“I hope so.” Nev shrugged. “Never tried it with real cop cuffs.” Nev twisted her hands inside the cuffs.
Zach watched her hands become slimmer as her thumb bent at an odd angle. She was free. Zach and Spike and Charley were still handcuffed together.
Nev gasped and her eyes widened. Zach followed her gaze. An ethereal shape passed on the edge of the freeway. It was Lizzie—her body clothed only in moonlight. Shit, Lizzie, that is crazy. It was crazy, but the guard stood and followed her.
“Let’s go,” Nev whispered. “Now.”
Zach tore his eyes away. He held onto the loose cuff Nev had occupied, so it wouldn’t make any noise. He motioned Charley to do the same. Nev led them, jogging toward the freeway. Zach, Spike, and Charley followed in an awkward three-legged-race stumble. Spike kept twisting to look at Lizzie and Zach had to tug hard on the cuffs to keep him going forward.
At the freeway a dark form detached from the shadows. They all stopped, frozen.
Then Zach recognized Duke. The handcuffs jerked Zach forward, as Spike launched at Duke.
“Spike,” Zach hissed. “Not now.”
Duke jumped backward, beckoning them to follow. They moved fast with Spike chasing Duke more than following him.
“It’s okay, Spike,” Charley soothed. “It’s gonna be okay.”
When they reached the tree line Duke stopped. He bent down and came up with guns. He handed Zach and Nev guns.
“What about Lizzie?” Zach hissed.
“She’s gonna circle around and meet us at the house.”
Zach nodded, reluctant to leave Lizzie behind without knowing she was away from danger. He spun all the way around, dragging Spike with him in a half circle.
Zach saw the guard carrying Lizzie draped over his arms. “Jesus fuck.”
“What the hell is she doing?” Nev asked.
“Shit, Lizzie.” Zach tugged at the handcuff chaining him to Spike.
Duke stared. “She really is crazy.”
“Yeah.” Zach gritted his teeth.
Duke’s hands were white-knuckled on the barrel of the rifle. “There are only four of them.”
Nev shook her head. “There are more coming. I overheard their leader talking about another crew meeting up with them at 4 a.m.”
“Then we get out of here.” Zach picked up Lizzie’s clothes. “Figure something else out.” A cell phone fell out of the pile and onto the ground. Zach retrieved it. On the screen was an unsent text intended for him. Sorry 4 tricks. Gotta find my dad. Zach read it aloud. “They have her dad, too.”
“She thinks she can get to him,” Duke said, “by being captured.”
Zach sighed.
Yelling erupted behind them. Their escape had been discovered.
Zach said. “We’re out of time.”
“Okay, let’s move.” Duke led them at a hard pace through the trees and snow.
They broke out of the woods in a suburbia. Duke ran across a couple yards to one of the houses with a porch light on.
Rachael opened the door with Saj in her arms. She didn’t protest as Nev took Saj and kissed his head.
Zach pulled the other handcuffed males to Nev and the baby, checking him like a worried parent.
“You’re with us now?” Zach turned a skeptical eye on Rachael. “That’s convenient.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, casting her eyes down. “I didn’t want to help them.”
Zach’s anger wavered. Why am I pissed off at her? Rachael shouldn’t get the blame for the grudge he held against what those idiot Caldwell people had done. She had been as much a prisoner as Saj.
“Okay.” He nodded once and said, “Now, how the Hell do I get these cuffs off!” He rattled his wrist at Duke.
Duke arched an eyebrow. “I’m supposed to know? I’m no criminal.”
“I got Internet,” Rachael said. “I’ll see if I can figure it out.”
“I got mine off.” Charley grinned, holding up his hands. “Guess having little wrists helps.”
They went inside the house and Rachael turned on a computer in the den. Zach’s eyes swept the room. Spike jerked at the end of his tether and the cuff bit into Zach’s wrist. Zach sighed. Of course he would end up literally chained to the hyper mutt.
“Dammit, Spike.” Zach jerked his arm back toward himself, tugging Spike to a heel. “Charley, can you tell Spike to chill?”
Charley pulled Spike’s hands toward him and made signs.
