by Barry Napier
“Crazy Mike,” I said softly with some humor, trying to ease Kendra.
“I don’t think he’s crazy. He’s been through something we don’t understand. Eric, I want to get out of here.”
“We will.”
“Now,” she said. “Forget dinner.”
I thought this over, not liking the idea. We had more food that we could have imagined a week ago, sitting in a room several feet away. We were underground and seemed safe. To pass it up so quickly seemed irrational to me. At the same time, it was rare that Kendra was so insistent about anything. I wasn’t quite sure how to take it.
“Let’s hear them out, at least” I said. “If Vance was with the National Guard, we don’t know what other sort of things he could offer us if we stay here. Weapons, protection...maybe answers he just hasn’t offered us yet.”
She thought about it for a moment and then sighed. I could tell she did not like the suggestion but also saw the logic in it. “Fine. We’ll hear what he has to say and ask him some questions at dinner. But...what if they are really planning to make that poor man walk into one of these nests?”
I didn’t have an answer. I looked to the floor where Mike had been sitting as the three of us headed towards the restrooms, and started to feel trapped..
18
The dinner was set up in a quaint fashion. There were paper plates and napkins spread around on the conference table. There was a varied cornucopia of foods in the center of the table, some of which made my mouth water. There was more canned soup and Chef Boyardee, crackers, a box of Cheerios, a half dozen sticks of beef jerky, a few cans of pinto beans, peanut butter, and several jugs of Gatorade.
Riley, Watts, Peterson, and Mike were already at the table. Riley and Peterson were speaking quietly about something while Mike stared off into space, slowly eating a stick of beef jerky. Peterson was opening up a box of plastic cutlery.
Kendra and I took our seats; the baby sat on my lap and seemed instantly drawn to the bright green color of the Gatorade in front of us. He merrily slapped at the table, trying to reach it.
Hayes and Greenbriar walked in next, followed by Vance. As everyone took a seat at the table—which was quickly becoming crowded—I tried to remember the last time I had been in a room with this many living human beings. Realizing that there were nine people in the room was both relieving and eerie at the same time.
There was murmured conversation, some of which was shared with Kendra and I as we were asked by Hayes and Peterson how we were settling in. It seemed like an odd question, seeing as how we had only been here for a little over two hours. Every word uttered to us seemed forced, even when Greenbriar took it upon himself to speak gibberish to the baby.
Ha they planned this? Rehearsed it? It seemed ridiculous, because if it was just a ploy to kill us (or, if I was being honest with myself, kill me and keep Kendra), it seemed very convoluted. This didn’t do much to relieve me, though. This meant if they were up to something devious, it must be pretty bad.
After everyone was settled, the room fell quiet and all eyes turned to us. It made me extremely uncomfortable. The fact that the gazes that were falling on us were a mixture of distrust and a deranged sort of awe made it even worse. I noticed right away that Watts was once again staring at Kendra like a slab of meat.
“Help yourself to whatever you’d like,” Vance said.
“Thanks,” I replied, although I waited for everyone else to start digging in first. As I selected the peanut butter and a pack of saltines, I wanted to ask where all of this food had come from. I assumed Vance had known where stockpiles of food could be found in the wake of the nuclear disasters because of his military connections.
I wanted to know a lot more than that, actually. I wanted to know why it felt like these people were ignoring Mike. I wanted to know how they had come to find this place and if each of them had their own stories about an encounter with the nests.
But I didn’t ask. I didn’t want my interest in the Black Spots to interfere with the decision that Kendra and I had come to in regards to leaving.
I started breaking up one of the crackers and feeding the bits to the baby. As he ate, I spread peanut butter on my own cracker. Kendra had opted for a can of pinto beans and the green Gatorade that the baby had found so interesting. I watch her drink it slowly but longingly, knowing that she was worried about keeping her fluids up for her milk. It was also the first drink with any flavor she’d had since we’d started our trek together. The look of absolute joy on her face as she drank it down was sort of cute.
Watching her do this and knowing that in the midst of all of this, she was more concerned about feeding her son than anything else, I got the courage to say what she and I had planned.
“We’ve talked about it at length,” I said. “Although you guys have been nothing but hospitable and kind to us, we’ve decided not to stay.”
I was met with silence at first. I couldn’t read anyone’s expression. I saw no surprise, no disappointment. Nothing. Even Mike seemed to not have much of a reaction.
“Going to take a chance on the Safe Zone, huh?” Greenbriar asked.
“Yeah.”
Vance gave an indignant shrug as he popped a handful of dry Cheerios into his mouth. “It’s your decision,” he said. “Our doors are open to enter or to exit. However, I feel that it’s my responsibility to let you know that judging by what we have all seen out there, it’s going to be tough-going.”
“I can imagine. But we think it might be what’s best. Especially for the baby, if we want him to have something of a normal life. We have to take a chance on the Safe Zone.”
“I can understand that,” Riley said.
“Probably a good decision,” echoed Peterson.
“Hell yeah,” Crazy Mike said, suddenly deciding to take part in the conversation. He gave the baby an exaggerated smile which the baby returned with a coo and cackle.
