Grayson Ryder: A Thief's Thrill

by M. L. Giles

  “No… No, I-I can’t accept that,” he muttered.

  I took a step forward to console him. He reacted by opening the door wider. “Thomas, listen carefully, okay? I killed to protect myself and you just now. Aiden burnt people alive because he wanted to. We aren’t the bad guys here, we are just the leftover survivors trying to escape.”

  “I w-won’t be part of any of t-this mad—ˮ

  “You already are, moron!” I snapped at him. “If you and your fucking girlfriend hadn’t dragged Evan here in the first place, none of this would’ve happened!”

  Thomas grabbed his hair with one hand, pulling on it hard. The war in his mind was consuming him. “I d-didn’t! Aiden s-said he j-just wanted Colton… He said Evan wouldn’t b-be killed! W-Wendy, she— She…”

  I was losing him. “There’s blood on your hands too, Tom. But you have a chance here to make amends by helping me now. We can get out of here, all three of us. We can leave all this crap behind, find a safe place away from this insanity and death.”

  There was a brief moment where I thought I’d talked him down but, when his eyes fell on the lad’s bloodied body, I saw his expression go blank.

  “You know what,” he said, looking back up at me, “to hell with all of you. I’m b-better off alone.”

  With those words, Thomas finally pushed the door fully open and stepped out into the hallway.

  The smarter side of me knew that if he left now he might become a liability, potentially messing everything up. The best thing to do was to knock him out, or even end his life entirely! And yet, I couldn’t do it.

  Instead of giving chase, I let him go. I didn’t have the heart to do anything bad to someone I could relate to.

  There was a strong chance that Thomas could get out of here alive. Aiden’s people were mostly drunk at the back of the hospital, as for the rest, they were too merry or distracted to even notice.

  Besides, would they even care if he left?

  Although I doubted Thomas would survive long on his own in this world, I wished him all the best as the doors he had opened mere moments ago slowly closed.

  Once I was alone, I turned the flashlight off, knowing that using it might draw attention. The fire coming in from outside was just about enough for me to see what I was doing.

  The room was long. On one side were many large windows spanning the entire length, on the other was a long stretch of individual cubicles, each separated by blue and white curtains.

  I made my way down the room, pulling back the curtain on each sectioned off area one at a time. Sometimes I saw nothing except an empty recovery bed, other times I saw a bed with the decaying remains of a person strapped down.

  One of the sections I looked in had its bed missing, but to the side was a chair with a black leather jacket hanging off it. It was the same jacket Evan had worn the day he set off with Group One.

  I sealed the section off, instantly yanking the curtain shut.

  One after the other I examined each cubicle, seeing all sorts of sickening sights. Aiden had used this place – once used for rest and recovery – for tying down prisoners. Maybe even torturing them, if the blood splatters were anything to go by.

  The end of the room was coming up. Each empty cubicle caused my fears to grow that maybe Colton wasn’t here after all. I opened the second from last cubicle curtain.

  There he was. After so long of being separated from him, I’d finally found the one person in this messed up world that I wanted to be with.

  However, as I approached Colton and got a better look at him, my heart started to clench in pain.

  “No…” I whispered. “Please, no.”

  Chapter 23

  Broken.

  Picking Up the Pieces.

  There he was, at last. I’d found Colton lying on his back upon a hospital bed. Leather straps tightly bound his arms, wrists, legs, chest, neck, and feet to the bed frame. They had tied him down like the beast Aiden had portrayed him to be.

  “…Colton?” I whispered, gently shaking his arm.

  The orange glow coming in from outside gave barely enough light to see the sickening damage they had inflicted.

  He had cuts all over his body, shredding his military trousers to tatters and leaving his tank top nothing more than strips. One nasty, open wound in particular went down his cheek and through his beard.

  Those bloody cuts were only the tip of the iceberg, though.

  Long burn marks seemed to be spread around his arms and chest. It was like they had repeatedly prodded him with a heated fire poker, creating patches of sore red and black skin.

