by W. A. R.
“Well, you are. I’m sure you know by now that we have been watching you all…I’m sure Damien informed you of that as well before throwing you out here for us to…gather up.” The man replied, shifting on the balls of his feet and lowering one knee to the ground, effectively making himself more comfortable. “I figured you to be strong-willed, but this…defiance…it’s bold to say the least. You and George were always so…moral and understanding…even forgiving…too forgiving.”
“I’ve never been too forgiving…but, of course, you know nothing about who I am, just what you saw in a short amount of time. Ironically though, I forgive your ignorance.” She countered, lifting a brown at him in challenge
The man laughed whole-heartedly at her statement. “You are a regular fireball…it’s just such a contrast to how I pictured this whole thing going down.”
Amber shrugged casually, never taking her eyes from him. “I guess I just…snapped…” she emphasized the word, her tone teasing and hinting at something that only she would understand.
Buddy narrowed his eyes, feeling a grin grow across his face as words that he had shared with Miles just the day before crossed his mind. “Some of the nicest people are the scariest when pushed past their limits.” He said softly, and the man cut his eyes to Buddy, seemingly intrigued by what he had said.
“Hmmm. I would have to say you’re wrong on that one. You see, I am not in the least bit even intimidated…I am not even entertaining the thought of how ‘scary’ you three could be. Let’s face it…we are going to win…we already have three of your strongest players locked away, three more tied up directly in front of me, and your weaker ones either dead or being taken away as we speak.” He seemed so damned sure of himself that Buddy, just for a split second, doubted their lives, their plan.
“You speak as if this is a game to you.” Derek spat out angrily, surprising Buddy, but Buddy kept his eyes steadfastly on the man that now had his attention on Derek.
His expression was thoughtful and his calm demeanor only infuriated them. “I like to compare it to chess, in situations like these. The weaker ones are the pawns of course, and the stronger people, such as yourselves, are the….” He glanced up, tossing his hand carelessly with flourish at his words. “…the bishops, the knights, the rooks….and even the queen…..” he paused, turning his intense attention back to Amber. “…but then again, you may just be pawns like the others.” Amber’s mind was turning with the possibilities of harm that wanted to do to him. Buddy saw Derek shift a little and he knew immediately by how he had tensed that Katie was undoing his ties.
Amber caught onto this as well. “You think I’m a pawn.” She stated amused, keeping his attention. Buddy glanced at the others, ensuring that they had not noticed the change in Derek’s stature.
The man smiled. “I’ve never been fond of strong women. They are always just a nuisance.” His grin then widened and he got a devious sparkle in his eye. “Miles seemed to prefer it though; Brian too, considering Shelly. To each his own, however; no skin off my back.” He shrugged and Amber ground her teeth together, now longer grinning her malicious smile. He had touched a nerve and Buddy saw the fire rise within her.
“Why don’t you simply tell us what you have planned for us?” she asked bitterly. “You seem like the kind of man that likes to boast about his amazing plans.” Her words dripped with sarcasm, but this did not affect the man.
“Have we met before? You seem to know an awful lot about me.” He joked with her, and she feigned impatience. In reality, she wanted to keep him busy, keep him talking.
“Why are you dragging this out, asshole? Just take us and fucking leave already. This is getting on my nerves.” She snapped and he shifted again on his feet, standing to his full height. Buddy swallowed. Don’t challenge him…he mentally asked of her, but it was too late. Her eyes were like fire and they stared at one another, Amber daring him to make a move.
“I’m relishing in the joy of taking in this group.” He paused, doubling over and grabbing her chin roughly, bringing his cold face close to hers. Buddy felt fury surge through him at the sight of Lance’s fingers digging harshly into her jaw, her cheek. “This has been the hardest group we have had to tear down. This is the longest we have been away from our town and all because of your people. So yes, I am taking my time and enjoying something that I have long since been waiting for.” A gunshot and a scream was heard in the woods and the man let her go. Amber’s eyes looked worried and panicked as she fell back from his touch. The man caught onto this and grinned, shrugging. “Well, one less to take back.” Buddy felt a tug on his hands, urging him back a little. He readily obliged, hoping Derek and Amber would continue to keep the man distracted. Katie pulled his fingers back towards her under the porch, into the darkness beneath the house.
