Mary let her hands fall down to her side and thought that she ought to do something to help him, but she didn’t know what. She didn’t think she was capable of hurting the old lady with her bare hands, and if she tried, the old lady was likely to turn on her.
But then she remembered the knife, and her eyes locked onto it. A cold shiver ran down her spine when she realised what she was actually contemplating. She stood there frozen, looking at the deadly weapon and had difficulties comprehending that the idea had come to her at all. Then she felt herself moving away from the wall and approaching the area where the knife was located. She felt her knees start to bend, and her arm reach for the black plastic handle that was now lying between her feet. She felt her fingers wrap themselves around it, and noticed that the knife was in her hand when she stood back up again.
Then she turned around and saw the two of them were still at it. And it was still the old lady who had the upper hand. She was pounding her fists into his chest, tearing at his hair and kicking him all at the same time. Mary was stunned by the ferociousness of the attack. It was like the old lady had acquired super human strength. She knew she had to act, and she knew she had to do it now.
She began walking toward them. The noises caused by the fighting seemed to come from somewhere far away, and it was being completely drowned out by the sound of her heart pounding against her chest. She stopped when she was about a foot away, and looked at the old lady. Moments later the old lady turned around and stared at her, and Mary could see the fear in her eyes when she realised that Mary was holding the knife.
Then she stopped thinking and just acted on pure instinct.
She more felt than saw the knife shoot forward and plunge into the soft tissue on the left hand side of the old woman’s abdominal region. The entire blade disappeared and the old lady threw her hands over Mary’s, which was still holding onto the shaft. The old lady was trying to pull the knife out, but it stayed put. Mary was pushing hard against it, ensuring that it remained where it was. The blood was seeping out around the new hole in the old lady’s jumper and it began spilling onto Mary’s hand, a warm and sticky liquid that made her nauseous. Then she let go of the shaft and stepped back, and watched the old lady struggle with the knife.
She couldn’t hear the screams, although she knew the old woman was howling with pain. It was like watching a silent movie. She saw David alternating his gaze between them, his face filled with terror, and she realised that he wasn’t able to comprehend what she had just done. She found it impossible to believe herself, despite staring at the knife protruding from the old lady’s abdominal region.
She had done that. She had stabbed her and inflicted an injury that would most likely result in the old lady dying within the next couple of minutes. She watched her as she sunk down to her knees, her head hanging limply on her chest. The old woman was trying to remain upright, but her upper body swayed back and forth, and eventually she toppled forward and ended up on her side. Then a short while later, she rolled over and came to a rest on her back. The knife was still there, sticking out of her like a grotesque growth. She had stopped trying to pull it out. Her eyes were shut and her lips were moving ever so slightly as she drew in breaths of air.
Mary felt her body hit the wall again, and she pressed her palms hard against the painted plasterboard, trying to avoid collapsing on the floor. Very slowly, noises started to break through the invisible soundproof membrane that had been wrapped over her, and she could hear the soft guttural sounds and the weak coughing noises coming from the old lady. She was also able to hear David’s shocked sobs.
The blood kept pouring out of the wound, and a considerable puddle had accumulated next to her on the hardwood floorboards. Mary turned away from it, and instead began focusing on the old lady’s face. Her lips were moving slower now, and she could tell that her breathing had slowed down considerably. Soon she would be taking her last breath, and after that Mary could rightfully call herself a killer.
It was David who snapped out of the daze first, and when he did, he ran over to her and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Are you OK?” he whispered. Tears were streaming down his cheeks.
Mary looked at him for a long time before she was able to respond. And when she finally did, she just nodded her head. Then after another long pause, she added a meek;
“I .... guess so.”
Her eyes began to study him. She couldn’t see any wounds, and she was relieved to find out that the old lady had missed when she tried to stab him. He did however have scratch marks on his cheeks, and the area below his left eye was red and swollen.
“How about you,” she asked. “Are you Ok?”
He wiped away the tears with the back of his hand and nodded, then he took her in his arms and held her tightly.
“Yes, I’m fine. I’ve only got a few scratches and bruises. I’ll be alright.”
Then he let her go, and Mary stood with her arms hanging down her sides, staring at the lifeless body lying on the floor a few feet away.
“I killed her David. I killed the old woman.”
David looked into her eyes, his face taking on a serious expression.
“It was self defence,” he said. “You had no choice; she was attacking me with a knife. She meant to kill both of us.”
Mary turned away and felt David giving her shoulders a good shake.
“It was self defence Mary, do you hear me? Nothing more and nothing less. There was nothing else you could have done. Don’t ever blame yourself for what you did here today. Do you hear me? You had no choice.”
She looked at him and saw there was something hard and determined in his eyes, something that she had not seen before, something completely foreign and strange. And it was the only reason she didn’t press on. Instead she nodded her head.
