The Eliminators 1

by Jacqueline Druga

  Rigs cleared his throat.

  “Oh!” Liz exclaimed. “Sorry, I was just caught up.”

  “I have a question,” Rigs said. “You don’t know what happens to the survivors once you send them out?”

  “I knew in Pittsburgh,” Liz replied. “I’m only part of the big picture now. They tell me where to move them and my teams. I only follow orders.”

  “But don’t you think that’s a little odd?” Rigs asked.

  “No odder than you asking for the first time after all these months.”

  “She’s got a point,” Kasper said. “We never asked.”

  “That’s because we never really saw the magnitude of people,” Rigs replied. “I mean that was a lot and did you see they are were like vulnerable people. How did they survive? I means how did that many kids and old people not get eaten?"

  With a sarcastic tone Barry pointed back with his thumb. “I saw a man in a wheelchair, what point are you trying to make?”

  “Just that …"

  “Rigs,” Rachel said his name with a laugh. “We saw one bus load, there were six buses. You think maybe they put all the vulnerable in one bus to protect them all? We don’t know who or what kind of people were on the other buses.”

  “True.” Rigs nodded. "I’m curious now. I didn’t even know we cleared anything north of Kansas. I mean,” He pulled out a small notebook from his pocket and flipped through. “I keep track of things. When we run into other districts, I always update.”

  Liz reached out, placed her hand over his notebook and lowered it, speaking gently. “Then you missed something, everything is fine. Now …” She inhaled sharply through her nostrils. “Let’s go get your new team member and assignment.”

  She turned to lead the way.

  Rachel pulled back to walk with Rigs. “What’s going on?” she whispered.

  “Nothing.”

  “Seriously, why are you acting so suspicious?”

  Rigs opened his mouth to speak, paused, then stopped walking. “I never questioned anything.”

  “What is there to question?”

  “I mean, we go in after a sweep, pick them off and move on.” Rigs eyes shifted. Kasper was walking backwards toward them. “What Kasper?"

  “What are we talking about?” Kasper asked. “Why is Barry the only one following Liz?”

  “Rigs was just saying he never questioned anything,” Rachel said. “I told him we go in, pick them off, move on and then get the town cleaned up and rebuild. What is there to question?”

  “I don’t know.” Kasper shrugged. “Like who is doing the cleanup and rebuilding.”

  Rigs snapped his finger. “Yes, and why have we never seen a cleanup or rebuilding team?”

  “Better yet” Kasper said. “Why have we never gone back to a place we eliminated?”

  “We should,” Rigs said.

  “We will. Or … why haven’t we seen a working farm?” Kasper asked. “I haven’t.”

  “It’s winter,” Rachel replied.

  “Still,” Kasper said. “Where are they getting all this food from to feed these people?”

  “Storage.” Rachel answered bluntly. “Guys. Stop.” She held up her hand. “You’re acting like this is some big conspiracy. Why would they have us picking off the dead if they weren’t going to use the towns for survivors? Why feed us, keep us moving, stocked with ammo? Why have us do it at all? You act like they are just keeping us busy and they’re not trying to bring back civilization.”

  “Oh, I think they want to bring back civilization.” Rigs said. “No doubt, they need the dead eliminated. I just wonder if they’re rebuilding the world … for everyone.”

  “What does that mean?” Rachel asked.

  “Think about it.” Rigs tapped his temple.

  Without saying anything, Rachel turned and walked away.

  Rigs noticed Kasper standing there with a blank look on his face. “Kasper, you okay?”

  “Huh.” Kasper snapped out of it. “Yeah, I am. I’m just doing what you said, thinking about it. I just wished I would have thought about things sooner.” Kasper gave a swat to Rigs arm and followed Rachel.

  Rigs had no idea if Kasper was being facetious or serious. But even if Kasper wasn’t serious, he brought up a good point and Rigs himself wondered why he never questioned things earlier.

  After dallying in the hall, by the time Rigs made it to the office to meet the new guy, the new guy was already on his way down the hall. He assumed it was the new guy because he walked ahead of Barry. Even Rachel never made it in the door.

