We were running for a good while, until we reached a ladder and climbed out of there into broad daylight. The empty streets are as vast as ever. Everyone made it out, rushing as soon as they stepped foot onto the surface and into the momentary darkness that is the alleyways that intertwine with the city. It was clear to everyone where we were heading, out of this god forbidden hellscape of a civilization. None of us really knew where we were exactly going, all that mattered was getting the fuck out of there and start a new chapter in our lives.
Winding down the twisty confusing alleyways we reached a point where it broke out into the bright sunlight and into the middle of the street. Peering my head around the corner, checking our surroundings thoroughly I concluded that it was safe and secure, leading the others out. To the left of me is where the road reached a dead end and the entrance of the woods that enticed me into coming forward.
I pointed at it and started booking it towards there, just wanting to get out of the open and into the secludedness of the forest, using the trees as a disguise to keep everyone safe. Surviving above ground will be basically impossible in a group this big, harboring this many people will surely catch the attention of raiders, basically seeing it as a payday for them.
We masked ourselves into the wilderness and hiked through it for a good hour or two, I honestly couldn’t tell. During the trek, the crunching of the leaves beneath us drowning out the sound of our heavy breathing, we came across a river bed that sounded like a flowing waterfall. We all consciously decided this’ll be a great place to take a rest.
All of us hadn't spoken a single word to each other since our campground was burned to nothing but ashes. The sound of rushing water filled in the empty noise that lingered in the air as we all sat there soaking in all of the events that happened.
“So what the fuck do we do now?” William was the first to speak up. “Once it gets dark out here, where would we go to sleep?”
“It does get pretty cold out here.” Nancy added on. “Even without that problem, how would we get our food?”
“We should’ve just stayed in the city.” Fred said as he curled up in a ball. “We should’ve never left it, why didn’t we just camp out in an abandoned building.”
“Think about it Fred, you know how many raiders would be eager at the opportunity of killing and robbing a group like us? Too many.” Jesse berated him.
“We don’t even have our tents or anything.” I uttered. “Hell, even sleeping bags would be acceptable.”
“Is there somewhere we can scavenge?” Alice looked up at me shyly.
“Sorry, we don’t know this place well. Even going back to the city, all of the buildings over there already have people living in them, or have been ransacked.”
“Then what are we going to do?”
“I don’t fucking know Alice.” I said agitated.
She hunkered down a little bit, I saw the fear in her eyes build up as she curled up more in her social shell.
“I’m sorry.” I reached out to her and patted her head lightly, slightly caressing it. “It’s just everything that happened, it’s fucking bullshit.”
“I understand.” She said back, obviously holding back tears. “I just wish you didn’t take it out on me.”
“I won’t ever do that again, I promise.” I pattered her once more before I lured my hand away.
She whimpered a little bit before I turned back to face everyone else in the group.
“So what do we do?” Jesse asked the question that started this whole conversation.
“Anyone got a blade on them?” William looked around at all of us, eagerly awaiting an answer.
Jesse shoved her hand in the pocket and rummaged around in there before she popped out the silver lining of a rusted stained knife. “I’ve had this for like, I think seven years. Always keep it on me.”
“That’ll work, can I borrow it?” He reached out his hand. A thundering boom came from the bushes as a bullet whizzed over and went straight through William’s palm, making a horrifyingly gushing sound. He pulled his hand back and shrieked.
All of us looked around panically and examining the tree line to find out where the fuck that bullet came from as William fell to the ground holding his palm screaming.
Two men calmly walk out of some bushes behind them holding rifles, one being noticeably old and the other being pretty young, almost the same age as I.
“Drop that knife lady.” The older man demanded. “And all of you put your hands up!”
We all complied as Jesse dropped the knife, but William kept squirming around.
“I did it pops!” The younger one said, having a certain countryside accent. “I finally was able to take a shot!”
“I’m proud of you Sammy boy.” He patted the teen’s straw hat he had rested on his head. “Next time, go for a fatal blow.”
“Ok.” He said as he lowered his rifle to the ground.
“Put that rifle up! Don’t let your guard down, I’ve told you several times by now.”
“Sorry pops.”
While this whole argument took place, we were just standing there looking like bumbling morons.
“Sam, knock that guy out, he’s getting on my nerves. While you’re at it, wrap his hand up to stop the bleeding, don’t want any of that on our clothes.” The old man commanded.
