Broken World

38. Maniacs

“Hi, Alex!” Elena and Judy said in unison, waving their hands.    

“We brought you some snacks,” Judy said, placing a few apples on the table. 

“You do have caring girlfriends,” I said looking at Alex. 

“Well, I too think the same,” he replied, laughingly. 

When the darkness started covering the sky, I along with Jane and Alex set out to spy on the thugs. He took us to the metro station on the far other side of the city. 

“This metro leads to the port city of Meddle town, from there the captives are taken to the island Wingston,” he informed. 

“So, they use this metro to avoid the ghouls?” Jane asked. 

“Absolutely right, they live there. The metro station is big and has a lot of places to hide,” he said. 

How are we supposed to fight them without weapons? We barely survived once. 

“The faster you rescue your friends the better, you never know when they will leave for Wingston… once inside that ship, there’s no hope of saving them,” Alex informed. 

Just then few men came out of the station with guns and rifles. 

“They don’t look friendly, let’s get back for now,” I said. 

 ***

FEW DAYS LATER 

“How’s Ty?” I asked. 

“He is recovering, that could have been fatal, he’s a lucky guy for sure,” Ivan replied in a low voice. 

“That’s good,” he said, looking down from the terrace.  

“I had a close friend like Kevin, his name was Max. We spent most of the time together during the early stages. He unfortunately died like… like Leia.”  

“He died? Sorry to hear that.”

“To be precise… I killed him.” 

“You killed him? T-that’s very unlike you,” I said, a little shocked. 

“He showed signs of weakness, he was becoming a burden for everyone. He refused to kill a bitten guy. That stupid compassion took the lives of two of our team members. After I killed him, I was eventually banished from my group, for some reason Kevin followed me.” 

“Do you regret killing him?” I asked. 

“I felt terrible for a few days, but I regret nothing. We have seen things, done things… which people of our age normally not do. The only reason nobody ever questioned me was… because they were not clean themselves.” 

This is the total opposite of how everyone perceives Ivan. 

“To be frank, I enjoyed killing people, I-it made me feel superior… I was in the wrong idea that I was saving people by eliminating useless or bad people… but everyone is a bad person from someone’s perspective.”  

“Erik, Ty wants to talk with you,” Jane said, standing at the door. 

The three of us went downstairs, he was sitting on the sofa holding his crossbow. “When are we saving our friends?” he asked. 

“We have been keeping an eye on them, they haven’t left Sroford yet,” I informed. 

“When are we saving them?” he asked again.

“I- I don’t know, wait for some time, we will figure something out.”

He stood up and looked outside through the window. “We had a solid plan and it worked… at least to some extent. I- I just want them back in one piece… before it’s too late,” he said in a low voice.