He was getting his breath back, but he had both hands covering his throat. Already I could see the bruises forming.
“I said guns down, or a lot of people are going to die. Right now.”
I had the pump shotgun in a two handed grip and waited for somebody to move. Nobody put their guns on the ground, but they all lowered them. The guard kneed a scrawny man in the chest who’d been trying to get the pistol that he’d dropped and turned to face me angrily.
“Dick, what the ever-loving fuck do you think you’re doing?” the guard snarled.
I couldn’t remember him or place his face, but he was familiar.
“You come after one of mine, you can expect to die, badly,” I said to him.
The guard squinted and then looked at Jeremy. This was not how I had wanted this to go. I hadn’t wanted him to be connected to me until after I had left the area. Dammit, this was why I hadn’t wanted him to come topside.
“I just wanted a round. A single round. The kid has four full magazines,” the man I’d kicked said, almost weeping.
“So you did what? Tried to take it, take a mag? Then you tried to kill him when he fought back?” I snarled, moving on the guard who held the man, despite the man trying to back up.
“I just wanted a round! Little fucker wouldn’t give me one.”
“I should have just shot you,” I told him.
“Hey, Dick. You know the rules, man,” Luis said walking up.
People parted for him in a way they hadn’t for me. They knew that when he left his spot, shit had gotten heavy.
“Yeah. Thieves are shot,” I said, looking at the man who was now trembling.
“And we don’t allow violence in the market. You’ve been warned before. Get your kid and…”
“Don’t,” Jamie said, pulling the stocking hat off her head, letting her hair fall down in cascading sheets of raven colored tresses.
“Excuse me?” He turned and then stammered as Jamie crossed her arms over the baggy shirt, showing off her curves.
“I said, don’t. The kid is with us,” Jamie said, looking at me. “He didn’t start this by the look of it, and you were too busy watching from the front. It’s like you were getting off on watching it.”
Luis flushed a bit and a couple of the guards looked at their boots.
“I know there isn’t any more TV, but you can’t allow a boxing match to happen and then throw everyone out afterward. The kid was going to be choked out and only two of you were half-heartedly stopping it. The rest of you were cheering them on. What kind of fucked up town is this? Dick said you were supposed to be the good guys?”
She wasn’t quite screaming at the end, but her voice was projecting so loudly and so clearly that everyone in the market had fallen silent, except for the man with a broken wrist, who was still crying out.
“You ok, kid?” I asked Jeremy, who was feeling his pockets with one hand and pulling the AR loose from the sling to check it out and make sure the tumble hadn’t damaged it.
“Yeah,” he said in a rasp, “Caught the fucker with his hand inside my pocket. Told him to...” he coughed and then spit, “Told him no. He pulled a knife. Didn’t feel like killing him, so I thought I’d…”
“Get your ass kicked,” I told him. “Kid, you don’t ever go hand to hand in a knife fight.”
“Isn’t that what you kinda did?” Jamie asked me.
Luis had a hard time taking his eyes off of her, but when he did, he turned to look at the man who was curled up on the ground rocking back and forth, holding his hand to his chest, and then back to me.
“I had a gun,” I told her. “I didn’t think the dumb-ass had enough brain matter to stop a slug at close range and didn’t want to hurt the rest of them. Besides, I’ve trained for this, it’s different.”
“You done playing around, Dick?” A loud, clear voice came out from the crowd and I turned to see Salina.
“I don’t play games,” I said in a low voice.
“You’re playing one now. Junkyard devil dog. It’s how you be. Only way you feel comfortable is to be the meanest son of a bitch on the playground.”
Her words were harsh, but they were true. I often let the baser side of me out in situations like this and I took a deep cleansing breath.
“Salina, I have no quarrel with you,” I told her. “And, as far as this guy goes,” I said, lowering the shotgun and pointing at the thief with my left hand, “Maybe it’s his first time. Shoot him or not, but I’m not wasting a shell on him.”
