With a bandage around his arm, Alek lead the angry mob over the bridge.
“I’m going to rip his heart out!” Jázmin expressed her feelings about J.V., vengeful over Naiser’s demise.
“I’ll take the heart; you can have the brain.” Another angry townsperson added.
In the corner of his eye, Alek watched as Nikola and Rubin navigated their way back down the mountain, also headed towards the rock formation.
“That’s enough hugging, son.” J.V. affirmed, but James didn’t let go. “Hey, are you a deaf bastard now or what?” Still, they maintained their embrace. “I said… Off!” He violently pushed his son away. “What the hell is the matter with you?”
Tears formed in James’ eyes. “You went too far, dad… Joshua is dead. Johnson is dead. Joseph is dead. But… I still love you.”
“Dead? Joseph isn’t dead.” He chuckled. “You’re delusional, son. Should’ve been born a girl so I could’ve given you away.”
This only served to push the forming tears out of James’ eyes.
And then, Alek stepped into view. “Well, well, well…” He commented, looking down at J.V. in disgust.
J.V. reached for his shotgun, but Jázmin appeared from the other side and threw it away from him.
With his face all swollen, and his lungs short of breath, J.V. finally surrendered. “Alright… You win…”
“I’m sorry, dad, I’m so sorry.” James shook his head in dismay, watching as more and more angry faces began to surround his father.
Two of the townspeople then grabbed James by his arms and carried him away from his father; he didn’t even try to resist, he only burst into tears.
Nikola and Rubin arrived at the scene.
Now a full circle was formed around J.V., who looked up at all of his enemies and laughed. “If you kill me… You make me a martyr… I always told my sons I’d die for them…”
“No,” Alek shook his head in disgust, “You’re not dying for them, you’re dying because of them.” He crouched down to meet at eye-level with J.V. “That boy,” he referred to James, “Is going to tell us where your base is, and then we’re gonna kill him, and whatever is left of your sick cannibalistic bloodline, alright?”
J.V. looked at him sternly, and then his mouth slowly ascended into a bright smile, “See these teeth?” He used the same taunt as earlier to provoke Alek, “There are bits of your friends hanging on these teeth… Klara tasted the nicest, for the record.”
Jázmin hit him over the head with a small rock. “Say that again, I dare you!”
Laughing, J.V. reasserted his position, and then faced her, “Klara was the nicest meal I ever had…” He smiled at her too, showcasing his teeth.
“Fuck you!” She hit him with the rock again.
And then, everybody joined in. Some of them kicked him, some of them battered him with their fists, some used sticks, and some gave him light-painful cuts on his limbs.
Then, Alek lifted him up, and carried him over to the bridge.
He threw J.V. on the ground, causing him to wince painfully.
“Look at you,” Gwen remarked, “Swollen face, broken nose… You’re weak.”
His right eye was too bruised and beaten for him to see out of, so he looked up at Gwen with his left one only. “Y-you… Look… T-tasty,” he stuttered through his pain.
“Save it.” She stomped on his head, causing him to cry out in pain once again. “Come on, Annabelle.” She took her daughter away from Elliot, as the two of them stepped back.
“L-Look at me…” J.V. mumbled, trying to taunt Elliot over his blindness.
“Oh, I can see you alright.” Elliot retorted, throwing his cane to one side.
“I would… I would have done… So much… To your sister…” Even with a mouth full of blood and internal bruises, J.V. couldn’t resist trying to worsen his situation.
Then, Elliot produced his nun-chucks from his side, and stretched them out. “And I’m going to do so much to your son…” Elliot had the last laugh, before brutally beating what was left of J.V.’s head using his weapon. “Die!” He exclaimed, as he continued to mercilessly wail on him with the nun-chucks; perhaps twenty or thirty times.
Once Elliot was done, he took a step back, and wiped the sweat from his brow.
J.V.’s temple had been beaten in so much, that his skull was visible through a gash, with blood seeping both in and out of the wound.
