by Roman Shepp
“We must help them, if any of them can be helped,” he said, imagining that most of them would have died from shock.
Even though it made nausea swell and churn in his stomach, Tony moved through the bodies, seeing if any of them would awaken. Some of them stirred but had lost all sense of their selves. Jimmy had passed out. Only one of them made a coherent noise, and Tony was shocked to find that he recognized the man.
“Phil?! What are you doing here?” he asked.
“You know him?” Jane said. Tony reached down to help untie Phil, only to find that the man had lost his right hand.
“It's lucky I'm a lefty,” Phil growled.
“He was a regular at the store,” Tony said as he helped Phil up. “What the hell is going on here?!”
“Two guys, Rick and Shawn. They're doing all this. We have to go,” Phil said, his eyes wide with panic.
“Slow down, Phil, we know them. We just spent the night at their camp.”
“Then you're lucky you're still here. We need to go. Now. They're monsters. They're making meals out of us. They mutilated us...even took care of us because they said they wanted to keep the flesh fresh,” he said quickly. Tony looked at his wound. It had been dressed and looked as though it was protected from getting infected.
“We must save as many as we can,” Tony said, and walked back into the collection of bodies, trying to rouse them.
“It's no use, Tony. There's no time. We should leave. Most people here have given up anyway. Look at them.”
Tony took a moment to do as Phil said. It broke his heart, but Phil was right. Phil was the best off of any of them. He only had a hand missing. The others had had both legs or both arms amputated, sometimes both. Some even had chunks taken out of their shoulders, or holes carved in their stomachs and chests. Tony's eyes stung with angry tears. That any human could do this to others shook him to his core. It was horrific, ugly, and he was so angry, not just at Shawn and Rick, but also because he couldn't do anything to help them.
“You just couldn't keep your noses out of it, could you? We were going to wait before we made a meal out of you, but I guess we'll have to bring our plan forward,” Rick said. He and Shawn stood behind them, blocking their way out.
Chapter Eight
It was all Saeed could do to not vomit. He already had seen himself as a failure for letting the meat of a boar pass his lips and sink into his stomach, but the truth was worse, far worse. May Allah forgive him. May there be mercy on his soul, on all their souls. Saeed forced himself to look at the mutilated bodies, and felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow, anger, and confusion. That people could do this to other people...he couldn't quite comprehend it. Already he had been faced with man's inhumanity to man, but this was something else entirely. This was worse than death. Nobody deserved to have their body treated in such a way. Just the fact that he had eaten human flesh, even unknowingly, made him want to throw up everything that was in his stomach. He felt unclean and didn't know if he ever would be able to live with himself again.
All their lives had been ruined. These men had taken these people and stripped them of their humanity. Their bodies had been torn apart, limbs sliced off as though they were animals. Saeed couldn't blame any of them for embracing the abyss and passing out. It was probably better that way.
What had the world turned into? Saeed struggled to see the light. Monsters seemed to be everywhere. Was there any place in the world that was safe, or was he forced to enter another den of monsters every time they encountered something new? There were so many questions in his mind, but the first was what to do about Rick and Shawn. They couldn't be allowed to get away with this. It wasn't humane. It wasn't right.
A light bulb went off in Saeed's mind. Suddenly, he knew why he had been left on this Earth while Nadya and Aaminah had been taken to a better place. It was better that they were spared the horror of witnessing these terrible acts, but Saeed was there to punish those who had committed these atrocities. He was there to rid the world of monsters. That was his penance and his duty to make reparations for all his sins and failures. It would not be easy. Rick and Shawn had their weapons trained on them, long arrows whose sharp tips gleamed in the soft morning light.
“What the hell have you done here?” Tony snarled.
“What we had to do. We survived,” Rick said. “You might see this as horrible, but there's nothing wrong with it. It's just meat, like anything else. We're all animals. There's no difference in eating our flesh than there is in eating cows or pigs. The sooner people understand that, the better.”