The man almost collapsed and the guard let him fall instead of holding his weight up.
“Dick, you can’t come in here and start manhandling people,” Luis told me. “We have rules…”
“And you let the fight go on for your amusement. I did what you should have done. Throw me out, who gives a shit? When the people here see that you’re no better than the rest of the gangs running loose, using people for fun and amusement… they’ll quit coming here and you’ll lose your meal ticket.”
My words had a chilling effect on him and the people who’d been talking quietly. Vendors and shoppers alike went silent and nodded.
“It won’t happen again. Agreed?” Luis asked.
I knew he was both saying he wouldn’t allow it to happen on his watch again, and asking me to not put him in a position where I had to hurt his vendors or customers. So be it.
“Agreed.”
“Ok everyone, break it up,” Luis growled.
We waited a few moments as people started to disperse. The man who had slumped on the ground was spat on by several people, many hurling insults at him, telling him they’d be watching out for him.
“You new here?” I asked, watching all this happen impassively.
“Fu—“ he rolled over and retched.
Must have kicked him in the stomach good or given him a concussion. Damn.
“Yeah, fuck you too, asshole,” I said.
“Dick…” Jamie’s voice was quiet, somewhere behind me.
“Come on, lady. Let’s go see the doc,” I told her, then turned to Jeremy, “Come on, kid. I’m going to have her check out your throat.”
“I would have had Jerome break it up if I’d known it was one of your kids,” Salina said to us.
We’d sat down in the plastic lawn chairs that she had at her folding table with her doctoring supplies. Jerome glowered from behind her, standing watch.
“You should have, regardless of who it was. My kids, your kids…”
“And what if he got a knife in the stomach for some random strangers? Who would take care of his family? Me? Who would work with me and make sure the junkies didn’t rob me?” Salina said.
I didn’t know if that was a dig at me or not, so I chose to ignore it.
“When you decide to do nothing, you’re no better than the people who hide with their heads up their asses and let the atrocities happen around you.” I wasn’t quite snarling, trying to keep my anger in check.
Why was I so angry? That I couldn’t figure out—
“Dick, calm down,” Jamie said, and a cool hand started massaging the back of my neck.
I almost fell over backward in surprise, but she leaned in close to me and kissed me on the forehead. My eyes did not quite bug out, but it was a close thing. Salina chuckled.
“Not everyone is you,” Doc said with an arched eyebrow, “and I’m guessing that you’ve been holding out on me. You found Mary?” she asked, surprised.
I couldn’t speak. What the hell??
Jamie spoke up. “No, I just sort of… I mean, he saved me and my daughter a while back and I kinda think this big guy is too hard on himself.”
She wrapped her arms around me, and I could feel the swell of her breasts pushing into my back. Despite my panic, I could feel my body starting to respond. What was she doing?
“Oh, ok then. How is little Mouse doing?” Salina asked me.
Jamie let go, giving me air to breathe again. She didn’t answer, I couldn’t, but it
was Jeremy who did, with a raspy, phlegmy sounding voice.
“She’s good. She still wants you to come visit her. I promised her that I’d introduce her and Pauly to you and Jerome sometime. She’s still kind of scared of topside.”
“Topside, downstairs, you guys are too much. Now let me see that neck of yours.”
While she leaned over and started checking out his neck, I stood and turned to face Jamie. The trembling had started in my arms and I put my hands in my pocket, so she wouldn’t see how far off game she’d thrown me.
“What was that?” I whispered.
“I thought if they thought I was with you, I’d be a little safer… plus it’d give them a reason to understand why you almost killed a ton of people. If you had a girlfriend and one of your kids with you, I mean… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make things worse,” she whispered back quietly.
“It’s been close to six years since I’ve been that close to a woman,” I told her. “So give me a little more warning, ok?” I was going for levity, but the side of her mouth quirked up into a half a smile.
