章節 38: Bad Decision

Damian reached town around 6:50am. 'She must be awake by now', Damian thought as he walked out of the car and picked up the guns and prepared for the confrontation.

He soon reached the store where he met Jim and his group yesterday. The place was empty at first glance. Damian looked around but saw no one approaching. He entered the store.

As soon as he did, someone hiding behind the door put the gun on the back of his head. Damian put his hands up.

"Guys. He's back", the man shouted as others slowly started gathering in the room.

"John. You're back. No wait, or was it Damian?", Jim came out from inside with a big grin.

"You can use whatever", Damian replied.

"I see you came alone. Where did the girl from yesterday go?", Jim asked.

"Dropped her at the base. Came back to tell you that there is no space there for you guys", Damian said without any emotion.

His words made Jim lose all his facade as his mouth dropped to an ugly expression. "You seriously didn't just say that. Did you come here just to tell us to go fuck off?", Jim asked unbelievably as he looked at Sean who was standing behind Damian with one more person who was pointing his gun at him.

"I told you I'd come back with an answer, didn't I?", Damian said.

"You said you'd come back with others to take us there", Jim said.

"Well, they won't be coming", Damian said.

"Did you come here alone thinking we'd just say goodbye, hug you and leave? You think we're friends or something?", Jim said as his look towards Damian changed into that of an enemy.

"Now, you know that you won't get out of here alive if you don't tell us where that base is, right?", Jim asked Damian as he gestures at one of his men.

The man on the right side of Damian cracked his fist as he approached him. Damian, knowing what was going to happen closed his eyes, took a deep breath and turned to face the man. Just as he stepped towards the man, he heard a bang sound and in the next instant, felt pain in his right leg. As he looked down, he saw that someone shot his leg. He looked back and saw Sean lowering the gun.

Everyone looked at Sean strangely questioning eyes. He replies, "Didn't you see him fight before. Doug here would get knocked off in an instant". Everyone seemed to remember and nodded.

Damian who got shot in the leg looked at the man, Doug, who smiled looking at him. Doug, thinking his chances to take Damian down were better now, threw his fist at him. Damian, whose guns and knife was already taken earlier pulled out the secret knife from under his jacket, held it in a reverse grip and slashed it vertically upwards. Doug, unaware of the knife suddenly got confused mid-fight which cost him a cut in his chin and the knife suddenly came down and stabbed his chest.

Next moment, it came out and stabbed his neck. Doug couldn't even give out a gasp and fell down pressing his neck. Damian looked back at Sean and quickly moved towards him despite his injury. Sean who had placed the gun back on his jeans, moved his hand to pull it out but Damian did something he had not expected in that short amount of time. Damian quickly changed direction and moved towards the man who earlier put his gun on Damian's head. The surprised man couldn't even pull the trigger due to rush and Damian reached him. He stabbed him on the neck with knife in his right hand while grabbed the gun from his left. The instant pain made the man forget the gun as he pressed the place on his neck that got stabbed with both his hands.

Damian now had gun in his hand which he aimed at Sean who had pulled his own gun out but didn't yet aim at him. Damian pulled the trigger without hesitation, but the trigger was jammed. Sean who thought he was dead, opened his eyes to see that the gun's safety was not turned off. He quickly aimed at Damian like others who were as shocked as him. He pulled the man he stabbed just then in front of him and used him as a shield from the bullets as he stepped back. A bullet grazed past his arm in the process.

He threw his shield man and jumped towards a counter and took cover behind it. Everyone now had already started shooting at the counter. Damian looked at his wound on the leg for a moment but ignored the pain. The shooting continued until it didn't. As soon as the sound came to stop, Damian peeked out of the counter and started shooting at the enemy. One shot to the chest and other at the head or either. Jim was nowhere to be seen. So was Sean. Damian killed one man down who was in front of him without any cover. Then he took aim at the man who was hiding behind a pillar but revealing his leg, shot his leg, the pain made the man reveal his head and *Bang*. One more of them dead.

