Extinct

by Hamill, Ike

  “I don’t need a reason to tune you up,” the old man said. “This world is beyond reason. It’s beyond reason, and retribution, and punishment, and justice. When I say friends, I mean the half-dozen other necrophiliacs you’ve been partying with. Duzzat ring a little bell for you?”

  He punctuated his question with another rap of his knuckles against Brad’s skull.

  “Who are you?” Brad asked. Brad’s eyes locked on the gun holster on the man’s right hip.

  “My best friends call me Buster,” the man said. This time his smile was cold. The lines radiating from his eyes looked flat, and the twinkle disappeared. “We just grabbed you to trade for the little boy. Seemed simple enough, but then your friends lit out at dawn like they didn’t even miss you. So now I’m stuck with you and a bunch of tracks in the snow heading north. So where did they take him? He’s family, and I don’t give up on family.”

  “Okay,” Brad said, “I get what you’re asking, but I’m still confused. We didn’t have a little boy with us.”

  “You’re beginning to rub me the wrong way, Brad,” Buster said.

  Brad’s eyes darted sideways as he tried to remember if he’d told the man his name.

  “That’s right,” Buster said. “I know who you are, and I know that Peter, Rob, Ted, Sheila, and those other women left you here and took Brynn north. I couldn’t give a shit what you and the others do, but when you steal my little boy, I think I deserve an explanation.”

  “Brynn?” Brad asked. “Who’s Brynn?”

  Buster rose to his feet and turned to to the door. “Hey, Glen? This guy’s either really dumb or really stubborn. We’re gonna have to work him over to find out. Buster strode to the door and leaned through the frame. He had a quick conversation with someone just around the corner and then returned to Brad.

  “We’re gonna do you together,” Buster said. “Glen’s idea, but I think it’s a good one.”

  Brad kicked as Buster grabbed his feet, but as soon as he did, he regretted it. When he kicked his legs, the rope pulled back brutally on his arms, stretching his shoulders until his joints felt like warm plastic about to break.

  Buster leaned back and dragged Brad by the feet across the tile floor. He swung Brad through the doorway fast and took a hard right, slamming the side of Brad’s head into the jam. When he came to rest again, Brad found himself in a slightly bigger room, stacked with cardboard boxes. From behind, hands grabbed his shoulders and the rope connecting his hands to his feet was cut. The relief didn’t last long. The back of a chair slid through the loop his arms made behind his back and Brad was set upright, tied to a wooden chair.

  Directly in front of him a woman he’d seen before was tied to a similar chair. Brad had met her only once, at the last Denny’s dinner.

  “Tib?” Brad asked.

  “Christine,” the woman said.

  “Sorry, I thought I remembered someone calling you Tib,” Brad said.

  “Luke calls all women Tib,” Christine said.

  “Shut up, girly.” Buster’s voice came from just behind Brad’s shoulder. “Glen, get out of here for a bit.”

  Panic broke across Christine’s face as footsteps crossed behind Brad towards the door.

  “Glen,” she said, “don’t go. Don’t leave me with him. You can’t leave me.”

  Brad heard the door click shut somewhere behind him. He watched Christine’s eyes as they tracked the progress of Buster. Finally, Buster came around the chair and into view.

  “She’s right to be scared,” Buster said to Brad with a smile. “She’s about to lose a finger.”

  Christine’s chair legs squealed against the tiles as Buster spun Christine around so her back was to Brad. Buster pulled open the flaps of a weathered cardboard box and pulled out a long set of bolt cutters.

  “Jesus,” Christine screamed, “what the fuck’s wrong with you? I didn’t do anything!”

  “Look,” Brad said. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. What else did you want to know? Where they’re going? We’re not sure exactly where to go, Robby just said it would be north of Augusta. But you must already know that. Robby told everyone at Denny’s.”

  Christine erupted with a wordless scream as Glen touched the back of her arm with the edge of the bolt cutters. The room was cold, and Christine only wore a white tank top. Brad saw the lines of sinews on Christine’s shoulders as she pulled against her restraints. Like Brad, her arms were bound behind the back of the chair. Brad worried that Christine was tugging so hard she would tear cartilage, or dislocate her shoulder.

