TORN FLESH

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: CRASHING CALAMITY

ONCE they'd returned the keys and made their way down the hall towards the exit, Violet began to finally feel the drag of previous days pulling down on her, she felt tired, more tired than she ever had.

"You ladies..." Marcus began rushing forward to grab the door for Violet, "will be staying in one of our lovely apartments as there's only two of you." Margo gave a soft nod of her head as she was far too tired to try to argue over the matter, a place to sleep was a place to sleep.

"Maureen will have someone over to check on your leg and give you some antibiotics tomorrow morning, they should give you about a week's supply that you can use as prescribed until they have someone bring you more." neither of the two girls responded- Margo evidently trying her best to not fall asleep in the wheelchair as Violet pushed her along- "your apartment should be on the third floor, so you two will get to take the elevator."

Margo turned her head to look at him, an elevator? With what power source?

"There's an elevator?" she questioned, he gave a slight nod, "it's only used by the older folks who have trouble with the stairs and parents with small children..." he paused and gestured to her, "or folks like yourself that physically can't climb the stairs."

"Oh..." she turned back in her seat and stared on, she could climb the stairs if she tried, she knew that much, but she wasn't sure her body could handle the strain at that moment, and she was more than sure it couldn't.

She'd already put it through enough to last her a lifetime, and it didn't seem like she had the energy to try and do it again.

As they entered the elevator, Margo let her eyes slip closed, she was tired, her body was begging for sleep, no matter how bad the nightmares got, she would always give into sleep.

When she awoke a few hours later, the sun had begun to dip past the horizon, Violet was sitting by the window watching as it disappeared, the older of the two let out a grumble as she struggled to sit up almost immediately reaching her hand up to rub at her eyes.

Violet turned to look at her with wide eyes as the disappearing sun continued to cast shadows over her shoulders, "you're up." she stated turning so she was fully facing the older girl.

"How long was I out?" she questioned leaning back on the couch she'd found herself on, "a few hours." the small blonde responded her eyes just barely grazing Margo before she looked back into the kitchen past them.

"Marcus said that if we were hungry there's stuff in the cabinets."

The older of the two watched as Violet stood and took a few steps towards the couch before plopping down beside her, "are you hungry?" she asked letting her hands settle in her lap.

The blonde gave a short shake of her head sleep still lingering over her like a cloud, "I'm gonna try and go back to sleep for now." she mumbled letting her head fall back to the soft fabric of the couch.

Violet didn't move for several minutes for several reasons, one; she needed Margo to be asleep for what she was hoping to get done. Two; she needed Margo to not go looking for her. And three; she needed her out of the way.

When she did finally work up the courage to test her luck, she scooted off the couch and quietly made her way for the door- her eyes never leaving Margos sleeping form.

Reaching for the keys in her pocket, she slipped out into the hall and locked the apartment door behind her hoping that Margo would sleep long enough for her to be able to find what she needed.

She didn't like Marcus.

Much less trust him.

There was something off about him, something she didn't think fit right with his description of the little community they were currently residing within.

Quietly creeping down the hall, the girl made sure to check in both directions for anyone that may stop her from venturing further; the coast was clear.

As she approached the stairs, Violet found herself questioning if it was really worth it. While she wanted to stay, and believe the place was safe, she just couldn't trust Marcus' words after seeing that he'd been heavily armed in a community he had explained as safe.

Surely a safe community didn't require its residents to carry weapons, right?

She would have to figure it out for herself.

Pushing past the door that led out into the somewhat never ending staircase, she let out a sigh, it was going to be a long night.

And as the night progressed, Violet found that things were not quite what they seemed, in fact, they were quite the opposite to what they'd been told.

Making her way out to a building closer to the outskirts of the camp, she could see several Lurkers lingering on chains around the fences, almost like guards.

She held back the gagging sensation at the back of her throat and proceeded to move closer along the side of the building, the grasses rose up towards the crown of her head, just barely shielding her from being seen by anyone that passed by.

It was then she stopped as she crawled through the brush her eyes wide upon her sudden discovery, a body.

A new one at that.

Blood dried along the lips and their eyes frozen wide in utter shock as they stared up at her their blue iris' on full display to any passerby that stared upon them.

Violet stumbled backward her breath caught in her throat as she continued to eye the body, it was fresh, no doubt there. Meaning more than likely- as there was no head wound that had damaged the brain- that they'd be a walking corpse within the hour.

The girl brushed her hair out of her face with her fingers and shifted her legs to rest beneath her in a crouched position, she could hear the grass swaying back and forth with the wind.

Glancing away from the body for a brief moment to try and catch a glimpse of the Lurkers along the fence line, her attention was drawn back to the corpse as the sound of groaning became apparent.

Violet looked back at the once living female and scooted back through the grass terrified that the thing would be walking in seconds.

