“There!” Annabelle, still whispering, pointed out movement in between several of the trees. “I don’t see anything!” Miguel squinted in an attempt to adjust his vision, but there still was nothing. “I see it too!” Vanessa squeaked, however she was being too loud. Miguel covered her mouth his hands, “Shut it! Please!” He held her tightly.
Annabelle reached down and produced her pistol again, readying it in case of attack. “You two, go.” She gestured for them to run through the clearing. “As fast as you can. Just run. Don’t worry about me.” Vanessa didn’t need to be told twice, as she immediately headed off. “Annabelle? What are you doing?” Miguel tried to stop her. “Just go, Miguel. Please… Let’s be honest, we won’t ever find my mother again. She’s probably dead. I can forgive her in the afterlife… In case she doesn’t, at least let me go down knowing I did right by someone.”
“Alright,” Miguel sighed and gave in. “I’m sorry…” he took his hand off her shoulder at last, catching up with Vanessa. “Run!” She shouted out, jumpstarting the both of them to run as fast as they could through the clearing. The bear roared a second time, as Annabelle fired off several shots at it. “Come on then! Come and get me you bastard! I am your willing victim!” She could hear large footsteps trotting nearer to her – but the echoes made it reverberate from all directions, “Come on! Hurry up and get me!”
The footsteps drew nearer and nearer. At last, there was a roar behind her. She turned around, and much to her surprise, she saw an ordinary bear – nothing mutant about it at all. It took her a few split-seconds however to remember that bears were still dangerous, mutated or not. She ran in the opposite direction from the clearing, drawing the bear away from Vanessa and Miguel.
Despite running at her fastest speed, the bear was gaining on her rapidly. As it drew its’ claws, the bear jolted back against a tree, a spray of shotgun bullet-holes in its’ side. It was shot at multiple times before sliding to the ground, dead. Looking over, Annabelle noticed Tobin holding a shotgun, ejecting the shell, “You seriously think I wouldn’t keep a firearm hidden nearby for instances such as this?”
Chapter 26
Elliot opened his eyes again – no bullets had gone through him. Turning around, he noticed William had dropped onto the floor with a bullet hole over his head. Everyone was running around in a panic, whilst Elliot regained his senses still.
“Elliot!” Olivia dropped down next to him, shaking him vigorously. “Yes! You’re ok!” She hugged her boyfriend before remembering their predicament. “Come on! We’ve got to get out of here!” She took his hand as they ran back towards the trailer.
At the makeshift hospital, Raphael was finally coming round. Noticing the commotion outside, he tried to get up. However, he had been cuffed to his bed. Opposite him, he noticed one of the patients going mad. The significant feature was the man’s red eyes. “Mutated people?” He gazed at the ‘human mutation’ in front of him in shock and horror.
“Help me with this!” Elliot requested Olivia to help him slid a book shelf in front of the door. “Hold on! Wait!” Gwen stuck her hand through, as Elliot grabbed it and pulled her in – she had Zach and Celeste behind her too. “Hurry up!”
Once they were all inside, Elliot and Olivia went back to sliding the bookshelf in front of the door. Olivia dropped down against the wall to catch her breath. “Ok… What the hell just happened?” She was still processing the events of just now.
“I think someone wanted to save me… Or maybe someone just hated William? Oh, I don’t know! The point is, someone out there just killed him.” Elliot answered. “The question is… who?” They all looked at each other. “It had to be Erica, right? Or Tina?” Zach suggested. “That wouldn’t make sense. Erica was totally against Elliot becoming leader. She didn’t even know it was all an act!” Olivia responded. “Wait, what? You mean, Elliot was never really on their side?” Zach didn’t know this until now either. Elliot shook his head, “Of course not.”
From the other side of the bookshelf, there was a patterned knock. “It’s Gwen!” Elliot recognised the pattern, and shifted the bookshelf to let Gwen slip in. “Come on, come on! Inside!” As she slipped in, Elliot slid the bookshelf over the door frame again.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” Celeste spoke what was possibly the best bit of English she had ever said. Everyone looked at Gwen, noticing the gun in her hand. “Yes, it was… I killed William. I couldn’t let you die Elliot.” She looked at him leant against the bookshelf. “Thank you, Gwen. Truly.” Again, they smiled warmly at each other.
