Chapter 35
Don't React
Olivia
The pain ricocheting through my skull rips me from darkness.
I sit up with a strangled gasp, only to groan and slam my eyes closed again as the blinding sunlight streaming through a smashed window makes the splitting pain in my head worse. Everything aches, and the cold sinking into me from the hard floor beneath me isn’t helping.
What the hell happened? Did I get drunk or something last night? This feels like a hangover, only ten times worse. Although I don’t remember drinking…
I try to bring a hand up to rub my head, only for something hard to cut into my wrist, keeping it in place at the small of my back. Something metallic clinks, the sound echoing off the walls, and a sense of wrongness and foreboding slithers down my spine.
My eyes fly open.
The room is unfamiliar, dank and freezing cold.
The floor is rough concrete that’s worn and pitted, and the walls are bare breeze blocks.
Cobwebs hang from the ceiling, only adding to the creepy vibes of the room.
A metal garage door takes up the entire wall on my left and is crusted with something rust-coloured that I refuse to examine further.
On the other side of the room is a small wooden door, the wood heavily scarred with what looks to be claw marks…
I swallow hard and snap my gaze away, only to find Rhys lying on the ground opposite me. I gasp and try to stand, but my legs give way beneath me. So with my hands cuffed behind my back, the only thing I can do is knee-walk awkwardly over to him.
The first thing I do is make sure he’s still breathing, and thankfully, he is. There’s a nasty wound on his temple, the cut crusted with dried blood as a black and blue bruise swells around it. Other bruises mar his neck and jaw, and like me, his hands are restrained behind his back.
It’s only then that the memories of what happened hit.
The Scourge attacking Haven and somehow finding their way past the walls.
Rhys and I leaving the gate after realising there’s no bomb threat to go find Alex and Theo, only to run into more Scourge.
Rhys saving me from the guy holding me at knifepoint, only to have a knife pressed into his gut while he shouts at me to run. But I didn’t and now…
Now we’re at the mercy of those monsters.
God, Alex and Theo must be beside themselves with worry. My brother, Rachel and everyone else have no idea what’s happened to us or where we are. That’s if they survived the attack or realised we’re missing…
Panic and hopelessness tighten my chest, making it hard to breathe.
I clench my hands into fists behind my back, using the bite of pain from my fingernails digging into my palms to keep me grounded.
Losing my head won’t help me survive this situation.
Instead, I look for anything that I can use to get us out of these cuffs.
Unfortunately, aside from me and Rhys, the garage is empty.
Rhys stirs with a groan and my attention snaps back to him.
“Rhys?” I gently nudge him with my knee. “Wake up.”
He groans again and his eyelashes flutter before he opens those familiar amber eyes.
Only they’re clouded with a mixture of pain and grogginess.
“Ollie?” He jerks his hand, only to frown when it meets the resistance of the metal handcuffs.
“What…?” He blinks and glances around, his eyes widening when he takes in the room. “Oh, fuck.”
I nod because that’s about the only appropriate response for the situation we’re in.
“Are you injured?” he asks, dragging those amber eyes over my body.
I’m grateful he doesn’t ask if I’m okay, because there is nothing okay about where we are. “I have a headache and I’m a little sore, but nothing feels broken or anything.”
“Good,” he grunts and tries to sit up. But the wound on his head must make him dizzy because he moans out a curse and immediately plops back down onto the cold, hard concrete.
I shuffle closer to him until my knees are close to his head. “Here, put your head in my lap. It’ll be more comfortable than the floor.”
He clenches his jaw and hesitates before sighing and heaving himself up until his head lands on my thighs. With his head in a more comfortable position, the tension melts from his back and shoulders, and he breathes out a sigh. “Do you know anything about where we might be?”
I shake my head, then immediately regret it as the world swims. Ugh.
I blink a few times until I no longer feel like I’m sitting on a boat in the middle of the ocean.
“Just that we’re in a garage somewhere.” The broken window in the garage door is too high for me to see out of, even if I could stand.
Rhys will have better luck reaching it, but he’s struggling to be upright, let alone stand.
