by Sourav Deka
***************************
It was a windy night. I went to talk to Aaron. He was in the warehouse drinking water from his bottle. We were alone. The guards were sleeping soundly outside.
“How much food did you gather?” I asked.
“Enough for days,” he said. “Jonas’s men are going to suspect soon.”
I nodded. “The guards at the armory, we will have to take them out.”
“What?” he kept his water bottle aside. “Are you out of your mind?”
“I know it’s dangerous. But I don’t have any choice.”
“Did you try distracting them?”
“I did, but they just don’t move.”
“What did you do?”
“Made some noises so that they move.”
“Forget it, we don’t need the guns,” he gulped some water from the bottle.
“No, we will get it,” I clenched my jaw. “We will kill them the day we leave.”
“No Ross, we don’t need the guns. We just have to escape. We don’t need to kill them. If Jonas suspects anything, we are all dead. Use your brain, man.”
I put my hands on my waist. “But we need protection. We don’t know what danger we will face outside. We will need guns.”
“We will figure something out. If you try to kill the guards we won’t make it. So think clearly.”
I knew he was right, but if we leave without the guns we will have nothing to defend ourselves. We saw what happens outside. There may be still some crazy people who attack people for resources. Not every one of them were dead, so we needed weapons to defend ourselves and our resources. But if I risk getting the weapons from the armory, it may go south and we all may end up dead. Jonas and his men are crazy. They won’t hesitate to kill us if they find out what we are planning. So it would be wise to leave without guns, maybe we will find weapons outside. There are a lot of dead people outside, I am sure some of them have guns.
I tightened my cheeks. “Okay, okay, we will leave tomorrow,” I said.
We went back to our tent. Keith and Rowena were watching the guards playing poker from a distance.
We walked up to Keith. “Did you find out about the guys?” I asked.
Keith nodded. “They take shifts,” he pointed at the group of four men playing poker. “They leave on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The other group leaves on the rest of the days.”
“Tomorrow is Monday,” I said. “We have to take them out tonight.”
“Where exactly are we going to keep them?” Aaron asked.
“We will kill them and hide their bodies in the warehouse’s basement.”
“Kill them?” Keith’s forehead creased. “Maybe we can just knock them out. We don’t need to kill them.”
“We have to kill them, Keith. We can’t just tie them up, they will make noise.”
“No, we can cover their mouths,” Aaron said. “I saw some tapes in the house, I can steal it.”
I pressed my lips together. “We can’t risk it. Even if we tie them up, there is a chance that they may escape. We have only one chance. One mistake and we all die.”
“No, there will be no mistake. We can do it,” Rowena said. “We don’t have to kill them. We will tie them up and leave them in the warehouse’s basement.”
Aaron looked at me. “Please Ross, we don’t have to kill them.”
They didn’t want to kill them. I didn’t want to kill the guards too, but I didn’t want to take the risk. What if they make noise? What if they escape? It was too risky. The whole plan may fail. I looked at Aaron. He was begging me to not kill them. Rowena and Keith were supporting him. They all had compassion, even for ruthless people like Jonas’s men. Am I making the wrong decision? What happened to me? Why can't I be like them? Why can’t I have compassion like them? Perhaps the hunt for the seeds changed me. I have killed so many people for the seeds before. It became a part of me. I became the person I was afraid to become. Deep down I knew all of this was my fault. Because of me all this started. If I wouldn’t have killed Ambrose’s father, none of this would have ever happened. The world would have been a safe place like before and my parents would have still been alive.
I sighed. “Okay, okay, just don’t mess up.”
I agreed to not kill the guards. It was hard to change my mind. I knew the risk but I choose to be like them, to have compassion, to be the old me.
“Did you think about what we are going to do about Luke?” Aaron asked.
“We will put him in a bag,” I said.
He rolled his eyes. “Come on! He is just a kid.”
“There is no other choice, Aaron. Those jeeps take some big bags of food somewhere. Luke can fit in one.”
“If he makes noise, we all will be dead,” Keith said.
“No,” I gulped. “I will make him understand. He is just a kid. We can’t just leave him here.”
Keith pressed his lips. “Maybe we can. Jonas likes him, treats him well. He doesn’t even have to work. He will be happy here.”
“No,” Rowena slapped Keith’s arm. “When Jonas will find out that we escaped, he will be furious. He may hurt Luke.”
“Okay, okay, we will put him in one of those bags,” Keith turned to me. “Talk to him first, if he makes sound we are all dead. Make sure he doesn’t make any noise.”
I nodded.
We followed the group of four men who were going to leave tomorrow. At midnight we sneaked into their rooms and knocked them out one by one with some chloroform Aaron found inside Jonas’s rooms. As we did it at night, it made our job easy. We took them out when they were sleeping, tied them with ropes and carried them to the warehouse. We had to do it very carefully, everyone was sleeping. If anyone wakes up and sees us our plan would fail.
Luke looked at me with his innocent eyes. I put my finger on my lips. “Don’t make any noise, okay,” I whispered. “Remember what I told you, we have to escape.”
Luke nodded.
