Body Count

by mike Evans

  Gabriel closed his eyes and unfortunately the detailed dreams waiting for him weren’t short of mental torture. Addy was walking across the parking lot repeatedly. Each time was worse. The first was her head being blown off, the second was her asking him why he didn’t know what was going on while brushing his face with her hand before a red midst that was the inside of her skull was spread across his face and neck. The last was what should have happened, having it be him, but unfortunately that time was the worse and three additional shots went out leaving Addy, Mikey, and Forsyth all lying dead on the ground with no shortage of blood.

  He watched as Christian made his way slowly from across the airport where he had taken his shots from. His limp no longer something that affected him for he was now healed in the dream world of sleep. Gabriel looked up at him; it made no difference that he was dead. In his dream it was more as if he was just paralyzed. Christian now asked, “Why did you not save your children?” When the unresponsive Gabriel said nothing in reply, he stomped his foot hard near his face, the giant dress shoe on the ground.

  Gabriel jumped in his sleep and waking himself, the realization hit him that the foot stomping in the dream was a car door outside the cabin. He heard a man approaching the cabin and from the sunlight coming in, he figured that he had slept until late morning. He could only assume without having any contact with the outside that there was at least two to three days that had passed total since landing in the forest.

  He was thankful also for one thing, which was that he had put so much distance between himself and where the plane had crashed. It had kept people from knocking on his front door. He pushed up off of the bed, moving slowly at first from the bed to the window where he saw a man walking up the path to the cabin.

  Gabriel quietly as possible locked the door to the cabin doing his best to stay standing. He’d packed his bag before going to sleep but had kept one pistol and a knife out for himself. The door handle clicked but the lock stopped it from opening. Gabriel let out a breath, leaning against the log frame of the house. He wasn’t trying to see what body count he could obtain, not that any amount of good he did now would be enough to save his soul. He knew there wasn’t any explanation for where the newly arrived man’s friends or tenants were that would end well. Gabriel waited to hear the man’s engine start again but it did not. A moment later he could distinctly hear cursing and the jangling of keys. The door’s lock flipped open and then door swung inwards. The man entered saying, “Christ, what are you guys doing locking the damn door? You are in the middle of fucking nowhere you dip shits. Tommy, Steven, Matt, are you guys in here? Don’t tell me that y'all got your asses moving this morning. I don’t see any beer cans out here, what did you do, go and find your Jesus and savior?” He laughed while cracking a can of beer, tossing out a smoke, and lighting a new one while stretching out his spine from the drive.

  Gabriel stood back waiting for him to enter further into the cabin. Gabriel thought that he would give him the same chance that the other men had gotten. When the man finally saw Gabriel, he jumped back while holding his hands up, spilling his beer and smacking himself in the head with his rifle case.

  Gabriel said, “Hello, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  The man jumped back a few feet more and asked, “Who in the fuck are you? Where is everyone, and why didn’t ya’ll answer the fucking door when I knocked, what are you deaf or something?”

  Gabriel kept his hands visible, knowing that he was less than a second from being able to pull his pistol from the rear of his pants and effectively splitting the man’s head in two different pieces if need be. Gabriel didn’t try to smile because by the look of the new guy, he knew that there was nothing a stranger would expect him to smile about. Gabriel said, “To tell you the truth, I’d been out for the count. Your buddies picked me up on the side of the road. I’d been travelling and got mugged halfway to where I was going.”

  “So is that why it looks like you got the shit kicked out of yourself?”

  “Oh I don’t look like I got the shit kicked out of me sir, I did get the shit kicked out of me. They had very bad intentions and left me for dead mister.”

  The man said, “Oh for God sakes, my dad was sir and mister. I sure as hell ain’t important enough that anyone needs to be all proper and shit with me. My name is Fred, Fred Goodrich, and before you try it again, I ain’t Mr. Goodrich, I'm Fred, or if someone’s pissed maybe you could get away with goddamn it Fred.”

