Free Web NovelChapter 75: Chapter 75 - A False Hero
"Thank you," Rhea whispered, clutching Johnny so tightly he whimpered. "Thank you, thank you." She cried the words into her son’s hair, her whole body shaking. "We need to go. Iyisha. Please."
But Iyisha couldn’t move yet.
She stared at the corpse on the floor. The woman’s eyes were still open. Her arm lay twisted unnaturally against the bedframe. Blood spread across the boards, dark and wet. Iyisha’s gun hung limp at her side.
"Iyisha," Rhea pleaded again, voice thin with terror. "Please. We have to go."
Iyisha forced herself to swallow. Her throat felt raw. Numb. Finally she nodded.
They ran.
Down the hall, down the stairs, across the snow-covered yard. Every sound seemed too loud. Every shadow too close. Iyisha didn’t trust her legs, but they carried her anyway. She kept looking over her shoulder, half expecting someone to come charging after them.
They reached the southern section of the compound when a soft voice hissed their names.
"Iyisha. Rhea."
They turned.
Mary stood at the corner of a storage shed, waving them in with frantic, jerky motions. Her face was pale, her eyes glassy but sharp with fear.
"Come. Hurry."
They squeezed behind her into a narrow back corridor. Mary led them through a half-broken door into a small storeroom. Inside, five others were already huddled together in the dim light.
"How are you," Iyisha managed to ask, still breathless.
"Okay," Mary said. She sounded like she had been crying for hours already. She pointed to Rhea. "He’s here. Your husband is inside."
Rhea rushed to him. He stood up so fast his chair fell over. They folded into each other, pulling Johnny between them, the boy crying softly into his father’s coat. Relief, fear, gratitude—everything mixed into one tangled sobbing embrace.
Iyisha looked around. "Where’s Ester."
Mary shook her head helplessly. "I don’t know. She was in the other building. I didn’t see her when everything started."
Iyisha slowly slid down the wall, sitting in the corner. Her breath came in tight pulls. "Where is she," she whispered. "She should have been here."
Mary followed her gaze toward the direction of the residential cluster. "Maybe with Lando," she said quietly. "They were together earlier. She wouldn’t leave him."
Iyisha closed her eyes for a moment. "Of course."
Of course Ester stayed. She wouldn’t run without him.
Rhea’s husband approached her. He knelt beside her and pulled her into a brief, tight hug before she could react. "Thank you," he said. His voice cracked. "For saving them. For saving my family."
Iyisha nodded, stiff, unsure how to respond. Her hands still felt cold from the gun. Her skin still buzzed with the shock of what she’d done.
"We... we can’t leave Ester and Lando behind," she whispered, shaky. It wasn’t conviction. It wasn’t bravery. It was just a desperate thought she couldn’t quiet. "If I... if I tried to save Johnny... then why can’t I..." Her throat tightened. "Why can’t I try to save them too."
Mary stared at her like she had grown another head. "Are you crazy?" she hissed. "Iyisha, that’s suicide."
Iyisha nodded once, too quickly, too trembling. "Yeah. Probably." Her voice shook. "It might be... safer to stay put."
Her mind flicked back to the woman she had shot.
We didn’t come here to kill anyone.
Those words clung to her.
Maybe staying hidden was the smarter choice, the safer choice, the only logical thing to do.
Iyisha swallowed hard. "Yeah," she whispered again. "Safer."
But the gnawing feeling didn’t leave.
Safer didn’t mean right.
Safer didn’t mean survival for everyone.
And Iyisha hated herself for thinking it, but the desperate, insistent question kept coming back:
If she tried for Johnny... how could she do nothing for them.
Mario’s voice snapped her back. He stepped into the room with several others behind him, all armed. Faces pale. Eyes sharp with fear.
"What are you going to do," a man asked, grabbing Mario’s arm with both hands . "Some are still out there. Some are still in danger."
Mario nodded as an old woman hugged him. "Mario, please." Her voice stammered, the kind of stammer someone gets when they’re trying not to break down.
Mario cupped her cheek. "I’ll come back, darling."
A man rushed into the room, breathless, snow stuck to his eyebrows. "We found the guards," he said.
The room went still.
He swallowed hard. "They’re dead."
A ripple of shock tore through the people gathered. Someone gasped. Someone else began to cry softly. The old woman’s hand tightened on Mario’s coat.
"Dead?" Mario asked, voice low.
"Throats cut," the man said. "Two at the north gate. One at the silo. These raiders—" he shook his head.
Iyisha froze.
Cold spread through her limbs like water seeping into cracks of stone.
People were dying.
Perhaps already too many.
She pressed a hand to her chest without realizing it.
If the guards—armed, trained, experienced—were already dead...
What were the chances Ester and Lando were still alive?
