Chapter 1 – The betrayal
Walking back toward the convoy with her hard won finds Ava was smiling to herself, with these she would probably bring back enough base points so that her aunt's family and her could finally upgrade from the common shelter to a private flat at the Fusehill base. She had also found a unique and pretty coin that she thought her aunt might like, her aunt had always desired pretty and sparkly things.
Just as she was about to round the corner, she overheard her cousins speaking. " That useless Ava if she wasn't so useful at doing all the dirty and hard work for us our family would of gotten rid of her ages ago." with a mocking laugh she continued talking to the leader of today's scavenger team, Allan Bennet a sly man who grew up in the same neighbourhood as her cousin. "The only reason I tag along is to make sure she doesn't hide anything from us, she's always been pathetic, just an orphan nobody cares about". Allans eyes looked Ava's cousin Jude up and down "But your family were always nice to her even before the catastrophes, i remember your parents always looking out for her after her parents died." Jude scoffed " That's just because she inherited everything left by her parents; my mum said that it's a shame she didn't die with her family before the apocalypse as all their money would have been ours without all the work we had to put into manipulating it out of her". Allan hummed a dark smile playing on his lips, he leaned into Jude "So you all are just using her, why not make some real profit from her?"
Jude blinked leaning into Allan conspiratory "how do we do that?" she whispered. "Easy, sell her to me, i have connections outside the base, they are always wanting females, I'll give you decent points and she would be out of your hair. Maybe you can convince her it's a work thing, so she comes easy or knock her out and I'll take her that way. The group aren't picky".
Ava crouched round the corner breathing heavily, she was shocked, disbelief swirled in her head she had heard of the gangs outside the bases, lawless and brutal groups of men who were less than human now, they did whatever they wanted, committing horrors on others and in some cases even eating their prisoners when necessary. Allan was somehow connected to one of these horrible gangs and from what she had heard was actively finding victims for them.
She was already reeling from what she had overheard her cousin say, deeply wounded and angry. Memories running wildly, her aunt and uncle comforting her after her parents' funeral, them encouraging her to sell the family home and move closer to them, later on they all moved in to look after her, now all this seemed clearly calculated to manipulate her and gain whatever they could from her. If the end of days didn't come, would they have taken everything from her? Would she have given it without noticing? Such thoughts rattled around. What about all the effort she had put into helping them survive? Going out into dangerous situations to make sure they had enough to eat, risking her life to protect them when moving to the base. Her Uncle always stating they were too old and Jude was too fragile to help her. All of this seemed laughable now. They were capable they just thought her life was worth less than theirs, so she was always put out into the firing line.
Coming back to the present she reminded herself even with what she heard her cousin say she surely wasn't inhuman enough to do that to her as being caught by one of those gangs was worse than death for women everyone knew that. Ava stood quickly and peeked round the corner she thought I'm not going to be discussed like this, she didn't need her cousins answer what she had said was enough and Allan was obviously a retch, so she straightened her back and walked round the corner to confront them.
Looking straight at Jude catching her attention Ava trembled slightly "Thanks for enlightening me cousin, good to know not just you but aunty and uncle are also scum." Jude jolted catching sight of Ava realising she had heard everything. "Bit late to be realising now isn't it, but since you have why not take Allan up on his proposition and go be a plaything for one of the gangs. As you will obviously not want to be around us anymore, this way you can be helpful one last time to our family." Jude smirked and her eyes quickly flicked to Allan as if to say we have a deal. Allan seeming to realise that their conversation had been heard and his secrets could be shared to the base if action wasn't taken quickly looked at Ava sizing her up and stepping closer.
Ava cautiously watching him and stated "If you're going to try and buy someone shouldn't you be a bit more cautious, when i get back I'm reporting you to base security, let them know the shady dealing you have been conducting Allan" the statement seeming to rile him up more he quickly sprinted at her trying to grab her, Ava quickly dashed sideways avoiding his grip. "You won't be doing anything other than begging, once i take you." Allan roared. Before Ava could further dodge Allan she gasped.
"Ah!" A sharp pain spread through Ava's body, and she stumbled before immediately falling to the ground. Disbelief at the shock that her cousin could hurt her, she had brutally stabbed her in the stomach. Allan grabbed Judes wrist "Why did you stab her she's worth something alive." Her cousin shrugged "I changed my mind; I've always hated her and the extra attention my parents had to lavish on her. I've decided it's safer to just get rid of her." Huffing Allan knew it was safer, but he was going to lose out by not selling her off. "Maybe we can patch her up enough to sell her."
The bag of scavenged goods that Ava had fell in front of her when she fell, the beautiful gold and jade coin she found and thought to gift her aunt fell to the ground and rolled in front of her, remaining undamaged. It glinted in the light and for some reason she felt drawn to it, so she reached out to it with her bloody hand, tightly clasping it in her palm.
Noticing the coin that fell out and was now in Ava's hand a greedy glint flashed in her cousin's eye as she yelled "That's mine now." Rushing over as if Ava didn't exist and the coin was her treasure. It seems a bit of madness had slipped into her cousin after her previous attack as she totally disregarded anything Allan said and rushed to Ava.
A bright light shone behind Ava's eyes as she closed them waiting for her cousins next attack, a warmth filled her head before opening her eyes again and seeing Jude above her reaching out while aiming her knife at her again while also grasping for her hand. Ava just lay there in disbelief, but she had already lost too much blood and the ability to resist. All she felt was pain as her life force ebbed away. On the brink of death, she heard Jude laugh and with her jubilant voice. "Allan, i did it! Help me grab her stuff and move the body before anyone notices"
In her last moment, Ava was regretful, she should have been smarter. It was foolish to confront them head on but more than that she was regretful for trusting her aunt, uncle and cousin, she hated the fact that they had used her but she had also let herself be used, maybe she was just too tired after her parents death to notice or maybe she chose not to see what was obvious. If it happened all over, she would be stronger, she would repay their betrayal.