Priest was hot, and this was definitely something he didn’t like dealing with. He turned to the piece of shit on the ground. “What’s your fucking name?”
“Randy.”
“Well, Randy. It seems we have a problem; well, you have a problem. You mind explaining to me how those women got all those bruises.”
“I don’t know, maybe they’re clumsy.”
Priest waked over and stomped Randy’s wrist as a loud crack echoed amongst the team. Randy screamed in pain and started sobbing, “I told you my fucking back is broke and I can’t move, just fucking kill me already.”
“In due time, Randy, in due time. Now, what does Louisville look like as far as the infected. What have you heard?” Between the sobs and pleading, Randy tells them that Louisville is lost and the infected are all over the city. “If that is the case, then why are you morons out here bullshitting around? What if the infected found their way here?”
“I dunno, we didn’t think about that.”
“You fuckheads only thought about violating girls!” Priest saw movement out his peripheral vision and turned his head to see the three young women walk around the AVFF truck. They were all still scared and standing there with wet hair. Two of them had a black eye and one with a split lip and cuts on her cheek. “Wow, Randy. You like to soften them up first, don’t you?” Randy said nothing, just laid there blubbering.
Priest walked over to join the girls and the rest of the Team. He looked at them, studying the girls’ faces. This was when his steely blue eyes showed compassion. “I am sorry this happened to you girls and I wish we would have gotten here sooner.” The girl with the shorter brown hair named Dana ran over and hugged him with tears in her eyes.
He didn’t know if it was the shock wearing off or if it was because she might need reassurance from a father figure. Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. It was what she needed at the time, and he would not deny her that. She held on for quite a while, sobbing, and then finally let go. She apologized, but Priest waved it off and told her it was perfectly all right.
The girl with the long black hair, named Mia, seemed like just couldn’t stand there and the human exchange of comfort and assurance. She ran up to Priest and stood there looking at him with tears in her eye.
Priest was a hard man who had killed countless people, but those people had made their choice to do evil and he was just the one to bring forth the day of reckoning. Yes, that was who he was, but in these moments, he realized he was someone else. Someone who he didn’t truly know, but someone he didn’t mind sharing with others in these types of situations. He fought to hold back tears as he saw Mia standing there with obvious pain and fear on her face. He reached for her and she grabbed onto him like he was her last breath of oxygen. Almost like her entire existence depended on her ability to hold on to him. It was too much for him, and tears began flowing down his cheeks and into his beard.
Tug was also in tears, knowing what these girls went through. Kim, who was standing next to him, reached out and grabbed Tug’s hand with both of hers. He accepted the gesture. Hell, he welcomed it. Dana was holding onto Allison with Shaw close to them. Except for crying and some sniffling, it was dead quiet. Mia pulled back and Priest asked if she was ok. She nodded.
Priest turned to Allison. “Could you please get them settled in the truck?”
“Come on girls, let’s get you settled in.”
As soon as they left, Priest turned around and now his blue eyes turned stone cold as he walked back to Randy. “You know, it’s bad enough people must deal with all this fucked up shit as the world looks like it’s ending. Then we have you mother fuckers causing terror and violating any innocence these poor girls have left. Shit, that these young women will have to deal with for the rest of their fucking life.”
“I can’t take things back and really who gives a shit. They will die; you will die, we’re all going to die. Just kill me already.”
“Whoa, getting a brief rush of courage suddenly, are we? Ok Randy, you’re right. I should give you exactly what you deserve.” Priest pulled his combat knife and squatted down to face Randy. He reached out his knife towards Randy’s throat as he braced himself for the killing blow. Lightning quick, Priest moved the knife from his throat to his face to cut out one of Randy’s eyes. Randy screamed and wailed like a banshee.
Priest let him squirm around for a bit before slapping him in the face, “Focus Randy, focus on me!” Randy lifted his head to look at Priest. He was sobbing with blood running down his cheeks.
“You know Randy, you seem a little scared and in pain. I want you to think about how those girls over there felt when you and your piece of shit buddies raped and terrorized them.” Randy just screamed and cursed Priest and the girls.
“Good bye, Randy,” Priest said just before he cut out his other eye.
Priest stand up and yelled over the screams, “Guess what, you fuck? I won’t kill you and you will exist for a little while lying in your own disgusting filth, not being able to move and not being able to see. Whether it’s dehydration, hunger, exposure, being ravaged by animals or shredded apart by the infected, you will die eventually and you won’t see it coming. You won’t even know what it is. The only thing you will know is that death is coming. We are the Light Reapers, so reap the whirlwind, you fucking piece of shit.”
Priest walks away, but stops to turn around back to Randy. Priest smiles and then stomps on Randy’s other wrist. He lets out another scream between his sobs as Priest walks back to the truck and gets in. They drive off, leaving Randy screaming and wailing on the ground.
CHAPTER 20
“God help us all,” Webb mutters as he feels dizzy and his legs get wobbly. He puts his palms on his knees and doubles over. Neville wasn’t faring much better witnessing the scene revealing itself before them. The two were standing on the edge of the parade grounds, which was up as an evacuee shelter.
They erected twenty to thirty large tents on the grounds along with various pallets of MRE’s and bottled water. First aid and Red Cross stations were scattered among the tents set up to house evacuees.
The scene looked like a well-organized support facility except for all the dead bodies littering the ground. Hundreds of bodies were lying in various states of death. The white tents were a background of contrast for the ominous red blood splattered throughout the camp.
Actual puddles were forming because of the significant amount of blood spilled during the massacre that seemed to have taken place here. Piles of bowels, intestines and every other internal organ were lying next to the bodies that once contained them. So many people had died with looks of terror on their face, with eyes still open and mouths agape.
The flies had already made themselves at home with the feast laid out across the landscape. Crows, buzzards, and every other scavenger had found their way here to gorge on the bounty. These two men, who had seen the battlefield many times, were now seeing civilians massacred and ravaged.
Women bloodied, children disemboweled, old people with their throats torn out. Brass was laying all over the ground as thousands of spent shell casings cluttered the landscape as far as the eye could see.