When We Were Human

by Kate L. Mary

  “Lilly!” he whispers. “Come here. Now!”

  I grab her hand and pull her up before she has a chance to resist. Ben hasn’t moved from the couch, but that’s nothing unusual. I don’t expect him to help us. Without his mom, I’m not sure he’s really functioning at full capacity.

  Walker grabs the bookcase and pulls it forward, and I immediately know what he’s doing. I let go of Lilly’s hand and hurry to help him. We need to be as quiet as we possibly can. Together, Walker and I lower the bookcase to the ground so the open side is down. Once it’s in position, he lifts one side while I grab Lilly’s hand and pull her forward.

  “Get under!” I hiss, trying to shove her as close to the ground as possible.

  She shakes her head, but I just pull on her arm harder.

  “Eva, no!” she says, looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. For the first time in years, I know with certainty that I am coherent.

  “We don’t have much time,” I say, pushing my sister down until she’s laying under the bookcase.

  Walker is holding it up, his arms straining under the weight of the solid furniture.

  “What about all of you?” Lilly hisses.

  “Eva, you get under too,” Walker says.

  I shake my head. If he really believes my sister and I can both fit under there, he’s fooling himself. There’s barely room for one, and it’s going to be excruciating under there for her. Of course, it’s better than anything Donnie would do to her.

  “There isn’t room.”

  I get up and rush across the room, grabbing Lilly’s pack. The voices get louder. Footsteps pound against the floor, heading our way. Ben is now standing and fully alert.

  I run back and shove Lilly’s pack under with her before grabbing her hand in mine. “You’ll be okay. Just stay quiet and don’t come out until either we get you or you know for sure we’re gone. Understand?”

  Lilly nods, but when I try to pull my hand away, she doesn’t let go.

  “Eva,” Walker hisses. Sweat has beaded on his forehead, and I know he has to be getting tired of holding the bookcase up.

  “You’ll be okay,” I say one more time before ripping my hand out of my sister’s.

  The second my arm is out of the way, Walker eases the bookcase to the floor.

  “This place is shit,” someone calls.

  “See what’s behind that closed door,” Donnie replies.

  Walker’s eyes meet mine, and he grabs my hand. He pulls me to my feet as footsteps move closer, pounding against the old wooden floorboards. Ben hasn’t moved, but we rush past him toward the window, where Walker drops my hand and starts trying to pry the thing open. Just like I thought, it creaks when it moves. Not that we’d have time to get out right now anyway.

  “Hear that?” a man growls.

  Footsteps move faster, and then the doorknob rattles. My heart pounds harder than the rain against the roof. The door swings open, and I spin around to find Donnie and two other men standing there. My blood turns to ice and my legs wobble. I can’t move, but Walker forces me behind him.

  “What do we have here?” Donnie says, making me shake even more.

  The three men step inside. Even though I’m behind Walker, I can still see them when they give the room a once-over. Donnie’s gaze moves across the bookcase where Lilly is hiding and I tense, but he doesn’t stare at it for more than a split second. Good.

  “Hey, it’s that retard that ran away,” one of Donnie’s cohorts says.

  Ben hasn’t moved and I can’t see his expression, but his hands do clench into fists at his side.

  “He ain’t a retard,” Donnie says. “He’s just slow.”

  The other man snorts while the third one just stands back. He hasn’t said a word, but his eyes are narrowed on me. I recognize him, of course. His name is Travis, and he’s Donnie’s right hand man. He’s just as sick and sadistic as his leader.

  Donnie takes a couple more steps into the room, grinning from ear to ear. “We missed you when you ran off, Ben. Thought you’d be grateful that we were there to take care of you.”

  Ben doesn’t say a word.

  The man I don’t know snorts, but Travis is the one who walks forward. His eyes are still on me, making Walker stiffen in front of me.

  “Don’t we know this here girl?” Travis says.

  Donnie tears his gaze away from Ben, and recognition lights up his face. He moves across the room and Walker steps closer to me. Donnie shoves him aside, but Walker is back in front of me a second later.

  “Don’t touch her.” The words hiss their way through his teeth.

