Blackout: Book One (A Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Thriller)

by Adam Drake

  Ethan shifted some bags around to get a better look. He seemed absolutely fascinated with this find.

  The dead man appeared to be quite young, maybe in his early twenties. He wore a dark blue jacket over a black dress shirt and black jeans. There was a tattoo on the back of one curled hand. Wyatt recognized its symbol.

  “He's a Feral Kid,” Wyatt said with disgust. Maybe it was good this guy was dead. The Feral Kids were a notorious homeless gang that roamed the city, terrorizing and extorting the other homeless. Wyatt had many encounters with them over the years, none of which were pleasant.

  “Yeah, you're right,” Ethan said, leaning closer.

  “Can you tell how he died?” Wyatt asked, curious despite himself.

  “Being a Feral Kid is how he died, I'd guess. Not the most work safe occupations you can choose.” Ethan delicately lifted open the man's jacket. “I don't see any blood, but there's too much crap in here to tell.”

  “I don't think you should be touching him, Ethan.”

  “Why not? He won't mind.” Ethan reached into the man's shirt pockets and felt around.

  “God damnit! What are you doing? You're gonna get your DNA all over him. What about forensics?”

  Ethan shifted to jam his fingers into the man's jean pockets. “DNA. Forensics. What's that all mean to someone like us? No one cares. This guy will be scooped up by the truck and ferried off to the dump. He'll end up under tons of shit and will rot away to nothing with the rest of the garbage.”

  Wyatt stepped away from the dumpster to check the alleyway, again. Other than a dozen dumpsters full of their morning trash there was no one around. He tried listening for the garbage truck but couldn't make out its distinctive sound.

  “This isn't good, Ethan. I don't like it. Come on, get out of there. Will skip this row and go to the next alley over.”

  Ethan didn't find anything and scratched at his chin, disappointed. “They picked him clean, whoever did this. There isn't even lint in his pockets.” He spotted the man's shoes. “Oh, hey! Check these kicks out!”

  Wyatt looked on in horror as his friend wrestled a pair of faded runners of the dead man's feet. Not a sight he expected to see when he woke up in his tent this morning to start his rounds. He expected more of the same. Cans, bottles, and the reek of garbage filled dumpsters.

  It had been his routine for the last eight years. Day in and day out. Not once did he encounter a dead body. Dead animals, sure. Rats, and cats, and even a dog or two. But not a person. Feral Kid or not, this guy had been a human being. Watching Ethan casually manhandle the body suddenly made him queasy.

  Somewhere from down deep, a memory fought to surface. “Oh, I think I'm gonna be sick,” Wyatt said and stumbled over to throw up behind the dumpster. Cold coffee and stale bagels.

  Ethan dropped to the ground, the dead man's runners on his feet. “Now your DNA is everywhere. We're both going to hang.”

  Wyatt wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve and glared at his friend. “Satisfied?”

  “With the runners? Damn right. They fit perfectly!”

  Wyatt opened his mouth to berate Ethan when the sound of a distant car crash tore his attention away.

  They both turned in the direction of the noise. It was immediately followed by another crash, metal smashing against metal.

  “Damn,” Ethan said pacing around in his runners, trying to break them in. “Someone was in too much of a hurry to get somewhere.”

  Another crash, this time from the other end of the alley. From that direction a woman screamed.

  “We're at the epicenter!” Ethan said.

  “What? This isn't an earthquake, just shitty drivers hopped up on caffeine.” Wyatt scoffed and grabbed the dumpster's heavy lid.

  “What are you doing now?”

  “Laying him to rest,” Wyatt said and eased the lid closed. “Have any last words?”

  “Yeah, I'd like to thank the guy for wearing size twelves.”

  “Let's get out of here,” Wyatt said grabbing the cart full of cans. “The less time here the better.”

  Ethan grabbed the other cart which they used to carry glass items. Only a half dozen beer bottles rattled at its bottom.

  They pushed their carts down the middle of the alley trying to not look suspicious.

  “Why'd they kill him?” Ethan asked. He kept grinning down at his new shoes having tossed his old pair in the cart.

  “I haven't the foggiest,” Wyatt said. He kept glancing at each of the dumpsters they passed. All probably filled with cans and bottles. The truck would be by soon and would haul them off to the dump. What a waste of money.

  Ethan didn't appear to mind all the missed out treasure they were passing. At least he got something out of this run. “Bet you it was over drugs. Drugs and guns. It's always over drugs and guns.”

  They walked on for several minutes, cans and bottles rattling.

  “Money,” Wyatt finally said. “Probably money.”

  “Yeah, but drugs and guns get you the money.”

  “Or money gets you the drugs and guns.”

  They chuckled.

  Wyatt felt strange laughing. They'd found a dead body, robbed it, and left it to cook in a dumpster under the morning sun. He shouldn't be laughing.

  As they came to the end of the alley, they both stopped. The cross street in front of them was littered with cars.