He grunts as he glances around the barren room, his gaze assessing. I can see the cogs turning in his mind, no doubt trying to figure a way out of this mess with both of us alive. While it’s a shitty thought, I’m glad I’m not in this situation alone.
“No one’s visited?”
“I was only awake for a few minutes before you.”
He grunts, his eyes lingering on the broken window for a moment. “Judging from how high the sun is in the sky, it’s around midday, which means it’s been at least eighteen hours since we were abducted.”
“How far from Haven do you think we are?” Eighteen hours gives the Scourge plenty of time to cart us far from the community, making our escape even less likely to succeed.
“I don’t think we’re that far.”
“How do you know that?” I glance around the room again, wondering if I missed some hidden clue. But there’s nothing but bare concrete, breeze block walls and those damned stains on the garage door.
“This place has been used before.” He inclines his head towards the claw marks on the wooden door and the stains.
“Which means it’s a safe house or base of operations of some sort.
Combine that with the missing people from the supply teams, which I’m now certain is the Scourge’s handiwork, and I think we’re only about an hour or so from Haven. ”
My eyebrows shoot upward. He got all of that from some stains and marks on a door?
His lips twist into a wry smile at my expression. “This isn’t the first time I’ve ended up a captive in enemy hands.”
I eye him. “During your service?” I ask hesitantly.
He nods curtly, darkness seeping into his eyes. “It was my second mission and let’s just say, it didn’t go to plan.” He averts his gaze and, without warning, shoves himself upright.
I curse and scramble over to wedge myself behind him, supporting him as he sways precariously. “A warning would have been nice,” I grumble. “Last thing we need is for you to add to the concussion you probably already have.”
His pale face contorts into a grimace, but he doesn’t protest.
We stay like that for a few minutes, the warmth from his solid body offering a little comfort.
But it barely touches the chill that’s settled deep into my bones, both from the icy air and the knowledge that we’re captives of monsters.
It’s only once he’s steady that he shifts away from me and shuffles over to the garage door first.
I move over to the wall and watch him, staying silent as he examines it before grunting and moving to the wooden door.
Every now and again, I see him pull at the handcuffs and then curse when his hand doesn’t move, almost as if he forgets they’re cuffed behind his back.
After investigating the door, he shuffles back over to me and leans against the wall with a pained grunt.
“We’re going to have to wait,” he says with a heavy sigh and closes his eyes, exhaustion etched onto his face.
I figured as much. Even if there was something in here to help us pick the lock, our hands being cuffed behind our backs makes that impossible. Plus, we’re still shaky and weak; both from our injuries and the lack of food and water. Our best bet will be to wait for an opportunity.
I shift, getting more comfortable as the silence stretches between us.
My eyelids grow heavier with each minute, the adrenaline and panic that had been powering me earlier dissipating as nothing happens.
I’m not sure how long we doze against the wall before I hear the first sound of footsteps outside the door.
We both jerk awake.
Rhys snaps his gaze to me, his amber eyes blazing with a mixture of protectiveness, frustration and dread. “Whatever happens once they come in, you need to not react,” he hisses as the lock clicks.
My eyes widen in confusion and horror. “Wha—”
He cuts me off. “Doesn’t matter what they say or do; do not react.” He turns just as the door swings open.
Three figures step through, all three towering above us as they stop in front of our outstretched legs. The middle figure I recognise immediately, still wearing that smug smirk as he peers down at us. The other two men are unfamiliar, but sporting similar expressions on their faces.
“So glad you see you’re both alive and awake,” Luke says in that annoying mocking voice. “How are you enjoying your accommodation?”
Rhys says nothing. He just glares up at the three men. I follow his lead, not in the mood to take whatever bait Luke is laying out in front of us and trusting that Rhys knows how to deal with men like him.
Luke heaves out a long-suffering sigh, sounding almost like a disappointed parent.
“And here I thought at least one of you might be entertaining enough to be worthwhile. No matter. I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re here…
” He trails off and peers at us expectantly, almost like he’s waiting for one of us to react.
