by K. M. Fawkes
“No, I don’t. I want you to answer my question.”
“It’s fairly simple. The trash pit is for things that aren’t useful,” Walker said calmly, taking a sip of his drink.
“How can you— There are people in there!” Brad hissed.
“Of course there are. Not every person is worthwhile.”
In the face of such a calm response, Brad was compelled to rush at the man. He wanted to hit him until he understood what pain and fear were. But there were too many soldiers there for that.
“How can you do this?” he asked instead. “How could you just kill them and then leave them out there?”
“I told you when you arrived,” Walker said with a slight shrug, as if he was chastising Brad for not having read the terms and conditions. “You have to be useful to stay here. Those particular people weren’t useful at all.”
“Why? Because they were old?” Brad demanded.
Walker inclined his head and took another leisurely sip of his drink.
“Some of them, yes. Certainly everyone who was still living here when my men and I decided to stay. Some of them arrived later.”
Brad stared at him, aghast. “So there are other bodies in that pit? It’s not just the former residents?”
“No, of course not. I’ve told you, Brad. It’s not personal.” He shook his head. “The pit is filled with trash. The elderly…what were they going to do besides take up medical supplies? The sick and injured that crawled in here…” His face twisted with disgust. “I was doing them a favor by putting them out of their misery. And, of course there’s no point in feeding the ones with the no real skills, even less the ones who want to cause trouble.”
“Who defines skills?” Brad asked, his stomach starting to churn. He’d thought that there had been more to being evicted than he’d thought, but he hated to have it confirmed so coldly.
“I do,” Walker said, biting off each word with a snap of great satisfaction as he leaned back. He eyed Brad clinically. “You, for instance, have a great number of useful skills. You have medical knowledge, for one thing. But you’re also actually good at everything you said you were good at. That’s rare. You wouldn’t believe some of the lies people told in the beginning…” he shook his head. “Those skills, Brad, are why I haven’t had you shot for your interference with my people and for your insistence on finding those people you traveled with before.”
He looked at Brad, the firelight dancing over his face, highlighting the fact that there was no emotion in his eyes. There was nothing there other than the blank complacency of a madman who was so sure that he was doing the right thing that nothing Brad could ever say would change his mind. How the hell had he missed it? Why hadn’t he run while he’d had the chance?
“But it stops now,” Walker said. “You’ll fall into line right now, or you’ll pay the price. Killing you isn’t something that I want to do and I want to make sure that you know that.”
Brad met the Major’s eyes. “I know,” he said. That part, at least, he didn’t doubt. The Major wanted to use him, so there was a level of insubordination that he was going to be allowed to reach. However, he could tell that he’d pushed those boundaries hard today. “I believe you.”
“Good. Your first mission is tomorrow night. And it’s mandatory, so don’t even think about skipping out on it. I don’t care if you’re sick as a dog. Be here at nine.”
“Mission?” Brad asked. “What exactly are we going to do?”
Walker poured another dram into his glass. “I think that the time has come to look for your people. It might be nice to see how they fit into our little community.”
Brad worked hard not to let his shoulders slump as he understood the threat. If Anna, Sammy and Martha were found, Walker would hold their survival over Brad’s head, ensuring that Brad did his bidding. And if they didn’t find them, no harm done. He could waste a few days looking and it would make him look positively benevolent to the people in the facility. Major Walker really was a master of crowd psychology.
And Brad had no choice but to go along with it because he’d made the mistake of letting a crazy man know what meant the most to him. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll be here.”
“I’m glad to see you make the right decision,” Walker said before turning back to his soldiers. “I would have hated to have your blood on my carpet. I’ll let you see yourself out.”
By the time he arrived back at his apartment, Brad was feeling utterly defeated. He wondered if everyone at the complex was in on what happened. Or were they as ignorant as he’d allowed himself to be? His friends had known that people were evicted, but did they know what that meant? Did the people here know that they were one sustained illness or broken limb away from being shot and thrown out like garbage?
