Virgo's Vice

by Trish Jackson

  “Yeah, I’m hungry,” Sam said. “They must be hungry, too. I can’t understand why they aren’t back yet. It’ll be getting dark soon. And what about Allan Dockery?” She turned her gaze toward Lexie. Billy put his arm around her and squeezed her because he knew it upset her to think about any of this.

  Lexie stared at Mark, who shuffled uncomfortably on the log. “He’ll get here. The movie business is, er, difficult. To be a producer you have to pull a lot of stuff together.”

  “It’s pretty irresponsible of him to leave us here without any way to communicate,” Maria said.

  Billy felt Lexie shiver and he knew she had touched yet another raw nerve. “What’s for dinner, anyhow, apart from fish?” He directed the question at Rodriguez.

  “I almost got a couple of birds today. Tomorrow for sure. And thanks, man. You and the others have done a real good job when it comes to fishing.” He rubbed his ankle.

  “And what about those of us who found corn on the cob today and carried them home?” Lela said. “Don’t we also deserve a thank you?” She glared at Rodriguez. She was scary when she was mad. And what had she said on that film footage? She had been in a camp in Iraq or Iran. Could that be true?

  “Corn on the cob,” Billy said. “Geez. Now we’re really living it up.”

  “It’s old and dry,” Faith said, “but it’ll be okay.”

  “Now all we need is a beer. Any more of that cinnamon whiskey stuff?” Billy said to Sam.

  “Sorry, Billy, I only had the one bottle,” Sam said.

  After the meal, Billy burped and lifted his arms above his head to stretch.

  “We should have kept a little in the pot for them,” Lexie said. “They’ll be hungry.”

  “No. They don’t need food,” Faith said.

  Billy wondered what she meant by that, and he thought of the drugs they must be taking and he wondered if that was what Faith was meaning. He was about to ask, when Stretch stood up and dusted off the back of his shorts.

  “Who’s coming?” he said.

  “Me,” Billy said before turning to Lexie. “You coming?” She was staring at Trip. She didn’t say anything.

  He knew now why she hated the dude so much. If she was right. If the dude had done any sort of sexual stuff to her when she was five years old he deserved to be in jail with the key thrown away. To rape a little kid. That was the sickest thing. He deserved the chair. And it should be done the way they did it in that movie where it all went wrong.

  He put his arm around her and pulled her into him. Just the touch of her skin against his instantly brought back the desperate need in him. If the other dudes hadn’t been there today, he knew Lexie wouldn’t have pulled back, and that made him want her more.

  He watched as Trip knocked the tobacco from his pipe and joined the search party, some of whom were putting on their shoes. Billy knew he was going. Trip was going, and Jared, Mark, Stretch, and Sam also volunteered. That would leave Lexie, Faith, Maria, Lela, and Rodriguez in camp. He felt torn. He wanted to be there for Lexie and protect her if necessary, but he also felt driven to search for the missing couple. They might need help and he was young and strong. He crouched down and stroked Jake. “You take good care of her, now,” he told the dog. He stood and kissed Lexie lightly on her lips. “Stay close to the fire,” he warned. “You’ll be safe if you don’t leave it.”

  He followed the others down the almost dark trail, wondering how long the flashlight’s batteries would last. How many spares did Eve say she had brought? It was quite a long trudge to the deserted village. Probably more than four miles, he figured, and he was surprised when Trip, who was in the lead, announced that they had arrived. They hadn’t seen any sign of Andy or Kelli on the way there, and he was beginning to get a bad feeling. He didn’t figure Andy was so dumb that he would stay out after dark with no flashlight or anything, not even if he was high. Once they had screwed, or whatever they wanted to do alone, they should have headed back to camp.

  Trip held the flashlight and swung it in an arc, revealing the crumbling half walls of the huts, and the items strewn around that had been left behind by the former inhabitants. Everyone followed behind Trip as there was only the one light. He shone it into the ruins of a hut and moved on to the next one.

  “Andy, Kelli. Where are you guys?” Billy yelled.

  “We ate your dinner,” Jared shouted. “And it was good.”

  “Time to come home, guys,” Stretch said in his booming bass.

  Only silence greeted them.

  Billy was at the back when he heard a strangled yelp. “Oh, my God!”

  He rushed to where the others were all gasping and moaning. “What the . . .? Shit.” His heart suddenly beating way too fast.

  The others parted so he could see what the flashlight’s beam was revealing.

  “What the fuck?”

  Chapter 31

  I huddle by the fire, vaguely aware of Faith and Maria moving around and cleaning stuff. We have set up one water bag for washing our mugs and bowls, and I guess they use it to clean the pots, too. Lela is sitting across the fire from me just staring into it. Rodriguez is hobbling around between them and us. I think he figures as the only man he has to protect us and make certain everything is okay. His ankle is a little better now and he seems to be able to get around easier.

  Although it’s warm, I shiver and put my arms around Jake and hug him. If it wasn’t for him I would be a total wreck. Well. I am already that, but it would be worse. I realize how much I have come to depend on Billy for support. How long have I known him now? Four days. I feel the color rush to my face when I think back to this afternoon. We swam together. Naked. And it was okay.

