CHAPTER ELEVEN: 10 HOURS 20 MINUTES
Dekka's head was pounding. Dried blood was on her wrists and her face; she could feel something broken down in her ankle region. Every breath sent a body shaking wave of pain down her body.
She had an exposed wound somewhere but she couldn't tell. "Wakey wakey," the whip sounded like a sonic boom and she felt pain pop across her heart like a million firecrackers going off at once.
But Dekka remained silent aside from a whimper.
Where were they?
She could tell some time had passed, she could see a small sliver of daylight shining in through a crack in the roof. But where was there?
Turning her head shook loose some of her broken teeth, she spit them on the ground. She heard a sick crunching noise as it dawned on her that someone was eating her teeth. There was a low belch close to her face that made her stomach curl. "That was delicious," Drake was so close anger was the only thing keeping her alive.
She heard someone else stir.
She wasn't alone.
"Ungh…"
"Well, well," Drake laughed in the darkness "the gang's all here. Now, roll call."
No one spoke.
Drake's whip snapped and someone screamed. It was Brianna. Dekka pulled at her arms to see they were tied behind her back with ropes that cut into her wrists so deep she couldn't feel her fingertips. "Roll call," he said more urgently.
"Brianna."
"Good…now you…" he said to someone on her far left "go on…don't be shy."
CRAACK!
"Edilio."
"Next…"
"Sanjit."
"Lana."
"Jack."
"And finally…"
CRAACK!
Dekka tasted bile in the back of her throat.
"And finally…" he leered. She saw his sinister shark like smile in the near darkness.
CRAAACK! That last hit slammed her head against the wall.
"Dekka," she snarled.
"Excellent!" Drake said slapping his whip hand on the ground. "Now for the next oh…rest of your lives, we're going to have fun. Isn't that great? Cheer." No one spoke. Drake whipped Jack so hard she heard his glasses shatter to the ground. "Cheer."
"Hooray," Jack said through tears and sobs, everyone said the same except Dekka. She wouldn't be broken. Not by him of all people. She couldn't raise her hands and kill the gravity but she wondered if Jack could pull apart his ropes.
Were they all in ropes?
No. Drake was too smart to put them all in ropes; he probably wrapped chains around Jack's wrist. This couldn't be the end. She knew in her heart that this wasn't supposed to be this way. She had to survive, they had to survive.
They had to.
Dekka didn't believe in God but she believed in goodness. And she knew good would always overcome evil. She could still hold onto that. Dekka felt a tear fall down her cheek and then Drake's tongue lapping it up like a dog. "Your tears sustain me," he chuckled.
"Boy, I have been waiting to do this for a long time," he wrapped his whip hand around her neck and lifted her off the ground. Dekka screamed but no noise would come out. Her head pounded hard, her lung sucked on nothing. Drake raised her higher and then-
"NOW!" that voice. Who? Dekka fell to the ground, her throat sore and raw. Drake shrieked. CRAACK!
Someone hit the ground.
"What in the-"
BLAM!
A flash of light. She saw Ellen and a large shape pressing Drake against a wall. Someone touched her shoulder and the world around her shifted. She was sitting in the power plant. "Emily?"
Emily tied her brown hair in a ponytail and vanished. She returned moments later with Brianna and Sanjit and Edilio. "What? Who?" Sanjit was in tears. Brianna's face was bright red.
"TAKE ME BACK!" she roared. "TAKE ME BACK!"
"Breeze cool it," Dekka snarled. "You're going to get killed-"
"DRAKE!" Brianna screamed louder. She took off. Dekka killed the gravity, Brianna spun around in the air for a few seconds before punching the air. "LET ME GO! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!" she spun faster but Dekka kept her stance.
Emily returned again with Jack, Lana and Ellen. Ellen was holding a bloody gun. "Get Orc!" she ordered.
Emily was gone yet again. Brother stepped out from the shadows and passed around a jug of water. "Ellen saw you guys," he said. "Sh-she found us and-"
"SHUT UP!" Brianna cried louder. "Let me down Dekka!"
"Not until you cool it," Dekka shouted. "Us arguing with each other won't solve anything!"
"You guys," Edilio started to say but realized there was no point. He collapsed to the floor and held his face in his hands.
Emily returned with Orc who was cradling Drake in his massive arms. Drake's tentacle was gone but he was still thrashing and screaming as his body became flabbier. Emily stared at the others. "This being a hero thing sucks," she said before falling to the ground.
The others stared as a one armed Brittney slowly emerged. She looked scared. Good. Dekka let Brianna down and slapped Brittney across the face. "My God won't have this," Brittney spat. "You will all pay."
"Hey bitch?" Brianna tore the shotgun from Ellen's hand. "See you in Hell." She shot Brittney in the face twice. Brittney stood standing but her tongue was moving around as she tried to make words. Orc grabbed her neck and her legs and pulled-
There was a sickening squelch that would haunt Dekka until the day she died.
Brittney's nonfunctioning organs lied on the ground in tiny stinking piles, writhing like worms. Orc threw one half of Brittney to the ground and bit into the half with her face and torso, blood covered the bottom of his face. No one said anything. No one stopped him. No one was even breathing.
Instead they watched.
They watched Orc do the awful thing to Brittney. Astrid probably would've stopped him. Sam probably would've made it quicker. But Dekka didn't care. She was the only one who watched through till the end.
She didn't know how Orc's insides worked but he was ripping and shredding Brittney to pieces, eating her bones and all. It was horrifying and to some strange degree she loved every second of it. A weight was lifted off her shoulders.
Brother threw up on the ground and Sanjit wouldn't stop crying, he turned to Lana but she wouldn't touch him. Lana handed Orc a jug of water.
Orc wiped his mouth, drained it and then belched for a long time.
"Well," Lana said. "Pardon you."