Page 22 of Retribution

The car grew silent, every single eye on me. But it was Ellis who spoke, “Where the hell does one even learn that?”

“Oh, come on. Don’t tell me none of you ever dissected a worm in biology class.”

They all let silence fill the car for a beat, then two, and on the third one, they all said in unison, “No, I haven’t.”

It dawned on me a little too late that everyone in this car was way past the age of Grandpas and probably never even went to school. Ellis and Oak were over two hundred years old, and though I didn’t know Lenin and Justice’s age, I suspected their time and age process slowed dramatically compared to humans.Fucking old men.

“So, that makes me the smartest one in the car?” I taunted.

The car swerved to the left, and Oak cursed, but I refused to look behind us. I refused to let the panic set in more than it already had. I refused to let Greta take from me these moments with my men because I didn’t fucking know if they would be my last.

When Oak righted the car, he replied, “I can promise you, you are not the smartest in this car.”

“Oak, do you want to make it two weeks?” I threatened because, hey, I already had four other men waiting to take his spot in my sleeping rotation.

He shrugged like he didn’t care. “I’m just saying that we have a lot of facts and information not taught in school. Like we honest to fates know how to basketweave. Basketweave. Or I bet any one of us could tell you the most efficient way to gut a deer and use everything resourcefully.” He paused. “Besides Lenin.”

“I am a vegetarian, but I still know how to slaughter. It is a knowledge needed for sacrificial ceremonies,” Linin informed us. What sacrificial ceremonies needed blood? I was dying to know but terrified to ask.

I turned to Justice, who was surprisingly silent, not a single superior comment in sight. “And you?”

His fingers fidgeted against his thigh for a moment before he spoke, “I could never be superior to you; you hold life.”

“Don’t worry, bud, that fascination will wear off the moment she starts using it against you,” Ellis warned.

I would never. Although – “This is true. See, I win.”

A force slammed into the back of the car, fishtailing it off the road, but Oak didn’t seem bothered. Tires screeching, he righted the vehicle, turning it left down the street. There was still not a single person on the road. In a city this large, I couldn’t figure out how it was possible. But maybe she learned from her sea creature that wiping memories was more challenging than keeping people away?

“We are going to have to agree to disagree.” Oak’s voice was strained as he stressed about the driving. His eyes were repeatedly looking behind him in the mirror. Truth time, I would never kick him out of my bed. But right now, when I was still feeling a little sensitive, I would never tell him that.

We were a block from home, so damn close, and I prayed to the fates that Sterling had made it this close as well. The car jolted to the side as slime hit the ground and dissolved the pavement. My grip on my mates tightened; there was absolutely no way I predicted that.

“Was that-”

“Acidic, pavement, worm goo? Yup,” Ellis answered calmly, but I knew he wasn’t calm. I could tell by the pulsing of the vein in his neck, he was afraid.

“Worm goo was the least of my worries,” Oak grunted, tiny drops of sweat beginning to dribble down the side of his face. “It appears that fishtail, or maybe some of the goo, who the fuck knows, has made the breaks inoperable.”

“Meaning?” Justice asked.

“We will have to crash stop.”

“But-but.” I took a deep breath, trying to classify my fear. “I know you boys will live, and I’ll probably be fine. But a crash cannot be good for –”

He didn’t let me speak my fear. Speaking a fear brings it into existence. It gives it power. Life. “I know, Liberty. And I’m sorry. But I have no other choice.”

I knew this. I knew that if there were any way not to crash, any way to protect the baby and me, he most definitely would. He didn’t want this any more than I did. I looked ahead, seeing the fence line of our property, taking in the iron bars and cement barriers that James had erected to keep the outside world separate from his own.

Deep breaths. Don’t panic. The words looped inside my head, but I couldn’t even follow my instructions. I was panicking. I was afraid. I was – Lenin took my hand, the sheer size engulfing my own and giving me comfort. “We will protect you.”

I nodded because I had to believe they would at least try. “Aim for the bars.”

Oak’s eyes met mine in the mirror. “You sure?”

“The bars have a little more give than cement, plus they are rusting,” I confirmed.

“Aim for the bars,” he mumbled to himself.

---