Cheap Thrills (6 Thrilling reads) (14 page)

Six

Miss Harriet is sitting down opposite to her boss once more. She isn’t distracted nor is she in the mood for small talk. She just wants to update her boss on the progress of the mission. She does bare good news, but her face resembles less than fortunate news. She isn’t as excited as she should be considering the milestones they have reached, but something else is on her mind. She brushes her hand through her course long hair. Months of pressure and a huge workload have made her hair feel her age. Usually she would pamper herself, but ever since the countdown to the mission began a few months ago, she has had no time to sort out her appearance. Split ends are the least of her worries though as she sits down twiddling her thumbs in front of her preoccupied boss who is reading the incident reports. Mr Conway looks up at her over the rim of the file and smiles.

‘Wow, well done Miss Harriet. Well done indeed. I couldn’t have done it any better. We are far ahead of schedule now. This is a cause for celebration I think,’ says Mr Conway, sporting his first smile in just as long of a time as Miss Harriet’s last spa visit.

‘It is rather good news,’ she says softly

Mr Conway’s smile has grown a thousand fold as he marvels at the writing in front of him.

‘Europe?’ he says

‘Yep, the UK and France have all been fertilised,’ she says

‘How about Germany?’ he asks, still smiling, almost crying with joy.

‘I’m afraid I haven’t had any conformation of such as of yet, but I will keep you in the loop,’ she says

‘And to think I was ready to pull the plug on this operation,’ says Mr Conway, still sporting a massive grin.

‘To think,’ says Miss Harriet calmly.

Mr Conway puts down the folder and smiles at her again, bear faced with joy. He then realises that Miss Harriet isn’t sharing in the occasion as much as he is. His smiling soon turns into half a scowl.

‘Is there something wrong?’ asks Mr Conway

‘Nope,’ she says

‘Well you could have fooled me! I’m sitting here, holding some of the most positive news we could have and you’re still sulking about the deal we had in place’

‘Had?’ asks Miss Harriet in shock

‘Yes…Had….
Past tense
. It isn’t what we have now. What we have now is more than a measly seat at the Whitehouse. What we have now is a seat on top of the world. The world leaders are far and few, but tonight, when the big hand and little hand its twelve, we will be the world leaders, me and you, ruling the States, and Europe. Surly that is a deal worth having?’ asks Mr Conway

‘The world?’ asks Miss Harriet

‘
The world,
’ confirms Mr Conway

Seven

‘Let’s kill him. We can’t just risk the others coming back for him. They tried to kill us after all!’ says Ray

‘What if the others come back and ask for him, and say they will leave us alone?’ asks Donner

‘These guys are responsible for shooting the police officer we tried rescuing, remember him? They didn’t let him live, so why would they let us live?’ says Ray

David Seal remains quiet while staring at the captured militia man from across the underground sewer camp.

‘I say we press him for more answers,’ says Ray, looking on at David for some backup. David doesn’t even batter an eyelid as he continues to look at the captured man who is tied up to one of the wall grates.

‘Take his finger nails out. He’ll talk then,’ says Ray

‘We can’t just torture him. That’s not the civil thing to do,’ says Donner

‘I don’t know about you, but civilisation doesn’t sound like it’s doing too well up there. Can’t you hear the constant gunfire and explosion above ground? I bet New York is a complete warzone by now,’ says David.

‘Fuck it, let’s kill him,’ says Donner

Ray starts to laugh out loud as he looks on at Donner’s facial expression.

‘Not two seconds ago you were saying how we should keep him alive. What’s changed?’ asks Ray

‘I just think that two dangerous men around the girls is not the ideal situation,’ she says

‘We will deal with him later,’ says David as he finally turns to face Donner and Ray

‘How?’ asks Ray

‘Never mind that. In the meantime we need to figure out what we are going to do with the army guy,’ says David

‘We kill him,’ says Donner once again

Ray shakes his head in disbelief. Of all people to be crying for blood, Donner seems like the last one that should be doing so.

‘No, we don’t. We find out who the hell these guys are and why they are down here,’ says David

‘The guy said that there were five or so men,  including him. How do we know he’s not lying?’

David scratches his beard. It makes a rather loud sound that makes Ray feel itchy all over.

