Wally

by Rowan Massey

  “Relaxed,” Spitz said, nodding.

  “Alright. Wally, remember what I said. Go out towards Red House and past it. You shouldn’t be too tired for the trek since none of you danced.”

  “Will you try to make something that keeps the music?” I asked.

  “It’s hardly my priority. I’m more concerned with the dying part. Call me when you find a place to stay the night and again in the morning before you decide to come to work.”

  “I will.”

  “Goodnight.” He gave us one, stiff wave and walked away.

  Chapter Nine

  The house was one-story and looked like it could be knocked over with the flick of a finger, just like the houses around it. The fast-moving light of a campfire could be seen on the trees in the backyard. Spitz snuck around the side and came back saying there were three people back there. There was no front door, just a gaping doorway, so it was unlikely they lived inside. At best, they were homeless like us.

  I led the way in, kicking bits of garbage and torn up patches of carpet. Spitz held a dim, wind-up flash light. The place smelled like mildew and wood rot. There was a hint of piss and shit like there always was in abandoned places, but it wasn’t awful. There were doors still standing in the doorways along the hall. We picked a room at the front corner of the house, and I managed to shut the door, despite it being loose on the hinges and dragging on the carpet.

  “At least it’s not too cold tonight,” Fiona said, examining the ceiling. It was sagging a little in one spot, and she chose a corner on the oppose side of the room, letting her pack fall to her hands. She placed it against the wall with a sigh, but she looked relaxed and happy. She’d packed up a lot of stuff and put some of it in Spitz’s pack so that they were both carrying a lot of extra weight. With some time, she would learn to travel light. We weren’t the shopping cart types. All that stuff just kept you from running fast enough when you needed to.

  I put my own pack under a window across the room because Fiona was right; it wasn’t cold. I let them have their space while I called Doc. I’d taken notice of the street name and mailbox number, still trying to do everything right when he told me what to do. We ate, brushed our teeth, and spread our blankets out.

  “Nando’s fine,” Spitz said, and I realized I was a little worried. “Probably kicking ass out there.”

  “I don’t care if he kicks ass,” I said, sitting cross-legged and tucking the blanket around my waist. “I just want him to go home and not die.”

  “He will,” Fiona said, “because he’s kicking ass.”

  I gave her a smile right as the flashlight went out. We took turns cranking it so we’d have it in an emergency. There was a working streetlight close by so it wasn’t completely dark.

  “Guys, is it stupid that I’m like, disappointed I didn’t dance?” Fiona said.

  “We’re all disappointed,” I said. Spitz spoke at the same time, saying basically the same thing.

  “Next time,” Spitz said, “we’ll get it from Nando, and you’ll get to dance.”

  “And I’ll be a good dancer?” she asked him, smiling and wiggling her butt.

  The two of them put their foreheads together and smiled all goofy. I got the idea it was an inside joke.

  I turned and looked out the window, which was broken in the corner. People were going both ways down the street, but it seemed like there were less people than there should have been near Red House. And the vibe was all wrong. Nobody had the lazy, wandering walk of partiers. Some of them didn’t seem high at all. They had probably gone to get their drug and were taking it home with them instead of sticking around.

  “Quiet out there?” Spitz asked.

  “Yeah, nothing special.” I didn’t mention the things I’d noticed.

  I laid down. Spitz was making sure Fiona’s feet were covered. He placed his blade on the floor in front of her and laid behind her with his arm around her middle. That way the blade was close to his right hand. It was something people did but not something we’d ever bothered with. I decided it was cute how protective he was being. Would Nando let me act protective? Because I did feel protective, just in a useless way. I touched my palm against the floor next to me, and wished I was sleeping next to him. My eyes squeezed tight, and I wished hard, the way little kids do. I knew it was silly. I didn’t care.

  In the morning, I left Spitz and Fiona to check the house for unfriendly types. I walked slowly, my knife in hand, looking in each doorway. The room across from ours had two people squatting in it, still sleeping. Out back, the fire had died. A man slept next to the fire pit.

