by Hunt, Jack
Chapter 24
“Brother, you are worrying about a bunch of nothing,” Trent said to Austin. “I’m telling you, it’s a fucking gold mine out here. The cops are too busy watching the grocery stores, the bank, the pharmacy, and God knows what else.” He dragged the dead body of a man in his late fifties out of the living room into the kitchen. A trail of thick blood soaked into the carpet, then smeared on the vinyl floor as he dropped him before heading over to the fridge and taking out some milk. He gave it a sniff and chugged it back before spitting on the ground and tossing the carton across the room. “Shit, that is nasty!”
“Did you really have to kill him?”
“He was about to run out the front door. What did you expect me to do?”
Austin ran a hand over his head and exhaled hard. “This wasn’t meant to happen. No one was meant to get hurt.”
“And no one has.”
Austin stared down at the floor.
“What the hell is that?”
“I don’t see anyone and neither does anyone out there.” He walked over and grabbed his younger brother around the back of the neck and shook him. “Austin. There are no cameras working. I haven’t seen a cop down this road all day. And those fires we started on the far side of town, that’s keeping them busy. No one is going to show up to check on the well-being of an old man. So fucking relax, you are getting on my tits,” he said before pulling out a cigarette and sparking up. He blew a plume of smoke in the air and tapped his fingers against the counter. “Think about it. While all those idiots are out there trying to loot the stores, argue at the town hall tonight and deal with the cops, we’ll be building our little nest egg, and tonight, that nest is going to grow a lot bigger after we hit a few more homes and then get that bitch to open up that underground shelter. I guarantee you, she has a huge stockpile.”
“And what do you propose to do with her? You going to kill her too?”
He walked closer and blew smoke in Austin’s face. He was only a year younger than him but wet behind the ears when it came to business. “I will do whatever it takes to survive. Mark my words, little brother. You’ll be thanking me when they’ve run out food in the stores and we have more than enough to eat.”
“And when the police come knocking, what are you going to say then?”
“Hello officer, can I help you?” He smiled. “No one has seen us. They’re out there.”
“She has.”
“Well, we can remedy that quite easily.”
Austin paced back and forth. “No, I don’t like this. She has kids, a dog. You saw it yourself.”
Trent reached around to the small of his back and pulled out a Smith & Wesson revolver and tapped it against the side of his temple. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Austin sighed.
Trent shook his head. “If you’re that worried, we can wear masks. So she’s seen us at her place. There were a lot of people out last night on the roads. What, you think she’s going to identify us in a lineup because we were concerned neighbors? Come on.”
“I’m just saying it’s risky.”
“Grow some balls and get cracking. It will be dark soon and we still need to lug this gas and generator back to the house.”
“What if the power comes up?”
“All the better.”
“The police will be all over us.”
“No, they won’t. You keep forgetting, Austin. No one has seen us and those that do…” he cast his eyes down at the body on the floor. “Anyway, enough worrying. I was in contact with Magnus before all of this. He says he’s going to speak to Cole about having us run the operation here.”
“You want us to get our hands dirty with drugs?”
“It’s not like you haven’t done it before, Austin. What’s the problem?”
“That was a little bit of weed. We’re talking cocaine here.”
Trent leaned back and eyed him. “And?”
“That’s real jail time.”
“We aren’t going to be the ones selling it, you idiot. I already have a few people in mind so don’t worry about it and anyway, chances are if they haven’t got the power on by now, they aren’t getting it back on. So focus on the task at hand.”
As his brother went into the next room, he pulled out a small tin and popped it open. Inside was a baggie of coke. He emptied some of it onto the counter and used his fingers to make a line before snorting it up. He just needed a little pick-me-up. Something to get him through the next few hours. They both had grown up in Lake Placid, attended high school and bounced from job to job just trying to make ends meet. It wasn’t like they hadn’t given life a chance, but it didn’t matter what he did, it never threw back a bone. The drug business was easy money. For the longest time they’d flown under the radar, but with the business of his cousin recently picking up in Keene, he knew Lake Placid was ripe with opportunity. They knew most of the dealers in town. They were little guys. All hot air and no action. He aimed to change that, well at least he had planned to until this shit storm. Now he was adapting, using what he could to his advantage until he could figure out how they could monopolize the town.
Right now it was a bit of a pipe dream. Police were still in operation and would be for some time unless… his mind wandered thinking of the different ways he could reduce the number of officers patrolling.
Trent wiped his nose with the back of his hand.
He cast a glance at his brother who was griping in the other room about blood on the carpet. Pulling the trigger was bliss. He’d never felt that much excitement. Killing someone was the closest thing he’d got to having an orgasm. And there was not a damn thing anyone could do about it. Tonight, he would take whatever the hell he liked, and God help whoever got in his way. He snorted a few more times, wiped his nose and headed into the living room to join his brother.
