Denny was unconscious as Vince dragged her by the collar around to the table. She made a small noise when he let go and her head dropped at his feet.
He looked up. ‘Will you look at this,’ he said. ‘I really hope for your sake that you haven’t killed my parents. If they’re alive somewhere I’d nod pretty quick and tell me.’
Denny pushed her shoulders from the floor. There was a small area of blood in the crown of her hair. ‘Get up,’ Vince said to her. ‘Sit in that chair.’
He moved around to the other side of the table and sat down. Denny dragged herself onto the chair. Rohan was sitting parallel with the table, facing me and with a good view of the room and down into the kitchen. He didn’t have to swivel his head all the time to see. I settled in to watch Rohan’s face for reaction, but Vince stood again and walked back into the kitchen.
‘This,’ he said, pacing, ‘I don’t believe it. They’re alive. We lived. We survived. They don’t die now. We survived.’
‘I was sure I could do it,’ Denny said quietly to Rohan.
Rohan only stared at her, dull-eyed.
‘They
are
alive?’ Vince asked us.
None of us responded.
‘Where’s the bunker key?’ he asked.
‘Outside,’ Denny answered.
‘Are they in there?’
‘The key’s in one of the sheds.’
‘Don’t shit me, Denny. I swear … what I’ll do …’
‘I’m the only one who knows where the key is. I’ll have to show you.’
‘No you won’t. You’ll tell me, and I’ll tie you to that chair and if I come back without it I’ll start working though each one of you until I do get it.’
‘You’ll never get in without it, and if you hurt us I won’t tell you.’
‘Don’t try me.’
‘The bunker is reinforced steel with multiple locks and combinations,’ she lied. ‘There’s no spare key.’
‘You know the amazing thing,’ Vince said, ‘I don’t want to kill you. Why did you have to do this? No-one wins now.’
‘There’s canned food and rice and flour. There are lights out there – I could take you now and show you.’
‘They are dead, aren’t they?’ he said.
‘There’s bourbon and chocolate and tinned oysters.’
‘We could have been all right. We were good partners. We were that. I’m not even going to enjoy this.’
He strode down to stand beside Rohan. ‘I’m putting odds on this one being your favourite.’ He lifted the gun and pointed behind Rohan’s ear. ‘Tell me where the key is and I’ll kill him quick, don’t tell me and it’ll get ugly and messy and I’ll get Nicky in here to watch and wipe it up.’
‘Lay one finger on him and I’ll never tell you. And you know I’ll do it.’
‘It’s so interesting, Denny. You think these two are any different from me?’
The rifle came suddenly from nowhere and was right between my eyes, the steel cylinder pressing directly against my skin. ‘You think this one’s any different, put in my position?’ He held the rifle there, and pushed a little and rubbed his finger on the trigger.
‘You trust him in a matter of weeks?’
The edge of the barrel began to scratch down the bridge of my nose. The line was deliberate. I closed my eyes. I could hear Denny softly whining. Vince dragged the barrel down onto the good side of my face, and nestled it into the hollow in my cheek. I imagined the bullet’s trajectory, angled up through my brain and out the back of my head.
‘Where’s the key?’ Vince said. ‘It’s not going to take much to put this one away. I’ll probably be doing him a favour.’
‘Don’t hurt him – Vincent,’ Denny said. ‘Don’t hurt him. Let them go. Let them go and I’ll stay with you. I’ll open the bunker – I’ll stay with you.’
‘Living with me is not an option, Denny, if you’ve killed my parents. The reason you are going to tell me is because it will be the difference between a slow death for your friends, or a quick one, and how long I keep you alive and what I do with you in the meantime.’
‘I have to show you. It’s hard to explain.’
‘I’m tired,’ Vince said. ‘I want to kill these bastards and sit down … I don’t want to be here with the fuckers who did it sitting at the kitchen table! Tell me!’
‘I will if you let them go.’
The gun was taken from my face and shoved in my crotch. I made a strangled sound in my throat. Somewhere out there my brother was fighting to breathe behind the same foul-smelling gaffer tape I was locked behind. Suddenly, the skin on my face was ripping and my lungs expanded with a huge rush of air. The shock of oxygen made everything hyper-real for a second. The gag was off. I gasped. It was while my mouth was open that he put the gun barrel in – I hardly knew, until I began to close my mouth and my teeth clunked on steel and my tongue depressed against the cold satiny finish. This time I knew I would die. I lost the battle with my bladder and felt the warm spread of urine in my pants.