  I went out the front door and down the walk to look up and down the street. There wasn’t a single person walking around. I wasn’t sure if that was normal for mornings in the area, but it would have been slightly weird further into the city.

  Back inside, I forced the door to our room shut again and sat on my blanket. I wanted to sharpen my knife. Not because it needed it. I never waited until it needed it or let it get rusted. I wanted to do something useful because I was a nervous. That wasn’t like me. Maybe it was the weird fielders. Spitz and Fiona hadn’t said much, and they looked cranky, sitting with their backs against the wall, and splitting a food bar.

  “I’d rather have stew,” I said. “I wanna get out of here, but I guess Doc wants us to stay hunkered down.”

  “Doc is boss for a reason, I guess.” Spitz said. “We need to go for food anyway. Unless you have something stashed, we’re all out.”

  “You guys could stay. I’ll get some bars and check on Nando.”

  “What?” Spitz looked at me like I’d lost it. “He’s not going to be home. Check on him how? Anyway, Doc said he would bring food, right?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe I just want to walk around. I feel funny. Nervous.”

  They were silent and seemed to be having a conversation through eyebrow movement. I took the phone out and looked at the time. It was later than I’d thought, based on activity outside and the other homeless staying asleep. It was a few hours from the time for me to show up at the lab. But also, there was a chance the fight at the docks was over and Nando was home. Home and maybe needing some help. Who knew? It would take me an hour or so to get over that way. I could eat some stew before I got there. If there didn’t seem to be any danger, and Nando didn’t need me or wasn’t there, I could head for the lab. I would tell Doc I genuinely hadn’t thought the thing at the docks was a problem so I’d spent my day the usual way. I’d just hope he didn’t call me when I didn’t call him. It made me feel bad, but I felt like Nando was more important.

  I started to Spitz and Fiona my plan, but Fiona threw a shoe at me. She missed when I twisted out of the way, and it smacked loudly against the wall before falling.

  “You need to stay here, dumbass! This is not a safe day. Just sit down and chill!”

  Fuck, she’d never acted so grumpy before. I sat over in my corner only a few minutes before putting my blanket and a few other things away in my pack.

  “I won’t be long. I’ll come right back if I see the slightest scary thing.”

  “You fuckin’ better,” Spitz said, much calmer than Fiona, who had her arms crossed and was staring at me, eyes unblinking and angry.

  “I just—I can’t sit around here for hours. I need to move around. I’m all hyped up.”

  “Yeah, well maybe we’re all feeling a little weird,” Spitz said. “Your doc messed our heads up. I feel like a giant is trying to pop my head like a grape.”

  “Your head hurts?” Fiona smoothed his hair.

  “No, it’s just a pressure feeling.”

  “I’m supposed to call the doc. If we keep feeling shitty maybe he’ll…I don’t know. Give us the normal shit for free.”

  “Write it down, more like,” he grumbled.

  I snorted. “Would you mind answering some questions tonight?” I said, imitating his fancy way of talking. I added a touch of robotic. It got me a small laugh from Spitz. “On a scale of one to ten,
how horny do you feel? Was there anything different about your shit tonight?”

  Fiona’s lips broke into a smile despite herself, and she let out a cackle.

  I put half our money in my left sock, leaving the rest in my pack and putting it next to theirs so they wouldn’t wander off and forget my junk. With my blade in my pocket, I yanked the door open, grinned at them—my awesome friends—and jerked it shut behind me.

  The street was still empty, and I had an instinct to walk close to the walls, but all the houses had trampled, garbage-covered front lawns. Going house to house would just get me attention I didn’t want. I hurried, almost wanting to run. Not dancing on the field must have saved a ton of calories. But it wasn’t just energy, it was a jittery feeling in my lungs, and my eyes were looking around so fast I couldn’t focus on anything for more than a second.

  It took going down three streets to get to some vitamin stew. There were only five people in line.

