by catt dahman
“More than that, so stay where you are,” voices whispered. “You’re gonna slide those rifles and your handguns out to us.”
“Can’t do that.”
“Really? You know some gals named Beth and Julia? Wanna hear them scream?”
Len shot Kim a warning look and made more intricate gestures and motions.
“Maybe I wanna take a shot at you and hear you scream, bitch.” Len was angry.
“Ummm, Len, he’s holding me in front of him,” Beth yelled back.
Len cursed; then, he and Chauncey tossed the guns out, unloaded. Len was betting they wouldn’t check.
They were ordered out, with their hands raised, and Len told Chauncey to thread his fingers together with both hands and not just to raise his hands, but place them on his head and not give them a reason to feel nervous
“Keep your eyes on the chin of whoever is talking; walk slowly; be calm.”
Len made last minute silent motions and hoped they all understood. He and Chauncey did as they had been ordered.
“On your knees,” the man with the ball cap ordered.
“No problem,” Len agreed; both he and Chauncey sank to their knees.
“What’re you doing here? Where’re you from?”
“We’re a rescue team; we came from outside and found a way in, been climbing around in here.”
“Rescue my ass.” There were five men and a woman. One man stood with a pistol to Beth’s side; he looked burned.
“Hey, Beth.”
“Hey, Len.”
“We found your friends here creeping around, thought they were zombies at first, so we hit one.” Ball Cap chuckled. “That would have been the nigger with your group, sorry, the other nigger.” He laughed at Chauncey.
“Is Hagan okay?”
“For now. He’s tied up. Big ole buck, ain’t he?”
“Why do you hate the black folks?” Chauncey grumbled.
“’Cause we don’t like anyone but the white folks.” Ball Cap laughed.
Len hummed a few bar of the “Dueling Banjoes.” Long live interbreeding of the chosen. “What say we go on our way with our friends?” Len asked.
“What say we tell you what we want? Your buddy, Ward, sang like a bird once we encouraged him a little.” Another man coughed wetly. He looked sick.
“He means Warren,” Beth said. “They tortured him until he talked.”
“Well, the Spic chick didn’t wanna talk, even with encouragement…bitch kicked Billy Ray in the balls,” one of the men laughed, “didn’t appreciate him twistin’ her tittie.”
The man who must have been Billy Ray shrugged, “Won’t stop me from screwin’ her.”
Julia cursed in Spanish from the shadows.
“Warren told the team how he and the other three came from below, close to the pharmacy; they got in here from the outside, didn’t know how to get to the pharmacy.” Beth looked at Len, trying to will him to understand her message.
He did. “So now what do you want with us? We just have the six of us who came from there.”
“We want the drugs, man. Are you stupid? And we have the guns, so it looks as if we have a plan. We are in charge, see? We have the control, Boy.”
“Okay. After we show you the drugs, we walk away? Go our own way?”
“Sure, but Ward…Warren said you had more guns; we want them,” Ball Cap said, “and we keep the women.”
“I dunno, they’re mean bitches, might better let me keep ‘em.” Len shrugged. “Hey, what’s wrong with him? Sick, Dude?”
“He’s bitten,” Julia called out; then, she let out a croak as someone obviously kicked her. The kicker walked out, grinning, his arm wrapped in a bandage, leaking with blood and green-yellow pus.
“Got two bitten, huh? Sick Dude and Dead Dude. You’re dead, buddy and don’t know it yet.” Len chuckled. “Dumb ass.”
“I wanna kill him,” Dead Dude said.
“Just hang on; we want to get the drugs first.”
“So we get guns and drugs and keep the chicks…you two go get them and bring them back. If I’m in a good mood, I’ll let you and the niggers go,” Ball Cap sneered.
“And Warren,” Len stared hard at Beth now, willing her to know his plan, “we want Warren back; we can probably find better women than those two; they’re kind of frigid.”
The men laughed.
“Jerk,” Beth said to Len, letting him know she understood.
“Oh, well, fuckin’ problem. I mean, if you want what’s left of him, see we didn’t hurt him ourselves; we just had this little friend we let have a few of his fingers,” Burned Man giggled, slapping the woman on her butt. She giggled back.
