The Nation Chronicles: Book Two (The Nation Chronicles Trilogy 2)

by Wendell Sweet

  "But why?" Becky asked, "Why?"

  "I don't know, Honey," Joe replied, "I'm just thanking God we're still alive." He shook his head slowly as they drove away.

  When Joe reached the small sporting goods store he pulled as close to the front doors as he could. The parking lot looked deserted, but the dealership had also looked deserted, and he was taking no chances. They looked the huge lot over for better than ten minutes before they left the truck. He wished they didn't have to stop at all. The sooner they were on the road the better, as far as he was concerned. He supposed it probably wouldn't be any better stopping somewhere else though. They entered the store and took turns watching the lot as they picked up what they needed.

  By the time they had re-outfitted themselves it was nearly dark. The setting sun casting the lot in deep shadows, and Joe was glad he had parked the truck close to the doors. They debated staying. They could sleep right inside the small shop Becky argued, but Joe didn't want to, and Becky's argument was halfhearted at best. They both decided they would rather put as many miles as possible between them and the small town. In the end they left despite the descending darkness, and they did not stop that night at all.

  Joe drove while Becky slept, and towards daybreak as they were nearing North Platte, he angled the truck down off the pavement and pulled into a quiet state park. He followed the trees back into the camping area, and killed the hot motor.

  They quickly set up a small camp in the sparse morning light, and then crawled into the tent. They held each other tightly as they drifted off to sleep.

  FIVE

  - 1 -

  Willie stood nervously in the outer hallway, waiting for Luther to open the door to the small room and let him in. He half hoped he wouldn't. The angry bellowing behind the door scared him and he didn't want to know the reason for it.

  Well, it would be pretty damn easy just to leave, wouldn't it? He asked himself... Could he?

  No, he decided, he couldn't. When the door opened and Luther allowed him to enter, he would. He wouldn't sneak off down the hallway, or try to hide somewhere in the huge complex like a fuckin' chicken-shit. And even if he did it would do no good. If Luther wanted him, he would find him, and it wouldn't matter where he tried to hide, or how far away he ran. If The Man called, you came, it was that simple.

  After all, he himself had taken care of several people who wouldn't give in to what Luther wanted, hadn't he? He had, and he was... Well, he was Luther's right hand man, he supposed, his Main Man. Luther himself had said so, and not more than ten minutes ago the small pager Luther had given him, had gone off with a frantic beeping. The Main Man had been called, and he had to go.

  Luther had been gone for two days. Willie didn't know where he had been, and really didn't want to know. Luther came and went as he pleased. Solid walls didn't seem to matter in the least to him. Here one minute, gone the next. It was like living on the edge of a nightmare all of the time for Willie. He never knew where he might, or might not pop up next, or even what he might look like from one time to the next.

  Despite dreading when he would next return, it was a lot easier for Willie when he was gone. He hated to be in the same room with him, let alone know he was here and that he could summon him at any moment. All things considered, being in the same room with him was the worst though.

  He had gotten used to the stench that emanated from him, but Luther himself was an entirely different matter, and when he was here he expected Willie to be around him almost all the time. He was back now, and as Willie stood in the hallway before the door, he secretly hoped he would leave again... Soon.

  He knocked tentatively on the door once more, and stepped back waiting quietly for the door to open. His mouth twitched as he waited. The nervous tick had developed just recently, and although Willie tried to control it, or stop it, it was not possible. Even from here, as he waited, he could smell the stench that he knew would be much stronger once the door was opened, a smell of death, almost overpowering in its intensity.

  The handle turned and the door swung silently inward, as Luther turned from the computer terminal where he sat.

  "Well? Don't just stand there you stupid coon mother-fucker; get your slimy ass in here."

  Willie stepped quickly into the room, and turned to close the door behind him. Before he could it slammed shut, rattling the steel frame that it sat in, and the double dead bolts twisted into the locked position.

  Trapped, he thought.

  He turned his attention back to Luther. He had learned early on that looking elsewhere when Luther spoke, was a bad mistake to make. He demanded your full attention, and so, reluctantly, he looked directly at Luther when he turned from the door. It was not a pretty site.

