Chapter 32: Sin In My Heart

"This is-this is..." Sam stammers. "It's-it's total bullshit! No way did Jody kill twenty-three people."

"It does seem very unlikely, Mr. Travis," Kefilwe agrees. "Jody is one of our township's most reliable runners."

He doesn't even blink as he continues to drag Jody towards Abel's direction. "It's the truth."

"It can't be! I didn't do it!" Jody exclaims as she struggles against her restraints.

"Of course, you didn't," Owen says. "You wouldn't kill twenty-three people; You wouldn't kill a fly. I mean, literally. I've seen it, mate. When there's a bug in the room, she spends hours tryin' to trap it under a glass so she doesn't have to squash it."

"She didn't do it directly. De Luca and I have seen transmissions that show someone in Abel sold intelligence to the Exmoor Militia-those guys in the yellow jackets. Someone in Abel told them where a Ministry convoy would be.

"Militia intercepted the convoy, took the goods, took the vehicles, left the people. Whole bunch of refugees who'd been with the convoy-a group including children, the elderly, three disabled people, one blind-the Militia left them defenseless in the path of a huge zombie horde. They died bloody; They died terrified; They died alone." Travis's eyes burn with hatred. "They died because your friend here sold them out for candles and lunch meat."

I stare at him, confused and sad. These people were sold out, but not by Jody. That's not her way. She's not that kind of person. She's not a murderer.

I'm a murderer. Sarah was a murderer. Simon is a murderer. I'm sure Summer is one too. Those are runners that are killers. Jody is not one of those runners. Not even close.

"That's awful, but it has nothing to do with Jody," I say.

"Evidence says it is."

Jody cranes her neck to look back at him. "What evidence? What happened to innocent 'til proven guilty? What happened to the right to a fair trial?"

"The apocalypse happened." His voice is cold, hollow almost.

"You can't just execute her!" Sam exclaims, and Owen and I nod in agreement. "You just... You can't."

"Martial law says you're wrong."

Owen's jaw clenches. "Well, stuff you, and stuff your Martial law!"

He charges for Travis, tackling him, which causes him to let go of Jody. The Australian man punches the American in the face, hard. Travis's head hits the ground just as hard, and he goes still. I stare at Owen in shock.

"Where the hell did that come from?" I ask, eyebrows raised. I've never seen Owen ever do anything like that... ever.

"Oh my goodness!" Kefilwe asks. "Have you killed him?"

"No, I just knocked him out." He reaches down and grabs the keys to the handcuffs from Travis and tosses them to me. "Here. Get those handcuffs off her."

I do as told, and Jody rubs her wrists once she's freed. I grimace at the cold metal cuffs, then I shove them in my backpack.

"Okay, right," Sam sighs, and I can tell he's trying not to sound too panicky. "Okay. You need to come back to Abel-"

"There's quite enough of that, Samuel," A new voice chimes in, and I sneer as I recognize who the owner of said voice is.

Amelia.

"What are you-"

"I'm stopping you from aiding and abetting a condemned criminal," She interrupts.

"Condemned? She's not even had a tr-"

Click.

"Sam!" Jody calls, but there's no answer. Owen looks down at Travis's limp body, and nudges him with his foot with a scoff.

"Come on," He says. "We need to get out of here before this bastard wakes up."

I nod in agreement, and we start running. But I don't know why we're heading towards Abel. I know Jody and Owen know where they're going, but why do they want to head towards the place where Jody is supposed to be executed?

I'll ask them that in a minute, right after I make sure we're a good ways away from Travis. We have to keep ahead of him. I may have that big knife covered in zombie blood, but I have no idea what this Ministry man might have up his sleeve. He already had a concussion grenade on hand. Who knows what else he might just be casually carrying around with him?

I don't like this. It doesn't feel right. I mean, of all people, why Jody? There are other runners who would seem way more capable of murder than her. And most of our runners are very kind people, which says a lot. The fact that Janine might actually think Runner Four would do such a thing is horrendous.

Well, she did believe I was a traitor too. So... her judgement isn't always the best.

If there is someone selling out information, then it definitely isn't Jody. Can't be.

"Sam?" Owen says, taping his mic and trying to find a frequency that he might be on. "Sam, come on, mate. Pick up."

"It's no good," Jody says. "Amelia must've cut all coms."

"We need to know what's going on in Abel."

He's right. There's a lot of confusion about this, especially since Jody hasn't even been given the chance to defend herself. We can't just let her be killed. She's my friend. I've lost too many of those to risk losing another one.

