“What do you mean he’s alive? I shot him, I saw him drop dead. He can’t be alive.”
“He’s alive. We put him in Anna’s room since she’s up and running again. He’s been sleeping the whole time you’ve been gone but we figured we can use him for something. Get a little information maybe.” I can’t believe. I shot him, he should be dead. I don’t understand how he is.
“I’ll get him to talk when he wakes up. I’m going to make those bastards pay for what they did to us,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Please don’t hurt him. I know how you can get but just don’t hurt him this time please.” How the hell will I get info out of him if I can’t hurt him? Ask him nicely? I’ll make sure Piper isn’t in the room. I am going to go to town on his ass. He won’t see what hit him.
“I’ll do my best.” I don’t know why I lied to her. Maybe I’m just afraid of what she’ll say if I told the truth. “We’ll get our bunker back.”
*
A few hours later I hop over to Anna’s old room and I’m sitting on the bed next to the prisoner. I see that someone has tied his hand to the bedframe so he can’t get away when he gets up. He’s still sleeping but I’m hoping that he’ll wake up when I’m here. That way I’ll be the first to get to him. I want this fucker to talk.
I can’t wait any longer for this guy to wake up. I’ll wake him up myself. I stand up on my good leg and I unbuckle my belt and unravel it from around my waist. I fold it in half and I whip him in the stomach with it and he yelps and his eyes pop open.
“Wakey wakey, fuck boy.”
“You…you’re the guy who shot me!” he shouts accusingly.
“Yeah and you’re going to tell me who your friends are and why you kidnapped me.”
“I ain’t telling you shit!” he spits. That’s it. I’m getting this guy to talk.
“Alright. I’ll be right back. You stay right there, sir.” I pat him on the cheek and he glares at me. I stroll out of the room and grab a chair and some more rope and I come back in with the most menacing look I can manage. I grab this guy, throw him in the chair and tie him up tightly with the rope. “Now. You’re going to tell me why you made us leave our beloved bunker or I’m going to have to force it out of you.”
“I won’t ever rat them out!” he screams. I hope no one else hears this and tells me to stop. I punch him across the face
“Tell me.”
“No.” Punch.
“Tell me, you son of a bitch!”
“No!” I push my thumb into the bullet wound in his shoulder, causing it to rip the stitches and bleed again. He screams out in pain and I push further until he begs for mercy. “We wanted your supplies. We wanted your guns. We wanted it all. We took you because we thought you were hiding something and maybe we could get it out of you.”
“You’re not telling me everything.”
“That’s all I know, I swear.” I take out my knife from its sheath and I slice across his arms and his bare chest. The blood oozes out of the wounds and coats my hands in its colour. I cut open his mouth, across the cheeks like the Joker.
“Tell me all of it or I will take your eye,” I say as the tip of my knife hovers over his eye.
“We wanted Jesse! We wanted his knowledge, his skill; we wanted his power! Please stop, oh Lord have mercy.” I take my knife away and put it back in its sheath. That’s when I hear a gasp from the doorway.
“Piper?” the man asks.
“How do you know her?”
“Um…I don’t know. I’ve never seen her in my life.” I look to Piper and her mouth keeps opening and closing, like a fish out of water.
“Liar!” I swiftly take out my knife and bury it in his eye, blood bursting from the wound and splattering on my face. He cries out in pain and again when I take back my knife. Piper screams and runs to the man’s side, stroking his face with tears running down her cheeks. Then, I turn my knife on her.
“How do you know him?” I say drawing out each word. I give her a hard stare, no emotion, just me and her. And my knife.
“I…I was in his group. My brothers and I, we were the inside people. Deliver news to them. I’m sorry, Liam. I never meant to hurt you, I love you.”
“I hate you. I never want to see you again.”
“Liam just listen-“
“No. I’m not listening to anything you say. I trusted you. I let you care for me.” I take a few steps toward her.
“Please don’t do this. Please. I can fix you, you’ll see that you’re on the losing side, you can join us. Just listen to me.”
“You can’t fix me. No one can. I should have left you out there to rot with the walkers.” I swallow the lump in my throat and I bite my cheek to hold back the tears.
“Are you threatening me?”
“Maybe. I want you out, and take your boyfriend with you,” I say gesturing to the man in the chair. Piper takes a step towards me and I hold the knife higher.
“You’re making a big mistake. I love you, please. Why can’t you just believe me?!”
“I never loved you,” I lie. “Now go before I slit your fucking throat, Piper!” She drops her head to the floor and goes to untie the man in the chair. I still don’t know his name and I couldn’t care less. She puts his arm around her shoulders, just like she did to me when I was hurt. “Give me your gun.”
“What?”
“Give me your gun, Piper. I don’t want to have to hurt you. But you know I will.” She carefully reaches into the back of her pants and pulls out her pistol. She sets it on the ground and kicks it over to me. I pick it up and point it at her. “Not get out of here before I decide that you don’t get to live.” She gets out the door and I follow her down the stairs, still having the gun pointed at her head. Everyone is confused, and just staring at me but not asking questions. I’ll answer them later. “I’ll follow you down the road for a mile and then I’m leaving you. You better not come back or I will shoot you.” She nods her head.
By the time I get back after leaving Piper behind on the road, I’m bleeding again. I was so pumped up on adrenaline I didn’t even think about the stab.
“Liam, what did you do now, boy,” Jesse asks while jogging up to me. He puts his hands on my shoulders and checks me over, notices my bleeding leg but makes no note of it.
“Piper’s a traitor. I sent her off a mile down the road and she’s never coming back. If she does, shoot her.”
“I trust your judgement, but Piper? That sweet girl who cooked us a meal over the fire, just the other day?”
“Yes. She lied and she’s been feeding information to the people that kidnapped me and took all our guns and food. She’s part of the reason why we had to leave your bunker.” His gaze drops the ground. I’ve reopened an old wound but I didn’t have a choice. He needs to face the truth.
“Gather the group outside. We’re having a meeting,” he says and leaves towards the house. I follow him inside slowly, limping with my hand held over my bleeding leg. When I get inside, Rainer raps a bandage around it and promises to take care of it later. I nod and shout to no one in particular to get outside. The crowd is still confused from my previous performance but follows my orders anyway.
When all of us are gathered in a circle around Jesse, he begins to speak with fire laced in his voice. “Listen up! I’ve recently had word that Piper was feeding information to the outsiders. If I find out about any other traitors in the group, Liam will not be so nice about it and he will shoot you on sight. Got it?” I hate when he puts me in charge of the killing. But someone has to do it. I like killing, but it makes me seem like a savage.
“What are we going to do now?” Wyatt speaks.
“We’re leaving tonight. You have two hours to pack up and get back out here for a head count.” I hear a few garbled complaints but they all shuffle inside and begin packing their backpacks with their possessions.
“Liam,” Wyatt calls. He comes over to me and I watch him approach. “I’m sorry to hear about Piper. I thought she was a good kid, and I thought she was helping you. But people can be deceiving.”
“I know. I just wish I would have left her with those walkers. Then we wouldn’t even be in this mess.” I kick at the dirt with the toe of my shoe.
“It’s not your fault. But I’ll tell you what. If you see her again, you have my permission to use my sword to cut off her head,” he smiles at me and pats me hard on the back. I manage to smile back and I head inside to pack up my own things.