  All this barbaric torture had been done in such a short time frame. My overactive imagination forced scenarios to play out in my head of Colton being subjected to unimaginable pain at the hands of an unstable madman – no guesses needed as to who played that role.

  “Come on, you big, beautiful bastard… Wake up!” I whispered once again, my voice quivering.

  Colton didn’t respond to me. The colour of his skin was pale, except for the parts either covered in blood or burn marks.

  This all felt so familiar to me, like I was losing Gloria all over again; seeing a person I cared for lying before me, colour-drained and motionless.

  “Don’t you dare do this to me, asshole!” I urged him. “You’re all I’ve got. Please, say something! Anything!”

  There was little more I could do besides shake him harder.

  He didn’t respond.

  Stinging tears rolled down my cheeks as the realization I was too late sank in. Those last few threads of sanity in my mind felt like they were being severed, leaving me devoid of anything more than the urge to burn this wretched place to the ground with every last fucker here trapped inside. Nothing, aside from seeing that butt-chinned face smiling again, would bring me more joy than incinerating Aiden in the same fires he adored so much.

  I placed my head on Colton’s burnt and bloodied chest, giving his cold body one final hug.

  That’s when I felt his chest rise slightly.

  The bugger was still breathing!

  Immediately, I slapped Colton’s face with one hand, while vigorously shaking his chest with the other. I didn’t care about how much force I used or how loud my voice was, all that mattered was dragging his burly backside back from the brink.

  “Colton! COLTON!” I shouted, not caring about how loud my voice was anymore.

  “…Gr-Gray…?” He spoke! One of his eyelids twitched a few times, trying hard to open.

  “Yes! Yes, it’s me!” I said, pulling my scarf-mask down and placing my forehead against his, letting out a relieved laugh. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again.”

  Colton opened one eye halfway. “What… are you… doin’ here? Wendy… said you were caught by Aiden. Told me they would… let you go if I surrendered.”

  The last time Colton had seen me was in the makeshift gym room at the hotel, when we were both looking out the window at Aiden and his fanatics. He wasn’t aware of my plan to sneak out to get his father back. Keeping him in the dark was a mistake I would never, ever, repeat again.

  “Why did you believe her? You big idiot! I snuck out to get Evan back.” The back of my shaking hand gently stroked his wounded cheek. “You should’ve know that capturing me isn’t that easy.”

  “You… weren’t caught? Damn…” he said weakly.

  I was overcome with a euphoric feeling at hearing his voice once again, but also a feeling of deep, almost unrestrainable anger at seeing him in such a damaged state. This wasn’t the time or place to lose myself to my emotions, though. We were still inside Aiden’s madhouse, meaning I needed to keep my mind sharp if we had any chance of getting out of here with our skins unmelted.

  One by one, I began undoing the bindings that held Colton down. “Can you move? We need to escape while everyone’s partying outside.”

  Colton heaved himself up slowly. He let both legs slide off the hospital bed as he sat up to face me.

 
When I saw his wounded body barely able to stop swaying, it became apparent that getting out of here quickly wasn’t an option. We needed time for Colton to regain some strength first.

  “I’ll go see if I can find something to patch you up with,” I told him. “Just take it easy until then.”

  When I turned to walk away, Colton grabbed my wrist, lightly pulling me back to him. With a heavy arm, he reached up to rub my neck lovingly.

  “Look at me, Gray. I’m screwed,” he said with only one eye open. “Get outta here while you still can. Couldn’t handle knowin’ I brought you down with me.”

  “Would you leave me here if our situations were reversed?” I asked. Colton looked away, answering the question with his body language alone. “Exactly. Sit tight, I’ll be right back.”

  With that said, I pulled my scarf-mask up before taking my leave to find medical supplies.

  While rummaging through some personal belongings sitting beside one of the many beds, in what I assumed was the sleeping quarters, two of Aiden’s men walked in.

