Chapter 5
They rounded a house, a large campfire blazing at the back of it. Two men were sitting there. Talking. Laughing. Cooking food. In each of their hands was a bottle of some sort. Their conversation stopped as Rick led Shelly in front of them.
"What do we have here?" shouted one of the men. Rick saw that it was Car
l,
th
e
so-calle
d
man-in-charge.
"We found her out over there." Rick pointed in the direction they had just come.
"She's a pretty thing, ain't she?"
The comment irked Rick. He thought of her a
s
hi
s
property and didn't want anyone else getting any other ideas.
He wasn't going to argue with the man about it, though. He had seen what Carl could do. Just the other day he had seen him get into a fight with a man they had come across. He had taken a rock and smashed the poor guy's face in with it. Left him on the ground. Dead. Just because he had disagreed with him.
No, Carl wasn't a man to fuck with.
Carl didn't seem to notice Rick's hesitation. He was already on to the next question. "Where's Jim?" he asked.
Rick looked at Joe. Both he and Joe had known Jim before the change. They had all been good friends for years. He turned back to their 'leader'. "He's dead." The words came out of his mouth feeling heavy.
"Dead? How?"
"
Her
.
" Rick pushed Shelly forward.
Carl looked at the young girl and began to stroke his chin. She could feel him analyzing her, sizing her up. She could tell that the other man in the camp was looking at her too, though she didn't allow herself to look at him. She kept her eyes trained on the man in front of her.
He walked over to her and tapped her cheek. "This little girl killed Jim? I don't know, Rick. Jim was a pretty tough guy."
"She shot him."
Carl looked even more surprised by that. "You shot one of my men." It was more of a statement than a question. He grabbed Shelly's face and pulled it closer to his own. "You shot one of my men?" This time, i
t
wa
s
a question.
Shelly could feel her tears building in her eyes. But, instead of letting them fall, she gathered her strength and shouted: "Yes! And I'll kill all of you too!"
Carl paused before breaking into a fit of laughter. "I like this one!"
"But she's mine," Rick claimed. He hadn't meant to.
Carl shot him a look. "What was that?"
"I…I said…that she's mine."
"Did she kill one o
f
you
r
men?"
"Well, no, but I found her."
Carl turned to Joe and pointed at him. "Doesn'
t
h
e
have as much right to the girl as you do? He was with you when she shot good ol' Jim, wasn't he?"
Rick looked at his friend and nodded his head.
"So," Carl continued, "she's not yours, is she?"
Rick lowered his head. He knew that Joe didn't want anything to do with the girl. He would never challenge him for her. But he wasn't going to bring that up at the moment. Things were getting too heated to argue any further.
"All right," Carl said, his voice becoming calmer. He put his hand on Rick's shoulder. "There's no need to worry about this now. You've had a long trip. You need to get some rest. And we've got to get ready for tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
"We're running out of things. And I see you haven't found anything other than this pretty girl." Carl smiled at Shelly. "So we've got to go on the hunt."
"Hunt?"
"For food. And maybe people." Carl laughed. He pointed to the far side of the house. "Put her in the cage for now." A large dog kennel sat out of view.
Rick grabbed Shelly's arm and turned her toward it. "Come with me."
Shelly didn't struggle. She knew that there wasn't much of a chance to escape with these men around. More than anything, though, she was exhausted.
Chapter 6
As Rick led the young girl to the cage, Shelly could see that there was someone else in there. She couldn't tell who it was, or if the person was even alive or dead. Rick kept his hand tightly on her elbow.
When they got to the cage, Rick kicked a man sitting beside it.
"Gregor," he said. "Open it up."
Gregor wiped his eyes. He had been napping. "Shit, man, you didn't have to kick me!"
"I need you to open up the cage."
"For what?"
"Fo
r
he
r
." Rick motioned to Shelly, knowing full well that Gregor knew who he was talking about.
"Shit, man, that's a pretty one you've got there. Boss is gonna like her."
"Fuck you! She's mine. Not his. Now open up."
"Okay, man. No need to get all pissy."
Gregor grabbed into his pocket and pulled out a key. He placed it into the lock and turned it. The cage door opened.
"In you go." Rick pushed Shelly toward the cage.
She felt a surge of panic run through her. And adrenaline. She struck out and hit Gregor in the midsection. Then she ran.
Rick was as startled as Gregor, but that didn't stop him from quickly following after her. "Get back here!"
Shelly kept running. She had no idea where she was going. She didn't care, either. All she knew was that she had to keep moving.
Her bare feet hurt as she made her way across the field. They were already tender from walking. But she tried her best not to let them slow her down.
She ran. Her breathing shallow. Her heart beat rapid
Then, before she got much farther, she felt a hand on her shoulder. It tightened its grip and pulled her to the ground.
Rick fell on top of her, his weight pinning her to the ground. She could barely breathe at all now.
He leaned his face down close to hers. "Don't ever try that again," he shouted. "You hear?"
Shelly didn't answer. She knew that she didn't have to. Whatever she said wouldn't make a difference. She was captured. Her escape had failed.
Rick pulled her to her feet and marched her back to the cage. Gregor was laughing.
"She's a fuckin' handful," the guard said.
Rick ignored him. He marched Shelly to the cage and pushed her in. She fell to the floor.
He thought about kicking her as well
.
She had made him so mad
.
