‘Poor Charlie couldn’t do shit about it. The rabbit was so tame. It didn’t even try to run away. He watched the dog tear it to pieces. By the time it was over, it was just skin and bone. Charlie didn’t say much of anythin’ after that. He just lay in bed like a vegetable. “Catatonic shock”, they called it. His mom moved him away a couple of months later, so he could be closer to the hospital. Never did find out what happened to him. Course, I’m not sayin’ that’s what is happening to your girl.’
‘It’s not,’ Vincent said. ‘She’ll be fine.’
‘Hey, man, it’s just a story,’ Fukes replied.
‘Ethan, the bag, please.’ Vincent reached for the backpack and Ethan roused himself enough to toss it over to him. He took the bottle of water from it, pouring some of its contents over his fingers and then transferring them to Emily’s lips. The moisture made contact with their dry surface, then rolled to the corners of her mouth and down her cheeks. ‘Try the radio again.’
Before Ethan could act on his request, Emily blinked twice, let out a long breath, and focussed on her father’s face. ‘Hey, baby,’ he said smiling.
Her weak voice hissed through her barely moving lips. ‘The monsters.’
‘It’s OK now – the monsters are all gone. Daddy found you. I’m so sorry I left you alone. I won’t ever do that again. I promise.’
Emily’s eyelids soon grew heavy. She tried to open them again, but the same thing happened. ‘I’m really tired.’
‘Then go to sleep.’ Vincent caressed the loose strands of hair hanging over her forehead and wiped the tears from her eyes.
‘There you go,’ Fukes said as he crouched next to them. ‘Like I said, it was just a story.’
He cranked his neck to relieve some stiffness. Vincent noticed that on the side of his neck he had a tattoo of a large snake, coiled around a medieval dagger.
‘So I guess we wait for your friends to get here, then see to your daughter and we can have a chat about me and Harley stayin’ for a while. What you think?’
Vincent coughed to clear the tightness from his throat before responding ‘we can discuss that, but the guy who got us here’s not likely to be keen on the idea.’
‘He in charge?’
‘No one’s in charge. He just helped us find a safe place.’
‘Well, if he led you here and kept you safe, I’d say he’s in charge, even if it ain’t official an’ all that. Don’t worry, Vincent. We’ll have a nice civil conversation with your man. I’m sure he’ll come around to our way of thinkin’.’ Fukes paused and looked around at the walls of the Management Centre. ‘This is a big ol’ place. Plenty of room for everyone. If we stayed over at the other side of the facility, we’d hardly ever see each other.’
Vincent cast a nervous glance at Ethan, but the young man seemed to be suffering, holding his head in his hands. ‘I can’t speak for Jake; we’ve only known him for a few days.’
‘What about you, Vincent? What did you do before all this?’ Fukes said.
‘Me? I… I wrote fiction.’
‘Really? Anything I’d know?’
‘No. I’d just sold my first novel.’
‘So how did you get by?’
‘My wife was a human rights lawyer in the city. I stayed home and looked after my daughter.’
Fukes rested back on his heels, giving Vincent’s words careful consideration. ‘A house husband, huh?’
Harley, who still stood over Ethan, sneered at Vincent, curling his lip in disgust.
‘I gotta say, Vin, you’re a bigger man than me. I couldn’t have it that way round. Not at all,’ Fukes said. ‘Kind of knocks nature’s balance off-kilter in my eyes.’
Vincent caught sight of the black hold-all Harley had thrown down. ‘I enjoy being a father. It’s something I’m good at.’
Fukes nodded and stroked his chin. ‘I can definitely see that. Shame about your book though. I haven’t found anythin’ decent to read for months. What was it about?’
‘It was a romance,’ Vincent said.
Harley could not help but release a deep, grimy snigger.
‘’Course it was.’ Fukes smiled.
‘Fukes likes the dirty ones,’ Harley said.
Fukes smiled faded. ‘Harls, why don’t you make yourself useful and go see if Jake and Vin’s wife are on their way.’ He spoke calmly, but Vincent could tell there was anger simmering behind it.
Harley looked despondently to Ethan sitting on the floor.
‘He’s fine,’ Fukes said.
‘Yeah, sure.’ Harley lifted the shotgun to rest it on his shoulder and climbed the stairs to the door.
