“No one’s here. And I know my parents didn’t do this. Someone broke in and stayed here for a while, but they’re gone now.”
Monica looked in the kitchen and saw a big metal pot on the floor half filled with water.
“Do you mind if we take that pot? We can use it to melt snow in.”
“Go ahead. My folks ain’t gonna miss it.”
Monica picked up the pot and poured the water in the sink as Trey went back into the living room to puzzle over the broken window, the couch and the mattress. As Monica left the kitchen she stopped to pick up the paper sack and opened it to put the pot inside. She noticed the writing on it.
“Trey, come here. Your sister left a note!”
“What?” Trey rushed over and read his sister’s writing on the sack. “She was here!” A smile lit up his face. “She’s alive! Oh my God. She and Liz are okay. And they’re not far from here. We gotta go find them.”
When they reached the turn for the Bunny Lodge, Trey slowed the RV to a stop and looked deep in thought.
“What is it, Trey?”
“All the way from the cabin, we’ve been following a single set of tracks, and they turn here, going to the lodge, just like we are.”
“Well, yeah. They’re probably your sister’s tracks.”
“My sister wasn’t the one who broke into the cabin. She’d have the new key.”
“So what are you saying?”
“Someone could’ve come here specifically looking for her. What if it was Carl who broke into the cabin, looking for us?”
Monica’s mouth dropped open. “He could have your sister!”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
***
Terry opened the door a little and peeked out through a one inch gap. He saw a man standing there with a badly bruised face, looking like he was in great pain. He pulled the door open wider.
“Thank you, sir. I need help. I’ve been shot,” Carl said, turning to his right to show the bullet wound on the left side of his back.
Terry looked back at Jim for his consent to let the stranger in. Jim took a breath, puffed out his cheeks as he exhaled, nodding and looking weary.
“Come inside,” Terry said, stepping back to make room for the man to enter. “What happened to you?”
“I was mugged,” Carl said. He came in, dragging his feet as though he barely had the strength to walk. As he entered the lodge, he rapidly glanced around the room, taking in the occupants, their genders, and the fact that the guy who opened the door and another, younger guy were armed. Everyone but the two guys was sitting at a long dining table, mostly near the center. He spotted Tori sitting next to a little kid. “Does anyone here have any medical experience?”
Geraldine and Tori both got up and came over to Carl who collapsed to his knees and reached out for the table to keep from falling any further. Jim had seen Carl’s eyes darting around the room and felt suspicious about him.
He may be wounded, but his mind is alert and he knows exactly what he’s doing, Jim thought.
“My mother served in the WACS in the Philippines. She taught me a lot of emergency first aid when she came back,” Geraldine said.
Elizabeth tried to imagine a mother in wax. She couldn’t do it.
“I’m a CNA and studying to be a nurse,” Tori said.
“Bring us whatever first aid supplies you have, and since I’m sure no one has a forceps, maybe you can find a pair of needle-nose pliers. Alcohol too, if you have any,” Geraldine said.
Jim asked Terry, “Do you have the keys to the lounge?”
“No. They’re in the manager’s office, hanging up.”
Jim left to get the keys and some alcohol.
“Terry, can you boil a pot of water as fast as you can?” Tori asked.
“Sure.” Terry trotted to the kitchen.
As Jim came walking back through the main room with the keys to the lounge, Geraldine asked if there was a table or something elevated where they could lay Carl.
Jim said there was a large desk in the manager’s office. “Just clear off the stuff and put him in there. Angela can show you where it is.” Jim noticed that Geraldine seemed like a different person now. She’s seems rather cheery now that there’s a crisis, Jim thought.
“Follow me. I’ll clear off the desk,” Angela said, heading down the hall, passing the offices that Terry and Jim used for bedrooms and turning into a room on the right that had a gold-tinted plaque on the door that said MANAGER. She removed a desk blotter, pen holder, stapler and phone, putting them all on the office chair and rolling it back out of the way.
