Those They Betrayed

by Q J Martin

  The guards shoved Luke into the room, and he fell next to Logan. They pushed Jane in after him, and then Abigail stepped inside. The other men left and shut the door behind them, locking them all in.

  Chapter XX

  Abigail stood by the door, holding her sniper rifle. She was looking over the room as a whole, not giving any one person in it more attention than the others.

  The Marlows were where they had been before, sitting along the wall. Luke sat with his legs folded up underneath him in the opposite corner. He wasn’t looking at anyone. He wasn’t acknowledging anyone. He just kept his head down, buried in his hands.

  Logan looked over at the Marlows. The father was looking at him. He didn’t seem especially excited about his presence, but he was certainly paying him more attention than Luke or Abigail were.

  Logan decided to inch across the floor. He felt ridiculous, and he imagined he looked like a worm. He managed to keep going, a little at a time, wincing every time his bad foot made contact with the ground. Finally, he reached the man. He flopped over besides him and sat down. It had clearly been much longer since this man’s last shower than it had been for Logan.

  “Hi, my name is Logan,” he said. “I’d shake your hand, but…” He gestured towards the restraints that were holding his hands behind his back.

  “Same,” the man huffed in a raspy, if not deep, voice. “My name is Zachariah. My wife is Isabel, and my children are Petra and Wesley.”

  Logan looked at each of them in turn and nodded as Zachariah introduced them. Then he decided to find out what had happened to the family. “So you’ve been here for three days?”

  “I can’t believe that’s it,” Zachariah sighed. “The only indication of the passage of time we have here is the visits of the soldiers.”

  “The gang members,” Logan offered.

  “The animals,” his wife said, her eyes fixed firmly in front of her.

  Zachariah nodded. “They’ve made it feel like an eternity.”

  Logan contemplated. Finally, he asked, “So how did you end up here? How did you all survive so long?”

  “We lived in a small town in northern Iowa, about 250 miles from here.” Zachariah shook his head. “I own—owned a bank there. I was fully ready to buy the Cure for both myself and my family, but the meager stock they sent our town was already sold out within minutes of release. I decided that I would pack up the car and take my family straight to the source. I was sure I could find some up here. But as we got closer, people started acting more and more crazy. We saw cars crashed on the sides of the road. A lot of them had crunched-in bumpers, but no indication of what they had hit. It took a while for us to finally piece it all together, to realize that the Cure had these… unexpected side-effects.”

  Logan shook his head. “An understatement, sadly.”

  Zachariah sighed. “We broke into a pawn shop. I found firearms for my whole family. Then we snuck into the corner grocery store next door and lodged ourselves in there. We were stocked up. We felt like we could face anything that might come our way. We held out for so long, fended off so many looters that came looking to take our stock, but eventually we ran out of food. And then we realized how unprepared we really were. I mean, how can you possibly manage to survive in a battle against invincible opponents?”

  “No matter how many times you shot them, they wouldn’t die.”

  “And then our gunshots attracted Infected from all across the entire city.” Zachariah shook his head morosely. “It was all we could do to slip out of the encroaching hoard and run for our lives. It wasn’t much later when Luke—”

  “That piece of shit!” Wesley spat.

  “He called out to us from the river. He told us we’d be safe in there. All we had to go on was the fact that we were running for our lives and he wasn’t. We dove right in, and he was right.” Zachariah’s gaze wandered off, and he took a moment for silent consideration. “It would have been better for us if we had died that day.”

  Logan glanced at Abigail as casually as he could. She seemed as uninterested in their conversation as ever. “Have you tried,” he whispered, leaning into Zachariah, “you know…” He motioned vaguely with his head.

  “Of course I did.” Zachariah sounded insulted. “That’s how I got these,” he said, raising his eyebrows to emphasize the dual black eyes he had and the gash across his forehead.

  “I’m sorry,” Luke muttered.

  “What was that, you no good, lying—”

  “Wesley!” Zachariah shouted. “Control yourself! I raised you to be better!”

