by Jeff Olah
That was crap. There was no way the round that peeled back the side of the stocky man’s head was luck. Neither was the next shot that blew apart the men’s neck who stood in front of the white BMW. Luck had nothing to do with any of it.
Owen just wanted to hear Travis say it. Find out who the man seated fifteen feet away really was. He shook his head and grinned evenly. “I’m just not buying it.”
“Buying what?” The look on Travis’s face now beginning to harden.
“You’re former military right, maybe—”
Kevin’s eyes were still closed. His voice came out thick and slow. “He was a cop.”
Travis nearly leapt from the floor. He turned quickly from Owen to Kevin. “What, what are you talking about?”
Zeus looked like he was going to stand, but then just dropped his head back to the floor as Kevin let out a restrained chuckle. “You’re the cop that killed that psychopath a few years ago.”
32
Travis had moved to a folding chair and hadn’t spoken for what seemed like a full minute. He stared at Kevin, his face hard and his hands buried deep in the pockets of his pants. He looked uncomfortable, intermittently blinking as he seemed to be contemplating a response.
Kevin opened his eyes, looking worse than a few minutes ago, the grey rings around his eyes now looking closer to black. Using his right arm to reposition his left, he took in a sharp breath as he was reminded of the previous day’s events.
“Listen, I didn’t mean to stir up any bad memories, my man. Hell, I followed that story for weeks, thought you were a complete badass. Not many people would do what you did, but most probably wished they had the courage.”
Owen was at a loss. He remembered hearing something about a police officer who’d killed a man in his own home a number of years before, but he didn’t recall much else. But before he could interject, possibly cool the mood in the room, Travis finally found his voice.
“Silas Vaughn killed my wife and my son.” His lower lip began to shake, but he quickly bit into it and waited for the moment to pass.
Owen began to push away from the floor. “You don’t have to do this.”
“He was a man who I had put away on a drug possession charge my first year on the force.” Travis ran his hand across his face. “When he got out … he came to my home.”
Owen wanted to stop him. He could see where this was headed and could feel the temperature in the room beginning to climb with each passing second. He wanted to stop Travis, but knew he shouldn’t. The man who saved his family needed to get this out.
“I was working the graveyard shift and got a call from a number I didn’t recognize, so I let it go to voicemail.” Travis dipped his head back. He had tears running down both sides of his face. They glinted the dim light that drifted in from the hall. “When my partner and I stopped for a bite a few minutes later, I retrieved that voicemail.”
Kevin was now sitting almost all the way up. He had his right hand resting on Zeus’s head, his eyes locked on Travis, just waiting for a break in the heart-wrenching story. “Listen, I’m sorry. I didn’t remember all the—”
Travis continued, as though he hadn’t heard Kevin. “It was my neighbor, he said there were patrol cars in front of my house and wanted to see if everything was okay. Before I even finished listening to the voicemail, my partner and I got the call to come back to the station. They were trying to keep me from going home.”
There was a long silence. Owen turned to Kevin, holding his gaze and noticing the bandages near his left bicep were beginning to ooze. But before he could fully stand and make his way over, Travis slammed his hand against the wall.
“That piece of shit got off. His attorneys laughed as they walked out of the courthouse that afternoon. I had to bury the only woman that I ever loved and the most perfect little boy this world would ever know. I had to say goodbye to my wife and my son while Silas Vaughn walked away a free man.”
Travis inhaled slowly, now mostly through his curled up nose. His eyes were red and his face wet. He didn’t bother wiping his tears as he folded his hands in front of his chest. “I was placed on leave and sent to see a therapist for the voices I had started to hear. I had begun to drink and started taking pills just to get to sleep. That wasn’t what she would have wanted and it sure as hell wasn’t who I was.” He paused a second and looked toward the hall. When he started again, he had a different look on his face, appeared to be fighting back a smile. “So, I went to his house in the middle of the night and killed him.”
Owen turned from Kevin and looked at Travis through narrowed eyes. “I’m sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say, didn’t think there was anything more to offer.
Travis pulled the chair around behind him, moved it to the left of the door, and sat back down. He gazed out toward the pair of windows at the northwest corner of the room and used his hand to push his hair away from his forehead. “Yeah, so am I.”
Before Travis’s words had a chance to fade, Kevin leaned back a bit, wincing through the obvious pain. “I’m sorry, I didn’t remember the whole story, just who you were and what you did. And I can’t begin to thank you enough for helping save my friends and also for saving me. It was my fault; I got us into that mess and you had to come out and help.”
Travis furrowed his brow, looked from Owen to Kevin. “I didn’t have to.”
“No,” Kevin said, “you didn’t have to. But you did, and right now that’s everything. So, once I get back on my feet, up and around,” he tried to force a grin. “I owe you one, probably more than that.”
Travis was already shaking his head before Kevin finished. “No, you don’t owe me a damn thing. I didn’t do it for you and I didn’t do it for your friends. I did it because it was the right thing to do. I did it because I couldn’t stand by and watch those men slaughter you and the others, but mostly I did it because my wife would have wanted me to. She would have told me not to just walk away, that I wasn’t that kind of man. And I knew that I would have listened to her.”
