by Lauren Beltz
table and the couch. “Dare I even ask where you acquired all of it from?” Davidson asked.
“Some from my personal stash,” William said. “Most returned from sweeps. I instructed Anna and Sebastian to bring all weapons they found here for safe keeping. Didn’t want anyone trying to settle any disagreements their own way.”
Davidson felt like commenting that William had done just that when he realized where Anna had gotten the machete from, but he kept the comment to himself. Best not to upset the man that had a small arsenal in his apartment. He partly wondered why Anna and Sebastian had agreed to William’s suggestion in the first place. It wasn’t wise to be passing out guns and machetes to the entire gang, but it certainly didn’t seem responsible to hand them all over to a guy they hardly knew either. Perhaps a conversation worth having with the duo down the road, but it didn’t matter in the present.
“They collected ammo too.” Davidson noticed as he moved into the living room to take stock of the stash. “Christ,” he said under his breath as he saw the bullet proof vests stacked neatly on top of each other on the corner of the coach. “I shudder to think why anyone would have those for personal use.”
“It’s New York City,” William answered with a shrug. Davidson guessed he was right, never having lived in the city for any extended period of time. But still. When he had gotten off the subway station and was walking through this part of town before it had all gone south, he hadn’t thought to be worried to the bulletproof vest level about his safety.
“Well, three vests,” Davidson said as he flipped through them quickly to count for sure. “Sounds like the logical decision would be to send three people, armored up. Though I doubt you are going to want to keep storing the vests in here when they come back covered in human blood guts.”
“They weren’t mine to begin with.” William spoke as if it hardly mattered to him at all what they did with the vests.
Davidson looked through the guns collected. Some were far too powerful for people Davidson doubted have ever shot a single round before. Others he couldn’t find ammo for in the stockpile. He finally pulled three of the smaller handguns from the pile. He separated a few boxes of ammo from the rest as well. “Again, I have to say, I’m rather surprised you found all these in just this building alone.”
“People see a stabbing in the news, a murder in the newspaper. The first thing they do is go buy a gun to keep the same from happening to them. Granted, I doubt many of these guns have even been used before, but that’s the way it works.”
“So that’s why you have your own?” Davidson asked. It certainly wasn’t why Davidson had his, but he could see the reasoning behind what William said.
“Sure,” William finally said.
“Three vests, three guns, a box of ammo each. Hopefully at least one of the guys going actually knows how to fire a gun. We don’t exactly have time to teach them, or extra ammo to waste.”
“They’ll make do if they have to.”
Hopefully no one would need a gun. Davidson wished to sit on the roof all day, freezing his ass off, staring at nothing but the ground. He didn’t even want to think about all the different ways this quest for supplies could turn sideways.
“I’ve got a couple of long range guns,” William pointed to the ones he had picked out and propped up against the edge of the coffee table, “if you need one to cover them from the roof.”
Davidson shook his head as he gave the three handguns a quick once over to make sure all three worked. “I’m covered.” Something he probably should not have so easily admitted, but it would have become obvious in the next day or two regardless. He just needed to make sure to keep his apartment locked until then.
Satisfied the guns would do, Davidson turned to William. “Got a bag I can carry them in?” he asked. He hadn’t thought to bring a backpack with him, or even a grocery bag. He hadn’t realized what William had been hiding.
“Perhaps it’s best if I continued to store them here until the group’s ready to go,” William suggested, though it was more of a statement than a question.
Davidson wasn’t surprised by the request, though he was hesitant to agree. While he didn’t distrust William, he didn’t exactly trust him either. The fact that William had amassed such a supply of weapons yet hadn’t bothered to tell them and had told Anna and Sebastian to keep it to themselves spoke volumes of his character. The only reason Davidson finally relented was the fact that he knew William wasn’t going to volunteer to do the run. If by some miracle he got selected, Davidson knew William would find a way to get out of it. He wasn’t going to risk himself, but he would at least put on a show of offering as much support as possible to the others. And that included lending the guns and vests, even if it meant having to admit he had been keeping them secret the entire time.
Sebastian
William held the straws in a closed fist. As Daniel had volunteered and Davidson already had a role to play, only five straws were included. Three vests. Three guns. Two short straws out of five.
Ever the gentleman, William instructed the ladies to draw their straws first. Anna and Lenore stared at each other for some time before Anna finally stepped up and moved forward. Sebastian thought she was the most fearless of them all, so it was shocking to watch the way she hesitated, her hand hovering over the ends of the straws.
Her inhale of breath as she lowered her hand was audible. So was the exhale as her fingers dropped onto one straw and plucked it from the group. As the first to go, Anna wouldn’t know her fate until a straw of the opposite length was selected. The simple fact hardly seemed to calm her nerves.
As the sole other female, his sister went next. After the realization that the body in the bag she had grabbed was Hayley’s, Sebastian wondered if drawing a straw would even be cause to worry for her anymore. As Anna stepped back, her heels pressed against a wall, Lenore stepped forward to take her place in the pecking order. She certainly didn’t show the same signs of nervousness Anna had displayed before her. Sebastian had to admit, he was stunned by the role reversal. Lenore plucked a straw from William’s extended fist without any fanfare. Stepping over to Anna, they held their straws end to end.
Sebastian saw the length difference immediately. Anna’s straw was a good inch and a half shorter than Lenore’s. To her credit, Anna showed no sign of reaction as her fate was settled.
Now onto the men, William pulled a straw for himself before announcing an order for the men. Sebastian was hardly surprised when William’s straw was the same length as Lenore’s. He started to protest that William would be able to feel the difference in his hand, and that one of the girls should hold the straws for William to pick. Lenore squeezed his arm as she resumed her position next to him. Warning him. They all realized the truth in William’s cowardly action, but it would serve them all well to let it slide without judgment.
His draw left only Sebastian and Nathan with one short straw remaining. His odds of being on the scavenging team had increased since he had proposed the idea. William nodded his head toward Nathan, signaling for him to draw next. As much as Sebastian hated to even think it, he hoped Nathan got the longer straw. The last thing the group needed was a slightly to moderately unstable guy with a grudge against the group as their last hope for survival.
Fate was just but wicked as Nathan drew his straw. Comparing it to William’s, they matched. Sebastian knew what the last straw was. By the way Lenore gripped his arm, he knew she realized it too. It was basic math they could all do in their heads. Regardless, he stepped forward to pull the last straw from William’s clutch. As he had to drag Lenore on his arm to do so, he held his against hers, just in case there was any doubt.
Daniel, Anna, and Sebastian. The scavenge crew was set.
About the Author
When not found huddled over the keyboard at her desk, plotting out the latest twist in a novel or novella, she may be spotted curled up in her reading nook devouring a young adult novel. Or binge watching Netflix. You can learn more
about Lauren at her website https://www.laurenbeltz.com
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