Turning to face her, Grey furrowed his brow and tutted at her.
“Have you learned nothing, Scarlett? They’ll go running back to wherever they’re from and bring others back with them.”
“No,” the girl beseeched, “I swear to God, we won’t.”
“I said shut the fuck up!”
He withdrew his gun and smiled sardonically at Scarlett. Her stomach tightened on observing him. She froze, afraid of what he might ask of her. He didn’t ask anything. Holding out his revolver to her, Scarlett knew what he wanted. Her eyes fixed on the weapon, but she couldn’t move her limbs to reach out for it. Looking back at his face, Ethan was quickly becoming impatient.
“Take the damn gun, Scarlett,” he demanded.
“Why?”
He refused to answer, instead shaking the pistol irritably until she took hold of it. Turning his attention to the women still standing, he looked at them with poison in his eyes.
“I’d like you both to join your friend on the ground.” They didn’t budge, so Grey moved closer to them, dragging them both to the floor, “When I tell you to do something, you fucking do it.”
Scarlett considered the gun. Holding it in both hands, she tried to convince herself to take aim at him and save the women. Before she could find the courage to lift it, Ethan was facing her again.
“Think of this as an initiation,” he smirked. “The start of your new Headhunters role.”
Taking her by the arm, Ethan pulled her closer to his hostages. She stood directly behind them and could clearly make out their shaking, but silent sobs as they all prayed that Scarlett was too reasonable to kill them.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“Sure you can, McKenzie. Just aim and pull the trigger. I’m being nice enough that you don’t have to look them in the eye. We’ll work on that in the future though.”
Scarlett glanced at him defiantly, “I won’t.”
“You will. Because if you don’t, you will pay. I pulled you out of a damn fire!”
“You started the fire!”
“I told you, it was an accident, Scarlett. I got you out, and I’m being incredibly generous for agreeing to look after you and the thing growing inside you. You should really make the most of that. My kindness will not last forever.”
“I can’t kill them. They’re living people, they need our help, look at them!”
Grey sighed and slipped a knife out of his belt. Before Scarlett could react, he had hold of her from behind, with one hand on her throat and the other holding the knife to her belly.
“I swear to God, McKenzie, if you don’t put these animals down, I will cut your baby out of you right now. Do you understand?”
Scarlett nodded and he let her go. Staring into his face, she realised that she had no choice. Her blood ran cold when she imagined the things he was capable of.
Her eyes shimmered with the threat of tears and she lifted the weapon to the back of the first girl’s head. Grabbing her wrist, Grey forced the gun against its victim’s skull. Scarlett’s breath caught in her throat and, trembling, she laid her finger on the trigger.
She closed her eyes tight and held her breath as she fired three shots in quick succession; one for each of the captives. One by one, they thudded to the floor and Scarlett opened her eyes. She quickly drew backwards. Her eyebrows snapped upwards, her mouth fell open and she dropped the revolver on the ground. Her breathing quickened and she began to cry uncontrollably. She was horrified to watch the corners of Grey’s mouth curve into a smirk. He was revelling in his control over her.
“Not bad,” he complimented. “A bit quick, but it was your first time. You’ll learn to enjoy it.”
Scarlett couldn’t speak. Her eyes were fixed on the bodies as Ethan set about moving them. He collected his weapon and placed it carefully into its holster.
“Why did you make me do that?” Scarlett finally mumbled.
“Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad, was it? I’m going to need your help unless you want your friends to see what you’ve done.”
“They said they’d leave. We could have asked them to stay and join the Headhunters.”
“McKenzie, they tried to break in here and rob us. They weren’t to be trusted,” Grey insisted. “Now, help me clean up.”
A knock on the large, wooden door took them both by surprise. Ethan put his finger to his lips before opening it just enough to see who was there. Scarlett peered through the crack to see Quinlan and the newest recruits standing outside.
“What can I do for you?” Ethan asked.
“You said you’d meet us at noon,” a girl replied, “it’s after that already.”
