To Cross a Wasteland

by Phillip D Granath

Murphy turned his head slowly and looked at the big man as if surprised the giant had dared to speak. Vincent kept his eyes firmly fixed on the open ledger, not daring to look up.

  “Over 50 gallons it seems,” Murphy said pointedly and turned back to Kyle.

  “Yeah and it's heavy too, that’s why you’re going to have it, and all of the rest of this stuff delivered to me tomorrow,” Kyle demanded.

  Murphy just smiled, un-phased by the request. “Easy enough,” he said. “Where do you want my men to deliver it?”

  This was another point that Kyle had wrestled with and then decided was inevitable. Murphy would find out where he and Anna lived. The town was too small to avoid it and Anna’s clinic too well known. The part that really concerned Kyle was that it would force the issue, he would have to tell Anna. No way to explain away 50 gallons of water delivered by Murphy’s goons. Tomorrow Anna would be all in on Kyle’s plan, whether she liked it or not.

  “The Clinic across town,” Kyle said and then added. “But I’ll be taking the ammo now.”

  “That’s smart, the streets can be dangerous for a wealthy man,” Murphy said nodding. “In fact, why don’t you just stay here tonight? I have open rooms in the back, you can have a nice venison steak dinner, free booze and any of the women you want of course. Then in the morning, you could oversee the delivery of your goods personally,” Murphy offered.

  Kyle shook his head. “Thanks for the offer, but I have someone waiting at home for me.”

  “Ah yes, the good Doctor,” Murphy said nodding his head. “I understand.”

  Kyle couldn’t tell if Murphy had already known about him and Anna or if he had just made an educated guess when Kyle mentioned the clinic. To Kyle the message was clear though, Murphy would hurt those he loved if Kyle double-crossed him. Kyle fought down the anger that flared to life inside of him at the unspoken threat. Both men’s eyes locked in a moment of understanding and then Kyle nodded, and they both stood.

  “Vincent, please show our guest out,” Murphy asked.

  The big man turned leading Kyle from the room, and the men parted without another word. Vincent led Kyle across the room to the bar. Most of the place had cleared out as night had apparently slipped into the morning. Vincent knelt down and worked the tumblers on a small safe cemented crudely into the wall. It opened on creaking hinges, Vincent rummaged through the contents and after a few minutes returned to Kyle. He dropped a sandwich bag of .357 rounds into his hands.

  “It was a pleasure doing business with you,” the Scavenger said with a grin.

  “Get the fuck out of here,” Vincent replied and not needing any further encouragement Kyle walked out.

  The big man watched Kyle go shaking his head in disapproval, he then re-secured the safe and went back to Murphy’s office. The Councilman was leaned back in his chair, he had scooped the precious pills back into the bottle, and he rolled it back in forth next to his ear, listening to the bottle rattle. Vincent shut the door behind him and stood silently, waiting patiently for his dismissal or his next task.

  “Vincent, speak,” Commanded Murphy. “You have been my guard dog long enough for me to know when you have something on your mind.”

  “Why aren’t I beating the location of those pills out of that fucking Scav? Give me an hour, and I know he would be begging to tell us where he hid them,” Vincent asked in frustration.

  “Vincent, Sit,” Murphy commanded again. Vincent sat quickly in the chair that Kyle had vacated moments ago.

  “The key to success, in anything is attention to detail, knowledge, and patience. Take this situation before us.”

  The councilman held the bottle of pills up in front of the big man.

  “What do you see?” Murphy asked.

  “A pill bottle?” Vincent replied.

  “Is this the type of pill bottle a doctor or a pharmacist would send you home with if you had a tummy ache?” the Councilman asked in a mocking tone.

  “No, I thought those were always smaller, kinda clear, and orange,” the big man volunteered. The bottle the councilman held was opaque white plastic.

  “Right you are and what was usually written on the outside of those bottles?” Murphy asked.

  “Your name?” the big man offered obviously uncomfortable with the game.

