Chapter 77 - Dead weight (2)

When he opened the back doors of the truck, Lazar saw that all the passengers had their seatbelts unfastened, except Katelyn...

It made sense; since she was still unconscious and her seatbelt was the only thing that kept her in place in her seat, the other passengers must have thought it would be more convenient to wait until the last moment to unbuckle her and get her off.

While some passengers were getting up from their seats without having waited for Lazar to confirm that they had indeed arrived at their destination, the latter made them understand that this wasn't the case for 20 of them...

"Francis, you're coming, the rest of you get back to your seat and buckle your seatbelts, we'll be leaving soon." He ordered firmly, without receiving any follow-up questions, neither from Francis, who had recognized where the truck had stopped when Lazar opened the doors, nor from the rest of the passengers, since, because of what Amandla had done a few moments ago, they were too afraid of her and Lazar to risk upsetting any of them.

Francis got up from his seat at the end of the left row and walked while trying to ignore the eyes full of unsatisfied curiosity which were following him to the back doors where Lazar was waiting for him...

It was a strange sight from the point of view of Lazar, but that's because he didn't knew that Francis had been dodging hundreds of questions from the other passengers along the way about how he knew him and Amandla, and that they were in fact just disappointed to see the answers to their questions fly away with Francis.

Lazar took a few steps back so as not to get in the way of Francis as he was about to get out of the truck, then closed the doors as soon as he did so.

"You did well bringing me home. I'm going to need to get some clean clothes before coming with you..." Francis said with an embarrassed smile which was saying a lot about what he had in mind to Lazar.

'Sounds like his survival instincts have woken up.' Lazar thought with disdain, understanding very well that by saying this Francis was indirectly making him understand that for him, they were already a team of 3 with Amandla, 'Fortunately I had a conversation with her before I promised him anything.'

"Francis..." Lazar said in a heavy tone while looking him straight in the eyes, "...you're not coming with us."

The face of Francis became pale and in an instant the image he had of Lazar as someone who was insensitive but who never let down those close to him shattered, 'He's kidding me, right? He can't do this to me.'

"B-but Lazar, you don't understand. My parents were on a business trip when it all started and I'm almost sure they'll not come back, y-you're the only person I can trust now." He responded with tears forming at the corners of his eyes, still not wanting to believe that his 'friend' was going to abandon him.

Lazar remained unfazed, "It's true, you can trust me, but the opposite isn't possible and you know it." He wasn't going to beat around the bush, "I need people I can entrust my back to, who can fight and kill, those are things you are incapable of and that won't change because you're not a fighter."

'No! No! No!' Francis simply couldn't accept this, he was convinced that without Lazar he had little means of survival, "But..."

However, Lazar made him understand that his decision was final, "There is no way you're going to change my mind. Instead, we should talk about what you should do."

Although he was still shocked by what he considered to be a betrayal on Lazar's part, knowing that he had thought of an alternative for him gave Francis hope, "What do you mean?" He asked while drying his tears, expecting Lazar to give him a solution to all his problems, as usual... far from suspecting that this time he was going to ask him to make sacrifices.

'Leave ?' Confusion could be read on the face of Francis.

Surviving the attack of the Draugur didn't make him more brave and since Boston was his only point of reference, going towards the unknown was inconceivable...

Therefore, the answer he was going to give Lazar was a logical one for him, 'You can shove this bullshit up your ȧss.'

Then, an idea popped into his head, an idea that could surely force Lazar to let him accompany him.

'Since we've known each other you've been telling me countless times that I don't have any balls, well, you're going to regret seeing them.' He thought with resentment.

The eyes of Lazar and Francis connected and there was something in the gaze of the latter that Lazar had never seen before; arrogance.

He knew right away that Francis was going to do something he wasn't going to like at all, and in the seconds that followed, he wasn't disappointed.

Francis approached his hand to Lazar's shoulder, then he tapped it gently several times.

'Just what is it supposed to mean?' Not understanding at first why Francis was doing such a weird thing, his subsequent words made Lazar realize that it was supposed to intimidate him.