stay alive // jack metzger

one

My eyes jolted opened at the sound of a rusty car door shutting. The jolt of the door shot me up as my eyes tried to adjust to my surroundings.
  I looked and saw the sky was now dark and no one else was in the old Ford truck with me, but I could hear voices outside of the car.
   "Jack, how do you know we can trust this girl?" A voice said from the bed of the truck.
   "I don't know J," another said, this time the voice was vaguely familiar. "The girl was about to kill herself, I couldn't just-"
   "And in saving her you almost killed yourself in the process," yet another unfamiliar voice said, this time with more anger and frustration than the last two.
  I moved so I could look out of the rear view mirror to see a view of the people talking. I still hunkered down so they couldn't see me.
  The man in the trapper hat and white shirt, Jack I'm supposing, had his back to the closed hatch back of the truck. Three guys surrounded him, facing him. All of them didn't have happy faces on.
   "I wasn't just going to let her die," Jack said, waving his hands in the air. "There isn't a lot of us left."
   "Yeah?" One with glasses said to Jack. "But that's another mouth to feed. That's another life we are responsible for, Jack."
   "What about Aubrey? What about Elisha? What about fucking Cam, Ryan?" Jack said in his defense, but the one with glasses, Ryan I'm supposing, didn't like what he just said.
   "Don't you bring her into this!" Ryan yelled in his face, pushing him against the back of the truck. The truck shook, making me hold onto the seat for stability.
   "Ryan," Jack said, calming him down as the other two men pulled him off. "I'm just making a point. We saved all them before, now look. They are our family. What is different about this?"
   "Everything," Ryan said, pointing at his brother. "Times have changed since the beginning."
   "Ryan, she's bleeding out. We've got to get her back to Adam," Jack pleaded. My heart dropped out of my chest as I looked down to see what he was talking about.
   Lo and behold, my left pant leg was soaked through with a dark liquid. I could feel a dull ache at the sight.
   "Fine," Ryan said, calming himself down. "We take her back tonight, she gets fixed up by Adam, and-"
   "And then we talk to her," Jack said, stopping the other man. "We plead with her and see where she is at mentally."
   "She gets tied and will stay in the cellar until morning," Ryan said, pointing to the back of the truck. I bent down even more to make sure he couldn't see me.
   "Ryan-" Jack started, but was stopping immediately.
    "We aren't risking our lives, Jack!" Ryan yelled. "Now, get in the truck and duct tape her hands together."
   "Bu-"
    "Just do it, Jack," Ryan said reluctantly. "No questions."
   The men all started for the side doors and I quickly shut my eyes to mimic me still sleeping. To my surprise, as soon as I shut my eyes, blackness took over and I passed out in unconsciousness.
***
   I groggily opened my eyes, unaware of what was happening around me. When I came to, a shooting pain jolted through my leg and I winced at it.
   "Don't touch it," a voice said, moving my hand away from my leg. "I was kind of hoping you would stay out of it for this part, I'm sorry."
   I looked down and saw a bearded man working a needle and sutures. A blanket was over my exposed lower half for my privacy.
   I couldn't get over the pain every time he shoved the needle in my skin. I gripped at the blanket, my knuckles turning white, when I felt the first puncture through my skin. My eyes snapped shut as the suture was then pulled through my leg.
   "You're a fighter, I'll give you that," the guy laughed as he cut the suture off. "I couldn't do that to Jack without him punching my arm all the time."
   I let out a sigh of relief, a breath I was holding in the whole time he did the suture, as he placed a clean bandage over the stitches.
   "You're lucky the cut wasn't deep," the guy said. He looked down at me as he wiped he hands off on a towel near him, noticing my confusion. "Oh, I'm Adam."
   He held out his hand, but slowly pulled it back to him as he realized my hands were duct taped together.
   "Ana," I said, my words croaking out of my dry throat from not talking. "I'm Ana."
   "Well, Ana," Adam said smiling. "You're lucky to be alive right now."
   I let out a little laugh as he packed his stuff up.
   "I'll let Jack and Ryan know you're awake," he smiled and left the room up the cellar stairs.
  I sat in silence as I stared at the wall in front of me that was covered ceiling to floor in jarred foods. My eyes were hazy as I stared, trying to ignore the pain that was pulsating from my leg wound.
   In just a few minutes, the door from the top of the stairs opened, letting in light. Footsteps started down the stairs as Jack and Ryan came into view.
   "Good," Jack said smiling. "You're awake."
   "Barely," I laughed, hoisting myself up and propping my back against the cold wall of the cellar.
"Okay," Jack said, crouching down to my eye level. "Let's talk."
"Name," Ryan asked to me, but more like a direction rather than a question.
"Ana," I said quietly. "Ana Wilson."
"Why were you alone?" Ryan asked me, not breaking eye contact. Jack tried to stop Ryan, but he wasn't having it. "When Jack found you, why were you alone?"
"I, uh-" I said, trying to find the right words. A lump formed in my throat as I tried to speak. "I had just lost everyone. Well, the last one of my group."
"How many people have you killed since the beginning?" Ryan asked me, ignoring my answer to the last.
"People? Or dead," I asked for clarification.
"The living," he said in the same stern voice he was carrying throughout the conversation.
"Only one," I said, looking up at him as small tears formed at my eyes. "But in defense."
"Why should you be brought in?" Ryan asked again. Jack looked surprised at the pace of the conversation.
"I can help," I said to him. "If you let me in or not, I can take care of myself but you'd be losing a huge asset to your team of runners."
"Says the person who almost committed suicide," Ryan said to me. Jack slapped him across the shoulder but he paid no attention to him.
"That was out of desperation," I said to him. "I was weak because of exhaustion. I was unable to run because of my leg. I want my death on my own terms, not on the dead's."
Ryan stares at me for a few moments, not breaking eye contact. He slapped his legs and stood up from his crouching position.
"Okay," He said, starting towards the stairs.
"Okay?" Jack asked in confusion.
"It's not my holistic decision, Jack," Ryan said to him. "When she's well rested, she can come upstairs and meet everyone. But let's get something straight really quick."
Ryan walked quickly towards me from the stairs, getting in my face. Our noses were nearly touching as he lifted his index finger towards the door.
"Up there is my family," he said to me. "You do anything but breathe the wrong way and I will have a knife in the base of your skull so fast you ca-"
"Ryan," Jack said, pulling his brother back.
"I'm not letting you take my family away from me," he said to me. "Not again."
Ryan's heavy steps went up the wooden stairs, leaving Jack and I behind in the cellar.
"Don't mind him," Jack said quietly. "He's gone through what a lot of people shouldn't."
"Haven't we all," I said looking up at the man.
"Get some rest," Jack said to me, getting up from his position. "You've got some people to meet tomorrow."