by James Evans
Carolyn showed him the pharmacy. Most of the shelves were half-empty. She also showed him a new section which looked to Doc like an old apothecary. Small, labeled containers were filled with various dried plants and powders. “For the most part, we leave herbs and organics to the herbarium, but we do keep a few things on hand, like white willow bark, ginger, and menthol-based ointment. At some point, this will practically be an herbarium.
“What does the staff do for lunch?”
“We don’t always get to eat at lunch-time—you know how it goes in the emergency room—but most people bring their own food and eat on the run. Or if it’s quiet they head to town. Stormcloud and several other places offer lunch,” Carolyn said. “Some people go home if they live close enough. The people in charge don’t like anyone to be gone more than a half-hour.”
“Drat. Here I am with no lunch, no home and no credits.”
“I’ll tell you what, why don’t we share my lunch? I brought plenty!”
“I couldn’t take food out of your mouth!” Doc said, glancing at her lips.
“Don’t worry, I always have plenty in case someone forgets to bring anything, or if a patient comes in who’s hungry.”
“Doesn’t this hospital have a cafeteria?”
“Technically, yes, but we don’t have enough power to run the grill or refrigerators. We try to reserve all the power for the equipment in the ER.”
Doc didn’t mind the idea of sharing lunch with Carolyn. Any excuse to be near her was reason enough. “Well, if you insist, I’d love to share your lunch.”
“Of course I insist! Why don’t we walk down to the beach? We can sit on a bench and enjoy the scenery while we eat.”
“My dear woman, any scenery would pale in comparison to the loveliness of your eyes,” Doc said with a smile.
Carolyn blushed with a smile. “That may be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” she said. “I’ll be ready in about ten minutes. Meet me at the nurses’ station?”
“It’s a date.” Doc said.
A date! Carolyn thought. I have a date! Even if is only for lunch, and even if I did have to make the first move. She was glad to share her lunch with Doc.
Ten minutes later they were walking down Michigan Avenue, chatting easily. “Up ahead we turn right,” Carolyn said. “Sac Street leads right to the breakwater. There are benches along the sidewalk.” Doc offered to carry her lunch bag. “What’s next, Doc? Carry my books home from school?”
“If you had books to carry and a school to walk from, yes. Besides, I thought you agreed to call me Steve,” he said as she passed the canvas bag to him. She was about to continue the banter, but their fingers touched as he took the bag, and the spark of electricity she felt in her fingertips derailed her train of thought.
Several seconds later, she said “So where are you going to stay tonight? At the guesthouse?”
“Kevin’s waiting to hear about a house he wants to move into. He offered to let me stay there. There’s a small detached suite behind the house.”
“That would be perfect!” she said. “Close to your friends but still private!”
“Yes, and I would like to keep close to Michelle. I know we rushed here when I got sick, but I’m glad we’re here. At least if something goes wrong with her or the baby, we’re close to medical help. She’s really showing, isn’t she!”
“She’s, what, seven months along?”
“Nearly. It’s going to be a hot August for Michelle.”
They turned onto Sac Street which dead-ended at the beach, then walked toward the breakwater.
“This is my favorite bench,” she said as they sat down. “I think it has the best view.”
“It most certainly does,” Doc said, looking at her rather than at the beach.
With a blush Carolyn opened the lunch bag and pulled out a couple of hard-boiled eggs, some venison jerky, and two apples.
“How did you boil the eggs when you don’t have power? Over a fire?” Doc asked.
“One perk of working for the hospital is getting to make hard-boiled eggs in the sterilization cask. I could make them at home, but it’s much more convenient to make them at the hospital.”
The beach was relatively empty. In this new world with no lights there was no second and third shift. Workers toiled during the day and went home close to dark. No more 40-hour work weeks, no two-week vacations. Tourists weren’t flocking to the beach for weeks at a time.
