Walking among the dead

Chapter 27 Ben, TRAPPED

Travis smiles while gripping onto the machete, "You can give up easily without any of us getting hurt, you know it's over Ben. You're weak, I know you already. If I do this," Travis grabs Ellie by the hair and lifts her head up. With a sick grin he presses the blade against her throat, "you'll give up, right?" I felt my heart skip a couple of beats, I..I love Ellie and I can't let her die, nor anyone else..I don't want to be alone again, and I don't want anyone to die because I failed to protect them. Knowing I lost I drop my bat, Travis drops Ellie and walks towards me, "Good boy." He grabs a cloth from his pocket and covers my mouth, I started kicking at him as he held my arms down. The last thing I remember before blacking out was how weak I am..

"Wakey, wakey~" Travis's voice wakes me up, I groan a bit and can't see a thing. I lay blindfolded on the ground, tied up and weak. I can hear a camera shutter like someone is taking pictures. Travis laughs, "Oh I have more toys to add to my collection~" Travis rips my blindfold off with a smile and takes a picture of me. My eyes slowly adjust to the bright light of the camera, candles light up the room, I can't really tell where we are but I notice Mike, Shannon, James, Ellie, Smitty, Jacob, and Charlie are all tied up, blindfolded, and thrown in a cage. Blood stains the floor and walls, bones and random skin tissue is scattered on the concrete ground. I notice skulls stacked neatly in rows on shelves. Travis pulls a metal tray table towards a chair beside me, then he lifts me off the ground and sets me down in the chair. He uses thick leather straps to hold down my legs and arms, with a twisted grin he plays with some of the blood stained tools on the tray, there's different pliers, first aid kit, alcohol, needles, hammer, and scissors. "So, you're probably wondering why am I doing this, well it's simple. I used to be a criminal before all of this happened, i'd torture, rape, and murder people." Travis reaches into his backpack and pulls out many photos and a glass jar, "When all of this happened it gave me a chance to explore new methods. On the day the outbreaks happened I was supposed to die in prison but things happened.." He smiles while flipping through the photos. "Remember about that past group I was telling you all about? Well..I killed them, and took photos of their beautiful faces," He shows me some pictures which make me want to vomit. There's a woman with a smashed in face and maggots crawl through her skull, and then he show's me a little girl with her jaw broken and tongue torn out. My eyes water a bit and my heart beats faster as he just continues showing me them, "But before I met these people I went to that quarantine zone you were talking about, I raped women and children there and one of the officers there caught me ripping a little boy apart so he almost killed me but I set the building on fire. I saw you and Ellie walk out of that fire, you were something different Ben." Travis grips onto my hair and pulls my head back, "You made me attracted to you, I couldn't stop thinking about tearing you apart. I followed you and Ellie out in the woods, my original plan was to kill you there but that stupid storm came along and then the passing horde..But I have you here. So i'm going to murder your friends in front of you and then feed them to you, then I'll torture you. My eyes grew wide as he smiled down at me. "N-No!" Words just jumped out of my throat, "You're a sick, horrible person! Why do something like this when you can change?! You ended up in jail for doing this so why not take the opportunity to change and become something better? Why be a coward and not try?!" Travis stood there for a second in silence, "Change..?" He began laughing, "People don't change! They never do! Their mask just falls off..they don't change."