“Are you going to kill us?” Rikka asked bluntly.
Mr. .44 Magnum took the picture out of the frame and handed it to her. She accepted it without taking her eyes off him.
“No,” he said. “But I ain’t saving you either. Jen and Daniel are going to escort you off the property. We’ll give you your guns back, a bit of food and water, and send you on your merry way. We’ll do the same if your mom, dad and sister come looking for you, so I suggest you stay close. That being said, if we ever see you on this property again, we will not hesitate to kill you. For our safety. Understood?”
Rikka and Shade nodded.
“Jen,” Mr. .44 Magnum said, glancing at the woman standing next to Daniel. From their similar features, it was clear to Shade that they were mother and son. “Make these ladies a pack so they can be on their way.”
She nodded and left.
Shade watched her go, then glanced at Rikka. She searched the side of her face, wondering if she had a plan for how they were going to get Lou out without revealing the stash of food, medicine, and weapons just under their feet. They may have secured their lives, but they weren’t out of trouble yet. They were outgunned and outmanned. If they left the property without their sister, it would take a hell of a whole lot of luck—and quite a few dead bodies—to make it back. They had to act, and it was better to do so while they had one less weapon trained on them.
Shifting her weight, Shade eased back so that her hand was closer to the knife tucked inside her boot. If Rikka made a move, she wanted to be ready.
But Rikka never moved, not even an inch. Mr. .44 Magnum paced back and forth in front of her, his boots knocking a steady tempo on the hardwood floor. Shade knew Rikka had a blade tucked away somewhere. If she wanted to kill him, it would have taken no more than a split second to do so.
Minutes passed. Shade found herself glancing at her sister more and more as their window of opportunity shrank. Did Rikka not know how difficult it would be to get Lou out once they were out of the house? They had two guns and three magazines between the both of them—and that was only if their captors didn’t keep anything for themselves. The time to act was three minutes ago.
Shade’s hand twitched as she readied herself to draw her knife. If Rikka wasn’t going to make a move, she had to, for Lou’s sake. She had the plan mapped out. She would go for Daniel—the guy directly behind her—first. If she could take his pistol and get behind him, it would be easy to eliminate the others in four quick shots… assuming he had enough ammo. If he didn’t, Rikka and Shade were as good as dead.
Shade was also assuming the five people who revealed themselves were the entirety of the group. She cast a cautious gaze at the man in charge. He was kind, dutiful, and not afraid to get his hands dirty. But was he smart? Did he know not to reveal all his cards even when he thought he had the upper hand?
Jen strode out of the kitchen with her rifle slung over her shoulder, successfully killing Shade’s plan. She carried two book bags half filled with whatever the group could spare. She tossed one to each of the sisters before unshouldering her rifle.
“Your weapons are in the packs,” she said. “Guns are dismantled, bullets are free, and your mags are in a separate pocket. You even think about going for your weapons, Daniel and I will have time to kill you twenty times over before you can reassemble them. Don’t take our kindness for weakness. You just go on about your business, and leave us to ours.”
They were smart, Shade thought.
“Yes ma’am,” Rikka said as she slowly climbed to her feet. Shade followed her lead, making sure to keep her hands visible so no movement was misinterpreted. It was too late for them to fight back, and the last thing she wanted was to be killed when she had every intention of leaving peacefully.
With two guns pointed at their backs, both girls were escorted out into the front yard. It was dark. The air was thick with moisture and the scent of ozone, making it difficult to breathe. The sky was overcast with rumbling black clouds that occasionally came to life with the flicker and crack of lightening. Shade looked up at the coming storm, and then down when the dry, coarse grass crunched underfoot. As she feared, the earth was still dead, and the rain would bring no life to it.
“You know where to go,” Jen said. “So let’s make this quick. Hands on your head and march.”
