Dead Last (Vol. 1): Dead Last

by Quaranta, Marc

  I was in a great mood. I was smiling. I was laughing. I wasn't thinking about anything but Elyse, the cards, and the beer in front of me. We were almost out of beer so a trip to the grocery store was in the near future.

  My entire mood changed when I saw something at the secretary's desk. Dan was sitting in front of the computer. I usually didn't care what Dan did because it never caused any of us harm, but I was glad that I paid attention this one particular time. I could see he was on Facebook. I slowly stood up and walked over there quietly.

  There was no reason for anyone to be on Facebook. Nobody was alive outside these walls and even if they were, they aren't checking their Facebook pages. We were, quite possibly, the only ones in the country with Internet connection.

  "What the hell are you doing?" I asked before I even made it to his side.

  "What? Nothing," I startled him and when he answered he tried to close out the screen.

  I jumped over to his side and pulled the chair back so he couldn't reach the mouse. I pushed him out of the way and got close enough to read the screen.

  If there are any survivors out there, I am a survivor inside the WTIX building on 71st and Network. There are over a dozen of us here and we have plenty to survive on. We have electricity, running water, food, transportation. Everything you need is here. If you are hurting or alone or scared. Please contact me or make your way to WTIX. We can help! God Bless!

  The message was already sent.

  After I read it, I felt like I was barred behind a pair of steel doors that were designed to keep a vicious animal inside. And then they opened up. I turned slowly and saw that he was already walking away from me. I chased after him and pushed him to the ground. I saw Elyse jump up out of her chair and yell to me. I told her to stay out of it. So, she ran away.

  "Do you have any idea what you just did?! What the fuck is wrong with you?"

  "I didn't do anything," he said from the ground.

  I hit him on the top of the head, not a punch, but enough of a smack that it would sting for a second. He put his hands up to protect his face, but he wasn't going to be able to stop me from hitting him. His hands were a wet paper towel trying to stop each punch

  Elyse came running back into the area with a couple of visitors. She must have run and grabbed Kurt. He came in with Haylea, Scott, Travis and Jenny, too.

  "What the hell is going on? Jack, stop!" Kurt yelled.

  "What's going on?" I smacked Dan on the head again.

  "Jack, Stop!" Elyse said. I couldn't explain the influence she had over me, but I stopped and let Kurt and Scott help Dan to his feet.

  "Einstein over here put our location on Facebook."

  "What?" Haylea said in as much shock as I had when I first saw him posting it.

  "Yea. He put our location, that there are a dozen of us. He said we have food, water, electricity. He said everything. Gave them our address. Just posted it for the world to see."

  "People may need help," Dan's idiotic voice rang in my ears.

  "You're gonna help them?" the idea of that was a joke itself. "People aren't going to come here for help! They're going to come for blood!"

  "No!" Dan shouted.

  I could tell my accusation got the attention of some people. Everybody looked away from us for a second to collect their thoughts. To realize, like I had, what Dan's stupid prank really did to us. We were in trouble.

  "People are going to see that we are here and that we have food and water and that this building is still functioning and they're going to kill us all to have it. Nobody is going to come, get help, and go back out there. They're going to want everything we have and will push us out of the picture if we stand in their way, Dan, you stupid fuck."

  "Jack, enough," Kurt said to me.

  I walked over to Kurt, "You better handle this before he gets us kiss."

  I walked away needing to calm myself before I did anything stupid. All I wanted to do was punch Dan's face in. I wanted everyone to see that he was stupid and needed to pay for it. I wanted to show them that I know what to do in situations like this. Talking only gets you so far.

  I got into the bathroom and was startled for a second to see Barry was at the urinal. I chuckled for a second, but I don't even know why. Nothing was funny. I guess the sight of little old Barry using the urinal...I don't know.

  I went over to the sink and splashed some water on my face. It didn't do the trick, instead, I stuck my whole head under the sink and let the water run on the back of my head and neck.

  When I came up from the sink, Barry was walking over to wash his hands. I smiled at him and he smiled back. I realized at that moment that I was carrying too much on my shoulders. My first thought was to stop letting things bother me and to just relax, and a little stupid thing Dan does threw me all out of whack again. I needed to confess.

  "Ya know, Barry," I began, "I've been carrying something around with me for a couple of weeks now and I would love to be able to tell somebody about it." Barry was washing his hands. Unable to hear a damn thing I was saying. "A couple weeks ago, the night of Joe's death, I drove to go find Frank's brother. You remember Cam, Seth, and Pete, right? Well, I followed them, put the gun to each one of them, and I pulled the trigger."

  I dried my face off and looked at Barry. He looked at me confused and put his hands up. Of course, I realized he couldn't hear me. Does Barry think I'm stupid. I just wished he had stopped acting so deaf and just pretend to understand me.

  "I killed them, Barry. I killed Cam. I killed Pete. I killed Seth. It took four shots. One in the knee of Seth before putting one in his chest. I had the gun pressed up against his chest when I pulled the trigger. I'm sure it was painful. He deserved it, Barry, you understand that, right?"