Carl walked in, supported on either side by Geraldine and Tori. They walked him to the desk and Tori asked him to lie face down. He did, feeling the discomfort of the gun in his pocket, but there was nothing he could do about it yet.
“We’ll need to take off your shirt,” Geraldine said. “You need to keep your left arm still. Angela, look in the desk for some scissors.”
Angela pulled open the large center drawer and found scissors in a plastic tray next to an Exacto knife. She handed the scissors to Geraldine who carefully cut away Carl’s shirt.
Jim came in and put a bottle of Seagram’s Seven and a bottle of Bacardi 151 on a filing cabinet. He couldn’t believe that Geraldine frowned in disapproval at the bottles of alcohol, even though she was the one who asked for them. She’s crazy, he thought.
He went back to the main room and saw Terry come out of the kitchen walking slowly and carefully as he carried a pot of water with steam rising from it. Elizabeth was standing by the table pouting. She had been left alone in the main room with Bo, who she was afraid of because he was so big and he never talked.
Terry spoke as he passed by Jim. “There’s a guy talking on the short-wave! He said only Denver and Colorado Springs were hit with nukes and the feds have a terrorist cell member in custody who says this is only the beginning.”
“Holy shit!”
“I’ll be right back after I get this water to the women.”
Jim went over to Liz and said, “While your mommy is busy being a hero, would you like to listen to the radio with me?”
Liz looked around and considered that the only alternative was to sit with the big silent man, so she slid out of her chair and walked toward Jim who she thought was much nicer.
Jim took her by the hand and led her to the kitchen. Terry came in a moment later and dragged a metal stool over to the table and sat down.
Two men on the radio were talking to each other via shortwave. The one currently speaking sounded like a young Asian-American.
“Normally, they don’t say anything but ‘Death to America’ when they get caught. The fact that this guy is talking makes me think he may be telling the truth.”
“Homeland Security said his threats are baseless. He’s just blowin’ smoke,” said another guy with a New England accent.
“Of course they would say that! They don’t want people to panic.”
“I can see a couple jihadis nuking Colorado, but do you seriously think North Korea and Iran could follow up with additional strikes? And if they could, why haven’t they?”
“Don’t forget, he also said Russia and China were uncommitted. So they might decide to join the alliance against us.”
“There is no alliance against us, kid. This was nothing more than a couple of goat-fuckers who got lucky. And all they managed to do was kill a bunch of people in Colorado. They didn’t take our defense systems down like they intended, so even if there was a big alliance against us, things didn’t go as planned.”
“Only because we have Cheyenne Mountain on stand-by, otherwise we wouldn’t… Shit, shit, shit! Harold, is your TV on?”
“Ayuh. I’ve got ESPN on. Why? Oh Lord! The Emergency Alert System just came on.”
Inside the lodge kitchen, they could faintly hear the discordant two-tone signal in the background of one of the men’s houses.
The Asian-American screamed into his mic, “Ho
ly fuck! Did you hear that? They said, ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ but get to a bomb shelter! Right! I’m alarmed, dude!”
The kitchen door swung open. Bo ducked down and poked his head in.
“There’s someone here. I figured ya’ll would wanna take up your positions by the door like you been doin’.”
Jim asked Liz to wait right there until he came back and to listen to the “show” on the radio. He and Terry headed to the main door and ran into Angela entering the room from the hall.
“I think I heard a truck, or something big pull up,” she said.
“Yeah. We know. This place is Grand Fucking Central today,” Jim said as he went past her heading toward the door. “How’s that guy doing?”
“Tori actually managed to get the bullet out and Geraldine is stitching him up. I couldn’t watch. I don’t know how anyone can do that, but I’m glad that some people can.”
“A guy on the radio said that nukes only hit Denver and Colorado Springs; most likely they wanted the Peterson base, but—“
“So we can go home?” Angela asked, excited.
“But there may be more trouble on the way. We don’t know yet. And Liz is in the kitchen by herself.”
