“How long has he been here?”
“How long have you been here?”
“You’re infuriating.”
He opens the door and reaches inside to turn on the lights.
A wave of sweltering heat rushes me. Coupled with the pungent odor, I nearly retch.
A hand presses on my back, urging me forward. I want to look away—I want to run, but that won’t end this nightmare.
There’s a figure seated in a chair at the center of the room that looks more dead than alive. Their hair is a chaotic nest, and their mouth is black, dripping with gore. It’s a man, aged considerably, pale white and looking like a ghost.
“What is the meaning of this?” I snap.
“Look harder.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Then you’ll never know the truth.”
The truth? Maybe Gage is more insane than I gave him credit for.
The man’s clothes are a mess of tears and blood, his crotch is pooled in darkness. The man mumbles something. He’s so weak, but I see his fingers working. Scratching against the armrests, what little good it will do him.
“Recognize him?” Gage says.
Recognize him? Where would I recognize him—oh…
It’s him. The man who screamed my presence to the ragers. The man who’d nearly had me killed.
“How did you find him?”
“You said he was on the second story of a building close to the square. I hunted him down straight after I settled you in.”
“Why?”
“Because he’d almost killed you.”
I take a step toward the man, studying his mauled body. There’s something in his mouth. Something strange.
“You’ve been torturing him for weeks?”
“I wanted him to pay for what he’d done to you, and ending him quickly would have been too great a mercy.”
“What’s in his mouth?”
“He testicles,” Gage says matter-of-factly. “He’ll probably choke on them soon?”
“You wanted me to see this…so I’d know how far you’d go to protect me. That you wouldn’t just kill anyone that sought to hurt me, and what we create together. You’d make them wish they were never born.”
He nods.
What he’s done is wrong. It’s not even debatable. Justifying his actions could only be done by those truly sick.
And I don’t want any other medicine except him.
I rush to Gage, throwing my arms around him, burying my head into his chest.
He seems taken aback, his hands coming up, tentatively touching my hair.
His heart beats against my cheek like a drum, calling to a primal part of me that never existed before this new world came about.
I pull away and look over at the man in the chair. “Finish him.”
Gage’s brow lifts. “Are you condoning this?”
I nod. “Your job is to do everything you can to protect me. It’s not my job to watch.”
I walk past him, out the door, and go to my room to await my monster, feeling safe for the first time since the zombies invaded.