Dead World Rising (Book 1): Staying Human

by Petrova, Katerina

  Sadly as I would learn, that was easier said than done. I had been in the room for a few hours when the door opened, Dave stood there with ropes in his hands. He ordered Ellen to get out and go to the barn, I felt my hands shaking as he advanced towards me.

  'We can do this the easy way or the hard way,' he said hungrily.

  'Stay away from me,' I told him furiously.

  'Hard way it is then,' he licked his lips as he shut the door. I had nowhere to run and no weapons to defend myself but I sure as hell wasn't going to make this easy for him. I would not have my virginity ripped away by this monster, he came towards me and kicked him hard in the stomach. It didn't seem to even faze him, he grabbed me by the throat and pinned me against the wall. I kicked and screamed but no matter what I did, I just couldn't get him off me. I stared fiercely into his sick, hungry face as I closed my eyes and headbutted him.

  He gave out a loud yelp as he let go off me, I took this chance to grab the police bat that was in his belt. I pulled it from him and whacked him hard round the face, while he was down I kept on hitting him. I had never killed a human before, but I knew that it was either him or me. I felt such anger inside of me that for a moment I wasn't even sure I was myself. I saw the blood, I listened to his screams but I didn't stop, it wasn't until four guys came running in that I was forced to drop the bat.

  'I told you, you aren't going to have me,' I spat at Dave. 'That bitch is crazy, get her into the cell,' he ordered them. 'Right away boss, Darren you get him to the infirmary while we take this little bitch,' a young guy in his twenties said.

  They dragged me kicking and screaming to what could only be described as a dungeon, they shackled me to the walls and left me alone. I looked around but saw no one else in the room with me, I'm so screwed I thought sadly. I should have just beat him and ran, now he was going to torture me.

  A short while later Dave came walking in, he was bloody and bruised but all I could do was smile at my handy work. I had never been forceful or this angry before, it was like a new strength was being awakened inside of me. Though my hands were chained and I couldn't get away this time, I knew deep down I was going to lose but that would not deter me from fighting. I stared at him with such hatred that I scared myself, I had never known such powerful feelings before.

  'You'll not have me,' I spat. He ran his finger down my face, looking at me as I were some kind of toy to enjoy. I moved my face away but he grabbed my throat and held it with such force that I could barely breathe, while I felt more afraid than I had ever done in my life it was overshadowed by my anger and hatred. I should have been quaking in fear but instead I simply stared at him.

  He ripped open my thin pink jumper with his bare hands, the shredded remains clinging to my skin. I did not shout or scream as he took his knife and ran it down my chest, I felt myself unwillingly flinch at his sickening touch. I could see the satisfaction on his face as he knew he was going to win, it was as though I were a conquest; almost like planting a flag on the moon. I tried kicking him but he moved away, he chained my legs up so that I could not move an inch.

  'I'm going to enjoy this,' he licked his lips as he tore my bra in two with his knife. My naked breasts laid bare for him to touch, I closed my eyes as it sunk in that there was no way I could beat him. Despite his vulgar attitude he was quite gentle to begin with, he must have known that I was a virgin somehow. He ran his fingers softly down my breasts as if savouring the feeling, he came a little closer to me; he was so close that I could smell the overpowering scent of his aftershave. It seemed strange that in this world people would still be concerned with such things, he kissed my neck almost lovingly. I wondered if he and his friends actually thought they were doing good, if by impregnating women they were saving the human race. I tried to move away from him but it was no use, I was at his mercy...and he knew it.

  'Stop,' I pleaded as he undid my trousers.

  'I'll be gentle,' he promised, as if that would make it better somehow. I felt the searing pain as my virginity was taken by force, my tongue bled from where I'd bitten down on it so much. Despite my earlier strength I screamed in agony as he violated me, he clung to me as he thrust in and out. No matter how I screamed he would not stop, my hands were bound and my legs turned to jelly. I felt him dig his nails into my back, though it hurt it was not as bad as the agony coming from my nether region. I could feel the blood running down my back as his nails went deeper into my skin, he moaned with pleasure as he thrust me.

