Ch. 29
'The world's debts Part two'
It was freezing, well below freezing, no wind blew today and the sky was a crystal blue, Genevieve was once again trudging through the snow, towards a small shack where the settlement kept the troublemakers, A.J. had gotten drunk and nearly killed a woman for joking about him.
Genevieve peered through a crack in the door, seeing a pissed and hung-over A.J., picking himself off the snow-covered ground inside the shack.
"Let me out," A.J. demanded, standing next to the door impatiently.
The teenage girl pulled up on the handle, finding it was frozen shut, sighing in frustration, Genevieve planted her feet and jerked on the handle, pulling it free.
Ice cracking and breaking off, sending mini shards all over, the door swung open promptly after, A.J. made his exit, lumbering in an angry erratic fashion.
"Morning," Genevieve muttered, closing the door behind the man.
A.J. grunted in a gruff response, as he moved past her, the gall she had to say anything to him after having such a good and happy night, the night before.
Genevieve fell in beside the man, not fearing his wrath in the slightest, she had been around him in this state many times before and knew he had never been violent towards her.
Nonetheless, she would try and stay away from him where possible, the two walked in silence, nothing but the sound of snow crunching under their feet and the occasional growl from A.J. given he seemed to be getting angrier.
A.J. kept reliving the previous night at the bar in his head, going over every infuriating detail, when Summer's house came into view, A.J. stopped.
Genevieve walked a few feet ahead before stopping, looking back at A.J., wondering if something was wrong.
"Are you ok?" Genevieve asked, watching A.J.'s face, which before now had purveyed anger, but now nothing.
After a long moment, A.J. looked at Genevieve, blinking as if something had possessed him for a moment.
A.J. took a sudden step towards Genevieve, when she didn't move, the man got an unnerving smile and an odd breathy chuckle.
Genevieve wore a furrowed brow, thoroughly confused by what was happening, averting her eyes for a moment, the teenager cleared her throat.
"Are you o-," Genevieve was interrupted by A.J.'s fist sending her flying to the snow-covered ground.
The hard, frozen snow cracked and crunched under Genevieve as she struggled back up to her feet, with little success as she was dizzy from the blow to her head.
A.J. stomped over to the girl and picked her up by her coat's collar, the man punched Genevieve in the side of her head, causing her to go limp momentarily before A.J. dropped her in the snow face down.
Lifting her head, Genevieve saw A.J. coming around to finish her off in some manner.
Rolling her over, A.J. doubled over when Genevieve kicked him in the groin, soon after he felt his nose crunch from a palm strike that Genevieve threw, following her groin kick.
Reeling from the attack, Genevieve scrambled to her feet, shakily taking a defensive stance.
Blood trickled down her right temple, breathing heavily as adrenaline rushed through her veins. "Stay away from me," Genevieve feigning authority in the situation.
A sadistic grin crossed A.J's features as he heard Genevieve's voice. "Now you're scared of me huh?" The man growled with glee.
Genevieve turned back to look at her house a couple of hundred yards away, she wasn't slow, but A.J. had longer legs and could outrun her in the deep snow, facing her opponent once again, Genevieve kept her cool. "No," Genevieve breathed out, loud enough for him to hear, gulping as nervous energy and adrenaline flooded her system.
His smile disappeared at her words, explosive anger showing in its place. "C'mere then!" A.J. rumbled as he lunged for Genevieve.
Genevieve brought her right foot back to brace against this attack, A.J.'s hands grabbed her shoulders by the sleeves, clamping down on her with little chance of escape.
With what seemed like little effort, A.J. slung Genevieve a few yards away, the girl fell roughly to the ground, rolling to her feet quickly as A.J. led with a kick.
Genevieve redirected the kick, putting herself right beside her attacker, Genevieve threw a right hook to the back of A.J.'s knee before rising to her feet, A.J. retaliated by spinning around and attempting a back fist.
Easily avoiding this, Genevieve countered with a left jab to his stomach, causing A.J. to bend over slightly, prompting Genevieve to throw a left hook to his head.
Connecting with his temple, A.J. reeled back momentarily before growling and turning back to the girl, before Genevieve could fight back, A.J. had rushed in picked Genevieve up by her neck, the way he had done to Summer years ago, squeezing his fingers around her neck.
Genevieve felt the crushing pressure of A.J.'s grasp on her neck, wincing in pain, Genevieve flailed her legs, kicking A.J. in the stomach and groin repeatedly.
After a few blows, A.J. didn't want to get himself too hurt, the man angrily slammed Genevieve into the snow.
A groan escaped Genevieve's throat as she felt the cold, hard ground beneath her once more, A.J. was slow to follow given the number of kicks he had sustained, Genevieve put a hand on her throat, massaging the breaks in her skin as she coughed lightly, afraid to hurt her further.