  My thoughts turn to the Old Man. Why have I felt this entire time that he isn’t coming back here? What if he doesn’t? How will we find our way home? And where are Andy and Kelli? Mark said they had taken drugs, which is what I thought last time they went off to the creek.

  Jake pushes his nose under my hand and I pet him some more. “Good boy,” I tell him. He knows my stomach is in a knot.

  Lela says, “You think they’ll find them?”

  “I don’t know.” I pause for a few seconds. “Mark said you told him you were in some sort of concentration camp. Is that right?”

  She sighs. “Yes. It’s true. I was in Iraq. I wanted to visit my aunt. She lives near the border with Iran and they came and took me from her house.”

  “Who took you?” I ask.

  “ISIS. They said because I’m from America I must be a spy.” She gives a bitter laugh.

  “So . . . They can’t just do that, can they?”

  She blows out air. “They can do anything they want in their country.”

  “So what did they do?”

  “They raped me in public. Every day. Because I didn’t wear a hijab. They fed me almost nothing. They tortured me trying to get me to admit I was a spy.”

  I shudder. “For real?”

  “Yeah. It was real. Look.” She comes around and sits beside me, slips down her short shirt, and exposes her left breast. Red scars encircle the nipple.

  I gasp.

  “They used cigarettes.”

  “I don’t know how you survived all that,” I say. “And still kept your sanity. I would just die.”

  She chuckles. “Maybe I’m not sane. Maybe I’m crazy. And yes, sometimes I wanted to die. But you can’t. If your body doesn’t want to you can’t just die.” At that moment I can believe her. I also think she could be a little crazy.

  A cold shiver runs down my spine. “You’re lucky they didn’t cut off your head or burn you alive.”

  “I know. That was before they started doing things like that, like cutting off people’s heads.” She shakes her head as if trying to dislodge the terrible memories she must
have.

  “What happened with Andy and Kelli today? Why didn’t they come with you and the others?”

  She shrugs. “First I pissed them off because I asked about Andy being married. And Kelli said she had a serious boyfriend. Remember? When we went to find water the first day.”

  “Yeah. I know. You’re right.”

  “They were . . . It was like they took drugs and anyone can see they want to . . . you know. I should have offered them some of my condoms.” She laughs. “They said they will catch up. We started walking and Trip goes back to talk to them, but he comes back and says he couldn’t find them. Then Faith goes back. She is gone a long time while we are walking toward camp. When she gets back, she says she also can’t find them.” She chuckles. It echoes.

  “Did they call out to them?” This sounds all wrong to me.

  “I guess. I was carrying food so I don’t go back. I think they don’t want to be found.”

  She falls silent.

  Rodriguez lets out a yell. “They’re back.”

  We all jump up and stare out towards the beam of the flashlight bouncing off the grass. Jake trots toward them. My fingernails dig into the palms of my hands as I strain to see how many are approaching us.

  My heart sinks when they get into camp and I see they are carrying two large objects between them, with Sam holding the flashlight. I am almost too scared to move, but I find myself walking slowly toward them as they dump the heavy loads onto the ground.

  “Dead,” Sam says.

  “No.” My voice comes out hoarse and my heart is pounding.

  “How?” Rodriguez asks.

  “Same as Eve. Throats cut.” Sam sighs heavily. “And that’s not all.”

  We all stand there, waiting for her to tell us the rest. Billy approaches me with slumped shoulders. I throw my arms around him and hold on to him. .

  I stroke his back. “Who?” is all I can say.

  Billy takes a couple of deep breaths and lifts his head. “I don’t know but when I find out I’m gonna kill him,” he growls. “Give him a taste of his own medicine. I’m so pissed off. Check my hands. They’re shaking. You didn’t see how . . . It was horrible. They were posed on either side of the skeleton like they were . . . hugging it.”

  He’s still breathing hard and I see the anger on his face in the moonlight.

  Mark approaches us. “I’m glad you didn’t come, Lexie. It was bad.” His face is drawn and pale but I can see he’s also royally pissed off.

  Jared makes his way to us. “Yeah. This is so crazy. I want to get out of here.” He glances around nervously as if expecting the killer—or the legendary monster—to be lurking in the bushes. “I need a drink.” He holds his hands out and they’re shaking, and I don’t know if it’s because he needs a drink or because he’s mad.

  Everyone gathers around the fire. Rodriguez piles logs on it and it flares up and illuminates the horror, anger and sadness on the pale faces around it.

  Chapter 32

  The guys dig graves as soon as it gets light, and bury Andy and Kelli beside Eve. Everyone is freaked out. It’s so surreal. Nobody talks much. So many questions hang in the air.

  Maria has her bible again, and says a few words about them and then she reads the twenty-third psalm again. I don’t know why she uses her bible because she knows the words. It does seem fitting, kind of, because what happened to them was the work of the devil.

  “I’m gonna go wash in that pool,” Mark announces. “I have soap if anyone wants to come along.”

  Everyone does, except for me and the others who already bathed. I want to be here when the Old Man arrives. Or should I say if he comes at all?