“We won't tell anyone, okay? We'll just leave, and you can go about your business, but the girl is coming with us,” Tony said. Saeed was a little surprised that Tony would even think about letting them carry on with this.
Rick smiled and shook his head slowly. “You think I'm that dumb? You're too much of a do-gooder to let us keep doing our thing. No, the first chance you get you'd try to stop us. We're not going to let that happen. Nobody has been able to stop us before, and now that we finally get to do it out in the open we're not going to let people get in our way.”
“You did this even before the world ended?” Tony said, shocked.
Rick shrugged. “Pop taught us everything he knew, including this. Many times, there were wanderers who came up to the farm looking for help. We made meals out of them all. You're not the first people to stand up to us, and you probably won't be the last. It's better for all of us if we get this over with quickly.”
“What about the girl?” Saeed said in a rasping voice.
“She's going nowhere,” Shawn said.
“How can you subject her to this? How can you feed her this tainted meat? Have you...have you told her?” Saeed asked.
It pained him to think about Tara. Although the golden-haired child was the opposite in appearance to Aaminah, he couldn't help but think of his daughter, and he had to fight the tears from his eyes. The thought that Aaminah could have been subjected to this horror...that any child could...it was enough to make his blood run cold.
“She doesn't know the truth of it yet, just like we didn't when we were her age. But the time will come when we tell her, and she'll be so used to the sweetness of human flesh that she won't be able to stop. The shock will pass. It did for us. It's just a way of life, no different than anyone's.”
“Except your way of life makes you hurt innocent people!” Tony yelled.
“Nobody in this world is innocent. I'd have thought you'd know that by now,” Rick growled. “Anyway, I've had enough of talking. Throw your weapons down and surrender.”
“Never,” Tony said.
Saeed braced himself for another fight. He didn't fancy their chances, considering Rick and Shawn had the advantage, but Saeed let the sweet, festering rage surge through him. It filled him up, as though before it he was just an empty void, but with the anger he was a swirling morass of colors. The only emotion left to him was anger. So, he embraced it as tightly as he had embraced his family and let war fill his blood. All the anger he ever had felt swam through him. Anger at his parents for not allowing him to go to college. Anger at the terrorists who twisted his sacred religion and used it to justify violence against innocents. Anger against ignorant people who tarred every person who shared his faith with the same brush. Anger at Allah for taking his family away. It all became a part of him and he would unleash it on these monsters. No longer would he have to hope that they would meet justice eventually. He would punish them because there was nobody else who could do it.
Groot was the first one to enter the fray. The determined pit bull bounded forward and snapped at Shawn's leg. The man couldn't get his crossbow down low enough, and tried stumbling backward, but once Groot had his teeth into something it was impossible to pry him loose. Shawn shook his leg, but Groot held on tightly. Rick cursed as he shot an arrow, but because he was surprised it flew wide of its target and slammed into one of the bodies. Tony grabbed his gun and fired back, but the bullet miss
ed and blew a chunk out of a nearby tree.
Rick looked past him, and Saeed saw this as his advantage. He surrendered to the anger and rushed forward, pressing the attack. As he ran, Saeed drew his knife, feeling its weight in his hand. It became a part of him. He saw Rick steady his bow, drawing the arrow back, but before he could release it Saeed slammed into him. Saeed cut the bowstring with his knife, and Rick howled as he fell backward. The arrow snapped as it was caught between the weights of the two men. Rick snarled and punched Saeed in the gut, but he was blind to the pain. He scraped the knife down Rick's scalp, and the man yelled desperately in pain. His body writhed as he tried freeing himself from Saeed’s fury, but Saeed was not going to weaken now. The man was responsible for inhuman crimes, and there was no way to imprison him without death.
Saeed never had been a violent man before the world had changed, but he never had been alone like this either. He never had been faced with such evil. Struggling with Rick, the fight was far from glamorous. Saeed's breath was hot. Rick's eyes bulged as Saeed managed to place himself in a position where his arm lay like a bar over Rick's throat. Rick's cheeks reddened as he struggled to breathe. Saeed felt the man’s feet pressing against the ground, scrambling to try turning the advantage his way, but it was not going to happen. Saeed's anger strengthened him. The blood rushed through his head like raging river rapids, and all that lay before his eyes was bathed in the crimson haze of anger.
