Chapter 27 #2
Rachel doesn’t respond. She’s too overwhelmed with her grief. Tamsin nods and murmurs a quiet thanks before she leads Rachel over to her father while murmuring to her. Once there, Tamsin wraps Rachel in a blanket before doing the same for herself.
I offer Tobias the same, but he refuses, instead saying that he’s going to go find his wife.
I squeeze his shoulder in silent support before he, along with Rachel, Tamsin and Andy, walk out.
Then I move to Ollie. She’s still squeezed between Alex and Theo, although she’s stopped crying.
Now there’s just a desolate expression on her face that cuts me to the core.
“You can go home if you’d like, princess,” I murmur to her, resisting the urge to reach out and touch her. “You don’t need to be here for this.”
She blinks up at me. “For what?” she asks in a dead voice.
Both Alex and Theo wince at her tone, and I’m right there with them.
Fuck it. I reach out and gently brush strands of her chestnut hair from her face before cupping her cheek.
“I’m going to make damn sure that everyone who played a part in aiding this clusterfuck tonight will understand just how fucking unacceptable it was.
They’ll be lucky if I don’t kick them out of Haven.
I don’t care what the Council will think; these people don’t deserve to live in safety when they’ve torn that away from others. ”
At my words, a spark flickers in Ollie’s emerald eyes and some of the desolation morphs into anger. “I want to watch,” she says, her voice almost a snarl as she looks up at me. “I want them to pay for what they did.”
Goddamn. The savage fury on her face is stunning and so much better than the destroyed expression she had earlier.
“They will,” I promise before bending down and pressing my lips against her forehead. “I’ll make damn sure of it.” I’ll do just about anything to never hear her speak in that dead voice again.
Even if that means burning the world around us.
I reluctantly pull myself away from Ollie, even as every part of me wants to stay close to her. From the knowing looks on Theo and Alex’s faces, they can see how much it pains me to walk away from her.
I turn back to the room to see only the security team and the supply team left.
The supply team are lounging in the chairs, looking a little confused but mostly at ease, like they weren’t responsible for the deaths of countless people tonight.
The security team, on the other hand, are glaring at them with a mixture of anger and grief.
“Security team, you’re dismissed,” I bark, knowing that most of them will want to leave.
And they do, hurrying out of the dining room wrapped in blankets and towels with their dirty clothes in hand. No doubt going to find their loved ones. Only a few remain, including Anthony and Simon, and all of them are staring at the supply team with hatred.
The fury I’d shoved to the side bursts inside me like an icy wind, turning my blood to burning ice. I stalk towards the supply team with a rumbling growl I don’t even try to suppress. My control is gone, shattered, and I don’t give a fuck.
“What happened tonight—what you fucking ignorant, idiotic cunts did—has cost this community the lives of several good people,” I snarl as I stand in front of them.
“Because of your cowardice and lack of protocol—protocols that I put in place for a fucking reason—an entire horde was led to our gates.”
Several of the supply team look shocked at my outburst, however, one or two have petulant expressions on their faces. Those are the ones I direct most of my ire towards, especially when one of them has the audacity to complain.
“We weren’t the ones who opened the gate and let the zombies in,” one of the men huffs as he crosses his arms over his chest.
“No, you weren’t,” I concede but I continue, wiping that smug expression off his face.
“But you wanted us to. In fact, I remember you demanding we do that several times, regardless of the horde around you. Not to mention, once the gate was open, you fucking cowards stayed nice and safe in your car instead of helping the people that were dying to save your pathetic asses.”
At least a few of them have the decency to appear remorseful about their actions. Although it enrages me that there are a few still clinging to the idea of this not being their fault.
Especially when the same guy as before speaks up again.
“We were surrounded! What did you expect us to do?” he says as he rolls his eyes. “If we got out of that car, we could have been eaten, too.”
“And nothing of value would have been lost,” Ollie says caustically as she sneers at the man.
His eyes narrow. “Now listen here, you little bi—”
My hand is around his throat before I’ve even realised I moved, squeezing hard enough to cut off his airway.
The man gasps and chokes as he tries to fight against my hold.
“I’d suggest you don’t finish that fucking sentence if you at all value your life,” I snarl, sounding like a savage animal. Honestly, I feel like one too.
His eyes widen and the colour drains from his face as his body trembles in my hold.
A feral grin stretches across my lips at his obvious terror of me. Good. Maybe he’ll take my next threat more seriously.
“If you or anyone else in your shitty band of cowardly men ever try to insult my girl again, I’ll cut your limbs off one by one and then leave you for the infected to eat. Do you understand?”
He opens his mouth and tries to speak, but the hand around his neck prevents away sound. Instead, he nods furiously.
Satisfied that he’ll heed my threat, I throw him to the ground. He collapses, choking and gasping as he clutches his now bruised neck with his hand. The rest of the supply team are staring at me in abject horror, some of them looking like they’re seconds from pissing themselves.
