-23-
“Come on, kid, just open the damn door,” one of the three men in my basement said. “My name is Rich. I’m a good guy. I swear we aren’t mad about what you did to Eddie.”
“Speak for yourself, Rich,” a guy slumped against the wall groaned. The gunshot wound in his gut let me know this was Eddie. He whined and cradled his midsection with bloody hands.
Eddie must have been first down the stairs. It looked like Jared caught him in the stomach with the pistol. The small round would make Eddie’s death slow and painful. That was good.
I moved off the stairs and slipped behind a stack of boxes. With all the yelling, these idiots had no idea I had snuck in behind them.
The men all had on similar masks, just like the dead one outside. Rich held a shotgun and the other a hunting rifle. Eddie must have been armed with some kind of weapon, but I didn’t see it and he didn’t look ready to use it.
“Go away or I’ll shoot another one of you,” Jared shouted through the heavy bunker door. I worried that he would make threats about me coming back soon and alert the men to my existence, but Jared kept it simple. Smart kid.
“Look, little man,” Rich said. He tapped on the bunker door with barrel of his shotgun. “You have two choices. One you open the door and we all get real chummy. Or two, we light this house on fire and you cook in that box. Your call, my friend.”
“Chummy?” the other man said. He let out a humorless laugh. “I’d like to get chummy with that chick he’s got in there.”
“Shut up, Jeff,” Rich said. “You keep saying dumb shit like that and the kid will never open the door.”
“Just speaking the truth,” Jeff said. “You said we were going to enjoy ourselves.”
“I know what I said, you idiot,” Rich said. He shoved Jeff.
The men were missing patches of hair on the sides of their heads. Exposed strips of raw scalp glistened beneath the basement lights. Jeff turned and hacked a wet cough. He lifted his mask and spat a bloody wad of phlegm onto the concrete floor. These guys were dying and knew it. They just didn’t know how soon.
There was no point warning these men or asking them to leave. I wasn’t going to waste time with threats or negotiations. I stepped out from behind the boxes.
The roar of my shotgun in the small confines of my basement was deafening. Acrid clouds of spent gunpowder filled the room with a silvery haze. Rich lay on the floor with half of his face missing.
Jeff turned to fire, but fumbled with his gun. I racked a second shell and pulled the trigger. The lower half of Jeff’s left leg turned to hamburger meat and splattered across the floor. He howled in agony and collapsed into the wet pile that used to be his limb.
I kicked Jeff’s gun across the room and spun to face Eddie, who was still slumped against the wall. He raised his bloody hands.
“I’m not gonna fight,” Eddie said. Blood ran down his hands and disappeared in the sleeves of his jacket. “I surrender.” He tossed a small handgun across the room. I patted him down and found no more weapons.
“Stay still,” I warned Eddie. I punctuated my sentence with the barrel of my shotgun. Eddie nodded his agreement.
Walking over to the bunker, I banged on the door with my fist. “Jared, are you in there? Is everything okay?”
“Lucas?” Jared asked. “Is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” I said. The locks began to release from inside the bunker. “Jared, hold up. Don’t come out yet. I need to take care of a few things. How’s your mom doing?” Shooting someone in the gut was probably all the violence Jared’s mind could handle today. The last thing I wanted was for him to come out, see the carnage splashed across the basement and lose it. Defending your mom was one thing. Picking your way through a bloody mash of meat that used to be a person was another.
The shock of seeing what another person could do to a body with a homemade knife or club was a daily occurrence in prison. I had seen my share of people turned into red oatmeal in prison. Jared didn’t need this image knocking around in his head. Things were difficult enough already.
“Okay,” Jared said. “I’ll wait until you tell me to come out. My mom is about the same. She’s sweating a lot and puked a few more times. Did you find medicine for her?”
“Yeah, I got it,” I said. “Just sit tight.” I turned back towards Eddie. Jeff was in shock and soon enough would bleed out. Once he was dead, I’d put my knife through the back of his skull to make sure he didn’t turn into a husk, but I wasn’t in any rush to take away his suffering.
“What do you want?” Eddie asked. He looked scared. That was good.
“You and me are going to have a talk,” I said.
“A talk?” Eddie looked towards the hunting knife in my hand. “Then what’s that for?”
I smiled.
A puddle of piss trickled out from beneath Eddie.
