The Last Will – Chapter Thirteen: Where We've Been

Thanks to Old School Assassin and a guest for revewing.

Samson could whistle and Maggie couldn't. Eve could roll her tongue, Isaac could snap his fingers on his left hand, but not his right, and Judas came to the unhappy conclusion that he was slightly near-sighted. Cain, even at Eve's insistence, refused glumly to partake in the groups 'rediscovery' of their innate talents. He didn't think their shared amnesia was something to be joked about.

"We aren't joking about it!" Argued Maggie, momentarily pausing her attempts to whistle. "We're just killing time by figuring out who we are. Aren't you a little curious about yourself?"

Cain only shrugged in response and Judas stifled a snigger.

"The more I find out about myself the less I think I'm starting to like." Judas said, squinting forward into the inky blackness of the catacombs. "How the hell am I going to find glasses down here?"

"You never know what could be in one of those chests." Answered Isaac, from the front of the group. "And it's not that bad, is it? You can still see the important stuff. You didn't even notice until now."

"True." Judas scrubbed his nose. "It's just… a little off-putting."

The truth was, one of Judas's biggest worries was that he'd become more of a burden than an asset, and while mildly sub-par eyesight might be negligible in any other situation, every day in the catacombs was life and death. Not to mention the fact that his arm was still useless. Compared to his able-bodied friends, he felt already like a walking corpse, much like the ones his friends had been slaughtering easily for some time now. He was bitter and frustrated, and Maggie's fruitless and insistent attempts to whistle were getting on his nerves.

"All the important stuff is up close anyways." Continued Isaac, still trying to reassure his friend. "If there's anything far away that needs to be looked at, we'll let you know."

"Thanks." Judas grumbled. They continued onward in silence, or near silence. Maggie continued to blow softly through her lips until Judas eventually snapped at her. "Could you cut that out?" He demanded. "It's annoying."

"You can't even hear anything." Responded Maggie shrewdly. "I'm not bothering you."

"Yes, you are. Just give it a rest. I feel a headache coming on."

Maggie let out a small 'humph' and folded her arms, glaring at Judas out of the corner of her eye. She could sense his agitation and insecurity, and made a vow to confront him about it later when the chance arose. Calling him out in front of the whole group would probably only make him angrier, and there was enough of that going around already. Still, she couldn't help a small jab:

"You're just upset because you can't do it either." She said with a small laugh. "I guess we're just going to have to accept that we're both a couple of talentless…"

She trailed off as Isaac led the group through a doorway, following another Eden Arrow, and into another corridor. It was like any of the other passages before, save for the soft glow of a singular torch, held in the raised hand of an unfamiliar woman.

"People." Finished Maggie quietly, as the group stared at the woman and vice versa.

The stranger held the torch high, so that the flames tickled the ceiling, and narrowed her eyes. She was tall, almost as tall as Cain, with long dark hair tied back from her face, revealing a set of stitches below her right eye. She had obviously been recently cut there by something. Her pants were dirty with worn knees and her arms were bare, despite the cold. In the hand not holding the torch, dangled a bloody sack, and a peculiar weapon was slung across her back, a crossbow if Isaac had to guess.

Cain drew his revolver.

"Easy now." Said Isaac, stepping towards the woman slowly, hands out, palms open. "We didn't mean to startle you."

"Well, you did." She responded. Her voice had a deep, hoarse quality to it. As if she'd worn it out by screaming. "What's a big group like you doing sneaking around out here?"

"We aren't sneaking- Cain put down the gun for goodness sake." Isaac shot his companion a look, but Cain's aim refused to waver.

The woman shifted her attention to her aggressor, locking stares with the one-eyed man. Slowly, a wide grin split her face, opening up a sore on her lip that oozed a droplet of blood.

"Look at you." She chuckled, relaxing her posture. "All tall, dark, and frowning." She reached up and tapped at the wound below her eye. "I guess some of us are more lucky than others. Haha. I don't see how one girl against six of you is a threat, but sure, keep pointing that gun at me if it makes you feel more secure." She twisted and spit a glob of saliva against the wall. "My name's Joanna and I can already tell that you guys aren't going to kill me."

"How?" Asked Cain.

"You don't have the mark." She tapped her face again, this time on the curve of her cheek. "You aren't one of them."

