Edge Of Bloodshed (Beyond the Collapse Book 3)

by Kip Nelson

  As soon as Tara told him that Annabelle had been taken Adam's body tensed and he was ready to leap into the fray again. He didn't care that he was tired, or that he could barely hold his gun up without his arms shaking, he was going to get Annabelle back no matter what. With a grim look on his face he began striding forward. Tara caught his arm and pulled him back.

  “Where are you going?” she said in a harsh whisper, for there still were people milling around.

  Many of the army immediately had returned to their homes upon returning to the camp. Much like Adam, a lot of them were haunted by what they had seen and wanted to try pushing the images out of their minds, while others wanted to stay awake as long as possible and be around other people, for they did not want to be alone with their nightmares.

  “I'm going to save her,” Adam replied in a gritty tone.

  “Are you insane? You can't go now. Lisa is a dangerous woman. She has Annabelle under guard. You can't just walk up and rescue her. We have to be careful about this,” Tara said.

  “I need to save her.”

  “We all do, and you're not going to do her any favors by charging over there in the state you're in now. Look at you,” she said.

  Adam looked down at the smoky stains on his clothes, at the dirt covering his boots. His hands were black with dirt and soot. He barely recognized himself. Tara suggested they go back to his apartment and talk things over, looking around warily at the other people milling around. Before they left, one of Lee's lackeys approached them. Adam was worried that somehow he knew what they were plotting, and he became ready to defend himself, but the man merely took their guns and returned them to the armory. Adam watched him with suspicion, however. He was starting to think that everyone in that camp was the enemy, and that the people they had attacked weren't necessarily the guilty ones. Although after all he had seen that night he didn't think any of them were particularly innocent. Nobody but Annabelle.

  They skulked through the camp quietly and made their way to Adam's apartment. As soon as the door was shut Tara practically broke down. She paced around and shook her head, casting her eyes downward. She ran her hands through her hair and chewed her bottom lip. Adam and Peter sat down, welcoming the yielding of their body to the comfort of the furniture. Once they were down they weren't sure how long it would take them to get back up again.

  “I can't believe I let things get this bad. I should have seen it coming. Oh God...I should have kept a closer eye on Annabelle. I knew that girl was up to something. I could see it in her eyes, but I didn't think she'd be so stupid as to go after Lisa--”

  “What happened?” Adam said.

  Tara took a deep breath. They were cast in the ethereal glow of the dim moon that slanted through the windows, and the orange glow of lanterns that were hung at regular intervals throughout the camp to help people find their way in the darkness. Tara looked so small and frail. In fact, Adam hadn't realized until this moment how petite she was. There was a part of him that just wanted to wrap his arms around her and press her body close to him, both to keep her safe and to make him feel alive. It had been so long since he had felt that close to anyone...and he longed to be with her, when all this had settled down.

  “I was looking after the kids while you all were gone, but none of them really wanted to be there. They were afraid and wondering where everyone had gone, and I can't blame them because nobody was telling them anything. Annabelle was asking me all sorts of questions about Lisa and what you had been sent to do. I didn't know, really, but I didn't want to tell them anything that would make them even more worried. Some of the kids were fine, like Annabelle, and they basically could take care of themselves. So, I gave them some work to do, but the littler ones found it more difficult and they started fighting. I had to break one up, and when I turned around Annabelle was gone.

  “I searched for her, but I had to find someone else to watch the kids first, and by the time I got to Annabelle it was too late. She was already with Lisa and I just...I never thought it would be this bad. I mean, I knew that Lisa was dangerous, but I thought she meant what she said about making this place better and taking care of all of us. I thought she actually was telling the truth...I can't believe I was such an idiot, and now I feel like I've betrayed you all. I never used to be this type of person, and what example am I setting for the kids? That it's alright to stand by and do nothing if you're afraid? I should have stood up sooner. I knew deep down that something was wrong, but I thought that if I just ignored it nothing would happen to me. And now Annabelle has been captured and things are getting worse and I never thought it would get this bad.”

  The words tumbled out of her like water cascading from a waterfall. Adam and Peter glanced at each other with worry at some of her words, but they remained focused upon the frantic woman. Her head jerked this way and that, and the words began choking in her mouth.

  “What do you mean?” Adam said, trying to keep his voice calm, but he too was feeling angry. All that night he had felt a sense of guilt about the world into which he had brought the others, all in the name of keeping them safe, but he wondered if by making a pact with these people he actually had signed their death warrants.

  “All of this,” Tara said, “there have been...things happening. Like people come here, like you did, but then they suddenly disappear. We were told they just found other opportunities, but now I'm wondering if they just were taken away. Others spoke out against Lisa, but she shut them up quickly and sent them away, exiling them to the city. We all were too afraid to say anything in case we suffered the same fate. There's always been a supply of food as well, and I know that it's not so easy to find food. There also have been other wounded men, too many for it to be by chance.