"We'll find out when we get there," She says. "We've just gone past the old tractor, meaning it's not far now."

"Are you sure we should go back?" I question with a raised brow, doubt creeping up into my chest. "I mean, what if it's too late? How do we know you won't be arrested once you walk through the gates?"

"Janine would never let that happen."

"Janine was the one who was talking to Travis in the first place. Didn't you hear what he said?" Owen asks, running a hand through his light brown hair. "And either way, Janine's not in charge anymore, and even if she was-"

"I'm innocent!" She exclaims, and my shoulders tense because I've heard her say those words before. I've heard it in my head. "My friends won't let some stranger march through the gates and kill me in cold blood. You didn't, neither of ya."

He bristles slightly. "Yeah, but we.. we're different. We care about you, Jody. Some of the other people in Abel-the ones who aren't runners-they're grateful to the Ministry. There's been more food since Amelia turned up, more ammo, and-and Travis might not give them a choice. You've seen what he's like. I don't want to take that risk."

She doesn't falter. "But if we get to Abel, we can find out whatever-"

"I'm clumsy," Sam laughs forcefully through my headset, and I breathe a sigh of relief at hearing his voice again. I open my mouth to speak to him, but he continues. "Look at me, falling all over the control desk. Uh, I'm sorry, Amelia. Could you-could you uh, just say that again?"

"Say what again?" The woman all but growls. She's clearly annoyed.

"Uh, about your plan to catch Jody? I didn't quite catch all the details. Didn't you say you're setting up a cordon of New Canton runners at the old railway line?"

"Crap," Jody mutters, while I think of a much more inappropriate word. "No way we can make it to Abel."

"There's an abandoned town near Abel we could hide in," I say. "I haven't been since the first attack on Abel, but I don't see why it wouldn't still be there. We could stay there for the night while we try to find out what's happening... but I think we still will have to get past the New Canton runners."

"You talkin' about Volley Ville?" Jody questions, and I nod.

"Think it's a good idea?"

She hums in thought. "We're going to have sneak past those New Canton runners anyway, because they're already getting into position and we can't risk turning around and meeting Travis again. But Volley Ville is too close to Abel; It's not even three miles from it. If we try to hide there, we'll be found in a few hours."

I nod, realizing she's right. "Got any other ideas? We can't go into the city. Can't stay the night there. Too many zoms."

"We'll think of something," Owen says. "We just gotta keep running. We can't have Travis waking up and catching up to us. Who knows what he's willing to do to bring Jody back?"

If Ministry operatives are anything like the Torrencer agents, it'll be just about anything. And I don't want to take a chance to find out if they have any similarities, so I push myself to go faster, with Four and Six doing the same.

The air has a bitterness to it, and the cold around me starts to seep into my skin. It will probably start snowing soon. If I'm lucky, it'll not start raining white puffs of torturous cold until next month, but we never know here.

The air isn't crisp though, even with the cold. As I start to pant, I realize it has a stale taste to it. Better than a metallic one, I guess. But the stale taste most likely means trouble. Too bad I didn't taste it twenty minutes ago.

"There." Owen says, pointing ahead. "On the brow of that hill. Can you see them, Five?"

I nod, squinting at the armed figures in the distance. They're spread apart, one every so many yards. I don't have the time to make a guestimation; I'm too busy trying to think of how we can get past them without me having to actually murder any of them. They are just following orders, after all.

I'm sure at least one of these runners is my friend, Jody's friend. I've seen how the P.A.C. can be, and what they make their runners do. I'm not going to kill any of these runners, not unless I absolutely have to.

"Uh, yeah, Amelia, I will pass on the instruction to the New Canton operator to start closing in," Sam says, enunciating every word so we can hear clearly. "Um, what spacing was it you said should be between them? Fifty feet?"

"Bless Sam," Jody sighs thankfully, and I send a prayer to God asking Him to do just that to the operator. This is true friendship-loyalty.

"Bloody New Canton though," Owen all but snarls. "Can't believe they're helping Travis."

"I can. The Permanent Advisory Council is really tight with the Ministry. It's just like them to throw an Abel runner to the wolves."

Another thing that's true. While I do have multiple New Canton runner friends, almost every other resident of the place only tolerate us... and sometimes they don't even do that. Plus, the P.A.C. are no doubt still angry with me since I didn't bring back their best operator.

"If there's fifty feet between their runners, we can slip through," He says. "I've got a good idea of a way through. Follow me."

"No sign of them yet?" Amelia asks, her voice clearly showing her irritation.

