The Rabid: Rise

by J. V. Roberts

  She’ll whisper like a lover.

  Bethany steps into the street, digging the heels of her palms into her eyeballs, turning the theatrics up to ten.

  Sobbing. Shaking.

  The two soldiers quickly take notice of her. The one facing her rises from his chair. He pauses for a moment, takes the rifle hanging at his side, and raises it to his navel as he stares down Bethany’s approach, looking a little dumbstruck.

  I tense up and grab the top of one of the trashcans for support, ready to spring if he points his weapon at her.

  Rabid don’t cry you dumb sonofabitch!

  Eventually, he reaches the same conclusion.

  He lowers the rifle, letting it swing loose once more. “Hey, Brad, check it out. We got a kid.”

  The other soldier stands and turns, knocking his chair back as he squints against the sunlight. “Shit, where’d she come from?”

  “The alley, I think.”

  Bethany coughs, spits, and sniffs. “Please...help me.”

  “It’s okay, kid. We’re not going to hurt you.” The first soldier kneels down, getting eye level with Bethany. “I’m Josh, that’s Brad. We’re both with the Marines. The good guys.”

  Good guys my ass.

  “What happened, kid? You get bit?” Brad’s tone is a bit more gruff than his squad mate. His hand hovers uncomfortably close to the backside of his rifle. For every step Bethany takes towards them, he takes two back.

  Bethany shakes her head. “No...no...I lost my...my...Mommy.” She tosses her head back and lets out her loudest sob yet, throwing her hands towards the sky as she falls to her knees.

  Jesus Christ, don’t overdo it, sis.

  “Dude, chill the fuck out, get your hand off the gun, she’s a little girl.” Josh punches his friend in the arm, nodding his head toward Bethany.

  “I’ve seen little girls kill men carrying a lot more firepower than us.”

  “Yeah, well, she’s not Rabid, obviously. Rabid can’t talk, you dunce.” Josh shakes his head with frustration. “Shit, just stay here. I’ll talk to her.”

  Seems like a good guy.

  Josh starts towards her. Curling his lips into the biggest smile that he can manage. “Hey now, stop crying. It’s okay. You’re safe.” His voice is soft. Unthreatening. He even leaves his rifle propped by the chairs as a gesture of his good will.

  Good guy. Stupid guy.

  He stands over Bethany, with hands on his hips. He looks like he wants to pick her up. To embrace her. He’s never dealt with kids before. That much is obvious. Too young. He’s probably early twenties, judging by his face and the way he holds himself. The service has hardened him but the lack of years still shines through.

  Brad paces behind Josh, near the chairs, still carrying his rifle.

  I’ll need to take him out first. I just need to get a clear shot.

  “So, when was the last time you saw your mommy?” Brad asks.

  Bethany shrugs. Head still turned down. Face still buried in her hands.

  How long can she keep this up?

  She’s probably expecting me to break the facade at any moment, to relieve her of the pressure.

  Josh, he’s blocking the shot. I need the guy with the gun. I need Josh to get the fuck out of the way.

  Kneel. Kneel. KNEEL!

  Josh looks to the sky and then back towards Brad, who’s still pacing the sparkle out of the pavement behind him.

  He sighs and drops a hand on Bethany’s head, patting her like a dog. “It’s okay, kid. I just need you to pull it together and talk to me. We can help.”

  You’ll help, alright. More than you know. Start by kneeling the fuck down!

  And just like that, he does.

  He doesn’t telegraph it. It’s a sudden movement.

  He drops his ass and points his knees. He winds up inches from her face, propped up on the tips of his toes with his butt sitting back on his heels. He lifts her chin up with one hand and rubs her shoulder with her other, smiling.

  Kind eyes.

  The sonofabitch has kind eyes.

  He also works for the General.

  Brad stops pacing to bat a fly from his face and to tug at his balls. It’s a perfect opportunity. One that I’m not sure is going to come back around any time soon. The sun is still in his eyes. His gun is pointed at the ground.

  I’ve got the upper hand here.

  Time to play my cards.