“Of course. My apologies. Give me just one minute and we can be on our way. I’m glad to see that you decided to come with us, Quinlan.” He closed the door and turned to Scarlett again, “They’re certainly eager. I have to go. Make sure this is cleaned up before I get back, and don’t breathe a word to anyone. They won’t believe you anyway, especially when I tell them I tried to stop you. Leave the bodies outside the fence for the dead. Do you think I can trust you not to fuck it up?”
Scarlett nodded absently and Grey left. She observed the three bodies; their fixed, terror filled expressions and the increasing pools of blood around them. Corpses looked different when they weren’t Roamers. Scarlett’s breathing became irregular and panicked. She picked up the only bag that the women had between them and opened it. Inside was a bone-dry plastic water bottle.
“Fuck,” she whispered, the reality of what she’d done washing over her, “oooh, fuck.” She bent at the waist, struggling to catch her breath. “Oh my God.” She straightened up and promptly lost it, repeatedly and forcefully whacking the bag against the wall, shouting, “Motherfucking suck-bag! You dick-eating, fuck-stumbling, lobotomised fucking fuck-bucket!” On hearing footsteps approaching outside the door, Scarlett took a deep breath, followed by one final, seemingly involuntary, “Fuck,” before straightening her facial expression.
Grey entered, frowning disapprovingly, “Come on, McKenzie, get these assholes dealt with.”
He took his jacket from the back of the door and left as quickly as he’d appeared.
Scarlett released the breath she’d been holding. She was terrified of what Riley or Quinlan would think if they knew what she’d done, so she set about dragging the bodies to the fire exit.
Backing into the push bar door, she dragged one corpse at a time onto the concrete and shut them out, keen to deal with the blood first. She made for the door to the corridor, making a mental note of what she’d need; mop, hot water, detergent. On opening the door though, she froze.
“Scarlett, I’ve been looking for you.”
“Riley,” she whispered.
“What’s up? You’re so pale.”
“You can’t come in here.”
“Why not? Is Grey in there? I want to speak to him. Please, Scarlett, tell me what’s wrong. I’m so worried about you.”
She couldn’t answer him, so simply moved aside. He spotted the blood on the floor and quickly scanned Scarlett’s body, ensuring that it didn’t belong to her.
“They were trying to break in…” Scarlett explained, her eyes pricking with the threat of tears again, “Ethan found them and I--”
“Let me in, Scarlett,” Riley insisted, gently pushing his way through the door.
“He’s gone with the new people, but he won’t be long and I need to clean this up before he’s back.”
Observing the mess, Riley realised that his suspicions about Ethan Grey were well founded.
“Where are the bodies?”
“They’re outside. I need to get them over the fence somehow… I shot them, Riley. I shot them in the head.”
“Did he make you do this?”
“I didn’t want to do it. They didn’t know anyone was here, but Ethan insisted.”
“Okay, this has gone far enough,” Riley announced. “We’re leaving. You aren’t safe with him. And by the
sounds of it, Grey doesn’t just want these people trained to take out the Roamers. I heard him talking; he wants to target another group.”
“We can’t,” Scarlett insisted, “we can’t leave. He’ll hurt my baby.”
Riley took her by the shoulders, “Scar, what do you think will happen to the baby if we stay?” She couldn’t answer. “We have to go.”
“How?”
“Leave that to me,” he said, kissing her on the forehead. “As soon as Quinlan gets back, we’ll come up with a plan. We’ll be out of here before the baby comes.”
“Okay.”
“You stay here. I’m going to grab some stuff to clean up this mess. I’ll be right back.”
Travis
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed, Travis,” Bill said, cutting into the meat he’d prepared.
“Fuck balls,” Vaughan declared through a mouthful of deer, “this is on a par with the time I discovered masturbation.”
“Uh… I’m glad you’re all enjoin’ it,” Travis scoffed. “There’s more out there. That woodland is full of wildlife. Doesn’t look like anyone else is huntin’ there.”
Piper scoffed and swallowed her mouthful, “Only because they can’t, and they don’t have to.”
“Who?”