  I fell to the ground and swiftly rolled under the bed before they had a chance to spot me – admittedly forgetting I was still in disguise, rendering my awesome manoeuvre pointless. Oh well, I stayed hidden anyway.

  “Should we go get him?” a man’s voice asked.

  “Why bother? Everyone knew he wouldn’t last here.” The second man’s voice was slurred, probably from the booze.

  The first, more sober sounding man spoke again. “Yeah, true. No idea what a feisty woman like Wendy was doing with a coward like him in the first place.”

  “I dunno about that. Thomas must have some guts to walk out the front door like that. Let’s just hope Aiden doesn’t have us searching everywhere for him; I’m still exhausted from hunting for Colton’s hideout.”

  I smiled. “Well slap my butt and call me Sally! That-a boy, Thomas. Good luck out there.”

  The two men went to a bed in the corner of the room, grabbed whatever they were looking for, then made their way back out.

  This left me, once again, free to continue my search in peace.

  You’d think a hospital would be well-stocked with medical supplies in every room, but half an hour’s rapid searching yielded only two bottles of water, a half-empty box of plasters, a pack of painkillers with only three unpopped from their casing, and a single roll of bandages.

  “It’ll have to do,” I had thought before making my way back.

  I probably wouldn’t have returned with so little, but leaving Colton alone was starting to drive me insane with worry.

  Upon returning to the room, I found him sitting on the same chair the young guard had been sitting on when I’d first walked in. He didn’t react to me entering the room. Something appeared to be occupying his mind.

  “Did you do this?” Colton asked me.

  “Do what?”

  He pointed at the young guard’s bloodied corpse on the floor between us. “Kill him.”

  I walked around the body, heading over to the desk where Colton was sitting, putting down next to him the few supplies I’d managed to gather. “Mhm. Anyway, they didn’t have much on this floor. Maybe—”

  “Thought you didn’t approve of killin’ folk?” he interrupted.

  “It was either him or me. Besides, some people need to die, right? Evan taught me that with his story about those cannibals.”

  “How many have you killed to get here, Gray? Be honest.”

  It made me feel sick to recall the faces of those I’d ended the life of. “…Four. That’s including Carl.”

  Colton looked straight over at me, still with one swollen eye closed. “Carl? What the hell happened?!”

  I spoke about the state Carl was in when I’d found him, explaining that it was Carl himself who had asked me to end it. Colton wasn’t aware of anything that had taken place after he was taken away in the back of the ambulance. Aiden had told him that if he gave up quietly, everyone would be spared, including the supposedly-captured me.

  As far as Colton knew, we were all still safe back at the hotel.

  It was heartbreaking to see his face wince in pain when I told him everything that went on after the surrender – from my chase down the streets, all the way to seeing his father die only a couple of hours ago.

  Poor Colton had tried hard to save us all, even going so far as to give himself up to protect the group he had created.

  That single, noble act ended up being for naught – a fact which hurt him the most.

  “My dad… Carl… Beth… Everyone.” Colton spoke slowly, almost in a state of shock.

  “Don’t think like that.” I shuffled around to stand in front of him and grabbed his head with both hands, forcing him to look at me. “There’s a slim chance some people escaped. Carl told me a few people got out alive, the man who charged at me with a fork is proof of that. We’ll find them.”

  “But gettin’ outta here will—ˮ Colton was interrupted by the sound of cheering.

  From the nearest open window, I could hear Aiden addressing his group. By the time I’d crept over to the window to listen in, the speech was still ongoing.

  “…magnificent night! Tomorrow, when we awaken from a well-deserved sleep, we shall all gather here once more to finally witness that traitorous dog bathe in our fire for his crimes. That cretin WILL get what he deserves!” The crowd cheered once again at Aiden’s words. “Our deeds today mean we can, for the first night in a long time, sleep peacefully in the knowledge that we have won. Here’s to us!”

