“I’m here!” Alek taunted him, and then dodged Elliot’s swing. “Oh, but you forget that I am here.” He was pretending to be a swarm of multiple enemies.
“Dammit!” Elliot growled, missing his opponent multiple times.
“You have to concentrate.” Alek guided him, just as Annabelle had.
Elliot took a deep breath, following Alek’s advice. Then, he violently and unexpectedly swung out at him.
Alek winced and clenched his abdomen upon being winded.
“Oh!” Elliot stressed out. “Are you alright? Sorry Alek, I was just trying to catch you off guard.”
“It’s fine.” He said breathily, still clutching the area of impact.
Back in the town, Erica had decided to visit Gwen; she was worried about Annabelle. The two of them were currently standing outside her room, peeping in through the ajar door.
“She hasn’t left her room all day.” Gwen revealed. “All we know is that they didn’t what we thought they had done to her…”
Erica breathed a sigh of relief.
“They’re a group of cannibals.”
She immediately inhaled that same breath, but with shock in her eyes this time.
“You were right about Klara,” Gwen referred to Mattias’ death. “She was forced to eat a part of him it seems.”
Erica was remorseful. “I am so sorry Gwen, for everything…”
Without looking her in the eyes, Gwen smiled softly. “You did what you had to do, and my daughter’s back where she belongs. That’s all the matters.”
“…I know Annabelle and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. I know when she told me she let Cora go I completely lashed out at her, but I just want you to know, I really do care about that girl.” Erica expressed, feeling numb about the past.
“I forgive you.” Gwen tried to smile again, but still could not look her in the eyes.
Erica nodded, accepting her forgiveness. There was a tense silence between the two of them now.
“For Zach, right?” Gwen could sense this was the thought on her mind.
Now, after hearing his name from someone she had known far longer than Dawn, it became clear to Erica; she couldn’t bury the grief over him forever. “I know what you think of me, on a maternal level… You think I can’t do it because I lost both of my kids.”
“Yes.” Gwen didn’t even cover this fact up. “That’s exactly what I think of you.”
Erica cleared her throat, not entirely expecting this brutal honesty, and then explained, “But that doesn’t mean I won’t still at least try to fight for your children. If I can do that, then I hope, on some level at least, it will make up for where I got it all wrong.”
Then, as though ignoring everything Erica had just said, Gwen elaborated that, “I don’t think that you can’t do it because Zach and Cora are both gone, I just don’t think you can’t do it now that they are gone; Think about it, Erica, could you really bring yourself to look after another child figure now?”
Erica thought hard to herself, now understanding that she had gotten Gwen’s view of her entirely backwards. “No, I couldn’t…”
“Zach’s death was down to some cultist psychopaths, and Cora may even still be alive out there.” Now, Gwen finally looked Erica in the eye. “You loved them… That is what counts.” She put her hand on her shoulder.
“I just…” Erica teared up. “…It isn’t fair!”
The two friends fell into an embrace, as Erica cried into Gwen’s shoulder.
Back at Erica’s house however, Tina was conversating with Petra.
“What is wrong?” Petra asked her. “There is a second problem.” She could tell something else was on Tina’s mind away from Naiser’s heckling.
Tina shrugged, unsure of what to say.
“Is it the bad group?” She referred to J.V. and his sons.
Tina shook her head. “No… Well, partially…”
“Speak.” Petra said comfortingly.
Once again, Tina shrugged, not knowing where to begin. “It’s like a loop,” she began, “Everything, all the death, all the fights, the conflict, it happens everywhere, and it happens with everyone that we touch. London, France, Germany, and now here in Czechia too…”
Petra wasn’t entirely sure what Tina meant by this. “A loop?” She questioned.
“Before we got here – my group, I mean – We had occupied several other camps and communities; we started in London, then we briefly resided in a large French mansion, and so on, but everywhere we went, somebody always died, and somebody always wanted to settle the score.”