"Not yet," Sam replies. "Maybe they decided not to head back to Abel after all."

"Who exactly are with the criminal? Who was on this mission with her?"

I sneer at how she calls Jody 'the criminal', as if she can't even bear to say her name, as if she can't even be bothered to remember it.

"What does that have anything to do with-"

"Is Runner Five out there with her? This seems like something she'd do, help a criminal. She's always been a reckless one."

"Five is out there, trying to help her friend. Her and Owen both have ran with Jody, you know. When you've nearly died with someone... you trust them. A-And Five's recklessness usually ends up working things out in the long run."

Amelia hums. "Still, I think that needs to be put to an end. I'll be sure to have a chat with her and with... Runner Six once we find Miss Marsh. Keep an eye out for them."

Jody smiles softly. "Sam's a good guy, isn't he? In a way, this hasn't been all that bad. I feel like I've found out who my real friends are."

Owen nods, his eyes softening as he gazes at her for a moment. Then he shakes his head, blinking the determination and focus back into his eyes as he looks ahead. "Right. Cordon's coming up. The best way has to be along the motorway."

I blanch. "The motorway?"

He nods. "Yeah. We all know what that means. Best we get through fast."

•

"I hate these places," Jody says, shuddering. "Back when the Big Z started, everyone thought motorways would be the quickest way to get out of dodge."

I nod. "That's how it was in America. The interstate was the fastest way to get out. There were so many traffic jams... it was unreal."

"Yeah, and half the people were already infected. Now look at it-burnt out cars, cars with skeletons in them." She winces. "Oh, that Volvo's got a zom trapped inside."

I glance over at it, watching its gray hands scratching at the dirty window. It's been dead for a long time. Probably been a zombie as long as the apocalypse has been going on-four and a half years, give or take a few months. That means its blood is just as infectious as it's bite.

After about three years, seven months, the zombie virus changes in a zom, making their blood infectious. I remember when Maxine told me that... after we found out Van Ark's blood was infectious too. Terrifying really, especially since there must be more zombies in these burnt out cars-all having been turned when traffic slowed.

"You reckon we've cleared the New Canton cordon yet?" Owen asks.

"It's fine. You've slipped past them."

"Sam!" I gasp.

"I haven't got long. Amelia will be back soon. You need to go in that pedestrian bridge up ahead, and take the next exit."

Jody smiles gratefully. "Thanks, Sam. You've been amazing. I don't... I don't know how..."

"It was nothing." I can hear the soft smile in his voice. "Honestly, anyone here would have done the same. Well, anyone except Runner Twenty-one. You know what he's like. But, look, you can't come back here. It's not just that Travis person, the Ministry has sent an entire firing squad. Talk about morbid."

"Guess they knew they wouldn't fund anyone in Abel to do it," Owen mutters as we run under one of those bridges that loop around on the motorway.

"Yeah. Anyway, you can't risk coming back here and you definitely can't go to New Canton. I think you're gonna have to find somewhere to hide-"

His words are cut off when all three of us let out shrill screams. As soon as we stepped out from under the highway bridge, we were drenched in some sticky liquid.

"Who the hell-" I start.

"What was that?" Sam questions.

"Oh, God," Owen says. "It's red paint. It's all over me."

"It's not paint," I say in a shaky voice, looking at it on my arms, on my hands, on my... well, everything. I can smell it. "It's blood."

"It's in me hair," Jody scowls, and I roll my eyes at her bad use of grammar. "Where the hell did it even come from?"

"Sorry. That was me."

We look upward, and there stands a smirking blonde-one who we thought, and hoped, was still out cold.

"What do you think you're doin', mate?" Runner Six questions.

"Making you more appealing to the local undead," Travis answers, still holding that damn smirk. If he were closer, I'd march up to him and slap it off. "Quite a lot of 'em around. Give yourselves up, and I can get you cleaned up back in Abel. Or, you could take your chances with the zombies."

"You know what? You can suck it, you little-"

"Five!" Jody gasps.

"What? We were all thinkin' it."

"Jesus," Sam exclaims. "That zom's broken out if that Volvo, and there's a whole horde in that minibus. Run!"

We sprint off, hearing glass break as zombies try to escape their vehicles. Drops of blood fall from our bodies, and I don't want to think of what or who this blood might've belonged to. I want to believe it's from an animal, but one can never be too sure. But no matter what it came from, this just shows that Travis is a freaking weirdo. Because who just happens to have a ten gallon bucket of blood on hand?

