Z-Minus Box Set 2

by Perrin Briar

  “I’ll try to remember that,” Bill said.

  “How do you do?” the young man said. “The name’s Zack.”

  Bill looked at the hand Zack offered him. It was the same one he’d used to massage his foot with. Bill gritted his teeth and shook it.

  “Bill. Bill Flower.”

  “You seem the trustworthy type,” Zack said. “Would you mind watching my bag for me while I get myself a brew?”

  “Sure,” Bill said.

  “Cheers.”

  Zack crossed to the bar.

  “It’s gone!” a voice behind Dennis said. “It’s all gone!”

  The voice came in a whine from a large man in a rumpled purple suit. He stared into the only cut glass of whiskey in the whole place. The man downed the whiskey in one, tipping the last few drops onto the top of his head.

  “It’s the end,” he said, almost bursting into tears.

  “Hey, are you all right?” Bill said.

  “It’s the end,” the man said. “What difference does anything make now?”

  Bill sized the man up. He’d met the type often enough in Chucerne.

  “If nothing matters, neither does the end, does it?” Bill said.

  The man sat in silence for a moment and then a low rumble escaped the back of his throat. He threw his head back and barked out a laugh that scared Priya. He wiped a tear out of his tired eyes.

  “Yes,” he said. “I suppose you’re right.”

  He offered his grimy hand.

  “Reg Meadows’ the name,” he said.

  Bill hesitated before shaking it. He desperately wanted to go to the bathroom and scrub his hand clean.

  “What did you mean by ‘it’s the end of the world’?” he said.

  Reg waved his hand as if it didn’t matter.

  “Just your usual case of nihilism,” he said.

  “Certainly are a lot of characters in here tonight,” Dennis grumbled under his breath.

  Zack returned with a bottle of unlabelled beer. Dennis caught sight of it

  “How can you drink that?” Dennis said. “You don’t even know what it is!”

  “Figuring it out’s part of the fun,” Zack said.

  Zack tasted it and smacked his lips.

  “Not bad,” he said. “Fruity, nutty.”

  “Plenty of those in here tonight,” Dennis said.

  “So, what brings you here, Zack?” Bill said.

  “I graduated from Sydney University last year and decided to do some soul searching,” Zack said. “I suppose I should have done that before spending all that borrowed money.” He shrugged. “But there you go. Life would be much easier with hindsight, don’t you think?”

  “Probably,” Bill said.

  “But then I suppose it wouldn’t be as exciting that way, would it?” Zack said. “To know everything what was going to happen, what the outcome was always going to be.”

  “It makes no difference,” Reg said, holding up his whiskey glass to the light. “We’re all going to end up worm’s meat anyway.”

  “That’s why I moved from New Delhi,” Rohit said. “I got sick of dirty cities, the stench. Singapore is much cleaner. I felt a dark presence growing in Delhi. In fact, in every city I went to I kept expecting something bad to happen. Maybe it’s just me and my own psychosis. We all see what we expect to see.”

  “You’re looking mighty pale there, mate,” Zack said to Reg. “Sure you haven’t caught something?”

  Reg laughed and slapped his knee.

  “Oh, I caught something all right,” he said.

  “A touch of madness, by the sound of it,” Dennis grumbled into his beer.

  “Speaking of which,” Zack said. “Have you been keeping up to date on the virus? I haven’t heard much since I left. It was just beginning to get hairy back home. They say it started in the Middle East.”

  “Baghdad, I read,” Bill said.

  “Virus?” Rohit said. “What virus?”

  “Haven’t you heard?” Zack said. “It’d infected a dozen people in Oz before I left. I think they’re trying to keep a lid on it as much as they can, stop people from panicking, but how much control can you really do with something you can’t see, smell, taste or touch?”

  “They managed to control the spread of Ebola,” Dennis said.

  “That’s debatable,” Zack said. “One of these days something is going to spread like wildfire through the human race. We won’t even know what hit us until it’s too late.”