"The Disciples?" Asked Isaac.

Joanna cocked her head to the side, suddenly contemplative.

"Is that what you call them? Makes sense, I suppose. We always just called them 'the marked ones'. I dunno which is a more creepy name honestly."

"We've heard about them from other people. Who are they? What do they do? What do you mean by 'we'?" Isaac asked in quick succession.

Joanna laughed.

"Holy shit. What are you? The interrogator? You got a lot of questions, well so do I."

"Like what?"

"Let's start with names." She pointed. "You're Isaac and you're Cain. Who's that with the stupid hat?"

"My name is Judas, and it's a fez." Stated Judas coldly.

"And the rest are Maggie, Samson, and Eve." Isaac listed off the rest of his friends. "We're all just making our way through the maze, trying not to cause any trouble and making friends where we can. Hopefully we're off to a good start here."

"There are worse ways to meet someone." Agreed Joanna, still eyeing Cain. He had lowered his weapon by now, but still rested his hand on his holster. Joanna's lip twitched again. "Look, Isaac." She turned to the leader. "You obviously don't know a whole lot about what's going on down here and that's understandable. I want to help you out, but the truth is that there's someone else who'd probably be much better at explaining it all."

"One of your friends?" Asked Maggie hopefully. "How many of you are there?"

Compared to everyone else the group had ran into so far, Joanna was by far the nicest, and Maggie couldn't help but hope that there would others like her nearby.

"Just two of us." Answered Joanna. Her sharp eyes flickered to each of the dirty, haggard group in turn before finally setting her sights again on Isaac. With a sigh, she fastened to bloody sack to her belt. "I could… take you to him if you like."

"You'd do that?" Asked Isaac.

"Well, like I already said: I'm pretty sure you guys aren't going to kill me. I mean, look at ya." Joanna chuckled again. "One-armed, one-eyed, dirty, and pitiful. You would have put a bullet in me already if you were of the Marked Ones. Also, this one…" She leaned forward and smirked at Eve. "Is probably about the cutest little button I ever did see. How's the weather down there, tiny?"

Samson and Maggie laughed at this, whilst Eve just scowled. It was a little joke, all in good fun, but Eve took an immediate dislike to Joanna regardless. She was too relaxed, not bubbly like Maggie, but… over-confident was the only word Eve could think of. Joanna was cocky, almost at home in the maze, and that was quickly added to the steadily-growing list of things in the catacombs that made Eve very uneasy.

"We swear that you won't regret it." Continued Isaac, drawing the attention back to himself. "We'll do whatever we can to finally get some answers. If you know things that we don't, or vice versa, maybe we can help each other out."

"Yeah, well I hope we're everything you hoped and dreamed for." Straightening up, Joanna motioned for everyone to follow her. "Come on. Let's get going. The longer we stand around her jerking off the better chance something real bad could sneak up on us."

Isaac immediately followed, with Samson, Maggie, and Judas quick to follow. Cain and Eve exchanged a quick look. They both knew what the other was thinking.

"Both eyes open." Reminded Cain.

"Yeah." Said Eve as the two of them trailed behind the group. "Of course."

Joanna led them through the catacombs quickly, whipping around corners and sliding through doors, not looking back once to see if the others were following. She had clearly traversed these parts of the maze many times before and had committed them to memory. She could probably find her way around blind if she had to, feeling the walls with the tips of her fingers for guidance.

"You'll like Matty." She spoke over her shoulder. "He's a bit of a screwball, but that's just because he's about as smart as they come. He might be a little nervous around yall, but he'll warm up quick. Don't worry."

"It's just the two of you?" Asked Samson, who was following the closest.

"Yup. I found him almost on day one. He's got loads of uses, real smart, like I said." Joanna reached back and patted the crossbow hanging from her shoulder. "He built this from a pile of scraps."

"Really? Wow. That's impressive."

And it was. The crossbow was made of twisted rebar and other assorted, jagged metal. The stock was wrapped tightly in cloth to dull the sharp edges and the drawstring was made of some sort of wire, thin and shiny. An assortment of bolts hung from Joanna's hip, mostly wood with some metal. Isaac, who was behind Samson, watched the sharpened points of the projectiles glisten in the light of Joanna's torch.

"I know, right? Truth is that I'd probably be dead without him, but then again, he'd also be dead without me. We're a team, you know?"