  “Was that?” Rigs pointed to him

  “Yep.”

  “Wow,” Kasper said. “Seems like a personable guy.”

  “What’s his name?” Rigs asked.

  “We don’t care,” Kasper replied. “He won’t be around long enough.”

  “Eh, I don’t know,” Rachel said stepping forward. “He has the bad boy look. They said we may get a sixth so, that may be the red shirt.”

  “Do we … know where he’s going?” Rigs asked.

  “I guess to the RV. He shook my hand, asked if it was out front, I said yes, and out he went.”

  “Well, I want to know his name. Where’s Liz?” Rigs said.

  “She went upstairs,” Barry replied.

  “Screw it. I’ll get it myself. He’s gonna be with us, we need to know.” Rigs didn’t understand why New Guy was like that. Maybe he was angry or someone said something, or perhaps that was just his personality. As leader of the team, Rigs was going to find out.

  Was he really a bad boy looking person? Rigs wondered as he watched him from the glass doors. New Guy was about the same height and built as Rigs, six foot. He kept his hair mid length, probably like Rachel because he hadn’t cut it. Was that the bad boy label factor? Nah, Rigs thought, not when he kept it from his eyes with sunglasses, pulling it back like a head band. He was a tee shirt and jeans guy, no military uniform, and he carried his leather jacket instead of wearing it. He had tattoos, not many, but that wouldn’t make him a bad boy. Rigs’ grandmother had a tattoo she got when she was seventy-four. B-13, after winning a mega taxable jackpot at bingo.

  New Guy had a backpack and a duffel bag, which Rigs guessed was his personal weapon, he could see a spear sticking out. He stood, baggage by his feet, waiting by the RV, just left of the ‘E-Mobile’ wording that Kasper painted near the side door.

  “Done,” Sandy said from behind, startling Rigs a little. She handed the box to Barry. “That him?” She asked of New Guy.

  “Yep,” Rigs answered.

  “Nice looking fella for a bad boy type.”

  Rigs gave her a crinkled brow look of confusion.

  “What’s his name?” Sandy asked.

  “Haven’t a clue. We’re gonna find out.” Rigs pushed open the doors and walked down the few steps, “Hey.” Rigs approached him. “We’re your team.”

  “Nice to meet you and I’m sorry,” he said. His voice was deep and Rigs couldn’t place the southern accent. It was distinctive. “I didn’t mean to come off stand offish, I just wanted to get away from Sturges and his BS and the Congresswoman who buys it. You the lead?”

  “I am.” Rigs held out his hand. “I’m ...”

  “Nope,” New guy shook his hand and cut him off. “I think it’s best not to know names.”

  “Dude!” Kasper blasted excitedly “We’re totally cool with that. We’ll just call you New Guy.”

  “No,” Rigs squealed. “No. And I am not cool with that.”

  “You can call me New guy or make up a nickname,” he said. “And I’ll call you … what was your rank in the military. Obviously you were in the service.”

  “Sergeant.” Rigs replied.

  “I’ll call you Sarge.”

  “I’d really rather you …” Rigs turned in irritation when he heard Kasper laugh. “What? What is funny about that?”

  “Sarge.” Kasper tried to stifle his laugh. “You weren’t really military.”

&
nbsp; “I was, too.”

  “Reserves.”

  “Same difference,” Rigs argued.

  “Nope.” Kasper shook his head. “A weekend a month and two weeks a year.”

  “And you have more experience?” Rigs asked.

  “Yep.”

  “You were a security guard.”

  “Yep. And at least I was full time.” Kasper nodded, stepped forward and opened the door to the RV. He turned to the new guys. “Welcome to the team.”

  ELEVEN

  Barry took the wheel. He felt like driving and knew Kasper wanted to grill the new guy anyhow. He wasn’t worried about it. In fact, he enjoyed seeing Rigs annoyed at not knowing his name and Kasper fueling that fire. Discovering his name wasn’t top priority for Barry nor would it be a task.