“That threat includes you lot.” I point at them, relishing their squeaks of terror and emphatic nods. With my threats heard, I move back to the main subject of my anger.
“Since you fuckers couldn’t be bothered to follow protocols to keep yourselves and others safe, you’re all off the supply team.
In fact, I’ll make sure you’re assigned to the worst manual labour jobs I can find for the rest of your miserable lives here.
And if you step even a pinky toe out of line, you’ll be thrown out of her faster than you can blink. Understand?”
“I don’t think you have the authority to give out threats like that, Rhys,” Elsa says from behind me.
I glance over my shoulder to see all four Council members standing there, all of them looking shocked and slightly ill.
Well, Elsa and Katherine look ill. Charles looks pissed, and Adam looks almost gleeful at the threat.
He’s also the only one who’s looking a little wary of me, understanding that I am not in the mood for bullshit.
He grabs Elsa’s arm and tugs at her. “Maybe we should—”
“You aren’t the one authorised to kick out people, Rhys. You know this,” Elsa snaps, shrugging Adam off and completely ignoring the warning in his tone. “You’re completely disregarding established rules and guidelines that have been in place since the beginning of Haven’s inception.”
Oh. She wants to talk about ignoring fucking guidelines?
I whirl around and direct my blisteringly cold ire towards her. “Shall we talk about rules and guidelines then, Councillor?” My voice is deceptively soft, but beneath it is a layer of ice.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Adam swallow and Katherine flinch. Charles clenches his jaw and turns his glare toward Elsa. Huh, apparently I’m not the only one pissed off at her. Elsa, however, is blissfully—or stupidly—ignorant of the depth of my fury.
That is until I take a menacing step towards her, using my stature to intimidate as I glare down at her. She pales and shuffles backward, some of her bravado faltering before she steels her spine once again.
“Yes,” she sniffs. “I think we should.”
“Excellent. What should we start with first?
The several protocols I put in place last summer that were completely ignored when those fucking morons behind me drove up to our gate with an entire horde behind them.
Not only that, but then demanded that we let them back inside the gate, regardless of the infected that surrounded them.
“And then, when another person ignored yet another protocol and opened the fucking gate to allow the entire horde inside, these pieces of human excrement, hunkered down in their car like cowards and watched as good people died helping them.”
By the time I’m finished, my hands are shaking and I’m seconds from turning around and beating the ever-loving shit out of the idiots behind me. I don’t think I’ve ever been this out of control.
Adam and Charles are glaring at those behind me in disgust, only now realising the true extent of how much the supply team fucked up. Katherine looks heartbroken, her eyes welling with tears and a hand clutching her throat. Elsa looks a little embarrassed, but I’m not done.
“Of course, all of that’s just about what happened tonight.
If we’re talking about all the ignored protocols, then should I tell you about the fact that no one has done food inventory for several weeks?
That Alex has spent the better part of two days having to go through the pantries and found food missing and undocumented?
“Or that supply teams are going out unprepared, untrained and without the proper supplies needed? What about gate security and how the protocols I put in place, for our fucking safety, are constantly being ignored? Should I go on?”
Elsa’s mouth opens and closes like she’s imitating a fish, but she doesn’t speak. Apparently, I’ve stunned her into silence. Would wonders ever cease?
Charles sighs heavily. “Alright, Rhys, you’ve made your point.”
I shake my head. My anger is still riding me hard, urging me to keep going.
To make them understand just how fucked everything is.
“I don’t think I have. Not just yet.” I step close to Elsa, my eyes boring into hers.
“You want to know how I know I have the power to kick the wank stains behind me from this place?” I ask softly.
She swallows hard and shakes her head, but still doesn’t speak. Her face is as white as a sheet, and she’s trembling. I’d never physically harm her; I’m not that much of a monster. But if she doesn’t know that, then I won’t enlighten her.
I turn my attention to the other three councillors, making sure they all understand what I’m about to say next.
“People hate incompetence, especially from their leaders. The only reason you four have the power you do is because we let you have it. That can all change at a drop of a hat. All I’d need to do is tell them how little you seem to give a shit about their safety and wellbeing.
” I meet every single one of their eyes as understanding dawns on them and they look at me in horror.
“Think on that the next time you try to lecture me about rules and guidelines, councillors.”
And with that, I walk away from them and towards Theo, Alex and Ollie. “Come on, let’s go make sure Andy’s settled into his isolation room before we head home.”
The three of them nod and we head towards the exit. I stop before I leave to look back at the councillors who are all still staring at me in shock. The few security team members left are looking at me with awe and glee, while the supply team looks sick.
“Councillors, I’d suggest you come up with a suitable punishment for the supply team and make sure it’s a good one. My threats aren’t empty.”
I walk out of the building, my fury fizzling into exhaustion, grief and guilt because even after all that, none of this will bring back those we’ve lost tonight. Or who we will lose.