“It’s over…” Elliot mumbled, before looking over to the rest of the group, and proclaiming “It’s over!” Much louder. “J.V. is dead. We have his son captive… Once we know where their base is, we are going to finish off what remains of their despicable family!”
“Yes!” Alek, and many others, agreed, and chanted in determination.
“Dad?” A voice came through on J.V.’s radio. “Did you get them? Did you kill them yet?”
With an evil smile on his face, Elliot requested, “Alek, get me that radio, would you?”
He obeyed and reached down to grab the walkie from J.V.’s corpse. He handed it to Elliot directly.
“Your father’s dead.” He cut to the chase. “You’re now speaking to his killer, Elliot.”
“What?” The man was seemingly in denial.
“That’s right. Your abusive and cannibalistic father is dead, along with the rest of your family. It’s just you left now. Got it?” Elliot was becoming hot-headed from vengeance.
“…Game on then, Elliot. My name is Jaxon… Remember that, because it’s the name of the guy who’s going to kill you. Over and out.” Jaxon tuned out of the frequency.
Elliot raised the radio high, “Hear that, everyone? Our new friend Jaxon reckons that he can still win! So, who’s with me? Who’s up for ending J.V.’s legacy once and for good?”
Chapter 23: Suspicious
On the deck of the boat, Worm and Aoife were getting to know each other. For Worm, he felt as though they were flirting; but what was Aoife really playing for?
“You know, Worm,” her hand met his on the railing, as they both looked out across the ocean, with the salty sea air overcoming their senses, “You’re a real-life hero.”
“Please,” he scoffed. “I’m nothing special. Far from it.”
She shook her head with a playful smile, “No, you really are a hero. You came back for me. I can just tell you’re a good man at heart.”
He looked away from the ocean, “I’m really not. I wish I were, but I’m not. If anything, I’m shameful.”
Her eyes turned sympathetic, “How come?”
He shrugged, “I guess… Well…” He decided honesty was better than flattery. “Naomi had this friend, and his name was Polaris. There was a radiation meltdown a few years back, and I promised her that I would find him.”
Aoife nodded understandingly, “But you didn’t, did you?”
“I did.” He rectified. “But I couldn’t bring myself to put a bullet in his head… I felt too much guilt for neglecting him as a member of the group. He only got infected because he tried saving lives in the first place.”
“Infected?” She queried.
“Yeah… Oh, right,” he realised that Aoife had never come into contact with the radiation, “I’m still not entirely sure what the science behind it was, but the radiation caused animals to go insane. They would become hell-bent on ravaging humans, and then one day, my group found out, the hard way, that the infection could spread to humans.”
“Interesting.” She remarked, as though she had some ulterior motive for questioning Worm about this infection. “Do you think it was connected to the virus, in any way?”
“Virus? What virus?” Worm replied in confusion; it wasn’t necessarily common knowledge amongst the survivors that this was the cause of the apocalypse.
“Oh, um, I just assumed that a virus was what caused everyone to die that day,” she referred to Day Zero. “I’m just curious, this other infection that you spoke of, the radiation, do you think there is a link?”
W
orm cautiously shook his head, “No, I don’t think so… There was a theory amongst my group that it was the result of a nuclear blast, but… Nowadays, I really don’t know… Does it matter?” He pondered.
“No, of course not. Just… Making conversation, that’s all.” She caressed his hand once again, as they both smiled, and looked out across the ocean again.
In the wheelhouse, Tanika manoeuvred the boat with a look of excitement on her face, including a subtle smirk; she had waited years for a sign from ‘The Director’, and finally she had gotten one. She finally knew that her survival wasn’t for nothing.
“Have you seen Naomi?” Kieran asked, appearing as if from nowhere at the top of the stairs.
“Oh,” Tanika was startled, “She’ll be around here somewhere. If you can’t find her, she’s probably in the toilet.”
“I checked there. It’s empty.” He remarked, watching her suspiciously.
Still facing forward, she shrugged. “There’s more than one toilet on board. Have you checked all of them?”
He hesitated, and then answered with, “No, I only checked the one in the dining area.”
