Inhuman [Book 1] Read online

  As I looked around the room, I could see that nearly everything was handmade. There was nothing that you could find at a home-depot. The floors, the trim around the inside of the windows and even the windows themselves were totally custom and quite beautiful. They perfectly showcased the kind of old-style woodworking you just didn’t see anymore.

  It all seemed even older than he was.

  Their family has probably been here for generations.

  I wanted to know what time it was, but I couldn’t raise my hand high enough to read my watch. All I knew was that it was dark out. It could have been ten at night or three in the morning. I just wanted to know…

  Eventually, I started to relax again. My shoulder put off nothing more than a dull ache – I could barely feel it. Whatever he’d given me was making me extremely tired, and after another few minutes of examining the room, it was nearly impossible for me to keep my eyes open.

  I was thankful for that, because I knew where my mind would go once I ran out of distractions. And it was a small room with barely anything in it, so there weren’t many.

  Day 49

  I’d been awake for what seemed like hours before I heard the door being unlocked. I was looking out the window, trying to think about everything I would say to him. I just wanted to leave.

  The son entered the room first. His glare told me one thing – he still wanted me dead – and suggested another – they’d lost someone. He walked over and placed a plate with one fried egg and a strip of bacon on the nightstand. The old man followed behind and sat down in the same chair. The pistol in his hand was pointed directly at my head.

  The son mumbled under his breath, “This is bullshit” and untied my hands. Once he was done, he quickly raised his gun and backed up until he was almost touching the wall.

  As the first puff of smoke surrounded the old man’s face, he directed, “Go ahead and sit up, eat. Then my boy’s gonna tie you back up and we’ll talk some more. It’s not much but it’ll help you get your strength back.”

  Even though he had me on some kind of medication, when I pushed myself up, having to use the muscles in my shoulder was shockingly painful. I didn’t even want to imagine how much it would have hurt if they didn’t give me something to dull it. “Thank you, really.”

  I wanted to relay more gratitude but I was just so hungry and the smell was torturous. Completely ignoring the fork, I grabbed the plate and shoved it all in my mouth at once. After living off a few small pieces of dried meat twice a day, it was a feast.

  The old man let out a deep chuckle, accompanied by wheezing, coughing and having to spit in his ashtray. “You just swallowed that like a dog. I did you even taste it?”

  His son continued to glare – he was in no mood to laugh. I tried not to stare back at his cold brown eyes as they peeked through the scraggly long hair hanging out of his ball cap. He was itching to shoot me, though it didn’t matter because I only needed to win over his father.

  I smiled and replied, “Well you saw what I’ve been eating. It was hard not to.”

  The son walked back over and pushed me down to my back, purposely being rough. Then he tied my hands to the bed again.

  His father sighed, clearly frustrated with his behavior. “Alright, that’s enough. Get out.”

  He gritted his teeth and started shaking his head. “Dad, he’s probably one of them! They’re trying to trick us! I’m tellin-”

  Before he could finish, the old man put his hands on the arms of the chair, began to stand up and sternly said, “Just go.”

  The son threw his head back and rolled his eyes. “You’re gonna get us killed in our sleep.” He walked out and half-slammed the door behind him, clearly only controlling his anger to appease his father.

  If his father wasn’t around he would have finished me off in the woods.

  Shit… He might just sneak in here in the middle of the night and do it.

  Guess I wouldn’t be too disappointed…

  The chair creaked as the old man sat back down, adjusted his position and took another long drag off his cigarette. “Sorry about my boy, he’s just young and scared. Doesn’t know how else to deal with it.”

  When the son said, “he’s probably one of them” it entirely convinced me they went through something similar to what I did. I gulped and asked, “So what happened to make him so angry?”

  His shoulders slightly hunched as he drew on his cigarette until it was down to the filter. “He lost his brother, my son… The first time we were attacked, before we knew to be on watch. He was playing out in the front yard and they just shot him for no reason… Then they tried to kill all of us without even seeing if we would surrender everything we had. It was like they wanted to do it for fun.”

  He crushed the cigarette in the ashtray and lit another one. “We managed to kill a few of them and the rest ran… Buncha assholes on loud motorcycles.”

  That sounds familiar… I asked, “One older man on a Harley type and two younger ones on dirt bikes? Followed around by a few trucks?”

  I could tell I was right by the way his hand paused at the ashtray instead of immediately bringing the cigarette back up to his lips. “You ran into these guys?”

  I tried to sit up. Again, forgetting I couldn’t. “Not exactly. The day I was about to leave my home, they showed up. I could just tell I shouldn’t have anything to do with them so I grabbed all my shit and ran like hell.”

  He slowly nodded and momentarily raised his brow. “Good choice.”

  As I studied his outdated clothing, fiercely used work boots and long, gray, tied back hair, I just knew that I was dealing with a humble, good hearted man. I wanted to know his name. “So, you know my name. What’s yours?”

  His eyes narrowed – he was hesitant to tell me. I sarcastically asked, “What does it matter? I just wanna know what to call you. Right now you’re either old man or the guy who shot me and has me tied up in his house.”

