by Lopez, Rob
Had she hit the intruder? Was he dead?
Daisy dared not investigate, and in fact was too afraid to move, lest she make a sound with the bed springs. The clock on the other side of the house ticked steadily, and the distant thunder rolled again. Seconds turned to minutes, and the minutes drew forth into an hour, but neither Daisy nor the children would sleep more that night. Instead, Daisy, clutching the revolver, prayed for the dawn.
39
Lauren too wanted the dawn to arrive, if only to alleviate the spooky atmosphere of the inside of the old saw mill being lit with candles. The broken roof high overhead had enough steel sheets on it to block most of the stars, and the rusted saw blades sticking up from the piles of fallen beams, and the chains that hung from the iron gantries, gave the place the flavor of a horror movie.
“It looks pretty, doesn’t it?” said the guy with the hunting rifle. “It gives it a certain ambiance. This place doesn’t look much during the day, but the mixture of decay and candlelight highlights the romance.”
Lauren knew the guy’s name was Neil. The chubby guy with the shotgun was Tyrone, and the salivating brute with the band aid was Bud. She knew because Neil had taken the time to introduce them all. Neil had taken a liking to her and was trying to be nice.
It hadn’t prevented Lauren from having her hands and feet tied and dumped on the rough mill floor. Bud had taken an interest in her, caressing her cheek with a Bowie knife and trying to thrust his hand down her pants. She’d struggled hard against him, kicking out, and when he tried to lie on top of her, she’d bitten him. That was why she was now gagged with a dirty cloth. In his outrage Bud had slapped her about until Neil pulled him off and sent him away.
Lauren wasn’t fooled by the apparent kindness. It was a good cop, bad cop routine, and the look in Neil’s eyes told her what he really wanted.
He didn’t just want to rape her. He wanted a certain compliance. Maybe he wanted to kid himself that she’d prefer to give herself to him in return for some leniency and protection.
Lying on her side, her legs ready to kick out again, she glared balefully at him.
April lay a few feet away, her boy sitting close beside her, unbound but clutching his stomach, like he had a bad belly ache. Tense and watchful, he stayed quiet. April, on the other hand, wouldn’t stop talking. Fidgeting constantly, she’d offered herself to the men if only they’d cut her loose and suggested all kinds of favors she could do if she had her hands free. Lauren listened with faint disgust. Back at the river, she’d put on a performance to prevent them taking Daniel from her, screaming hysterically. Now she was the smooth tongued diva, surrendering herself to the compromises a woman had to make to please a man. Or so she said. Lauren, seeing a different side to April, wondered if this was how she’d behaved with that gang member back in Baltimore. If so, it hadn’t helped, and when these guys finished their eating, it was going to get ugly.
They ignored April for the time being, however, preferring to concentrate on Lauren. Neil regarded her as the greatest prize, and the others deferred to his judgment, letting him make the first move before choosing. Considering how they looked across to her from the fire, it was clear they’d already made their choice. April might be the dessert, but Lauren was both starter and main course, a veritable buffet for their pent up carnal desires. What would happen after that was not clear, but Lauren wasn’t optimistic. The men seemed to be using the mill as a base, but once they’d harvested everything within range, they’d probably move on, and they likely wouldn’t want burdensome captives who’d need feeding and watching. Not when they could easily get more. Lauren considered that, to stay alive in the coming days, she’d be better to do what April did, and make herself indispensable to the men, Neil especially. But she was damned if she was going to do that. She was so angry at them, and at herself for having been dumb enough to get herself caught, that she wanted to make them wish they’d never set eyes on her.
In the center of the floor were stacks of food, tools, camping equipment and a variety of other items acquired from their looting sprees. Lauren thought about those beautiful houses in the woods, isolated from each other and easy prey for this gang, taking them out one by one. It was the equivalent of going out shopping with unlimited credit. All three were dressed in the finest outdoor clothing from the most expensive brands. Neil had even taken the trouble to shave, priding himself in his new identity. Lauren got the sense he’d never had it so good, in spite of his affected philosophical musings.
