Silence Falls

As Bert traipsed back to the mattress to get himself some much needed sleep after failing to get Hermanni to leak the truth to him, he grumbled to himself beneath his breath in an attempt to convince himself he did all he could. You know what, even if he refused to cooperate with me this time, maybe next time I’ll have a better chance at getting him to talk, but for now, I’m just gonna go get some well-deserved sleep, Bert sluggishly encouraged himself.

Unfortunately for him, the night didn’t turn out that way. The next five minutes turned into a full blown feud, specifically the girls against the boys, but that didn’t include Cris who sat apart from everyone else anxiously chewing his lips while witnessing the battle unravel before him knowing he could do nothing to prevent it.

“We don’t fucking know what that fucker is capable of!” Bam shouted towards the females standing in solidarity together.

“You can’t just condemn the man for your own irrelevant ass paranoia, you dickwad!” Onika brazenly yelled right back at him. If this dissension transpired into her having to beat the crap out of these boys on her own then so be it, because she wasn’t the least bit frightened. Her lack of fear made her wonder in the back of her mind if this was something she had done before, clashing with boys.

“Look we’re not condemning him here! We’re just trying to make sure the guy won’t kill us in our sleep is all!” Bert defended, storming through the throng to try to reason with the opposing team. He held his hands up in the air as a sign of peace between both sides, rotating so he could decipher all the furious faces involved and get their attention.

“That’s what I’ve been saying! We’ve gotten this goddamn far, do you really wanna end up dead before we escape this hellhole of a town?!” Connor added in, throwing his hands up in frustration because he was exasperated and wanted to go to bed. Besides, this debate was stupid to him. Hermanni seemed just fine to sit in that Electronic Store anyway so what’s the harm? If they really thought it through, they were the ones that were suffering because now they had to make meals for themselves!

“He wouldn’t do something like that to us!” Natasha retaliated mightily, her hands fisted at her side as she stomped her foot. “Maybe to you ASSHOLES he would, but he’d never do that to us!”

“He’s engaging and gentle if you’d just take the time to get to know him first instead of caging him like an animal!” Demitria challenged, her face contorted with irritation.

“What proof do you even have that he is a danger to everyone!?” Onika demanded to know, crossing her arms over her chest in wait for the evidence to be presented to them.

“Are you fucking kidding me here!?” Bam bellowed to the ceiling, at his wits end. To try and steady himself, he tugged at the ends of his brown hair. “Do we have to go dance this tango again because the rest of you are too naive to understand!?”

“Maybe if you had some fucking rhythm to your moves, white boy, I would’ve been converted by now!” Onika snapped, earning a violent backlash out of Bam. He nearly flung himself at her, but was snatched back before he could get far by Bert and Connor’s iron grasp.

“You fucking bitch! Did you not hear what Otep said?!” Bam contended with her as he strained against the two who held him back with a unanimous strength he couldn’t get out of.

“That’s not fucking proof, you dimwits! Those are just accusations that aren’t backed up with nothing but ignorant bullshit! Give us something worth believing!” Natasha demanded, not budging on this one.

Cris watched as the battle of the sexes continued on without him, and now it seemed that Alexis and Otep excluded themselves from it too. Personally, he didn’t want to get involved because of his jitters that he would open his mouth and expose what he already knew to be the truth. Otep, however, was awaiting her turn to interrupt when the time was right, and that time just so happened to be now.

“ALL OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP, RIGHT NOW!” Otep hollered, immediately gaining a collective stillness and everyone’s undivided attention. “Look, I don’t know anything about this guy as much as anyone in this room. I don’t know what he’s done in the past before he got locked up with us, or if he even did anything to begin with. I don’t know what kind of threat he can be to us, or just what he’s capable of doing to us.” Otep cleared, her eyes skimming the many faces of emotions staring right back at her. “What I do know, is that he’s an odd one that’s disgustingly sweet for my taste. I know he’s been with us from the start of our escape from that facility and I know he is at LEAST capable of the crimes we’ve done.”

“NOW, what I don’t know for certainty is if this guy is as lethal as those other bastards out there murdering anything that breathes in this swamp, but if he is, I don’t believe that we are his enemy.” Otep granted, her eyes landing on Bert and lingering. “Hermanni has had a plethora of chances to kill us as we have had to kill him. Hell, he fucking broke out of that store while we were all asleep, man! He knew EXACTLY where we were and he knew we didn’t bother to seal ourselves in here. Hermanni had the full advantage over us. He could have easily butchered us in so many excruciating ways, but he didn’t.” Swiveling her eyes to the others, Otep spread her arms outwards. “Look at us, you guys, we’re still alive! We’re still alive when he was free to slay us at our weakest moment and what did this idiot go do instead? The bastard sterilized the mall for us, something we never asked him to do by the way.”

Shaking her at the huge empathy of Hermamni, she uncovered something he had said before when she and Bert went to confront him on what happened that night. “He told Bert and I that he had done that simply and only for us. He was trying to eradicate anything that could’ve infected us or got us sick. Why would he go to such length to protect us if he wants us dead in the end? His reason can’t be because he’s biding his time when he’s had numerous opportunities to pick us off one by one already.” Otep wavered for a moment, then wrapped up her speech because it was getting too long for her liking. “I’ve been around enough crazies to spot one with my eyes closed, you guys, trust me on that. There is no way Hermanni is one of those unpredictable violent nutcases that we were locked up with either so we’re safe there too. Now...can we all just shut up about this now, and get ready for bed? By the look on Bert’s face, I can tell he’s coming to his final conclusion related to all this Hermanni shit.”

Everyone looked at each other, realized she was right and that they were too jaded to continue on anyway. Not to mention that Otep proved a pretty clear point just now. Soundlessly, everyone headed to bed, no longer bitter with each other. Otep shook her head at the immaturity level in this room before slinking out to talk to Hermanni herself. She was pretty depleted too, but her speech conjured a yearning to speak with him anyway.

Otep slowly made her way to Hermanni’s room, not wanting to rush herself because of the lingering fear from her earlier encounter with him. The way he had looked at her wasn’t how people looked at other people. The way he looked at her was identical of someone learning something, or discovering something. Otep let out a weary sigh as she rubbed the back of her neck. She was about one store away from his cage before the power in the entire mall suddenly went completely out, casting her into pitch black darkness until the dim emergency lights switched on.

Spooked, Otep immediately paused and let out a small gasp. In the distance was the sound of thudding footsteps that she swiftly recognized. Oh my god, they fucking found us, she screamed internally to herself. With a soft curse, Otep rapidly obscured herself behind one of the four clothing racks on display outside of a Maternity store. Snooping in between the material, she instantly pinpointed a small squadron of soldiers sweeping through the aisle of the mall with their intense flashlights. Trying to prevent herself from hyperventilating, Otep whispered with fear in the stillness of her momentarily safe position. “Holy Shit, it’s all over…”