  He lightly laughed. “If I was the one who shot you I wouldn’t have missed the first time, and it would have killed you.” I could tell he meant it in a lighthearted way – he smirked and the corners of his eyes wrinkled. “I’m Auron. My boy’s name is Jeff.”

  “You have a wife?”

  “I did, but she died years ago… So, Chris, tell me a little more about what happened to your family.”

  Already?

  Fuck.

  For a moment I was angry that he was going to force me to talk about it. He already said he wouldn’t, but I knew he just wanted to make sure I was genuine. He’d lost his child just like me – If the shoe were on the other foot I probably would have fired again – He was obviously a better man than I was, which is why I felt that I could depend on him to be reasonable.

  “Remember the guy, Jim, I told you about? We were helping each other get by.”

  Auron leaned back and crossed his arms. He even left his cigarette billowing away in the ashtray, suggesting that he was going to pay close attention to my every word – observe me and search for inconsistencies in my story.

  I feared that I would do that thing people do when they get nervous, which was lie for no apparent reason. Almost like it was a natural defense mechanism in the brain… Just tell the fucking truth and everything will be fine.

  Thinking about everything made the thoughts of suicide creep back – Since I can’t pull the trigger maybe I could at least find the courage to get him to do it for me…

  Courage?

  I had to hold back a laugh before going on. “Because of the attacks on other homes in the area we decided to hunt separately and take turns watching them.”

  He cut in. “Them?”

  He wanted names, obviously, and I knew I had to answer fast so he wouldn’t get suspicious. “My wife, Jessica… and my daughter, Sophia… She was about to turn five – in April.”

  Is that fucking enough?

  He didn’t reply, which I took as direction to keep going. “We did it for weeks. I was even able to leave
for a whole day and everything was fine when I got back... I truly considered him to be a good friend and an even better man.”

  Auron slightly frowned as he started rubbing his chin. It seemed like knew exactly where the story was going.

  If you do then just make me stop… please.

  “It was a week ago. He went out to hunt and never came back. For hours I waited… I was so sure some of the groups of men who already attacked our neighborhood had killed him. I thought they’d been watching and waiting to take one of us out as part of a plan to take all our shit.”

  I paused and cleared my throat. With each sentence, it was becoming more difficult to continue. And soon I’d be getting to the part where it was partially my fault – where I probably killed them because I wildly fired at Jim and missed the first two shots.

  I should have just listened to him… He wouldn’t have hurt us. He just wanted to take all our shit and leave.

  “I guess I was just so exhausted in general. Then the worry and pacing the house for hours on end only added to it… I sat down for a few minutes and I fell asleep.”

  My voice started get shaky as I tried my hardest not to break down into tears. I took a deep breath. Auron quietly waited – I still couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking. He was so serious and his face was so weathered and wrinkled that his expressions gave very little insight into his emotions.

  “I woke up to the barrel of a rifle at my neck… It was Jim… He said he didn’t want to hurt me, and that he just wanted all of our food and water so he could head to the National Forest. We weren’t having much luck hunting – we were almost out of food and he was getting scared. He said it wasn’t personal and kept promising he wouldn’t hurt us... At first I believed him, but then he wanted me to get Jessica and Sophia to come out from the bedroom.” I shook my head. “There was no reason for it. I had Jessica lock the door and put furniture in front of it… It made me think he was lying about something.”

  I wasn’t having an emotional breakdown, but I could feel the tears collecting in my eyes. It was beyond my control, and choking on my own spit as I tried to finish telling him what happened was close enough.

  Auron put his hand out and softly said, “Just take your time. There’s no rush. It’s okay.”

  Just let me stop.

  Why won’t you let me stop yet?

  I wanted to scream, “Look at me! You can’t see that it’s real!”

  But his voice somehow soothed me and kept me from losing control of myself. He also reminded me of my father, even though they didn’t look or sound anything alike. It was just the smell of the cigarettes and the way he carried himself. I sensed the same values and caring nature.

  “There was a noise in the hallway. At the time I thought Jessica was still locked in the room... She must have heard us yelling at each other – I still don’t really know why she came out of the room… When Jim heard the noise, he looked away and I grabbed the gun, then as we struggled a few shots went off. I was able to get it away from him and kill him… I don’t know whether it was during the struggle or when I shot him, but they got hit. Jessica was holding Sophia.”

  I had to pause and take a few deep breaths before I said, “I’m almost certain that I’m the one. I was aiming in their direction and I missed the first two shots.”

  My whole body tensed up. I clenched my fists and started trying to struggle free. I just couldn’t stand lying there, not being able to move. Telling Auron what happened made me feel like I had to get up and walk around.

  He came over and put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry it has to be this way, son, but try to calm down. It’s not going to help anything… I know that was hard for you, but I had to know. It’s over now. You don’t have to say anything else unless you want to.”

  I was about to reply when I heard the heavy footsteps of someone running through the house. The door flung open and his son, Jeff, was standing there – looking scared out of mind. “Dad, they’re coming back! I can hear the motorcycles again!” He pulled out a large hunting knife and charged toward me. “I told you he was one of them!”

