Dead Frontier/Issue 89

This is Issue #89 of Dead Frontier by Walkerbait22, titled ''The Edge. ''This is the fifth issue in Volume 15.

Issue 89 - The Edge
"Are you sure, sure, sure you're fine?" Griffin asks when Lucy returns from changing out of her bloody clothes.

"I'm fine," she says.

"So you can tell me what the hell happened? From beginning to end. I want to hear." He pulls a stool out for her to sit on, and he plants himself on the counter as she delves into as much detail as she can regarding the chaos in the store. The drive there, the first sighting of the attackers, who she knows didn't make it, and the possibility of this being Roxie's doing.

"It was her," Griffin says firmly. "And fucking Hector. Knew we should've kicked him out earlier."

"Hector? You think..." Lucy says.

"There's no way Roxie could have known where we were taking our supply run. And who has she been having friendly little conversations with? Hector."

"She hasn't talked to him in a while, though."

"As far as we know. But there's no other explanation. He's a rat that lied to our faces. And look at how many people are dead just because of him."

"And you're going to kick him out?"

"So he can go running to Roxie? Hell no," Griffin says.

"You're talking about killing him, then?" Lucy asks.

"I-I honestly don't know what else to do. I don't want to risk him causing any more harm to anyone. Someone'll have to break it to Adrienne but y'know...the world ain't fair...And you're going to talk me out of it. Great."

"No, I'm not. Do it. And if my dad bitches to you about it, I'll back you up."

"You know what the hell you're talking about. Maybe you should try talking some sense into him. Tell him to be less of a pushover, 'cause he definitely isn't listening to me."

"I'm probably the last person he'll listen to, but I'll try."

Hector bounds up the stairs to the fifth floor, wiping the blood on his hands onto his jeans. He jogs down the corridor to Adrienne's room and knocks frantically on the door. She only takes a few seconds to open up but can't even get a word in as Hector begins to speak: "We're leaving, right now."

Adrienne furrows her brows together. "Why? Hector, what did you do?" she asks.

"We have to leave this place. I can't stay here anymore. Come with me, please."

"What did you do?" she asks more forcefully.

"I need you to agree to leave with me, right now, or else I'm going. Alone."

"No."

"What? Addie, please..."

"No," Adrienne repeats, but her eyes begin to tear up. "Leave. Go. I don't care anymore. You've dragged me into enough of this."

"I'm your brother. Your family. What's wrong with you? Are you choosing these people over me? Really?"

"You're someone different than what you were nine months ago. And you can't disagree with that. If you're going to leave, leave. Because I'm not coming with you."

Hector can't plead with her any longer because he's aware he's quickly running out of time to make an escape. He shakes his head in disbelief then heads down the hallway and descends the stairs to the basement. He exits through a door that leads to the parking lot out back. With nothing but the clothes on his back and the knife he used to murder Alexander tucked into his waistband, and concealed by his jacket, he hurries to climb over the chainlink fence in the lot. He loses his footing and tumbles into the snow, but gets up just as quickly and begins his trek down the road, hoping, finally, to leave the Hyatt behind forever.

After retrieving Logan as a form of backup to dealing with Hector, Griffin heads to the fourth floor, to Hector's room.

"You should let me kill the fucking guy," Logan says as he walks by Griffin's side.

"Calm yourself. I’ve got it handled,” Griffin replies. “Take this--” He hands Logan a small pistol. “--and stand behind me. If he gets the upperhand, somehow, then you can fire the shot."

"Alright, boss," Logan mutters, and he takes the weapon without firther complaint. They reach Hector's room, but before entering Griffin presses his ear to the door, only to be met with silence. He nods to Logan, then retrieves the key labeled '414' and slides it into the lock. He pushes the door open, not finding Hector, but a dead Alexander lying face down on the floor, a pool of blood covering the immediate space around him. Griffin drops his weapon and rushes to Alexander's side, slowly turning him over onto his back. Logan stands there in the doorway, prettified in the same position as when they first entered.

"Get--get someone!" Griffin shouts. "A few people, anyone to help get him to the infirmary."

