Absolution

by Mark Campbell

  Perry adverted his gaze and continued to escort Teddy forward, his hooded eyes focused on the ground. “Fucking animals…”

  Teddy staggered along in a daze as the ramifications of his deal with the lieutenant started to hit home.

  As they navigated the footpath, groups of officers kicked-in the doors to dormitories eight, nine, and seven. They grabbed men and women seemingly at random and pulled them out into the snow by their hair as their victims screamed and protested.

  Gunfire erupted from inside two of the dorms, and Teddy flinched at the crack of each shot.

  The pleasant, even-keeled voice of the recorded played throughout the camp and cut through the cacophony of screams: Attention, due to terrorist activity, curfew is in full effect. Any resident caught outside will be subject to arrest.

  “Let’s keep moving,” Perry insisted. “We don’t want to get caught in the middle of this…”

  Teddy tried to shuffle along faster, but the adrenaline in his veins couldn’t overpower the effects of the drug’s chemical cocktail. He saw that their dorm was only a few more buildings away, but the distance seemed to grow with each crack of gunfire.

  Both men came to an abrupt stop as dormitory fifteen’s door flung open and a group of men and women were forced outside by five officers armed with rifles. Terrified young children watched from the doorway and cried out for their parents, but they were kept inside by a single officer holding a truncheon.

  “On your knees! On your knees!” one of the officers screamed.

  The group of terrified civilians fell to their knees in the snow. A few who were not fast enough or showed any resistance were struck in the face with the butt of a rifle and they collapsed in pain.

  “Hands on your head!” another officer shouted as he brandished his rifle towards the group.

  The civilians who were still conscious complied.

  An officer spun towards Perry and Teddy and pointed his rifle at them. “On the ground! Hands on your head!”

  “I’m an orderly!” Perry shouted. “I was tasked by Lieutenant Hock to bring this man back to dorm twenty!”

  The officer shone his weapon’s tactical light on Perry’s armband and seemed to relax a little. He stepped aside and waved them through. “Get to your dorm!”

  “Thank you, officer.” Perry quickly led Teddy through the wretched crowd and past the row of uniforms.

  Teddy squeezed his eyes shut tightly—he knew what was coming.

  The crying intensified and then were forever silenced by a series of gunshots.

  Teddy did not dare turn around to witness the carnage. He allowed himself to be blindly be led towards the dorm as rage boiled inside him—it took every bit of his resolve not to fruitlessly lash out at the executioners like a rabid, wounded animal.

  Perry came to a stop. “We’re here... We made it.”

  Teddy opened his red, teary eyes and watched as Perry placed his forearm against the door’s reader.

  A robotic female voice greeted him as the door unlocked itself.

  Perry brought Teddy inside and slammed the door shut behind them. He smiled as if the massacre that had just happened had all been a bad dream. “You still have your old bed.”

  Teddy stared daggers at the man—he felt like ripping that collaborator’s throat out with his bare hands. He tore away from him and limped across the room towards his bunk.

  Perry extended his hands at his sides and called out at his back. “Things will get better.”

  Teddy bit his tongue and kept hobbling along. He looked around and noticed that most of the bunks were empty. Why wouldn’t they be? Didn’t most of the crew die on that highway? He plopped down on his barebones cot, leaned over, and cupped his face in his frost-bitten hands.

  A whiny whimper interrupted his thoughts.

  Teddy lowered his hands and looked towards the noise.

  Zoey, looking much thinner and missing patches of her coat, cautiously approached him, her ears lowered. Her tail gave a few cautious wags but she kept her distance.

  “Zoey…” Teddy said as his gloomy expression brightened. “Is that you girl?”

  Her tail-wagging intensified and she gave an excited yip. Within seconds she had her paws on his chest and was licking at his face excitedly.

  Teddy laughed and made a half-hearted attempt to get her down even though he relished every moment.

  Zoey’s tail swung back and forth with such intensity that she could barely stand on her hind legs. She kept licking like crazy and gave an occasional series of barks.