“Ethan Grey and his band of camo-wearing fuckwits.” Travis looked at her blankly. “There’s a military base a few miles from here, on the other side of the woods.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen it.”
“A few months ago, three army-types turn up here. They say they’re lookin’ for survivors; takin’ people in. Anyways, I told them, we didn’t need takin’ in, that Homeside is just peachy and we don’t need their help. Usually at this point, I’d have tried to sell them the safe community bullshit and offered to take them in, but I got a shitty feelin’ around him. Sergeant Major Ethan Grey – they’ve all got army titles, and, truth be told, I don’t understand what they mean – anyway, he made my skin crawl, I got a really creepy vibe off him. We have a brief conversation, he’s nosin’ around, tryin’ to see what we have, how many people we’ve got…”
Piper shoved another forkful of meat into her mouth and spoke around it, “And suddenly, he declares that he’s gonna stay here, that this place would serve as a great second base. I don’t know if it was the crops or the chickens or our set-up, but he thought he’d just move some of his people in here and we could stay and let them be in charge, or they could execute us all. I had to get near enough all my people to the gate to show him that he was outnumbered, and we wouldn’t be givin’ up without a fight. Eventually they left, but he’s still pissed off with us.”
“How do you know that?” Travis asked, trying to keep up with her.
“Because they kill anyone they think is from Homeside. Usually down by the river. So, we have to get water at night, in bigger groups in case he has snipers watchin’ the water in the day. It’s like they want to pick us off slowly, so they can attack us when they think we’re weak. That’s why we want to keep takin’ people in.”
“He sounds like an asshole. I could pay him a visit?”
“No, Travis. We can’t risk losin’ you, especially now; look at all these satisfied people with full bellies. There’s been a bit of activity at the base in recent months, and I’m convinced that their numbers’ve grown.”
“Guys, come and see this! Holy shit, it’s beautiful,” Stefan shouted from the campfire.
He was right. Emerging from the dining tent, Travis looked up at the sky. A ball of orange light danced about in the blackness, and as it moved seemingly closer, he could clearly see that it tapered off into a pointed tail.
“The fuck is that?” Vaughan asked, and there was a twinge of fear in his voice.
“Meteor shower?” Travis suggested.
No one answered, they all just watched in awe. Travis wondered whether they should be getting out of the way.
The ball of light flashed, so brightly that it temporarily caused the illusion of daylight, and Homeside’s residents had to shield their eyes. Once it dulled, the light became smaller and smaller, and dimmer with each passing second.
“I don’t think that’s a meteor shower,” Piper finally said, and, as though they were connected telepathically, everyone cleared the area.
Everyone except Stefan.
Travis took shelter against a wall, and he could clearly hear the tearing of fabric and the thud of metal hitting the ground among the confused whimpers of Piper and the others.
It only lasted seconds, and when it was over, Piper was the first to investigate.
“Oh my god!”
Travis ran back toward the campfire but tripped over something on the ground. He steadied himself and looked to his feet. Something white and shining. A shard of metal.
Piper was hunched over Stefan, who was lying lifeless on the grass. A fragment almost identical to the one Travis tripped on was protruding from the top of Stefan’s head. He was dead. There was no doubt about that. The pool of blood leading from his cranium shone in the moonlight.
As the others approached, nobody spoke. The tents surrounding the campfire were loaded with tears, and one of the porta-loos had a large hole in the top.
And then, Travis noticed. Glancing beyond the campfire, he could see that a large section of the tall, wooden fence had collapsed.
“Piper, this could be worse than you think,” he rumbled.
“How could it be worse? We’ve lost someone.”
“Oh shit, he’s right,” Vaughan said. “The wall, Piper.”
Travis and Vaughan wandered to the perimeter to find a large, round, metal object. It was burnt and battered, and about the size of a beach ball.
“Looks like a fuel tank,” Vaughan observed. “Whatever that was, literally just fell from fucking space.”
“We won’t have long. Piper, we need everybody who can fight. The Roamers will have heard that. They’ll be here soon.”
Piper whipped the radio from her belt and began trying to wake the residents who were already sleeping, while the others dispersed to arm themselves.