Rachael’s fingers clacked at the keyboard. “Got it. There’s a video.”
She and Charley stared at the screen. Duke had disappeared to ‘check the perimeter’. Zach sat on the couch. Spike had calmed down, but every time he exhaled he whined. Charley patted his leg and continued to distract him with sign language.
After watching the video over Rachael’s shoulder and finding some bobby pins, Nev tinkered with the cuff between Zach and Spike. It took a few tries but eventually the cuff binding him to Spike popped open and he was free.
Zach picked up Saj and walked, the handcuff that had linked him to Nev still dangling from his wrist.
Nev followed him. “You okay, Zach?” Her hand touched his shoulder.
“No.” He shrugged away from her. “Fucking pissed.”
“Let me finish getting these bracelets off.” Nev opened the door to a bathroom and flipped on the light. “Come on. The light’s better in here.”
“Thanks,” he growled.
“Lizzie saved us.” Nev poked and wiggled in the keyhole with the bobby pin. “Do you think she’s in danger?”
“I don’t know. The Boss guy didn’t want us hurt. Just taken to their glorious city.” He hugged Saj. “It’s control. I don’t want anybody telling me what to do. And I sure as hell know Lizzie doesn’t want that.” He gave a dry laugh. “But she set this up.”
“Bingo,” Nev said as the other handcuff released. Then she, quiet for a moment, searched his face. “Shouldn’t we follow her?”
“As far as I am concerned, Lizzie made her bed and she can lie in it! You fucking bail her out.” Immediately, Zach wished he could call back the words. “Nev-”
“Fuck you, Zach.” Nev took Saj from his arms and stomped off.
The blond laid Lizzie down on something soft—a sleeping bag? She slipped her eyelids open, still playing unconscious. Her rescuer’s eyes skipped back and forth from her breasts to her face. Stupid jerk. She opened her eyes, not caring about her ruse anymore.
His face twisted in embarrassment. “Are you okay?” he asked.
A rifle butt caught him in the gut and sent him flying backwards.
“Stupid shit.” A mulleted man spat at Lizzie’s captor. “You let them get away!”
“Fuck you, Carter.”
He turned his glare down at Lizzie. She cowered at his feet, fig-leafing her arms, protecting her exposed parts.
“You let them get away for this, Travis?” His finger jabbed toward Lizzie.
“Hey!” Lizzie’s anger gave her the presence of mind to pull the sleeping bag up over her shivering nakedness.
Travis lay a few feet away, groaning and clutching his stomach.
“I assume those were your friends,” Carter said. “Well, I suppose a nice filled-out harlot like you might be worth a bit more. The males weren’t going to bring us much and the one chick didn’t have much of a figure.” He leered down at her sleeping bag as if his eyes could bore right through it.
God, more breeders! The world’s barely ended, you’d think people had other things on their minds. Lizzie met his eyes and held them. “Yes. They’re my friends.”
Carter’s ugly mug split into a grin. “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. You traded yourself for them? If you wanted into The City so bad all you had to do was ask.”
Lizzie shivered. “I don’t want in The City, I want o see my dad. Fastest way, I figured, was to be brought in by you slavers.”
“We’re not slavers.” His smile disappeared and the glare returned. “We’re
Collectors, collecting folks who need the safety of The City. Once you check in they don’t keep you prisoner. People come and go. They need to have travel permits—for safety.”
“Right. And I’m sure there is some benevolent, wise white-haired man who will let all us pretties know when it is safe to go back out into the big bad world. But lemme guess. It’s not safe out here yet.”
“Nope.” Carter grinned. “We got the weather. The Utah Independents. The Crazies…
Lizzie yawned, as if bored. “I want clothes, a cigarette, a drink, and then some sleep—in that order.” She jutted her chin out like a queen. If she was such a prize, he would treat her like one. Or so she hoped.
Carter stared at her for a long moment. He shook his arms out of the sleeves of his heavy black jacket.
She spied the Tank and pointed. “I have clothes in there.”
”A cigarette and a drink? You old enough?”
“Are you?”
Carter chuckled handing her his coat. “What’s your name?”
