Chapter Sixteen
Tobe prepares breakfast for everyone while Ryder and I head to our rooms to wash zombie blood and sweat off our bodies. I change into newer, clean clothes, and toss the dirty ones in the corner. Tobe and I will probably clean them later, but for now they’re fine right there.
When I’m clean and dressed, I head back out into the kitchen, and take a plate of eggs and bacon from Tobe. She smiles at me. “You got to spend the entire night in a tree, cuddling with Ryder. How did that go for you?”
“It didn’t. We fought a lot last night. He told me that he didn’t wanna risk his relationship with his little brother for some girl. He thinks that because we’ve only known each other for a week, these feelings will pass.”
“Well, I think he’s stupid. You guys have been through so much. I mean, look at all the times he’s saved you.”
“I know! That’s what I said. I told him that being in this kind of situation forces people together. It speeds up those feelings. People can start to fall in love in a week; it’s not that farfetched when you stop and think about it, or even just take a look at the world around us.”
Tobe shakes her head. “He’ll realize what he’s missing eventually. It’ll just probably be too late by then.”
Shaking my head, I take my plate of eggs and pass by the dining room table. Ryder and Reese are sitting there eating their breakfast, and I don’t think I can manage civil conversation with Ryder right now. So I take a seat on the living room couch, kick my feet up on the coffee table, and enjoy my breakfast in silence.
Tobe sits out in the dining room with the boys, and I can hear her talking. She doesn’t sound happy, and I’m sure they’ve both figured out why. I’m surprised she hasn’t yelled at Ryder yet for being so stupid. If Reese doesn’t have a problem with the two of us liking each other, he shouldn’t either, and Tobe knows that too.
Tobe clears away the dishes, and Reese walks over. “I’m gonna try fishing again. Wanna come with me?”
I sigh. “Sure, why not. It’s not like there’s a lot else to do around here.”
Reese grabs the two fishing poles from the garage, and the remaining worms, and we head back out to our little shaded spot. Reese and I sit side-by-side in the grass, bait our hooks, and sit back and wait for the fish to hopefully come biting. While we wait, neither of us says anything. We just spend our time lounging in the shade, or looking around.
When Reese finally speaks, he sounds happy. “It looks like it’s gonna rain. That’ll be great, because we’re almost out of bottled water. We’re down to like two bottles I think. I told Ryder and Tobe to set out some large buckets while we were gone. Hopefully we can strain it, boil it, and rebottle it.”
I nod. “Rain is awesome.”
We sit in silence for a few more minutes, watching the rain clouds darken and quickly approach. It’ll probably start raining any minute, and I’m tempted to walk back to the house before then, because I don’t have anything clean to put on if these get wet.
“Reese, I think we should–”
“Shush!”
I stop talking and instinctively pull farther back into the shade of our tree. I can hear it the same as Reese: the engine of a boat. It’s getting louder, which means it’s coming closer, and that’s probably not a good sign. We don’t know who these people are. They might be perfectly nice people, or they might be raiders, interested in getting supplies and taking out any competition.
Reese pulls me farther out of the light, and we watch as a speedboat sails past. When I see who’s standing in the boat, holding rifle, my stomach clenches painfully.
It’s Frank Schultz, the leader of the Warriors. I don’t know how he managed to find us, but he has. Now that he’s here, the four of us are in serious trouble. We’re going to have to leave, or risk being kidnapped, tortured, or killed. And leaving is just what Reese has in mind.
He nudges me when the boat is safely out of view. “Hurry. Get back to the house. We have to warn the others. If Frank finds them first, they’ll be totally outgunned and outnumbered.”
We leave behind our fishing gear and race along the beach, making our way up to the house without being seen. We have to stop twice to let two more boats by, and I start to really worry. There has to be at least ten people with Frank, and they’ll all have weapons and training. Tobe’s even more useless with a weapon than I am, and Ryder and Reese alone can’t take on Frank’s team.
When we finally reach the house, I almost jump for joy, but I remember the danger we’re in, and just run faster. Reese throws open the front door and shouts for Ryder. I just keep going, and head to the room I share with Tobe. She’s lying on the bed with a book and a glass of wine, and she frowns. “Sam, what’s–”
“Frank and the Warriors are here. I don’t know how they found us, but they have. There are at least ten of them, and they’re all gonna be armed and dangerous. We can’t stay here.”
She immediately sets the wine glass down, tosses her book away, and reaches for her bags. She starts throwing all of our clothes in, and I head back into the living room. Ryder and Reese are in the kitchen, and they’re throwing cans of food and MRE’s into bags.
I have my gun in my hand, and I’m keeping watch out the window for Frank or any of his Warriors. Everything is happening like someone pushed the fast-forward button, but they don’t seem to be moving fast enough. I have a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I just know that we’re not going to get away from this unscathed.
