Chapter 12 Emery
Chapter twelve
Emery
My head was pounding the worst I’d ever felt it in my life.
My eyes fluttered open in confusion as I tried to remember what I’d done the night before to be gifted with the hangover from hell.
As I looked around the unfamiliar room, I tried to sit up and found myself restrained.
That’s when everything came flooding back to me.
The zombies, the apocalypse, Justin, the guys, my parents.
My parents! I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but by now they had to be worried that I hadn’t met them at the war memorial.
My feet were bound together, and my hands were tied behind my back.
I struggled against the bindings, but they were too tight to slip out of.
The bedroom door opened, and I turned my head to see Justin enter.
“You son of a bitch! Let me go!” When I got free I was going to tear this man limb from limb for what he’d done.
“Shhh. Relax, Emmy, or you’ll hurt yourself,” Justin said, sitting beside me on the bed. He reached down to tuck my hair behind my ear, and I jerked my head away. “I promise you are perfectly safe here. I’m sorry that I had to get rough with you, but I swear, I won’t hurt you anymore.”
“Bullshit!”
“I understand that you’re angry, but this is for your own good.
For now, the ropes have to stay in place.
I can’t risk you escaping and running back to those criminals.
Once you see things my way, I will take them off.
I wouldn’t bother trying to get out of them, though.
I was a Boy Scout and aced my Pioneering Merit Badge. A Navy SEAL couldn’t slip those knots.”
I rolled my eyes at his hubris. One way or another, I was getting out of there. Whether Justin was still breathing when I did was still to be determined. “Justin, this is ridiculous. I need to get back to my parents.” Appealing to his more sentimental side could help me get out of this.
Justin scoffed. “I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I’m a good guy and you saw how easy it was for me to sacrifice those old bitches. I promise you, it was even easier for those criminals to sacrifice your parents. Give it up, they’re already dead. It’s best to focus on our future.”
“You’re wrong,” I argued. “They would protect my parents with their lives and have more honor and decency in their little fingers than you possess in your entire body.” His eyes darkened and his fists clenched, but I didn’t heed the warning.
Instead, I pushed on with my scathing remarks, too angry to realize I was in no position to poke an angry bear.
“You’re not a good man. You’re a psychopath who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘no’.
You’ve built something between us that was never fucking there.
I barely even like you, let alone desire you. ”
With a roar, Justin backhanded me across the face and then rolled me to my stomach.
He straddled my legs, pressing his hard on against my ass.
True terror filled me as I bucked my body in an attempt to get him off of me.
I would not let this piece of shit rape me.
My efforts were futile as he easily pinned me to the bed.
His lips trailed kisses across my neck as he shushed me gently.
“Don’t worry, Emmy, I won’t force myself on you.
I told you, I’m the good guy. But keep teasing me like that, and I might tire of you playing hard to get and give you what you really want but won’t let yourself have.
Why don’t you think about that while I get us something to eat?
Maybe some time alone will straighten out that attitude of yours and make you more agreeable. ”
He left me shaking in fear and fury, his light chuckle as the door closed echoing ominously behind him.
I had to get the fuck out of here, and this might be my only chance.
I didn’t make my first move until I was sure he had left.
From my struggles, I could tell that the ropes around my ankles weren’t as tight as the ones around my wrists, so I decided to free myself from those first. I shifted on the bed until my feet hung off the end and used the edge to get my boots off.
The struggle was real, but I didn’t have any other options.
I had to accomplish this step, or I would be stuck here.
Justin might have earned a Boy Scout merit badge, but he was an idiot in every other aspect of life, including remembering to remove my boots before tying me up.
Once the boots were off, I had plenty of room to wiggle out of the ropes.
Once my feet were free, I stood and stepped through my arms to move them to my front.
Now to find something sharp. The bedroom I was in appeared to belong to an elderly woman, which gave me hope.
I spotted a basket near a rocking chair by the window and sifted through it.
Near the bottom of the basket, I hit the jackpot and found a pair of pink-and-gold scissors.
I sat in the chair and used the scissors to cut through the ropes around my wrists.
Once I was free, I put my boots back on and slipped the scissors into my back pocket.
I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the dresser mirror and grimaced.
I was looking rough. I had a busted lip, and half my face was swollen.
It could always be worse, and probably would be over the next couple of days as the bruises continued to develop—nothing I could do about that now. I was alive, and soon, I’d be free.
I cracked open the bedroom door and peeked out.
All seemed quiet in the apartment, so I left the bedroom and spotted my bat and bag on the couch.
I opened the bag to make sure everything was still there and didn’t find anything missing.
I swung my bag onto my back, grabbed my bat, and went to the front door.
I didn’t have time to waste. I needed to get out of here as quickly as possible.
Justin was a coward, so I assumed he didn’t venture out of the building to look for food.
Not when there were other apartments available to him.
