Chapter 48 – Message in the dark

Ben almost spat the hot tea when he burned the roof of his mouth with the first sip, almost dropping the mug. Some of the liquid spilled on the floor.

"I cleaned it this morning, Ben." Ellie moaned back from the sofa behind him. "I swear, you're doing it on purpose."

"Nah," Ben said with an innocent grin. "I'm just building my tolerance." He set the mug back on the table and crouched in front of the TV, going through the small shelf next to it, running his fingers between various cases with different CDs. It was a movie night (they've already finished two movies), well deserved after a long, hard day at work. It was his first patrol since he came back, and much to his displeasure, it was pretty uneventful. But at least he had a nice, long chat with Jesse. They talked just about everything, catching up on the time that had passed since they'd last seen each other. "Ah," he gasped when he found what he was looking for.

"Really, Ben?" Ellie sighed with irritation when he started the movie. "We're going to watch the entire Blade trilogy?"

He shrugged, "I admit, Blade Trinity isn't the best out of the three Blade movies, but we have to finish the marathon. Besides, Wesley Snipes is as good as in any other movie."

"I'll rather watch American Pie than another Blade movie tonight," she said, rolling her eyes.

"But I thought you liked Blade movies. And besides, you hate American Pie."

"Exactly."

Ben sighed. Ellie was so difficult sometimes. "Okay, what movie do you want?"

"A horror."

Ben raised his eyebrows and said, "Oooh, you should've said sooner. Alright, let me see…" he said as he browsed through their wide collection of movies. About a month before he left Jackson, Ellie and he found a box full of different movies when they were on patrol. They stashed as many movies as they could in their backpacks and brought them back home. "So, are you in for a classic or something newer?"

"A classic."

"Gotcha. Scream or Halloween?"

"Scream isn't exactly a classic, Ben."

That was a dagger, plunged right into his heart. "What?" he squealed when his voice cracked. That didn't happen very often. "Scream basically defined modern slashers, what are we talking about here?"

"True, but when I say classic, I mean something more like Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and so on."

"But, Scream…"

"For fuck sake, Ben, you're not going to cry about it, are you? I know it's your favorite horror movie, but-

His shoulders lowered and his back hunched, "Which is why this betrayal hurts me even more…"

"You're so dramatic." Ben could literally feel the roll of her eyes scratching against his skin. The truth was, he wasn't ever truly dramatic, he just enjoyed teasing other people. They ended up watching Scream in the end, probably for the fifth time together. Even though he had watched the movie countless times before, he still enjoyed it as if he were watching it for the first time. It didn't matter that he knew what happened in the movie, or that he knew the plot twist. For Ben, it was probably his favorite movie ever. After Lord of the Rings, probably. But Lord of the Rings was in league of its own.

"There are certain rules one must abide by to successfully survive a horror movie," one of the movie characters, Randy, just started explaining "Number one, you can never have sex. Sex leads to death." Ben nudged Ellie with his elbow, and she slapped his arm hard.

"Number two, you can never drink or do drugs." Ben wondered what it was like to do drugs. He never did it himself, though it's not like he had the means to do so anyway, but from what he saw in the movies and read in books, it was usually pretty bad because it caused addiction. Ellie told him she smoked weed a couple times before, but Ben wasn't really interested in that. He never liked cigarettes, and as far as he knew, smoking weed wasn't much different.

"And number three." Randy proudly announced in the movie, standing in front of the crowd of teenagers gathered at a house party, "Never ever, ever, under any circumstances say "I'll be right back", because you won't be back." Ben was just about to add something, but a sudden knock on the door interrupted his train of thoughts. Ellie paused the movie with the remote and looked up to him, "Who's knocking at this hour?" It was well past midnight. If someone was knocking that late, it probably meant an emergency.

Ben stood up to get the door, and looked over his shoulder at Ellie with a grin, "I'll be right back." He sneered at her as he dodged the pillow she hurled at him across the room. Picking it up and tossing it back to her, Ben opened the door to see Mark standing on the other side.

"Hey, Ben." Mark said, looking over Ben's shoulders at Ellie sitting on the couch. "Sorry if I woke you guys up."

