Soulless Wanderers: Soulless Wanderers Book 1 Page 22

  “You’ll live. Now, the plan?”

  Before Alan could answer, they both spotted the gate up ahead on the path. Alan looked at Daniel and motioned for his hands. Daniel nodded, keeping the pistol trained to the back of Alan’s head. Alan swallowed and raised his hands, swinging them as if he was flagging down a rescue plane. “We’re all good. Open up the gates, it’s Alan.”

  Daniel grabbed Alan’s arm. “Hold up.” Daniel looks around, making sure nobody is hiding out or waiting around. A man came running from behind the gate and pulled it open. It seemed clear enough, and Daniel knew there would be others here. He pushed Alan forward. “Let’s go.”

  The gate shut behind them with a loud clang. Inside the gate was a large field, with a house sitting in the middle. It didn’t seem any bigger than a three bedroom. It looked like this camp was actually a farm. It made sense. What better place to get food in an apocalypse than to grow it yourself. Alan began to laugh.

  “You’re so fucked now.”

  Daniel whipped his head around as all the men came running out. They flooded out of the house like a stuffed clown car. He counted as they came running. Eight, there were eight men. The one behind him made nine. They all had guns of varying sorts. He noted a couple rifles, handguns, and a few that looked like automatics. Some of them he was sure they had stolen from his group.

  His group. That’s why he was here, facing down nine men with guns. What happened to him during this whole thing? Now was definitely not the time to get existential. There had to be a way out of this that ended with him leaving and with his group. But maybe there wasn’t and this was the end.

  “Get away from him and drop the gun, fucker!” One of the men yelled out from behind his gun. Daniel couldn’t tell which one it was, other than it came from his right where there were three men.

  “You’d better do it. These guys will drop you in a heartbeat.”

  Daniel looked around, knowing this could be it. He had seen people face death so many times and they were all the same. Scared, confused, and worst of all, bargaining and talkative. He would not go out that way.

  “Look at this, you assholes!” Daniel moved around a little so they could all see the gun against Alan’s head. “Unless you want this son of a bitch’s brains all over this field, you’ll bring out my people!”

  Nobody moved. The guns still pointed at him. Alan laughed a little. “It’s fine, Charlie, go get them!” One of the men lowered his gun and jogged back to the house.

  Good. Whether or not Alan was the leader, Daniel still wasn’t quite sure. But they listened to Alan right now. That meant he could get out of here. If he was someone they didn’t listen to, they might be willing to lose him. They waited a few moments until Charlie brought the group out.

  They were lined up, almost like in an execution. Jennifer was first, a large bruise across her face, her mouth gagged and hands behind her back. Courtney was next, looking exactly the same. Both of them were crying. Daniel’s temperature raised inside knowing the men had done that to them. Cole was next, his face much worse than both of the girls. The swelling was already showing, and his lip was busted up bad. Eden was behind him. She didn’t seem to be hurt. Daniel noticed the biggest thing, she wasn’t crying.

  “Now let them go!” Daniel screamed. “You’ll get Alan back as soon as you do. Then we can just leave.”

  “Not gonna happen, Danny.” Alan turned, facing the gun. Daniel pushed it further into his face. “Look around you, man. You ain’t gonna get out of here alive, and you definitely ain’t gonna take anyone out of here.”

  “Let him go,” the man to his right said again.

  “If I can’t get out of here with them, then I’ll kill you right here. You think I give a fuck if I die? I’ve seen death. I’ve caused death. Hell, motherfucker, you think you know death? I am Death!” Daniel was frothing at the mouth. It wasn’t an act. Daniel was coming out full force, and he meant every damn word. He pulled the hammer back on the pistol.

  Alan looked in his eyes with a smile. “You’re one crazy motherfucker, ain’t you?” It was like there was an appreciation in Alan’s eyes. Daniel didn’t care for it, but whatever helped him would be fine with him. “Tell you what, I don’t feel like getting my shit spilled out all over the place, and you seem like you mean it. But everyone isn’t fair. One life for one life, that’s fair.”

  “Everyone,” Daniel demanded.