“You are twisted. The world doesn’t need people like you in it.” Amber declared angrily.
He lifted a brow at her, lowering himself down on his haunches yet again. He seemed to be getting irritated. “On the contrary, this world wouldn’t survive without people like me. You think people like you can make a difference?” he asked her and she narrowed her eyes at him. “People like you…your group, your family...you are weak…the only thing that you will be good for is finding a way to rid us of the disease; the only good you are for is participating, willingly or not, in our little experiments.”
Buddy winced as Katie’s blade slipped a little, cutting his hand before watching as Amber reigned in her temper. “There’s the plan you enjoy bragging on…So what then, once you have this cure? You will inherit the Earth?” she asked him ruefully, scoffing at the absurdity of the idea of it. Buddy felt the ties on his wrists release and Katie’s finger found the ties on his ankles. He mentally begged the woman to hurry and make her way to Amber so it would prevent her from putting herself on Lance’s bad side.
The man grinned once again. “Yes. That’s the idea.” He told her as a truck sounded down the road. Buddy swallowed, resisting the urge to rub his aching wrists. He glanced over his shoulder as another truck turned into the drive. He quickly turned back to the three of them. “It seems we have your other people…some of them anyways.” He said wickedly and Amber glanced over his shoulder, watching as George climbed out of the driver’s side, cap pulled down low. Buddy watched her resist the urge to grin triumphantly at the man. The ties on Buddy’s ankles snapped, releasing his legs. He turned and watched as two of the other fourteen took out some Biters that had come in through the fence.
George rounded to the back of the truck, two of Lance’s men following behind him. Amber kept the man’s attention, tensing as everything around her seemed to wind tighter. “I suppose you expect me to cry…be hysterically upset and at a loss?”
The man considered this for a moment before chuckling in spite of himself. “Yes, I do. What else are you going to do? You’re weak and you’ve lost everything.”
Amber grinned, shifting on her knees and Buddy knew that Katie was behind her. “You have misjudged me.”
“How so?” the man countered, curious. Buddy watched as Cassie slipped from around the back of the truck, bow on her shoulder, knife in hand and made her way behind a young woman who was paying no attention to the people around her. Cassie wrapped her arm around her neck and slammed her knife into the girl’s ear with a sufficient amount of force before the woman could even make a sound. After that, she lowered her to the ground and pasted herself against the side of the truck out of sight.
“I haven’t lost everything.” She told him and he stood, clearly tired of all of her talk. She grinned. “And I’m certainly not weak.”
Lance waved off her statement, turning to a man on his right. “Gag them and put them in a separate vehicle than the others.” He said and Amber felt her irrationality rise. She needed information from the man, needed to know everything he knew.
Jacob and Kyle rounded the far left side of the truck, running quietly towards a young man not much older than them and qui
ckly Jacob shoved the blade of his knife through the base of his skull. The man grunted and fell with a loud thump and Lance went to turn around towards the sound when Amber hurriedly spoke again, keeping his attention.
“Hey! I’m talking to you asshole!” she shouted, and he jerked his head to her angrily.
He narrowed his eyes to slits. “You know, Miles had the same attitude you have and I am not very fond of it. He got what he deserved, and so will you.”
Amber felt her anger renewed at his words and ground her teeth together. “If you think I’m weak then you definitely haven’t seen my handiwork.” She told him and he jerked his head to her in interest. Two more men ran to the back of the new truck, where George had taken out two previous. Things were becoming heated and people were noticing the lack of others around them. Buddy swallowed, hoping Amber knew what she was doing.
“You’re handiwork?” he asked, clearly amused and suspicious of the grin that played on her lips.
She nodded towards the house. “Please, feel free to examine it yourself. It’s in the garage. After you finish looking at it, feel free to also change your opinion about me.” She smirked at him, enticing him further.