  His clothing hung in tatters, and his face was peeled and oozing green puss in several places. His black liquid eyes locked on Willie's own. The underlying stench, which Willie thought smelled like rotted vegetables, was heavy in the room, but another smell of burned flesh was mixed in with it, and also hung in the air. Nearly gagging in its intensity, he thought. What had happened to him, he wondered, he looked burned, or something like burned anyway.

  "Yes, Willie my sweet," Luther said, as if reading Willie's mind, "the cock-suckers tried to fry me."

  He smiled widely and then continued. "Tried to fucking roast me, Willie old boy. Me! Can you believe that shit, Willie? Huh? Can you ever fucking believe it?" His eyes bulged as he spoke.

  When he finished speaking, his smile continued to grow wider and wider, and the glow from the computer screen glinted off the sharp rows of teeth that sat crookedly in his mouth. The fresh pink skin around his mouth split in several places as the smile widened, and more of the greenish puss oozed out of the new cracks and trickled down to his chin. Luther absently wiped it away with the back of one hand, and after briefly examining the sticky greenish film on his fingers, began to lick them clean with his long pointed tongue.

  Willie struggled to maintain his composure as he watched; not daring to allow his eyes to wander away from the scene, as they so desperately seemed to want to. He swallowed hard trying to force back the vomit he felt in his throat. When Luther finished licking his fingers he spoke.

  "So... What to do? Oh me oh my, what to do!" He feigned fear as he spoke, and dug his fingers into both cheeks, opening furrows in them as he dragged them down his face.

  "I'm terrified," he stated calmly, "Fuckin' terrified!"

  He allowed his voice to rise and quaver at the end, as if this were so,, and he was really in great fear. Willie did not dare to speak.

  Even though Luther had asked him, or seemed to ask him questions while he spoke, Willie knew better. That was another lesson he had learned the hard way. You never spoke; I mean never, he reminded himself, until Luther commanded you to.

  "Well you stupid fucking ass-hole," Luther asked, "got any ideas? Are you just gonna let them do this to me? Huh, Willie? Huh?"

  His black eyes bored into Willie, but he still didn't speak. This was not a real question, and no real response was expected. It wasn't nasty enough, and it hadn't included any of the derogatory terms Luther called him by, that would let him know that he really was expected to respond.

  "What's the matter, Willie? You seem awful uptight to me. That little piece of snatch you got ain't been putting out has she," he paused momentarily as if considering before he spoke again.

  "You know what you need, Willie? You need a blow job. That'll loosen you up a little I bet. Yep, just an old fashioned straight forward blow job. Clean those pipes right out for you. But hey! Doesn't she do that for you?"

  "Guess not, huh! If she did you wouldn't be so fuckin uptight now would you."

  Willie nodded his head almost imperceptibly, not sure whether he should have or not.

  Luther nodded his head right back. His head bobbed up and down like it was on a stick in fact, Willie thought. His eyes took on a sad look as well, and his mouth turned down into a pout as he spoke.

  "Poor wittl
e Willie! Poor, poor wittle Willie! Does da poor wittle Willie need a bow job? Does he?" his pointed tongue snaked out of his mouth once more and licked his lips as he finished, and he smacked them loudly. Then his eyes suddenly flew open, as if he had discovered some astounding revelation, and his lips once more stretched into a wide grin.

  "I'll do you, if you do me, Willie boy!"

  Now it was Willie's turn to have his eyes fly open, but there was no teasing light behind them when they did, as there had been in Luther's.

  "N-N-No," he nearly screamed. His eyes bulged in fear as Luther continued to hold the smile on his lips, the sharp teeth glinting wickedly behind them.

  Luther burst out with a deep rumbling laugh as Willie finished, but just as quickly cut it off, and frowned as he spoke. "Well, don't say I didn't offer, you ungrateful little fuck-stick." He smiled once more. "But if you change your mind..." he allowed a hopeful look to creep into his eyes, and shrugged his shoulders simultaneously, "...maybe?" He arched his eyebrows suggestively, as he once again licked his lips.

  "Well fuck you then," he finished feigning rejection, "what's a girl supposed to do?"

