Turned: A Spine-Chilling Young Adult Apocalyptic Fiction (The Undead Series, Book 1) (3 page)

Jasper couldn’t take the news of the rape. He had no idea Trent was doing it. He released his hands from my face, spun around, and punched the tree beside him as hard as he could, as if it were Trent’s face. I saw the blood drip off of his hands.

“I’m going back,” he said as he charged forward and his eyes filled with wetness. “I’m going to fucking kill that sick bastard.”

“You’re going to leave me here?” I cried. I fell down to my knees and sobbed uncontrollably. “I was already left by one man, Jasper! Why would you do this to me? I can’t help what he did to me! I can’t. But if you leave me here now, I’m actually going to die!” Jasper lifted up his legs and kicked the tree. He wrapped his arms around it as if he were going to head butt it stopped short of his forehead going into the tree.

“I’m not going to leave you, Retta,” he sobbed with his forehead still pressed up again the tree. “I’m not going to leave you, but I will come back here and murder this man once I get you to Paradise.”

Paradise was the code name for Canada, something Jasper had told me that no one else was supposed to know. According to Jasper, it was the only country that was able to lock down its borders after the virus hit. Apparently, the Canadian government had been letting in survivors from surrounding countries for a while, until the population grew too large and they had to turn people away. Jasper’s old friend was one of the military men protecting the Canadian border in the state of Washington, along with thousands of other Canadian soldiers, and he promised Jasper that if he made it to the state of Washington, he’d get him across the border. Another piece of good news Jasper shared was that the scientists were aggressively working on a cure, but he didn’t know the status of it.

Of course, there were a handful of “safe” communities around the United States and in other countries where survivors lived. Saving Grace Sanctuary was one of them. Unfortunately for us, ours was a corrupt one run by Trent, who preached that the harvest was the only way the sanctuary would survive and thrive.

The harvest was a weekly ritual in which one member from Saving Grace Sanctuary would be sacrificed for the greater good of the sanctuary. It had begun just three months prior once, per Trent, it became nearly impossible to find food.

So far, twelve people in the town had been decapitated and roasted like a pig in the middle of the sanctuary until they were “done” enough to eat. Most of the twelve people were elderly, but there were a few children roasted as well. Trent’s reasoning for this was that the elderly and the children wouldn’t be able to save the human race, only adults could, so he killed those that couldn’t benefit from his sanctuary and sadly, most of the town followed his lead. He had the ability to captivate and brainwash people, just like Adolf Hitler once had.

Trent decapitated the people he roasted so that none of the people had to look at the person’s face as they were eating. He didn’t want them to feel bad about eating one of their own people. Jasper and I never participated in the harvest. Trent looked down upon this.

Sam, Trent’s old girlfriend, the woman that had his eye before me, was one of the unlucky ones, but it wasn’t Trent’s intention to harvest her. She was already going to turn or die once she got bit by a zombie in the back of the head chasing after Trent outside of the sanctuary walls like an idiot after they got into a fight. Trent heard her screams and ran back and stuck a stake through the zombie’s brain. The apocalyptic Romeo then decapitated Sam before the virus had a chance to go any further than her head. His philosophy was that you couldn’t let a healthy body go to waste.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of Trent as the townspeople sat around the fire the night of Sam’s roast. He seemed to experience too much pleasure eating the flesh off of a chunk of her forearm. He tore through her flesh like it was wing night at a local pub, letting her juices run down his chin as he chewed.

No one in the town had any idea what Trent saw in Sam anyway other than a big ass and boobs. Big ass and boobs normally doesn’t get you far in a world inundated with zombies, but it did with Trent. This made me wonder why he pursued me, as I had always been rather skinny with hardly any curvature to my body.

There were seventy-four people left in our town, seventy-three if you count the one who was being sacrificed that night. Jasper and I were the only ones who realized that this meant that everyone in the town would be killed and eaten within a year. Everyone else was oblivious. Trent swore up and down that this wouldn’t happen, but we knew he was lying. Most of the town believed him, because he was really the only hope left. After all, it was impossible to believe he couldn’t find enough wild raccoons, chickens, squirrel, deer or other animals to kill for the townspeople to eat.

I knew Trent wanted to save it all for himself, his sister and his five buddies. It was a mix of pure evil and innate survival skills that made up that man. After all, if the entire town was killed off, he’d have more food for himself and a greater chance of surviving until someone or something saved him.

Jasper pulled himself from the tree, walked over to where I knelt and reached out left hand.

