No Time To Bleed

I wasn’t sure if now was the right time to tell everyone what was happening to Aliah. I mean, I didn’t like the girl, but this wasn’t right. It was sick and I didn’t ever want to know the Murphy’s reasoning behind doing anything like this.

That would mean going into the mind of a crazy people. We were in the middle of a Rogue virus outbreak and they found this to be the best time to eat people? Once again, it was crazy and sick.

So all I could do was crawl back under my covers.

“Jasmine…”

“Don’t talk.” I murmured to Eli through the darkness.

“What’d you see?”

Anyone could be hearing us right now.

“Nothing. They just keep supplies up there.”

“Why are you so quiet?”

I turned onto my side, trying to find comfort in the cold floor. “Go to sleep, Eli.”

I could sense it even through the darkness. He was pouting.

* * * * *

For breakfast, we were all served scrambled eggs and bacon. That was the cover story at least, but the strips of fat were more leathery than I’d seen before.

Willa smiled gleefully. “It’s turkey bacon! Eat up!”

I smirked at her. Turkey bacon, I thought, might as well be poison.

Eli sat closely next to me and didn’t budge his plate one bit either. He told about the stuff with Kevin and the dogs. That had creeped me out even more than what I’d seen last night.

“But, Kevin’s my friend.” Eli whined. “I don’t want anyone to hurt him.”

My teeth gritted.

“Eli, that boy almost shot you and you told him to go to hell.” I looked down at him softly. His eyes were sad. “He’s not your friend.”

Our plates would have gone to waste if Alex hadn’t have walked over.

“Aren’t you two gonna eat?”

I sighed, avoiding all eye contact with him. “I drank some water.”

Eli crossed his arms, nearly close to tears. Alex looked to the both of us.

“Are you two okay?”

“We need to call a meeting. Me, you, Clarissa, Cece, and Eli.”

I finally looked to him and he seemed to get something strange out of my expression: fear.

“Okay. We meet by the SUV in ten minutes.”

10 minutes later, we were all huddled by the SUV.

“What’s this about” Clarissa seemed more serious than anyone out of us.

“Since we’ve been here, we’ve let our guard down.” I tried to look to all of them, making sure they saw me, heard me for once.

“Is that what this is about?” Cece said, gnawing on her strand of beef jerky. “Us taking a break?”

Eli didn’t give anyone time to further the nonsense. “Kevin had a gun and a dog in a cooler. He killed the dog.”

Allen plucked up Eli in his arms and Eli seemed ready to squirm out of his grasp.

“Did Jasmine put you up to this?”

Eli groaned. “You’re stupid.”

Alex’s cheeks reddened and I was proud of the little boy. How could Alex think I’d set this up?

“Wait, hold up?!” Cece stepped in. “You mean a dog? Like an actual dead dog?”

Eli jumped his way out of Alex’s arms. “Yes! He was in the thing my mommy put fruit snacks in! That’s why Jasmine went up the ladder last night!”

It seemed crazy how everyone paid more attention to a five year old than me.

Alex looked to me. “Is that true? You snuck up that ladder?”

I just ignored him. “We need to get out of here soon. You guys decide whether or not we save Aliah. Even though she was a bitch, her son still deserves to be born.”

A cold hearted tone reached over the group. Everyone’s eyes stuck to the floor. I even saw tears in Alex’s eyes.

“We should leave her. She’s been dragging us down.” Cece said.

Clarissa nodded silently. Eli looked to me as well, little eyes pleading.

“We’re not gonna leave her.” Alex came in. “We’re not.”

Cece stared at him. “Alex, you’ve gotta let it go…”

“No. Are you fucking crazy?” he snapped back at her. “I’m not letting it go! She’s pregnant. She needs our help and you’re all being heartless.”

I was wondering where this sudden rush of emotion was coming from.

“Alex, she’s probably long gone. It’s been hot these past two days. No water. No food. She’s dead.”

I shook my head, contradicting Clarissa. “Actually, I checked her pulse and she’s alive. Plus that Louis boy was up there.”

Alex whipped his head to me. “What’d he say to you?”

I almost rolled my eyes at him. “He said we should be gone by noon or we’re all dead.”

“Then, that has to mean the Murphy’s know.” Cece concluded.

Clarissa paced a bit and I noticed a little boy’s head poking out from the bridge’s under tent. It was Kevin.

“We shouldn’t let them win.” I finally agreed with Alex. “We need to save her.”

Alex didn’t even seem content with this new update. “And how do we do that?”

I shrugged. “The bolts holding her to the table need keys. There’s four locks I’m guessing and they have her knocked out.”

Everyone exhaled and Clarissa as even more shaken.

“Dear God, this is horrible.” No still hadn’t apologized to me yet, seeing that I’d been right the entire time.

“How are we gonna take this entire family down?” Cece quizzed.

My head was beginning to hurt and I just wanted to get this all over with. “Look, I don’t know. All I know is I saw a pregnant girl bolted to a table, a crazy guy threatening me with a knife, and all sorts of scary shit.”

Alex looked more and more pained than ever. “I’m gonna kill them.”

Eli tugged on Alex’s hand. “No, Alex. Kevin is my friend.”

Alex just stared to me for the longest time like all of this was my fault, but I guess I could feel there was something else there too.

Clarissa had been nibbling away at her nail this entire time and seemed nearly satisfied with her own ideas. “Okay, here’s the plan.”

We all huddled in; even Eli’s little tiny body.

“We need some sort of diversion. Each one of us goes with someone from the Murphy family and we need to get the information out of them somehow. We might be able to bring weapons with us, but that might set off warnings to them. So each of you decide.”

Now I was confused. “Decide what?”

“Whether or not you’re bringing something to defend yourself with.” Clarissa clarified.

Well, I already had my bat with me, so that wasn’t much of a question.

“I can’t bring my gun.” Alex tossed his into the car.

Cece threw her gun down as well and Clarissa put hers away.

“So, it’s just Jasmine and Eli with weapons.” Clarissa went on. “Okay, Cece and Alex go with Willa and Richard. I’m going to go up to that bridge and figure some stuff out. Jasmine goes with Reagan and-“

My jaw dropped. “What?!”

Cece turned to me. “Reagan likes you?! Isn’t it obvious? Just seduce the boy and get it over with!”

“And what if the little pervert doesn’t have the keys? It’ll all be for nothing?”

Alex chose now to laugh and I slapped him in the arm.

“Jasmine, we’ve gotta do this. You told us about this and we all share a responsibility for getting lazy.”

My stomach went sick at her explanation.

Still no apology to me even though I’d warned all this suckers.

“And what about me?” Eli whimpered.

Clarissa kneeled down to Eli and smiled. “Eli, you have to stay out of danger. You go into the SUV, lock all the doors, and when you hear someone scream or one of us comes to the door. Let us in.”

Eli seemed more scared than ever. “Promise me one thing?”

“What is it, sweetie?”

“We don’t kill Kevin. He’s my friend.”

Clarissa looked to all of us in reassurance and we were forced to nod. “We won’t kill the little boy.”

Eli seemed to be forcing himself not to cry as Clarissa stood to face us again.

“Alright guys, after this we’re about two hours away from Lexicon. We can do this.”

But, the way she said it didn’t make me so sure.

Eli hopped into the car, locking all the doors and pressed his hand against the window as he watched us walk away.

“Good luck you guys.” Clarissa saw that the coast wasn’t clear and scaled up the ladder.

Now it was just Cece, Alex, and me.

Time to get down to business.