My hair is soaked. That along with the bad haircut makes me look completely horrendous. But I can't say Jody looks much better, or Owen. Their hair is lighter than mine-Jody being a blonde and Owen having a light brown hair color-so they now look like they're trying to imitate Ariana Grande's hair color when she played that stupid girl from that Nickelodeon show.

My shirt is stained, and my running pants, and my socks. My shoes are ruined now-this is the fourth pair in... a year and a half. That's how long I've been here, give or take a few months. Seems like it's been a lot longer.

I remember what Amelia said to Sam about me. After she ordered that bike to be sent out to pick me up, I thought she sort of liked me now-tolerated me, at least. Maybe she only did that because I'd been gone a couple of weeks and she'd forgotten how annoying to her I could be. Either way, I'm not going to let her tell me anything about my 'reckless behavior'. I get enough of that from Janine.

"Sam? Sam!" Owen calls, but there's no answer. I sigh in annoyance.

"Great. We've lost him again. Amelia must've come back." I wring my hands out, trying to get some of the blood off of me. "How long do you think it'll take for this to dry?"

"I don't know, but there are zombies everywhere." He looks behind him, watching the rotting flesh bags stumble after us. "The cars must've been full of them. If they weren't shamblers, we'd be dead by now. If any fast zoms get a whiff of this blood..."

"Thank you for your delightful and encouraging input," I say sarcastically, earning a frown from him. "We're going to be fine. Once we've found a place to hide, we can try to find a stream or something and use that to get all this blood off."

"I think I have a better idea," Jody says, her index finger pointing at a bright yellow and green sign. "It's for a car wash."

Owen frowns. "But there won't be any water."

"It should have buckets of cleaning fluid. Got any better ideas?"

He shakes his head, then he looks up at the shopping center. The car wash is out the back, and we could easily go around, but we need get away from these zombies. Shamblers may be slow, but that doesn't mean they're not dangerous. Going through here could slow them down even more.

The lights are on, I notice, meaning there's power-a generator. If there's power, there might be working water to help clean ourselves up.

"Think someone's living here?" I question, knowing my running partners are thinking the same thing I am.

"Maybe. Doesn't matter though. All that matters is since there's power, we can get the escalator workin'. Five, could you..."

I nod quickly, sprinting ahead and to press the button at the bottom of the escalator. I do just that, and grin when it starts moving.

"Awesome," Owen laughs. "I always wanted to run up and down an escalator."

Instead of going on the stairs moving upward, we run up the stairs heading downward. It's more effort to get to the top, but the zombies follow us on that escalator, making no progress when they try to slowly step after us. When we reach the upper floor, I see that one zombie's got its foot stuck, and the escalator is crunching and grinding up flesh and bone. Toes are going everywhere.

We don't stay there for long. We head back around, away from the zom's line of sight, and use a back stairway to get back to the first floor. Then we go back to the garage, where the car wash is, and we've all guessed that if the escalator works, then there should be water here too.

"Can you see the switch?" Owen asks, and Jody heads over to a red button on the wall.

"Got it."

He looks at me and gestures to the empty spot beside him. That's where I go to stand. Jody presses the button and starts running to us, but before she can get closer to us, we're all sprayed with freezing cold water. The force of it is almost painful. I have to keep my eyes closed in order to not have my eyeballs blown back into my head.

But thankfully, the spray only lasts twenty seconds, and once it ends, we're left shivering, and dripping wet. But, even better, we're clean. We're still going to have to wash our hair, and our clothes are permanently stained, but at least we don't reek of death.

"Thought you might head this way," Travis says over the shopping center's speakers. We all tense. "Not many other places around here to get that blood off. And there was that sign pointing you in the right direction."

"Crap," Jody mutters. "He played us. Where is he?"

Owen looks about, eyes wide and searching. "I don't know, but if the power's back on, the surveillance cams must be working too. If he's in the control center, he can see everything we're doin'."

"Why don't you ask her about the Dero Deal, Runner Five?" He asks. No, he taunts. "Ask her, Owen. See what she says."

Both of us look at Jody expectantly.

"We need to get out of here, now."

She bolts toward the door, and we follow. It's so big-this place. I've never been here, so I just follow Jody and Owen, searching for an exit. We can't go out the way we came in, since we'd have to go back to the zoms, and we can't do that.

But Travis has eyes on us. He's watching. He can probably see everything in this place because of the surveillance cameras. He can see every move we make.

"I forgot how huge this place is," Jody murmurs. "Greentail Parks-stupid name anyway. Like there's a single green thing growin' here."

"There must be a way out somewhere," Owen says.