  Donnie throws his head back and laughs. It echoes through the room and causes goose bumps to spread across every inch of my skin. He’s still mid-laugh when he throws the first punch. His fist makes contact with Walker’s cheek, sending him to the floor. He only has a second to recover before Donnie kicks him in the stomach. Walker grunts, and my body jerks. Tears fill my eyes, and when Donnie brings his fist back a second time, I grab his arm without thinking.

  “Stop!”

  Donnie’s gaze turns toward me, and his free hand lashes out. He grabs a handful of my hair and jerks my head back so hard I swear some of my hair almost comes out at the roots. A strangled cry rips its way out of me, leaving my throat raw.

  “Eva. Isn’t that right?” His dark brown eyes sweep over me. “I wondered what happened to you. Ran out on us in the middle of the night. Didn’t even say goodbye.”

  He pulls my head back again, but this time I clamp my mouth shut. Refusing to cry out. Lilly is listening. I have to protect her.

  Walker tries to get up, but before he can move Travis is there, kicking him in the stomach. Walker’s body jerks, and he grunts. He curls up like he’s trying to protect his stomach, but that just leaves his head exposed. Travis grins when he slams his fist into Walker’s face.

  “Stop it!” I scream again, flinching every time Travis hits Walker.

  Donnie puts his face right up against mine, his fist tightening on my hair. “You don’t like that, heh?” He doesn’t take his eyes off me when he says, “Come on over here, Jon. Get the little shit up so Eva here can really enjoy the show.”

  Donnie twists my body until it’s in front of his, finally letting go of my hair only to wrap his arms around me. Forcing me to watch as Jon, the third man, pulls Walker to his feet. His eye is already so swollen it’s almost completely shut, and his nose is bleeding. He has a cut above his left eyebrow. No one cares, though. Jon holds Walker up while Travis continues to beat him. I want to look away, but I can’t. Donnie has my chin in an iron grip.

  “Don’t you worry.” Donnie’s face is once again pressed against mine, and the stubble on his cheek scrapes my skin like sandpaper. “Travis and Jon will take real good care of him. Then I’ll take care of you.”

  29

  The men don’t stop until Walker is unconscious. His bruised and bleeding body drops to the floor, and the sobs I was trying to hold in force their way out of me. Donnie shoves me onto the couch while Travis and Jon drag Walker to the side of the room and tie him up. Ben hasn’t said a word since Donnie and his friends showed up. He sits in front of the fire with his knees pulled up to his chin and his arms wrapped around his legs like he’s trying to close in on himself. I hope he succeeds. I wish I could do the same.

  I sit on the couch, waiting to discover my fate, while the three men dig through our packs. There goes the rest of our food.

  “Looks like we’re gonna eat tonight,” Donnie says, throwing Travis a can.

  “Good. I’m starving.”

  Travis rips into the can, and Jon opens a second one. They talk between themselves, and it only takes me a second to figure out that they haven’t eaten in two days, which makes me wonder what happened. They had a whole town at their disposal. Why did they leave it behind?

  “This all you got?” Donnie asks. He’s barely looked away from me since he realized who I was.

  I run my hand across my eyes,
then wipe my nose with the back of my arm. Those are the last tears I will shed in front of these men.

  “That’s all.” My voice is flat. Emotionless. I refuse to let him know how scared I am.

  Donnie pops the top off of a can of Spam. He grins as he eats, barely looking at the food. When he’s done, he licks the juice from his filthy fingers while his eyes rake over my body. A shudder shoots through me, but that only makes Donnie smile more.

  “What we gonna do with her?” Jon asks through a mouthful of pears.

  “You won’t be doing anything with her. Least not ‘til I’m done.”

  Donnie stands and tosses his empty can toward Walker. It hits him on the forehead, but he’s still out cold.

  Donnie crosses the room, not stopping until he’s standing in front of me. He kneels and puts his hands on my knees. Runs his palms up over my thighs. Smiling at me the whole time. His fingers brush my stomach and I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to turn my brain off and force myself to go somewhere else as his hands move higher.

  “Open your eyes, Eva,” Donnie whispers.

  I swallow and shake my head. The way he says my name makes my stomach flip inside out.

