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

Chapter 21: Games

--------Chapter 21: Games----

"Think he'll do as asked?" Shawn asked as Matt watched Oscar get further and further down the road, his pace very quick.

"Fuck no," Matt said in return, his gaze never leaving Oscar. "He's gonna go back and tell Bennett what's going on and where we are. Kinda counting on it at this point in time."

"You don't wanna mess with Bennett," Peter managed to say through the pain, everyone looking to him. He glanced at Layton before looking back to Matt. "He's not someone you wanna mess with."

"I'm someone he doesn't wanna mess with, especially right now," Matt said. "Believe me kid, you piss me off enough and you'll see."

Peter looked at him for a few seconds before he spoke again.

"You really gonna shoot me again?" he asked timidly; Matt wasn't in the mood to mess around by the looks of it. "Waste all those bullets?"

"Oh, I'll waste as many as I have to," Matt said in response. "I don't care about these bullets; we've managed without ammunition for this long, so I think we'll last a bit longer. I don't wanna shoot you, but if I have to, I certainly won't hesitate."

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Gates watched as Bennett sat down on the chair opposite him. Collin was still lurking near the door, having tied both of Gates' wrists to the arms of the chair to make sure that he wasn't about to go anywhere or try anything.

Bennett looked Gates over, not saying anything. Gates continued to stare him down, not saying anything either. He wasn't about to give him the satisfaction.

"You really think we wouldn't know you and those others would take off? Somehow get outta that walker infested pit?" Bennett said after a few minutes of tense silence between the two of them.

Gates was really wishing that Collin would leave and stop loitering around at the door.

"You really think I'd just lay down and die?" Gates asked in return, his tone calm. "You'd be pretty stupid if you think anyone nowadays would do such a thing. People are limited nowadays; need everyone alive that you can get Bennett."

Bennett smiled in amusement, thinking as he looked Gates over again.

"I hope you know that you'll be here for a while," he said, Gates not moving or showing any signs of interest. "Don't know what to do with you at the present time though, which is a problem."

"Why've you got so much interest in me?" Gates asked, still not one-hundred percent sure as to why Bennett had wanted him hunted down when he'd originally thrown him into The Pit.

"Honestly Gates, I don't really know. Just something about you," Bennett said in return, still thinking as he looked at him, Gates still staring him down. "Why I don't know what to do with you; throw you back into The Pit in the likely event that you'll escape, even while injured, lock you up and leave you to rot down there, or let you walk around here in the hopes that you won't leave or kill anyone? It truly is a hard choice."

Gates gave him an unamused smile.

"Well, guess you're the only one that can really make that decision," he said, Bennett listening to him. "Because I know what I'd choose."

Bennett gave a bit of a laugh.

"I'm sure I know which one you'd choose as well. I just don't think I'm ready to let you loose in here to kill anyone just yet," he said in response. "Anyway, those people we dragged in with you; who exactly are they all? You all been shoved together in these terrible times?"