by Skylar Finn
“What might the next step be?” Walt asked with a grimace.
Big Mike pinched the skin over Walt’s bicep. “Bigger game.”
Walt shrugged off Big Mike’s hand. “You’re fucking cannibals.”
The crowd reacted. Some of them bared their teeth or licked their lips to egg on Walt’s statement. Others began to retreat, staring at the ground. It looked like Big Mike hadn’t quite sold everyone on his new survival plan.
“That’s a harsh word,” Big Mike said. “We aren’t fond of it, but facts are facts. You have meat on your bones and we need meat in our stomachs. It’s a solution to a problem.”
“A solution that involves murder,” Ailani spat. “Where the hell is my sister? Did you already eat her?”
Chuckling seemed to be Big Mike’s preferred form of communication. “Of course not, honey. We need to prepare her. We can’t waste a body like that, or one like yours either. Come on, I’ll take you to her.”
Big Mike turned his back on Walt and Ailani, leaving them unrestrained. He expected them to follow. Ailani briefly entertained the idea of making a break for it, but there were at least fifteen men still watching them. If she ran, one of them would catch her, and then she’d be in less of a position to help Keiko. She fell into step behind Big Mike, and Walt followed too.
Big Mike led them to another set of what looked like animal pens, but these had sharpened branches across the top of the enclosure as well, as if to discourage anything from climbing out. The pens were empty except for the one that held Keiko.
“Ailani!” She reached through the walls of the pen to grasp her older sister’s hand. “I’m so sorry! I was looking at the map, and they grabbed me out of nowhere—”
“It’s not your fault,” Ailani said, glaring at Big Mike.
He opened the gate to the pen and nudged them inside. “In you get.”
Keiko hugged Ailani then Walt. “I’m so glad you found me.”
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Big Mike advised, looking at Ailani. “I’ll be back for you in just a minute.”
He secured the cage door from the outside and headed off to the center of the camp. As soon as he was out of sight, Ailani rushed the gate, looking for a way to push the lock open.
“I already tried that,” Keiko said. “It’s no use.”
It would have been easy to push the branch barricading the cage door if the space between the makeshift bars of their cell weren’t so close together. Ailani couldn’t get her hand through the gap, no matter how much she tried to worm her way through it.
“Damn it!” Ailani slammed her fists against the cage wall, rattling the entire structure. “These people are crazy. We gotta get out of here before they roast us over that freakin’ fire pit.”
“We have to outsmart them,” Walt said. “Judging by the two guys that brought us in, they’re not the brightest group of people.”
“Really?” Keiko said. “Because they caught all three of us without much trouble.”
“Not helping.” Walt experimentally pulled up on one of the branches, hoping to pry it out of the dirt to create a hole in the cage. “Wow, they cemented it in and everything. We’re screwed.”
“Shh!” Keiko jerked her head toward the gap between RVs. “He’s coming back.”
They went quite as Big Mike returned, this time with another member of the campsite in tow. His companion was a man in his early thirties. Unlike the others, he was beefy in a muscular way rather than an overweight way. He also kept his beard neatly trimmed and his hair cropped close to his scalp. His clothes were clean too. Ailani felt a glimmer of hope. Perhaps this man would save them.
“This is Blake. He’s my right hand guy,” Big Mike said, patting Blake on the back. Blake sheepishly tucked his hands in his pockets. “Without this guy, we never would have survived this EMP blast. He was the one who helped me convert this camp into a livable experience. He deserves a reward, don’t you think?”
“Was the cannibalism your idea?” Ailani asked Blake sharply. He didn’t reply, instead becoming interested in digging the toe of his boot into the dirt.
“No, that was my genius idea,” Big Mike announced, chuckling yet again. “But Blake here needs a treat, nonetheless. That’s where you come in, honey.”
Ailani looked around. “Me?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Big Mike swept his beady eyes from the top of Ailani’s head all the way to her toes, lingering around her chest. “You’re a pretty thing, and you got a nice body too. It would be a damn shame to let that all go to waste before we eat ya!” He let out a hearty laugh. “Anyway, Blake gets you all to himself for the night. If he likes you, I might let him keep you until we get hungry again.”
