After Death

Chapter 17 (You Disappoint Me)

Chapter 17: You Disappoint Me

Steve Peterson

May 2028

About 6 years after outbreak

ArizonaSeason 5/The Final Season

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"Not everyone gets this type of attention."

"I don't like it."

"No, you love it."

I don't remember how it all started. One minute she hated me, I was her prisoner, and then the next she managed to make me fall unconditionally in love with her so much that she poisoned my mind. I believed everything she said, even when she said she released my friends. It was only when she tried to kill me that I realized she was lying. The drink smelled funny, I'm guessing she hoped I wouldn't notice that.

I looked at her with fear. I was stupid enough to have missed her when she was gone but now I was afraid and she knew I was.

"What's wrong?" She asked, slowly, knowing so much was going on in my brain. It was only when I noticed the blood on her forearm that I began to freak out. I could tell it wasn't the blood of the dead, too smooth to be.

I did the only logical thing and smashed my glass into the side of her head and made a run for it. I didn't expect to actually live through that but I did. If I hadn't been internally hyperventilating I would have given myself a high five. 

I could hear her footsteps, they were heavy and quick. Without thinking I ran in the opposite direction of her, praying a plan would be so kind as to come to me.

I was almost blinded by rage and confusion but I saw clearly again as I saw what I knew I wasn't supposed to see. Ethan, Khai, Rudi, Clara, and Grahme. They were in a worse situation that I was. They could tell something was wrong with me but they didn't question it, I didn't waste time to free them. Rudi ran off back to where I had just come from, Khai didn't waste time to follow him. We all mutually agreed we had no other option but to go there too. Unfortunately, we were all in this together.

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Ethan Warren

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We got to the tent that we hoped and prayed the others were at. Rudi barged in, made contact with the first one of Addie's people we would see that night, grabbed her head and slammed it into the operation table, enough times for us all to get a little worried.

"Dad?" I heard Airianna whisper from the corner. Her voice was shaky and traumatized. Her entire body was covered in bandages that were still bleeding, she looked like she hadn't slept in days. Their reunion was special, tear jerking almost, but it was short lived, we didn't have time for this right now. Angie was passed out on one of the hospital beds that looked like it was infected with termites. Steve carried her, he was the only one of us that wasn't in pain. He never would tell us what happened between him and Addie, but none of us would ever ask either. I don't think we wanted to know.

We heard chattering from outside the tent, we've never gotten out of a place faster. Addie stood before us, the very few people she had stood around her. She held Evelyn in her grasp, I knew Khai was saying something behind me but I can't remember what it was. Addie's tallest person held one of the dead by the back of their throat. I knew what was coming but I was too tired to do anything. There was nothing I could do.

"Isabel, do it."

The tall woman nodded as she brought the dead one down to meet Evelyn's face. I must have drowned out the screams, it all feels like a blur. All I remember is watching and then being tugged from the back of my hoodie, signalling it was time to go.

Running now didn't even feel real, my mind was in a different place, a darker one. I stopped caring if the others were with me. To be honest, I forgot they existed. Nothing existed.