“Enough,” I said. I knew the bloody smear of that child would be a lifelong scar on his heart. But I was also in the throes of losing my
own child. At that moment, I couldn’t offer any more comforting words.
“Ethan, can you do me a favor?” I finally managed to ask, after a long silence. “I want Miles and Sienna to suffer a terrible death!”
He looked up, his eyes bloodshot, and nodded firmly. “I agree!”
Lily was the first to leap up. “Does that heartless beast deserve to be a Captain? How can anyone trust their safety to him?!”
Ethan silently rose, pulling out a blood–stained military knife. It was a birthday gift from Miles. He placed the blade on the ground
and crushed it under his boot. “Consider it done.”
That day, the men didn’t kill Miles and Sienna. After severely beating them, they imprisoned them. Even without my command, they
intended to use the most brutal methods to torment them both to death!
Ethan and his men bound the battered pair and led them to a pit where various wild beasts were kept.
all
“Ethan Reed! Olivia! You can’t do this to me! I saved your lives once!” Miles shrieked, his voice hoarse. “If it weren’t for me, you would have died the very first time the raiders attacked! I’m your savior!” He screamed frantically, desperate to live, trying to lever-
age his past actions to get them to spare him.
Sienna, too, sobbed hysterically, tears streaming down her face. “Oh, Olivia, darling, I truly know I was wrong! I shouldn’t have tried to steal your man! I’ll give Miles back to you, just spare me, please! I don’t want to die, boo–hoo–hoo…”
You don’t want to die? Did anyone else want to die? Listening to their pleas, my expression remained as cold as frost, unmoved.
Seeing no one came to his aid, a flicker of humiliation crossed Miles‘ face, but it quickly contorted into a snarl. He pinned his hopes on his sister. “Lily! I’m your own brother! What did Dad say before he died? He told you to listen to me! Are you turning against your
own family now?!”
“Listen to you?” Lily suddenly laughed, pulling something from her tactical pouch and throwing it at his face. It was their mother’s
0407 C
“Listen to you?” Lily suddenly laughed, pulling something from her tactical pouch and throwing it at his face. It was their mother’s oid pocket watch. Inside the glass cover, a faded, yellowed note was tucked: Lily, be like your sister–in–law. Don’t be like your broth-
Miles recoiled as if burned. The crowd slowly closed in, and the veteran team members who had once been Miles‘ staunchest sup- porters now looked at him with chilling disappointment.
“What do you mean, ‘turning against your own family‘?” Lily’s voice trembled. “Olivia sacrificed so much for us, and you don’t even know it, do you? But you should remember! Last month, when the raiders attacked, it was Olivia, heavily pregnant, who led the def- ense of the South Gate! And where was your Sienna? Every single time danger struck, she’d conveniently get sick and hide in the safest spot, never showing her face!”
She flung her blood–stained phone at Miles. The screen cracked into a spiderweb pattern on impact, but it still clearly displayed the surveillance footage:
[Late at night in the medical station, I was slumped asleep at a desk, beside me the anti–radiation medicine I’d brewed until dawn.]
In a torrential downpour, I alone reinforced the crumbling East District wall, drenched to the bone.]
[When food was scarce, I secretly slipped my own rations into the orphans‘ backpacks.]
Miles‘ face was chalk–white, his lips trembling, unable to utter a word. No one paid any mind to their pleas; they simply locked them both into the cage!
The wild beasts, seeing living prey, erupted with terrifying vitality, charging towards them! Sienna shrieked, but it was useless.