“Let’s go baby,” he said. My face was buried in my hands, but I pulled myself from my sobs to look up at Jasper. He looked into my hazel eyes glazed with tears and waited for me to grab his hand to pull me up. Just as I did, the cracking of a stick made us both jump. Jasper looked up behind me and we heard a gunshot ring out and saw a bullet slice through his arm, which pulled it away from my grasp. I looked back to see Trent’s head poking out of a tree only fifty yards away. Jasper had been shot.

I couldn’t control myself. I wriggled and twisted a mental case in an attempt to stop Trent from harvesting Jasper. Two men were holding me, one of my upper arms in each of their hands.

Trent had found us in the woods, and he shot Jasper in the arm after he did, then knocked him over the head with his gun. Jasper blacked out until we were back in the town, and he was already halfway tied up to the roasting bar. I could see the bullet had made its way through Jasper’s arm, and it looked as if he wasn’t bleeding that badly from the wound.

Townspeople were gathered around him, and I could tell that when he awoke he had no idea where he was. I kept screaming and, praying he’d hear me and save himself. Even though I knew he couldn’t.

Trent was wearing his standard black muscle shirt and dark denim jeans with knee-high leather combat boots. His shoulder-length bright blonde hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and his brown eyes were focused on the mission before him. Any other girl would think he was handsome, but not me. In fact, every time I looked at him, I wanted to throw up.

I saw Jasper’s eyes widen when he realized that his legs were tied together with rope, and his hands were in the process of getting tied. A few seconds after that, Trent realized that Jasper was conscious, and he grinned ear-to-ear with the most disgusting smirk I had ever seen. Trent started to walk over to where Jasper lay on the ground but stopped short about halfway there. He then turned to face the spectators.

“Ladies and gentleman,” Trent’s voice rung out with a fake grave look on his face that made me feel nauseous. “I’ve gathered you all here on this day and time for a very important matter that I need to address. You all know that my father created this town to save all of you from the violent plague that has broken out on our heavenly earth. When he died four months ago from alcohol poisoning, his dying words were begging me to take responsibility for all of you. Day in and day out, I have done my due diligence to ensure that each and every one of you experience the best life that is possible under these circumstances. Because of all of this, I do not take kindly to people who try to hurt my people. “As Trent continued, Jasper looked back at me while struggling to free himself.

“He’s going to harvest you, Jasper…you have to get free!” I screamed.

“It is time for this man to die,” Trent continued. “He abducted this young woman and tried to rape her out in the woods.” Reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trials, the crowd of town members that had gathered around started to go wild, in part because they agreed with Trent, but in part because they were ravenously hungry.

“No!” I screamed through sobs. “He didn’t, I went with him willingly! Please don’t kill him!” As I screamed, two of the other men tied the ropes on Jasper’s hands and feet to a steel pole, and lifted him up over the fire pit. He grimaced in pain from his wound.

“Anyone hungry?” Trent gloated as he winked at me. “Don’t worry, doll, I’ll make him go away for good! Light the fire, boys!” As the men lit the fire, Jasper began screaming at the top of his lungs from the heat that teased his body. I could do nothing, but shut my eyes and weep.

It felt like an eternity before the sound of a something tore through the walls of the sanctuary. It wasn’t a tornado though, it was a bus, and it barreled through the sanctuary towards Trent. I couldn’t see who was driving the bus from my position. The men who were holding me dispersed, and I was too scared to do anything but fall to the ground and huddle into a ball.

With my eyes closed and my arms over her face, I heard only screams and then a female’s voice commanding everyone to the ground. I pulled my hands from my face to see Lindsey, a tall, skinny and quiet brunette from the sanctuary with two 9mm pistols in her hands and every person from the sanctuary on their bellies in the dirt with their hands up.

Trent screamed for two of his men to shoot Lindsey, but as they pulled themselves up from the ground, she didn’t hesitate to shoot them dead directly in their hearts. They flew back from the pressure of the bullet and landed on their backs in the dirt, eyes blankly staring into the sky. This made Trent shut his mouth; he realized she’d kill anyone that stepped in her way. I had no idea where her skills came from. I don’t think anyone did.

“Get Jasper off the fire!” Lindsey screamed at Trent, and Trent jumped up faster than I had ever seen before. “Put your gun on the ground NOW!”

Trent threw his gun on the ground and put his hands up. I had never seen him so frazzled, but I guessed it was because Lindsey caught him off guard. Everyone from the sanctuary pulled their heads up, bellies still on the ground, in a yoga pose to see what Lindsey was going to do next. You could see the disbelief in their eyes that it was actually Lindsey standing before them. She had always been known as the shy one in the sanctuary, and had arrived a day before Jasper did. Trent had found her wandering alone in the woods outside of the sanctuary with nothing but her gun. She never revealed to anyone where she came from or why she was by herself.

