Wake of the Dead | One

Chapter thirty-four

Wincing as pain exploded through his gut, Killian stumbled back and clenched his teeth, narrowing his eyes. He balled his hands into fists once again, swinging a brutal punch into Amel's jaw, grabbed the other man by the neck and slamming his face down into his knee. Dazed, Amel dropped to the ground with a low groan, rubbing his head with his hand. He glared up at Killian, "Christ, you really haven't lost your touch." He muttered, getting to his feet and wiping his bloodied nose on his arm. 

Rolling his eyes, Killian's lips pulled into a small snarl as he snapped, "You thought I would? No way in hell I'd survive for this long if I had." Taking back the knife that Amel had snatched from him, Killian set it back in its place at his belt and stalked back across the alleyway to where Jackson was casually sitting on a dumpster and leaning against a building, watching with a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

Tilting his head to the side Jackson said, "Damn kid, don't think he'll be messing with you for a while yet." The other man was casually sharpening his own knife, using a piece of shrapnel from a broken down car just outside of the alley. Behind the chain-link fence that closed off the area between the two buildings, several biters snapped at them and clawed at the gate. Renier was back at the camp with Jeremiah, Nora, Diego, and the rest of the gang--which Killian hadn't gotten to know just yet. 

In the week that he'd been gone, Killian found himself growing more and more agitated, just like before all of this had happened. He was a lot more trigger-happy to say the least, just as he should be. The people in this group were ruthless. Renier had killed one of his own the previous day just for forgetting to feed Nyx. That boy cared for his vultures a bit too much for Killian's liking. What would happen if any biters got ahold of it? Would he just jump in to intervene before one of his precious raptors got eaten? 

Scowling, Killian clenched his knife in his hand and muttered, "Come on. Let's get out of here. We've waited for those idiots to get here for too long." Without a reply in return, Killian made his way over to the biters, ripping Amel's gun out of his hand as he did so. He wasn't going to waste some arrows, but he didn't care about wasting other people's bullets. He wasn't good with a gun whatsoever, but point-blank shooting was easy enough. Putting the gun to the first biter's forehead, Killian pulled the trigger. The recoil shocked him--it had been a while. The weapon was heavier than he'd expected as well. 

Five bullets was what it took to get rid of the biters outside of the alleyway. Jackson raised his brows and kicked himself off of the dumpster, while Amel jerked the gun out of Killian's hand with a low snarl, "Touch my gun again and I'll shoot you dead." 

"As opposed to shooting me alive?" Killian muttered. 

The other man grasped Killian by the collar of his shirt and slammed him against the wall, teeth bared into a fierce snarl. "What'd you say, punk?" He spat savagely. "I might have let you deck my face for your knife, but you ain't worth shit when the other man's holding a gun to your pretty little face." Killian forced himself not to flinch as he felt the cold metal against his temple, simply narrowing his eyes. 

This wasn't the first time he'd gotten a gun pointed point-blank in his face. Both times, he had kicked the other guy's ass. But he'd never been afraid. When his life was threatened before, he'd barely stopped himself from daring them to pull the trigger. He'd had nothing to live for, even before the world crumbled. But he'd promised Jasper he'd be okay. Now, he had something to lose, and he was terrified. Jackson shoved Amel off of Killian roughly, "Come on man. Chill. He just got a bit antsy to get out of here, he wasn't threatening you." 

At least this group was open about their dislike for some others. Killian had hated the way Tom's group would glare, but never say anything. Exclude him, silently threaten him but never make a move to hurt him. At least now he knew what to predict. Jackson waved an impatient hand, "Come on, let's go then. Diego's patrol isn't gonna meet us up here like they said they would."