Lizzie slid her arms into the warm flannel-lined sleeves. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but smelled of cigarettes and man. “I’m Lizzie.”
He inclined his head. “Carter. Just Carter.” He kicked snow at Travis who was starting to pick himself up off the ground. “Go fetch her bag of clothes.” He asked Lizzie, “What’s it look like?”
“It’s a black duffle with Hello Kitty and Kiss patches.”
A minute later Travis, still seething, dumped it at her feet.
Lizzie pulled out jeans, a tee, and a hoodie, dressing clumsily inside the sleeping bag. At the bottom of the duffel Lizzie spied a cell phone. She grabbed a baseball cap, scooping the phone into it as she shoved it in the belly pocket of the hoodie.
Once she was decent, and had warm socks and boots on, Carter motioned with his gun for her to get in the back of his truck. “You’ll be safe here.” He tossed the sleeping bag next to her. He glared at Travis. “And warm—up off the ground. The City doesn’t pay us for damaged goods.”
Lizzie sat on the tailgate. Carter pulled a pack of cigarettes and popped one up. She slid the cigarette from the pack as he pulled an engraved Zippo out of his pocket and flicked it open. Lizzie stuck her cigarette in the flame and inhaled. Then she let it blow out of her mouth. She relished the dirty burn, but it didn’t feel as good as it used to. It felt like ages since she had smoked and she realized she hadn’t missed it. After that first drag, she stubbed it out.
“What do you mean by The City?” Lizzie slipped the cigarette in her pocket for later.
Carter raised an eyebrow. “Provo, but everybody calls it The City.” He pulled a flask from his pocket and offered it to Lizzie.
“I’ve never been good at following rules, I don’t think I’ll make a very good citizen of this city.” Lizzie accepted the flask.
Carter shrugged. “That’s why some of us have to live on the outside as Collectors.”
Lizzie raised the flask, “Cheers.” She put it to her lips and then tipped it back. She grimaced at the burn in her throat and handed it back to Carter.
A 4X4 drove out of the dark, lights blinding as it rolled to a stop.
“Get some sleep,” Carter said. “We’ll be heading out in the morning.” He strode toward the truck.
Lizzie unrolled the fresh sleeping bag he had tossed in the truck bed for her. She climbed inside the only privacy she was going to get. Under the cover of the downy shield, she pressed the power button on the phone and held it. She was rewarded with a flash of light, a logo and then a warning. “Plug in phone. Power level 0%.” Then darkness. “Shit.”
Mannie woke to a hand jostling him. Where was he?
“Wake up.” Jess’ voice came from behind him. “Mannie?”
“Jess?” He groaned. His blood pounded loud in his skull.
“I’m here, Mannie.”
He let himself breathe. “What time is it?”
“It’s four a.m. Lizzie’s alive.”
Lizzie’s alive? Am I dreaming?
Jess’ face held the hint of a smile.
“Really?” Had he heard her correctly? He didn’t exactly trust his senses right now. He worked at rolling himself over.
“I talked to her. We were headed to meet her when some good old boys interrupted us.” Jess lost the joy of the moment and now anger colored her voice.
Mannie got his legs over the edge of the bed and tried to stand. It was a bad move. His head throbbed and the room spun. “Jesus. What the hell was in that bottle?” He collapsed back, sitting on the bed, hands on his knees to stay vertical.
“Vodka,” BeeGee said, chuckling sleepily. “You drank it all.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s all good.” BeeGee didn’t bother to turn away from the wall. “You needed. I didn’t.”
Mannie took in his surroundings. They were in a small town jail. The three of them were in a cell with two beds and some chairs. A velvet painting of Elvis adorned the wall. An opaque shower curtain hung around when the stainless steel toilet was in use. Jess sat next to him on the edge of the bed covered with a pink frilly blanket. BeeGee lay on the other, a more sedate dark red.
“We’re somewhere on the outskirts of Salt Lake City,” Jess said, “awaiting transport into The City."
“The City? Salt Lake?”
“Provo.” Her face was grim and frustrated. “But they say, The City like it’s some damned relic.”