  “I heard about Rob’s big plan,” Buster said. “Must be a deep, deep amount of crazy to convince someone to drag twenty-hundred corpses through the snow. I’m not sure I buy into his explanation one-hundred percent.”

  “Just get on a snowmobile and you’ll catch them. They’re not going fast, not pulling those giant sleds. Hell, they wouldn’t even hear you coming. If you want to…”

  Brad was cut off by another scream from Christine. Buster slipped the bolt cutters around one of her fingers.

  “This has to be a mistake of some sort,” Brad shouted to be heard over Christine’s screams. “We didn’t know Brynn was your son. Maybe Nate didn’t know either. Brynn doesn’t talk much. He’s gone through a lot, maybe he couldn’t remember who his family was.”

  Buster turned to Brad. “I said I was his family, not his father.”

  “Right, sorry,” Brad said. He was relieved that Buster’s attention was away from the finger and the bolt cutters. “Look, I’ll come with you. We’ll get on a snowmobile and we’ll catch them in a few hours, I’m sure. Then we’ll figure this all out. You’re Brynn’s family—everyone will understand that he should be with you.”

  Buster listened, nodded along, and maintained eye contact with Brad. As soon as Brad finished speaking, Buster compressed the handles of the bolt cutters. Brad heard a squishy pop just before all sound was obliterated by Christine’s scream. The sound was heart-wrenching. It contained horror, indignation, loss, and fury. The sound alone hit Brad in the gut and made his teeth ache. It was unbearable and Brad felt his own scream welling up in the back of his throat to join Christine’s.

  The door burst open and Brad saw Glen for the first time since Denny’s. Brad couldn’t be sure from his distance, but it looked like Glen had tears welling up in his eyes. Glen waved his arm at Buster with jerking motions and Buster walked over to confer with the man. Christine’s scream diminished to a low moan, but Glen led Buster out into the hall so they could talk. The door clicked shut.

  Christine moaned.

  Brad’s wrists burned from the ropes and he realized that the extra strain on the bonds was from his hunched shoulders. He rolled his shoulders back and stretched them out, breathing deep and trying to relax his tensed muscles. Something brushed against the tip of his finger as he stretched, so he repeated the process.

  His gaze drifted down to the floor—to the area he’d been trying to avoid looking at. Christine’s pinky finger had rolled several inches away when it fell, so it wasn’t near the growing puddle of blood dripping from Christine’s hand. She tried to clasp her hands together to put pressure on the stump. Just below her bound hands, the blood ran down the rope as it looped beneath the chair to connect with the rope that bound her feet. Someone—Buster or Glen—must have cut her rope and retied it at some point. There was a knot in the rope about a foot below her hands. A similar knot was just above where the rope led from her ankles.

  Brad stretched again until he felt the thing brush his hand. It was a similar knot—it had to be. He tucked his feet further under the chair and rounded his upper back into a painfully deep backbend. This was a pain he was accustomed to. He’d spent a year’s worth of weekly yoga videos until he could execute a backbend this deep. Stretched to his fullest, he managed to collect the knot between his fingers. He began blindly working on the knot. Sweat stood out on his brow.

  Christine stopped moaning.

  �
��They’re going to kill you,” she said, her voice low.

  Brad lost the knot. It swung away from his hands and when he reached for it, it stayed too far away. He needed to relax and let it come back to his hands.

  “Glen wants me to be happy, I know he does, but I rejected him once,” Christine said. “Neither of them want you, they just want to trade you for Brynn, or at least Buster does. I don’t think Glen cares about Brynn either way.”

  “Shut up,” whispered Brad. “I want to hear if they’re coming.” He tried to focus on the knot. One loop was loosened, but it seemed to only tighten one of the other loops. He tried to picture the knot—how the ropes intertwined—but he couldn’t make sense of it. He tugged on the rope and tried to work on the farthest loop.

  Footsteps approached outside and he heard a hand settle on the door knob. Arched over he saw the top of the door in the corner of his eye. The knot came loose. Brad pulled and fed the rope through the loop. He sat back down in the chair and slid his feet forward. The rope pulled back on his wrists. The rope was more slack, but the knot still held.