After what felt like too brief of a moment, A.J. roughly moved Genevieve's hands away and continued his attack, choking her again.
Though Genevieve would've given up a couple of weeks ago, she'd just found out Blake was alive, and now she needed to survive.
With her vision beginning to blackout, Genevieve shoved her finger out, poking A.J. in the eyes, when she heard him yelp, Genevieve tried to flip him over so she could turn the tables, quickly discovering she didn't have that type of leverage with the snow and how he was kneeling.
With nothing left to try, Genevieve tried a trick, Amanda had explained to her years ago, putting a shaky hand on A.J.'s throat, Genevieve placed her thumb in the middle of A.J.'s neck, feeling a thin line of bone.
With what was left of her resolve, Genevieve pressed her thumb into it, feeling relief from her attacker won't immediately as his grip lessened and a pained growl escaped him as he struggled to maintain his position and grip.
Pushing harder, the teenager pushed A.J. back far enough to kick him away, stumbling back a few feet, A.J. held his throat with his left hand, rubbing where Genevieve had applied pressure.
After regaining his nerve, A.J. stepped forward menacingly, he was quickly knocked to the ground by a man who resided in the settlement, another grabbing A.J., the two quickly restrained him.
"A.J.! Don told you if you hurt anyone else you were out!" The man on the left yelled as A.J. struggled in vain to get free.
Recovering from the sudden and brutal attack, Genevieve staggered up to her knees as Summer and Blake had finished running over to help.
"Kiddo! You ok?!" Summer asked wrapping arms around the unmoving teenager.
Genevieve watched A.J. struggle to get free, wondering why he did this type of act so often if he didn't want to be reprimanded.
Summer's words went unheard by the girl in her arms, Genevieve was numbed but this was different, she had feared him before, but now he had actually attacked her.
All Genevieve could hear was the distant yells of Blake's rage, even know he must be right next to her.
Genevieve felt the world slip away from her, blinking felt like an eternity passed with the people around her moving and acting in complete silence, things couldn't be the same again.
[Outside Lanexa, VA, the next day]
The wind whipped violently in between the buildings, and snow fell heavily making it hard for anything to be seen, Genevieve was out on a scavenging run, against the wishes of most of her companions.
More people came this time, given the fact A.J. was present on this run as well.
Blake attended Summer, and Tina, whom Genevieve begged not to come, knowing how dangerous these could be.
The bruises present on Genevieve's neck were purple, blue, and black, in the shape of her attacker's hands no less.
The team had split into groups of two, Genevieve and Tina were one, Summer and Blake were the other, A.J. went out on his own.
Sneaking through the snowdrifts was difficult, Summer and Genevieve found it fairly easy to stay quiet, but the others weren't so skilled in the art of stealth.
Usually, when scouting a new town there was undead, roaming the streets and back alleys, but this was instead completely silent apart from the howling wind, Tina snuck ahead with her hunting rifle in hand, checking the corner of the building as she passed by.
"Stay close to me!" Genevieve whispered furiously at the girl she was so close to. "This isn't a fucking game!" the teen added soon after to put a point on her sentence.
"Quiet, you'll wake the dead," Tina said snarkily back, continuing to forge ahead.
Genevieve rolled her eyes and grumbled at her partner's joke, finding it to be in poor taste and timing.
A few blocks down to the east, Summer, and Blake made their way towards the middle building where they would regroup and report their findings.
After several frigid moments of no movement apart from their own, Summer sighed in relief as she saw Genevieve and Tina appear out of the blizzard.
"Did you guys see anything?" Summer asked, over the wind and snow.
"Nothing, no dead, no people," Genevieve replied, an edge of suspicion in her voice.
A single human silhouette stepped out of the blizzard, ominously approaching the group.
A.J. looked at the group that quieted down at his presence, the group moved on soon after that, moving towards the outskirts, looking to finish off their sweep of the place.
The group had not found anything of use whatsoever to the group's dismay.
They all stopped at an old meat locker that seemed to be better kept up than the rest of the town.
Summer looked at the building with a furrowed brow, Genevieve analyzed it just the same.
"Should we head in?" Tina asked before the entire group jumped at the sight of movement inside.
Tense moments passed as the group waited for something to happen, the wind around them whipped with incredible speed, they were all tired and freezing, the group wouldn't be able to make it back to camp without some respite from the bitter January wind.
"We came here to root out the folks here causing trouble around these parts, Samuel said these guys were picking off neighboring people and eating them," Blake said bowing his head so he could somewhat open his eyes in this blizzard conditions.
Summer thought of who was with them, knowing well that Tina wasn't used to being out on this type of work, let alone the fact that she was probably numb and slow from the cold. "We don't know how many could be in here, i-it could be really dangerous, Blake," Summer said over the wind.
