Fresh Meat
Scowling at Mason through the bars, I cross my arms. He stands there, holding my gaze. The atmosphere between us could be cut with a knife. I spit at him, and he tuts. The rest of the men have left, and once again it’s just Mason and I.
“You’re such a lady” He tells me sarcastically as he moves away from the puddle of saliva on the floor. I shoot daggers at him with my eyes.
Inside the prison cell, there is an actual toilet, a sink and a simple looking bed with white bedding folded neatly on top. Also on the bed are some simple clothes, jeans and a t-shirt. I look down at my own clothing, and under the bright lights of the prison I see how filthy I look.
Every garment I’m wearing is ripped and covered in blood, from both the Zed heads and my own body. The blood from my body isn’t new, but that’s because I can’t remember the last time I washed my clothes, or had new clothes.
Life’s hard when you’re not inside some cushy little town like Mason.
“Those clothes are for you, put them on if you’d like” Mason tells me, and for a second I’m about to tell him where to stick it.
But then I realise I’m not going anywhere soon, and might as well make myself comfortable. I walk over to the sink, and to my surprise, when I turn the taps water comes out.
“You have running water, how nice” I mutter sarcastically, and Mason sighs.
“You’re saying that like it’s a bad thing. It’s nice to have little luxuries” Mason replies, and I shake my head at him. I cup my hands and place them under the taps, then splash the cold water into my face. I clean my face, and run my hands under the taps again to make sure they’re clean.
I wander back over to the bed, trying to ignore Mason’s eyes on me. I pick up the clothes, and stroke the clean fabric, not quite believing they’re real. There’s a plain white t-shirt that I know will be far too big for me, and there is a pair of military trousers similar to Mason. There must be some kind of trick behind them.
“Honestly, put them on, they’re not going to kill you” Mason groans, and I turn around to look at him. Expectantly, he raises his eyebrows at me, and I raise my own back at him.
“Turn around then” I tell him, and he looks at me.
“Are you kidding?” He asks me, and I roll my eyes.
“You’re all the way over there, and I have no weapons, since I dropped the baseball bat and you took my rucksack” I pout, and after a minute of staring and silent competition, Mason holds his hands up, turning his back to me slowly.
“Thank you” I mutter dryly, and begin to undress. I hide all the weapons in my other clothes, preparing to put them in my new clothes. Because Mason has his back to me, he won’t be able to see the weapons I’ve concealed.
They haven’t provided any underwear, so I keep on what I’ve got. I look down at myself, and I see my bones poking out. My hip bones and rib bones are extremely prominent, and I realise how much weight I’ve lost. There’s no wonder these people think I need help.
“Besides” I begin, pulling the t-shirt from the bed over my head. “Aren’t you a bit old to be staring at young girls?”
“How are you young? You’re old enough to be pointing a gun at my head! How old are you anyway?” Mason asks me and I pull my trousers on. They’re miles too big around the waist, and I’m grateful the t-shirt is too big too; otherwise all my underwear and the knife I keep in a holder around my leg would be exposed.
“I’m twenty seven” I say, pointing my chin up.
“Liar” Mason says, and I laugh at him, not all of it menacingly.
I sit down on the bed, and cross my legs. I begin to take my shoes off, and Mason turns around to look at me, realising that I’m done changing. “How old are you really?” He asks, and I sigh.
“Twenty one”
I place my shoes down beside the bed, and Mason takes a few steps towards the jail. I stay on the bed, and tilt my head to one side to look at him. The lights in the prison are considerably brighter than the lights in his office, and it’s now I have a chance to look at him.
He’s well built, with a face that looks like it’s seen too much. He’s not typically handsome and wouldn’t make it into any teen girl magazines. But there’s something about his rugged appearance that makes me want to lick my lips.
And kill him at the same time.
“How old are you?” I ask him, and he crosses his arms.
“Thirty one” He replies, shrugging it off like it’s no big deal.
“Liar”
Mason grins at me, and I give him a half smile in return. He won’t kill me. If he wanted to kill me, he’d have shot me when I punched him.
“How old are you really?” I ask
“Twenty five” He admits, and I smirk.
“That’s still too old to be looking at me semi naked” I point out, and he rolls his eyes.
“Doesn’t matter, you’re still legal. But I wouldn’t want to Princess; you’re all skin and bone. Gain a couple hundred pounds and I’ll think about it” He laughs at his own joke, and I scoff “Besides” He begins his voice becoming deep and almost seductive.
Standing from the bed, I make my way over to the prison bars, and he steps even closer, leaning against them. I wrap a hand around the bars, and our lips are inches apart. Not that I’d ever kiss him, considering he dropped me on my rear end about twenty minutes ago.
