Still Surviving (Book 5): Dark Secrets:

by Craven III, Boyd

  The big man walked forward, but I could see he didn’t want to.

  “Duke, glad to see you’ve healed,” Emily said. “I can’t even begin to thank you for saving my daughter’s life.”

  Just like that, she was syrupy sweet, smiling.

  “Where is it?” Henry asked.

  “I ain’t gonna be a part of your stalemate, Henry. I got my pardon from the boss man,” he said, pointing at Spider. “Your device was dismantled before I brought Flagg up here. Orders.”

  Henry’s face turned bright red, and a vein started bulging on his forehead. Folks behind him started moving to the sides so they were no longer right behind him and the two men on either side of his table.

  “And tell me Duke, what was it that Henry had cooked up?” Spider asked.

  “Mutually assured destruction. He took a page out of Wes’ playbook. Had charges placed throughout the joint, along with poison gas, a mixture of bleach and ammonia.”

  “What?” Emily said, screeching. “My daughter is nearby!”

  “It’s … you—”

  “I disarmed everything and took away your Deadman’s switch’s abilities to boot,” Duke finished, then moved off to the side of the crowd nearest the door.

  Spider’s voice was so oily, he sounded like a politician. “Just like we discussed. Good. I thought he might have been smarter than this, but he’s been nothing but an ill-educated country bumpkin, unworthy to survive the chaos that comes from God’s cleansing fires. Emily?”

  Emily blurred as she drew the large revolver again, fanning the hammer with her left hand, firing three times. The men at the table across from me were blown out of their chairs. I sat there with my mouth open. I’d seen her kill before, but this move was so fast, so precise, it had to have been practiced. Years’ worth of practice. There was more than one thing she’d held back from us. Spider’s daughter?

  “Get up,” Spider said softly to Henry.

  The men on either side of him had most of their heads removed from the nose up, but she’d shot Henry right in the plate. He was coughing, rolling on the floor. He was also still armed.

  “Get up Henry, or I’ll have my stepdaughter kill you right now instead of the noose you will get later on.”

  Henry rolled to his backside, sitting up and reaching for one of his pistols. “This is my area of operations—”

  Emily’s gun thundered twice more. There was no doubt Henry was now just as dead as the two men on either side of him. She started rotating the cylinder, unloading spent casings, then reloading it from a tooled leather bandoleer that doubled as her gun belt. Spider walked up to the table, looking across it at the floor, where a large pool of blood started staining the concrete. With a start, I realized that it was the same exact spot where Jessica’s father had died.

  “Report,” Henry said, looking to the two men to my right.

  “We were giving Duke time to get rid of the device, and ensure the electronic backups had been disabled. Looks like you were right all the way, boss.”

  “So much for the lawful militia of the free state of Arkansas,” he spat.

  I slipped the blade into my pocket just as Emily turned and sat down on the edge of the table. She inserted the last shell then holstered her gun.

  “How you doing? They didn’t hurt you too bad did they?”

  “Emily…”

  “Coming Daddy!” she called, her voice happy, but her face was drawn and pinched.

  17

  Duke hauled me to my feet and led me downstairs, following Spider and Emily.

  “Get back to your posts,” Duke shouted over his shoulder to the men who’d been half gawking, half following the aftermath of the chaos.

  I didn’t hear anybody else coming down the stairwell behind us and I thought about making a break for it, but Duke had to have been working some angle. He’d dismantled whatever doomsday device that would gas us and blow us all up, all the while pretending to be working with Henry. No wonder Spider put in an objection to save him. There was so much I wanted to say, so much I wanted to do. All I had was a knife, my wits, and my eyes that seemed to be swelling and still tearing up from the broken nose.

  “Sit on the couch,” Spider said pointing. “He does anything cute, shoot him in the foot, or break his leg. I don’t want him dead.”

  Interesting. I sat on the couch and pretended to be totally at ease. I even crossed my left leg over my right, in an attempt to cover the bulge in my pocket.