When the first Warrior comes up the stairs, gun raised and ready to kill, I pull away from the window and drop to the floor. Ryder and Reese follow suit, and Tobe crawls toward me on her hands and knees.
“Come out with your hands up!”
“Do they honestly think we’re just gonna come out, line up, and wait to be shot?” Reese asks with a sneer. “They may have the numbers, but we’re not going to gift up without a fight.”
“Attention!” That voice. I’d know it anywhere. “This is Frank Schultz, the leader and founder of the Warriors. We are giving you the opportunity to surrender to us, and you will be spared.”
“Do you think we’re stupid?” Reese shouts. “We know what is gonna happen if we surrender. You’re gonna shot me and my brother, and you’re gonna torture and break the girls so you can do whatever you want to them.”
“You have my word that no harm will come to the girls should you surrender.”
“I think you and I have a different opinion on what constitutes as harm,” Ryder shouts. “You can forget about us surrendering. We’ll defend this place with every last breath!”
“Don’t pick any more of a fight than you have to,” Reese warns. “I don’t want them to think the only way to end this is by killing us all mercilessly.”
“’m going to give you one more chance to surrender,” Frank says. “You have two minutes before I give my men the order to open fire on your house. If you wish to signal surrender, hang a white sheet out your window, and then come out with your hands up. Failure to do so will result in your immediate deaths.”
I run down the seconds in my head, but neither Ryder nor Reese moves to find a white sheet. Instead, they prepare their guns and ammunition for the upcoming fight that I’m sure will happen. I tighten my grip on my handgun, and look at the three spare magazines on the ground beside me. I’ve only shot a few zombies, and never any actual people. I’m not sure if I can do it now, even if they are horrible murderers and rapists.
There aren’t enough people left in the world to just carelessly kill someone like this. There has to be a solution. I want to believe there is, but to be honest I don’t see any solution presenting itself in the next sixty seconds or so. In sixty seconds, just one minute, the four of us are probably going to die, or Tobe and I are going to wish we were dead.
I glance over at Ryder, and he frowns. It looks like he wants to say something to me, but he gets interrupted by gunfire.
The sounds of the shots as the
y go off are so loud in the nearly silent island that I want to cover my ears with my hands and cower down behind the window, but I can’t. I have to prove my worth, or we’re all going to die.
The windows all shatter and bullets rip into the far wall. The television set explodes, the stuffing flies from the inside of the couch, and wood splinters burst in all different directions. In a matter of minutes, the entire living room is destroyed, and there is nothing usable left.
Ryder’s training takes over and, the second after the bullets stop, he has is gun up and pointing out the window. He pulls the trigger several times, and Reese follows closely behind him. I can hear the Warriors scrambling to take cover, but one Warrior isn’t fast enough, and someone screams in pain.
One down, nine to go.
The bullets riddle the side of the house, and Ryder and Reese both duck down, flattening their bodies to the ground. Tobe and I join them, squishing our bodies as flat as they can go, and we simply wait for this all to be over with. When the bullets cease, Ryder gets up and begins shooting again. but this time, his eyes widen, and he throws himself down to the ground just as a fiery bomb explodes ten feet to our left.
The front door bursts into flame, and the flames begin creeping slowly along the windowsill and up to the ceiling. “What the hell just happened?” Tobe shrieks, staring at the growing flames with a deer-in-the-headlights expression on her face.
“Molotov cocktail. They’ve got more prepared. This place is gonna be completely engulfed in flames soon, and we can’t stay here. Head for the back door, and we’ll circle around through the trees and make our way to the boat.”
Reese shoves me and Tobe toward the back door, and Reese stops just long enough to sling a backpack full of MRE’s over his shoulder, and then we’re out the back door and into the backyard. We make it almost thirty feet before Ryder slams into me, knocking me to the ground, just as the corner of the rabbit hutch explodes.
Reese is at the trees, and Tobe is behind us, cowering against the side of the rabbit hutch. Four Warriors have us pinned down, and Ryder can’t lean around the hutch far enough to get a shot at them. These Warriors are smarter than the ones out front; one of them always has a loaded gun, and the bullets don’t let up.
Frank steps out from the trees, missing Reese by mere feet, and looks at us. “You didn’t really think I’d leave the backdoor uncovered, did you? All you’ve succeeded in doing right now is making more problems for yourself. Now, I’m going to enjoy killing you all.”
“Wait!” I shout, jumping out from behind the rabbit hutch. “I’m the one you want. I’m the one that killed your men. Take me, and let them go.”
“Sam!” Ryder snaps, glaring at me. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Hopefully saving your lives,” I say, looking over my shoulder at him. I turn back to Frank, and bite my cheek to keep from crying. “I’ll come willingly if you just let them go. You don’t need them. Please.”
