by Ryan Horvath
“Then,” Art continued, “We are going to use some of these neat toys here on the table on you and see how you like them. When we’re done, you’ll be begging me to kill you. But I won’t. Do you know why?”
But, of course, the bitch woman remained silent.
“Well, the answer to that is that once I’m done with my sixtieth kill, this fucking pissant Shepherd, I’ve got nothing to do but spend time with and pay attention to you, my dear. So when we’re done tomorrow, we get to do it again the next day. And the next day after that. Maybe twice a day… or more. Hell, I may find I like this raping so much that I could keep you around for longer than any of the other women. We could find we’ll have a wonderful relationship. Then maybe you’ll tell me how you know me.”
Art walked back to the chair but did not sit. He moved close to the bitch woman and made sure the tip of his erection poked the side of her belly. It left trails of pre-seminal fluid on her flesh as it brushed against her. Art cupped her breast gently and then harder. In less than ten seconds he got a response he was very pleased with. A few tears spilled from the corner of the bitch woman’s right eye. Art released her breast. He then tucked his erection back in his briefs as best he could; the better part of the head protruded from the waistband. He zipped and buckled around this and pulled his shirt down to cover. He leaned down and softly kissed the bitch woman, Amanda Breck, on the forehead.
In her ear he whispered, “Rape tomorrow. No later than early afternoon let’s say. It will be magic. I just know it.” And with that, he turned and left the basement and the farm house. Art returned to the city and went about his business of eating and setting up a spot to look for an elusive doctor.
As soon as Art left the basement of the farmhouse, Amanda Breck finally responded to him.
“Don’t count on it, asshole,” she stated.
50
SIMON, JACK, BRIAN, IAN, AND RIVER
After following Ian into the garage of Jack’s townhouse, Simon stood just inside the door and stared around with a worried and shocked look on his face. All he could say was an almost inaudible, “Holy Shit!”
“You like it, huh?” Ian asked.
“Wh- What’s all this?” Simon questioned, pointing at the guns.
“It’s kind of a long story,” Jack answered.
“In a nutshell, man,” Ian started. “We’re getting the fuck out of Dodge. Something is going to go down during or after this eclipse tomorrow and being in the city isn’t going to be a good idea. So we’re stocking up on stuff, you know, like survival stuff. Guns, food, water, fuel. We’re going to pack it up in that thing,” he pointed at the SUV, “and my car in the driveway I’m betting too.”
“Yes,” Jack threw in.
“And when were done, the five of us are going to pile into these two cars and go find somewhere to lay low,” Ian finished.
Simon shook his head. “I told you, there’s never once been an eclipse that had damaging effects on the Earth. It just isn’t possible. Trust me. I’m an astrophysicist.”
Brian began fidgeting with the baseball bat. “Here we go again,” he said with a smirk and a roll of his eyes.
“It doesn’t matter. Something will happen tomorrow,” Jack asserted.
“Plus I heard those two men talking about the eclipse,” River added. “And they said something else I didn’t think meant anything until now.”
The four men stared at the feline.
“They said the object was going to pass into the path of the eclipse. Geez! I can’t believe I just now realized it,” River meowed. Ian spoke for her. “It would have made convincing these two easier for Jack.” She nodded her head to Ian and Brian who both chuckled. “I guess I didn’t make the connection until you got here, Simon, and told us about the object in the sky.”
“But,” Simon started, “that thing could be overhead right now and you’d never know it. Why do you think no one has seen it except for the people at the agency I worked with? And even then, it took a very sophisticated satellite and highly advanced software to get it on a computer screen. That thing has something making it invisible to the naked eye.”
“Maybe something about the eclipse will change that,” Brian offered up.
Simon went quiet and became lost in thought. He pinched his chin between his thumb and index finger. “Is it possible?” he said to himself.
Jack walked over to Simon and put a reassuring hand on the doctor’s shoulder. “Hey, I know it’s a lot to process. And maybe nothing will happen. But there’s no harm in being prepared right? I’m all but convinced the world will be a much different place in twenty-four hours. It’s something I feel down to my core but I can’t say how it will be different. What I do know is that these two knuckleheads, that cat, and now, I guess, you, are the only people I need to care about.”
“Well, not the only, Jack,” Brian reminded.
“The only people I need to care about right now,” Jack amended. “Think about it. The world is already a drastically altered place since this thing arrived. That’s according to you, after all, isn’t it? Is it entirely out of the realm of possibility that there could be something different about this eclipse?”
Simon puzzled this over. Ian and Brian watched him and Jack remained where he was.
After a moment Simon said, “Yes, I suppose your logic makes sense. But I don’t think anything will happen because of the eclipse.”
“The men said something about a possible panic,” River mewed.
“Damn it,” Simon spat out. “That’s what I’d hoped to avoid.”
Jack took his hand off Simon’s shoulder. “Relax, we’ll get through it.”
“How can you know that?” Simon asked.