He slipped the knife down Rick's body, then felt Rick's flesh give as the knife slid in deeply. A warm flow of blood seeped out. Rick stopped struggling. Saeed heaved in breaths as he pushed himself up. He had been so focused on Rick that he had forgotten about Shawn. The man had let loose more arrows, and another gunshot rang through the air. Saeed looked back and saw that many of the bodies had been hit in the crossfire. Maybe it was better that they were put out of their misery.
Shawn had managed to shake off Groot somehow. He was moving backward, running in between the trees. Jane was standing behind a tree, waiting with the baseball bat, probably afraid to move in closer because Shawn now had time to reload his arrows. He screamed in pain when he realized what had happened to Rick. Tony fired again, hitting another tree. Shawn was limping. One of Tony's bullets had hit him in the leg, and his jeans were stained with blood. He still was firing arrows, though. One of them only narrowly missed Tony.
“You're not going to get away with this!” Shawn yelled.
Saeed still was enraged. He walked forward, even though he knew he could not get close to Shawn. Shawn warned Saeed away. He aimed his arrow at Saeed, and Saeed was prepared to take the brunt of the blow. With a flash of an arm he hurled the knife toward Shawn, hoping that his aim was true. The knife embedded itself in Shawn's skull, sending the man flying backward. As he did so, Shawn's hand slipped from the bow, releasing the arrow. Saeed closed his eyes, expecting to feel the kiss of death, but he felt a hiss of air pass by his ear, and then heard the solid thunk of the arrow hitting a tree trunk. Saeed opened his eyes to see the two men lying beside each other. He walked up to Shawn and pulled out the knife, wiping it on the grass beside him. The anger cooled and slipped away from him, leaving him empty again. It was not a noble thing he had done, but it had been necessary.
“I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help,” Phil said as everyone came together again.
“It's okay. You've been through enough. Do you think we can save any of them?” Tony asked.
“If they're not dead by now, they will be soon. It's better if they were put out of their misery. I know I want that if I had had that happen to me. Thank you for coming here,” he said.
“Tara,” Jane said, and quickly moved toward the campsite. Saeed felt a lump in his throat, wondering how they were going to explain all this to the girl. They found her sitting by the fire, tying some grass together. When she heard them approach she smiled.
“Where are Shawn and Rick?” she asked, her eyes shining brightly. She looked so innocent, and Saeed's heart broke for her. It wasn't fair that Aaminah had been killed, and it wasn't fair that Tara had to endure all this sorrow. Saeed sat down beside her, sighing heavily. Jane knelt in front of her.
“Tara, were those men your family?” she asked. Tara shook her head.
“I was alone. They found me, and they said they would look after me. Where are they?”
“This isn't easy, Tara, but Shawn and Rick weren't nice men. They did terrible things. They--”
“They took those people, didn't they?” Tara said. It was more of a statement than a question.
“What do you mean?”
“The people who came through here. They all were nice people. They sat with us and talked with us, but then they disappeared. Rick said they just moved on, but I could hear them in the night. Were they going to hurt me?” she asked, tears filling her young eyes.
“No, no, they're not going to hurt you, nobody is. We won't let them.”
Tara offered a weak smile, but it was clear the girl was traumatized. Saeed looked down at her and saw in her face the same expression as he had seen in Aaminah's when his daughter had run into the room and seen her whole world crumbling. Saeed looked down at the little girl and saw so much of his own daughter in her. Tara looked up at him at the same moment and, overwhelmed with emotion, she flung her arms around Saeed. She smelled young and pure, just as Aaminah had, but it was more than Saeed could bear. Instinctively, he pushed her away, almost not realizing what he had done until he saw the hurt in her eyes. It was too much to bear to feel the small, weak arms around him. It only reminded him of his own loss, and any human contact made him feel guilty. It was as though he was betraying the memory of his family, and he walked away, wondering if he would ever have it in him to feel the normal range of human emotions again.