  “Are there usually more people at this kitchen this time of day?” I asked the woman in the window.

  “You kidding? About a hundred more. It’s all that trouble. People are staying inside. Off the street.”

  I took my bowl and ate quickly, half-kneeling on the bench of the picnic table. I wanted more. One of Doc’s meals would be so good. I wanted to stuff myself, but my stomach felt electric at the same time.

  I returned my bowl and spoon and kept walking.

  The weather was getting colder instead of warmer as the day went on. I started glancing down alleys for trash cans and kept an eye out for trash bags I could wear if it rained. A few of the big skips were overflowing, and I stopped for five minutes, getting a small bag full of good bottles out of it. Clouds were getting lower and darker.

  I took the phone out and dialed the doc. He picked up right away.

  “Wally,” he said, “are you three safe?”

  “Yeah. I’m heading your way. I think. I’m not close yet so I’m not sure what it’s like over there.”

  “Don’t bother. It’s quiet here but in a bad way. Are you in the suburbs?”

  “No, I just left. I want to see if Nando needs anything and then bring back some food for Spitz and Fiona.”

  “Get food at the nearest place and go back. Nando can handle himself. He probably isn’t there anyway.”

  “Well, I’m going to check.”

  He went silent for a few heavy seconds.

  “This is much bigger than anything we’ve seen from these gangs before. Understand? There’s a reason everyone is staying in. When it’s over, the entire gang—and the gang is huge these days—will head back into town bloody, bruised and on edge. When it’s over and Nando is due to be home, we’ll all know. So get back to where you were and sit around playing poker or something. Go see Nando tomorrow.”

  I hated him for saying all that about being bloody and bruised and on edge. I knew he was right. That was the way these things went, and I was an idiot to head in that direction. But Nando was in the middle of it, and I didn’t want to hear those things. Doc said we’d know when Nando was home, but we both knew he was just as likely to never go home again.

  I changed the subject.

  “Doc, we’re all three feeling something. We’re not feeling normal. Like, irritated and weird.”

  “Weird?”

  I stopped and leaned against a wall, looking both ways and seeing just a few people.

  “Fiona snapped at me like a bitch, Spitz said a giant is pinching his head, and I can’t stay still. I can’t sit in that house playing poker or anything else. I just need to walk around.”

  “I see. That’s interesting. Unless things get worse, I think you can manage to go walking in reasonable directions. I’ll come and see you this evening.”

  “Okay, see you then.”

  He hung up, and I smiled. Of course he was first to hang up. Maybe I would beat him to it next time, just to see how he’d react.

  He’d convinced me that it was an unreasonable direction, but I still headed off towards Nando’s. I got there faster than I usually would have, jogging right up to the door and knocking loud. It took forever for the landlady to answer. She opened the door but left the chain on so that only her head showed through the gap.

  “He’s not here,” she said. “What are you thinking? I’m not letting you in here to wait. Go home!”

  The door slammed before I could say anything. I stared at it a second, then turned and thought about going to the doc’s. I imagined him treating me the way the landlady had, and it made me laugh out loud. How mad would he be though, really? Finding out would be a mistake. I went back towards the suburbs, feeling a little disappointed about not spending time in the lab. Not having that money was the real issue. I always scanned for good plastic along my way, but it might be smart to detour to a few of the good dumpsters, especially since a lot of the other scavengers would be holed up for the day.

  I took a right down a dead-end street. There were three dumpsters at the end that were worth diving into.

  Shuffling feet just a few inches from my body. The quick movements of someone up for trouble. I had my blade in my hand in a split second. A wooden board whacked down on my hand, knocking my knife across the concrete. There were two. No, three. Their hands bit into the muscle of my shoulders and arms. A knee hit the back of my leg, and when I stumbled, the board came down on my back. The pain brought me to the pavement. I couldn’t breathe in. The side of my face met concrete and grime.

  One of them—a tall guy—started shoving his hands up my jacket and into my pants pockets while another guy held a knife to my throat and held me down. Eventually, he found the money in my sock.