Watts said nothing. He stared at Kendra, noticed me noticing him, and averted his eyes. He gave me a depressed look with an edge of anger to it as he turned his eyes towards Vance.
Vance simply looked back and forth between Kendra and me. It was the first time I saw him look doubtful about anything. I believe he had expected us to stay and if his expression was any indication, he appeared to be slightly offended.
Still, he leaned forward and gave a smile. “Well, it’s dark out now. Feel free to stay the night. First thing tomorrow morning, I’ll take you out and see what we can do about finding you a better set of wheels. We’ll pack you up with some rations before you leave, too.”
I was surprised to see that Kendra was wiping a tear away from her eyes. “Thank you so much,” she said. “It’s such a hard decision but I have to think about what’s best for my baby.”
Apparently, she now saw her suspicion as ill-informed. The expression of gratitude on her face was genuine. I was pretty shocked. Again, though, I was pretty sure most of her reactions to things were based on the eventual outcomes for her son.
“I understand,” Vance said. “Don’t feel that you have to explain yourself.”
“Thanks again,” I said, feeling guilty as I reached out to take more of these people’s stockpiled food. Still, there was a very heavy sense that there was something going on here that I was not privy to.
Conversation dwindled among our small group as we finished our dinner. I found it odd that no one spoke about their lives before everything ended. All they spoke about was their time on the road and the atrocities they had seen: murder, rape, mass graves, cannibalism. It was almost like they were trying to scare us into staying with them.
As if it were an omen of sorts, the electricity flickered and then went out just as Kendra and I stood up from the table. Greenbriar let out a groan. Crazy Mike let out a nervous laugh.
“Well,” Riley said, “you almost made it your entire stay without the power crapping out.”
“It’s quite alright,” Kendra said. “Even this is better than anything w
e’ve known for the past six months or so.”
“Thanks again, everyone,” I said, giving a wave to the dark figures huddled around the table. “I think we’re just going to rest up and get ready for tomorrow.”
“Good idea,” Vance said.
When I turned my back to the group, I felt a very real fear that someone would attack us. I have no idea where the feeling came from, but it stayed with me until we were back in our room with the door closed behind us.
“What do you think?” I asked her. “Do we stay the night and hope Vance can help us with a car?”
“I don’t know,” she said. She then looked to the baby, like he might have an answer. She sat back down on the bed and said nothing else. I knew this was her way of forcing me to the make the decision for us. “I think they were being honest. I really think I misjudged them at first. I think they really only want to help people.”
I still wasn’t one hundred percent sold on that yet. Still, I also thought it made sense to get a good night’s sleep and head out in the morning.
“I think leaving now, in the dark, is stupid,” I said. “We have two choices: stay here with a roof over our heads and get a good night’s rest or leave now and wander around in the dark.”
She laughed nervously.
Her nervousness made be glad that I had kept my last comment to myself: It’s almost like they planned it that way, huh?
19
My brain still tried to link every sight, sound, and smell back to the world before the bombs. So when I heard the door slowly sliding open later that night, I thought it was Maria, my girlfriend of eight months prior to the bombs, getting up to use the bathroom at three in the morning like usual.
I may have gone so far as to mutter something about Maria as I floated in that dark place between wakefulness and sleep. Maybe telling her to not take her phone into the bathroom with her.
But then I heard Kendra’s voice, panicked and muffled beside me. My eyes flew open and I sat up, immediately turning to her.
I was met with a fist to my face.
The room was dark but when I was struck, it became suddenly bright. My head struck the floor as I fell back. I looked up and saw two men in the room with us. The one that had hit me was Watts. The other, restraining Kendra and jerking her to her feet, was Greenbriar.
“Just stay right there,” Greenbriar said. He did not shout; his voice was calm and almost serene.
I started to get up again. In response, Greenbriar raised his foot high into the air, as if he was going to step up onto the cot. That’s when I remembered the baby was up there. Its little body was directly beneath Greenbriar’s raised foot, still sleeping.
“If you fight,” Greenbriar said, “I’ll pop his head with my boot.”
“You wouldn’t,” I said although it was weak. “I’ll kill you.”
“The hell I won’t. And the hell you will. Son, you have no clue what I’ve been through this last year. Killing a baby would be incredibly low on the list of terrible things I’ve had to do.”
Without warning, Watts delivered a swift kick to my ribs. I caught it just in time, blocking some of its force with my arm. My ribs were saved, but the wind went rushing out me in a gasp.
Greenbriar looked down at me with an almost sad expression. “When you have your wind back, get to your feet and get dressed. If you take more than two minutes to do it, I’ll stomp the baby’s head and let Watts here have the room to himself. He may want Kendra as company.”
“Oh, I do,” Watts said. He approached her and ran his hand through her hair as Greenbriar held her tight against him. Watts placed his mouth on her neck and nibbled playfully.
Kendra wriggled and let out a whimper.
Fear and anger rose in my stomach like angry hornets disturbed from their hive. I gritted my teeth, trying to find a way out of this. Realizing that the situation was hopeless, I got to my feet quickly. My side cramped up from where Watts had kicked me, but I pushed past it. I threw on my shirt and slid my socks and shoes on.