"There's no way out for you, Jody," Travis says, and I feel my blood boil.

"Shut up! We aren't listening to anything you say!"

"Past that toy shop," She says. "There's a road that leads out to the car park, I think."

"Run as fast as you like. You can't outrun your past. You can't get away from the Dero Deal."

Owen's brows knit together, and he looks at Jody with curious and slightly worried eyes. "What's he talking about?"

"I don't know," She answers, but her hands are shaking-her voice is wavering. My throat clogs at the realization.

She's lying.

"She's lying, but you can tell, can't you?" Travis asks, as if reading my mind. "You can hear it in her voice. Has she told you about her past? Anything?"

"I know everything I need to know," Owen says, but I can see the vulnerable look on his face, the doubt swirling in his eyes.

"Ignore him," Jody says. "He's tryin' to psych you out."

"She was in banking, but you knew that, didn't you? If she told you everything, I guess she told you about that little racket she had going too-setting up accounts for companies that didn't exist, letting her buddies in the Romanian mafia pass money through them."

"He's lyin'." She sounds desperate.

"Do you wonder what they used those accounts for, her buddies? Drugs, guns, people trafficking-"

"Shut up! Just shut up!"

My lips part, my stomach sinking. Oh, my God.

"I'll tell you what," Travis says smugly, "I'll let Jody explain this herself. I brought this DVD with me to show some folks at Abel, just in case they doubted my word."

Suddenly the screen above the movie theater clicks on, and in a dark room stands a man who I don't recognize, and there in front of him, with eyes emotionless, stone cold...

Stands Jody.

"Jody?" Owen says, looking at her questionably, fearfully.

"Stop it!"

"Thought you had no secrets," Travis replies. "I guess everyone has something so dark and dirty they have to keep it buried."

"I've done what you asked," The Jody on the screen says. "The accounts are all set up."

"Good," The unknown man replies. "Now we will be able to transfer-"

"Don't tell me. I don't want to know. Just give me the money."

It rewinds.

"I don't want to know. Just give me the money."

Again.

"I don't want to know. Just give me the money."

Owen and I both stare at Jody, who now looks whiter than a ghost. "Jody?"

"These days, Jody's buddies have moved up in the world," Travis explains. "Organized crime to Exmoor Militia in one easy step. Money's worth nothing now. She's still doing them little favors. Probably gets paid in food and meds. Maybe they even promised to set her up with weapons. You're surrounded by Deadlock territory on all sides. There's nowhere to run, Jody, and I don't think your friends are going to be helping you anymore."

Deadlock territory...

"There's the exit," Jody says. "Come on. We don't have to listen to anymore of this."

"That's okay. I think they've heard enough. When you two have thought it over, being her to me."

I grit my teeth. She may have set up fake accounts, but I still have trouble believing Jody helped murder twenty-three people.

Deadlock territory.

"I know where we can go," I say. "Follow me. I... I know someone who can help us-a friend of mine. Come on."

•

"You sure this is the right way, Five?" Owen asks skeptically. "I recognize those factory buildings. We're heading into Deadlock territory."

I nod. "I know."

"If Five says there's shelter this way, that's good enough for me," Jody says, and he nods.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I trust Runner Five. When she tells me something, I know it's true."

"I can explain," She says desperately. "It's not-it's not what it seems."

"I hope so, because this seems really bad."

"I didn't get those people killed! I swear!"

"I want to believe you," He sighs, and I can hear the unspoken words.

But I can't.

She looks at me with wide eyes. "You know I'm tellin' the truth, don't ya? Please, Five. Please say you trust me."

"I... I-I-"

"Hello, stranger!"

I perk up at that voice, and my gaze snaps toward the masked figure running towards us. Jody gasps.

"Is that... beneath the mask... Is that Simon? Runner Three?"

"Hello, Jody," He greets when he reaches us. "Surprised to see me? Well, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

"This is the friend you said would help us?" Owen gapes at me.

"Wow. Friend? Didn't know I had those anymore," He laughs. "I guess you really did mean it when you said you forgave me."

"Of course, I meant it. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't," I say, frowning at the fact that he doubted my word. "I remember you said you listen in on the radio frequency, so I thought..."

"You thought I'd be able to lend a hand?" He smirks. "Well, just one as it happens."

I look at him hopefully. "So you'll help us?"

Simon hums, and with his only hand, he grabs my wrist. "Why don't you come back to mine, and I'll see what I can do?"

A/N: Well, look who made an appearance. Have you missed Simon? Because I have. And what are your thoughts on Jody now that you know her past?

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!