He was a great kid. He listened to me. I guess he didn’t like Jonas too. Luke saw what Jonas and his men did to their people. They make them work like slaves and kill them if they don’t obey their orders. Like us, he was also scared of them and wanted to run away from Jonas and his men, so it was easy to convince him. He listened and stayed silent all the way. For a kid of his age he had a lot of patience.
The guards were sleeping soundly unaware of us sneaking inside the warehouse. We all sneaked into the warehouse’s basement, it was empty. No one comes there. It was the perfect place to keep the guards.
Aaron rubbed his hands. “Now what?” he said.
“Take their clothes, we will need it tomorrow,” I looked at Rowena. “Cut your hair, you have to look like a man.”
Rowena frowned. “Just cutting my hair isn’t going to make me look like a man,” she said.
“Don’t worry,” Aaron gave a smirk. “I will make you look like a man. I did it once,” he said.
Rowena lifted her eyebrows. “What?”
“Yeah, in school. A girl was supposed to play an old man in a drama,” he gave a half shrug. “I helped.”
She smiled. “We will see.”
We spent the whole night in the warehouse’s basement. Aaron stole the tapes as he promised and taped their mouth so that they don’t scream. Jonas’s men protested against the ropes all night but failed.
*****************************
It was early morning. The sun was rising up from its horizon. We had to reach the camp at the right time and leave with the jeep like Jonas’s men did. We were going to start over far away from Jonas and his men. I was scared, we all were, but we needed to do it. We couldn’t turn back now. Luke was worried as he had to get in the bag so I made him practice getting inside a couple of times. I must say the kid was brave. He was five year old but had the heart of a soldier. I just hoped that he wouldn't mess it up. Staying inside a bag won’t be an easy task.
We waited till evening and changed into Jonas’s men’s clothes. Aaron did
a good job in making Rowena look like a man. Well, we all had bandanas in our faces, they could only look at our eyes, but anyone could have recognized Rowena by looking at her body. Aaron did great in hiding that, I guess he put something inside her clothes to make her look a bit fat.
“See, I told you? No one will recognize her,” Aaron said.
I smiled, eyeing at Rowena’s new look. “You did a great job, man,” I said. “Let’s hope no one suspects anything.”
I checked my watch, it was time. We walked towards the jeep. I already put Luke in one of those bags, Aaron and I carried it. He stayed silent along the way. Everyone thought it was one of the regular bags Jonas’s men carry.
I got close to the bag and whispered. “Hey Luke, just five more minutes, okay. You are doing good.”
“Umm…” Luke whispered back.
Jonas was at the top floor looking at us resting his hands on the corridor’s rails. We already put all the food in our jeep at noon. Jonas’s guards can take as much food as they like, so no one asked anything about it. We got in the jeep and I started the engine. The jeep in front of us left the gate and we followed it. The gate closed after we left and no one suspected. I watched Jonas in the rear view mirror. He was still looking at us leaving the camp. I guess he didn’t suspect anything. He was just looking like he does in the usual days.
We kept following the jeep. After driving for a mile, Rowena opened the bag where Luke was hiding so that he doesn’t suffocate. We kept our distance from the jeep at our front and drove for thirty miles and reached a warehouse. It was not like one of the regular warehouses, it was a very big one covering the whole field. The guards from the jeep at our front stopped and went inside the warehouse.
“What is this?” Aaron said.
“Let’s follow them,” I said.
We got off the jeep. None of us knew that Jonas had a warehouse so far away. I wanted to know why everyday his men go there. There must be something he was hiding. But before we could enter the warehouse I had to take care of Luke. If the guards find out about him, it would blow our cover.
I turned to Rowena. “Rowena, you drive a bit far away and free Luke from the bag,” I said. “We will come back. We just have to see what this warehouse has.”
“No, we don’t need to,” Keith said. “We got out. Let’s get away from here. Who cares what’s in the warehouse. Let’s run away.”
“He is right, Ross,” Aaron said. “We managed to escape. We are free. We don’t need to know what’s in that warehouse. Let’s go away.”
“No, there must be a reason that Jonas has this warehouse far away from his camp,” I said. “I need to find out what he is hiding.”
“Don’t be so stubborn, Ross,” Rowena said. “We made it and you want to mess it up.”
“No, I won’t mess it up, Rowena. We have our disguise, we can walk inside. No one will know it’s us, I just have to walk inside and see what this warehouse has.”
“Ross, it’s risky,” Aaron said.
“I will be okay, trust me,” I looked at Rowena. “Don’t worry. Take the jeep and go a bit far away to the north and wait there. We will come back.”
“Ross……………………”
“Please Rowena, trust me,” I said softly.
Rowena nodded and started the jeep. She went towards north with Luke so that the guards at the warehouse don’t see her.
Aaron, Keith and I entered the warehouse. The guards didn’t say anything as they thought we were their people, our disguises helped. There were many sections inside the warehouse where many people were kept. It was some kind of prison. Perhaps Jonas had built this to punish people he doesn’t like.
After checking a couple of sections, I stopped at one big section at the end of the warehouse. I found what I was looking for. It was Ambrose. He was handcuffed like a prisoner and his clothes were torn apart. He didn’t recognize us as we had bandanas in our faces. Rage flowed through me. I wanted to kill him as soon as I saw him, but I couldn’t. I had to take care of the guards first.