“Ok,” she said.
David kept his eyes on her for a few more moments before turning around and looking at the old lady. He kept staring at her for a few seconds before kneeling down and pulling the knife out
“We need to get moving,” he said.
The old lady’s chest was no longer moving, and Mary assumed she had already left this world behind.
David quickly wiped the bloody knife on the old lady’s jumper, then he stood up again and put his free hand on Mary’s upper arm and started ushering her toward the laundry and the door that gave onto the backyard. David opened it carefully, and then after a brief moment of hesitation, they both quickly slipped outside and immediately began studying their new surroundings.
There was no one there, and the only noise they could hear were the raindrops hitting the corrugated roof. Mary was relieved to see the only thing separating the backyard and the one behind it was a low wooden fence. Beyond that were two narrow passages on either side of the house leading out to the front yard and the street beyond it. Her instincts told her to make a dash for it, but David put a hand on her shoulder and held her back.
They spent another thirty seconds making sure that no one was observing them, before hurrying over to the wooden fence, climbing over it and beginning to move toward the front of the house. They stopped for a few seconds next to a water tap fixed to the end wall of the house to rinse Mary’s hand, which was covered in the old lady’s blood. Once that was taken care of, they casually continued down the driveway and out onto the street, continuing in a northerly direction. Mary was still visibly upset about what she had done, and David had to wrap his arm around her shoulders to try to keep her calm.
“How are we going to get out of this town?” she said between muted sobs as they hurried past the houses in the quiet residential street.
“If the people here are devil worshipers, odds are that they’ll know about what’s going on in the park and not be inclined to help us out.” Tears were rolling down her cheeks, and she made no attempt at holding them back.
David tightened his grip around her shoulders, and placed his other hand on the side of her head and began stroki
ng her hair.
“Don’t worry Sweetie, we’ll think of something,” he said.
Then he cleared his throat before continuing.
“I saw what appeared to be a bus station about a hundred and fifty yards or so from the diner when we pulled into town earlier today. If we can get on a bus within the next ten to fifteen minutes, I’d say we have a decent shot of getting away. As far as I’m aware, only the old lady and the guy from the park know that we saw the bodies, which means that the bus driver and the other passengers will simply assume that we’re a couple of tourists leaving town.”
He didn’t sound particularly convincing, and the words did not have the desired effect on her. Nor did the nervous glances he kept throwing in either direction every ten seconds or so help to calm her. They were in serious troubles here, and the likelihood of them slipping through the net was fairly slim.
The only positive thing she could think of was that there was no sign of the posse that the old lady had told them about. Nor were there any pedestrians or cars to be seen. Everything seemed eerily quiet.
She lifted her hands up to her eyes and dried away the rest of the tears, and felt the onset of a headache. The image of the old lady collapsing to the floor with the knife wedged between her ribs was being played repeatedly inside her head. She tried to brush it aside, but it was easier said than done. And even though she tried to focus on what they had to do next, she could not escape the sensation that she was now a murderer. She had broken one of the Ten Commandments, the one that said that thou shall not kill.
She wondered whether the old woman had any kids, and how they would react when they received the news that she was dead. The fact that she had been murdered would make it even harder to accept. She wished she could wind back time, but she knew it was pointless thinking along those terms. She would have to live with her actions for the rest of her life. The only consolation was that god would probably forgive her for what she had done when she was finally ready to meet him. And she made a promise to herself there and then, that if she managed to get out of this alive, she would strive even harder to be a good and decent Christian.
They walked to the end of the block and turned right. Then they took the first road on the right and five minutes later they were gazing out over Main Street from behind the hedge of a house situated on a corner lot.
The diner was to their right, about a hundred and fifty yards to the south. Beyond that was the highway and freedom. There were no cars in the parking lot next to it, and Mary wondered if there were still customers inside there. She also wondered whether they knew that she and David were on the run. And if they were aware of it, were they sitting in there right now trying to come up with a strategy to prevent the two of them from leaving?
“The place looks deserted,” David said, interrupting her train of thought.
She turned her head and saw him looking in the opposite direction. She followed his gaze, and noticed a big sign that said bus station, positioned above a low concrete structure set back a dozen or so yards from the street.
She could see an open paved area behind the building, and guessed it was where the buses pulled in to embark and disembark their human cargo.
“I’m surprised that there are any buses stopping here at all,” she said. “It’s not exactly a major tourist hub.”
David didn’t reply, but kept staring at the building. He had a determined look on his face, not unlike those she had seen on the news on numerous occasions in the last few years of soldiers preparing themselves to head into battle.
Then after a period of prolonged silence - in which David kept studying both sections of Main Street – he started talking again.
“I suggest we just walk over there. There has got to be a bus leaving town sometime today.”
“But what if they’re keeping an eye on the road?”
David shook his head.
