The Road to Nowhere

Chapter 58: Excused

Chapter 58

After the guard left, everyone went back to their own cabins and I stayed in mine with Brianna. Since she was still sleeping when we heard the news, I filled her in when she woke. She was ecstatic. I knew she felt guilty deep down, but since there was no way for her to murder anyone last night, she's off the hook.

The village had a full-blown riot when the news spread. People were taking things into their own hands. They threw belongings around, causing a horrible mess. The area around the main campfire looked like a tornado barreled down the center of it. Tents were being dismantled and searched by the guards. There were beatings. Distrusted villagers were getting black eyes and swollen lips. It was total chaos. I only stayed out of my cabin for an hour or so, and that was to get some food for me and Brianna. But other than that, I stayed cooped up in those four walls. I'm glad I did. I didn't want to see the body again.

I watched brigades of armed guards march down the pathway in front of my cabin. They came to the door and commanded us to allow them to search our stuff. I let them, having no other choice. They didn't find anything suspicious, thankfully. I feel the only reason they made a big 'political statement' and searched everyone's things was because the village made such a big fuss. Before the riot, guards were just informing people what had happened, and that's how we found out. But after everyone pulled out their pitch forks, they decided to show people they would do something about it instead of waiting for the culprit to confess.

That was hours ago.

Was I happy about Brianna's innocence? Absolutely. But, that means there is somebody out there hurting people. Stalking people. Hunting people. Taking big bites out of people. And, stealing their unborn children.

That's right. The person who was murdered last night was pregnant. They found her, bloody and mauled, strung up by her hands from the cafeteria tent. There were bites taken out of her legs and groin. The skin running up to her pelvis was an eggplant purple. However, it was hard to see because of the blood. It was dried and covered most of her thighs. Her pants were ripped off, of course, and thrown off to the side. Her shirt though, still on but hanging by a string. The fabric was once white but is now a deep brown, stained with the mud from last night's downpour. It was torn down the side from the underarm to the hem at the bottom. The right side of the shirt flopped over the other, exposing a bloody breast. Her mouth, or head I should say, was tightly wrapped with duct tape. Her auburn hair came out in all directions. I pray that she died of suffocation before her other injuries. Asphyxia would have been a less painful way to die.

The thing that disturbed me the most was that her stomach was the victim of a do-it-yourself C-section. The cut wasn't intended to serve the purpose of a delivery. It was jagged, like the person who did this didn't care if they hurt the baby at all. They also didn't care if her innards hung out of her like a piñata. What I presumed to be her liver, stomach, and kidneys, laid across the deck in bloody mushes. Her intestines though, missed the wood by a mere two inches.

The baby was nowhere to be found.

Seeing that took the last of my innocence. I knew I shouldn't have looked. But people were crowding. They were staring. I didn't know that it would be that bad. I couldn't eat the food I brought back for me and Brianna. The bacon reminded me too much of her guts.

That was so long ago.

I have had time to let that sink in. But, all it's done is caused me more anxiety. Now, I know what the murderer is capable of. I'm scared half to death.

My anxiety didn't stop there. About a couple hours after seeing the body, a guard showed up at the cabin and told me that Jaw wanted to see Brianna and I, on the behave of Scooter.