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Chapter 30
The sound of a faint cry broke the silence in the otherwise still room.
“Oh my, it’s alive,” Mary muttered in shock.
“Give me something to wrap it in,” Ridec ordered.
“What about the mother?” Pete questioned.
Ridec shook his head and then realizing that Pete probably couldn’t see the movement in the darkness he added, “She’s dead.”
“I didn’t know she wasn’t one of those things,” Kent insisted. “Was she a clean?”
“She has a bite but it’s still bleeding,” Ridec responded fighting to keep his annoyance with Kent under control. “She must have gotten it less than a few minutes ago trying to get here.”
“She was probably trying to steal the food in the kitchen,” Kent pointed out. Ridec could read Kent’s relaxation at the idea that the woman he had killed was an unclean.
“She was probably hungry,” Ridec said handing the baby over to Mary who took it nervously and wrapped a shirt about it.
“Well, she won’t be hungry anymore,” Kent said nonchalantly wiping the knife against his pants and heading towards the exit. “Not much of a loss.”
“Where the hell do you get off deciding that a life is not much of a loss?” Ridec demanded.
Kent ignored him continuing to stroll out of the compact storage room and into the general kitchen area.
“We should check and see how she got in, she might have broken a lock and made us vulnerable to those creatures,” Linda pointed out.
“That’s it?” Ridec screamed. “We just stroll away without caring that a pregnant woman was murdered a few minutes ago?”
Kent stopped in the middle of the kitchen and looked back at Ridec his face emotionless but his mind screaming that he would love the opportunity to take the younger man out of the picture but he couldn’t.
“That’s the plan,” Kent responded.
“Well maybe we should cut your throat too and think nothing of it,” Ridec suggested. “You’re just as unclean as she was – perhaps more so. There was a real chance of curing her.”
Kent shrugged an action that seemed to drive Ridec crazy. It wasn’t that he couldn’t appreciate that things would happen in a mixed up world like this but how could someone be so callous at the lost of a human life? Ridec didn’t think about the consequences he launched himself at Kent managing to knock the older bulkier man to the ground with the surprise attack. He would have expected anger or annoyance but Kent laughed.
“You really don’t think that because you managed to make a little toy weapon that you can fight me?”
Ridec punched him squarely in the face and blood spouted from the side of his mouth.
“Stupid kid!” Kent screamed gripping Ridec by his shoulders and tossing him off his body and onto the floor beside him. Kent had seemed strong when Ridec had fought him that first time under the watchful eye of Jessell but this time he seemed super human strong. Perhaps Kent had been pulling his punches then but he wasn’t pulling his punches now.
Ridec felt the force of Kent’s fist slam against his face and his jaw felt as if it shifted. He struggled to get up from under Kent’s weight but his arms were pinned under Kent’s legs and the man was pounding away at his face relentlessly.
“You know what you need kid?” Kent demanded between clenched teeth. “A good lesson and I’m just the man to give it to you.”
Ridec pressed his body up hoping to dislodge Kent from on top of him but it didn’t work, another punch to the face followed.
“Stop that,” Rea screamed. “You’re killing him.”
“I’m not killing him, I’m just teaching him a lesson,” Kent grunted. Another blow to Ridec’s face landed against his eye.
Ridec pressed his body up again with every ounce of strength he had and this time he managed to dislodge Kent who fell to the ground beside him. Ridec hurried to his feet, his legs felt weak but he tried to stand firm.
“You stand still or I’m going to kill you,” Ridec threatened his fist folded and the weapon aimed at Kent. Ridec shifted suddenly as Kent dodged to a side and then came at him. Ridec could see the man had planned to call his bluff, Kent had mentally determined that Ridec would not kill another living being in cold blood.
Kent chuckled.
“I thought I would have caught you by surprise with that move.”
“I’m not so easily caught by surprise,” Ridec muttered keeping his distance from Kent and trying to figure out what the older man had planned next.
“I tell you what,” Kent said and Ridec could tell some of the anger was wearing away. “You apologise for hitting me and I’ll call it even.”
“You killed a woman,” Ridec responded.
“And no one gives a flying fig. If I didn’t kill her one of those things would have killed her eventually. She was pregnant and clearly travelling on her own,” Kent pointed out. “If you had any sense you would have let the baby die with her too, it’s only going to be a matter of time before it dies anyway.”
“So you get to be judge, jury and executioner?” Ridec asked.
Kent shrugged.
“Someone has to be and you’re not man enough for the job. Maybe that’s why you kissed that little girl; she’s much more your style anyway. I mean…” Kent paused with the slightest of chuckles in his voice. “Anyone can see that your girlfriend is way too much woman for you. I don’t really get where you come from, but you know and I know that here…now…you’re nothing but a liability to her and she’s just too darn sweet to tell you.”
