The Gamekeeper

by J Porteous

  ‘Do you think we’ll find him tomorrow?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. I paused for a moment, half to take another bite of food, half to think of what to say next. ‘Jessica, we need to think about what we’re going to do if he’s not here.’

  Jessica stared at the horizon, toying with the food in her hand. ‘Do you think he’s somewhere else?’

  ‘We’ve just got to plan for each situation,’ I said. ‘Like I said, the world is a big place. Hopefully he is here, if he’s not then we’ll keep moving.’

  ‘Where will we go?’

  I did not want to admit that I had no idea where we would go. The city had seemed like our best chance for a good life, but after rubbing shoulders with rough characters that didn’t seem to be the case. ‘I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.’

  The sun soon disappeared once more, the lights of Hope flickering into life. Jessica and I returned through the gates and meandered back towards the Flophouse. The old woman at the desk barely offered us an acknowledgement as we passed, too busy chortling to herself over the latest hand-drawn images in front of her.

  My feet were weary, still sore from the long trek to Hope. I lay down on the bed, letting it take my weight, and sighed contently. It had been a good while since I had last had a stomach full of warm food and a relatively comfortable bed to lie in. I made sure I fully appreciated it.

  Jessica clambered into her bed and lay still for a moment, staring thoughtfully at the flickering bulb. ‘What do you think Diego and Felix are doing?’

  I hadn’t paid the two men too much thought since we had arrived, concentrating instead on keeping Jessica’s spirits high, and my own lies alive. ‘Getting some rest, hopefully. That broken ankle isn’t going to heal overnight.’

  ‘How long will it hurt for?’

  ‘Definitely weeks, almost certainly months,’ I replied. ‘It’s bad enough breaking it, but he kept walking on it. That will take some time to heal.’

  ‘I hope we see them again,’ Jessica said. ‘They were good people, weren’t they?’

  ‘They seemed to be,’ I said. ‘But sometimes you won’t know until you’re up against it.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean they needed us more than we needed them. If we had gone on and left them, they probably would have died, or at least Diego might have. But if the shoe was on the other foot, could we trust them not to leave us?’

  Jessica sucked her lip for a moment. ‘I think so.’

  ‘I think so too,’ I said ‘But you’ll never know until that situation comes up. Trust has to be earned, it doesn’t just appear overnight.’

  ‘Okay,’ she replied. She turned away from me and let out a deep sigh. ‘Hopefully we’ll see my dad tomorrow, and I can tell him that you’re a good person.’

  ‘Hopefully we will.’

  ‘Goodnight.’

  ‘Goodnight, Jessica.’

  I fumbled around for the light switch and turned the bulb out. In the sudden darkness, I lay on my bed unable to sleep. Something twisted and squirmed in my brain, eating away at me. I looked over to where Jessica would be sleeping and knew what it was.

  The girl had so much hope that she was going to find her father, so much passion devoted to the task, that even our setbacks seemed to never drain her optimism for long. All I was doing was dragging out the inevitable. I had lied to her to get her to come with me, to take her away from an initially unsafe situation; a selfless act. However, my continuation of the lie was purely for me, unable to find myself being able to tell her.

  I had wanted to leave her and the lie at Community, letting someone else tell her the news that her father was rat-meat. That squirming feeling was shame, shame on myself. When did I become such a coward? Perhaps I had lived so long away from close human contact that I had forgotten how to deal with anyone’s emotions but my own.

  I’ll tell her. I’ll tell her first thing in the morning. After that, we can move on. Whatever that may look like.

  My eyes shot open. For a brief moment I panicked, being in the dark, before realising where I was. I still had not learnt the art of sleeping a full night. I was so used to staying in unsafe places that my mind jolted me awake with alarming regularity, even with the locked room at the Flophouse.

  I gave a relieved sigh and closed my eyes again. No, my brain was right, something was going on. I lay on the bed, eyes fully wide once more, listening to something outside of the room. Whispering.