  “What are we doing?” I asked as Spider and Emily sat down across from me.

  “Waiting for somebody or somebodies,” Spider said simply. “Or, if you prefer. ‘He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.’”

  “Sun Tsu?” I asked him, remembering that line from college reading, my voice sounding funny from the packed nose.

  “Of course. You surprise me, and how you’ve changed and grown,” he said, leaning forward, smiling, “Tell me, who do you think we’re waiting for?”

  “The rest of your evil band of evil? The dark legion? The four horsemen of the apocalypse?”

  “Hardly, I’m waiting for Emily’s mom, my wife, to wake up. She’ll be later joined with some folks you might recognize.”

  “I doubt that. I don’t hang out with your kind,” I told him venomously, the knife practically burning a hole in my pocket with me wanting to use it.

  “Oh, I think you’ll change your mind when you see who we have here. It’s time to welcome you to the fold, to make you one of the family.”

  Emily coughed and looked away, before turning back to stare at me blankly.

  “You traitorous bitch, I don’t even want to see your face. You know how many of our friends died because of you? My grandpa died because of you.”

  Her composure cracked and she looked away. I wasn’t even sorry at this point. I meant every word I’d sent her way and bit my tongue on more words I couldn’t say.

  “Nothing about you was real, was it?” I yelled at her, feeling Duke put a vice grip like hand on my shoulder in case I decided to pop up.

  “I never meant for Grandpa to get hurt,” she said, “I was doing my job—”

  “I saw you captured, I came to rescue you and the others,” I shouted back, “and all you’ve brought to us is ruin. For what? Was this your Daddy’s master plan or yours?”

  I was breathing hard, my vision starting to narrow. Her face was crumpling, and I saw her tears. I’d gone off on her before but the rage I’d been holding back was bubbling up in a way I could hardly control. I realized I was moments away from losing it.

  “I was trying to keep my family safe,” she said softly.

  “Well good job at doing that, you crazy, psychopathic bitch. You almost got your daughter killed time after time. I doubt you were doing anything for anybody but for yourself,” I shouted.

  “That’s not true!” she screamed, standing up. “I was protecting my family then, and I’m protecting my family now!”

  I started to stand, but Duke slammed me back into the cushion. I turned to start in on him when I saw folks coming down the stairs.

  “Grandma!” I said, pushing Duke’s hand off my shoulder.

  “I’m ok, I’m ok, fuck off asshole,” Grandma said, shaking her arm free from an armed KGR man who had been helping her down the stairs. “Wes, are you…” her words fell silent as she saw me.

  Duke let go and I got up, rushing to her, crushing her in a hug. Tears started flowing, both mine and hers. She pushed back after a moment looking at me, then touched my face near my nose. My rage left me in a rush.

  “Does it hurt?” she asked me.

  “A little bit,” I admitted.

  “Did you give as good as you got?” she asked.

  “Didn’t have a chance, there were a couple of them,” I admitted.

  “He tore the kneecap loose of another one though,” Duke said from behind me.

  “Ouch, I was just trying to trip him up,” I said, turning to Duk
e, then did a double take.

  “Les?” I asked, seeing him standing next to Duke. “What have you done?” My voice turned into a growl.

  He was the KGR man who had been trying to help my grandma downstairs.

  “You were going to find out sooner or later,” he said simply. “Surprised?”

  “I’ll kill you,” I said, growling again, but he just smiled back.

  “We all had our roles to play, and you performed wonderfully,” he said simply.

  I lunged for him, but Duke got an arm under me, lifting me off my feet so in my rush I wouldn’t have bowled over my grandma. I struggled, even though I knew it was useless.

  “I don’t wanna have to hurt you,” Duke said, walking me back over to the couch over his shoulder while I shouted obscenities at Les.

  It was him! Les was smiling, wearing a KGR uniform. I knew this place must have been lousy with him, but as soon as I realized he was armed plus wearing the uniform my mind finally seemed to click something into place. Like a lightbulb had gone off.