“These aren’t the end times. These are the beginning times. A new beginning. You want to ask yourself a question: do you want to be part of the new, or the old?”
Lauren wanted to tell him he was talking garbage, but the gag prevented that.
“Only you can make that choice,” he continued. “The old has been laid to waste, and seriously, who wants to go back to that? Watching the clock, worrying that you’ll be late for work. Paying endless bills. Insurance. Tax. It was never ending. And for what? A 401k retirement plan that’s never going to be enough to fund what you really want to do in life, and which you’ve wasted most of your life waiting for.”
He put his hand on her thigh.
“It doesn’t have to be that way, and there’s no need to wait any more. Might as well live for the moment. Enjoy life. And each other. There’s no shame in that.”
Lauren wriggled his hand off. Neil appeared amused. Reaching into his top pocket, he pulled out a cop badge.
“This is the old order,” he said, tapping the badge. “This guy begged for his life when we caught him. He’d shed his uniform and was running away. Forgot all about that Protect and Serve crap. He didn’t have any faith that all them folks in DC would be able to bring the old order back. And he was right.” Neil toyed with the badge. “All their levers of power have gone. You see, they never had the power they thought they had. It was all an illusion, and people could have overturned it if they’d risen up like they should have. But they were just sheep.” Neil tossed the badge and it clattered to the floor. “We’re all animals really, but there’s different kinds. Better to be at the top of the apex than down at the bottom eating the grass, I say. I like my meat.” He thrust his hand between Lauren’s legs. “You’ll like my meat too, if you just let yourself. Give it up and taste the pleasure. Because why not? Enjoy it. There’s no point screaming, because no one’s going to hear you.”
Lauren didn’t waste time screaming. As Neil tried to pull her pants off, she bucked and kicked, arching her body, bringing her knees up against him and headbutting him whenever he got close enough. Pinning her down, he slapped her a few times, but she continued to struggle with all her strength until he sprang back, touching his bleeding lip from where she’d banged her skull against him.
Picking up his rifle, he aimed it at her. “Keep still, or I’m going to put one right through you.”
The gag had come loose in the struggle and Lauren shouted back, “Go to hell!”
He looked for a moment as if he would pull the trigger, his face twisting in anger to reveal the kind of person he truly was, the fake persona disappearing. To do so, however, would rob him of the living body he wanted to make his.
He turned to look at little Daniel. “Hey you! Kid! Come here.”
Daniel looked up, confusion on his face. “You stay right there, baby,” said April, still fidgeting. “Stay close. The man don’t want you really. He wants a little pleasure, that’s all. And we can give him that. You stay close.”
Lauren, her face burning and her head spinning, wondered what the hell she was talking about. April’s words didn’t really make sense. As her vision cleared, however, she noticed something she hadn’t seen before. Thrown about in her struggle and coming to rest in a different location, she had a clearer view of April’s hands, and suddenly the constant fidgeting made sense.
April almost had her hands clear of the zip tie.
Neil, too angry to notice anything amiss, strode over, grabbed Daniel by h
is coat hood, and yanked him over until he had the boy dangling in his hand. Pressing the barrel of the rifle against the child, Neil addressed Lauren. “Last chance. You lie still, or I’m going to fill this little shit full of lead.”
“Baby,” screamed April, rolling over and fighting to pull her hand all the way out of the tie.
Lauren looked up at Daniel, realizing it wouldn’t make any difference. The choice of whether he would live or die was ultimately hers.
That was the moment the Ruger hidden down the front of Daniel’s coat slipped out and clattered to the floor.
There was a moment of stunned silence all around. Several things made sense to Lauren, then. Like why April had been declared 'clean’ when she was searched by Bud back at the river. Lauren, distracted by her shame, thought she’d simply misheard. But April, hugging her boy, had slid the pistol into his coat. It was why he was hugging his stomach. And why she urged him to stay close.