A woman was shepherding a handful of children onto the breakwater, pointing at something in the lake. Carolyn said, “That’s Eliana. She’s one of the teachers. Looks like she’s pointing out some fish in the lake. She was only passing through when the grid went down. She volunteered to help school the kids, and it turns out she’s gifted at it. She used to live near the seaside and brings the kids to the water pretty often. The students love her and somehow she makes learning fun!”
“So school is year-round?”
“Yes, except for planting time and harvest time. A few weeks ago we let the high school kids out for a week to help with planting. Our survival depends on the crops. We’ll also let them out a few times during the fall, when we’re harvesting apples, corn or other crops.”
“How about pumpkins?”
“Yes, them too. Why?”
“The house Kevin found used to belong to the pumpkin carver.”
“Ed’s old house?”
“I guess. Once he gets approval from the council we’re supposed to go take a look.”
Carolyn glanced at her watch. “We’d better get back, it’s nearly been a half-hour.”
“You said the folks in charge don’t like you to take more than a half-hour lunch? Who’s in charge?”
“Well, mainly me, Doctor Nunn, and Teresa, the charge nurse,” Carolyn admitted with a laugh. “I guess you and Michelle, too, now that you’re on board.”
They walked back to the hospital, still chatting amiably. Somewhere along the way Carolyn was pleased to find herself holding Doc’s hand.
While they were holding hands, Sammy passed Stormcloud and trudged to his house. His feet ached and his heart pounded. His muscles were tired from the swim, but he was desperate to get home. He was livid. He was used to being snubbed and ignored by people, but he was not used to being openly laughed at. Like I told that pussy Kevin, they have no idea who they’re fucking with! he thought. All he wanted to do was get home, have a drink, and go to the dungeon. I went easy on her before, he thought, but not anymore. She’s going to discover a world of pain she never knew existed!
Down in the basement, Laura felt the house shake and stopped rocking the bench when Sammy slammed the front door. She’d spent all morning and afternoon rocking back and forth and had succeeded in making the frame much more wobbly than it had been, almost enough to tip over. But the process was not a silent one and she desperately didn’t want to get caught.
Four feet away, the zombie stood in the dim light, moving only occasionally to reach half-heartedly toward Laura.
Still wearing only his underwear, Sammy headed straight for the back porch where he’d left the bottle of tequila. He threw back four quick shots and then took a couple of deep breaths. I’m okay. So I got caught jerking off, big deal. That bitch always has been a prick tease. I’m not the only one who jerks off thinking about her! If I hadn’t gotten caught I’d be about to get off work, in a good mood, too. Why’d they have to fucking ruin my good mood?!”
He replayed the chain of events. Not only had Kevin been an asshole about it, he’d ruined a perfectly good fantasy, a pretty good orgasm, and a great high. This wouldn’t have happened if not for Kevin! I swear he’s going to pay for this. Everybody’s going to pay. Nobody laughs at me! I’m going to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget.
The word lesson reminded him. It was time to teach Laura a new lesson. A lesson on how it feels to be at the mercy of someone who shows no pity. He downed another shot of tequila, dressed, then got a lantern and a bottle of wa
ter from the kitchen. He headed for the basement.
CHAPTER TWENTY-Four
As Sammy clomped down the stairs, the zombie rasped and reached for him, desperate for a taste of his flesh. Laura’s heart rate skyrocketed and she began to cry. “Please, Sammy, please let me go! I never did anything to you! Please don’t hurt me! I’ll do anything you say!”
“Damn straight you will!” he said as he entered her field of vision. He was wearing his leather body harness. Had Laura seen Sammy in a different context, she might have laughed out loud. He looked ridiculous. An overweight white guy dressed like he was a nineteen-year-old predator. But he didn’t look outlandish in a funny way; he looked outlandish in a crazy way.
Sammy was more dangerous than anyone in town suspected. He was a sociopath. He didn’t worry about repercussions, he knew he could wiggle his way out of any problem. Despite the trail of abuse he left behind, he’d never been arrested, never went to jail. He’d abused many women and a few men. He had left several women bleeding and unconscious. They may have died for all he knew, and he didn’t care either way.
