Chapter 16
Two solid days of running, with only small breaks to rest the horses, they slept in shifts, rotating who rode and who sat in the back trying to cling on and sleep at the same time.
Nobody was feeling very refreshed by the time the sun rose on the third morning but they all felt the need and the urgency to put distance between themselves and the prison. No one was complaining though spirits were beginning to lag and it was clear that if they didn’t find somewhere safe to stay soon they would be putting themselves in more danger; the possibility of making silly mistakes rose in direct proportion to their tiredness.
They had kept as much as possible to secluded areas, woodland mostly which was ideal for coverage and even occasionally provided lone cabins inhabited by reclusive hermits, Leci could only assume that at some point way in the past people had chosen to live out here spread so far from their neighbours as to be offered complete solitude.
It seemed a wonderful idea to her.
If she had been free to live where she wanted she would’ve liked to have made a home for herself somewhere like this. The cabins, though sparse, were like small goldmines for the escapees when they did come across them, and usually offered thievable supplies of some kind. Any food they could get their hands on was welcomed but other items were just as valuable, blankets, candles, bottled water, they even found a torch at one place, any coins left laying around and most importantly; weapons.
So far they had managed to equip themselves with a rifle, two pistols and a small knife. Amato had kept the rifle, it was slung over his back with the long leather strap that was attached to it. It looked as though it belonged there and the sight of it brought back to Leci visions of the man who had begun the pursuit of her all that time ago, the first Official to pick up her trail had carried a weapon just like this.
Bitsy and Beriael seemed comfortable with the pistols and carried one each. Alecia hadn’t wanted anything, had argued that it was more fair to give the knife to Bits, reasoned that she was capable of protecting herself if it came down to it.
She couldn’t win where Amato was concerned, he refused to take no for an answer and so she rode with the weapon strapped to her inner thigh. She was secretly quite touched by his insistence that she carry it. It was nice that he wanted her kept safe.
They could’ve perhaps equipped themselves even better if they hadn’t skirted the towns they had passed on the way but they had made a point of giving heavily populated areas a wide berth.
As they entered their third day on the run since leaving the underground shelter, finding somewhere to stay was becoming a priority.
Bitsy dozed against Alecia’s back, her hands hung loosely at her sides and Leci was afraid that the other woman was going to fall, she’d slowed the horse down to a walk and was quietly surveying the dense trees around them, alert for both signs of danger and for somewhere, anywhere to just hole up for a couple of hours, even a small clearing would seem like a palace right about now.
To her left Beriael had dismounted and was matching her pace, guiding the animal through the woodland, Amato was asleep in the saddle and she couldn’t help giggling to look over at the sight of him slumped over with his arms wrapped around the horse’s neck.
Beriael heard her, glanced over and then followed her gaze. He grinned and then went back to watching the woods.
The tension between the two of them seemed to have almost vanished over the past couple of days. She still occasionally caught him looking at her a little oddly but she couldn’t really expect him not to have a few issues could she?
She suspected Morgan had played a big part in his change of attitude but whatever it was that had quieted the vast portion of his rage, she had to admire the way he was handling things, she would’ve been a lot more messed up if it had been the other way around.
So far they had come across only one empty cabin, the place had been falling apart and looked as though it had been abandoned for the better part of the last century. The inside had been stripped completely and in places the roof had fallen in, the floor creaked ominously underfoot, threatening to give way at any second and send one of them plunging through darkness to land on hard ground if they were lucky, splintered beams if they weren’t.
Leci hadn’t been able to stop imagining herself laying down there, pale and motionless, a long and deadly sharp spike of wood driving up from beneath her, through the back of her skull, passing through the soft matter of her brain and then the tip, sticking out through her socket, a punctured eyeball perched on the end, dripping blood and other icky fluids. She pictured her hands and feet pierced in place, errant stakes holding her, fixing her to the ground, her mouth open wide, froze in an eternal scream of agony...
That had been over twenty hours ago and they had all agreed it was safer to keep moving.
Leci half wished now that they had stopped. It felt as though the chances of coming across another such opportunity were sparse at best and despite how degraded the place had been and however Leci may have spent the night torturing herself with an over active imagination and visions of a painful death it had at least offered protection from the elements and cover from prying eyes.
Beriael suddenly stopped and held a hand out in her direction, telling her halt, then moving one finger to his lips, indicating she ought to stay quiet; he had seen something. She moved the horse closer to him and stood still, looking around to try to see what had sparked his attention. The change in motion had jolted Amato awake and he sat up quickly in the saddle with a quiet snort. He looked surprised and wiped a trail of drool from his chin with the back of his hand. Bitsy seemed to be still sleeping, the weight at Leci’s back hadn’t shifted. She hoped the other girl didn’t drool all over her shirt.
‘Wha’s goin on?’ He slurred, his voice heavy with the weariness of someone disturbed from not enough much needed sleep. She watched as his hand instinctively went to the rifle at his back, resting on it but watching Beriael, the sleepy look vanishing from his eyes fast and replaced with a sharp wariness as he realised something was happening.