That comment had hit much too close to the nerve. Ridec didn’t think, perhaps that was what Kent had been hoping for. All Ridec could feel was the sense of disappointment that Jessell probably felt in him. Kent was right; he was the last person Jessell needed to be paired up with in a world like this. He was holding her back. Even as the thought raced through Ridec’s mind he raced forward and launched himself at Kent knocking the shorter but stockier man to the ground. Ridec didn’t hesitate he punched Kent in the face, but this time he didn’t stop, he just kept punching and punching and punching. Anger, hurt, fear of losing Jessell seemed determine to come out as he kept pressing his fist over and over against Kent’s face. Tears burned his eyes blurring his ability to see the other man but he kept on punching, disgust building up in him at his own inability to win the respect of Jessell after so many years and now, in this world he would never be able to do it.
“Ridec!” It was Rea screaming into his ear and Linda and Kyle were dragging him off of Kent.
Ridec pulled away from the two covering his face with his hands and crying. This was not who he wanted to be, all he wanted to be was the boy that Jessell completely loved.
“Kent is unconscious,” Linda said turning to stare at Ridec accusingly. “You could have killed him.”
“He’ll be fine,” Jessell muttered slapping Kent across the face a couple of times. A soft groan and Kent opened his eyes.
“I can’t believe you let that kid beat you,” Linda had a half smile in her voice. Kent grimaced.
“Get off of me,” he pushed Linda away and got to his feet. “Next time I won’t hold back.”
“You didn’t look like you were holding back,” Linda muttered.
Kent didn’t respond, just strolled out of the kitchen with everyone following him. Ridec sat on the ground his face still covered; they had all left including Jessell, only Rea remained.
“You have blood on you,” Rea said taking a shirt and wiping Ridec’s face gently.
Ridec shook his head pressing her hand away.
“It’s not my blood,” he whispered.
“All the more reason to get it off of you as soon as possible,” Rea insisted wetting the tip of her shirt with her tongue and scrubbing Ridec’s face feverishly. “Kent is an unclean, his blood could be contaminated.”
Rea paused for a moment as if considering the matter.
“Maybe somewhere inside of him he wanted you to fight him like that in the hope of getting you contaminated then if you changed he would finally have a reason not to take you back to the head office and his authorities.”
Ridec nodded slowly, maybe Rea was right. Kent clearly wanted Jessell for himself and right now he was thinking that Ridec was the only thing standing in his way. Ridec was a clean and Kent was not, that would obviously hinder the potential of any relationship between the two.
“He just made me so mad…” Ridec muttered.
“He’s an idiot,” Rea said smiling as she rubbed the last bit of blood from Ridec’s face. “And now you’re perfectly handsome again.”
“Except for my black eye and cheek,” Ridec muttered trying to smile but finding it hurt too much.
“Even with a black eye and bruised cheek,” Rea said earnestly, “you still look perfect to me.”
Ridec smiled this time. Compliments were certainly not something he was unaccustomed to. As arguably the most handsome man in Merland he had received more than his fair share of compliments and had also received proposals for marriage from as young as fourteen years old – well below the legal age of marriage, but there had always only been one girl he had ever wanted to be with for the rest of his life and that girl had always been Jessell.
“She doesn’t really care about you,” Rea said cutting into his thoughts. “You’re just some kind of trophy to her. She doesn’t respect you, you doesn’t care about your opinions all you are to her is a pretty boy that she can treat anyway she wants.” Rea paused, inhaled a deep breath and then said, “She doesn’t love you the way I love you Ridec and I don’t think she ever will.”
The words seemed like a knife through Ridec’s heart and he pushed Rea away and got to his feet.
“I have to go look after that baby, it was barely breathing and it’s going to need something to eat.”
“Ridec we can’t look after a baby…” Rea started to say.
“So what do you suggest? We kill it like we killed the mother?” Ridec demanded.
“No,” Rea sighed. “We’ll do what you want.”
It was Ridec’s turn to sigh, Rea was the complete opposite to Jessell. Jessell was strong, tough and opinionated; she forced Ridec to defend his positions and didn’t just go along with what he said.
***
Ridec strolled into the main living quarters with Rea following close behind him. Everyone was seated and Jessell was in her corner resting. Ridec couldn’t help thinking that Jessell cared so little for him that she had left him in the kitchen area alone with Rea not even bothered about what might happen between them and now he had come and found her resting comfortably. She didn’t even care that he had almost been beaten by Kent.
“Where’s the baby, I need to…” Ridec started to say but stopped when Kent turned towards him holding the baby in his hand completely wrapped in a small piece of cloth.
“That wrapping is too tight,” Ridec said hurrying forward to take the baby from Kent’s arms.
“Doesn’t really matter,” Kent said smugly. “Apparently the baby had a little accident…apparently it stopped breathing. Who would have thought?”
“You killed it!” Ridec accused angrily starting to run towards Kent.
“Ridec!” Jessell yelled suddenly sitting up and drawing her blades. “You want to fight with someone?” She demanded. “Fight with me. I killed the baby; I knew you would just get yourself killed trying to find food to keep it alive.”
Ridec stopped in his tracks and stared over at Jessell, surely not even Jessell could do something like that?
Ridec gently took the baby from Kent’s arms and headed back towards the door, he could hear Kent laughing behind him. It was dead, it had been suffocated.
How could someone live in a world where the life of a baby was sacrificed simply for the benefit of the adults? He had known Jessell all his life and Jessell loved children, she would never do something like this, she was lying, she had to be. The only real question was; why was she trying to protect Kent?