  When the new guy shook his hand and brushed by, Rigs was so focused on following him he never saw Sturges hand Rachel the folder. The one Sandy usually received. Because she was a doctor, she was in charge of the confidential information. Barry wondered if he realized confidentiality was out the window if Rachel had the folder.

  Rachel knew his name and was learning everything else about him. That’s what Barry figured. Before Barry switched with Kasper for driving duty, Rachel had her nose buried in a magazine that she held close to her face.

  The folder had to be in there and she was hiding it.

  Never before had he seen her read a magazine.

  After adjusting the seat, Barry took a quick look at the map.

  “You good?” Kasper asked. “You know, before I head to the back.”

  “Oh, yeah, I’m great. Riverdale Iowa. That’s near Iowa City. Third place to have a Bashing Berry Franchise.”

  “How did it do there?”

  “Great. Was still there when the world went to pot.”

  “Wanna stop by?” Kasper asked. “I mean, it’s close, right.”

  “You know what? I’d like that. Let’s do that.”

  “Good man. I’m game.” Kasper gave a swat to Barry’s back and walked to the back.

  The new guy sat at the kitchen table with Sandy, drinking a cup of coffee. Rigs was in one of the leather chairs, doing an unnerving partial swirl back and forth while watching them. Rachel was on the couch, curled up with her back against the arm and her legs extended while she read some women’s magazine with a senior citizen woman in a workout suit.

  He couldn’t figure out how she was relating to articles on staying ‘hot’ after seventy or why, but obviously she was into it. Maybe it was a crossword puzzle or something.

  “You good?” Kasper asked her.

  “I’m good.”

  “Drink?”

  “Mm. Later.”

  “Reading a good article.”

  “Oh, yeah, I’m engrossed.” She lifted the magazine again.

  He took a seat in the other leather chair next to Rigs and smiled at him. He wanted to listen to the conversation between Sandy and the new guy.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” New Guy responded to a question Sandy asked.

  “That’s quite a ways from St, Louis,” she said.

  “Not really, Ma’am. Still in Division one.”

  “See, I probably would know this,” Sandy stated. “Because they usually give me a folder with information. They didn’t give me one for you. I wonder why?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because I don’t want people to know too much about me.”

  “Why is that?” Sandy asked.

  “We always had the one spot, I called it the rotating spot because whoever filled it unfortunately died.”

  “Red shirt,” Kasper said. “We call it the red shirt spot.”

  New Guy nodded. “Sounds about right. Well, I stopped wanting to know the name of the … red shirt spot. The more you know someone the more it bothers you.”

  “But Dude, that’s you now,” Kasper said. “In our group.”

  “Thanks,” New Guy grumbled.

  “But son,” Sandy reached out and touched his hand. “You can’t go through the rest of your life not wanting to get close to people. Maybe they need to get close to you before they go.”

  “Hey, Rach,” Kasper snapped his finger and pointed to Sandy. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe Sandy is the voice of reason and not just the old person hanging around.”

  Sandy slapped her hand on the table. “Kasper Wallace, why is everything a joke to you. If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

  “But, I …”

  “No.” She waved her finger then turned her attention to Rachel. “And you are being awfully quiet.”

  “I’m just reading … and I get the vibe that New Guy wants to keep his business, his business, so I don’t want to be...” She put down her magazine and did air quotes. “That person. Not saying that you are …” she quoted again. “That person. I just don’t want to be that person and I’m gonna go back to reading.” She lifted her magazine.

  Rigs swirled his chair her way and raised an eyebrow.

  “What?” Rachel asked.

  “What the hell are you reading so intently in …” Rigs said. “Senior Lady World.”

  “If you must know, it’s a very interesting article on how to keep your bladder from leaking after fifty when you cough.”

  “Hmm,” Sandy said softly. “Good luck with that one.”

  Rigs winced. “Go back to reading.”

  “Women pee when they cough?” Kasper asked.

  “And sneeze, and laugh,” Rachel said. “Especially if you have children.”

  “That’s gotta suck. Do you …”

  “Kasper!” Sandy snapped. “Incontinence is personal. Anyhow ...” she returned to New Guy. “You’ve been in Division One this whole time?”