Aaron was checking another section unaware of Ambrose. I dragged him towards the door.
“He is here,” I whispered to Aaron.
“I know, I saw him,” he whispered back.
I looked around. “We have to do something about the guards.”
“We can’t……it’s too risky.”
“But we…………..”
“Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” Ambrose screamed.
We went back towards his section to look. Two guards were torturing him. They were giving him electric shock with a live wire.
“You are torturing them?” I said, trying to speak in a different voice so that the guards don’t recognize me.
“Yes,” one of the guards said. “Jonas wants him to find out a solution as fast as he could,” he gave an electric shock to Ambrose. He screamed again.
“Ah, how much you will make us torture you?” the other guard kicked Ambrose.
“I told you, I can’t do anything,” Ambrose wiped the blood from his mouth. “The damage has been done to the world. It can’t be fixed,” he said.
“Jonas told us to torture him,” I said. “You two go get some rest. We will take it from here.”
The guards glared at me for a couple of seconds. “He told you?” one of them asked.
“Yeah, he told us to take turns. Let me torture him,” I cracked my knuckles. “I am in the mood.”
“Yeah,” the guard chuckled. “Okay, man, if you want to,” he pushed Ambrose into the ground. “He is all yours,” he rubbed his hands. “I am hungry anyway.”
“Me too,” The other guard said.
They left the warehouse and went outside to grab some food. As soon as they left I kicked Ambrose in the chest and he crashed into the wall. “I told you…….I can’t. Torturing me won’t help,” he groaned, putting his hand on the chest.
I punched him in the face and removed the bandana from my face.
Ambrose’s eyes widened. “Ross??”
Aaron and Keith removed their bandana.
“What the hell? How are you here?” Ambrose was shocked.
“I told you what can happen,” I punched him again. Blood spilled from his mouth. My whole body locked up with rage.
“I know, I know,” Ambrose shivered. “It was a mistake.”
I punched him again. This one was harder than the last. “Look what you did, you moron,” I said in a heavy voice. “People died, it’s an apocalypse now. You fool!!!”
He was bleeding in his mouth. “I know, I know, my dad died again,” he cried as blood dropped from his lips. “I……….I……..everything……..ended.”
“You have to fix it,” I said, grabbing his collar.
He shook his head, his lips trembled. “There is nothing to fix. It’s the end.”
I wanted to kill him, I really wanted to. But I had to stop myself. He was helpless now, if I make him suffer, maybe he can bring back my parents from death.
I gazed into his eyes. “Bring back my parents.”
He scoffed. “The world ended, and you are babbling about your parents?”
I kicked him hard. He fell on the ground and groaned as his blood spilled on the floor.
“Bring them back,” I yelled.
“I can’t,” he panted. “I don’t have those Nibshaw’s seeds. I made my reanimation drink from the seeds. The antidote which I injected into your parents was also made from the seeds.”
I clenched my jaw. “I can get you the seeds.”
“No you can’t,” he gulped. “Everything is destroyed, Ross. I messed up big time.”
“There are some seeds. There must be. Michael had many farms, I know one nearby. Maybe it’s still there.”
“No, whole world is screwed, Ross. There are no seeds anymore.”
“No,” I yelled. “I have to go and look for myself. The farm may be in good condition.”
“But we can’t just take him and leave,” Aaron said. “The guards are roam
ing outside.”
Ambrose stood up and cleared his throat. “I know someone who can help,” he said.
“Who?” I asked.
Ambrose pointed towards a hatch in the middle. “They are down below.”
“Who?” I raised my voice.
“Sam and Bristy.”
My eyes widened. “What?”
“When Jonas was setting up his camp and made people his slaves. Bristy and Sam crossed his paths. He tried to make them work for him too, but they refused. It went bad and they fought. Bristy killed many of Jonas's men with her magic, but he managed to kill her and Sam. But……… they…… came back.”
“Yeah, I know,” I pressed my lips. “They have their body spelled. It heals up no matter how badly the body is damaged.”
“After they came back Jonas killed them again. He tied them up and made sure that they can’t speak or move, because he has seen what they can do with their magic. The guards bring them food every evening. They open up their mouth and put a knife on the other so that they don’t dare to do magic and eat. That’s how this has been going on for months.”
“Sam can do magic too?”
“I guess he learned,” Aaron said.
“Don’t waste your time,” Ambrose said. “Free me and let’s get their help.”
Aaron shook his head. “No, no, no. We aren’t going to free you. You will walk like this.”
Ambrose raised his eyebrows. “Handcuff on my hands?”
I nodded. “Yeah, we don’t trust you.”
We opened the hatch and went below to the basement through the stairs. It was an empty room with dust on its floor. There were two small rectangular windows with metal bars which were allowing some sunlight to enter the room. Some rats were running here and there in search of their food at the corner and there was a commode at the end, which was so dirty that I felt like I would vomit. Sam and Bristy were tied up with a big pole in the middle. Their eyes got bigger when they saw us. They were pushing and shaking themselves against the ropes to break out.