“Not to intrude on the moment Gwen,” Olivia had to break the obvious bad news, “But that’s the fifth person now you’ve killed at this place. Even more so, he was highest ranking figure here. We have to leave this place right now, or we will die in the middle of a knife war.”
Elliot and Gwen nodded, “That’s what we want! Not the ‘dying’ part of course. I mean the knife war part. We need to decrease the population in this place, that’s what my whole little act was about. Like I said to Gwen: some die, so that others can live.”
Zach and Celeste looked at each other and then back at Gwen. “So how exactly is that process decided on then? Huh? Was Pierre one of the unfortunate victims of that algorithm?” Gwen turned away in shame. “That’s right. You keep looking down!”
“Enough!” Elliot interfered. “Now, Zach. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done to help me and my group, but at the same time, you are still just a kid. You’re fourteen. You understand nothing about the dilemmas you face as a grown up. So, would you kindly just… shut up?” Elliot put his hands together in a prayer-position, mocking Zach.
“Fine!” Zach turned away from Elliot, completely unfazed by his attitude.
Outside, Reed was running about, looking for his comrades. “You! Scumbag!” One of the men pushed him amidst all the commotion. “Newcomer! Screw you!” He pushed Reed a second time. “Listen to me buddy, you really don’t wanna pick a fight with me.” The man looked to his friends either side of him, “Oh, I think we do…”
The man punched Reed in the face, as the other two started assaulting him violently. “I did warn you!” Reed pushed them away from him, pulling out his knife. With no remorse, he stabbed one of the men in the chest several times. The other one jumped on his back, attempting to strangle Reed with arms. Throwing the man to the ground, Reed stabbed him in both of his eyes, now turning back to the man who initially attacked him.
As he stormed towards the man, he had his hands raised out. “Look, buddy, please… It… Not a fair fight! I was just kidding!” He feared for his life, and again, Reed was merciless. He stabbed the man’s arm, then slit his chest deeply. As the blood seeped out, the man dropped to the ground. Turning around, Reed noticed all the knife fights occurring. “Watch me father… Watch me…” He muttered before running in to join with the ‘war’.
“Everyone’s evil, father. You know that.” Reed ran past random people, stabbing them with his knife. “Good cannot truly defeat evil. To defeat evil, you must yourself become evil.” He continued to stabbed people he did not recognise. Looking around, he noticed corpses everywhere. He was becoming more noticeable now as more people died. Further ahead, he noticed the makeshift hospital, along with Raphael at the far end, “Today father, today is my lucky day…”
Inside the hospital tent, Raphael yanked at his chain as hard as he could. “Come on! Come on!” He was beginning to get aggressive and impatient, noticing how erratic and mindless the patient opposite him had become. On the bed next to him, another patient’s eyes turned deep red, as he flailed around his bed. “Oh dear lord! No!” He continued tugging his chain.
“Raphael!” Reed stormed over to him with his knife. “Oh, Reed! Thank goodness! I knew someone would save me!” His premature confidence made Reed laugh, “Seriously? You really think I’m here to save you?” Reed pulled up his knife. “What? No, why would you do that? Come on Reed, we’re both men here are we not? Let’s not be too has
ty when it comes to killing, right?” He tried to bargain for his life, but Reed refused to listen to him. He looked at the patients, noticing they all had red eyes.
“Should’ve killed them when you had the chance Reed,” Raphael taunted him, “Now look at what they’re all going to become – Mutants!” Reed looked upon each of them in shock, as Raphael readied his leg to kick him. “Just look closely at them Reed,” he continued to manoeuvre his leg, “Look at all of them. Look at what they really are.” As Reed became enticed with the flailing patient on the adjacent bed, Raphael kicked out at him, knocking him down onto the bed. Reed jumped back off the bed before the mutant human could attack him – he noticed him trying to bite him with spit and saliva flying out of his mouth. He turned back around to Raphael, “You’ll regret that…” Reed pulled up his knife again.
