Last Hope

The day had started with everyone waking up at 8’oclock in the morning. Jess, Caitlin and Ivana took turns using the bathroom before the guys kicked them out. When everyone had gathered around the table, I opened up the group manual and read a paragraph.
“It says here that we should get a week worth of food at the supermarket in one go. The supermarket is on our floor near the food court” I point at a blueprint of the mall’s first floor before continuing. “We get healthy food” I look pointedly at Caitlin. She was notorious for only eating bad food and we didn’t need her filling our kitchen up with only junk food.
“If you want to grab your own food then take a backpack and only take what you can carry” I advise and everyone nods their head.

Half an hour later we were inside Countdown. We had to walk past the expired vegetables and dairy products and boy did they smell bad.
“I think I’m going to throw up” Josh says, gagging as his face turns red. His face seems to always be red; it was an easy feat for him because he was well… Josh and Josh was a logical, down to earth ginger. He consisted of orange hair, orange freckles (well they look orange to me), pale skin and a skinny as a stick body.
“Ugh, look how rotten the lettuce” Baden points out a crate of expired food and my stomach flips in disgust.
We get to the aisles of food and grabbed a dozen cans of spaghetti and baked beans. Baden and Josh place them into a shopping cart while Ivana grabs packaged macaroni and cheese. Jess places bags of powered milk into the cart. We go along further and find more food to eat. Soon enough our two carts are full and I’m going along and putting junk food into my backpack. Skittles, cola, chocolate and whatever else I felt like.

We were nearly back to Farmers when I spotted Ryan leaning against the railing, looking down into the lower level area. I let my group continue back to our base while I stood there and watch Ryan handle his shot gun carefully. After he recovered from saving me from the Omega with the three claws, he left to go on a trip with Jerome. I’m still not entirely sure where he went for the next few months or why he went for that matter, but he came back with a katana sword, a sawed off shot gun, a buffer body (no complaints here) and a slightly different attitude.

The Ryan I use to know was laid-back with a careless, passive attitude. He sometimes worked out but mostly sat at his computer playing multi-player RPG’s. He wasn’t like that anymore, I mean, he was still smart and calculated but he always works out now. He’s aggressive, guarded and at times ruthless. There’s something about him that worries me, sometimes I see darkness in his eyes. When dealing with the Omega he becomes cold and detached. He tries to hide this side of him from me but I still catch a glimpse of it and it scares me because he enjoys killing the Omega so much. Sometimes he truly scares me.

I can’t really blame him though. He watched the Omega slaughter his family of nine, his brothers, his sisters, his parents, and his nephew. All dead. It took him weeks to recover enough to talk or even eat properly. The only times he ever lets his guard down enough to show how broken he is, is in his sleep. Memories plague his dreams, he screams and I am there, holding him, comforting him. At night, in bed, he withers around in pain and I wait to fight away the demons that torment him. During the day, it’s his turn to fight for me, but now I know that I have to learn to fight for myself, become my own comforter during the day and he must learn to fight the demons in his sleep.

It wasn’t until I was focusing on what Ryan was laughing at that I notice what was really happening. I glance down over the railing at the open area beneath us and saw several Omega trapped by a moveable steel fence that use to be used to cut off and block areas inside the mall. I glimpse at Ryan in confusion, and then I notice two guys on his other side. Roydon and Bayley, Group Delta, they’re the clowns out of everyone. Bayley was more so the most annoying out of everyone as well. They were holding fishing rods with massive hooks at the ends of the fishing wire.

I look down again and examine that some of the Omega had chunks of flesh missing from their skin. I put two and two together and realize Roydon and Bayley had done this.
‘Ryan… Ryan had been laughing at this’ I thought inwardly.
Omega stared up at us in fear, some cowered away, and others tried to escape while cursing us, a few laid dead on the ground. The dead ones were torn to pieces, blood was everywhere and a sick feeling overcame me. The boys were oblivious to my presence, they continued laughing. Bayley flings the hook over the railing and flicks his wrist that holds the fishing rod. It sails across the open air and connects with one of the Omega that had been staring fearfully up at us.

It catches her cheek; the sharp hook penetrates her skin easily and without mercy. She has little time to react as Bayley yanks harshly at the rod. I watch her skin tear apart, her cheek rips and she lets out a horrifying scream that shakes my very core and turns my blood cold.

“Oh my god!” I gasp and cover my own cheek with my hands as if I could feel her pain.
“How long have you been there?” Bayley asks, grinning, ignorant to the look of repulsion on my face.
I don’t answer him but instead I glare at them, full of hatred
"What the fuck is wrong with you all. What you’re doing is sick." I shout at all of them but stare at Ryan. "You're stooping down to their level, we're only meant to kill them as a self-defensive move and here you three are acting like this disgusting as fuck game is the next best sport in the fucking world"
“It’s just a game” Roydon mutters but stares downward at the ground ashamed.
“We call it the Fishing Game, whoever kills the most Omega’s by fishing for them, wins!” Bayley looks pleased with himself and I scowl at him with loath.
“We treat this as a game because it’s the only thing that keeps us sane enough to take on the bullshit that these fuckers have put us through anyway. If you don’t like it then piss off and do something useful, like bug your own group” Ryan quickly replies.

I glower at him but this time I keep my voice low and even. “I was wrong,” I clench my fists and continue. “You haven’t stooped to their level; you’ve sunk lower than them. Sure they may have invaded our country and slaughtered countless innocent lives. But at least they were merciful.” I momentarily look down into the ‘tank’ area and watch some Omega’s with large chunks of missing flesh from several various body parts crawl and wither in pain; they were still alive, but the damage done to them meant they’d surely die, but not anytime soon. I turn back and set my frown on him again. “This isn’t keeping your sanity in check. It’s showing how much you lack it.” I hiss “You’re monsters.” I finish what I’m saying before turning around and running off with completely repugnance towards Ryan. I head back to Farmers to meet up with my group, I felt numb and sick.