Petra pulled her jacket further across her front as a gentle chill filled the room. “How do you mean?”
“…Well, just take a look at our situation now, Petra; J.V. threatened us for the sake of his sons, so we retaliated by taking one of them hostage, to which he retaliated by killing two of our own, to which we now again retaliate to by plotting vengeance… When does it stop? Where and when does anyone draw the line?” Tina vented.
Petra nodded understandingly. “The line is drawn when everybody is dead. You said, ‘a loop’; Revenge is a loop. A loop cannot break.”
“Right.” Tina accepted this ideology, but had a problem with it, “So do we just kill J.V. and his sons and then wait for one of his other trading partners to come and kill us?”
But this gave Petra an idea. “Tina, the enemy of my enemy is my friend…”
Then, Tina froze. “Yes… Yes!” Her eyes widened in realisation. “Amazing, Petra! If we can somehow contact the other groups, we can co-ordinate an attack against those bastards! Brilliant!” With this idea hot in her head, she jumped to her feet, and rushed out to share it.
“Tina, wait!” Petra tried to hold her back, concerned about how the rest of the group may react to this idea.
Nikola stepped outside her house. She stretched her arms and let out a big yawn. Then, she noticed that people were congregating around one of the bridges. Curious, she descended the hill and towards the gathering mass; perhaps between ten to fifteen individuals had gathered.
As she lightly nudged her way through the small crowd, she caught on to what was being mumbled.
“Who is that?”
“Do you reckon it’s one of them?”
“Should we kill him?”
She reached the front, and noticed that Naiser was already standing there, staring out across the bridge. “Naiser.” She tapped him on the shoulder, “What is happening?”
Without vocally responding, Naiser nodded ahead to a man casually strolling over the bridge. He was wearing leather and black trousers, as well as a cowboy hat.
“Oh.” Nikola remarked, quickly pulling her radio up from her side. “Erica, we may have a problem…”
“Howdy folks.” The man greeted them as he tipped his hat, speaking with a strong American suit.
Nikola and Naiser looked to each other, instantly realising what the deal with this man was. They both drew knives from their sides.
“Whoa, hey! Easy now!” The man said calmly, slowly raising his hand above his head; doing this lifted his jacket, revealing a pistol holstered on his side.
“Let’s kill him.” Naiser suggested.
“No.” Nikola countered. “What does he want? I wonder.” She stepped closer to him, still with her knife visible and out in front of her.
“Relax lady. If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve done it already.” The man told her carelessly.
Nikola reached out and snatched his handgun. She threw it behind her, causing it to slide across the ground. “What do you want?” She asked this whilst moving the knife closer to his throat.
“The name’s Johnson.” It was the same son who rode with his father when Annabelle was traded back to the group. “I want my father dead…”
Nikola was stunned into silence.
“I know you won’t believe me when I say this, but he is pure evil. Even I can see that.”
“You are lying.” She moved the knife up t
o just beneath his eye.
Johnson went cross-eyed as he traced the blade, then looked back to Nikola. “He’s abusive, he’s a narcissist…” He paused.
“Continue.” She prompted him.
“He acts as though everything he does is for us, for his sons. But it isn’t…” Johnson tilted his head back, almost as though he was enjoying his freedom. “…He uses us as an excuse to exploit others, and it works. Other groups don’t act against him because, on some level, they feel sorry for the psychopath. They feel as though he’s just a loving father who’s corrupted by his losses. But that just isn’t true. He’s wracked with guilt over the daughters he gave away, but even worse than that, he’s just a naturally horrible person.”
“As if we’re going to buy into your bullshit.” Naiser scorned him, as he approached with the handgun that was kicked backwards earlier.
“It’s the truth!” Johnson raised his voice. “Your group took my brother, Joshua, hostage. Nobody else has ever braved a move like that against my father… I truly believe that, together, we can put an end to his tyranny once and for all. Please, just let me help you.”