He pushed the door shut behind him and locked it out of habit. It wouldn’t stop the soldiers if Walker changed his mind, but he liked the sense of privacy that a locked door gave. You just didn’t get that when you slept in a tent. It was only as he turned around to head for the kitchen that he realized he wasn’t alone.
Chapter 18
Brad jumped, but he quickly realized that the intruder was even more frightened than he was. The kid standing in his kitchen couldn’t have been over sixteen. He looked terrified, but he was standing perfectly still, as if hoping that somehow he wouldn’t be seen. Brad recognized the classic deer-in-headlights response. The kid probably couldn’t move if his life depended on it. And in some areas of this complex, it would have.
“Who are you?” Brad asked casually, as if they were meeting on the street.
“I…I’m…my name is J-Jamie,” the boy said, his voice cracking just slightly.
“Where did you come from, Jamie?”
“I…” the kid gulped, twisting his hands together. “I was…”
“It’s okay,” Brad said, moving away from the door. Even from that far away, the boy flinched in fear. “Why don’t you come have a seat. You can tell me what’s going on and I’ll try to help you.” He lowered the blinds and tossed a couple of logs on the fire. He didn’t want to rush the boy. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said when Jamie wavered, half in and half out of the kitchen.
As the kid finally walked into the living room, Brad realized that he wasn’t exactly young enough to be called a kid. He had to be in his late teens. Maybe closer to eighteen than sixteen. But he was shaking so hard that Brad could hear his teeth chattering and he didn’t think it was entirely from the cold.
“You worried about Walker?” Brad asked.
Jamie, who had been about to take a seat on the couch, froze again and then nodded slowly. “Uh, yeah,” he admitted. “You could say that. Are you…are you a soldier?”
Brad snorted. “No,” he said. “I’m definitely not his biggest fan.”
“Oh, good,” Jamie said. “I saw the camo and the boots and I was worried, but I should have known that you weren’t. A soldier would have shot me on sight.”
“Sit down,” Brad said. “I’ve got a few questions, if you don’t mind.” When Jamie nodded, he pressed on. “How did you end up in here?”
He’d never seen the boy before, which meant that either the Major had hidden him away somewhere or that Jamie had been exiled and had returned. Brad had a million questions, but he figured he’d start at the beginning and try to draw the story out in order.
Jamie sighed and sat down. “The soldiers found me during one of the raids. They brought me back here, and that’s when I met Major Walker.”
Brad nodded, wanting to hurry him along. So far, Jamie’s story mirrored his own. He needed to get to the point at which they diverged.
“He asked me what I was good at and he told me to be honest,” Jamie continued. “So I was honest. I told him that I’m not good at anything, and he laughed and put his hand on my shoulder.” He reached up and touched his shoulder as he spoke, as if he could still feel the man’s hand lying heavy there. “He said that he could work with me. That I was
moldable. And so he started training me.”
“Training you? To do what?” Brad asked, feeling apprehensive.
“Mostly shooting,” Jamie said. “It turned out that I’m a good shot. Like, really good. The Major called me his sharpshooter.” He swallowed hard. “He kept up the training, making me do more and more hours with it. He even let me live with him. The rations were a lot better and it was the nicest apartment in the whole facility.”
“But he kept you isolated, away from the community,” Brad said. “Is that why you left?”
Jamie shook his head. “That wasn’t it, no. A few days back, he told me that it was time to put my training into practice. He…he wanted me to ‘deal with’ a soldier for him.”
Jamie looked down at his hands and gave another shrug. Brad saw him swallow a few times and remained quiet. The kid needed some time to get it together again and Brad was willing to let him have it.
Now that the fire was going and he’d lit the oil lamp, Brad took a second to really look at the boy. The kid was at that awkward stage where he seemed to be all arms and legs. He was just as skinny as Brad had been at that age—maybe even skinnier, what with the whole apocalypse. The idea of this kid being asked to do a hit on someone was absolutely ludicrous.
