Don pulled open the doors only to hear movement from his sides. Two guards were waiting, probably armed and ready to gun him down. Don saw how dark it was on the inside. Only candles were being used to light up the inside of the market. "Is that you, Mark?" Don heard a voice coming from his right. Quite close, as if they were right up against the wall. Don prepared with a standby hold of his weapon. Crossing his hand, he held his gun over his wrist, holding the knife with.
Don took a step back before dashing into the market and jumping while turning to face the market's entry. The guards didn't expect someone to jump, so they had to adjust their aim before firing. Don took this opportunity to pull the trigger twice on the guard he had heard earlier. Two bullets into the head, and as he landed on his back, he readjusted his aim for the guard to the left; once again, he pulled the trigger twice. Thanks to his quick reflexes and excellent aim, he could take both of them down before they could fire upon him.
Don decided to stay on the ground, the doors to the market closing since no one was no longer holding the doors open. He could hear footsteps and voices deeper inside the store. Don took this time to release the empty magazine and reload a new one into his weapon. He decided to keep the empty magazine just in case.
Afterward, Don rolled toward a counter before shifting to a crouching position. He peeked over the countertop and noted at least three more guys. One of them was the guy from earlier that tried to cut him a deal; the other two were the ones with assault rifles from before.
"You can come out now, Don."
Don's eyes narrowed when he heard his name being called.
"Your friend truly believed that you would come to save her. At first, I figured she was just bluffing, but now it seems you truly intend to save her."
The man snickered while giving the two beside him orders to search for Don. They knew they were to kill on sight, and with a silent nod, they began moving through the store. The men scouted down aisles while making their way to the front of the store.
"Don't worry, though; we have been showing her an excellent time."
The man continued, yet he seemed not to move. He stayed in his spot while letting his eyes search the store from his position. A dim lime-green glow could be seen in his eyes. Don ducked back down so as not to be seen.
'There are three of them. Two are moving through the store while he is standing back there. I don't like that glow in his eyes either. Probably another superpower or something... If that is the case, I should refrain from his line of sight. From here on out, it's going to be a stealthy approach.'
Don worked a plan in his head. He holstered his gun after clicking the safety on, then made his way to the end of the counter. He took a quick peek around the corner to gauge what he could use as cover. He also made sure he could still see the man. For now, he wanted to take out the two guards that were looking for him. Don saw an opening in one of the register areas, so he made his way there with haste and silence.
Don took cover inside only to peek from the top, where he saw one of the guards moving in his direction. He ducked down and peek from behind the corner and saw the other guard on the opposite side was also moving to the store's front. Don seeped back into his cover and waited for the proper moment for when the guard would pass by the register.
Once the time was right, Don rose up from behind the guard and quickly place his hand against the guard's mouth while slitting his throat. A bit of movement and muffled noise came from his direction, although it only lasted a few seconds. Don slowly lower the corpse to the ground, then pike the head to kill the brain, not wanting to deal with the undead after all.
Thankfully, the man was still a chatterbox the entire time. He ranted about how he would do this and that to Rebecca and even make him watch if they didn't kill him. Then hand Rebecca off to their boss. The information on the boss part was good since it told him that more people were in the store.
Although, he did blow off the speech as just background chatter. With one down, Don needed to kill one more before he would be able to take out the man. Although, he needed the man and the other guard to shift their attention elsewhere. Of course, Don looked for anything and found a little pen cup on the register counter. He took it and chuck it toward the other side of the store, aiming for another register section.
He succeeded when he heard the man snicker, "Oh, looks like you've messed up." Don shook his head to that comment. He backtracked to the front of the store once again. Once he did, he began to follow the guard's trail and keep behind the guard in silence. The man still kept watching in the direction the noise had come from, wanting to see Don get gun downed or, better yet, captured and brought to him.
Although he saw a signal from the guard that said nothing was there, the man looked dumbfounded. "Find him!" The man shouted before turning his attention to the other side of the store. Don rose up when the guard turned around and jammed his combat knife in between the bottom of the chin and the guard's neck. He used his other hand to push the guard's head down into the blade. The guard struggled for a moment, which made some noise; however, Don had already brought the guard down to the ground so the man could not see the guard. By the time he realized that both of his men were dead, it was too late for him.
