World of Anarchy/Chapter 12

This is chapter 12 of World of Anarchy entitled: What Lies Above.

Chapter 12 – What Lies Above
Present Day. September 2, 2014. “Leo, hold up! We should think this through first.” David yelled to him as he chased him up the stairs.

They ran passed floor by floor as he chased after Leo. Why did Leo have to be so hot headed? David could see one of two things happening if Leo just rushed up to the roof. Either Leo would kill who ever was up there and they wouldn't get any answers, or the person getting the jump on them and there would be more graves out back.

“Ain't nothin' to think about, David! This asshole up there's been fuckin' with us! Killed Jerry and Lucas! Fucked up our only way out of this city!” Leo said as they reached the final floor.

“Leo just--”

David was too late. Leo had already burst through the door leading to the roof and was now search for their mystery person.

“--wait.” David said as he stepped out onto the roof.

The roof was littered with different food containers. Cans of beans, boxes of assorted cereal, all empty and scattered along the floor. Someone had been living up there, and judging by the amount of trash it looked like someone had been living up there awhile.

“What the hell?” Leo said looking at the ground.

Whoever they had seen from the ground was gone now. The only way you would have known anyone had been up there is by the food scraps. David looked at the garbage and noticed the was a trail leading to to the other side of the roof. Following the trail with his eyes, he saw that it stopped at a door on the opposite side of the roof. Leo had saw it too, and was now walking toward the door.

“It's time to finish this.” Leo said.

They were already there, so David thought they might as well just get it over with. He just wished that they had brought a weapon with them as they reached the door.

“You ready?” Leo said standing on the left side of the door.

David nodded and reached for the door nob. He heard movement inside as he twisted the door nob and swung it open. A girl sat inside, and once she saw them she tried to retreat further back but hit the back wall. The girl couldn't have been more than fifteen and looked scared to death when she saw them.

“D-don't—please!” The girl screamed at them.

David and Leo looked at each other then looked back to the girl.

“Not what I was expectin'.” Leo whispered to David as he entered the room.

“G-get back!” The girl screamed and threw an empty can of Spaghetti-O's at them.

David and Leo didn't have to move out of the way because the can missed them by a long shot.

“Kid, you're gonna have to stop throwing shit at us.” Leo said.

“I-I 'm going to listen to you. Y-you fucking bandits!”

She thought that they were bandits. This girl knew the bandits in someway. Before asking how she knew them, he had to convince her that they weren't them.

“It's alright, we're not bandits. We can protect you from them if you need it, but first we're going to need you to come down stairs with us,” David said extending his hand out to her,”I'm David, and he's Leo.”

“A-Abby. My name's Abby.” The girl said taking his hand and being helped up off the ground.

“What're you doin' up here all by yourself?” Leo questioned.

“Why don't we get her down stairs before we start berating her with questions.” David said.

Just as they were about to leave the small room, something shining on the floor caught David's eye. He bent down and picked up the small metal object. It was a small golden colored key, and it looked like it fit somewhere important. He turned it over, revealing small words engraved on the bottom.

“Security room.”

“What?” Leo said stopping in the middle of the door way.

“Found a key to the security room,” He said showing them the key,”Didn't even know this hotel had a security room.”

“Security room, huh--” Leo started to say before gunfire filled the air.

The three of them quickly ran over to the side of the roof where the gunfire was coming from. At the center of the city was a group of about eight people, six of them chasing after the other two. The two running away were firing wildly at the other six.

“The fuck?” Leo said shocked.

“It's them...the bandits...” Abby said taking a step back.

“Holy shit,” Leo said with anger rising in his voice,”Look who's with them.”

David looked again and saw Ben standing down there with the bandits. They looked like they were talking about something as they restrained the two they were chasing. Another bandit caught his attention, except this one was different. It looked like he was wearing bandages around his face. The rest of the bandits and Ben then walked over and began talking to the one with the bandages.

“Do you see the one with his face covered?” Leo asked him.

“Yeah.” David said still staring down at him.

“That man,” Abby said,”Is a monster.”

“How do you know them?” David asked.

Abby didn't respond. A tear rolled down her cheek. David looked Leo who looked to be thinking the same thing he was. Those people down there had definitely done something bad to her.

“Let's...let's head back to the lobby now.”