Ailani was stunned into silence, but Walt and Keiko weren’t. They immediately began shouting at Big Mike, hammering against the branches that kept them confined.
“You can’t do that!”
“That’s fucking sick!”
“She’s not a piece of property!”
Big Mike laughed in their faces. “You should consider this an honor! She gets to have a little fun before she serves her purpose. Where’s the harm in that? Now the two of you stand back while I get this one out.”
Walt and Keiko immediately stepped in front of Ailani as Big Mike pushed the barricade up and came into the cage. He pulled a gun from his waist. Walt drew his pistol too. Big Mike chortled.
“Your hand’s shaking, son,” Big Mike said. “Why don’t you put that down? We both know you don’t have it in you.”
Walt trembled but he didn’t put the gun down. Blake walked calmly into the cage and right up to Walt. The gun pointed directly at his heart, but Blake simply took the gun from Walt’s and turned it around.
“Move,” Blake said, the first word he’d uttered since he’d been introduced. “More or I’ll shoot you. It won’t be anywhere vital. I can’t let you die. But it will hurt, and you will suffer. Choose now.”
Ailani shoved her way past Walt and Keiko before Walt had to make a decision. “Don’t shoot him. I’ll go with you.”
“What?” Keiko said. “You can’t!”
“Shut up, Keiko.” Ailani pushed her sister to the rear of the cage. “Stay out of it.”
“Ailani—” Walt began.
“No,” Ailani said. “This is my choice, not yours. I’m going.”
She pushed Walt away too, looped her arm around Blake’s massive bicep, and dragged him out of the cage. Big Mike holstered his gun and barricaded the gate.
“That’s the spirit,” he told Ailani with a grin. “Glad you’re willing to settle in. Enjoy your time with my boy here. He’s one hell of a ride.”
Blake said nothing as Big Mike sauntered off. Then he took Ailani’s arm and guided her around the back of the RV circle so they were shielded from the gazes of other members. When they reached one of the less rugged-looking RVs, Blake kept a firm hold on Ailani until he guided her inside. Once she was in, he let go gently.
“So what now?” she said. “You have your way with me? I’m going to tell you up front. I volunteered to do this to keep that idiot from shooting my friends. I’m not about to please you because Big Mike said so.”
Blake took two camping cups and filled them with water from the sink. Somehow, the RV camp had a fresh supply. He offered one tin cup to Ailani, but she looked pointedly away from it.
“You must be thirsty,” he said. “Drink. I swear it’s not poisoned.”
She smacked the cup out of his hand, sending the water across the interior of the RV. For a cannibal, the place was pretty cozy. The kitchen was clean, as was the bedroom. Blake had made up his bed with tight military corners. She spotted a Marine Corps tattoo on his bicep as he sank into the sofa that unfolded from the wall.
“What’s stopping me from running out of here right now to rescue my friends?” she demanded.
“Nothing,” Blake said. “You can go if you want, but you won’t get very far. Someone will spot you and tell Big Mike. He’ll
put you back in that cage with your buddies, and tomorrow you’ll be dinner. Is that what you want?”
She crossed her arms and sulked.
“I’m not going to touch you,” Blake continued. “Big Mike is an idiot. I don’t condone rape or cannibalism.”
She raised an eyebrow. “And I’m supposed to believe you?”
“If my mom was still around, she would smack the shit out of me for keeping this kind of company.” Blake jabbed his thumb at the front window of his RV. Outside, the others prepared the enormous fire. “But I was passing through when the EMP hit, and this was the best place to take cover. It’s about survival, and Anchorage is the only park with running water for miles. I had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do but convince this pack of morons that I was the best thing to ever happen to them.”
“Do you give this speech to every girl that Big Mike offers you?”
He offered his own water cup, which he had yet to drink from. This time, she took it. The first sip was a blessed relief. Her throat was dry and parched.