‘We don’t want your people bein’ all spooked when they get back and see us in here. They may think we’re up to no good. Folks were too hasty even before the dead started comin’ back. Does this Jake fella have a firearm?’
‘A pretty big one.’ Ethan suddenly piped up, seemingly back with them again. ‘Not that I know anything about guns.’
‘Ethan, ain’t it?’
Ethan nodded.
‘Now, you’re a real interesting guy.’ Fukes stood up and walked over to him.
Ethan saw that, hanging from his belt, he had a walkie-talkie of his own – a little older and more beaten-up than theirs. ‘You’d be surprised how many times I’ve heard that.’
‘I don’t think I would,’ Fukes said.
Vincent couldn’t take his eyes off the hold-all. The silver pull of its zipper sat at the end closest to him, but it was just out of reach. He slowly shifted Emily’s head from his lap and onto the floor without waking her.
‘See, the problem with interesting guys is they overthink things,’ Fukes continued. ‘They let shit go round and round in their heads till it eats them up. I can see you’re still findin’ it tough – maybe because of what you had to do when your friend got himself bit.’
Vincent leaned towards the bag, keeping one eye on Fukes, and with the other, making sure he didn’t accidently bump Emily. As he stretched his fingertips out, a few centimetres from the pull, the sole of his shoe created the tiniest squeak on the floor’s polished surface. Vincent heard it, but Fukes didn’t. His back remained turned. Vincent gained enough leverage to place his hand on the hold-all’s black canvas.
Vincent’s face went numb with the sound of the slide and snap of the loaded shotgun above his head. ‘No one told you you could touch that, asshole.’
This got Fukes’s attention. He saw Harley aiming the shotgun at the top of the stairs and lowered his hands towards him. ‘Woah, woah, woah – let’s calm the fuck down. There’s no need to be popping off shots at each other.’ He wagged his finger back at Ethan, and the broadest smile broke over his face. ‘Y’know, as soon as we first saw you two, we knew you weren’t the kind of folks who’d go pulling guns at the first sniff of an outsider. You’re reasonable people, after all. Get Vincent’s shooter, Harley.’ Fukes looked at Vincent. ‘Give Harley your weapon, buddy.’
Vincent reached down carefully and slid the Beretta from the top of his pants and handed it, handle-first, to Harley. The hulking man struggled to bend enough to take it from him, sticking the end of his tongue out as he fumbled.
‘I knew you’d be curious about the bag. It’s hard to miss. Don’t worry, we’ll get to that. First things first.’ Fukes drew his own gun and shoved it in Ethan’s face. ‘I want you to try and get your mate on that radio again. That’s what you Brits say, right? “Mate”? Tell him to meet you here.’
‘Should I mention you?’
‘Erm, I don’t know, Ethan. Should you mention us?’
‘Probably not?’
‘See? Interestin’ people are usually smart too.’ He thumbed back the hammer on his six-shooter. ‘Call him.’
Ethan lifted the radio to his mouth. ‘Salty, come in.’
To his surprise, Salty’s voice came back immediately. ‘Where’s Graham?’ He was breathing fast.
‘He’s fine. Where the hell did you go? I’ve been trying to get hold of you.
’
‘Yeah. We ran into a couple of former employees up at the lodge. They were former in every sense. Tell Graham his wife’s OK.’
Fukes glanced at Vincent and Emily. ‘Looks like your lucky day,’ he said.
‘We’ve been having some troubles of our own,’ Ethan said.
‘What kind of troubles?’
‘We found a breach in the fence near the nature trail.’ Ethan considered mentioning that they had been attacked and lost Adam, but he held his tongue, keenly aware of the gun barrel aimed right at him.
‘We’re on our way,’ Salty said.
‘We’re back at the Management Centre.’
‘Why aren’t you dealing with the breach?’
Ethan paused to take a breath and Fukes raised his eyebrows, covering the trigger. ‘I’ll fill you in when you get here.’
‘You better,’ Salty said.
‘Over and out.’ Ethan dropped the radio to his lap and Fukes uncocked his weapon.