Logan nods and sprints down the corridors, searching for any able-bodies to assist him. Griffin stays where he is, on his knees next to Alexander, two fingers pressed to the man's neck. But there's no pulse. Griffin leans his ear next to his mouth, feeling and hearing for any signs of breathing. Except, there aren't any. Griffin lifts his head and, with wetness forming in his eyes, stares at Alexander, whose motionless body makes his own body go cold, then his blood boil in rage in just a matter of seconds. He sighs, and before Logan can return, he delivers the fateful shot to Alexander's brain.

Griffin runs maniacally throughout the hotel, shouting one single phrase: "Has anyone seen Hector?!" He assigned Logan the same task of location Hector on the other side of the building, and he barges into the cafeteria. Heads turn to him, bewildered.

"Why? What happened?" Adam asks. He wipes his mouth with a napkin and rises from the table nearest to Griffin, returning about twenty minutes ago from that dreadful trip back to the store.

"Have you seen him?" Griffin repeats. A sheen of sweat coats his forehead, caused by his mixture of exhaustion and anxiety.

"No. No, not recently. I--I just got back."

"Then his sister? What about her?"

"Uh--up in her room, I think. I was up there a few minutes ago, she said she'd be right down."

Griffin manages a quick "Thanks" before running off again, up the stairs to the fifth floor. Adam sits back down at the table, and across from him Billie, Chloe, and Tora look back at him in confusion.

“He’s gone?” Tora asks.

“I don’t even know with that guy anymore,” Adam says. “He’s a wildcard.”

“And crazy,” Billie adds in.

“Nah, I’ve seen crazy. He’s completely pathetic, spineless, a loser pretty much. But not really crazy.”

“He shot you,” Tora reminds him.

“And I’ll never forget it, but he’s not crazy. He was just manipulated, that’s all. Not completely his fault.”

“You’re like fucking Gandhi or something,” Billie says. “I don’t know how you do it.”

Adam shrugs and scoops a spoonful of mushy, unidentifiable food into his mouth. “It gets tiring, being the fucking good guy all the time. But whatever. It helps me stay sane.” He keeps his eyes glued to his plate as an uncomfortable silence falls over the table.

Chloe finally clears her throat and says, “Sorry to make this day even more depressing but Adam, could you...”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” he says, and he continues to explain to her their trip to the store, which he began to do before their interruption by Griffin. “From the bodies we got, we were missing three. Hiro, Duke, and Cole. Tora found Hiro’s jacket, but besides that, not much. Nothing on Cole and Duke; they could be anywhere honestly, if they’re not dead already. We thought maybe...maybe Roxie’s guys got them, somehow, but that wouldn’t make sense since they shot everyone else on sight. Or they ran. Which would make a search for them pretty hard since they could be anywhere. And they haven’t come back here, to the hotel, which isn’t a good sign either. But it hasn’t even been a day, so waiting might be our best bet.”

“Waiting isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Tora says.

“There’s nowhere to look.”

“Looking for them at all is better than nothing.”

“Okay, I get it, you want to find your brother. But sending out search missions that'll most likely lead to nothing isn’t a good idea. And using up gas, and possibly ammo and manpower, we would need to defend ourselves isn’t that smart, either. But it’s early, it’s only been a few hours. There’s still time to decide what to do. Alright?”

“I know, it’s just--I know he’s out there. Somewhere.”

“I think he is, too,” he says with a nod, and he puts a hand over hers. “But we’ve gotta think this through.” She nods in response, feeling herself tearing up. She returns to her plate instead of protesting any longer, pushing around the mush with her spoon.

At this point, Adam realizes he should probably segue into the most uncomfortable aspect of the entire situation: the sheer number of deaths. He sighs and says, “And...we brought all of the bodies back. For the funeral tomorrow.”

“Oh, God. Did you guys...did you see Devon?” Chloe asks, chewing on her fingernail. Billie and Tora both shake their heads but Adam nods.

“I had to...” he begins. “You know. They didn’t shoot her in the head. They let her turn. So I, you know, I didn’t let her stay like that. But...I can honestly say seeing her--like that--is the worst thing I’ve seen in my entire life.”