“Actually, you’re the first one,” Blake said. “The cannibalism thing is a pretty new idea for Big Mike. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m not the only one who’s not fond of eating other humans. Half the park think Big Mike’s gone insane, but they’re too scared to stand up to him. Not to mention, they’re hungry. You do what you gotta do, right?”
“To an extent.”
“I agree.” Blake closed the curtains to the outside world. “Which is why I’m going to help you get yourself and your friends out of this mess.”
She finished the water in her cup and handed it back to him. “Oh, really? How exactly do you plan on doing that?”
“We bide our time,” Blake said. “They’re not going to kill anyone tonight. Big Mike wants to make a ritual out of it, and he hasn’t had any time to plan. Besides, no one here knows how to clean, cook, or eat a human. All we have to do is stall. I’ll tell Big Mike I want to keep you for longer than one night. I’ll convince him that you’ll cooperate if he spares your friends for a few more nights. I’m already playing double agent.”
Ailani heard a ruckus building outside and peeked through the slats of the shades. “Yeah, I don’t think your plan is going to work.”
“Why not?”
“Because Big Mike is currently tying my friend Walt to a spit.”
15
Ailani made it out of the RV and around the side of it before Blake caught up to her and held her back. She struggled against his grip. In the camp center, Walt faced a similar struggle. He didn’t make it easy for Big Mike to tie him up. He lashed out, bit whoever came too close to his face, and flung his limbs this way and that as if he were epileptic. Finally, one of the other campers hammered his fist into Walt’s face, dazing him. Once he was limp, Big Mike had no problem securing Walt to the giant spit that would go over the fire.
Ailani forced Blake off her again. “I thought you said you were going to help me save them. Why are you holding me back?”
“Because you can’t charge in there like a madwoman without a plan,” Blake said. “There’s more of them than there are of you.”
“I can do basic math. Thanks.”
Blake squinted toward the camp center, brow pinned together as he tried to come up with a scheme to rescue Walt. “You can’t stop this, but I can. I’ll go out there. I’ll come up with something to tell Big Mike.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know,” Blake stuttered. “I’ll think of something. I’ve done it before. He’s not hard to convince.”
“You better do it quick,” Ailani told him. “They lit the fire.”
In an instant, the fire went from one lit twig to a massive conflagration. The flames reflected in Walt’s dark brown eyes as he stared glumly at his fate. Ailani’s heart twisted around in her chest as she watched her friend. He thought this was it. He thought he was going to die.
“Well?” Ailani demanded of Blake. He had his hands on his head, still trying to come up with something to stop Walt from becoming tonight’s dinner. “Are you going to do something or what?”
Blake didn’t move or reply. In the camp center, Big Mike recruited another large man to pick up the other end of Walt’s spit so they could place him over the fire. Together, they hoisted Walt into the air while half the crowd cheered and egged them on.
“Screw this.” Ailani shoved Blake out of the way. “I’m doing something.”
Pow!
Before Ailani could take one more step forward, Big Mike’s head exploded. A shotgun cocked and fired off another round, and the other man who held Walt’s feet met a similar fate. Their bodies dropped to the ground, and Walt—still tied up—rolled safely away from the fire.
Chaos erupted in the RV park. Whoever had a gun pulled it out and fired at will. People screamed and hollered. The members of the park split into two groups as bullets flew: those who had no qualms with eating humans to survive and those who did. Ailani didn’t know who fired the first shot—who killed Big Mike—but she was eternally grateful to them.
Blake leapt into action, his military training taking over. He pulled an unarmed teenager from the fray and made him sit behind the RV, away from the flying bullets, then dove into the mess to rescue others. Ailani steadied herself then followed Blake. She made a beeline for Walt. He rolled this way and that, hoping to get out of the mess. The campers had no regard for him. They stepped over or on him, ignoring the binds on his hands and feet that kept him immobile.
Ailani got on her knees as she reached him, and a bullet whizzed over her exactly where her head had been a second previous. She turned Walt over.