"This job is dangerous, Summer, lets get the fuck outta this cold!" A.J. spat as he moved towards the front door, ignoring the warnings of the forboding form that had left the window completely at this point.
Nearing the entrance, A.J. didn't even get a hand on the knob before he was pulled away from the door.
"A.J., c'mon, they want us to be stupid like this!" Blake cried, trying to get the disgruntled man to see reason.
A.J. stood up straight and tall angered he had been stopped from his self-appointed correct path.
The two men stood at the same height and the world seemed to stop for the girls, two of which had seen A.J.'s wrath.
"You think I'm fuckin' stupid!" A.J. growled, ready to roar and kill this enemy.
"You are the one trying to walk through the front door of an unknown building filled with strangers, in a place where there are reports of cannibalism!" Blake said barely containing the shout he wanted to let loose, this was the man who put hands on Genevieve, if he gave Blake the chance to knock his ass out, Blake would gladly do so.
Summer came in between them as A.J. geared up to yell again, shushing both of them immediately. "We don't fight each other!" Summer said, knowing full well she would gladly kill A.J. for hurting Genevieve.
"Get outta my way, Summer," A.J. growled in a low, menacing voice.
"No, A.J.," Summer spat back, standing firm in her spot between the men.
After a long tense moment, A.J. huffed and motioned for the others to lead, with tension high, Genevieve walked around the building with everyone behind her.
The group came upon a chute where the animals would have been unloaded into the stalls, looking at each other and nodding, they started climbing up into the chute.
The chute was made of decaying yet still sound, concrete slats, metal bar fences reached over six and a half feet into the air so the animals couldn't jump out, no doubt.
Blake climbed in first, offering a hand to Summer, pulling his sister up into the tunnel that led many animals to their death, Genevieve, Tina and, A.J. entered as well.
A creak was heard behind A.J., who looked behind him and found nothing different, turning back to follow the group, the noise came back more intense as the chute doors slammed shut, ropes off to either side were pulled tight, slamming the doors, trapping the group.
"Ambu--" A.J. screamed out as an arrow hit him in the upper jaw, cutting off his words, the man slumped to the chute's floor, grasping a shaky hand on the arrow shaft, his eyes bulged in pain and fear as several arrows hit him in various body parts.
Blake rushed forward, making for the door, trying to open the door with no handle.
Summer pulled her bow and fired an arrow, hitting a person in the face, the person on the roof of the building where others were raining down arrows on the survivors.
Blake successfully kicked the door down and rushed in ushering the group in, everyone rushed in surprisingly unscathed, all except A.J. who now laid motionless with a slew of arrows riddling his lifeless body.
Blake bowed his head for a moment to the now-dead person before turning to face their path.
Genevieve and Tina took the front, Tina aiming her rifle and keeping her eyes peeled as she shook with unmistakable fear, Genevieve was behind her with her knife.
The interior was dirty, old blood splattered the walls, and snow snuck in from cracks and breaks in the windows, which had snow mounting up inside the building.
The floor had the same concrete slats, the pits underneath looked to be at least ten feet deep and completely clean of feces and urine.
Bars that were welded together hung up near the ceiling above the door, they were about thirteen feet long, while the group didn't like the sight of that or the odd contraption under the slats, its function unknown to the group.
"What do we do?" Tina asked, trying to keep her voice even.
Blake and Summer moved forward, making for the lead position.
"You guys keep up the back, we'll take the front," Blake said solemnly, hoping his tone could calm the girl.
Walking ahead of the teenage girls, Summer, and Blake stepped towards the door and peeked through.
Bodies hung on from meat hooks, some partially clothed, and a couple of them that laid on the ground with large holes in their backs were wearing the outfit of the Saviours.
Summer shuddered at the haunting scene then looked to Blake. "Did you know them?" The woman asked as she stealthily stepped through the door, bow, and arrow at the ready.
Blake followed through with his AR in hand. "We were looking for these guys, they musta got caught while hunting," Blake answered with a sigh as he pointed his weapon ahead.
"Ok, girls! Come o-" Blake said loud and clear before something metallic crunched, followed by the sound of pipes falling against a wall made the man turn around and see the bars fall and separate the siblings from the teenagers.
As the crunch sounded, the contraption underneath shifted, and the slats underneath Genevieve promptly gave way, sending her plummeting to the floor of the pit below.
"Genevieve!" Tina screamed while she hurried to the three-foot expanse now laid open where slats had been.
Genevieve laid face down in the pit, breathing heavy and groaning as she propped herself up on her elbows, wincing in pain as she looked up to her partner.
"I am ok," Genevieve announced, clearly in pain from her fall.
"I'm gonna help you up!" Tina shouted, swinging her rifle over her shoulders.