  Brad heard the handle turn and the door open. He gathered the slack in the rope and balled it up in his hands.

  “You’re a lucky woman,” Buster said to Christine as he walked past Brad. “I’m not allowed to hurt you anymore to try to get information from him.” He turned and looked at Brad before continuing—“I guess I’ll have to extract what I need directly from the source.”

  Buster took a step closer and Brad saw his chance. He thrust his knees back and lowered his head, hoping he could plow into Buster and knock him to the ground. The rope held. Brad only rose up a couple of inches before the rope stalled his momentum and sent him crashing back down into his seat.

  Buster laughed. The old man raised a hand to his face and scratched his cheek—considering Brad. Behind the chair, Brad’s hands worked at lightning speed, gathering the rope, pulling the knot into his hands, and trying to find the source of the snag. He’d missed a loop, and now having jerked the rope taut, the knot was even tighter. Brad struggled to insert a fingernail in the loop and work it loose again.

  “You’ve already seen the bolt cutters. I think we’ll upgrade you to something a little more painful. How’s that sound, Mr. Brad?”

  “Let me out of here,” Christine said. “I have to stop the bleeding. I feel faint.”

  “You’ll be fine for a few minutes,” Buster said.

  “Glen?” Christine yelled. “Glen—I need you.”

  “Settle down,” Buster said to Christine’s back. “He’s not completely attached to you. You can’t order him around.”

  “Glen?” Christine yelled again.

  Buster waited several seconds before he spoke again—“See? Glen’s not at your disposal.”

  Brad got his finger into the loop and bent his finger back painfully as he tried to loosen the knot. His knuckle snapped and a wave of fresh pain rippled up Brad’s arm.

  Buster rustled through his cardboard box and shook his head as he considered the contents. He straightened, pulling something from the box, and then turned slowly to reveal it to Brad. Buster held a small propane tank with a screw-on torch.

  “Heat motivates,” Buster said, “doncha think?”

  Brad tried to keep his face still, but he gritted his teeth as he worked a second finger into the loop and then finally managed to work it loose. His face relaxed as he threaded the rope through and then felt it fall away to the floor. He bent his arms at the elbows, testing to be sure his hands were really free this time. No resistance met his pull. He’d managed to disconnect his feet from his hands, but his wrists were still bound to each other, and his ankles were drawn tight as well. Even though he could now stand, he couldn’t expect Buster to stand still as he hopped over to him. He waited for Buster to approach.

  “Glen, please help me! I’m bleeding, Glen,” Christine yelled.

  “I could cauterize your stump for you,” Buster said. He lit the torch and adjusted the valve until it produced a perfect triangle of blue flame. Christine shut her mouth.

  Buster lowered his head and locked eyes with Brad. Buster stalked forward.

  The torch hissed.

  Brad waited for the older man to get close enough, but Buster held the torch at arm’s length and led with the flame. Buster had a gun holstered on one hip and a knife sheathed on the other—Brad couldn’t afford to telegraph his attack.

  “I’m not telling you anything, you piece of shit,” Brad said. He wanted Buster mad—mad enough to get close.

  “I’m not sure I care,” Buster said. He smiled at Brad. His eyes twinkled.

  Buster brushed the flame across Brad’s cheek. Brad flinched, but the pain wasn’t unbearable. The smell of burning hair—his own burning stubble—filled Brad’s nostrils. When Buster moved the flame over to Brad’s other cheek, Buster finally leaned in towards Brad.

  Brad repeated his move from earlier. He thrust his lower body back, sending the chair flipping backwards, and got his feet under him in a crouching pose. Before Buster could pull back, Brad launched upwards, tilting his head down so the top of his skull would hit Buster in the chin.

  Brad connected and heard and felt Buster’s teeth slam together. Buster flailed, arms flying through giant circles as he tried to stay upright. The torch sputtered as Buster waved it through the air. Brad felt himself start to topple to the right. His ankles were still bound and he hopped several times to keep on his feet. He angled towards Buster and hopped after the flailing man.

