Chapter 46

  "They're here?" Adam fought to keep the slur out of his voice as the edges of his vision began to clear.

  "Jessica is,” Amir said with a mocking smile. Adam couldn't help but wonder what the hell had happened since the Announcement to twist him into whatever he was now. He remembered Amir as quiet, helpful and decent, not whatever this was.

  "Stephen?" Adam worked his fingers, trying to shake off the growing tingle.

  "He had an accident," Rashid said, finally lowering the shotgun, and some of the tension in Adam's chest eased. "He fell in a hole."

  Adam had a feeling his friend was dead from the moment they arrived and found strangers in his house, but the confirmation hit like a battering ram. He'd arrived too late to do anything about it, too late to help. Just… too late.

  Amir shot his brother an annoyed glance. "Fell in a hole? Really?"

  "I mean, he had help, but essentially." Rashid sounded defensive and Adam could sense how little love was lost between them.

  "Just... just get them in the basement," Amir said, shaking his head and mumbling under his breath.

  "Wait." Adam leaned forward meeting Amir's eyes. "Amir, I don't know what happened out there, but talk to us. We don't have to be enemies." The drug haze was fading quickly and he could feel his faculties returning.

  Amir jabbed a finger into Adam's forehead, pushing his head back. "You must think I look stupid. We're not enemies. You're a resource, just like everything else now. And just like any other resource, I'll use you and then forget you existed."

  "Why wouldn't you just work with us? Are things not bad enough out there without people trying to kill each other too? Have you ever seen the news, watched a movie, read a book?" Samantha said suddenly, her words coming in a rapid-fire burst, startling everyone into silence. "When has it ever worked out when we start turning on each other?"

  Amir glared down at her, momentarily speechless. Adam turned and saw Samantha shift unsteadily in her chair, but her eyes burned with a feverish clarity. They all seemed to be shaking off the drugs, except Hector, who continued to snore softly.

  "If I wasn't worried about you overdosing, I'd shove more pills down your throat." Amir sighed, sitting on the coffee table and crowding into Samantha's space. Natalie's nostrils flared and Adam half expected her to lunge at him, maybe even bite.

  Amir pointed at Natalie without looking away from Samantha. "If that one speaks, tape her mouth shut. Now, if I answer your questions, will you shut up?"

  Samantha nodded once, meeting his gaze. "Why do you need us alive?"

  "Because the things that come out of those holes won't take corpses,” Amir said, shrugging as if the answer was obvious. "We tried."

  Samantha looked confused and disgusted, leaning away from Amir. "You're feeding people to them..."

  "Is that a question?" Amir shrugged. "We tie a person up and drop them by the hole. Usually they're gone by morning."

  "Usually?" Samantha said. Adam could hear the edge of outrage creeping into her voice. "You don't even bother trying to fight? You just gave up and handed people over to them?" He couldn't remember ever seeing Samantha get angry, much less enraged.

  Amir leaned forward and grabbed her by the chin. Samantha didn't flinch but held his gaze. Natalie leaned forward, going for Amir but Marcus dropped his hand on her shoulder and held her in place. "Don't you touch her!" she shouted. Amir shot a glance at Marcus and he clamped a length of tape over Natalie's mouth, silencing her.

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  "You don't get to judge us. If you'd seen them, what they look like, how they move..." Amir shuddered, his composure cracking for a moment. "Just no. We'll have to move on eventually, but for now nothing else comes here, and as long as there's someone for them to take, they don't bother us. Plus, we don't have to worry about anyone else raiding the houses for supplies.

  "So you threw Stephen in the hole? He welcomed you into his home and you murdered him?!" Adam started to get up, his blood boiling. Rashid brought the shotgun up again, making Adam stare down the barrel. He wrestled his anger back in check and forced himself to sit, seething but in control.

  Amir turned to him and laughed. "Who do you think told us how to keep the things from attacking? Why do you think he sent you that text? We had been working together until we ran out of other people, and well... Better him than us."

  Adam blanched, the anger draining away in an instant. There was no way Stephen would do something like that, would he? Amir had become this twisted, was it possible Stephen had gone just as bad? Adam hunched and swallowed the knot of disgust forming in his throat. "I don't believe you."

  "I have no reason to lie. Unless, you know, I do," Amir said, smirking at him and then turning back to Samantha. She snapped forward, driving her forehead into Amir's face with a sickening crack. Amir pitched backward off of the coffee table clutching his flattened nose.

  He stared up through watering eyes, raising his right hand and holding out like a claw. Samantha's eyes widened and she made a gurgling sound, like someone trying to breathe with a mouth full of water. She coughed once, and a gout of fluid flew from her nose and mouth. She started thrashing, kicking her legs out and struggling against the bindings as more and more liquid poured from her.

  "Amir, stop! If you drown her she won't be any good to us!" Layla dropped to her knees beside him and forced his hand down. He shot her a murderous glare but let his hand fall. Samantha pitched forward and vomited up a lungful of water, dragging in a weak, ragged breath. Her eyes rolled back and she shuddered, wheezing on the floor.

  Tears spilled down Natalie's cheeks as she watched Samantha fight for breath. Her eyes darting between her wife and Adam, silently pleading for him to help, to do anything to save her.

  "Get them downstairs before I kill one of them," Amir said, continuing to hold his ruined face.

  Marcus yanked Natalie to her feet, dragging her kicking form down the hallway.

  Rashid gestured with the shotgun and Adam bared his teeth before rising, glancing at Samantha. Layla grabbed the wheezing woman and half-dragged, half-carried her after Marcus.

  "Move" Rashid said, and Adam obeyed, staying close behind Layla.

  The basement stairs creaked from their combined weight as he followed Layla down. Samantha kept coughing, the sound wet and thick like she was getting over a bad cold. Adam strained to see in the gloom, nearly falling when he missed the last step, stumbling onto the concrete.

  A woman sat against a pipe running up into the ceiling, lit by a small battery-powered lantern hanging on a hook over her head. Her dirty hair hung over her face, but he could make out her green eyes through the tangled locks.

  Rashid prodded him with the barrel of the shotgun. Adam walked to the wall, turned around, and slid down until he sat.

  "I'm sorry," Marcus said, wrapping Adam's ankles in duct tape.

  "Fuck. You."

  Marcus shook his head and moved on to Natalie, then Samantha. Rashid kept the shotgun trained on them while Layla went back upstairs, returning a minute later with a barely conscious Hector. She shoved him into the corner and he started snoring again while she taped his feet together.

  "This would've been a lot easier if you'd all just gone to sleep,” Rashid said, lowering the shotgun and glancing at his wife.

  "Don't start. It's bad enough Amir has decided to be a bastard now that he's got a little power, I don't need it from you too." She finished securing Hector and stalked back up the stairs.

  "Don't get married, kids," Rashid muttered and followed after her.

  Marcus leaned down and pulled the tape from Natalie's mouth. To Adam's surprise, she stayed silent, eyes locked on Samantha's shivering form.

  "I really am sorry. He'll kill us if we don't help him, and if he doesn't kill us those things in the pit will." Adam thought he heard a hint of genuine remorse in Marcus' voice.

  "You know what Marcus?" Adam glanced down at the man's legs. "You're half the man you used to be, not the other way around. Just go away."

  "I'll be back in a few hours." Marcus stood up, his mouth forming a tight line as he turned and walked up the stairs. Adam waited until he heard the door close and the footsteps to cross the ceiling before he let out a deep sigh.

  They were screwed.