They were talking, shouting, and I couldn’t understand – nothing came in. I spun in an empty, heightened place. The barrel kept butting at the back of my mouth every time Vince yelled and moved. I clung to life, every millisecond of it.
Then everything stopped. The screaming, the threats, the low, rocking moan of my brother, the gouging of the gun, the slow shrinking of my vision, all simultaneously halted with the sound of one thing – a small, frightened voice.
It came again – ‘Leave them alone.’
The barrel stayed in my mouth. Nicky was to my right, pointing the shotgun, a dark shape in my peripheral vision. I couldn’t look, only pray, over and over.
Please God, please God
…
‘Put the gun down,’ Vince said. ‘You don’t know how to use it.’
‘Leave them alone,’ Nicky repeated.
‘Nicky,’ Denny whispered hoarsely. ‘Not while the gun’s in Shannon’s mouth.’
‘That’s right, and I’m not taking it out.’
‘That’s a shotgun,’ Denny explained. ‘Walk slowly to me.’
‘Walk to her and he’s dead.’
‘Vincent,’ Denny said, ‘think about it. This way you’ll end up dying no matter what. If you take the gun and back away, you can go. No-one will follow. Nicky won’t shoot.’
‘And what have I got?’ he said. ‘My parents are dead. I’m alone.’
‘All right, then let them go. Leave their hands tied. Just cut them free and they’ll walk away. We’ll stay with you.’
‘I’m not doing anything until Nicky puts that gun down.’
‘I’ll untie them,’ Denny said. ‘You can stay where you are, and I’ll come over and untie them. Then you can walk them to the door. I’ll stay close to you, so you know Nicky won’t shoot.’
‘It stays in his mouth,’ Vince said. ‘One slip up.’
Denny’s chair scuffed on the floor behind me. ‘I have to take out my knife, to cut the ties. Nicky’s here now – you know I won’t risk her.’
‘Do this one first.’
Not at any stage had I felt emotional – I’d had the full gamut of emotions, but not near to tears, not what I felt now with Denny beside me, with her presence reconfirming the state of me. I felt sorry for myself. I shivered with her softness so near to me, her gaze on the side of my face. A strong tide of grief washed over me. It was forceful enough to make me sob.
I started to cry.
And with tears came reason, and with reason came the desperate will to live. I began to shamelessly fall apart. I felt like I was collapsing all over my life, grabbing it in, holding it tight, begging to keep it. She whispered that it was okay, but I couldn’t stop.
It’s hard to cry with a gun in your mouth. But still, with all things considered, you wouldn’t think the guy holding it in there would give a shit. He did. A human flaw, I guess – compassion. No qualms about killing me, but my awkward crying triggered some deep-seated response, and he removed the gun. He put it against my cheek. Denny was down on one knee, cutting through the tape around my injured leg. My hands were still tied to the chair. With the gun gone from my mouth, I was suddenly very much back in control. I was also back in tune with Denny. She was sly in a second. I felt it and liked it and smelt freedom.
How he didn’t sense it I’ll never know, because I’m sure Rohan and Nicky picked up on the change in Denny. Or it was possible that this was the after-effect of the human hunting Denny and I had shared – I knew how she was thinking, and could anticipate her next move. Later I would reject the idea that I had known precisely what she would do – as though she telepathically told me, but at the time I didn’t question it. I simply knew she would shove the blade in behind Vince’s kneecap, and knew to lean as far left as I could when she did.
The blade went in quick and easy. She withdrew it with a low slicing action. Blood spurted from the wound and splattered along her cheek and ear. Vince buckled, and howled with his head thrown back. He dropped the gun. It clattered under the table. Denny lunged for it and Vince half fell, half leapt, onto her back.
I dragged my gaze from them struggling under the table and looked at the girl. Her jaw was chattering, the shotgun slewing side to side with her attempt to keep the heavy weapon up.
‘Nicky,’ I said. ‘Put the gun down. Get a pair of scissors from the top drawer beside you and go and cut Rohan’s ties. We won’t hurt you.’
I didn’t think she had heard, or comprehended, but after one or two more slow sways of the gun she lowered it to point at the floor. She looked at the drawer.
‘Hurry,’ I said.
Rohan got to his feet and ripped the gag off in one violent motion. Nicky stumbled back from him, dropping the scissors. Vince gave up wrestling on the floor with Denny and scrambled under the table, knocking chairs over, heading for the open door. I could see Rohan was unsure as to whether to untie me first or stop Vince. I told him I was okay.
‘Here, Rohan.’