Lindsey stood before everyone, ready to shoot Trent if he didn’t do what she said. I didn’t understand where she found the bus or why she was ready to kill everyone, but kill she would. She wore a camo t-shirt that was two sizes too big for her, camo khakis that were one size too big for her, and brown sneakers. It was if she thought she was on some sort of secret mission. Her long and stringy dirty blonde hair was held back in a low ponytail on her neck, and her pretty blue eyes were will filled with intention.

“I said get him off NOW!” she screamed again at Trent, who still had his hands frozen in the air. Jasper was still screaming in the background for help, as the fire continued to rise towards his body. He definitely felt the heat, but he been burned yet.

Trent quickly jogged over to Jasper and pulled out his army knife to begin cutting Jasper’s feet. With his feet cut, Jasper wrapped them around the pole so he wouldn’t fall into the fire. Trent stepped around to Jasper’s hands and, while supporting him under the shoulders, cut his arms free. He pulled Jasper down off the fire.

“If anyone else moves, you’ll be dead!” cautioned Lindsey. As soon as Jasper was let down, he attacked Trent with his good arm, punching him furiously in the face. I couldn’t believe that his wound didn’t stop him from slamming Trent. With the first punch, blood shot out from Trent’s mouth. With the second punch, I saw Trent’s eye get cut open. Jasper geared up for a third punch when I got up and screamed.

“Stop!” I yelled at Jasper, whose fist froze in mid-air above his head. He looked up at me with blank eyes, as if he was in a deep trance. He looked back down at Trent, blood and bruises covering his face, then looked back up at me.

“He’s going to fucking die!” he screamed, to no one but himself, as if he was convincing himself he was going to kill Trent. I ran up to him and grabbed his shoulders in an attempt to pull him off. I didn’t know if he should kill Trent. Lindsey stood still. Trent stared at Jasper with the only eye he had left that wasn’t swollen shut.

“Ready to die?” he asked Trent in a low growl, without moving his mouth. Trent’s face didn’t move. “You piece of fucking pond scum!” With that, Jasper threw his fist down in the middle of Trent’s face with all of his strength, and knocked him out cold. Then, to make sure Trent was dead, he took his good hand and with thumb and pointer finger, squeezed his neck like it was a pimple until Jasper turned cotton candy blue in the face. Jasper then brought his good hand down to Trent’s waistline and pulled the gun from his hands, then stood up and pointed it directly at Trent’s scrotum and pulled the trigger.

“Let’s go!” Lindsey coaxed Jasper and I. I looked at her confused.

“What are you waiting for, Retta? Let’s go!” Still confused, I turned around to get on the bus. Jasper followed me on the bus, as the rest of the people, still on their bellies, looked up with hope that Lindsey would tell them to come too. I looked at them through the front windshield, ranging from ages five to seventy.

“Can’t we save any of them?” I moaned, knowing good and well that they were as good as dead now. Jasper turned the corner of the bus and sat down next to me as Lindsey shut the bus door. When she did, the pleas of women and children drowned my ears. She then grabbed a First Aid kit from underneath the driver’s side seat and tossed it on the seat beside Jasper.

“Fix him,” she ordered, referring to Jasper’s wound. I didn’t know what she wanted me to do, I’d never fixed a bullet wound before.

“They’re not our problem,” Jasper replied reluctantly.  “We have enough to worry about.”

“He’s right. They’re not our problem,” added Lindsey, as she plopped down on the driver’s seat and put the bus in reverse.

Though they were right – we had enough to worry about and definitely couldn’t get these people into Canada anyway – I didn’t understand why we couldn’t take some of the people to another town where they’d be safer...at least the children. After all, a part of the gate was knocked down now and zombies or intruders could easily get in.

Lindsey looked back at me through the rearview mirror of the bus, then turned the bus around and headed out of the sanctuary. I got up and walked back to the back of the bus, unintentionally ignoring my duty to fix Jasper’s arm, and looked out the window to see children crying, mothers hugging each other, and men staring hatefully at us for leaving. These people knew they stood no chance now.

I mouthed the words, “I’m sorry,” and then watched a young girl of about five years old chase after the bus with dirty tears running down her cheeks. Even the little girl knew she was going to die, and I could do nothing to save her.

Just as the people were barely visible, I could see a zombie come out from the woods and dive on the little girl who was now just a shape in the distance. I was so thankful that I couldn’t hear or see her death.