All too soon, they arrived home. Ben’s heart sunk as he saw the waiting crowd. He got out, flanked on either side by Joseph and Max. It felt like he was in a lineup facing a firing squad.
The smiling faces of the crowd sobered at the grim looks on the trio’s faces, and eyes danced around for the whereabouts of Jacques. It was Julianne who broke the silence. “Max? What happened? Where’s Jacques?”
The question hung in the air, resonating through the expectant hush that had descended. From the back, Armand pushed his way through the people. His eyes searched, growing wilder by the second. “Where’s Jacques?”
When no-one replied, Armand stepped forward and grabbed Ben’s arm. “Ben? Where’s Jacques?”
Ben swallowed, his mouth gone dry and his hands trembling. “I…he…”
“Where is he?” Armand roared.
Ben shook his head and pointed to the back of the truck. Armand stormed over and ripped the door open. He froze, confronted by the blood-soaked sheet covering his brother’s body. He tore it off and swayed when he saw the terrible wounds.
“No, not him. Not my brother.” A shudder tore through his body, and his shoulders heaved. He turned and glared at Max. “I trusted you. I placed his life in your hands. I believed you would keep him safe.”
He snapped off a punch, hitting Max in the nose. Gasps of shock went around as blood spurted, and the cartilage crunched. Armand followed it up with a second blow that split Max’s lip before Ben grabbed him and wrestled him away.
“It’s not his fault!” he said, strong-arming Armand. “It’s mine.”
Armand stilled, and shock and disbelief chased each other across his face. “What do you mean?”
“I could have saved him,” Ben admitted. “I had the shot, but I missed.”
“Tell me what happened to my brother.”
Ben glanced over his shoulder and saw Elise herding the children away as the group backed up to give them privacy. He focused on Armand’s icy blue gaze. In a guilt-stricken voice, he related what happened, leaving nothing out. When the last words died away, he waited, waited for the hatred and condemnation that was sure to follow.
Armand stared at him, his face a blank slate. In an emotionless voice, he said, “You were like a father to him, to us. We trusted you with our lives.”
He turned and walked away with Angie close on his heels. Ben’s knees buckled, unable to hold him up any longer. He fell to his knees in the dust and stared at his hands. His shoulders shook as dry, wracking sobs tore through his body.
Joseph and Max gripped him by the arms and guided him inside, speaking softly in his ears. It was nothing but noise to Ben as he faced the reality that his whole world was collapsing.
Chapter 19 - Lisa
Lisa sat on the wall, basking in the early sunlight. She fingered the metal spear on her lap. It felt good to hold a weapon again, to be able to defend herself. It was something she needed after her ordeal.
It was quiet. She liked it that way. The usual hustle and bustle were gone. It was just her and the sun and the birds. Peaceful.
Michelle was inside, helping in the kitchens. Most of the others had left to prepare their new home for the big move. Only a few remained. She shuddered, thinking about that place. I don’t want to go back there.
Her memories of that place tortured her. How could it not? The thought of living there was enough to make her scream, but she had no choice.
A flashback caught her off guard, throwing her back to the moment when she was captured. She was walking along the highway, a rucksack on her back. In her hands, she carried a steel pipe. Her eyes searched for movement, either the living or the undead kind.
She was tired and thirsty but dared not stop. She might never get going again. The sun beat down on her with relentless force, burning her skin to a dark ruddy red despite the sunscreen she’d slathered on.
The sound of a car caused her to stumble. People! Living people! Maybe they could help her. She’d been alone for a week now. Alone and frightened to death.
A truck appeared, dirty white in color. It slowed, the window drawing even. She smiled, a greeting hovering on her lips. Only to fade when she saw the muzzle of a gun pointed at her.
Despite her protests, she was tied up and tossed into the back with cruel indifference. Whimpers met her ears. The back was filled with others like herself, all young and female except for two teenage boys. They were taken to a place, the place where Morgan found them. That night they dragged her to the fire and used her. Over and over and over again.