One of the men spoke again. "We’ll go north. Draw them off. Make noise. Pull the raiders that direction."
"Then you go," another added to Mario’s group. "Let the ones trapped in the hall out. Get them moving while they’re distracted."
"They’ve swept the barns," someone else reported quietly. "We saw bodies. But the east still looks empty. They haven’t reached those rooms yet."
Iyisha’s breath hitched.
Mary’s building was in the east. freēwebnovel.com
Lando’s room.
Ester’s room.
Mary looked at her immediately, reading her thoughts. "Iyisha," she whispered, voice trembling. "Don’t..."
They kept planning. Voices circling. Fear snapping through the air like static.
Iyisha heard almost none of it.
Just one thing.
The eastern side is mostly empty.
Mary saw the way Iyisha’s breath hitched.
"Iyisha," she whispered.
Iyisha stood, but barely. Her legs felt hollow, like fragile sticks under her. "I... I’m going out," she mumbled. Her voice sounded small even to her own ears.
Mary grabbed her hand. "You are going to Ester’s room. Don’t lie to me."
"I’ll check on them," Iyisha said, though her voice wobbled badly and didn’t sound like someone who believed their own words.
"You are going to kill yourself," Mary said, fear lacing every word. "Do you understand? You cannot fight. You can’t even stop shaking."
"I know," Iyisha whispered.
And she did.
The shaking wouldn’t stop. ƒrēewebnovel.com
Her mouth tasted like metal.
Her mind kept replaying the shot she fired.
She swallowed. "Maybe I can do something for them too."
Mary’s expression softened with guilt, fear, and disbelief.
"You don’t have to do this," Mary whispered.
"I know," Iyisha whispered back. "But I can’t sit here either."
Mary caught her hand before she could step away. Her grip was warm and shaking. "I know I sound selfish," she said, voice breaking, "but we also have to think of ourselves. Think of what Malcolm would say."
The name hit Iyisha like a blow.
Her eyes stung instantly. Her breath faltered in her chest. Malcolm. She hadn’t let herself think about him during the chaos. The moment his name left Mary’s mouth, the room felt smaller.
Iyisha closed her eyes.
What would Malcolm do.
She didn’t even have to imagine it.
Malcolm would tell her to stay in the safest corner of the room.
Malcolm would take the risk onto himself.
Malcolm would fix it.
Malcolm always fixed it.
He would look her in the eyes and say, "Stay," in that steady voice that made everything feel controllable even when it wasn’t.
A tear slid down her cheek before she could blink it away.
"Yeah," she whispered hoarsely. "He’d tell me to stay. He always... he always does."
Her chest tightened painfully. She pressed her lips together, trying to keep the sound from coming out.
Mary brushed her thumb over Iyisha’s knuckles in a shaky attempt to ground her. "He’d want you alive. He’d want you to be smart. Please listen to that."
Iyisha opened her eyes again. The room blurred around the edges. Malcolm’s voice echoed in her memory, low and steady.
He would never let her go out there alone.
Not for anything.
But she wasn’t Malcolm.
And Malcolm wasn’t here.
The thought shook her more than anything else.
She wasn’t sure if she could do anything.
She wasn’t sure if she should.
She wasn’t sure if she’d survive trying.
But the fear of doing nothing pressed just as hard as the fear of going.
She wiped her cheek with the back of her hand, breath trembling.
"Malcolm would go," she whispered. "Malcolm would help them."
Her voice cracked on the last word.
Mary stared at her, jaw trembling. Then she suddenly cursed under her breath. "Fuck it."
Iyisha blinked. "Mary—"
"We’re gonna die," Mary said, voice rising, raw with fear. "We’re actually gonna die out there."
Iyisha’s breath stilled. "We...?"
Mary dragged in a long, shaking inhale, then let it out slowly, her shoulders dropping. "I can’t just let you go alone," she said, quieter now. "I’m worried about them too. Damn it. Damn it." She squeezed her eyes shut. "Fuck it."
Iyisha gave a small, shaky smile. "You can stay."
Mary opened one eye, glared at her, and rolled both eyes dramatically. "And what? Let you call me selfish again?" She sniffed. "That hurt, by the way. I’ll get you back for that."
Iyisha let out a weak chuckle, the first breath of warmth she’d felt all day. "I knew you couldn’t stay still."
"I’m sorry," Iyisha added, softer.
Mary shook her head, the grin returning for just a second. "Shut up. If we die, it’s your fault."
Iyisha laughed, barely, but it loosened something tight in her chest.
Mario stepped forward, tightening the strap on his rifle. "We’ll go," he said firmly, looking at the people huddled inside the barn.
Iyisha and Mary looked at each other.
Terrified.
Utterly terrified.
Both pale.
Both shaking.
Both knowing this was a terrible plan.
But they would go.
Because at this point, it was the only plan they had.