Just then, a bullet pierced his hand that held the gun. The impact made Damian drop the gun while holding the wound with other hand as he looked towards the direction from where the bullet was shot. It was a man who smiled at what he had just done. "What are you doing, grab him, now", the man shouted, and other people soon came out from their hiding and ran to grab Damian. Damian looked down to grab the dropped gun with his left hand. Just as he raised his left hand to shoot, Sean fired at his arm, disabling him again. Damian could only see as 4 men grabbed him and pulled him to the center of the room and started kicking ruthlessly. "Mot***fu**er", "Take that", "How does it feel, huh?", "Bastard" and all sorts of slurs could be heard from inside.

"Hey, don't kill him yet. We need to know where others are", Jim said as he came out with Sean and 2 more men. When they stopped, Damian who was protecting his head from the kicks with his hands looked at Jim's direction.

"You had more people", Damian said with groan as he wasn't able to move his arms anymore.

"Surprise. You still killed 4 of us. Now tell us where is your group", Jim asked.

"Far away. You won't reach there", Damian said while trying to smile.

A kick soon connected to his abdomen. "Don't waste our time. Just tell us", Sean said.

"...", Damian was silent.

"Okay. Get him up. Let's hang him with the rope first", Jim said in a cruel tone, without any emotions. The men heeded his command and tied Damian's hands with the rope and passed it through the railing of the first floor. The stretch in the hands made Damian groan in pain. He could only support his body with one leg as other had been shot and blood kept coming out of it.

Jim grabbed a baseball bat and approached Damian. "Okay. Now tell me where they are, and I'll kill you painlessly". Damian didn't reply.

Jim smiled at him and suddenly swung the bat at his wounded leg. Damian could only scream in pain from then on. Jim asked again but Damian still didn't say anything. The beating and torture continued for a while.

"He's not gonna tell us. Let's kill him and hang him outside. Those people will come looking for him here eventually anyway. The way he's still protecting them, they don't seem that much in strength anyway", Sean said.

Jim nodded and looked at Damian. "Last chance. Where are they?", he asked. Damian was silent.

"Okay. Take him out and hang him on the front", Jim commanded.

Two men untied Damian and grabbed him by his arm. Damian was in no condition to stand on his feet and could only be dragged by those men. Just as they reached outside, the man holding Damian suddenly fell on the ground. Damian without their support also fell down. He looked at the men and noticed the hole in their heads and suddenly someone dragged him to the side. This startled Jim and others who were still inside as well, and they quickly raised their guns at the gate. But they didn't see anyone from there.

Jim gestured at one of his men to go look. The man hesitantly stepped out but instantly, bullets came from different directions and hit him.

"He brought backup", Sean said with a tense face.

"No shit. What do we do?", Jim asked for Sean's opinion.

"Run away, I say. We don't know how many are there. We can escape from the back. We are at disadvantage right now", Sean said.

"Alright. Everyone let's go from the back", Jim shouted at his group and started going back.

Outside, Damian looked at Daryl who was taking him to the next store quickly. "You're okay. Just wait a bit", he said as Damian just looked at him. He entered inside and placed Damian on the floor.

"You look like shit", Daryl said looking at the blood all over Damian's body. His face was swollen. His upper half was naked revealing bruises on his whole body that had turned blue. Although his arms and leg had stopped bleeding, the dry blood on his body still didn't make it okay.

"They were more than I expected", Damian replied with a low voice. "You brought others?", he asked.

"Rick, Shane, Glenn... everyone's here", Daryl replied. Damian nodded.

"Go. I'm okay. Help others", Damian told Daryl.

Daryl looked at him and then after a moment, said, "Alright. Wait here for me. I'll come back as soon as possible", he said and quickly ran outside.

"Damian looked around and found that it was a furniture store. He dragged his body towards a sofa. "Fuck", he groaned in agony as he dragged himself up and sat on the sofa with a bit of struggle. He soon closed his eyes.

The scene changes.

Damian opens his eyes and find himself in a cold, dark room, tied up to a chair. He tried to speak but realized that he was gagged. He had no clothes on his body. The realization hit and he remembered where he was. He closed his eyes again and again to go back to present but remained there. Soon, a door opened up and a man hiding his face with a mask revealed himself. The man didn't say anything. Just looked at Damian before going to a nearby table and picking up a tool and approached Damian. Damian saw in horror what that man did to his body while laughing like a madman in ecstasy. The unbearable pain made Damian lose his consciousness as the man backed up.