‘We just don’t. That’s the problem. We don’t know anything. All we know is he is down here and we have a chance to extract some information out of him. Whatever we get from this guy, could save us in the future,’ says David

‘What if there isn’t a future?’ asks Donner

The group look at each other in contemplation.

‘Future or not, death isn’t in my plans. We need to make sure that the only danger to us is the flashing lights that go off when we are above ground, and not any army dudes playing Call Of Duty in the sewers,’ says David

Ray nods his head in agreement.

‘Man, I miss video games,’ says Ray, thinking out loud.

The group laugh for a few seconds. It’s a rare occasion when laughter is present. For a few moments the group feel happy, even if the happiness is going to be short lived.

‘So let’s do this. Ray, you get a rock or something. We need something heavy, anything that can break bones,’ says David

‘Why not our fists?’ asks Ray

‘Because chipping
finger nails
off the bone
isn’t exactly easy without tools’

Eight

London, England

‘So what exactly happened Mr Grimshaw?’ Asks the Detective Inspector

Steven looks around the room and is a little alarmed to see so many of her Majesties Police constables.

‘You can speak English can’t you?’ asks the policeman.

‘Of course I can. It’s just I’m in shock that’s all,’ says Steven as he continues to look around the room in fear.

‘Why are you in shock?’ asks the stern faced detective

‘What, apart from the barber shop blowing up? Says Steven

‘Yes, apart from that,’ says the policeman

The room Steven finds himself in seems to be growing ever smaller. With every breath he takes, the room seems a little hotter. It’s safe to say that Steven is a little on edge.

‘You don’t really want to know what I saw,’ he says, biting his finger nails.

‘Oh, I think I do,’ says the policeman.

‘Well I don’t know if I want to tell you,’ he says

‘Look Mr Grimshaw. The quicker you tell us what happened, the faster you can leave, providing you didn’t have anything to do with the bombs that is,’ says the Policeman, growing a tad impatient with his witness.

‘The bombs?’ asks Steven, absolutely gobsmacked at the realisation that any sort of bomb was part of this inquiry.

‘Yeah, the bombs…What are you, a Parrot? Just answer the question,’ says the man who now finds himself bending over the table, his face pressed up near Steven’s.

Steven can feel the warm breath of the policeman as he stares down at him. He starts to feel even more nervous. All that’s missing from this situation is the good cop to warn him that his partner isn’t messing around and will slap him if need be. Steven laughs out loud at the cliché of the situation.

‘What’s so funny?’ asks the policeman, astounded by the abrupt laughter from his witness

‘Nothing, it’s just all the movies and TV shows really don’t prepare you for this,’ says Steven, still laughing, still looking business like and important in his suit, even if the suit does look a bit dirty.

‘What are you on about?’ asks the man, his patience wearing thin.

‘I told you what I saw,’ says Steven

‘Well I don’t believe you,’ says the policeman.

‘Too bad then. Carry on wasting your time, before you know it, it will be too late,’ says Steven

‘Too late for what?’

‘To survive,’ says Steven

Nine

Albany, NY State

Mrs Novik has been rummaging through the Albany city street full of cars for a few hours now. She hasn’t found anything of that much importance, but what she has managed to scavenge is small bits of supplies, like two bottles of water and a beef jerky. It’s not the Ritz exactly, but it will keep her body fuelled for the next couple of hours. The water is the find she is most happy about. There’s something about the apocalypse that makes one thirsty.

She’s finished with a people carrier SUV when she spots a small van up in front. She can’t really make out what type of van it is, but she is hoping that it at least houses some good supplies in the back. She decides that the van will be the last vehicle she goes through, she needs to get to some safety and hunker down for a while to get her baring’s together. She starts the minute long walk up the deserted city street. The static skyline is something she isn’t used to. Every time she found herself in a city before the apocalypse, it was teaming with lights and sounds of a busy cityscape. But today all the smells and sounds of the city are washed out and replaced with the constant smell of fear. Fear isn’t a new context for Mrs Novik. She knows it all too well. Many a night she would stay wide awake in fear for her safety, waiting for her husband to come back from work. It’s not her fault that the only housing they could afford at the time was in one of New Jersey’s less desirable areas. But as with all bad things, they become better. After years of living on the mean streets that she called home, she had grown a thicker skin. Her innocence was gone and she knows exactly what some men are capable of. Add that with the fact that she had recently been arrested and held in county for a long while, and you get a woman who doesn’t really give a shit.