Genevieve looked around for a moment before seeing Tina's outstretched hand, there was an opening big enough for a person to move through.
"I think there is a way through down here," Genevieve said jabbing a thumb in the respective direction.
After taking a brief look, Tina nodded and repositioned herself to drop into the pit, softer than Genevieve had.
Genevieve reached her hands out to catch Tina if she needed to, the girl dropped to the pit's floor, an echo from her landing resounding off the concrete walls of the pit.
Back up above, Blake watched as Tina dropped into the hole, worried for the girls' safety, turning back to his and Summer's predicament.
The building looked fairly large from the outside and the same could be said from within, there were two doors excluding the one they had come through.
"They're smart, using bows I mean, they don't attract walkers," Summer whispered as she checked one of the doorways, brandishing her bow.
"Potentially reusable ammo too," Blake added kicking over one of the dead militia soldiers, seeing his face, Blake looked away. "Ahh, poor bastard," the former savior said, somberly.
A small rustle from the left doorway jolted them out of their conversation, readying his Automatic-rifle for battle, as soon as the weapon was up, three people in Saviour garb rushed into the room wielding hatchets.
Blake opened fire, ripping four shots out of his weapon killing two of the assailants quickly before his weapon clicked, resounding to everyone in the room that his gun was empty.
Summer who was closer to the door, pulled up her bow in time to block a hatchet's blow but cost her the arrow she had at the ready, redirecting the force of the swing, Summer successfully deflected the attack.
The attacker swung again but was blocked by Summer's bow again, being bigger the attacker barged into the woman and slammed her against the wall, wrestling for the freedom of his weapon, he put a hand on Summer's face to disorient her but ended up getting his hand bit.
Before the man could retaliate, an arm wrapped around his neck and pulled him off of Summer, she fell to the ground momentarily and looked to see Blake choking the man, and the Saviour, spinning the hatchet so he could strike Blake in the face.
Pulling his arm up, Blake blocked the swing but sacrificed his grip, and paid for it by being reverse head-butted, causing him to let go of the man completely.
Summer picked up the arrow she had dropped earlier, nocking it into place and pulling the string back, Summer let the arrow loose, hitting the man in the back of the head, her arrow protruding from the man's eye socket.
The Saviour fell to the meat locker's floor, twitching from the blow to his head, Blake got off the floor and picked up the hatchet for later use.
The siblings looked at each other and nodded in acknowledgment before heading through the right door, the duo entered a long hallway with multiple doors on each side, and the last one stood at the end of the hall with a sign saying: employees only.
Blake led the way with his new weapon, making his way carefully down the hall, he and Summer, checked each room, finding no people within them, the sounds of a scuffle nearby, and the sound of a large gun being fired, erupted soon after, finally alerting the siblings that it was in the last door in the hall.
Hurrying towards their destination, the two could quickly discern the voice wailing and sobbing to be Genevieve's, Blake charged towards the door with Summer just behind him, the sound of the little girl they had kept alive, crying just beyond the door.
"Hold on! Genevieve!" Blake shouted trying to get the door open to no avail as it was locked, taking a step back, Blake kicked the door.
While it flexed, something was holding it from the other side, the siblings quickly decided to shoulder barge it together, taking a couple of steps back in preparation.
"Be ready for a fight!" Summer said as they started their run, barrelling into the door, the duo slammed into the wood, breaking it off the hinges and falling into the room.
Genevieve was face down with her arms forcibly held behind her back with a Saviour soldier holding her there, Tina laid on her back with her face missing in its entirety, two more militia members were on the floor dead, most likely from Genevieve.
Blake bolted up and ran towards the one on Genevieve, the man evaded the hatchet strike but let Genevieve go.
With her arms free, Genevieve raced towards the man still holding the shotgun over her beloved Tina, the Saviour aimed the gun at Genevieve and pulled the trigger which made the weapon click.
Genevieve bulled into the man, ramming him into the wall behind him, the soldier blocked her left hook but missed her right jab that hit him in the throat with a sickening crunch of bone, the militia soldier slid down the wall onto the floor, holding his neck with both hands.
The man didn't even attempt to block the knee that flew into his face breaking his nose and teeth, causing him to fall sideways to the floor.
The teenager fell to the floor, sobbing again as she turned to Tina's body on the floor and further away, the other Saviour with the hatchet sticking from his skull, Genevieve wept, crawling over to her significant other and putting a hand on Tina's still-warm hand.
Summer picked up Amanda's, now Genevieve's knife, and held onto it, being silent for the respect of the fallen which they now had the time to mourn for.
Or so they had hoped, after several minutes, the unmistakable groans and growls of the dead were heard, forcing the group to flee.
The Saviours would pay for this crime someday, Genevieve swore it, they would not get away with this scot-free, there was a debt to pay...
And she was coming to collect.