Crashing Down - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 3) (6 page)

A
s we drive
down the deserted road I watched the ruins of the old world pass by. I still couldn’t believe the difference from one area to the next. It was almost as if it was all changing before my eyes. The foliage that was still alive wildly grew all over since there was no one around to trim or tend to it. The weeds and grasses in the ditches and fields looked like they were taller than I was. It was almost hypnotizing how they danced as they blew around in the breeze.

The trees that still remained seemed to have a thick coating of dull-green moss on their trunks. I wondered if there could be mushrooms growing in the wet shadows under the trees. The areas of dead plants almost seemed like a spreading disease, but the healthy plants continued to fight. They weren’t ready to give up… not yet, and maybe they never would.

I still hadn’t seen any wildlife. The only other living creatures we saw were the random dog-beasts. I couldn’t help but think that if humans survived, there had to be some animals that had too. They were out there. Maybe they were just too scared to come out.

I squeezed Dean’s hand and looked into his eyes to see if I could tell what he was thinking about. His eyes were filled with sadness and pain. It seemed like it was almost too much for him to carry. And then on top if it he had to be stuck in this place, with these strangers after having just lost one of his best friends. He was lucky to still have his sister with him, but loss was inevitable.

“I’m sorry,” he mouthed as if he knew what I was thinking. I put my head down on his shoulder. If only there was something I could do to help ease his pain.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” I said putting my lips up close to his ear. I wanted to make sure he would hear me over the noise of the wind as the truck drove down the road. If there was something I could say that would make this all better, I would. The only thing that would help was time, but how much of that did any of us have left? “I just want you to be OK.”

“I will be,” he said forcing a smile, and kissed the top of my head. I raised my head hoping to kiss him back, but I saw Dominick watching us. I put my head back down feeling self-conscious. It wasn’t that I cared if Dominick knew how I felt about Dean, it just made me feel weird to have him watching us. Watching me.

It was almost as if Penn had sensed some kind of tension and decided to break it by striking up a loud conversation with Dezzie and Mack. “Have you guys been with Dominick long?” Penn asked nodding in their direction.

Dezzie and Mack exchanged looks as if they didn’t know how to respond to a question without Dominick there to guide them. They clearly weren’t accustomed to having conversations with the new members. It was like they seemed nervous about saying the wrong thing and upsetting Dominick.

“I’ve been with the resistance ever since I left HOME and they rescued me,” Dezzie said, not touching on the length of time he’d been with either.

“And I’ve been with Dominick since the beginning,” Mack said glancing at the front of the truck. “He’s my brother. We’ve been through all of this together.”

I was surprised to hear they were siblings. They looked nothing alike and they most certainly didn’t act all that much alike.

Between Mack and Dezzie, Mack seemed far more afraid of Dominick than Dezzie did. But then again, Dezzie was ex-HOME military, maybe even ex-old world military too based on how he carried himself.

“Where were you from?” Penn asked acting as if he couldn’t care less if they even answered him. It was probably some psychological technique he had learned in his HOME training. But if it was a technique, surely Dezzie would pick up on it sooner or later and shutdown completely.

“We started in Texas,” he said as Dominick pounded on the window and shot him a dirty look. It didn’t seem likely that he heard what Mack had said. It was more likely just that he had seen his men talking to us and wanted it to stop since he wasn’t there to monitor what they were saying.

“What had the weather been like down there when the big storm hit?” Sienna asked as if she was actually interested in his experience with the storm.

Mack smiled at her. He had a nice smile, but I didn’t think he showed it much. Mack glanced at Dominick before he shook his head to indicate he wouldn’t, or maybe couldn’t, answer. There was no way he was going to risk pissing off his leader, who turned out to also be his brother.

The rest of the ride had been quiet except for the whistling of the wind. We made several turns and probably drove for an hour before they turned towards a fenced in area that was fairly well hidden by a grouping of trees.