Shade and Rikka slung their back packs over their shoulders and interlocked their fingers on top of their heads. They started down the mile and a half long driveway that emptied out onto a wooded side road that led into town. As they made the trek in silence, Shade stared into the lifeless forest that stretched the entire length of the driveway. Once upon a time, it was alive with deer, rabbits, and chipmunks eating and skittering about just on the other side of the tree line. The too wit too woo of owls, the scurrying of squirrels, and the chirp of a million different insects was once the pulse that the trees swayed to.
Now it was utterly silent. Flatlined.
Gnarled and naked branches poked out from the black and grey forest. Every now and again, when lightning illuminated the world, Shade was able to see the extent of the vast dead earth before her. It was like something out of a nightmare. Something too terrifying to be true. But it was true. That fact was accentuated with the crack and rustle of dead grass and leaves every time she took a step.
“I don’t know where you two came from, but when we get off the property, I suggest you travel east and stay off the roads,” Jen offered. “West will take you into town, and trust me when I say that’s the last place you want to end up.”
“Why,” Rikka asked. “What’s going on in town?”
Jen took a deep breath before she pressed on. “It’s chaos. Every supermarket is barren. People are starving and turning to the only food source left—each other. There’s a pack of wolves roaming around,” she shook her head, “and… there’s something else out there.” She started to say more but swallowed her words instead.
When it was clear she was going to let the obvious question linger in the air unanswered, Rikka stopped walking and turned to face her. Visibly startled by the sudden maneuver, Jen and Daniel raised their weapons at both sisters. When Shade turned around, she found herself staring down the barrel of a gun for the second time in as many hours.
“We’re not going to try anything,” Rikka said, her fingers still interlocked on top of her head. “But we need to know what’s going on.”
Their captors glanced at each other before cautiously lowering their weapons. “Fine. It’s only right,” Daniel said. He slipped his gun into the waistband of his pants, and then silently gestured for Jen to do the same. She was a bit more hesitant—less trusting—but she followed her son’s lead nonetheless.
As a show of good faith, Rikka carefully removed her book bag and tossed it over to Daniel. Taking her cue, Shade did the same.
“About two weeks before we found this place,” Daniel began, “we were camping out in the woods, living off peanuts and Slim Jims. It was rough, but we made do. We slept in rotation. There were always at least three people awake, keeping an eye out. But every so often, someone in our camp would just…” he shrugged, “disappear.
“At first we thought they just snuck off, thinking they’d fare better alone. But then another person vanished. They didn’t take their belongings, there were no footprints. No one even heard them leave. We lost three people before we realized the pattern. Someone or something was taking a member of our group every three days. It didn’t matter if we were sleeping or keeping watch. Age, race, gender—” He shook his head. “We were taken at random.
“We packed up camp and traveled deeper into the woods. We had a guy—a professional tracker—circle back to make sure we weren’t being followed. But like clockwork, the third day came around and someone disappeared.
“With four people gone and the rest of us in a panic, we moved camp again, set traps, and—when the third night came—we sat in a circle and watched each other’s back.” Daniel glanced at h
is mom who was staring at the forest floor in a daze.
“Did you find out who was taking your people?” Shade asked.
Daniel waited a long moment before shaking his head. “My sister, Hannah…” He looked up at Shade and Rikka. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but I swear to you, one second she was there with over a dozen pair of eyes watching her, and the next, she was gone.”
Rikka’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean gone? Like she disappeared into thin air?”
“We were holding hands,” Jen said, her voice barely a whisper. “And then we weren’t. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. Felt it…”
“We started out with twenty-two people in our group. Now we’re down to six. Every three days, someone disappears. It doesn’t matter what we do. It doesn’t matter what we don’t do. In eighteen days, the rest of us are going to be gone, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”
Chapter 6: “To the deepest part of me, I truly hate you.”
Jen and Daniel didn’t return the book bags until they reached the end of the driveway. Still maintaining a five foot buffer between the sisters, they tossed the bags to Shade and Rikka and sent them on their way.
“If your mom, dad, and sister show up, I’ll let them know you went east,” Jen offered. “Stay off main roads and join up with a group if you can. Despite our situation, there is safety in numbers.”
