by Mark Gordon
Chapter 51
Abduction
Dylan's mind reeled from finding the caged zombies. He hurried back to the car yard where Bonnie and Sally waited, but when he reached the lot, they were nowhere to be seen. He looked right and left frantically, hoping that they had just moved to a shadier spot, but they had vanished. He hurried over to the car and saw their weapons resting on the hood, and knew immediately that they had met with trouble - they wouldn’t both wander off and leave their guns behind. Dylan had only been at the cage for a couple of minutes, so he knew they couldn’t have gone far. He ran out into the street and looked one way, and then the other, hoping to see them, but nothing moved. As he stood in the deserted street, under the warm afternoon sun, he felt useless and lost. He wondered whether he should call out for them, but he immediately ruled that idea out. If marauders had kidnapped them, then he would lose the only advantage he had – surprise. He began walking quickly up the street, away from the car towards the centre of the town, when a flash of movement in the distance, reflected in a shop window, caught his eye.
-
Brock was pushing the girls along the street with the barrel of his shotgun as fast as his fat legs would allow.
“Hurry up!” he barked. “I’d hate to have to put a hole in you bitches.”
Sally and Bonnie marched along in front of him, scared for their lives, but also frustrated that they’d allowed themselves to be captured by this creep, especially when they’d survived so many other dangerous situations. Halfway down the street Brock ordered them to stop, and herded them through big double doors into an old brick building. When they were inside he forced them to sit on the floor, while he kicked the doors shut, then locked them without taking his eye off the women.
“Now, sit down and don’t say a fucking word until I tell you. Understand?”
Sally and Bonnie nodded, as they looked at each other for reassurance. Sally was terrified and wished Dylan was with them, but as she looked at Bonnie she could see that the older woman was more composed, despite their predicament. They were in a bank. A large open vault loomed ominously at the back of the room, and their kidnapper gestured at it, “Behave yourselves, and I might not have to put you in there. Now tell me; what the fuck do you think you’re doing in my town?”
Sally didn’t know what to say, but Bonnie took the lead, much to the younger girl’s relief.
“We’re just passing through. We have no intention of staying here. Is that cool? Can we keep moving on?”
Brock’s smile chilled them both to the bone as he asked, almost to himself, “Is that cool? Is that cool? Mmm, I may have to think about that. Is that cool?”
He looked intently at them as he made a big show of thinking carefully about his answer, “Well it depends, doesn’t it. Whether it’s cool, I mean. You two are kind of hot, and my last girlfriend and I …”
Bonnie and Sally waited for him to finish the sentence, understanding instinctively that whatever he said next would be either a lie or gibberish.
“Yeah, my last girlfriend. She was hot too, but I lost her.”
An unpleasant change came over Brock’s face as he spoke about his previous 'girlfriend'. The dark bitterness was like a mask of hate as he stared into space, reliving momentarily his delusional relationship with Montana.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Bonnie, sympathetically, trying to seem reasonable. “Did the zombies get her?”
Suddenly Brock’s eyes swam back into focus, and he seemed surprised to see the women sitting before him.
“What? Zombies? No the zombies, as you call them, didn’t get her. A bad man took her from me. But I’ll get her back. And I’ll get him too! They haven’t gone far.”
Bonnie tried to keep the conversation going, because she knew that while ever the crazy, fat man was talking he wouldn’t be locking them into that dark cold vault, or worse.
“Hey, maybe we can help you. We have weapons. Where did the man take her? Do you know? We could go together and find them and rescue her.”
“No!” he snapped. “You need to keep your mouth shut! I’ve been fucked over by liars enough already. You two aren’t going anywhere. I’m all set up now and you whores will make a nice addition to my little family.”
Bonnie and Sally looked at each other. What was this guy talking about? Family? They had seen nobody. If he had a 'family', where the hell were they?
