My prayers are quickly answered.
Inside the kitchen, I drop the duffle onto the floor and begin rooting around for a flashlight. There are no windows in here and the darkness is smothering.
I click the flashlight to life and turn down the intensity of the beam. I don’t have to go far to find the shelves of non-perishable items. It’s right in front of my face. There are more cans than I could ever hope to carry. It’s just as well. I’m not looking to eat these people out of house and home or to put them in a tight spot, I’m simply looking to survive.
Green Beans, Lima Beans, Black Beans, Bean Salad, Chickpeas, Green Split Peas.
Jesus, these people like their beans.
I begin scooping canned goods into the open bag, along with some disposable silverware and Styrofoam bowls and plates. Enough to last Bethany and me a solid week on three square meals. We’ll scavenge the rest and rebuild our supplies, just like we’d been doing before these people had come along and knocked us off our course.
We just need a little push start to get us back on track.
Further down the line, I find bottled water. I grab a few fistfuls, drop them on top of the cans, and turn to leave.
I move briskly. Back the way I came in.
I don’t bother locking up. What would be the point?
Bytes’ building is only a few strides away from the pool area. The shadows are thick and welcoming around the base of his lair. I scurry into the darkness and hug the wall. Sliding against the red brick. I duck beneath the windows and avoid lingering too long in front of doors. I reach the bottom of the stairs, with its black metal railing and cobblestone steps.
Should I even bother with the sneaking bullshit?
There will be two guards stationed outside of Bytes door. They know me by name at this point. Will they let me pass without Ruiz, given the right line of bullshit?
I don’t know. For all I know, they’re expecting me and are under orders to drop my ass on sight.
I guess there’s only one way to find out.
Can’t hit if you don’t swing, right?
They see me coming. Their heads turn on me as soon as I crest the steps. I swear that I can see their fingers inching towards their triggers.
Perhaps I should go down fighting. Pull my pistol and get a few rounds off before I’m blown back over the railing with a belly full of brass.
As I get closer, the guard on the left smiles. “Tim, my man, never seen you out this late. I figured you’d be bunked up for the next day or two. Heard you guys ran into some heavy shit out there during that last run.”
“Is it true about the heads all being chopped off and lined up and shit?” the other guard asks.
My heart is slowly working its way back down into my chest. “Yeah,” I remove my hat and run my fingers through my hair nervously, “it was a mess. Shit got real crazy. Lucky the cavalry showed up when it did.”
The first guard sighs longingly. “I wanted to be a part of that crew. Instead, I get stuck here guarding nerds-R-us.”
“Here-here,” the second guard says, chewing at a fingernail.
“You know, I haven’t fired a single round since all this shit went down, not even when I was running. I didn’t own a gun. I had a high school track record and luck on my side. When Ruiz slapped a rifle in my hands, I was sure I was going see some action. Nope. Even when those bastards jumped the wall the other night, they had me back in a reserve unit, watching the other points of entry just in case things spread out. They didn’t. So, here I am.”
“Damn man,” an idea is starting to occur to me, “that sucks. It’s definitely a rush, being in the thick of it.” I’ll trade you spots any day. “So listen, Ruiz told me to come up here and work with Bytes on this data. You know, just bounce some shit around with him and see if we can come up with something useful. I’ve got a piece,” I pull up my shirt to prove it, “I can hold down the fort from inside if you guys want to go for a walk, smoke a cigarette, or whatever.”
They look at each other and smile wide.
“What about Ruiz?” the second guard asks.
“Ah, man, that fool is asleep. When is the last time you saw him round’ here after dark?” The first guard slaps his buddy on the shoulder.
“You got a point.”
“Thanks, kid, how long you gonna be?”
I wave him off. “Take your time. I’ll be awhile, I’m sure. Catch some sleep. Your secret is safe.”
And just like that, they’re gone around the corner, chuckling quietly to one another about their sudden turn of fortune.
