Reaper

Exile

The sun blinds me as I step out of the old apartment building I call home. As the light shifts through the fading clouds, it casts a bathes the ground in a yellowing glow. The ground seems to simmer underneath it, cracking and drying. I cover the brim of my eyes with the palm of my hand and step out into the courtyard of my city.

The people around me shift and stagnate, flowing through the throngs in their new worlds. The market buzzes to my left, filled with people buying fruits and vegetables from wooden stands. In the distance I can hear the caravans pulling up to the afterworld stands, filling the wooden surfaces with memorable items from before the world began to decay. A gum clicks to my right, where our teams pep for another venture back into the wastelands. There's never a break when it comes to saving lives. In front of me stands the stocks. Wooden and brand new compared to the repurposed buildings around me.

The stocks stand tall in the town square, holding those who recently turned in transit. The turned thrash at their wooden restraints. The metal locks bang against their strength. Three stand there, gyrating in their holds, twists and tearing to get out. The stocks hold, however crude they may be. A crowd gathers and watches them. Some remember the moments they once were stuck in there. Some look away, choosing to forget.

I walk towards the stocks. My nerves tear at my stomach lining. No matter how many times I do my job, I never fully trust myself to actually help anyone. The powers aren't mine. I never truly trust them. I am not sure if I ever will.

People turn as I walk over, staring at me. Surprise. It is always surprise. No matter how many times I do my job, they never seem to accept it. I will always be just a girl to them. Moments ago, I was no one. Now I am the only person "brave" enough to walk up to the stocks and stare the turned in their eyes. Moments from now, I will be the Reaper. And then, I will be back to the nameless girl, another person in the crowd. My gun is more the Reaper to these people than I will ever be.

I might seem brave to them, but I am just as terrified as always.

The wooden podium holding the stocks feels cold through the soles of my socks. Damn. Forgot shoes again. Some kind of leader I am. A savior in ankle socks.

The turned look at me, watching my movements as I get closer. I can feel the heat of their boiling blood. The closer I get, the more I can make out the slightly charred wood that encircles their necks, hands, and feet. I feel some empathy for them, as I always do when I realize that they will be coming back to life surrounded by burning wood. I try to block out the thought.

I need peace.

I need silence.

I shoot a look at the crowd. A hush falls. They know me now. I count the seconds until this is over, and I am free to crawl back into my black pit of a room.

I stop my steps just short of the stocks. If I was to reach my hand forward, I would feel the slimy hair on the first one's head. It is time. I close my eyes. I breathe. In. Out. The turned stop thrashing in their wooden confines, reading me for a moment to strike. I ignore their deep grunts. I dig for my spark. I find it, deep inside the bowels of my body.

I feel the fire in my stomach churn. It spreads slowly, swallowing my torso in a warm summers glow. The hair on my shoulders shifts. The slight breeze around me dies. The warmth spreads up my arms and down my legs. My feet feel light. I become weightless. My hair begins its ascent around my head. The fire reaches my head, engulfing my whole body in the stream of otherworldly glow.

It's time.

I open my eyes. The fear, my anxiety, it all dies. Eradicated by the warm feeling coursing through my veins. The turned stare at me, anger and blood bubbling in their eyes. I grab the head of the first, and it tries to pull away. It snaps its jaws at my fingers. Its growl echoes around the quiet square. I ignore it. I lean in. I can smell the burning flesh on its body. I can almost taste its charred hair in my mouth. It shrieks.

Lightly I place a kiss on the turned's forehead, letting my warmth roll off of me in waves. It gasps under me, rocking at the stocks. It bellows in anger, groans in pain, and then falls silent, still and lifeless in the wood encasing it. I finally break my touch, and pull back, slightly wiping my lips onto the soft cotton of my shirt.

I turn my head back to the creature as it lulls in the stocks. The grease of its hair evaporates. The blood from its eyes slowly turns into tears, falling silently onto the wood and soaking in. It's arms thin. The veins recede. I can hear the whispers of a sigh pull itself from the resting body. Finally, the head pulls itself up, dark brown hair cascading around it like a halo. I rest my hand onto its face. Her face.

