by T A Williams
Alec raised his head and fought to focus on the people in front of him. The world was hazy and flittered in and out of darkness but he recognized Trevor standing just behind a nearby bench. Trevor’s jaw was clenched and he opened his mouth to say something but stopped. Instead he raised one of his hands level to his waist and pushed it forward as if asking him to wait. Alec didn’t understand but saw Trevor glance to his left. He followed his gaze and caught sight of Freddie standing off to the side near a large tree. The man’s attention was on Xian and Alec noticed his hand floating just outside the left side of his jacket, he was armed. Panic rose in Alec as he realized what they were considering. His eyes searched around frantically and he also caught sight of Margie and Malcolm.
“We no longer give you more chances,” Xian continued. “From now on you will be punished.”
Alec caught Freddie’s attention and shook his head no. Freddie look confused for a moment and glanced about before returning his attention back to Alec. The world wavered and Alec took in a deep breath and refocused. “Can I say something?” He asked looking up to Xian.
The man paused and looked behind Alec to where the General and the others probably where.
Alec raised his head and spoke as loud as his body would allow. “Do not disobey them.” Alec looked directly at Freddie. “If you disobey, if you fight back, they will destroy you all.”
Xian stepped back with a smile on his face, clearly very happy that Alec was doing his work for him.
Alec looked to Trevor. “If you want to protect the things you have built and the people you love then do what they tell you to do. Don’t sacrifice everything.”
Alec felt bile rising in his stomach and he closed his eyes and looked down, he prayed for just a little more strength. He looked back out over the crowd and saw her. She was leaning out of the second floor window of an old antique store that faced the square. Alec could see the tears streaming down her face. She was beautiful. She was the best thing that had happened to him since the world fell into chaos. She had saved him from the darkness. He met her eyes. “I love you. I love you all.”
The voice of the General came from behind him and Xian translated what Alec had just said. After a few more moments the General spoke again. Xian turned back to the crowd. “We are not enemies and we are not evil. He may keep his life,” Xian pointed to Alec. “He will be allowed to work off his punishment.”
The soldier behind Alec pulled him to his feet. “What does that mean?” Alec asked Xian.
Xian’s face cracked for just a moment and a look of pity flashed across his face before disappearing. “You go to a prison camp.” Xian glanced back behind Alec. “It probably would have been best to die.”
The solider began to drag Alec away. “Trevor, Freddie take care of everyone.” He caught one last look up at Bethany in the window. “Don’t leav-“.
Something hard slammed into the back of his head and once again he was returned to darkness.
Ally
“Ally, honey, that doesn’t make any sense. Why would Spence attack those people and steal their stuff?” Dena asked.
She knew they weren’t going to believe her.
“Because we need the supplies,” Ally said. “He stole the bottle of alcohol you all drank yesterday from a man he was spying on in one of the towns we were in. I didn’t see him do that but I know it was the same bottle, so I followed him this morning and I watched him attack two people with a baseball bat.”
Confusion was written all over Dena’s face and she turned to Adam whose face was stoic. While Dena didn’t appear able to accept that Spence was capable of such a thing Adam did.
“Where is he?” the man asked.
“I don’t know. I….I ran after I saw him hit the guy lying on the ground again.”
“Spence is a good person!” Coby yelled from Dena’s side. “He wouldn’t hurt anyone, you’re a liar!”
Dena hushed Coby and shook her head. “This is a lot to take in Ally-“
“He is going to come back here with Army food.” Ally blurted out.
“Army food?” Dena asked.
Ally’s mind raced, what were those things called? “The Army food that you just have to heat up?”
“MRE’s?” Adam asked.
“Yes, those. He said that he saw them with some of those yesterday and that is why he came back this morning and attacked them.”
Dena began to say something else when unmistakable sound of a horse approaching reached their ears. Ally ran to the far side of the room and waited for the man to arrive. After a few moments Spence walked in casually with his backpack already off in his hands.
“Morning,” he said to no one in particular.
“Go….good morning,” Dena answered.
Spence kneeled down at the side of the room and began to go through his backpack. “You all start breakfast yet?”
“No,” Dena answered.
“Well, you all are in luck. I found a stash of MRE’s in an abandoned military outpost on the far side of town.”
Dena’s face dropped while Adam’s tightened. Spence must have felt the tension in the room because he stopped what he was doing and looked to Dena.
“What the hell is wrong?”
“Spence, where did you really get those?” she asked.
“The fuck you talking about? I just told you.”
“I saw you,” Ally said. “I followed you to the diner and saw what you did.”
Spence’s face didn’t change. He looked to Dena and Adam and then let out a sigh. “Ok.”
“Spence,” Dena started. “How did you get those?”