  “That’s right your name usually along with some instructions. Take twice a day with food or some nonsense like that. But this bottle says very little. It says the contents, in this case, it says, Oxycodone 20mg and then QTY: 180. Other than that it just has a large barcode on the label. The point being, this didn’t come from Grandma’s medicine cabinet.”

  “You think he really found something then, an untouched pharmacy?” Vincent asked.

  “I hope so because if he did, I’m going to be making it my pharmacy. But you see that’s where the patience is going to come in. This is the hard part, the part that takes self-control, the part where we wait and watch and learn Vincent. That’s why tomorrow I want you to start throwing some chits around. Find out everything you can on our new friend Kyle. Where he goes. Who he speaks too. And where he’s been.”

  “Boss, this Scav being shacked up with the Doc, doesn’t that mean that she could have the pills at the clinic?” Vincent asked.

  “Perhaps, but If that was the case why trade us these? Why not really start selling her services, everything I have ever heard says that the place is practically a free clinic.”

  Vincent nodded in reply, understanding this was the type of conversation Murphy had for himself and not for the benefit of an audience.

  “No. I’m not going to risk kicking in her door and making demands at gunpoint. Believe it or not reputation still means something in this town. The last thing I want to give that dying electorate, the City Council is a rallying cry. They would use it to paint me as the town monster, then all they would have to do his hand out the torches, and the villagers would be on us. Even starving and desperate people see that shitty little clinic as hope.”

  Vincent nodded, not sure what Murphy wanted him to say as the Councilman paused.

  “Never underestimate the power of hope,” he said almost to himself.

  Vermin

  Little Wally rolled on to his side again and coughed painfully. The 8-year old’s forehead was plastered with sweat. Anna stroked his head tenderly, but the little boy buried his head deep in the grimy blankets trying to avoid her touch. Anna frowned and stood from the side of the mattress. The boy and his brother’s shared a narrow room that had once been used for storage. Three more mattresses lay on the floor end to end. The only light came from the open doorway in which Wally’s mother now stood, wringing her hands in apprehension as mothers have always done.

  “Well Doctor, is it, is he bit anywhere?” the woman asked.

  “Not that I can see,” Anna said. Her voice was tired, she stepped into the room where Kyle and Wally Senior sat at a kitchen table.

  The room hadn’t been a kitchen, probably just a small office, other than the boy’s bedroom which had undoubtedly been some kind of storage space it was the only space in the warehouse left for human habitation. Anna had first smelled the farm from a block away, but nowhere in the heart of it, she barely noticed any smell at all, thankfully.

  “Well, then what the hell is wrong with him?” Wally senior demanded.

  “I’m not sure, exactly. It may be just a simple flu,” Anna replied.

  “Do you have anything you can give him Doc?” the man asked.

  Anna paused for a moment as if in deep thought, Kyle looked up at her. She slowly shook her head.

  “No,” she said. “If he gets worse or if he hasn’t shown improvement in a few days, then send for me. But right now, just let him sleep and try and keep him fed and hydrated,” Anna said.

  “Thank you, Anna,” the boy’s mother said and then turned and looked pointedly at Wally.

  Wally senior looked uncomfortable for a moment and then digging into a greasy pocket pulled out a single tear.
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br />   “No, that won’t be necessary. You can pay me if I have to come back and if I actually have to do something. But Wally Junior is a strong boy, and in the long run it will be better for him if he can get through this on his own,” Anna said.

  Wally senior nodded and slid the single chit back into his pocket. Then he stood. “Let me show you two out,” he said.

  Wally Senior led Kyle and Anna out of a side door and into the depths of a nightmare. The warehouse was a huge space, the metal roofing had been stripped away and traded off years ago. The open sky made the space feel even more massive. The trio walked down a central path a few feet wide but on all sides of them, wall to wall were hundreds and hundreds of containers. Each was filled with shredded paper and holding dozens of live rats.

