Super Pulse (Book 4): Defect

by Conifer, Dave

  “Yes we did. Because once a fight starts,” Squid continued, “all that’s out the window. I fight hard. I use whatever I have handy. And I don’t stop until the enemy is, um, subdued. Completely subdued, without any question. That’s the way I was trained. That’s the only way I know how to fight.”

  “Oh yeah?” Lou asked. “Trained by who?”

  “It’s a form of fighting and self-defense called Krav Maga,” he told her by way of an answer. “It’s not just a method, it’s also a philosophy. And part of that philosophy is that once it starts, you don’t stop until you’re done.”

  “Kra McWho?” asked Plankton. “What was that again?”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Lou interjected. “But of course, why would I expect any different?”

  Squid knew that although he hadn’t answered her, he’d said far more than he’d intended to. He circled the truck, doing one last inspection, before returning to the others. “The only thing that worries me is refueling. But I think you had a plan for that, right Plankton?”

  “Yup,” Plankton answered. “We’ll just need some kind of tube or hose.”

  “So what do you say?” Squid asked. “Time to saddle up and get ourselves out of here before anything else can happen?”

  “Sure is,” Lou replied. “Just make sure we drive around the bodies we’re leaving behind. We don’t want to mess our new truck up.”

  Ten

  Pain and bewilderment clouded Matt Shardlake’s mind when he woke up that morning. His surroundings were completely unknown to him. Wherever he was, however, one thing was familiar. It was cold. He blew out a breath, wondering if he’d be able to see it condense in the frigid air. Surprisingly, he couldn’t. That was something.

  Two seemingly unrelated observations somehow stood out through the fog of confusion. For starters, he was bound at the ankles and tied to a chair. Secondly, and this was even stranger, it appeared that he was in a hotel room, probably a high-rise overlooking the ocean. Am I in the middle of a dream? Oh, and there was one other thing of note. His head was throbbing. If he’d had a free hand he’d have checked for blood. But there were shreds of memories, clues as to how he’d gotten where he now found himself. Slowly, as he stared out through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the steel gray sky outside, he began to remember.

  The prior evening, just before closing up and heading back to the Village for dinner, he’d been moving empty water barrels into the Water Plant to be filled and distributed the next morning. It was no different than any other night; empty barrels came in to be refilled and sent out the next morning. Just as he’d begun to grumble about a lack of support, his new assistant, Merle, had appeared out of nowhere. Matt was glad for the help, although his arrival so late in the day was a surprise. It wasn’t often that Merle showed up precisely when there was work to be done. Usually Merle waited until it was done before arriving.

  Merle was so new to the Water Plant that Matt didn’t even know his last name. All he knew was that he’d come back from Lockworth with Nick a month or two earlier. A few days after being accepted at Tabernacle, Merle had lobbied for an assignment in the Water Plant, something that had always seemed odd to Matt. Until then, nobody had shown much interest in the place, either among original residents or new ones. But he chalked it up to a desire to work in a place that made a difference to everybody and put his concerns aside.

  For a few minutes after he’d shown up last night, Merle had indeed helped to hump the barrels inside, but as it turned out he was merely waiting for his chance. When it came, he smashed Matt’s head from behind with something heavy, probably one of the rods they used to stir the chlorine into the barrels. The blow hadn’t knocked Matt out; he’d lasted until he’d been rolled onto his stomach. But by the time he felt himself being blindfolded and tied up, he was fading fast. The last thing he could recall were new, unfamiliar voices and the burn of the scratchy ropes on his wrists as they were knotted tight.