The man looked annoyed. “Don’t play stupid. If the kid was there you already know the answer to that.”
Dena’s lower lip began to shiver. “Did you kill those people?”
“I don’t know,” he said casually. “I think one of the men may have died, but I was protecting myself.”
“No, you weren’t! The man asked you not to steal their food and you killed him!” Ally yelled.
“You don’t know shit. The man grabbed for me and I responded.”
“Did you go there to steal their stuff?” Adam asked.
“You stay the fuck out of this, Adam.”
“Answer him,” Dena said still fighting back tears.
Spence rolled his head back and stared at the ceiling for a couple of seconds. “Jesus Christ. Are you all seriously going to sit here and pretend you didn’t know what was going on?” He looked to both Dena and Adam but they didn’t say anything. “You think all the food and supplies I have been bringing back I just happened to find? Do you think I have some supernatural ability to locate hidden supplies? There isn’t shit left in this world. Whatever is still out there belongs to someone else. You either take it or you starve to death.”
Dena shook her head and scooted back. “This isn’t true. You couldn’t……you can’t.”
“I made sure we got this far and I’ll make sure you find Sarah again.”
Dena put her head in her hands and they all sat there in silence. Finally she looked up and the tears were gone. “Get out.”
Spence paused and tilted his head as if he hadn’t heard her.
“Get the hell out of here. I don’t want you near me or my family,” she said through clenched teeth.
Spence stood there dumbfounded. “What……..you all need me. You can’t survive without my help.”
“We’ll find a way,” Adam said.
Spence’s face contorted in anger. “How in the hell are you going to find a way, Adam? You don’t know shit about the world. You’ve never been able to protect them.”
Adam took a few steps forward. “I’ll find a way.”
“You weren’t made for this world, you were barely made for the old world. All you know how to do is sit on your ass and give orders. You can’t provide for them, you’ve never been able to provide for them. That’s why she came to me.”
Adam was on top of Spence just as the
words left his mouth. He smashed into Spence, pushing him against the far side of the wall. The men sat there struggling against each other until Spence pushed off the wall and knocked Adam off of him and onto the ground. Spence jumped on top of Adam and began raining down fists into the man’s face and body. Dena screamed and jumped on Spence’s back causing him to topple over off of Adam. With one hand Spence grabbed Dena by the throat and flung her to the side where she fell down hard on the ground. Just as Adam began to get back to his feet Spence kicked out and his foot connected with Adam’s face with a sickening thwack. Adam fell to the ground and didn’t try to get back up.
Spence stood above him. “You can’t protect her like I can.”
Dena rushed the man from the side but he saw her coming and dodged to the side, off balance Dena couldn’t catch herself and ran smack into the wall.
“Stop it! Stop it!” Coby screamed from the corner.
Spence’s eyes were wild as he looked from Dena to Adam. “I can protect you, Dena. He can’t make you happy. We were happy together. You never should have let him back in your life.” Spence took a step towards Adam.
“Stop!” Ally yelled at the top of her lungs.
Spence turned to her and his eyes went wide. Ally stood there with her bow and arrow in hand pointed directly at the man’s mid-section. Tiger stood beside her, fangs bared.
“Stay out of this, kid. This is between him and me.”
“You’re not going to hurt them. Leave.” Ally tried to say calmly but her voice still shook.
Spence turned fully towards her. “What are you going to do?” You think you’re a killer?”
“Were you there when they found me?” She posed it as a question but she already knew the answer.
Spence nodded.
“The man in the shed, did you get rid of his body?”
Again the man nodded.
“Then you know what I can do,” she said coldly.
Spence stood there looking from her to the arrow and then he took a step back. He turned to Dena who had just gotten up to her knees.
“Dena, we can do this together. I’m sorry for what happened. I won’t do it anymore, I’ll hunt,” he pleaded.
“She said go,” Ally said from behind him.
Spence looked like he was going to take a step forward when they heard the sound of a truck pulling into the parking lot. Ally ran to the front window and saw a truck pull up and three grizzled men jumped out of the back of the truck, one had a bat, another a crowbar and the last a large machete. They headed directly towards their door.
Ally ran back and ignored Spence. “There are men coming, we have to get out of here.”
Dena wobbled over to Adam who was just beginning to stir and tried to get the man to his feet but he was still out of it.
“I’ll get the horses ready,” Spence said as he ran to the back of the store.
“Where do you think you’re going?” A man’s voice came from the back of the store.
Ally looked up and saw Spence slowly backing up as two more men made their way into the store from the back.
“We don’t have anything,” Spence said raising his hands in the air.
“Is that so?” Said one of the men. In one quick motion he grabbed Spence’s arm and twisted it. Spence fell to the ground and screamed in pain. The man put him in a headlock and lifted him back up.
