Z: In The Heart of the Queen City

Chapter 15

I just wanted to be alone.

Even when Jaycee and the rest were restung and they all huddled in a corner, I didn't want to be a part of it. I let them be. I let myself be. We had dinner in silence, munching on some candy bars from a broken down pantry and trying to make sense of everything that's happened. “What exactly do they plan to do with us?” Jaycee asked finally breaking the quiet atmosphere. “Stay here until we give in.” Dr. Silva answered simply.

I hated the thought of simply rotting here to death, I mean after all we've been through.

“Mark, I mean the Marked one promises everything. Food, shelter, protection...” Karen began. “A shower.” Dr. Silva finished crumpling the candy wrapper. Oh God, a shower sounded so good I felt like I hadn't had one in years. “That's bullshit, I mean everything but the shower. A shower sounds nice.” Jaycee said. “But the supplies are going to eventually run out.” “That's why he's training an army of well, baby barbarians he likes to call it that. Mark claims this is the future, we are the new government. Seeing as the real one doesn't seem to care about us at all, if they did we would be out of here by now.” Karen explained. She poured me a glass of water from the sink. Amazing how just 48 hours ago I used the same water to bathe my body before going to work, always count your blessings people. Mark The Marked One got something right I thought bitterly; the government didn't care about us, I listened as Jaycee narrate what had occurred during the hospital. I rubbed my head as he said it because   this was seriously beginning to sound like a bad dream. “Well, hearing that I still seriously need a bath.” Dr. Silva complained. Seriously, if he was going to say 'bath' again I was going to shoot him.

The doors of the office opened, revealing it to be my good old friend Sam but quite frankly he looked a little more stoned now. “Hey, how did you fuckers end up here?” He said slurring his words a bit. He was accompanied by a chubby Chinese woman who had a gray sweater on and one of the two Hulk Hogan lookalikes, they were all holding rifles. “Sam! Don't you recognize us? It's me Jaycee, Karen and Emma!” Jaycee told him standing up. Sam didn't answer him instead, he grabbed the doctor and pulled out his phone, an old black and white Nokia. You know the ones that people kept as a spare? They had the best signals, well pretty much the best everything, they were indestructible too! Better than any of those freaking 3G LTE shit they had nowadays.

Sam was on the phone speaking to who I guessed was Mark the Marked One. “Yes, he's still alive.”

When he put it down he turned to Dr. Silva, “We're running out of medics, we killed one who was complaining about not getting enough food.” I rolled my eyes, well if you fuckers weren't so stupid then maybe you'd have a whole army of doctors. This was just bad leadership period. “Dr. Silva! Are you going to join them? You can't seriously be thinking that!” Karen cried. Then I watched as the chubby Chinese lady slapped her. “Shut up! Marked One orders!” She screamed as I helped Karen up. To my surprise, she hit me in the back of the head too.

Then I just lost my cool, I stood up and tackled her to the floor. Jaycee was already pulling me away and I saw Sam just pushing him over when he did Martin punched him in the face.“Stop! Stop!” came Dr. Silva's voice. “I'll GO!” He said fixing his hair. Then we all shut up, I wiped the blood from a cut on my lip. “You know what, it wouldn't be a surprise if you joined them considering the fact that this motherfucker signed up first.” Jaycee said pointing at Sam. Sam, in his blind rage whacked Jaycee in the leg with the bottom of his AK 47. As he did it, I heard his bone crack in horror. No, no, friends hurting friends. I couldn't take it. I watched as Jaycee began to scream in agony when he clutched his right leg. “Sam! You... you asshole!” I cried but before I could move Martin stopped me. “Wouldn't want two injured folks in my party.” He whispered. “I hope that serves as a lesson.” Sam spat and he left with the rest of his group.