“They have a zed, Len. Tied up. They…they grabbed Warren and forced his fingers to the zed’s mouth; it bit them off one at a time until he told them what they wanted to know. He’s really sick.”
“That fast? On fingers?” Len let his curiosity run wild for an instant.
“Ah, no, might have been when Freddie Zed was hungry for nose and lips.”
Chauncey moaned, leaning over so his head touched the ground.
Len felt an intense hatred for the group, wondering why they had been immune to Red and so many others had died. How had such trash survived? People such as that were a waste of oxygen and were the kinds who could not be rehabilitated.
“That’s pretty brutal, Sick Dude. Hey…speaking of, you know you and Dead Dude and Warren are gonna change? You’re gonna be a zed, soon,” Len taunted. “But that’s cool by me. You’re righteously some bad-ass dudes. ”
“We had shots, dumb ass. We won’t get sick.”
“Shots?” Len asked; Chauncey looked up.
“Vaccines. Elwood’s cousin works at a dog clinic, yanno; so we got the treatment before this shit hit here in the US.”
“Yup,” Elwood, aka Sick Dude, said, “got the rabies shots.”
“Blow me runnin’ backwards,” Len said with a whistle. “Ya hear that,
Chauncey?” Chauncey nodded.
“We are immune now.”
“They got shots. Hey, I gotta idea. If you hook me up with that rabies shot, I’ll show you the drugs and the guns, hand ya the women with my best wishes, and show you some more stuff you might want. Those gals can’t shoot worth shit anyway.”
“Didn’t want them for shootin’…‘cept what I wanna shoot in ‘em,” Ball Cap laughed.
Len laughed, too. “So that’s the idea?” Len said that worked for him.
“You got more good stuff?”
“Yep. And we can find people who can actually shoot a gun.”
“I can shoot, Len,” Beth interrupted.
“You can’t either. How many times I tell you to get a target, and you
then take ten or twelve shots?” Len slowly rolled to his butt. “Knees killing me.
Chauncey...he don’t care though.”
“Twelve? Like hell,” she yelled back.
“Shut up, and why can’t we keep the women?” Chauncey whined. “I
wanna keep the women.”
“Don’t be arguing about who can have me; I’ll have your balls, too,
Pendejo,” Julia yelled.
Beth yelled over to her, “What do you mean twelve shots? Asshole. Julia
takes twelve shots, but I don’t.”
Julia rattled back in Spanish to Beth, calling her names.
Beth yelled back at Julia, turning her head to do so, and trying to get
space between her and the man who was holding her beside his knife.
Len and the men laughed as both women snarled at each other.
“Cabron,” Julia yelled at Beth.
“That is it, you bitch,” Beth jerked to the side, screaming, lunging towards Julia, falling as she went. She rolled.
A hole appeared in the center of Ball Cap’s forehead, brains and blood shot backwards, spraying Dead Dude in his face.
Len and Chauncey lay on their stomachs, not moving, not presenting as dangerous, s
o the raiders swung guns up and to the side where Johnny, Kim, and Big Bill were hidden. Dead Dude went down, along with Sick Dude. Billy Ray and Burned Man shot back but dropped in a volley of rounds.
“Don’t move,” Kim yelled to the women, “is that all?”
“Yes.” Beth crawled to Julia and Hagan to untie them. She worked the knots furiously, patting Hagan’s face to get him awake.
“Who got Ball Cap?”
“Me.”
“Good shot, Kim. Good for all you guys,” Len said, getting to his feet and helping Chauncey to his feet. “Damned fine work, Johnny; you and Big Bill, rock.” Len and Chauncey grabbed their weapons to reload.
“He’s alive.” Big Bill kicked at Burned Dude.
Len asked for help getting him and the woman tied.
Warren was barely conscious. “Sorry, I told, Len.”
Julia patted his arm, trying to avoid looking at his ruined face, a hole where his nose had been, teeth were where the lips had been torn away.
He cried with the pain and had gone feverish, was becoming infected as the wounds turned colors and seeped fluids.
