Innocence Lost (13 page)

Ben

              Ben kicked off the snow from his boots and walked into the house, enjoying the wave of heat that passed over and through him. He took off his snow covered jacket and gloves, and hung them out, hoping they would dry before he needed them again.

              “Anything?” Mason asked from the living room.

              “Nice and quiet.” Ben said as he walked past the man and collapsed onto their rickety sofa. “Ole Ray Miller in Section C is still complaining about his place but he’s not causing a problem yet.”

              It had taken a few weeks before Mason had been able to talk the higher ups into allowing Ben to patrol. When they had finally agreed, it was under the condition that he was always accompanied by Mason. Within a month, he was out on regular schedule, which meant being able to go out with other soldiers beside Mason. At first the others had been skeptical of Ben but he kept his head down, worked hard and followed orders. Now they busted his chops as much as they did everyone else’s, he was a part of the group.

              “You going to be up for PT in the morning?”

              “Wouldn’t miss it.” Ben said sarcastically.

He had asked Mason to train him so he would at least somewhat appear to look like he knew what he was doing. He thought that would consist of learning military lingo and learning how to fire multiple types of guns. Mason had decided it needed to include everything, which meant physical fitness. Every morning they would run two miles and a couple of times a week Mason would take him up to the abandoned high school, which still had workout equipment, in order to lift weights. The first few mornings he hadn’t been able to finish one mile, but after a bit he did, and then one turned into two and soon he was keeping up with Mason. Same thing with weight-lifting. At first he struggled with the lowest of weights but soon he was surpassing even his own lofty goals.

“We need to start betting,” Mason said with a smile. “You’re younger than me, you should be able to beat me.”

“Who said I wasn’t able?” Ben said with a laugh.

He felt at place there. The base was thrown-together and poorly supplied, and the civilians that they watched over in the town had their fair share of demands and complaints, but he felt like he mattered there. For the first time ever he felt like he had a purpose.

“Uh, oh. Looks like you’re getting serious. What’s on your mind?”

He had been putting it off for as long as he could. “This is what I want to do.”

Mason’s smile disappeared but the warmth stayed in his eyes. He looked to the ground and shook his head. “Yeah, I kind of figured it was.”

“I know that doing what you do is dangerous, I saw that first hand. And I know that I will have to do things that will probably haunt me for my entire life.” Mason looked up and Ben made a point to meet his eyes. “But I want to do something that matters. I want to stand for something.”

“Damn, Ben.” He ran his hands through his hair. “What about Jack and your family?”

“I hope they are still alive. I hope that one day I will go back there and find my brother and sister there, but I can’t go back. Not yet.”

“I didn’t bring you back when I had the chance. I don’t know how I feel about turning around and letting you join the military, especially when there is a war going on.”

“For the longest time you told me I needed to learn that I didn’t need to prove myself to anybody. You need to learn you don’t need to protect me. Hiding in your truck was a childish thing to do. I was a child then, I’m not anymore.”

“I have one question for you,” Mason said. “What’s the real reason you want to join? No bullshit.”

Ben didn’t hesitate. “I want to matter.”

“Well, shit.” Mason stood up. “A couple of higher-ups had been asking if you’d be willing to join up but I’d been putting them off. If it’s really what you want then I think you’d be a good soldier.”

Ben was on his feet and giving Mason the biggest bear hug he could manage before he even realized it. Mason laughed and gave him a pat on the back.

There was a knock on the door and a soldier that went by the name of Ace walked in and nodded to the both of them.

“Sorry to interrupt, gentlemen. Just thought I’d give you guys a heads up, looks like most of us are going to be shipping out soon.”

Mason’s face instantly turned to stone. “Shipping out where?”

“To war.”

Ally

They were all together in the backyard of their old house. The sun was shining and the grass was bright green. Alec and her father sat on the back porch talking and laughing, Ben was jumping around just outside the woods in the background, and Joseph sat alone in the middle of the yard. Ally ran to him and gave him a hug.

Joseph smiled. “Everything is going to be ok.”

