Badlands Trilogy (Book 2): Beyond the Badlands (27 page)

Beth remained silent.

“You need to get your shit together. Whatever happens in there, you forget when you walk out. You weather the storm. You get by. You deal with it.”

“But-”

Jason shook his head. “No buts. You just do it.” Leaning in toward the girl, he lowered his voice to just above a whisper. “It’ll be over soon.”

Beth nodded as a tear streamed down her left cheek.

A wild idea popped into his head. Could he take the girl with him and just walk away? Just walk out when they weren’t looking? He considered Clint’s proposal earlier. They wanted out too.

“You won’t be in here forever.”

“But I will. It’ll be like prison again. I can’t go back to that.”

He shushed her. “I’ll think of something. But for now you have to do whatever you need to do to stay alive.”

“You’ll get me out of here?”

“I’m telling you to go with the flow for now. You need to trust me on this.”

Beth nodded.

Jason wiped a tear from her cheek. “Pull yourself together. Your life depends on it.” He straightened her negligee. Her skin felt soft. “You have a date to keep.”

* * *

Jason led Beth into Glenn’s office, stopping just inside the door.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Glenn said, smiling. He stood tall in front of his desk. “Don’t you look adorable.”

Across the room, tied to the wall, stood Ryan. A rope bound his hands, tied off to a large eyelet mounted in the ceiling.

“Your boyfriend and I were just having a little chat. Unfortunately he’s not much of a conversationalist.”

Jason felt Beth’s muscles tighten as she tried to pull away. He yanked her back and held her tightly in place.

“This dreamboat of yours, what’s his name? Ryan? Right. I was just asking him about that woman and her kids. You know, the ones you two had tied up.”

No one replied.

“Well, suffice to say, you both know who I’m talking about. We all have a little kink in us, so many of us that I hesitate to even call it that. The momma wasn’t half bad, but the kids? That’s sick, brother. Really sick.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Beth said, glaring.

“Sure, sure.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Whatever. What I really want to talk about is why you’ve all ended up right here, right now. Standing in this room with your roles set out before you.

“Tell me, Ryan. Do you know what separates you from that woman and her kids? I’ll tell you. I have a use for them. They’ll carry their own weight. They’re going to learn how to bake bread. How to cook green beans. They have something to offer. But you…what do you have to offer, Ryan?”

Ryan only stared at Glenn.

“Nothing? Nothing at all? Did you even have a job back in the old days?”

Glenn shook his head in disgust. He lit another cigarette from the pack in his desk and took a deep drag. The burning tobacco crackled in the quiet room. He pointed at Beth. “Now you, baby doll. You got something to offer.”

“Fuck you,” Beth spat.

“Feisty. I like that. Hell, I admire that. You whores act like it’s beneath you, but it’s honest work. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.”

“I’m not a whore.”

“Fine. Sex worker, then. Whatever. Point being, is that at the end of the day, you’ll contribute more to the world than your asshole boyfriend ever will.”

“Leave him alone!”

Glenn chuckled. He blew a smoke ring, waving it away with his hand. “You know what I did before all this? Corrections. Spent years beating down thugs like your boyfriend in prison. But the warden, he was a pussy. I should have been running the place.

“Then the virus came along and killed damn near everybody, including the warden. But not me. Not only did I not die, I thrived in spite of it all.

“Do you know why I thrived? Because this is my world. I own it. I’m the fucking warden here. And you are a part of my world only because I allow you to be. Understand this and you’ll understand your place.”

Glenn crushed the cigarette out. “Ryan, I want to be sure you understand the way things work around here, so let’s start with lesson one. You have no possessions unless I allow them. Case in point: your girl over there. She’s not your girl anymore. Now she belongs to me.”

Ryan twitched, yanking on the ropes tethering him to the eyelet above. He mumbled as his eyes glazed.

The sight chilled Jason.

“Bring me my girl, soldier.”

Beth resisted. “No, no, no,” she repeated, shaking her head.

“Move it,” Jason said as he pulled Beth toward Glenn.

