Chapter 18
“Yo, Dig! It’s Glory.” A feminine voice called on the other side of the door. “I need a re-fill. Don’t kill me when I come in.”
Whoever it was—someone called Glory—wriggled the handle.
I bit down on my lower lip and held a passed-out Dig Graves between my legs, making sure his body did not slump on the ground and make noise.
“Hurry up Dig!” They pounded on the door. “I can feel he’s like right behind me. I need to do this quick, unless you want him to find out where your hideout is. Hurry up.”
Keys jangled.
“Uh…” I didn’t know what to do. “Dig Graves isn’t here right now. Please come back at a more convenient time.”
They opened the door.
It was a young woman. Small, slender, fragile, with hair as dark as night pinned back. She wore all black and a pair of aviators hiding her eyes. She pulled down her facemask looking at Dig Graves collapsed with his face between my legs.
She stared at me.
I stared at her.
“I’m not going to ask.” She promptly ignored us and strode to a shelf, snatching whatever she wanted and marched to the door.
“Uh, who are you?” I called out.
“Dig’s sister.”
“He has a sister?”
“I have to go.”
“Wait!”
“Believe me, I’m saving your life by leaving.” She slammed the door closed.
Shopping with Dig Graves proved successful.
After seven years of undertaking Execution Battles, he had amassed decent belongings.
Water, food, clothing, weapons and surprisingly, books.
The Pride and Prejudice novel he asked for this year had a bookmark in chapter twelve.
How he had managed to read this far and kill dozens of inmates and hunt me down was beyond me.
I supposed he had to work quickly. Once the inmates went back into prison, they could not bring anything in with them.
Dig would wake in perhaps five minutes and so I made sure not to waste time and readied myself quickly.
I ensured his restraints were well tied and used a slip knot that would tighten as he wriggled.
He might lose his hands and feet. That was the best I could do for him.
I was not going to end his life and ruin who I was as a human being.
I pulled on my underwear, washed my feet and tied up the boots. I took one of his black shirts out of the suitcase and pulled that on. Black would help me blend into my surroundings. Lastly, I filled my satchel with all that I needed and looked upon Dig Graves.
The hood draped over his head, his sunglasses strapped over his eyes. I bent down, itching my fingers toward his glasses, eager to look upon his face.
He sucked in a sharp breath.
Time to go.
Clinging to the sides of buildings, I made sure to keep my footsteps light and prick my ears for any people that might be nearby.
Blue coated the ceiling of the world, and the clouds did not dare impede it.
A wispy scent of fire cohered in the air from the building burning last night and the lack of smoke told me it had been extinguished.
A bloodied sock lay over a family of popping mushrooms.
I made a mental note of the map Dig had drawn on his wall and scouted into new territory I had not yet explored and found someone to ask for directions.
A man pulled down his pants and had intimate relations with a dead body that he had positioned to bend over on the hood of an old car. He grunted as he thrust and did not pause when I waved to him.
“Good day to you.” I smiled. “I was wondering, could you possibly tell me in which direction the cannibals have set up base?”
Continuing his thrusting and grunting he pointed west.
“Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.”
It did not take long to find them.
Ribcages and severed heads were strung up alongside the warehouse like baubles on a Christmas tree, letting everyone know who had claimed this terrain for themselves.
Not many bothered with the cannibals since they did not usually harbour much as they cared only about feasting on other humans.
Also, they were well known for snatching the young, inexperienced newcomers early and gobbling them up, easily lessening the playing field.
Also, no one wanted to mess around with cannibals.
I tied back my hair.
I was going to mess around with cannibals.
Six in total. I scanned the complex again with the binoculars I had borrowed from Dig Graves and surveyed the inside of the warehouse.
An old welding factory. The upper windows were broken in, offering me an uninterrupted view of the inside after climbing the back end of the building.
They cooked a large pot under a chimney. The stench of corpse rot made me gag.
Tommy was still alive. Trapped in a dog cage in the west corner, hugging into himself. They had three people in total awaiting butchering. Another man cried in the next cage over, and in the third—
“Oh, for goodness’ sake.” I sighed heavily.
Fiona was housed in the third cage. She sat cross-legged being completely and utterly useless. I was hoping to find her after this to assist me in breaking out Tommy. A sling shot would be incredibly useful.
To complete my plan, I needed a second person.
The lesbians did not like me because I refused to eat their cunts, Dig Graves was still sleeping off after eating my own, Fred was dead, Vil wanted me dead… that left one more person.
“Best friend!”
“Shit!” The panty snatcher jumped as I approached.
Hunched over in an alleyway he licked the inside of a plastic water bottle that may or may not have had urine in it. His eyes sunk into his skull and I doubted he was sleeping much. He dropped his urine coated water bottle when seeing me and searched for an exit, finding he was trapped.
“Oh, darling.” I brushed my hair to the side. “You do not appear well. How are things?”
“Get away from me you crazy bitch!”
“I need your assistance.”
“If you come one step closer—”
I did and stabbed his hand into the brick wall and smothered his mouth to keep his shout of agony funnelled down his throat. He withered. With his hand pinned to the wall with my dagger he could not move it, but he melted from the pain, dragging himself down.
Tears pricked his eyes.
Now he was just being mean.
“Shh!” I removed my hand when I was certain he would not shout again. “There are a lot of horrible people around here.” I pulled out my next blade and threatened to stab his other hand into the wall. “You don’t want to draw attention; they might do horrible things to you.”
He prayed to Jesus.
Very rude.
Jesus was nowhere to be found but I was right in front of him eager for conversation.
“Best friend.” I clicked my fingers in front of his glassy eyes. “I need your help.”
“Please don’t kill me.”
“Oh, I will not kill you, I am a good person.”
He blinked up to his bloody hand pinned with my dagger. “I’m going to die.”
I smiled with all my teeth to show him my sincerity.
He cried more.
“We need to save Tommy,” I said. “Oh, and by extension, we will also need to save Fiona. Both. Two people. Remember this. Are you listening?”
He pissed himself.
“Good. Now, listen well. Tommy and Fiona have been taken by the cannibals.”
“I’m not messing with the cannibals,” he slobbered out. “Are you crazy? Well, I mean yeah, you’re crazy. But I’m not crazy. I’m not doing crazy shit.”
I patted his shoulder. “It’s what best friends do for each other.”
“Oh, my god.”
“We must save Tommy. I do not think he is Soulless. He should not be in here.”
“I don’t care about some Tommy.”
“I'm currently ovulating. You can have my panties.”
“Yeah, I’ll help you.”