‘You’re a good man, Ethan. We’ll get this all cleared up in a minute,’ Fukes said. ‘In fact, you’re pretty congenial yourself there, Vincent. Makes me wonder how you two boys and the kid managed to last so long out in the open. There’s your wife – obviously wearing your balls as a necklace, but I still don’t see her as the survival type. That leaves us with the good ol’ boy. I guess he did a bang-up job of protecting you.’
‘We were part of a camp, southwest of here,’ Vincent said.
‘Military?’
‘Yes, but it’s gone now. The soldiers cleared out of there.’
‘So they just bailed on the civilians?’
‘Not exactly,’ Vincent said. He looked away to check if Emily was still asleep.
Fukes pondered his cryptic reply and soon worked out what it meant. ‘Wait, what? They cut loose, but didn’t wanna leave any potential gut-bags behind?’
‘They called it mercy.’
‘Y’know, that’s smart. I mean, that’s what I would’ve done.’
‘Damn straight,’ Harley added.
‘You see, house husband, there’s never been anythin’ but two types of people in this world – thinkers and doers. Me and my associates, we’re doers. If we see somethin’ we want, we don’t just think about it. We reach out and take it. In polite society, men like us were seen as outcasts, because we didn’t do it with fancy suits and a fuckin’ business degree. But now, in this jungle, we’re goin’ right back to the old rules.’ Fukes shrugged at him. ‘We fit into this terrain better than you and Rainboy over there. As for your daughter – I hate to be the one breakin’ it to ya, but she’s just an accident waitin’ to happen.’
‘Don’t talk about my daughter,’ Vincent said.
Fukes shook his head knowingly and smiled. ‘There’s nothing like fatherhood to get the blood pumpin’.’
‘You talk about being smart,’ Ethan said. ‘Why lug a useless bag of money around with you in a world like this?’
‘Woah there, I was just jokin’ with the Rainboy thing,’ Fukes said.
‘Lucky guess,’ Ethan said.
‘’Cause it’s our haul. We spilled blood for it,’ Fukes said.
‘Some innocent teller?’
‘No, my fuckin’ brother, you piece a’ shit.’ Harley spat the words across the room at Ethan, raising his shotgun once again.
‘Five of us hit an armoured cash transport just outside of Lawrence, Kansas. And we pulled it off – almost,’ Fukes said. ‘Came away with just over a million, but we didn’t get away clean. Will took a bullet to his chest.’
Vincent saw Harley curl his lip and grunt. He kept his grief at bay with anger. Vincent could only imagine what he must have done with the security guard who fired the shot.
‘We barely made it out, but Will didn’t last long. By the time we got to Missouri, he’d already passed.’
The hollow clanging echoed through the Management Centre as Harley booted his foot against the stair rail.
Vincent noticed Emily’s eyes flicker immediately after the sound. Then they closed again.
‘An old school buddy of mine had a farm out in the prairie region. He was one of those full-scale preppers. Not the butt of everyone’s jokes no more. Law of averages: bark at the moon long enough, one day you’re gonna be right. Anyways, Spittoon hooked us up. Helped us bury Will. He had one of those futuristic bunkers out back. Forty feet down, air filtration unit, its own power source, all the fuckin’ canned food you could eat. We stayed down in that hole for two whole months, waitin’ for the heat on the robbery to cool off. Then one day, Spittoon doesn’t show up to check on us. We waited for another week before we went above ground. And we found it like this. Like I said, we’re just lookin’ for a place to stay, just like everyone else that’s still breathin’.’
‘You and your friends?’ Ethan said.
‘That’s right. We split the money when we split up to scout for supplies.’ Fukes smiled, flashing his single gold tooth as he stared down at Vincent. ‘What you reckon, house husband? Think we can all get along after our little misunderstanding?’
‘I can’t see that working out well, no. When Jake and my wife get back, we should all just take a breath, and then our group will be on its way. We’ll take some food and clothing and be gone before nightfall,’ Vincent said.
Fukes nodded, covering his top lip with his bottom. ‘I don’t know, Vincent. Let’s just have ourselves a chat and see what happens.’
Harley, alerted by something, jogged to the door, his stride awkward. ‘They’re comin’,’ he said, peering outside.