  Most of the containers were small and made of glass, the type that had been used for home aquariums back before the fall, others were made of sheet metal. All of them were covered in tops of wire mesh, mostly repurposed screen doors. Anna fought a shiver and slipped a hand inside of Kyle’s, she had been here several times, but she never could quite get used to the rat farm.

  By far the worst part was the noise. The scratching and hissing that came from each cage and echoed off the high walls. The sound increased to almost frantic levels every time a person walked past the cage. Wally had explained it was because the rats thought they were going to be fed. As they walked across the farm now, the noise grew in a sort of terrible greeting and then died down after they passed. Anna could see several of Wally’s older sons now, tending the cages.

  The three spindly boys walked between the cages. Each carried a wooden pole like a spear, occasionally they would stop, push aside a mesh covering and poke at something in the cage. Sometimes a boy’s spear would come out with a rat skewered on the tip that would quickly end up in a bloody sack carried at the hip. Each wore dirty surgeon’s masks and leather gloves; Anna was thankful for that. It seemed that the farmer had listened to her warnings and was taking at least some of her advice to heart. Wally had lost two sons already to infected rat bites. Now the family feared for Wally junior.

  Wally senior led them to the exit, a heavy steel door, chained from the inside. Anna’s eyes couldn’t help but wander across to the steel table that sat nearby. A selection of knives hung from a rack on the wall above it. This is where Wally processed the meat, the harvested rats going out and whatever he could get to feed them coming in.

  “Thanks again Doc," Wally said shaking her hand. “Mind if I talk to Kyle for a minute?” he asked.

  Anna looked from the farmer to Kyle and then nodded “Sure,” she said and then stepped from the warehouse into the daylight, happy to escape.

  “Kyle. Now I have brought this up to the Doc before, but I thought maybe we should talk about this. You know, man to man,” Wally began.

  Kyle crossed his arms and nodded already not liking where this conversation was going.

  “Go on,” the Scavenger prompted.

  “Well, it seems pretty straightforward to me. We can’t let nothing go to waste, not these days and I mean nothing. Now I offered the Doc a fair price a while back, a chit a body, I’m willing to raise that offer to two chits,” Wally said in a humble tone. “On account of them being fresher, the bodies, I mean, and on account of what you two have done for my family over the years.”

  It was no secret around town that Wally’s farm would pay a chit a piece for a dead body, no questions asked. That had only added to the macabre rumors that persisted about the farm as if the smell and the thousands of rats weren’t enough.

  “The whole point of a clinic is to prevent their from being any extra bodies lying around at the end of the day,” Kyle replied.

  “I know that, and the Doc is a miracle worker with what she has to work with. I’m just saying that people sometimes come to you and they are beyond help. Should they die in your care, we’ll take them off of your hands. No point in throwing them into a hole in the ground, it’s just a waste of sweat and pardon me for saying so, but perfectly good rat food.”

  “A lot of these people have families,” Kyle protested feeling disgusted.

  “Which is why it makes even more sense. Their loved one has just been shuffled off this mortal plane, and they‘ve stepped through that door to the other side. I think most people would want their last act to be providing anything, even if it’s just a few chit’s worth of water to help their family survive in their absence,” Wally replied.

  “I doubt most of them ever considered that door to the other side would be the asshole of one of your rats,” Kyle said flatly.

  “Rats gotta eat, same as the worms and the buzzards. People have got to eat too,” Wally replied simply.

  Kyle couldn’t really disagree with that. Wally’s words did bring to mind one particularly unflattering rumor that had gone around about the rat farmer though. That both of his dead sons had ended up food for the rats. Listening to Wally now, Kyle believed it.

  “It’s Anna’s decision, I’ll talk to her about it, but it’s her call,” Kyle finally said.

  “That’s all I was asking,” Wally said grinning and shaking Kyle’s hand again.

  Kyle stepped through the door and joined Anna, Dante and the rest of their guards outside in the sunlight. The sun was climbing high overhead approaching noon.

  “We ready to go?” Anna asked.

  “We are,” Kyle replied and the group began moving back towards the clinic.