“Oh… I’ll go sit with her.” Angela’s excitement was short-lived. She turned left toward the kitchen thinking of how wonderful it would be to go home and to have electricity, and her cell phone, and the internet. She smiled, happy to at least know that her family and friends were all alive.
Bo walked over to the fireplace to get out of any potential line of fire. Terry and Jim waited for a knock.
Twenty-nine
“That’s Tori’s car,” Trey said. “I wonder what Carl’s driving since he left his bike at your house.”
“What do you think we should do?” Monica asked.
“I think the only thing we can do is go in with guns in the open and tell him we’re taking Tori and Liz and he ain’t stopping us.”
“What if he has a gun?”
“He probably does, knowing him. But I don’t think he wants to get shot. There’s two of us and one of him.”
“And whoever else is in there with him,” Monica said, looking at the other cars in the parking lot.
“I don’t think the Unforgiven are here. No one in the gang has a BMW, or a station wagon. I’m going in. You can stay here and wait if you want. In fact, I think it would be better if you did.”
“Are you kidding me? If Carl’s in there, I want to see him. It’s not over between us.” She pulled the slide back on her gun, loading a round into the chamber.
“Okay.” Trey tucked his gun into his pants and picked up the shotgun. He racked it and a shell flew toward the dining area. “Damn. This thing was set to go.” He fetched the shell and loaded it back into the shotgun. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Trey, if anything happens, I just want to thank you again for helping me.”
“Nothing’s gonna happen to us.”
They got out of the RV and started walking to the lodge. Trey walked a little faster, trying to stay in front of Monica.
Terry heard the RV doors shut and said, “I guess they finally decided to come and visit. I should cut some peep holes in this wood so we can see outside.”
“Yeah. Blinding us to potential threats probably wasn’t one of your better ideas,” Jim replied.
The knock they’d been waiting for finally came.
“Who’s there?” Terry called out.
“I’m lookin’ for my sister, Tori. She said she’d be here.”
Terry turned and nodded at Jim. If he was Tori’s brother he had no problem with letting the guy in. Jim nodded back. Terry opened the door and quickly raised his pistol and yelled, “Gun!” when he saw Trey and Monica. He backed away from the door and aimed at Trey’s head.
“Hey, hey! It’s okay,” Trey said, raising his shotgun above his head horizontally. “I’m just carrying this for self-defense. I don’t mean nothin’ by it. We’ve been through some hell lately.”
Terry could see that both of them looked like they’d been beaten pretty badly, and the guy looked and sounded sincere. He lowered his weapon. “Come in, but put that on the mantel. There’s a child in here.”
“Is it my niece, Lizzie?” Trey asked as he walked over to the fireplace and laid the shotgun down on the mantel. Monica put her gun behind her back while Trey was assuring Terry that he wasn’t a threat. She didn’t intend to put it down or give it up. As long as she had it she knew she’d never be touched against her will again.
Angela and Liz came through the kitchen door. When Liz saw Trey, she ran toward him with a big smile. “Uncle Trey! Uncle Trey!” She was glad to see someone she knew after being cooped up in her grandparent’s cabin for a week.
Angela came over and introduced herself to Trey and Monica. Everyone in the room except for Bo gave their names and shook hands.
“Angie, any news on the radio?’
“Jim, there’s been nothing on the radio but static.”
“Mommy!” Liz ran toward the long hall. Tori and Geraldine were coming down the hall. Tori stopped and scooped Liz into her arms.
“We’re all done, baby. I hope you’ve been good.” Tori froze when she saw a woman pointing a gun at her. She slowly put Liz down and said, “Go to one of the rooms behind me. Any one of them. Now!”
“Step aside!” Monica yelled. Tori looked behind her and saw Carl reach down and pick Liz up with his right hand. He shifted her over to support her weight on his left hip and wrapped his left arm around her. He pulled his gun out of his pocket with his right hand and pointed it at Liz’s head.”
Jim and Terry drew their guns. Trey ran to the fireplace and got his shotgun and ran back to Monica’s side.
“Let her go, Carl!” Trey yelled.