  'No more, please stop,' I cried.

  'Shh it'll be over soon,' he replied. He stopped digging his nails into my back and instead wrapped his arms around me, he held me close kissing my neck as I felt him climax inside of me. He made sure that he emptied himself completely inside of me, the pain did not subside as he pulled away. He pulled his trousers up and looked at me as if I were nothing, he walked out of the room leaving me, bloody, naked and in agony.

  I let the tears fall as the realisation hit me, though it was unlikely to happen after just one encounter....but I could get pregnant. I knew I couldn't bring a child into this world that was born of rape, but it seemed that I didn't have a choice. Of all the ways I thought my life could be, I had never thought I would endure such cruelty from the remainder of humanity.

  Chapter 12

  Frankie

  We dared not shout in case there were walkers about, we got out our weapons and took a floor each. I looked in the rooms upstairs and saw the body of Nora looking peaceful as if she were sleeping, some Nightshade berries sat on the bedside table. I knew that it took twenty to twenty-five berries to kill an adult, I had told Jade that and I knew she would have made sure that Nora took enough of them.

  There was no one else in the bedrooms or the bathroom, Jensen manned the living room as Tom went to the cellar. He called up to us to say that he had found Tamara, she was lying in a pool of blood on the cellar floor next to an open back-door. Tom checked her pulse and thankfully she was still alive, she was knocked out cold though.

  Jensen cried as he called for Maggie, looking distraught when he couldn't find her. Fear rose within me and I struggled not to cry, my feeling had been right we never should have left them alone. This was Dave's group I just knew it, I would kill them myself for this. I had not felt anger like this in such a long time, it terrified me at just how furious I was.

  I went over to Tamara and held her in my arms as I gently told her that we were here and that everything would be okay.

  She slowly opened her eyes, and after a few moments began to recognise us. I told Jensen to go and get some cloths from upstairs and some water.

  'Tamara, what happened where are Jade and Maggie?' I could see that her wounds were only superficial, though it looked like whoever had done this had done some damage. One of her eyes was blue and completely shut, she had deep cuts on her cheek and a badly swollen and cut lip. I could see the cuts and bruises on her hands from trying to fight her attacker off. There was a particularly nasty one on her right arm that looked like a letter 'T'. As I moved my hand from her head, it was covered in blood, I looked to see that there was a large cut on the back of her head. She might have a concussion, I prayed that there would be no lasting damage.

  'A big group of men came, they took Maggie and Jade,' she struggled to say.

  'It's alright, your safe now,' I said trying to comfort her.

  'When I tried to stop them they knocked me out,' she told me breathlessly.

  'Do you know where they took Jade and Maggie?' Jensen asked urgently.

  'Easy Jensen, don't push her to speak she's clearly having trouble,' I warned him.

  'They have a base near Holmfirth. I heard it before I passed out. I'm sorry, I've made a right bag of this.'

  In Irish slang bags meant botched job, I still struggled to remember all the slang terms she used.

  She looked and sounded like she was going to pass out again. As I patched her up as best as I could and she fell back to sleep, she was now covered in bandages I ho
ped I had done enough to help her although it still puzzled me about her strange injury on her arm.

  'We have to get them, I won't leave Maggie with those people!' Jensen shouted, I understood how he felt but we couldn't let emotions get in the way of being careful.

  'Your right Jensen and we will, but we need to take care of Tamara first. We know nothing about these people, we don't know how many there are or how to find them.'

  He looked defeated as he knew I was right, this would take great planning and skill to rescue them. We took Tamara upstairs into Jade's room, me and Jensen put her into bed as Tom buried Nora. My anger for what had happened here outweighed my sadness for Nora, while I wanted to mourn I knew I had to be strong.