“Ailani!” His speech was muddled. Whoever had punched him in the fact had made him bite his tongue. It was swollen and bleeding inside his mouth. “You got away!”
She untied the ropes that kept him bound to the spit and pulled the huge piece of metal away from his spine. He already had bruises from how roughly the campers had handled him.
“Turns out Blake wasn’t Big Mike’s right hand after all,” Ailani shouted over the hubbub. She helped Walt to his feet. They stayed in a crouch and ran for the edge of the RV park. “Did you see who shot him?”
“Someone in the trees,” Walt yelled back. He wobbled on his feet, so Ailani kept a steady hand on his back. “The shot came from the east side of the park.”
“We owe them,” Ailani said. “We have to get to Keiko!”
No sooner had she said it did Keiko appear, of her own free will, from behind one of the parked RVs. She aimed Walt’s handgun over Ailani and Walt’s head and fired twice. Yells split the air, and Ailani glanced behind her to see the man who Keiko had shot in the leg. He too held a gun.
“It was you or him,” Keiko said, staring at the gun in her hand. “You or him.”
Ailani pulled Keiko into a tight hug, pushing her away from the fray at the same time. “It’s okay. You did what you had to do. How did you escape?”
Keiko and Ailani helped Walt to cover behind the RVs. “Stupid idiots didn’t secure the bars on the top of those cages. I climbed up, pushed them off, and got right out. Not the brightest bulbs here. How did all hell break loose?”
“Someone shot Big Mike,” Walt said, groaning as they helped him sit in the dirt. “In the head.”
“He’s dead?” Keiko said, aghast.
Ailani poked her head out from behind the RV to check on the situation. The gunfight had already begun to die down. The campers were at least smart enough to know when to cut their losses. Bodies littered the camp center. Some of them weren’t moving. Others gripped their wounds and called out for their friends to help them. Big Mike lay unmoving near the raging fire. Half of his head was missing. Ailani held back her lunch.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “He’s dead.”
“You can thank me for that.”
The unfamiliar voice came from the woods. A tall black man stepped forth. He was undeniably handsome and well-dressed in a tweed
suit and tie, as if he had been out shooting skeet with his rich friends. He carried a long shotgun at his side, holding it with a kind of comfort Ailani didn’t understand. She would never feel comfortable in the presence of a gun.
“Who are you?” Ailani asked.
The man smiled, but not at Ailani. The three of them tensed as he approached, but he kept his gun pointed at the ground. He knelt next to Walt and examined his face.
“You always were the pretty one of the family,” the man said, turning Walt’s chin this way and that. “A fat lip doesn’t change that.”
“I’m sorry, but who are you?” Ailani asked again, this time with less patience.
Walt answered instead. “He’s my brother.”
The man offered his hand to Ailani. “Paul Dailey. It’s a pleasure to meet you. And you are?”
She shook hands. “Ailani Ho. This is my sister, Keiko. I’m Walt’s best friend. Was I supposed to know about you?”
“That depends,” Paul said with a wink. “Was I supposed to know about you?”
“Walt doesn’t talk to me about his family.”
Paul patted Walt on the shoulder. “That’s because Walt doesn’t talk to us anymore either.”
“For good reason,” Walt spat.
“Aww.” Paul playfully flicked his brother’s ear. “Does that mean you’re not happy to see me? Because I’m not sure if you noticed, but I saved your life back there.”
Walt jerked away from his brother’s touch like a horse avoiding a fly. “Great. You saved my life. How about you leave us alone now?”
“I don’t think so, little bro.” Paul heaved Walt to his feet. “You’re coming with me. You’re all coming with me.”
Walt dragged his feet and slipped out of Paul’s grasp. “I’m not going home.”
“Home?” Keiko said. “You live around here?”
“A few miles up the road,” Paul said. “We grew up here.”
Keiko smacked Walt on the shoulder. “Are you kidding me? You had a safe place to stay a few miles from here and didn’t bother to say anything? We could have avoided being kidnapped and almost eaten!”