After making sure the hallway was empty, I left the apartment and dashed toward the stairwell.
The stairwell door screeched loudly as I opened it.
Hopefully, the noise didn’t attract any attention, but I wasn’t going to stick around to find out.
I rushed down the stairs as quickly as I could and out onto the street.
I took several deep breaths to try and steady my breathing as I looked around quickly to make sure I wasn’t about to be zombie chow and to figure out where the hell I was.
Justin had taken me further than I expected.
I was at least five blocks from the park he had knocked me out in.
Still, it could be worse. That was quickly turning into my personal mantra.
It wouldn’t take me long to get back to where I needed to be.
I stepped off the sidewalk, and muscle memory had me glancing to my left for traffic.
I didn’t find any, but I did catch the moment Justin rounded the corner, his arms full with what I assumed was an assortment of food.
He was half a block away, and I saw the shock on his face as he registered my presence on the street.
I didn’t wait to see what he did next. I turned and took off running down the street as fast as I could.
“Emery!” Justin screamed.
I chanced a glance over my shoulder to see him running after me and pushed myself to go faster.
I prayed I didn’t run into any zombies, because I didn’t have the luxury of slowing down or stopping.
If I did, Justin would catch me. After being chased relentlessly for several blocks, I knew I had to do something to lose him.
Being bike messengers meant that both Justin and I were reasonably fit and pretty equally matched.
Taking a chance, I turned down a side street, and when I reached the end, I turned back to see that Justin hadn’t caught up with me yet.
Hoping it didn’t bite me in the ass later, I decided to back track slightly to the street across the way and cut over one more block.
All I had to do was get across the street and out of view before Justin reached the end of this one.
Hopefully, he would think I had continued in the same direction I had been going in, and I’d be able to lose him.
When I reached the end of the street and turned the corner, I ran right into a group of four zombies.
They were almost as surprised to see me as I was them.
I managed to take one down, but quickly realized that I wouldn’t be able to take them all out and keep the lead I had on Justin.
Continuing to run past them down the street was an option, but not one I thought of until after I had started climbing up the fire escape.
Resigned to my path, I continued to the roof, praying I wouldn’t end up trapped.
From the roof, I could see Justin looking around for me.
He looked up and down the street and then at the street I had gone down.
Apparently, I wasn’t as sly as I thought I was, because that was the route he chose.
With any luck, the zombies I left behind would get him, and I won’t have to worry about him anymore, but I wasn’t about to put all of my eggs into that basket. I needed to find a way off this roof.
The gap to the building next door was only a few feet wide and could barely be considered an alley.
While I didn’t have anything to bridge the gap, I was confident I could jump across easily enough.
I climbed to the edge and tossed my bag and bat onto the next roof.
With a fortifying breath, I leaped. I tried to roll into the landing as best I could, which was laughable to say the least. Who did I think I was, a professional stuntwoman?
Miraculously, I didn’t break anything, but I did end up scraping my arm pretty badly. A problem to deal with later.
I grabbed my bag and scrambled across the roof to the fire escape. I took it down as fast as humanly possible, nearly wiping out several times in my rush.
“Slow the fuck down, Em,” I muttered to myself.
When I got to the ground, I backtracked again and stayed beneath the awnings to prevent Justin from spotting me if he’d also gone onto the roof.
Once I felt I was a safe distance away, I went down another deserted alley and hid behind a dumpster.
I needed a breather and to take a look at my arm, which was stinging like a mother fucker.
I carefully picked gravel and glass fragments from my arm and took stock.
I didn’t have any deep cuts that would be concerning, but as soon as I met back up with the guys and my parents, I’d have to use the first aid kit packed in Papi’s bag to disinfect it.
The sound of pounding feet made me pause. Could Justin have already found me? Justin appeared at the mouth of the alley and stood quietly for a moment. Unfortunately, the alley I picked was a dead end. Justin now blocked the only way in or out. Maybe he would keep moving.
“Emmy,” he called softly. Ironic that he finally learned to keep his fucking voice down. “I know you’re down here. I could hear you breathing a block away. Don’t make this any harder than it has to be. Come back with me voluntarily, and I won’t punish you for trying to escape.”
I snorted at his words. Like fucking hell I was going to come quietly. If he wanted me, he was going to have to fight for it. I stood, bat at the ready, and started toward him. “Get out of my way, Justin. I’m not yours to keep, and I don’t fucking consent.”
Justin sneered. “As if consent matters anymore. Who’s going to stop me, Emmy? You?”
Even though he talked a big game, he eyed the bat nervously and took a step back for every step I took forward.
He was so focused on the threat I posed that he failed to check his surroundings.
Zombies attacked, likely having followed him through the streets.
Justin screamed as they bit into him. He fell to the ground, and as they dug into their latest meal, I darted out of the alley and ran toward the memorial at full speed.
I needed to get back to my people, my family, my guys.