  I don’t spring out of cover like a maniac. Though, that’s the temptation. Just to come out shooting. Assume control. Especially with my sister in the mix.

  My nerves are all kinds of frazzled.

  No.

  I stay loose. Knees cocked.

  I let the training lead me.

  I move down the alley, pistol extended, my breathing intentional.

  In through the nose and out though the mouth.

  I get my sights steady.

  I’m going for head shots. Just in case, he’s wearing armor under that jacket.

  Don’t focus on the target. Focus on the front sights. Let the target blur.

  Josh sees me first. His eyes go wide and his training goes right out the window. He falls back onto his ass. His lips curled into a perfect O shape.

  Brad sees me too. One hand is still curled around his balls.

  Too damn late.

  I’m already depressing the trigger before he can let loose of his dick.

  Round 1 smashes right through his left cheek.

  It’s a kill shot. But I set a second round loose before the first shell casing touches the pavement.

  Round 2 grazes his left ear and shatters a window behind his head.

  I drop my sights on Josh. “Don’t you fucking move!”

  Bethany draws her pistol and joins me.

  Josh’s hands are shaking as he raises them above his head. His voice too. “Please, don’t kill me. I was trying to help her. If you’re here to rob us, then all we’ve got is some spare ammo and food. Take it. It’s yours.” Josh looks back over his shoulder and sees his friends gray matter splattered across the brick wall of the adjacent building. “Ah, man, fuck, you killed him?” He starts crying. “That was my boy...my brother...we came up...fuck...man.” He drops his head, the sun glinting against the top of his exposed scalp. He blubbers away, bathing the front of his fatigues in fat tears.

  “Tim, did you really...”

  “Yeah, I did, just keep steady.” Josh can’t hear us, he’s curled over on himself, his palms flat against the pavement, mourning the loss of his friend. “Josh, listen up. Cut that shit out and listen, or you’re next.”

  No change. He’s still sobbing. Pounding at the ground with his fists. Gnashing his teeth and vowing to avenge his fallen brother.

  “You know what, fuck this.” I kick him in the face and send him reeling onto his back. The tears stop and the blood starts flowing from both nostrils and the gash now sitting prominently across the bridge of his nose.

  “Jesus, Tim!” Bethany startles and fixes me with a disgusted glare.

  I ignore her and stand over Josh, feeling steady now. In control. I’ve definitely got his attention. “You have information I need. It’s the only reason you’re still breathing. Tell me what I want to know and you get to keep breathing. Give me shit and I’ll plant one in your face too, understand?”

  The excess tears mix with the blood and start a thin foamy cascade that wiggles down the back of his neck and begins steadily dripping to the ground. He looks up, searching my face. “Who the hell are you? What do you want?”

  “Take a guess?”

  “Hell, man, how should I know? Look around you. You know how many looters and psychos are roaming around? You could be anyone.”

  “Ah, but I’m not just anyone, now, am I? I’m the one. You guys have a special hard on for me, don’t you?”

  His eyes widen with recognition. “You’re...you’re the kid. The kid that took the data stick!”

  I can’t help but feel a little bit of pride
flood up inside of me at the notoriety. “That’s not much of a nickname, the kid that took the stick.”

  “We heard you got picked up. That you were being protected.”

  “All past tense. I’m here, with you, because you have information that I want.”

  “What information? You hold all the cards. Kid, in your position, with the heat you’ve got, you should have your nose pointed in the other direction.”

  “My Ma, where is she?”

  He shakes his head and narrows his eyes. “What? What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “You do not want to test me. I’ve had a long couple of weeks. There is very little I won’t do at this point. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “Dude, I fucking hear you. Loud and clear, I hear what you’re saying.”

  “So where is she?”

  “I don’t know shit about your...”

  I pull the trigger and blow a hole in his bicep. I don’t have to think about it. I drew my lines before I stepped out of the alley and I’m not even close to toeing em’ yet. “No more bullshit!”

  He’s wailing. All curled up on himself again. Kicking his feet around. I step back so he doesn’t catch me with the bottom of his black boots.

  “Tim, stop!” Bethany grabs at me and I shove her back.