Ally gathered Tiger and Coby next to the downed Adam and put herself between them and the men. The man who had Spence in a headlock had ratty dreads that ran past his shoulders and when he saw her he smiled and she saw gold glinting from several of the man’s teeth. Another man stumbled in from the front of the store and the side of his face was swollen and red. He looked at them with unfocused eyes but when his gaze fell on Spence he focused.
“That’s him. That’s the dude who killed Barry.”
Spence tried to twist away but Dread’s grip was too tight. “Told you I could track him here.” He looked down at Ally and the others. “What about them?”
The swollen man looked back to them and shook his head. “It was only this dude.”
A man with a bat walked up to Spence and swung it right at his stomach. The bat hit him with a solid thump and he crumbled to the ground. Dreads let him go but kept his foot on Spence’s back as the man gasped desperately for air.
Dreads looked down at them. “This guy with you?”
A knot was beginning to form on Dena’s head and she had to put her hand down to steady herself but she nodded. “He was.”
“What happened to your head?”
“He did.” Dena gestured to Spence.
Dreads raised an eyebrow. “He’s with you but he attacked you, huh? Sounds like a bad friend.”
Ally’s bow didn’t waiver. “I saw what he did to your friend so I came back here and told them. He attacked us because we told him to leave.”
Dreads eyed her bow. “Is that so? You watched and you didn’t try to stop him?”
Ally didn’t answer him.
“Well, I guess you all won’t mind if we take your friend back with us then?”
Spence raised his head from the floor and looked to them. “Please,” he coughed out. “Please help me.”
The man with the bat brought it back down and it cracked against Spence’s back. Spence fell to the floor and let out a scream of paint.
Dena looked away and put her head into Adam’s stomach. “Just go.”
Dreads put Spence in a headlock and picked up the man and passed him to another. “Go put him in the truck.” He turned back to them. “Since your boy killed one of ours its customary that you pay for his transgressions. Since you all seemed to be in the process of breaking up I’ll allow you to pay in supplies. What do you got?”
There were still two other men in the room with him and they surrounded the group.
“Spence’s bag is over there. It has the stuff he stole from your people,” Dena said.
Dreads nodded towards one of the men to pick it up. “That’s a good start. What else you got?”
“Everything else is ours,” Ally said.
Dreads cold eyes met hers. “You know I’m getting really tired of your little arrow pointing at me. I think it’s about time you lower it.”
“I don’t think so,” she said.
“I can respect a bow, good quality weapon. The problem is that it only has one arrow then it needs to be reloaded, and that can take a couple of seconds to do. There are three of us in here and quite a few more of us outside. You think you can shoot and reload fast enough to take us all out?”
Ally felt a bead of sweat running from her forehead down her nose. Dreads stood in front of her and the other two men were on opposite sides of her. “No, I don’t.” Dreads smiled. “But I can get one good shot, and I’ll make sure it hits you square in the chest.”
The smile fell from Dread’s face. “You got a fucked up little girl,” he said to Dena. The man glanced about and let out a sigh. “Alright, load up boys, let’s head out.” He looked back to them. “We’re coming back here at nightfall and if you all are still here this will be where you’re buried. Got that?” Ally nodded. The man shook his head once at her and they walked out of the building.
Silence hung in the air.
Dena began to cry and Coby followed. Ally went to her and laid her hand on her head.
“It’s ok,” she told her.
“No, it’s not Ally. Spence was right we can’t make it without him. We don’t know what we’re doing.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Ally said.
Dena looked up at her, her eyes were red and the knot on her head had tripled in size.
“I know how to hunt and I know how to find things. I made it long before you all showed up. I can take care of you.”
Dena pulled Ally in close and gave her a hug.
It took several hours before Adam was coherent enough to ride. When he was ready they gathered up the last of their supplies. Dena got on one horse with C
oby on the back, Adam got on the other and Ally got onto Spence’s old horse. They stood there for a brief moment.
“I don’t……I don’t even know where to start,” Dena said.
“We get out of this town to where it’s safe. Then we can look at your map and go find your daughter,” Ally said.
Some of the panic left Dena’s face and she nodded her head sluggishly.
Ally looked back from where they came. Back towards all the memories of the things that had happened to her, and to them, up to this point. Then she looked forward again, at the empty town and the great unknown. Without thinking twice she gently dug her heels into the side of the horse and it moved forward. The others followed.
To Be Continued in After the Event Book 5
Coming Soon
About The Author
T.A. Williams is the author of the After The Event Series (After The Event, The Remnants, Innocence Lost and Into The Dark). He lives in middle-America, USA with his wife, son & new daughter.
http://www.TheTAWilliams.com