Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 337: You Are Wrong

Chapter 337: You Are Wrong

I hung there, stunned, as the Alpha told me how he was healed.

He looked up at me, his lips pulling back into a smile. "Well, I am sure that Rip could tell you the same; once you get the feeling of being ’normal’ again, you don’t really want to give it up. The second healer was a bit harder to get to. The people at her base weren’t too happy to hand her over. But if you’ve been to one base, you’ve been to them all. It wasn’t that hard to figure out where they would have put her."

"You’ve been to a base before?" I asked, refusing to dwell on the fact that he killed and ate two healers before me. I wasn’t sure what would be worse, not knowing what my future held or knowing that I no longer had one.

If I was alive, I could hope that someone would come and save me, but if I was dead, that was the end. There was nothing else.

"I served ten years in the fucking Ground Forces before I was dishonorably discharged. Apparently, I killed one too many civilians while on active duty. One of my teammates ratted me out. Fucking pussy."

Alpha was getting more and more irritated the longer he thought about his time in the military, and I was trying to keep the murderous sociopath somewhat calm.

"So, the two healers managed to heal you?" I asked, cringing at my change of subject. Way to go, Tian Mu; remind the killer that he is interested in eating you.

"They did. I mean, I even look human right now. I had to go raid one of the big and tall stores, but it was well worth it," smiled the Reaver as he played with the cuff of his dress shirt.

I nodded my head, but I couldn’t think about where to go from here.

"Anyways, I had heard of a third healer in City A, and imagine my surprise when I saw you again. No healer had managed to do what you did, and I wanted my kingdom back," continued the Alpha, a bright smile on his face. "But then I got wondering. Why bother with fighters and whores? They eat a lot, have so many frigging needs that I can’t keep up on my own, and they don’t earn that much money at the end of the day. You don’t take up a lot of space, only have to eat a couple of times a week, and will earn me more than double the amount that they raked in."

If I had thought my heart was already in my stomach, it had now officially dropped to my feet.

"When I followed Rip back to the building with you inside of it, and I saw you again..." The Alpha sighed, a dreamy look on his face. "I knew that I could use you to rebuild my kingdom and get back my money. My horde is gone. Killed that night that you were set free. But you can make me an entirely different horde. After all, Reavers are nothing more than healed zombies. We are the ultimate evolution. And you can create more of us."

I frantically shook my head, not caring about the movement of the suspended cage. "No, I don’t think that I can," I replied. That sounded so much better than to say that I refused to do it.

"Ah, ah, ah," tisked the Reaver. "Have you forgotten that I have been watching you for months? That I saw what you did in City B? You can heal them."

"But what if they don’t want to be healed?" I asked, thinking about Ye Yao Zu’s father. When I had tried to heal him, he didn’t want it. And I wasn’t going to heal people who didn’t want to be healed ever again.

I think I had enough of it to last a lifetime.

And even if it was all in my head, I still wasn’t willing to do it.

"Then you pull the life force out of them and put it into those that are smart. There are thousands of zombies living the good life in City A; I am sure that the majority of them would be willing to see things my way."

"Wait," I said, blinking rapidly. "Are you asking me to build you an army of Reavers?"

"No!" screamed the Alpha, jumping to his feet, and he strolled forward until he was under me. "I expect you to pay back what you owe me. If it wasn’t for you, my horde wouldn’t have died. If it wasn’t for you, I would have realized what life was supposed to be like. If it wasn’t for you, I would have been happy in my own little kingdom. All of this is your fault. Every last thing. Now that I think about it, you really are the villain in my story, aren’t you?"

His words hit me like a ton of bricks. Was everything my fault? Was all this destined the second I opened my eyes in this new world? Did I kill all those people?

My brain was swirling so badly that I didn’t even notice the Alpha moving his chair, so he was under me. Lifting his arm so that only his fingers touched the very edge of my cage, he pushed, sending my prison into circles.

This time, I couldn’t hold it in, and I ended up throwing up all over the place.

From where he stood directly under me, the Alpha was spared being covered in my vomit, but the mats were not.

"You owe me," repeated the Reaver as he quickly stopped my cage’s movement, sending me flying painfully into the bars. "And even if you didn’t, you will do what you are told."

My body trembled as I looked down at the crazy look on the Alpha’s face.

The man was never that stable, to begin with, but right now, the way he was looking at me with those cold eyes was absolutely terrifying.

But I did have one hope.

"You are going to have to let me down at some point in time," I pointed out to him. He couldn’t afford to keep me here forever, not with the city being rebuilt by my people.

"You are so adorable when you have hope, just like a little kitten with those big eyes. But I am afraid that you are wrong."