He wore the leather body harness because he liked the way he looked in the mirror. It made him feel strong. The smell of leather was heady, and the feel of the leather codpiece made him hard.
With his demeanor, his body language and his facial expression, there was no doubt what kind of mood he was in. He was ready to have fun, the kind of fun people have at dog fights. He craved her screams and needed her to beg. He didn’t necessarily want to kill her, at least not yet. He wanted his pleasure to last a few more days. Then he would feed her to the zombie.
He was master of his universe. Tonight it was all about pursuing his angry pleasure, no matter where it led. He would take Laura however he wanted, would use her for pleasure despite (and encouraged by) her cries. Unfortunately for Laura, Sammy derived pleasure from inflicting pain. The more pain, the more screams, the greater the pleasure.
He knelt down by her face. “Before we get started I thought you might want a drink,” he said. He held the bottle to her lips and allowed her to drink a small amount. “Don’t worry, there’s nothing in it but water this time,” he said. Sammy wanted Laura’s vocal cords supple and refreshed. There was nothing he relished more than a woman’s scream of fear and pain, unless it was a woman’s scream muffled with a gag.
She looked at him with eyes wild and full of fear. She wasn’t defeated, she hadn’t given up, but she felt like she might pass out. She was breathing fast and her heart was pounding. Her muscles ached from the position she was locked in, and her body burned from the beating he’d given her. But she wasn’t ready to die.
“Let me off of this thing so I can suck on you!” she begged. “My boyfriend said I gave the best blowjobs in town! Let me show you!”
Sammy reared back and smashed the plastic bottle, still nearly full, into her face. “Shut up, bitch! Do you think I’m stupid?” He hit her again, this time right on her ear. Her head rang from the blow and she felt dizzy. “You think you’re better than me, you cunt, but you’re not!” he screamed. “Did you think it was funny when I had to run through the street in my underwear? Did you laugh at me? You think I’m stupid, but I’m not. I’m smart and I’m strong and I’m big and hard!” He pulled the pouch aside and stroked his erection. “I’m going to teach you to laugh at me!” Sammy was no longer seeing Laura. He was seeing the townspeople laughing at him, was seeing every woman who’d ever scorned him. “I’m going to teach you how a real man treats a fucking cunt like you! Quit laughing at me, you whore!” Laura was whining and crying, but Sammy believed she was laughing. He punched her broken arm, already red and swelling, and Laura passed out.
Over the next several hours, Sammy tortured Laura without mercy, other than the occasional sip of water. Not interested in water, Sammy opened a bottle of bourbon. At one point, after yet another round with the paddle left her entire ass red and blistered, he poured bourbon over the wounds. Laura floated in a haze of pain, her mind no longer with Sammy. Everything went black.
When consciousness gradually reasserted itself, the basement was dark. She heard Sammy upstairs, yelling incoherently as he stumbled and crashed around the house in a drunken rage.
Laura’s throat ached from screaming. The clamp had fallen from her right nipple; it ached, but the still-clamped left nipple was much worse.
Her back was a series of bruises, welts, and blood blisters. Her ass was beginning to swell from the continued beating with the paddle and cane. She sobbed, begging God to free her or let her die. She called for her parents. Her jaw and throat ached and dried blood covered her chin from Sammy striking her in the face.
The sounds from above ceased as Sammy passed out. With a whimper, Laura once again picked up her mantra as she started rocking the bench;
Not the end, help me God! Not the end, help me God! she begged.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Michelle got up early for work, and a half-hour later Kevin left the guesthouse for Stormcloud. He spent the morning scrubbing one of the huge copper brew kettles, but just before lunch, Stan, the town council member, dropped by to tell Kevin it was okay to move into the house. They also talked about Sammy.
“We’re a bit concerned about Sammy,” Stan said. “He’s a loose cannon. He’s unpredictable. We think Jake may have made things worse.”
“If I caught a man stealing from me and spying on my wife, I don’t think I’d handle it as calmly as Jake did!”
“What would you do? Beat him up? Tattoo PEEPING TOM on his forehead?”
