Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus

he’d showed up, but he was trying to tell me to back off, and all it did was make me hate him. “Get away from me, Paci,” I growled, my eyes blazing.
    He backed up two paces, frowning at me.
    I turned back to Kowi. “You can’t turn them out like dogs. Hell, you don’t even turn dogs out!” I yelled at Kowi, pointing at Buster.
    “We’re not treating anyone like anything except people who don’t belong.”
    “What? … Is this a racial thing?” I asked, completely confused.
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” said Kowi in an offended tone.
    “Well, explain it to me, then.”
    “You aren’t owed an explanation!” screeched Coli. “You are not a part of this tribe! So shut up and sit down like a good girl!”
    I pushed Peter and Ronald out of my way, advancing on her with only one plan in mind: I was going to slam her smug face into the dirt and suffocate her with it. She was hateful and nasty to the core and I was sick and tired of her constant ugliness in my life.
    Kowi jumped in between us with his hands out. “Bryn, back down!”
    I met Kowi, toe-to-toe. “Get the hell out of my way, Kowi, or I’m taking you out, too. She deserves what’s coming to her.”
    He pleaded with me with his eyes before doing it aloud. “Please, Bryn. She’s out of line. I’ll talk to her about it. But you can’t touch her. I won’t let you.”
    I raised an eyebrow at him. “You think you can stop me?”
    “Maybe he can’t … but I can,” said Trip, leveling a gun at my face from off to the side.
    I turned my head slowly, fixing him with a death stare, not even a little bit shocked that he’d stooped to this level. He hadn’t fought me fair before, so there was no sense expecting him to do it now.
    “Don’t even try it,” I warned.
    “You can’t move faster than a bullet,” he said calmly, never taking his eyes off me or his finger off the trigger.
    “Holy shit, Trip, what are you …? Come on, that’s not necessary,” said Kowi. “Put it away.”
    “What the hell is going on here?!” yelled Paci, louder and angrier than I’d ever heard him before.
    Even I was startled enough to turn around.
    “Have all of you lost your friggin’ minds?! This is Bryn here! And these guys are her new friends … they came her looking for her , not us. You can’t just … point a gun in her face, Trip!” He looked at Kowi, scolding him with his expression. “Kowi, man … what is wrong with you? You don’t treat people like this. You’re letting Coli talk to people like they’re trash now?” He looked back and forth between Trip who’d lowered the gun an inch and Kowi who looked just a tiny bit ashamed. “Did I fall asleep and wake up in an alternate reality or what?” He strode forward until he was standing at my side. Then he roared. “Somebody talk to me and tell me what’s happening!”
    I heard LaShay’s voice behind me very softly say, “Damn … boy’s done lost his mind.”
    Kowi was the first to respond, taking a step back before speaking, his hands up in a calming gesture. “Paci, just relax. We have enough hot heads here right now.”
    “No, Kowi, don’t tell me to relax . Because I’m pretty sure I just heard you say you were turning these two innocent guys … kids … out into the streets that you know very well are full of cannibals.” Paci was fuming, spittle flying from his mouth, all the veins in his neck standing out.
    “It’s not like that …” Kowi started to explain but Paci cut him off.
    “Yeah. It is like that. And pretending otherwise doesn’t change the facts, much as you might like it to.” Paci looked at me. “You see, Bryn. This is what happens when you have dictators in charge. The power goes to their heads and they can’t see any farther than the ends of their own fucking noses.”
    “Paci, you’re outta line,” warned Trip, lowering the gun to his side. “You’d better just shut the hell up now and go home.”
    “Fuck you, Trip. You too, Jeremy.” He shot Trip’s sidekick a glare, noticing like me that he’d moved over to stand by his chief. “You don’t tell me what to do. If this tribe is about sending innocents to be slaughtered, I’m no longer interested.”
    “Paci!” I gasped. “You can’t mean that!” My mind was whirling with the cascade of shit that was flowing down over all of us, ready to drown us in awfulness.
    Paci turned on me. “You don’t speak for me either, Bryn. In case you haven’t noticed, I do what I want, when I