I look her in the eyes. The hazel that looks back at me is filled with tears.

"What is your name?" I whisper to her. She takes a moment to register, hazy as if long lost in a deep sleep.

"Au-Au-Autumn," she breathes out, choking on her raspy voice. I unlock the stocks surrounding her and slowly pull her heavy body out of the confines. Autumn watches me lazily. Her eyes never waver. I hold her to me. This grown woman falls into my arms like a small child. I look into the crowd, and then back at her.

Louder, I speak to the crowd, to Autumn, to myself.

"Welcome home Autumn. Here you are safe."

No one claps. No one moves. I give Autumn, still unused to her legs, off to River. I watch as he takes her back into my apartment building. Looking back at the crowd, they stare at me, waiting for me to work on the other two souls trapped in the stocks. My hair still floats just off my shoulders. my body still hums. I turn back to the stocks and kiss the forehead of the next turned trapped inside.

When he wakes, he names himself as "Callum." River comes back to escort him away.

I turn to the final filled stock. The last turned, the rosary man, stares at me with disdain. I walk over to him, place my hands on his face. He doesn't move under me. His eyes lock on mine, and a dark smile grows on his face, twisting like it did on the transport.

"silly silly silly silly..." his words churn in my stomach. "Who told you that you could lead?"

A gunshot goes off in the crowd.

My head whips over towards the throngs of people watching me. Some shift away, but most of them don't move. A man makes his way forward to the podium, steps up, and turns towards the people. They seem stuck in a daze.

"My fellow survivors. You follow a witch s if she is your champion. Look at her!" He turns, disgust written in his sneer, and points his gun at me. "She kisses the devils to gain your trust."

My hand tightens on the jaw of the rosary man. His giggling is cut short, silenced. I feel the fire grow in my gut, paired with the anger that flames in my throat.

"Do you follow her out of respect? Or out of fear? Look at her glowing eyes and tell me that SHE is fit to lead our society."

I notice the armor around his torso, and the guns attached to the belt on his worn jeans.

"She is just as much of a monster as those who attack us outside the walls."

I can make out a thinning scar on his neck, and the hickey shape that blooms on the necks of all those I kiss. I saved him once. This man. This traitor.

Mutiny.

"You trust this CHILD to keep us safe? You trust this GIRL to free us? If you do, then you are a fool."

His voice raises and the crowd murmurs around him. The turned drips blood onto my hand, and I pull away, crushing the drop into my fist. I feel my hair flame up. I feel the fire inside me char. I feel my anger rise. I feel my feet leave the ground.

"You defy me?" My voice comes out hollow.

"You defy me in my home? In the town I build for you? In the sanctuary that I built every wall of?" The turned next to me buckles in his restraints. I can hear the metal creak and snap. I can hear the wood splinter. I don't care.

"You? YOU? After I SAVED YOU FROM AN ETERNAL HELL?"

Only now does the man turn and look back at me. His face is ashen, creased with dust. Determination sits in his eyes.

"I will not allow you to rule us only through fear." His voice is set. His eyes never waver. The slight stipple to his chin shadows a sturdy and insistent chin. The air around us shifts. A crack breaks the tension.

The word 'Master' flitters through the air.

A body books towards the man, hunched over and gasping. He turns n time just to see it and raise his gun, but a bullet never pierces the air. I look back at the stocks. They're empty. One of them has a hole breaking its design.

The turned, the rosary man, tackles the rebel, and tears into the settling scar at his neck. I watch him swallow and chew, and as the body's shift and struggle, I can make out bone.

Some part of me is horrified. It screams at me to run towards the turned, grab him, and end this homicide. But that part is too deep, too far below the fire that courses through me to make any headway.

One thought instead fills my mind: Death is inevitable. He will die in the wasteland like he was supposed to.

The tiny part of me screams no, but I push it away and slowly walk towards to turned. I touch it on the back and it looks up at me, the twisted grin stretching across the length of its face. It looks towards the crowd next, watching them shy away in horror. Then back at me.

The rosary man pulls himself up off the victim and steps next to me. The body on the floor doesn't twitch. I feel his soul over me, waiting for me.