  I clambered out of bed and drew my knife. No one at the Flophouse had any consideration for their neighbours, with those coming and going chatting away as if it was the middle of a busy street. Loud was normal, but whispers? Whispers raised the hair on my neck. It meant that someone was trying to be quiet, and there would be more than one person too.

  I pressed my ear to the door, hoping to get at least a sense of what was being said. It was no use. The sound was still muffled, but I confirmed that I was not imagining it. The voice was close, very close.

  Just as I stepped back, the door handle rattled. My heart leapt into my throat, my grip tightening around the knife in my hand. The whispering started again. I pressed my ear to the door once more, hoping to find some clarity in the words now that they were standing just outside.

  The door slammed into me, sending me sprawling back across the floor. My head throbbed, my knife knocked clean out of my hand. My vision doubled momentarily, something wet and slick running into my eyes. Blood.

  In the doorway stood two shadows, both seemingly surprised to see me on the floor. I rolled over in an attempt to get up, but a solid boot connected with my ribs, knocking the air from my lungs. I wheezed painfully, my body begging me to suck in air.

  I heard Jessica scream. I willed myself to get to my feet, to find my knife, but my body had other ideas. I managed to roll onto my back, allowing myself a better view of the shadows who had intruded.

  ‘Get the girl,’ the woman’s voice said. ‘That’s all we were told to do.’

  Jessica kicked and screamed in the one shadow’s grip, shouting for me to help her. I watched helplessly, as if it were happening to someone else.

  ‘What about him?’ the shadow who grasped Jessica asked.

  ‘Teach him a lesson. We run this city, he needs to know his place.’

  Whoever it was who said those words was soon stood over me. They dropped a knee down onto my chest, crushing me beneath their weight. My eyes watered from the pain.

  She brought her face close to mine. In my pained state, all I could make out was a large scar running across her forehead and a maniacal gleam in her eye. She smiled menacingly, grasping my hair and raising my head, her other hand pulled behind her and balled in a fist. ‘Harvey sends his regards.’

  The fist slammed down. I groaned, the taste of iron filling my mouth, my brain rattling around in my skull. I heard a laugh, and the next punch sent me into darkness.

  Chapter Eight

  I groaned as my eyes found light again. I was where I was left, on the cold floor of the room, my clothes and skin crusted by my own blood. I reached a tentative hand to my face and winced as I touched the swelling. I didn’t need to see a mirror to know how fucked my face was.

  Jessica. My mind returned to what had happened before I blacked out. I rolled over to see Jessica’s bed pushed to one side. Her coat lay on the floor and my rucksack was on its side, spilling its contents after getting knocked over in the fracas.

  I grabbed the edge of my bed and pulled myself to my feet. I can only assume they carried on beating me after I had lost consciousness, as my body was covered in bruises and welts. My nerves were on fire with the pain.

  I stumbled towards Jessica’s coat and stooped down to pick it up. I dug through the pockets and found that the photo I had given her was still there. I held it in my shaking hands, looking down at the happy family. Both her parents stood with her, both of them staring at me. I’ll get her back, I promise.

  I folded the ph
oto and placed it in my pocket. I grabbed my coat and pulled it on. It seemed oddly light. I glanced down at my holster. My shotgun was gone. Fuck. I dug my hand into my pocket and found the single shell was still tucked into the pocket. I rolled it around in my hand for a moment before pushing it back down into the pocket.

  I limped out into the hallway and down towards the entrance. I walked into the foyer, expecting to see the old woman still there. She was, but she was face down in a pool of her own blood. Perched on the edge of her desk was the woman from yesterday, calmly waiting as if she was expecting a bus.

  She looked at me over the top of her sunglasses. ‘Quite the number they’ve done on you,’ she said.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ I looked at the old woman slumped dead at her desk. ‘Did you kill her?’

  ‘What? No, of course not. No doubt the thugs who smashed this place up last night.’ She stood up and straightened out her coat. ‘What am I doing here? Well, I assumed you would be looking for a young girl? About eight or nine, with a burnt face?’

  ‘She’s eleven. And I don’t have time for games,’ I growled. ‘If you’re going to waste my time, then just stay out of my fucking way.’