  “Easy, girl!” Teddy said after he got his laughter under control. He gave her a gleeful smile and scratched behind her ears. “I sure as hell missed you too—I can’t believe that you remember me!”

  Zoey responded with a volley of overjoyed barks.

  Perry walked over with his hands in his pockets. “I brought her in after the accident and when the snow started falling… It seemed a shame to just let her die out there. She was Roger’s dog, right?”

  “Yeah, she was,” Teddy answered. He was genuinely surprised that Perry of all people cared enough to make such a gesture.

  Perry smiled. “I’ve been feeding her old canned scraps that I had stashed away just to keep her going. Honestly though I think she’s happy to have some company… It’s awfully quiet in here these days in case you can’t tell.”

  “Yeah,” Teddy said. “It’s empty.”

  “Empty,” Perry agreed. He glanced around and then turned his attention back towards Teddy. “Anyway, rest up—I guess they’ll come get you tomorrow.”

  He turned and started to walk away.

  “Perry,” Teddy called out.

  He stopped and looked over his shoulder.

  “Thanks for saving her.”

  Perry nodded, turned, and kept walking.

  Teddy flopped back on his cot and Zoey hopped up and stretched out next to him—her tail continued to wag. He stared up at the empty bunk above him and absently stroked her matted fur. Gunshots came and went and he slowly lost his good-humored smile. He was tired and he was weak, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to get any sleep.

  CHAPTER 17

  DECEMBER 19th

  8:20 AM

  Teddy walked out of the shower with a towel draped around his neck. Even though he was given a fresh set of clothes and had managed to scrub off months’ worth of caked-up dirt and oil from his body, he still felt dirty. He knew that no amount of showering would rid himself of the grime that he felt was festering inside.

  Perry sat on the edge of his bunk and watched with amusement as Zoey went at an old can of sardines. He turned his head towards Teddy as he approached. “Feeling better or do you still have weak knees?”

  “All that’s gone as far as I can tell. I’m still a little dizzy, but that’s probably from hunger more than anything.” Teddy stared down at the Zoey’s food and felt hunger pangs rumble in his stomach. “You don’t happen to have any more of those, do you?”

  Perry gave him a puzzled look and then laughed. “Sure do, but they’re all dented or expired. Don’t be surprised if you get a case of botulism.”

  Teddy groaned and put a hand on his stomach. “At this point, it’s almost worth the risk.”

  Perry laughed again.

  Zoey looked up from her food, licked her lips, and barked at Teddy. Her tail started swinging side-to-side excitedly.

  Teddy crouched down and smiled.

  Zoey bounded towards him and licked at his face.

  “Easy girl!” Teddy laughed. “You’ll have me stinking like fish and I just took a shower!”

  Zoey gave a few more happy barks, a couple of final sloppy licks, and trotted back to her food.

  Teddy got back up on his feet and wiped her slobber off of his cheeks with the towel. “Is the curfew over?”

  “I think so since the door is unlocked, but I didn’t go out to see how things look…” Perry frowned. “It sounded bad last night. Did you hear the gunshots?”


  “Yeah… Couldn’t sleep.”

  “No more curfew, so I guess they felt that they’ve made their point… I don’t agree with the overzealous way they handled it though.”

  “That’s funny, because last night I remember you calling the regular folks a bunch of animals,” he said humorlessly.

  Perry shook his head. “Both sides share some blame. People need to learn how to get along.”

  “It sounds like people would be willing to do that if they just had some food in their bellies.”

  “What if there is no more food to give?” Perry asked.

  Teddy considered it for a moment and then shook his head. “They always have emergency supplies… Contingency plans and shit.”

  “I don’t think they do this time…”

  “Christ, Perry, I thought you were the delusional optimist. We can’t both sit around and be cynical pricks.”

  Perry chuckled. “Maybe you’re right, but it gets hard sometimes… Being in here all by myself has been rough. The others know that I’m all alone and they don’t take too kindly to us red bands. I get nervous walking outside on my own these days.”