The word that the Major had used to describe Jamie was downright creepy too. Moldable. In what? Major Walker’s image? A hired gun? A serial killer? It hadn’t seemed to go Walker’s way.
Jamie looked like he was a little more in control of himself, so Brad asked another question.
“I know that Walker thinks everyone needs to have a purpose,” he said. “Was the soldier no longer useful enough? Or had he broken one of the rules?”
“He was stealing,” Jamie replied. “And I know that’s wrong, especially when supplies are short, but the Major wasn’t even going to give him a warning. He just wanted me to execute him and prove to him that I was worth the time and training.”
The kid stared into the fire for a long moment before he went on. “But I couldn’t do it. I was awake all night the night before and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to pull that trigger. So I ran. I didn’t have a choice. You can’t talk the Major out of something he’s set his mind on. You just can’t.”
“I get where you’re coming from,” Brad said. “What I don’t get is why the hell you came back if you made it out without getting caught.”
Jamie rubbed the back of his neck. “Actually, I haven’t left yet. I knew I wouldn’t last long outside with no supplies and no people; I was with a group before I got here, and to be honest I’m not sure I’d make it on my own even with all the supplies in the world. I came straight here from the Major’s place because I knew this unit was empty. Only, it’s not. It’s your place now.”
Brad couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that.”
“No worries,” Jamie said, the flickers of a smile playing on his thin face. “I’ll just go.”
“You’ll just go?” Brad repeated. “Back out into the ice? Without any supplies? You’ll be dead by morning.”
“If I stay here and the soldiers find me, we’re both dead,” Jamie countered. “I left because I didn’t want to get anybody killed, remember?”
“Yeah,” Brad said. “But take a second and hear me out, okay?”
Jamie nodded, his gaze fixed on the windows. “Okay.”
“I’m not planning to stay here either,” Brad said. “At least, not for much longer. We’re going out on a raid tomorrow night and hopefully I’ll have some people with me when I come back. We could use a marksman. For hunting and defense,” he hurried to add. “I’m not going to make you kill anyone. Anyway, we could use you and you could use us. You’re right. It’s easier in a group. If you can hang on just a little longer, we can leave together.”
“You’re going on a raid with him?” Jamie asked in disbelief. “And you really think he’s going to help you get what you want?”
“I don’t know,” Brad said honestly. “But I don’t have a choice right now. And I really don’t think you do, either.”
Jamie chewed his lower lip for a moment and then sighed. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. But you’re gonna need to be on your guard the whole time. Walker doesn’t do anything unless it benefits him.”
“I’ll keep my eye on everything,” Brad promised. “Have you had any food?”
Jamie shook his head and Brad went to the kitchen. He didn’t have a lot, but he did have a few bricks of ramen noodles. He poured some water over them and hung the pot over the fire so that the water could boil. Jamie watched the fire like a hawk.
“So, tell me how you ended up here,” Brad said when he’d dished up the noodles.
“Well…I’m from Bangor,” Jamie said. “And for a while, things there were okay. I mean, as long as you knew how to avoid the soldiers. And I was good at that.” He took a bite of noodles and started on his story.
Chapter 19
Jamie ducked down, clenching his hands till he felt his nails bite into his palms. Hearing the soldiers was the worst. They talked about things that no one should ever say. He’d heard one last week talking about roasting someone and eating them. The other men had agreed that the man had tasted like pork.
Bile rose in his throat at the memory. Was that what they did to everyone, or had that man been a special case? Maybe he’d done something particularly heinous. Or maybe they’d just been in the mood for fresh meat. He thought that he heard footsteps the next aisle over and he pressed his lips together to hold back the scream that climbed up his throat.