“I don’t know, but if this happened before the Collapse, Sammy would have been arrested.”
“That’s true, but we don’t have a jail. It’s not an option.”
“Maybe it’s time you built one,” Kevin said. “Sammy’s like a rabid dog. You don’t let rabid dogs roam around looking for someone to bite.”
The councilman sighed. “The council has heard this argument before. We plan on building some kind of holding cell soon. But right now, we’re worried he might do something stupid.”
“Has anyone seen him since yesterday?” Kevin asked.
“Not that I know of.”
“Maybe he wised up and left town.”
“Or maybe he’s in his home, brooding and planning revenge. He was pretty humiliated. By the way how was your first patrol?”
“I kind of enjoyed it. I expect the novelty might wear off, but right now it’s kind of fun.”
“It can get pretty intense when a zombie is on the loose,” Stan said with a note of warning, “Or when you have to deal with someone who drank too much and gets abusive. We always have at least one team member on each patrol carry a gun.”
After Stan left, Kevin hurried to the guesthouse to pack his and Michelle’s few belongings, then stopped by the house. He wanted to explore it with Michelle, so he left everything just inside the front door and headed for his second job in the greenhouse.
It was cleaning day at the greenhouse, too. Jake had him empty and scrub down the water reservoirs, then the cloning chambers. Scrubbing at Stormcloud and now the greenhouse was hard work, but because Kevin loved hydroponics and loved brewing, he enjoyed it.
He was about to finish for the day when Lee came into the greenhouse. Kevin was always glad to see her, not just because of her alluring display, but also because he felt they were kindred spirits. Today he was particularly glad; he was hoping she could radio the hospital to ask Doctor Williams what time she was getting off work. “Sure!” Lee said, “You can ask her yourself!”
She pulled the radio handset out of her pocket and said “Hi, Frankfort Hospital, this is Lee.”
“Come on, Lee, you know the rules. Give your call sign when you first start talking so we know who we’re talking to.”
“I told you who you’re talking to. This is Lee. L80085.” She turned to Kevin, “80085 looks like BOOBS,” she explained to Kevin with a grin. “Is Michelle around?”
“Hold on,” the
voice said. A moment later they heard, “This is Doctor Williams. Lee, is everything okay?” She handed the radio to Kevin.
“Everything’s fine, hon, it’s me.” Kevin said. “What time do you get off work?”
“Probably another hour. Why, what’s up?”
“We got permission to move into the house. I want to explore it, so I’ll wait for you at Stormcloud. We’ll go together!”
“How sweet, Kevin!”
“And then later on, we’ll try out the bed—”
“Kevin, did you know you’re on the intercom?”
“—to make sure it’s the kind we can sleep on,” Kevin recovered. He heard laughter in the background.
“Okay! See you later!”
“So you have about an hour free,” Lee said. “Want to look for Petoskey Stones?”
“I’d love to!”
“I’ll keep my blouse on, though,” she said. “From now on you only get to see me topless when Michelle is around. Hopefully she’ll be topless too!”
“Damn, that would be a vision of paradise,” Kevin sighed. “Give me ten minutes to clean up.”
“Okay. I’ll go find Jake and let him know where I’m going. Meet me at the top landing.”
Kevin scrubbed the last tub, still envisioning both Lee and Michelle topless on the beach. I don’t care if the new bed’s good for sleeping or not, he thought, I’m ready to break it in!
Ten minutes later he met Lee at the landing. She had her usual tote bag with her. As they descended the stairs, she chatted about how the stairs were built with wood harvested from their land. “It’s a lot easier to be environmentally friendly when you have money,” she said. “The trees had to be taken down when we installed the solar panels and wind turbine. We had them milled and stained. There was just enough wood to build the staircase and the deck!”
By the time they got to the beach, Kevin’s leg muscles were complaining, but Lee didn’t seem the least bit affected. Walking behind her (and trying to keep up), Kevin appreciated the view. Climbing up and down the stairs sure keeps her legs in shape!