  “If you can’t handle it, then walk away!” I jam my thumb back towards the alley. “Do not interfere again! Stand there and shut up!”

  She doesn’t walk. She whimpers at my rebuke, but she stays put.

  I kick Josh in the ribs, attempting to uncurl his body and roll him over. “Josh, stay with me.” I kick him again. “Stop crying and fucking look at me! This as good as it gets for you. I’ve got enough rounds left to make your last moments on this planet a nightmare. Do you understand?”

  “I...d-don’t...know...what you...w-want from me,” he chokes out, spit and mucus sliding from the corners of his mouth.”

  “Yes, you do! Yes, you do, Josh! My ma, the General has her, you little bastard! Where is the General? Where is the fucking General?” I drop down, planting my knee across the bullet wound in his arm. He screams and I belt him across the mouth with the pistol butt. “Only thing I want to hear out of your mouth is a location.”

  His face is a dark shade of red. The muscles in his neck pulsate as he tries to push the pain down. “Please...stop...I don’t know what General you’re talking about. I get my orders from Colonel Tanner. Me and my unit...we only arrived this morning.”

  “Don’t you fucking lie to me!” I bury the silencer against his left cheek, pressing the flesh in violently between his teeth.

  “I’m not...Jesus...please! I’m not lying to you.”

  His head explodes in a volcano of bone and brain matter. I recoil and almost topple over. I catch my balance with my empty hand and come up to my feet.

  “He didn’t know.”

  I spin around, gun raised, sights set on Ruiz.

  He laughs and holsters his weapon. “You might want to put that on the ground and lie on your belly.” He tilts his head towards Bethany.

  Katia is standing behind her with a blade to her throat. Bethany’s handgun clatters to the pavement.

  “Any time now, Tim,” Ruiz says, motioning towards the ground.

  “That guy was just about to tell me where the General is, you sonofabitch!” I growl. I want to drop Ruiz, right here and now. Two in the chest and one in the head. Then I remember Katia, the blades, and Bethany’s throat.

  “He couldn’t have told you anything about the General because he didn’t work for the General. Now, drop the gun and get on the ground.”

  “What do you mean he didn’t work for the General?”

  Ruiz smiles. “All in good time. Right now is not the time. Get down.”

  Reluctantly, I set my pistol on the pavement and wipe the bone and blood from my face before sprawling out on my stomach. Ruiz is gentler than I expect him to be. He doesn’t plant a knee in my back as he zip-ties my hands and blindfolds me.

  Katia does the same to Bethany.

  “Alright then,” Ruiz says, pulling me to my feet by an elbow, “let’s go for a ride.”

  22

  “So, how’d you find us?” I ask from the backseat, my hands secured behind my back, a dirty rag tied tight across my eyes.

  “You know how some guys are really good at hiding?” Ruiz says, sitting in front of me.

  I don’t bother with a response.

  “You’re not one of those guys.”

  We’re rocking along at a steady pace. There doesn’t seem to be that many rough patches. My head hasn’t hit the roof and my shoulder hasn’t jammed against the door. Either Katia has improved her driving skills or the roads we’re on are much clearer than the ones I’ve gotten used to.

  “If you’re going to kill us, please, spare us the theatrics and get it done,” I sigh. I can hear Bethany breathing heavily beside me. “Hell, kill me. I want you to kill me. Just leave my sister alone. She had nothing to do with anything. She was against it. She came along because I didn’t really give her a choice.”

  Ruiz laughs. “Kid, calm down or I will kill you. Trust me, if I wanted to merc your dumb ass, I’d have done it back there in the street and spared myself some zip-ties and blindfolds. No, I need to show you something first.”

  “What?”

  “Well, it won’t be a surprise if I tell you.”

  “Never been big on surprises.”

  “Well, you don’t really have a lot of choice right now, do you?”

  I can’t really argue that one.

  “You know,” Ruiz says, “you should be thanking me. Katia wanted to pop both of you. Seems your betrayal, you know, breaking her heart and blowing her friend’s head off in front of her, didn’t really sit too well.”