Reese is watching me with a mixture of horror and anger on his face. I can tell he wants to yell at me, but he can’t or he’ll give away his position from the trees, and he can’t afford to do that right now. So he looks down at the rifle in his hands, and I want to shake my head at him, but I don’t want Frank to notice.
Reese might be able to kill Frank, but he’ll be dead before he can pull the trigger again. He knows that, and his arms go slack, and I’m not worried about him shooting up the place. He’ll pick the best time and place for a fight, and it’s not right now or right here.
“If I go willingly with you, will you let them all live?”
Frank considers my offer for a moment. “Hmm, you are the one that killed my men, and you are the one that managed to hide from me for so long. You’ve obviously got spunk; I’ll enjoy breaking you.” A shiver crawls up my spine, and I try not to let it show. “Alright. If you come with me, I’ll let your friends live,” he says, extending his hand out to me.
“Sam, don’t do this!” Ryder says, taking a step forward. He leaves the safety of the rabbit hutch, but Frank doesn’t give the order to kill him, which I take as a good sign.
“I have to. He’ll let you live if I go with him.”
“Ryder’s right,” Tobe says from behind the rabbit hutch. “You can’t trust him.”
“Sam–”
I turn to Ryder and whisper, “I won’t let you all die when I can do something to save you. I care about you too much.”
A pained look flashes across his face, and he shakes his head. “No. You’re not doing this. I won’t let you.”
I step forward before he can try and stop me, and take Frank’s outstretched hand, even though it repulses me to do it. His hand tightens painfully around mine and he smiles. There’s a mean glint in his eyes, and I’m not sure if it’s because he’s crazy, or because he’s evil.
He pulls me closer. “Kill the man, and take the other girl.”
Tobe screams and Ryder brings his gun up too late. The shot goes off, and Ryder falls back to the ground. A red blossom spreads across his right shoulder, and he starts to breathe harshly. I scream and kick at Frank, but I can’t get away from him. Ryder’s bleeding to death feet from me, and I can’t be with him.
Frank lifts me off the ground, and two of his other Warriors step forward to grab Tobe. They drag her kicking and screaming from the backyard, and I watch Ryder start to choke on his own blood. There’s another shot, and I see Reese duck into the trees, out of harm’s way. He disappears, and Frank nods to two of his men. They run off into the trees after Reese, and I can hear gunfire, but it’s getting farther and farther away.
“Let me go!” I scream, trying to free myself so I can run to Ryder. He’s bleeding to death and he needs me. I slam my elbow back into Frank’s gut, and he groans, but doesn’t drop me.
Instead, he wraps his arm around my throat and whispers, “I love a feisty woman.”
I should stop fighting because this is only turning him on, but I can’t. I can’t just leave Ryder behind, especially when I know that I’ll probably never see him again. He’s going to bleed to death alone and in pain, and I haven’t told him I’m sorry for our last fight.
Frank drags me through the trees, out front to the dock, and he loads me into his boat. Then he binds my wrists and ankles, but leaves my mouth uncovered so I can scream for Ryder. I scream from the moment he was shot until long after the island disappears from view.
Tobe is huddled up beside me. She’s bound just like me, but she isn’t struggling as much. I can tell by looking into her eyes that she’s already given up. She knows what’s going to happen to us when we get where we’re going, and she’s already shutting down. All the work we’ve accomplished over the last couple of days is completely undone, and she’s reverted to being an abuse victim.
Except this time there is no wine to help her cope. But at least she doesn’t have to suffer alone this time…I think to myself. She and I are going to be tortured, probably beaten, and possibly sexually assaulted. Ryder is probably dead, and Reese is missing; nobody is going to save me this time. I’ll have to find a way to keep myself and Tobe safe from these horrible men.
I don’t know how long we’re in the boat, or how far from the island we’re heading, but the entire trip seems to pass by in the blink of an eye. One moment I’m leaving behind two of the only people I’ve come to care about since this infection spread, and the next Tobe and I are being thrown into a tent and tied to the wooden pole that supports it.
“Tobe? Are you alright?”
She whimpers, but doesn’t say anything. Over the next couple of hours I try to get Tobe to speak, but she’s completely unresponsive. She knows what’s coming in the next few days, and she’s mentally preparing for it by zoning out. Her body may be here when they come for us, but her mind won’t be.
Night comes, and I try to get some sleep in-between crying for Ryder and thinking of escape. I’m alone in a strange camp with Frank and his Warriors, but I’m going to need to keep up my
strength if I’m going to have any chance of fighting my way free. So even though I’m terrified at what might happen, I can’t stay up all night worrying about it.
Finally, a few hours after nightfall, I manage to get some sleep.