Crashing Down - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 3) (3 page)

“I’m only going to ask one more time before Dezzie here makes you tell me,” Dominick said as he sat back in his chair and laced his fingers together slowly. “What. The fuck. Are your names?”

“
R
os
,” I said not bothering to look to the others for approval. It didn’t feel like we had much of a choice in the matter. I glared at Dominick. Maybe he had control over the situation for the time being, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Based on the way he looked at me, he almost seemed to feed off of my dislike for him.

“And you?” he said shifting his gaze to my right.

“Sienna,” she said and judging by her tone, I could only assume she was wearing a similar expression to mine.

“Penn,” he said before Dominick even had a chance to look at him.

“And last but not least… your name?” Dominick asked.

“Dean.”

Dominick stood up and paced back and forth while he looked us over. I couldn’t tell if he was looking for something specific about us, or just trying to decide what to do. He made three laps before he stopped in front of me and squatted down to face me. I looked right back into his light brown eyes. I wanted to show him he couldn’t intimidate me and that I wasn’t afraid of him, although truthfully, I was.

“And what are you doing out here?” he said staring at me. “It’s kind of strange… we don’t have a lot of folks just out wandering around out in these parts.”

“Really? You don’t?” I said more or less intrigued by this information. How often did they see other people?

Dominick coughed and ignored my question, “Seriously? This again? I said, what are you doing out here?”

Penn kicked at something on the floor, maybe it was a bug, but then he started to answer. “Just trying to—”

“I didn’t ask you,” Dominick said jerking his palm upward as if he was trying to physically stop Penn’s words from reaching his ears. I was almost surprised when Penn obeyed. But he was probably planning… learning… studying everything in this room beyond anything I could even imagine. He had his reasons for letting it go and I’m sure they were good ones.

His training had probably kicked in a long time ago and he was ready for whatever might happen. He’d get us out of here alive. I would have to be patient and wait for his move.

“We are just out here trying to find food,” I said, wondering if they had looked in the back of our pickup truck. They would have noticed the bins of food we had in the bed of the truck. They would have taken them too no doubt, but they would have also known we weren’t in any immediate need to find food. Then again, even though we had food, that didn’t mean we wouldn’t always be looking for food. Stocking up more than what you needed was never a bad idea.

Dominick’s smirk faded. He stood and walked painfully slowly back to his chair in the middle of the room. He pressed his palms together and pointed his index fingers up towards the ceiling. His eyes moved across us as if he was trying to see us all at the same time. He rested his fingers against his lips as if he was trying to think of what he was going to do with us.

“Mmm-hmm,” he said settling his eyes on me. The he started scanning us again. It almost felt like we were open books sitting there on the floor and he was able to read about us page by page. “Where are you from exactly?” he asked, but this time his eyes stopped on Sienna.

“Florida,” she lied.

“All of you?”

“Yes,” she answered quickly.

“What are you doing out here? Hmm…. All the way from Florida huh?” he said, and I could tell he wasn’t sure if he should believe her. Why hadn’t she picked somewhere closer? And somewhere we were more familiar with. I had to hope there wouldn’t be further questioning because I hadn’t ever been to Florida.

“We are just passing through looking for food, water and a place to stay temporarily,” Penn said. Dominick didn’t bothering hiding the fact that he didn’t like Penn. When he wasn’t glaring at him he was outright ignoring his existence. Which was probably fine with Penn because without even asking him I knew he didn’t like Dominick either.

Dominick slowly tilted his head and looked at Penn, “Did I ask you?” He waited like five minutes before he peeled his eyes off of Penn. Dominick was looking for any excuse to do something to him. And I worried what that might be. For all I knew it could be a bullet between his eyes.

I wasn’t sure, but I thought I could hear Penn grinding his teeth together. The collective disdain they had for one another made me shiver. Well that and the fact that it was quite cold in this basement.

It was very easy to understand how a person could just meet Dominick, and have immediate dislike for him. I didn’t like him. In fact, I was surprised he even had these men on his team. Apparently they didn’t see the same person I saw when I looked at him or heard him speak.