  “That’s the way to go,” Reg said. “A nice quick aggressive virus. It’ll be like shutting your eyes and going to sleep.”

  “Pleasant evening topic,” Dennis said, rolling his eyes.

  Midway through his eye roll Dennis double-took something in the corner of the room.

  A blonde woman, her back to him, sat at the bar, chatting to a young handsome man. She laughed, throwing her head back and leaning into him, touching his arm and knee as often as she could. She wore tight skinny white jeans and a tube top that left little to the imagination. Dennis licked his lips, a fan of the female form.

  The handsome man she was with smiled dopily at her. Then his expression changed when he saw a short dark woman enter the mess and cast around looking for someone.

  The handsome man got to his feet and backed away toward the small exit behind him. The dark woman hadn’t seen his impromptu exit, and continued to survey the crowd.

  The handsome man from the bar appeared behind her and wrapped his arms around the dark woman. She smiled and pointed to a pair of empty seats. The man looked at the blonde woman in tight jeans at the bar and shook his head, giving the dark woman a small smile. He led her outside.

  Having observed the scene, the blonde woman gave a small shrug and turned back to the bar. She took a swig from her bottle and gestured to the barman for another.

  Dennis loosened the top button of his shirt and began to get to his feet.

  “Or choking,” Reg said. “I always thought that’d be a good way to go. Choke, choke, choke, dead.”

  Reg threw back his head and downed the last of his whiskey. He became still, his eyes bulging. He grabbed his throat, making rasping noises.

  “Knock it off,” Dennis said. “We get it. You want to die. Just get it over with and do it.”

  But Reg continued to struggle. He kicked out, his foot connecting with Dennis’s chair, knocking him forward.

  “He’s choking!” Zack said.

  He got up and slapped Reg hard on the back, making a loud thud. Once, twice, three times, and the whiskey spewed out from Reg’s mouth and sprayed over Dennis, the offending ice cube striking his forehead.

  “You all right there, pal?” Zack said, rubbing Reg’s back. “Breathe. All right?”

  “God damn it!” Reg said.

  “Relax,” Zack said. “We all drink too fast sometimes.”

  Reg knocked Zack’s arm aside and glared at him.

  “Why did you have to go slapping me on the back for?” he said.

  “You were choking,” Zack said.

  “God was choking me!” Reg said. “Let Him take me if He wants me! This could have been my ticket out of here! Quick and painless! And you went and bollocksed it up!”

  Reg seized Zack by the collar.

  “Sorry!” Zack said, showing the palms of his hands. “I’ll remember for next time!”

  Reg’s glare lost its intensity and then faded completely. He released Zack’s collar. He seemed shaken, either by the effort or the shock of his actions, Bill couldn’t tell.

  “I’m sorry,” Reg said. “For snapping at you like that. You were only trying to do the right thing.”

  Excitement over, the other patrons returned to their conversations.

  “It’s all right,” Zack said, straightening his shirt. “If someone stopped me from doing something I really wanted I’d be angry too.”

  “Save someone’s life in future, if you can,” Reg said. “Don’t try to learn from this experience – other than s
ome people aren’t worth saving.”

  Zack put his hand on Reg’s shoulder.

  “I’ve never met someone not worth saving,” he said.

  Reg smiled.

  “Thanks for saying that,” he said.

  Reg turned to Dennis, who was rubbing at the damp patches on his jacket.

  “I’m so sorry,” Reg said. “Please, let me pay to have your suit washed.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Dennis said, words laced with anger. “It’s only a five hundred dollar jacket. Can pick them up anywhere.”

  “I’d like to make it up to you,” Reg said. “Gloria will see you’re well taken care of.”

  Dennis’s ears perked up.

  “Gloria?” he said.

  Reg nodded to the blonde at the bar.

  “She’s with you?” Dennis said, disbelieving.