Lisa fought against the memory, but it was too vivid. It intensified until she could taste the blood in her mouth. She could hear them, taunting and cheering; smell the odor of sweat and alcohol; feel them violating her inner being. They took everything from me.
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks and burned fiery paths across her skin. Her chest constricted. Her hands fisted, nails cutting into her palms. She closed her eyes and found that place inside her. The one she ran to whenever things got hard. Her breath flowed through her nose. In, out, in, out.
She stilled, mind becoming blank. The clouds drifted past overhead; a pigeon flew by; the breeze picked up. She felt nothing, heard nothing. Her heartbeat slowed, becoming regular once more. The panic passed.
Opening her eyes, Lisa stood up. She did a slow circuit of the walls and thought about the people among whom she now found herself. She liked Morgan, admired her gutsy approach to life. Hannah and Elise as well. They were both warm and motherly, caring for her and Michelle with a sensitivity that she appreciated.
Angie was a different story. Lisa’s lips thinned at the thought of the other girl’s callous demeanor. She made no secret of the fact that she resented Lisa and Michelle for the attention they got. If Lisa had to guess, she’d say Angie was spoiled, used to being the center of attention.
“At least, she’s gone for the next few days.” Angie had moved to the new base to help with the preparations. It was a welcome reprieve from the girl’s cutting remarks.
As to the rest, Julianne and Joanna were a little more aloof but pleasant, as was Liezel and Rosa. Tumi didn’t talk much. Shy and reclusive, Lisa had heard that she still mourned the loss of her child.
She had yet to get to know them all, and the men kept their distance. That was a blessing. Especially for Michelle who struggled to cope. Of all the captives she’d been the youngest at sixteen. It’s a miracle she survived.
Once more, Lisa’s memories betrayed her, and she was swept along on the tide of remembrance. A week had passed. The girls slept outside, chained to a tree, stripped of both their clothes and their dignity. Their captors fed them when they remembered, which wasn’t often, and used them whenever they felt like it, which was often.
Their ablutions consisted of two buckets. One with drinking water and the other for bodily functions. At night, the mosquitoes drove them mad, and they scratched their tender skin until it bled. They bonded quickly. It was only natural that they’d turn to each other for comfort in their hellish circumstances.
The teenage boys, Tommy and Errol, were a different story. Their purpose at camp was to provide free labor. They performed the chores their captors would not. They were grunts, but they got treated a lot better in return, a fact that made the girls jealous. There existed a state of animosity between the two groups.
Then one night, everything changed. It was warm, and the men were drunk. They’d gotten hold of a few infected and had chained them to the tailgate of a truck. The zombies snarled, desperate to reach the flesh that tantalized them.
It was terrifying to have the things so close at hand. Michelle sobbed softly into Mpho’s arms while Lisa prepared herself for the worst. Who knew what their captors had planned? And she was right.
Tommy and Errol, who had thus far escaped the worst, now ran out of luck. Bored and jaded, their captors decided they were in need of entertainment. The boys were forced into a makeshift ring with the infected and given sharpened sticks
for weapons.
Errol fought, grappling with the nearest zombie, trying to keep its teeth out of his flesh. He forced it backward and stabbed it through the eye. It fell, but a second was already on him. He kicked it and broke the thing’s kneecap before he delivered another killing blow. The watchers cheered.
In the meantime, Tommy sidled out of reach. Slim and agile, he danced around the stumbling bodies while his shrewd eyes looked for an escape route. He found it in Errol. Performing a few quick maneuvers worthy of a fox, he led the infected straight to his fellow captive. They fell upon the hapless boy, defying his attempts to defend himself.
While they ripped into his flesh, Tommy used the opportunity to pick off the zombies, one by one. Lisa could still hear Errol’s screams when she closed her eyes, and see the look of triumph on Tommy’s face.
Impressed by his ingenuity, their captors released him and made him one of their own. He turned out to be an apt pupil, the worst of them all, cruel and sadistic.
