Page 84 of Marked for Execution

“You love it that way. Now pull your pants up so we can get back in the RV.”

Sighing with satisfaction, I did as he commanded, and we walked back to the location. Reed and Gunner both stared at us with heat-filled eyes while Samuel held a rope tied to the woman and her child.

“What the hell did you guys decide?” Eliseo asked.

“You mean, while you two were fucking like maniacs out there?”

My face flushed, turning away from the woman who stood slack-jawed, staring at us in astonishment.

? ? ?

Eliseo

“She told us where he bought her.” Samuel looked at the woman who shrank a little, her daughter hiding her face in her mother’s chest. Samuel’s eyes softened at the sight. “It’s a human settlement a little northeast from here.” He turned to me and continued, “Eliseo, I think you’ve mentioned this place before. What was the name of the community you were originally from?”

I frowned and answered, “Marnmouth. But we don’t have flesh peddlers there.”

“Perhaps flesh peddlers came through the town?” Reed offered. The probability of this was high.

Flashes of a pool of blood, smoke, and the smell of charred flesh slammed into me. The memories turn into visions, like I was there again.

Her body laid on the ground; I couldn't take my eyes off her. The scream of women and children pierce my ears like razors. My wife’s stomach and legs were mutilated beyond recognition, her eyes glazed over in an expression of fear, turned to the side.

Darting my eyes around the room, I took tentative steps, trying to see if our unborn child was alright…but there was nothing. Nothing but the blood of my wife christening the grounds of this place.

Fucking flesh peddlers. Of course. That explained…

My heartbeat erratically, my hands closing and opening into fists, digging my nails into my palm until stings of pain shot up my arm. My head felt tight, my jaw popping from how much my teeth ground down. What the hell was wrong with humanity? At this point, I was starting to think it was not worth saving. Crazy Otis' efforts in all this were mute.

Silitouched my arm, and my body automatically knocked it off me in reaction, still lost in the haze of my wife’s murder. Immediately feeling guilty, I pulled her into a tight embrace, buried my face into her neck, and breathed in her scent to ground me back to the present.

Fuck.

“You alright, man?” Reed cautiously asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, man. Just shit from the past. I haven’t gone back since they pillaged us while I was out on a run with some of the men. I came home to straight genocide.”

“I’m sorry man.”

“Not as sorry as I am.” I lifted my head up and kissedSili’sforehead. “They killed my fucking wife when I should have been there to protect her.”

It went deathly silent, the air thick and cloying on my skin like grime that refused to wash off. I didn’t need their fucking pity. That was another lifetime ago. Looking down atSili, I pushed her dark hair back behind her ear and stared into her hazel eyes. She filled every hole I had inside of me.

“We don’t need to go there. We’ll keep heading north,”Silisaid. Her eyes were clear, her stare intense as she tried to comfort me between the lines. “I was sold by traders, too. I know how they feel. I can’t stand hearing about it. It boils my blood.”

“We see that,” Gunner said solemnly. “I’m glad we found you, though. You’re stuck with us.”

His statement lightened the mood, but my mind rolled over the little piece of information she just shared with me.

We grabbed the rest of our stuff from the parked Humvee, packing us down with everything we took with us from Ashborne. Gunner brought a tube he found in the RV on our walk, and we were able to siphon the gas from the tank of the Humvee for the RV. When I asked about the dead body, the men told me they dragged his carcass out in the opposite direction of where we parked and threw him behind a bush.

The decision to utilize the RV was a good one as the vehicle held all of us with room to spare. We had gone from a party of five to a party of seven in a split second. Reed volunteered as the next driver as we got back on the road and continued our journey north.

A few miles in, and my mind was restless. Sitting near the exit door across from the kitchen, I pulledSilionto my lap and wrapped my hand around her waist, forcing her closer to my body.

“How old are you,Sili?”I whispered, the meaty flesh of my lips grazing against her delicate neck.

“What does an old man like you care about age? You’ve already fucked me twelve ways to next week by now,” she answered breathlessly.