-24-
The color drained from Eddie’s face. He wasn’t going to last much longer. Jeff stopped moving and I no longer saw the spastic rise and fall of his chest. I buried the blade of the hunting knife in his temple, yanked it free and turned back to Eddie.
“What are you doing in my house?” I asked. Eddie groaned and pushed himself up on the wall. I knelt down to look into his eyes. His head lowered in an attempt to avoid eye contact. I pushed the barrel of my shotgun into the soft flesh between his chin and neck. “I’m not asking twice, Eddie.” I stood up and pointed the gun into his face.
“We were just looking for supplies before we headed out,” Eddie said. His words were breathy and forced. I figured I needed to make this quick.
“Supplies? How’d you know I had anything down here?” I asked.
“We didn’t. I swear we had no idea.” Eddie winced as I pushed the toe of my boot into his gunshot wound. “We were randomly checking houses before we left town. Then Rich saw the kid through a window and said we needed to check your house out.”
Jared must have been watching for me. I couldn’t really blame him. He must have been terrified of the possibility of his mother dying or worse, becoming a husk.
Seeing Jared is what drew Rich into the house. I suspected that these guys were after Danni, but there was no way they could have known she was in the basement. Connecting the dots, I saw that Rich’s motivations had nothing to do with supplies. These men were filth. I needed Eddie alive, at least for a few more questions, but I couldn’t fight the urge to kick him in the gut. Half my boot disappeared into his stomach. Eddie coughed a bright red spray of blood. Jared’s shot must have punctured a few organs.
“So you saw the kid and came in looking for supplies, huh?” I growled. The shotgun trembled in my hands. While I was in prison, I tried to keep out of trouble, but once in awhile I would catch wind of a new inmate’s crimes and I couldn’t stop myself. Prison had its own justice system and pedophiles weren’t tolerated.
“I don’t get down like that,” Eddie said. He was pleading. “That was Rich’s thing. I was just with them because there was no one else. I just wanted to get out of town. I swear I wasn’t going to touch the kid, not like that, I swear.”
My eyes narrowed and the barrel of my shotgun rose to the center of Eddie’s face without so much as a thought.
“Where were you going?” I asked through gnashed teeth.
“Out west, towards all those square states,” Eddie said. He stopped to cough more blood. “Some guy has been broadcasting about there being survivors or something out that way. We were going to check it out.”
I shook my head. They never would have made it. Their masks were shit and they were clearly a bunch of idiots and twisted fucks. That combination wouldn’t have tilted the odds of survival in their favor.
The fact that they knew about Senator Heathway was problematic. I wasn’t surprised that the senator had been broadcasting to anyone who would listen, but that meant that Danni and Jared wouldn’t be alone on the road. I hadn’t planned on that.
“One more question,” I said. “Was this your whole group? Are there more of you?”
“There were more,” Eddie said. “We broke off into smaller scavenging parties. Some of us were in a few other towns. There was about thirty or forty of us, I think. We all worked at the auto plant. We snagged the masks from the paint department.”
That was more people than Danni and Jared could avoid, especially if they were somewhere nearby and heading in the same direction.
I plunged the blade of the knife into Eddie’s eye. There were at least three less that Danni and Jared would have to worry about on the road.
I wrapped the bodies in black trash bags and dragged them out of the basement. For lack of a better idea, I stacked them on the curb like I would on any other garbage day. The keys were still in the ignition of the Hummer. I pulled it around to the rear of my house and parked it next to the Bronco II.
Back in the basement, I did my best to clean up the pools of clotted gore. I used a hose and shop broom to sweep the red slop into the dry well. It would start to smell soon, but I could dump lye down there later and we wouldn’t be staying much longer anyway.
I knocked on the door to the bunker. Jared stepped out.
“Is it safe?” he asked. He looked around the basement. Even though I had cleaned up, the violence was still apparent. Large black stains stretched across the concrete and the smell of gunpowder still hung heavy in the air.
“Yeah, we’re good,” I said.
“Did you get medicine for my mom?” Jared asked.
I handed him the 130 mg potassium iodide tablets. “Put one of these tablets in four capfuls of water. After it’s soft, crush it. Then mix it into a bottle of water. After you’re done with that, let me know.”
“What are you going to do?” Jared asked.