  “To us!” the crowd shouted back.

  After Aiden’s speech, the majority of the revellers in the car park started filtering slowly into the hospital. Nobody looked like they were able walk in a straight line.

  “Party’s finished,” I said quietly over to Colton.

  “They comin’ inside?”

  “Seems like it.” I made my way back over to Colton. “This is our chance. Once they fall asleep, we sneak out. It should give you enough time to regain some more strength.”

  “Ain’t that simple, Gray,” Colton groaned.

  “Pfft, of course it is!” I said, kneeling beside him and resting an arm on his leg. “We wait for a bit, leave this place while they are snoring away, get to the car—ˮ

  “—Then get hunted down all over again,” he interrupted. “Aiden ain’t gonna let me go. He blames me for breakin’ his group apart, an’ he thinks I poisoned Pearl against him in the first place. Long as he lives, we ain’t safe anywhere.”

  It took a moment for the hint to sink in, but even after it did, I had to be certain. “What are you saying, Colton?”

  He looked right at me with his one good eye. “Aiden’s gotta die. If we take him out, there’s a good chance the group here will dissolve. They’ll be lost without their leader.”

  “What if losing their precious leader pisses them off more? Won’t it just make them hunt us harder?” I asked.

  “We can’t fight ‘em all. Cuttin’ off the head an’ hopin’ the body dies is the best shot we got.”

  He was right – almost. With Colton in such bad shape, I knew that letting him try to take out Aiden wasn’t a smart idea.

  “I’ll do it…” I whispered.

  “No you won’t,” Colton snapped. “After everythin’ he’s done to me, I owe him big time.”

  Aiden had taken so much from Colton. I couldn’t blame him for wanting a taste of revenge, even if it was risky.

  I sighed and stood up, making my way over to the door to take my leave. “Use the supplies I brought back to fix yourself up. If anyone comes in here without knocking three times first, take them down right away.”

  “Hold up. Where you goin’, Gray? You better not be thinkin’ of playin’ lone wolf again…”

  “People are entering the building,” I explained. “If no one is guarding these doors, it will look suspicious. We need to keep up appearances until it’s quiet.”

  Colton gave me an approving nod. “Good thinkin�
�. I’ll stay here ‘till you knock. An’ Gray?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks for comin’ to get me. All this can’t have been easy, given how you feel ‘bout takin’ a life. I’m sorry it came to this.”

  After taking a short breath, I said, “Don’t be. You once asked me if I’d kill to protect you. It’s funny how small a price that feels now.”

  “Grayson…”

  I left the room to play my role as pretend guard.

  As I leaned against the wall beside the doors, a question came to mind: would ending the life of Aiden bring me any happiness? Had I fallen so far that murder could actually bring me some joy?

  The answer never came to me. My only certainty now was I wanted us to be free from living in fear of retaliation. If Colton was right, that freedom came when Aiden was gone.

  Oh well. Not like the wanker didn’t have it coming.

  Aiden’s partygoers walked past me, sometimes one at a time, sometimes in groups. I remembered this floor of the hospital was mostly used as the residential living quarters for everyone, making it the busiest floor when people went to bed.

  One drunken man stopped beside me to ask if he could “release some frustrations” on Colton.

  I had no idea if that was a sexual thing or a torture thing, either way it really pissed me off. Regardless of how angry it made me, though, breaking character wasn’t an option.

  “No can do, mate,” I told him using a fake tone of voice. “Aiden gave orders not to let anyone in there tonight.”

  The man seemed disappointed by my answer. He wanted to start trouble with me, only to be moved on quickly by his friends. It reminded me of when people would go out drinking in the past. There was always one troublemaker in the group who needed to be carted away by others.

  I had one more conversation while guarding the doors. This time with the big cheese himself, Aiden.

  Not long after most of the people were already settled in bed, Aiden walked proudly down the hall with two women attached to him, giving their most esteemed leader all of their love and attention.