I struggled in the man's - Dave's - hold, fighting to free my hands from his iron-clad grip. My efforts were in vain though, he was too strong, too powerful. I watched on, helplessly as Lily stood, clearly terrified, behind a vicious looking Ace. He was doing a surprisingly good job of keeping the other men at bay, away from Lily. I had never seen him look so dangerous.
"Call the dog off, Girl. Unless you want me to blow it's brains out." Dave-man threatened in my ear, his grip on my wrists so strong I feared he would crush them.
I hesitated. He was the only thing standing between them and Lily.
"Now!" He ordered impatiently, clenching down on my wrists so hard that a small whimper of pain escaped my lips and tears sprung to my eyes.
"A... Ace!" I choked out, "Down." I barely managed a whisper, hoping he would understand me. I couldn't bear to see them hurt him, nor could Lily. His brown eyes met mine curiously as if questioning why I would ask this of him. These men clearly weren't our friends. Part of me was relieved when he stepped back to Lily's side, no longer baring his teeth but still clearly not happy with the situation.
"He'll do whatever you want, just please... please don't hurt them. Either of them." I begged, utterly helpless. My heart was beating wildly in my chest, so fast I feared it may burst under the stress of the situation.
"Well, that'll all depend on you, won't it Beautiful?" He replied, his voice sickeningly sweet, ridiculing as one of his grimy hands reached towards my face. I flinched, backing as far away from him as I could, disgusted by his vile touch and suggestive tone.
"Don't touch me!" I bit back, angrily. There was no way I would let this greasy, pig of a man take advantage of me. A look at his face told me that he had to be at least 35 years old and had a clear lack of self-hygiene. I was repulsed by his hold on me, squirming, unsuccessfully, to get away.
I suddenly remembered my gun. I had it in my hands before he grabbed me. Where was it? A quick glance at the floor confirmed my suspicions, I had dropped it. There it laid, no more than 2 feet away, but completely useless to me now. Unless I could just escape his hold.
"Stop fucking moving, Girl!" He growled at me, clearly having a short temper. For just a second, his grip loosened as he readjusted his hold. It was just a second but it was all I needed. I quickly spun around to face him, ripping my hands-free and swiftly proceeded to knee him, hard, in his groin before stamping down on his foot with as much force as I could.
I dived towards the gun on the floor whilst he was momentarily incapacitated, clutching at where I hit him. I felt the familiar cold metal gun under my fingertips, spinning around as fast as I could to aim the gun at him. Despite my best efforts, he recovered quicker than I had anticipated from my attack.
"Nice try, Bitch." Was all I heard before something hard slammed into the side of my head and darkness clouded my vision.
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I was woken slowly by the dull, throbbing pain on my left temple coupled with my uncomfortable position on the hard ground. I let out a loud groan as the bright light intensified the headache. I managed to sit up, disorientated and dizzy, attempting to remember what had happened. As I tried to raise my hands to my pounding head, I saw noticed the rope binding them tight together. I looked around manically for the gun or anything I could use as a weapon, coming up short. They had taken it.
A deep voice broke me out of my dazed state, as well as jogging my memory. "Look who's finally up." he sneered at me, his awful face making me wish I had never woken up. I shuddered, looking down at the floor as I felt all of their eyes on me. Three of them towered over me threateningly, their tall, burly frames hugely intimidating. I ignored his comment, instead panicking over Lily. I whipped my head around, frantically searching for her. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I couldn't see a trace of either her or Ace.
Where were they?
Noticing, one of the other men I hadn't heard speak before, chuckled as if my distress was a source of amusement to him. "You won't find her, Darlin'."
"What have you done with them?!" I snarled, angrily. How dare they touch her. She was just a child. "Let them go!" I shouted wildly, struggling against the binding ropes making them cut into my skin as I tried to free myself.
A large hand struck my cheek, resulting in a sickening crack as I felt the sharp, stinging pain of the slap. The shock of it completely shut me up, snapping me out of my hysteria as the pain made my eyes well up.
It was Dave. He had slapped me. "Shut your whining Girl, unless you want the Dead to hear you. We ain't gonna save you." He growled at me, his face a mere few inches from mine, the evil glint in his eye indicating that he enjoyed the torture he was inflicting upon me.
Hatred coursed, red hot, through my veins. He was sickening, disgusting. Taking pleasure in hurting a teenage girl. Stupidly, out of rage, I drew my head back and spat in his face.
I shrunk backwards as his face turned red with fury, something akin to a roar bellowing out of him. He was going to kill me, I swear. I flinched away as he drew a large fist back, swinging it towards me with enormous power. I closed my eyes, waiting for the no doubt life-ending blow. I'm so sorry Lily, were my last thoughts.
But the hit never came.
I opened my eyes slowly, confusion and relief simultaneously rushing through me. A fourth man, that I hadn't remembered seeing a second ago stood behind Dave, holding his arm back, his fist stopped just centimetres away from my face. My eyes widened in shock. I was baffled. Why had he stopped him? He was a part of their group, I had counted four of them before. I couldn't understand why he had helped me, they had all seemed unconcerned with the way Dave was treating me. As if it were completely normal, acceptable behaviour.
My eyes ran over his form, I couldn't see much of his face as his dark hood cast shadows over his features but he was smaller in stature, still huge compared to my 5' 6" but much smaller than the other men. This just puzzled me further, he was going against Dave, who was twice his size and looked like he could beat him to the ground with a single punch.
"Get off me, Boy!" Dave snapped, wrenching his arm free from my saviour's grip before rounding on me again. Hooded-guy persisted, pulling Dave back, away from me.
"I'm sorry when was the last time you saw a girl?" His deep voice finally sounded out, laced with bitter sarcasm. "One that wasn't walking around munching on human brains like it were breakfast? I just thought it might be in our best interest if you didn't, you know, kill possibly the last female on the planet and condemn us all to extinction." He chuckled darkly, "But hey, don't let me stop you." He shrugged, releasing Dave and stepping back nonchalantly, gesturing for him to continue.
I scoffed. To think I was almost grateful.
"The boy's got a point, Dave." The largest man of the group finally intervened; oozing authority. He was the one who I'd assumed was in charge when I first saw them. He stepped forward, pushing himself between myself and a livid Dave. He obviously didn't take well to orders. Boss-man crossed his arms menacingly. "Go cool off outside," He ordered, hand on his gun warningly and his tone leaving no room for argument.
Dave protested, moaning about how I had disrespected him before he eventually gave up, walking off outside, grumbling like a child and slamming the store door loudly behind him.
"So, what am I? Your prisoner? Your means to carry on the human race?" I chuckled humourlessly, directing my comment towards the mysterious, hooded-'boy' mocking him derisively.
"That all depends on you, Sweetheart." Boss-man chortled, unsheathing a small knife and fiddling with it, making the sharp metal dance across his fingers and glint in the light. He looked ruthless, menacing, causing an involuntary shiver to run down my spine. "You can do what we want, out of your own free will of course. Or, if you choose to refuse, I'm sure there are other ways we can persuade you." He smiled darkly, making me shrink back in fear.
"Persuade me? I'd rather die than do anything for you!" I spat back. Bravely or stupidly, I couldn't tell.
"Oh, I wasn't talking about hurting you, Sweetheart." He smiled as I understood what he meant. My heart dropped, he was talking about Lily.
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Shorter chapter than last time, but I figured I'd update sooner rather than later!😊
Thanks for reading!
~ Beth xx ~