  “I’m gonna try to get there,” Rodriguez says. He’s fashioned himself a kind of crutch with a thin branch from a tree.

  “I’ll walk with you,” Mark says.

  I watch them leave, Trip in the front, then the girls, followed by Rodriguez and Mark. I glance at Billy.

  “What?” he says.

  “I was just wondering. Do you think they’ll all come back?”

  Billy sighs. Jared who’s standing on the other side of him says, “We know one thing: it ain’t one of us. And I don’t see how he, or it, overpowered Andy and Kelli like that. Andy was no weakling.”

  “Yeah, but he was high on something. One blow and he was down. He was probably already dead when they cut his throat. Kelli would have been easy after that.” Stretch sighs and folds his arms.

  “So who is it?” Jared asks. “Some crazy psycho running around and living in the bush? A monster? What would the monster look like? Maybe like a Yeti, only an African Yeti that doesn’t live in the snow.”

  “Nah,” Billy counters. “If a monster came into camp, Jake here would have barked the night Eve died. Even if it was a wild animal. Trip says leopards put their kill in trees, but he would have barked.”

  “So you think one of us did it?” Stretch shuffles his feet. “Correction. One of them.”

  “I don’t know what to think, dude. Nothing makes sense to me.” Billy sighs and scratches his chin. “One thing’s for sure, though. The game’s over. Old Man Dockery will have to call it off after this.”

  “It’s Trip,” I say.

  “Huh?” Stretch says. “What do you mean?”

  “He killed them.”

  “Why do you think that? I mean, that dude has been helping us. Why would he kill us? Now nobody will win the million dollars. He must have wanted it just as much as all of us or he wouldn’t have entered. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “He’s crazy,” I say. “I know him from before. And think about it. He was on watch the night Eve died. He was the one who went back to get Andy and Kelli. He’s not normal and he doesn’t think logically. He’s a monster. Maybe he’s the monster that scared all the locals to move out of the area. He says he’s been living in Africa for a while.”

  “And he’s the one who told us leopards put their prey in trees. If it wasn’t Trip, who else could have done it?” Billy asks.

  I suddenly realize what a relief it is to know Billy isn’t the killer. I know so little about him.

  “Rodriguez is also in the clear, and Maria,” Jared says. “How about Lela? She’s strong.”

  “She said some crazy things to me last night,” I add. “Things like she was held captive in a camp in Iraq and soldiers from ISIS took her and made her a prisoner.”

  Jared and Stretch laugh.

  “It could be true,” Billy says. “She showed Lexie some scars on her boobs that she said were from being tortured.”

  “For real?” Jared says. “She showed you her . . . her tits?”

  I nod. “The scars are scary. Cigarette burns.” I wince at the thought of the pain she must have had to endure.

  “So maybe that made her mentally ill,” Stretch suggested. “Maybe she’s nuts, one beer short of a six-pack, and Andy and Kelli did something or said something that pushed her over the edge.”

  “What about Faith?” Billy says.

  We all laugh.

  “I mean it.” Billy’s mouth flattens. “She’s tall and probably stronger than she appears.”

  “She was mad at them yesterday morning.”

  “Not mad enough to kill,” Stretch says.

  We laugh again.

  “Sam is more likely to have killed them than Faith,” I say.

  “Except Faith did something weird to the skeleton they found. Like, she stroked it and chanted something. That’s the only way I can describe it. Lexie and me saw it on video on Mark’s camera. It freaked me out, man.” Billy drapes his arm around me and kisses my ear.

  It tickles in a nice kind of way. I duck and lift my shoulders.

  Stretch grunts and we’re all quiet for a few seconds. I can
tell he’s not convinced about Trip.

  “What’s that?” I say. “Listen?”

  Everyone stops talking. The sound is getting closer.

  “It’s an airplane,” I yell and shake Billy’s arm. “It’s him. The Old Man.”

  The engine noise gets louder and then we see it. It swoops down low over us and we wave our arms and yell.

  “Here. We’re all here.”

  The aircraft keeps going and disappears from view over a ridge.

  “Must be going down to the airfield,” Billy says. “Come on.”

  We all take off at a run toward where the aircraft disappeared. Elation swamps my every pore. “Thank you, God.” I whisper to myself. Then I shout, “Thank you, thank you.”

  The airplane hasn’t landed. It rises and comes into view again and starts to circle round. Maybe there’s a problem with the airfield.

  “What’s he doing?” Stretch shades his eyes with his hand and stares up at the aircraft.

  “He’s leaving,” Jared says.

  I watch in disbelief as the aircraft dips its wings in what I understand is an acknowledgment that he’s seen us, and then it heads back the way it came.

  “No,” I hear myself shout, and I run after it for a few yards before I turn and stare at the others. Their faces show disappointment and misunderstanding. I know mine probably projects the exact emotions.

  We all stare at it with our mouths open until it disappears from view.

  Chapter 33

  “Son of a bitch is gone.” Stretch shakes his fist in the air.

  “Fucking asshole!” Jared says.

  “He can’t be leaving,” I hear myself whine. “We need him here. He knows we fucking need him. He’ll come back.”