  A dozen men, all paid by Wally and armed with clubs patrolled the outside of the warehouse. The farm was the largest in town, though a few smaller operations like it had sprung up, copying Wally’s success. Most of the town’s folk, when they could afford food ate rat. Very few could afford the wild game that Coal’s ranch brought in.

  “What was that all about?” Anna asked as they walked next to each other.

  “Wally upped the offer for fresh corpses. Two chits apiece,” Kyle said simply.

  Ann shook her head. “I won’t take the clinic down that road. If we sell him even one body, the rumors will start. They’ll say we are letting people die on purpose. Then folks would be too afraid to even come to us for help.”

  Kyle nodded in agreement. “You're right, but we could always mention the offer to the family though, let them know, let them decide. You said so yourself, Wally buying up dead bodies at least keeps them off the streets. Stops them from rotting out in the open, keeps diseases from spreading and all of that.”

  “Yeah, that’s true, but that doesn’t make Wally a damn humanitarian or anything,” Anna replied.

  “No, he’s just a businessman and a father. He’s just trying to make a living while feeding and protecting his family along the way. He employs people to guard his farm so they can bring home a little meat to their own families. And he manages to do it without feeding off of the misery of others. Half of the so-called businessmen in this town can’t say the same,” Kyle said, Murphy squarely in his mind.

  “Are you ok?” Anna asked turning to look at Kyle as they walked.

  “I’m fine,” Kyle replied.

  “Really? Because I’ve never seen you get this fired up before over something like Wally and his rats,” Anna pointed out skeptically.

  Kyle paused and took a breath. He had decided to go out on this morning’s rounds with Anna to hopefully find a way to tell her of his dealing with Murphy. He figured that it could only play out better than her returning home to find a fortune of water waiting and that her would be husband had made a deal with the devil to get it. A standing deal at that.

  “I’ve been thinking a lot lately, about the plan,” Kyle started.

  “The plan? Again, sweetie how many times are we going to have to talk about this?” Anna asked glumly.

  “I know, but it makes more sense now than it ever has before,” Kyle began.

  “No, it doesn’t. Staying makes more sense now. We have the… stuff now. We can save more people right here, our people,” Anna said, being careful not to
mention the drugs even in front of her own guards.

  “Anna,” Kyle said grabbing her by the shoulder and turning her to face him. She stopped as did Dante and the rest of the guards, now openly watching the exchange.

  “This town is dying. A fucking madman controls all of the water. He has been playing nice for a few years, but every one of those years he has gotten stronger and everyone else weaker. He’ll run this town completely soon enough. Then he won’t have to play nice anymore, not ever again,” Kyle said in a pleading tone.

  “He is one man, a politician, he needs the people to keep his little empire running. He is always going to keep the water and his chits flowing. Why would he ever stop? Besides he isn’t going to be around forever, trust me, I’m a Doctor, nobody cheats death,” Anna added the last with a smile, trying to sooth Kyle.

  “That’s your plan? To try and outlive him? The thought of him dying scares me even more. Men like Murphy don’t go quietly in their sleep. He is a violent man, and he’ll die violently. When it happens, this whole place will burn as his dogs fight over the scraps. You’re betting that the next guy won’t be as cold-blooded and ruthless as Murphy? You're right, he’ll be worse. Or maybe even worse than that, no one truly takes over, and dozens of different groups fight over the tower, so it changes hands every few weeks. Nobody truly in control, just a cycle of death and violence for years.”

  Anna shook her head, she turned and began walking again, Dante and his men did the same, keeping pace with her.

  “None of this makes any difference, I’m not leaving our people behind. We don’t have enough water to make it out of the fucking desert either way. Not that you even have any idea where the hell we would be running too if we did,” Anna said over her shoulder.

  Kyle paused for a moment standing by himself in the street. “Well she is only half wrong,” he said in a whisper.

  He started walking again, following Anna and her guards, but not making any real attempt to catch up with them. They would be back to the clinic soon, and then he would have to try and explain away 50 gallons of water. He took a slow breath and kept walking.