  “Sit there, or I’ll have Duke hurt you. Hop up again…” Spider made a finger gun and made a mock ‘pow’ sound.

  I sat, watching my grandma walk over and take the empty spot next to me on the couch.

  “Are you ok?” I asked her.

  “Yes, all kinds of better now,” she said, then hugged me again.

  Emily was smiling at us, but there seemed no malice on her makeup streaked face. I shot daggers at her with my eyes, wishing all the bad things I could but…

  “When did you find out about Les?” I asked Grandma.

  “Just a little while ago,” she said. “I can’t tell any more what’s the truth and what’s the lies. Spider there is pretty good with head games.”

  “Don’t you mean word games, dear?” he asked mildly.

  “Don’t you talk to me, you snake in the grass!” Grandma yelled, turning the volume up.

  He just smiled and I stewed as Lester sat down, on the other side of Emily. Something seemed familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  What the…

  “She’s awake,” Duke said, coming back from one of the basement floor bedrooms.

  “Who’s awake?” I asked, after having sat a while, calm and at gunpoint from Spider.

  “My wife,” Spider said simply as a tall thin woman walked out of the nearest room.

  She was thin, painfully so, with hands that shook. Her hair was mussed from sleep and fell in natural curls around her shoulders. Her eyes were hollow, haunted, but she smiled when she saw me and Grandma sitting on the couch.

  “Hey mom!” Emily said, throwing her arms around the woman, hugging her tight.

  “Hi baby,” she said, mussing Emily’s short hair. “Hey momma,” she called to my grandma.

  The world seemed to stop. I looked at her again, and then I realized. I got up slowly, and nobody tried to stop me. Spider had a wicked grin on his face, trying not to laugh and failing.

  “Mom?” I asked, the world falling out around me.

  “I understand you’re angry,” Liz Flagg said from the other side of my door, the small room crowded with Grandma and I sitting in it.

  “Liz, now is not the time,” my grandma called, “and your husband is the one who is responsible for your father’s death, so please leave us alone.”

  “I didn’t know any of this was going to happen,” Liz said, pounding at the door.

  We waited, and after a while, she sobbed and walked away. We’d only lasted about a minute in the living area once my mother had walked into the room. It was too much for my grandma and I, and we’d asked Duke to return us somewhere, anywhere but out there. I had never in my life fainted from shock, but that had been a near thing. Way too close for comfort.

  “I think she’s gone now,” Grandma said softly from the chair she was sitting in.

  It was the same chair that had graced this room ever since I’d first woke up here months ago from a head injury that should’ve killed me. Once again, I found myself in the same room, with my head still splitting. This time though, for a different reason.

  “Grandma, I think it’s time you and I had that scheduled talk.”

  “I’m not sure if I’m ready to—“

  “Grandma, it’s literally life-and-death right now.”

  “As I was saying… I think it’s time even though I’m not ready to. You know that we’ve been exchanging mail off and on over the years, right?”

  “Yes,” I told her, impatient to hear what she had to say, but dreading what revelations that might bring.

  “I had no idea Spider, Killian, and your mom were thing. I just want to say that right off the bat. Your mom never told me who your father was, and I honestly don’t think she knew at the time. I don’t want you to think badly of her, it was kind of a wild era to be a young woman. I mean, I could tell you stories about Grandpa and I, but I don’t think the situation would be appropriate for my dirty jokes.

  “You see, she’d gone out west with a large group of friends and was gone for a month and a half. She’d finally come back home at your grandpa’s urging. He didn’t want her getting caught up into the heavier stuff. Oh, we knew all about pot and the moonshine, but some of her friends were into the illegal stuff. The big dollar, go to jail forever, type of stuff. She’d come home a couple of times before that trip with needle marks in her arms.