  ‘I know where she is,’ she said. ‘I’m guessing that you’d want to know?’

  I swallowed, the taste of blood strong in my mouth. ‘Why are you helping me?’

  ‘Because sometimes you’ve got to do things not just for your own benefit,’ she said. ‘Some things are for the greater good.’ She nodded towards the exit. ‘Where you spoke with Harvey yesterday? Follow that corridor, you’ll find Harvey’s place.’

  ‘I would say thanks, but I don’t even know your name.’

  ‘Prism.’

  ‘That’s a dumb name.’

  She smirked. ‘So is Gamekeeper.’

  ‘How do you-’ There wasn’t time to stop and play games, I needed to find Jessica. ‘Never mind.’

  I pushed out through the doors of the Flophouse, letting the cooler air of the service tunnels somewhat appease my wounds. I stumbled along the corridor, joining the bustling crowds. No one batted an eyelid to my condition; it was dog-eat-dog as usual.

  I winced and gasped in pain as bodies pushed into me, struggling at times to stop myself from falling down. Keep on going. Jessica needs you. What I was going to do when I got there was another matter.

  I already had a plan for Harvey himself, and it involved the last shell which bounced around in my pocket. He had two people working for him, that I knew of, and they would no doubt recognise me as soon as they saw me. I wondered if they would even bother to kill me, or just laugh and throw me out the door and watch me collapse all on my own.

  The corridor came into sight, the dim string of lights guiding me towards whatever dank pit Harvey and his fiends inhabited. I drifted between the crowd, a strange burning stench filling my nostrils. I pushed forward, shooting pain firing through my legs, the desperation to see Jessica urging me onwards.

  The corridor was oddly quiet. No one lurked in the shadows, and the odd aroma of burnt wood and meat drifted towards me. Wisps of black smoke snaked across the ceiling. My heart raced. What the hell is going on? Am I too late?

  The corridor made several turns before I reached an open doorway. Two guards walked out, each carrying an empty bucket. One of them looked as if he had seen a ghost.

  ‘I wouldn’t go in there,’ the less pale one said to me. ‘Not a pretty sight.’

  They quickly disappeared, and I approached the door. I knew that smell, it was one I had experienced all too recently. Images of Community came to mind, of those twisted and tortured faces caught in their last terrifying moments. My face throbbed as my heart rate rocketed, the whole thing becoming quickly unbearable.

  I stepped in through the doorway and fought the urge to hurl my guts up. Harvey was here alright, along with his crew. There were seven of them altogether, and they had been all tied together in the centre of their club and bound with an iron chain.

  I recognised Harvey instantly, the man’s ample blubber still sizzling and spitting. His skin was peeled back, burnt away from his eyelids and mouth, his face holding the expression of permanent surprise. The woman next to him was one of last night’s intruders, the large scar on her forehead charred black.

  ‘Who the fuck let you in here?’

  I was so focused on the barbecue in front of me that I hadn’t noticed Warden Daniels and another guard in the corner of the room. I held my hands up, forcing words from my bloodied throat. ‘I’m not here to cause trouble.’

  Warden Daniels stepped towards me, his boots thudding across the concrete floor. ‘No? Then why are you here?’

  ‘I’m looking for a girl,’ I said. ‘And my gun.’

  He eyed me for a moment before recognition sparked in his eyes. ‘You’re that guy that came through with the burnt girl, aren’t you? I hardly recognised you. You look like shit.’

  ‘I know,’ I said. ‘Please, have you seen her?’

  ‘She’s not in that pile,’ Warden Daniels said, pointing to the charred meat in the centre of the room. ‘I can tell you that much.’ He shook his head. ‘I’ve seen some fucked up things in this world, but never in my city. Who’s got the stomach to do this?’

  I looked back at Harvey and his crew. ‘The Children of Ash.’

  ‘The what?’

  ‘They attacked a small settlement,’ I said. ‘They burnt the place to the ground, and did this to the people. Women, children, everyone. I heard they’ve done it to other towns too.’

  Warden Daniels shook his head. ‘No. No, that’s not what’s happened here. No one gets in and out of Hope without my knowledge. This is someone on the inside.’

