I shove the useful items into one bag and discard the rest beside the body before I stand to head back inside the store.
“Well, look what we have here.”
I jump slightly before looking in the direction of the voice and then freeze.
A hundred feet away from me, coming out from the lower level of the parking garage, Caesar and Brett appear. Behind them is a large man with a stocking cap on his head and long, unkempt hair.
“I had a feeling we might find you nearby,” Caesar continues as they all walk out into the street, headed in my direction. “Glad to see it didn’t take long.”
“Look at her!” Brett says with a laugh. “That’s a deer in the headlights if I ever saw one!”
I drop the grocery sack, and the contents spill out onto the asphalt.
“Looks like running didn’t help much,” Caesar says with a smile. He reaches up and rubs his chin with his fingers. “A good chase always makes things more interesting though. What do you think, Mark?”
“I like a bit of a chase.” The tall, chunky man nods slowly. He presses his lower lip with his tongue, making it look like he has a mouth full of chewing tobacco.
“I’ve had about enough of it myself.” Brett folds his arms over his chest. “I’m ready for a little ‘catch and release’ personally.”
Caesar and Mark chuckle, and at first, I don’t understand the joke.
Release.
He definitely doesn’t mean letting me go. I shudder and take a step away from them.
“What are you doing here?” I ask. Maybe if I can keep them talking long enough, I’ll give Falk time to get back. I gesture to the other man with them. “Who’s he?”
“Where are my manners?” Caesar says with a smile. “Hannah, this is Mark. We met a few weeks back and have been negotiating some trade with him and his group since then. Mark, this is Hannah. As you can see, she’s definitely worth her weight in batteries.”
My body goes cold. It doesn’t matter how much Falk talked about what the others wanted from me. It doesn’t even matter what I heard Brett and Caesar talking about in the woods. Hearing him actually tell someone else what my body was worth to them brings bile to my throat.
“You aren’t touching me.” I hope my voice sounds more determined than I feel.
“I’m gonna do a lot more than that,” Caesar says. “Like it or not, you know this is gonna happen. Think of it as your duty to humanity if you want. It’s not too soon to start thinking about how we’re going to repopulate the planet, and we’re going to need you to do that. You might as well get used to the idea.”
“That’s my choice.”
“Not anymore, it isn’t.”
“If you touch me, you know what Falk will do.” I back up a few more steps, looking to my left and right. The hedge is behind me, blocking much of the way, but there’s an opening on the other side of the body, and I angle myself in that direction as I walk. I don’t know if I can outrun them or not, and I may need a place to hide until Falk gets back. I know I can’t fight three of them.
“Funny, I don’t see him here,” Caesar says. The sneer on his face makes him look like a completely different person. “Maybe he took a little nap or something.”
“Or something.” Brett snickers.
My chest tightens, and I move my hand slowly to my waist and pull out the gun. I hold it in both hands, my arms out in front of me. I don’t know which man I should aim at and end up waving the gun between the three of them.
“Leave me alone!” I feel tears burning in my eyes, and I try to blink them away. I have to keep myself calm, or I won’t be able to aim. Falk taught me that. Stay calm, breathe slowly, focus.
Falk.
What did Brett mean when he said “or something”? Had they already come across Falk before they found me? Did they hurt him?
Did they kill him?
I bite down on my lip, forcing myself to keep my thoughts on what is happening around me.
“Don’t move!” I order as Brett takes a step closer.