The Last Seventeen: (Book 1) An Apocalypse Story

Chapter 24: day six

Chapter 24: Day 6

Joanna tugged on my shoulder and forced me from my blank state of sleep. I looked up at the hole above me and saw a slightly brighter sky. I also expected to see Andy up there peeping down the hole to rescue us from the cold hard hands of death, but he wasn't there. He had really left us behind out of fear and disappointment of us. My eyes were wide as my brain replayed the scene from last night. The rope falling down into the hole, me denying it, and him disappearing into the cold night.
"What are you staring at?" Joanna asked me with confusion sewn into her voice.
"Nothing." I answered probably a little bit to quickly because she gave me a stare of disbelief.
She almost said something else when the psycho with the pale blue eyes appeared at the entrance of our hole. He smiled at her with lust buried in his eyes and unlocked the hatch. He threw it open and lowered down a rope with a sick grin. I went first, gripping the rope with my strength and slowly climbed up.
"No." The psycho said with anger in his voice. "I want her to come first."
I tried to ignore his words and kept climbing. He didn't like that. He disappeared from sight and returned a moment later with a rifle clutched in his hands. He was looking through the scope of the rifle and had his finger on the trigger. The muscles in his arms flexed horribly. He had to force himself not to shoot.
"I told you she's going first." He pulled back the bolt on the rifle to make things even more intense. It worked.
I slowly let myself back down the rope, my arms shaking madly. I touched the ground and propped myself against the wall. Even my knees were shaking. I took deep breaths and looked over at Joanna. She glared at the psycho with a mix of hatred and fear. She grabbed the rope and started her ascent. I grabbed the rope after her, praying I could stop whatever the psycho had in mind for her.
"What did I tell you about climbing up?!"
He yelled at me and a light from the muzzle flashed. The bullet whizzed towards me and made a patch of dirt explode right next to my foot. I jumped in the air and fell onto my back. I instinctively threw my hands into the air and shook my head back and forth, silently begging for him to stop. Joanna did the same and used one of her hands to cover her ear. I hoped she wasn't hurt. The psycho laughed at my state of panic then yelled for Joanna to keep climbing. She looked down at me then continued on. When she reached the top, the psycho grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her out. All I could do was stare up and hope nothing happened. I listened for their voices and heard the psycho talking with his insane inaudible voice. I wished that I could do something other than sit back and do nothing.
The psycho peered his head over the hole, with a sick look of pleasure buried deep in his eyes, and ordered me to climb up. I did what I was told in order to keep my head on my shoulders and climbed the rope. One hand after the other, I made it to the top. The psycho pointed towards the slaughterhouse with his smile going from cheek to cheek. What did he do to Joanna? I walked with a slow pace to the building and slid the metal doors open. I took one last look back, expecting Andy to be killing the psychos and coming to save us all like our white knight. All I saw were the psychos pointing their weapons at me with bloodlust shimmering in their dead soulless eyes.
I slipped into the building and shut the doors behind me trapping the stench of rotted bodies in. I saw The Loon standing over everyone with a sinister look of anger. He stared them all down, nodding while he spoke.
"I'm glad you could make it, child." He didn't look up at me. He just stared at my friends. He waved his hand and my legs were kicked out from under me. I fell on my butt and had to sit like everyone else. "By my records kept by my associates, I counted seventeen of you when you arrived and seventeen of you here yesterday in this building." My face turned pale and my hands started shaking. I slid my hands under my legs to make them stop. "Now, as I count the people here now, I only seem to have sixteen of you in my presence. In other words, one of my precious sheep is missing."
Everyone had a look of shock on their faces. They looked around the psychos clustered around them and tried to figure out who it was. I guess I was the only one who knew about Andy's departure from death. Multiple whispers of panic came from everyone. Whispers asking questions about who it could be, if the person was dead, or if we would get in trouble for it. I guess they were all reasonable enough to ask.
"So, you guys don't know who it is either?" He eyed everyone down just trying to find one sense of weakness in anyone. "That's very hard to believe. I thought you all were friends. Either way, I'll be taking role. You all know what that's like, correct? Raise your hand when I call your name. Whoever doesn't say their name isn't here." He laughed as he pulled out a piece of scrap paper from his pocket.
"Ansley." He looked right at her with a twisted smile. She scooted closer to Chris and slowly raised her hand.
"Chris." Chris tried to fake a look of confidence, but ultimately took a look of uneasiness. He raised his hand.
"Jordan." He kept his stare on him, trying to break him, but Jordan stared right back determined not to be defeated.
"Caleb." His hand immediately shot into the air. His face of attitude didn't dare seep out of him.
"Andy." Everyone sat as still as they could only moving their heads and eyes to see if Andy's hand was raised or not. I felt my heart drop to my stomach. "Well, that's weird." He folded back up the paper and stuck it in his pocket. He clasped his hands together and walked back and forth. "No one knows where he is?" Complete silence from us. "Even though I made your holding cells hold two people? Well," He chuckled under his breath and looked towards Melissa, "everyone besides you. I thought you'd want to be in the dark where you belong." Melissa looked towards the ground. Her emotion being hidden well underneath her blackened crisped face. "So, who was in the holding cell with our beloved Andy last night?"
I should have confessed to what I had experienced last night. I should have said that he left us behind in a blink of an eye. But I couldn't. My whole body screamed for me to keep my mouth shut and just see how everything played out. I knew if I spoke out, I would be punished and probably killed. I couldn't die like that. Not from The Loon. I wouldn't let him win.