Tommy was the one responsible for Becky being hung. He wanted to see what it looked like in real life. He was also the one who drove Mpho to suicide. She slit her wrists one night with a pair of stolen scissors.
Perhaps, Lisa should have known better than to hope that Jackie would make it out alive, but hope is hard to kill. It burned inside her, the thought of what Tommy must have done to Jackie. Infecting her, hurting her, and who knows what else?
Lisa crumpled to the ground. Sobs tore from her breast, cutting through her chest like a knife. They were my friends! Why did this happen? Why?
She buried her face in her arms, hoping no one would hear her. Hannah hadn’t wanted her to stand guard, arguing that she needed more time to recover, but Lisa had insisted. She could not sit around anymore. She needed to keep busy.
A soft hand on her shoulder startled her. It was Morgan.
Lisa wiped away the tears, composing her face as best as she could. She did not want Morgan to think her weak. Nor did she want pity. She hated pity more than anything in the world.
“Can I sit?” Morgan asked.
Lisa nodded, unable to speak.
Morgan sat down, folding her legs. “I want you to know something, Lisa.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.”
“What?” Lisa stared at her in shock. “You’ve got to be joking. I’m not brave!”
“Yes, you are.”
“Back there, when I found you, you kept it together. You got Michelle out of there. It could have turned out very differently if you’d panicked.”
Lisa shook her head. She studied her clenched hands and picked at a broken nail. “I’m not strong, I…”
“You are. More than you know.” Morgan reached out and squeezed her arm. “This camp needs you, so just promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“Don’t let what they did to you, break you. Don’t let them win.” Morgan got up and dusted off her shorts. “I’ve got to go. Logan and I need to deliver material to the new base.”
“Okay.”
“Just remember. You’ll always have a friend in me.”
Lisa watched Morgan leave, her throat thick with emotion. Morgan was right. She couldn’t let them win. She wouldn’t.
Chapter 20 - Angie
Angie’s lower back ached as she scrubbed at the inside of the freezer. The smell of disinfectant made her eyes water. It only barely overlaid the smell of rotting food. It was a nauseating mixture of spoiled fruit, vegetables, meat, and sour milk. It was now a week since they’d taken over the game farm, and the work that needed to be done was monumental.
Armand and Joseph were installing a solar panel system on the main building complete with wiring, charge controllers, inverters, and battery banks. There was no running water yet. The borehole needed electricity to function, so they fetched it from the dam in buckets.
Elise swore like a trooper. “Didn’t these people know what oven cleaner was?”
The fumes emanating from her region was enough to put them all on a high. Joanna laughed at Elise and soon they were all giggling like schoolgirls. In the dining room, Liezel and Rosa looked over the breakfast counter at the three women and joined in after a moment.
Childish laughter drifted through the windows. Anne and Meghan were playing on the lawn with Princess and Buzz. The little terrier bounced around on the grass like a jackrabbit, chasing a ball while Buzz chased her.
Julianne sat in the shade, keeping watch with a rifle on her knees. She had pulled a muscle moving furniture and had been reassigned to babysitting duties. Ben also kept an eye on them as he cleaned up the yard and swimming pool. Angie didn’t envy him the task. She wouldn’t be surprised if he found crocodiles in there. She supposed they wouldn’t be keeping the pool—too much water. It would have been nice, though.
Angie eyed Ben, wondering if he’d recover from the recent blows he’d suffered. He missed Susan and Jacques, that much was clear. Armand’s refusal to speak to him added to his pain. She found the whole business tiresome. Can’t they just get over it? People die all the time, especially now.
She was fond of Ben, and he’d always treated her well, but his losses had made him selfish. He hardly ever speaks to me anymore, and when he does, it’s just about them.
As for Jacques, she’d never liked him. He’d always stood between her and Armand, not trusting her with his brother. Good riddance.
The problem was, Armand wouldn’t speak to her either now. He was so caught up in grief over his stupid brother, he ignored her completely. When he wasn’t mooning over Morgan, that was. Anger bubbled up inside. What does he see in her?