Daniel nodded in agreement. “Good luck.”
At those words, a sharp crack of thunder filled the air, followed by a heavy downpour. Shade, Rikka, Jen, and Daniel were soaked in an instant.
“Same to you,” Rikka yelled over the rain as she slung the book bag’s strap over her shoulder and turned down the road adjacent to the driveway.
Shade nodded her goodbyes as she wiped soggy curls out of her eyes. In attempts to keep the grunt of the rain from pelting her hair (which never cooperated when it was wet), she lifted the book bag over her head to make a makeshift umbrella. It didn’t work quite as well as she hoped. Her hair fell back into her face, leaving her blind until she brushed it to the side again.
The rain seemed to grow heavier with each step they took. Between the torrent and the thick darkness, it was nearly impossible to see, even with the flashlight Rikka found in her pack. It was also impossible to tell if Daniel and Jen were following them to make sure they weren’t going to double back. So they kept trudging forward, waiting for a sufficient amount of time to pass before they could return for Lou.
Frustrated with the back and forth game she played with her wet locks (that long ago earned the name The Windshield Wiper Game) it took the better part of a half hour for her to realize Rikka hadn’t so much as glanced in her general direction.
To break the silence, Shade growled. “I’d kill for a hair tie right now.”
Rikka looked at her and scowled. “If you had any idea of what I wanted to do to you right now, a hair tie would be the least of your worries.”
Shade huffed as she came to a halt. “Fine then, Rikka,” she said. “Let’s hear it.”
Rikka responded with a venomous glare. “Fuck off.”
“Fine, I’ll do it for you. ‘What the fuck were you thinking, Shade? Are you trying to be stupid, or does it come natural? We had a good thing going until you went and fucked it up.’” Shade had heard those words from her sister all her life. If it wasn’t Rikka’s idea, or if she didn’t do it Rikka’s way, it was wrong, she was stupid, or she fucked up a good thing. It never failed.
“We did have a good thing, Shade. Food. Water. Protection. What more could you fucking want? We were safe, and like all good things, you fucked that up. Bravo.” She clapped mockingly.
“I wanted fresh air, Rikka. I wanted freedom. I wanted to do something other than nothing. Your problem is you’ve got your head shoved so far up your ass that you can’t see that survival isn’t the endgame. Whether we die now or fifty years from now, dead is still dead.”
“And being alive is still being alive. What do you want me to do, Shade? Put on my cape and save the world? Sorry, but this isn’t a Disney movie. Open your fucking eyes.”
Shade threw her hands up and turned away from her sister. It was just like always—a fundamental difference between them. And from now until she was dead and buried, that was how it would always be. But she couldn’t live like that—holed up in a bunker, counting down the days until they ran out of food. Counting down the days until they turned on each other so that one of them could live another day, another hour, another minute longer.
“You want me to open my eyes,” Shade spat, turning back to her sister. “Fine. Dad’s not coming back. He’s dead, and we both know it. His plan was stupid and so is yours. I’m not going to tuck tail and hide for the rest of my life. I’m not going to stay holed up in a box just because you’re—”
“You’re going to do exactly what I tell you to do,” Rikka yelled as she stepped in Shade’s face. From her demeanor, it was clear she was through arguing. But Shade was just getting started. “Dad put me in charge—”
“Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time,” Shade said, raising her chin in defiance. “Dad’s dead.” She said those two words slowly, enunciating each syllable to make herself completely clear. “And I’m not going to live and die in that bunker just because you don’t know what else to do.”
Rikka stepped closer to her sister, her demeanor darkening further. Despite the four-inch height difference, she seemed to tower over Shade like a mountain next to a pebble. Shade was tempted to step back, to put some distance between them, but she knew that if she did, she would be backing down from Rikka for the rest of her life. She refused to go back to living the last two months on repeat until she died, and if she had to fight her sister to keep that from happening, so be it.
