In the stampede, two brothers ran for their lives, their hands clasped tightly together.
Mark and Marcus panted heavily, the pressure of bodies around them threatening to rip them apart, but they refused to let go.
Not after watching their mother be thrown from a ship.
We have to save her. Even if she abandoned us, we have to save her!
That thought burned in their minds as they pushed through the chaos, finally reaching the edge of the harbor.
But when they looked into the churning waves, her broken body was already floating in shambles in the sea.
Marcus collapsed to his knees, his voice raw and trembling. "Mother! Mother!"
Her torn clothes clung to her battered frame, the blood and bruises on her body telling a horrifying story of abuse before her final moments.
The ship that carried her tormentors was already pulling farther away.
"I'm gonna kill them," Marcus growled, his body trembling with rage as he moved toward the water.
Mark grabbed him, holding him back. "Stop! You're going to get yourself killed, you idiot!"
"Get off me!" Marcus shouted, shoving his brother and pounding his fists against him. "Can't you see what they did to her? They raped her! They killed her! And you just want to let them get away with it?"
Mark flinched at the raw fury in his brother's voice, but he stood his ground. "Can't you see?" he said bitterly. "The moment those zombies came into our house, she ran. She left us there to die."
Marcus froze, his chest heaving as the weight of his brother's words hit him. "Does that make this right?" he asked, his voice breaking as tears streamed down his face.
"No," Mark admitted, his own voice tight with pain. "It doesn't. But it's not worth revenge that will cost you your life. You're all I have left, Marcus. I can't lose you, too."
For a moment, Marcus's anger seemed to dull, replaced by anguish and exhaustion. Mark placed a steady hand on his shoulder.
"Let's just board the other ship," he urged softly. "If we survive, we'll get our revenge. But not now. Not like this."
Marcus hesitated, his eyes still locked on their mother's lifeless form in the water. "Are we just going to leave her here?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Mark's heart clenched as he followed his brother's gaze. Their mother's lifeless eyes stared blankly back at him, the same eyes that had looked at him from the doorway of their burning house–before she turned her back on him and ran.
Before Mark could respond, a voice as calm as the breeze sliced through the air.
"Hello, boys."
The brothers froze.
Descending gracefully from the sky, a woman landed between them. Her long blonde hair billowed in the wind, streaked with blood, which also stained her tank top, jeans, and boots.
She moved with an unsettling poise, her arms draping casually over their shoulders.
They were too petrified to move, their bodies trembling as the stranger's icy eyes bore into them.
"So," she said, her voice smooth and unsettling. "Who should I kill for you?"