  Jensen,Tom and I sat in the living room poor Jensen was beside himself with worry for his sister. He kept shouting that we had to go and get them back. 'I know you want to get her back and we will, but we have to be smart about it. Tamara needs to rest and we can't leave her alone, we need to make a plan.'

  I put my hands on his shoulders to calm him down, he looked tired and drained as he sat down on the sofa.

  'Frankie is right lad, we need to prepare for this. This group outnumbers us and there's no way we can risk a direct attack.'

  As angry as Tom was he at least was thinking clearly. 'Its going to take some time for Tamara to be able to move, her wounds are superficial but she can't even open her eye not only that I'm worried about her head we have no idea if there's going to be any lasting damage. There's no way she can fight in the state that she's in,' I said worryingly.

  'I agree,' Tom replied sounding just as concerned as I was.

  'How do we even try to get them back?' Asked Jensen angrily. We sat down to figure out our next move, we knew that they were holed up near Holmfirth it would take a few hours to walk there. We needed to find somewhere nearby to stay while we scouted the place, we needed to know how many people there were and how fortified their place was.

  This mission was going to be damn near impossible but we had to at least try and get our family back, I wouldn't leave my family with those monsters if I could help it. We decided to take turns on watch, I took the first shift. The sun was setting in the sky, I went outside to check our surroundings and found that it was eerily quiet outside. I walked around for a while keeping an eye out for walkers or people, it seemed that despite the earlier attack it had not attracted any corpses. I walked out onto the main road to check for anything out of place, I listened closely for any noise but heard nothing other than my own deep breathing.

  It was a warm night outside which I was thankful for, and yet despite the heat I felt a cold chill within me. My tears had dried and my sorrow turned to anger, I would not let them get away with this even if it killed me I would have my revenge.

  It was not until the sun started to rise that Tom came to relieve me, he did not look as if he had slept much I wondered whether Jensen's crying had kept him up.

  'Morning, thought you could use this,' he said handing me a cold coffee.

  'Thanks, I need this. Has Tamara woken up yet?' I asked feeling the tiredness set in. He shook his head sadly.

  'Not yet, though I checked on her and her breathing seems normal. I'm not a doctor so I don't know for sure.'

  He sat down on the deck chair and seemed to just stare into space. I went inside to check on Jensen but found that he wasn't there, I looked in the living room and the kitchen I even checked upstairs but he was nowhere to be found. Damn him, he'd gone after them by himself. I raced outside to Tom, almost tripping out the back-door as I went.

  'Jensen's gone!' I exclaimed feeling both angry and worried.

  'What do you mean he's gone?' He almost cried.

  'I think he's gone after them by himself. You stay here I'll go and get him,' I shouted a little too loud. I chose to take a right at the main road, I ran to the bottom of the road. I took a left at the pub and ran up the road, it was good thing that I was used to running so much. I came to where the weapon shop was and couldn't see him, I hoped I'd gone the right way. I ran up the hill as fast as I could feeling a little out of breath as I got to the top, I still couldn't see him. I stopped for a moment at the stone wall to catch my breath, the sun was blazing today which did little to help.

  I saw a lone walker shuffling not far from me I could see that it had been dead for quite some time, its skin had decayed to the point that you could almost see through it. As it snapped at me I could see that half of its teeth were missing. I took my knife out of my belt and readied myself for an attack. It could not easily lunge for me as it had a broken leg, it reached out with its arms but I was ready for it.

  I kicked it in the stomach causing it to stumble, while it was trying to get up I quickly stabbed it in the head. It fell to the ground with a thud, I sat down on the stone wall for a moment thinking how on earth I was going to find Jensen. He couldn't have gotten this far without running the whole way, surely he wasn't that fit?

  I came to a curve in the road when I found him hiding in some bushes, I wanted to run up to him and yell at him but then I saw what he was hiding from. I hid in the trees nearby and crouched down, the small pickup truck was driving slowly away from us. I could see Dave and three others including the driver in it, I looked over to the bushes and saw Jensen's jaw clench. I could tell that he wanted run after the truck but fortunately he saw sense and stayed put.