Fukes pointed to Ethan on the floor. ‘Stay put,’ he said, then looked at Vincent. ‘A lot depends on you now. Could decide which way this thing goes.’ Fukes went to the top of the steps and waved Harley back. They dragged Vincent and Emily under the stairwell with them and waited.
As the footsteps and muffled voices drew closer, Fukes trained his gun on Vincent and Harley pointed his shotgun at Ethan, in case he got any ideas about signalling to the others before they had got down the stairs.
‘You in here, Graham?’ Salty wandered in first holding his hatchet, fresh blood dripping from its blade, the assault rifle slung over his shoulder.
‘Vincent?’ Kristin shouted. Vincent was desperate to call out to her, but Fukes’s eyes instructed him to reconsider.
When Salty reached the top of the steps, he saw Ethan slumped on the floor. ‘What in the hell are you doin?’
Ethan opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again.
Salty ran down to him, and both intruders emerged from the stairwell to flank him.
As soon as Salty heard the click from the hammer of Fukes’s pistol, he froze.
Harley flicked the shotgun barrel to his left to direct Kristin down the steps.
‘Lose the chopper, green bean,’ Fukes said.
Salty let go of the hatchet and it clanged against the hard floor.
‘The rifle next. Nice and easy now.’
He twisted his slim frame to slide the strap from his shoulder, but as soon as it was free, he swung it back, striking Fukes’s wrist with the rifle butt. As he was about to plant his fist on Fukes’s chin, Harley stepped across and leathered him on the side of his head with the heavy end of his shotgun. Salty fell face-first, going limp before he hit the ground and dropping the assault rifle.
The weapon slid over to where Ethan was sitting. He shuffled towards it, but Fukes had already recovered and placed his boot on it. ‘Don’t let your asshole friend’s stupidity catch on. Spraying bullets around just ain’t you.’
Kristin noticed Vincent and her sleeping daughter under the stairwell. She tried to go to them, only to feel one of Harley’s strong arms across her chest. He positioned himself behind her, his hot breath on her neck as he took a powerful whiff of her hair.
‘Jackpot,’ he said, sniggering.
Kristin’s eyes fixed on her family.
Vincent stood and squared up to the hairy biker. ‘Get your hands off of
her.’
‘Let’s stay cool,’ Fukes said. ‘Vincent, I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, bud, but you ain’t really in a position to be callin’ anything right now. So just sit back down and see to your girl. That’s what you’re good at, right?’ Out of the corner of his eye, Fukes caught sight of Ethan crawling towards Salty. ‘Where’re you goin’?’
‘Checking if he’s still breathing.’ Ethan reached the body on the ground and placed his hand between Salty’s bony shoulder blades.
‘He’ll wake up with a shitty head is all. He should’ve done as he was told, and that’s what y’all gotta do: sit tight and wait for our associates to get here. No one else has to get hurt.’ Fukes relaxed his stance. His pistol hung loose in his grip. He swaggered further into the Management Centre, his attention caught by the glow from the security monitors beyond the banks of computers. He wandered over to them and examined each monitor in turn. ‘Y’know, you owe Yosemite Sam even more than you realise for leading you to this place. In fact, I’m gonna thank the motherfucker as soon as he wakes up.’ He hit the console of one of the monitors and cycled through the locations of the facility. The golf course, the scenic lodge, the east lake, the parking lot and the observation tower to the north.
Ethan watched from afar, expecting Fukes to freeze on one camera and lean in so he could get a better image of Raine making her way towards them. Instead, Fukes lost interest in the security feeds and walked back. ‘If we do cosy up together, I think we’ll take whatever’s on this side of the park. That way we can keep an eye on you from here. Whaddaya say, house husband?’ Fukes then broke into song. ‘Ebony and ivory, live together in perfect harmony.’ It made him laugh so much that he couldn’t sing anymore.
‘I hear it’s gonna get real cold this winter,’ Harley whispered in Kristin’s ear. He pushed his body tighter against her. She tried to wriggle away, but his grasp was too powerful. She could feel his pelvis grinding against her backside. Fortunately, his gut was so large he could barely get his groin to make contact.
Vincent watched on, simmering with rage. It was taking everything he had just to stay on the ground. Such was his torment, he unknowingly squeezed on Emily a little too hard and she opened her eyes.
Everything Dies [Season One] Page 16