I shoo it away, step off the platform, and walk back to my apartment complex. My hair still circles my head. The turned, the rosary man, follows me, only a step behind.

I hear the crowd scream as the doors shut behind us.

I turn towards the turned, as its smiles drips with fresh blood.

"Did I do well?" it asks me.

I pull out my knife, and swipe at its head, letting it fall to the floor with a thud. Its body follows.

"More loyal than my own flesh."

My hair falls, and the fire leaves me. I come back to my body. The terror of what just happened grips me. I stare at the dead turned in front of me. Sobs rack my body. Why couldn't I stop it? Why wouldn't my body let me move? What just happened?

I fall onto the floor in front of the body and cradle my legs into myself. And I cry. I let my sobs distract me. A small voice in my head says that the man deserved it, but I shove it away.

**********************************************************************************************************

Hours later, Gabe finds me on the floor at the entrance of the apartment complex. He sees the body and quickly takes it away. I sit surrounded in my own tears until he returns.

"You made quite a scene out there Ace."

I look up at him in silence. His stance softens. His hand on his gun falls to its side.

"We cleaned up the mess," he says as if the mess wasn't a person.

"We ushered people home," he says as if that would make the event just go away.

He is silent for a bit. He stares at me while I stare at my own hands. The drop of the turned's blood still rests there, wet as the moment it fell.

"You need to leave." His voice is quiet with his words. I look back up at him. He looks sorry. He looks sad.

He shouldn't be. He didn't kill anyone.

I've killed two.

"The people are upset Ace. They're planning on storming the building. They're asking for revenge."

I just stare at him. The tears keep coming. I notice the faint bite mark on his neck and the bloom of my mark right next to it. I saved him too. How could I forget?

"I don't want you to get hurt..."

I could hear it in his voice. He doesn't want others to get hurt. I'm a liability now. Savior turned monster. I'm worse than them.

"okay..." my voice is raw. He stumbles back a step.

"Really?"

"yeah..."

Minutes pass as Gabe pulls me up from the floor and helps me stumble up to my room. I grab a bag and fill it with ammo, clothes, guns... whatever will fit. We are silent. He watches me. I work. The usual silence of my room is rattled by yelling outside the apartment complex. I work as quickly as I can.

Once filled, he leads me back down the stares where Derek and River wait, along with a few of my other men. I notice the scars on some of their necks. I see the bloom of my mark.

They lead me to a transport and fill the back with as much food as they could scavenge. I place my bag onto the passenger seat and step into the car. The front windshield is dirty. My hands are dirty. Everything in my life feels like it is covered in rust.

Derek leans into my window for a second, the car keys dangling from his finger. River stands behind him. His eyes cast beams at the floor. Derek thinks better and pulls away, but he stares at me. A look of betrayal lines his face.

"Did you mean to do it?" he asks.

I look at him, then back down at my hands.

"I don't hurt people Derek. I came here only to save the lost."

That answer doesn't seem to please him. I don't blame him.

"Why did you do it?" River finally looks at me. His words cut like a knife.

I look at him and feel the tears swell once again in my eyes.

"I didn't River. I don't know who or what did... but it wasn't me."

They both look down. My friends. My family.

I've been outcast.

"What are you Reaper?"

"I don't know..."

The silence around us is suffocating. Gabe finally walks over. He grabs the keys from Derek and hands them to me. He looks so sad. He believes me. That at least I can tell.

"Save travels Ace." His words are soft. "Safe travels. I hope that one day, I will see you again."

I can hear the voices outside of the transport bay. they know I'm here.

"Not until I understand Gabe, but once I do, I hope we can be friends. Stay safe." A smile cracks at his lips.

"Come on Ace. You got lives to save. Don't worry about little ol' me."

A smile hints on my lips too. I look forward to the iron doors of the wall. I haven't been out there alone since I built this place.

"open the gates?"

They creak open, I place my keys into the slot and press my foot to the gas. None of them say goodbye. I look back.

Gabe waves as the doors to the transport bay burst open and the small room is filled with bodies. They all watch my car go.

Only dust greets me as I hear the doors slam shut behind me