-
Dylan’s heart was beating like a crazy drum as he ran to the opposite side of the street just in time to see a large male figure go into a two-storey brick building and close the door behind him. He looked around cautiously, but there was nobody else on the street. Keeping out of view as much as possible, Dylan scurried to the bank and carefully peeked through the barred front windows.
The male figure that he’d seen ducking into the doorway was standing with his back to Dylan, taking part in an animated conversation, probably with Bonnie and Sally. He couldn’t see the girls, but knew that they must be in there with him. He thought about taking a shot at the figure, but ruled it out as being too risky, especially since he would be shooting through a closed window. A poor shot, and any ensuing ricochet, would endanger the lives of Sally and Bonnie. No, he would need to find another solution. If only he could hear what this man was saying to them.
-
Inside the bank Brock’s psychotic conversation continued. “Yes that’s right ladies. I’m not alone! You thought I was didn’t you. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you why I’m not alone, but you’d be impressed, that’s for sure.”
“Impressed with what?” asked Bonnie, trying to sound as casual and as friendly as possible.
He gave her a filthy look. “Wouldn’t you like to know!” he snarled.
“Only if you want to tell us. It’s fine if you don’t.”
“Well I don’t, so shut the fuck up! Where did you come from anyway? Millfield, like the other one?”
All of a sudden, Bonnie’s calm demeanour evaporated, replaced by an adrenaline rush of hope. “What other one in Millfield?” she blurted, just a little too excitedly.
Brock paused and studied her face. “What are you so excited about, all of a sudden? Are you friends with that cunt who stole my girlfriend? He was from Millfield.”
Bonnie’s optimism faded immediately as she realised that this creep was talking about the 'bad man' that had taken his girlfriend, and not her daughter.
“No, I’m not friends with him. I don’t know anyone in Millfield,” she lied, as her mood slumped.
“Well that’s just as well then, because any friend of that prick is an enemy of mine, and I don’t want us to be enemies. I want us to be very, very, good friends. All three of us.”
He smiled at the two women and motioned for them to stand up.
“Okay, girls. I need to put you away for a little while. There’s some stuff I need to do before it gets dark. Get in the vault.”
“No! You can’t!” pleaded Bonnie, as Sally looked at her in terror. “We’ll suffocate in there.”
“For fuck’s sake! Relax! It’s only for twenty minutes, while I go feed my pretties. You’ll be fine. I’ll even give you a flashlight each so you won’t be scared of the dark. And when I come back, I have a really big night planned for us all. We’re going to get to know each other a little better. I might even introduce you to the rest of the family.”
“Please don’t do this!” begged Bonnie. “What if something happens to you out there and you never come back? We’ll starve to death!”
“Now listen,” said the big man, trying to maintain control of the situation. “I said you will be fine, and you will be. So shut the fuck up AND GET IN THAT VAULT!”
The violence of his outburst and the gun that was trembling in his hands convinced Bonnie that there was nothing they could do right now. She grabbed Sally’s hand and led her to the foreboding steel door of the vault. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered. “We’ll get our chance. Be cool.”
Once
they were inside, Brock tossed in two flashlights and the girls quickly picked them up from the floor and turned them on before the door swung shut with a booming metallic thump. They looked at each other, terror writ large on their faces.
“This is bad, isn’t it?” asked Sally.
Bonnie looked at her grimly and nodded, “The worst.”
-
Dylan watched the whole scene through the window with growing dread, but before he’d had a chance to act, the obese kidnapper had bundled the girls into the vault and closed the door. He considered storming the front door and overpowering the girls’ captor, but realised if something went wrong and the fat man was killed, Dylan might never be able to open the vault door, and they would be trapped inside forever. After all, you couldn’t call the police for help any more, could you? He watched in fear and uncertainty as the man inside the building picked up a large, heavy looking bag and headed for the front door. Dylan ran quickly across the street and hid behind a parked car as the man stepped out through the front door with a big smile on his face. He looked up and down the street, and then headed past Dylan's back towards the car yard, whistling happily the whole time. Dylan knew exactly where he was going. He followed.
