrender yet and I decided that was a good omen.
The door opened and Nathan stood there, a bottle of beer in one hand and what looked like a burger in the other. I gawped at him as he stood there silently chewing his food in the doorway, the scent of food making my stomach rumble loudly. His gaze was on mine the entire time, a smirk on his lips every time my stomach grumbled. When he’d finished, he swiped his hand down his pants leg and took a long sip of beer before throwing me a smile that I’m sure before all of this would have charmed the pants off any girl.
“You doing okay in here, my little Rose?” he drawled. “You got a good night’s sleep, I hope, and feeling fresh as a daisy and ready to take on the day?”
I glared, but didn’t move away from the wall. I was under no illusion that anything I said right then couldn’t or wouldn’t be used against me in the form of making my death all the more painful. That was if Barrett didn’t rescue me first. My stomach rolled in uneasiness.
“Just wonderful actually,” I said, my voice coming out alone and afraid, and ridiculously British.
He chuckled, giving a cursory backward glance before taking a step into the room. I pressed my back against the wall even harder, wishing it would swallow me up.
“You know, it’s not too late. I bet I could still make this work between you and me. I do so hate to waste a good woman when I see one.” He looked me up and down and my eyes narrowed. “Course, that man of yours still has to die. Ain’t no way out of that, but I could definitely swing it with Charlie to let me put you to work instead of caving your fucking head in.”
His words hung heavily in the air between us until he shrugged.
“Fine, your choice. You got a death wish, then so be it. I’m going to take it real slow with you, sweetheart. Make sure all my girls know not to mess with me anymore. You don’t mind being a lesson for them, right?”
I spat on the floor between us. “I’ll see you in the arena.”
Nathan chuckled. “You got some super mad fighting skills you haven’t told me about? Because for all your fighting talk, that’s all it is—talk. You’re going to die today and I’m going to make it very, very painful for you.”
I glared at him, my words stuck in my throat as fear gripped me.
He was right; I was going to die today.
I’d been a fool thinking I could trust Barrett.
A shiver threaded its way through my body from my shoulders to my toes. “Guess you’ll just have to wait and see,” I finally managed to squeeze out, and he chuckled again.
He moved back to the doorway. “I guess so,” he replied before turning to leave.
The door was wide open, the call of the empty corridor beyond like a siren’s song, until Elias filled the gap. His gaze was on Nathan leaving for several moments before finally turning back to me. He came into the room and closed the door behind him before moving over to the table and placing a bottle of water and another cereal bar on top of it.
“Eat,” he ordered, moving away from the table and giving me some space.
I ate the food and drank the water, and neither were enough, especially after being in this too-hot room all night, but I was still eternally grateful for both things, especially since the scent of Nathan’s burger and beer hung heavily in the air.
“You ready?” Elias asked. He was leaning against the far wall where Barrett had stood just last night.
I shook my head no and sat down on the edge of the bed. “What weapon do I get?” I asked.
Elias scoffed. “It won’t get that far.”
I huffed out my annoyance. Everyone was saying they were going to help—that they were going to get me out of here, out of this situation—yet all I saw were people sitting around while my time was ticking. I couldn’t depend on anyone. I couldn’t trust anyone. I was on my own.
“What weapon do I get?” I asked again, my tone sharper this time, and Elias raised an eyebrow.
“Whaddya want?” He shrugged. “Can get you pretty much anything, but obviously you can’t have a gun.”
I tried to think of a good weapon, something that might give me an edge over Nathan, but I couldn’t think of any. And rightly so—it wasn’t like I’d been a weapons expert before all of this. I was just a boring girl wanting to see the world.
“What weapon is Nathan using?” I asked.
“Think he chose a hammer,” he replied. “You know, with the little nail hook on one end to get nails out of wood? Real good weapon, actually. Good for close combat—smashing in those skulls—and he gets real inventive with that little nail claw.”
I stared at him in shock, my stomach rolling, and I thought I might puke up the cereal bar and water I’d just eaten. Oh my god, what was he going to do with the hammer? Was he going to smash in my skull and then pull out my eyes? Was he going to smash my spine so I couldn’t walk and then…
Elias sighed, obviously impatient with me. “You’re not going to fight today. I’m getting you out of here before it even comes to that,” he said, his gaze going to the door to make sure it was closed.
My heart leaped but my lower lip trembled, the dark thoughts still roiling around in my belly. “Why does everyone keep saying that to me?” I sounded petulant and terrified at the same time. The strong woman I’d been yesterday was gone.
He scowled and stepped forwards. “Who?” he asked.
I stared at him, wide-eyed and petrified. “What?”
“You said everyone keeps saying that they’re going to save you. Who was the…” He sighed. “Barrett?” he said, but he already knew the answer. “That sly bastard can’t be trusted.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I gasped. “But how do I know I can trust you?”
“You don’t. And in this world, you can’t trust anyone. But I am getting you out of here.” He checked his watch before looking back at me. “In about forty-five minutes, actually, so make sure you’ve got the energy to run when I tell you to.”
“And Nolan and Andy?” I asked, hating the hope that was in my tone. “I won’t go without them.”
“The big man is coming too, but I can’t find the kid. Not sure if he made it, actually. There was a small issue in the sorting room yesterday. Couple of kids sampled some product they shouldn’t have an ODed on it.” He was so blasé over it. So nonchalant that kids had died. My grief ratcheted up a notch.
“Don’t lose it now. Shit happens. People die. That’s just life. I’ll be leaving with you both too. But I’ll go my own way once we’re clear of this place.” He walked towards the door and sighed before looking back at me. “I meant what I said yesterday. That was the bravest shit I’ve ever seen. Made me think, you know.”
I didn’t know. I had no clue. All I knew was that I’d said and done the first thing that had come naturally to me, and that had meant sacrificing myself for Nola
n and Sam. For the people that I cared about. But she’d abandoned me. She’d chosen Barrett over me. And in that moment, I hated her for that.
“I thought,” Elias continued, oblivious to my inner turmoil, his gaze on the ground, “I thought if this five-foot-nothing scrap of a woman can stand up to someone like Nathan, then so can I. This place is hell, ya know, but it’s all I’ve ever known.”
I swallowed. “So why are you turning against it now?”
His shoulders rounded on a sigh. “I’ll bring you an axe,” he finally said, ignoring my question. “Easy to swing, deadly enough to take them out with one swipe if your aim is good.”
“Take who out?” I asked, because he wasn’t talking about Nathan anymore, that much was obvious.
“The zombies,” he said, leaving the room. “The world outside these gates is teeming with them. Worse than it was when you got here. Trust me on that.” He locked the door after him, and I stared at the space he’d just been.
Out of Elias and Barrett, I trusted Elias to get us out of there, especially since he was personally invested and wanted to leave with us. Barrett I didn’t trust as far as I could throw him. Still, the thought of Sam and him played at the corner of my mind. Her betrayal hurt even though I knew logically it shouldn’t do.
We had become friends by consequences, not really by choice, and yet it still hurt to know she didn’t care. That I’d come all this way to find her; risked my life and everyone else’s to try and rescue her, and for what?
She wanted to be with Barrett and she was more than happy living here with him. I shook my head, annoyed and saddened, but another forty minutes and it wouldn’t matter, because I would either be dead or out of there and she could stay with Barrett forever.
Chapter Three.
Sam
“Get away from me,” I growled.
The world was an amusement park of pink.
My eyes wore rose-hued glasses that promised beautiful things.
And those beautiful things would be the pain I caused, the wounds I inflicted, the blood that further colored the world around me in shades of red.
Red Eye | Season 3 | Episode 3 Page 2