“Hey, I can’t blame you; bastards didn’t play fair.” Len smiled at Warren. “You stayed brave and did a good job.”
“Thanks. I tried.” But it sounded like, “Tanks, Eh tied.”
“Hurting pretty bad, I know.”
Warren nodded with a whine.
“I’d take you back if I could. But, Warren, you’re awful sick.”
“Just put me down. It hurts so bad.” “Dus ut ee own. Eh huts so ad.” He gurgled, and his words were hard to understand, but they did understand what he wanted.
“I’ll do right by you, ‘George’s terms’, friend. But I’m a cold son of a bitch, and first, I’m gonna give you and the rest some retribution and justice, maybe some kind of peace. It’ll make me feel a little better anyway.”
Len had them help him gently get Warren into a better spot.
“Look, I don’t even have a gun,” the woman whined.
“That didn’t stop you from suggesting that they use the zed to get information out of Warren, did it? And it didn’t stop you from kicking Jules when she was tied up.” Beth drew back, slapped the woman across the face as hard as she could, and then with fury, spat in the woman’s face.
“I didn’t shoot at anyone or do anything; I just hung around them. What else was I gonna do, all alone? What did I do so wrong?”
“And you don’t hurt people to save your own skin. That’s a coward.” Kim glared. “And you called my friends some pretty nasty names; you held them at gun point; you shot Chauncey. Anyone of these would have risked his life to help you if you hadn’t been part of this trash.”
Johnny was now holding up Hagan, who smiled to show he was a bit better. “I can abide most anything but a cowardly whore. You went along with them, and that damned you,” he said quietly.
Len faced his friends. “I’ve already said I was a cold son of a bitch. I have a mean streak maybe…maybe I am just sick and tired of seeing shit like this when things are bad all over, people hurting others for no reason. I have a strange sense of justice, and I won’t say I’m a good man. But I live with what I do.”
“What’s wrong, Len?” Beth touched his arm, worried.
“I’m about to do something pretty bad. No, really bad. Those two,” he motioned to the woman and Burned Man, “are about to get what they dished out to Warren while he and I sit here and watch the justice.”
Beth paled and Julia muttered, “Madre Dios.”
“Oh, Len,” Beth muttered.
“Now the screams won’t go on long; go on over there, don’t look, cover your ears, and hum, and I’ll be along soon. None of you need watch this.”
“Oh, Jesus and God,” Johnny said.
Len walked over, and to his shock, Big Bill joined him, moving the woman and man close to the zed who moaned a little.
The woman and man stepped back close to Warren, where Len and Big Bill also stood. Kim stepped forward next to Len without a word, dreading this, but supporting his friend.
The zed grabbed the woman, and she shrieked as it pulled her close.
Chauncey walked over to Big Bill next, his head down, eyes on the ground, but standing in support; he shivered. Beth took Julia’s hand, and they moved forward, with Kim draping his arms around both their shoulders. Big Bill, Len, and Chauncey added their arms. Johnny and Hagen came abreast of the team and added to the group. Hagan prayed under his breath.
In less than a minute, they had been bitten several times as they screamed for mercy; Len put them both down. Then he shot the zed. Len was dry-eyed, with pain set deep in his face, keeping it at bay by sheer will.
Johnny stayed Len’s hand and took care of Warren who passed with a look of peace. He had neither condoned nor accepted the punishment Len had set forth.
Julia, Beth, and Johnny had tears on their faces.
They all carefully climbed down the rubble, helping Hagan, Julia, and Chauncey, who were in pain and exhausted; Chauncey was pale with pain.
Before Kim climbed down last, he looked over the nightmare where they had lost a friend and seen horrors. The stupidity and evilness of the raider group made him feel sick and angry. He called out to the empty area, “Rabies shots didn’t do shit for ya, did it?”
21
Connections
It was difficult returning with two fewer people, but when Hagan, Julia, and Beth saw the condition of the lobby and heard what had happened, they were shocked that anyone had survived. It was no less than a bloody war zone.
“Gotta teach Misty to stop chasing after Mark, who is too old for her, and teach you all to carry flashlights,” Len said.