“How have you all survived this long? Have you had any, um, help?” he asked shifting his eyes to Penn. He made it overly obvious that it was his turn to answer a question.

His second question was a little strange, or at least it was to me. Why did he want to know if we had any help surviving? When was the last time he was out there? People weren’t really helping one another.

“Guess we are just lucky,” Penn said shrugging his shoulders. He stared right back at Dominick as if to show him he wasn’t going to be bullied. I wasn’t sure how clear that message was to Dominick.

“Have you had any help?” he repeated annunciating his words.

“Like from strangers?” I said purposefully interrupting out of turn. I was outright just trying to push his buttons. It was as if I wanted to test his limits. To see how far I could go before he’d get angry. I didn’t think it was the smartest thing to do in my position but I couldn’t help it. When he first looked at me, I thought he was going to yell at me for butting in, but he didn’t.

“Like,” he said mocking me, “from anyone.”

I shook my head, “People aren’t very nice out there if you haven’t noticed.” I shrugged my shoulders and tried to convey with my eyes that my comment included him and his groupies. But of course he just grinned as if that was somehow satisfying.

“Look,” Penn started, and I knew there wasn’t anything Dominick could do that would stop Penn from finishing what he was about to say. “We managed to survive the storms in an underground shelter. We’ve been moving around ever since trying to find somewhere to stay and trying to survive. We go place to place scrounging for anything that will help keep us alive. It’s been absolute hell, just like it has been for everyone who is still alive and struggling. But we keep fighting. There isn’t anything that will stop us from fighting. We’ve come this far and have no plans to just give up. It’s been just us since the storms hit, and a couple we’ve lost along the way.”

Penn was mostly telling Dominick our story as if it had been his too. I didn’t mind though, and I didn’t think Dean or Sienna would either. It wasn’t like Dominick needed to hear what we’d been through anyway. And really, was our story that much different from any other random survivor story?

“I see,” he said taking in a deep breath. He stood up and started pacing back and forth again. His shoes made little thumps in the quiet as he moved from one side of the room to the other. “OK, so, there is good news and there is bad news. The good news is, I believe you. But the bad news is I need you all to undress.”

Almost at exactly the same time, we all looked at one another. It was as if we were trying to decide if he was joking or not. There was no way in hell I was about to stand up and undress in front of these strange men. No way. No how. Never.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Penn said forcing out a fake laugh.

Dominick laughed along with him matching Penn’s tone exactly. But the laugh abruptly stopped and the look on his face was dead serious. “It’s not a joke.”

But then it hit me. It was like a light bulb flicked on in my brain. I realized what they were looking for. Just like I thought, these guys definitely weren’t from HOME, but they did know about HOME. They were worried we were from HOME.

But there was a problem. And it was probably a big problem. Dominick was going to find exactly what he was looking for on Penn’s body. What would they do with us once they saw it?

“Who are you?” I said narrowing my eyes at Dominick.

“I’m Dominick,” he said wearing that stupid grin I hated. And I vowed right then and there that one day I’d smack that grin right off his face.

“But who are you, really? Who are you working for? What gives you any kind of right to tell us to take off our clothes? Why don’t you take off your clothes?” I said scratching my foot aggressively against the gross cement floor.

Dominick grabbed the hem of his shirt as if he was going to lift it. But then he wagged his finger and clicked his tongue. It was like he was trying to say I wasn’t going to be lucky enough to see him without his shirt.

I rolled my eyes. He chuckled and looked at his buddies, “We’re the resistance, baby. We banded together to stop them. We aren’t going to let them accomplish what they want to.”

I shook my head not really understanding what his group of kidnappers was all about. Was his group trying to stop HOME? And what did he think they wanted? But one thing changed, now I was interested in what he had to say. “What exactly are you resisting?”

“Them. You know, the ones responsible. The ones that caused all this,” he said raising his hands up.

“You know who caused all this?” Dean asked sounding as if he’d believe whatever they told them. But maybe it was just an act so they’d tell us more. I was skeptical. For all I knew these guys were just crazy. They couldn’t have known anything more about what had happened than we did. Could they?

