CH31 - A kept promise
[Lyon's POV]
"If you're gonna shoot then you better make damn sure that the first shot kills me." I tell Hoga without even bothering to look in his direction, my voice surprisingly carrying a neutral tone even with the knowledge that I now had a gun directly stuck on the back of my head. The other three people in the car look at me with shocked expressions, Hoga's, in particular, turning into anger as he most likely felt insulted over how calmly I reacted to his non-verbal threat.
"Hoga! Stop it!" Misako shouted as Amaya began crying in the back, confusion evident in everyone else's faces at the scene in front of them. I was confused as well but I had, metaphorically, been checkmated with my current predicament. The gun holster of my utility belt was on my right which meant they would easily see my attempt in trying to take it out while my rifle was too big to be quickly utilized in this tight space which meant I had to wait for an opportunity to disarm him.
"Misako, Higashi wouldn't have died if they had come earlier!" Hoga screamed, his tone becoming a mix of both anger and despair over what had happened. I found the reason for his sudden aggression quite moronic and unreasonable with Misako sharing the same sentiment over it as she sighed in annoyance while looking at her cousin. Hoga, who was waiting for Misako's agreement was shockingly surprised for rather obvious reasons over the lack of words that supported his actions, causing him to turn his attention to his glaring cousin instead of me.
I took the small window of chance and elbowed his wrist into the chair behind me, pinning it there as the sudden feeling of getting his hand restrained to the chair caught him off guard as his eyes opened wide while turning his gaze at me. I punched him square in the nose with my left fist, knocking him back to the window beside his chair as the gun fell off his hands. The car suddenly swerved to the right because my forearm smacked the steering wheel slightly to the side in the process of punching him.
The other two had their bodies tilt to the side due to the suddenness of the turn, forcing me to pick up the fallen gun with my right hand before using both hands in stabilizing the car in its current direction by using the steering wheel. We managed to avoid hitting any of the parked cars on the side of the road by luck, allowing me to check on what Hoga was doing from the corner of my eye.
"Just sit down and shut up Hoga! I'll stop him from doing anything else stupid, so just, try to keep the car steady." Misako tells me as she repositioned herself to sit on the chair with one knee before turning her back to the glove compartment box so she could check on Hoga's wellbeing. I transferred the gun to my left hand before hiding it away in my left pant pocket, leaving the matter of investigating it later when I had the free time to do so. I also took my revolver out of its holster and kept my hold over it with my left hand in case they try something stupid again.
"What happened back there, Lyon?" Ren's voice coming from the radio asks me, worry evident in their voices as his voice was accompanied by two others. There was also one other voice but it was both muffled and unrecognizable which meant it probably belonged to the prisoner I had them take with us. I was worried earlier about how we'd get more information about those looters that we've been encountering recently and the solution just promptly appeared by itself in front of us, albeit at the cost of an acquaintance but I couldn't care less about a person I just met the other day.
Saving these people was just secondary, an objective that managed to worm itself in purely by chance alongside the completion of the main objective. I wasn't expecting to have my life be suddenly threatened by one of the people I had just saved but it was already too late to start regretting my actions. The voice coming from the radio causes Misako to look back at me, a silent pleading expression appearing on her face as she mouthed words of apology in my direction.
"Don't worry, I just found a "complication", I'll resolve it later. Alyssa, you can knock the prisoner out if he starts getting too rowdy, just make sure he can still talk later." I said through the radio, giving a short glance in Hoga's direction at the mention of the word complication which causes him to pale in silence after he heard the next few words that followed it. We spent the next few hours in silence, a few conversations being initiated here and there by either Misako in trying to calm the atmosphere inside the car, or by Ren who asked a few questions in regards to our journey.
~A few hours later~
"What about this place?" Ren asked me through the radio, both of our vehicles coming at a stop in front of what appeared to be a two-story building that had its entire first floor allocated to a manual carwash instead. A small gap in its front wall that was meant for people to drive their cars through, the interior of said gap still had lighting inside and it seemed like the gap could be sealed by shop shutters that went down from the top of the gap.
"Hm, let's check out the inside first. Misako and Alyssa, come with me." I called out to their names before shutting the car's engine off, bringing the keys to the car with me. I leave through the driver-side door and close it behind me, unsheathing my machete and holding it with my right hand while I used the other for my revolver, I wouldn't want to have a more dangerous repeat of that incident with those children after all.
"Let's go." I whispered to Alyssa and Misako after they came closer to where I stood, Alyssa was still using her shotgun but she was also awkwardly gripping onto her knife with the hand that was wrapped around the barrel of the gun. Misako, in turn, was only using her bow which meant I was taking up the front again, not that it bothered me though as I would rather not use my gun in this situation.
We made our way to the gap, peering through the opening only to find two abandoned cars that were neatly parked in a row, a car-sized gap placed in between the two with their front bumper facing racks and tables of equipment meant for cleaning the car. Beneath our feet was a driveway designed to arch in three ways, each one leading to the small gaps meant for the cars getting cleaned to be parked on.