"Exactly." Agreed Samson, thinking of his own friends. Unlike Eve, he could already tell that he was going to like Joanna. She was strong-willed and full of spirit. Samson's time along with Cain had starved him of this sort of interaction and he craved it. He was happy to meet someone who seemed to have the same fire that burned in his own blood, urging him to keep pushing no matter what.

Joanna led them into another room and towards a nearby wall. It was grey stone, like everything else, but sported a gigantic crack in it's face, reaching from floor to ceiling. It was wide enough for a person to squeeze through, and that's exactly what Joanna did without hesitation.

Isaac, after giving a curt nod to Samson, followed and pushed his way through the stone. The edges of the crack were rough and they snagged at his clothes and skin, but he shimmied through regardless. He could see light, glowing, on the other side.

When he finally squirmed out the other side, he found himself to be in a moderately-sized cave, probably four yards wide at it's widest point. The floor was sandy and soft, unlike the stone floor elsewhere, and the walls were covered with many pictograms drawn with dark chalk. Isaac recognized the drawings as floor patterns and… if you could believe it, an honest to god calendar, with days and weeks ticked off. A number of boxes were stacked against the wall, full of miscellaneous goods, and a pair of twin side passages forked off into different directions at the far end of the cave. There, in the very middle of the sandy floor, was Joanna and the friend they had come to meet.

Joanna spoke swiftly into her companion's ear and he set his gaze upon Isaac.

"Hello." He began, as Isaac's friends joined them beyond the crevice. "Joanna tells me that you're friends."

"Yes, we are." Agreed Isaac, stepping forward with his hand outstretched. "My name is Isaac and these are my friends."

"Mathew." Responded the man and he shook Isaac's hand.

Mathew was dark-skinned, with slicked-back hair and a wide brow. He was short too, barely up to Joanna's shoulder, who stood by his side. Compared to Isaac's group and even his own companion, he looked positively immaculate, with a clean shirt, a freshly-shaven face, and a distinct lack of dark rings under his eyes. Isaac noticed immediately that Mathew's other hand had it's fingers wrapped tightly around a make-shift wooden cane, supporting the weight that would usually be held by his twisted, and awkwardly bent leg.

Mathew caught Isaac staring.

"One of the monsters got me a few weeks back." He explained quickly, tapping his heel with the butt of his cane. "I would be a pile of dusty bones somewhere if it weren't for Joanna."

"You still are a pile of dusty bones, Matty." Chuckled Joanna, elbowing her friend in the ribs before moving about the cave. She rested her crossbow against the wall and pulled the bloody sack from her waist, overturning it on the ground. A multitude of animal carcasses fell to the ground, rats and even a few stray rabbits, freshly killed.

Judas, who was standing behind Isaac, perked up at the sight of the animals.

"You were hunting." He stated, stepping forward. "Where did you find those rabbits? We've seen nothing but rats the whole time we've been down here."

"Yeah, rats are everywhere. You've got to know where to look to find the bigger stuff." Joanna pulled a knife from one of the stacked boxes and began skinning the animals. "Rabbits, dogs, snakes. They're all out there."

"Trapped." Muttered Judas. "Just like us."

Maggie averted her eyes as Joanna worked. She hadn't been faced with such a gruesome display since her own stabbing at the hands of the kidnappers. The smell of fresh guts and blood made her head swim and she positioned herself on the far side of the group.

"Is that all you were able to find?" Asked Mathew, pulling his gaze away from Isaac momentarily to consult his friend. "Last time you brought back twice as much."

"Well, I was sort of interrupted midway through my trip." Joanna waved her knife vaguely towards Isaac's group. "I'll head back out in a bit, after we get these newbies settled in."

Mathew's nose twitched at that and he returned his attention to Isaac, straitening his back and looking him firmly in the eye.

"Yes, speaking of which." He cleared his throat. "I hope this doesn't come off as rude, but what are you doing here? I trust Joanna to show good judgment when revealing the location of our home, but we don't have the food to support six more bodies and living space is cramped as it is."

"It doesn't look very cramped to me." Eve spoke up. She pointed towards the far end of the cave, where the cave forked off in two directions. "What's down there?"