“You guys build this place?” Penn asked nodding towards their secret town we were slowly approaching.

Dezzie nodded, but didn’t bother to open his mouth to tell us anything more about the place. If it hadn’t been for Dominick’s presence, I bet Dezzie would have talked. I was almost one hundred percent sure of it. But with Dominick right there he wasn’t going to overstep his bounds. I couldn’t help but wonder what Dominick would do if he would have. Maybe Dezzie already knew what he’d do, and that was why he kept his mouth closed.

After ten seconds or so, two people slid open a gate. The truck just barely squeezed through and made its way inside the fenced in area.

As we pulled in, I noticed their little town was a lot bigger than I had thought at first glance. There were some small houses and a large building off to the side of the parking area. Next to the large building they had a set of what looked like modified porta-potties.

The area wasn’t extremely large, but it was big enough for the hundred or so people Dominick claimed were living inside under his watch. They probably could even house many more people before the camp became uncomfortably crowded.

The driver slammed the truck into park next to one of the other vehicles. In their lot they had two trucks, well, three counting the one we were in, and two cars. Keeping their tanks full was probably quite a challenge, but for all I knew they didn’t even use any of the other vehicles because they couldn’t find gas.

Dominick walked around to the back of the truck but whipped around when he heard the loud ruckus that was coming from somewhere inside his town. I couldn’t see what was going on since there was a garage-like building in the way, but I was dying to know. Dominick left us there as he walked quickly towards the commotion.

Penn hopped down as if he was going to follow him. He turned to help Sienna and I off of the truck, and Dean leapt off of the truck like he was doing some kind of gymnastics move. We followed at a short distance behind Dominick and his men. Penn led the way cautiously, since we couldn’t even venture a guess as to what was going on.

We made a turn around one of the buildings and I saw what looked to be a small wooden stage. I covered my mouth to hold in my gasp, when I saw the three people standing up on the platform with nooses tied around their necks. What was going on in this place? What had we gotten ourselves into?

Dominick took long, purposeful strides as he made his way over to the stage. But judging by the way he moved, it didn’t seem as though he was at all concerned about what had been going on while he was away.

There was a large crowd that had already gathered around the stage. We tried to blend in, but it hadn’t really worked. The people who noticed us knew instantly we were new. They looked at us almost as if we were diseased, and they moved away, afraid to stand too close.

“What is going on here?” I asked no one in particular. Just as the words left my mouth, I heard a grinding noise followed by a heavy clunk as the floor dropped out from under one of the men on stage.

He fell down fast and hard, and his feet dangled below the platform. He struggled only for a few seconds before the life left his body.

“This is what happens when we find those evil ones,” one of the older women nearby said with her hands mostly covering her mouth. It was as if she was trying to make it seem like what had just happened was a big secret. Clearly it hadn’t been since everyone in the town was here to see it. The look on her face under her boney fingers seemed more like one of excitement rather than horror.

Dominick climbed up on the stage and spoke quietly to one of the men. They talked back and forth for a few minutes before he nodded and jumped down off of the stage. He spotted us at the back of the crowd and they parted for him as he walked over to join us.

He stood next to me and he seemed proud of what was going on. Smug even. And I remembered instantly why I hadn’t liked the guy. He seemed pleased to see these supposedly evil people being murdered right in front of his eyes.

“What is all this?” I asked unable to hide my disgust. Even though I didn’t know why the men on stage were being murdered, I still felt like a horrible human being for even standing here in the crowd.

Dominick smirked, “This… this is what we do when we find HOME members snooping around.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest as the second body fell and jerked to a stop. “Penn, is it?” he said looking away from the stage for only a second, “You should consider yourself lucky.”

“Why is that?” Penn asked without even the slightest bit of concern in his voice.

“If you hadn’t been with unmarked people, that would have been you up there,” he said nodding towards the stage. But I had my doubts that Penn would ever be up on the stage under any circumstance. Then again, I never would have thought he’d be captured in the first place and somehow the resistance had gotten both him and Dean.

