A Moment of Peace

The next morning Soren helped Jordan prepare food for the humans. Soren had decided to join Jordan the first time he interacted with the humans since Jordan could not verbally communicate. He had plans to put the humans to work, if Jordan killed them he would have to start all over again.

~What happened to you last night? You disappeared early.~

Soren chuckled as he picked up the container of cooked sausages. Jordan was holding a container with warm tater tots.

"I was busy seeing how far I could push Avery. It was... stimulating."

Jordan raised an eyebrow, ~Be careful you don't push him too far and break him.~

"Hmm, he's proving to be resilient. I didn't expect him to last this long after what he's seen. I'm not certain if it's proof of a human's ability to adapt, or it's just him."

Down in the dungeon's kitchen, they set out four plates on the bar and portioned out the sausages and tater tots. Once the plates were set, Jordan went to the fridge to grab four bottled waters.

~Odds are it's just that particular human. They don't seem to be very resilient as a whole, though I suppose I am out of the loop.~

Soren laughed, "You are a shut-in who only watches cartoons."

~And what hobbies do you have?~

Soren waved a hand, encompassing the whole house.

"I am doing all this, doesn't that count as a hobby?"

~Building a stockpile while waiting for the end of the world isn't a hobby. Neither is breaking the human's mind and rebuilding them into your pet.~

"But it could."

Jordan made a grunting sound and his shoulders shook as he laughed. Soren shook his head and they moved to the hall and the locked rooms. Soren grabbed the keys for the rooms that were hanging on the wall and proceeded to unlock the doors. Jordan stood to the side.

When both doors were unlocked, Soren put the keys in his pocket and moved to stand by Jordan. It did not take long for the four men to come out. Their first reaction when they caught sight of Jordan was to step back. Their second reaction was to reach for the guns they no longer carried.

"I would like to introduce all of you to Jordan, my right-hand man. I am here to explain a few things since Jordan is unable to. Jordan is an evolved mutated, thus his appearance. Because of his particular evolution, he is unable to form words like the rest of us.

"It's not an issue for myself and the rest of my people because we can communicate telepathically. So, just in case you want to try something, he can still communicate. You've been through this process twice already, so you should be familiar enough with it to follow without instructions."

Soren stepped to the side while Jordan led them to the kitchen. Vaughan stayed at the back and stopped when he came up to Soren. Vaughan rubbed his hands together then placed them in his pockets.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead." Soren crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall."

"Is it true that you… ate Cruz?"

"Who told you that?"

"Your man yesterday, though the woman confirmed it."

Vaughan had been hoping that it was just a joke the other two were playing on them. A cruel joke, but a joke nonetheless. But, after seeing Jordan and Soren confirming some of what had been said Vaughan had to face the fact that none of what had been said was a joke.

"So, you're asking me because you don't believe them?"

Vaughan took in a shaky breath and looked to the side, toward the kitchen where his men were eating. When he looked back at Soren his eyes had narrowed, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I didn't, don't, want to believe it."

Soren shrugged, "It's not like it's a secret, the only reason you four didn't know was because you were unconscious."

"Wells wasn't?"

Soren smiled, "Avery got a front-row seat."

Vaughan's frown deepened. "What about Palmer and Decker?"

"You need to make certain you really want the answer to that question." When Vaughan remained silent Soren nodded, "We have a large cooler used to store food and an area used specifically to cut bodies, whether human or animal. 'Waste not, want not' as the saying goes."

Vaughan lost some of the color in his face and he lost the ability to look Soren in the eye. Soren motioned for him to move and they started walking towards the kitchen.

"I should thank you for the way your teammates treated Avery. It made my job easier. It's the first time I've had the chance to play with a human who was both vulnerable and isolated.

"I've been enjoying our alone time, turning Avery into the person I want him to be."

Soren smiled as they walked up to the kitchen bar where the other three were sitting. Jordan was in the kitchen, off to the side, giving them space to enjoy their meal while still being watched.

"Enjoy your meal."

Not that I believe you'll be able to eat after our talk, Soren thought as he watched the pale-faced Vaughan sit.

Soren headed back upstairs and checked in on Fry and Ethan. He then decided to sit outside and smoke a cigarette in peace.

The mercenary's van was now parked in the front yard beside Fry's car. Ethan and Fry had retrieved it yesterday before nightfall. It would need to be cleaned out before it could be driven into town. At the very least the weapons had to be removed.

When Soren was done with his cigarette he went back inside and headed upstairs to his room. He paused a moment at the door before opening it and walking in.

He closed the door behind him and walked up to the bed. Soren was standing at the side of the bed before anything could be seen; the comforter had been pulled up high enough that only brown hair was visible.

Soren gave a pat in the general direction of where an arm would be.

"Time to get up, can't sleep the day away."

Soren could feel the body beneath his hand stiffen then the blanket came down to reveal Avery's face.