"Storage." Answered Mathew immediately. "And auxiliary exits. You don't think we squeezed all these supplies through that crack, do you? We keep the primary entrance sealed-off most of the time. Keeps us from being bothered."

As he finished his sentence, he shot a quick glance across each member of the group, as if silently asking which one of them would cause the most trouble. Isaac felt that then was a good time to give his piece.

"We bumped into Joanna in the maze." He explained. "We've been walking for what feels like forever. She's the first person that we've found who didn't try to kill us first thing."

"Besides each other, of course."

"Yeah."

Mathew rubbed his chin and regarded the group for the umpteenth time.

"Would you like to sit down?" He eventually asked.

"Please."

Mathew motioned with his hand and led the group over towards the nearest wall, where he sank with a groan onto one of the boxes, extending his wounded leg outwards and rubbing absentmindedly at the muscles. Joanna finished her work then and piled up her hunt in the corner.

"I'm heading back out." She said, snatching her crossbow from where she'd left it. "Yall have fun chatting."

"Wait." Isaac called stopped her. "Would you like some help? I don't think talking will take all six of us and I'd be great if you could teach some of us how to hunt properly."

Joanna laughed, loudly, using her whole stomach.

"Can any of you guys keep up?" She smirked.

"We can." Responded Isaac confidently.

"Well, alright then." Joanna shrugged. A few extra hands wouldn't hurt and the truth was, she was a little curious about Isaac's group as well. Exploring the catacombs together was the perfect way to get to know someone, at least in her mind. She pointed to two of the group in turn. "Eye-patch and… Muscles. You guys come with me."

Cain and Samson moved to follow her and Eve rose as well.

"I'll come too." She offered.

"No. Three's a good number, four and we'd probably scare off all the food." Joanna smirked again. Eve was really starting to dislike that look. "Besides, we wouldn't want you getting hurt, right?"

Eve's eyes narrowed and she felt a prickle of heat creep across her shoulders and neck. She imagined, for a moment, Joanna's crooked grin being crushed between two massive, clawed hands, before her corpse was upturned to pour liters of blood into a wide mouth and gullet. There was an odd moment where Eve could hear muffled voices, the others were talking and she was still standing, glaring at Joanna, with the heat rolling in her chest.

"Are you alright here, Matty?" Asked Joanna of her friend.

Eve threw herself to the ground against the wall, on the far edge of the group, and tried to school her breathing.

"Of course. Go and be careful." Mathew answered with a smile. "I'll tend to our friends here and tonight, we can feast!"

No one noticed Eve and she counted that as a blessing. She just needed a second of peace to collect herself. Her breathing, which had become labored, began to even out and the heat in her stomach began to dissipate slowly, like a ember burning out amongst charred wood.

It had been well over a week since her last transformation. She wasn't about to break that streak here, amongst her friends, over something so stupid. Swallowing hard, Eve brushed her bangs from her forehead and rejoined the world.

Joanna exited the cave through the crack in the wall again, with Cain and Samson following close behind. As the left, the remaining group members: Isaac, Judas, Maggie, and Eve turned their attention to Mathew. He continued to rub the stiffness from his leg as he spoke.

"I suppose we start from the beginning." He said. "Tell me, where are you from and where are you going?"

It was an oddly phrased question, but Isaac tried his best to answer it nonetheless. He told him of his own experiences so far, waking up in the maze, how they all found each other, the marauders, the kidnappers, and Eve even mentioned Cain's encounter with Sarah.

"This Sarah sounds like one of the marked ones." Remarked Mathew at this. "You know about them, right?"

"No." Said Isaac. "But we've heard about them before, from the kidnappers and Joanna. She said that she knew she could trust us because we didn't have the mark."

"There were probably other reasons, but the absence of the mark is a big one." Mathew raised his hand to his face and drew on his cheek with his finger. "They carve themselves right here, a cross. All of them have it and they won't hesitate to attack those who don't."

"What do they do?"

"Joanna's spotted them roaming the corridors, hunting, attacking outsiders. She's quite good at sneaking around and keeps her distance from them. Apparently they have some sort of camp set up further in the maze somewhere, but we haven't gleaned where. Joanna won't be going to search for it anytime soon either. I won't let her."

"So you don't know who they are, what they do, or why they do it? Just that they're some kind of crazy cult?" Judas scoffed.