“If you do this, my father will execute you!” He put his hands out as Reed raised the knife, resorting back to begging for his life. “Your father?” Reed laughed, “Your father is dead!” Raphael lowered his hands in shock and confusion. “Dead? You’re lying!” Raphael shook his head in denial.
“No, I’m really not. In fact, why don’t you make like father like son, and join him in Hell?” Reed stabbed him in his right knee, as he winced immensely. He bent down over Raphael’s face, grabbing his jaw tightly, “I’m going to make sure that you feel everything I want you to feel. Every deep cut. Every drop of blood. I want you to suffer like you’ve never suffered before. Shouldn’t be too difficult, just allow me to…” He stabbed him in the other knee, as he winced even more. The combination of the stab wounds and whining had drained his life force massively. “The question is… Do I keep stabbing you? Or do I watch you bleed out from a distance, helplessly? What would be better?” He grabbed his jaw again, “You tell me.”
As his face reddened up, Reed choked up his answer, “P-p-please… K-kill me…” He coughed even more. “Oh, so you want me to keep stabbing you?” Reed verified, as Raphael swallowed hard and nodded. “Well, in that case, I’m going to do the opposite of what you want! Just to make sure you suffer that little bit more… Do you know, even though I was only in solitary confinement for five days, it felt more like five years. The amount of dreams I had about this moment. About killing you… Oh, you wouldn’t believe them. But now, perhaps my penance is finally over…”
“It still sounds like absolute chaos out there,” Gwen remarked, breaking the awkward silence. “What are we actually waiting for? Anyone?” Olivia added. “Ask Elliot that. After all, he’s the know-it-all in this truck-thing.” Zach mocked him.
“Firstly, it’s a trailer,” Elliot mocked him back. “And secondly, we’re waiting for things to die down out there. When it’s quieter, we’ll go outside and find the others.”
Gwen once again pointed out a flaw in Elliot’s plan, “What if everyone now dies though? Elliot?” He shook his head, “It doesn’t matter. There are guaranteed to be families which have hidden in their homes out there. We can manage to keep them alive. Everyone who hid clearly didn’t want to fight, or they wanted to protect someone. Therefore, those are the people we can care and look out for. Everyone who did fight however either is now or will soon be dead, which is what they deserve, and we will not have to worry about them anymore.” Despite how antiheroic Elliot was being everyone knew his intentions were ultimately good in the long term.
“How did it ever come to this?” Olivia was still leant against the wall, stuck in a daydream. “Remember all the things we did together back in the old days, Elliot? I remember Ryan, I remember Charlie, I remember Maddy. Gosh I even remember Matthew and his brigade.” Elliot joined in with her daydream.
“The way you two talk,” Gwen pointed out, “It sounds like something big happened back in the old days. What was it that you did? Steven, the infamous Charlie, the infamous Ryan. I’ll believe anything now days.” They both turned to face Gwen, but Elliot was the one to answer. “Alright, if you really wanna know… We were part of the uprising which took down that corrupt government back in 2018.”
Gwen’s eyes widened, “Really? At only 16 years old?” They both nodded, “I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Really it is. We weren’t even the youngest people in the resistance. It’s partially thanks to us that the People’s Republic took control… But all of that, it’s nothing now. People died for it – my niece was one of them. Even those who survived pretty much ended up dead anyway.” Elliot had a moment of remorse.
“Maddy didn’t,” Olivia reiterated the smallest silver-lining to Elliot. “Well, we don’t know what happened to her.” Elliot and Olivia went back into their own conversation. “I hope she’s still out there somewhere though…”
Chapter 27
Elliot stepped back into the mountain cabin. “Daddy!” Lucy Jr. ran up to him, “Hey! There’s my little princess!” He hugged her tightly, “Where’s your sister then?” Lucy Jr. took Elliot’s hand and lead him to his other daughter. “There’s my other little princess!” She had taken Elliot into the playroom at the back of the cabin. “Hey! Come here Alice!” He embraced his other daughter too. “Ow, come here both of you!” Elliot brought both of his daughters in for a hug. “You’re back early.” Olivia entered the room from behind, startling him. “Oh, yea. Erica let me go early.” He embraced his wife as well, before kissing her. “By the way, I convinced Reed to let us take Lucy and Alice to the dance tonight as well. He says his own son might like to dance with one of them.” They both chuckled lightly. “Well, who am I to hinder the course of love?” They laughed again before kissing each other a second time.