“You son of a -” began Neil.
He never got to finish. Coiling herself like a spring, Lauren kicked out hard with both tied feet, connecting with his leg and knocking it out from under him. Both he and Daniel came tumbling down, the rifle sliding along the floor.
Daniel scampered away, Neil clambered over Lauren to reach for the Ruger, and Lauren swung her legs, kicking the pistol toward April. Neil smashed his elbow down onto Lauren’s face as a punishment, and April yanked her hand free.
Lauren didn’t see too clearly what happened next. Her nose had been crushed and her eyes were streaming. She simply heard the pistol shot, and felt Neil jerking back.
Blinking hard, she saw Neil gasping like a landed fish, a spreading pool of blood on his chest. His legs spasmed, and he flopped over onto his face, staring at the floor and trembling.
April had the gun in her hand, but her legs were still tied. Momentarily shocked by what she’d done, she turned when she saw Tyrone running for his shotgun. She fired, but Tyrone was over ten yards away, and that was too much for her rudimentary aim. The bullet went wide and Tyrone, ducking, reached his shotgun and blasted back.
His aim turned out to be as bad as April’s, and he took out part of the wall paneling behind her.
She fired again, causing him to run for cover, and he fired back, hitting a pillar this time. Bud, a little farther back, pulled out his revolver and fired, but he couldn’t hit anything either. As they traded badly aimed shots, Neil gave one last twitch and died.
Lauren knew this one sided battle wouldn’t last long. It would only take one lucky hit and April would be down. Jerking her body, she tried to break the ties on her arms and legs. The plastic cut deep into her wrists, and no matter what she did, she couldn’t do what April had done. The tie was too strong and too tight. Her legs, however, had more power, and she twisted and stretched the zip tie, even as it sliced into her flesh. Straining hard, she finally snapped the plastic. Rolling over and jumping up, she careered into the wall, held herself up, then began rubbing the tie holding her wrists against an exposed steel beam.
Pounded by near misses, April finally remembered the training Lauren had given her and held the pistol steady in a two handed grip. Aiming carefully, she fired as Tyrone leaned out from cover, catching him in the shoulder. The shotgun flew up into the air and Tyrone staggered back. April fired five rapid shots. Only two connected, but one was to Tyrone’s throat. He dropped like a sack, gurgling, his hands vainly trying to stem the blood flow.
Bud, having emptied his chamber and hit nothing, decided it was time to go. April fired a hasty last shot as he headed for the door, but she couldn’t track him and the bullet flew wide. With her legs still tied, she couldn’t follow him.
Lauren rubbed the tie furiously against the pillar and strained against the plastic until it finally snapped. Without hesitation, she snatched up the hunting rifle and ran to the door.
The stars lit the sky, and a new moon shone up the side of the pickup, which was parked at the edge of the wood. A silhouette moved against the reflection. Lauren lifted the rifle and put her eye to the scope. The wide scope gathered and focused the little extra light, revealing the vague figure of Bud running for his life. Lauren aimed for center mass and squeezed the trigger. There was a loud crack in the night, and the figure fell as the large caliber round knocked him down.
Lauren would once have said she’d never shoot a fleeing man in the back. April was right, though. These weren’t normal times, and he was still a threat.
Working the bolt action to load another round, she approached him. He lay perfectly still, and after prodding him a few times, she checked his pulse.
Nothing. He wasn’t a threat anymore.
Back inside, April hugged Daniel tight and sobbed. Lauren thought something had happened to the boy – so many bullets had been flying, he might have been caught in the crossfire. He was nuzzling his mother’s neck, however, and appeared to be fine. Lauren lowered herself down to sit cross-legged on the floor, light headed and tasting the blood that dripped from her nose.
“Are they all dead?” murmured April.
“Yes,” said Lauren, flatly.
April wiped her eyes. “Oh my God, I didn’t think we were going to get through this.”