  Wesley stopped speaking and leaned back against the wall.

  “I’m sorry,” Luke said again, more firmly, tears welling up in his eyes as he raised his head up to look right at them. “They didn’t tell me what they were going to do to you. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was helping people.”

  “And when you saw what was actually going on?” Logan asked.

  “They said they’d save my grandmother as long as I kept helping them.” Luke wiped his eyes. “I want to save my grandmother.”

  “Well,” Wesley spat, “I hope your grandmother will be proud knowing that the only thing her little grandson had to do to rescue her was betray countless people, lead them to captivity, torture, rape…!” He trailed off.

  Luke covered his eyes, and tears streamed from behind his hands. “If there was anything I could do to help you, I swear—”

  “You swear?” Abigail spoke up, becoming seemingly aware of the conversation for the first time. She pushed off the door with her back and propped herself up, taking one step after another.

  Luke cowered in the corner, in abject terror of what Abigail’s reprisal would be.

  She stood right in front of him. She pulled her knife out from her belt and leaned in. The knife skirted dangerously close to his face.

  “Please, don’t,” Luke begged.

  Chapter XXI

  Abigail reached down and flicked the knife between Luke’s wrists, freeing him from his restraints.

  “You’re not the only one who wasn’t aware of what Skylar’s actual intentions were,” she said, walking toward Jane. She reached behind Jane’s back and cut the ropes that were binding her as well. “When Skylar first showed up, he was saying all these fantastic things about working for the greater good and trying to save humanity. I believed him. We all did. But when he was actually put in charge, well, things didn’t turn out like he promised. Most of the others, the power trip went to their head. They were drunk with power. But me, it made me sick what he had us doing. I wanted to stop them, to do the right thing, but I knew the second I spoke up, they would kill me.”

  Abigail released Logan’s restraints, then walked over to Zachariah.

  “You have all suffered more than any person should ever have to suffer. And that’s on me as much as it’s on anyone,” she said, releasing his restraints. “I’m not looking for your forgiveness. All I want is to finally do the right thing.”

  Logan walked up to Jane and embraced her, and before he knew it, he found his lips locked with hers once again. Finally, Logan became aware of himself once more, turned to Abigail and asked, “How long has Skylar been in charge?”

  “He showed up shortly before the rollout of InstaRegen. My friends and I, we were peaceful protestors. We didn’t believe in gene mods, but we didn’t think fighting fire with fire was a better option. And when Skylar showed up, he was preaching peaceful protesting, too. He told us all these grandiose plans he had about convincing the world of the dangers of gene mods. But once the assassination attempt failed, he went and invited those violent extremists into the fold, too. That was the first sign that things weren’t as he claimed.”

  Abigail undid Isabel’s restraints, and then Petra’s. Isabel rose to her feet, and beckoned for Petra to join her. Her daughter didn’t get up. She didn’t even move. She just remained silently seated.

  “Come on, Petra,” Isabel said. “We need to be rea
dy to go.”

  “He’ll hurt us,” she whispered, her eyes turning red and welling up with tears.

  “Hey,” Zachariah walked up to her and offered his hand. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “You didn’t stop it before,” she cried. “You couldn’t. No one could. No one did.”

  Zachariah closed his eyes and a tear rolled down his cheek.

  Abigail walked up to Wesley and cut his restraints. The second she did, he bolted to his feet and ran across the room, tackling Luke. He hit the ground with a dull thud, and Wesley pinned him down, swinging his arms fiercely, hitting Luke square in the face again and again and again.

  “He made us watch!” he cried. “He made us watch! He made us watch!”

  Luke just laid there, not saying a word, not making a sound, not raising a hand in opposition. He sat there and let Wesley continue pummeling him into the ground. Logan and Zachariah ran over and grabbed him by the arms, yanking him up.

  “That is enough!” Zachariah hissed. “He’s helping us!”

  “He already hurt us. It doesn’t make a difference what he says or does now,” Wesley said under his breath.