  “If you have enough money everyone’s with you,” Reg said. “Working in oil, at least you earn a few quid. Go up to her and say Reg sent you.”

  “This isn’t a joke?” Dennis said.

  Reg put his hand over his heart.

  “Cross my heart,” he said.

  “At least I can take your word for that,” Dennis said.

  Jacket forgotten, Dennis got to his feet.

  “Dennis, wait,” Bill said. He lowered his voice. “What happened to the fresh start?”

  Dennis looked from Bill to the blonde.

  “We haven’t arrived yet,” he said. “It begins at our destination.”

  He headed over to the bar and tapped the blonde on the shoulder. The blonde looked up and smiled – perfunctorily, Bill thought. Then Dennis pointed at Reg, who nodded to her. Her demeanour sagged. She finished up her drink and let Dennis order her another. She looked like she needed it.

  “I’d better go lie down,” Reg said, getting to his feet. “I’m not feeling so hot.”

  “Take it easy,” Zack said.

  Reg braced himself on the back of chairs as he headed toward the door.

  “Do you think he’ll be okay?” Zack said.

  “We can check on him later,” Bill said.

  Zack smiled and shook his head.

  “What?” Bill said.

  “Here we are, in a small boat at the end of the world,” Zack said. “Is there a worse place to have a crisis?”

  Chapter Five

  THE MIDDLE-AGED man in a purple suit staggered across the deck, reacting to the boat’s leanings with exaggerated force, bumping into the cabin walls, and then rotating back, hitting the railing on the other side.

  He tilted over the barrier as if considering whether or not to jump. He slid along the railing, his head flopping from one shoulder to the other, and drew up beside Fritz. His body tensed and he threw up over the side.

  “Welcome to the party,” Fritz said.

  The man wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

  “Ain’t that the truth,” he said. “I hate being ill.”

  “I would shake your hand,” Fritz said, “but I can’t guarantee where it’s been.”

  “Neither can I. Let’s keep it informal then, shall we? I’m Reg Meadows.”

  “Fritz Flower.”

  Reg looked up into Fritz’s face, a spark of recognition in his eyes.

  “Your father’s Bill Flower, isn’t he?” he said. “You look the spitting image of him. Minus the wear and tear.”

  “That’s about right,” Fritz said.

  “Good man, your father. He knows how to talk to people. It’s an important skill, one well worth learning.”

  Reg’s smile waned and he wobbled on his feet.

  “Are you all right?” Fritz said.

  “I’ve just been feeling a little out of sorts lately.”

  “Will you be okay?”

  Reg massaged his eyes with his fingers.

  “That’s the million dollar question all right,” he said. “Can you point me in the direction of starboard?”

  Fritz did.

  “Can you get to your cabin all right?” he said. “I can give you a hand.”

  Reg chuckled.

  “And who’ll give you a hand while you’re doing it, I wonder?” he said. “I’ve been in a worse state than this many a time. Don’t you worry yourself.”

  A door swung open and Dennis and a blonde woman came out of the back entrance of the mess. The blonde took Dennis’s hand and led him into a dark alley.

  “At least someone’s going to have a nice night,” Reg said. “Women. Do yourself a favour and never ally yourself with one. They might look good, smell good, and do all the things you can dream of, but they’re vipers in disguise, out to get all they can from you.”

  “Surely not all women are like that,” Fritz said.

  “I’ve heard tales of other types, though I’ve never had the good fortune to meet one of them,” Reg said.

  He hacked into his hand.

  “I’m off,” he said. “Which way did you say starboard was?”

  Fritz pointed it out to him. Reg slapped Fritz on the shoulder and headed away. Fritz felt another retch coming over him and turned back to the railing. As he did, the moonlight caught the back of his white shirt.

  There was a bloody handprint on it.