“It wasn’t such a problem when you were pulling my top up for a look” He reminds me, and I roll my eyes.
“You’re the only male I’ve seen in a while that isn’t half dead” I whisper, leaning in close to his ear. His hand reaches through the bar, and moves a piece of hair from my face. My eyes lock with his, and I look at him through my eyelashes. He licks his bottom lip, and I run my tongue over my own lips, as they’ve suddenly gone dry.
“You’re a twenty one year old prisoner who tried to shoot me” Mason states.
Suddenly he pulls away, and I stare after him, confused. He turns back around to me, and winks at me. “It’s not going to happen Princess” He informs me, and I grit my teeth. He walks away, disappearing down the end of the long corridor, and leaving me alone in my cell.
I don’t know why I’m so annoyed.
If he’d have kissed me, I’d probably have punched him again.
I can’t stay on the bed for too long.
I’m bored inside the cell, and it makes me start to think. Thinking causes worrying, and worrying is never good. I begin to pace the cells, running my hand along the metal bars. It’s a fairly old fashioned cell, and I’m surprised at how wide the spaces between the bars are.
I check that no-one’s around. Then curiously, I stick my arm through the gap, and begin to slide my body through the bars of the cell. It’s almost effortless.
Like a cat burglar, I slip out of the cell, and slip back through, testing the journey. I hurry to the bed, and ram my feet into my boots. Realising that I can escape, I slide back through the bars, and begin to creep down the corridor I watched Mason disappear down.
My footsteps are almost silent despite my heavy boots, and I grin to myself as I realise how easy it is. All I have to do is find an exit, maybe pick up a gun on my way out, and I can get back to life outside on my own, dependant on only myself.
I’m the only person I need to survive.
My back pressed against the wall of the corridor, I scurry down, picking up speed the further down I get. I stop dead in my tracks when I see an open door, and I realise that walking past the door would expose me. I mouth my favourite swearword, and think of what to do next.
“She could be such a valuable asset to us” I hear Mason’s voice say, and my eyebrows knit together in confusion. He’s talking about me... in a positive way?
“But she’s dangerous, I saw her hit you! She’s too much of a flight risk. I say we let her go, or just shoot her” I associate this voice with the trigger happy man I saw earlier.
“Rupert, we can’t just shoot the poor girl. She’s clearly been through a lot” An older voice chimes in. The voice is clearly male, and I don’t recognise it, although something tells me I should.
And I haven’t recognised a voice in so many years.
So far I have only head three voices. But there’s a cough in the room, and something tells me there’s a fourth person in the room.
“I don’t think we should shoot her, not at all” Mason says immediately, and I smirk at him. He’s jumping to my rescue instantly, what a loser. “If we can get her on our side, we could use her in defence”
“She’s a girl Mason! She’ll get to the town and be like the rest of them, all shoes and hair! And she’ll cause chaos; she won’t be able to adjust back to that. I’m serious, shoot her or kick her out” The man who the old man called Rupert states rather angrily. I quite like this Rupert; he seems to see everything in a black and white kind of way.
“She won’t be like that!” Mason shouts back.
“I want to see her, take me to her now” The old man says, and I freeze instantly.
“No. I’ll go” Rupert announces, and I hear a chair scrape back on the floor.
“We’ll both go” The older man says.
He wants to see me, to meet me. And I’m supposed to be in my cell, not creeping around. I might like the sound of Rupert, but if he caught me roaming the corridor he’d shoot me dead.
Without a second to lose, I begin creeping back down the corridor. I reach my cell fairly quickly, considering my determination to make it back. I find the bars that I snuck through before, and begin to slide my body through the gap.
For a brief second I think I’m stuck, but then my body pops like a cork from a bottle and I’m back in the cell. I kick my boots off, and sit cross legged on the bed again, leaning against the wall behind me.
I exhale a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.
A minute passes, and no-one has entered. For a glorious second, I think that either Mason or Rupert have managed to talk the older man out of coming to see me, but then I hear footsteps approaching.
Mason walks through the door, followed by a pale man with blond hair who I assume to be Rupert. They move out of the way, and the older man is revealed to me.
My heart stops beating as it hits the roof of my mouth.
“Uncle Billy” I choke out, my words sticking to my throat.
I leap to my feet on the bed, and back into the wall. I squeeze my eyes shut and try not to look at the elderly man, as my heart has started to have a fit and my hands have gone clammy and the urge to throw up is ever present.