It was Denny, on her knees in a pool of Vince’s blood, passing the rifle up to Rohan. Vince was hobbling down the steps outside. Rohan stared down at her. We all listened to Vince squelching away in the mud. He was going to be easy to catch.
‘God damn you,’ Rohan said down at Denny.
She held the rifle higher. ‘No, he damned all of us.’
Rohan yanked her up by the arm. ‘No – you’ll do the shooting, Denny.’
Nicky watched them leave. She turned to me.
‘He won’t hurt her,’ I said.
Nicky and I both jerked at the sound of the shot. Even though I knew it was the weasel coming down, it was still disturbing – execution-like out there in the night.
Rohan and Denny came back in. Rohan shut the door behind them. Denny had a fine covering of dew-like drops in her hair and her face was pale. Nicky walked up to her. ‘He’s gone,’ Denny said, and put the rifle down on the table.
We were all quiet for some time. Dawn didn’t seem too far away. Rohan leant against the bench, staring off into nothing. I was untied but still seated on the chair.
Denny left Nicky and went to position herself in front of Rohan.
‘I didn’t know how else to do it,’ she said.
Rohan looked at her.
‘How could I have told you?’ Denny said. ‘You wouldn’t have agreed to let them come in, so I could safely get Nicky. I didn’t know if you would even let me stay.’
‘I can’t trust you,’ Rohan said. ‘I don’t trust you. You’ve got your sister and I’ve got my brother – they’re all the family each of us has and we’ll always put them first. We’re best doing that alone. I don’t know what you’ll do for her, just like you don’t know what I’ll do for Shannon. It won’t work. Tonight shows how it doesn’t work. There’ll never be the trust we need because we’ll always be working for two different things.’
‘I love you and Shannon.’
‘Love him? Look at him. You did that. Is that what you do to someone you love? And what you see isn’t the half of it. It’s what you made him do – what you made him sit there and take. He’s all I’ve got, Denny. He’s my whole family in one person.’
‘You can forgive me for this.’
‘It’s not about forgiveness. You have to go. I know you’ll be all right. Maybe you can work your way back up to Queensland. That’s what you want, anyway. Your family might have survived.’
‘They haven’t. We know. My family is here now.’
‘I want you to leave.’
‘No you don’t.’
Rohan’s voice tightened. ‘Those injuries will scar him, the experiences will scar him. You put us both in danger. You put your sister before us – and I understand that, but that’s just the point. We are two separate families living together, and it doesn’t work – not when life is so easily taken from us.’
‘We’re not two separate families.’
‘I’ve made up my mind – I won’t change it. Don’t make a scene for your sister.’
‘You won’t make me leave.’
‘I don’t know if I love you. I don’t think I do. Too much has happened.’
‘Why do you think I didn’t tell Vincent where the key was? With both of you gone I might have been able to talk him around. But I put everything, including Nicky, at risk because I couldn’t lose either of you. I promise nothing like that will ever happen again. We’re one now; one unit, and so much stronger because of it. Our trust will be strong – you’ll see.’
‘You can’t say that.’
‘If Nicky was my only priority I would have given Vincent whatever he wanted tonight, and dealt with him later.’
‘You can’t talk me around, or deal with me later.’
‘I won’t have to.’
‘Denny, just go.’
‘You won’t send me away.’
‘I’ll throw you out the door.’
She lifted a hand to touch him.
‘Don’t! Just don’t. You don’t know, you don’t know what I sat in that chair and thought … of how I … Denny, if Shannon had died tonight I would have killed you myself.’
‘No you wouldn’t have.’
‘Stop it! You’re not everything!’
‘Yes I am; to both of you.’
‘No!’ He grabbed the tops of her arms and shook her. ‘You’re leaving! You should have never come. You’re leaving and never coming back.’
‘Careful,’ she said calmly.
‘Why! Why shouldn’t I hurt you? You lied to us, you used us, everything you’ve done, every single thing, has been about you and your plans – right down to me hitting you, the minute you walked in, and everything from then, all designed to fit. How are we meant to know what’s real and what’s not? Even burning the meat … You thought it’d be best to go to the farmhouse with bruises, for sympathy, so you set up a situation, and made me hit you. Then dressed in your old clothes to look the part and went off telling them how hard you had it, told them that we raped you.
We
raped
you
? There’s not one thing I can think of that might be truthful, that might be really you. You don’t love us, you said it yourself, you made it so no-one here would touch your sister – that’s all it was to you, sex with a secondary purpose. You hurt us, so why shouldn’t I hurt you?’ He dug his hands into her skin. ‘Why shouldn’t I hurt you!’