'We can use the car-sized gap in between the two for the SUV, we'll just have to park my group's car on the driveway instead.' I thought to myself while going deeper into the building, glancing in every direction while taking note of two doors that led to who knows where. We moved closer to one of the two doors with Misako voluntarily positioning herself in front of it as she notched an arrow and aimed it at the door.
The two of us nod at each other as I stood to the side, placing my hand over the door's handle and opening it a few seconds later with the sound of a string being released as a light thud came from inside of the room. I go around the opened door and turned my gaze to its interior, finding a lone zombie wearing dirty overalls motionlessly laying on the floor with an arrow sticking out of the side of his head.
Misako goes inside and pulls the arrow out of the corpse, leaving the room after glancing at the table, couch, and tv inside of the room. The room most likely served as a breakroom for the employees or maybe it was a lobby for the people to wait inside as their cars are being cleaned outside. Regardless, it'll have to do for now since we aren't exactly gonna be able to pick and choose what comforts we can enjoy now.
'Just a room to sleep in is already a blessing.' I quickly thought to myself after going inside the room myself, opening and looking through the contents of the singular drawer beneath the surface of the table. All it had inside were old copies of newspapers released a few days ago which meant there was next to no use for them in our current situation other than something to pass the time or even a substitute for toilet paper and a few other things.
"Misako and Alyssa, you two will check beneath the cars while I'll handle the other door." I tell the two people outside of the room, receiving nods before they left me in silence as they go to finish their task. I glance around the room one more time before leaving while I dragged the body outside, closing the door behind me before making my way to the last door which is located to my left. It was most likely a door that led to the opposite side of the street but I might as well check it out to be sure.
My suspicions are confirmed to be true as a cold breeze weakly hits my face as I am welcomed by the dark color of the sky, we had driven longer than usual as we wanted to get as close as possible to the river. We successfully reached halfway through our destination but I didn't want to push our luck any longer as the lights coming from our car would attract too much attention and it isn't like we were robots who could just stay awake and remain at a hundred percent for the rest of tomorrow.
I dragged the body of the corpse outside before closing the door and locking it, pulling one of the tables close to the door after throwing the various things placed on top of it and tucking a few of the rags away into my pockets. It didn't take long for them to finish as they came to report their findings to me right after I had finished pinning the table to the door, it opened outwardly so it isn't sealing the door but it should at least hamper any intruder for a few seconds after they break the lock.
"Go tell Ren to drive their SUV inside after parking ours, and Misako, make sure to take Amaya into the breakroom as soon as Ren parks your car." I tell the two after handing Alyssa the keys to their car before leaving as soon as I stopped talking while Misako flashes me a hesitant expression, seemingly understanding why I had specifically asked her to take the child away. "I'm not gonna kill him, I just need to teach him a lesson and scare him a little."
My assurances do little to remove the hesitation present upon her face but she heads for the exit regardless of whether or not she believed me, going back inside the car wash alongside my group's car before heading straight toward the breakroom with an already sleepy Amaya. I go toward the second table which was placed in front of the gap between the two cars and drag it close to the door, flipping it over before placing it atop the first table.
Alyssa goes to stand beside the door to the second row of passenger seats and waits for Chisato to open it, kicking our prisoner out as he falls face-first into the ground as he couldn't use his tied-up arms to prevent the fall. The two then drag him off to the side as Ren drives the SUV and parks it in the gap between the two cars, causing me to move toward it as I opened one of the doors and dragged Hoga out by the collar.
"Hey! What the fu-" He tries to ask only to fall to the ground after my fist found itself smashing against the left side of his face which causes my three other companions to look in my direction in confusion. I had refrained from telling them what had happened inside the car through the radio so their shocked expressions were warranted. I then slammed my foot into his stomach which elicits a pained groan as his body falls back to the ground due to the strength that I had applied to my actions.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't put a bullet through your head right now." I told him after taking out the same gun he had threatened me with earlier and aimed it at his head. I wasn't familiar with the name of this gun but most pistols always had similar basic traits to other handguns so disabling the safety wasn't too hard. Oddly enough, there was not a single thought in me of breaking the promise I had given Misako earlier but I did mention how I was going to scare him so it isn't like I'm not staying true to my word.
"Lyon! What the fuck are you doing?!" Ren screamed out the same question that my two other companions had in their minds, they did nothing to shove me away from Hoga's fallen figure but they did move close enough to be at an arm's length away from us. "Does this have something to do with the complication you mentioned?!"
"Don't scream, we're still not in the clear you idiot." I answered Ren a few seconds after while shrugging my head in the direction of the gap, placing one finger over my mouth and shushing him. We had briefly looked and driven around the perimeter of the building and found no zombies near us but that didn't mean we could just throw caution into the wind and act like idiots.
"This asshole aimed the gun at me back in the car, whether or not he had the balls to do it is something I couldn't care less about." I told them, only spewing out the barest of details they'd need to understand the reasons behind my actions. I watched Hoga's cowering figure for a few more seconds before taking my foot away and tucking the unfamiliar gun away into my pant pockets once more as I moved toward the open gap and brought down the roller shutters to close it. "Pull that shit again and you're dead."