Neither of us do.
His lips tighten and something flickers in his dark eyes but it’s gone before I can put my finger on what it is.
“Wow, you two are turning out to be massive disappointments.” He shakes his head.
“The entire reason you’re here is because you were sold to me—well, Rhys was sold to me, you’re just a freebie.
” He flicks his gaze to me, silently assessing my reaction, but I just continue to glare at him.
He huffs. “So boring. But anyway, you’re here because you have information that I want, and I plan to get that info by any means necessary.
So I suggest you learn to be interesting really quickly because I’m not known for my patience.
And don’t worry, I’m a feminist. You’ll be treated the same as your companion, freebie.
” His smirk turns sinister, and it’s all I can do not to shudder as ice cold fear trickles down my spine.
There’s something off about this man. Something that has alarm bells blaring in the back of my head and the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.
It reminds me a little of the cruelty Ethan possessed beneath his thin nice-guy veneer, only far darker and more dangerous.
There’s a monster lurking inside him, one far worse than any zombie or gang member we’ve come across before.
As quick as a snake, his foot lashes out, slamming into Rhys’s vulnerable midsection. Rhys coughs and groans as he curls in on himself while I barely bite back a shocked gasp.
His earlier words ring in my ear; whatever happens once they come in, you need to not react. Did he know this was going to happen? Is he expecting worse shit to happen? My stomach roils with nausea at the thought.
Luke’s grin turns manic as he stares gleefully at Rhys while he struggles to breathe and straighten. “Maybe this’ll be more fun than I thought.” He flicks his gaze to the two men standing on either side of him. “Strip them.”
The men on either side of him chuckle lewdly and whip out knives, eager to do his bidding.
Every muscle in my body tenses and horror washes over me at his words. Rhys’s eyes meet mine, my terror mirrored in his gaze, but he gives a slight shake of his head. Don’t react, he tells me without words, but how can I not when a man coming at me with a knife, intending to strip me bare?
Bile burns my throat and I blink back tears as the gang member crouches in front of me and starts slicing away at my clothes.
My shirt is the first thing that goes, followed quickly by my bra, and I shudder in revulsion as the blade of the knife brushes against my nipples.
The lecherous grin on the man’s face only adds to my disgust and humiliation as my jeans and underwear are sliced from my body, leaving me naked.
I shiver, both from the icy air and the horrifying vulnerability of being stripped naked in front of several men without my consent.
They leer at me, making me feel dirty and used in a way I’ve never experienced before.
Not even when men I’ve fucked have turned around and told me I’d never be anything but a good lay.
That my hands are tied behind my back and I can’t use them to cover myself only makes it worse.
Luke stands back and hums in satisfaction as he surveys us both. “You’re definitely easier on the eyes, freebie,” he taunts. “Much better than this scarred fucker.” He kicks Rhys’s foot with a laugh. “Although from what Ethan told me, you’re not entirely pristine either, are you?”
In a blink, he has his hand wrapped around my ankle and yanks savagely.
My bare back and hands slide painfully against the pitted concrete and my head bounces off the floor, causing my vision to darken for a moment as agony bursts from the back of my head.
I think I hear Rhys growl, but it’s too faint over the mocking laughs from our captors and my pained gasp.
“Seems like both of you are scarred. How sad,” Luke says, but it’s hard to concentrate on his voice when my head is pounding. “Take him. Leave the girl.”
Take him? No! Not Rhys!
I try to move, but my body refuses to cooperate, so I just flop on the ground uselessly, the pounding in my head getting worse. I blink and Luke’s manically grinning face fills my darkening vision.
“I’ll be back for you later,” he says with a sinister chuckle that would make any supervillain proud before disappearing from view.
A few moments later, the door slams shut and the lock clicks, leaving me alone, naked and in pain.
Misery, panic and horror press down on me, clogging my throat as I struggle to breathe beneath the weight.
But none of it is directed at me. No, I’m terrified for Rhys and hating the fact that there’s nothing I can do to save him.
All I can do is lie here and pray he comes back to me as I slip into unconsciousness.