Never The End (Sequel to 'What Keeps You Alive')

Chapter 12: Unfamiliar Faces

--------Chapter 12: Unfamiliar Faces----

"You're lucky I missed; get moving."

"You must be a pretty fucking bad shot if you missed me at point blank range."

The man shoved Gates hard, indicating for him to shut up as they started walking. He'd shot at him moments after Ashley had taken off and Gates knew he'd purposely missed him, the bullet having hit the ground mere metres off to Gates' side; it had been a waste of ammo but this man clearly didn't care.

Not long after that the man had violently pushed Gates down to his knees, bound his hands behind his back and then hauled him back to his feet; now here he was, being handled roughly, pushed along and forced to walk God knew where.

"Where're we going?" Gates asked, not about to sit down and let them control his every move; he was already planning a way out of this before they reached their destination; if he was able to pull it off though was the real question.

"Back to camp; we don't particularly like strangers sneaking around our backyard," the man behind him said, the other four keeping close by to make sure Gates wasn't about to take off; that was something he needed to take into account before trying to get away from them. "The boss will decide what to do with you; never know, you might be useful to us."

"Doubt it; somehow doubt I'm like you lot."

The man shoved Gates hard again, Gates choosing to ignore it and just keep walking.

"Shut it; no more questions or talking," he warned, Gates rolling his eyes as he reluctantly kept walking; there wasn't much he could do but go along with this until he had a chance to make his escape. "You'll be able to ask questions when we get there; until then I don't wanna hear another word outta that mouth of yours or I'll shoot you and I promise, this time I won't miss."

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The man pulled Gates to a halt outside the reinforced gates, the men on duty watching and seeing who it was.

"Open the damn gate," the man demanded, keeping a tight hold on Gates to make sure he wasn't about to try and take off. He looked to him. "You'd better be on your best behaviour asshole."

"Now why would you think I wouldn't be?" Gates asked back sarcastically as the tall gates were opened, the other four men forwarding into the compound; Gates hadn't known there was even anything like this out in the world anymore; anything functioning anyway.

The man shoved Gates inside, not relenting on being rough like he'd been the whole way. The gates shut once they were in, being locked with a large piece of timber blocking it on the inside so that it couldn't get pushed in by anything. The man forced Gates to start walking again, clearly knowing where they were going.

Gates looked around briefly as they walked deeper into the compound; it looked almost like a base of some sort, big enough and fortified enough to stop the dead coming in. There weren't a lot of people around, but there were still enough that it would take a lot of skill to leave unaccompanied.

He'd figure it out when he knew what was going on.

They kept walking, a few people watching as they went past; something about this place made Gates uneasy. Something here didn't feel right and he couldn't quite pick what it was just yet. He was really hoping that there wasn't something bad happening within these walls.

"When we get there, don't say a fucking word until you're spoken to, got it?" the man said, Gates staying quiet and having nothing to say. "I'm serious; we have a system here and if you break it or do anything you're not meant to...you do that and you're as good as dead."