  “Do it,” he hisses. “Or I’ll cut one of Ben’s fingers off.”

  A sob tries to shake my body, but I refuse to let it. I force my eyes to open, and Donnie grins. Hands move over me, making me shake even more. He squeezes my flesh until I almost scream, but I force myself to swallow it down for Lilly’s sake. For Walker’s sake. For Ben’s sake.

  Donnie holds my gaze for almost a minute before dropping his hands. Chuckling like he’s just heard the best joke of his life. “Bring that rope on over here,” he calls. “Tie her up.”

  Jon jogs over with some rope in his hands. My injured shoulder throbs when he pulls my hands forward. He wraps the rope around my wrists a few times, tightening it until he’s satisfied I won’t be able to get free. He’s right. The stiff fibers of the rope scrape against my sensitive skin.

  “Ain’t you gonna have some fun?” Jon asks in an accent that makes me think of the Deep South.

  “We have all night for that,” Donnie says, turning away. “First I wanna get our gear in out of the rain, then rest a bit. We been on our feet for damn near two days, and I’m beat.” His eyes move over to Walker’s motionless form, and an evil smile curls up his lips. “Think it be more fun if lover boy was up, too. He might like a show.”

  The other men chuckle to themselves, and my stomach drops. Walker has enough guilt about what happened with Tara, and the thought of him having to go through that again makes the situation seem so much worse. There’s nothing I can do about it, though. I spent enough time with Donnie to know that begging won’t help me in this situation. In fact, it would probably only make him torture me more, just so Walker has to witness it.

  Travis and Jon head outside to get their gear while Donnie finishes emptying our packs. What little food we have gets stacked up next to the fireplace. When he gathers the three blankets and looks around the room, my whole body tenses again. I don’t know what he’s looking for, but I don’t like the way he’s eyeing the bookcase. I can’t think of a single reason he’d move it, but anything can happen in this world.

  “Not a very cozy place,” he says, sniffing. He looks my way and shakes his head. “We had a helluva setup just three days ago. Been in a little town for months with no problems. Then those alien bastards swooped in and screwed the whole thing up.”

  I try to sit up, but the ropes snap against my body, making my injured shoulder throb. “Creepers? A group of them?”

  “Forgot you called them that.” Donnie snorts like he thinks I’m an idiot. Like I care what he thinks. “Yeah. Had a big group come through. They ran us out of the town. Burnt buildings down. Jon, Travis, and me got separated from everybody else. Been trying to find a new place since. ‘Course, this damn rain isn’t helping.”

  So the creepers attacked… That’s a new development. One Jed would be interested to know. If we make it to Hope, that is. Who knows what’s going to happen now.

  Donnie takes a few steps toward the bookcase, and I squeeze my hands into fists, waiting to see what he’s going to do. He drops the pile of blankets on the overturned piece of furniture, then kicks off his shoes, and I let out a deep breath. He’s not going to turn it over.

  He rips his shirt over his head and drops it to the floor, then undoes his pants. When I look away, he chuckles. “No point in getting all shy.”

  A shudder racks my body, but I keep my head down and don’t respond. I hate that I talked to him at all, but I couldn’t help being a little curious about what happened.

  I glance at Walker out of the corner of my eye. His mouth is hanging open, and his body is so still that for a few seconds I’m not sure he’s alive. But I look closer and see the steady rise and fall of his chest. Thank God. His face is bloodied almost beyond recognition, and I’m worried about him being unconscious for this long, but I can’t help hoping he doesn’t wake up any time soon. Donnie is the worst kind of monster, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he meant what he said. He wants an unwilling audience. Travis and Jon will just cheer him on, and Ben is practically catatonic.

  Jon and Travis come back in, dripping wet and dragging a few bags with them. I steal a glance their way just in time to see Donnie—who is down to a pair of loose-fitting boxers—grab a bottle of tequila out of one of the bags. Great. Just what we need.

  “Get this shit laid out so it can dry,” Donnie says, then takes a big swig from the bottle. “And we’re gonna need to find some more wood to burn. That fire’s getting mighty low.”