They look at him with so much pity, but he ignores it and stops speaking, letting Chloe continue on. “We can’t stay here,” Chloe says, shaking her head. “Too much has happened, too many people have died since we’ve been here.”

“Too bad we can’t go anywhere else,” Billie says.

“Do I need to list off the names for you? All the shit that’s happened at this hotel? Because that’ll feel really good, hearing all of that again. The road will be better.”

“It’s winter. There was just a blizzard. Cole, Duke, and Hiro are still missing. Living on the road is risky. And there’s no way Griffin would ever go for it. How many more reasons do you want? I can keep going.”

“I’m just making a suggestion.”

“I know, and I’m telling you it’s not a very good one.”

“And it’s really smart to stay here and wait for another ambush?” Chloe counters. “I’m not trying to pick a fight, but we’ve lost too much in nine months to risk it here.”

“Yeah? And what the fuck have you lost?” Billie spits back.

“Just stop,” Tora says, putting a hand on Billie’s arm. Chloe stares back at her, unresponsive.

But Billie continues. “Compared to 90 percent of us, Chloe, you’ve had it easy. Am I wrong? Because you sit there, you sit back as everyone else endures all of this shit, and then want to run away from everything because you’ve ‘lost too much.’ Whatever.”

“Okay, we’re done here,” Adam says and he stands from the table. Tora follows his lead, but Chloe and Billie stay seated. “Grab your plates, let’s go. We’ll all get some much needed relaxation.”

Chloe ignores him and says, “It’s always about you, right? You’ve had it the worst, you’re so tired of everything. You think I didn’t have a life before this? When I met you, did I have any family with me? Was I not there at the airport with you? Think whatever the hell you want, but at least I’m not a selfish teenager who thinks they’ve lived more life than they actually have.”

Chloe grabs her plate of untouched food and walks from the table, leaving Billie sitting there alone. “Not fucking necessary,” Adam mutters.

Still not able to find a single soul that knows of Hector's whereabouts, Griffin rushes to Adrienne's room, located on the fifth floor. Although he's anxious, he knocks first. But, to his dismay, no answer. He tries one more time, also choosing to call her name. Not a single response. So he retrieves the corresponding key to her room and enters without her permission.

"Adrienne?" he says as soon as he enters. Everything looks normal, but there's no sign of her. He searches the suite, but she's not in the kitchen. Or the living room. Or the bedroom. The last place to check is her bathroom. He presses his ear to the door, but no sound escapes from the other side. He knocks, but, of course, he gets no answer. His only other option is to open it on his own accord, and when he does, the sight nearly makes him gag.

Adrienne sits fully-clothed in an empty bathtub drained of all water, but slowly filling with the blood flowing from her wrists. He rushes over to her, kneeling near the tub. A crimson-stained blade lies near her feet, and she doesn’t respond to any of his calls. “Adrienne? Can you hear me?” He grabs a few nearby towels and uses them to cover the deep jagged cuts on each wrist. But the towels are quickly drenched, and when he feels for a pulse, there is none.

Cole is sound asleep, along with most of the other prisoners in the room, when the door swings open, letting in a bright light from outside. There’s a chorus of sleepy groans, and Cole covers his eyes and squints at the figures in the doorway. Next to him, Luke sits up and yawns.

“We need our next round ready to head out!” one of the men in the doorway shouts. The man behind him holds a sheet of paper and begins reading off names.

“Brooks, Grocowski, Williams, Vasquez, Reyes...” He goes on like this for nearly 20 names, until he finishes with: “Evans, Jackson, and Carson. If you heard your name, please stand and head this way. No lagging behind, no pretending like your name wasn't called. If we find out you’re name was called and you decided to stay back, you will be shot on sight. Follow me.”

Slowly, prisoners begin to stand. Luke nudges Cole in the side and they both rise to their feet. "What if they notice?" Cole whispers, filing out of the room behind the others.

"Then...I don't know," Luke says. After predicting Luke would probably be sent off first, since he's been held there longer, sneaking Cole into the group became the backbone of their plan. The only downside being the possibility of an extra prisoner not going unnoticed. "Just go with it."