Dominick acted as if it was his job to rid the world of the evil HOME members. And it seemed as though he would do anything to get the job done. Even if that meant he had to kill people. What I didn’t understand was why he seemed so happy to do it. And why it had to happen in front of his whole group.

I didn’t know exactly what all of his duties at this camp were, but I wouldn’t have guessed murdering people was one of them. Or at least it shouldn’t have been. And all of these people standing around watching were just as bad. For some reason they couldn’t see Dominick for what he really was. Instead, they saw him as some sort of hero. They probably thought if it hadn’t been for him they’d still be out there struggling or dead. I could tell by how the lady standing next to him looked at him that he was regarded as some kind of camp celebrity. But I saw right through it all. I would never think of him as anything other than what he really was.

“What you are doing here is wrong,” I said feeling a burst of bravery. Dominick could easily do some horrible stuff to us and probably with the undying support of his people, but for whatever reason, I didn’t think he would. Because I wasn’t from HOME.

I didn’t like HOME any more than he did but I didn’t want to see people needlessly murdered for entertainment. There had to be something else they could do to the HOME members they came across. Why not give them all the chance to renounce HOME?

“Is that right?” Dominick said looking both amused and angry. I had pushed a button. Or maybe it was because I questioned his decision in front of a small group of his people. Not that anyone had heard me, but still he hadn’t liked it. Maybe I had been wrong about him and I’d be up on that stage next.

“They don’t deserve to die,” I said shaking my head.

“Says you,” he quipped, and I could sense his anger rising. He wrapped his fingers tightly around my upper arm and gripped hard.

“Hey!” I shouted as I tried to pull myself free. He started dragging me roughly towards the stage. My stomach turned as I got closer and closer to the dead bodies swinging gently back and forth. “You’re hurting me!”

“Lot at them. LOOK AT THEM!” he shouted and shook my arm violently. “These men here wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. If I gave this bastard a gun, he’d start shooting into this crowd taking out as many of us as he could. That’s what they do. If you aren’t with them you are against,” Dominick said nodding and flicking his finger at the man on stage so he’d drop the last man while I stood right there watching. But he couldn’t make me watch. I closed my eyes.

Then we were moving again. He was practically dragging me. I could hear footsteps behind us, and I somehow knew it was Dean, Penn and Sienna coming after me. And Dominick’s men were probably behind them.

“Let her go,” Dean said walking quickly alongside of me.

“Here,” Dominick said and shoved me into a grouping of crosses and wooden planks stuck into the ground. “Look around. This is where we bury the bodies of the people HOME decided to kill. Our people. Innocent men and women. Do you still think what I’m doing is wrong?”

When I didn’t answer he grabbed my arm again and pushed me down next to a small cross. It had the name “Charles” written on it. The dates written on it indicated it was the marker of a child.

“Does that one help put things into perspective for you? Do you get it now?” Dominick shouted as he took a step away, as if it were me that appalled him. I felt the cold, damp, freshly dug up mud under my palms. My fingers started to turn purple, and they matched the temperature of the ground. I grabbed a handful of the mud and squeezed it as if I was trying to hug the boy underneath.

“I’m sorry,” I said feeling a little freaked out by Dominick’s aggressiveness and sad for the little boy who they had to bury because of HOME. But they were here worrying about HOME killing their people while they were out there doing the same thing to HOME. If they came across a young boy from HOME would they just let him go? I liked to think they would, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Although I wasn’t thrilled about what I had seen at the center of the resistance camp, I knew it was best to keep my mouth shut. Arguing would only get me in trouble with Dominick and he seemed to have a short fuse. He hated HOME so much he was probably blind to anything else, such as reason. Once the world was rid of everything HOME, he’d be less angry. But would that ever happen? For some reason I didn’t think so.