  “Yeah, well, it wasn’t my intent.” I can hear Ruiz shift in his seat. Something tells me he’s looking right at me.

  “What wasn’t your intent?”

  Yep. I can feel his breath on my face. Definitely looking right at me. “This. The mess. I didn’t set out to kill Bytes or cause any trouble.”

  “Didn’t set out to?” He claps his hands together. “Oh, that’s rich. Tell me another one, kid?”

  I shrug. “Take it how you want.”

  “Let me get this straight. You didn’t want to cause a mess, but you break into our food storage, which I wasn’t mad about, by the way, you needed some energy for the road, I get that. But then, you steal the data stick and the hard drive from our computer, you kill the only guy in our group that can fucking work that computer, and you flatten all of the tires on our vehicles. But yet, you didn’t set out to cause a mess?”

  “I flattened the tires.” Bethany doesn’t sound scared. She just speaks the facts. No emotion. No fear of repercussion. Resigned to her fate.

  Ruiz sniffs. “Well, I’m not even mad about that, sweetie. No doubt, your dumb ass of an older brother put you up to it. It was a pain in the ass changing them out though. Thankfully, we had spares. Gotta thank God for small things, right?”

  I shouldn’t have brought her along. Should have done this shit on my own without implicating her. Now, here we are, probably on our way to the grave. Something cold and shallow. A ditch. What’s with all of the fucking ritual, though? The hand binding and the blindfolding?

  “What’s worst of all though, Tim, you know what’s worst of all?”

  “Do tell, Ruiz?” It’s barely a murmur. I’m tired of the conversation. Ready to get on with it.

  “You broke my sister’s heart. I told you not to, didn’t I? I said I’d cut your head off...those were my words, right?”

  It’s uncomfortable in here. I want to ask if he’ll let her pull the vehicle over. Give Katia and me some time alone. Some time for me to explain myself to her. I’m sure if I can only explain myself to her...

  “Didn’t I say that?”

  “Yeah, goddamnit, I remember what you said.”

  “Okay.”


  He punches me in the mouth. Square in the fucking chompers. My head bounces like a diving board rebounding from the cannonball antics of a fat kid. The back of my noggin hits the seat and then my chin pops forward off my chest. I can taste copper. It’s a familiar taste at this point. Hurts like shit though. Multiple cuts have opened up on the inside and outside of my lips.

  I spit blood onto the floor.

  “Go ahead, spit it out. It’s not my fucking car. You’re lucky it’s only a punch in the mouth that you’re getting from me. Trust me, last night, I was of a mind to do a lot worse.”

  “Yeah, I feel blessed,” I say, licking the blood from my lips. I hear Ruiz turn back around in his seat. “So, the guy you shot, he didn’t work for the General. Are you going to tell me who he was working with?”

  “Nope. Not yet. Be patient.”

  “What about the drive? It’s all useless to you now without Bytes. Are you going to tie it to a balloon and send it out into the atmosphere?”

  Ruiz slaps his knee in a fit of laughter. “I love it! Even bound and blindfolded, you still find a way to draw levity from the situation.”

  “Don’t encourage him,” Bethany grumbles.

  “It’s that or cry.” I lap up some more fresh blood.

  “I’d like to see that,” Katia speaks for the first time.

  “Me crying?” I ask, a little shocked by the sound of her voice and the content of her words.

  “Yeah, you’re so good at eliciting tears from everyone else. I’d like to see if I could squeeze a few out of you.”

  “Yeah, well,” I turn to face the window even though I can’t see shit, “the day is young.”

  23

  Katia parks the Humvee in a gravel lot. I can hear the loose rocks yielding beneath the heavy tires. Ruiz leads us through a creaky wooden door, I can hear the hinges protest and can feel the dilapidated wood brush against my forearm. He leads us up a flight of hollow metal stairs. I can feel the grated surface catch against my boots and hear our footfalls echoing against high ceilings. The smells are damp and moldy. I hear the sound of distant laughter; men. There’s an exhaust fan going somewhere, the blades humming away in their flimsy tin housing.