"You didn't. We were watching a movie. What's up?"

Mark nodded. He seemed pretty nervous, shifting from foot to foot, and playing with his fingers unconsciously.

"It's Big Paul. He's at the front gate, wants to get it. John won't let him in, though."

Ben furrowed his eyebrows, "Is someone else with him?"

"Three others."

"Did he say why he wants in?"

"He said he wants to talk to you."

Ben sighed, "What's John's problem then?" He was tired of their squabbles. They were always at each other's throats.

"I don't know, man. You know how John is."

"Yeah, I know." Ben said, annoyed, and walked to the rack to grab his jacket.

As soon as Ellie saw him, she lifted the blanket off her feet and started getting up. "Something wrong?" she asked.

"Everything's fine. It's just Big Paul. He wants to talk to me."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"Nah." he said and smirked at her, "you can warm my side of the bed until I come back." She grinned but said nothing. When he was ready, he walked outside, where Mark was waiting for him on the sidewalk.

It was around 2 hours after midnight, and the night moon was hiding partially behind the clouds that gave different shades of dark blue to the sky. The Jackson settlement was in its slumber, calm and peaceful. A light could be seen through the house window every now and then, but the only people awake at the moment were those on guard duty.

"Couldn't he radio me?" Ben asked after a while.

Mark shrugged, "Hell if I know. We didn't ask."

Ben wondered why Big Paul would come down from the dam at this hour. He was pretty sure he wouldn't do it over a squabble with people from the settlement. And those were getting more frequent with every passing day. An occasional fight would break out, but luckily, that was all there was to it. For now. Ben wondered how long it would take until they started killing each other. He had to put a stop to it somehow. As much as his men at the dam were loyal and listened to him, his authority had its boundaries. Several factors contributed to that. The first was the fact that most of them were still crazy. Second was the fact that he wasn't with them at the dam. They communicated mostly through the radio, and his physical presence was very limited. There was an old radio station at the dam, which the workers used to communicate with the settlement. Managing the frequencies, they connected the two radio stations (there was one in the settlement as well) for easier communication. With Ben's patrolling schedule as full as it was, he didn't have a lot of time to spend visiting, but he knew he had to change something. That's why he considered moving to the dam, to live there with his men. Perhaps then, he could actually be able to do something to make these squabbles stop.

That wasn't the only reason why he considered moving out. Lately, in the last two weeks since he came back, the people of Jackson have been openly disrespectful to him on several occasions. He didn't tell Ellie about it, yet, but as much as he wanted to ignore it, it annoyed him. Some of them still remembered what he did when the Wolves came back, and they didn't remember it fondly.

"When was the last time you heard from them?" Mark asked him.

"From my men?"

"Yeah."

That was a good question. He didn't think about it earlier, but when he did, Ben realized he hadn't heard from them all week long. "Maybe a week ago?" He didn't bother asking if they had heard from them, either. His men, reclusive as they were, only really talked to Ben out of all the people in the settlement. Well, unless they were fighting with other people, Ben was the only one they talked to.

Under the light of the lamp above the main gate, Ben saw two guards chatting with each other. The older of the two, bald sniper John, blew out smoke and flicked his cigarette. A rifle was hanging from one of his shoulders. The other of the two, whose name Ben wasn't sure of, frowned when he saw him.

"Why don't you let him in?" Skipping all the pleasantries, Ben got straight to the point.

John immediately snapped, "That lunatic will not set foot within my walls." The other guard nodded his head in support.

"Your walls?" Mark asked him. John's "claiming" the walls wasn't what caught Ben off guard, however.

"Lunatic?" he said. "He wasn't a lunatic when he saved your ass from the horde three years ago."

Instead of John, the other guard spoke up "We could have fought ourselves. Because of your lunatics, we had to lose from the dam." He seemed extremely proud to get a chance to share his opinion, looking at Ben with his nose turned up. Ben stared daggers at him. Out of the corner of his eye, Ben noticed Mark stirring next to him. Mark had been extremely loyal ever since Ben had saved him from the Wolves in that hostel in the mountains. He knew that he would have come to his defense without having to ask for it.