“Maybe they are,” he said. “But then again, they could just as easily catch a glimpse of us where we are now, or anywhere else in town for that matter. At least if we get over to that bus station, we have a decent shot at getting out of here.”
She knew he was right, and she knew time was of the essence. The moment their pursuers realised they were no longer in their room, and discovered the old lady lying dead in her apartment with a stab wound to her stomach, they would know that they had escaped and would come after them. The question was how many people would be in the posse, and how far would they go to apprehend them.
They slipped out from behind the hedge, and started walking toward the bus station. And as they crossed the street and stepped onto the paved area in front of the building, they noticed that a piece of paper had been taped to the entrance door. As they walked closer, they could make out the text and the picture. And when they did, Mary felt her heart fall down to her feet. Then she looked at David and muttered a feeble ‘oh my god’, and saw the stunned expression on David’s face, his jaw almost touching his chest, his arms hanging limp by his side and his face resembling a fish just pulled out of the ocean.
“Holy fuck!” was all he could say, and for once Mary didn’t bother to scold him for using such blasphemous words. It seemed like the only appropriate way to react there and then.
The poster was roughly the size of a newspaper page and contained a picture of the two of them as they were entering the diner a few hours earlier. The picture was in black and white, positioned toward the top of the poster, and above it the word ‘Christians’ was printed in thick bold lettering. Below the picture was a printed paragraph that raised Mary’s fear to a completely new level. She didn't think it was possible to get more scared than she'd been in the park when they discovered the bodies. But she realised now that that wasn’t the case.
The paragraph read;
‘All residents of Minden are obligated to participate in the hunt of the individuals depicted in the picture above. They are devout Christians, and arrived in town earlier today. Any sightings of the two have to be reported immediately to a member of the Temple of the Satanic Faith. As soon as the couple has been apprehended, they will be publicly crucified and offered as a sacrifice to our dear Lord Satan.’
“That picture was taken in the diner,” David said after having gawked at the poster for almost a full minute. He had placed his hand over his mouth and taken a few steps back from the door.
“Which means that they have planned this from the get go.”
He started shaking his head rapidly from side to side, as if he was trying to determine whether there was a lose part inside his brain that had made him misread the text. But there was nothing wrong with the text, and he hadn’t misread it. And the determination that Mary had seen when he ushered her out of the old lady’s apartment less than twenty minutes ago, had disappeared. Now he just looked like a scared little child who had no idea of what to do next.
Mary began to shiver and her hand automatically found the crucifix around her neck. It was always the first thing she reached for when she found herself in challenging situations. Then she closed her eyes and prayed to god to give her the strength required to get through this ordeal. And that’s when the siren went off. It was a loud high pitched, undulating sound that reminded her of an air raid alarm. She couldn’t pinpoint its exact location, but it was loud enough to prevent them from hearing anything else. She threw her hands over her ears and looked wide-eyed at David, and saw that he had done the same.
The siren had to be some kind of a signal to the town’s residents. A way of alerting them to the presence of the two individuals who didn’t subscribe to the town’s perverted view of reality. But where had all the residents gone? They had hardly seen any people since they arrived. Not a single pedestrian or car, apart from the handful of people at the diner, the mechanics and the old lady. Would the siren bring them out into the open? Was that its main purpose?
David leaned closed to her and shouted something in her ear that she didn’t catch. But the way he flicked his head, and
the way he nudged her shoulder with his own was unmistakable. He wanted them to get moving again. Mary nodded, and they began walking around to the back of the bus station. She kept looking around her, but still there was no one in sight. Her instincts however told her that that was likely to change sooner rather than later.
She was about to walk around the back corner when David all of a sudden stopped, and she walked straight into him. Then before she had time to look up, she felt his arm pull her quickly toward the side of the building. She wanted to see what it was that had made him stop, but the arm that had pulled her away was still there, preventing her from walking any further. And just as suddenly as the siren had started, it stopped.
Mary removed her hands from her ears, but could still hear the siren ringing inside her head.
“What is it?” she whispered. She was craning her neck, trying to look around the corner.
David was standing with his back pressed up against the wall, head leaning slightly back and staring straight ahead. He was breathing heavily, and she could see the sweat running down in thick rivulets on his forehead and cheeks.
He looked at her and wet his lips.
“There are people there,” he whispered in an almost inaudible voice. “And they are busy erecting two big wooden crosses on the lawn just behind the terminal.”
Then he paused for a few moments, and swallowed hard before he continued.
“I think that’s where they intend to crucify the two of us.”
Mary felt her legs go numb, and she had to mentally force herself to stay upright. She looked at David with utter disbelief, despite knowing he was telling the truth. She placed both hands over her mouth and began hyperventilating.
“Please, you have to keep it together Mary,” David said through clenched teeth. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and began pushing her toward the front of the building.
The Bad Country Page 7