“You did good.”
“I tried to get them to leave you alone. I tried to distract them.”
“I know. I didn’t realize what you were doing. I’m sorry, but I underestimated you.”
“Ain’t no bother. Oh my God, I can’t believe what I just did. I was trying, and thinking, and praying that we’d get out of this. Oh my baby, I’m sorry for what I did.”
She hugged Daniel tightly again, and Lauren could see she was still in shock, the post-action adrenaline causing her to blurt out random stuff. Lauren sat quietly, surprised at how calm she herself felt. It was like she was too tired to feel excited about anything anymore.
“How’d you get out of those cuffs?”
“Huh?”
“The cuffs. How’d you get out of them so easily? Mine were so tight, they were cutting into me.”
“Oh, them. Watched a video on how to get out of them. Lock your fists sideways when they tie them. More space between the wrists. I told you I was prepping.”
Lauren lay down, feeling she could sleep for a week. “You saved the day, April. Smart, smart move.”
Daniel broke his long silence. “Smart Mommy.”
April wept and rocked him in her arms.
40
As dawn’s light filtered in, Daisy shuffled to the window, parting the curtains slightly. She dreaded the thought of seeing a body outside, or the blood trail left by a wounded looter, but there was nothing. Whatever she’d shot at the night before had gotten clean away.
She wasn’t sure whether that made her feel better or worse.
The broken window was a problem now. She needed to board it up, but the tools and nails were all in the garage, and she wasn’t sure there were any panels in there. She left that side of things to Harold, and the garage was his, just as the house was hers. They’d never kept a car in it. It was just a place for Harold to store his junk.
It might well be a safer place to sleep at night, seeing as the only window was a small pane in the side door. The house was a bad place to be besieged in, she could see that now. Unless she boarded up every single window, there was little to prevent someone getting in if they really wanted to, and she didn’t relish the thought of patrolling every room at night to guard against that.
There also remained the pressing problem of food and water, with the latter being the most important. It meant she had to venture out, at some point.
She remembered then that some of those fancy new houses had pools in their gardens. She might not have to go as far as the creek. The water might be chlorinated, but it was possible that it could be drunk. She’d swallowed water at the public swimming pool a few times, and it hadn’t done her any harm. At least it was clean and pestilence free.
Leaving the house was a risk, but sh
e had the revolver, and she’d fired it once already. If she’d scared the intruder off, he might have left the area, looking for easier pickings.
And they only seemed to come at night.
“I’m sick of being cooped up, here,” she told the children. “We’ll clear a space out in the garage and drag a mattress there. We’ll sleep safer at night. And we need to go out and get some water.”
The children looked at her, a little bewildered. It wasn’t clear how much of an appetite they had for exploring outside, but it was down to her to offer some leadership. Glimpsing renewed hope in their eyes, she knew she was doing the right thing. Cowering at home like frightened kittens was bad for all of them.
“Okay, let’s do this thing.”
Grabbing the keys to the garage, she had the children check the view from all the windows to make sure both the street and the garden were clear. Enlisting Josh to help her move the table away from the back door, she unlocked it and peered out, gun at the ready.
A squirrel scampered up the tree in next door’s garden, but otherwise, everything was quiet. She figured that, if they kept all noise to a minimum, they should be able to clear out the garage without attracting attention. There was so much junk in there, however, that Daisy wasn’t sure how long it would take. Or what she would find.
No matter, they only needed to clear a space large enough to sleep in. After that would come the riskier job of scavenging.
Making sure the children stayed behind her, she made her way across the lawn, feeling exposed. Looking around, she slipped the key in the lock.
The key wouldn’t turn, however, and she berated herself as she realized she’d left the door unlocked. Perfectly normal for the way things were before, but she realized that such habits needed to change.
Opening the door, she peered into the gloom, groaning inwardly at the sight of all the junk. Making rough calculations, she guessed it was going to take longer than she thought to get most of it out.