  “Yeah, that’s why I was surprised they put me with a Division Two team.”

  “We’re not Division Two,” Sandy said.

  “You aren’t?” New Guy asked. “Then why are we going to a Division Two area?”

  As if he snapped to attention, Rigs sat up and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a folded piece of paper and opened it. “Iowa is Division Two.”

  New Guy nodded. “See why I thought you were a Division Two team.”

  “Did they change us?” Kasper asked. “Maybe not told us.”

  Rigs shook his head. “No. I wonder why they did that. Is Division Two down some teams, maybe?”

  “Or other reasons,” New guy mumbled.

  “Hey,” Kasper snapped. “I just thought of something. You were saying your team had a red shirt spot. Did you have a falling out?”

  “No,” he shook his head. “We had been a team since the Congresswoman started the Eliminators.”

  “Wow,” Kasper said. “Since the beginning. You guys must have been tight and good.”

  “Yeah, we were. We worked together. We had been without our red shirt spot for three weeks. We didn’t need it.”

  “I know that feeling,” Kasper said. “So what happened? Did you guys breakup?”

  New Guy shook his head. “They were killed.”

  “Who was killed?”

  “My team.”

  “Like one by one …”

  “No,” New Guy replied. “Like all at once. The same day, the same time, the same way.”

  “Wait. Let me get this straight,” Kasper held up his hand. “Your entire team died and you were the only person who lived?”

  New Guy nodded.

  Kasper sat back. “Uh … ye … yeah, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not feeling confident right now with you”

  “Stop,” Rigs said, “That’s wrong, man.”

  “I’m just getting serious Father Gabriel vibes.”

  “Who?” Rigs asked, then before Kasper could reply, he said. “Never mind. So, uh, Red … how did it happen?”

  “I’d rather not talk about it.”

  “Why not?” Rigs asked. “I mean, we have time to kill. I’m just curious how an entire team dies at the same time.”
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br />   “Let him go,’ Rachel said. “He doesn’t want to talk about it. Don’t force him. Maybe, I don’t know, they walked into a wrong place, a wrong building or something.”

  Quickly, New Guy lifted his head looking at her. “That’s so weird because that is what Center is saying happened.”

  “But it’s not,” Rigs said.

  “No. Look…” New guy folded his hands. “We were in the Midwest and were assigned back east. We wanted to stop overnight, and I located a place that I had marked as cleared and eliminators had been through. My thought was it probably was in the rebuilding phase. In fact, a Center was located there. So we stopped. Thought we’d make camp at the firehall because that was where Center was located. Usually, as you know, they leave stuff behind. I lost the bet and carried in the stuff. They ... they weren’t in the doors five seconds, I hear gunfire. Screams, I ran there, but … the entire place was dead. It was like they put them there. Just rounded them all up and packed them in like sardines. We didn’t ...” he tossed out his hand. “We didn’t check it, we assumed it was clear, plus, never have I seen them put them in one place. My team didn’t stand a chance. There were too many. I got out of there. I reported it.”

  “And they said you were at the wrong place?” Rigs asked.

  “Yeah, they said I was mistaken. I wasn’t.” He looked at Sandy. “The place was cleared. It had the eliminator markings on each building.”

  “Then they had the team number.” Sandy said.

  “Exactly,” New Guy said. “Every door had their number. I asked Center about it and they said no team existed.”

  “Where was it?” Rigs asked, pulling out his notepad. “I keep track. Every time we hit the Center, I update.”

  “Yeah, me, too.” New Guy pulled out his little notepad. “It was Benton.”

  “Illinois?” Rigs asked. “Yeah, I have that cleared.”

  New Guy opened his notepad and stared at the pages. “Me too, and it was or seemed like it was, all except that one place. Why would Headquarters tell me the town wasn’t cleared and I was mistaken?”

  “I think the question should be,” Kasper said. “After all that, why continue being an Eliminator? Why not just stop, find a place you know is clear and just quit? That shit can fuck you up.”