"W-Where the hell are you!?" The man shouted while Don finished off the final guard to ensure he did not come back as an undead. "Answer me, damn it!" The man shouted while ferociously looking around; the man even drew a gun that he had hidden behind him and started pointing the gun around out of fear. Don made his way through the store, since out of the man's line of sight was now easy.
"I'll kill her! I'll fucking kill her if you don't come out!" The man shouted with a twisted grin.
"Try it." Don's hushed words were the last thing the man heard coming from behind him before feeling sharp pain and warmth from his neck. The man fired off a few shots in the air, but none of the shots hit since Don was behind him. The man began to gargle on his own blood before eventually dying. Don was going to finish the man off; however, he felt that the man did not deserve to remain 'dead'.
He did not know if there was any kind of soul still lingering in the body, but if there was, he deemed that living in a rotting corpse was a better end than release. Don sheathed his combat knife and began to drag the man's body toward the front, where he made use of some nearby rope to tie the man up. Binding his arms and legs and even gagging his mouth so that way the man could not bite anyone even when becoming an undead.
Don now drew out his combat knife and made his way to the back of the store once again. He figured that Rebecca and Noah were probably being kept in the storage or warehouse area. He also figured that there may have been some people; although, he did find it odd that no one came out to investigate what was going on. After all, two shots were fired.
Don took to a crouched position once more and push past the doors that read employees only. It was dark, darker than the lobby. A few candles lit up the place, but other than that, darkness reigned in the back. Don used the darkness to his advantage to move through the warehouse area. Strangely there were no guards.
When he arrived at the end of the warehouse, there were two rooms. Two doors, one that read office and the other read breakroom. Don knew that someone was in the office, considered the man mentioned 'Boss.' So, Don headed into the breakroom. There was a faint light coming from a single ceiling light that provided lighting in the room.
The first thing Don saw was Rebecca tied up. She was hanging by her arms from the ceiling. Her body was nude and beaten, though there were no signs that violation had taken place. Even with that bit of relief in mind, Don's expression crumpled into anger, but he did not rush toward Rebecca. He made sure that there was no one in the room. The only other person he saw was Noah, who was sitting in a metal folding chair and tied up as well. He looked like he was used as some kind of punching bag.
Don stood and made his way to Rebecca so he could cut the bindings that hung her from the ceiling. He caught her in one arm to make sure she didn't hit the ground. The sudden movement seemed to wake her up from sleep. Her vision was blurry, and her eyes were puffy red as well as black and blue. She saw the outline of Don, so she called out his name in a weak manner. Don sheathed his combat knife, then pick her up in both arms to carry her next to Noah. He set her beside Noah gently, then took his combat knife and cut the bindings that bound Noah.
"Stay here... I need to take out the trash."
Don's voice was filled with conviction and sin. So much so that it nearly woke up Rebecca, who almost leaped up to stop Don; however, a wave of fatigue and pain stopped her, and she remained seated. Don made his way out of the breakroom and into the office; he didn't waste time with the lock and instead opt to kick the door open, which caused a guard on the inside to quickly look toward the door.
"Hey, who are you!" The guard shouted as he went for his gun but instead took a knife to the throat. The guard stumbled back a bit while reaching for the knife and gargling on his own blood. A shriek of terror, along with several screams, filled the small office room.
Once Don's appearance became visible, a chubby man sitting in an office chair nearly fell out of his chair. Don withdrew the knife from the corpse on the ground before piking the corpse and then turned toward the man. He took note that several women looked beaten, bruised, and abused. A memory from his younger days crept into his mind, a disturbing and disgusting memory filled with gore and blood. He shook the haze of the memory away and started to approach the man who shrieked.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! I can give you whatever you want! Money, Food, Water, Shelter, Women! Whatever it is you want, just let me live!" The chubby man begged while trying to move away. The chair followed his movements the best it could, but the chair tipped over, and he fell out of it. An ouch sound came from him, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Don was towering over him.
"Tell me something. I have always been curious. Why treat these women like this? Why treat other humans like this? Why enslave them? I really want to know." Don's anger was apparent, but it seemed like he wasn't simply referring to just what was going on presently.
"What?" The chubby man inquired.
Don backhanded the man. "Answer the question." He demanded, which caused the man in a state of shock at the sudden pain in his cheek to glare at Don.