In the end, he didn't bother.
He turned and closed the gate. "Lock it up."
Gregor reached over and clasped the door shut.
Rick looked back at Shelly. He thought that she was crying, but he couldn't be sure. Her face was turned away from him. "We'll discuss this later…when I get back." He turned to Gregor. "Don't let anyone touch her."
"No problem," Gregor assured him. "I'll protect her like she was my own."
Gregor let out another big laugh. Rick chose to ignore it. He turned and walked away.
*
Shelly lay on the cage floor. She wasn't crying. But she was sad. She knew that there wasn't much she could do to escape. And it didn't look like Adam was coming to save her.
She took a deep breath. Tired. And winded.
When she felt a hand on her shoulder, she sat up and pulled away from it. She saw a woman looking back at her.
"It's okay," the woman said. "I'm not going to hurt you. Are you okay?"
Shelly didn't know how to respond. Sh
e
wasn'
t
okay. Her and Adam had been attacked. She had shot a man. She had been taken. Now she was trapped in a cage.
"I'm fine," she decided to say. She brushed off her clothes.
"Your feet look pretty bad."
Shelly's feet were scraped and bleeding. She grabbed hold of them. They pained to touch. "I didn't have any shoes," she explained.
"You didn't? Why not?"
Shelly didn't answer. She didn't know this woman and couldn't trust her with her plan. "I just didn't."
"Oh…well, I'm glad that you're not hurt. What's your name?"
At first, Shelly didn't want to answer. She wanted to keep all of this information to herself. But after looking at the woman for a little longer, her resolve began to fade. She could see that this woman had been thrown in to a similar situation, had been captured too.
"My name is Shelly," the young girl replied.
The woman smiled. "Hi, Shelly. My name is Claire."
Chapter 7
Adam cycled down a road. The sun had started to set, but he wasn't ready to give up. He was starting to get more and more concerned, though. He had thought that he had been going to find her earlier than this.
He had the shoe, so he was sure that he was headed in the right direction. He also didn't think that either of the men who took the young girl were smart enough to take off her shoe and throw it in the road simply to put him on the wrong trail. Shelly must have been the one who had come up with kicking it off.
Yet, he hadn't seen any sign of them since he had started looking…and he hadn't seen any sign of the other shoe.
Adam slowed his bike. He wanted to keep going, but knew that he needed to think more about things. The bike came to a stop and he pulled his leg over the crossbar. He placed the bag of guns onto the ground, then raised his hand and put it over his brow to look around.
There wasn't much to see other than fields. It was all he had seen for most of his ride. He had come across a few houses, but from what he could tell they had been abandoned.
He continued to scan the landscape. The sun was nearly gone.
He knew that there was nothing he could do about that. He simply needed to make a decision. He could wait out the night and continue his search in the morning. That way, he could make sure that he saw any signs of Shelly to help him. The other shoe had to be somewhere. She wouldn't have only kicked off one.
Then again, if he waited, who knew what those men would do to her?
Horrible images popped into his head.
He couldn't let that happen. He had to continue.
What about the other sho
e
?
Adam looked back at the sky. He didn't have much time before it became too dark to see much of anything. He supposed that he could go at least a bit further. Then, once the sun was down, he could make a decision.
He grabbed for the bag of guns and looked at the barrels sticking out of the top. He remembered that, except for the shotgun, he hadn't loaded them. He should have.
Adam opened the backpack and pulled the guns out. He took out the ammunition. It wasn't hard for him to find out which bullets went where. He put shell after shell into the chambers. Then he cocked one of the guns, pointed it off in a direction and fired.
The blast startled him. It was much louder than he expected. The kickback had jammed into his pained shoulder.
Adam didn't see where the bullet had gone, but he knew that it worked.
He thought of trying all of them.
No, there isn't much time lef
t
. He placed the loaded guns back in the pack
.
They'd wor
k
.
He put the shotgun in last, handle sticking out. It seemed like a good idea, especially if he was attacked. He'd need to be able to protect himself, quickly. Of course, he hoped that it wouldn't go off while he was riding. If it did, it would likely blow a hole in his back.
It'll be fin
e
.
Adam put on the pack and straddled the bike.
He took one more look around. It was getting dark quicker than he had thought it would.
He needed to push on…and fast.
*
Adam continued along. Now that he had loaded the guns, he was back to feeling strong and confident. He was going to find Shelly.
He was!
He swerved around a body lying in the middle of the road. He hadn't noticed it until a split second before he almost hit it.
The sun had set and there were only a few tendrils of its rays left to guide him.
He wondered if he should stop, if he should pull over and wait for first light.
Just a little bit furthe
r
, he told himself
.
There is still some ligh
t
.
He kept cycling.
*
Adam came upon an intersection. He had passed a few along the way, but he hadn't seen any sign to turn. He knew that Shelly would have left something if he was supposed to.
He approached the intersection slowly, cautiously. He looked for anything that told him to turn. It was difficult to make out much of anything. The moon was the only thing lighting his way now.
Just a little bit furthe
r
.
He pushed on through the intersection.
*
Shelly's shoe sat at that same intersection. It was lying a little further down the road, around the corner to Adam's right.
He had been correct. The young girl had thought of kicking it off to show his which way to turn.
He had even looked straight it, but couldn't see it. It was too dark.
He continued along, leaving the shoe behind.