"I'm sorry..."

Avery quickly sat up, wincing as he did so, his eyes glued to the floor. He had vicious-looking bite marks along his neck, upper back, and chest along with some randomly placed bruises.

"You're fine. You didn't have anything to do this morning, otherwise, I would have woken you up when I got up.

"Get you a shower in then come down and eat something."

Soren left the room, giving Avery some space to get up and dressed for the day. He headed to the kitchen and started warming up some breaded chicken patties. By the time he finished making two sandwiches, Avery had come down to the kitchen.

"Here, this one is yours. If you want anything else it's on you."

Soren handed Avery a small plate with a sandwich on it. He grabbed his own plate and a soda out of the fridge and moved to the dining room. Avery stared at the plate for a while before he got himself a bottle of water and joined Soren.

Avery sat the plate on the table and took his time sitting down. He sucked in a quick as his ass made contact with the wooden chair. He had lost some of the color in his face as he started to eat.

"You'll be working with Jordan this afternoon, he will be feeding the mutated."

Avery hesitated a moment, pausing in the middle of taking a bite of his sandwich. He nodded and finished taking the bite.

"I know it's not your favorite thing to do, but the more you do it the less it'll bother you. Until I'm satisfied with your performance, you will be assigned to that task."

"I understand."

Avery forced himself to finish the sandwich. The thought of going back in the cooler had his stomach already rising. Avery took a couple of shallow breaths to try and settle his stomach. It might not have bothered him so much if he had not known some of the people who were now cut up and sitting in the cooler.

Avery met with Jordan when he was finished eating. It was a little awkward with the lines of communication broken. In the shed, Jordan motioned for Avery to come close and pointed at the keypad.

When Jordan saw that Avery was looking he typed in the code. Avery watched the sequence of numbers that were entered and memorized them.

Avery nodded when Jordan looked at him, "I got them."

Jordan smiled and gave him a thumbs up then they made their way down. This was the third time Avery had found himself in the cooler. When they came to the shelves in the back Jordan pointed at them and made a circular motion while looking at Avery.

"Rotation? The top left goes first, top right goes last. Everything moves down from the top right and up the left."

Jordan nodded and grabbed three packages from the top left. Avery could not help but wonder how many people had died to fill the shelves. Each one was six feet tall with five layers. Every bit of space was filled with a white wrapped package. The only exception was the top left, it was already more than half the size of the top right.

When they left Jordan had Avery punch in the code to close the entrance. It only took him two tries before he got the numbers correct. He was rewarded with another thumbs up.

Back in the kitchen, Jordan walked Avery through the defrost steps. This part Jordan handled himself, to which Avery was relieved.

While waiting for the microwave Jordan got Avery's attention and pointed at his own mutated face, then he shrugged and pointed at Avery.

When Avery did not respond right away Jordan searched through the drawers until he found a notepad and a pen.

'You're not scared of me?'

Avery looked down at the note that Jordan handed him. He looked up from the note with a smile that did not quite reach his eyes.

"No, you're not scary. I-I mean, you probably are scary, you're just not as scary as Soren. You just look different."

Avery shrugged and looked away. Jordan handed him another note and Avery found himself laughing.

'No one is scarier than Soren.'

"I've gone against terrorists, militia's, and a few madmen. I knew how to handle them, I knew where I stood with them. I don't know where I stand with Soren; one moment he's normal and follows the pattern I'm familiar with, the next he's way over there and I can't decide if he wants to eat me or keep me alive.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have said all that."

Avery crossed his arms and started to look down, but then Soren's words rose up in his mind and he simply let out a sigh.

The weight of Jordan's hand on his shoulder surprised Avery. Avery only stiffened up a little from the physical contact, luckily it was in a spot that only hurt a little. The pain was minimal enough that Avery was able to maintain his expression without grimacing. When Avery looked over Jordan was giving him a smile and a thumbs up. Avery found himself smiling back, this time the smile reached his eyes, lighting them up.

After they took care of the mutated, and the two feral evolved, Jordan dragged Avery to the living room. On the coffee table in front of the couch was Jordan's laptop.

Jordan pointed to himself and Avery, then the laptop. After that Jordan sat down and woke his laptop from its sleep mode to reveal a paused show. Jordan pointed to the laptop again then patted the empty spot next to him.

"Ok."

Avery sat down and almost sighed in relief from the soft cushion. Jordan pressed play and sat back. The show Jordan was watching was a cartoon that had English subtitles. It did not take long before Avery found himself caught up in the show's story.

Before long Avery found himself relaxing and enjoying the show with Jordan. To Avery, it felt like it had been years since he had been able to relax and have fun. It had only been a couple of days.

Avery spent the rest of his day watching shows with Jordan. He was filled with dread when he noticed how late it was getting, he was not ready to head upstairs.

Eventually, Avery had to relent when he started to fall asleep on the couch.