“You’re a good man,” Owen said. “We’re headed to the coast once he’s back on his feet, and we’d be grateful if you came with us. Strength in numbers, you know.”
Travis appeared to be thinking it over, but his face had all but given away his answer. He began with a quick shake of his head, subtle but it was there. “No, I’m heading out in the morning, going back at first light to see about my building.”
“You can’t think that being out here alone is the answer. I mean surely you’ve seen enough to know that’s not the case?”
“I’ve been alone for a long time, since well before all of this. And in some ways, and on some levels, it’s easier now. Sometimes humans are worse than the dead, but I think you probably already know that.”
He couldn’t disagree, but also couldn’t help thinking that Travis might be better off staying with him and his group. Not that he needed protection from what was out there—he was more than capable—Owen just figured that having others around may be good for his mental health, if that were even possible. This new world wasn’t easy to navigate and being on your own wouldn’t make it any easier.
“You sure you won’t change your mind?”
Travis looked away, just shaking his head. “I don’t think so.”
Owen was tired. He couldn’t think at the moment, and trying to convince Travis of something he wasn’t interested in probably wasn’t a good idea. “Okay then, at least know that my friends and I are extremely grateful and give me another shot in the morning, once we’ve all had some sleep.”
“Another shot?”
“At convincing you to come with us. I mean I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t at least try.”
The corners of Travis’s mouth turned up. It wasn’t necessarily a smile, but it was close. “We can talk again in the morning, but I can tell you right now, I don’t think it’s going to make any difference.”
As Kevin again reclined in the high-backed c
hair, Owen offered Travis a quick nod. “Don’t be so sure.”
33
Natalie sat at the end of the conference table looking out over her children. She had laid a jacket over Noah, who now slept alongside his sister in the corner of the room. Three feet away, Lucas was slumped forward at an awkwardly painful angle. She wanted to go over and help him to the floor, but thought better than to wake him.
Across the table from her, Harper sat with her hands resting in her lap, also watching the only family she had left. Her grandmother had moved two of the conference room chairs together and was the first to be taken by sleep. She looked peaceful, as if she hadn’t a care in the world.
“Natalie …”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think there’s really a chance to figure all of this out, to get back to the way things were before?”
She didn’t like the idea of offering too much detail. That would only lead to more questions, but with Owen tending to Kevin and the others having drifted off, there wasn’t much else to talk about. Natalie had wanted to be able to sleep, but just like every other night for the last several, she knew it would be a battle. Tonight, she just didn’t feel like fighting.
“I still believe, but it won’t be easy, and even harder now that we’ll be stuck here for at least the next few days.”
Harper seemed to consider Natalie’s comment before continuing, her eyes darting toward the door and then back. “Stuck here?”
Natalie was in no mood to temper her thoughts. She was running on fumes and starting to succumb to the thoughts that she might never find the man who may save the world. She had a pretty good idea of where he may have headed, probably one of three or four places, none of which were near her current location. The itch to get in the car and drive away was growing by the minute.
“Not exactly what I meant, but we aren’t going to get much done sitting on our hands. I don’t want to push Owen and I really don’t want to be the one to have to ask the group to decide between what’s best for Kevin and what’s best for everyone else.”
Harper pushed her hair back behind her ears, set her elbows on the table, and leaned in toward Natalie. She kept her voice only slightly above a whisper, checking her grandmother and then the door before speaking. “Kevin’s going to be okay, right?”
“Yeah, I talked to Owen. He’ll be fine, just a little slow for a while.”
“Then we should leave. I mean there are plenty of us who can drive, and he can ride around in a car just as easily as he can sit around here.”
This was good, she had an ally. Harper hadn’t initially struck her as the type to disrupt the flow of the group, but through the conversation they’d had over the last hour, she had been surprised more than a few times. “I don’t know.”
“We could talk to Owen in the morning, maybe come up with a plan for us taking turns driving and also keeping an eye on Kevin.”
“I don’t think Owen’s going to like that. I think he feels responsible for what happened to Kevin and for all of us as a group. He doesn’t like to take chances, trust me. I can probably count the number of times he’s taken a risk on one hand.”
Harper again glanced toward the door, this time looking back at Natalie a little slower. “He took a risk to help me … twice.”
“That’s true. He’s done quite a few things over the last few days that didn’t follow his typical MO. He’s a different man than he was two weeks ago, ever since the first day of the outbreak. It’s like he’s finally awake.”
“All I know is that without him and Kevin, my grandmother and I probably would never have made it out of that building. There was no way I could help her, nothing I could do, but they saved us. And for that, I am so grateful. I would do anything for them, including going out and looking for your doctor friend.”
She had Harper moving in the right direction; now she simply needed to give her a little push. A gentle nudge, a bit of motivation. It would sound better coming from someone else, and at the same time, make it harder for Owen to disagree with her plan.
Now Natalie lowered her voice, looking around the room quickly. “You think Cookie would be okay getting back out there so soon? You really think she’s up for it?”
