#9

Evelyn recoiled in horror as bullets tore through the driver's body, copious amounts of blood spewing out of the gaping aperture in the back of his head. She watched the entire spectacle silently, unsure of what to think as Scarlett exacted her revenge upon the man who had humiliated her sister. Evelyn felt deep resentment towards this man; Samantha had not been the only one who had been degraded by him. 

It was an ironic form of justice, she reflected, as the man leaned forward and kissed Scarlett's blood-stained boots. Although the spectacle made her slightly uncomfortable, revenge certainly was sweet. It was this man who had manhandled her so callously and it was his goon, the driver, who had almost knocked Levi's head off his shoulders as he attempted to defend her.

She stared at the floor, absorbed in her thoughts but still maintaining enough sensory awareness to hear the sound of a sharp blow and a thud; Scarlett had likely knocked the man out. She glanced up to confirm it, blinking slowly at the sight of the raider sprawled out on the ground with what looked like a completely broken nose. How had it come to this? It didn't seem too long ago that she and Levi had found themselves a new group. Two sets of capable sisters and one of them had been the same age as her students. 

She thought about where the rest of the group had been taken and wondered if they had been lucky enough to escape like she and Scarlett had. They weren't out of the woods yet, but the difficult part was over. There was no doubt that the two of them were fully capable of handling themselves alone but, together, they made a formidable team. This realisation caused Levi's previous attempt at gallantry to sting even more. Did he feel that she was a dainty damsel in distress, in need of his protection?

This was an inappropriate time to cogitate on matters like these. Levi simply cared about her, as friends should do. His actions weren't a reflection of her weakness... Or so she hoped.

She got up to her feet as Scarlett ran over to her, holding her hands out so that her wrists could be untied. She caught a glimpse of the tears that ran down Scarlett's face and felt deep pity at the things she was having to do. Who had she been in her previous life? It didn't matter any more. That person was long gone and, in her place, there was a woman barely clinging to the last vestiges of her humanity. A struggle that the two shared.

"We're still killing them." she said in a hollow voice, looking down at the dirty blonde hair on the back of Scarlett's head as she worked to loosen the knots in the rope bound around Evelyn's wrists. "You know that, right? We're leaving them here, fresh meat out in the open. There's no difference between that and putting a bullet in their heads."

The rope slid around her wrists and fell to the floor with a soft thump. Barely able to breathe a sigh of relief, Evelyn sensed two points of danger in quick succession. In the corner of her vision, she saw a stranger astride a motorbike approaching them. She snapped her head to the right to look behind her, seeing another man a few dozen metres away driving a lance through a walker's skull.

She deftly grabbed the gun in Scarlett's hand, knowing that she still had one in her back pocket, and pointed it directly at Marcus' head.

"Take care of the other one, Scarlett. We're [i]not[/i] going through this bullshit again." she said firmly, turning her head to address Marcus directly. "We're leaving here in that pick-up truck. I don't care who or what you are, just stay out of our way and I promise not to put a bullet through your skull."