“Probably not a good idea, bro,” Steve said. “I mean, you show up with a new guy and without the one you left with? That looks awfully suspicious, ya know?”
“Yeah,” Jared said, thinking it over. “I guess so. But, the problem is, now he knows I was gonna kill him, so ...?” He left it hanging, hoping for a suggestion.
“So, cut his tongue out or something,” Steve said quickly. “Feed that to them.”
Jared considered the suggestion before he stood. “Naw. I’ve got a better idea. And it’ll work too because Alec is such a fucking pussy shit. And he won’t say a fucking word or I am going to fucking kill him and some of his little friends. So, right, Alex? Not a fucking word?”
Alex lay on the ground and quickly nodded. Tears ran down his mud-covered face.
“Look at him!” Jared laughed. “He’s crying! What a little shit!” He kicked Alex in the leg, almost rolling him into the pit with the mudmen. They clawed for him as he dragged himself back to safety.
“Still,” Steve said, “nothing for them? They look awful hungry. Maybe you could just cut off some of his fingers or something?”
“Again,” Jared said, taking off his backpack, “I have a better idea.” He unzipped the bag and stuck in his hands.
Alex heard a jingle. Oh God, no.
Jared pulled Ryan’s cat out of the bag. It was shaking, and trying to meow, but no sound came out. Jared rubbed it under the chin, and nuzzled his face against the cat’s fur. “You’re just a little snack, aren’t you?” he said to the cat in a baby voice. He smiled at Steve, then tossed the cat into the pit.
Alex watched, frozen and sick, as the mudmen clawed at each other trying to get at the little cat. They all tore at it, though it would barely be a meal for any of them. They destroyed it more than they ate it. Looking at them, covered in blood, Alex wondered how long Jared had been keeping them. Feeding them. What he had been feeding them. He couldn’t tear his gaze away as Jared and Steve laughed.
Then, something else caught his attention. One of the mudmen wore a green vest. A green jacket-vest. He had a beard and brown hair.
“That’s ... that’s Hannah’s dad,” Alex said through his tears and ragged breaths.
“What?” Jared said, stomping over to Alex. “What was that?”
Alex pointed into the hole at the vested mudman. “That ... that one is ... was ... Hannah’s father.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted giving that information to Jared. Who knew what he would do with it? What it would do to Hannah.
“So fucking what?”
“Yeah,” Steve added. “They’re all somebody’s something.”
“We should tell—” Alex started.
“We should tell nobody nothing,” Jared said, as he reached down, hauling Alex to his feet. “Remember? You’re not saying shit about anything, right? If you say anything about this fucking thing then you and your little girlfriends are fucking dead. Do you understand that, Alec-suh?”
Alex nodded again, trying to blink back the tears.
“Well, good then,” Jared said as he let him go. “Clean yourself up. You look like someone beat the shit out of you. Is that what happened? Did someone beat the shit out of you, Alec-suh? Steve? Is that what happened?”
“I didn’t see anything,” Steve said. “Just that you guys found me and I was oh so glad you did!”
“So, yeah, Alec-suh; did someone beat the shit out of you?”
Alex stared back at Jared, then at Steve. He shook his head and mouthed “no.” He had no choice.
“Great!” Jared said, wiping mud off his jeans. “I guess we can head back now. Too bad you couldn’t find any food, huh Alec-suh?”
Jared and Steve trudged back through the woods. For a moment, Alex stood alone by the pit full of mudmen wondering if it would be better if he just stayed there. The only thing that pushed him to follow the boys back to the community centre was that he was the only one who knew just how bad Jared was.
The rest had all fallen for his act, and it would likely end up getting them hurt. Or worse.
“Jack was in the back of the store we went through,” Jared told the group at the community centre, very convincingly. “I guess someone else had the same idea as us, ‘cause all the food was gone. Jack—it is Jack, right?—locked himself in the back room to avoid them and the mudmen and anyone else that came in after him.”
“No idea how long I was in there,” Steve added using his best innocent and frightened voice. “It was just so dark all the time.”
“Yeah,” Jared said, continuing the false tale of heroics, “and we found him just in time, ‘cause a bunch of those dead guys came in right after us.”
“Really,” Nicole said with a nod. “That’s some really good timing.”
“I know! We had to take ‘em all out before we booted it back here, right, Alex?”
Right. Alex glared at the two storytellers. Murderers. They’ll kill us and feed us to their mudmen. I have do something. I have to say something. But he knew what they’d do if he opened his mouth.
Alex, hanging his head, said nothing.
“Poor guy’s still pretty freaked out,” Jared said.
Alex almost grabbed David’s hand when he felt it on his shoulder. Instead, he shrugged it off.
“It’s okay,” David said. “You’re safe now. Right, Jared?”
Jared smiled, a big nasty Cheshire Cat smile. “Right. Safe and sound.”
“So,” Nicole said, “tell us how you got away from all these mudmen.”
Alex couldn’t take it anymore. The lies. The big, fake smiles. The whole hero act. He wasn’t sure what was worse: keeping his mouth shut about what he knew, the fact that his friends were accepting Jared’s lies without question, or the fact that he had been so stupid in the first place. Some leader.
No. The worst was not telling