Harper smiled as she nodded. “She’s tougher than she looks. And I think that as stressful as the last twenty-four hours may have been, now that she’s eaten and gotten some rest, she’ll be as good as new.”
Now she couldn’t tell who was leading who. Harper didn’t appear to be the type to be pushing some hidden agenda, but Natalie hadn’t actually taken the time to get to know the twenty-something. She seemed genuine, but over the last few hours, there was something different, something she’d seen before, but couldn’t quite work through.
“If you’re sure.”
“I don’t think she wants to stay here anymore than the rest of us.”
“What do you mean?”
Harper again leaned in close. “That woman, her husband, those kids, they seem kinda creepy. Like … uh … I’m not sure. Like …”
It appeared Harper was looking for confirmation or for Natalie to finish her thought. It was a different angle, but either way it may get her what she wanted. She could double-down and finally convince Owen that they needed to get back out on the road.
“Yeah, I agree. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something odd about that family. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that they were able to help, but you’re right, something seemed off about the whole family.”
Harper put her hand next to her face, shielding her mouth from the left side of the room. “Where’d she take them?”
“Her boys?”
Harper narrowed her eyes, looked hard into Natalie’s, finally nodding. “Yeah, I mean the way they left, kinda sudden.”
“Don’t know, I think she said she needed to get them to bed. Either way, it’s better than them still being in here with us, right?”
Harper giggled nervously under her breath. “I guess, but it’s still a little creepy. Did you get the feeling that the wife wanted us here even less than the man that worked on Kevin?”
“I think they were probably getting used to being here alone and wanted to keep it that way. You don’t really know who you can trust anymore.”
Harper looked down at the table, biting into the side of her cheek. She had gone quiet when they first arrived and then again when Travis came by for the last update. There was a desperation in her eyes, something even deeper than their current conversation. “Yeah …”
“What is it?”
“That man, the doctor, the one you knew from before, you really think he can fix all of this?”
Natalie nodded, she figured this was going to come back up at some point. They’d had a brief conversation a few hours before; however, she could sense that Harper didn’t ask everything she had wanted to know. “I do. I think that right now we at least have a chance, but with every day that goes by, every hour, that opportunity continues to fade. And at some point, it’s just going to be too big, too many of them. It’ll just be too late.”
“So then we do need to go? We need to find that doctor.”
“Yes,” Natalie said, “Before there’s no longer a reason to.”
34
Jerome Declan wheeled the janitor’s bucket out of the men’s room and into the hall. The twin in the red jacket—he remembered as being Jacob—held the door as his twin stood at the end of the hall staring down at the lobby below.
“Joshua,” Declan shouted, “How we lookin’?”
The more skittish of the two turned quickly and gave a thumbs-up. As he started back into the darkened hall, he kept his voice only slightly higher than a whisper. “We’re good, it looks like it’s holding and they seem to be losing interest.”
Declan turned toward Jacob, motioning in the direction of his brother. “What are we going to do with him?”
Jacob stepped out of the way of the door, held it as it closed. “I told y
ou he’ll be fine.”
“So you did.” Declan dropped into a squat. He pulled the bucket in between his legs and pulled his sleeves back. Dunking his hands into the cool water, he used what little light bled into the hall to rinse the drying blood from his hands. “You boys still interested in packing it in here for the night?” He looked specifically at Joshua, a grin beginning to form at the corners of his mouth. “Or you got somewhere else to be?”
Joshua eyed his brother, looked to be waiting for his twin to make the decision for the both of them. When Jacob didn’t, he hesitantly turned to face Declan. “Yeah.” He forced the word out, like he was in a hurry. “We can stay here tonight, and then we’ll see what we want to do tomorrow morning.”
Declan was—for a moment—impressed with the younger man. There was an obvious social disorder, of what nature and to what extent, he didn’t yet know. But he also didn’t care. They were tools to him, a means to an end. And right now, there was only one thing on his mind. “Good,” he said, “then how about you two get cleaned up so we can pop those cans.”
Jacob had already submerged his hands in the pinkish brown water. He rolled the stiffness from his neck, but didn’t look back at Declan. “Okay, so we got two cans of beans, how do you think you’re gonna open them?”
“Those giant backpacks, what do they weight, like twenty, twenty-five pounds apiece?”
Joshua shook his head, but looked toward his brother. “You ask the weirdest questions, what does that have to do with anything?”
Jacob stood and turned away from the bucket. He used his foot to push it toward his brother and let out an annoyed snicker as he walked toward Declan. “He knows that we probably have a can opener. That we look like the type who would be prepared, even if he isn’t.”
Declan motioned toward the suite opposite the elevator and shrugged his shoulders. “So sue me, you guys just kinda come across as Boy Scouts. The same windbreakers, same pants, same shoes, same everything, all the way down to the matching dollar-store haircuts. And those packs, you’ve got to be kidding. If there’s not a can opener in one of those things, I’ll go to the roof and throw myself off. But, if there is, and I know there is, how about we dig into those beans? I could easily go through both cans all on my own.”