Chapter 25
The town hall was packed that evening. Rayna didn’t think that many people could cram into one place. Murmurs spread over a crowd of familiar faces as she stood at the back of the room holding onto Kong’s leash. She couldn’t help overhear the conversations people were having. All of them were concerned, some were even planning on taking matters into their own hands if they didn’t get solutions. It was a mixed bag. The local emotions were running high and the pressure for the mayor to deal with the situation had reached its peak.
At the front of the room, multiple officers were on hand to keep the peace, some of them were volunteers, others city officials dressed in suits and doing their best to remain composed while the surrounding crowd waited for Mayor Hammond.
He eventually emerged from behind a curtain with Gary, and the police chief beside him. A generator could be heard churning in the background providing lighting and enough energy to power some electric heaters and a microphone. Hammond was in his late forties, balding, with a gut that stuck out over his belt. In all the times Rayna had seem him, he was in the habit of sweeping what remained of his hair over his nearly bald head, and if anyone approached him to discuss issues in the city, he would go red in the cheeks and sweat profusely. Today was no different. He stepped up to the microphone, adjusted his collar and tapped the mic. It let out a booming noise, then there was some high-pitched feedback.
“Okay, well welcome everyone this evening. I know you have a lot of questions about the blackout and concerns about what is being done. As you know I’m Mayor Hammond. For those of you here who have questions, I am going to ask you to hold them until the end otherwise we aren’t going to be able to get through this as quickly as we would like. That would be very helpful. Now we all know that power outages can happen and when these events occur we usually can get back up and running fairly fast. That’s because they are quite often related to a downed line here in the town. Now that’s all well and good if it’s something we can fix. However, the problem that we are facing is that there are no downed lines in the town, and it’s simply a case that we aren’t getting power delivered to us.�
�
“Why?” someone shouted out.
“For those of you who don’t know how the grid works, the generating stations produce the electrical power, that is then carried to demand centers and distributed through the lines to individual people like yourselves. It appears those generating stations are no longer producing power. The systems are fried.”
An angry murmur spread across the crowd and a few people stood up and started pointing fingers at the mayor.
He put out a hand. “Please. Please. Take a seat and calm down.”
“We won’t calm down. You work for us. What is being done?”
“We will be using the Olympic Center as a central shelter for anyone who doesn’t have a generator to come and stay warm. We are currently pulling together as many generators as we can find from local businesses but those will not be handed out and will be used in central areas, such as the nursing homes, the hospital, the school, Olympic Center and here at town hall. We however will be distributing flashlights to those of you without them, along with bottles of water, food and blankets on a case-by-case basis.”
“Case by case? What are you on about? If there is no water coming out of our faucets where are we meant to get it? I paid taxes for a reason.”
That caused a huge uproar as everyone agreed. Rayna could see how this could spiral out of control real fast.
“I hear you. You have valid concerns. However, please hold your questions until the end. Each of you should have received a leaflet when you came in the door. The information on there should answer most if not all of your questions about where, what, when and why. Now, moving on.”
Someone laughed. “Moving on. Oh yeah, I bet you’re moving on to a warm bed tonight.”
Hammond ignored the man’s jab and continued. “Please do not open your freezer or fridge unless absolutely necessary. It should keep your food frozen and cold for 24 to 36 hours if the door remains closed. After that period you may want to place frozen goods outside your homes. The cold weather should work to our advantage for a while. I also want to advise you against using any form of charcoal or gas barbecues, camping heating equipment, or home generators indoors. These are known for giving off carbon monoxide, which you all know can’t be seen or smelled but can kill you.”
“Tell us something we don’t know!” Randall Weathers shouted.
A few people cursed at him.
Hammond did his best to remain composed, but she could see the sweat pouring off his brow. Gary stepped up to the mic to offer some moral support. He interjected to let everyone know that if they weren’t going to remain civilized, they would be escorted out.
“While we know that some of you will opt to use candles, we want to caution you and remind you that it’s best that you use proper candle holders. Also, never leave a lit candle unattended and be sure to keep it out of reach of your kids. And whatever you do, please blow them out before you go to bed.” He wiped his brow with a small white handkerchief. “At the back of the room we are providing some crank radios which will be used to provide local information on the outage so you can stay informed. There is a frequency listed on the flyer that you can tune into. It may take us a while to get that operational but that is one of the initial plans. Of course if you have a ham radio that should work too.”
Gary eyed Rayna at the back of the room.
“Has anyone even checked to see if anything is being broadcast by FEMA?” a woman at the front asked. The mayor turned his attention to her.
“We are working on it.”
“Well, work harder!” someone yelled in the back.
“Now if you have questions, I’ll take them one at a time. However, I will not cover what is already on the flyer. Please refer to that.”
Rayna was the first to get her question answered as she put her hand up while the rest just bellowed out questions.
“Yes?” the mayor asked pointing to her.
“Protection. I’m not sure you know but several homes on Mirror Lake Drive, including mine, have been broken into in the past twenty-four hours. What kind of support will be made available by the police?”
