The Price of Humanity

Chapter Forty-Seven

Chapter Forty-Seven

I try and shove the corpse off, pulling myself further up the fence, but he comes with me. I use my arms and turn around to sit on the fence and go to reach for my knife when the walker's mouth get a little too close to my ankle for comfort.

I feel two hands grip the back of my t-shirt and I'm pulled backwards, into the compound of the most dangerous people I've heard of in this world.

The walker doesn't come with me as I fall over the other side of the fence but something else does, something incredibly horrifying and scarring.

I start to scream in reaction, shaking my legs and doing anything I possibly can to get away from the fence and away from the thing attached to my leg.

I shuffle on the ground, moving backwards as fast as I can. Suddenly, a hand clamps firmly over my mouth, silencing my screams and effectively calming me down slightly.

I keep crawling backward until Zane stops me with his body, holding me tight and cradling me as I shake in his arms.

I can still feel it's grip on my ankle and so I keep shaking it. He whispers into my ear.

"It's okay. You're okay." I stare at the hand, specifically where the wrist has been ripped from its owner's arm. I relax into Zane's arms as he drags me up from the floor.

I calm down slightly, standing on my own two feet and refusing to look anywhere near the hand.

Even thinking about it makes me feel sick.

Zane looks around, checking for any guards while I compose myself and Mia looks down disgusted at the hand.

"It came from over there." The distant voices bring me back into reality and where we are. I grab Mia's hand and look around, immediately heading towards the building the girl ran into earlier in the day.

Zane follows keeping an eye out in the direction we heard the voices. Without even thinking I storm into the building, regretting my decision completely when I remember that we're in a compound full of dangerous psychopaths.

I'm not greeted by an army of angry men however, but an army of women.

They jump up from their beds when I enter, looking terrified. When they realise I'm not from the compound they relax – still on edge however, but less afraid.

I notice a few weapons here and there, they lower them when they notice Mia but still hold them in their hands – a pipe, a few wooden poles, one even has a crowbar. That can do some serious damage.

"Wha..." Zane begins, walking in behind me and Mia. The women stand tall again, looking at Zane with fear once again.

I begin to realise why I never saw any women during our encounters with the group. They were all here, locked away.

"Zane, stay by the door." I whisper to him, making my way forward, not really having any sort of plan.

I see the girl I saw jump over the fence in the corner, a small child behind her. She looks at me with confusion as I stare at her. I decide to pose my question to her, not really knowing who else to speak to.

"Why are you all locked up in here?" I ask, there's bound to be at least twenty women in here including the few children scattered around the room. I even notice a few babies.

"Why are you covered in blood?" She counters, leaving the child to cling to a nearby woman and walking towards me. I notice the Spanish accent in her voice, barely there but still noticeable enough.

"And why do you smell like death?" She wrinkles her nose at the stench when she comes closer. It's almost comical and I resist the urge to chuckle.

"We used it to get through the corpses outside." She looks confused for a second before she realises the name.

"We call them biters." She replies, still disgusted by our appearances. Her eyes flick back to Zane for a second and I catch her attention again.

"He isn't going to hurt you." I say, leaning to the left to block her line of sight to Zane.

"Well the only men I've encountered haven't exactly been friendly." I glance around at all the women, the way they acted when Zane walked in the room. Most of them have their eyes fixed on me, but a few glance at Zane every now and again, checking he hasn't moved.

"How come you haven't left?" Her eyes snap to mine, studying me as she tries to determine what I mean. "We saw you climb over the fence."

Another woman, an elderly one, rushes forward – with a speed no elderly woman should be able to move at.

"Te vieron?" She scolds and the girl in front of me still looks shocked that we saw her.

"No por los guardias. Tengo cuidado, abuela." She looks over to the elderly woman and says her words with determination, her Spanish accent coming through clearly now she's speaking Spanish.

With a sudden urge of kindness, I decide to defend her. Although I have no idea what they're talking about. I decide to take a wild guess.

"We only saw her because we were high up, looking out a window. I doubt anyone else could've seen her." The woman looks up at me and then to Zane, utter disgust on her face.

"Tienen que irse." She demands to the escape artist, to be truly honest I'm terrified of this old woman, she seems like she could kick some ass if she wanted to. Not only that, but it scares me that I have no idea what she's saying.

If only I had payed more attention in Spanish at school, or if I had the internet. If only the end of the world hadn't stopped my life in its tracks and stopped me from travelling.