“Enough with the questions. Let’s get on with it shall we?” Dominick said clapping his hands together making a sharp noise that echoed in the cement room.

He took a dramatic deep breath. It almost seemed as though he was trying to center himself, or get into character so that he could reassert his control over us. “If you all can’t shut up, we can just put the duct tape back on… you know, to shut you up.”

He sat back down and closed his eyes for a long moment. It was like he was meditating. “But…,” I started and I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, “how can you possibly know what caused all this?”

He wasn’t pleased I had broken his Zen-like state. Dominick shook his head and stood up. He walked over to me so fast it was almost as if he had just appeared in front of me. My breath caught in my throat but I tried not to let it show. His face was only inches from mine. We were so close I could feel his warm breath against my skin.

“You must not have understood me the first time. If you don’t shut up, I duct tape your mouth shut myself… and I’ll cut your shirt off,” he whispered the last part and pressed his fingers to my lips as if he was roughly applying invisible duct tape. Then in the blink of an eye he was gone and back in his chair.

I wanted to know why exactly they were looking for those marked by HOME. What did they know? Or rather, what did they think they knew? Could they really be some organized underground anti-HOME group? If they were, what would they do once they found the markings on Penn? Lock him up somewhere? Kill him? I had so many questions.

It was probably stupid. I probably should have just kept my mouth shut, but I felt as though I had to find a way to delay things. Do something to stop them from finding out about Penn.

“I know what it is you’re looking for,” I blurted out. I could feel Dominick’s eyes burning into my flesh.

T
he guy
, Dezzie, readied the shotgun he was holding. He didn’t point it at me, but I knew he could have it aimed at me in a second if he was instructed to.

I took a deep breath and tried to ignore the gun. My eyes settled back on Dominick’s, and he seemed almost fascinated… enthralled… excited to hear more. But I couldn’t tell if he was dying to know what I was going to say, or if he was hoping I’d say the wrong thing and he could tell Dezzie to pull the trigger.

“I’m not from HOME, but that’s what you are looking for isn’t it? People from HOME?” I said shifting my gaze quickly between Dominick, Dezzie and Mack, but I couldn’t get any kind of read from any of them. They just seemed to be waiting for more. But I didn’t really know exactly what to say. I was playing it all by ear, hoping this would delay things enough for Penn to figure something out or maybe change their minds about checking us for the markings.

Dominick tilted his head to the side and looked at me with a renewed interest. “You say you aren’t from HOME yet you know about them. Tell me, what exactly do you know about them?”

“Enough,” I said looking away from him. I didn’t want to offer up my knowledge about HOME just yet. The more I could delay things the better, or at least that’s what I assumed.

“I’m going to need you to tell me,” he said waving his hand at Dezzie. And with that small gesture the gun was up and aimed at me in less than a second. I didn’t know as much about guns as I probably should, considering, but I was pretty confident that if Dezzie pulled the trigger I’d be dead.

I cleared my throat. My foot started to move back and forth almost uncontrollably. The gun that was pointed at me made me nervous. All of the eyes in the room focused on me made me nervous. I hadn’t thought this through well enough… or at all really.

Maybe they’d even kill me if they didn’t like what I had to say. Or what if I said too much? For all I knew, saying too little could get me in trouble too. I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this organized group of loose cannons.

Even though the cement basement room was quite chilly, I was sweating. But I was trying not to make it obvious how affected I was by the pressure I felt. I stopped moving my foot.

“You probably won’t believe it, but I knew someone that was from HOME. But they left that all behind them,” I said as carefully as I could manage. I worried that by the way Dominick had almost instantly hated Penn, he must have already had his suspicions about him.

Dominick leaned slightly towards me and frowned. Then he looked as if he was studying me. Looking for something. Maybe he was trying to decide if I was telling the truth, or if I was just doing what I could to prolong the whole taking off my clothes thing.

“It was you wasn’t it?” he said squinting his eyes at me. Based on his tone, it didn’t really seem as though he thought it was me. But he took a stab in the dark anyway. I felt a little offended that someone would actually think that HOME was something I could be a part of.

“I said it was someone I knew,” I said refusing to let myself blink. My face felt hot. Uncomfortably hot.

