The Departed

Ch. 4

Peter POV.

    I watch as she grabs the Guardian's feet and begins to tug. Her lie swims around in my head. She wasn't a good liar, but I would humor her, at least for now. She wasn't like this, at least not when I found her. She was half dead. A voice whispers in my head. My memory flashes and suddenly I'm taken back two months ago. I had been swooping through houses, trying to find anything, anyone, who had made it. Cal had made orders pretty clear, find anyone who could be of service to the group. Interrogate them, if they seemed fit, bring them back. If not, put a bullet through their head.

I had burst through the door of an old room in a complex building. I had expected the place to be empty, or at least be ransacked. Instead I came face to face with the barrel of a gun, and at the end was a sixteen year old girl. Tears poured down her face and before I could mutter a single word, she collapsed on the ground. I immediately jumped forward and took the gun out of her hand, checked the safe and the rounds. The safety was off and gun was fully loaded. I had tied her to a chair before I checked the rest of the room. The entire place seemed to be empty, until I entered the bedroom.

Whereas the rest of the place seemed to be spotless, the bedroom was a gigantic mess. There was clothes and garbage strewn across the floor. In a corner of the room was a dirty old mattress covered in blood. The whole room seemed to have gone to hell and back. I waited, how long I'm not exactly sure. But I waited, until she finally woke up, and when she did, I wish I hadn't. Not only was she uncooperative, but she refused to eat, drink, or even sleep. I had threatened her, told her that I would leave her tied to that chair and that I wouldn't come back, and yet she still didn't care. So I did leave. I left without saying a single word, I left her there to die...

I couldn't bring myself to go out further than the front steps of the complex building. So I waited, a few days it seemed, before I finally went back up to the room. She was asleep when I entered, so I untied her and hauled her back to the camp. Cal was beyond pissed, I had been gone for three days, only to show up with a "whore". His mouth snapped shut when I unloaded two guns and three boxes of ammo out of my backpack. 

"Is she dead weight?" He had asked. 

"No-" I had replied. "-she's just lost." 

"A little help here?" She asks breaking me out of my thoughts. I shake my head and move forward, ignoring the glare she was giving me. I help her pick up one of the Guardians and together we begin to move his body. She wasn't lost when I found her, she was broken. Somehow Cal and I had managed to put her back together, she wasn't broken now. She was worse.