I wait a few moments until their footsteps have vanished from earshot and the only sounds are the crickets calling out from the brush below and the wind sweeping through the trees. I look over my shoulder, over the balcony, I survey the second story windows for movement, for prying eyes; all seems quiet.
Maybe, too quiet?
Nah, that’s just my paranoia. I’m sweating. Cold droplets of moisture that pull my clothes tight against my skin and hold them there.
I reach out, ever so slowly, for the door handle, like a child testing a recently extinguished stovetop; tempting fate. Part of me expects it to be locked. Hopes it’ll be locked. Then I can terminate this ridiculous plan altogether, collect Bethany, and go back to the apartment. I’ll awaken tomorrow morning, another day in paradise. I’ll go find Katia, apologize for being an ass, and revel in this new newfound peace and happiness...
The door is unlocked.
The hinges protest slowly as I slide inside. The room is quiet, and pitch-black, except for the hum of the generator on the balcony and the blue glow from the screensaver dancing across the far wall like a neon specter. I shut the door gently at my heels and turn the deadbolt before sliding my pistol from my waistband and resting it behind my right thigh.
The bedroom door opens and a disheveled looking Bytes emerges, with a thick batch of stubble on his face, tying his bathrobe and blinking sleep from his eyes. “Ruiz, that you? Come on, man, I’ve got to sleep at some point.”
“It’s not Ruiz.”
“Timmy? What the fuck, man? What are you doing here?” He squints his eyes as he stumbles towards me on the other side of the table, trying to see beyond the intense glow cast from the monitors.
I raise the pistol, gripping it with two hands in order to keep it steady. “Give me the drive. Now. If you scream. If you call for help. I’ll drop you right here. I don’t want to, so don’t give me a fucking reason.”
“Hang on right there, brother. Did you think this through? You do know that Ruiz will kill you over this thing, right? Why don’t you just lower the piece and we will talk about your concerns, eh?”
I kick the table, driving it into the tops of his thighs and knocking one of the monitors on its face. “Give me the fucking drive, right now!”
“OW! Shit! That hurt, man, come on.” He’s rubbing his thighs, looking at me with puppy dog eyes. “Okay, damn, you win.” He plops down in his chair and bends towards the CPU.
“You come up slow, anything else in your hands and you’re done!”
He moves like a sloth changing branches, rising back up, raising his hands to shoulder height, the cross shaped drive pinched between his right thumb and forefinger. “Happy?” He tosses it across the table. It slides to the edge and stops, waiting there for me to retrieve it. “Hope it’s worth it, man. Just remember, you wrote your own death certificate. Just take it and go.”
“Not so fast, I may not be a tech guru like you, but I’m not a moron, give me the hard drive.”
Bytes makes fists and for a second looks as if he’s going to slam them down on the tabletop in protest. Instead, he curls his lips and flares his nostrils. Either way, the message is clear. “Now just hang on a goddamn minute...”
“You could have easily copied the information off. Give me the hard drive, right now. I’m running on a schedule here. I’m not fucking around. I’ll blast that shit open, don’t test me.”
B
ytes fixes me with a hard glare and then, slowly, bends back down towards the CPU and begins disassembling the case. “I knew you were a backstabbing little fucker the moment I saw you,” he fumes as he begins sliding one side of the white metal shell from its brackets. “Ruiz should have just left you and your sister to rot. You’re not going to get away with this, I’ll tell you that right now. I’ve never killed, but goddamnit, if I have to start, I’ll be happy to start with you.”
“Great story, Bytes, really, I’m moved. Hurry your ass up, and don’t try slipping me a motherboard or some shit, I know what a hard drive looks like.”
“Sonofabitch,” he grumbles as he pulls something loose. “Here!” He side arms the hard drive and it bounces off the wall behind me, clattering to the floor.
I shrug. “I was going to destroy the damn thing anyway.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing. No idea.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing.” I dig in the bag and come out with a couple of zip ties that I’d lifted from maintenance. “I’m tying your ass up and then I’m going to shove a sock in your mouth.”