“I don’t know what the hell’s going on here, but everyone needs to put down their weapons and just calm the fuck down. And you, put that shotgun down,” Jim said.
Trey remembered he also had a pistol, so he placed the shotgun on the dining table behind Monica. He pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Carl.
“Tori and the kid are comin’ with me,” Carl said to the group of people pointing firearms at him. “Let us out of here and no one gets hurt.”
“That ain’t gonna happen, Carl. Your reign of terror ends right here. You put my niece down, now. If anything happens to her, so help me God…I’ll make sure you die slowly.”
Tori had her back against the wall. Her heart was thundering in her chest as she stood only a few feet from her daughter. “I just worked to save your life,” she said to Carl.
“Ain’t nothin’ personal, Tori. Your brother done brought this on.”
“Why don’t you take me and let her go?” Tori said, breaking into tears. “Please! Let her go.”
“Everyone just back away and make a path to the door!” Carl yelled.
No one moved, then suddenly Geraldine stepped forward out of the group in the main room and started toward the hall.
“In the name of the Lord, I command you to release that child! In Jesus’ name, I command you, devil!”
Carl fired his .22 and Geraldine stopped and stood still. Blood oozed out of a small hole between her eyebrows. Her knees unlocked and she collapsed. Angela ran to the kitchen for safety and to get away from the dead body bleeding from the head.
“Momma!” Bo yelled, bolting from the hearth and coming to her side. He kneeled down and saw the dead stare in her eyes. He got up slowly and turned toward Carl. Liz was screaming and struggling to get free.
Tori held her arms stretched out toward her daughter, crying, “Please, let her go. Please, Carl.”
There was ten feet of hallway between Bo and Carl. Bo suddenly got up and flew down the hall with his arms out in front of him, reaching for Carl’s throat.
Carl fired once as the big man rushed toward him with impossible speed. Bo closed the distance between them in two seconds and knocked Carl backwards as he closed his hands a
round his neck. Carl fired as he fell, his shots going wild. He let go of Liz to break his fall with his left hand. Tori went to grab Liz and was hit by one of Carl’s stray shots. She picked up her daughter and ran with her to the manager’s office.
Carl was making a choking sound, trying to pull Bo’s hands off his throat with his left hand and turning the gun in his right hand to point it at Bo. He fired repeatedly, finally hitting Bo with his last two bullets. When Carl heard his pistol dry-fire, he started hitting Bo’s left arm with the gun.
Terry and Jim came into the hall when they heard Carl’s gun clicking with no ammo. They grabbed Bo’s arms and pulled him backwards off of Carl. “That’s enough, Bo,” Terry yelled. “Let him go.” Bo reluctantly released his grip on Carl’s throat and started to cry. They released him and he crawled back to his mother’s body, leaving a trail of blood from his bullet wounds. He collapsed next to her and wrapped a bloody arm around her.
Carl quickly picked up the gun and tried to stand up, coughing and choking. His face was red and he had thumb imprints on his throat. He couldn’t talk yet. He just waved his gun side to side at Jim and Terry, gesturing for them to get out of his way.
“His gun’s empty,” Trey said.
Jim and Terry stepped aside while keeping their guns trained on him. They looked at Trey and Monica who stood side by side also aiming their guns at Carl.
“Your gun’s empty, Carl. It’s over. You’ve done all the harm you’re gonna do in this life.”
Carl dropped the empty pistol. “Are you gonna shoot an unarmed man, Trey?”
“God knows you deserve it, but I ain’t like you, Carl. I don’t know what we’re gonna do with you, but I ain’t gonna shoot you in cold blood.”
“I am.”
A shot rang out and Carl jerked back a step and grabbed his stomach. Blood seeped out between his fingers. Everyone turned to look at Monica and saw smoke drifting off the barrel of her gun.
“Go ahead, bitch. Finish me off!” Carl yelled.
“No. I like Trey’s idea of you dying slowly,” she said.
In The End: a pre-apocalypse novel Page 15