  “Fuck other people—you have Zoey,” Teddy offered.

  “That I do,” Perry said with a smile.

  There was an urgent knock on the door and the electronic lock disengaged as it was overridden. As the door opened inward, a gust of wind sent flakes of fresh snow in across the floor.

  Zoey tucked her tail between her legs and ran off to hide behind under one of the empty bunks.

  Two officers wearing woolen peacoats and balaclavas entered the room with rifles across their chest. Both the men’s eyes were hooded by the narrow visors of their riot helmets. They scanned the room with their weapon’s tactical lights and focused their beams on Teddy.

  “Teddy Sanders?” one of the officers asked.

  “Yeah?”

  The officers turned off their lights and lowered their weapons. “Come with us.”

  “Take care of yourself out there,” Perry said.

  Teddy followed the officers outside and looked over his shoulder at Perry. “You too, old man.”

  The door slammed shut.

  As Teddy walked with the officers along the footpath, he noticed that signs of the previous night’s carnage was already hidden by nearly six inches of fresh snow. Splotches of blood and spent brass casings lay trapped under a stretch of thick ice blocks. Underneath the transparent blocks of ice, the brass casings glowed gold and orange in the morning sun. Dormitories that had their doors knocked off of their hinges just hours before, were already shuttered with fresh plywood and the signage stapled to the wood proclaimed that the buildings were quarantined due to typhoid. Even most of the graffiti was covered with a liberal amount of white paint.

  Despite how laboriously Hock’s men attempted to cover-up what happened, Teddy knew that the others must have heard the gunshots—it was evident in the way the other civilians leered scornfully at the officers as they passed.

  Teddy felt choking tension surround him and he was positive that the officers felt it too judging by the way that their eyes darted side-to-side at every alleyway and every corner.

  A pleasant voice announced over the camp’s speakers: Security reminder—due to a rise in confirmed typhoid cases, public gatherings are no longer permitted. Unauthorized groups will be subject to disciplinary action.

  Teddy glanced over as they passed the alley where the officers had been strung up. The bodies and the extension cords were long gone—even the graffiti had been painted over.

  One of the escorting officers saw Teddy looking down the alleyway. “Disgusting what happened last night.”

  Teddy thought about the way the cops slaughtered over what he assumed were one-hundred innocent people in a ham-fisted response. “It was,” he agreed.

  “Those fucking roaches will think twice before pulling some shit like that again,” the officer continued.

  The other officer, a skinny man with a white skull painted on the back of his riot helmet, gave him a sharp look and jabbed him with his elbow.

  “Relax, Hayes, he’s one of us now,” the first officer said. “He hates these fucking roaches as much as we do.”

  Hayes looked over his shoulder at Teddy and narrowed his eyes. “I doubt it, Wright… He doesn’t look like one of us…”

  Wright shrugged. “He was handpicked by Hock himself.”

  “His endorsement doesn’t mean much to me,” Hayes said as he turned back around. “I haven’t been impressed with Hock’s decisions lately.”

  “Yeah, well, that makes two of us, but this is the guy that fucked up all those men that attacked Parham’s crew.”

  “Oh, shit!” Hayes exclaimed. “I didn’t know this was the dude…” He looked over at Teddy with newfound admiration. “That was some good shooting, brother.”

  “Not really.” Teddy stared at him. “When you’re using a machine gun against a bunch of rednecks you tend to have the upper hand.”

  “How many did you lay down?” Hayes asked excitedly.

  “I wasn’t keeping count—I was just trying to stay alive.”

  “That’s something worth remembering! One hell of a story to share around the fire.”

  “How many did you lay down?” Teddy asked

  “What?”

  “How many did you guys lay down?” Teddy asked again as he pointed at one of the plywood-covered dorms.

  “Shit…” Hayes thought for a moment before continuing. “My crew got at least two-hundred.”

  “Ours had eighty,” Wright added.

  Teddy’s stomach soured. “That’s pretty impressive… I didn’t know they could fit that many fish in a barrel.”

