Chapter 32
Nick shut his eyes, recalling a time this sensation had suffocated him in the past. When he was overseas, Nick remembered sitting outside the building used to store the bodies of lost Marines. Inside, they were stripped of any personal effects, cleaned up, and prepared for their trip home. Nick had sat outside that building for hours while Adler lay within its desolate walls. His heart had crumbled into fragments, tears streaming down his cheeks until his eyes ached. The world had spun, and Nick had never felt so lost.
Until now. As Nick stared at the pavement where the pick-up truck had been moments before, his eyes glazed over, and his vision lost focus. It had only taken minutes for everything he cared about to disappear.
Nick jogged back to where Ryan held his new captive. His knees dug into the man’s back as he held him to the ground. Seeing Nick return, Ryan stood, looking in every direction for Kate and coming up short.
Nick gestured for Ryan to step aside and pulled the captive to his knees. He groaned in Nick’s grip, head bobbing and drool cascading down his chin.
“Where the fuck are they taking her?” Nick asked. The stranger grunted out a laugh in response. Nick pulled him to his feet and shoved him against a tree. The same tree Kate was against, pulling Nick into her with a devil’s grin. Nick punched the man in the nose with a fist fueled by desperate anger. The nasal bones crunched, and a stream of blood turned the lower half of his face red.
“Where are they taking her?” Nick asked again.
“Fuck you,” the man hissed. Nick nodded, sent three more strikes at the man’s face, and wiped his knuckles on his pants.
“I want you to understand something. You can tell me and continue to live. Or you can die a slow, painful death. And I turn over every fucking building, search through every field, scour every inch of woods, and still find her. This isn’t a matter of me finding out what I want to know. Right now, we’re deciding how many of your limbs stay intact.”
“I’m not telling you shit.” The man rested his head against the tree and met Nick’s eyes with provocation. Nick grinned at him and slipped a knife from his pocket.
“Woah, Nick. We can figure this out. Maybe just give him time or—”
“If you can’t stomach this, Ryan, go back to camp,” Nick said, maintaining his stare-off with the man, whose eyes flickered between Nick’s and the knife. With the man’s fingers clutched between his own, Nick sawed the blade into the soft skin. When he wailed and tried to pull the digit from Nick’s grasp, Nick tightened his grip.
The man’s index finger fell to the ground. His screams penetrated the night air, disrupting the perfect quiet.
“You’re a fucking psycho,” the man gasped.
“Where are the others?” Nick asked Ryan without turning around.
“They, umm, uhh, they are back at camp,” Ryan uttered.
“Go to them. The sounds will attract the Infected.” Nick’s voice was made of stone as he positioned the knife against the man’s middle finger. The shuffling of leaves told him that Ryan was following his instructions.
“Ready for more?” Nick pushed the blade into the man’s finger, just enough to pierce the skin. “Where are they taking her?”
The man sobbed and shivered in agony, yet gave no response. Nick pushed the blade down until another of the man’s fingers rested in the brittle leaves below.
“There’s a warehouse!” the man exclaimed. “There’s a…warehouse. It’s… a few miles away.”
Nick took a step back and returned the blade to its home. The sight of the man's fingers blending in with the forest floor like a leaf or a twig forced Nick to question his morality. He had just become the type of man who could torture another man to get what he wanted. Yet, the fingers belonged to the kind of man who would snatch up a woman from the woods in the middle of the night. And not just any woman. His woman. Could it have gone any other way?
A smirk cut across Nick’s face. “Perfect. You’re going to lead me there.”
Chapter 33
The men's shoulders pushed against Kate’s as she sat on the truck’s bench seat. The cab of the vehicle was hardly spacious enough for three people. Four bodies crushed together made for cramped travel.
Kate’s nails dug into her palms. She focused on the buttons of the console, the blue and red lights illuminating the truck’s temperature controls. Determined not to let fear show on her face, Kate maintained an expressionless gaze.
“So, we’re just going to leave Alex behind?”
“Alex is capable. We’ll get the girl settled and come back for him. It was only one guy.”
Only one guy,Kate scoffed internally.
The truck tires hit gravel, and they seemed to be nearing their destination. Kate could make out the outline of a building against the moonlit sky. The driver put the truck in park and opened his door. The overhead light cast a glow on the men's masked faces. The one sitting beside her wore a ski mask, and despite spending a lifetime avoiding eye contact with people, Kate chanced a glimpse.
The attempt left her feeling foolish. Centered in the eye holes of the mask were hazel irises surrounding a standard pupil. She found no empathy. No evil. No humanity. No cruelty. Just colors and textures staring back at her.
