Hinterland (The Aftermath #2)

Chapter Ten

"Alright, ye lil' no-goodies," a guy said. He was young, but much older than me. In adulthood. Eighteen, nineteen. Maybe twenty.

"What're we even doing here?" Zenon said through clenched teeth.

"Ye look pretty lean, strong. Can you fight, boy?" The man prodded his side with his foot.

"Why does it matter to you?"

"If we're gonna fight against the others, then you're gonna help us. And you, girlie, ye can fight too. I saw ye."

"Shut up," I said. But I wasn't really thinking it. I was pondering a more serious topic. These people were gathering others to fight for them, but against who? They said others. Were there others in my city, fighting against one another for things? Like food, maybe? Territory?

"They can probably fight," another man said. He sounded much more mentally intact than the others, like he hadn't gone crazy from having a damaged mind yet. "Listen, girlie. I saw you fire that gun and hit one of our troop members. On a whim, that was extremely good. Good enough to keep us alive." He stepped into my line of sight. Not as young as the other guy with the strange-sounding voice, the one who said something that sounded like 'ye' instead of 'you'. Definitely older. Colton's age, probably. Brown hair.

"We aren't going to hurt you unless we need to," he said.

"Unless you need to?" Zenon said annoyedly. "So you're just gonna beat us up until we do what you want?"

"Listen, boy. Ye need to shut your mouth and listen to Mr. Haleport for once," the younger man said. He gave Zenon a sharp jab to his back.

"Talon, keep your feet to yourself unless he's doing something wrong." Mr. Haleport gave him the same kind of look you'd give a five-year-old if they were misbehaving.

"Sorry, sir."

"Back to what I was saying," Haleport said. "We will not inflict pain to either of you if you help us out."

"There's no way we're helping you!"

"Permission to... inflict pain, sir?" Talon said. Haleport nodded, and Talon gave Zenon another kick.

"Stop it!" I yelled. "Please! Stop!"

"Hey, girlie, shut your mouth," Talon said. "Ye want a beating too?"

"Alright, Talon, that's enough."

"Yes, sir."

"Is this guy the only pain you're inflicting?" I asked.

"Well," Haleport said, "we have other means of doing so. For example, we have some knives. Talon, fetch the knives."

"Here you go, sir." In Talon's hands, he held about half a dozen of the blades, and he handed one to Haleport.

"You can't expect us to do things for you just by threatening us," Zenon said.

"Yeah?" Haleport smirked and walked over to Zenon, then bent down in front of him. "You wanna rephrase that sentence?"

"How about: There's no way we're gonna do your dirty work."

"Mistake, boy." He snatched Zenon's hand and pressed the knife into his forearm before he could react. When Zenon cried out in pain, I jerked my body forward.

"Stop!"

"Back up, girlie. You want the knife, too?" Haleport took a step toward me and I winced.

"No, no... just..."

"Girlie, you're gonna be in big trouble if ye mess with Mr. Haleport," said Talon.