  I tossed the paper towel into the trash can and turned back to him. I just felt that Barry didn't understand. He didn't realize that I was defending someone's honor. Joe was taken from us too soon and Seth was the one that took him. Barry needed to understand that but I just don't think he did.

  I stepped closer to him and put my arms on his shoulders. He looked so worried. He hadn't been around for these things and I'm sure Janet wasn't telling him anything. Why worry a deaf man when he can't hear about the terrible things going on? Maybe he didn't even realize that Joe was gone. Maybe Barry had no idea what I was going through. Barry didn't understand me at all like I'd hoped.

  "Thanks for listening, Barry."

  I pulled him in for a good hug and kissed him on the cheek.

  LIV

  Kurt Elkins

  "J ack, enough," I said to Kurt.

  Jack walked over to me, "You better handle this before he gets us killed."

  He didn't give me a chance to say anything before walking away. He walked to the bathroom. He needed a second to cool off and I was tired of handling my problems in front of the whole group. Everything was on a public display and it didn't need to be. People didn't need to live every day with the drama that some of us were causing. There were enough problems outside. We didn't need to add new ones inside.

  "Guys, can I talk to Dan for a second? Just go back to doing whatever you were doing," I said.

  "But Jack was right--"

  "Travis. Enough. It's fine."

  None of them looked thrilled with Dan and I could see that it made Dan nervous. When there are only twelve other people left in the world and you piss off ten of them, your odds aren't great. I patted Dan on the shoulder and hoped that it would ease some of his worry. Everyone except Dan, Haylea, and myself were left in the kitchen area.

  "Dan, what were you thinking?" I asked him.

  "I don't know. I just wanted to help people. We've got it really good in here and--"

  "Yea, we do have it good in here. It won't be good, though, if someone comes and tries to take this away from us."

  "But people out there need help."

  "I agree with you, but it's not the time. We tried to help people, remember? And they broke in here with guns and took u
s hostage."

  "That might not happen next time," Dan said."

  "But it might," Haylea chimed in.

  "Kurt, come on. You're always trying to help. I did the right thing."

  "No, you didn't," Haylea said again. I could see that she had enough of Dan's good morals too.

  "Dan, remember the other day when Frank, Jack, and I went to find Cam?"

  "Yes," he answered.

  "We didn't find him and the reason Frank is staying with us is because when we got to his group, they were all gone."

  "They left?"

  "No, Dan."

  I looked at Haylea and she didn't seem to like that I was about to share that information with Dan. When I returned from the hospital, Haylea was the only person I told. We promised to keep it to ourselves because it would only have frightened everyone else. But this was the time to let somebody else know.

  "Dan, everybody in Frank's group is dead. We found them all at the hospital and somebody had killed them all."

  "What? Are you serious?"

  "Yea. Dan, there were lots of people in that hospital, probably three times the size of our group. They are all dead."

  "By who?"

  "I don't know. But that is the thing. We don't know what anybody is capable of anymore. We have to keep this place, our location and what we have to ourselves. We can't help anybody anymore."

  "I understand."

  "Really?" Haylea wanted to make sure.

  "Yes, I do. and I'm sorry. I'm going to apologize to Jack."

  "Okay, but don't make a big deal about it. Let him cool off after that."

  "Okay," Dan walked away from us like a sad puppy. He realized he made a mistake.

  Unlike Jack, I still knew there were other ways to fix things besides beating it into the side of someone's head. Again, I proved I was right about that. Instead of pushing him over and hitting the side of his head, I talked to him. It accomplished more than Jack's way.

  Haylea and I both exhaled and leaned up against the nearest counter. We dodged a bullet and both knew that. I looked at her and tried to get a smile out of her but she was still so annoyed with Dan. I was, too.

  "What are we going to do?" she asked me.

  "I don't know. That message is already out there. If anybody sees it, they could be here by tonight."

  "We're going to need to leave."

  "No. We're just going to have to be careful from now on."

  "We've been careful. Look where it's gotten us."

  "We'll have to be more careful."

  I kissed the side of her head and pulled her in close to me. I wanted to feel her body against mine. I rubbed her arm and then blew a raspberry on her head. She pretended to punch me in the stomach and for a moment things were okay.

  "I want to say that I'm sorry," I said to her. She was lost. "The other day when I left to go with Frank, I'm sorry."

  "I understand."

  "But that doesn't mean you deserve it. I told you that I'm going to continue to lead these people, because we need them as much as they need us, but I don't have to."

  "Yes, you do."

  "Haylea, I'll--"

  "You are going to continue doing everything you've been doing. Everyone in here is alive because of you. You're not going to stop."

  "Well then what about you?" I asked.

  "I'm going to continue to do what I've been doing."

  "Get mad at me because I'm doing what I've been doing?" I asked with a smile.

  "Exactly," she smiled and kissed me. "Because it leads to amazing sex."

  "Oh, really? Could you prove that to me?"

  "Maybe later, I've got a date in a couple of hours."

  I gave her my annoyed look, but it was all in fun. Things were as normal as they could be between us. Everything that we had just said, in a fun light way or not, was true. I was going to continue to lead the group and she was going to continue to hate it and worry every single time. But I was the only one. Scott didn't have the balls to do it and Jack would get us all killed. The only other guy I trusted enough to lead this group was dead...and that was Nick.

