Page 68 of Born Savage

I laughed at his sudden change in mood as well as his enthusiasm. But I knew the darkness lived deep within. This fight wouldn’t be over any time soon. The first task was finding Eden. The next would potentially alter the course of the world one final time. “Sounds good.”

He walked backward, using his hands to pretend he had weapons in them, pulling the triggers. “Then you can get back to your heated love affair.”

His laughter echoed in the dense space.

Somehow, I doubted our dislike of one another would change.

Either in this life or the next.

CHAPTER 14

Star

The alarms had been turned off, those inside the bunker told to sequester in their rooms, even though I knew they’d all be on edge.

We’d practiced for this several times, although nothing was the same as being under direct attack even if the thought was never far removed from our minds.

Knowing the bastards were hiding above us, eager to steal and kill was horrifying, but even more, the anger brimming just below the surface made it difficult to breathe.

How many times had I taken comfort by placing my head in my mother’s lap over the years? Enough I couldn’t count. She’d never pushed me away, had never told me there wasn’t time or that she was busy. Well, except for one time.

It had been before we’d found this place, a group of eighty or so of us, mostly men, taking refuge in a small town further west. The area had been spared of significant damage, but time and destructive weather patterns had taken their toll. So had looters, Savages, and even Hunters.

That was also the time when different gangs had formed, the most violent men claiming leadership. One had descended on our little town, determined to take what belonged to us.

I’d been ten years old, too young to fight but not to understand what we’d been facing. The strongest had fought, young and middle-aged men pledging to keep the women and children safe.

Children. As in plural. There’d been seven of us, three older, a boy and two teenage girls. We’d huddled together in a building with a basement while the fighting had ensued. There’d been hopes we wouldn’t be found.

With the skirmish taking place miles away, our fighters didn’t know a group had doubled back in what had likely been a preplanned attack. They’d known where we were all along.

I’d learned several valuable lessons that day including how heinous some survivors could be. Even today, I could still hear the screams of the two girls as they’d been sexually assaulted by several men, the other children hunted like rats and killed.

My survival had been because my mother had hidden me away in a closet.

While the marauders had been defeated, only a few still alive and deciding it was best to pillage elsewhere, the emotional toll had been taken on everyone. On the single day my mother had pushed me aside, refusing me comfort had been because she’d remained with one of the teenager girls who’d survived her ordeal.

My mother had treated her like a baby, singing to her the very lullabies she’d done with me. Then she’d cradled the girl in her arms, holding her until she’d passed away peacefully.

It was a vision I’d both wanted to forget and hoped that I wouldn’t. A reminder of the horrors in this world.

Now I had my head on her leg, another reminder of the decent part of a past that at times didn’t seem real, yet was the only one I knew. With my parents moving from place to place, taking solace in each other, entertainment from books or hearing stories of an alternate life.

Fantasies that would never come true.

She was stroking my hair, her breathing more labored than even a couple of hours before. I’d waited too long. There was nothing that would stop her from dying. With the lockdown, only the bare minimum of glow lights was allowed. Normally, I didn’t mind the darkness, but tonight the shadows formed from the eerie illumination were disturbing.

At least my father had finally fallen asleep in the chair in the corner. His vigil was another reason I knew the time was close. He was our resident mechanic, a mechanical engineer by trade who’d managed to keep equipment operational. I don’t know how he’d been able to do so, but his genius had been the real reason we’d all survived.

My accomplishments in comparison had been next to nothing.

Mother and father. They’d been my everything. I glanced at the sleeping man, thankful he’d found some peace. While they were the only parents I’d ever known, I was aware of my birth parents, although explaining how had never been necessary or even desired. They were like shadows in my brain, ghosts that appeared every so often when I was exhausted.

Fleeting images that once awake, I was never able to grasp onto enough that I could recall their features or any events in the dream. The few times one or the other appeared, and usually my mother, days of sadness lingered, a noose around my neck pulling me closer to a terrifying abyss.

These two amazing people had been my life raft. Now I was being asked to take a dive into a swirling ocean full of monsters. How was that possible?

“Wren reminds me so much of you,” Mama said. The life had vanished from her voice, but I could hear the rally cry in her soul, trying to pretend like everything was going to be alright.