  “Not gonna happen. I’d rather not die here right now, but there’s no way in hell you’re gonna get them all. What do you say? You gonna trade or are we both gonna get shot up?”

  Daniel could see in Alan’s eyes that he was telling the truth. It was either save one or everyone dies. He looked at the group, then back to Alan and nodded. “Alright.”

  Alan smiled and looked to his men. “Get him the guy.”

  Cole looked to Eden, tears welling in his eyes. “No, take Eden. Take her.” The gag muffled his words, but it was still easy to hear what he was saying.

  “Sorry, pops, but we don’t have a need for you,” Charlie said to him, grabbing him from behind. “If you couldn’t tell, there’s plenty of sausage at this party. Don’t worry, though. We’ll take real good care of your little girl.” His smile stretched across his mouth.

  “No, no! You can’t!” Charlie grabbed the gag and pulled it tight, cutting off any more words from Cole. He kicked him in the middle of the circle. Cole scrambled to stay on his feet and Daniel grabbed him to steady him.

  “So, how we gonna do this trade?” Alan asked.

  Daniel wasn’t sure the best way to do it but knew he couldn’t trust any of the men. “Tell the men to go inside. We’ll keep you and let you go at the junction in the road.” That would buy them enough time to get away or hide so they couldn’t find them.

  “Sounds good. Boys! If I don’t come back in ten minutes, kill them all.” He looked back at Daniel. “As you can tell, we weren’t planning on killing them, at least not anytime soon. So, you try to pull anything, they’ll be dead, and my guys will come looking for you.”

  “You’ll make it back just fine,” Daniel said, hating to look at his face any longer.

  He watched the men pull the girls back inside and disappear from sight. Daniel marched Alan out passed the gate and down the dirt path. He kicked Alan to his knees when they reached the paved road and pushed the gun against his forehead like an executioner. “What are you doing? You know—”

  “Shut up,” Daniel said, cutting Alan off.

  “Danny, don’t. They’ve got Eden,” Cole pleaded.

  Daniel stared down at Alan. “I see you again, and you will be dead. You understand that?” Alan smirked but nodded. “Good, don’t try to follow us.”

  “The same goes for you. If you come back, you’ll be dead.” He shifted his gaze to Cole. “And so will your little girl.”

  Daniel kicked him so Alan was face down in the dirt. He grabbed Cole, and the two ran into the woods, out of Alan’s view before he could get up. Daniel watched Alan from behind a tree as the sun began to meet the horizon. Alan looked around, then picked himself up and walked back to his camp.

  32

  Paxton opened his eyes. When the haze finally cleared from them, he looked around. The room was still a wreck from his fight earlier. He tried to move but couldn’t. His hands were tied around the chair he sat in. He moved slightly, hearing the creak of the chair. He had asked his wife many times to get a new chair, but she insisted on keeping the old rickety thing. For some reason, she loved to sit in it and do her makeup. But the thing was falling apart and annoyed Paxton every time she was in it. This time, it was him sitting in it and making the noise. He could feel the chair shifting with every movement.

  “You know, we weren’t planning on doing anything crazy. We were just trying to have a little fun with her,” the man’s voice came from behind Paxton. He stepped out in front where Paxton could see. It was the man who came running down the hallway earlier, knocking him out. He wasn’t sure how
he had missed him but supposed it was from the adrenaline of the moment.

  “Let us go, we won’t bother you,” Paxton said after clearing his throat.

  “I get that. But you see, I found Johnny dead on the porch out there. Fuck man, it was a mess out there.” The man inhaled deep and exhaled. “Look, I know we ain’t the type people normally look at and think, those are some good guys. In fact, we ain’t really that good. But fuck, look at Ray.” He pointed to the fat slob. He was slumped in the corner. He looked dead, but Paxton saw his belly rise and fall very slightly. “He ain’t dead yet, but he might as well be. I’d say he’s got another fifteen minutes.”

  “Hospital,” Ray said between shallow breaths. His voice trailed off like he was already making his way into the dark.

  “I told you there ain’t no more hospitals!”

  “So, what is this then?” Paxton asked, not seeing his wife.