He stared hard at her as he considered everything that she was saying. Biters were sounding as they made their way into the fence. Their hunger filled moans caught Buddy’s ears as he watched every single scene play out in front of him. Jacob and Cassie stood, watching the people in front of the trucks they were up against, waiting for a chance to move without being noticed. George rounded the front of the truck, crouching down and advancing forward slowly. Brittany eased out of the truck and leaned against it, her hands shaking with nervousness as she stood guard.
Suspicion was written all over Lance’s face and he noticed none of this. Instead, his focus was on the blonde woman before him. “Eric, keep watch.” He ordered to a young man who stepped up with two others and pointed their guns directly into their faces. Eric and his two comrades, Buddy noted, were the next in charge; they were Lance’s main underlings and it made Buddy nervous at the fact that they held some significant power. Lance turned and ambled cautiously up the steps and padded his large feet across the porch. Buddy grimaced as the barrel of the gun pressed against his cheek hard. The Biters were becoming louder, as was his heartbeat. His blood was roaring in his ears as they awaited Lance’s return. Buddy knew what was going to happen, even before he heard the stomping footsteps coming back towards them.
It took all of five minutes before there was a shout and thundering footsteps were heard. Amber kept staring at the barrel of the gun that was pointed at her face, hate in her eyes. Lance finally barreled back onto the porch, his face red with fury and his eyes laced with contempt. His eyes found her, unaware of the chaos surrounding them. Amber merely smiled at the man.
“Still think I’m weak?”
He shot daggers at her and clenched his fists at his sides before he turned to the young men who had their weapons aimed at the trio’s heads. “Kill them. Every single one of them…kill them all.”
Buddy and Derek squeezed their eyes tightly shut, awaiting the immediate death from a bullet to the face. Their breathing heightened and came in quick, steady rhythms. Buddy had heard that your life flashed before your eyes whenever the moment of your demise came, but that wasn’t what he saw. Instead, in the seconds after Lance had ordered their execution, he saw everything he had ever wished for. Growing up with a faceless mother, father and siblings…being the man he always wanted to be…going through school with faceless friends…having a family; a wife and children, and they were again, all faceless. He thought it odd that he should envision everything he wanted in life. And even lastly, even though regret gnawed at him savagely, Amber’s laughter filled his ears and her serene face flashed against the blackness of his eyelids. He swallowed, feeling nothing but disappointment and even resentment against himself and the fact that they were all going to breathe their last breath because he could think of no better plan to save them.
Seconds ticked by and they ground their teeth together, waiting for the inevitable but…it never happened. Very cautiously, Buddy lifted one eyelid, his heart skipping a beat when he saw that he was still staring down the barrel of a gun. He opened his other eye and took in the surrounding situation. Amber sat straight on her knees, eyes open, clearly amused. The three men before them stood with their guns pressed against their shoulders, aimed at the trio but their focus was elsewhere; their focus was on their tall balding leader standing angrily on the front porch. His chest was heaving and his face was beet red. They were confused and unsure, and Buddy was unsure why. Amber, however, seemed to have some idea, as if she had some ace up her sleeve. He swallowed, knowing that her bravado was only a façade, and in reality she was struggling to reign in her fear and her temper.
“I said kill them! What are you waiting for?” he yelled at them, and yet still, they remained motionless and resilient in defying his orders. Amber gulped silently, appearing confident but surprised that they had actually defied his orders. She suspected they would, but it was only a theory, and for a moment, she was grateful she was right in her assumption.
“Sir, what is your reasoning for this action?” the man, Eric, asked and for a moment Lance was at a loss. Buddy glanced over at Derek, who was just as confused as he was. Lance stomped closer to them, his eyes wild and…afraid? He opened his mouth to speak, but as soon as he had opened it, he had closed it. Amber chuckled at this, seeing his reaction only from the corner of her eye.