Nikola looked up to the mountains, trying to locate any snipers.
“They’re all gone.” Johnson caught on to what she was doing. “My father initially planned to take all of you down following the trade, but I convinced him otherwise.”
“Nope.” Naiser shook his head. “It’s more like your father has sent you on an infiltration mission. The snipers are just well hidden.”
Eventually, Erica arrived at the scene. “Nikola, Naiser, what’s this?” She queried as she came face-to-face with Johnson.
“It’s one of J.V.’s sons,” Nikola explained. “Apparently his father is abusive and selfish, so he’s here to help us get revenge.”
“Exactly.” He tipped his hat once again, prompting Nikola to raise the knife even closer to his eye.
“You’re just like that asshole.” Erica told him in disgust, with regards to the hat-tipping.
“Look at the bruises on my arm… They’re all from him.” He pointed his eyes towards his surrendered right forearm.
Erica and Naiser looked cautiously between each other, with the latter still holding the gun.
“If you try anything, he shoots.” Erica warned Johnson, referring to Naiser’s weapon.
“Understood.” Johnson smiled hot-headedly.
Slowly, Erica raised her arm towards Johnson’s sleeve.
“Blugh!” He cried out distressfully as his entire body jittered. His eyes became wide, and his face went all red and veiny.
Erica, Nikola and Naiser all jumped in reaction to his pained cry, before all stepping back.
Johnson’s head twitched as he slowly looked down; there was a bullet hole at the very top of his chest, just beneath his neck.
With a confused look on her face, Erica looked behind her. Then, her face flooded with realisation.
Gwen was standing at the front of the small crowd, holding her own pistol out in front of her. She wasn’t shaking in the slightest; her hand and her face were both firm and stern.
Still looking down, and stunned beyond reacting, Johnson fell onto his side and violently twitched as blood guzzled out from his chest.
Naiser and Nikola both watched in shock as he bled out but did nothing in the way of assisting.
“No deal.” Gwen groaned.
“Gwen,” Erica slowly crept towards her, “Put the gun down, Gwen. Come on, just put it down.”
“J.V. is going to pay.” She continued to groan in disgust. “We’ll kill each of his remaining sons, and then we’ll kill him.”
A minute look of fright came across Erica’s face; not only had Gwen become ruthless again, but this act of murder could perhaps have sealed multiple other fates as well…
Chapter 18: Old New Friends
Naomi and Worm’s group had expanded rather quickly over the past couple of days. They were all spending the night in an old care home they had found along their new journey to Ireland. On the one hand, they enjoyed the maximised company, but on the other, they knew more people meant more mouths to feed, as well as more chance of conflict breaking out.
Worm was currently raising this concern with her. “Think about it like this: If we find an unopened can of, say, spaghetti hoops, then it would be easier to share it half-and-half if it were just the two of us, right?”
“Yeah, and?”
“But now that there’s…” Worm had to quickly look around the room to count how many survivors were with them now, “…Eight of us, it would be extremely hard to split that one can eight ways. So, what’s the plan for when we start to run out of resources?”
Naomi raised an eyebrow at him, “Seriously?”
“Yes, Naomi, seriously. What happens when we start to run out?” He reemphasised.
“You worry too much.” She patronised him. “We’re not going to run out of supplies. Cora’s group have lots in their bags, and we’ll find more things along the way. If we maintain the same pace we achieved today, we could probably reach the port in four, five, maybe even three days, if we’re lucky.”
“And what then?” This time, it was him raising an eyebrow at her.
“Um… What do you mean? We get to Ireland, obviously.” She patronised him once again.
“No,” he sighed, “I mean, what happens, literally right then… We get to the port, but has any one of us stopped to think how exactly we’re going to cross the waters?”
Naomi shrugged, “There’s bound to be some old boats there.”
