A year ago
"Connor, don't."
"Oh, please. He just wants to hang out." He waved off the young girl.
"He stole my basket."
"You don't know that. Could 'a' been a squirrel."
"I really doubt it was a squirrel, or a bird or anything else you try to pull out of your ass. He's bad news. Please don't let him up."
"It's fine, you and I can take him."
"Doubtful."
He dropped the ladder anyways.
Ian climbed up.
"Thanks. Gonna invite me in?"
His smile was fake. Something was definitely not right.
"Of course, make yourself at home."
The men went inside.
Conner saw a bulge in the back of the man's jeans.
"Damn it Connor." She whispered.
She was paralyzed, unsure what to do. What if he just carried a gun on him wherever he went? Besides, Connor said he had to save him, and if this guy had bullets he would've saved himself, right?
Hesitantly, she went inside.
The men were talking about food.
"Yeah, we've got lots." Connor boasted. "We've got a greenhouse just a little ways away."
"That's cool." The man's pinkie twitched.
"Connor, he's got a gun."
He glanced at his sister. Her eyes were filled with fear and locked onto the man.
His focus turned back to the man.
"Where's this garden, exactly?"
"Why?"
Ian sighed and reached behind him. His hand came back with a gun.
"I'm not going to ask again."
The air in the home ran cold.
Connor had never had his life threatened before. But strangely he wasn't afraid.
"Nice try, but I don't buy it."
The man backed up a bit and his aim swung over to the girl. He tilted his head.
"Fine. I'll show you."
"No funny stuff."
"No funny stuff." Connor repeated, showing his understanding.
Ian held the girl by the back of her neck. She didn't like feeling of his sweaty hands on her.
Connor led the way, every few seconds glancing back with an apologetic look to his sister. She didn't care. She just wanted this guy gone.
"I'm sorry about this, really. I have a group and my kid to feed. It's nothing personal, really. It's just the way it has to be."
Conner cussed the man out in her head.
They arrived at the covered greenhouse.
"I see. Is it locked?"
"No."
They went inside. The man looked around.
"Happy? Now let her go."
"Not quite. Get me some of those apples."
Connor went up the step ladder and reached for one.
Ian moved the gun away from the girl's head.
"Connor!"
A deafening blast sounded next her ear.
Connor fell from the ladder.
The girl was pushed to her knees on gravel floor of the greenhouse.
"I changed my mind. You get the apples."
Conner couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. She felt like throwing up everything inside of her.
"Move. Now." He kicked her in the back. She caught herself with her hands. She got up. Went up the step ladder. Picked the eight apples he asked for, and placed them in a burlap sack next to the tree. Handed it over.
"Good girl. If only my daughter did what I asked her, too." He chuckled.
Kill him. Kill him, baby C. She heard Connor's voice in her head.
"I'll let you live. But only because you remind me of my girl. If I ever see you again, I might not be so lenient."
He backed out and left. And that was that.
She went to her brother.
There was an oozing red dot on his temple. His eyes still open.
She closed them.
"Soon Connor, soon."
She started to dig his grave that day. She dug until dark. Hid his body so the deadheads couldn't get to it. She kept digging for a month. It got to the point she had to bring a ladder in order to get out.
One day when she came to dig, she found a deadhead had fallen in. It was completely helpless. She watched it. Studied the way it clawed the dirt beneath her feet. Then pulled out her slingshot and fired a marble through it's weak skull.
She rolled her brother's body.
She came back the next day to find two more deadheads had come for him.
She shot both of them.
Kill him. For me, Conner. Ta mer est plus profonde dans la nuit.
She then spoke her first words in a month.
"I'll kill them all."