“Oh no you’re not.”
“Bytes, a bullet or the zip ties, your choice?”
“I don’t think you’ll do shit.”
“Okay,” I pull the suppressor from my back pocket. Ruiz had let me keep it, along with the handgun after the raid. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use it, but Bytes is really pushing my buttons. “You’re running this car into the red, you really are,” I say as I begin twisting the suppressor onto the end of the muzzle. “You’re a remark or two away from catching one in the face.”
“Okay, man, shit.”
“Lay on the ground and put your hands behind your back.” I circle the table; my pistol trained on his bobbing head as he drops to his knees and prepares to go face down on the carpet.
Something catches my attention. A sound at the door. Something wiggling its way into the keyhole.
The guards? No, can’t be. They’re a loud bunch. I’d have heard them coming back a mile away. Plus, they didn’t suspect anything. They’d have knocked. Do they even have a key to this door?
Doubt it.
Ruiz isn’t the type, he likes to play everything close to the chest. The guards, they’re just attack dogs watching over a junkyard. They can’t work the gate. They growl and bite, but they’re on a leash.
It’s Ruiz. Has to be.
Katia must have told him.
“Shh, don’t make a fucking sound!” I grab the data stick from the table and drop it into the bag. Bytes is on his knees, watching the door, hope flooding his eyes. He wants to cry out. He won’t. Not with the muzzle of my pistol so close to the side of his head.
I circle behind him, placing him between Ruiz and myself. My pistol now aimed at the base of his skull. I watch, as the deadbolt turns right.
Time is moving slow. Agonizingly slow.
The lock stops.
The handle turns.
Slow at first, then faster, until the door is being pushed back on its hinges. Moonlight pools slowly across the floor, illuminating a small square of tile just beyond the doorframe. Then the carpet. Slowly, until it bathes the tabletops and the computer and Bytes on his knees, teeth chattering, the expectancy of salvation on his face. Then me, back to the wall, ready to shoot my way out.
The shape standing before me is not Ruiz.
No.
It’s a shape that I recognize well.
Katia.
She stands, traced by the moonlight at her back. Swords sheathed at her side.
She steps forward. “Tim...”
What happens next is a blur.
Bytes cries out, “Katia, help!” He swings back with one arm, knocking my pistol aside. His other hand has a gun.
Where the fuck did he get a gun?
Christ, I gave it to him. It’s the one I’d given to Loco. The one I’d left here as a souvenir.
Is it loaded?
I can’t remember.
I see the gun. He’s twisting his body, moving to jam the barrel into my gut. His finger is already curled around the trigger. He looks up into my eyes. His features are contorted with desperation.
I don’t think.
I just act.
I grab a fist full of his hair, plant my gun beneath his chin, and pull the trigger.
There is a muffled pop followed by a wet splat. A warm spray covers my face as his brains evacuate the top of his head and spread across me and every other surface within a three foot radius.
I release his hair and let him slump lifelessly to the ground at my feet. I stumble backwards. Staring at my hands as if they’re not my own.
This gun...where the hell did this gun come from...and why is my finger around the trigger?
Katia squeals. Her hands cupped across her mouth. She stutters across the room, her knees weak. She looks to me and then to Bytes’ lifeless body and then back to me, as if she’s still trying to connect the two; the cause and the effect.
“What did you do?” she rattles. “What the hell did you do?” She moves past me as if I’m not even there and falls on her knees beside Bytes. Her hands hover around him as if she wants to hold him, to lift him from the sticky mess slowly forming on the carpet around his head, but she doesn’t quite know where to begin.
“I...” I swallow hard. “He had...a gun. He was...trying...”
“You came here to steal.” She looks up at me, eyes wet, her voice dripping with anger. “You came here to take the drive. You pointed the gun. You caused this! Not him!”
I back up, smacking the wall with my head. I expect her to draw down on me. To slice me in half right there. I wouldn’t try to stop her. Not now. Not after this.