  “This wasn't the first time that a group of us have gone out to attack another camp. I turned my head away. I shouldn't have. I tried not to think about the other people out there, just trying to live like us, and I tried telling myself that I didn't know everything, and I was just thinking the worst. But the things I overheard...Lisa planned it this way. She's mad, Adam. She wants to control this world and I have a very strong sense that the people you attacked weren't the enemy, and that the only crime they had committed was refusing to bend their knee to her.”

  The thought had been brewing in him for a while, but now Adam really was forced to confront the fact that he may have thrown in his lot with the bad guys, and the thought of it made his skin crawl. He thought back to all the people who had died that night. All the ones he had killed. They only had been defending their homes. How could he ever live with himself? He looked over at Peter, who seemed placid, and he had struggled with these same questions over and over again. The world had changed so much. Yet, there was so much that hadn't changed, like the plague of human conscience and the weight of guilt that could burn and twist a soul until it was almost unrecognizable.

  Adam hung his head and ran his hand down his face, sighing wearily. It all was almost too much to bear. So many thoughts were whirling through his mind and his heart was seized in a turbulent storm of emotions. He still had yet to begin the grieving process for Diana, but he couldn't even think about that yet. As long as they stayed in that camp they were in danger, if what Tara said was true, and he had no reason to doubt it.

  Adam's natural inclination was to brood, but while thinking of Diana he considered what she would say in the same situation, for the silence was beginning to weigh on them. The only sounds in the room were Tara's soft sniffling sobs, and the breathing of the two men. Adam lifted his head and spoke in a low, deliberate tone. “We can't beat ourselves up about all of this. There's going to be plenty of time for that in the future. We've all made mistakes, but we must make sure we make the right decisions, starting from now. We've already lost one friend, and I'm not going to lose another. We're all Annabelle has now.”

  “How did Diana...?” Tara asked.

  Adam answered her question with silence. He felt his eyes burn with tears and he hung hi
s head to hide them, afraid that Tara could see them even in the room’s dim light. Peter shifted himself, almost as though he was going to say something, but then he thought better of it. Tara came up to Adam and placed a hand on his shoulder. Her touch was delicate but firm, and the mere feeling of it filled him with warmth. Her fingers were slender and her skin was pale. He found that he enjoyed the sense of her being so close to him and wanted her to be closer. His heart cried out for some companionship and if Peter hadn't been there he wondered if he wouldn't have swept her into his arms and kissed her. Most likely he would not, for he never had been that type of man.

  “I'm sorry,” Tara said. Her voice was like honey. Adam looked up at her and saw that she was beautiful, but he fought against his feelings.

  “It's a blessing you came back,” she said, and offered him a weak, tired smile, and yet it was one of the most beautiful smiles he had ever seen.

  It was a pinprick of light in such a bleak oblivion, and for a brief moment he actually felt hope in his heart. But he immediately pushed those thoughts aside. He didn't want to let himself be vulnerable to those feelings again. If he fell for Tara, then she just would be another person he would have to mourn eventually. It was getting to the point where he didn't see the point in hoping for anything, because everything ended. He was tired and all he wanted to do was sleep, but there still was so much fighting to be done. All the time. Too many enemies all around him and only a few people he could be sure he could trust. Tara's hand lingered on his shoulder and he was glad for it, but then it slipped away and he turned his eyes from her, peering into the darkness again, wondering if it was a blessing that he had come back at all. Perhaps it would have been better if he had died on that first night along with so many others. At least then Diana might still have been alive and Annabelle might still have been safe.

  Chapter Twelve

  The room was dark and cold. Annabelle was all alone, sitting on the floor. There was nothing in that room for comfort, and no food. Her stomach was growling, but her heart burned with anger. She knew that things weren't right here, but she was the only one. She had no idea where Diana and the others were, or if they even would come back. There was a chance she was on her own again, and she would have to try surviving as best she could.

  She tried remembering the lessons her father had taught her on their camping trips years ago. He had been a tough man, a hard man, but gentle and fair, and he had tried teaching his little girl about the world from a young age, and never tried sugarcoating it. He'd taken her camping many times and shown her the true face of nature, that things weren't really good or bad, that the storm wasn't evil for careening through the forest, and the wolf was not nasty for preying on a deer. But Annabelle knew that Lisa was evil. Her father had told her that the difference between people and animals was the ability to choose. That every day you had to make decisions that were either good or bad, and it was those decisions that determined what kind of person you were, and she knew Lisa was choosing to be a very bad person indeed.

  But Annabelle didn't know how to go about fighting back. Diana, Adam, and Peter had gone off to this phony war, which was dangerous enough, even without Lisa's veiled threats. The only other person she thought she could trust was Tara, but even then Annabelle wasn't sure, and she felt guilty for running out of her class. She didn't want Tara to get in trouble because of her, and only could hope her teacher was safe. The other kids were innocent too, but Annabelle didn't think she could rally them to the cause as they were only kids, and it would take more than that to rebel. However, before she could do any of that she had to find a way to get out of there. She'd already scrambled around the room and searched for any kind of weakness in the wall, or any floorboards she could pry back, but there was nothing, and she didn't fancy her chances of getting past the guard. The huge, hulking man with the burned face was standing outside the room in the community center. There was a small window and Annabelle could see the back of his head. She wondered if his face hurt all the time or if it just looked like it did.