That’s the sad fact, Mrs Angelina Novik isn’t a woman any more, she is a survivor. She doesn’t care for soap operas. She doesn’t care for the style network. She doesn’t want to bake bread or make cakes. Mrs Novik wants to survive, and if kicking someone’s teeth out of their mouth is the route to said survival, then she has no problem in doing some amateur dental work.

Mrs Novik has reached the stationary van in the middle of the city center main road. She looks around the intersection of Albany and spots many commercial buildings that could be ripe for the picking. She then spots a gun store that has had its window caved in. The city resembles something of an afterthought to a city wide riot. It’s no secret that when the shit hits the fan, people tend to only look out for themselves. Its human nature after all, and while Mrs Novik looks on at the former great city, she can be sure that human nature went through these streets and took whatever they fancied.   

She looks down at her wrist again and notices the red light is still idle. She decides that she needs to look for something sharp. She’s quite interested in finding out what is inside her wrist, even if it means cutting it open and having a look. She swings one of the white van’s doors open and is met with a blanket of darkness. She can’t really see very well, as the sun in the sky is setting in front of her and disappearing behind the city’s skyline. She’s just about to reach for her lighter when a woman’s face emerges from the blanket of black in the trailer. The woman is holding a gun and its pointing straight at Mrs Novik’s head.

‘Freeze sister,’ she says, wielding the heavy looking pistol.

Ten

New Jersey,
East Rutherford, Met Life Stadium

Sammy Banes is sitting down on the stairwell leading above ground. It’s marked with a “B”, followed by the words “exit”. He sits there contemplating his role in this new world he finds himself in. Before all this happened he was a successful quarterback for the New York Jets, and now he finds himself a successful executioner in the Apocalypse. He didn’t want to be the leader of a group of survivors under the stadium, but someone had to. He keeps trying to convince himself that maybe it was the right thing shooting and  killing the men that came down to attack them. He’s still quite perplexed as to why the attack happened. For all he knew, the only dangers in this world he found himself in were the flashing beacons in his wrist, and every other person in the group. But what he didn’t know was the fact that there were people out there who wanted other people dead. Sure he knew that the world has its fair share of murderers, but he didn’t know that an army of men would make themselves known and kill off half of his men and women. The army didn’t discriminate. They killed women and children. No bullet was too good for any life, and now he finds himself sitting on a staircase that once was used for the underground rail system. He feels responsible for the massacre of his group and that makes him feel angry.

The main thing that ticks Sammy off is the fact that the group seem to blame him. He didn’t elect himself leader to throw his weight around, he made himself leader to step up and protect the herd so to speak. He’s been mulling over his thoughts alone now for a few hours. Not one person has come and checked on him. It doesn’t bother Sammy too much, but a little courtesy wouldn’t go a miss.

Sammy decides to stretch his legs and gets up from his seated position. He makes his arms wide and yawns in a sleepy manor. He realises that he hasn’t slept for a good while. He also realises that the many vending machines and dispensaries in the stadium will run dry soon if he doesn’t ration the food. He decides not to wallow in pity. He picks himself up and wonders on through to the section of the underground where the group are housed. He walks into the makeshift camp which in its usual use was a generator room. The sound of electrical buzzing and the smell of seared wires are drowned out by the odour of freshly spilt blood. He realises that the bodies are going to need to be disposed of. He looks around at the mass of humanity in front of him, some of them dead, some of them grieving. He knows that if he asks everyone to pitch in, then moving the dead bodies will take less time. But he also realises that the group are probably fed up of hearing him give orders. He decides to go ahead and move the bodies himself.

He goes towards the nearest one and spots it’s a woman. He bends down and grabs the corpse by the legs. He starts to drag the bullet ridden body away. A small group of people watch him as he does so in silence. After a few minutes of him moving the bodies off towards the furthest corner and returning for another, a few survivors chip in and start to help. Before Sammy knows it, nearly all of the men and women of the group are moving the dead off to be burned. Not one word is spoken between the 100 plus survivors.
Sometimes words just don’t cut it
.