  Vehicles were parked everywhere in the middle of the street and down its sides. Some were even on the sidewalks.

  A slick looking car had jumped the meridian and crashed into a concrete divider. A Chinese man stood next to its open driver-side door helping a woman inside who was wedged behind an air bag. She looked dazed.

  “Well, fuck a duck,” Wyatt said, agog.

  Ethan made a tsk-tsk sound. “Everybody in too big of a damn hurry.” He turned his cart onto the sidewalk and pushed on. Wyatt followed still a little stunned at the odd carnage around him.

  “What do you think happened?” Wyatt said.

  “Don't know, don't care,” Ethan said as he steered around a sedan which had driven over the sidewalk and buried itself in a line of thick hedges. “If it becomes our concern, I'll let you know.”

  Ethan didn't like people and did his utmost to avoid them. And by people that meant those with more money than him.

  Which meant everybody.

  Wyatt couldn't blame him. The crap they both had to put up with as dumpster divers could make you crazy. It continually disappointed him how folks sometimes treated those in need. To most, the homeless were less than the dog shit they scraped off the bottom of their shoe.

  Still, Wyatt felt a little bad for that woman in the car. He even felt bad for the dead Feral Kid they'd left in the dumpster. Somewhere, his parents were wondering where he was. Perhaps it was best they didn't know.

  “Oh, crap,” Ethan said, and stopped.

  “What? What is it?”

  “Frikken Baldy,” Ethan said and nodded further ahead.

  Approaching them down the sidewalk, pushing a cart full of cans, was another homeless man. Unlike Wyatt and Ethan, he didn't have a beard or any hair for that matter as he was completely bald. Other than being known for his naked scalp he was also infamous for being completely insane.

  Baldy spotted them and waved, a wide grin on his dirty face.

  “Crap, here he comes,” Ethan said.

  “He's not all bad,” Wyatt said. He didn't mind Baldy as long as he kept his crazy talk down to a low simmer.

  “Bad enough,” Ethan whispered as Baldy rattled up to them. “He Baldy! Top of the morning to you!”

  “T-top of the m-morning to you t-too!” Baldy said. His grin had grown so comically wide it stretched from ear to ear.

  “Morning, Baldy,” Wyatt said with a nod. He gave Baldy's cart a once over. It was jammed full of cans, even more than what Ethan and he had dredged up that morning. Crazy or not, Baldy always knew where the fattest dumpsters could be found.

  “D-did you
see the p-plane?” Baldy exclaimed, excited. He blinked frantically as if he couldn't believe the words he was saying.

  “Huh?” said Ethan.

  “Th-the p-plane that crashed!” Baldy said and pointed to the southeast.

  All of them looked in that direction. High buildings and tall trees blocked their view of any crash.

  “I don't see nuthin,” Ethan drawled. He didn't bother hiding his impatience.

  Wyatt shrugged. “How do you know a plane crashed?”

  “S-saw it coming d-down,” Baldy said. “Into the d-downtown area.”

  “Uh-huh,” Ethan said and turned to Wyatt. “Let's get going. We still need to cash these in and go eat.”

  Baldy looked confused but didn't protest as both men steered their carts past him. “M-maybe we should h-help,” he called after them.

  “Oh, for Christ's sake,” Ethan said.

  Wyatt said, “Cops will take care of it Baldy, don't you worry. Oh and don't bother fishing the next alley up. We already cleaned it out.”

  Baldy nodded enthusiastically, but didn't move. He watched them as they walked on.

  “Why did you say that to him?” Ethan asked, scowling.

  “I don't want him finding that body. Who knows how he'd react.”

  Ethan scoffed. “Hell. How do we know he wasn't the one who put him there?”

  “Baldy? He wouldn't hurt a fly.” Mentally, Baldy was like a little kid and Wyatt did his best to look out for him. He just couldn't be around him for too long. That stutter drove him up the wall.

  Ethan shook his head. “You can't read people at all, then.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Cause Baldy has the crazy eyes. He's killed before. You can tell.”

  Wyatt shook his head, but didn't want to argue with Ethan, the eternal cynic.

  They pulled off the street and into the next alleyway, a part of their route. Fourteen dumpsters eagerly awaited to be pried open like virgins on their honeymoon.

  “Hopefully, there won't be any bodies in these,” Ethan said with a wry grin.

  “Bodies?” someone said from behind them.

  They turned.

  Three scary looking young guys emerged from behind a fence where they'd been drinking beer.

  “What bodies are you talking about?” said the taller of the three.

  Icy fear washed over Wyatt. He didn't need to see the symbols tattooed on their hands to know who these guys were. He recognized each of them.

  Feral Kids.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Nate

  Approaching a getaway car always made Nate more nervous than it should. But if someone wanted to ambush him, this was the perfect spot to do so.