“No, it’s not.” she said. She didn’t know why she said it but she knew things were not ok. She searched her mind but couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong. In the distance just outside the woods she saw her mother standing there. Ally’s heart raced.

“Joseph, look, it’s mom!” Then her mother disappeared as if she was never there. Ally didn’t understand what had happened. “Did…Joseph did you see that?”

The boy who had once just a few inches from here was gone. Panic rose in her chest. He was gone again.

“Alec! Dad!” she screamed.

She looked to the back porch and there were gone as well. Ally turned to the woods and Ben was nowhere to be seen. They were all gone, she was all by herself again.

Ally.

The voice was a whisper but seemed to travel over a great distance.

Ally, can you hear me?

The voice was familiar. She couldn’t pinpoint who it was but knew enough that the voice caused dread to bubble up from inside her.

“Ally, you awake?”

Ally opened her eyes and was met with the familiar sight of the inside of her cage. She didn’t have to look, she already knew who the voice belonged to. She searched around for the shard of glass and found it under her blanket. As he eyes adjusted, she saw the man sitting just outside her cage looking towards Roy’s room. She let go of the glass. He turned to her and his face was still swollen and bruised from when Roy beat him. The man put a single finger up to his lips.

“Be quiet, little bird. I haven’t been able to talk to you for a while but I wanted you to know I haven’t forgotten about you.” Ally had hoped that Roy had beaten his fascination with her out of the man, but that didn’t appear to be the case. “I want you to know that I won’t let him hurt us anymore. He doesn’t want us to be together but he doesn’t have a choice.”

“We aren’t together, you have me in a cage.”

“That’s temporary. Things are going to change soon. I will take care of both of us.”

“Why don’t you let me out?” Ally asked as she slipped her hand back under the blanket and rested her hand on the shard of glass. “We can run away from him.”

“No,” Ethan said firmly. “He would come after us. He would find us and he would hurt you. I don’t want us to have to hide. This is our house. We’re going to fix it up together.”

Ally considered approaching the gate and seeing if she could get him to come closer, but she had no idea if the key to the padlock was on him.

“I thought that all three of us could live together, little bird, but that’s not going to happen. He doesn’t understand us, so soon it’s going to just be the two of us. Be ready, because a change is coming.” Ethan smiled then reached his hand out to her. She didn’t reach for it. “Don’t worry, little bird, you’ll learn to trust me. We are going to be together forever.”

With that said, the man stood up and snuck out of the room. Ally let go of the shard of glass. Things were going to change soon and she was going to be ready.

Ben

The snow came down sideways and thunder struck in the distance, causing the ground to shake underneath him. Ben was oblivious to it all. His ears were filled with the sound of the helicopter blades slicing through the air, and his eyes wouldn’t budge from the giant helicopter that was sitting right in front of him. He felt a hand on his shoulders but he didn’t take his eyes away from the helicopter.

“Technically I should be the one afraid of that thing. Last time I was in one, it didn’t work out so well for me.” Ben looked up at Mason and the man gave him a warm smile.

Ben was terrified but he wasn’t sure what exactly was scaring him. He wasn’t exactly excited about getting onto a helicopter after what had happened to Mason but it didn’t scare him. The thought of where they were going also didn’t seem to be the root of his fear. While they were headed to New York which was apparently still under siege, Mason said they were landing in a safe zone just outside of the city. He searched his mind and the reason seemed to stare right back at him. He was afraid of the change. They were going from the comfort of the base to a place where Mason and Zima, along with the other people he had gotten to know, could be taken from him. In a sense this is what he wanted but he didn’t realize it would arrive so quickly.

“You’re not going to be fighting, Ben, not for a while at least.”

Mason had already told him this. The place they were going was going to continue training him along with the handful of other new recruits from their community. From everything Mason told him it would be months if not longer before they would be put in harm’s way, but Ben knew that Mason would not be the one training him. The man was a solider, a good one at that. He would be going off to fight and would be leaving Ben alone.

The man gently turned Ben to him. The man’s stone features had softened. “You can still go back home. This isn’t something you have to do.”

“I know,” Ben said truthfully. “It’s something I want to do.”

Mason studied him for a second and then gave him another pat on the back. “Then let’s do it.”

