Nolan’s features were like stone and he was completely unreadable, but he had the good sense to raise his hands to Barrett. “I didn’t touched her,” he said, sounding out of breath.
“Sure, and I’m a goddamn pretty little princess,” Barrett snarled, stepping closer. “Where is she?” he asked again, aiming the gun with scary accuracy.
“Last I saw of her, she was fine.” He shrugged and then it was my turn to frown.
“Last you saw of her?” Barrett snarled.
“Nolan, where is she?” I asked, going to stand by his side. If Barrett was going to shoot us both, then so be it.
“Cannibals,” Nolan said, looking down at me. “There’s cannibals here, Rose, and Sam…she—”
“You left her with cannibals!” Barrett yelled furiously. I heard a click from his gun as he released the safety.
“Calm down or you’ll get us all killed,” Elias snapped, his face paling. “Where are they? How many are there?” he asked Nolan, but his gaze was darting about us, his own gun in his hand now.
But Nolan was looking at Barrett, his expression seemingly unafraid—or at least not afraid of Barrett or his gun. There was definitely fear in his eyes, but this was of the unknown and not of mankind. Barrett was a big bad scary, but he paled next to people-devouring people. What else was out there? What other horrors had we not yet witnessed?
“You and I both know she can handle herself just fine,” he said, pulling out Sam’s gun and handing it to Barrett. “She’s a vicious, bloodthirsty weapon in herself.”
“She’s more than that,” Barrett snarled.
Nolan shook his head. “She’s dangerous is what she is.”
“So am I,” Barrett raged, storming Nolan and knocking him to the ground.
The two men fought, fists flying, bodies rolling in the dirt, and for what it was worth, Nolan gave as good as he got, all things considered. He may have looked half beaten to death, but he was very much alive. It made me think, had conditions been different and Nolan in top form, that he could have beaten Barrett in a fair fight.
“Enough!” Elias said in a hushed yell. “Now is not the damned time for this.”
As much as I was enjoying seeing Barrett having a run for his money, I had to agree with Elias. This was not the time for this. Not when there were cannibals so close by.
Cannibals.
God, every time I thought things couldn’t get any worse…things got so much worse.
“Nolan, stop,” I pleaded with him, “please.”
Elias grabbed the back of Barrett and started to drag him away, a stray fist flying backwards and smacking Elias right in the mouth. I heard the crunch of his teeth as they smashed together and I winced in pain for him.
Barrett, for what it was worth, stopped, and so did Nolan, and both men turned to look at Elias as he covered his mouth with his hands, blood trailing between his knuckles. He glared at them both.
“If you’re just about done,” he grumbled, spitting a mouthful of bloody spit on the ground at his feet, “I do believe that someone said there were cannibals lingering around here eating people. So if it’s okay, I’m heading out.”
He turned and started to walk away, and I ran after him. “Wait, please, Elias, don’t go.” He continued to walk away, and I grabbed his arm and pulled him back around. “We need you.”
“All I wanted was to get out of that place, away from the crazy, but it seems like I’ve just walked into even more crazy.” He shrugged. “If I go back now, I might be able to swing it somehow. Say that you all made me.” He shook his head, knowing that it wouldn’t work.
“There was only a couple of them, from what I saw,” Nolan said, coming up behind us. “They may be dead now anyway. Sam,” he said, looking at Barrett, “she wouldn’t wait for backup. Her eyes went pink and she handed me her gun. She said she was going to deal with them.”
“You should have stayed with her,” Barrett replied.
Nolan’s jaw ground in annoyance but he relented. “Maybe, but honestly, I didn’t want to be around her—not like that.”
Barrett fell silent at that because there was no denying that Sam was terrifying when she went all red-eyed. Even more so recently because she seemed to be losing control more and more.
“I’m sure she’s fine, especially if she went like that,” I said, and we all knew I was talking about the zombie in her. “But we need to go back for her regardless. She may be hurt. She may be lost to it.”
It.
The red eye.
The zombie that lived inside of her.
