In The End

Chapter X

A week had gone by since that fateful morning of Julie's untimely demise. Zack and the bikers were generous enough to bury Julie. As for everyone else, they were all fortunate to live and not be separated. Sarah became the camp's head doctor. Frank and Xavier did runs with some of the bikers, however they weren't aloud to have guns. Nick, Suzy and Gregg were put on guard to watch the camp. Gavin and Ronny had to set traps in the woods.

As they set up the traps in the woods, Gavin said, "How long will we be slaved by these guys"? Ronny said, "Just give me some time to think". Gavin said, "I say we bolt right now. It's perfect, no one's watching and no one will know where we went". Ronny, a little shocked by that statement, said, "We can't leaving our people behind. If we leave, maybe Zack will punish them for what we did". Then from a distance they heard a biker yell, "Lunch time"! Ronny said, "We'd better head back before they beat us again". As Ronny walked back to the camp, Gavin looked out to the forest, to freedom. Then he started heading for the camp as well. Once he got back, he saw Ronny, Xavier and Frank sitting by the campfire, eating. As he walked to the fire, a biker pushed a plate of food into his chest. Gavin sat down on the log and observed his food. It was burnt meat, probably squirrel with some potato slices. It wasn't much, in fact, it was just enough to keep him alive. As he ate, he looked at his group. They were all silent and kept their heads down. Gavin looked around and saw Sarah helping Kyle eat. Suddenly, one of the bikers walked up to her. "I need you to look at something" he said. Sarah asked, "Is it an emergency"? He said, "No but I need it now". Sarah replied, "Then you'll have to wait". Gavin set his food down and watched. The biker said, "No I won't. You help me before that piece of trash that you're feeding". Sarah said, "He needs help more than you". The biker responded with a punch in the eye. She fell over and landed on medical equipment. Gavin got up and ran to the biker. Then he punched him and dragged him to the ground. He punched the biker about five more times before another biker got Gavin off of him.

The commotion caused Zack's right hand man, Dan, to intervene. Dan was a slender man, hardly fit to be in a group of strong built men. He was very cocky and thought of himself above everyone other than Zack. Dan said, "What's going on here". The biker who removed Gavin said, "Gavin was beating him for no reason. He hit him six times"! Dan glared at Gavin. Gavin said, "Only because he was impatient and hit Sarah". Dan looked at Sarah, who by now started bleeding. Dan looked at the biker on the ground and pulled out his gun, "Never, under any circumstances, do you hit the doctor"! Then he pulled the trigger on the biker, which killed him. That made everyone stop what they were doing to see what happened. Then Dan said, "As for you Gavin. You know the rules, if you hit someone, you get three whips, which means you get eighteen tonight". Then Dan walked away.

Gavin walked back to where he was sitting. Ronny said, "Are you kidding Gavin. You're going to die from beatings"! Gavin said, "At least I didn't let him get away with beating her". Gavin looked around and saw everyone was looking at him. When Gavin made eye contact with them, they went back to whatever they they were doing. A biker walked over to Ronny and the group and said, "Lunch is over, back to work". Gavin sat his lunch down, untouched and went back to work.

As Gavin and Ronny walked through the woods, they saw that a lot of the traps were sprung with biters trapped. Bear traps crunched the bones in biters' legs. Some biters hung upside down with a rope around their leg. Ronny looked at the traps and saw that none of them had animals in them. Gavin said, "There are more biters today than normal". Ronny and Gavin took out their knives and killed the biters.

Once the biters were dead, they reset the trap. They looked out to the woods and saw more were coming, so they walked toward them to kill them, however before they could, a biker grabbed them from behind and threw them toward the camp. "What are you doing out here? This is out of your boundaries". Ronny said, "We only caught biters and we saw those biters and we're just going to kill them to make sure they don't spring our traps". The biker said, "Let them be. I'll take care of them. Don't let me catch you out of your boundary again". As they walked back to their boundaries, Ronny looked back at the biker who watched them walk away. That's when Ronny saw the wooden house covered by the forest. It was next to the biters who now weren't moving.

