Chapter 102: 102

CAINE’S P.O.V

Thankfully, they were able to keep their animosity to themselves for the rest of the walk.

The meeting house wasn’t that far. It was right next to the fountain where we’d met last night. The house looked just like the others, the only difference was the presence of two men who seemed to be guarding the house.

They tipped their heads to Jennifer in acknowledgment but glared at Joshua and I.

“You need to disarm,” they told me.

“She didn’t disarm.”

“She’s one of us.” They glared harder. “Remove your weapons before I make you.”

At that, I laughed. “I’d love to see you try.”

One of them took a step forward but a loud sigh stopped him in his tracks.

“It’s too early for a brawl.” I looked up to find Solomon standing at the doorway. He seemed bored, almost as if he’d rather be anywhere but here. “Let them in.”

“But Solomon. We don’t know them.”

“Two of them can’t kill everyone here and get away with it. Pick your battles.” He turned to me. “Please, come in, Caine.”

The guard huffed, clearly not pleased that he didn’t get his fight.

I ignored him as I followed Solomon into the house.

The interior was much different from the house we’d spent the night in. Instead of homey furniture, the living room had one large round table that looked like it was hand carved as well as a few chairs around it.

The rest of the room was bare save for pieces of paper stuck to the wall. They looked to be maps of the forest and this community. A few spots were marked and as I stared longer, I realized they were stores and lakes- places they could find food.

It was amazing what they’d done for themselves. They’d built a safe haven.

“You have something for us, Caine.”

I turned to Solomon and the people next to him.

There were four of them in total and I recognized the others from last night as well. One of them was the woman who asked if we were starting a rebellion.

Half her head was shaved and the other half was a bright blond color. Next to her was a man with so many tattoos that I couldn’t see an inch of skin. He was built like a giant and had a permanent scowl on his face.

The last person was another woman. Her features were soft, her eyes kind and she had a child in her arms. The child looked to be a few months old and clung to her chest.

I felt a pang in my chest from watching her. On a good day, it wouldn’t have bothered me, but Amy’s words from earlier must have left a mark because I found myself wondering if that would’ve been Nadine and I had Trent not killed our child.

“What are you looking at?” she asked when she noticed me staring. “Have you never seen a baby before?”

“I have.”

“Easy, Lilian. He lost his own child, remember? The girl told us yesterday.” Solomon turned to me. “It was easy to know that you were the father. You were the only one who looked pissed and not sad.”

He was smiling, almost as if he was expecting a reaction from me. I forced my eyes away from him and onto Lilian and her baby. “You have a beautiful child.”

She seemed surprised by my words but nodded. “I know.”

The man next to her, the one with the tattoos was sitting up straight, watching me with suspicious eyes. I knew instantly he was the father of that child. He assessed me like I was a threat he was ready to eliminate and I let him know with my eyes that I meant no harm to his child.

“We didn’t come here to talk, Solomon,” the other woman said. “We came to look at what they have.” She gestured to the table. “Show us.”

I made my way over and took out the files from the bag. They all watched with rapt attention, their gazes both curious and suspicious. I’d spent all last night going through the documents to make sure that we had something worth bargaining for because I wouldn’t put it past these people to toss us out if they didn’t think what we had was worth the deal they made.

I handed them the pictures first, the ones that detailed the creation of the monsters. Each picture was more gruesome than the last but I gave it to them in order so that way they could see how Trent turned people from human to creatures.

Lilian stopped looking after the third picture and leaned back into her chair. She held onto her child tightly while holding onto the arm of the man next to her.

“That’s barbaric,” she whispered. “How many of them did he make?”

I shrugged. “He didn’t give a number. There are some files missing. It goes up to two hundred, but it could be more.”

“Why?”

“World domination, maybe, but I don’t know for sure. He left detailed notes on how he created them, what chemicals he fed them, how long he tortured them.”

As I spoke, I placed the notes on the table. They could go through them if they wanted. It was very detailed and very graphic. He even left his own comments on them, each one more disturbed than the last. It almost seemed like he was enjoying himself while he tortured humans.

“Did he detail how to kill them easily?” the mountain of a man asked and I shook my head.

“He controls them though. I don’t know how.”

“Is that in the notes?”

“He told us.”

Everyone stilled. They sent each other wary looks before turning back to us.

“Why would he tell you that?” Solomon asked.

“Because he wanted to kill us in that lab. He released all the monsters.”

“That’s why you burnt it down,” the blond woman mused. “Good. I hope you killed most of them.”

“I hope so too.”

She grinned. “I’m Edith. You already know Lilian’s name, and that brute is her husband Sam.”

“I’m Caine. This is Joshua.”

“Nice to meet you, Caine.” She smiled. “You already burnt the monsters. I’m sure you gave Trent a fright. Why do you need to do more?”

“Because I know him and he doesn’t like to lose. We have to kill them all and we have to kill Trent or he will do something we don’t expect.”

Solomon laughed. “How do you suggest that we do that? He is always in his bunker. If he even senses us coming then he will run.”

“What if he doesn’t sense us?”

“I don’t follow.”

“He tracks people who have lived in his bunker. Amy thinks it is through the implants he gives the women.”

That made Lilian laugh. “And you think he doesn’t track the men?”

“He has no medical reason to inject us,” Joshua cut in. “Every woman in the bunker is given an implant. Some men agree to get it too, but most don’t.”

“That’s very sexist.”

He shrugged. “It’s how the bunker works.”

“if we don’t have the implant, he cannot track us. We can go to the bunker-”

“It’s too far a journey,” Sam cut in. “We can’t risk it. We have families here. We cannot abandon them because you want to go on a fool’s journey.”

“Trent will wipe out the whole world.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “We’ve survived this long. We’ll survive after. You burnt his lab. He can’t do anything.”

“He is still experimenting. Nadine said she saw him in the bunker. What if he is trying to create something new?”

“You don’t know that.”

“Neither do you,” I cut him off. “You can choose to ignore us, but know this, whatever he does is on your head. You have the chance to do the right thing here.”

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