Once within reach, Glenn grasped Beth’s bound wrists and dragged her toward him, spinning her back toward him and wrapping her up in a headlock.

Beside him Ryan thrashed against his ropes, moaning loudly.

“Go stand by the door,” Glenn said to Jason.

“You don’t want me to leave, sir?”

“If I wanted you to leave, I’d have told you to leave.”

“Yes, sir.” Jason stood by the door as instructed.

With unexpected swiftness, Glenn spun with Beth in a half-circle, bending her over the desk. He pushed her face down against the desk’s hard surface, turning her head toward Ryan.

The two locked eyes.

Ryan groaned louder and began talking rapidly to himself.

“You see this, you prick! She’s mine! My little whore!”

Jason’s muscles tightened, but he forced himself to stay put by the door.

“Hold still, whore!” Glenn yelled. He tore at Beth’s panties with his free hand. She flailed, fighting against Glenn’s grip.

“I said hold still!”

Beth squirmed, harder this time.

Glenn’s grip loosened.

Beth slammed an elbow into Glenn’s ribs. He recoiled. Groaned. His grip loosened further.

She threw another elbow into Glenn’s nose. He staggered back a step, his hand to his face.

Eyes wild, Glenn drew back a fist and released. The blow connected with a dull thud against the back of Beth’s head. She dropped hard back onto the desk.

Ryan thrashed wildly against the rope, screaming.

Jason stood, horrified, unable to look away.

Grasping a handful of Beth’s hair, Glenn lifted Beth’s head high before driving it down face first on the hardwood desk.

Blood splattered.

“You fuck with me? I’m gonna fuck you back!” Lifting her head again, Glenn slammed Beth’s face against the desktop harder.

Now blood literally poured from her nose.

Ryan’s screaming filled the room.

“You like that, whore?” With the handful of Beth’s hair still firmly in his hand, Glenn lifted Beth’s limp head and brought it down a third time.

Jason thought he heard bones crack.

Ryan wailed, the rope burning bloody bracelets into his wrists.

Glenn tossed Beth violently to the floor. She hit hard, her skull thudding against the tile with a sickening thud. She lay on her back, blood covering her face like a mask. She slowly opened her mouth; only a wet gurgle escaped.

Breathing hard, Glenn wiped his nose with his sleeve. It came back red.

Teeth clenched, Glenn lifted his boot.

Ryan’s screaming, incessant now, overtook the room.

Jason stood, frozen.

Glenn dropped the boot heel on Beth’s face. Her head rolled to the side as blood poured from her decimated nose.

Ryan’s screams turned to sobbing.

Another drop of the boot.

And another.

Beth’s face became a demolished mess of bloody tissue.

Panting, Glenn stopped. He ran his hand through his hair. He locked wild eyes on Jason.

The eyes of a madman.

“Take that asshole back to his cell!” Glenn bellowed.

Jason could only nod, unable to move.

“Now!”

By sheer force Jason propelled himself forward. The world around him seemed very far away. As if watching himself from afar, Jason unhooked Ryan from the ceiling before leading him past the bloody mess that had been his girlfriend.

Glenn straightened his hair and uniform. “When you come back I want this mess cleaned up!”

By the time they passed through the doorway Jason was virtually carrying Ryan.

* * *

Clint lay awake in his bed, contemplating the demise of the plan.

The new guy, Porter, had concocted a hell of a scheme. One that might actually work. But without Clint’s inside man, the plan was a bust.

Before the virus, Clint had solved problems for a living. But this problem wasn’t something he could solve with logic alone. He needed luck and not a trivial amount of persuasion. All the skills of a salesman, not a computer programmer.

A knock sounded at the door.

Clint glanced outside. Darkness covered the land outside, lessened only by the moon overhead. Who would be knocking so late?

Clint walked to the door. Put an ear to it.

Another knock caused him to jump.

“Clint!” A whisper from the other side.

“Jay?”

A pause. Clint almost asked if he was still there. Then he heard the two words he’d been dying to hear.

“I’m in.”

Ed hadn’t expected a parade or a marching band to be waiting for them when they arrived in Kansas City, but he surely hadn’t expected it to be completely empty.