“Well then, you might wanna check the lower decks, the sports lounge, the one next to the bar, the one in the kitchen, and so on,” she threw in a red-herring to keep him distracted for the majority of the trip. “It’s a cruise ship, she really could be anywhere.”
“So it would seem,” he grunted doubtfully. “It’s weird how quickly she changed your mind, isn’t it?”
“Like I said, I like--”
Knowing exactly what she was going to say, Kieran interrupted her, “You like Naomi a lot, yes, you keep saying that… But somehow we’ve still yet to see any further interaction between the two of you.”
Tanika didn’t respond.
“A cruise ship requires a lot of fuel,” he noted. “A resource which is becoming desolate these days. Where exactly did you get it all from?”
“What exactly are you trying to do?” She avoided his questioning.
“Me? Well, I’m just looking out for a friend,” only in her absence was Kieran finally grateful for Naomi. “I just want to make sure that, if you’re going to be her friend as well, that you’re a trustworthy individual, that’s all.”
She sighed, “You pointed a gun at me when we first met. All I did was a raise a machete in defence. Think about that, and then think which one of us is really the untrustworthy one.”
He walked forward into her peripheral vision. Rather than looking at Tanika however, he looked forwards, out across the ocean ahead.
“It’s getting a little chilly out here.” Worm remarked as the ocean breeze began to overwhelm here.
“You’re such a baby,” Aoife seemingly flirted, and playfully nudged him. “So, this Polaris,” she tried to subtly continue her interrogation without alerting him, “If you didn’t kill him, does that mean he’s still out there?”
Worm shook his head instantly. “I don’t think so. Like I said, it’s been years since the whole infection thing. They were still human, even if something changed inside of them… They still need to eat and drink, I doubt they could sustain themselves as rabid creatures for this long. They probably died out. Heck, I hope so, for Polaris’ sake.”
She thought carefully to herself. “Naomi seems ok with you… Does she even know?”
He nodded. “I told her recently. It’s been less than a week since we found each other, but she forgave me… Doesn’t mean I feel any less guilty, however.” He confessed.
“So, where abouts was this? I mean, I’ve never seen any of these ‘infected people’.” Still being cautious, she now tried to get more information from him.
“Hard to be specific,” he took a second to think, “I would say probably more Bristol-wards. Just slighter more west to where we’ve all been loitering around.”
“Bristol… Right.” She mumbled, confirming the information for herself.
Cora joined the two of them outside. “Hiya!” She greeted Aoife, and then turned to Worm. “Worm, have you seen Naomi anywhere? I can’t find her.”
Aoife looked back out across the ocean to hide her face; to hide any sign of guilt.
“Uh, no… Actually, come to think of it,” he squinted in confusion and realisation, “I’m not sure if I’ve seen her at all since… We boarded.”
Cora became equally confused, “That’s odd. Kieran said the exact same thing.”
“Right, let’s go and find her.” Worm prepared to go back indoors, but Aoife grabbed his arm.
“Wait,” she halted him, “Stay with me. Please? I’m having a really nice time out here with you.” She tried appealing to his emotions.
“I’ll only be a few minutes, don’t worry. You can even count.” He smiled at her.
“No, please.” She begged him. “Come on, how many more times do you honestly think we’ll be able to stand on the deck of a boat and let that fresh sea air fill our lungs?”
“It’s alright, Worm,” Cora nodded, “I’ll get Mac to help me. I’m sure she’s on board, don’t worry.” Then, she went back inside, leaving Worm and Aoife to each other.
Tanika watched Kieran cautiously in the corner of her eye.
“What exactly did Naomi say to convince you?” Kieran asked, still facing ahead.
Now, Tanika had to be cautious. “She told me somebody needed help.”
“Somebody?” Kieran turned around and titled his head at her. “Who?”
She swallowed hard, “That girl…”
“That girl?” He iterated.
“Yes…” Then she remembered Aoife’s accent faintly, and put two and two together, “The Irish one!”