Reed sat back in the corner, watching as Raphael winced in agony, bleeding out massively. “I would say hurry up and die because the noise your making is annoying, but then your suffering would be over. So basically, feel free to take as much time as you want with your death.” He sarcastically smiled.
Raphael made a sudden jump as he fell off of his bed. He tugged at his chain before turning to face Reed – Raphael’s eyes had gone dark red; he had mutated. “Well I’ll be damned…” He was intrigued by this revelation. “Are you dead or alive? I wonder what ‘mutant’ really classes as. Undead maybe?” He edged towards him slowly, reaching his hand out. The mutated Raphael made a biting motion, as Reed retracted his hand and looked up.
“You see, father? You see what I mean? Everyone is evil on the inside! You have to show that evil in order to beat it! And this is that evil…” He looked back down to Raphael. “Alright, you’re boring me now.” He approached Raphael and stabbed him in the side of his throat. “That’s it, just die. Just, die.”
Reed crouched down next to Raphael, watching his mindless biting slow down, as he collapsed to the floor and died. “Just desserts,” Reed planted the knife through Raphael’s eyeball, “This is my significant kill, father. I claim this one! I leave my knife here as a symbol of my victory…” He rose to his feet, looking down at Raphael’s corpse as well as the knife going through his eye. “See you in Hell…” He marched out of the tent now that the commotion outside had died down.
“We’ve been sitting here for quite some time now, Elliot. Can’t we just leave already?” Zach was growing impatient, which in turn had made Elliot impatient as well. “You know what? Fine.” He got up, and began pushing the bookshelf away from the door. “Elliot, hey! Let me help you!” Olivia rose to her feet at once, assisting Elliot with pushing the bookshelf. “One, two, three!” They pushed it together, emptying the doorway. “Alright then, let’s go team!”
As Elliot guided them outside, they were all shocked by the amount of corpses on the floor. “What have we done?” Olivia felt guilt. “No, stop!” Elliot turned her towards him, “Olivia, look at me. Not them. Look at me.” She slowly turned her eyes towards his, “This wasn’t your fault… It was mine.” He reassured her, “Don’t feel guilt. Ever. Olivia?” She cleared her throat and nodded, as the group continued forth.
They headed into the tent hospital, discovering all of the
mutated patients. “Oh my word!” Celeste was stunned. Elliot looked around. “Put them out of their misery… We can’t save them now.” Elliot remorsefully instructed, as everyone went up to each of the patients and mercy-killed them. At the far end of the hospital, Elliot discovered Raphael’s corpse with open reddened eyes. “Crikey,” Elliot pointed to him as the others caught up. “Raphael was infected?” Gwen asked, astonished. “This is our fault. We brought the radiation here,” Elliot made everyone feel guilty. “So where are Erica and Tina then?” Gwen pointed out a fact which made the situation worse. “Christ… And Reed? Alright, everyone split up!” Elliot instructed. “We have to find them. No one leaves the camp without at least one of the missing people, ok?” Elliot ran off before anyone could suggest the possibility that they were already dead.
Olivia followed him outside, “Elliot! Wait up! Let me go with you.” She held his hand tightly, “Alright,” he nodded at her, but also seemed confused. “Elliot, you said it yourself earlier. This world kept us apart for far too long,” they fully turned to face each other, “I don’t want to be without you for a single second more,” she smiled at affectionately at him, as they moved in for a loving kiss.
As Elliot pulled away from her, he noticed she was beginning to cry, the tears were far from joyful. “Olivia? What is it?” Elliot knew something wasn’t right. “I love you…” She stepped back from him, lifting up the side of her shirt – she had been stabbed in her hip. “No!” Elliot bellowed out, catching her as she dropped to the ground.
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