“I left the bodies out in front of the house,” I said. “It’s probably not a good idea, especially if there’s more of those assholes around. I’m going to drag them behind one of the neighbor’s houses.” I started walking towards the stairs and stopped. “Nice shot, by the way.”
“I was aiming for his head,” Jared admitted. “I shot him in the stomach by accident.”
“It doesn’t matter. You probably saved you and your mom’s lives with that shot,” I said. Even behind the NBC mask, I could tell Jared was smiling.
“Thanks, Lucas,” Jared said. “For everything.”
“No worries,” I said. “Hey, by the way, how do you feel about a Hummer for your vehicle?”
“Those stupid boxy looking things?” Jared asked. “Aren’t those for soccer moms named Tiffany or something?”
I laughed. “Yeah and you just got one. Congratulations, Tiffany.”
-25-
The water in the bottle looked cloudy, but I didn’t see any large chunks of the potassium iodide tablet. Jared had mixed it carefully. I swirled the water one more time to ensure that it was mixed.
“Help your mom sit up,” I said. Jared helped Danni sit up on the bunk. She was slick with sweat. Her brown hair was matted to her head and stringy, but it looked like it was all there. I glanced over to her pillow.
“None fell out,” Jared said, noticing where I looked. I nodded.
I held the bottle to Danni’s cracked lips. “Come on, Danni, you need to drink this. Nice and slow. Just take a sip.”
Danni forced a small mouthful of the water down and coughed.
“Tastes awful,” she said with a dry laugh. Danni forced a second mouthful of the water down.
“Keep drinking,” I said. “Finish the bottle and then get some rest.” Danni nodded. I was glad to see that she was showing some signs of recovery. She must not have breathed in much of the ash, but it was still enough to make her sick.
“How was it out there?” Jared asked.
“Pretty much what you’d expect,” I answered. “A lot of ash and even more husks. But the good news is that the roads looked pretty clear, so I don’t think you’ll have a problem getting out of town.”
“Mom, Lucas got us a car,” Jared said. He suddenly seemed so young and innocent. “It’s a Hummer, but still, he got us a car.”
“Yeah, you’re welcome,” I said with a snort. “But look, there’s something else I need to talk to you about.”
“What?” Jared asked.
“We can go over the specifics of it later,” I said, “but those guys that were here are part of a larger group.”
“Larger group?” Danni asked. Her voice cracked like it was out of practice.
“I talked to one before he, uh…well, before he died,” I said. “He said that there were others in their group and that they were heading west.”
“Isn’t that where we’re going?” Jared asked.
“Well, you are,” I said. I didn’t see a point in being dishonest. I had no intention of going with them to South Dakota. “But I’ll make sure you’ve got all the supplies and guns you’re going to need. You’ll be okay.”
“Can’t you come with us?” Jared asked. He was doing his best to be strong for his mother and to prove himself to me, but I could see his fear.
“I can’t, Jared,” I said. I had to look at my boots. “I’m sorry, kid.”
“I know,” Jared said. He turned back to help his mother continue drinking the water and potassium iodide mixture. “I get it. You’ve got to find your wife and daughter, so you can’t come with us.” Jared’s words weren’t harsh or pointed. He was simply stating a fact.
“Jared,” Danni said. Her voice was returning to normal, but she still looked sick. “Lucas needs to do what he feels is best. We’ll be okay.” Jared gave a quick nod and tilted the bottle.
“We’ll lay low for a couple days,” I said. “Danni, you need to rest and drink one of those mixes every day. I know they taste like crap, but it’ll get you back on your feet.” No one wanted to say it, but we were all relieved to see that although Danni might still be sick, she showed no signs of becoming a husk. “Let’s eat a little something and then I want to reinforce the front door.”
Later that night, I lay in my bunk. Danni and Jared were asleep. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I rolled to my side and fished the phone from my pocket. The small screen cast a blue glow across my face.
Kara: Mom doesn’t feel good. We’re going out for medicine. Love you, Daddy.
My heart tightened and broke. Jagged shards lacerated my insides. I wanted to be there with Lisa and Kara. I wanted to be there to take care of them. I should be there. That was what a father and a husband was supposed to do.
I glanced at the keypad. It was black. I wished I hadn’t broken the keys. I wished I had done a lot of things different. Most of all, I wished that I was with Lisa and Kara.