  Both Hayes and Wright chuckled, missing the sarcasm.

  “Yeah, I know,” Hayes said. “Those fucking roaches didn’t have much fight in them when we started knocking them down… It took two goddamn hours just to haul their bodies to the pit.”

  “Did Hock order that?” Teddy asked.

  “He ordered the clean-up,” Wright said.

  “What about the mess itself?” Teddy pressed.

  “Didn’t have the balls,” he said with contempt. “He’s too soft on these roaches. After they lynched our people like that, we handled business on our own.”

  Hayes pulled down his balaclava and spat on the snow. “The roaches drew first blood.”

  “Roaches…” Teddy muttered. “I didn’t know that’s what you called the people.”

  “It’s a fitting term,” Hayes said while Wright nodded with approval.

  “Does it apply to everyone?” Teddy asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, out of that group of roaches you two heroes put down last night, what did you call the women—were they roaches too or did they have a special name?”

  Hayes and Wright stopped walking and turned towards him.

  Teddy scowled at them both and continued. “Better yet, what did you call the children that you so bravely pulled out of bed and slaughtered?”

  The two officers stared at him with their hands wrapped tightly around their rifles for several seconds.

  “Whose side are you on, friend?” Hayes asked in a tense voice.

  Teddy didn’t respond.

  Wright looked over at Hayes. “I told you he’s not one of us…”

  A voice over the officer’s radios broke the silence: Jayhawk Control to Foxtrot, 10-25 to the central courtyard immediately—possible 10-44 in progress.

  “A demonstration?” Hayes asked with disbelief.

  Wright shook his head. “I guess those roaches didn’t learn from last night… The riot squad is going to whoop their asses.”

  “Let’s hurry and get this snowflake over to on-boarding so we can get in on the action,” Hayes said.

  Wright waved the barrel of his rifle at Teddy. “Move it, roach.”

  Teddy continued down the pathway with the two officers on his heels. When he turned his head t
o the side he noticed out of his peripheral vision that they had their weapons half-cocked towards him—he felt more like a prisoner again and no longer like one of their peers, but that suited him just fine.

  As he walked, he noticed how empty the path had become. There wasn’t a single civilian, leering or otherwise, in sight. A few officers carrying batons and riot shields jogged past, but none of them paid Teddy or his escorts any mind.

  Public gatherings are no longer permitted. Unauthorized groups will be subject to disciplinary action a voice over the PA reminded.

  As Teddy was led away from the dorms and past the concrete courtyard where the gallows once stood, he stopped and stared in awe.

  Over a hundred people stood motionless in the middle of the courtyard, their unwavering gaze fixed on the control tower in the middle of the camp. They stood tightly-packed and their numbers seemed to be growing as more emerged out of alleyways and adjacent footpaths.

  Responding officers lined the edge of the courtyard hesitantly and raised their riot shields towards the crowd.

  Sgt. Mayville and a small group of officers managed to climb atop the ruined gallows’ scaffolding and pointed their rifles uneasily towards the crowd.

  Mayville brought a megaphone to his mouth and keyed the mic as he shouted in a high, nasally voice: Disperse back to your dorms immediately!

  The crowd didn’t move and, given some of the larger incidents he had witnessed back in the penitentiary, Teddy knew things wouldn’t go so easily for Mayville the second time around.

  Wright prodded Teddy in the back with the barrel of his rifle. “Keep moving.”

  Teddy obliged, eager to get away before he got caught in the coming storm.

  They turned the corner and headed down another narrow, emptied pathway that ran between two rows of dormitories. It was all very quiet—unnaturally quiet.

  The officers became jumpy as they passed each alleyway. Their eyes searched wildly for any movement and they kept checking over their shoulders.

  Teddy’s mind raced as he walked faster. I just need to get my uniform, get a weapon, grab an access card, pick up Ein, and get the fuck out of here. If everything went smoothly, he could drive straight out of the front gate with a shit eating grin on his face.