The hours passed as they worked to make the place habitable, and Angie was grateful when Elise called a halt. They were all hot, sweaty, and hungry. Gathering in the dining room of the old restaurant, everyone relaxed as Elise sent cans of cold drink and bottled water around.
Angie cracked open a Fanta Orange, grimacing at the sweet, sticky taste of the warm mixture, but she was thirsty, and it went down fast. Packets of chips and biscuits followed by a few cans of beans and viennas went around. Nobody seemed happy with the food, but without a working kitchen, it was the best they could get.
After their makeshift supper, the talk wound down as people sought their beds. Everyone was tired. Only the kids were hyper, and Angie blamed all the sugary food.
“Thanks,” she murmured as Julianne gathered up the rubbish in a black bag.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. It’s just—” Meghan ran up and grabbed Julianne around the waist, giggling.
Little brat, Angie thought as Julianne scurried away. She scooped up her bedroll and lay down in a corner, hoping to sleep.
She struggled.
The sight of Armand’s face drifted before her closed eyelids. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. From the first moment she first saw him, she knew he was the one, but it was like she didn’t exist at all. After everything they’d been through, she’d believed they shared a bond. They’d grown close over the weeks of running and hiding, fighting for their lives together, and now he was acting like a stranger, cold and distant.
After hours of obsessing, Angie finally fell asleep. The next morning, she rolled out of bed just as tired as when she turned in. An unappetizing breakfast was followed by more back-breaking labor. Today, there were no giggles, but by noon the building was spotless. After a brief break, they set to work on the bungalows.
A truck had arrived with a load of building material, and a team was engaged in building up the inner walls. All except Armand, who still worked on the solar system. Angie watched him from underneath her lashes. He’s so handsome.
Sweat pearled on his forehead, and his blond hair stuck to his neck in the cutest way. She pictured his muscled arms cradling her at night. A giggle distracted her. Frowning, she noticed Liezel pointing at Armand and whispering to Rosa. What the Hell?
Angie calmed herself a
nd flashed the two a dimpled smile when she noticed them staring at her in shocked surprise. She forced herself to turn away and return to work, but the rest of the day passed in a haze of red anger.
That night, supper was as dismal as the previous evening. Nobody talked to her, put off by her sullen mood. She felt lonely and rejected.
Once again she struggled to sleep and woke up exhausted. Washing her face, Angie stared at her reflection in the mirror, noting the dark circles under her eyes. She looked worn out, haggard.
She could feel something moving deep inside of her, like a worm burrowing into her heart. All the stress and strain, made bearable only by her love for Armand, was threatening to overwhelm her. Something had to give. Pressing her lips together, she marched outside to join the others.
“Angie!” Looking over, she saw Armand waving at her, and her stomach did a back-flip of delight.
Hurrying over, she flashed him a huge smile. “Hey, there. Looking for me?”
She cringed at the fawning note in her voice. So much for acting cool.
“Yeah, Morgan showed up with the truck. She wants us to join her on a scavenging trip.”
Angie’s heart dropped as she realized the excitement on his face wasn’t because of her but rather the prospect of spending time with Morgan.
“Sure. I’d love to.” She gritted the words out between clenched teeth, her fingers curling into fists.
“Great. We’re leaving now.”
She followed Armand on legs that felt like lead. Her hands shook. Blinking back tears, she shoved her trembling hands into her pockets. Up ahead, she spotted the familiar figure of Morgan. A surge of jealousy suffused her mind. She shot a glance at Armand and saw the worship written there, moments before it turned to disappointment and anger. Looking back, she was treated to the sight of Morgan throwing herself into Logan’s arms. They kissed with passion, not caring who saw.
Smirking, Angie stepped up and greeted the two lovebirds with a fake smile before jumping into the back of the truck. A forlorn Armand joined her and stewed in anger. The trip passed in loaded silence. Men are so stupid.
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