  Unger giving him this job, and assigning the idiot Morse to do the ground work, gave Nate pause. Maybe Nate was the job, or meant to be rolled up with it.

  He tried to shrug away his doubts. Hitman jitters.

  More shouts, this time from all around him.

  “My God! That plane!” a man yelled from his yard, pointing. He'd been trying to start his lawnmower but it wouldn't cooperate.

  Nate kept his head low, concentrating on the sidewalk. Can't have people identifying him a block from a triple homicide. He needed to keep a low profile until he got some distance. Tough to do when you're over six feet and built like a Russian shot putter, but he did his best.

  Another block, and more people began to emerge from their houses and apartment buildings, adding to his nerves. Some looked in the direction of the huge plume of smoke which now spiraled upwards from downtown. Others gaped like fish in confusion.

  You'd think everyone would be tired of planes crashing into buildings after New York, he mused. Yet, this was also a good thing for him. Now their focus, and memory, would be of the plane crash, and not of the large hitman who tromped past their home.

  He approached a T-intersection where a bunch of cars and trucks had suddenly decided to park in the middle of the street. But as he got closer, he noticed that nearly all of them were mashed up against one another, side panels and bumpers dented, headlights shattered.

  Drivers and passengers yelled at each other. Small crowds formed at the street corners, ogling the mayhem.

  Nate kept walking. Why hadn't he parked closer? He shook his head. No, that would have been stupid. The rule was golden. For a stealth job, always keep your escape vehicle at least two blocks distance.

  As he marched past the fender-bender carnage, a thought struck him. Why weren't there any sirens? No emergency vehicles raced to the scene. In fact, he didn't recall hearing any earlier after all those crashes.

  He glanced southward. The thick pillar of smoke had grown larger stretching up into the sky. Maybe everyone was down there?

  A half-block later he had to walk around a mini-van that had jumped the curb and was perched over the sidewalk. A man sat in the driver's seat, his door open. He was cursing as he tried turning the key in the ignition over and over, but the engine appeared dead.

  Nate noticed several vehicles similarly parked – up on sidewalks, in the middle of lawns, facing the wrong way in the oncoming lane. People cursed or looked confused, or both.

  A skinny guy with a beard stood outside another mini-van which sat on the low concrete meridian in the middle of the street. Two brats cried inside. He frowned at his smartphone, pressing at it angrily.

  Mr. Beard spotted Nate walking by. “Hey! Can I use your phone?”

  No, but I got two bullets that'll solve that crying problem of yours, Nate wanted to say. Instead, he shrugged, non-committal and kept going. Mr. Beard turned to yell at his brats.

  Normally, he would have been annoyed, even alarmed Mr. Beard had made eye-contact with him, noticed him. But with all the strange chaos he doubted he was the most interesting thing people would remember that day.

  Consider this a gift.

  He imagined a prosecutor questioning Mr. Beard and pointing in Nate's direction. “Do you remember seeing this man on the morning of the fourteenth?”

  Mr. Beard gave it some thought. “The fourteenth? The day that plane fell out of the sky? Wasn't that just terrible? And I couldn't get my phone to work!”

  Nate chuckled at his own humor.

  He spotted his car parked up ahead in the shade of some trees. Children played in a park nearby, a man threw a frisbee for a dog to chase.

  No one else was around. Not anyone that might pop him one, anyway.

  As he walked up to the driver's side, he glanced around one more time. Then he quickly unlocked the door and got in. After closing the door he placed both hands on the steering wheel and took a deep breath.

  Why was he so nervous? This certainly wasn't his first rodeo, he understood nearly every job made him a little apprehensive. But this one felt different. Was it Morse's sloppy scouting job, or the fact he got himself stuck working for Unger the idiot?

  No. Something else.

  He peered through the windshield. On the opposite side of the street a couple were standing on their lawn alternating their gaze from the black pillar of smoke to the phones in their hands.

  Something was wrong. An amorphous thing he could not explain. And not just with the cars...

  Curious, he stuck the key into the ignition and turned.

  Nothing.

  He tried again. Some result.

  “Ah, come on!” he said. After several more attempts it dawned on him that the seatbelt warning light hadn't blinked on. In fact, nothing on the dash lit up, as if the battery was dead.

  Great, he thought. Now what? He was a couple of blocks from three people murdered by his own hand, with no way of making a quick escape.

  He started to get angry and turning the key over and over again didn't help.

  Giving up he fished the phone out of his pocket. It was a disposable dumbphone, not a smartphone like all the idiots used. Can't get a GPS on a dumbphone.

  He thumbed a button, but the screen didn't turn on. He tried again. Nothing. He tried diff
erent buttons. The phone was dead. Yet, it had worked earlier.

  Now he got really angry. I have it, too? Whatever effected everyone else had killed his car and made his dumbphone even dumber.

  At least he didn't have to put up with Unger texting him with moronic questions.

  Yes, the job is done, you twit. And no thanks to your flunky, Morse!