  Gabriel just stared for a moment before the man cracked a smile then slapped his knee and slapped Gabriel on the shoulder. “So that still doesn't explain all that well exactly what you are doing here? Why don’t you give me the short story because between you and me, I'm just a bit nervous about the fact that none of my buddies are here to pleasantly greet me.”

  “They picked me up, honestly I didn’t ask to be brought here, but from what Matt told me, you boys were going to be doing some deer hunting here. They had gotten the supplies for the next few days at a store in town and found me. Instead of heading back they figured they’d just give me the extra bunk, which I can only assume is yours, and I could get a bit of rest time before I try to piece everything back together. That car was all that I had you see, so there isn’t too much I could do but wait for a ride back to town. I didn’t throw no fit because I knew that getting to stay here was going to be better than sleeping under the trees, especially with the weather turning.”

  Fred nodded, slowly rolling his cigarette between his teeth, back and forth like a pro trying to decide if he did or did not believe the stranger. After much deliberation he smiled and nodded his head. He set down the rifle case and pulled on his beer while looking around the cabin. “Christ, is there a reason that no one has done anything to get ready for this season? It doesn’t look like they so much as did anything. What did they do, drop you and all the shit off and hit the road? Let me guess, they had every intention of letting me do all the work, those inconsiderate sons of a bitches.”

  Gabriel shrugged and said, “Well I’ll help you do the work Fred. I got no problems helping to earn my keep around here. How long are you guys up here for anyways?”

  “We each have two deer tags so once those are filled we are going to cut up the meat and head home. There isn’t much we can do about anything until we fill up our tags. It’s kind of a

  tradition that we come out here and except for hitting town once or twice for entertainment, it is a fun resort and pretty damn straightforward why we are all here.”

  Gabriel nodded slowly and said, “I can’t imagine having all the time that I needed so that I could do what I want and not be interrupted. How in the hell do you do that? It blows my mind. I am always so busy at work, or at least what I used to do for work that I never would have had the time to come on out here and do something like this.”

  Fred said, “So what you lost your job? You don’t have nothing going for you now that your job is gone?”

  “Pretty much, I was pretty good at my old job but when things hit the fan that is about all that you can do about it, if you know what I mean.”

  “Ahh man I've been laid off before, god damn politicians I tell you.”

  Fred bent down with his back faced to Gabriel and unzipped his rifle case, wanting to make sure that he was locked and loaded. He said, “You know I've seen so much open road that I'm not about to waste a minute organizing those men’s shit. I’m going out there and I'm going to see if I can’t round them up. If you want yourself a place to stay for awhile, you just do a good job. I can’t see that any of the boys can’t just let you stay without having much to worry about you. I am sure the guys aren’t having any issues. You got any questions?”

  Gabriel knew the time was limited and that it was obvious that his time here at the cabin was soon over. Once the man found his good friends, his options would be over. Fred walked to the door and when he looked back, Gabriel sent two bullets perfectly through a very well place shot in the man’s two eyes. F
red waivered for a millisecond before falling to the ground, dropping his rifle and hitting his head on the floor. The blood pooled on the old wood floor and Gabriel felt like he should have challenged the man but knew he didn’t have any options. Killing Fred meant that there would be yet another day that he could use to get further make his getaway. He knew that it was possible he could have tried to bullshit the man, but he wasn’t stupid and the fact that if he’d have failed at that, as soon as Gabriel was out of sight, Fred would have been calling in the police. Gabriel made his way slowly to one of the trucks. He had found it more than able to be driven. He headed out of the cabin after stoking the fire with as much wood as he could fit on the red hot embers. When he had gotten everything out of the cabin that he deemed useful, including his own backpack, he syphoned the gas out of the other two pickup trucks and dumped it on the inside of the cabin. Before he had ever poured any of the gas out, he had gotten his go pack with gear and everything else he needed and made his way out. By the time he got halfway down the long gravel road that was cut into the forest, he could smell and see the faintest of smoke that had begun.