“Think about it. The five of us have changed since that thing got here. Others have too according to you. Why put us through that just to have us get trampled by the human stampede? Remember. Evolution. Right?” Jack said.
“Yes, you’re right, Jack,” Simon said after a pause.
“But we’re still human and we’ve got to protect ourselves and survive. Hence the guns, food, etc.,” Brian summed.
“Ok. I get it,” Simon said. “So Ian said we were going west. What’s out there?”
“We won’t go far. We just want to get out of the dense population,” Jack answered. He walked over to the chalk board. “But if things…wind down we might come back for these.” He pointed to where “more hand guns” was written.
“But why west?” Simon questioned.
“That, I’m not sure of. It just felt like the right direction to start in, I guess,” Jack said but to Simon, he sounded less than convinced that was his reason for choosing west.
“So what do we do next?” Simon asked.
“First, let’s get some of this stuff divided up,” Jack said. “Brian and I can work on that. Ian, can you and Simon start gathering the stuff we don’t have yet? Besides the guns that is.”
“We’re on it, Jack-Russell-Terrier,” Ian said. He took out his smart phone and snapped a photo of the chalk board. “Oh, I’m going to need some money. I nearly tapped out my account.”
“Here,” Brian said and produced his debit card. “Use mine. No one ever asks for ID with these anymore.”
“Yoink,” Ian said to Brian as he snatched the card from his hand. “C’mon my younger-than-me-older-than-me buddy. Let’s turn my car into a bomb,” He walked to the service door and stepped outside.
“Okay,” Simon said sounding a little befuddled. He turned and left Brian, Jack and River alone in the garage.
Back in Ian’s Honda, Ian backed the car out of the driveway.
“That wasn’t so bad now was it?” Ian said as he drove in the direction of The Home Depot.
Simon laughed and said, “No, not bad at all. I see what you meant about Jack. He’s a real take charge kind of guy.”
“That he is. So where would you have gone if you didn’t come here?” Ian asked.
Simon sat back and put his right
elbow on the door, just below the window. He rubbed his forehead with his hand. “I was on my way back home. That’s in Philadelphia. I suppose if I had got there and there was a contract on my life that I would be dead by now.” He paused for a moment. “I was stupid to think I could just walk away from them.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Ian said. “Everyone wants to believe the good old government isn’t going to fuck them over,” he chastised jokingly.
Simon laughed at Ian.
“Why do you think they might be after you?” Ian asked.
“Well, you know that software I showed you guys at lunch? I kind of probably shouldn’t have it,” Simon replied, looking a little ashamed.
“So you stole it.” Ian said.
“Yeah, I guess I did,” Simon agreed.
“I’m glad you did,” Ian said.
Simon looked at him incredulously. “Huh?”
“Without you showing up and introducing us to…,” Ian pointed and looked up. “We wouldn’t have any answers. I think your arrival put the four of us more at ease with our decision. Now we can go forward with clear heads and not clouded judgment.”
“Oh,” Simon said, not expecting the answer he was given. “Well, I’m glad I could help.”
It was Ian’s turn to laugh.
“You know, to be honest,” Simon started. “The software wasn’t the only thing. The man who brought me on to the project, that congressman I mentioned, wanted to go public about that thing. He believed humanity was civilized enough to endure. For a while, I agreed with him. So when he directed me to compile an e-mail with all the evidence needed to bring the situation to light and address it to the media, I did just that.”
“And you think they know?” Ian asked.
“I can’t say for sure. I really thought I was careful about covering my tracks but it seems like no matter how smart one is, there is always someone smarter,” Simon said a bit ruefully.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Ian agreed. He had just parked and shut the car off. “Here we are. First stop.”
They got out of the car and entered the store. Inside they purchased eight five gallon gas cans and three tanks of propane. After, they loaded these items in the car and then drove to the other end of the mall where a Target stood. There they purchased four more sleeping bags and a few more cases of bottled water. Once finished at the Target store, they headed to the Holiday gas station near Jack’s place. They got out of the car at the station and proceeded to fill up the gas cans. The gas station was located near the intersection of Hennepin and Central Avenues. An innocuous traffic cam caught a glimpse of them and though the traffic cam wasn’t looking for Simon in particular, a certain female mousy haired CIA analyst had put out a facial recognition program on all public cameras in the area and in minutes, she would be alerted to the whereabouts of Simon Shepherd.
As soon as Ian and Simon left, Brian busied himself with dividing up the survival bounty. He used the rationale that the SUV would hold a lot more supplies than Ian’s Honda so he removed around one fourth of each item and set it aside for placement in the car. The rest would have to fit in the SUV, trailer, and the rooftop storage box. Brian decided since they didn’t know how many people might still be joining them, that it would be best to make sure all the seats in both vehicles were open with the exception of the rear bench seat in Jack’s SUV.
Jack found some large suction cups with hooks attached and then some industrial adhesive that boasted a full cure in one hour. He glued the suction cups in two columns on the inside of the large rear windows of the SUV.