The Clone shook his head to signify that there was no bother, no need for the weapon, not yet anyway, and then pointed through the trees. Leci peered in the direction of his finger but couldn’t make out anything through the shadows of the trees.
‘See it?’ Beriael asked quietly.
‘Yep.’ Amato answered and Alecia frowned, straining to see whatever it was they were looking at, was she freakin’ blind or something? She cursed the darkened cell for causing her eyes to have such difficulty adjusting to varying light settings after four years of being subjected to either darkest black or harsh bright.
Slowly she began to perceive the dim shape of another cabin. It had been a while since they had seen one, three, maybe four hours ago, though they had slowed down the pace a lot since they’d first set out. The place looked dark and uninhabited but that didn’t mean anything and caution was always the safest way to approach an unknown dwelling, surprising wary and potentially armed occupants could be fatal if you went about it the wrong way.
Beriael handed the reins to her that he had been holding and at the same time, Amato slipped down from the saddle to the ground, pulling the rifle from his back.
‘Leci, wait here with the horses, we’ll go check the place out.’
She nodded and managed to suppress a yawn. God, she hoped the place was empty, her ass was numb from sitting on the damned horse for so long and she didn’t care where she dropped right now she just wanted to lay down and close her eyes. Not only that, but it would be nice to just have the option of relaxing for a while, sit and talk or sleep or whatever, just not be running. A place this far out and this lonely, she’d stay here for days, weeks if she thought they could get away with it.
Bitsy had mentioned earlier that the forest creeped her out a little, the trees with their reaching branches ready to twist in your hair or slap back and claw at your face cruelly, the murmurings of the breeze in t
he leaves above like the sighing of lost souls and the hundreds of noises made by whatever creatures inhabited the undergrowth. Leci disagreed, to her it seemed peaceful here, serene and picturesque. She found the darkness welcoming, the trees were beautiful monuments that had stood the test of time and existed as remnants of an old life. The lulling sensation of the whispering above was more comforting than ghostly to her. It was nice, she could get used to it here.
A few minutes passed and she heard nothing from the direction the men had gone.
Alecia fidgeted nervously. She didn’t like that it was taking so long for them to see whether or not the place was empty, how hard was it to peek through a window and see if it looked lived in?
She was reaching a point where the temptation to follow them and see what was going on was becoming too strong to resist when she heard footsteps, twigs snapping underfoot, heading towards her. She eyed the foliage warily, half expecting the men to have been killed by some crazy old weirdo who was now coming to finish the job.
She watched a scrawny, naked old man run from the trees, his emaciated body covered in wispy grey hair, all but the top of his head which was completely bald. A twisted, knotted beard grew from his chin down to his navel and over his head he swung a large axe that was covered in blood. A necklace of teeth, human teeth, hung around his throat like some sort of sick trophy on a string, she knew that he would fashion their skins into leathery clothes, scalp her and use her hair as a wig to cover his own bald, liver spotted pate.
Leci shuddered.
‘Gotta stop letting the imagination run away with you Walker.’ She chided herself beneath her breath as Amato emerged through the dense bushes, disintegrating the vivid scene she had imagined before her.
He had a strange expression on his face that Leci couldn’t read at all. Behind him, Beriael was stoic and he too gave nothing away. She held her hands out to the sides, palms up in a gesture that said ‘Well?’ A questioning look on her face. Amato saw her and couldn’t help grinning excitedly, he looked like a kid with a big secret and Leci felt her anticipation and eagerness growing and was desperately curious to know what they had found.
She turned and shook Bitsy by the shoulder. The Clone awoke with a start and was only stopped from falling off the horse because Beriael had come up close and reached for her. He caught her as she began to slide down and set her on the ground with an arm around her waist to steady her until she fought off the clinging remnants of sleep. While he was stood next to the horse he reached into one of the packs strung over its back and removed a pair of candles. One of the places they had looted earlier had yielded a working torch and Amato had kept it in the pocket of his jacket, it was small and didn’t give off much light but it was better than nothing, he held it now in his hand.
Leci dismounted, a low groan escaping her as she straightened her legs and pressed her hands into the small of her back, massaging the dull ache there. It felt good to be stood on firm ground again but it would feel better to be laying on something, hopefully something soft.
She hooked both sets of reins over the branch of a nearby tree and moved to Amato’s side. He waited until all four of them were ready and then without a word, turned and headed back through the trees.
Leci followed, Beriael and Bitsy behind her walking hand in hand with one another.
It seemed eerily quiet and Alecia wasn’t sure if she should feel nervous or not, even the birds and bugs seemed to have respectfully toned it down around the cabin.
The place looked in relatively good shape, it looked as though somebody had put some effort into restoring and maintaining it, which to Leci was a bad sign and almost certainly meant that somebody lived here.
The decking out front was rotten all the way through and lay in broken pieces around the front of the small structure, this was the only sign of disrepair about the exterior of the place other than the boarded up holes where she assumed there had once been windows. It was a rarity, no, it was near impossible to find any building still standing with things like windows that were intact, it just didn’t happen, glass had been scavenged a long time ago, even in reclusive areas like this. More likely though, these boards served a purpose other than just to block up a few places where the rain might blow in.