  ‘No, this is them,’ I said. ‘They said Jessica was special, they called her Daughter of the Flame, or something. They wanted her and they found her.’

  Warden Daniels stepped towards me. ‘You’ve obviously been through a lot, but I won’t have someone going around saying that people are sneaking into Hope and burning people alive. That’s a panic I don’t need on my hands.’

  ‘But-’

  Warden Daniels squared up to me, nostrils flaring. ‘I’ve already got officers out there trying to stamp out any rumours of what happened here. For all people know, we just had an electrical fire that got out of hand. These things happen. I’m not having panic in my city. Do you understand?’ He nodded to the guard next to him. ‘Deputy Thwaite, show him out.’

  Deputy Thwaite stalked towards me, pulling her hair into a tight ponytail and tugging a cap down over her head. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘We need this place locked down until we’ve investigated.’

  I stepped out into the dingy corridor once more. The adrenaline which had surged through me had drained from my system, and I rested myself against the wall. Pain seeped back through me.

  Deputy Thwaite frowned. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘About your girl.’

  I looked up at one of the flickering lights, letting my head thud against the brick wall. ‘So am I.’

  ‘If we find anything, I’ll let you know. You over at the Flophouse still?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Although for how much longer I wasn’t sure. I pushed myself onto my own two feet again. ‘Thanks, it’s appreciated.’

  She offered a kind smile. ‘We’ve all lost people. We all know how it feels.’

  ‘My gun?’

  ‘We found one in there, yeah,’ she said. ‘Firearms are rare. We don’t tend to like people wandering around with them when they do turn up though.’ She sucked at her bottom lip. ‘But if you’re set on going to find whoever did this, then I’ll allow it.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I said.

  ‘Don’t make me regret it.’ Deputy Thwaite ducked back into Harvey’s den, gagging slightly as the smell of burnt flesh returned to her nostrils. Within moments she returned, holding it out towards me. ‘It’s not loaded.’

  ‘I know,’ I said, taking it and returning it to its holster. ‘Good for frightening people
though.’

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m sure it is. Good luck to you.’

  I gave a nod and meandered dejectedly back towards the main mall area. I’m sorry, Jessica. I’ve failed you. I’ve failed your dad. Maybe things would have been better for you if you had left with those other people in the barn. The overhead lights slowly passed by, their soft light washing over me every few metres.

  Was there even any point in staying here anymore? I had lost Jessica, and I had no idea where they had taken her. Warden Daniels had said that no one gets in or out without his knowledge, and that seemed a safe bet. My eyes welled as I thought about the girl, and how she was probably now scared and alone in the world; perhaps even dead. She had thought herself so close to seeing her father again, and now she would probably never see Hope again either.

  Someone waited at the end of the corridor. It was Prism, her now familiar glasses and scarf peering at me. ‘I don’t have time for this,’ I said. ‘I just want to be left alone.’

  ‘Was the girl not there?’ she asked, her voice softening.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘They’ve taken her and I’ll never find her.’

  ‘They?’

  I let out a frustrated sigh. ‘The cult,’ I said. ‘The Children of Ash. They came for her, and they killed Harvey and his crew to take her.’

  ‘Let me guess, Warden Daniels told you that no one gets in under his watch?’

  I looked up at her. ‘Yeah. Heard it before?’

  ‘I’ve been told he’s said that many times,’ Prism replied. ‘But I know differently.’

  ‘People can sneak into Hope?’

  ‘I’m not certain of it,’ Prism said. ‘But the old tunnels beneath the shopping mall are still there. They’re sealed up, and only accessible through the air-vents, but they’re there. They run the length of the place, and further again from what I’ve heard. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard of strangers accessing the city in that way.’

  It was something for my desperate mind to cling on to, a straw to clutch. ‘Are you sure? Can you tell me where they are?’

  For the first time I had seen, Prism pulled down her scarf. I couldn’t help but stare; her jaw was licked with old burns. She smiled, the old scars stretching over her jawline. ‘I’ll do better than that. I’ll show you.’