“Hearing that I had that effect on you, makes a girl feel all special-like.” She grinned.
“Your husband must have his hands full with you two ladies,” I said and sat down.
After a moment, she finally took the empty chair next to me.
“It’s just going to bruise,” Salina told him and then looked at me to see if I was paying attention.
“What about the guy with the wrist?” I asked her.
“He doesn’t have any money,” she said coldly, “No ammo, no precious metals and frankly, he shouldn’t have been trying to stab somebody looking to break up a fight. It’s the guards’ jobs to do that, no matter what you think of the rest of us.”
I grunted.
“What’s going to happen to him?” I asked her.
“It’ll heal badly, maybe get some sort of infection. Maybe lose the use of the hand, or die.”
Her words were cold, and I almost made a snide remark about her Hippocratic oath, but I wasn’t the one to cast stones. I’d done worse. I’d been worse. I just shrugged.
“How much for you to set it and cast it?” I asked her.
“Who’s paying?” she asked me, arching an eyebrow again.
Being stuck between two beautiful women who were looking at me funny was making me all kinds of uncomfortable, especially with the way Salina’s eyes kept checking out my mostly weed-whacked features. Sure, my hair was still long and in a ponytail, but the beard was down to barely a short stubble.
“Depends on the deal. I don’t want to leave the kid with a ton of hard feelings when I eventually leave. I hadn’t planned on outing him as one of mine,” I admitted.
“Uh huh, use that excuse,” Jamie teased.
“What?” I asked her, a little annoyed.
“You’re not just doing it for Jeremy,” she said, leaning forward to look at him and make sure he was paying attention. “You’re doing it to reinforce right from wrong, so when you leave, the kid can step in.”
“Well, shit…” I muttered, and Jerome chuckled.
His voice sounded like two boulders rubbing together, and not happy ones. Still, it was surprising.
“He’ll do fine. You’ve had him for months now, teaching.”
“A couple,” I admitted. “So how much?” I asked Salina turning to face her again.
“You talk to Mouse for me, tell her the day after tomorrow, and you just pay for the bandages…It’ll cost you two .38 shells.”
Huh. I fished around in my pockets for the small bags of ammo I’d kept for trade. I found two of the older .38 S&W shells, not quite a .38 special, but they would work in the newer guns. I handed them over. Salina looked at them, nodded and pocketed them.
“What else are you looking for?” she asked me.
“Information,” I whispered.
“Aren’t you always….”
“I don’t see a pickup… wait… is that it?” Jeremy asked me.
We’d walked back towards the old bank and had just reached the intersection where I’d saved the ladies. Jamie was still with us, but she’d tucked her hair away again and had kept her shirt loose. Twice today, I’d seen what she could do to men just by… my skin broke out into gooseflesh. First, Danielle had dressed up as bait and then Jamie had subdued Luis and I both, just by being women. As amusing as that was, I was worried what my Maggie was having to do, or not do to survive. I felt a pang in my chest, but I looked to see where Jeremy had been pointing.
In an alleyway two blocks from the bank, near the now crumpled apartment building was the pickup truck. The windshield was gone and a large chunk of brickwork had dented the hood. Still, it was the same one. Someone had taken the time to move it and change the tires I'd blown out. They’d probably taken them from one of a hundred stalled vehicles sitting dormant in the city.
“Yeah, that’s it,” I said.
“Am I the only one who isn’t excited about the truck?” Jamie asked.
“Yeah, I know,” I told her. “But I plan on using this thing to create a diversion. I’m not going to cross the country in it. It’d make us too much of a target if we’re traveling alone.”
“Good, because I don’t know if I could handle getting in that thing.”
“I just want to see if it fires up. We can roll a dumpster in front of it if we need to. Cover it up until we need to use it.”
“If we can even find the keys to it…” Jeremy said, his voice still rasping.
“If the battery is any good still, I can hot-wire it.”