Scarlett
With Grey’s office finally cleaned up, Riley observed Scarlett as she paced back and forth. She’d been restless all day, and Riley suspected that the baby had something to do with it. He knew he needed to speak with her, but had no idea how to broach the subject. He decided it couldn’t wait any longer; he had no idea how long Quinlan and Grey would be, so he strode over to her, taking a deep breath and trusting his brain to give him the right words.
“Scar, can I talk to you?” he asked gently.
“Do you think they’ll be back soon? Why did Quin have to go with them anyway?”
“Scarlett...”
She stopped pacing and looked at him. Her face softened when he smiled at her.
“Sorry,” she said.
Riley invited Scarlett to sit with him on Ethan’s rickety metal bed. She sat facing him cross-legged and waited patiently. Riley looked down at her tidy bump which, to him, looked more like she’d just eaten a large meal.
“I just wanted to say--”
“Ow,” Scarlett winced and placed a hand on her abdomen.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. Just being beaten from the inside,” she joked. “It feels like it’s doing cartwheels in there today.”
Riley chuckled and held out his hand as a silent, “May I?” Scarlett nodded and Riley placed his hand softly on her belly. He felt a wave of movement under his palm, followed by a ripple of emotion which distracted him from what he was trying to say.
“Wow… There’s a human in there,” he breathed, slowly removing his hand. “Look, Scar, I just wanted to say to you that, no matter what you do, Quinlan and I aren’t going to judge you. You can talk to us. I won’t tell anyone about what happened today, it’s not my place. The baby’s going to be here soon, and I want you to know that, if we don’t find Travis and Hope before that time comes, I’m here for you both.”
“Please, Riley, don’t--”
“No, please. I need to say this.” Riley took her hands in his. “I want you to know that it’s never too late. You can still be the person you were. You can still choose to do things the way you want; to do the right thing. I know how he makes you feel--” Scarlett pulled her hands away and stood, turning her back on Riley. He followed, but stayed behind her, “He makes you feel powerless; like you don’t have any choice but to stay and do as he says. You don’t owe him anything.”
“He said he needs me here. How do you know I don’t want to stay?”
“Because I know you, Scarlett. I--” He stopped himself from blurting too much and reconsidered the way he would finish his sentence, “I know you. He’s using you to build up some kind of army. I know that you’re frightened of him, but you don’t need to be. He’s manipulative and controlling, and he’s sold this place to you in a way that makes you believe you’re doing things for the right reasons. That being said, if you do want to stay, I’ll support your decision. But the truth is, he is evil and cruel… and you aren’t.”
“What if I am?”
“Then you’re not the person I thought you were.”
Scarlett turned to face him. Those few words hurt, and Riley could see that.
“What’s the matter, Riley? Are you afraid that someone might have recognised that I’m capable of making a difference?” she spat.
“No, Scar, I--”
“It must kill you to know that Grey sees me as a more effective soldier than you. You must hate to think that I could make a life here; wiping out Roamers, finding other survivors.”
“No, Scarlett!” Riley bit back. “What kills me is the way Grey speaks to you. What I hate is that he’s brainwashed you; made you believe that you’re nothing worthwhile without this place. I hate that he has this control over you, and he’s changing you. You’re losing yourself, Scarlett, and you haven’t even noticed!”
“Oh, come on, Riley! You were so desperate to come here, and once you realised that Ethan sees me as an asset, suddenly you want to leave.”
“I came here for you!” he yelled. Scarlett was taken aback by his outburst. She’d never been on the receiving end of Riley’s anger before. “Everything I’ve done since we left Newhill has been for you, Scarlett, and then for you and the baby since the fire tower. Grey’s manipulated you so perfectly that you don’t even seem interested in finding your daughter anymore. He berates you in front of people for the slightest mistakes, but somehow that translates to you that he needs you? The only thing he needs you for, Scarlett, is for someone to bully and blame. As far as Grey is concerned, you’re disposable, and so is that tiny baby inside you.”
Roamers (Book 2): Fear. Loss. Survival. Hope. Page 11