Ben covered his eyes as they walked to the helicopter and through the mini-snow storm the helicopter blades created. He was vaguely aware of sitting down and getting strapped in, and before he knew it, he felt the helicopter lift in the air and take off. As soon as he looked out the window his fear disappeared. He looked down and saw the snowy landscape passing by and was filled with excitement. He was leaving his old life behind and was headed towards something new, something frightening and unknown, but new. He was glad that Mason and Zima were with him, Stevenson had left days prior.

“Not so bad, huh?” Mason shouted in his ear when he saw Ben’s face.

Ben gave him a smile and returned his attention to the window.

They made several stops on the way there. The dropped off some, picked up more, would refuel and then take back off into the air. At their last planned stop Mason took him to the side before takeoff.

“You know that they’ll probably send me into the thick of things once we get to the base outside New York, right?”

“I figured.”

“You’ll be fine. Concentrate on your training and if even for a second you think this is something you don’t want to do then say it.”

“I will,” Ben said with a smile. “You just worry about yourself.”

Soon they were back in the air and Ben was fast asleep. He dreamed of his family, before everything happened. He remembered the smell of pancakes as he walked into the kitchen and saw his mother standing there smiling. He remembered Alec giving him a punch on the arm and asking if he wanted to play video games. He remembered quiet Joseph playing with his action figures in the living room with cartoons blaring over the TV. And he remembered Ally tormenting everything and everyone around her. His father had not been there during those times but in his dream he was. His father was there standing in the background watching them with a smile on his face. After a few moments his mother walked over and stood next to his father, then Joseph dropped his action figures and ran over to them. The three of them, his mother, father and Joseph stood there watching Ben, Alec and Ally. Ben started to walk over and say something when the sound of the cartoons was replaced by an alarm. It started soft but soon it was all he could hear. His father looked at him and opened his mouth.

“Ben!”

Ben opened his eyes and saw Mason yelling at him. An alarm in the helicopter was going off and everyone around him was buckling up and looking out the windows panicked.

“What is it?” he yelled, unsure if Mason could hear him above the alarms and the sound of the helicopter.

Mason turned to say something to him when the helicopter swung to the left. Ben’s stomach lurched and his body was thrown to the right. He felt Mason’s hand on his arm just as the helicopter dove sharply towards the ground and then he saw it out the window across from him. As if in slow motion, he saw a trail of smoke rising from the ground heading straight towards them. They seemed to be floating gently in the air as the object shot towards them at an alarming speed.

Ben turned to Mason.

Mason turned to Ben.

Mason opened his mouth to say something. Then the rear of the helicopter exploded.

Ally

              “Get up.” Roy’s voice woke her up from her slumber.

              Ally pushed herself back and searched for the shard of glass.

              “I’m getting you out of here. You’re fucking up Ethan’s head and I can’t have that. I’ll let you go if you promise to leave here and never come back. I’m not talking leave this area, I’m talking you leave Louisiana. Head over to Florida or Texas or wherever the fuck, just get out of here.”

              Ally paused as her mind tried to process what the man was saying.

              “You hear me, kid? I let you out and you get the fuck out of here, understand?”

              “Yeah.”

              Roy approached the cage and pulled the key from his pocket just as Ethan walked into the room.

              “You’re not going to sell her.”

              Roy stopped what he was doing and rolled his eyes before turning to Ethan. “No, I’m not going to sell the little bitch. I’m letting her go.”

              Ethan looked confused. “What do you mean, let her go?”

              “Exactly what the fuck I said. I’m letting her go.”

              “So she can stay here?”

              “She doesn’t want to stay here.” Roy answered quickly.

              Roy looked to her and Ally confirmed. The man turned red and began to shift his weight from side to side.

              “No, no, no. I know what you’re doing. You got in her head. You convinced her she’s not welcome here and that’s not the truth. We’re a family.”

              Roy slammed his fist against her cage. “God dammit, Ethan. Fucking listen to yourself. This bitch is driving you crazy. I don’t know what the fuck your problem is but she’s gone. I either let her go or we sell her. Which do you want?”