“Then… one of you?” Dominick started looking over Sienna, then Penn and lastly Dean. I felt a bit relieved he hadn’t picked one out over the other as being more likely to be from HOME. Maybe he wondered if all three of them were.

There was a little twitch at the corner of his mouth and I could tell he was feeling a bit uneasy. He nodded at the guy he had called Mack. Dominick whispered something to him and Mack pulled out a gun, but he kept it pointed at the floor.

“How can you know for sure that this person has changed? Maybe this person that you think is your friend is still secretly working for HOME,” Dominick said while his eyes quickly darted about as if he was just waiting for something to go wrong.

“I saw that person kill two members of the HOME army. They didn’t even hesitate. And it was to save us,” I said hoping that would be enough to satisfy him. “If HOME ever finds that person I have no doubt they’ll kill them on the spot. I’ve also seen HOME do that. Just shot one of their own dead, no questions asked.”

I had said too much. Dominick had to suspect that I knew more about HOME than I let on. He had to think that I was somehow linked to them, and he’d have been right. Even though I hadn’t been a part of HOME, it was clear that I knew more about them than the average person. He’d probably also come to the conclusion that what I knew wasn’t just something in passing, but that I had firsthand experience with them. He was analyzing my words as he stared at me.

“Hmm,” Dominick said as he started to pace back and forth between his gun wielding buddies. He rubbed his palms together and looked at Dezzie, “What do you think?”

Dezzie just shook his head. He didn’t appear to be the type to bother with thinking things over. Instead, he just stood there and waited for his orders. He seemed as though he trusted Dominick and would do whatever he was instructed to do.

Dominick tapped his index finger on his chin. I could tell he wasn’t sure what to do next, and that worried me. He could decide to have his men kill us and they’d do it. There would be no way to survive gunfire in this little room. Even Penn wouldn’t be able to figure out a way out of that.

“How can I believe you? What if you are all from HOME? We won’t know anything for sure, until we see your skin,” he said looking at me as if I was a steak dinner and he was the hungriest man on Earth. The latter could very well be true, but either way, it made my skin crawl.

My whole body tensed. If they wanted to force us to undress they could. They had the guns. They had the power. We were tied up and there wasn’t really anything we could do about it. And unless Penn thought of something soon, we’d all be standing here naked in front of these creepy strangers.

Dezzie bent down and rested the gun against the back of Dominick’s chair. Dominick turned and glared at him to show him exactly how displeased he was that he was doing something without being told. But he didn’t say anything to stop him either. Instead, he pulled the gun onto his lap with an annoyed grunt. He watched Dezzie through his narrowed eyes as he walked in front of us and peeled off his shirt.

The now shirtless Dezzie stood there facing us. His face was expressionless. I didn’t understand what was going on, that was until he spun around. He revealed a large patch of bumpy scarred-up skin. It looked like the healed skin of someone who had suffered terrible burns. The area was bright red as if the skin irritated him on a constant daily basis. Whatever it was that had happened to Dezzie made me think that he was lucky to still be alive.

“Would the person you know endure what I have been through, just to have their markings removed?” Dezzie said looking over his shoulder at me.

I shook my head because I honestly had no idea if Penn would go through all that just to prove he was done with HOME. And if he would, I probably would ask him to reconsider unless he was under some kind of medical care. And really, why would someone need to go through all that? They’d have to be insane wouldn’t they? “I’m not sure…,” I said, my voice soft.

“I didn’t hesitate to stand here and have my markings burned off of my skin. It felt like the right thing to do. I was glad to have every little inch of that part of my life removed from my past and my body. Forever. I don’t regret it one bit,” he said as he reached over his shoulder and let his fingertips glide over the numerous bumps.

“I kind of hope no one would do that without having a really good reason… and a really good doctor available,” I said hoping I wouldn’t insult him.

Who exactly were these people anyway? They hated HOME so much that they had an ex-member physically mutilated just to prove he didn’t want to be part of HOME anymore. And maybe they had more than one who had been through that?