She watched in silent horror as the brunette female shakily pushed herself to her feet and glanced in the direction of the closest sound, almost sure she was safe, Violet let out a sigh and took another step backward.

Her eyes widened at the sound of cracking.

A stick, a stick had given her away.

She had never thought she'd go out from something so stupid.

The Lurker turned to look at her, it's eyes wide and dull as it focused in on the small blonde, a few moments of silence passed and she found herself questioning how much of a threat the thing really posed.

And then it lurched forward, Violet let out a scream as she scrambled to her feet quickly taking off from the thing and through the grass as quickly as fast her feet would carry her.

It seemed the Lurker was far faster than she'd originally anticipated, and it wasn't having much difficulty keeping up with her.

"HELP!" she screamed far less concerned with being caught out of the apartment as she had been at the start, she glanced over her shoulder watching as the thing reached out its hand and leaned towards her as it ran, she let out another scream almost surprised when she was ripped up from the ground and several yells sounded before the sound of metal colliding with skin became apparent.

Slowly opening her eyes, she eyed the scene in front of her, two men and a woman, the woman carried a rifle as well as one of the men while the other carried a metal bat in his hands.

All of which had chimed in on the assault of the Lurker, eager to end its short reign of terror.

Looking up, she would find that Marcus was carrying her, and he was glaring at her with concern, not concern for her, or himself, but, rather for what she had seen and what she would make of it.

Violet remained silent as the small group finished with the Lurker- one of them splitting off to drag it to what they called the gas lines- and once he returned they began to head back to the main part of camp; back to the apartment complex.

The girl felt everything in her head suddenly leave and she closed her eyes at the sensation of her heart thumping against her chest while fear spread through her like a virus of sorts, Marcus didn't bother trying to ask her what she'd been doing as it was clearer than day to him.

He wondered if the girls mother had proposed she do it, there was something odd about the two- that much he would admit- but he hoped they would accept the way the community worked rather than throw it to the side and act savagely towards them.

Because then bad things would begin to happen.

And he wouldn't be able to stop them.

Carrying the small child into the apartment complex, Marcus found himself standing in the elevator his finger gently pressing the button to the fourth floor after a few seconds of silence.

Violet continued to keep her eyes clenched shut aware that she had landed herself in far more trouble than the expedition had been worth, but at least now she knew that something was going on.

And she could warn Margo.

That was, if Marcus hadn't already caught on to what she was up to.

As the elevator traveled up through the shaft, Violet stared at the wall behind them half annoyed and half grateful to the fact the man had shown up when he had.

She didn't want to think about what may have happened had he not.

A single ding resonated throughout the elevator and Marcus proceeded forward out into the hall once the doors had slid open, as they walked down the hall, Violet raised her head to look down the opposing end of the hall, she wondered how many people occupied the building, how many would hear her if she screamed.

How many would hear Marcus if she decided she needed him gone.

Probably more than she could handle, and with her companion still injured, it only made it that much harder to plan her next course of action.

After a few silent moments of walking, Marcus suddenly stopped. Raising her head to peer past his shoulder, she watched as he brought his hand up to the center of the door and knocked twice, it was as the sound had flipped a switch in her head, her heartbeat was picking up in pace, her breaths were coming out shorter and shorter and she found herself wondering if it had really been worth it.

She had hardly found anything to support her claim and now the older girl was going to know what she'd been up to, and she'd never let her out of her sight again, Marcus let out a sigh after a few moments before he knocked again and cocked his head to glance at the girl, "your mom know you're out here running all over the place?"

Violet shook her head, it would be better if he thought she was his only issue, getting Margo stuck in the matter would overcomplicate things and neither of them would be trusted by anyone within the community.

As Marcus leaned forward to knock for the fourth time, the door cracked open and Margo peeked out at them with tired eyes, reaching her hand up to rub at them she frowned when she finally was able to process the sight before her.

Violet squirmed against the man's grip satisfied when he set her down, "found her out by the fence line, one of those things almost got her." he stated crossing his arms over his chest, Margo shook her head, "I'm so sorry about her.." she paused and glanced down at the small girl, "she has a tendency to not listen when people do what's in her best interest." Marcus softly nodded his head, "I'd just keep a close eye on her, don't want another incident like tonight."

Margo once again rubbed her eyes before nodding back, "thank you again, so much." she mumbled gently reaching forward to pull Violet inside the apartment with her, "just doing my job, sorry for waking you." giving a small wave as he turned to leave, the two girls watched as he disappeared around the corner and out of sight.

"I oughta scold you, you know that right?" closing the door behind her, Margo leaned against the white door, Violet shrugged her shoulders, "I don't like the feeling of this place." she stated, the older blonde shook her head, "you can't just go running out there, these people have been nice enough to show us hospitality and you can't even follow a simple curfew rule."

The small girl let out a huff and turned to make way for the couch a few feet away.

TORN FLESH

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: CRASHING CALAMITY