BEYOND THE DEAD ZONE | COMPLETE

Fourteen |

Fourteen |

"It should be noted that I have made a mental note and reflected on my previous actions," I said slowly, "And that I'm willing to forgive you. So, if you'd be as kind to let me out of here, we can move forward."

"No."

"What? Why?"

He glanced at me, taking a long drag of his cigarette, "Are you that stupid kid?"

In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have tried to attack him. Well, technically, I hadn't actually gotten to the attack part yet, but there was no way of knowing that he'd take a little spit so seriously. What kind of anger-management asshole fights someone over spit?

His eyes glanced at the glob near his shoe before slowly sliding up to me. I grinned, giving him the bird for extra measure before stepping forward, my hands winding up to throw a punch when he moved first—and faster. He grasped my arm, twisting it before throwing me clean over his shoulder. I let out a strangled scream, slamming back down onto my ass, breaking my tail tone (probably) and leaving me looking up at him with utter astonishment. He hadn't stopped there, before picking me up and locking me in their barn with the stench of animal and an overly friendly rooster trying to hump my leg. That bastard didn't make matters worse, he just sat his ass on a wooden chair near the door, no doubt ready to toss me again if I ran.

"Where's Valen?" I demanded.

"Dealing with Jax now."

"Why?" I snarled, "He didn't do anything wrong."

"That's for Jax to sort out, isn't it?" he replied coolly.

"You're an asshole. What is your problem?"

He tossed the cigarette onto the road, "You're a stranger trying to cause havoc in a peaceful town, what's your problem?"

I said nothing at that, looking around carefully. The barn was two floors, one of which could only be excessed by a ladder. There was large pens for larger animals but none seemed to be in the barn at the moment. It truly was only me and this man, which was good. That'd make it easier to flee the scene. The only issue was how I'd escape this ogre. I wouldn't kill him, even if I thought I'd be able to do that, I just wanted to escape. But even if I did escape, how'd I ever get back to the front of the settlement? This entire town was bad news, I should had just ran for the dome when the first chance had arrived.

I looked past him and, in the distance, it was that water wheel Valen had previously been talking about but maybe if I could distract this man, Leon, enough to escape.

"What's that?" I asked.

He glanced at me, "Are you trying to make small talk now?"

"Whatever."

A heavy sigh left his lips, "It's a water wheel, it runs all our electricity."

"Cool," I said curiously, "There's a river over there? Is it even strong enough to run an entire damn town? I thought that river that way was weak as shit."

"You talk a lot for a current prisoner," he grunted with distaste, "The river is strong enough to make power and it's enough to keep the zombies from climbing up it too. Back in the day Jax and I worked on it, modifying the flow of the river to run it past that side of the farm and give us shit like the occasional fish, and so on."