"That's all we need to know." Mathew grimaced. "Just stay out of their way, that's all."

As curious as Isaac was about the dangerous Marked Ones or Disciples, he couldn't argue with Mathew's logic. The more distance between the Disciples and his friends, the better, and that's all there really was to say on the matter. Isaac then told Mathew about their trip to Eden.

"Joanna has seen a lot of those signs." Mused Mathew after Isaac finally finished. "We haven't given them any thought though. Why would we follow mysterious arrows into the unknown when we have all the shelter and comfort we'd ever need right here." He gestured around the cave.

"Because what if Eden is a way out?" Responded Maggie. She sat with her knees pulled up to her chin. "You don't plan on staying in here forever, do you?"

"We could. That's what I'm saying." Mathew pointed across the cave, towards the forked tunnels. "Not long after Joanna and I found this place, we stumbled across another room, one of those that usually contain a chest of supplies. Guess what was there instead."

Judas rolled his eyes and caught sight of Eve doing the same. They weren't much in the mood for guessing games. Luckily Mathew was excited enough about his find to not keep them waiting.

"Seeds." He answered. "Bags and bags of seeds. Wheat and corn and tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, anything you could possibly imagine."

"But no place to plant them." Commented Judas dryly.

"That's what the other path is for." Continued Mathew quickly. "Joanna has been digging out the sand and trying to find soil beneath. She's been going for quite some time, whenever she isn't out hunting or what have you, and I feel like she's close."

"Sounds like Joanna does a lot of work around here."

"Of course. With my leg wounded like it is, I can't go out there anymore." Mathew nodded towards the cracked wall and the catacombs beyond. "I don't want to either. There's no point. Besides, I make myself useful in other ways where I can."

"Like what?"

"Well for one, I'm pretty good with my hands." Mathew's eyes gleamed at this. He had built Joanna's crossbow, of course, as well as devised the plan for the seeds. He took pride in his work. "And…" Mathew regarded Judas and his arm, which still hung in it's ratty sling, evenly. "I happen to know a thing or two about broken limbs."

"Really?" Maggie looked excitedly between Mathew and Judas. "Are you saying that you might be able to help Judas?"

"Perhaps." Mathew motioned for Judas to move closer. "Only if you'll let me take a look at it, of course."

"Maybe." Judas stayed fixed, but absentmindedly scratched at his dead arm. "Although if you claim to know all this stuff, why haven't you fixed your own leg?"

"If a broken bone was the only problem, sure. I'd fix it, then I'd be hopping around here like a fresh rabbit." Mathew grimaced again and continued to stroke his leg. "The muscles are shot though, as well as the joints. I can't reconstruct my own knee, not with the equipment I have here."

"How do you know all of this?"

"I just do. Just like you know how to run and talk and read people, I know that I can reset your arm, Judas, and possibly save you a lot of trouble later down the road." Mathew extended his hand. "Come. Let me have a look at it."

Hesitantly, Judas rose from his spot on the ground and crossed to Mathew, allowing him to remove his arm from the sling and gingerly examine it. Judas winced as his ruined appendage was poked, prodded, twisted and turned, until finally Mathew let out a long, exhalation of air.

"Good news is, you're still early in the healing phase. I can reset it so that it will heal quicker and better, but only if I re-break it."

"Shit."

"Sorry, Judas. There's no other way."

"Do you… Do you want to do it now?" Isaac asked gingerly.

"Sure." Mathew answered and Judas's eyes widened. He was halfway through spluttering an argument, when his brain finally caught up to his natural, knee-jerk instincts. Spending the rest of his possibly short life as a cripple was the last thing he wanted to do. If Mathew said that he could help then… Judas swallowed hard. This was going to suck.

"Lay down on your back here Judas and come here Isaac. I'm going to need your help. Judas, you're going to have to stop struggling. Bite down on this. Usually this requires a small incision and surgical chisel, but blunt force should do the trick here. There's no need to worry, this is a very simple procedure. The arm is already half-broken anyways…"

"I think I'm going to go look at these seeds." Mumbled Maggie. She jumped to her feet and raced from the room, as Isaac pinned Judas to the floor. Eve watched the whole thing from over Mathew's shoulder, as he gripped Judas's arm tightly. With a small crack it was over, but still Judas screamed.

Thanks for reading.
- Mike