Before they left, David looked back down at the bandits again. The one with bandages was saying something to Ben, then turned and looked straight at the roof of the hotel. Right at David. His stomach turned at the thought as he followed Leo and Abby back down to the lobby.

“Who's that?” Amber asked as David, Leo, and Abby walked down into the lobby.

Everyone in the lobby jumped up as soon as they walked in. They all stared at Abby, and David could tell that most of them instantly distrusted her. But who could blame them. They thought she was the one who tried to kill them the day before.

“She's...she's our ghost.” David responded as he got a confused look from Abby.

“Is she the one who fucking attacked us yesterday?!” Sam asked angrily,”The one who ruined our only chance of getting to Rapid City?!”

“I don't think she's the one who--”

“She's got to be,” Sid said,”It's the only thing that makes sense.”

“You gotta be kidding. I mean, you really think she's the one who took those parts from the bus? And you really think she killed Jerry and Lucas?” Keith said.

“We can't take that chance if she is or isn't. She has to go.” Sam said.

“Are you serious?! Go where?” Teresa asked, standing up a little straighter.

“Somewhere other than here. She can take her chances out there.”

“She's dead if we send her out there with all the infected!”

“Look, I know it's in the morally gray area, but--”

“Morally gray area?! It's murder!”

“But,” Sam continued,”It's the right call. Someone has to be making these decisions for the good of the group--”

“And you're that person, right?” Teresa said moving away from the couch and closer to Sam.

“If I have to be.”

“Teresa,” Sid said moving beside Sam,”Like it or not, this IS happening. For the good of the group.”

“For the good of the group?! Why don't we ask the group before you two make some dumb-ass decisions for us.”

David didn't think he had ever seen Teresa this mad before.

“I don't know about you two,” Leo said stepping towards them,”But I don't think I'd be able to sleep at night after doin' something like that. The girls stayin'.”

David looked around at the others who hadn't said much on the matter. Anna was trying to distract the kids from hearing what was going on. Keith, Riley, and Michelle all looked completely uncomfortable with the whole discussion, and of course Oliver was off in the corner drowning everything away with a bottle of whiskey. He then looked to Amber who looked like she had finally made up her mind on the matter.

“She can't stay.” Amber said joining Sid and Sam's side of the room.

“Amber?” Teresa asked in disbelief.

“Sorry sis, but we just don't know her. For all we know she's the one who killed Lucas and Jerry.”

David looked back to Abby and could see that she was clearly terrified with everything going on. He didn't think that she was guilty. She looked like she hadn't killed anything in her life. If only there was a way to prove that she was innocent. He then remembered the key he had picked up earlier, so he reached into his pocket and pulled it out.

“Abby is staying with us,”He said walking toward the others and showing them the key,”And I can prove her innocence.”

“What is this place?” Michelle asked as they all entered the security room.

The room was kind of small, and it had about ten monitors that were on the back wall that all showed a different location in the hotel.

“It's the security room, albeit a kind of crappy one. My old job had a super extensive one.” Sam said.

“Where did you work?” Riley asked.

“HavenCorp.”

“The pharmaceutical company? Why would a company like that need a super extensive security room?” Keith asked.

“Well, we were working on developing cures for various diseases, and if anyone got their hands on our research there'd be--”

“Hey—How about we just get this done, so we can go scavenge for parts for the bus. So we can finally leave this hell-hole.” Leo said interrupting her.

David walked over to the monitors and examined them. It looked like the fourth monitor had a view of the fire exit that they had found opened, but he didn't know how to work the thing.

“Anyone know how to work this thing?” He asked the group.

“Let me give a shot.” Keith said taking the chair in front of the monitors.

Everyone was silent as Keith began to work away on the cameras monitors. All of the tension in the room was making David uneasy. He looked to Teresa and could clearly see Teresa was still mad about Amber and Sam. Mad that Amber had sided against her.

“Hey, are you okay?” He whispered to her so that only she could here.

“Yeah.”

She wasn't fine. He could tell from the tone of her voice. Her body language. It bugged him that she was mad, but he shook it off. He had to focus on what was going on.

“One things for sure. If she's the one on the footage, then we are kicking her out.” Sam said.

“No, we are not,” Teresa told her.”And you can't decide for us.”

“Yeah, you're not our leader, Sam.” Riley said leaning back on the wall behind her.

