Redemption

Chapter Five

Five

          “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Reed stammers nervously.

            Jagger shakes his head and tsks, looking completely disinterested in Reed’s defense. “That’s what they all say.”

            “Who’s they?” he asks, trying to avoid the fact that a shotgun is ready to blow him to pieces. It would be a simple choice, really. Kill Reed, leave him for the dead, gather our supplies and go back to the safe house. We could stay there until we couldn’t. It’s the perfect plan, yet my finger doesn’t close down on the trigger.

            “Answer my question,” I snap. “And drop the gun.”

            “Really, Sloane,” he says as if my name helps his case. “I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            “Drop the gun,” Jagger barks.

            The gun flops onto the ground.

            I want to roll my eyes but keep them trained on him. “I’ve been watching you this whole time. Something’s up. There’s something going on that you’re not telling us. Are you going to kill us? Lock us in the store and shoot to signal the dead?” I purse my lips. “No, you’re not that type of guy. You’re too much of a coward. You’d just leave us here and drive off.”

            He looks as white as a ghost, and flinches when Jagger peels himself off of the Jeep. Cole still looks like a statue, only his eyes flickering between us as he tries to gauge the situation.

            “I’m not lying,” he pleads. His hands are up in front of him now, and I can see them visibly tremble.

            Jagger takes an irritated breath, and before I know what he’s doing, he’s taking a swing, his fist colliding with Reed’s face that creates a sickening smack. Blood flies through the air before I know what’s bleeding and Reed’s clutching his face, swearing at Jagger for what he did. He acts as if he didn’t just punch Reed. And despite how awful it sounded and looked, it wasn’t a sucker punch, either. Jagger went for the gold.

            “What the fuck,” Reed curses, bent over as he clutches his bleeding face. Both his mouth and nose are now oozing blood, and I begin to wonder how much force was really intended in Jagger’s punch.

            “She asked you a question,” Jagger states, folding his arms across his chest. “Unless you’d like to avoid it again and see what comes after the first punch.”

            Without warning, Reed lunges towards Jagger, his eyes full of rage and his bloody mouth baring teeth. Cole runs towards them, yelling whoa as he tries to restrain Reed before anything can happen. He continues to try to break out of his grasp, and just as he removes one of Cole’s arms, he punches Jagger in the stomach.

            He doubles over, clutching his stomach as he tries to regain the air that was knocked out of him. Before anything else can happen, I shove my gun towards them.

            “Hey,” I yell. Loud enough that they’d freeze, but not loud enough like how a shot gun would call the zombies back to us. When everyone stares at me, frozen in their places, Jagger still bent over, Cole half holding Reed and Reed glaring, I nudge the gun at Reed. “Let go of him, Cole.”

            “Sloane, are you sure?”

            I nod and he backs off. “Reed, over there.” I point with the gun before immediately returning it to his body. Slowly, Reed moves towards the wall of the store, his blood dripping on the ground. He looks more pissed than scared as he holds his arm, somehow it must have gotten hurt in the midst of everything. “Now you need to tell us what the hell is going on, or you’re dead. Got it?”