“The same people who stopped us at the roadblock?” Mannie watched Jess, her anger seemed so out of character he almost laughed. He held his own face tight. Lizzie is alive. Thinking the thought made everything okay. Even if they were locked in a jail.
“I think so. But the people who brought us here are like scouts or something. They call themselves Collectors.”
“What do they collect?” Mannie knew the answer.
“Us. People. Young women seem to be their particular interest.” Jess’ face clouded.
Mannie put a hand on her arm. “Are you okay?” He was glad he hadn’t laughed.
“Yeah,” Jess shook off the darkness. "Just stupid. I drove right up to them and got out. Thought it was Lizzie.”
“You did fine.” Mannie smiled at her and then slumped back down on his side. His hand throbbed, reminding him of the bite. “Shit. What day is it?”
“The twenty-sixth.”
Mannie breathed a sigh of relief; he didn’t need the next vaccine until day after tomorrow.
“A doctor came. He took off your bandage and redid it. I told him you needed the vaccine. He said he’d pass on the word.” Jess seemed to sense his thoughts. “They’re transporting us once the sun comes up.
Mannie nodded. “Okay.”
“Lizzie knows we’ve been captured,” Jess said softly.
Mannie turned to Jess; her voice sounded worried. “Is that bad?”
Jess looked tired, but holding herself together. She was tough, but he was pretty sure it was a thin sheen of strength. “You think she’ll do something?”
“Yeah. We called her Crazy Lizzie in school…” Jess shrugged.
Mannie chuckled. Blood will tell. His Army buddies had tagged him Poco Loco.
“She’ll probably get Zach to help her break us out.”
“Randy will save me.” BeeGee muttered and rolled over. “I’ll be sorry if he kills you.”
Mannie laughed again as Jess rolled her eyes. He tried to stand again, this time the room didn’t move too much. The hangover faded to a fuzzy grogginess with a dull ache at the base of his brain stem as he paced. Regrets plagued his mind. After a while BeeGee sat up and started playing with her phone.
Their transport was delayed. The sun was well up. As much as he wanted to see her, Mannie hoped Lizzie was far away by now.
Jess leaned against the wall on the bed he’d slept on scratching words in a journal.
“You writing about me in there?”
“Maybe.” She grinned up at him. “Some. Random thoughts mostly. Doodles. T
rying to make sense of things.” She tore the last sheet out and tossed it at the garbage can. It bounced off the edge and landed on the floor.
She scooched over to make room for him. He hesitated. Too exhausted to worry about what was appropriate, he lay down beside her and closed his eyes.
It seemed like he only had a moment of respite before the cell doors clanged open.
31
MANNIE GLARED AS A middle-aged man with a beer belly and a uniform loose everywhere else slid open the cell bars.
“You folks ready to go into The City?” The guard made it sound like he was taking them to Disneyland.
“We have some choice in the matter?” Mannie asked.
The guard, shook his head. “Nope. Sorry. I drive the bus.”
Mannie stood up and stretched his knee. “You got a name?”
“Friends call me, Rocky.” The man offered his hand.
Mannie paused and stared at the offered hand. “I’m Mannie.” He shook it, startled by the surrealness of such a normal activity. Not like they hadn’t all been exposed.
“Yeah.” Rocky nodded. “I guess that makes sense.”
Jess nudged BeeGee awake on the other bunk.
Rocky led them outside to a waiting van. Snowflakes floated down on the clean and pretty ground.
Inside the van, one man rode in the passenger seat, shotgun in hand. Two more young men with guns were in the back. They weren’t an enemy Mannie was used to: civilians—realtors, accountants, gardeners. He thought about escaping, but with amateurs and guns things would go downhill fast. And he couldn’t face any more ghosts.
Mannie stared northward and sighed. So close. He climbed in, nodding at the young men; they looked bored.
Jess climbed in and sat next to him, giving him a half smile. BeeGee climbed in and Jess slid over until she was up against him. The ride was quiet.
Lizzie sat in the passenger side of the Tank as it bounced along toward Salt Lake City. Carter drove. Travis drove the boss’s truck and the other truck followed behind.
ALL IS SILENCE Page 26