The boy slowly started walking towards us very cautiously, holding the rifle and not letting even one of us out of his sight. “All of you back on up! Or I’ll shoot ya’ right between tha’ eyes.” He jerked the gun towards us as he continued his trot over to William. Finally making it there, he drew back the rifle and smacked him square in the head, shutting him up for now. He bent down and whipped out some bandage and wrapped his hand around pretty securely.
“Nice going there son.” The old man glared at all of us menacingly. “Now all of you comply and we won’t kill you, simple as that.” He grabbed and unzipped the backpack he was lugging on his back, pulling out a ton of rope and a survival knife. “Put those hands behind your back.”
We all hesitated before doing as he told us. The boy came from behind me and pressed the rifle against my spine, the sizzling barrel dying down from when he shot William.
The old man walked up to me and analyzed my face. “Holy shit!” He exclaimed as though he made a revelation. “Sammy boy, do you know who this young lad is?”
“No?” Sam sounded confused.
“This is Lee Pulpis, THE Lee Pulpis! Oh my sweet heavens, am I one lucky bastard holy mother of god.” He started getting a little giddy, like a child opening a christmas present. “I knew you were in the city nearby, but never thought I’d ever live to see the day where I would meet you face to face.”
“No freaking way.” He looked around my waist and gasped. “Holy smokes.”
The father must’ve realized that they were losing focus because his mood suddenly shifted back into threatening. “Sam! Stay focused, let’s tie all of these people up. We’re gonna have a nice feast with our special guest. The rest we can throw in the basement for later.”
He quickly got behind me and wrapped the rope around my wrists, tying it tightly with a doubleknot. He slowly got each one of us tied up and led us in a single file line. The old man leading the charge as his son guarded the back.
He led us through a barely visible hiking trail, hauling William on his shoulder deep into the wilderness. All of us took a glance at each other worryingly as we all kept our silence, keeping our protests to ourself. The tread didn’t last long when we all reached a farmhouse that was completely surrounded by barbed wire fences. There was a zapping noise, like the sound of stinging electricity came from the lines of barbed wire. There was a small metal gate that was the main entrance to the place.
The father unlocked the gate and held it open as he pointed at us to go on in, like leading a herd of cattle. The house was painted in a stereotypical worn down red hue with the outline of the wood beams painted white, the roof’s brown shingles added on to the appearance of the sitcom style house. There was surprisingly no animal life living here, even though there remained pens that could definitely hold livestock.
A red headed woman came out with freckles peppering her face. “Well shoot!” She said in that southern accent the whole family has. “If I knew we were gonna have guests over I would’ve tidied up the house more.”
“Sorry for the sudden intrusion ma’” Sam said, waving at her. “But you’re not gonna believe this. We have Lee Pulpis with us!”
“Oh my stars, you gotta be joking.” She laughed.
“See for yourself.”
As we approached closer her eyes lit up.
“Holy moly, honey help me set up the table! We’re about to have a feast!”
“Yes honey.” The man responded as he headed up the porch, still carrying William on his shoulder. “Sam! Lead Lee here into the living room as we get set up. I’ll take everyone else to the basement.”
“Yes pops.” He pointed at me. “Stop there, wait for the others to enter.”
I stopped and let everyone pass me, Alice whined and tried to tug at me with her cuffed hands.
“Lee!” She cried out.
“It’ll be ok.” I consoled her. “Everything will be ok.” The last thing I said to her as she was marched into the house.
“Let’s go.” Sam took charge, pushing me forward.
I begrudgingly took the steps forward and up the creaky stairs, the screen front door already left wide open, I took a step inside.
The place was like one hallway connecting to multiple different rooms. To my right was a brightly lit kitchen with the ceiling light swinging back and forth. The left of me leads to a candle lit living room with a couch and coffee table. Sam led me to the couch and ordered me to get on it.
Turning the corner to the living room I spotted two doors directly behind the couch, and another door that was to the right of it. I sat down on the stained cushion, being strangely comfortable, my rear sank into it like there was no support under it.
Sam sat down right beside me, being uncomfortably close. “So, I’m gonna ask the obvious.”
I rolled my eyes and groaned. “Don’t give me the build up and just ask me.”
“Ok ok ok.” I could tell he was getting kind of hyper. “The fight between you and Runasi, how was that? I need the man himself to report it to me.” He propped himself up on his arms as he leaned forward into my face.
I took a deep breath. “It was an intense fight alright.”
“Come on, I need to know more than that.”