  Regardless of who his captors were and why he was alone in an abandoned hotel at the moment, it appeared that he’d been kidnapped. Now all he wanted to know was where he was, who his abductors were, and why they’d done it. Finding out what he’d need to do to get back to Tabernacle was obviously of prime importance as well.

  ~~~

  He hadn’t been awake for long before several men entered the room. Like everybody he knew these days, they sported bushy beards, long hair, and well-worn, filthy clothing. They didn’t look much different than he himself did. Despite the familiar stylings, however, he was sure he’d never seen any of them in his life. “Where am I?” he asked. Only then did he realize how dry his mouth and throat were. “Who are you?”

  The men looked at each other and shrugged. Much to Matt’s relief, his first impression was that these men didn’t look like they had any plans to treat him the way Merle had. That didn’t explain the circumstances or the gash on the back of his head, but in some way it was encouraging. “Can I have something to drink?” he asked, before lapsing into a brief coughing fit.

  “Go get a cup of water, Chappy,” one of the men said to another before walking over to Matt. Without a word, he pulled out a knife and cut away the ropes around his ankles. “I’m Rollie,” he said. “Funny that you asked for water. That’s why you’re here.”

  “What are you talking about?” Matt asked. “And where’s ‘here,’ anyway? Where am I?”

  “You’re in the Tropicana Hotel. The Havana Tower, to be exact,” Rollie said.

  Matt glanced at the window. “In Atlantic City?” He already knew the answer. It made sense, given the view. “Why?”

  “Because this is where we live,” Rollie said. “It’s where you live now, too. And we need your help.”

  “You all live here in Atlantic City?” he asked.

  “We do now,” Rollie answered. “We’re from all over.”

  “Why would you come here?” Matt asked. He could think of a million reasons why it was a bad place to be in current conditions. But here they were. And here he was.

  “Lots of reasons,” Rollie said. “Mostly because it was easy to fortify, and there weren’t many people left by the time we came. It was easy to drive out the dangerous ones that were still hanging on. And look around. You can’t beat the accommodations, right? Beats where you were living, anyway.”

  “It does? You want an honest answer to that?” Matt replied. “Besides, my family’s there.”

  “No, you can keep your answer to yourself,” Rollie told him. “We don’t care.”

  Matt wasn’t sure why he was even discussing this, when what he should have been asking was why they kidnapped him and when could he leave. But there didn’t seem to be any sense of crisis or emergency in the room, and he was genuinely curious. “I haven’t seen the city firsthand, since I was unconscious on my way in,” Matt said. “But I imagine it was mostly empty for a reason. There can’t be enough food or water here to sustain life. How many people do you have?”

  “About three-hundred,” Rollie said. “Maybe closer to four. At first we lived in the hotels, but vertical isn’t the way to go when there ain’t any elevators. Most people live on the bottom floors or in the abandoned houses now.”

  “And how did the houses end up being abandoned?” Matt asked. “Do I want to know what you meant by ‘driving out the dangerous ones’?”

  “We’ve got some brutal fighters on our side,” Rollie conceded. “Once we got here, well, you can probably figure the rest out. I’m a former cop in Philly and I’d thought I’d seen it all until I watched these guys in action. But mostly, they were already abandoned before we got here.”

  “Well, I can see some advantages in being here, when it comes to shelter,” Matt conceded. “And like you said, it’s easily defended since it’s basically an island. But what do you eat and drink?”

  “So far we’ve been eating the food we found in restaurants and hotels,” Rollie said. “We catch a lot of fish, too. We’ll get through the winter that
way, anyway, if we’re careful. But the reason we brought you here was more about what we drink than what we eat. We know you’re an expert on providing drinking water.”

  Matt snorted. “Hardly. I just read a few books. And how did you find out about us?”

  “Later,” Rollie said. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “I’m no expert,” Matt told him. “I just read everything I could find and experimented until I got it right. I had some smart people helping me along the way.”