  The man looked Paxton in the eyes. “You’re gonna find out just what this is.” He went behind Paxton for a moment, hearing nothing but footsteps. When they started coming back, he could hear the muffled cries. Stacey was thrown on the bed in front of Paxton. Her hands were bound, and her mouth was gagged.

  “Let her go!” Paxton struggled, but the electrical cord around his wrists was too tight.

  “Not gonna do that. You killed Johnny, and you pretty much killed that fat slob Ray over there.”

  “Hospital,” the sound grumbled out of Ray.

  “They don’t look like much, but they were my friends.”

  “Let her go, kill me.”

  The man smiled at Paxton. “I’m gonna kill you. But I’m gonna kill her first.”

  The man pulled his hunting knife from his belt and slit it across Stacey’s throat. She gasped, her eyes going wide, then spasmed on the bed as the blood poured out on the comforter. “No!” Paxton screamed and struggled against the chair. It was only a matter of seconds before Stacey stopped moving. Paxton cried out. Stacey was gone.

  “She got it a lot better than Ray or Johnny did. If you ask me, that was a mercy.”

  Paxton’s head hung low. “What’s your name?”

  “My name? I suppose it’s only right to know the name of the man who is gonna kill you. It’s Will, but that don’t matter much now.” He took two firm steps toward Paxton.

  “It matters because I want to know the name of the man who’s going to die by my hands.” He pulled his head up. There was nothing but rage in his eyes. He stood, still strapped to the rickety old chair. The one he would never fight with his wife about again, as much as he would give anything to. He slammed his back against the wall, then again. The chair broke into pieces, and his hands were free.

  “Fucker!” The man went for his gun on the floor beside the bed.

  Paxton wrapped the power cord around the man’s neck and doubled it up. It squeezed tight against his neck as he fumbled with the rifle. “This isn’t going to be a mercy,” Paxton whispered in his ear.

  “Ray! Ray!” Will tried to scream out, but his voice was soft from the lack of air.

  “Hospital,” Ray said, possibly for the last time. His eye was still dripping blood, and his body was slumped over even more.

  “Shut up, Ray!” Paxton yelled, gritting between his teeth.

  Will took the gun and brought it up. Paxton hadn’t seen it well enough before and assumed it was a rifle. Seeing it now, it was obviously a shotgun, and his eyes went wide when Will brought it up next to his face. Paxton quickly moved his head as the gun went off. His left ear went deaf except for the high-pitched wailing. The gun searched for Paxton’s head as Will’s face went blue from the lack of oxygen.

  Paxton let go of the power cord around Will’s neck. The man took a deep breath and grabbed from the cord with his free hand, as he struggled to get as much air in as possible. Paxton quickly grabbed the barrel of the shotgun before Will could pull the trigger again. He shoved it up under Will’s chin.

  “No, stop, stop.” Will tried to plead, oxygen in his lungs and his voice stronger now. Paxton had no intention of stopping. If he could, he would have made this moment last a lifetime.

  Paxton grabbed at the trigger where Will’s hand was and whispered, “In case you were wondering, my name is Paxton. It’s only right you should know.” He pushed on his fingers. The gun went off, Paxton went completely deaf, and he stumbled backward.

  It was like he got in a car accident and had wandered out of the car in shock. The ringing took over everything. In front of him was the scene. He looked down at Will’s body slumped against the bed. His head was completely gone. Nothing but a mess of brains, blood, and bits of bone. The black and red spots covered the wall and ceiling where he once stood. Paxton turned around and saw himself. He was covered in the same blood and brains. His face looked like something from a horror movie. He wiped his eyes with his hands, smearing the mess away from his vision. He wanted to cry but tears never came.

  The ringing in his ears started to lower, and he began to hear something. “Hospital.” That asshole was still alive.

  Paxton picked up the scissors from the floor and went over to Ray. He jammed them in the side of his throat. Blood poured out, and the fat slob in front of him was dead in a matter of seconds. Paxton turned his back to the bed. He didn’t want to see his wife. He couldn’t see her that way again. He stumbled out of the room and downstairs without taking another look.

  He stepped outside, covered in blood, wanting nothing more than to die.