  “When she came back from out west though, she promised to clean her act up. She started to get sick in the mornings, and your grandpa and I thought that she was just detoxing at first. It didn’t occur to us that she might’ve been pregnant. Pretty soon your mom cleaned up her act and you were born. It took us a good two solid years once you were born to feel like we’d actually not failed her.”

  “Then what happened?” I asked, my words still muffled from my nose being packed.

  “And then she sort of fell in love. But it wasn’t love, true love. It was more like… a little bit of rebelliousness mixed with, what I’m guessing, was her missing part of her old life. She got pregnant again. And she wouldn’t tell your grandfather who the baby’s dad was. It seemed like her first trimester was spent arguing with us, and when she finally told me who the father was, I told her she needed to leave town.”

  “What?” I asked, not believing my ears.

  I’d always been told that my mom had run off, leaving me with my grandparents. Was my entire life a lie? It seemed unbelievable to me that so much lately seemed to be different than what I had originally thought it was. My mother didn’t leave me when I was a kid, and Emily was my sister? And my grandma knew I maybe had another sibling out there in the world, and never once told me. And Emily, my sister? For a second, I let my mind wander back, and thought about all the times I had thought she had been flirting with me.

  The innuendo had been very blatant and sarcastic. Even when she got close to me and gave me a gropey hug and whispered to me, she never touched me inappropriately. Even the couple of times where she’d fallen asleep next to me, it was always her scooching up to my back for warmth, or falling asleep sitting up next to me. Right before I sedated her after she’d lost her cool, she hadn’t scooted all the way back into my lap like she could’ve. She’d sat on my knees. She’d seen my interactions with Mary, and if she’d known the whole time she was my sister, which she had to of… No wonder it was so blatant. It was all an act on her part, one she probably hated. My guts roiled.

  And what was Lester’s role in all of this? He been a plant the entire time? I hated the way he looked at me and asked the question, surprised? Hell yes I was surprised, I’d been thinking Emily was the traitor the entire time. Now it looked like I had two different traitors that had been working against us. But nothing, none of it, made any damned sense to me.

  Grandma continued talking after a long pause, “you see, both your mother and I were worried that your grandpa would kill the baby’s father. I strongly suggested, and Lord help me, maybe even strongly leaned on your mother to leav
e. She agreed, but she was still a young twenty-something with a new baby. She had googly eyes for Emily’s father, and nobody would’ve thought it was appropriate. For a long time I thought she moved out to California to have an abortion. There wasn’t a whole lot of places in small town Arkansas to get something like that done. When she told me she had the baby, she said she put it up for adoption.”

  “So, who is Emily’s father?” I asked feeling like this could be the key piece missing in this incomplete puzzle.

  “Your grandpa’s best friend,” Grandma said softly.

  My blood ran cold. Again. The hammer blows from all these secrets… My head reeled.

  “Does Les even know?” I asked her.

  “I’m sure one way or another he does now,” Grandma said.

  “So let me get this right, Lester is Emily’s biological father and, for all we know, he might be mine too?”

  “I just don’t know,” Grandma told me.

  The candle they had given us to light the room cast just enough light that we could make out each other’s features in the darkness. I could tell Grandma was pretty close to her wits’ end. I knew I was too, and if I kept mentally using euphemisms for my mind being blown, I might go crazy. Scratch that. Maybe I was crazy, maybe this entire thing was a flashback? Maybe it was a delusion? What if I was still down here in the communication bunker from the first time, and the swelling in my brain is causing me to see all of this. To think all of this, is any of this real? Grandma got up from her chair and walked over to sit on the cot next to me, and held onto my hand.

  I looked over my shoulder to her and saw that she was crying freely. I was too, and somehow I knew I wasn’t crazy, this wasn’t a delusion, or the after-effects of a long career of drinking moonshine. These were not DTs, because life is often stranger than fiction.

  “I’m so sorry I never told you,” Grandma said. “I should’ve told you, I’d wondered if Les was your father myself. In a way he’s always acted like an uncle to you, and I never discouraged that. I just feel so gutted that he’s one of the ones who betrayed us.”