After entering the Amtrak station south of downtown near dusk, they found forklift trucks sitting idle beside boxes never shipped to St. Louis. Cots with slept in blankets lined a section of the station floor. Cups with standing water littered the table tops.

“Why is nobody here?” Jasper asked. His voice lightly echoed throughout the station.

“I don’t know,” Ed replied. “Somebody should be here.”

“Is this place HQ?”

“No. The headquarters are set up in an old college residence hall, south of here. But this is where they shipped everything from. They truck it to and from the school.”

“Maybe that’s where they are. Packing up trucks.”

“Maybe.” Ed looked around again. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

“You think something’s happened? Like what happened in St. Louis?”

“I don’t know what I think anymore.”

“The compound. You said it’s south of here, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then that’s where we go next. How far away is it?”

“I don’t know for sure. Not too far.”

“Let’s check the map.”

After retrieving their map from Ed’s backpack, they traced a route to the residence hall.

“Looks like maybe four or five miles,” Jasper said, refolding the map. “We can make that in no time.”

“We’re gonna have to be careful. Especially if we run into any more of your apex carriers.”

“Don’t remind me. That still creeps me out.”

“Seems fine to stay here tonight and head out in the morning.”

“Agreed,” Jasper replied. “Now let’s see if they have any food in this place. I’m starving.”

With a little more than an hour to go before first light, Jason slipped out of his room and gently closed the door behind him. The door creaked on its hinges as it closed. He cringed, searching the hallway.

No one appeared.

He carried his pistol and his knife on his hip. In his front pocket he carried a small flashlight. All of Glenn’s men carried these items, so if anyone caught him outside the room with them it wouldn’t raise suspicion.

Simply being out of his room, however, might, so he’d prepared a cover story about being on trash detail that he hoped no one would challenge.

What he could not carry was the food, clothing and water he would need after he went AWOL. Carrying any of those items would most definitely raise suspicion.

But he couldn’t leave just yet. He’d promised Clint he’d help. His mind flashed to the girl, Beth. Their conversation just before Jason had walked her to her death. He’d promised her the same thing, but now she was dead.

This time things would be different.

Making his way silently down the darkened hallway, Jason used the incoming moonlight to navigate. Moments later he found himself before a walk-in supply closet, the door closed.

He grasped the handle and twisted.

The door opened silently.

He entered the closet and closed the door. Flipping on the flashlight, he searched the shelves for the items he needed.

Only a couple of things
, Clint had said.

Maybe only a couple of things, but he’d be dead if any of Glenn’s men caught him with them.

Using the flashlight’s dim, yellow beam, Jason searched the shelves. Tools lay scattered about haphazardly, left there by the previous tenants. Serving as an all-purpose handyman around the compound, Jason knew exactly what he was looking for.

It didn’t take him long to find them. He carefully retrieved two claw hammers and a Phillips head screw driver.

As he attempted to slide the screwdriver into his pocket, footsteps sounded from the hallway.

Jason flipped off the light. He stood very still while he tried to control his breathing.

More footsteps. Closer now. A flash of light from under the door.

Davidson on hall patrol.

Jason backed against the wall, behind the door as he retrieved his knife.

He stood, holding his breath, as the door slowly opened.

Light spilled into the room as a bright, white beam flicked back and forth.

Jason’s heart pounded in his chest so loudly he worried Davidson might hear it.

Peering through the vertical crack between the door and the frame, Jason watched Davidson take a step inside.

Jason clutched the knife tighter.

Another flick of the beam.

Jason’s heart galloped in his chest as more adrenaline poured into his system.

Then the light disappeared as the door closed. Footsteps echoed as Davidson walked away.

Jason remembered to breathe.

Retrieving the hammers, Jason shoved them into his back pockets, handle up. The screwdriver he slipped into his front pocket.

Opening the door slowly, he peeked into the hallway. No sign of Davidson or anyone else. Just in case, he kept a grip on the knife and stepped through the door.

* * *

After using his keys to unlock the padlock on Clint’s door, Jason slipped into the room and closed the door.