My Secrets In The Apocalypse

Chapter 18

They had finished eating and Riley was hanging out at Daryl's camp. It was late afternoon and the sun was getting low in the sky, turning it a vibrant orange color. A breeze blew through and Riley ran a hand through her hair, cringing when she realized how dirty it felt. She stood up, stretching her arms out.
"I'm gonna head up to the house for a bit," she said, Daryl nodding in response.

Riley slowly made her way across the field, heading for her tent. She slipped inside and pulled open her duffle bag. She could only find a pair of cotton sleep shorts and her favorite 5FDP shirt that she never wore because she was afraid to ruin it. She looked over to the pile of dirty clothes in the corner of the tent and sighed. She had no choice unless she wanted to wear dirty clothes. She pulled out clean underwear and rolled them up inside her clothes and stepped out of the tent, zipping the door shut behind her.

Riley made her way over to the house and stepped inside looking around for someone. She found Herschel in the dining room talking to Maggie.
"Sorry to interrupt," Riley said when the both stopped talking and looked at her. "I just wanted to ask if I could use your shower," she asked quickly.
"Yea, sure," Maggie smiled and nodded.
"Thank you," Riley said and left the dining room. She climbed the stairs and went into the bathroom locking the door behind herself. She turned on the water letting it run to get hot and pulled off her dirty shirt. When she pulled her pants off she realized it had been a while since she'd had a chance to shave her legs. There wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that she was walking around camp in shorts with Chewbacca legs. She opened the medicine cabinet and sighed in frustration when she didn't find razors. She quickly opened every cabinet door and drawer until she found what she needed.
"Thank ya Jesus!" she said triumphantly as she pulled the half full pack of razors out and took one for herself.

Riley spent a good half hour in the shower scrubbing herself clean and shaving everywhere that needed to be shaved. When Riley stepped out of the shower she sighed at how smooth her skin felt. She couldn't remember the last time she felt so normal. She put on her clean bra and underwear and her cotton sleep shorts. She used the towel to dry her hair and pulled on her t-shirt. She took the razor she used and took a new one and rolled them up inside her dirty clothes so she could keep them in her duffle bag for later.

When Riley stepped outside it was already dark outside. She headed over to her tent, walking carefully in the dark. When she got back to her tent she took the razors and tucked them inside her bag. She then tossed her dirty clothes onto the pile that she would wash in the morning and crawled into her sleeping bag. It wasn't very late but Riley could feel her eyes growing heavy as she quickly fell asleep.

"Take her," Artjom said waving nonchalantly. "Make sure she learns her lesson, for good this time," he said.
She was back at that house, back in Artjom's office. Crippling fear settled in the pit of her stomach, she knew what would happen. She had failed to complete her mission. She hadn't killed her father back at the hotel and he ran his damn mouth about it! He stabbed her in the back AGAIN and now everyone knew who she was.
Dimitrij quickly snatched her arms, pinning them behind her back and drug her out of the room roughly. She fought against him as he drug her down the hallway. She kicked and screamed as he pulled her down the stairs and shoved her into that little room down in the basement.
"No! Please no! No!" she screamed as he pushed her inside the room.
"Stop your whining," he said angrily, "You brought this on yourself," he said grabbing her by her shirt and swiftly bringing his fist down into her face.
Pain, searing hot, blinding pain was all she could feel as Dimitrij punched and kicked her repeatedly. She curled herself into a ball as he continued kicking her. Everything started fading away and she gave in to unconsciousness.
When Riley woke up, all she could feel was pain. She looked around and saw concrete walls and dumpsters around her and she could hear car horns and sounds of traffic nearby. She was in an alley somewhere. She looked down at herself, she was wearing the same clothes but they were dirty and her shirt had blood on it. She leaned her back against a wall and sighed heavily. Dimitrij beat the shit out of her, probably thought he had killed her, and dumped her in an alley.
Then it hit her, hard, like a ton of bricks. They thought she was dead. They dumped her body, thinking they had killed her. There was no way they would have just left her out there like that if they didn't. This was her chance to run! If they thought she was dead, they'd never come looking for her again!
She quickly pulled herself to her feet and started walking. She didn't know where she would go, but it didn't matter. This was her chance for freedom! She would walk across half the country if she had to! This was her golden opportunity, she thought as she shuffled out of the alley. It was finally over.