Bloodhearts

Chapter twelve: Everything.

Jamie and the insiders are with my dad and are supposed to warn him that the boneys ripped a hole in the walls of the camp and are moving in. They are not going to meet a broken wall crawling with boneys, however, but us instead. Jamie has informed me that my mom is there, too. That surprises me a bit since my mom can't fire a gun, but then again expect the unexpected.

The sound of boots is approaching and the tension rises. To put ourselves on the line like this is madness and I tell you Jason and I have argued about it, but in the end he went with it. He trusts me even when he doesn't agree with me and at the moment I am extremely grateful for that. 

Finally, they appear.

Spencer's face is contorted in disgust as he lays eyes upon me. My dad is right next to him and I have to suck in a breath when I see him. In a fraction of a second, I see something there until he shoves it aside. He grabs his gun and walks out of his ranks and all the way up to Jason and Cory who are both shielding me. I tried to persuade Cory not to do this, but he's more stubborn than I am and would hear nothing of the sort.

"Move," my dad sneers at them and they cross their arms.

"D-ad. Listen," I tell him and his eyes go wide. He hasn't expected me to do that. This must be the first time he has a conversation with a dead guy.

His face goes red and he glares at me. "Don't you dare," he warns me. "You're not my son, I won't listen to your lies. I know your friends are just outside my walls." 

He eyes Cory and Jason making them gulp. "I don't understand you boys. You know this is suicide. We can't have alliances with them. They will trick us, eat us, and kill us. Besides, you both know I will do what I have to in order to protect this camp." His patience is wearing thin, I can feel it already. Why he hasn't killed me yet is beyond me.

"But he is changing, sir," Jason says. "That's why I believe him. There's a way to end this."

"Ha, that's crap and you know it!" Spencer spits and steps forward. "You are incredibly stupid to believe anything he says! There's no way you can win this! You're outnumbered - on both sides!" He flashes an evil grin and I frown; he must have guessed that the boneys are here for us. And I get an uncomfortable feeling that this is exactly what he wants; revenge.

"Then why don't you just feed us to the wolves?" Cory asks dryly. "They're gonna kill us no matter what and you won't have to waste bullets on us - oh, and wait there's another perk; you won't have the blood of your friends and your own freaking son on your hands! So please. Why don't you go ahead and do it already!" 

Just before my dad can go ballistic on him, I break out of formation. I need to stop Cory before this gets out of hand.

My dad moves to speak, but I interrupt him with a new forcefulness in my voice. "Don't say a-anything," I sneer at him. "Just don't say anything you'll regret. I don't c-care what that asshole over there told you. You should try and listen to your own flesh and b-blood for once. Because you never did, did you dad?!" At this point, I don't have energy to notice my stammering, too, has more or less vanished. Cory, on the other hand, notices straight away.

My father responds by threatening to the shoot me in the head and Cory holds his breath.

"F-fine. If that's how you want to play it, g-go ahead," I say. "But just think about it; if things aren't changing, how can I be here? How can I b-be this ambivalent thing, half l-living, half dead? Even if you are disgusted by me, you have to see what I'm saying is t-true. The ones you should p-put a bullet in are the boneys. Not m-me."

Almost on cue, there is loud banging on the walls of the camp. Before we know it, the boneys actually break through the walls and people start screaming around us.