Merman - Romance

chapter 6

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Chapter 6

“Where are you taking me?”  Kate pressed her hand against Ridec’s back and he stumbled forward.  “At least give me some clothes.”

He had never felt so exposed in his life and they didn’t even seem to care.

“He’s a puritan; give him your shirt Mark!”  Kate instructed as she continued to hustle him forward.  “Not that it’s going to cover too much of that big beautiful body.”

“Here.”  Mark stuck a torn dirt ridden shirt into Ridec’s hand and he grabbed it gratefully.

“Thank you,” Ridec muttered as he tied the material around his waist and allowed it to hang down his legs.  At six feet two inches he was a clear five inches taller than the other man, there was no way the shirt could hide anything if he actually put it on.

“Feel better?”  Kate scurried forward beside Ridec her hand a little too familiar on his shoulder.

“No.  I want to go home.”  He was still tugging at the shirt so it would hang down in all the right places.

“That’s not going to happen.  We’re taking you someplace safe, you should be happy,” she said.

“I don’t want to go where you’re taking me.  Just please let me go.”  The cold metal of Mark’s gun pressed into the small of his back.

“Just keep walking,” he muttered.

“You think there are more of them where he came from?”  Joe asked.

“Not sure but it’s better to get as far away from here as possible just in case, we don’t want anyone coming to look for him,” Kate responded.

“Still, it’s not safe to be on the move at night.  We can’t see properly…”  Joe was saying.

“We have no choice.  We can’t stay near here; someone might be looking for him.  Look at him!  He’s obviously been well taken care of,” Kate grunted.

“My family, I have a family.  They shall miss me.”

There was no sign of remorse in their minds.  The idea of taking a young man away from his family brought no regret.  Ridec could feel their hardness, their pain, their bitterness and disgust at life; they would do whatever they needed to do for their own survival – no matter who it hurt.

“We should try to see if we can make it to the main headquarters, now we’ve got him they’ll let us in,” Mark said.

“That’s a week away by foot and it’s already dark,” Joe pointed out.

“We have to find somewhere safe for the night.  We can’t afford to have someone snatch him,” Kate said

“I’m really not that special,” Ridec muttered.

“Let’s just hurry,” Mark said starting a slight run now.

“Pick it up Joe,” Kate instructed gripping Ridec’s hand and starting to run.  “It’s getting darker.”

In spite of her slim frame she was pretty strong.

“I think I hear something.”  Joe’s voice was higher than Ridec had grown accustomed to hearing it and his thoughts were consumed with fear.

Ridec struggled to concentrate trying to see if he could pick up the thoughts of anyone else nearby.  He had heard something too; he hoped it would be people and that they would be more sympathetic than this lot that had captured him.

“Hurry!”  Mark grunted as he gripped Ridec’s other arm and was forcing him along faster.  “I can hear noises.”

He was right; there were noises that were coming from not too far away.  Living under the water Ridec had good night vision, he wanted to look back and see who was following them but Kate and Mark were tugging him along so quickly he had to keep his eyes on the road ahead to prevent himself from falling.  He couldn’t pick out any messages from the pursuers minds, no thoughts, no feelings, just noises; perhaps it was some kind of animal?

“Aaaaawwwrrrrrrggg.”  A gurgled sound broke through the night air much louder now.  Who or whatever was behind them was gaining ground.

“They’re getting closer,” Joe muttered.  He was running several feet ahead of them already.  The group was fast, for Ridec it was all he could do to keep up with them, he was far more accustomed to swimming than running.

“Hurry…”  Mark’s instruction was cut off as a man sauntered out of a bush just in front of the group.

“What?”  Ridec’s question was involuntary as the information came swimming into Kate’s random access memory as soon as the man arrived.

It wasn’t that he was dirty, Ridec had gotten accustomed to that from the rag tag group he was with, it wasn’t even that he walked with what seemed like an awkward limp or that blood was caked to the side of his arm, face and teeth, or even that his teeth were jagged and sharp or that his eyes were blood red and strange orange lines ran across his neck, that was all strange but what was really freaking Ridec out was that he could see the man but he couldn’t locate his mind.  No thoughts, nothing.

“Zombies!”  Joe yelled.

“Hard right guys!”  Kate screamed and gripped Ridec’s arm even more tightly and started moving faster.

Fear washed over Ridec; his heart was racing and his mind was overwhelmed.  As children the older kids had told them horror stories, stories of merfolk that died but didn’t stay dead, stories of the undead that ate human flesh and brains to keep going.  He had hated those stories; there had always seemed something remarkably fearful about a dead person coming to life again.  Ridec swallowed hard, it seemed as if all signs were pointing to the fact that he was now living in his worst nightmare.