  “What do you think an expert is? And that’s what you’re going to do here,” Rollie said. “The boys came up to your place and grabbed you because we’re dying and we need help. I would have handled it differently, but that don’t matter now, I guess.”

  “I still don’t get it. How did you even know I was there to be grabbed?” Matt asked. It was only the first of many questions that were pouring into his mind. The answer to that one dawned on him even before he finished voicing it. This had all started with Merle. Some of the people from Lockwood, like Merle, must have turned on them, if they’d ever had any allegiance during their brief time at Tabernacle in the first place. “What makes you so sure I’ll help?”

  “Don’t you want to get back to your people up in the woods?” Rollie asked.

  “Didn’t you say just a minute ago that I live here now?” Matt challenged. “If it’s all like you say it is, why would you ever let me go?”

  “It isn’t just about letting you go,” said the man who’d remained at Rollie’s side but had yet to utter a word. “If you—”

  “Save that for later, Jackie,” Rollie said. “He’s got a lot to take in already.” He turned back to Matt. “We just need a little of your time to get us set up.”

  “And you’re not letting me out of here until I do,” Matt said. “Let’s just stop beating around the bush, okay?”

  “Pretty much,” Rollie said.

  “If you knew where to find me, you probably know that we have a nice little army, too,” Matt said. “They’re probably on their way here right now. With all your troubles, are you sure you’re looking for a fight?”

  “Nah,” Rollie said. “To begin with, they wouldn’t even know where to look for you. Even if they did come, we could keep them off the island pretty easy.”

  “Yeah, and your people got their own problems now,” Jackie added. “They’re not as strong as you think. Not no more. We kinda’ made sure of it.”

  Matt’s jaw dropped. “What did you do?” It hadn’t occurred to him that his abduction wasn’t all that had happened the day before, or however long ago it had been. “What are you saying?”

  “Cat’s out of the bag, Rollie,” Jackie said. “Might as well tell him.”

  Rollie shrugged. “We helped ourselves to some of your supplies and food. A lot, actually. But it’s not a game-changer. They’ll be fine up there. Maybe you’ll make it back.”

  “What?” Jackie said. “Not a game-changer? I don’t know about that. It is on our end, anyway.”

  “They’ll get through the winter at your place,” Rollie assured Matt. “They don’t have as many mouths to feed now.”

  “They don’t?” Matt asked, increasingly alarmed. “Why is that?”

  “They also have a lot less gas, a lot less food, and no real way to get here even if they wanted to attack us,” Jackie said. “Or rescue you.”

  “Oh, they can get here,” Matt assured them. “We’re not like everybody else out there. We can move around pretty well. Just ask your pal Merle,” he added bitterly. “We went to his town and saved him and his people. Although it sounds like that turned out to be a mistake.”

  “We know all about you,” Jackie said. “And we helped ourselves to a lot of your transportation.”

  “The Lockwood immigrants,” Matt said after taking this all in. “You turned them. Is that what this is all about?”

  “No,” Rollie said. “What this is all about is clean, safe drinking water. For you, that’s what it’s all about. Nothing else.”

  “If I help you, you’ll let me go back?” Matt asked.

  “Why would you want to go back?” Rollie asked. “Do you even know those people any better than you’ll know us by then? If you stay here you’ll have everything you need, and you wouldn’t be camping out in the middle of winter ever again. Think about it. There’s a lot less chance of getting sick and dying while you’re here in the city.”

  “It doesn’t sound like things here are as great as all that,” Matt countered. “And among other things, my wife and kids are there,” Matt said flatly. “It’s a non-starter. I’m not staying here.”

  “Time will tell,” Rollie said.

  “Rollie,” Jackie said, urgency in his voice. “Tell him.”

  “Yeah, tell me,” Matt said. “What else do I need to know here?”

  “I’m getting to it,” Rollie said. “It’s about what you just said about your wife and kids being back home in the woods. It’s, um, not exactly true. They’re here. Just a few floors below where we’re sitting.”