  Auron grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him up against the wall. “Stop it, now! We don’t know anything. Just forget about him and get ready for a fight. They might have more people with them by now.”

  When Jeff didn’t react, he barked, “Go!”

  Auron shot me a cold glance and then rushed out of the room, surely thinking that his son could be right…

  Still not being able to move only heightened my already frantic state… If those men really want to take this house they could. There were at least nine of them, and I’m completely helpless.

  Then I started to think about everything that had just happened. After replaying myself telling the story I went back to not caring if I died. My only “wish” was that it would be over quickly.

  I still failed to produce a real reason as to why I should bother trying to survive… Just so I can be all alone in the woods and think about it for the rest of my days? What kind of life is that?

  I would have been better off if Auron or his son had just killed me.

  If not for liking Auron so much, I would have hoped that those men succeeded in killing them so they could come inside and do the same to me…

  As soon as my mind calmed down a bit, I picked up the rumble of the motorcycles. They were still somewhat far away but getting closer, and fast. It was an all too familiar sound. I knew it was the same guys. The ones with the body armor and military grade machine guns.

  Normal people rarely ever have all that shit. They’re all probably very good with rifles…

  All I could do was lay there and listen to them getting closer and closer. It was like enduring some type of psychological torture – like hearing the heavy footsteps of a large man carrying an axe as he walked up the aged wooden steps of an execution platform.

  The walls and windows were rather thin, so I could hear almost as well as if I were standing outside. By the time I was done guessing how I’d die, I could tell that they’d definitely made it onto the property. Just a few moments later the engines cut off.

  I heard Auron yell out, “Didn’t you people learn your lesson last time!”

  Then I heard someone I didn’t recognize. “Take it easy, old-timer, we don’t want any more trouble! We’re just lookin’ for someone!”

  Looking for someone? Hopefully Auron is too smart to fall for some shit like that…

  “Well there’s no one here but us, so move along or I’m gonna start shootin’!”

  I could only assume it was the older man I saw on the motorcycle who was speaking. The gruff, careless voice matched his appearance. “Just hear me out! Someone a few towns over killed one of my boys and then just disappeared! He also killed his neighbor! He’s a dangerous man who needs to be brought to heel!” Really, he sounded like a massive asshole.

  Oh fuck, I was right – that kid was one of them… Auron is gonna have to give me up.

  Now I’ve put them in danger too.

  Auron replied, “There’s no one like that around here. Just me and my son – you know that!”

  He’s lying for me?

  Why would he do that? Those men are dangerous as hell.

  “Well, one of my boys is a hell of a tracker and he tells me your lyin’! I even know what the man looks like! I went through the homes and looked at the pictures. That’s how I know he killed his own neighbor too! And probably his family – it looked like he buried them out back!”

  Auron swiftly answered, “Your boy is mistaken!”

  Unfortunately, the motorcycle pricks were right, and they knew it. “I know he’s here, or at least that he was here! We found the trail of fire’s leading the way! He’s a danger to you and your boy – we just wanna take him off your hands! But if you don’t quit lying we’re all gonna start shootin!”

  There was nothing but silence for some time, and then I heard Jeff say, “You can have him! He’s in the house, a
nd he’s already wounded too!”

  I guess I saw that coming… I can’t blame him – it’s the right thing to do.

  The man who was apparently about to kill me, yelled out, “Now see that wasn’t so bad! Why protect some stranger who murdered my boy and his family. Give him to me so I can have justice!”

  I thought I heard Auron say something, but it was too low. Shortly after, I the front door opened and someone began walking toward the room. I assumed he’d sent Jeff to get me.

  When the door opened, to my surprise, Auron walked in – my rifle was in his left hand. He rushed over and started to untie my feet. I said, “You should have just killed me or let me go.”

  As he worked on untying my hands, he said, “If I did that you wouldn’t be here to help us.”

  That’s the last thing I expected to hear…

  Why would he possibly want to risk himself and his son to protect me?

  I had to question him. “What the fuck are you talking about? Just let me go to them. I don’t want to be responsible for any more people getting hurt.”

  He stopped what he was doing and looked right at me. “One of those animals shot my boy, my twelve year old boy – while he was playing in the front yard. This ain’t got nothin’ to do with you. And I know that man’s a monster and a liar, so I didn’t believe a word he said. If anything, it just let me know you were telling the truth. So now, you’re gonna help us.” His eyes were screaming for revenge.

  I was pretty fucking stunned, but ready… I couldn’t protect my family, maybe I can help save this one…

  Auron finished untying me and said, “This is what you’re gonna do – hold your rifle behind your back with both hands so it looks like you’re tied up. As soon as I fire, just follow. I’m gonna try and get em to come out from behind the trucks first. You understand?”

  He handed me my rifle. When I reached out to grab it I winced in pain. He said, “No time for that. Move past it.”

  I nodded and proceeded to follow him through the house. It was the first time I’d seen it, so I couldn’t help but study everything I passed. And when I glanced into what was obviously a young boy’s room, the anger I’d been directing toward myself suddenly shifted to those men. I could soon feel Auron’s mixing with my own and creating something new within me that was actually invigorating.