"Why wouldn't I? They could have left! No one was stopping them! Did you think we all wanted to be brought here!? All of a sudden, everyone in this store was transported to this world. Then we're told by some stupid-looking boy that we are contenders or whatever! We demanded to go home, but no... we were told to survive an entire year here! So, we made the store an outpost. It was easy since we had food and water, but then other people started showing up."
"They wanted all of our stuff. We had to band together to fight against them. Not to mention the fucking bugs! At first, no one wanted to leave the store, but when we started running out of food and water and had turned to ration, everything started turning south. Tell me, have you ever had to survive with limited food and water? Have you tried to manage a group of people? Keep their morale up? Keep them happy? Make sure no one tried to backstab you? If not, then don't get in my fucking face!"
The chubby man started shouting and tried to punch Don in the face at the end of his rant. Don caught his fist and jammed his combat knife into the chubby man's hand, which caused the man to scream in pain.
"So what, you let the men rape the women for what, morale?" Don's eyes narrowed while keeping the knife in the man's hand.
The man bit back his scream and continue to glare at Don. "It was the only way. The women didn't want to look for food or water, and the men wouldn't do it either. So, we struck a deal. The woman would have sex with the men, and the men would be forced to collect food and water. It was a win-win for everyone. Women got shelter, food, and water, and all they had to do was spread their legs."
"Men were allowed to have sex, eat, drink and sleep, but all they had to do was go out there and collect food and water. Of course, some of the women grew tired of it. We let them leave, but they either died or came back out of fear. Eventually, there was a decrease in women, and the men were starting to become irritated. I can assume you can guess the rest."
Don was so disgusted with what he was told that he twisted the knife a few times before ripping it out and shifting his eyes to the women. They weren't tied up or anything. They just looked like they had been beaten into submission. Kissing his teeth, Don sheathed his combat knife and pulled the one from his boot with the sheath intact. He tossed it to one of the women who flinched away from it, allowing it to slide against the ground beside her.
"Your life is in your hands." Don muttered before making his way toward the door where he was greeted by Rebecca and Noah, who had opened the door to look inside. "Your stuff is over there. Don't mind the girls or the guy. Just get your shit, get dressed, and let's go." Don remarked while moving past them. Rebecca could see something familiar in Don's eyes. It was a look that she had not seen in a long time. A look that he had when he first arrived at her doorstep.
'Don...' Rebecca spoke his name in her mind and wanted to reach out to him but realized that she could not. She did not have that right because she feared that side of him.
Noah moved to gather his things, but when he heard a man screaming, he turned to see a group of women beating, clawing, and tormenting a man. One of the women was constantly stabbing him with the knife that Don had given her. Rebecca came up just in time to see their expressions; ecstasy and thrill. The expression gave her chills. They all looked happy to be murdering the man, but neither she nor Noah would stop them.
They felt they did not have the right to. Rebecca gathered her things just like Noah and even get dressed, putting on the extra clothes she had in her traveling bag. They regrouped with Don, who was standing outside the office room smoking a cigarette.
Both of them didn't say anything but instead just waited for Don to finish his cigarette. Once he did, he tossed the bud away and pushed off the wall. "Let's go. April is waiting." Don commented his tone of voice still filled with a sense of vile in it. Both of them nodded in silence and followed after Don.
They saw the many corpses and even the one undead that was struggling to wiggle towards them with a groan along the way. No one said a thing, and by the time they regrouped with April, nightfall had already taken place. The only form of light was the moon and the stars in the clear sky. Still, it was enough for them to see the road before them as well as for April to see them.
"Don!" April nearly shouted but quickly reverted to a quiet thrill. She nearly tackled Don while hugging him tightly. Happy to see him return alive and well. When she saw Rebecca and Noah, though, her expression turned sour. She was happy to see them, but not in the state they were in. "Don, should we find a place to rest?" April asked as she stepped back to look at Don.
Don had this softened look in his eyes, unlike the one that Rebecca saw, which was hardened and crumpled with disgust and hatred. Don nodded, "Let's take shelter in one of these buildings for the night. I'll scout it out first, then once it is clear, I'll come to get you three. I doubt there is running water or power, so we'll have to make do with what we all brought. I'll be back." Don stated before heading off to do some recon in one of the buildings that they would use to take shelter for the night.