"Are you sure about him?"
"Yes! I saw him that day. I'm 100% sure that he's one from that hideout."
"Very well."
Their voices are echoing. I'm inside an enclosed space.
Fein was dragged along, then thrown into a room. He was blindfolded and his hands were tied on his back. They left his feet open since the door was locked anyway. Fein sensed everything from the start till now.
Considering the smoothness of the thing that I'm sitting on, i must be sitting on a commode. That means they locked me in a bathroom, instead of a classroom.
How embarrassing.
His ears twitched and chin raised as someone unlocked the door.
"He doesn't have anything with him…. Except a vegetable cutter knife."
Are they looking for gunpowder? Bullets?
He sighed. "You guys didn't have to kidnap me like that to look for ammos. At least give me some time to mourn…"
The blindfold on his eyes was yanked with force.
"Aren't you a bit too relaxed?!"
Fein rolled his pupils to the top of his eyes. The person before him that sounded threatening had the looks of a stickman. He was tall, long faced, flat chest, too skinny. If you simply flicked him he might fly away, yet he acted all haughty. He name was Sved.
"Such traditional means of kidnapping in the middle of apocalypse, doesn't actually scare anyone. Also i know that you brought me to St. Stardrop highschool. It is really close to our hideout."
They looked astonished. Probably didn't expect Fein to know too much.
"How did you…!"
Sved leaned closer to his face. He spoke with a grim tone. "That's enough with your bluffs."
"It isn't a bluff." Fein was unbothered nonetheless.
"There's at least three more schools surrounding your hideout. How did you know the exact one?" Asked Hilda. She was curious about Fein more than all their motives.
"I counted all the steps till here. 32,702 steps from the outskirts to this school. 5,370 steps away from the hideout. I lived in this town since birth so i know how many steps are required to get anywhere."
Then that means it got evening to cover all those steps.
Fein tilted his head.
I can't see any windows though.
While all looked awed, Dolto spoke. "You're one interesting fella."
"If you know everything, why aren't you resisting us?"
Sved rebuked them all for their curiosities in Fein. "ARE YOU GUYS CRAZY? We captured him here.. NOT TO KNOW HIM IN PERSON! We aren't his fans! We should focus on what we have to do!!"
"Chill out." Said Fein. "You captured me because i let you. Why else do you think I'm not escaping yet?"
A boy, he looked similar in age to Sved, touched his shoulder. Jeffrey was his name. "Let's calm down Sved." He whispered in his ears. "I suggest you proceed with caution with this boy. He sounds like bad news."
Sved let out a huge breath. "Fine." He lessened his distance with Fein. "Listen. We are also just some survivors like you. We don't plan to harm you if you tell us the location of all your supplies. Like you we also need weapons to defend ourselves."
Looks like they were decent guys until this push came to shove. "I intended to tell you from the beginning."
"What?"
"If you meet my two conditions."
It wasn't very believable when Fein simply agreed to answer until he spoke of the conditions. As if the condition was a base that built the pillar of their trust.
"Very well. Let's hear what you have to say."
They dragged Fein out of the toilet and tied him to a chair in a classroom.
All seven of the survivors were present there. The classroom didn't have as many benches as it was supposed to, probably because they moved them out. A burning smell along with the dry stink of his clothes raised up to his nose. The white towel tied to his leg had a faint red colour. It got drenched in blood then washed in rain. His hair, that was once smooth and silky, turned into a fine nest in which the crow peeking from the window frame could start living on. Overall, Fein was completely dishevelled.
"First, you can't disclose anything about me to them when you raid our hideout. It isn't important to mention that you captured me even."
Sved found it dubious but didn't interrupt him.
"Second, tell me everything about your cause. What made you take such measures? If you need ammos, you must have guns. Who gave you?"
"Hey hey hey! Hold on." Said Zach. "Sved. Are we really going to tell him everything?"
He ignored Zach's query and stepped ahead. "How do i trust your information? We don't know your motive either."
[Note: music recommended from here. (Thelema- slowed+ bass boosted.) You can use other instrumentals that may match with the plot.]
Fein slightly moved his head to the right and hung it lower. "I don't like how Eudimor discriminates. That's why i want to bring him down from his position in our hideout."
Lies.
Hilda raised her eyebrows. She remembered Dolto and Sved saying that there must be some kind of superiority there and it was true.
"Hahaha." Chuckled Dolto. "You're really evil, huh."
Fein's sleepless eyes stared at him.
So? What if i am evil? I considered being good and kind… In the end those goody two shoes people die first for their naivety. I don't plan on surviving just to die trying to act all good.
"My answers will depend on how you fulfil my second condition." Said Fein. "After you tell.. i tell you."
"How do we trust you?!" A girl asked.
His hands were tied, he couldn't scratch his head but the repetition of this line was annoying him. "I'm tied here anyway. If you think i lied, I'll be here for you to torment. So first.. i want to hear your answers."
Jeffrey started to speak, leaning his butt against a table.
"After the disaster struck, some people in white came to evacuate people. It lasted for four days. Yet not all could board their train. Few like us were stranded. However they didn't leave us like we were. They provided us with guns and ammunition as well as some canned food to defend ourselves…"
Some people in white? The ones Ms Donna mentioned.
"But then one day.." Zach continued the conversation. "They stopped supplying us. We figured that they stopped supplying it in our town altogether until your hideout was discovered."
Sved slouched closer to Fein. "And it appears that they haven't stopped supplying you guys."
"I see. Even you are victims of partiality."
"We told you our side. Now its time you told us your answer."
"Sure." Fein puffed his chest with a huge breath and wheezed with a scoff. "Our hideout is under the ruins of a house. If you go deeper inside you'll find the basement to the left of that house. Eudimor keeps all his weapons and ammunition there."
"Where does he keep them?"
"In a chest box."
"Describe the chest."
"There are two. One is for show and its filled with BB bullets, maybe there's a few that are real. The actual one is disguised as a metal bed in that room."
Silence reigned in the classroom.
"How many people are hunters there?"
"Including myself there are 7."
A smile filled with joy bloomed on Hilda's face. "We're 7 as well. That makes us even."
Sved refuted. "No. That's not all. I've heard you keep survivors."
"Yes."
"That means the 7 of them are no joke."
Fein turned his head at another boy at the back and shrugged. "Perhaps."
"We need to properly plan to confront them tonight."
Sved huddled with his fellows and began to discuss their ideas. Fein, tied to a chair, elongated his neck, trying to hear their whispers. Soon enough he gave up overhearing them and said.
"I suggest you not to go tonight."
"Why?"
"Because we made a plan. The situation at our hideout isn't as good as you think."
All their attention got fixated on Fein's blood red eyes that glistened under the rising moon. "Currently only four hunters are active there. Excluding one injured. One dead. And one captured."