“Yeah, boats which haven’t been used in years. Where are you going to get the fuel? Heck, do any of us even know how to get a boat started?”
She raised her hands and landed them on his shoulders, “Just, stop… You’re getting worked up over nothing. If there’s no boats, either we’ll find another way, or if not, then maybe we can finally consider settling down in one place and building up our lives there.”
“Settling down?” Kieran broke into their conversation, “Are you two getting married or something?”
“What?” They both retorted in confusion.
“Oh, you two are already married?” He continued to taunt them.
“Whatever Kieran. Shouldn’t you be busy pumping bullets into kids?” She scolded him.
“Touché, Naomi. But I think you’ll find I only fire at children who attack me first.” He patted her on the back in a sarcastic manner, before walking away again.
“Why is he such a prick?” Naomi asked, disgruntled.
The following morning, the group was up not too long after sunrise. They were back on the dual carriageway, albeit much further along than when Naomi’s group had departed from the first time.
“So,” Naomi appeared at Cora’s side, “Judging by your accent, your clearly from the other end.” She referred Cora’s Eastend accent. “What on Earth brought you all the way out here?”
“That’s a long story,” Cora chuckled, “I wanted to find my own way, so away I went. I left everything behind, I lost friends, but I made new ones too.” She looked back at Aoife and Mac.
“How lovely.” Naomi remarked. “But, if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly convinced to help a stranger cross all the way to Ireland?”
Cora grunted, “Do you wanna know the truth?”
Naomi nodded.
“Well, to be honest, for the same reason that you’re tagging along with us as well; I had no other set route, so I thought ‘why not?’”
She understood Cora’s reasoning perfectly and realised they had quite a few things in common now. “I lost friends along the way too… Even finding Worm again was a one-in-a-million chance.”
“Wait.” Cora stopped abruptly and put her hand out to cease Naomi in her tracks as well. “Do you see that?”
“See what?”
And then she did. Up ahead, the same enemy group of savages were ascending from the exit ramp.
“Oh no…”
; They had all taken cover behind the abandoned vehicles, deciding what to do next.
“How the hell do they keep finding us?” Worm freaked out.
“They’re fucking animals.” Valorie whined, cursing the Savages for Harry’s death.
Naomi peered out from behind one of the vehicles, trying to count how many savages there were.
Cora gripped her sickle.
“Bloody hell, can I have that?” Richard was captivated by Cora’s weapon.
“Haven’t you got a weapon of your own?” She retorted.
Richard pulled out his knife, “Well it pales in comparison to yours.”
“I can’t count how many there are!” Naomi pulled back. “There’s more of them still on their way up.”
“He’s got a gun.” Mac nodded to Kieran. “Why can’t he just shoot them?”
“Bullets aren’t infinite, kid. This isn’t one of your computer games, it’s real life.” Kieran scolded him. “If you haven’t figured that out yet, why don’t you go and run at them? Go on, go get yourself killed and see if you respawn!”
Naomi nudged him, “Not now, Kieran!”
“Maybe we could throw something at one of the other cars to distract them?” Aoife suggested.
“And then what?” Kieran griped. “It’s not like we can just sneak past them, is it?”
“So, what do you suggest?” She pointed her finger intently at him.
“I suggest we turn back… This is one of the many reasons why trying to get to Ireland is a bad idea these days.” Again, Kieran’s humour was not very much appreciated.
There was some faint mumbling from within the savage group. Two of them appeared to be communicating coherently with each other, rather than just making animalistic noises.
Worm noticed this interaction and watched it with great interest. Then, something even more bizarre caught his eye; one of the savages which was talking pulled out a small device, which looked very similar to a modern smartphone. “What?” He whispered to himself, confused by this observation.
The savage tapped the device twice, and then suddenly looked directly at the convoy of vehicles which the group was hiding behind. Worm instantly ducked back down but had a feeling he had been spotted.
Human Nature (Book 3): Human Nature III Page 12