The mayor looked to Gary, and he stepped up to the mic.
“Good question. Our aim is to continue to provide protection and maintain the peace throughout the outage, however, as you can appreciate, we are working at a bit of a disadvantage right now in the sense that we no longer have vehicles that are operating, so response times will be longer. We are currently gathering together a group of volunteers who will be helping us maintain order. Our first priority is to prevent looting of the grocery stores, pharmacy, the banks, and to ensure order is maintained at the local hospital as well as here. We also have to deal with the recent string of fires in the town.”
“So does that mean no one is going to come out?” Rayna asked. “I might be able to protect myself but I have some neighbors who are in their late seventies. What are they meant to do?”
“Of course someone is going to come out. We will send an officer out this evening.”
“That’s not going to be much use,” someone barked. “Unless the officer stays there, whoever is doing this is liable to do it again. Now I have a rifle, and if anyone breaks into my place I plan on using it.”
“I can appreciate your concern, however as you know, New York is not a ‘Stand Your Ground’ state and all laws will continue to be upheld throughout this time. I would caution you against using deadly force and to seek out an officer.”
Someone laughed. “I live thirty minutes away from the department. What am I supposed to do? Tell them to hold on while I go get a cop?” he asked in an angry tone.
The crowd started up again, this time people started tossing empty coffee cups towards the front of the room, causing several officers to move in and force some locals out of the building. And it didn’t get much better from there. As soon as Rayna saw the mayor retreat with a look of fear on his face, she knew this was way beyond their control. They were going to need a lot of volunteers if they planned on maintaining order. Lake Placid Police Department only had a handful of officers, certainly not enough to deal with the two thousand plus residents spread out over two thousand acres.
“That’s it for now,” Gary said into the mic. “We will keep you updated.”
The remaining officers were quick to move in and start ushering people out of the building. Disgruntled locals protested saying that it was not enough, but their cries were lost in the noise. Rayna was about to leave when Gary slipped through the crowd and called out to her.
“A word, Rayna.”
She told the kids to stay with the dog while she spoke with him.
“You mentioned someone broke in?”
“Yeah.”
“Did they take anything?”
“A few cans of food but it wasn’t that which concerned me. They tried to get into the shelter.”
“How did they know about it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they were scouting the homes and saw me go inside? Maybe they knew about it?”
“But Elliot never told anyone, besides us.”
“Well did you say anything?” she asked.
“No. Why would I?”
“How about Jill?”
“Jill?” He looked perplexed.
She sighed and shifted her weight from one foot to the next.
“Has she been in contact with you at all today?”
“No. I’ve been too busy.”
“I went over there today and… how do I put this?”
“What is it, Rayna?”
“She knows about you and me. I mean, you coming on to me.”
She wanted to make it real clear that she was not involved and that whatever Jill had learned, or seen, it was entirely Gary’s fault not hers. Okay, maybe she had overlooked some early flirting, but most guys were like that whether they were married or not. At least the ones she’d met through her work at the museum.
His face went a slight shade of white. He exhaled hard and
looked around at the thinning crowd. He pulled her off to one side so they were out of earshot.
“What did you say?”
“What do you expect me to say when your wife is accusing me of coming on to you?”
“So you told her…?”
“I told her nothing, Gary. That conversation is for you to have. I just expected more from her. You know, if you have problems in your marriage you should talk it over with her, not come to me expecting to find what you’re lacking. I don’t deserve that.”
“I know.”
“I could have told her, Gary, but I didn’t. At no point did I tell her that you were coming on to me. I could have destroyed your marriage, but I don’t think that’s what you want otherwise you would have left her by now.”
He reached out to her, and she pulled her arm away. “Enough. There is no you and me. And from now on, I would prefer that you don’t show up without Jill.”
“Rayna.”
“I mean it. You wouldn’t have done it if Elliot was here, would you?”
He stared back at her. “He’s not here.”
“Even more reason why you shouldn’t.”
She turned to walk back to her kids.
“Rayna, I will send someone out this evening to your place.”
She tossed up a hand to acknowledge him but didn’t look back as she exited the place. Her head was swirling with the day’s events and her nerves were on edge about dealing with another night alone.
Chapter 26
Elliot stared down at the flat tire. Life just kept sending curveballs his way. He lifted the bike over his head and tossed it as hard as he could at the wall before painting the air blue with curse words. They had traveled another four hours north of New Croton Reservoir and were riding through the town of Hopewell Junction when he heard the hissing.
“I can’t believe you were at a bike shop and you didn’t take a bike repair kit with you,” he yelled at Damon, just looking for someone to blame. In reality, it wasn’t his fault. He was as much to blame for not thinking of it. All this time he’d always been the one to take the initiative because he’d been the only one he had to think about. Now he was joined at the hip and had projected his expectations of himself onto them. It didn’t help that he hadn’t had a cigarette in hours and was in desperate need of some nicotine.