"Ren, disarm him and hand me whatever weapon he has before dragging the desk here, and make sure to restrain him using whatever you find. Get a chair while you're at it and ask for Misako's bow and arrows." I told Ren who was helping Hoga stand up and go inside the breakroom, dragging out the desk with the chair as Misako followed him out of the room with her bow and quiver held by her hands.
Ren had already checked if Hoga had any other weapons with him but it seemed like he didn't since Ren came back without a weapon. Misako hands me her bow and quiver of arrows with a neutral expression on her face though it seemed like she understood why it had to be done as she wordlessly moves to the side. I then give Ren the bow and tell him to hide it in our car while promising that I'd return it to her in the morning.
"If any of you hear anything, just ignore it and go back to sleep. I'll take the first shift tonight so all of you should go to sleep." I tell them after dragging the prisoner and placing him on the chair, tying his back to it using the rags so that he's forced to keep his body angled upwards. Chisato held no desire to protect the same criminals that may have killed her family, Alyssa probably knew what was about to happen to our prisoner so she probably couldn't care less while Ren understood the necessity of what I was doing and it isn't like the person we were harming didn't deserve it or something.
Ren and Chisato wordlessly go back inside the breakroom with Alyssa following close behind them but she hesitates after noticing how Misako stayed behind with me. I look in their direction and show her a forced smile before mouthing off the words "Good night" to her before turning my gaze to Misako.
"Why did you stay behind?" I asked Misako after my three other companions went inside the room and closed the door behind them. Why was I so adamant about making sure Alyssa wasn't here? Well, I didn't want her to stay and see what I was about to do with said prisoner after all but I didn't mind a stranger like Misako seeing.
"I have a few questions to ask him as well, I heard them joke about dragging me to the hospital to play with them so I need to know which hospital since it might be the very place I need to go to for my own goal." She answered before turning her attention to the bound and gagged prisoner who kept a confident gaze while looking at us.
"I also wanted to thank you for keeping your promise." She told me, a tone of gratefulness present alongside each word that left her mouth which inwardly shook me though I made sure it wouldn't seem so. I had kept my promise, yes, but I expected her to get mad even for just a bit after I had harmed her cousin.
"I see..." I answered though the lack of anger she held towards me for hitting her cousin slightly irked me as I found it quite weird. Nonetheless, it was none of my business, and wasting any more time thinking about the matter was something I'd rather not do as I could always just ask her to answer a few of my questions after I finished getting answers from our prisoner.
I took out a black ballpen from my bag and slammed it against the table beside the chair before opening the drawer and taking out all of the newspapers, slamming them down on the table's surface before opening one to the word puzzle game page. I didn't want to ungag him since he might be uncooperative and scream out but I knew a few solutions for such a problem though it came with the side effect of pain for the "interviewee".
"I'm gonna ask you a few questions and you will answer with either a number or a few words depending on what kind of question I give you. Is that understood?" I told him after untying one of his hands and using the handcuffs I had looted from the dead policemen and used the other half to lock it around the drawer's grip with difficulty as he tried to resist.
This gave him barely enough leverage to write the words but it was more than enough to accomplish the task I had given him. He starts writing an answer to my earlier question for a few seconds before stopping altogether, his eyes seemingly showing the confidence he held despite the situation he was in. I moved closer to the table and took away the newspaper, placing it close to my eyes as I read the words "Fuck you" written down.
"You know... I didn't want to do this but you forced my hand so whatever happens is on you. Misako, this is your last chance, leave while you can or you might end up regretting this decision to stay here." I sighed in annoyance before unsheathing my machete, asking Misako whether or not she was sure that she wanted to stay here as things might get bloody soon.
"I've made my choice." She tells me with strong resolve present in both her eyes and voice as I began moving towards the back of the chair that the prisoner was sitting on. Whether or not that resolve of hers would still be there by the end of the interview was something we'd only find out in the end or after I begin "convincing" the prisoner to be more cooperative.
The prisoner who had previously been calm and confident had begun to muffle out words that became incoherent due to the gag tied around his mouth after seeing me brandish my machete earlier. He still needed his other hand to write his answers so I opted to just pick out the index finger of the hand tied behind him and sliced it off using my machete after wiping it clean with a bit of water.
"I can't believe you're making me waste water just to make sure that my blade is clean of zombie blood, after all, I can't exactly have you turn into a zombie right in the middle of our interview, right?" I told him with a playful smile after going back to stand in front of him while carrying his index finger, presenting the bleeding finger while the red liquid seeped out as I watched his expression.
Gone was his previous confidence as it was replaced by both fear and pain which was multiplied in droves after he had seen the damage. His face was full of sweat as his writing hand began slamming against the table's surface as tears began to seep out of his eyes. 'Ah, what a truly sad sight this is'.
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AN: A few of my other author friends and just friends in general in both real life and discord might be aware that I've recently formed a very fond memory and so I've decided to upload another chapter following this one as a form of an unofficial celebration. Fair warning though, the torture gets a lot more... "intense" due to how more detailed it is in the next chapter so some of you might have to just skip half of the chapter entirely since you might feel uncomfortable which is something I wouldn't want for my reader :>.