“Come on, Lance. Tell them why you want to kill us.” She taunted him against her better judgment and he growled under his breath, retrieving a gun from its holster on his side. Amber felt a bit of triumph at his loss of words, and the tension between everyone present was palpable, heated. She should have felt frightened that he had grabbed his gun and was aiming it at her head from the top of the stairs, but she wasn’t. Instead, she wanted to bring him down, kick him off of his egotistical high-horse. He was going to be hers when this was all said and over with; she had plans for him. She studied him, and her heart ached with the realization that the pistol he aimed at her was not his. No, both the one in his hand and the one on his hip belonged to Miles. She felt her anger rise even more so if it were at all possible.
“Damien…he’s dying. They tortured him!” he exclaimed, shaking his gun threateningly, and yet he didn’t pull the trigger. Amber found this entertaining. She lifted her eyes to the man that had a gun pressed to her cheek. She feigned defending herself, knowing that it wouldn’t matter. There was a reason they wouldn’t kill them, and she was using it to her advantage.
“He isn’t dying…he’s just…damaged. If I wanted him dead, he would be.” She told the man for lack of a better word. The man lifted a brow at her, but he was clearly angry. She shrugged. “Besides, I’m sure that the family you took from me already killed some of your men. How is Damien any different?” she asked bitterly and the man’s faced ran awash with confusion. There it was…the initial part of trying to piece together this new information with the fact that they had seen ‘Damien’ escort the others out of the house. She fought the impulse to move and instead stared up at him, an innocent smile playing on the corner of her lips. He lowered his gun, confusion etching his features. She hoped that what she was doing would offer them some form of surprise and allow for her own people to take action without getting hurt. It was a long shot, but it was worth a try.
“I’ll be back.” He said to the others, a warning tone in his voice before turning and running up the steps and into the house. Amber sighed inwardly, feeling her anxiety heighten as the man’s feet sounded in her ears. She knew as soon as he spoke to Damien, he would know what was going on and the tension would snap, causing everything to break loose. Lance, however, stomped loudly down the stairs and pushed the barrel of the pistol against the underside of her chin, jerking her head back by a handful of her hair. This caught her by surprise and she grimaced and swallowed against th
e cold metal, never tearing her eyes from him. She was startled at how quickly he had made it down the stairs, but glancing over her shoulder at the barely visible Cassie and George, she had to feign cockiness and bitterness once more. Correction, she was bitter, but she refused to let her anger ruin the plan; she refused to let it risk the lives of the rest of her family. She would release that hatred later, after they were free and she had Lance under her influence.
“You heard my question. Why is he so different?” She challenged him and he pressed the gun harder against her, hurting her.
“How do you know they killed….” he began asking curiously, and Amber realized that he hadn’t spoken to Damien. Amber had to admit, he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box. Instead he narrowed his bloodshot eyes at her angrily and ground his teeth together as she swallowed against the gun once more, trying to alleviate some of the pressure.
“Those guns belong to someone else, asshole, and I will be getting them back.” She ground out and his eyes widened in surprise at her statement before clouding over with resentment and a twisted joy at her pain and position under the gun. She knew he was enjoying her torment and so she grinned. “I know what you did, you son of a bitch. I know everything.”
He visibly shook with anger and his eyes watered. “You have officially signed over your life.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You want to know why they wouldn’t kill us?” she dared him and he ground his teeth harder, letting her know he did indeed know the answer to her question. She grinned as much as she possibly could while a gun pressed painfully against her. She could see Buddy and George, Cassie and Jacob all watching her, tense and ready to act. But they wouldn’t; they wouldn’t until she did. Her voice was thick and coarse when she spoke, the gun digging into her windpipe. “You see this as chess, right?” she asked, smirking at him as best she could against the pain. “But it turns out you aren’t the king, are you? You don’t make the rules. You’re merely a…a what? A rook? Bishop?” The man that had gone into the house was rushing out, his footsteps pounding from inside the house. All hell was going to break loose, and yet Amber and Lance held eye contact, the animosity painful. She knew that all of her people stared hard between the two of them, watching her; frightened. “Or maybe just a pawn…” she said through her teeth, and his eyes widened at her statement. He was red with rage and his eyes were crazed. “Damien was just a pawn…and so are you.” Amber snapped and fear filled the man’s eyes as he stared at her. Buddy was surprised at the man’s reaction, regardless of the gun in his face.