by Dan Lawton
“Oh my god,” she says, “you actually did it! I can’t believe it!”
Billy and Frank both startle at the sound of her voice and awaken from their trances. I pop up from my chair and run over to her. I grab her hand.
“It’s over,” I say. “We can go home now.” She musters a weak smile and almost starts to cry. I turn to Billy. “When are we leaving?”
“In the morning.”
“What? No, I want to leave now. You have your money.”
“In the morning I said.”
“We had a deal.”
Billy rolls his eyes. “Did you not hear me say, ‘in the fucking morning’?” His frustration is obvious.
“No, the hell with that. We had a deal and I did my part. You have you’re fucking money, so I’m leaving now whether you like it or not.” I put my hand on the base of Alicia’s back and lead her out the door. We’ll walk back to Josie’s and pick my car up from there.
She gasps before we can exit the room.
I turn around and look toward Billy, who’s suddenly standing next to us. His left hand is wrapped around Alicia’s wrist and his right hand holds a gun, which is pointed in my face. The barrel digs into the bone above my nose. Billy’s bloodshot eyes are locked in on mine and the vein in his forehead is pulsating.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
BILLY
It’s almost 8:30 P.M. by the time I arrive at the self-storage unit across town. The facility is outdoors and is open for twenty-four hours a day, so I’m able to weave through the narrow driving paths in the van. The posted speed limit is five miles per hour, and I can’t go much quicker than that anyway due to the sharp corners and wide vehicle frame. I rented the unit out four or five weeks ago now, and I’ve visited periodically since then with the new items that had arrived from overseas.
Inside the unit rests a single worn out plastic storage container without a lid. I had ordered a few masks online from a company in Sweden that specializes in zombie apocalypse survival goods, and a gas mask apparently is included in those supplies. There are companies all across the United States that offer the same type of products, but I was looking for a specific type of mask, one that I could only find outside of the country. The masks need to filter out carbon monoxide specifically, and that is something that is a bit difficult to find, I discovered. Carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless, which is perfect for what we’re trying to do, but it could be extremely dangerous for us if we’re not protected properly.
Also in the box are some short pieces of foam, each cut in lengths of exactly six inches, from which I had picked up at the local home improvement store. The foam is cut from a spool of weather stripping, so it’s made to block the outside air from going in and the air inside from going out.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, are two small rounded Tupperware containers, each enclosing a separate substance. The first is a small amount of a reddish black powder that looks like a mixture of paprika and cinnamon, but it’s far from it. It’s thermite, and it’s powerful. It won’t explode, which is critical, but it can and will burn through steel. The tricky part is that most igniters don’t get hot enough to light the thermite, so that’s where the magnesium comes into play; that’s what’s in the other container, a few thin metallic strips of magnesium.
Since thermite is not an explosive, it’s not illegal to own, but it was a bitch to find. I did some digging around and made some calls, and I did eventually find some locally. I found the guy online but never did find out his name. He got his hands on a big chunk of the material from somewhere, he wouldn’t say where, and I didn’t ask many questions. I met him after hours one night in street clothes, and we made the cash transaction quickly and seamlessly.
After fingering through the supplies in the box, I pick it up and load it into the back of the van. I leave the padlock hanging from the storage unit, unlocked, and make my way back around the rows of units and toward the exit. I leased the unit on a month-to-month basis, and I already paid for July, so I’ll just leave the lock for the next person. I have no use for it anymore.
---
I wait for the garage door to open while the front tires of the van rest on the sensor. When it does, I pull into the empty garage and close the door behind me. With the box in hand, I struggle with the door handle of the old station, but I am eventually able to get it open. The hallway is empty and the lights are dim, and it’s silent. I peek in a couple of the old offices near the doorway, but Frank is nowhere to be found. At the other end of the hallway, I catch a glimpse of a shadowy figure weaving through the offices.
“Frank, is that you?” I yell out to the figure. My voice echoes in the emptiness.
No response.
I enter one of the offices and place the box of goods on the table before making my way down the hall. “Frank?”
There is some shuffling in the room adjacent to my position in the hallway, but still no response from Frank. I slide my hand down to my hip before entering the room, enabling myself for quick action if the gun is needed. To my delight, the racket is coming from Frank, who is shuffling furniture around the room. I allow myself to relax.
“What the hell are you doing?” I ask.
Frank is startled and quickly turns to me. “Jeez, you scared me.”
“I’ve been calling your name. What the hell are you doing in here?”
“I’m looking for something.”
“I can see that.” I wait, but he doesn’t seem too keen on offering more information voluntarily, so I press further. “What are you looking for?”
“Uh…well, not something. More like someone.”
My face drops and I’m instantly concerned. “What do you mean? Who?”
“Well…the girl may have got out.”
Concern is replaced with anger, and I walk toward Frank. I get in his face. “You better be messing around. Tell me you’re messing around.”
“Sorry, boss.”