  Gabriel turned on the radio wanting to know if there was anything that he needed caught up on. An alert for a man named Jacob August came over the radio. He turned it up, listening to the broadcaster speak of the fact that he was a very sick man and the government wanted nothing but to ask him questions in relation to a string of events that could not be named but had taken place in the states. It was also reported that Jacob August was a very prime suspect to be handled with caution if he was found.

  Gabriel pulled off into a convenience store, waiting patiently for the trucks in the parking lot to leave before he made his way inside. Once he opened the door to the establishment he pulled his borrowed baseball cap down to hide his bruises. He paid no attention to the man in the store, he went straight for the cooler, grabbing as many bottles of water that he could and Gatorades for some much needed electrolytes. Moving to another aisle, he grabbed a few bottles of vitamins and over the counter pain killers, and carried everything up to the front of the store where he left it on the counter and then went to find as much non-perishable food as he could. He ended up mostly with beef jerky and a few bags of donuts that he planned on using to add a few pounds to his physique if the opportunity allowed itself. He knew he had lost a pound or two or more, easily over the last few days.

  When he walked up to the cashier this time, emptying the remains of his basket, the man slowly started ringing up the items. The cashier asked, “So what are you, a terrorist or a prepper?”

  Gabriel didn’t make eye contact as his face swollen and purple would do little to convince the man of what he was trying to say. Gabriel answered, “Neither, I got a deer tag and a week off, and I can’t cook for shit.”

  The man said, “You really expect me to believe that you are heading out to hunt for a week?”

  “Yes, why wouldn’t I be going out to do some hunting?”

  “Well I just figured that you were doing all of the grocery shopping here.”

  Gabriel said, “I am doing it all here, why do you ask? Is there something that I am forgetting? I’d sure appreciate it if you tell me what I'm missing before I go over there because there ain’t any heading back out of the woods once make it there.”

  “Beer man, you don’t have a drop of it.”

  “I have a handful of buddies all meeting there. I’m getting water and some foods, it’s what I was supposed to bring. They are bringing the rest of the stuff. I appreciate you worrying about my thirst over the next few days.”

  “Looking out for my sales just as much as your thirst. Now you need any help getting this out to the truck or you gonna be ok. Hell you look like you already had been through a little something recently. You sure you going to be able to go out and deer hunt?”

  “It’s why we got reserves sir. I’ll be fine once I get out there.” Gabriel grabbed his supplies and headed towards the door. They had a bulletin board hanging from the wall and he saw a single room and board flyer on it. He gripped the entire sheet and pushed out the door.

  Gabriel drove around town until he found the address on the flyer. A single room ‘4 RENT’ sign was sitting in the front yard. Gabriel drove up the driveway, parked the truck, and climbed out. He checked his cash supply and figured he would have enough for one to two weeks if he was lucky. He wasn’t used to having to count his money to make sure that he had enough to do things. He typically just had the money. Normally it was there waiting for him and with the few clicks on a computer he could have a million dollars at his disposal, no questions asked. He knocked on the door seeing another hand written sign hanging in the doorway. A little girl answered the door. Gabriel smiled and said, “Hey how are you doing sweetheart? Is your mommy or daddy home?”

  She said, “My name is Molly Jean, and yes my momma is home. You wait here. I'll go see if I can’t find her.”

  Gabriel smiled while nodding his head. He motioned that he would do as told and the little girl in pigtails disappeared, running away to find her mom. A minute later, a much taller version of the little one appeared and looked as if she was probably seven to eight months pregnant. “Can I help you sir?”

  Gabriel held up the flyer and said, “Well I’d like to rent your room for a couple of weeks. My car isn’t doing all that good and I was going to get it worked on. I have the money for your rent though and I don’t need anything. I just need a place for a bit.”