“You’re fast,” Greenbriar said. “That’s good.”
“What is this?” I spat. “What do you want?”
“Depends on who you ask,” Greenbriar said. “If you cooperate, we’ll all get what we want, I think. But if you don’t, only Watts and I will get what we want.” He stopped here, eyeing Kendra, making sure I got the point without him having to explain any further.
The baby started to stir awake, pouting and then beginning to cry.
“Can you shut that thing up?” Greenbriar asked.
I went to the baby and picked him up. He was still tired but his eyes were looking around for the still-panicked sounds of his mother. Kendra remained pressed against the wall, Watts standing directly in front of her so that they were nearly nose-to-nose.
Watts smiled at me and then reached behind his back. He withdrew a handgun, the kind policemen usually wear on their hips. I knew very little about guns so I did not know make, model, or capacity for damage. All I knew was the gun was one more way these two had the upper hand.
“You’re going to leave this room, walk through the conference room, down the hall, up the stairs and back out into the garage,” Greenbriar instructed. “If you don’t do exactly that, I’ll blow out your knee and make you watch us kill the baby and do all sorts of fun things to your lady. Got it?”
I nodded. I was terrified but there was also a rage inside of me that I had never known existed. It was boiling in my guts and I felt like I might explode from the force of it. I was trembling and I tried to tell myself it was more out of that primal anger than fear.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Another man appeared in the doorway and answered. Vance.
“For a ride.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but felt the nudge of Watts’ gun at my back as he led me out of the door. I carried the baby close to my chest, holding him close because the world felt as if it were wobbly; the punch and my head hitting the floor was just beginning to phase me. There were fuzzy edges to everything I saw.
Behind me, Greenbriar followed us out with one arm around Kendra’s neck, and the other pinning her arm behind her back.
20
We were led to Vance’s dump truck, still parked out in front of the parking garage. Another truck was directly beside it. Riley sat behind the wheel of this truck, looking at us anxiously as we came out. Someone else sat on the passenger side—Peterson, I assumed.
Greenbriar got behind the wheel of the dump truck as Vance and Watts forced me, Kendra, and the baby into the bucket. I climbed up a steel ladder that ran along the side of the bucket and crawled over into the shallow side. Kendra and I had to trade off the baby as we loaded ourselves in. When I finally managed to snap myself together and realize that something horrible was likely going to be happening soon, I realized that Crazy Mike was already in the back.
He nodded at me, frowning.
“Should have just kept on driving, walking, or whatever,” he said as I helped Kendra over, holding the baby awkwardly against my chest. “Too late to leave now, my man.”
Before I could respond, Vance and Watts climbed over into the bucket as well. Watts still had his gun aimed at me. I thought of my own weapons, sitting in Vance’s little underground bunker. I suddenly felt very stupid for giving over our supplies so easily. Not that it mattered—we would have still been defenseless against the stealthy attack Watts and Greenbriar had organized against us.
Vance pounded on the side of the bucket. A noise like metal thunder boomed and Greenbriar started the truck. When he pulled off, a lurch caused the baby to start crying. I held him close to my chest, rocking him. I became very aware that here, in the back of this dump truck, we had no food for him. We only had what Kendra could provide naturally and as of late, that hadn’t been much.
The dump truck exited the parking garage and tore out into the night. The empty streets, shrouded in darkness, set a pretty bleak tone.
“Mike
knows the deal,” Vance said once the cumbersome truck had picked up speed.
He then made a point to show me the backpack he had been wearing the whole time. He reached inside and pulled out what looked like telephone headsets. They had a small black box along the right side of them and when he handed it out to me, I realized that the black box was a camera. Sort of like a miniature GoPro.
“Take it,” Vance said.
I did, not wanting to cause any more trouble than was necessary. Kendra made a soft whimpering sound. I think she had somehow already figured out what Vance and his stooges had in mind.
Vance then handed one of the contraptions to Mike. Mike looked at it and slid it on over his head just like a set of headphones. “This right?” he asked.
I was confused and slightly angry to see that Mike was almost eager to participate in whatever was happening.
“That’s it exactly,” Vance said. He then turned to me. “Now you.”
I slid the odd headset over my head. I expected the camera to have some weight to it, but it was incredibly light.
“What is it?” Kendra asked. I did not like the dread in her voice. My own dread tried to latch on to it, to respond.
“A camera,” Vance said.
“So he can see what’s in there,” Mike added.
“In where?”
But I knew the answer before the question was completely out of my mouth.
No one answered directly, but Mike seemed oddly excited. “As soon as they told me their idea, I knew I had to go back in,” he said. “There’s so much more for me to see.”
“What’s he talking about?” I asked.
Vance ignored me and pulled a small yet very heavy-looking metallic box from the backpack. It wasn’t until he flipped it open, creating an L-shape with it, that I realized it was some sort of heavy-duty laptop. It wasn’t any laptop you could buy wholesale. It was clearly some sort of military computer, built to take a beating—perhaps the sort used in active combat to stay connected to a home base.