Free Innocence Lost by T.A. Williams Page A

them.”
    Hicks looked to Ethan and the man once again shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t really know or care what was going on.
    “Alright, you let me go and-“
    “Wrong answer.”
    The man on the left pulled out a large knife and before Ally could close her eyes he buried it into the side of Hicks. Ally let out a yelp that was covered up by the man’s screams. She held on tighter to Tiger who shuffled about but didn’t move.
    The man on the left pulled out the knife which was now red with blood. “I’ll give you another chance Hicks. You tell me the truth now and I’ll let you go and there is a chance you’ll recover.”
    Hicks rolled to the far side of the creek and after a few moments stopped screaming. “If I tell you,” his voice came out in large sobbing gasps. “If I tell you then I’m a dead man.”
    “You tell me and I promise to let you go, you don’t then I can guarantee you’re going to bleed out here in the middle of nowhere. It’s your choice.”
    Ethan finally stepped forward. “Roy, you gut him then we’re shit out of luck.”
    The man on the left, Roy, waved him off. “We’ll find them eventually.” He bent down and put the knife up to the wounded man’s face. “But if we have to search I’ll make sure that I kill anyone and everyone that is connected to this little shit stain.”
    Hicks threw out his elbow, scoring a glancing blow on the side of Roy’s face but the man barely budged. Instead he smiled and plunged the knife back into the wounded man. Then he did it again, and again.
    Ally felt her food rising from her stomach and couldn’t handle it. She didn’t want to be there. She didn’t want to see this. She wanted to go home. Tiger jumped up as the man’s screams climbed and began to bark. At first the screams drowned out the barks but as the life began to leave the man his screams became softer and Tiger’s barks remained the same.
    “The fuck is that?” Ethan asked as he looked back and his eyes fell on the dog.
    Ally jumped to her feet and ran, knowing that Tiger would follow. She heard the shouts coming from the creek bed but she knew it would take the men awhile to climb up to where they were. She was aware of Tiger running beside her so she didn’t bother looking back. She ran as fast as she could, hoping that somehow her legs could take her back to one of her old lives so she wouldn’t be alone anymore.

Ben
     
                  Ben watched the dust particles dance in the sunlight coming from the window. The room had a musty smell and the small breeze coming from the cracked windows wasn’t enough to totally rid them of the smell, but they were safe, for now.
                  They had decided to hide in an old hotel building situated in the middle of the downtown area. They had settled on the top floor, four stories up, which gave them a good vintage point to watch what was going on in the town below. Just as Mason had predicted, the men hadn’t left the town. Instead, for the last couple of days they had been patrolling the streets in their trucks. The trucks always had several men in the back and each of them carried an assault rifle.
                  Zima, who had been peering out the window for several minutes, finally sat back against the wall. “No set patterns, which I expected. They’re just roaming around hoping to run into us.”
                  Mason walked into the room. “Ben, got a second?”
                  “Yeah.”
                  Ben followed Mason into one of the neighboring rooms. Once he entered Mason handed him the assault rifle, they confiscated from the man when they first got into town.
                  “There is a chance we’ll need your help when the shit hits the fan.”
                  Ben held the large gun in front of him and just stared at it. The thing wasn’t as heavy as he imagined it would be, but it definitely looked