Necrocide

Chapter 25

It was around 5:00 in the morning when Aaron woke up in his cell. He forgot how uncomfortable the bed was since he easily fell asleep the night before. Granted, he spent an hour sulking over the fact that his secret would finally be exposed and he didn't even get to redeem himself before his eventual death, but he didn't suffer from insomnia like he usually did on terrible days.

He leaned up from the bed and stared at the windowless walls around him. The dim orange glow of the corridor lights were the closest thing he had to a sunrise. The other cells around him were still taking solace in ambiguity, whatever they contained hidden in the shadows beyond the bars. Back in his own cell, the only thing he had besides a bed were a lame wooden chair and a toilet.

"That's a first," a young woman said from one of the other cells. The snarky attitude and subtle foreign accent immediately made Aaron realize it was Natalya. "Normally you're out for a whole fortnight. Even an alarm clock couldn't wake you up."

"Nice to see you, too, Natalya," Aaron replied unenthusiastically. Still sitting up on his bed, he faced toward the bars separating him from the hallway and looked for Natalya, spotting the glint of the lights in her blue eyes. "What the hell are you doing here? I thought they were housing you in Cell 12 back upstairs."

"They haven't completed my blood test yet. They're too focused on yours, so they moved me down here until then. Plus, some of the other prisoners were getting a little grabby. Schaefer started killing off a few of them, as unnecessary as that was."

"Surprised you're not showing more disgust."

"I'm surprised you still show disgust considering you're the one who used to go out to kill shit all the time." Natalya paused for a moment. "What happened to you, Aaron?"

"If it ain't obvious, Schaefer thought I looked better behind bars and decided to lock me in here."

"No, smart-arse. I mean what have you become? You used to be our moral compass."

"Our?"

"You, me, Nika, and Jonah. Remember? We used to call ourselves the Cod Squad after that incident at the fishmonger's."

"I thought he was gonna give it to us as fish and chips. I didn't think he was gonna toss a live fish at us. It slapped me in the face with its tail like seven times!"

Natalya chuckled. "See? That's what I miss most about us. Our innocence. Or at least mine since you and Nika never seemed to lose it."

"But how was I your moral compass? In fact, how am I even considered innocent? I swear every day and killed dozens of Deadmen."

"Because you followed rules and helped out others. You helped teach Nika English. I'm her own sister and didn't ever feel like doing it! And I was already fluent in it. You kept all the other kids entertained while I just sat there wishing everyone else would just shut up already." Natalya paused again. "But now I heard you tried to eat some wanker's hand and then bashed another one's brains in. Where have your morals gone now?"

The conversation was interrupted by wicked chuckling echoing through the corridor. It came from right around the corner, like something sinister was lurking in their own safe haven. Aaron wouldn't have been surprised if that person was worse than whatever Deadman he'd run into in his life.

"The fuck?" Natalya said. Even though Aaron knew Natalya swore profusely, he was still shocked to hear her since it sounded like Nika was swearing, something she never did. "Is there a witch in here or something?"

"No," replied a crazed, female voice. "A witch uses a wand to get what she wants. I use whatever seems the most effective at the time."

"Where's it coming from?" Aaron asked Natalya.