  Brad lowered his shoulder and collided with Buster just as the man backed into a stack of cardboard boxes. The two men crashed through the stack, and Buster fell backwards. Brad threw himself down on Buster while bringing his own knees to his chest.

  Buster still gripped the torch. As the blue flame ignited Buster’s fine silver hair, he tried to shove the torch away.

  Brad stretched his already tortured shoulders and worked his hands down below his butt. His wrists strained and popped as he pulled through the pain while trying to keep his weight on the writhing man below him. He got his hands around and past his bound feet as Buster yelled and rolled Brad to the side.

  Free from Brad’s weight, Buster beat at the flames engulfing his hair.

  Brad rose to his knees, gripped his fingers together into one giant fist, and brought them down on Buster’s head. For a moment, both men beat at the flames, but after Brad connected twice, Buster’s arms began to go limp. Brad continued to beat the older man’s head.

  Christine’s voice hitched through a sob. “What’s happening?” she demanded.

  Buster rallied and pushed himself up from the floor.

  Brad shuffled forward on his knees and threw himself down on Buster, knocking the wind out of Buster with his shoulder. Brad positioned his knees on Buster’s chest and resumed beating him.

  Buster went limp.

  Brad’s arms burned with the exertion. He slid forward and brought his knee down on Buster’s chin and then repositioned himself to thrust his knee into Buster’s cheek. He felt bone split and cartilage crack under his knee. Buster’s breath gurgled up through his open mouth and sputtered out his nostril, making snotty bubbles of blood.

  Brad fell away and regarded Buster. The man’s face looked wrecked. His hair was singed, his nose jutted off to the right, one eye was swelling shut, and his jaw hung to the side like a shutter on a haunted house. Brad kept a cold eye on the man as he brought his feet to his hands and started working on the knot at his ankles. He couldn’t reach the knot holding his wrists together, but figured he could reach the one on Christine’s wrists.

  When he finished with his feet he kicked away the rope and backed slowly towards Christine. He was unwilling to look away from Buster.

  Somewhere to his left the torch lit a cardboard box and yellow flames started to grow.

  “What are you doing?” Christine shrieked when Brad’s hands touched hers.

  “I’m untying you so you can untie me,”
Brad said. The work was difficult with his bound hands, but Brad worked fast. When he’d finished with her hands he held out his own, but Christine turned her attention to freeing her own feet.

  Brad ran back to Buster. The man’s breathing slowed. Brad kept a respectful distance but reached forward and stole the gun and knife from the man. He shoved the gun in his pocket, but turned the knife around in his hands and used it to slit the rope around his wrists.

  Behind him, Christine threw off the last of her ropes and ran for the door.

  “Glen!” she yelled.

  “Shut up!” Brad said. “Keep quiet.”

  She threw open the door and disappeared to the hall.

  Bright red blood stained the blade from where Brad nicked his own arm. He stood over Buster and considered driving the knife into Buster’s chest. Instead, he walked to the burning boxes and kicked the stack away from the other boxes. He found the torch and turned the dial to extinguish the flame.

  Brad drew the gun, took one last look at Buster, and moved to the door.

  ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

  BRAD HELD THE GUN out in front of him as he stalked down the hallway. The walls, made of cinderblocks, seemed to absorb what little light came through the window at the end of the long hall. He wished he’d taken the lantern from the cardboard-box room, but it was too late now. When he followed Christine out into the hall, Brad closed the door and snapped shut the padlock hanging from the hasp. As far as he knew, Buster owned the only key and he was locked inside.

  Brad stopped when he heard the scream. It sounded like Christine. Behind him was Buster’s door and the tiny window, mounted high up. Ahead, Brad saw one door on the left and two on the right. He knew the one on the left—at least he thought he did—he thought it was the room where he’d woken up. The scream sounded like it came from one of the doors on the right. Brad brought down each foot with extreme care, trying to make no sound at all as he moved forward.

  Sobs followed the scream. The noise came from the second door on the right. Brad pushed the door open with the barrel of the gun. Inside the door a flashlight lay on the floor. It illuminated a grizzly scene. Christine squatted next to a bloody mess. She hugged herself tight, leaving bloody handprints on her tank top and naked shoulders.