  Travis and Jon don’t even question him, of course. Donnie takes another drink, looking back and forth between me and the pile of blankets he threw on top of the bookcase. Every time he looks that way, my heart skips a beat. I’m not sure what he’s thinking, but I don’t like it.

  “Jon,” Donnie says, setting the tequila down. “Come on over here and give me a hand. I’m gonna make me a bed so I can get some shut eye.”

  Donnie takes a step toward the overturned bookshelf, and Jon comes over to join him. My shoulders knot, and I lean forward. None of the men look my way, thankfully, because the panic I’m feeling has to be visible on my face. Donnie leans down and pushes the bookcase. The wood scrapes against the floor loudly, making the hair on my neck stand up. Jon helps, and I hold my breath. I can only imagine how freaked out Lilly must be right now. Thankfully, they’re taking their time, giving her a chance to move with the furniture. Still, by the time they have the bookcase shoved up against the wall, my heart is pounding and I can hardly catch my breath.

  Once they have it where Donnie wants it, the two men step away. Jon goes back to helping Travis while Donnie moves to grab his bottle of booze. I catch sight of a piece of red, white, and blue fabric sticking out from under the bookcase and, before I can stop myself, let out a gasp.

  Donnie turns toward me, narrowing his eyes. “What’s your problem?”

  My whole body is shaking. I force myself to look away from Lilly’s hiding place, focusing instead on Donnie. Wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, he looks even more repulsive than ever before. And the thin fabric doesn’t cover much.

  I don’t know what to say, so I shake my head and keep my eyes on him. That only seems to amuse him, though.

  “Get a look at something you didn’t want to see?” He grins and saunters toward me. “Won’t be the last time.”

  He doesn’t stop until he’s standing right in front of the couch and his leg brushes against mine. His crotch is right at eye level, so I force myself to look up. He’s still grinning. Still drinking. Still looking at me like I’m on the value menu at McDonald’s. Behind him, Travis and Jon have stopped what they’re doing and they’re staring my way. I can’t stop my body from trembling when I think about what will happen if they find Lilly. The fabric from the flannel shirt she’s wearing is still sticking out from under the bookcase. I need t
o get a message to her, but I don’t know how.

  Donnie reaches down to stroke my cheek and I jerk back, but that only makes him laugh. A look crosses his face that causes my stomach to drop to the floor. He’s not going to wait, I can see it in his eyes.

  “I like flannel shirts,” Ben says, speaking for the first time since these men arrived.

  Donnie’s hand drops from my cheek and he takes a step back, looking at Ben like the poor kid just sprouted wings. “What the hell did you say?”

  “I like flannel shirts,” Ben says again.

  All three men stare at him, and they aren’t alone. I can’t take my eyes off him either. He isn’t looking toward Lilly—he isn’t look anywhere, really—but I know what he’s doing. He’s trying to warn her.

  “Kid’s dumb as shit,” Jon says.

  “Retarded.” Travis spits on the floor and shakes his head. “I told you.”

  “He’s autistic,” I snap.

  “What the hell is he talking about?” Donnie asks, looking back toward me.

  “Flannel shirts,” I say, rolling my eyes. “I thought that was pretty obvious.”

  Donnie narrows his eyes on my face, and I cringe away from him. “Why’s he talking about that?”

  “My mom had this flannel shirt. It was blue and red with a little white in it. Like the American flag. I liked it.” Ben shrugs and stares at the floor.

  Jon and Travis bust out laughing, and Donnie snorts. He keeps staring at Ben, so he doesn’t know that my eyes are glued to the bookcase. And when the little scrap of Lilly’s shirt gets pulled under, he doesn’t see me let out a sigh of relief.

  Less than a second after the fabric disappears from sight, Donnie turns away from me and heads back to the bookcase. “You’re a funny kid, but I need some shuteye, so I’m gonna have to ask you to shut the hell up. Don’t want to have to tape your mouth closed, but I will.”

  Ben nods even though Donnie isn’t looking his way, and I have to fight the urge to flash the kid a smile of thanks. He might have just saved Lilly’s life. I don’t know that I would have thought of doing that, and even if I had, I doubt I would have been able to pull it off. The fact that these men are ignorant enough to mistake Ben’s autism for a mental handicap has actually come in handy.