“You see Mason! She’s crazy!” Rupert yells, and Mason unlocks the cell, and rushes in. I scream, and try to move away from him, as he’ll make me go near Uncle Billy.
“He’s not this Billy! Harley, Princess, look, it’s not him! This is Chief Leonard Moss! It’s not him, calm down!” Mason shouts at me, and grabs my hands. I fall to my knees on the bed, and Mason grabs my head to make me look at Chief Leonard Moss.
I look at him, and I realise that it’s not Uncle Billy.
Holding back tears of relief, I relax into Mason, becoming jelly on the bed. Mason puts a hand on my shoulders, and I slap it off, needing to be alone in my own head for a moment. I run a hand through my short hair, and tuck my knees up into my chest.
I breathe out and in a couple of times, trying to regulate my heartbeat. After finally having calmed down, I look at Mason, and he has concern in his eyes. I avoid looking at him, as I don’t want his concern, worry or god forbid, sympathy.
“I see what you mean Rupert” Leonard comments and I scowl at him. He turns to me, and Mason pulls me to my feet suddenly, and pushes me towards Leonard. The old man extends his hand, but I don’t shake it.
He pulls his hand away and I flinch. I remember the weapons I have hidden in my clothes and I relax, knowing that I’m not in any imminent danger if I can defend myself.
“I’m Chief Leonard Moss, as Mason said, and I run the whole of Lakeland. I’m a sort of figurehead, like a king or president” He chuckles at his own joke, but I remain silent, simply observing for now. “What’s your name dear?”
I look at his face. He has silver eyes, wrinkled at the side, and a black beard that is going grey. The resemblance he bears to Uncle Billy is striking, but I remind myself that it’s not him, and I don’t freak out again.
“She won’t tell us her name either” Rupert adds, and I find myself starting to dislike Rupert. I realise Mason still has hold of my arm, and I yank it out of his grip so I can cross my arms.
“The only name we’ve got out of her is Harley” Mason puts in, trying to make a better case for me. I roll my eyes.
“I don’t need your help General suck up” I tell Mason, and Leonard looks shocked that I’ve spoken. I see Rupert flinch for his gun, and I almost laugh at the fact he’s acting like he’s scared of me.
“Zip it Princess” Mason mutters.
“Well, you’ve certainly made an impression on the men, Miss” Leonard chuckles, and I almost feel guilty for disliking him, he seems alright.
“She punched Mason! That’s too much of an impression if you ask me” Rupert dithers, and I roll my eyes, and clench my fists.
“Come over here Rupert, I’ll make an impression on you too” I threaten, and he takes a couple of steps back.
“Miss, we’d like to eventually integrate you into our society. We want to look after you. We’ll give you food, water, clothes, shelter and protection. All we ask for is your co-operation” I notice how Leonard’s speech is almost identical to the one Mason gave me. It has the same effect.
“I’d rather you just let me go” I state simply.
“We can’t do that I’m afraid. We don’t know anything about you, and we don’t know where you’ve come from or if you have a group of your own that will attack in reconciliation for us trying to make you one of us” Leonard explains.
“There’s no one else. Just me, so let me go” I ask, but it’s obvious I’m being ignored.
Without even as much as a reply, the three men begin a conversation with each other, and exit my cell. Mason closes the door behind them, leaving me trapped alone in the cell. He looks over his shoulder at me, and I watch him wordlessly.
Then, almost as if he’s just remembered me, Leonard turns back around. He acts like he’s forgotten to turn the lights out in the room, something so small, so trivial, and so arrogant. “I’m afraid you’ll have to stay with us a while longer dear” Leonard says, and leaves the room, Rupert following behind him.
Mason lingers a while longer, and I find I want to call out to him as our eyes lock. Then I realise that I’m already becoming dependant on a total stranger, and I rip my eyes away. I’ve been here barely a day, and they’re changing me.
I watch as they all slowly walk out from the room until I’m staring down an empty corridor. My eyes burn and they close in defeat.
The silence in the cell is gut-wrenching, and I don’t know what to do. I can get through the bars, but I don’t know how to get out of this building and back into the real world. I’m as good as dead already.
I’m practically in limbo.
I’m waiting for them to realise how useless I am to them, and for them to finally shoot me. This is torture, keeping me alive and hanging on for a few more days. And for what? I’m dead in the end; they might as well do it now.
There’s no hope for me, none whatsoever.
Defeated, I fall to my knees, and slam my fists against the floor.
**********
There will be another update tomorrow hopefully! :P thank you for checking out my story!
'Harley' and Mason huh?;) getting frisky! :P why won't she tell him her name? hmmm?;) keep reading to find out! :P
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THANK YOU! :D <333333