  I waited until the truck had driven away then raced over to him, he sat slumped on the floor looking overwhelmed with sadness.

  'Damn it Jensen, what were you thinking coming all the way up here by yourself?' I hissed quietly at him.

  While I wanted to shout I held back, for fear of being heard by Dave.

  'I have to find her, I won't leave her there,' he growled angrily.

  He got up and started to walk in the direction of the truck, I stood in front of him and put my hands on his shoulders to try and steer him off this dangerous path.

  'Frankie get off me,' he spat.

  'No, I'm not letting you go anywhere in the state your in. Your going to get yourself killed!' I shouted, not bothering to be careful of my voice volume.

  He shoved my hands away and began marching after the truck, I ran and stood in front of him once more.

  'Get out of my way Frankie!' He screamed furiously. I could see his face going red with anger, his fists were clenched and I feared that he might attack me. He was not in his right frame of mind, I knew that this wasn't him but if he swung for me I would knock him on his arse.

  'If you get yourself killed how will you rescue Maggie?' I tried to reason with him but he was having none of it.

  He ignored me and carried on walking, I almost tripped as he pushed me away. That's it, I thought angrily. I marched up to him and gave him a good hard slap right across the face, it was enough to make him stumble. He looked at me with such a rage that I didn't know how to react, he walked over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders. I did not move or flinch as he shook me, he screamed at me telling me how I wasn't going to get in his way and that he would get Maggie back no matter what it took.

  My heart broke for him, we would most likely fail on our mission and he was probably never going to see his sister again. I could not say that if it was my family that had been captured that I wouldn't have been in the same state. I let him shake me until he got all his anger out, granted by the end I felt really sick but he was spent. We slumped to the floor holding each other, he cried into my shoulder and I held him close.

  'I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you,' he wailed.

  I rubbed his back not caring that my jacket was getting soaked.

  'Its alright,' I whispered softly.

  We sat in the middle of the road for what felt like hours, he cried until he couldn't any more. I wiped his tears away and held his face in my hands, I would do whatever it took to get his sister back.

  'Listen to me, we will get her back I promise you.'

  I looked into his eyes and beneath all tha
t anger I saw a scared kid, she was all he had left and I wouldn't let another person I cared about lose their family.

  We walked back home without incident, he apologised for being and dick many times on our walk home.

  'Stop apologising already, I get it alright. Though I don't think Tom will be so understanding,' I said sympathetically.

  'I know,' he grumbled. I hoped that this would deter him from doing anything stupid again, when we got back Tom really laid into him. I almost felt sorry for him, Tom could be a hard ass sometimes and as I listened to him scream at Jensen I felt really worried. We needed to stick together and not fight, how could we rescue the others if we were fighting each other?

  'Alright Tom, that's enough I think he's learned his lesson,' I said as I jumped in the middle of them.

  'How can you let him off so easily? He needs to realise what he's done, you could have been killed or worse captured because of his stupidity!' He screamed furiously.

  'Damn it Tom, he knows that. I've yelled at him enough not to mention I gave him one hell of a slap.'

  I kept my voice calm and neutral.

  'He deserves more than slap if you ask me,' he growled.

  'I'm sorry alright, what more do you want me to say?' Jensen said sounding like a child who'd been told off. They argued for bloody ages it was night time by the time they stopped, in the end Tom had sat in the cellar by himself and Jensen sat in the living room. I sighed as I went to check on Tamara who still wasn't awake, how on earth was I going to fix this?

  I went downstairs to give Tom his dinner, which tonight was a tub of chocolate spread and some biscuits. We had decided long ago to eat all the stuff like biscuits and crisps before anything else mostly because this stuff went out of date first. He mumbled a thank you as I handed him his food.

  'You need to lay off Jensen, he knows he screwed up and we can't afford to fight with each other right now,' I said calmly.