They’re ushered through the many twists and turns of the warehouse, passing rooms that emit various screams and groans. They stop at another room filled with prisoners, and Cole decides it’s a good sign they haven’t noticed him yet. As the same man reads from a different paper listing the new ‘shipments,’ Cole nudges Luke. In his nervousness, sweat quickly covers Luke's forehead, but he nods and Cole stealthily pushes through the crowd of prisoners, until he gets closer to one of the men keeping watch over them. The man is just finishing reading off names when Cole smashes his elbow into the side of the guard’s head. He delivers a knee to the guard's stomach immediately after and grabs the gun from his holster before tossing him to the ground. “Go!” Cole shouts to the petrified prisoners, and they scurry away amidst their confusion.

“Head that way! Don’t split up!” Luke orders, ushering them to an opposite end of the warehouse.

Cole wastes no time delivering a bullet to the guard’s head, then turning on the man with the list and aiming at him as well. But, he doesn’t fire, as the panicking people around him hoping to escape make the man impossible to see. However, he does hear the man yell, and before anyone can find him, Cole attempts to blend into the crowd searching for an exit.

He has little time to run, though, because only a few seconds later he hears someone yell, “That one!” and a few bursts of gunfire. Behind him, three prisoners go down, and two more guards come into view. He fires a shot, hits one guard in the side, but trips on the body of a fallen prisoner. A gunshot whizzes past his head, and he quickly turns onto his back. Among the escapees is one of the guards; Cole kicks him in the stomach before he can fire a shot, then smashes his boot into his knee, eliciting a loud crack. The guard collapses to his knees and drops his handgun; Cole reaches for it, but one of the prisoners unknowingly kicks it away. “Fuck...” Cole mutters under his breath, and he looks up to see the other guard only a few feet away from him. There’s no time for Cole to even consider his next move, because the toe of the guard’s boot collides with the side of his face. He can feel the blood rushing down his cheek, but ignores it, lying on his back, the barrel of a gun soon pointed in his face. But he’s coherent enough to grab the guard’s wrist and turn the gun away from him, so the gunshot fires into the wall to their left. Cole then smashes his foot right between the guard’s legs, a painful yelp following soon after. And one hard punch the face sends the guard backward, and Cole snatches the gun from his hands and fires a shot into his head. To Cole’s far right, Luke is finishing up moving extra prisoners to an exit, paying no mind to Cole’s previous predicament. “What the fuck--you fuckers are escaping?” shouts a familiar voice from behind Cole. He turns to see Lee Lopez following the last of the prisoners. “Some guy was checkin’ up on us, then we heard gunshots. Dumbass left the door open when he ran.”

“We’re getting out. Now,” Cole says. Lee asks no questions and follows Cole. Luke has already moved forward with the rest of those escaping, leaving only Cole and Lee in the wide corridor. But when two gunshots barely miss them, they hit the ground, Lee covering his head. Cole fires 3 wild shots behind him, but still misses the gunman: the guard from before, who limps on his one good knee.

“Oh, fuck,” Lee says, taking in their situation. The guard reaches into his back pocket and retrieves a new magazine, and reloads. “I got you, man,” Lee mutters, and he jumps to his feet, faster than Cole would think possible for a man his size.

Lee barrels at the guard as Cole rises as well, and retrieves three shots to the chest before tackling the guard to the ground. Realizing the choice Lee made for him, basically a stranger, Cole makes sure it doesn’t go to waste and sprints away in the opposite direction. He tries to find other prisoners but can’t see anyone else, not even Luke. Only the shouts of angry guards.

But when he reaches the parking lot, like he and Luke planned, he sees that the two trucks they used to escape have already driven over the chain link fence and through the mountains of snow. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he doesn't shout after the trucks, but hides behind the identical vehicles parked in the lot to avoid the guards that have begun to search the area. But he's far enough away to snake through the rows of cars and over the downed fence unseen. Freezing, he rushes from the warehouse as fast as his battered and bruised body can take him. Along the way to God-knows-where, he checks the gun he has and finds he only has one bullet. He decides not to use it.