  She looked down the driveway at the truck, seeing that there was a very good chance that it did need some work done to it. “Well we aren’t giving the room away. My husband Edd, he is not big on me letting strangers sleep in the apartment. He wants to have it as a man’s cave or whatever you call it. But I told him that until you can make enough on your end that he’d be best off to make sure that he don’t go putting any time into his man cave if you know what I mean.”

  Gabriel just stared at her, unsure how to respond. He shrugged instead and she advised, “It’s a hundred fifty dollars a week to stay here. I can’t afford to give it away for free now, or what use do I got in letting you stay here?”

  Gabriel pulled out his pile of cash handing her three pre counted piles of hundred dollar bills over. “Here’s three hundred dollars, and maybe you could spare a meal or two for it if you think that would be fair?”

  “Well I ain’t much of a cook, you won’t starve but it’s mostly meat and potatoes.

  He held out a hand, “My name is Jacob. I appreciate you taking a chance on me.”

  She said, “Well seeing as you took my only advertisement down then I guess I need to take a chance on you. My name is Kindra and that was Molly Jean. If you can keep the noise down then we can work out something I think. You probably be best to stay free of Edd though, he doesn’t have that great of a temperament”. If he’s drinking out on the porch I’d just stay clear of him.” Gabriel nodded and said, “Well good thing for me that I'm not looking for any friendship from him huh? I’m gonna go drop this off and then I’ll be back later, you got a key for the door?”

  She laughed, turning around and disappearing for a moment then coming back. She said, “Well you sure as hell ain’t from around here.” She tossed him the key. “We don’t got no need to lock doors around here, there ain't nothing we have that anyone is going to steal anyways.”

  Gabriel realized this town was probably as safe as any place to hold up for a few weeks. Gabriel turned around, doing his best not to limp down the driveway. He carried up his goods to his room, taking a short look around and seeing that there was one way in and out and one small window that he’d be surprised if it actually open or not. He made a mental note that he would check later. He saw that he had a good view through it at the very least and that was worth more than anything to him. When Gabriel walked out he saw a sign hanging on a barn door that read, ‘CAR REPAIRS: knock, if I don’t hear ya, come back later’. He heard an air powered drill going off and when he came back d
own Molly was sitting in the driveway with a massive pile of chalk in front of her drawing very intensely. He smiled and said, “What are you doing Molly?”

  “Drawing me a picture of the clouds. What do you think? I don't know how many times I show you adults how I draw something and you couldn’t guess what it was I was drawing if I gave ya’ll a hundred and sixty five billion guesses. I don’t understand what’s so hard about what I'm drawing for adults to know what it is. I mean haven’t you ever taken a moment to notice the clouds lately?”

  Gabriel turned around following her outstretched finger. He watched a pure white group of clouds moving through the sky and couldn’t for the life of him remember the last time he had just watched the clouds, smelled the roses, or watched the sun come up. Something that he had always taken time from his morning runs to enjoy as a youth. He knew how busy he was but never thought about how he might be missing out on the little things in life. The fact that he was in his thirties now and not his twenties felt like a sledgehammer to the gut. He looked at them for a moment smiling and thinking of Addy and Mikey playing in the front yard. He was thankful that she had taken the time to appreciate the little things with Mikey. He looked back at Molly’s picture and the white blobs that she had painted slowly started to look like the clouds to which she’d spoken of. He said, “Those are the best clouds that I have seen in quite a while Molly Jean.”

  She looked up winking at him and went back to her coloring. He pulled himself into the old truck wincing from the pain and turned it over a few times not letting it start even though it was ready to take off. The story that the truck was in real need of help had to be believable. Gabriel finally let it come to life, revving it in the driveway. He only hoped that if he ended up speaking with Edd that he wasn’t going to be asked why it wasn’t brought to him instead. The only thing he could think of was that he could tell him he had knocked on the door and that he had not answered, or could lie and say he already had made an appointment for the pickup before he had ever found his flyer. He’d curse and complain that if he’d have only known he would have given his immediate business to him right then and there on the spot.