Beyond Terminus (Book Two)

Chapter 37: Possibilities

Rick watches through the small crack in the door. Judith coos and grips onto my curls tightly, sucking on the ends a little.

"When the world was still the world, I worked for an NGO. Our mission was to deliver medicine and food to the Niger River Delta. Bad people pointed guns in my face every other week," Aaron says. "You're not bad people. You're not going to kill us. And we are definitely not going to kill you."

"Just because we're good people doesn't mean we won't kill you," Rick responds, shutting the door. "If the five of them aren't back in an hour, I'll put a knife in the base of your skull."

Judith crying starts crying and Rick walks over to the pair of us. I shush her softly as he grabs a bowl with some acorns in it. He starts crushing them with the butt of his gun and I watch, feeling the hunger pangs in my stomach growing with Judy's.

"You did see the jar of applesauce in my bag, right?" Aaron asks. "This isn't a trick. This isn't about trying to make you like me. It's self-preservation, because if the roamers hear her and come this way, I know I'll be the first to go."

Rick ignores him, giving up on the nuts and moving to the jars.

"Hope, you seem like a level headed person. Please, you've got to believe me."

A shiver runs down my spine. He knows my name too, even though I was never introduced. Creepy.

"You don't need to talk to her," Rick says before I can reply.

"Rick..." I groan.

He takes a spoonful of applesauce and walks over to Aaron, holding it up to his mouth. The prisoner looks up at him, horrified.

"You think I'm trying to poison your baby daughter? I'm tied up and you've already expressed a willingness to stab me in the head. How would cruelly killing your daughter in front of you in any way help the situation?"

"Maybe she doesn't die," Rick says, lowering down onto one knee. "Maybe she gets sick. Maybe you're the only one that can help her and I just lose."

"I am the only one who can help her, because I have applesauce, and we all win."

"Rick, I'll try it," I say, exasperated.

"No," he snaps.

"I hate applesauce," Aaron whimpers.

I shush Judith again, and she keeps making little noises of hunger as she tugs on my hair.

"Rick, for the love of all that is good and holy-" I start.

"Hope, I'm not letting you try anything."

"My mom used to make me eat foods I didn't like to make me more manly. Salmon patties, applesauce, and onions. She was a very confused woman who tried her damnedest. I just bring the jar to show that we have apple trees nearby," Aaron rambles, and I lean against the wall.

"Like you said, you'll be the first to go." Rick keeps holding the sauce out to him.

He grimaces and takes the spoonful, swallowing with some difficulty. Rick tries a little, licking his lips before nodding. He moves towards Judith and I, eating the rest of it off the spoon. I move to the jar and sit down, spooning little swallows into her mouth as she stops crying.

"The community is big enough. We can find a place for you to live where even when she cries, no one, nothing can hear it outside the walls," Aaron says. "Hope...your husband and you, you could have a place where you could raise your family."

Rick looks at me, his eyes softening a little. I exhale heavily, wanting so badly to believe that this guy is legit.

"You got forty-three minutes," Rick tells him.