Not knowing what else to do, I grab one of the many chairs that are scattered across the room and throw it. It smashes into a rusty file cabinet and one of the legs snaps off. Frank leaps back and covers his head as the metal on metal clashes.
“What the hell happened, Frank? I told you not to let her out until I got back.”
She was yelling, so I went in there, and she said she really had to pee. She said the baby was pushing on her bladder.”
I slide my hand down and retrieve the gun from my hip and begin to pace the room. I shake my head in disgust and try to decide whether to put a bullet in Frank’s head or not. He had one job, and he fucked it up, of course. How stupid can someone be? I take a moment to gather myself and put the gun back in the holster on my hip before I do something stupid. I will need Frank down the line, so I needn’t over react. How far could she have gone?
“Frank, my brother,” I speak slowly to keep myself relaxed, “Alicia is not really pregnant.”
Frank’s jaw drops as if this is news to him.
“It was just a trick to get George to play along. Now, I need you to think for me. Tell me exactly what happened.”
Frank pauses and looks to the ceiling, trying to retrace what happened in his mind. I move next to him and put my arm around his shoulders.
“Okay. I went in there, and she said she had to pee-”
“I got that part. What happened after that?”
“Right, okay. So I let her out and walked with her to the bathroom, then she said she needed some privacy, so I waited outside. She came out when she was done, and I started walking her back. She asked where you were and I said you’d be back soon. She told me she would go back to the room and wait for you because she wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Did she say what it was?”
“No. She wasn’t crying anymore though, she seemed happier than she was before.”
I nod. “Okay, so what happened after that?”
“She seemed better,
so I went back into one of the other rooms to wait for you and she went back to where she was. Then I heard a door close. That’s it.”
“How did you find out she was missing?”
“I thought I heard her talking to someone, so I went to check it out. But when I got there she was gone.”
I ponder this for a moment, and that’s all it takes for me to figure out what happened. I’m relieved, and I smile at the realization. “Did you happen to look at the big two-way mirror on the wall when you went in there?”
Frank shrugs.
I continue, “I didn’t think so. There’s no way you could have heard that door close. You would have never heard it through the walls. That room is on the other side of the building. The sound would have been muffled by the surrounding rooms.”
“I heard a door close, I swear.”
“I believe you.”
Frank is shocked. “You do?”
“I believe you heard a door close, but not that door close.”
Frank just stares at me, dumbfounded.
“Did you check the room George is in?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s locked.”
I roll my eyes at his stupidity. Maybe he will be more of a liability than I thought. “Yeah, from the inside, you fucking idiot.”
Frank hangs his head, obviously embarrassed. I turn and leave the room. Frank follows. I make my way to the holding cell where George is being held and open the door. George and Alicia are both standing there, having a discussion, and they’re startled at the sound of the door. I turn to Frank, who avoids my eyes.
“Go get her,” I say. “Bring her to the room and close the door yourself. Make sure it’s closed. Then meet me in the first office next to the back door, I have some stuff to show you.”
Frank doesn’t say anything as he walks past me and approaches Alicia. He grabs her arm from behind and leads her out of the room. I give Frank a head start by having a staring contest with George. What were they talking about I wonder? He looks exhausted already, as his eyes are heavy and glazed over.
“Come with me,” I say, motioning for George to follow.
He does.
I lead him into the office where I put the box of supplies from the storage unit. Frank is already inside and has moved the box to the floor. He is playing with one of the gas masks in his lap, most certainly trying to figure out its purpose. I trust Alicia is in the same interrogation room as before, waiting to speak with me about something. It better be an apology.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
GEORGE
I spend the evening alone in the empty room with the leaky ceiling. The pillow and blanket are gone from the corner, so I have nothing but the cold cement to keep me company. I can hear someone sitting by and guarding outside the door the whole night. At one point I hear some snoring, which actually gave me some comfort and allows me to relax for a while. I don’t sleep much as I’m on high alert, but I must have fallen asleep at some point, because the sound of Billy’s voice wakes me.
“We can go now,” he says.
Once I compose myself, I drag my stiff body from the cement floor and wobble to the door, trying to gather myself after a rough night. Billy seems to be in a better mood already, well-rested and with clear eyes.
“They’re waiting for us in the van,” he continues.
I follow Billy down the long corridor for the last time, knowing my life will never be the same again. Frank and Alicia are waiting in the van as expected when we arrive. I hop in the back and sit next to Alicia on the bench while Billy jumps in the front. Frank is sitting opposite us on the other bench. Alicia doesn’t look up when I sit next to her, but does when I place my hand on her naked forearm. She offers a simple smile. Something is bothering her, but I can’t tell what it is. She’s probably just exhausted. I realize now that I don’t really even know her that well, and this new life together is going to be challenging. Challenging but rewarding I hope. I think about this and our unborn child as we ride in silence, my hand resting on her forearm the entire time.
After a few right turns and stops and restarts, the van comes to a complete stop and the parking brake engages. The front door opens and I can hear Billy walking around the side of the van. The back door slides open and the morning sun shines in, forcing me to shield my eyes from the brightness.