I wasn’t even sure if that was possible, but then I wasn’t sure on the rules of weird, red-eyed zombification that kept you human unless you got pissed off, so I wasn’t about to take any chances.
“Come on, it’s not far,” Nolan said, and started back the way he’d just come. “It’s just the far side of the lot. I’m not even sure how they didn’t hear us breaking in, to be honest.”
We all followed him as quietly and as carefully as we could as we made our way back to where Nolan had left Sam. I knew when we were closer though, because I could smell meat cooking. My stomach grumbled at the prospect of food and I gave it a gentle reminder as to what that food would likely be. I’d never be desperate enough to do what those people were doing. Never. I’d die first.
This world was getting more and more like a horror movie every single day, and I was beginning to wonder how much longer I had to go before I was killed off and someone else got to take the lead part.
Nolan stopped, pressing a finger to his lips, and I listened intently, the low murmur of voices making us all fall completely silent. He peered around the corner and then swapped places with Barrett so he could take a look too. When Barrett looked back at us his face was filled with amusement.
Without thinking through any sort of plan, he raised his gun and headed round the side of the RV and in full view of the two men on the other side.
“Hey hey hey, motherfuckers!” he called out as Nolan, Elias, and I ran after him.
Two shots rang out, and by the time I’d gotten to him, the action was over. Both men were dead on the ground, a pile of bloody bones in the firepit that had recently gone out. The amber ashes still glowed, and I grimaced and tried not to look at either man, the pile of bones, or the cooked body parts in the metal tray. My hand went to my mouth as I moved around, the smell of something foul lingering in the air. I found the source—a sloppy pile of red goo—and turned away before I heaved.
“What is that?” Nolan asked from behind me.
“No idea,” I said with a shake of my head.
“Where is she?” Barrett growled. “Nolan, if anything has happened to her…”
I heard a low banging and looked around for the source. The little camp was small and easy to navigate, and I guessed pretty quickly that this wasn’t a main camp but a pit stop on their food chain. My gaze fell on a white freezer box and the thumping that was coming from inside, and I ran to it and dragged the handle, pulling it open.
Sam fell out, gasping for breath, body parts tumbling out with her as she clawed her way away from it. She reached me and I couldn’t help myself—I reached down and helped her up to standing, pulling her into my arms as she continued gasping for breath, hiccupping sobs leaving her lips.
“Be careful, Rose!” Nolan ordered me, obviously worried in case she turned her monster on me. That hadn’t even occurred to me; I’d just sort of presumed I’d be okay with her, but he was right: Sam wasn’t who I thought she was, and as the monster took over her more and more, she was becoming more and more someone I didn’t recognize.
It didn’t matter anyway. Barrett barged his way forwards like the big oaf he was, and then he was dragging Sam away from me and holding her possessively against his chest like he owned her. She tried to speak but she was still crying and gasping for air and I couldn’t help but be grateful that she was okay. I wanted to still be hurt and annoyed by her—and I was, but I couldn’t help that
my heart was so bloody glad that she was okay. That these monsters hadn’t killed her or harmed her.
God, what kind of world was I now living in where the only two options were death or harm?
I hated it.
I hated this world and everything it stood for, and the longer I lived through this nightmare the more I wanted it over. That was pathetic of me, and I felt it in my bones how pathetic I was. But it was so exhausting being scared all the time. And when I wasn’t scared…I was fighting for my life or my friends’ lives.
Eventually Sam pulled away from Barrett’s fierce grip and shoved at his chest. “Get off of me,” she sniffled. “I’m okay.” She looked up at him and I saw something in her face that I hadn’t noticed before.
Maybe it was because I was just so angry at her that I hadn’t wanted to see it, but there was definite hate in her face. Like she blamed him for this. But this hadn’t been Barrett’s fault. This hadn’t been anyone’s but the sick individuals who had decided to cook human beings like we were kebabs.
Frowning, I glanced over at Nolan, but he was too busy checking out the two dead creeps’ belongings to notice.