He crawled slowly on his hands and knees, expecting a shot in the back of the head at any moment as he made his way to the shelter of one of the cash registers. He’d always been a skinny kid. It had been a real pain in the ass back when he’d tried out for the football team. It hadn’t helped him when he’d tried out for Michelle Stewart’s affections either. But for squeezing into the tight recesses of a cashier’s stand and managing to pull a wastebasket in after him, it couldn’t be beat.
He couldn’t tell if he really was breathing loudly or if it just sounded that way in the cramped space, but he tried to keep it down. He could still hear the soldiers walking around the store. The voices were even closer now.
There was no damn good reason for them to search under the cashier stands, but they’d been doing inexplicable things for a while. And they were only in the store because one of them had caught sight of him as he’d moved from one aisle to the other. They’d want to be thorough.
He’d known that it was a mistake to stay in one place for too long, damn it. He’d known that! But he’d set up camp in the grocery store like he’d owned the place. And now he might end up as a side of bacon for his own idiocy.
He held his breath when he heard a voice almost directly above him. “Well, I don’t see shit. You’re gettin’ paranoid.”
“Hell, maybe it was just an animal or something,” another soldier said. “Worth a look, though.”
“Sure, if you like wastin’ time,” the first man groused.
“Fuck off,” the second replied succinctly. “Let’s go, since you’re in such a big hurry.”
The footsteps receded, but still Jamie didn’t move. He wouldn’t until it had been completely silent for a count of a thousand.
At about five hundred, he stopped counting. He’d heard something. More shuffling. A pair of boots appeared just in front of him.
“Hey, kid,” a voice said. “I saw you hide.”
Jamie swallowed hard, trying his best not to move.
“It’s okay,” the voice continued. “I’m not a soldier. I’m with a group of people that are staying in the park. I’ve been watching you for a few days and I think you’d be an asset.”
Still, Jamie didn’t move. There was a smile in the man’s voice when he spoke again. “It’s a good thing you’re so damn lanky or you might have been toast just now. They headed to the left, by the way. So, when you leave, you’re gonna wanna head righ
t.”
There was a long pause and then a sigh. “I know how hard it is to trust people right now, but I’m really trying to help you.”
Jamie glanced out and saw that the voice’s owner was playing with a silver zippo lighter, twirling it between his knuckles, making it catch the light and bounce it back off of the shiny surface.
“I’d tell you how to find us if it wasn’t likely to get you killed. We’ve got some trigger-happy people on guard duty and if you just wander up unexpected…” He trailed off. “Come on, kid. Let me help you.”
His voice was absolutely sincere. Maybe that was what made Jamie push free from the confines of the cashier’s station. But more likely, it was the fact that he hadn’t talked to another human being in over a month. The man smiled at him.
“Hey there,” he said, holding his hand out. “Good to meet you.”
“You too,” Jamie said, surprised to find his voice squeaky from disuse. “So, you’ve got a hideout, huh?”
“Sure do,” the man said. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
“And he did,” Jamie said to Brad. “I was safe with them for a while. The soldiers would have found me and killed me if it hadn’t been for him.”
Brad noticed the dark circles under the boy’s eyes and the new tremor in his voice. Telling the story hadn’t been easy for him. Even though it hadn’t answered Brad’s question, he decided to let it go for now.
“Go and get some sleep, okay?” he said.
“Where should I…”
“You can take the bedroom,” Brad said. “We’ll talk more in the morning.”
Jamie nodded slowly and headed down the hall. Then, he stopped and turned back. “You know, it’s weird—you remind me of him.”
“Of who?” Brad asked, sincerely hoping that Jamie wasn’t talking about Major Walker. Or the cannibal soldier, for that matter.
“The guy who saved me.” Jamie gave another of those shrugs. “Anyway, thanks for the food and the bed.”
“No problem,” Brad said, flattered. The man had obviously been important to Jamie, and Brad could only guess that the story had stopped where it did because something bad had happened to him. That was why Brad hadn’t pushed. That, and he planned to get the rest of it tomorrow.