“You can go,” Billy says to me from outside the van.
Surprised it’s this easy, I stand from the bench and head for the door. I catch a glance of Frank, who is sitting with his head down, looking a little sad. He doesn’t look up so I don’t say anything. I reach back, expecting Alicia to grab my hand, then leap onto the pavement next to Billy.
My Civic rests in the same parking spot I left it a few days prior, just before all of this happened. A yellow piece of paper is wedged between the windshield and the wiper, a parking ticket I assume. I can’t tell for certain from here, but there might be a boot on the passenger’s side wheel too. I see these things and they would have bothered me in the past and completely ruined my day. But now, it all seems so trivial. Nothing else I can experience in my life from this point forward can be as difficult as what I’ve gone through and survived in the last three days. Even the thought of having to try to figure out how to be a dad on the fly seems to be no big deal. That, in combination with trying to build a relationship and co-parent with Alicia, this woman that I barely know, at the same time seems like a minute task at this point.
I turn back into the van to help Alicia step down, but she’s still sitting on the bench across from Frank.
“Come on, let’s go,” I say to her, but she stays sitting. I look to Billy, who stares back at me, emotionless. Frank still has his head down. “What are you doing?”
Tears fill her eyes as she starts to speak, “George, I-”
A few loud bangs interrupt her thoughts, one right after the next. Billy’s head spins around and he scans the parking lot. He throws himself to the ground and shields his head as the echoes continue to fill the sky. He pulls me down so I’m crouched next to him.
“What the hell’s going on?” I ask.
“We’ve got to get out of here!”
“What’s going on?”
“They’re shooting at us!”
“What? Who is?”
“Snake’s men, they must have found us.”
Billy waits for the next shot then hops in the back of the van, where Frank and Alicia are now on high alert.
“What’s going on? What’s happening?” Alicia asks frantically.
“We’ve got to go.” Billy slides his way to the front and stays low as he puts the van in drive. “Get in the van!”
I’m still crouched down, torn between making a run for my car or listening to the voice inside the van.
“Get in the van,” he repeats. “We’re leaving in two seconds.”
Frank offers his hand out to me. “Come on, Georgie!”
I see Alicia inside the van, and she has a panicked look on her face, and I make up my mind. I can’t leave her, not like this.
“Now!” Billy yells from the front.
I reach up and grab Frank’s extended hand. With one smooth yank, he pulls me into the van and releases my hand. I fall to my knees. He slams the back doors using the handles on the inside and the sunlight disappears between the cracks. The van peels away from the parking lot, the tires squealing and the engine revving, as Frank reaches into one of the two duffel bags on the floor and fetches out a gun. He places it in the passenger’s seat as Billy swerves into oncoming traffic. The recurring gun shots in the background are masked by the bellowing car horns and screeching brakes from the street.
Alicia screams as she fights to keep herself on the bench, and Frank is fumbling through the same bag on the floor. I’m still on the floor of the van and I’m tossed around from side-to-side with each hard steer.
After what I expect is a few miles of sharp turns and high speeds, the van finally sl
ows down and comes to a stop. Billy climbs into the back and starts tossing the contents of one of the bags, the one with the supplies, across the van.
“Where is it?” he demands. He tosses items in every which direction, determined to find whatever he’s looking for.
“Where’s what, boss?”
I try my best to dodge the flying objects, but something soft hits me square in the face. Billy grabs the bag from its base and pours the remainder of the contents on the floor.
“Where’s my badge?” Billy looks up and stares right at Frank.
“Uh-”
“Where’s my fucking badge?”
“Uh, I dunno, boss. It should be in the bag. I grabbed everything like you told me to and put it in the bag.”
“Well guess what? It’s not here. How’d that happen?”
It’s a rhetorical question.
Billy continues before Frank has the chance to respond, “Because you, you fucking idiot,” Billy stands over Frank, who is trying to pull himself off the ground after falling during the ride, “left it on the fucking ground, you fucking moron!”
Frank starts to open his mouth to speak, but Billy won’t allow it.
“The one fucking thing that can track us to this whole thing you left behind. Are you a fucking retard?”
It’s another rhetorical question.
Billy closes his fists and begins to clobber Frank repeatedly across the head. Frank tries to cover his head with his arms, but Billy grabs one of them and pulls it away, allowing a small gap for Billy to keep hitting him. Frank doesn’t try to fight back as he just does his best to protect himself.
He cries out to Billy, “Stop! Stop! Please stop!” Frank’s pleads are ineffective and just enrage Billy further. Billy grabs a handful of Frank’s hair and pulls him to his feet. Frank puts his hands on top of his head, trying to free himself from Billy’s grasp, which exposes his face. Billy uses his other hand to throw more short-armed, forceful blows into Frank’s face. Frank’s eyes roll back in his head and he falls to the floor. Alicia screams in the corner and covers her eyes.
