The Rotting Flesh Book 2: Deadman’s Wonderland

“Dark clouds” commented Nikita lying against a tree with crushed wet leaves on her uncovered abdomen

“A bad omen, a sign of dark times to come” said Xin who also lay down but face up

Tanya had helped them to relocate from where they were incase any enemies might have followed to search for Silus. She three his body into the river and let it be taken away by the waves.

While the others lay down beaten up, she was busy putting together herbs for quick treatment. Natural medicines were her mother’s specialty so she had learnt a but from being around her. Tom was still out cold, his pulse and vitals were okay but for some reason he had not woken up yet. She treated him in that state.

“Do you think he might have gotten an internal injury?” she asked crouching next to his body

“His vitals are all okay, if he was bleeding internally he would be burning up” said Nikita

Before things went south she had once done a part time as a red cross first aid responder. So she knew a but about these things.

“Oh Tom” whispered Tanya gently touching his forehead “I still can’t believe we beat him” she said standing up facing the night sky

“Me too” agreed Xin which surprised Tanya

“As if, you guys were on fire out there… you were going all out” she smirked

“Exactly, the danger in going all out is you can only do it once or twice and your body would need longer to recover” he explained

“Ohw I” she sighed “well the good thing is we won”

“I wonder how long we have left?” said Nikita

“Till what?” asked Tanya

“Until another one of those monsters finds us, Gustavo they called him” she spoke and hearing that name gave Tanya chills

“There is also their leader Ceaser and all those humans under them…oh boy we are in one hell of a bind” commented Xin

“But you guys survived last time, what are the conditions of survival?” asked Tanya

“We didn’t survive, we were spared” he said capturing all of Tanya’s attention, she turned her gaze to him

“Spared?” she said crouching down preparing to hear it all

“Well during the hunt we took out a chunk of his men and his little brother.”

“Brother?” she said surprised

Xin nodded in agreement

“Its obvious his brother was as dangerous as him you had no choice” Tanya commented but Xin’s straight face spoke otherwise “wait wasn’t he?”

“No he was just a teenager”

Those words stroke deep into Tanya’s heart and she stood up with a different expression.

“Why?” she said beginning to doubt their integrity

“We are not proud of it” said Xin a tear escape his right eye

Woah Tanya thought, she never imagined he had tears to start with

“It haunts me everyday, it was unintentional. He was out on a scavenger hunt with other members of Ceaser’s crew when we attacked them and looted everything. I called Ceaser and told him our group name to taunt him” he smirked “we were too cocky”

“Some of our friends had had run ins with the dead men and were killed rumor had it some were skinned alive so when we realized it was his brother in the group we killed him. An eye for an eye we thought. But man were we wrong” Nikita took over

“What do you mean?” asked Tanya

“Our friends who we thought were killed for no reason had been captured trying to loot Ceaser’s stuff. At the time after we had killed his brother we came to realize he never killed innocent people only those who were criminals were the ones he went for” she sighed “but after that loss something broke inside him and he went on a spree hunting for us. We were the reason he opened wonderland”

“Wow its hard to believe you guys are still alive after the loss you caused him” she said looking up, rain was beginning to slowly drop

“Yea us too, instead of executing us he told them to keep us in cells. I’m sure he plans on coming for us himself this time. But someone told me that he wants us to sustain injuries throughout the hunt and we must be captured alive. Then he will make us feel the pain he felt when he lost his brother” she sighed

“And how is he going to do that?”

“Well did you see the women with children you came with here” asked Xin

“Yes”

“They are members from our previous group. He has been capturing them one by one and he had them imprisoned here. I think he plans on killing them all in from of our eyes” Xin slammed the ground with his fist “why won’t he just kill us and get it over with than involve innocent children” he bit his teeth together

“So hiding is not an option” Tom said startling everyone

“Tom” Tanya said in a worried but relieved voice as she went to crouch next to him “how are are your wounds?” she stumbled upon her words

“I’m okay don’t worry I’ll live” he said sitting up

He could still feel the tremendous toll the last fight had on him but by just looking at how things stood he knew it wasn’t time to pay attention to pain.

“I can’t say you were wrong or right here because I myself aren’t perfect but the reality of things is an apology isn’t going to fix things. By your skills escaping this place would have been a piece of cake but you chose to stay am I wrong?” he said looking at them

“No you are correct, I can’t move on with my life or even to the afterlife with such a burden” Xin said with sadness in his eyes

“It is dishonorable to let another die for your sins” supported Nikita

“Then there are no two ways about this, we have to save your people” Tom said with a straight face

Tanya looked at him thinking back to the harm one of Ceaser’s kind did to the four of them what more Gustavo or even Ceaser himself. He looked her straight into the eyes and she knew he wasn’t going to change his decision.

“Oh well” she sighed and stood upright “what the hell, we are gonna die anyway” she smiled

Xin watched how quickly she threw away her concerns and fears just for Tom’s sake. This kind of loyalty in his book was the ultimate kind. Silence prevailed again as everyone was deep in their thoughts. As they enjoyed the peace it was short lived a figure emerged from the nearby bushes.