“Looks like there’s more of them,” Nolan said, and Barrett turned to look at him with a deep-seated scowl.
Nolan had one of the RV doors open and he was talking from the doorway. He headed back inside and Elias followed him. Barrett glanced between the RV and Sam with uncertainty, like he didn’t want to leave her again.
“I’ll keep an eye on her,” I said, and he frowned, a deep V forming between his eyes.
“Keep your safety off,” he ordered me before following the others inside the RV, and then it was just me and Sam alone.
Her gaze was on the bloody gore pile near the fire, her expression slightly horrified, and I wondered, what with her newfound powers…senses…whatever the hell they were, if she could tell what the pile had once been. That would explain why she was so freaked out. Because whatever it was, it didn’t look like anything good.
“Are you okay?” I asked her, my words coming out harsher than I had intended, even though I was still hurt and angry with her.
I might have been pissed off, but I wasn’t mean, and I certainly didn’t kick someone when they were down, no matter what they had done to me.
Sam looked up and nodded. “I couldn’t breathe in there,” she said. “And I couldn’t get out. I was banging and screaming and then they tipped it over and it felt like, it felt like I’d never stop falling and all the body parts were touching me…” Her voice trailed off as her eyes threatened with fresh tears.
It was my turn to nod then, and I glanced over at the freezer box. I strode towards it with purpose before taking my small pocketknife and slicing down the seal so that it wouldn’t stay closed like that again.
“That’s the thing with refrigeration products like fridges and freezers, the seal stops them being opened from the inside,” I said matter-of-factly. I tore at the seal, pulling it out so that it couldn’t ever be fixed. “There—no one can be put anyone in that thing ever again.” I dusted my hands off on my too-short skirt. “God, I really need to get some new clothes. There’s got to be a pair of jeans around here somewhere, right?”
“Rose.” Sam said my name, her voice full of so much sadness that I just couldn’t make myself ignore her.
“What?” I replied, looking everywhere but at her.
“Why…why do you hate me? What have I done?”
I looked over at her sharply, my own frown deep on my face. “Are you actually bloody kidding me, Sam?”
Chapter Four.
Sam
“Honestly, Rose. I don’t understand.” I reached for her, palms up and pleading with her to tell me what was wrong so I could fix it. Everything I’d done had been to fix things. To save her from the Sins. “Please, please tell me what I did so I can make it better.”
“You can’t make it better, Sam,” she spat out, her tone bitter and her face painted in hard lines. “You chose yourself, in the end. Despite all that we’ve been through together, you were willing to sacrifice me and Nolan to save yourself.”
I stared at her in confusion and shook my head. Where had she gotten this from?
“That’s not true!” I yelled out, dropping my hands and stepping forward to close the space between us. The world went slightly pink, but that was my default now, more than it was a rarity. I could see how my gaze affected her. She took a step back from me, her body shaking and her hands going for the gun stuck in the waist of the ridiculous near-porn outfit she’d been made to wear at the busted water park.
I didn’t let her retreat from me.
She thought I’d betrayed her.
That was the problem.
And it wasn’t true!
“It is true!” she said, her tone cold, fingers curled around the gun’s grip. “You were going to let Nolan die in the fighting arena. You were going to let me become what? A sex slave?”
“No, I did everything I could to save you!” I took another step closer.
“You’re lying!” Rose hoisted up the gun, pointing at me. Her index finger slid against the smooth trigger. She was shaking so badly now that an accidental slip would be all it took to take me out.
We were at a boiling point.
A turning of tides.
I had to make her understand, had to make her believe me.
“I didn’t sell you out, Rose. I would never do that. You’re…God, you’re the only family I have. Leaving you to die would be like killing myself. Don’t you get that?” I walked even closer, despite the firearm between us.
I let the cold, hard tip of the barrel press into my chest. I was taller, and she had to look up at me. She didn’t relent. She didn’t step back or remove the gun. Rose could end this right now. Maybe it would be for the better. Put me down before I hurt anyone else, like I’d obviously hurt her.
