CH1f
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JULY 10TH, 2011
Seline heard a sigh come from beyond the gates. Whoever was out there seemed kind of reluctant to save her.
Plink! She gasped at the sound. The mysterious assassin had fired at the lock on the gate, busting it to pieces. Seline eyed the black bars, her hopes high that she'd finally be saved from the horrors of the place she called 'home'. Maybe the assailant was working on his own time to defeat the government and save the infecteds! It was almost romantic! Seline put her best effort into standing up so she could at least try to greet this 'hero' properly. She was still incredibly sore from the beatings two days previous, but…
The gates flung open, and lo and behold, there stood Seline's 'hero'.
He was an infected. In fact, he was just as badly infected or maybe even worse off than she was. Her jaw dropped. "You did all that? But…how did you get a gun?" She continued to gawk. "Where's your ankle monitor?!"
No response. This infected man just stood there at the gate, staring back at her.
"I'll explain everything once I get you out of this hellhole."
Seline nodded, as she didn't want to waste any more time with questions. Her rescuer took a few steps closer to her and she examined him. He had straight, faded blonde hair, drooping down into his face…his face! It looked like something mean had a field day trying to tear his face right apart! There were scars across his mouth from the bottom right corner to the top left part of his …smile? He was smiling at her! "Uh…hi," Seline said, feeling awkward and rude for staring. "I'm Seline."
"Jed Isenberg. US Air Force. Glad t'meetcha!"
He was dressed in a white tank top and dark navy army-style cargo pants. He had his dog tags around his neck, but Seline wasn't paying much attention to those...She stared into his eyes…there was another scar crossing his nose leading right up to the bottom of his left eyelid and through the top of the upper eyelid. Whatever attacked him had spared his eyes. The pupils were pitch black, and the whites of his eyes had darkened to a deep, ugly shade of gray…just like Seline's.
"'Got attacked by a whole pack of 'em."
"What…"
"Hyenas. I was attacked by a whole pack of the little scavengers. Sucks to be one of us, doesn't it?"
Seline nodded. She didn't have to say anything, her situation was pretty obvious.
'Jed' reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a switchblade, which he immediately used to cut through the ropes holding Seline captive. She looked away from him while he worked, still feeling awkward that she stared at his scars.
"You're kind of pretty for an infected girl..."
Though she knew that it was no compliment, Seline had nothing better to say than "thank you."
Jed stopped. A silence just as awkward as Seline felt followed.
"You know, as long as you're tied up here, I can do whatever I want to you…"
"What?!" Seline nearly barked out. "What do you mean by that?! That's not very noble of you!" She bent her knees inward and backed into the tree she was tied to.
"I wouldn't hurtcha. I'm a nice guy. Besides, it's gonna be sunrise soon, and I'm sure that all your pals are gonna come looking for you, right?" He reached his hand out and touched Seline's face. He was warm. "I'm here to save you. Don't worry."
Seline frowned deeply and cowered at how 'friendly' this Jed guy was being towards her. "Shouldn't you be helping me get free then?"
He leaned in towards her face, still grinning, and pressed his forehead against hers. "Chill, you'll be free in a few minutes." He glanced over at the large Jameson house. "I'm scarier than them. They can't do a thing to me." He brushed Seline's rusty red hair out of her face with his sharpened fingernails and stared into her emerald green eyes. "I haven't been this lucky in years! And look at you, you're even tied up! Ha!" Jed snickered to himself. Seline got goosebumps, and not the good kind. This guy was definitely not the hero she assumed he might've been. "Let me make a deal with you, Seline."
"What kind of deal?" she muttered back.
"I told you, I'm a nice guy! I won't hurt you. Just a kiss-"
"Are you kidding me!?" Seline hissed, turning away.
"Whatever. I'm only here to get fuel for my plane, then I'm leaving to a safe place where they don't do this to infecteds. I don't know you, so I'm fine with just leaving you here to die!" He backed away from her a few inches and raised his eyebrow.
"Please don't!" Seline shouted in desperation. "Uh…okay. Just once! But it's not a good first impression!" -as if that was threatening.
"Aww, I knew you'd come around."
Seline grit her teeth in disgust and frowned once more. She was going to be free! Free! And if this is what she had to go through to gain her freedom, then... that wasn't so bad.
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