  "Hey, Kurt," Scott called to me.

  "What's up?"

  "Can I talk to you?" he glanced at Haylea quickly. He wanted a moment alone, but I wasn't going to give it to him.

  "Yea, go ahead."

  "Okay...well, I was just doing a reading on some of the numbers in the back."

  "What numbers?"

  "The power. Electricity, air, water. It's dropping fast."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean we're running on our backup generator. We've been in here over twenty days, almost a month now. The power isn't going to last forever. We're running out of time."

  "How much time do we have?" Haylea asked.

  Scott took a moment to crunch the numbers in his head. His eyes went to the ceiling and bounced back and forth as he did the math. Those eight seconds waiting on his answer seemed like eight minutes.

  "Fifteen days."

  "What?"

  "Fifteen?" Haylea and I both couldn't believe our ears.

  "Maybe twenty. No more than that."

  "What the hell are we going to do?"

  "Well we can find more power. Batteries, maybe a whole new generator system, but those are just short-term fixes."

  "Is there a long term?"

  "Yea, we get the hell out of here. By the end of the month."

  "Kurt!"

  I looked back and Dan was coming back over to me. He usually walked with a bit of a hunch in his back, but now he was running and it looked like he was going to fall over at any moment.

  "Not now, Dan," I said to him.

  "No, this is important."

  He was out of breath and sweating. I believed that it was from that short jog and that he really was in that bad of shape, but he seemed serious about something. Scott, Haylea, and I all turned our focus on to him. I think, just like Scott before, Dan was hoping for a moment of privacy between us, but I didn't think much of it. I wasn't expecting very big news.

  "Jack killed Cameron," he said.

  "What?" Haylea took the words out of my mouth.

  Dan ignored her and stared into my eyes. I stared right back and didn't want to believe it. I heard the words and they stuck into my head. I was hoping they'd fly in one ear and out the other and I wouldn't have to believe that this was real, but it was real. It was as real as it could get and I believed every word of it.

  "What are you talking about, Dan?" I asked.

  "I went to apologize to Jack. He was in the bathroom so I opened the door to go in, but I stopped when I heard him talking to someone."

  "Who?"

  "Barry."

  "Barry?"

  "Barry is deaf," thank you Scott for that one.

  "He said he needed to get something off of his chest and he needed someone to listen."

  "Fucking irony," Scott said. Haylea rolled her eyes.

  "He told Barry that when Cam, Seth, and Pete left the night Seth killed Joe, Jack followed them. He followed them out into the street and killed them. Shot all three of them."

  "You swear you heard this? You didn't mishear him?" I asked.

  "I could never mishear something like that."

  At that moment, Jack came around the corner and was walking in our direction. We all watched him in a different light. He wasn't just an out of control douche bag with an attitude problem. He wasn't simply a thorn in most of our sides. He was a killer. A murderer. He took the lives of three young men because he thought it was the right thing to do.

  That is why he was being so strange in the van. That is why he volunteered to go with Frank to find Cam. He was going to do everything in his power to make sure we didn't find the bodies. He didn't want to go down Intech Blvd. because that was the road he shot them on. It was all making sense.

  It killed me that I didn't realize it. But it wasn't my fault. From the night Jack killed them to now, he was no different. He didn't act different. He wa
s the same guy. He didn't mope, he wasn't less angry. That was unsettling to me. It only meant that he could take three men's lives and it didn't affect him at all. Not one bit.

  "I hope you're handling this," Jack said as he passed by us. He bumped his shoulder against Dan's and then walked back into the refrigerator area.

  "What are we going to do?"

  I looked back to see if Jack was coming back. He walked out with a beer and turned away. He walked back to the end of the Sales Department where his sleeping area was set up.

  "We're not going to do anything," I said. I didn't even believe that I was saying something like that, but I was.

  "Are you out of your mind?" Haylea said to me.

  "We have to do something about this," Dan said.

  "What are we going to do? Kill him? You want to tell Frank so that Frank kills him? Want to tell the rest of the group so that it causes panic?"

  "I don't know," Scott added very little to the conversation.

  "We have to do something, though."

  "We will. We keep our mouths shut," I said.

  "Kurt," Haylea began.

  "We keep our mouths shut, okay? It will terrify the others to know they're living with a murderer. We have to keep everything calm. We'll figure it all out later. First, we need to worry about where to live in fifteen days."

  "Or twenty," Scott reminded me.

  "This is wrong, Kurt," Haylea said to me.

  "I agree," Dan said.

  "It may be, but right now we don't have a choice. If Frank finds out what Jack did, he'll go after him."

  "So? Jack brought this on himself. We don't need to worry about him," Scott said.

  "If that happens, it's not going to be Jack that I worry about."

  Ding. Ding.

  We looked around the room wondering what the hell that noise was. It was confusing for a moment. Well, confusing for Haylea, Scott, and myself. But Dan knew exactly what it was.

  "Facebook," he said.

  He quickly walked back over to the computer he was on. We followed him without leaving more than a step between us.