Once back in the camp, Ronny went to check on Sarah. He walked into her tent to see her laying down with a wet rag over her face. Ronny asked, "How do you feel"? She lifted the rag to reveal her black eye and the stitches under her eye. Her eye was bloodshot. Sarah said, "I'm fine. But can you do me a favor"? Ronny said sure. "Kyle needs his pills, can you give them to him? The pill should be in the bag next to me, the red and blue pills, give him two". Ronny grabbed the pills and went to the tent next to Sarah's, where Kyle lied. Ronny was unsure if he was awake or not because his eyes were still very swollen. Ronny said, "Kyle, it's time to take your pills". Kyle opened his mouth slightly, just enough for Ronny to toss them in his mouth. Then Ronny helped him drink some water. "Don't worry Kyle. You'll get better. We'll all get better. We're leaving soon, so hold tight".

Ronny walked back into Sarah's tent, "Is there anything else you want me to do for you"? Sarah said, "Yes..." She lifted the cloth from her face and looked directly at Ronny, "Get us out of here". Ronny looked to the floor, thinking it was his fault they were in this situation. "Yeah, I'm working on it" he said.

Later that evening, the sun was set but there was still a light blue line in the sky just above the horizon. Normally by now everyone would be asleep, however everyone was huddled around a pole on the edge of the road. Gavin's wrists were binded together around the pole, as if he was hugging it. He had no shirt on. Everyone looked at him as they awaited an answer of why he was there. Then Zack and Dan appeared from the crowd. Zack said, "My apologies for keeping you all awake. I just wanted everyone to see how serious I really am because killing one of these people wasn't good enough. It was easy and painless. If you don't know, this man right here mercilessly beat down one of our men. How many times did you say he hit him, Dan"? Dan looked at the crowd, "Six brutal times". Zack said, "Six times. I can't stand for that. Can any of you stand for that"? The crowd grew angry and started yelling no. Zack said, "He should be punished for what he's done". Everyone agreed with him, some yelling "whip him" and others yelling "hurt him".

Ronny appeared from the crowd to see what was happening. When he saw Gavin tied to the pole, he sighed. Zack said, "He hit our man six times. That's eighteen whips, full force and no mercy". Everyone yelled in agreement. Dan pulled out his rubber whip. He pulled his hand back for the first blow; everyone was cheering him on. However, before he struck Gavin, Zack held Dan's hand which held the whip, "No Dan. Let me do it". Dan politely handed Zack the whip. Instead of holding it with one hand, Zack held it like a baseball bat to ensure the maximum amount of pain.

Then after all of the anticipation, Zack struck Gavin's back. Everyone cheered as Gavin's back grew red where the whip made contact. Little spots of blood formed. Zack waited a moment before hitting him again. This time there was a dark red mark and more blood appeared. The third hit made Gavin's back tense up as he started to feel the pain. Each whip made Ronny cringe. By the eighth whip, Gavin slouched to the ground. Zack said, "What's wrong? Can't take a beating"? Then he whipped Gavin for the ninth time. By now all of Gavin's back was bloody and bruised. The tenth whip, Gavin cried out in pain. Some people started looking away.

By the fourteenth hit, there was a pool of blood underneath Gavin's kneeling legs. He was crying now. By now most of his back became numbed from the hits but he still felt the after pain from each whip. On the seventeenth whip, he was barely conscious. Zack yelled, "And the final whip that, I hope, will teach everyone a lesson"! When he whipped Gavin, he didn't move an inch. Ronny wanted to run to him to see if he was ok, but he didn't want to get whipped. Once Zack was done, he dropped the whip and looked at everyone. "Goodnight everyone, get some rest". As everyone dispersed, only Ronny, Sarah and Xavier remained. Ronny and Xavier ran up to him to check if he was even alive. Ronny began to unbind Gavin's wrists as Xavier checked Gavin's neck for a pulse. Xavier said, "He's alive, but I don't know how long he'll stay that way". Once Ronny unknotted his wrists, Xavier and Ronny carried him to the tent that Kyle was resting in.

Once they set him down, Xavier asked, "Can you save him"? Sarah looked at Gavin's back. She said, "He's going to need many stitches, a lot of bandages and antibiotics. Even with all of that, his survival chances are pretty low. I'll try my best". When Ronny walked out of the tent, he saw Zack looking at him. When Ronny made eye contact, Zack walked into his tent.

Ronny walked into his tent. As he prepared to go to bed, he noticed that his clothes were covered in Gavin's blood, so he took them off. When he laid in bed, he realized that Gavin might die. Without Gavin, Ronny realized the group would lose their leader and that might break them. Throughout the night, Sarah stayed up trying to help Gavin. Ronny constantly entered the tent to see if Gavin was going to make it or not. He didn't feel the least bit tired, but fear, for Gavin's safety.