"You didn't loes the dam. And who are you, anyway?" Ben asked him.

The guy seemed offended that Ben didn't know his name, "Micah."

"Micah," Ben said as he glared at him, setting his feet one step closer to the young guard. Pride was then replaced by confusion, and finally discomfort when Micah shifted from foot to foot. He looked uncomfortable. "Open the gate."

Micah glanced at John nervously, as if unsure whether to obey or not. The older guard shook his head and made his stand, "They will not get inside."

"What is this?" another voice spoke from the darkness. When a shape of a man appeared under the light of the gate, it revealed itself in the form of Seth Davis. Ben knew him very well. Seth was a man of ill temper and zero tolerance. Ellie disliked him ever since he called her a dyke, but Ben's history with him stretched far longer. Back then, when Ben was prone to pranks and tricks, he enjoyed annoying Seth day in and day out. But now, pranks and tricks were thing of the past. Seth was one of the loudest people who openly opposed Ben in the community. He was one of those who wanted him out ever since he dealt with the Wolves. Both Ben and his men at the dam. "Sheer brutality of parading a captured child through our streets could only be done by a madman!" Seth said while Ben was away from the settlement, and quite a number of people agreed with him. Ellie just told him about it last night.

"John, Micah," said Seth angrily, "Why aren't you up in the towers?" Seth used to be a hunter and one of the dam guards. Lately, he was promoted to a leading sentry who kept watch on the settlement walls, made schedules, and distributed weapons. It didn't sit well with John whom he replaced – and the two often argued, but their disdain for Ben and his men kept them united. It irked Ben a little, for he always had a good relationship with John in the past. How easily did some things change.

"It's those nutjobs from the dam," John explained, and Ben's eyelid began twitching. "They want to get in."

Seth scoffed, then glanced sideways at Ben. "That explains your presence, Walker. What are they doing here? If they wanted to contact you, they could've used their radios."

"Perhaps." Ben said, "I haven't heard from them in a while. Do you know something about it, Seth?"

If he did, Seth didn't show it. "I have more important matters to attend to than listen to what your crazy fuckers have to say."

Ben just stared at him. Instincts almost kicked in, telling him to rip out his throat right there and then. But that was not the way of a man he was trying to be. Instead, he kept it civil, "Let them in, let's hear what they have to say."

"No. They are not stepping through the gate. John, go back up and tell them to leave." Seth smirked, proud of his small victory and display of power and authority. Ben was boiling inside, but there was hardly anything he could do without initiating violence.

Not wanting to let them know they got to him, Ben put on the best expressionless mask he could on his face, and walked over to the gate. "Then open it for me. I'll meet them outside." Stay calm, he told himself. "So?"

Seth nodded, and waved his point finger at John who was already climbing up, "You got ten minutes, Walker."

Ben was more than happy to get away from the guards, and their slimy presence, even if for just ten minutes. Outside, Big Paul stood and waited. He scanned the walls of the settlement, a place where he was not welcome. The shadows from the walls had lengthened as the moon shifted in the sky. When Big Paul saw him approaching, he lowered his arms. In the dark, Ben noticed the tattered trench coat he wore, wondering where he found a coat big enough for him. A mountain of a man, Ben was sure that Big Paul's height towered nearly seven feet, if not even more. Three others stood behind him, wearing similar tattered clothes. None of them seemed perfectly clean, but they weren't exactly dirty either.

"I heard what the sentry said." Big Paul skipped greetings. He was a type of man to get straight to the point, a type of man who found no meaning in excess words. "He does not like you."

"And here I thought I was his favorite," Ben scoffed. "If I am not, he wasn't really hiding it well." And the feeling was mutual.

One of the men standing behind Big Paul looked at the open gate, annoyance crossing his face. It was Jonatan, one of the refugees Ben helped back in Seattle. Fiercely loyal, he was captured in an attempt to rescue Ben and several others. He and his brother were both part of Ben's small group in Seattle. The day Ben was captured, his brother was in Ben's squad, where he died. Jonatan was very young back then, barely seventeen years old. Just like everybody else, he lost his innocence through torture during his captivity. Lucky for him, he was never given to Annabel. And unlike most of Ben's men, he had a bigger chunk of his sanity intact.

