Chapter Name: Carly.
Notes: Thank you to reviewers Rinzler24, Snapplelinz and pigwiz. This story continues to be in Sam's POV.
It was a month or so after Spencer... died... everything had gone to hell. The city was burning. Flames lit the horizon, explosions and gunfire echoed through the day. The night sky was lit no longer by the squares of light from the offices and apartments, but by tracer bullets and destructive fire. Burning cars. Buildings. Sparking electrical wiring.
The only thing stopping the city from being consumed by it was the near constant rain.
Water was still running, probably the workers holed up inside the works to make sure they could keep going. They knew how vital it was. That meant we could concentrate on building up a supply for when or if the water itself failed.
For food, we'd pretty much looted the entire apartment complex.
Freddie the nerd had made us start from the top floor and work our way down in an 'organized and thorough fashion' as he called it. We checked each room to see what we could find. There was surprisingly little. Back then you could get anything you wanted almost instantly. After a month the rats had taken anything that wasn't secured. Nothing was safe unless it was tinned. Hardly anyone was left.
We tried to keep tabs on some of the people left behind who couldn't fend for themselves.
Mrs. Haberstadt was one of them.
Her son hadn't come back.
We'd been giving her food. Trying to find her medication. Thanks to Mrs. Benson and her ridiculous medication stash we were able to help her out for two weeks. She'd be sitting in her chair, knitting a jumper or baby boots. For her grand-daughter.
We found one last bottle of pills she could use.
I took the short trip to her room. I knocked on the door. No response. I opened the door. It creaked.
Damn.
We could keep the pills.
I sighed. I suppose it was probably always gonna happen eventually. Bad food. Out of all medication but the most basic ones.
Her cat was lying at her feet. Poor thing. I bundled it up, petting it and trying to comfort it. When I started walking back out the door it mewled.
At least Frothy would have a friend.
I told Carly and Freddie. They asked if I was sure. Maybe she was just sleeping? No. I checked.
Freddie had this steely look of determination or some shit on his face and strode out towards the door. Carly asked where he was going.
To take her body out to the collection by the side of the road. An army truck would pick it up. At least now it would be more dignified than what happened to Spencer.
I handed him a mask and he nodded. I guess all those violent video games desensitized him or some shit. I thought he'd be a little crying baby without his mommy. Instead he acted like a man. He was a man.
Carly informed me we were running out of food. To punctuate the point my stomach rumbled. I hadn't eaten the entire day. Freddie told us we needed to ration our food because we didn't have enough.
The stupid nub was right. The apartments were cleaned out. Most people had their own stash and that wouldn't help us without taking them by force and that wasn't something Carly or Freddie would be prepared to do.
It was when we discussed that idea that we realized we'd need weapons. No-one knew what the hell was going on. The only information was hushed rumors about an invasion. We might need to defend ourselves from invaders.
What we did know was reports about gangs in other parts of the cities.
So we needed weapons. And food.
Luckily I had an uncle. No idea what happened to him or if he'd be there, but I knew where he kept his cache. It'd contain enough guns and ammo to keep us safe enough from any wild animals or people without good intentions.
Freddie was useful for once. He remembered once having to help at the school to move some food stores into a basement. It was mandatory if there was a snow-in. Boxes of long-life army rations and jugs of water.
We figured it'd be best to split. We'd both take vehicles left in the underground parking garage. Carly and Freddie took a van, I took a battered old pickup.
The streets weren't deserted, but they were a shadow of their old use. Here and there an army truck would drive through, or a police car. I had a close shave with a car filled with a small group of shady looking guys. I saw them before they saw me. I just stopped the car and ducked beneath. Better not to take any chances.
After that it didn't take me too long to reach his place, able to drive as fast as I wanted with no red lights to stop me. I parked around the back. What looked like a concrete statue water fountain wasn't really concrete. It was anchored into the ground by four pegs. Take them out, and I could push the fountain out of the way. It was made with fiberglass finished to look like concrete. Underneath was a hidden trap-door. It wasn't long before I pulled out the best of the weaponry inside the small shipping container. A couple AK-47's, an M3 Shotgun, MP7 submachine gun, M1911 .45 pistol, a 9mm Glock that Carly could use without breaking her arm. I took them all and a few other bits and pieces. Plus ammo and tools,
On the drive back I decided to let off some steam, and did a doughnut spin in the car while shooting the MP7 at abandoned cars. The bullets sparked off the doors and broke the glass windows. I shattered the windows from offices and shops. I pingled shots off trashcans. I laughed when I knocked down a clothing dummy.