“Well someone has to. I don't see anyone else taking charge.”

“You didn't give anyone else a chance. And we should at least have a say in who's leading us” Teresa said.

“That's a great idea,” Michelle said standing up straighter,”We could take a vote.”

“Yeah, we can all write down who we want and put them in a ballot.” Riley said sarcastically.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I found the footage.” Keith said turning to face them.

They all moved so they could see the monitor. A person wearing a hoodie that blocked their face moved across the screen and over to the fire exit, where the person cut the alarm. The person was way too tall to be Abby. They then opened the door to let someone in. David immediately recognized the person they let in. Ben. Then another guy followed in behind him, this guy was blonde. David recognized him as one of the bandits they saw Ben with on the roof. They were the ones who killed Jerry and Lucas. And whoever let them in

“Ben!” Leo said angrily.

“And one of those bandits he was with earlier.” David said keeping his eyes on the screen.

“What bandit?” Teresa asked.

“We saw the fucker Ben from the roof when we found the girl, and he wasn't alone. Looks like he ditched us to go be with them.”

“Who cares about Ben? What we need to know is who this guy with the hoodie is.” Riley said directing them back to the monitor.

He didn't want to admit it, but it looked like whoever it was that let Ben and the blonde bandit in was one of them. Someone in their group. But who?

“So...one of us let Ben and that other guy in.” Amber said.

“It could just be another bandit, right?” Michelle asked.

“No, that wouldn't make any sense. If it was another bandit then how did he get in? Or better yet, why wouldn't Ben and the blonde dude enter from the same place as the other guy. This was one of us.” David said looking at each of them.

“One thing's for sure,” Teresa said looking at Sam, Sid, and Amber coldly,”Abby is innocent. And none of you should make the decisions. You were all about to throw out an innocent girl.”

“For the good--” Sam started, but was interrupt by Leo.

“I swear to God if you say 'for the good of the group' one more goddam time I'll--”

“You'll what?” Sid said stepping forward.

David was tired of all of it. All of the conflict. They did need someone to lead them. They needed someone to make all of the hard decisions, using both reason and feeling to make them.

“Everyone stop. We can't keep doing this. All of these stupid fights between ourselves while we should be dealing with the actual problem. Ben and...whoever these bandit guys are tried to kill all of us yesterday. They killed Jerry and Lucas. And let's not forget that apparently one of us helped them. If we want to make it out of this and get to that safe-zone in Rapid City, we're going to have to pull together and stop all this bull shit.”

Everyone got quiet and looked at him. All of their stares made him uneasy, but he didn't let it show.

“Kid's right.”Leo said looking at the rest the group.”We need to pull are heads out of our asses.”

“How're we even gonna get out of this city? Bus is all fucked up remember?” Oliver said taking a drink out of the whiskey.

“Anyone got a map of the city?” David asked them.

“Yeah, I got one.” Leo said as he pulled a map out of his back pocket.

David took the map and opened it up against the wall.

“Most of us will have to go out to find the parts for the bus. Sam and Michelle, you two will search the west side of the city where this auto shop is. Leo and Sid will take the east side of town. Looks like that's the place where all the bus drivers leave the bus. I'll take the high school up in the north. If we hurry we can be out of this city before night fall.”

They had all grabbed their gear for what was hopefully their last run into the city. Keith, Riley, and Sid were staying behind to guard the place and everyone else who wasn't going.

“You're seriously goin' it alone?” Leo asked as he reached for his gear.

“Yeah. Everyone else needs to stay to defend the hotel in case those bandits attack.” David said as he picked up his hatchet and Beretta.

He knew that going by himself would be dangerous, but having more people stay behind would keep everyone else safe. Besides, things were always easier when he was alone.

“No way you're going alone.” Teresa said grabbing a gun from the stockpile.”I'm coming with you.”

“But it'll be--”

“Dangerous? So? It's the world we live in now as much as that sucks. And you need someone to watch your back from it.”

Credits

 * David Andrews
 * Teresa Burch
 * Chris Collins
 * Leo
 * Anna
 * Penny
 * Amber Burch
 * Sid
 * Samantha
 * Riley Mercer
 * Keith
 * Oliver
 * Michelle
 * Ben Dover

Trivia

 * First appearance of Abby.
 * Abby is revealed to be the one living above the group.