The Scream of Tribulation

Chapter 7

-Day 8
(Ceecee Reeder)

I twist on the ball of my heels to face the loud boom from behind me. My greasy red hair slaps my face as I twirl to the commotion. Some fall to the ground in fright, and others just sit there silently to see what the man with the shotgun has to say. I'd rather not hear anymore bullshit today so I hope he has a good stance of what he wants to say. All I wanted today was just to have another day of laying low until Carter had to bitch out and get in my face. I note to myself to thank that Adrian guy for giving her a taste of her own medicine.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the armed man begins, losing my train of inner thought. "Now can we all agree that this, gun-free rule we made a few days ago, is total and complete bullshit? I think so. Can we get a show of hands?"

Adrian's hand flies up along with Garret's, and a Janette's hand. I keep my hand down, but I'm not fully sure how I feel if we should have guns or not.

"Well." He clears his throat. " At least I have a few backing me up. That would be pretty embarrassing on my part." He cackles to himself while everyone stays silent. "Yet it doesn't matter to much to me because, well, look who has the gun."  Adrian tags along with a faint giggle. But besides those two mentally off characters, we all just want to ft to the chase of this.

His thick Northern, I think Brooklyn accent, nearly distracts me from his oration. "Now you may be thinking, 'Eugene? What in all mighty hell do you want right now?' And the answer to that, if you are wondering, is three whole seconds without anybody moaning, bitching, complaining and whining. And so I have a pretty good hunch, the only way I can get you punks to zip it, is to pop anyone who gets too agitating. So it's simple: You do what I say, you don't get popped. Got it?"

Nobody moves a single nerve in their body.

"I'm sorry, am I going deaf? You got it, or am I gonna have to off one of you?"

Suddenly, all heads shake up and down in assurance of following his command.

I had a bad feeling about this new leader. I'll admit, Jackie wasn't great, by Eugene took it too far. All he wants is power and all control. I'm not sure what side I'm on here, but I can see an obvious split between the group forming. The outcome wasn't going to be good either. All I want is to get away from all the drama and run away with some start-up supplies and two or three more people to go with me so I don't have to be in the middle of the conclusion between this feud.

"Now if you would all be so kindly and please let sweet Miss Jackie finish the sentence. Say one peep and you'll get what's coming." He says, followed by the crackle of his hairy knuckles. Lounging in the sand with his back against a box, he points the gun at the general direction of all of us huddled like penguins.

    Sweat leaks from Jackie's oily skin as she fidgets nervously with her grimy hands. "Okay," she sighs, smiling unhinged. "Let's see what's on the agenda for today." Clearing her throat and pulling out a bent and beat up note book, she begins to set down the grounds. " So first thing on the list is, like every day, recount the food and water relations, and give one ration to everybody for the rest of the day until campfire."

    Jackie glimpses at Eugene for approval of the regular task. I, along with a handful of others draw attention to the smirking man who tips his head signaling, "Go on."

    "Next thing, just like always, gather fire wood for the night, inspect the palmetto tents and head count all the weapons and make sure they are all there. Usual stuff, mostly everyone knows their jobs." She says. " Final thing on the agenda, after about an hour of the simple stuff being completed, after a large debate on the suspicion on the missing woman in the woods, today is the day everyone has agreed on, due to the increase in numbers of people for a search part-"

    "No, no no no. I don't like that at all." Eugene interrupts. He walks over to us all and uses the shotgun as a walking stick. "Now in my opinion, I've thought that was an ignorant idea." He leans on his gun, which I'm pretty sure is unhealthy for the gun. I'm no gun expert, but I have a feeling that won't help the gun. "You see, how I look at the whole situation, if she didn't die with the man that you apparently saw the remnants of, then she most likely would've died the next night, starved, dehydrated, got infected and rotted, the possibilities are endless. Now you tell me the odds of her living right whole days out there with just a small amount of supplies and a week of nobody to talk to. Don't you think she is doing just fine if she has lived eight days out there? I just think it is a waste of resource. So, no. We aren't doing that."

    No objection. The smell of fear reeks. I'm sick of it. Nobody will speak. It irritates me. " So what? Just bake slowly around these supplies that will eventually run out? Just sit our way to death?" I blurt out.

    Now the attention is drawn towards me. My face reflects so red, I can even see the light tint at the corner of my eye. I'm on the fence of wondering if that was a brave idea, or just straight up stupid.

    "Why Missy," Eugene scoffs in astonishment with an ugly grin. And that tooth, God that ugly silver tooth, it disgusted me so much. Never in my sixteen years of living have I ever found a gold, silver, or even diamond tooth attractive. I just see that as another reminder of their bad hygiene, or ones commitment of arrogance to advance that far just to show off that you can afford such stupid accessory. " I do thank you for finally being the one to actually talk. For a second there, I thought I was talking to myself." I inhale generously to my lungs and release my hot breath downwards. " But you know, I never did ask you to speak. Which aggravates the living piss out of me. So speak another word without permission while I'm talking, I will have one less bullet in this barrel." His eyes meet mine, only inches away from each other. The detail of his face made me want to vomit even more. The thin patch of hair under his nose was dispersed with sweat like dew on grass, except grosser and giving off a vomit threatening smell. And his hair, oh his slimy greased back Jett black hair gave off the most sour smell of mildew ever, my eyes started watering.

    Adrian giggles eerily from behind Eugene. His neck snaps towards Adrian. He grunts before speaking. " I'll let laughter pass, unless it gets out of hand. And because I slightly like your mind, Mr. Creepy Man." All Adrian does is just stare back with that same unceasing smile, and steps aside. "As I was saying, no. We will not waste this day doing nothing. We will make our resources useful. But in a different way. In my useful way."

    He wouldn't say anymore. He just stood staring at us. My grandmother did the same thing, but she had an excuse. This ugly man just did it to piss us off, I know he was. "How?" I ask impatiently.

    "What I'd like to do, is gather three groups. One small group to stay here for tomorrow's new people, possibly the next days as well. Then, I'd like two slightly larger groups to go two opposite directions of the beach, and keep going for a day or two, and see if groups meet. I want to know if we have an actual chance of rescue, or if we are all just hopeless nobodies stuck on an island. We start making groups in an hour. That's how long you have to gather necessary food, water, firewood, and whatever you need to not die the next few days. Big mission starting guys, let's get a move on it."

    We all start spreading out and conversing between one another, getting prepared for our new mission, I'm sure most don't want to do. I head my way towards La'Shawna and Barry. The only two people I can actually stand here. Both sat by the ashes of sat night campfire.

    Before I made it to them, a blunt object stomps on the end on the toes to my right foot. I gasp and look to see it's Eugene pushing his gun at the end of my foot. "What the hell?" I shout.

    "Now I know you remember you telling me how much it makes me just want to blow someone's brains out. Yet, you still talked before I was done talking. So I'm gonna make you a deal," he whispered all of this to my ears. I gulp a mouth full of saliva as I shake from fear. I feel cold and hot at the same time. My eyes boggle all around the surrounding area. "How about, I set an example for everyone, especially you, and you get to live." I just know he is taking this moment to look at all of my fear, watch me freak out and keep second guessing what will happen next. " Okay? Okay!" He quickly says to me before blowing my right foot off, leaving one less bullet in the barrel. My throat itches and scratches for how loud my shrieks were. I fall to the ground, wanting to clamp into the hurting spot, but my whole foot throbs in agonizing pain. Blood speed out the end, but doesn't flow into a pool, it simply seeps into the now red stained sand.
"Now, back to what I was saying, after I was rudely interrupted..."