  “What’s going on in there?” Hugh yelled through the door.

  Zachariah gave Wesley a death stare, but Abigail spoke up.

  “I’m just breaking in the new recruit!” she shouted. “You really think you guys are the only ones with needs?” Abigail banged on the walls a couple times, then looked at Logan, raising her eyebrows as if to insist he play along.

  “Ugh! No!” he groaned half-heartedly.

  Abigail and Jane both rolled their eyes in unison.

  “I knew it!” Hugh said in response. “You always act like you’re so much better than the rest of us. I always knew the truth.”

  “I’m never going to be able to get out of here alive,” Abigail whispered.

  “We’ll help you,” Logan said. “Just convince Hugh to come in here, and we’ll take care of the rest together.”

  Abigail nodded. She walked to the door. “Hugh, I need you in here.”

  “What? While you’re doing it?” He sounded confused.

  “I thought you could join.”

  They could hear Hugh put the key into the door and jostle the handle. Zachariah walked up and stood along the wall, and Logan stood on the other side. The door opened inwards. Hugh’s assault rifle was strapped around his back. When he walked in, he looked over at Isabel standing by Petra. Then he saw Luke standing in the middle of the room.

  “What the—”

  He was cut off. Logan wrapped his arms around him, holding his mouth shut with his hand. He squeezed, holding him firmly, until he stopped breathing. Then he set Hugh down and took the rifle off his shoulder. He had a handgun in a holster on his waist, which Zachariah took.

  They stood by the door and looked into the warehouse. There was hardly anyone awake. Of those who were, it didn’t seem like any of them had heard the commotion. They did not appear to be the most observant, well-trained bunch of supremacists.

  “I count four,” Zachariah whispered. “I think we can take them out from here. Run straight to the door and don’t look back.”

  “What about the guards outside?” Logan asked.

  “Well, we can’t know that until we get outside. But suffice it to say, they’re guarding from people trying to break it, not break out.”

  “That’s a fair point,” Logan laughed. “Ok, on three.”

  Zachariah nodded and readied his gun. Abigail aimed down the sights of her sniper rifle and picked a target without hesitation. Logan took a deep breath and raised his rifle up.

  “Three, two—”

  “Help! They’re trying to escape!” Luke shouted at the top of his lungs. “Skylar! Someone!”

  The guards jolted to attention, and Logan could see them running their way. Zachariah pulled back on the trigger of his gun, and it popped. One of the guards toppled to the ground. He pulled the trigger again. Abigail aimed down her rifle and took out two of them in quick succession, but it was obvious that more were coming.

  Meanwhile, Luke continued shouting.

  “That’s enough!” Zachariah shouted. He turned around and aimed the gun right at Luke’s head.

  “No!” Logan said.

  He jumped up and shoved Zachariah’s arm just as he pulled the trigger. Blood sprayed from just above Luke’s jaw. He doubled over, clutching a bloody ear, and groaned through gritted teeth.

  “What was that?” Zachariah cursed. “He deserved it!”

  “That’s not how I do things,” Logan said matter-of-factly. “Now come on!”

  He motioned for them to run out. Logan ran out of the room first, laying down cover fire with his rifle. Abigail and Jane were right behind him. Zachariah and Wesley followed. Isabel and Petra weren’t anywhere to be seen.

  Logan ran back to the door and looked inside. Luke was writhing on the floor, a puddle of blood under his head. Isabel was kneeling by her daughter.

  “Petra! Come on!” Isabel tugged at her arm.

  Petra sat there, motionless, her eyes glazed over.

  Zachariah was in the room now. “Petra! Get up!”

  “He’ll hurt us,” she whispered.

  Zachariah ran up to his daughter and held her head firmly between his hands. “He’ll hurt all of us right now if we don’t move!”

  He shook her. She seemed to jolt to attention as if awoken from a dream. She stood up, and he held her hand tightly as they ran out the door together.

  Logan was right behind them. He shot one guard, then another, but they would quickly be hemmed in if they didn’t get out fast.