It made far more sense to create a secure hideaway than to leave oneself vulnerable, and an empty hole in the middle of a wall was just a bad idea. The overall intention was fortification, keeping out anyone who wasn’t supposed to be there. Again, such measures suggested to Alecia that the place was not abandoned.
The building itself was quite small, cosy looking, from the outside Leci guessed at maybe four rooms. The front door stood ajar and Amato brazenly walked to it and entered. Bitsy and Alecia exchanged puzzled glances and then Beriael tugged Bits after him as he followed and the two of them disappeared inside. Loathe to be left alone outside alone, and very much wanting to see what all the fuss was about, Leci stepped out of the slowly brightening day and into the dim interior.
Her initial reaction was one of disgust as she found herself gagging and holding a hand over her mouth. She could see nothing in the dimness, there was no source of light with the windows boarded over and the only thing she was able to register was the horrendous smell that assaulted her. She couldn’t place it, it was sickly sweet but at the same time rotten, like meat that had been left out in the sun for too long, it made her eyes water and bile rise in her throat.
‘Oh my God, what is that?’ Morgan, stood beside Leci, was as shocked as she was by the assault on their senses that the men had failed to prepare them for.
She was covering her nose and though Leci couldn’t see very well the other woman seemed to be standing out very well against the gloomy background, her features pale and sickly.
‘Just ignore the smell...’ Amato instructed.
‘Are you serious? How can you ignore that? It smells like something died.’ Leci retorted, disgusted that she had been brought into this place.
‘Exactly.’ Amato replied, sounding very pleased with himself.
‘Huh?’
Leci felt something being thrust into her hands and looked down to see the candles that Beriael had retrieved earlier.
‘Do us a favour, Firebug?’
She carefully lit the wick of one and handed it to Amato, then the other and passed it to Beriael. She wanted her hands free just in case, besides, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to see the rest of the place now. Accompanying the smell she noticed a high buzzing sound like... like an angry swarm.
Perhaps the sound was in her head, perhaps the smell was just too gross and she was on the verge of fainting...
Amato lifted the candle and the room was lit dimly. Leci allowed herself to look up, follow the path of the light. The place looked nice, it was in surprisingly good condition, there was even furniture, and better yet, it looked intact. A wooden table and two rickety looking wooden chairs stood at one end of the room beside rows of shelves that held several labelled cans and tins, to the side of it was a small fireplace with a cooking pot suspended over coals. The floor in the centre of the room was covered with what looked to be the fur of a bear, a small wooden table was sat on top of the bear-rug and around it were positioned a moth eaten couch and two chairs. The fabric of the furniture was worn and patched with holes, if it had ever held a pattern or colours other than dirty grey they were now indiscernible. They sagged terribly in the middle but they were standing which was a novelty.
Amato moved over to the small table in the middle of the room. He held his candle at an angle and dripped some wax onto the surface then quickly stood the candle in it, the drying pool holding it upright. He flicked the small torch to life and panned back across the room.
On the opposite wall to the table were two doors, one was wide open and the buzzing seemed to come from inside, the other was closed.
Amato took a step in the direction of the open doorway and Leci reached for him, grabbing his jacket as though wanting to hold him
back, he felt the tug and looked back, looked down at her hand and smiled, appeared slightly amused at her concern. He plucked her fingers away but didn’t brush off her hand and instead enclosed it in his own and then pulled her with him. Leci resisted initially but then went with him. She was afraid of the smell but she trusted him and was sure he wouldn’t be leading her into any sort of danger.
He led her into the room and though she had pretty much just about pulled her gag reflex under control, the stench in here was far worse. The air in the small room was hot and stifling; the buzzing was incessant and so loud it felt like it was inside her head. She cried out in surprise as the source of the sound was revealed and she swatted at the countless flies that thronged around her head, they were thick and it felt like there were thousands of them. When she managed to see past them, she looked to where Amato was aiming the torch and gasped at the sight in front of her.
Beriael and Morgan had squeezed in behind them and they too were gazing at what lay on the small bed.
The bed itself looked old but relatively sturdy and was piled with comfortable looking blankets. A small cabinet sat beside it on top of a thin, threadbare rug.
It would’ve been a very nice, cosy little room if not for the putrid, decomposing corpse that lay in the centre of the bed and sort of ruined the scene.
Leci watched, fascinated, as a fat, white maggot crawled from one of the empty, staring eye sockets and tumbled down what remained of the face, it fell through the space between exposed ribs and into the chest cavity, then she turned and left the room.
Chapter 17
The men had removed the body. Amato had asked her to burn it but she had refused. If he had pushed the matter she would’ve done as he wished, grudgingly, but he seemed to understand her reluctance and he had not.
They had wrapped the remains in the sheets and blankets it lay on and had taken it into the woods, she didn’t know what they had done with it there, left it for animals to find, buried it, burned it, she didn’t care enough to ask them.
The Condemned Page 13