  She shivered as she felt the iron grip upon her shoulder, his hands clamping down on her. He easily could have broken her in two and she didn't want to feel him capture her again. He didn't seem to move. He was like a statue. She tried thinking about what Diana would do in the same situation, and then Annabelle called out to Lisa, saying that she never would get away with it. The man outside did not move even a little, and Annabelle only heard the faint cackling of Lisa's laugh.

  Annabelle sat down against the wall and drew her knees into her chest. She had known so much sorrow in her short life, but she never thought she would end up anywhere like here. All the lessons she had learned ran through her mind, but nothing in the Girl Scouts had prepared her for this. The only important lessons were the ones from her father. He always had told her that she had to be strong, because there were too many weak people in the world, and that eventually she would have to take care of herself.

  She loved camping with her dad. She tried to not to think of it too much anymore because it meant that she had to think of him, and that meant she had to think about how he wasn't with her anymore. All she remembered was him being taken by those men, screaming at her to run. All she wanted was to help him, but she had turned and fled, obeying him, yet somehow feeling like she had done the wrong thing. He always had taught her to be patient, not only in hunting, but in life as well. He had taken her out to stalk prey, and they had sneaked carefully through the forest, trying to make no sound. This is where Annabelle had learned to be light on her feet. Patience was key, he always had told her, patience to wait for the perfect opportunity, and only then was it possible to take advantage. She knew she had to do that now, to watch and wait for her captors to make a mistake. There would be an opportunity, she was sure of that, and when it came she would be ready.

  Diana had taught her different things, though, like how to blend into a crowd and how to try being what people thought you were, rather than what you actually were. She had talked to Annabelle about her acting career, and while Diana hadn't seemed too proud of it, Annabelle thought it was wonderful. She imagined Diana to be living in a big mansion and wearing pretty dresses all the time, and going to amazing parties and living the life of which people dreamed. And yet there was something that haunted Diana, too. Annabelle could tell, since she had become astute at reading adults. They always let their guard down around children, thinking that kids couldn't pick up on those sorts of things, and Annabelle had used that to her advantage over the years.

  It always was interesting to get a window into the world of adults, and from the way Diana spoke Annabelle knew she was skirting around some kind of issue. She spoke about her sister and regretted she wasn't able to save her, but there was something else, something that went further back. Although Annabelle wasn't sure what. She looked forward to seeing Diana again, and thought perhaps it was time that she opened up about her parents, and told Diana about her past. If there was one thing this experience had taught her, it was that she never could count on there being a tomorrow, and she finally felt ready to tell Diana the truth.

  She did wonder what Lisa was going to tell the others when they came back, as they wouldn't be happy to hear that Annabelle wasn't there to greet them. Then again, she had no idea what else Lisa had planned. Annabelle hoped her friends would be able to stay one step ahead of Lisa and not be lured into a trap. It was so frustrating to know there was someone like Lisa who was able to get away with all of this. It wasn't right that she should take advantage of all of these people. Annabelle wished she was stronger so she could fight back more easily. She had been learning some moves from Diana, but she still was so small and weak. She wanted to be like Diana when she grew up. She'd made that decision almost as soon as she met her. There was nothing that could scare Diana. She was like a lioness, and Annabelle knew she always would be safe while she was with Diana.

  Diana had taught her lots of things about people. One of the lessons Diana gave
her was that people always would underestimate her because she was just a little girl, but that they both knew she was more capable than that. Annabelle had used this to her advantage on more than one occasion. She tried to think about how she could use it now, but she wasn't sure how. Diana also had told her that usually people liked talking about themselves, and that it was important to listen to what people said, since they often gave away more than they intended. Annabelle knew a lot now, and Lisa hadn't seemed afraid of telling Annabelle about her grand plans. Annabelle knew she could use this to her advantage, if only she could escape!

  Her eyes were drawn to her guard once again, at the stringy black hair that drooped from his scalp. She stared at him for a long while, hoping he would turn or leave or do something. But all he did was stand there, motionless. Eventually, Annabelle got the courage to stand up and walk to the door. She rapped her small knuckles against it, but the guard did not move. She tried again, and eventually resorted to banging her fists on the door, her face contorted with anger, but her expression soon turned to shock and she jumped back as the guard's head snapped around and that mottled, melted flesh stared down at her.

  Annabelle gasped.

  The door opened slowly and the guard stepped forward, filling the doorway with his gargantuan frame. He looked like a giant to Annabelle. He snarled. His teeth looked more like fangs and she couldn't help but stare at the flesh that hung down his face. His right eye was cloudy, and the other was as dark as obsidian. Hair bristled along the left side of his face but none grew where the flesh had been scorched. Annabelle cowered at first, but she tried remembering that he was just a man.