“Why do you think I saved myself at your expense?” I asked slowly, trying to control myself, trying to fight back the crimson gaze so that I wouldn’t freak her out more. The beast inside danced with me, wanting to press out of her cage and devour Rose. Its desire for self-preservation was strong, but I was stronger. My human side could learn to control this. I had to, or I might as well kill myself now. Because I wouldn’t hurt Rose. I wouldn’t hurt someone innocent.
I refused to look at the pile of vomit on the ground.
Refused to face the fact again that I’d taken a bite of charred human arm…and enjoyed it.
Rose hadn’t answered me. Her face was pale, her lip quivering.
“Why do you think I betrayed you, Rose?” I kept my words even, kept them caged like I did the monster inside of me.
Her frown grew larger, her gaze taking on a new look—one of uncertainty. “Barrett said you were staying with him. That you’d chosen him.” She finally bit out the words, cutting them each off with a surgeon’s determined touch. But I could tell that she was more hurt than she was angry. Her pain was buried in her heart. A knife in her back.
I pulled the blade out, my voice flat as I faced a truth we both should have realized.
“Barrett.”
Barrett had lied to separate us. He’d manipulated us. He’d taken us away from one another, until shit had hit the fan and we were forced together again.
I took a slow, shaky breath to control myself before I spoke again.
“Barrett said if I stayed with him,” I began, “if I agreed to be his, that he’d save you and Nolan. I didn’t even know you were at the waterpark until I saw you in the arena, Rose.”
My own personal psycho kissed the corners of my conscious mind, as if to say “now is it time to come out and play again?” I pushed her back. Not yet. Soon.
But I’m so hungry, she argued, and you’re so mad.
Soon, I repeated again, even as my vision oscillated between normal and pink-hazed.
“You didn’t know that Nathan had me?” Rose’s grip on the gun hesitated and she shuffled her fee
t, moving a bare few inches back away so that the barrel tip wasn’t pressing hard into my chest. There’d be a bruise later, but I didn’t care. I needed her to understand that I’d never leave her behind. I’d die to save her, if that’s what it took.
I shook my head, closing my eyes for a moment against the horrific possibilities of what might have happened to her while we were separated. As she spoke again, I could only clench my lids tighter as the facts of what happened spilled from her mouth. But I made myself open my eyes and look at her, even though it hurt. I forced myself to focus, to not hide from her truth.
“He kept me in a fucking cage, Sam.” She waved the gun a little, in an almost square shape around her. “On my knees, mostly naked. A dog collar, Sam.” She was losing control now, her voice cracking as she was forced to remember what she’d been through. Tears were streaming down her face.
“I didn’t know, Rose,” I insisted, reaching up and taking the gun gently from her and then crouching to set it against the ground before standing again. I was surprised she let me take the firearm. She was so hurt, so angry. I could feel the waves of pain floating off of her skin. “If I’d known, I’d have killed them all or died trying. I swear I would have.”
“I want to believe you, Sam.” She hugged herself, half turning to look away from me. “I want to, but you’re with Barrett now, and people do crazy things for love.”
“I do not love Barrett. I’ll admit, I was attracted to him. I liked him, despite my better judgment. Yes, I fucked him. And it was nice. It was nice to have that…that physical connection in the middle of the awful, bloody world we live in right now.”
She turned away from me further as I admitted to these things that made me hate myself a little.
“But Rose?” I moved, cupping her chin with my left hand. Only touching her lightly, and when she didn’t flinch away, a piece of my fractured heart knitted back together. “I would never pick him over you. Not before. And certainly not now.”
My true feelings toward Barrett flared to life in my chest as I spoke. Rage flooded through my veins. The hairs on my arms stood at attention. I closed my eyes, warring with the beast, telling her that everything was fine. Don’t get your bun twisted up, as my dad used to say when I was frustrated over a certain ballet move or combination. When I opened my eyes again, I could tell that Rose was beginning to believe me. But seconds later, she bit her lip and I could see the seeds of distrust in her gaze.
Red Eye | Season 3 | Episode 4 Page 3