What if they really tried to make Penn remove his markings? The whole thing seemed asinine to me. Why would Dezzie have gone through with that? Had he really felt that compelled to prove it to Dominick? Or had he been somehow forced to do it?

I was willing to bet they hadn’t had any medical supervision for the procedure. No one qualified to tend to the wounds afterward. Yet this man allowed these people to remove a patch of his skin by way of fire just to prove he wasn’t part of HOME. I didn’t think Penn would do it. I hoped Penn wouldn’t do it.

Penn scooted himself forward a few inches and my mouth dropped open. I hadn’t known what he was about to do, but I was worried. Maybe he had a plan. He had to have a plan.

“I would do it,” he said pulling his shoulders back and straightening his spine. He twitched ever so slightly as if he could feel the heat on his skin already.

Dominick grinned as if that was somehow validation about how he’d felt about Penn all along. That he had been right about him. He seemed as if he was pleased it was Penn who was the ex-HOME member. Although I was certain he’d get pleasure watching any one of us get tortured, he’d probably really enjoy watching Penn as he writhed in pain. Scorching his flesh to remove his markings until he passed out.

“Without knowing anything about us, you’d be willing to step forward and let us remove that hideous mark right off of your skin?” Dominick asked sounding almost as if he was willing to do it at that moment. The look on his face made me very nervous that he was going to nod to one of his cronies and they’d run off to get their tattoo burning torch. If Penn was serious about it, there was no way I was going to watch. There had to be another way.

Penn and Dominick stared at one another. If they were having a staring contest it would probably go on forever. Neither of them would have ever backed away because that would show weakness.

“I would. It’s not part of who I am. It was a mistake. I don’t want it on me,” he said, his voice strong and clear. I almost believed him. No, I had believed him. He was going to let them do it. He was so finished with HOME that maybe he felt he needed to prove it to the world and to himself by having the markings removed.

“You don’t have to do that… we know that isn’t part of your life anymore,” I said hoping I could talk some sense into him. But he didn’t even bother to look at me.

“I can do it,” he said, sounding as if he was already trying to mentally prepare himself for it.

“Are you all escapees from HOME?” Dominick asked, looking at us with a raised eyebrow. I wasn’t even sure if he’d believe us if we did show him our unmarked skin.

“Are you?” I said countering his question. If Dezzie was from HOME, how would we know that they weren’t all somehow connected. Dominick’s face returned to that sickening smirk I hated. It was as if that expression was something he saved just for me.

“No,” he said sitting down in his chair and crossing his leg widely over the other. “There are a few with us, but I am not one of them. Mack is not either. But we all see HOME for what they really are.”

“And what is it that you see?” I asked quickly, even though I felt it was likely I’d agree. It wasn’t a secret to anyone that I was against HOME, but I wasn’t sure I could explain why, other than what they had done to Ryan. I didn’t know what their overall plan was. All I knew was that it wasn’t something I wanted to be a part of.

“Evil.” Dominick folded his hands into his lap. “More importantly… I see them as the enemy.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what to say since I also kind of thought they were the enemy. They were most definitely evil. I knew that for a fact after I saw them slaughter Slade. But it wasn’t like I was ready to build an army and infiltrate their base. I just wanted to avoid running into them at all costs. Besides, the people inside were mostly innocent and not evil. It was the people in charge that were corrupt. The average person on the inside just didn’t know what they had gotten themselves into.

“I agree,” I said hoping that maybe that would help our current situation. I didn’t need to explain where I stood or why. It was simply better to take their side without adding more information than necessary.

Mack put his gun away and the air in the room seemed to change. Maybe that had helped them feel less suspicious of us. All I had to do was agree that HOME was the enemy and Dominick, Mack and Dezzie all seemed to relax somewhat.

Dominick cleared his throat and looked to me as if I was the one in charge of our little group. It was true I had done most of the talking, but that didn’t put me in charge. Not by a long shot. I thought of myself as more of the indecisive one… a follower.

I looked back at him feeling stronger, as if I could feel the toughness in my bones. It was my turn for a staring contest and I felt like I was winning.

“But if it’s all the same,” Dominick said unleashing his dreadful smirk, which forced me to blink, “we’ll still have to check you for marks.”