“Is he? Too old? Does it matter?” Kim asked.
“Would if she were my daughter.”
“We were following your lead, Len, causing chaos back there, but we already have had that same discussion…about women being prizes,” Beth said. “That was unnerving to hear them say what Bryan and you had just warned us about.”
“Prizes?” Johnny asked.
“I’ll have to catch you up on that; you have won, Len,” Beth grimaced with the memory of what the men had intended to do to her and Julia.
“Julia, teach me something fast in Mexican to call Beth,” Len begged.
She laughed quietly at him, “No way. But Beth is right; hearing what they said back there made me sick. Hang on.” She paused to lean over and breathe deeply.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Fine.”
Beth felt unsettled and asked for someone to hand her a flashlight. She turned it on Julia. “Oh my, God. Why didn’t you say anything?”
Julia, white faced, smiled. “I’m fine.” And promptly passed out.
Getting her to the floor, they found her pants leg soaked in scarlet. She was the one injured in the original fall, and she had begun bleeding badly after being kicked; her bloody footprints were behind them. Len and Johnny tied padding and Len’s belt around her thigh.
“I can carry Little Girl. She don’t weigh a thing.” Big Bill scooped her up into his arms.
“Lobby coming up. Go silent.”
To their surprise, it looked like a battle zone, the glass doors shattered outward, the screens tossed to the side, and blood and gore were everywhere.
Len and Kim ducked and ran over to the lobby, looked inside, guns ready. Bodies were neatly stacked inside, heads crushed, a few sporting headshots. There had to be over a dozen.
Back on the basement level, they walked quietly.
“Identify yourselves.”
“Len, Kim, Beth, Julia, Chauncey, and Big Bill,” Len called out. “You?”
“Hi, guys; it’s Mark.” He came out to greet them. “What happened?”
“Nothing too serious; we need Sally though.”
Sally joined them, directing where to put Julia and quickly cutting off Julia’s pants. Julia had a deep gash that needed stitches and to be disinfec
ted. The rest went to wash and then joined the group in the cafeteria to get drinks and trade stories.
“They broke out of the lobby right through the glass as if it was paper, and we had a fight,” Roy said. “We took them out with a melee, all but a few.”
“Sounds good. Glad you took care of them.”
“We’ll get bodies out later. And we didn’t sustain a single injury.” He grinned, taking pride in that.
“Glad the good guys did well.”
Len told their story with a bare outline of the raiders, omitting the end and saying all were killed in the gunfight.
“We lost that girl, Theresa, who was cut up so badly and the Hispanic girl who had the burns and torn up feet.” Sally took it pretty hard. The rest…some are in bad shape; some are gonna be okay if they don’t get bad infections and can manage the pain with what we have,” George told them.
They had missed eating, so they ate as if they were starving. Benny and Thurman got plates to take to Chauncey, Julia, and Hagan. They reported that Doc and Sally had said all three had taken serious injuries but should be fine with rest, medications, and time.
After everyone had gone to do other things, George, Benny, Tink, Thurman, Mark, and Misty gathered with the rest and asked what Len had not shared. They knew he had held back. To Len’s surprise, not one judged him.
George shrugged, “We have ‘George’s Terms.’ And now, when it is an eye-for-an-eye justice, we have ‘Len’s Terms’.”
“I owed Warren. And to be honest, the way they treated and talked about Hagan and Chauncey and Julia….racist like…for no reason…and the way they talked about women, I was pissed off. They would have hurt other people in the future.”
George and the older men asked Len to walk with them; Len was building his fury, and it would ruin him if he let it.
Beth and Kim went to check on the patients. Maryanne and Toni smiled and said hello. Toni was describing everyone to Maryanne.
“She said Beth is pretty with dark hair, and Julia, too, with her hair all chopped off so the zeds can’t get her,” Maryanne said.
Beth laughed, “Jules and me don’t do much for the hairdressing profession.”
“Kim is handsome, and so are Bryan and Len, but they are so old…like Hagan.” Toni chirped. Everyone laughed. “Mark is dreamy.”