Chapter Nine
It was difficult for Tony to watch Saeed walk away from Tara. Phil seemed shocked.
“What the hell is wrong with him?” he gasped. Tony shook his head. Seeing the girl try to hug Saeed was painful, but seeing her reaction was worse. She looked so vulnerable sitting there, so weak and alone. Jane quickly wrapped her arms around Tara and held the girl tightly. Tony crouched down as well.
“It's okay. Saeed has just been through a lot. He's...he's lost a lot as well,” Tony said.
He wasn't sure what else to say to Tara. He'd never been any good with kids. Especially not ones who had been through a lot of trauma. Rick and Shawn had been monsters, and Tony never was going to let Tara know the truth of what they had made her eat. It was bad enough that Tony had to live with the memory, and it was a wonder he had managed to hold in the contents of his stomach. He didn't want to return to the pile of bodies, though. For all the madness and horror he had seen in the city, this was far worse. Rick and Shawn were true monsters, and if nothing else he was glad that nobody else would be hurt by their vile appetites. Sadly, the weight of the moment overshadowed his reunion with Phil.
“Where did you come from? You said that Shawn and Rick found you. Do you have a home?” Jane asked.
Tara shook her head. Her eyes still darted toward Saeed, who stood by himself, staring into nothingness. The man had been like an animal in the fight. Tony wasn't sure they would have prevailed if it hadn't been for him. Although it still seemed to him that Saeed was all too ready to put himself in danger. Tony knew by now that Saeed liked to brood alone, so he didn't go over to talk with him.
“We were on a camping trip. Mommy was on the phone to Grandma, but then it cut out. They tried calling everyone, but nothing worked. We looked to the sky and saw the plane overhead and we knew something was wrong. We walked through the woods and found Rick and Shawn. They said my parents had been killed by a wild animal, but that they would look after me. They...they didn't hurt me. I felt safe with them.”
“I'm sorry,” Jane said. She looked back at Tony and she could see the tears in his eyes. He remembered how he felt when he learned his parents had died, how hollow the feeling was inside, how it was so e
asy to lose sight of everything that made him happy.
“It's going to be okay, Tara. We're going to take care of you, and we're going to find a safe place where you won't have to worry about a thing,” he said. Perhaps he promised too much, but he wanted to promise her what nobody could promise him when he had lost his parents.
Phil tugged at Tony's shirt. “We have to go back and see if any of them survived,” Phil said. Tony's stomach churned. He didn't want to lay eyes on them again. He shook his head.
“We can't just leave them there, Tony. We need to see if any of them survived.” Tony sighed, knowing that Phil was right. He whispered in Jane's ear what they were going to do and told her to keep Tara distracted. The last thing he wanted was for Tara to see that. He glanced toward Saeed but walked away with Phil, telling Groot to stay with Tara and Jane.
“I guess it's some consolation that Rick and Shawn kept the truth hidden from her,” Tony said.
“That's the only mercy they gave,” Phil grunted, almost spitting on the ground.
Tony tried not to look at the stump at the end of Phil's arm, but it was difficult not to stare. Phil looked much the same as Tony had remembered him, although his ginger beard had become longer and more unkempt, and his hair was more tousled. He looked thin and haggard, and there were heavy bags under his eyes.
“I'm sorry for what you've been through,” Tony said.
“I got off better than most,” he said. They returned to the bodies and saw that most of them had been killed, but some of them were moaning in agony.
“What are we going to do with them? I want to rescue them, but we can't carry them around with us.”
“Believe me, you'll be doing them a favor. How many bullets do you have left in that gun?”
“Enough,” Tony said, although the thought of shooting innocent people was abhorrent to him.
“They don't have a life in this world, Tony. You know that. It's hard for those of us who can walk to survive, but for them it will be impossible. We can show them mercy by killing them. Trust me, we'll be doing them a favor. They don't stand any chance at living through this apocalypse. You must have seen the way the world is now.”