“What are those for?” Brian asked.
“For mounting the shot guns,” Jack replied. “We can’t hold all the guns all the time.”
“Right, good idea,” Brian said.
“Anything yet on our new friends?” Jack asked.
“No. ‘Fraid not,” Brian answered.
River had joined Jack when he started in the SUV. She was curled up on one of the second row passenger seats dozing.
“Some things never change, eh?” Brian said indicating River.
“Always time for a cat nap,” Jack replied with a smile.
Brian’s look changed to one of uneasiness as he returned to his task at hand, which was boxing up cans of vegetables.
“Jack?” Brian asked.
“Yeah?” Jack answered from inside the SUV.
“I’ve been thinking about what Simon said. About the overpopulation thing. I guess I never realized there was even a problem,” Brian admitted.
“I’m sure a lot of people are in that same boat. Ignorance is bliss after all,” Jack stated.
“It’s just pretty fucking scary. That’s all,” Brian said quietly.
“Yes it is, Brian. It really is,” Jack said. A tear spilled from his left eye onto the upholstery at his knees.
51
KAREN AND BLAZE
Thursday evening, Mitzi prepared what Karen considered a gourmet feast. There was roast beef so juicy and flavorful that Karen didn’t think she had ever eaten better. Mitzi insisted that she coat her meat in her special herb gravy and Karen did not decline. The mashed potatoes were loaded with chunks of real bacon, scallions, fresh garlic, and extra sharp cheddar cheese. There were roasted carrots sweetened with brown sugar and butter and corn bread that Mitzi assured all in attendance that she had made from scratch. To accompany all this Mitzi had prepared a family style garden salad which she proudly stated was made from likely the last vegetables the garden was going to give this season. Mitzi gave Blaze another healthy serving of kibble but this time she added a considerable amount of her herb gravy. Blaze had greedily gobbled down the chow pausing only once to woof to Karen that it was sooo good.
Mitzi admitted that she didn’t usually prepare dinner for the guests but since it was just Karen, Ralph, and the other couple she had been happy to do it and they all ate together in Ralph and Mitzi’s large dining room. Earlier in the afternoon Mitzi had directed Karen to a woman’s clothing store and Karen spent some money outfitting herself better for the Northern climate. She also got something she hoped she could use to change things she had envisioned. She felt much better in fresh clothes as she sat at the dining room table. For almost two hours, they chatted, ate, and sipped wine. To Karen, it seemed like life as usual: dinner with a potential bride and groom and the bride’s parents while trying to land their wedding reception perhaps. She silently chastised herself for allowing this normalcy when her husband had been murdered and her sister taken captive by his killer.
The young couple that occupied the other rented room in the bed and breakfast was a newlywed pair on their honeymoon. They were Bret and Jessica from Milwaukee and were going on a road trip for their vacations from their jobs, which they had set up for the same weeks. They had found the bed and breakfast and thought Farmington was “a pretty cute town” the lady of the couple had said and had decided to stay for a couple days. They, like Karen and Blaze, were continuing their journey tomorrow. Unlike Karen and Blaze, and more like Ralph and Mitzi, Bret and Jessica were also not responders to the new substance in the atmosphere and their road trip would be cut short.
After dinner, Mitzi had served warm apple pie and decaf coffee. It was after 9:00 and she said she couldn’t tolerate caffeine after six in the evening. When the meal was complete, and the wine was finished the young couple said goodnight, thanked Mitzi profusely, and excused themselves to their room. Karen also said goodnight and thanked Mitzi as did Blaze with a woof but she led Blaze out onto the front patio into night air that told Karen the warm spell in Minnesota was probably about to break.
Blaze dashed across the patio, the front lawn, and into a small copse of trees that stood on the edge of the bed and breakfast’s property.
Karen sat down on the top step of the patio. She hadn’t had any visions since the one Blaze thought she had in her sleep earlier this afternoon. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She thought about Amanda, bound to that t
able in that hateful place and felt terrible that she was in such a comfortable setting while her sister lay half naked on a table where the temperature probably wasn’t much warmer than where Karen sat now.
A moment later, Blaze reappeared and hurried back to the patio. When he arrived, he sat down next to Karen.
“Is everything all right?” Blaze chuffed quietly.
“Yes,” Karen said and put her hand on his back, scratching softly. “I mean, no. It’s not all right. It’s shitty that we’re here and Amanda’s out there.”
“I’m sorry,” Blaze whimpered. He looked at her sympathetically. “Is there anything I can do?”
“No. It just seems like there’s nothing we can do yet. This timing seems like one big cosmic plot that’s determined to play out in its own way,” Karen answered.
Blaze nuzzled his nose against Karen and she laughed half-heartedly as the cold dampness of his skin tickled her. When he stopped he woofed, “Don’t worry. We’ll find them, or Amanda at least. I still smell him. We’ll set her free.”
