The End of Days

[38]

"You've got your lists from the infirmary, follow them. Every trip past the walls is a fight, doesn't matter how good a shot you are. Hurry it up boys and keep it tight!"

Jack continued to order the men, stepping over the rotten corpses that they'd dropped just a bit before. He took a hesitant look back to Liam who hadn't spoken a word since they arrived, eyes watching.

"Hey, come here." He gestured with a nod of his head, pulling them aside as the others continued to pilfer. "I don't know a lot about uh..you know, if there's anything you need here I won't tell."

"Alright." Liam said.

Jack watched for a sign of something, as if he would be greatful or appreciative. His hand clenched further on the handle of the bat he knew all too well.

"Where's the sword, man?" Jack had asked before they'd left, questioning the new weapon choice. Impossible anger built inside him like it had been all day, along with worry. He didn't know what was happening but he planned to find out.

"Thanks, I mean. Ima go look if that's alright. We should stick together." He tried to school his features, easing Jack enough that he was flashing that soft smirk.

"Just wanna get me alone again?" He mumbled. Liam nodded, stepping past. He had no idea.

After some research and some waiting, the pharmacy had cleared out and it was just them. Jack give some orderes to the guys so they'd have privacy before going for the lock on the door.

"Hey-" The heat dropped clear from his face at the knife held to his throat. "..what the hell are you doing, man?" Jack looked at him as if he was crazy, like he didn't know full well what was happening.

"Tell me the truth."

"About what? You're acting crazy, Lee."

"DONT CA-.." His breath heaved, eyes clenching shut. "The weapons, the ones you took from my friends? I found them. I want to know what the hell is going on Jack, all of it."

"Liam, look..I know you're hurting." Oh fuck this, the pressure of his blade only hesitated at the soft hold now on his grip. 

"You said I could trust you, right? Right?! What did you do, Jack!"

"Nothing, I did nothing. They went looking for you, they checked the house and it was empty. They saw weapons and they took them, same as anyone else would have done."

His hand dropped, Alan's knife shaking in his hand. "They're dead man, that's all this is. I know you want some bad guy but I'm not it."

The calloused thumb brushed his cheek and he turned away, hiking up his stuff. Something isn't right, he told himself. The guys...the bodies, they were unarmed when he finally found them.

Maybe Sebastian and his boys really did just run across it while Liam was bleeding out in Changs shop, maybe it was just coincidence. He shook his head at that, mouth twisting into a cruel grimace.

He couldn't accept that, wouldn't. Liam had never trusted Everette to begin with not to mention all the strange things he'd seen since he'd arrived. Josie, how Jack was treated, the way his dad talked to him.

He'd been at Sanctuary for only a few weeks and the stories he'd heard of people vanishing on patrols and screams in the night. The amount of men and resources they put into finding survivors like him even though they came back empty handed every fucking time.

Liam flinched at the hold on his shoulder, eyeing the man. He breathed deeply, returning the gesture, easing Jack's features just a bit. "You trust me, right?"