Kieran nodded in affirmation. “And that’s exactly what Naomi said to you is it? She said, ‘The Irish girl needs help’?”
“Well not exactly, obviously--”
“I asked you for what she said exactly,” he emphasised, becoming gradually more suspicious.
Again, Tanika swallowed hard. “Well, if you must know, she said ‘The Irish girl needs to get home. You know what it’s like to have friends and family who need you. Try and put yourself in Aoife’s shoes. What would you do?’”
Kieran still didn’t trust her but didn’t know what else to ask her either. “I’ll be seeing you, Miss Bell,” he informed her, before departing the wheelhouse and heading back down the stairs.
Tanika breathed a sigh of relief.
“So, why exactly are you headed back to Ireland now anyway?” Worm was asking Aoife the questions now.
She stuttered for an answer, “Well… I have to find my family, don’t I?”
“Yeah but, why now?” He elaborated. “It’s been a countless amount of years since the end of the world, why have you waited until now?”
Although he was just generally curious, Aoife was erroneously beginning to believe that he was suspecting her.
“I needed a captain, didn’t I? Someone to ferry me across the waters.” She smiled calmingly at him.
“Well, you must be incredibly lucky then.” He remarked, purely as a throw-away comment, yet again she believed this was him locking on to her.
“No, not really. It makes sense, doesn’t it? One boat, the captain of that boat, I mean, where else would you look?” Her cheeks became rosy and red.
“Oh no, I was just kidding. I’m not accusing you of anything.” He caressed her arm. “Come on, I’m just playing about with you.”
She smiled awkwardly and scratched the top of her head.
Inside, Cora and Mac had searched everywhere for Naomi; but she was nowhere to be found.
“Cora, wait!” Kieran called out to her from across the sports lounge; he weaved through the snooker tables to get over to her. “Have you found her?”
She shook her head. “I’ve seen everybody else at least twice, but I haven’t even seen Naomi once… It’s weird because, Worm said the exact same thing as you did; he hasn’t seen her since we boarded either.”
Kieran’s face
became stern. “Something isn’t right.”
“Look, are we sure we haven’t missed someplace?” Mac spoke up.
“Your scepticism really isn’t going to do Naomi any favours, weasel. Unless you’ve got a useful suggestion, shut it.” He scolded Mac, without Naomi to tell him to stop.
“Did Tanika say anything to you?” Cora asked Kieran.
He nodded and stuck his tongue into his cheek, thinking hard to himself. Then, his eyes became wide. “What if Tanika is telling the truth?” He mumbled to himself.
“What do you mean?” Cora questioned his line of thought.
Then, Kieran clicked his fingers, “What if Worm has done something to her?”
Both Cora and Mac were taken aback, “What?” They unanimously proclaimed.
“Think about it!” He explained, “Worm and Naomi knew each other a long time ago… Their reunion wasn’t exactly ‘sweet’ to say the least. From what I can gather, Worm was supposed to look after Naomi’s friend or something, but failed somehow,” he misunderstood and gave an extremely vague analogy, “What if Naomi confronted him, and then he did something to her in self-defence, but was too scared to tell any of us?”
“Whoa, hold up, that’s a huge logic leap.” Cora assessed.
“No, no it isn’t… It makes perfect sense. We were the first ones to realise Naomi was even missing, right?” Kieran prompted.
“Wait,” Cora then came to a similar realisation. “When I went outside to ask Worm if he had seen her, he didn’t seem overly concerned.”
“Yeah, because he probably assumed that she was on board!” Mac doubted the theory.
“What did I just tell you, weasel?” Kieran flicked his arm.
“Or,” Cora suggested another reason, “What if you’re right, Kieran, what if he is trying to downplay his guilt?”
“Exactly!” He proclaimed.
“Right, let’s go and get him.” She agreed. “But remember, if he has done something to her, be subtle, otherwise, who knows how far he’ll go to save himself?”
Kieran nodded, as the three of them headed off to apprehend Worm.
Human Nature (Book 3): Human Nature III Page 16