              Ethan’s face was blank and he stopped moving. “Don’t sell her.”

              “Then she’s gone. I let her out and no attempting to find her or any such bullshit, agreed?”

              Ethan nodded. Roy turned around began to unlock his cage when Ally saw Ethan pull a knife. Before she could register a thought, Ethan had closed the distance between them and plunged the knife into Roy’s side. Roy let out a howl of pain and sent an elbow across Ethan’s head, knocking the man back. Ethan rolled on the ground once, jumped to his feet and charged Roy again. The force of his impact sent both of them slamming into Ally’s cage and she heard Roy howl again in pain. From her vantage point she could see Roy’s body shake each time Ethan thrust the knife into the man’s stomach. Roy managed to grab a hold of both of Ethan’s wrists and pulled the man close, and with a sickening crack, slammed his head right into Ethan’s. Ethan collapsed on the ground and Roy fell to the side.

Ally could see the blood beginning to drip from Roy’s shirt onto the ground but he still managed to drag himself over to Ethan and began to pummel the man. Punch after punch slammed against the troubled man’s face until the knife, still in his hand, shot up and dug right into Roy’s neck. For a second Roy didn’t move. He stood in place, opening and closing his mouth, and then let out a wet gurgle and fell to the side. Roy pulled the knife from his neck and a stream of blood shot from his neck and hit the floor next to Ally. She scrambled out of the way and watched as Roy tried to stop the stream of blood. It poured from in between his fingers until his hand was completely covered. He let his hand drop away for a second and the blood again flowed unimpeded. Roy didn’t try to stop it this time. Within moments, he slipped away.

Her breaths came out in gasps as she looked at the pool of blood before her and tried to process what had just happened. Roy was dead in the corner of the room and Ethan lay in the middle unmoving, until he finally did. He shot up screaming something incomprehensible. His nose was stuck to the side and his right eye was almost closed shut. He looked around the room and stopped on Roy’s body.

“Don’t worry, I got him.” he yelled to her.

Ethan crawled through the pool of blood to Roy and picked his knife off the floor. He then shoved it back into the man’s chest. When Roy didn’t move he looked at her and smiled, one of his front teeth were missing. He picked up the key from the floor and walked up to the cage.

Ally snapped back to her senses and began to frantically search for the shard of glass under her covers. As she heard the creek of the gate open, her hand fell onto the cool surface of the glass.

“Come on, little bird, you don’t have to leave or live in a cage no more.”

Ally grabbed the shard of glass and kept it to the side out of the man’s view. He stepped to the side as she exited the cage and laid his hand on her shoulder.

“It’s the two of us now. Things are going to be ok.”

She turned to run when his grip tightened around her shoulder and he swung her to him.

“You don’t have to run anymore, little bird.”

“Ethan,” Ally said slowly. “I don’t want to be here. I don’t need you to protect me.”

Ethan stared at her blankly. “Then what is that?” He pointed to Roy’s dead body. “What did I just do there?”

“You killed your friend. The same one that helped you kidnap me.”

Ethan’s face began to get red. “You’re too young to understand, little bird. I am your protector. When you get older, you’ll understand.”

He wasn’t going to let her go, not by choice. “Ethan, let me go.”

Ethan’s grip tightened around her shoulder. “No, you’re mine.”

In a flash, Ally shoved the shard of glass in his stomach. The sharp glass cut through his shirt and entered his belly like a hot knife through butter. Her hand was still on the shard of glass and she just stared at the object partially exposed from the man’s stomach. Ethan screamed and backhanded her across the face. Ally’s world spun in circles as she twisted in the air and landed hard on her back. She fell on her stomach and her left arm instantly went numb.

“What the fuck did you do little bird? Why did you hurt me?” Ethan stared down at the shard of glass exiting his stomach. He gingerly pulled it out and fell to the ground where he threw up.

Ally tried to get up but when she put pressure on her left arm she went crashing back onto the floor.

Ethan looked to her with hatred in his eyes. “He turned you against me. He got in your head. We were supposed to be together. I’m a survivor, little bird, I won’t let you kill me.”

