The Darkest Days

CHAPTER FIVE: Dead Democracy

Once more that day I blacked out, almost on the same place on that dusty now blood-smeared floor, but when I woke up it was around noon instead of it being the next day, that short fellow didn't hit so hard, though my pounding headache would beg to difffer, perhaps it was the smothering heat and the screaming of my captors downstairs that created the pounding. I spit out a mouthful of thick sour blood, running my tongue over my teeth, a few were loose but not missing, my lips hurt. I tried to open my eyes, but one of them was swollen closed and the other throbbed as I forced it open, what kind of man beats a girl black and blue, he must've not been much of a man. Quickly I sat up, a jolt of pain shot through my rib cage and got worse with each breath, had I cracked a rib? Gabe looked at me his eyes red and puffy with innumberable tears, I scowled at him, he was too weak, too soft for this world, what reason did he have to cry, I was the one who got the shit beat out of herself for a brother who got himself held down by girls and I wasn't crying... yet.

Gingerly I lifted up my shirt to see my ribcage in hopes it wasn't too bad, it was worse than I expected, I hadn't had anything to cushion the man's blows, no flesh, I was skin and bones, but that was a prior condition. Now my entire chest was blossoming with purple, red, and blue marks in the shape of fists, lightly I touched over the place from which the jolt of pain orginated, I cringed, a small pulse of pain bloomed under my finger, definately cracked or worse, I was no doctor. The bruises trailed from my face to the left side of my chest onto my stomach where he'd punched to get me off and squeezed with his knees to hold me down to my legs where I'd kicked them desparately on the floor whilst he strangled the life from me. My enitre body was just one constant feeling of aching, throbbing, pain; but hey at least I won!

From downstairs came a loud "BANG!" and more voices began shouting, they were probably deciding what they were going to do with us. It would be good to listen to them. I pressed my finger lightly to my lips, cringing slightly as the busted lip puffy and oozing blood quivered in pain from the touch, signaling Gabe to stay quiet. Slowly I lowered my less sore side to the floor, trying not to set off another jolt of pain from the rib, maybe it would go numb soon, then pressed my ear to the hard floorboards.

"We c'ain't kill em! They're livin'!" A young voice cried, a male voice, probably that teenage boy. I'm glad he was on my side, I didn't want to die. I felt Gabe at my side trying not to touch me, sullen over my disregard for his feelings, though I was pretty sullen over the fact that he still allowed himself to have feelings, why did I have to be strong for both of us?

Another voice, this one calmer, stronger, more adult, spoke up almost commanding some kind of Divine authority, like a king or something. "Luke has a point." Luke? Did I know a Luke? "We haven't killed the living before..." He was educated, beyond high school, unlike my family and I, though I guess since I was still in high school it was less, but I did plan on going to college, you know breaking the cycle and all, though those plans were devastated now.

Gabe tapped on my shoulder, my head was starting to swim a bit, it still hurt, I hoped I didn't pass out again. "Scar, do ya think that if they di'nt kill nobody before they won't kill us?" He asked keeping his voice low, so as not to alert our guards downstairs. Sunlight shone in making the dust in the air glitter like a million diamonds, I looked at Gabe the diamonds glittered behind him, it was so beautiful like heaven. Gabe snapped his fingers next to my ears, I was dozing off, from my swollen eye I could see that he was worried, I smiled reassuringly but that made my lips crack and bleed more.

"Maybe..."  I murmured half delirious and craving above all a drink of water, "If ya sneak out, I'll grab our stuff before they notice..." Below I heard a person scream obscenities and something slam down with a loud crash, the negotiations were going well I guess. Looking out the window I saw a buzzard it dark wings a shadow in the tree by the window, and we began to stare at it each other. I saw it eyed me with as much mutual hunger as I eyed it with, if we ever met on equal terms, the buzzard inside and me with a gun (my aim still gave the buzzard the advantage) I knew it would come to a showdown and at least one of us would hunger no longer.

Slowly I forced myself to my feet, feigning stiffness rather than the torture I felt running along my ribcage and the ache as I put weight on my battered legs, two stories seemed alot taller now. Suddenly I heard a gun shot from down below and I dropped to the floor. Was somebody shot? Was it the dead things? The sudden movement made me cringe in pain but perhaps it would be worth it for the information gathered.

"Shut the fuck up!" it was the educated one, he had quite a dirty mouth, but it happened to the best of us. I had refrained from cussing in front of Gabe, he was after all only eight, he had been through enough, maybe if I spared him from cusswords he wouldn't be so messed up. Also maybe if I didn;t break this one rule God wouldn't be so harsh on me, I could just imagine it now. Me walking up to the pearly gates still covered in muck and blood from my last tussle, Ole Saint Pete a-saying, "Well, Miss Scarlet Harrison, you sure sinned alot. You've stolen, you've lied, you've killed, you've coveted, and you've even lusted, but we're gonna let it fly just this once cause you didn't cuss in front of Gabe." Or at least that's what I hoped would happen otherwise I'd be joining so of those dead things in Hell where I sent them to live for ticking me off.

The educated man's voice grew hoarse and angry. "We're still in America! We're doing it the American way!" His gang seemed to have grown deathly quiet, all I could hear was my own pained ragged breathing. "We're gonna vote: Live or Die!"