  “That’s it? You’re fucking kidding me. You said he was loaded. You said pancakes!”

  I heard two slaps on bare skin.

  “Stop! He’s got more!” Veronica. “He’s got to have more! Fuck! Where’s his pack? Look for it!”

  The tall guy started swearing and mumbling to himself, holding me down with one hand, fishing around on my body with the other, which meant the knife wasn’t at my throat. His fingers found Nando’s chain.

  “We’re screwed. If Nando’s alive, we’re screwed,” he said, leaving the chain. “We’re not getting out of town. We’re not getting past the border with that.”

  “We’re not getting five bars with this!” The other guy threw the money on the ground. Veronica’s eyes avoided mine while she picked up the few dollars with shaking hands.

  “Look, it’s enough for—we can get fielders and—we gotta go. I swear to fucking god I’m—” Every time she paused, her voiced started to whine up high, almost losing control. She would start screaming soon. Her face was twitching, and her eyes squeezed shut one second, went wide the next. She was really close to losing her shit. She could have a drop and die of withdrawal any minute. But first, she would probably lose her mind.

  The guys ignored her and let me go. They walked a few yards away and talked in low voices.

  “Veronica,” I said. My voice was shaking a little, too. “I need that. We’ll help you. We love you. But we have Fiona now, and I’m not working today. There’s barely enough for all three of us, but I have some more back where my pack is. Fiona probably has some money too. There’s nobody collecting today, and we’ll get plastic if we need more cash. There’s plenty if you just give it back to me.”

  The tall one came up behind her and pulled the money out of her hands.

  “Leave him. Let’s get walking. We’re screwed in this city now.” He suddenly grabbed her face in his strong grip. Her eyes kept getting wider and wobbling in her sockets until they seemed ready to pop out. “This was your idea, and you can pay for it. You’re on your own, cunt.”

  “What? No, come on. Come on!” Her voice rose rapidly into a piercing scream. I put my hands over my ears.

  They were walking away in a hurry. I spotted my blade and slowly got to my feet.

  “I’m sorry, Wally. Jesus Christ! Oh my god! I had to! Oh m
y god, help me!”

  She went on like that while I picked up the blade. Still shaking like fucking crazy, I put it in my pocket. That restless feeling I’d had before had grown in the past couple minutes until it was overwhelming. Veronica wouldn’t shut up. I couldn’t think straight or get a word in edgewise. Where was I, and where was I going next? To Doc’s. No. Back to Spitz and Fiona. Just away. Back up this road, and then either turn would have to work.

  “You have more money somewhere? You gotta help—me,” she screeched.

  “Veronica…” I wiped at my dirty face. “Did you really tell them to jump me?”

  “Yes, but come on. They weren’t going to hurt you any. Come on! They’re fielders! They’re new, but they’re fielders! I thought they were better than this!”

  “I gotta go. I gotta take care of…I just…I’m sorry. Go down that way and there’s good dumpsters. Get plastic and cans.”

  “I don’t have time for that! I don’t even know where to get any fucking fielders today!”

  It hurt me to do it, but I walked away. She followed me for a little bit until I swung around and shoved her. Not hard enough to knock her over, but enough to let her know I meant it. She started crying and holding her clinched fists against her head. The begging went on until I couldn’t hear her anymore. I had to run, in the end, to get rid of her voice.

  Chapter Ten

  When I got back to the house where we’d spent the previous night, Spitz and Fiona were kicking trash around in the front yard and throwing stuff they could burn into a pile. A fire would come in handy. It was cold, but they were probably doing it out of boredom.

  “Spizzy?” I’d walked up behind him without him seeing me. He turned to look at me and stood there looking confused.

  “Were you running?” he asked.

  “Um,” I looked down at myself and my clothes had damp spots from the sweat. Had I really run that much? “I guess I did. But I got jumped.”

  Fiona wandered over and her eyes went wide.

  “Did they hurt you?” she asked.