Who We Were | Book One

33. A Lot To Learn

The rain continued to cascade down as the truck bumped and jolted over potholes that covered the road like inverted bubble wrap. It was the wind that whipped around the cold drops that fell, sending them hurtling in every direction as the truck rumbled slowly through the small town, where only the concrete structures of the houses remained standing. The street was barely a skeleton, stripped of its flesh that once wrapped around it like a blanket.

Josh sat slumped and unconscious in the corner of the truck bed, his chest rose and fell while his head wobbled with every movement. Chris sat opposite me and his gaze hadn't moved since we set off.

"So, who are you really?" He announced as I kept my eyes on Josh.

"Why would I tell you anything after what you just did?" I mumbled.

"Well, now I know you're definitely not from Dawn Hill... How did you get out?"

I shrugged and looked to the bed of the truck. Deep scratches engrained the metal with dents that rose and fell like hills in the countryside.

"Do you know what they're doing there?" I asked, my voice barely lifted by the wind.

He nodded. "I've heard rumours... Never seen it for myself though."

I shook my head as the rain streaked my face. "What they're doing... It's like nothing you can imagine," I explained. "They want him for something, I think," I gestured to the beaten boy who sat slumped beside him. His curls lay damp and flat against his forehead and tickled his lashes where his eyes moved beneath his lids. "Do you know why? How well do you know him?"

He pulled his lips into his mouth and his whole body seemed to relax with his words. "Me and him were friends once, you know?"

"Once?" I repeated.

"Believe it or not. He was one of the few people I trusted. One of the only people I trusted," he corrected himself.

"Hard to believe."

"Probably..." He scoffed, before dropping his gaze to the truck bed. "I don't hate him. I can't hate him. But what he did to us I can never forgive him for."

"I thought I knew him, but I don't think I do anymore..."

"I think you're about to learn more about him than you want to."

I turned my attention to the world that lay out the back of the truck. We'd taken a sharp turn off the road and were charging at speed through an open field which rose and fell like waves, stitched at the side by looming hedgerows. Rain bounced off every surface, stopping in beads on the paintwork, saturating my clothes and hair. It began to lighten as the truck rumbled to a stop outside a large wooden gate.

A fence spread out in each direction, towering over its contents. From the outside, it looked more industrial than Dawn Hill had been. Barbed wire lined the top in jagged spirals and shards of metal jutted out from the wood, covering it in glistening random patterns.

Two men stood either side of the gate. They were dressed in similar clothing to Chris and Jake; black hoodies and trousers holding large black weapons across their body. Jake wound down the window as one of them began to walk over.

"Who've you got here?" The man asked Jake in the driver's seat. He glanced around to the three of us in the back of the truck. His blond hair was unruly, falling in tangles to the base of his neck while his jaw was a haze of light brown stubble. He mumbled something before walking around to the back. "What the fuck?" He announced as his eyes fell on the boy slumped in the corner. "Tell me that's not who I think it is, Chris."

"Afraid it is, Tom."

"You shouldn't have brought him back here alive," he warned through gritted teeth.