  He paused seemingly lost in thought, and Willie stood shaking, waiting for him to continue.

  "So, my little friend, what to do... Well? Hey, you ignorant little cock-sucker, I'm talking to your black ass!" He suddenly screamed. He allowed the pitch of the scream to fall off at the end. "Well?" he asked more calmly.

  "I-I," Willie began.

  "I-I," Luther mimicked. "I, WHAT?"

  Willie struggled to compose himself for a second before he spoke, his voice however, was still shaky, and hardly more than a whisper. "We could kill 'em?" Willie asked hopefully, and then more positively. "We could kill 'em somehow, Luther."

  "And how do you propose we do that, shit-for-brains?" Luther asked sarcastically. He waved his hands impatiently. "Fuck it. I'll tell you how I propose to do it."

  He gestured with the fingers of one hand towards the computer screen. "See this?"

  Willie nodded his head, and was glad to be able to look away from Luther as he turned his eyes to look at the monitor. "Yes," he managed to squeak, as he licked his lips.

  "You know you really are a useless little fuck, Willie," Luther said, "but I'll tell you anyway. You see they didn't just build a nuclear reactor down here, Willie boy. No-sirree-Bob, they sure didn't. They put in a couple of fucking missiles to boot," he paused for a second. "I got both of those cock-knockers aimed right at Rochester. Now, what'd'ya think of that, Willie boy? You think that little tid-bit of information might help out our sitcheeashin a little bit?" he turned to the keyboard, and quickly punched in several codes. A small window appeared on the green screen, and the word ARMED, flashed inside a small box within the window. It flashed on and off, pulsing the message.

  "Then, Willie boy, all I have to do is enter one more line of code, and, WHAMO! They're fuckin' history. Now... Tell me... Ain't that real damn interesting, Willie? Don't that just make ya wanna shoot a load right in your pants?" He continued without waiting for Willie to speak.

  "Fuckin' A, it does. Damn straight! Now, what do you think of that Willie? Don't that make the cheese more binding?"

  Willie just nodded his head as his eyes stared at the flashing message on the screen.

  "Ain't gonna do it though, wouldn't be prudent" Luther said in a surprisingly good George Bush imitation. Willie said nothing.

  Luther paused and then resumed in his own voice. "You know Willie; you ain't got no sense of humor at all. I ain't gonna do it, cause I don't wanna do it yet. Yet, Willie, but you can bet your ass I will do it, and soon at that. I'm tired of fucking around with those ass-holes. Especially since that stupid fuck Ira tried to roast me. Can you imagine that, Willie? Can You? I really don't think you can. It really hurt my feelings, Willie, it really did. But, hey! Fuck-em right?"

  He paused again and grinned so widely that Willie was sure his face was going to split, as he turned from the screen and looked at him. Then, as Willie watched, incredibly it did. His face split completely in two, and his lower jaw and teeth swung down, and flopped onto his chest with a wet splash. Green fluid jetted out and sprayed across the room where it splattered onto the front of Willie's shirt, and began to hiss.

  Small curls of smoke drifted up from the front of his shirt as he looked, and his mouth opened in surprise, a tight little whining sound creeping from his throat.

  Luther began to laugh, deep belly laughs, and Willie looked back at him.

  His mouth had somehow joined itself back together, he saw, and he shifted his gaze quickly back to his shirt to see if the smoking green liquid was still burning its way through and into his body. It wasn't, it was gone. His shirt was just as white and pristine as it had been when he had entered the room.

  Luther stopped laughing, but still chuckled as he spoke. "Boy oh boy," he chuckled, "do we ever have an active little imagination... You're a funny little bastard, Willie boy, Real funny." He immediately stopped laughing, and turned serious as his eyes bored into Willie.

  "Well anyway," he continued, "I say fuck-em. Fuck them and the white horse they rode in on, right?"

  "R-Right," Willie managed, "Fu-Fu-Fuck-em," no matter how hard he tried, he could not keep his teeth from chattering, or his body from shaking, and he hoped Luther would get to the point so he could leave before he lost what was left of his mind.