Ethan was on her before she could move. He grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed her down hard on the ground. Her head hit the floor and all the sound in the world became muted. He did it again and the world went fuzzy. She felt his hands around her throat and felt them squeeze, cutting off her air supply. His grip was too strong, she couldn’t break it. He was too heavy, she couldn’t push him off. The edges of the world began to darken when she managed to get one of her legs loose and kicked the man in the stomach right where the glass had entered. He toppled off of her and screamed in pain.

Ally was on her feet and running before she fully realized it. Her head was still cloudy and her left arm hung lifelessly at her side. She ran through the front door and the bright sun blinded her temporarily. For so long she had only glimpsed this object from the dark living room where her cage sat and her eyes struggled to focus. She heard a scream of hatred erupt from inside the house and then the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching. Ally squinted her eyes and ran to the shed. She ran past where Tiger had been stabbed, past the spot where they had kidnapped her, into the shed and past the loose plank into her room.

It was just as she left it, messy but hers. She grabbed her bow and arrow with her right hand and realized she still couldn’t move her left arm. She attempted to lift her left arm in the air and pain shot throughout her entire body. Something was wrong. She felt something warm dripping down her face and looked up expecting to see water coming from the roof but there was nothing. She reached up to wipe away the water and her hand came back covered in blood. Her head was bleeding and it felt like it was bleeding a lot. Her world shifted momentarily but she closed her eyes until it calmed back down.

A loud smack came from the wall separating her room and the shed.

“Little bird, come out here now. You need to be taught a lesson. We can still be together but first I need to teach you right from wrong.”

“Go away!” she screamed. “I don’t like you. We aren’t together. You kidnapped me and put me in a cage, I hate you!”

It was quiet.

“He turned you completely against me, little bird. I’m sorry I couldn’t kill him sooner, but don’t worry, I’ll end your suffering. I won’t let you be all alone again”

Another loud smack and the loose plank was pushed into her room. The opening was too small but Ethan could look in. The man had a crazed look in his eyes and strings of spit hung from his mouth. His right hand covered his stomach and blood had completely soaked through his shirt. Ethan flashed a knife.

“We’ll die together.” he said as he began to throw his body against the weak wall.

Ally laid on the ground with her back against the far wall. She steadied the bow with her left foot long enough for her to grab and place an arrow in the bow with her good hand. As another piece of wall broke off she put her left foot into the bow to point it and pulled back with her right arm. Ethan stepped into the room and stopped, a look of confusion appeared on his face.

“What are you doing, little bird?”

Ally let loose and the arrow struck him square in the chest. He took a few steps back and fell out of sight. The world shifted again but this time when she closed her eyes it didn’t stop. She rolled to her side and emptied her stomach. Her body tried to again but she didn’t have anything left. Ally braced herself with her good arm and stood up. She needed to get to the city and find help but it was over a mile away.

She exited her room and saw Ethan laying on the ground with the arrow sticking out of his chest. At first it appeared he was swaying from side to side but Ally realized it was her. The man’s eyes were blank and were looking up at the ceiling, his right hand clutching the arrow.

The man was dead.

Ally felt nothing.

She stumbled out of the shed into the bright and hot world she hadn’t been in for what seemed like forever. She wiped more blood from her face before it could get into her eyes, as the trees in front of her danced and moved in tight circles. Ally took small steps but soon the shifting world became too much and she fell to her knees. Something was wrong but she didn’t know what she was supposed to do. She could hunt, she could trade, she could scavenge, but she didn’t know how to handle this.

She wanted Alec.

She heard a bark that seemed to come from right next to her and from a mile away at the same time. It came several more times and her eyes caught movement in the tree line. Tiger stood there. He couldn’t have been real. She had seen Roy stab him. Tiger ran to her and nudged her gently. She felt his warm breath against her face and felt his soft fur on her skin. Ally laid her head on his side and saw a large white bandage over where he had been stabbed.

Tiger began barking towards the tree line but the world was spinning too quickly and Ally closed her eyes. She fell back against the hard ground and didn’t try to move. She heard yelling coming from the tree line and was certain it was human. She felt Tiger lay his head on her chest and then felt hands picking her up.