“I will knock you unconscious and drag your sorry ass into that bunker,” Rikka said, her voice as dead as everything around them. “Then I’ll handcuff you to the wall and beat you senseless if I even think you’re thinking about leaving. Don’t fuck with me, Shade, because you always lose.”
Shade huffed and smiled. Not because she found anything funny, but because she knew that was the one thing she could do to piss Rikka off even more. “When Lou’s safe and the house is secure…” She shook her head, dropping the smile along with her childish antics. In that moment, she realized that the laws that governed her life only a few moments ago no longer existed. For the last two months, they were figments of her imagination. In the world left for them, she was an adult, capable of making and living with her own choices. It was stupid to argue with her sister about what she was and wasn’t going to do. Rikka didn’t have power over her anymore. No one did. “When the house is secure, I’m leaving.” Shade looked away and shrugged, trying her best to stay the tears pushing at the back of her eyes. When she felt in control, she looked back up at her sister. “I hate you, Rikka. To the deepest part of me, I truly hate you.”
Shade held her glare for another moment before turning on her heel and trotting west towards Lou. She could feel Rikka glaring holes in her back as she pulled off her book bag and fished out the pieces of her gun, but she didn’t care. She said the words she spent her whole life swallowing, and in another hour, she would be dead or free. Yes, she was walking away from Lou too, and that would eat at her for a long time to come, but it was the only option left. She had no other choice.
After gathering all the bullets strewn around the bottom of the bag, she loaded them in the magazine.
“This isn’t over,” Rikka said as she walked passed her sister. She was putting her gun together as well.
“Yeah,” Shade sighed. “It is.” She pulled back the slide on her M1911A1 to drive the point home. Rikka didn’t say a word in protest, so Shade knew she had won…for now. Rikka was a sore loser. She would retaliate sooner or later, but not until after Lou was safe.
Shade would be ready.
Staying under the cover of trees, the girls made their way back to their
house. They moved slowly, weighed down by both the rain and the desire to move on in silence. Their father taught them to navigate the woods like ghosts, but with dead sticks and branches strewn about, it was difficult, even with the patter of rain masking their footfalls.
The girls didn’t speak throughout the entire trek. The tension between them was palpable, and Shade made sure to keep her weapon in hand just in case Rikka decided now was a good time to put her in her place. That was a constant fear growing up, but with the end of her torment in sight, fear was replaced with caution. Before, she dealt with Rikka by playing the passive middle child. Not anymore.
The tree-line snuck up on them. Though the house wasn’t visible through the rain, Shade stopped at the edge of the trees and gazed in the general direction of their backyard. Rikka stopped next to her, staring intently ahead.
“Don’t choke,” she jeered as she stepped out into the clearing.
Shade stared after her, wondering what part of Rikka’s soul evaporated to produce the creature before her. She had always been mean, even cruel at times. But the viciousness she took on now was unparalleled and unjustified. It was as if the spark of anger that always flickered inside of her conflagrated, burning away the ties that made them family, however turbulent they had always been. Shade was tempted to lose herself in the woods, allowing the dead, twisted branches and darkness to swallow her. It would have been a better fate than spending another second with Rikka. But she had a duty to Lou. Despite how much she blamed her older sister for keeping them holed up in the bunker, there was a better way to handle Mr. .44 Magnum and his people. Shade shouldn’t have barged out like she did. It was reckless, and if harm came to Lou because of it, she didn’t know if she would be able to live with herself.
Shade checked the safety on her gun before following Rikka into the lion’s den.
The grounds around the house were clear. The sisters checked twice before silently stepping onto the portico, one sister braced on either side of the front door. Shade’s heart was pounding, not out of nervousness, but out of fear. Mr. .44 Magnum didn’t have a single person sweeping the grounds for intruders. That meant one of two things: he was stupider than Shade thought, or (more likely) they had already spotted her and Rikka and were gathered in a centralized location to initiate a brute force attack. One on one, the sisters could have cut through their numbers with ease. But if they didn’t have the element of surprise, they were on a suicide mission.
DeadEarth: Mr. 44 Magnum Page 4
