What We Become

Chapter 6 - The Unexpected

The both of us headed toward the gate but quickly saw it wasn't who we had expected.

"Henry? What are you doing out?" Tara asked going up to him.

He looked off balance.

"Well, shit," I said, knowing exactly what was wrong with him.

"What?" Tara asked.

Before I could answer, the boy bent down and hurled right on Tara's boots.

"Dude! Seriously? These are my favorite boots," Tara said, shaking the vomit off as best she could.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Tara," he said after wiping his mouth.

"You should be. Getting drunk? Really, Henry? You're only here a few hours and that's what you decide to do?"

"Sorry," he said again.

Tara sighed then looked at me.

"Natalia, will you take him down to the cells? They're right through those wooden doors."

"Yeah, sure. No problem," I said.

"I have to take off these boots. Henry I'm gonna have to tell Earl about this since he's giving you your apprenticeship."

"Yeah...I know."

"We'll come and visit you when I change."

She then turned around and headed back to the house.

"I guess I have to lock you up now, huh?" I said, breaking the silence Tara left us in.

"I think I deserve it. I'm Henry by the way," he said.

"Yeah. I got that. Natalia nice to meet you. So...who's the girl?"

"Um...what?" he asked, obviously thrown off by my question.

"The girl. You seem a little too young for alcohol. The options are limited as to why you would turn to that."

"What are the other options?" he asked.

We'd reached the doors. I opened them and we headed down.

"The first is you were pressured into taking a sip which, I'm pretty sure did happen. But a girl would be the main reason you decided to take that first sip in the first place. How's my assumption?"

He looked down and kicked at the ground. I opened the cell and watched as he went in, head hanging low in defeat.

"I'm assuming this is your first offense," I said.

"I...yeah. I was stupid. I see that now."

"So long as you admit it, I think you'll be fine."

The cellar doors opened up again and two sets of footsteps made their way down.

"Thanks for everything, Nat. Oh, this is Earl. He's our blacksmith. Earl, this is Natalia. She's new here," Tara said.

I held out my hand to him and he shook it.

"I apologize about having to deal with this. Especially since you're new here," he said.

"It's no problem. Really. Go easy on him. He feels terrible about the whole thing," I said before heading out.

There was some thunder in the distance. The rain would be coming shortly. I went up to the little perch I had slept in last night. I doubt I'd ever be okay with sleeping on a bed again. I had gotten so used to sleeping on the ground that having a bed would just freak me out even more than I already was. I hoped Jesus and the rest came back by tomorrow morning. If not, I could only imagine what Alpha and the others did to them. A shiver went down my spine as I recalled all that had happened whenever someone crossed them. And the other things I was made to partake in. There was no way in hell I would ever go back to living like that. If it was the last thing I did, I would see to never doing so again. The rain had started and I lost myself in the sound of the pitter patter against the roof above me. With all the thoughts rattling around in my head, it was hard to find sleep at first. But as the hours passed, I eventually did.

The sound of the gates opening up made my eyes fly open. I tied up my hair in a half ponytail and headed down the steps.

The gates were shutting once I was down. I saw Tara heading back into the house and I quickly made my way to her.

"What happened? Did they come back?" I asked once I reached her.

"Well good morning to you too."

"Are Jesus and Aaron back?"

"No," she said plainly.

"Who left then? Where did they go?" I asked, starting to sound desperate.

"Alden and Luke. They went to get them back here."

"Goddammit. You shouldn't be sending anymore people, Tara. It's not safe. Why the hell didn't I wake up earlier," I said, turning around and rubbing my forehead.

I looked over at the gates that were now closed.

"Nat. Whoa. Hey do you know something that we don't?"

I turned to look at her.

"There is so much that you guys don't know."

"Enlighten me, then. What's out there? Who's out there?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"I'll be on watch."

"Nat, wait," she called but I had already started heading over.

I climbed the ladder and joined the other person who was on watch.

"My shift just started," she said.

"Yeah well, you can go on a break if you'd like. Tara knows I'm here," I said, taking the binoculars off one of the wooden posts to scout the area.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to come off as rude. I just feel there's too many people out there as it is."

"No worries. You have people you care about out there?" she asked.

"No. Truth is I'm new here and the two people who gave me a chance at this place are out there. If something happened to one of them, I don't know what I'd do."

"They'll turn up. It's been a long time since we've had any sort of problems during runs," she said.

"Yeah well, things are different now," I said softly.

"I didn't catch your name," she said.

"Natalia Cruz," I said, extending my hand to her.

"Clara Mills. Nice to meet you," she said shaking my hand.

We both went back to keeping watch.

After about an hour, I could hear the sound of a motorcycle. I checked the binoculars to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Thankfully I wasn't cause the first thing I saw was that asshole, Daryl. They'd made it back. I sighed in relief as I put the binoculars back and headed toward the house.

"Tara. They're back!" I shouted into the house then headed back outside.

The gates opened and I waited to see the familiar faces that had brought me here. Unfortunately I only saw one. Draped over one of the horses, was the body of Jesus. I gasped as I made my way over to him. Tara and Enid had come out of the house then. I had grown accustomed to moving on whenever we lost someone. It was hard to feel any sort of remorse when it came to losing one of them. After everything they'd done, whenever one of them died I felt absolutely nothing. But this...this was different. From what I could tell, Jesus was a good man. This loss was gonna be felt by everyone but especially for the ones who knew him well. I hadn't realized that I was just standing there looking at his body until Tara came over and rested her hands on him. I sniffled and wiped away the tears that had, to my surprise, managed to fall. It was then that I noticed someone else who was blindfolded with their hands tied up on another horse. My eyes widened when I knew who it was they had captured. Lydia. Shit. It was them. They had killed Jesus. Lydia being here was all the proof I needed.