A psycho came up to him and whispered in his ear. The psycho trembled from head to toe while he spoke to him. When he was done, he bowed his head in a sort of servant way and went back to the psychos placed around us. The Loon smiled and walked closer to us. He squatted down and kind of "duck walked" in front of us. His smile was bigger than ever as he walked down the line. He made sure, as he walked, to make an intimidating stare at everyone.
He went down the line. Ansley, Chris, Joanna, Matthew, Darius, Melissa, Jordan, Caleb, Bryce- then he stopped. He eyed Bryce down to a point where Bryce backed away from him. That only made The Loon's smile grow wider. He grabbed Bryce by the chin and scrunched up his cheeks. He pulled him close to him to where their noses were only inches apart.
"Is there something you would like to tell me, Bryce?" The Loon licked his lips and balled his other hand into a fist.
"Andy was in the same hole as me." Bryce practically blurted out. He started to hyper-ventilate. The Loon shushed him and stroked his cheek.
"Anything else?"
"He was with me at night. I woke up and then he was gone. I promise you. I promise." Bryce's voice started to go silent. The terror was filling his lungs and controlled his muscles. He was shaking horribly to the point where The Loon was the only thing keeping him up.
The Loon threw him to the ground. "Take him into the woods. I have a few more questions to ask him."
Two psychos grabbed him underneath the arms and pulled him to his feet.
"That's all I know! That's all I know!" Bryce pleaded for The Loon to listen to reason. For him to let him go and let him be.
Tears flowed down his cheeks as he struggled for the psychos to release their grasp. "Please! Listen to me!" He broke free of their grasp for a moment and fell to his knees. He didn't try to run or attack or anything. He just covered his eyes with his dirty hands and sobbed. The psychos grabbed him again and dragged him out the doors with his pleas of mercy still penetrating the doors.
Everyone just stared in shock, not knowing what they should do for their friend. They wanted to help him, but they didn't want to be hurt in the process.
Bryce didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to be dragged outside and tortured for information that I knew about. He was to kind, to selfless, to untouched by this world to be killed for something he didn't know. The Loon walked past me and I grabbed onto his pants by the waist. I had to stop this somehow.
"Let go off me." The Loon commanded me through gritted teeth.
"Don't do this to him!" I yelled at him. I wanted to blurt out it was me who knew the answers, but he despised me. He would only hurt Bryce. Maybe. But, he would kill me for sure. "He really doesn't know!"
The Loon swung a backhand at me and it caught me right in the cheek. I let go of him and held onto my already ruined face. He walked towards the metal doors and grabbed the handle.
"I heard Andy last night!" I screamed at him. The Loon stopped at the door. The words just spewed out of my mouth on their own. I had to make him believe my lies. "I heard him walking outside. At first, I thought it was just one of them," I pointed at the few psychos that remained in the building with my shaking finger, "but then I heard him talking or mumbling." I stopped myself in my tracks and let my brain think. Don't say the wrong thing. "I don't know what happened after that."
"What are you doing?" Cassidy said to me with her eyes full of anger. Not at me, but at what I was doing.
"He isn't going through it alone." I said to her, but in my own mind, I begged that I could take it back.
Even Ansley and Chris, a big surprise to me, looked worried at what I was doing. They thought I was crazy.
"Tell him it's not true." Darius tried to talk me out of it. I only avoided his eyes. I didn't want him to know that I really did want to do that.
"Ryan, please tell him you're lying! Please!" Natalie was on the verge of tears and then I realized I was already there.
"I can't." She held onto me tightly, begging for me to stop and take it all back. I couldn't. It wasn't fair. I pushed her off of me and waited for The Loon to make his next move.
The Loon just stood at the door soaking up all the information. He nodded his head a couple times then turned to me. He smiled again. I knew what it was for. He was so happy it was me. He couldn't wait to feel my heart slowly stop by his own hand.
He walked up to me and grabbed my arm. He forced it behind my back and walked towards the door. He slowly lifted it up my back, causing the pain to course through my arm. I winced at the pain but accepted it. I couldn't back out now. I couldn't let Bryce go through it alone.
Again, The Loon stopped by the door. I tried to keep walking, to keep the focus on me, but he made me stay by forcing my arm even higher on my back. I hollered out in pain and stopped moving. What else did he want from us?
"Bring his roommate with us." He pointed at Joanna and two more psychos grabbed her underneath her arms.
She fought them and moved her arms in all different directions. She kicked and bit at them until they found and old piece of cloth covered in blood and forced it over her mouth. She cursed muffled words at the psychos as they brought her to the door right next to me. She stared me down with eyes of resentment and uttered two famous words at me. I was on her bad side. Again.
"We're going to have a fun time together." The Loon forced me outside and the other psychos followed his lead. "Just think about it, you both could've been safe if the child would've just kept his mouth shut. Sorry Jo. You didn't have to be here."
"Don't call me that." I heard her muffled words from where I was.
"I'll call you whatever I want, child. Unless you want your new friend here to take care of you."
The psycho with the pale blue eyes appeared behind her and caressed her jaw in his big gut covered hand. Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell silent. It was all my fault. It should only be me out here. Not her.
We approached three trees where metal rings were attached to them. Bryce was already tied to one tree, still crying his begs and pleas for mercy. He even looked up to the sky and preached bible verses to the God that was supposed to protect us. If he was there, why was he letting this all happen? He is going to let us be killed.
When he saw us, His eyes went wide with disbelief and he shook his head along with it. We were forced over there and put on our knees. Two psychos carrying nasty spears tied us to the other two trees and looked over to The Loon for approval. He nodded at them and they ran back to their original positions. I could look up at The Loon and silently beg for him to forgive us. I never wanted this for anyone. It should only be me. No one but myself.
"I hope you children had a good night's rest, because this is going to be a very very long night."