  ~~~

  For the next few minutes Matt strained at the ropes that held him fast to the chair he was in as Rollie explained that his wife Ellie and twin toddlers had been snatched from Tabernacle and driven to Atlantic City just a few hours after he’d been grabbed. After Matt had shouted himself out and was willing to sit still, he was assured that they were unharmed and that he could see them soon. Once again the proposition was stated. Set up a system for generating safe drinking water for the current residents of Atlantic City and he was free to go, along with his family. Maybe. They’d even drive them into the Pine Barrens to walking distance from Tabernacle, as long as there was no risk of attack. Maybe.

  “I don’t have a lot of choice, do I?” he said angrily. “But my family stays with me twenty-four seven while I’m here. Nobody separates us. That’s not negotiable. We’re already hostages here in your place, but that’s as far as it goes. I won’t work with you any other way. In fact, I want to see them right now.”

  ~~~

  A few minutes later the ropes binding Matt to the chair were severed, and he was allowed to stand. Matt twisted away when Jackie grabbed at his arms in an obvious attempt to tie them behind his back before escorting him to the reunion with his family. “There’s no reason to tie me up like that,” Matt said. “You know I’m not going anywhere, now that you kidnapped my family.”

  Rollie nodded at Jackie, who reluctantly let go. They filed down the hall and into the stairwell. Guided by candlelight, they descended three floors before emerging into an identical hallway. He could hear his boys as soon as they emerged, and he broke away from his guides to run ahead to the only open door. Ellie, who was perched tensely on the couch, sprang to her feet at the sight of her husband, who’d forced his way through the phalanx of sloppily-dressed guards, who apparently saw no reason not to let him pass.

  Ellie buried herself in Matt’s arms. He could feel her body shaking with sobs. He felt like crying himself, being reunited with his family. Oddly, he didn’t sense any immediate danger. He wondered what his wife had been told; it had been a lot worse for her, he was sure. Most likely, she and the boys were fully awake for the entire ordeal and had endured a terrifying trip to Atlantic City. His experience had been different.

  “Daddy!” called one of the boys as he held his wife, under the steady gaze of several rough-looking men. Soon he felt one of his sons clutching each leg. It was one of the strangest situations he’d ever found himself in, but he was glad at least that his kids didn’t seem to realize what had happened.

  “Did anybody hurt you or the boys?” he asked Ellie, mostly for the benefit of the guards because it appeared that they’d been treated gently. He wanted to remind them as often as possible that the well-being of his family was paramount.

  “No,” she whispered in his ear. “Except that they kidnapped us. Matt, what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know the full story,” he whispered back, trying to retain
his balance with the two boys working his legs. “But the long and short of it is that they need help with drinking water, so they brought me in. I guess they thought they’d have less trouble keeping me on board if they had you here, too.”

  She pulled away. “Well, we did say we wanted to get back down to Atlantic City sometime,” she said, forcing a smile.

  “Hey, guys, you mind letting us have a minute alone?” Matt asked the guards. They didn’t look like they were going to oblige until Rollie motioned toward the door. After they were gone, Matt and Ellie plopped themselves onto the queen-size bed and looked at each other.

  “I told them we don’t have a deal unless this family stays together,” Matt told her. “At all times. They were okay with that. I wonder if it’ll be here in the Trop. It feels kind of like it’s their jailhouse.”

  “And that’s it?” Ellie asked. “You’re just going to accept it? Isn’t there some way to get out of this?” she asked, no longer speaking in hushed tones now that the guards had retreated to the hallway. “I mean, we can’t exactly call the police, but there’s got to be something we can do.”

  “I don’t like it any more than you do,” Matt said. “But I don’t see anything we can do except cooperate. And look around. Is it really that bad? We’ll be indoors instead of freezing out in the snow and mud for a while. Look on the bright side.”

  “It’s not exactly toasty warm in here,” Ellie answered. She looked at her sons. “But I know what you mean. I guess that’s something. Half the people back in Tabernacle are walking around coughing their lungs out.”

  “I’m not saying I want to stay forever,” Matt said. “It isn’t home. But if they treat us as good as Rollie said they would, maybe we should go with the flow. For now, all we can really do is work with them, and hope they’ll let us go after I solve the water problem. By then it’ll be springtime.”

  “I’m not so sure they’ll let us go,” Ellie said. “They were nutty enough to kidnap us. They’re not normal. Besides, you’ll be proving how valuable you are by fixing their water. I don’t think they’ll want to let you walk away.”