Killer ↠ 10K | Z Nation

10. An Eye for an Eye

Bex's POV

Addy looks in amazement at the settlement from beside me, and I can't help but gawk at everything myself. There are kids playing, completely carefree and much unlike what the outside is. Most kids don't survive the apocalypse.

"You're pretty," a girl says, coming up to Addy.

"Hi," she greets, smiling down at her.

"Want to see my carrots?"

"Sure." They walk away hand-in-hand, talking softly to each other.

"This is a cult, isn't it?" I ask Warren, the only one in my group still with me.

"Definitely. Go keep an eye on Addy. I'll check on Cassandra." I nod, going over towards the field where they wandered off to. Leaning against the tree, I watch from afar, feeling awkward and not wanting to intrude. Before all this went down, I used to make friends easily and was always surrounded by them. Now, I can't even integrate here.

"Bex?" I turn, not placing where I've heard that voice before. When I spot who it is, my mouth drops in shock.

"Callie?" I call back, still in disbelief that my teammate from Softball is actually alive and here in front of me. We run to each other, going into a hug. "I can't believe you're okay!"

"Me neither," she says, grinning at me. Then, I receive a punch to my shoulder. Rubbing the spot, my eyebrows go up in question. "You never called me!"

My mind goes back to that day, the last time I had seen my friend.

"I'll call you later, Cal."

"Liar. You never call me."

"I will this time!"

"A lot of things have happened since then," I tell her, swallowing multiple times in an attempt to not cry. Everything was so innocent back then. The worst stress I had in my life was grades and who I'd take to Prom.

"I know. I'm sorry about your mom. She was a great person."

"How do you know she's dead?"

She gives me a sympathetic smile. "I don't see her with your group. I just figured."

I nod at the explanation. "Yeah, I had to mercy her when I got home that day. Apparently, that's why she didn't pick me up that day. What about your mom?"

"She's here somewhere. She's the one that actually found this place. Even if it's a cult, it's still a safe place." She shrugs, unbothered by even her own acknowledgment that this place is nuts. "C'mon, it's lunchtime."

We sit down at the picnic table, and I dig in immediately, eating everything within a few minutes. Cal raises an eyebrow at me in concern.

"Sorry, it's been a while since I've had a decent meal."

"Well, I'd say! You're practically skin and bones, Bex Rollins!"

I flip around, seeing Cal's mother. She was a single mom so she and my own mother connected. I've grown up with her as a second parent, with Cal and I having been friends since kindergarten. She pulls me into a hug as soon as I stand up, and I can't stop the tears that flow down my cheeks.

"It's okay. You're safe now and you won't have to deal with anymore apocalypse here."

I pull away, wiping my eyes. "We're only here for twenty-four hours as a member of our group is treated for an infection."

She nods. "Well, we'll make our time memorable then. Let's eat."

10K's POV

It's only been a bit since the gate closed, but it feels like hours since I've seen them. If something happens to Bex, the last look she sent him will be forever ingrained in my mind. She wanted me to ask her to stay behind, and I couldn't do it. Why am I pushing her away?

I keep an eye on the female guards watching us as Mack and Doc set up a shade tent. I approach Doc, trying to get my mind off my ginger-haired friend. "Is there really all women in there?" I grin at him, clear innuendo in my question.

"Enjoy your imagination, kid. That's probably all you're gonna get." The smile falls from my face and I step away from him and Mack. A woman approaches us, two plates in her hand.

"I'm looking for the other one, the one with those eyes..." She gives Doc one plate before walking over to me. I grin. She must mean me. Bex is always commenting on my eyes.

She walks passed me, though, and crouches down to where Murphy is laying down in a makeshift tent. Is she serious?

"Beat it, kid," Murphy says to me. When I don't move, he raises his voice. "Beat it!"

I slowly walk away, wondering where I even fit anymore. Without Bex, I don't fit here. She thinks she's the odd one out, but we fit together in the group. I don't want to go back to the two of us, but I don't want to be in the group without her.

Bex's POV

For once in my life, I'm actually happy. I'm not on guard from being eaten and I have people that I love with me again.

A Jeep horn cuts through the serene environment, and I'm following behind Cal and her mother, Trisha. A battered woman is helped to Helen, sobbing into the older woman's chest. I shift my weight from one foot to the other, feeling awkward at the scene, even though I emoted all over Cal's mom earlier.

"This is why we exist," Helen says, addressing the onlookers now. "We provide a place that is safe from the violent destructive world of men and we bring the perpetrators to justice. That is our purpose."

"That is our purpose," the rest of the women say in unison.

"Bring him," the cult leader says, nodding to the red Jeep behind the one that brought the woman. A chubby man with long blond hair is dragged forward. "What is your name?"

"Bite me, bitch," he growls back, spitting into the dirt in front of him.

"Hmm, Bitch. I like that. It suits you." She cocks her head, taunting him. "Well, it's time you learn about justice, Bitch. Take him away." The women on either side of him push him along, the rest of the women following along.

"C'mon Bex. It's fun to watch," Cal says, pulling my shocked body along behind her.

"You harm a woman, you die. That is our rule." Helen says, giving the beaten woman, Tessa, an electricity stick, similar to a cattle prod. She digs it in multiple times to the man as he's shoved into a shed. A loud roar erupts and I'm able to see through the door for a brief second.

"Was that an undead bear?" I ask, taking multiple steps backward, not even hearing the man's screams very clearly from the fog in my head.

"He deserved it, Bex," Trisha says, taking my hand into hers. "There's no judicial system, so we have to be it now. Judge, Jury, and executioner."

I nod, knowing she's right but this was brutal. But he definitely made someone suffer, so maybe the punishment is just.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, I hear my mother's favorite quote in my head. I shake my head. My mom didn't survive in this world. It's different now. She was wrong.