The Ruins

Chapter 64

Mal woke up on the back of the truck, hands tied, mouth gagged. All she remembers the hit from Simon and saying about the KillGames. Peeking out she sees where it lead her.

The camp was on the far side of the mountain. The camp looked strangely exposed, with the paths leading up through forestland to a plateau as flat as a tabletop. Three traders wagons were positioned to block each path, their sides reinforced with sheet metal.

The men pulled Mal out of the truck and she cursed very quietly under her breath and the cloth. There were twenty-three of Glory's men, a couple of Claimers in the camp. Then her roving eyes found the own where they were holding kids. It was a pen, the kind used for keeping pigs. Two Claimer guards stood watch over the captives, and through the shimmering heat haze. There weren't a dozen of kids. There were nineteen of them. Other scavengers must have joined the camp in the last few hours, which would account for the higher number of captives.

Nineteen kids. Five boys, fourteen girls. The oldest looked to be twelve, the youngest about eight. There were all hunkered down, tied together by ropes that were attached to metal rings in the leather collars each of them wore.

Calvin whipped open the flap of the tent, and the Calvary Boys trailed behind him. He titled his head, shaking at his head at Mal. He climbed over the tail of the pen and pushed through the kids. All of their collar ropes were bundled together in one central point, and that was wound around the trunk of a small tree. He cuts one piece and brings out a thin older boy she'd never spot and her heart wrenched of the familiar face.

Tucker's face is hugely bruised, dried blood sticked in his mouth and nose. "...Mal?"

"Well, I'll be a one-eyes skunk," yelled Calvin so loud that Mal could heard through the laughter, and the nose if the fist fights. "Guess Mal has more than just Charlie as a secret admirer."

They moved them to a large circular structure, metal walls held a dome. Inside the tent, there were pens and cages, trays of cans and plates on the ground, a table filled with tools of weapons and ropes were dirty from mud and dried blood. In one of the cages Mal's shock and petrified to see the kids, Max, Killeen, Johan, and Rin cluttered in the filthy cage. She runs towards them but the Claimers hold her back, pulling the gag off her mouth.

"Let her go," Calvin orders. He unties the rope bound to her wrists and she runs to the cage, slamming against the bars.

Mal reaches her hands to touch Max's sweaty hair, wanting to hug and kiss them. "Where's AJ?"

Rin shows him under her black jacket. "He's alright. I wouldn't let them take him."

"I'm sorry." Max apologized. "I failed, Vix made me lead them and it was a trap, and I-"

"I'm proud of you, Max." She smiles generously. "So proud and you've tried. I'm happy for all of you."

"OK, that's enough lovey dovey stuff. Both of you get in."

Roughly Mal and Tucker are locked in the cage as the boys leave, the flap closes them. "So, these your kids?" Tucker said, waving and smiling at them. "Names Tucker. Savior and Negan."

The kids likes Tucker and all introduced themselves before Mal gets to question him. "Tucker, what happened?"

Coughing viciously he takes a deep breath. "I was going to check on the town when the Claimers found me, took me while talking to someone, asking them if they want the deal and their freedom. Mal, I think that person was a s-"

Then something big and dark moved in the tent, and they all looked up in fury.

Charlie Pink-Eye stiff there above them. He held a pistol in one hand, and the barrel was pointing straight at Mal's face. Opening the cage he then points at the children.