“Fine. It was.” I sighed. “How can I describe this?” This is the first time I was able to sit back and reflect on that event, it was sort of therapeutic to look back at it in an analytical way. “The fear I got during that was like no other feeling I’ve ever had coarse through my body before.”
“And?” He egged on.
“Every move I made was totally instinctual, like my body wanted to survive while my brain wanted the sweet release of death. I wouldn’t really call it an out of body experience, it’s like you’re a marionette, your strings being forcibly pulled against your will.”
“Darn.”
“Then, once I got my mind and body to work in motion with each other, it was like I had many years of experience even though I only graduated from school a week from then. That hit I got him, I think it was just blind luck that it even worked. Like come on, the best fighter in the fucking world would let some random ass teen waltz up in his facility and get the closest to killing him than any other person ever had the opportunity to.”
Sam’s eyes were memorized by the sight of me. “Holy shit-” He held his hand to his mouth. “Oh lord, please forgive me!” He got on his knees and started praying. He was mumbling to himself, probably chanting a prayer.
All I could do was look strangely at him. “What’s the matter?”
“I said a swear!” He said to me like the answer was pretty obvious. “Pops says once you curse in this household, you have to kneel down and beg for forgiveness.”
I was intrigued to say the least, like these people literally shot William in the hand and they can’t even swear? “Then why is it fine for me to curse?”
“Well, you’re not exactly a child of god. Unlike me, the perfect image he created piece by piece.” He got up from the ground and grabbed his rifle. “Stay there for a second, I’m going to get a pen and paper. I need to recount your story for billions to hear.” He bolted behind the couch and into the neighboring room, which I presumed was his bedroom.
“You son of a bitch!” I heard some shouting downstairs from the door to the left of me, preceded by the cracking sound of a slap then some crying. It was muffled so I couldn’t really tell who it was, but hopefully they weren’t too hurt. I swear to god if he even laid a finger on Alice, I would rip that man to shreds.
I heard loud stomping footsteps approaching me and the door flung open, the father looking like he was ready to kill anything. “Where in the bloody hell is Sam?” He looked fiercely towards me.
“He went in there.” I pointed to the room behind me.
He opened the door and Sam freaked out and screamed. I heard the dad berate him then a loud thud sound, and a yelp of pain. Pops stormed out of the room and leaned up against the wall to keep guard of me.
The distant little cries I heard from Sam were devastating, it’s not like I have a soft spot for him or whatever. It just sucks that a kid should grow up in this kind of environment, but at this point it is to be expected that this is how the common family acts nowadays.
I heard the clinging of plates hitting a dining table from the kitchen across the hall. The rushing of water coming from the sink.
“What am I even doing up here?” I questioned.
The father growled before speaking, he was still trying to suppress his anger. “We’re having a feast, in honor of your arrival.”
“A feast? Why?”
“Because you're Lee Pulpis, I promise it’s gonna be great.”
“What will we be having?”
He chuckled in an almost sinister tone. “We’re gonna have the finest meat in this whole wide world.”
It wasn’t really specific but at least I have a loose grasp on what is exactly happening. I got this suspicion that this ‘feast’ isn’t really what it seems to be. It seems too friendly from everything I’ve seen of them.
“The tables all set honey, bring him in.” I heard the woman holler from the kitchen.
“You heard the woman, up!” He pointed the rifle at me. “Sam, get out here. We’re about to have dinner.”
I was shoved down the hall and into the kitchen. The white and black tile floored, matching with the screen door at the other side, and the table smacked right in the middle. There were exactly four chairs separated perfectly from each other, with empty white porcelain plates lined with silverware.
I was forcibly sat down on the chair that was directly in front of me as soon as the hallway ended. Sam came out of nowhere and had his gun pointed at me while the father untied my hands, and retied them to the arms of the wooden chair. Including my legs, strapping them to the pegs.
Once I was securely banded to it, everyone quickly took their places around the table. The father was across from me and the mother was to the left while Sam was to the right. There was a video camera that was standing on a tripod, a red light flickering above the lens.
I noticed a huge lack of any meat on the table, or even any smell of roast beef, steak, or even chicken at the very least. Then a shock of fear spiked through my spine as my eyes glanced over at the mother, and she was licking her lips while she gazed intently at me.
I was almost too petrified to even speak, but the sudden realization rushing to my head needed clarification. “Where’s the meat?” I shuddered at the answer that anyone would eventually give me.
The father laughed so hard that he threw his head back, eventually coming down from that eventful high. “Did you see any cattle out there?"121Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAkBo74Wu4O