"I hate that guy's voice," Jonatan said, barely audible. He rarely spoke. Pulling a blade halfway out of its sheath, he said, "He wouldn't talk shit with my knife in his mouth."

Maybe Ben was mistaken about a bigger chunk of his sanity being left intact. The murderous intent in Jonatan's eyes was clear. It was not clear whether he meant John, Seth, or Micah. Perhaps all three of them?

"Put away your knife." Big Paul ordered, his eyes still looking straight ahead at Ben.

Out of all of them, Big Paul and Ben were the only ones tortured by Annabel. While others didn't have the pleasure of spending time with Annabel, they certainly didn't feel like they were on vacation. For a moment, Ben wondered how Annabel managed to torture Big Paul at all, wondering if that was even possible for a girl her size. Ben didn't doubt that Big Paul was strong enough to break free from the handcuffs. To keep him chained, one would need a lot of chains. But then again, Big Paul was a weird individual even without torture. Ben could never read his emotions or his intentions. As far as he knew, he lived to be loyal to him, something Ben never fully grasped. But even though, he had accepted it.

"What's going on?" Ben finally asked, "You could've used the radio."

"We tried." Big Paul simply said. "You were not responding."

That radio station in the settlement was located in the store that was transformed into an armory. The armory workers took care of the station and would contact Ben in case Big Paul or others wanted to speak with him. What if they never told me they asked for me, Ben thought. It was certainly a possibility given that he was disliked by some residents. Is this something that goes deeper? An odd moment of complete silence hung over them for a while. The wind swept across the land, sucking out all sound.

"Do you have someone at the ready at the radio station?" Ben asked.

"There's always someone there."

"Good." Ben thought. "I can check if it works in the morning, since the armory is locked right now." And he didn't really want to break inside only to check if the radio worked. Maria would flay him alive. But still, for some reason, he felt restless. Perhaps it was just his paranoid nature, but it was as if his gut had swallowed the stone. And he wanted to be ready for everything, no matter what it was.

"There is something else."

Ben feared as much. "What is it?"

"Someone is stealing from us." Big Paul never said more than what was enough.

"What was stolen?"

"Some weapons and rations."

Ben couldn't think of anyone from the settlement willing to infiltrate the dam to steal from Big Paul and his men. Perhaps it was one of his own men? "I'll be there first thing in the morning. There's nothing we can do about it now. I wish I could give you a place to sleep, but these fools inside the walls are really going to make the scene if I let you in. You know we are trying to avoid any kind of conflict, Paul."

Ben would've expected to hear questions, arguments, and shouts. From others, yes. Not from Big Paul. But no one said a word: all eyes were glued to Ben, looking with acceptance.

"Why'd you come at night, though?"

"No worries, boss. We like it when it's dark." The third man spoke for the first time. Ben thought he recognized Rye's voice. He couldn't see his face well, but he was pretty sure it was him. Rye was the only one who called him boss. "We don't want to stay with these fuckers anyway. Guess we're going back, Paulie?" Rye was a real nutjob, a savage in battle. A humorous nutjob at that, with nicknames for everyone. "We don't want the boss' lady to wait for him for too long, right?"

Big Paul just nodded to Ben and turned around to leave, with others following. Jonatan stayed behind for a couple moments, still looking at the gates with a hateful look in his eyes.

"Everything good, Jonatan?" Ben asked him.

"No," Jonatan hissed. "They keep disrespecting us. We saved them, and they spit all over us."

Ben sighed, "Just ignore them. I'll work it out."

"I hope you know what you're doing. Others are not as patient as you."

For a moment, Ben wondered what he meant by that, but he knew very well. If unleashed, they won't hesitate to kill. That was something he had to prevent. The settlement was at peace, but for how long? That peace hung by a thread, and the thread could be snapped like nothing. Someone was stealing from his men, one of his own or someone from the settlement. Provocations were flying left and right, with no boundaries. And there was a possibility that someone was sabotaging their communication on purpose. From the looks of it, a conflict was brewing. There must be something he could do. He had to change that. This time, it could be different. It has to.