  "Okay," Luther said, "I will get to the point. Here it is. You're leaving, Willie boy. You and whoever you choose to take with you that is. You're gonna crawl your ass's right out of the ventilation system, and then you're gonna get a nice little four wheel drive truck of some kind, if those fucking vines haven't covered em all up. Even if they have you'll just have to chop through em, Willie boy. I don't really give a shit how you get one. Then you're gonna drive your slimy ass to Rochester. To be precise, you're gonna drive your ass to the north side of Rochester, and there you're gonna meet up with some friends of ours."

  He paused. "Think you can handle that?"

  He continued after Willie nodded his head, and squeaked out another small "Yes."

  "Good. Good! Cause I'll tell you why. You, and the rest of those ignorant mother-fuckers who'll be waiting for you when you get there, are gonna kick the living shit out of all those ass-holes on the South side, got It? Can I get an Amen, Willie boy? Can you say Hallelujah!! Can you say that for me you miserable little shit heap?"

  "H-Hallelujah," Willie squeaked out, his eyes frightened.

  Luther reached over, picked up the hand set from the phone on the desk, and spoke into it. "Yes, hello, who the fuck did you think it would be? Bring that little cunt in here, would you?" he hung up the phone and turned his attention back to Willie.

  "Now, let's see, where were we..." He snapped his fingers and Willie noticed that when he did, tiny little red sparks leapt from them. "...Oh yes! Okay, so you're going to kick ass and take names, Willie. I mean that sincerely," he leveled a serious look at him as he spoke. "Nobody lives, Willie. Nobody... Got it?" He waited for Willie to nod his head before he continued. "Good. Good, long as we have that clear. I want you out of here today, Willie, and I want you to remember that I'll be keeping track of you. Okay?"

  Willie nodded again. He was sure that even if he'd had to speak he wouldn't have been able to.

  "Good, veerrryy Good," Luther said as he smiled. He seemed about to speak again when a tentative knocking came at the steel door behind Willie. Willie hadn't realized it, but he had backed up against the door. Hell, more like tried to squeeze through it, his mind jabbered.

  "Uh, Willie?" Luther said softly. "You'll have to move your stupid ass before anyone can come in you know. Would you mind?"

  Willie forced his legs to move him sideways to the left and away from the door, and he pressed as tightly to the wall as he could once he reached the edge of the door frame.

  "COME INNNN!" Luther cried out, in a high falsetto. "WE'VE BEEN EXPECTING YOOOOOOUUU!"

  The do
or swung inward and two scared looking young men rudely shoved a naked and struggling young girl before them as they entered. They pushed her down to the floor, and left as Luther commanded with a sweep of one hand.

  "GET THE FUCK OUT," he shouted, when it seemed as though they were not leaving fast enough.

  They hurriedly left and the door slammed behind them. The girl lay in a heap on the floor, crying, her hair spilling over her face and pooling around her. She lifted her head and looked at Willie.

  "Willie?" she cried, as her frightened eyes swept around the room, and then locked on his. "Wha-What did I do wrong?"

  Before Willie could speak, Luther did.

  "Look at me, you stupid little twat," Luther commanded.

  She looked at him, and then quickly looked away. Luther chose to ignore it, and instead turned his attention to Willie. "Hit the road, Willie boy, 'less you'd like some of what she's gonna get. Would you?"

  Willie shook his head, and as the door swung open he headed quickly out of the foul smelling room.

  Luther stopped him before he was entirely through the door, calling him back. "Uh, Willie?"

  He turned and looked reluctantly back into the room. The girl had lowered her head to the floor and was weeping hysterically, pounding her forehead against the carpeting.

  "Yes?" he managed.

  "Don't fuck it up, Willie. I swear I'll rip your balls off and feed 'em to you if you do."

  Before Willie could answer the door slammed in its steel frame, and he was left looking at the closed gray-painted surface. He hurried off down the hall as fast as he could to get away from the door, and whatever was going on behind it.

  He broke into a run just a few feet further down the hallway and didn't slow down until he reached the Main Operations Room, leaving the small room far behind him.

  He stumbled into the private office he kept, just off the Main Operations Room, and from there into the small adjoining bathroom, and he barely managed to raise the toilet lid with his trembling fingers before everything in his stomach came up in a thick jet.