I parked back in the garage, only to find the van not there. I hadn't been out too long, so I guess they had either come back already and gone out again for another load, or they were still at the school packing. I made my way to the school.
The van was there, doors open but nothing in side. I heard a screech of tires and noticed the same shady guys from earlier tearing away at high speed. At that point I got worried.
I stepped in through the same double doors I always had whenever I bothered to drag myself to school.
That's when I got scared. I could hear Freddie. He was in pain.
I ran through the halls. They were filled with garbage. Paper, books, abandoned school bags. Glass from trophy cases crunched under my heel.
I turned the corner and I saw him.
And... I..
I can't do this. I don't want to remember it.
I have to? I don't have to do anything. I've spent years trying to forget this.
Fine! If it means that goddamn much to you.
Freddie was stumbling through the hallway. I could tell he was hurt. A huge gash halfway up his right leg. His head was cut, both eyes swollen black. There was blood all over him. So much blood. Freddie was holding Carly. My Carly. He was holding her limp body in his arms. Part of her hair was torn away. Her shirt ripped almost in half.. hanging on by a thread.
I felt the air rush out. It was impossible to breathe. Freddie finally noticed me. He kept hobbling over towards me. I felt my body chill.
I didn't want it to be true but I knew it was. I collapsed onto the floor, my back against the hard metal of the lockers.
Freddie kept repeating the word over. Sorry. His eyes were blank, his face absent of any expression. He knelt down beside me. He kept Carly's head on his shoulders, his hand stroking her hair as we always did when she needed comfort.
My poor Carly... why? How?
Freddie just whispered that he failed her. I asked him again. To tell me what happened.
That gang found them as they were inside the school. They had weapons.. they waited until Freddie and Carly went into the school. They attacked Carly and Freddie. He tried to fight, to help Carly get away. But there were four of them. After he knocked the first one away the biggest one slashed him a switchblade. The little one hit him over the head with a baseball bat and knocked him out.
When he woke up he was tied to a chair. Carly had her hands tied. Her mouth was taped shut. He pleaded and pleaded with them to stop but they just laughed and slapped him around. He begged for them to let her go. Offered to let them do whatever they wanted. Give them everything he had.
They made him watch as they raped Carly. She tried to scream, she kicked but there was no way she could get away. Freddie shut his eyes only to have them held open, a knife against his throat to stop Freddie from looking away.
When they were done, they cut the ropes tying his hands, and threw Carly at him. He held on to her, held her right against him as hard as he could. Their leader pulled out a hunting knife and stabbed Carly in the back. The leader thought about doing the same, but didn't. The sick freak wanted Freddie to 'enjoy' the moment. To 'savor' it forever. He dropped the knife and walked off laughing. Freddie watched her die in his arms. They killed her in cold blood. They got what they wanted and still murdered her. Freddie heard her last gasping breath.
He said Carly didn't say any last words.. I think he's..
You know what I think?
Fuck what I think. And fuck you for making me talk about this. Does it make you feel good, getting all the gory details out in the open? Do you me to talk about the sound.. the squelch Carly's blood soaked body made as we carried her back to my car?
Do you want to know that Freddie blamed himself? How he woke up screaming in the middle of the night?
Is that interesting you sick fuck? You want to know how he spent an entire day digging her grave deep enough so animals wouldn't dig her back up? He never said a single word the entire time he did it.
I grabbed him just after he let himself get off balance on top of the plaza that same night? That make you feel happy knowing that? You want to know the gory details?
Fuck you for wanting to know the why, the where and the how. I don't care who sees this, or who ordered it, this is sadistic, making everyone go through this masquerade of 'history'. Do you really think some punk kids in 200 years are going to care or even remember what happened?
If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have to deal with this. I wouldn't have to remember. I could forget it all, wasted out of my mind until the next time we go out into no-man's land to get half of us killed by the metal, for whatever stupid fucking suicide mission John "Savior of Humanity" Connor is sending us on. I hope they send one of those fucking terminators and wipe out the entire base. I couldn't give a shit. My real life died the day Spencer did. This is just a goddamn waking nightmare.
I'm fucking done with this. Don't give me that look. Turn that piece of shit camera off right now.
Fuck off.
AN: Rating changed to M.