“You’ve got five minutes, Tim. I’m giving you five minutes to disappear from here. To disappear from my sight, forever. I’m giving you five minutes because of what we shared. But if I ever see you again, I will kill you. Do you understand me?” She’s calm now, or at least she sounds calm. Her voice is steady. The little warble is gone.
“Katia...”
“Say it!” She stands suddenly, her hands going to the hilts of her swords.
I stumble sideways, falling over myself. “I...I understand...”
“Time starts now,” she sneers, turning her attention back to Bytes corpse.
I back slowly out of the room, picking the hard drive off the floor. I want to say something. Not sure what though.
Sorry for blowing your friend’s head off.
My finger slipped.
...I love you Katia...
Once I hit the balcony, I can hear the voices of the two guards returning from their sabbatical. I turn tail and run for the stairs, keeping the pistol in front of me, the bag, now heavy with loot, slaps hard against my chest.
My sense of purpose is suddenly renewed.
Bethany will be waiting for me.
God, she better be.
It’s a short jog to the main parking lot. All is quiet. There is distant laughter from the rooftops above. Guards shooting the shit. Bored. Waiting for sunlight. I’m beyond their concern.
Still, at any moment, I expect the alarm to sound. To hear Katia screaming for help at the top of her lungs. To hear boots falling against the pavement behind me. Bullets being chambered. Calls for me to surrender.
All is quiet around mechanical. The garage doors are closed. I move up to the side door and check the handle.
It’s unlocked.
Good girl, Bethany.
I move inside. Sticking to the shadows.
Across the tops of the vehicles I can see Bethany, right where I told her to be, sitting behind the wheel of the Humvee on the far side of the garage. She sees me too and flashes the headlights to signal me, just in case. It’s an unnecessary courtesy, but, I’m glad to see she’s on the ball.
“Did you do like I said?” I ask as I jump into the passenger seat, out of breath. I unleash the bag from around my neck and toss it into the back
seat on top of her katana.
“Oh, my God! What happened?”
It takes me a second to figure out what she’s going on about. “I...Bytes...the blood isn’t mine...”
“Did you kill him? Oh, my God...you killed Bytes, didn’t you?” She looks like she’s about to leap from the Humvee and sound the alarm herself.
I grab her arm, trying to calm her down. “No, listen to me. It’s not like that. He pulled a gun and I...things just got really fucking out of control. I need you though...right now...to stay really cool. Okay, we’re in the shit right now. Stay cool. You know me, okay. You know I wouldn’t just hurt someone. Shit just went bad.”
She’s not convinced. At all. Still, she grips the wheel and faces forward. She’s still with me.
“Did you do like I said?”
She gives me a firm nod. “Yeah, Tim, I flattened the tires on the other vehicles.”
“Good. Now, get us the hell out of here.”
She hits the button on the visor above her head and the garage door begins to slide up, rattling on its tracks.
The parking lot before us is empty.
A good sign.
Just a few more minutes and all of this will be in our rearview.
With the passage of time, it’ll become like a fogged over lake. No reflections. Nothing familiar. Just background noise.
Bethany pulls out. Creeping. The damned engine growling like a spear struck jungle cat.
“Slow and steady,” I urge, “slow and steady.”
“Front gate?” She is breathing in deep through her nose, trying to stay collected.
“No, back gate. Less guys. Less firepower.”
We inch through the lot, circling around speed bumps, avoiding rocking the chassis whenever possible. Bethany taps the gas just enough to keep us rolling and to keep the engine from revving. I hold the pistol between my knees. Bethany has hers propped up in the center console.
Ruiz locked the rifles away after the raid.
I should have insisted on holding onto one for personal protection. I hadn’t been thinking. That’s my problem. Rarely do I think two steps ahead. If I thought two steps ahead, I wouldn’t be sitting here soaked in blood with a pistol and a prayer to keep me warm. It’s too late to do a damn thing about it now. The armory is guarded very well and I’m done killing people for the evening.
The Rabid: Rise Page 14