  The seven of them ran towards the front. There were stray bullets ricocheting all around them, but none of the Brotherhood thugs seemed to be very good shots. Logan, Zachariah and Abigail, on the other hand, were exceptional. They took down man after man, each one erupting in a spray of red mist, until the air looked like a fog.

  “Come on!” Logan yelled, reaching for Jane’s hand.

  There was a group of guards in front of them. They had nearly circled them in. Before Logan knew what was happening, he saw Abigail run off to the side. Half of them followed her confusedly, and their makeshift line broke apart.

  Logan and Zachariah finished off what was left of it.

  “Ah!”

  Logan heard Abigail scream. He dared a look back and saw Skylar standing there, near where she had been just a moment earlier, pointing Logan’s revolver at the ground. He couldn’t see what Skylar was aiming at, but he just knew that it was her.

  “You traitor!” Logan heard him scream over the sound of all the commotion.

  “No!” Logan yelled, but it was too late for him to do anything.

  Skylar shot his gun, then returned his attention to his fleeing prisoners. He took several shots at Logan. One of them came within an inch of his head.

  The only reason Logan was still alive was because Skylar wasn’t familiar with the recoil of his gun. It wasn’t like a peashooter. It took practice to master.

  Logan wished he could keep pressing his luck. He wished he could run back and see if Abigail was still alive. It wasn’t fair for her to trade he freedom, her life, for a bunch of strangers. But he knew that it would be futile. Eventually, his revolver would hit its mark, and the gun that had been in the family line for so long would end the family line.

  “Don’t!” Zachariah grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back towards the entrance. “If you go back, you die. Worse, you could risk all our lives. I’m not going to let that happen.”

  Logan shook his head, then resumed running. They were almost there. There were two guards standing in front of the entrance. Logan shot one of them, then Zachariah shot the other. Logan jumped over the turnstile, then reached back to help Jane over it. Zachariah was helping his family.

  “Open it!” someone yelled, pointing at the door.

  “I’m trying!” Logan replied.

  He could hear S
kylar getting close. There were gunshots. A bullet erupted from Wesley’s leg. He cried out in pain and crumpled to the ground.

  Logan finally got the door unlatched. He swung it open and shoved Jane through, then followed behind her.

  The early morning sun blinded and disoriented Logan. He struggled to adjust to the light after having spent all night inside the factory. He heard shouting. One of the guards outside was readying his weapon. Logan managed to spot the blurry outline of the men before it was too late. He shot them both and they toppled to the ground.

  “How are we going to get out of here?” Jane asked.

  Logan looked around the parking lot. “Right there!” He pointed towards one of the fire trucks that was parked nearby.

  “You want to go out in that thing? Even if I can manage to control the Infected again, I’m not going to be able to stop an entire city-full of them from swarming us the second we rev that engine up!”

  “It’s the only chance we have!” Logan said, running towards the truck. “It can drive fast enough, and it’s more than big enough to take down any Infected that jump out in front of us.”

  Jane was running beside him now. “Ok,” she said, “let’s try it.” She glanced behind her. “Where are the Marlows?”

  Logan looked back to see if he could spot them anywhere, but it seemed as though they never made it past the entrance.

  “They’re still inside,” Logan said somberly.

  The entry door swung open again, and Skylar charged outside with a couple of his men, machine guns at the ready. They aimed down their sights and pulled the triggers, showering the courtyard with lead.

  “Run!” Logan yelled. They dove behind the fire truck, and Logan reached up on the side to pull the passenger door open. “Get ready,” he said to Jane. “As soon as I say so, reach up and grab onto the handlebar. Hang on tight. Don’t risk getting up into the cab until we’re out of range of their guns!”

  Jane nodded wordlessly.

  Logan jumped in the truck and started the engine. Luckily, emergency vehicles were set to manual control by default. He put it into gear. “Now!” he shouted. He kneeled down as bullets shattered the window next to him, then he stepped on the gas.