  33

  Daniel walked through the forest. There wasn’t much daylight left to make it to the bunker. There wasn’t much daylight left for a lot of things. Cole followed behind, not letting up even though he was battered and bruised. Dried blood still covered the lower part of his face.

  “Danny, stop. Danny.” He tried to keep up with Daniel, jogging and stopping in front of him. “Danny, where are you going? You can’t just leave them.”

  Daniel kept moving. For the first time in a while, he had a real mission that wasn’t convoluted with what ifs or a timeline that was nonexistent. This timeline was real. If he didn’t make it back there tonight, anything could happen to them. There was nobody in his head telling him to leave or to stick around, or to wait it out. He was going back, and he was going to kill them all.

  “Danny!” Cole ran in front of Daniel and stopped, staring him down. He grabbed Daniel by the arms and met his glare. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Just me? You’re going to let them kill them all.”

  Daniel shoved Cole’s grip off him. He didn’t want to do this, but he was going to have to so that Cole would shut up. “Cole, I’m not bailing on anyone. We don’t have much time, so the sooner we get where we’re going, the sooner we can come back.”

  “Where are we going? We can’t just leave them.”

  “We have to for now. What do you want us to do? We have a knife and a pistol. You saw what they had.”

  “But—”

  “Ten guys, and they all are loaded up, with more than just the guns they stole from us. Alan had this planned the whole time. You think the two of us, basically unarmed with no plan, are going to charge the place? That will get both of us killed, and possibly the girls, too.”

  Cole stopped and thought about what Daniel said. Before he could say anything else, a man stepped out of the trees and toward them, leaves crunching beneath his feet.

  “Hey there, guys.” The man held a hand up in a wave. He was dressed in dress slacks and a sweater. It was a strange outfit, but in the apocalypse, one takes what they can get when they try to survive. The edges of the sweater and pants were frayed.

  Both Cole and Daniel stood, not saying anything to him. He was completely out of place for Daniel, and he watched him carefully.

  “Not quite the greeting I was hoping for, you know?” The man smiled, his teeth brown and crooked.

  Daniel stepped up a little toward him. “What can we do for you? Seems a little late for you to be out. It’s dangerous.”


  The man nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, it is. I was thinking the same for you.” He looked them both up and down and stopped on Cole. “You seem like you’ve seen some better days.”

  Cole looked to Daniel, almost panicked. Daniel nodded to him, hoping it would calm him down a bit. “Well, you’d better get wherever you’re going, don’t you think?”

  “Well, where are you going? You seem pretty clean and were just walking with a purpose, as if you had somewhere to be. Maybe a house nearby?” He was watching their eyes now.

  “Nowhere in particular. Just hoping to find some place safe.” Daniel inched closer. This man had no intention of leaving but had yet to be a threat.

  “Why don’t I join you then?”

  Daniel shook his head. “Sorry, pal, but that’s not a good idea.”

  The man’s smile left his face. “I ain’t your pal. And I think it’s a very good idea.” He pulled a pistol out of the back of his pants and pointed it at Daniel.”

  “Danny!” Cole shouted.

  The man spun the pistol toward Cole. “Stay right there unless you wanna get shot up, fucker.”

  Cole stopped, his hands up at his chest. “It’s okay, Cole. So, what do you want to do?” He directed the question to the man with the gun.

  “First thing, you’re gonna give me that gun you’re holding.”

  Daniel raised his gun slightly, causing the man to point his at him again. Daniel spun it around in his hand so it wasn’t pointing outward anymore. This seemed to calm the man down slightly. “Alright, I’m gonna hand it to you, calmly.”

  He slowly walked to the dirty man and held the gun out. He watched the man stretch to reach the gun from his hand. It was all too easy for Daniel. Just as the man grabbed for his gun, Daniel smacked the man’s own gun to the side, flinging it from his grasp. Daniel pulled his knife out from behind him and buried it under the man’s jaw. Blood spilled out all over them both, and Daniel let him fall to the ground. He spasmed on the pine needles with a gurgle coming from his throat as he tried to breathe through the blood. He was dead in seconds.