We stood before it, but the driver’s side door was so close to a building that I couldn’t climb in. Instead, I climbed up onto the hood and went in through the broken-out windshield. I was careful not to cut myself on the safety glass that was shattered into chunks. Bricks must have shattered the windshield when I’d dropped the apartment building. The front of the truck seemed to have got the brunt of it. I moved a couple of bricks out of the way, got into the driver’s seat and felt around. No keys in the ignition but several wires hung down below. I felt for them and then cursed. I pulled out my penlight and rolled to my right and clicked it on, so I had enough light to see what I was doing.
The wires that were hanging down had been stripped. I put two of them together and twisted them. The third I touched to it until the starter wheezed and then the motor caught. I was surprised, but it sounded like the motor was running with a halfway decent muffler. Still, it was too loud. I pulled the two wires apart, killing the motor, and carefully pushed the exposed ignition wires under the dash, in case someone had heard and came around to investigate.
“So it’s good,” Jeremy said as I started pulling myself out.
“Yeah,” I told him, “As long as the tires hold air, I think this will work well.”
“I wonder why they didn’t have any food?” Jeremy asked.
I almost paused when I was crawling out, but I decided to level with him, seeing as we didn’t have little ears around.
“They were cannibals. The guys I’d killed when I got Jamie and Mel loose were hanging up in the vault.”
Jamie let out a retching sound and turned towards the wall. Jeremy didn’t look a whole lot better.
“That’s sick,” he said.
“Do you remember how hungry you were when you followed me, even though you knew I would probably kill you?” I asked him.
“Yeah, but I mean...”
“I know Jeremy, it's not normal. Even on our worst day, I don't think any of us could do it. That's why it's sickening... but these guys... They weren't starving. I'm kind of worried that this has been going on elsewhere. More than just this instance.”
“I... That's bad,” Jamie said quietly. “If food is almost impossible to find in the city, why haven't you guys moved out of it?”
“Well, for a while, Mouse was sick,” I told her. “Then I found the twins. If I hadn't been taking care of them, who would? I know Salina wants to help
, but she can only afford a couple mouths, not all of the kids, you know?” I asked her.
“I think you're using that as a crutch,” Jamie said. “You're pretty resourceful. You haven't been run out yet.”
“Damned right he hasn't,” Jeremy said grinning. “Nobody runs Dickhead out of town.”
I hated this conversation. It was one I'd had a dozen times. It was the gangs, it was the kids, it was waiting for them to get better... all of those were the reasons, but none of them were. At the heart of it, was just that I was a broken man. Waiting on life to kick me down again. I'd always sort of realized it, but it had never hit home until now.
“Less talk, more work,” I said, trying to change the subject.
11
I'd already scoped out the gang and had hit them before. Usually before or after they had come out of the museum, never while they were in it. As far as I could tell, this group had been a Chicago street gang before the EMP event knocked out the power. They were an equal opportunity employer and I’d bought my junk from one of their guys a year or more ago.
Getting hooked isn't always a conscious decision. I'd be willing to take the blame for being weak... But when I’d arrived home from my last deployment all busted up... I’d been given an almost limitless supply of Vicodin. From there, it seemed like the pain would never go away. I never knew if the pain was real because I didn't feel it anymore. So, was it a trick of the mind back then?
When the Vicodin ran dry, I used to be able to find morphine. That was expensive stuff and it wasn't a long hop, skip, and a jump from morphine to the cheaper and more dangerous heroin. I'd just found Salina's clinic and had gone to a couple of checkups when she'd noticed the tracks on the inside of my arm. She’d known what it’d meant, what the score was.
She didn't judge me, but she didn't pity me either. That woman sat me down and gave me some hard truths. Sure, I was pissed... but when I’d realized that my life was no longer mine to control, I'd gone to her to help me kick it. Since the EMP, it was almost impossible to find anything. Score one for world annihilation, eh?
Devil Dog: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (Out Of The Dark Book 1) Page 11
