They were surprised to see Sam Lange sitting with Hunter. They’d not seen him at the gorge and assumed he was in Connor’s camp. They saw Leo and hailed him, he smiled and walked over, shaking both their hands.
“Good to see you both, looking good.” Leo said.
“Yep, we’re surviving. We saw Grayson a little bit ago, worse for wear. He told us some disturbing news, he said Connor and Matt have been raping the women and they killed Carol and were planning to eat her.” Aiden said, Sarah watched his face, it was like a thunderstorm had washed over him, his anger and rage palpable. His whole body was rigid and the muscles around his clenched jaw were bunching and un- clinching. She saw the red creeping up his neck.
Leo shook his head and led them to Sam, who had lost a lot of his bulk, and looked about half the size he’d been when they’d first arrived, his face was almost a sickly gray from malnutrition and he had a sickly-sweet odor to him. Sarah could clearly smell him. His thick blond hair was matted down and greasy, and darker in color. He had deep purple bags under his eyes, and he looked as though he’d aged ten years.
“Tell them what you told us Sam, about Connor and Matt.” Leo said, taking a seat in one of the camp chairs.
The young man sat hunched forward, as though his spine could not hold his body up. There were deep creases and webbing around his sunken eyes. His face was very hollowed and thin. Sarah took in his disheveled condition and wondered at it. With water all around, he’d not even bathed. It was as though he’d let himself shrink and become filthy. Guilt? Grayson had nearly looked the same, though Grayson was clearly eating. He was thin, but not like Sam.
“I had to leave those assholes, they’re crazy. They were making everyone go out and look for food and they’d just kick back and sit on their asses. They didn’t even try to look for food. Poor Carol was so weak, she couldn’t hardly walk. They kept raping her and Vana, I tried to make them stop and both jumped me and beat the shit out of me. Connor also gashed me with his knife.” Sam said and lifted his shirt, there was nearly a twelve-inch slash across his gut, it was crusted up with blood and red and angry looking. The whole of his torso and arms had blue, green, purple and yellow bruising, there was even a shoe print bruise where one of them had brought down their boot and stomped the hell out of him. It was a wonder they’d not broken his ribs.
“I had tried to talk the girls into coming here, but they both refused. I don’t understand it.” His eyes filled with tears, and Hunter put his arm around the younger man. “Then Connor and Matt took Carol into the woods, their arms around her like old chums. And then a little while later, they came back carrying body parts, grinning and saying it was feasting time.”
All the color leached out of his face and tears splashed down into his lap. His mouth was trembling so hard, it was hard to understand him. “I ran, I ran as fast as I could, I’d rather die then stay there and eat Carol. Those guys are animals.” He whispered, both of his hands clutching and shaking violently as though he were trying to hold on to his sanity and it was damn near getting away from him.
“You think we should go up there and kill them?” Aiden asked in a deadly voice, his face unnaturally blank, his color going back to his normal tanned face, but his eyes were hot and nearly glowing with rage. Sarah could feel it pooling off of him. She knew it took a great deal of restraint for him to keep his voice calm and his face blank. When his face went like that, Sarah knew he was feeling great rage and was keeping a tight lid on it, so it didn’t explode on those around him.
“That’s the thing, they have free will. The women refused to leave. His people, if you can call them that, came here two nights ago and attacked, and we repelled them easily. Christian got stabbed, and he isn’t doing so good, but the rest of us are holding our own. I’d be afraid to bring any of them into this camp. So, do we outright kill them all? Or let them kill each other?” Marla asked, she’d walked up and joined them with Diana and William. Sarah noticed that Marla was thin, but not emaciated. As was Diana and William, they all looked thin but healthy.
“If we go after them, try to kill them, then we also risk our own lives. We’ve talked about it as a group here. We pretty much voted to let them kill each other and if they come back, we’ll try to kill them when they do.” Leo said, shrugging.
“But that’s crazy, they’re running lose and could take you guys out one at a time.” Aiden argued, his façade starting to crack.
“We go in groups of three now. Each heavily armed with our home-made weapons. We out number them, and they are getting weaker. Even Vana attacked, so why would we consider going after them, they are about to implode on themselves. They aren’t welcome here, and we’ll kill them on sight.” Leo said firmly.
Aiden shrugged, and Sarah watched, his lips thinning. She knew he didn’t like it, neither did she, but it was only the two of them and she figured they would just stay clear of them. She dug into her backpack and pulled out a large packet of grapes, smiling, she handed them over