  Chapter Six

  BILL WAS tired to his bones. The long journey had finally caught up with him. He’d entered the state of exhaustion where the world moved in slow motion and he couldn’t focus on a single topic. He put his empty bottle on the table and was about to excuse himself when Priya ran to her uncle.

  “Uncle! Uncle!” she said. “My radio’s broken!”

  “I’ll fix it later,” Rohit said, keeping his attention on Zack, who was in the middle of a lecture on international legal matters – a subject Rohit had a great deal of interest in.

  “But the Happy Hopalong Show is on!” Priya said.

  “I can’t fix it right now,” Rohit said. “I don’t have my tools.”

  Priya’s shoulders sagged in a caricature display of disappointment.

  “Okay,” she said.

  Her uncle turned back to Zack, who extended his hand to Priya.

  “Let me have a look at your radio,” he said.

  Priya clutched her radio close to her chest.

  “My father has an electronics shop,” Zack said. “I worked there weekends, fixing stuff. I’m sure I can fix your radio.”

  But Priya didn’t relent.

  “If I can’t fix it I’ll buy you a new one, how about that?” Zack said. “A nice pink one like this one.”

  Priya looked into Zack’s honest open face and relaxed. Zack cleared a space on the table and sat the radio down. Priya went up on tiptoes to watch.

  “Would you like to see?” Zack said.

  Priya nodded. Zack picked her up and placed her on his knee.

  “Now,” Zack said, “the first thing we need to do is open the radio to see what the problem is.”

  He reached into his pocket and put a handful of coins on the table. There were currency denominations from half a dozen countries. Priya peered closely at each coin, inspecting them.

  Zack picked through them and chose the thinnest one, using its edge to turn the screws and open the back casing. Bill was surprised to see it consisted of a surprisingly small number of parts.

  “Ah!” Zack said. “Just as I thought! The aerial has come loose from the detector. It’s easily fixed.” He turned to Priya. “Do you want to do it?”

  Priya nodded. Zack took her small hands in his and touched the aerial with the detector. The speakers hissed. Priya started back, and the hissing stopped.

  “It’s all right,” Zack said. “That’s supposed to happen.”

  Priya reattached the aerial and clapped her hands.

  “What do you say?” Rohit said to Priya.

  Priya turned to Zack.

  “Thank you,” she said shyly.

  “You’re welcome,” Zack said with a smile.

  Priya hopped down and began fiddling with the dials. />
  “I’m exhausted,” Bill said. “I’m going to call it a night.”

  “The night’s still early yet!” Zack said.

  “I’m not in my twenties anymore,” Bill said. “Or my thirties, come to think of it.”

  “So, what were you saying about international jurisdictions?” Rohit said to Zack, turning the conversation back to its original topic.

  “Looks like it’s party time for me too,” Zack mumbled under his breath. He turned to Rohit. “Where was I?”

  Bill picked up his jacket and draped it over his arm. Priya turned the radio dials, and voices like ghosts filtered in and out.

  “…worst catastrophe known to man…”

  “…find shelter and stay there…”

  The next speaker spoke Filipino, his words frantic and aggressive.

  “…any of the symptoms, you must seek aid immediately…”

  Then another Filipino speaker, this time wailing, sad and weeping.

  “…in a virus outbreak…”

  Some upbeat pop music kicked in. Priya smiled and moved her body to the beat.

  Bill took a step back, knocking his chair over. Zack stopped his conversation mid-stream and looked at him.

  “Did you hear that?” Bill said.

  “Hear what?” Zack said.

  He followed Bill’s sightline to Priya’s radio. Priya clutched it tight to her chest.

  “Priya’s music?” Zack said.

  “No,” Bill said. “What was on there while she was looking for her show.”

  “It was just static,” Zack said.

  Bill crossed the room to the barman.

  “Do you have a TV in here?” he said.

  “What?” the barman said in accented English.

  “TV,” Bill said. “Do you have a TV?”

  The barman pointed to the TV in the corner. It had been hollowed out and was now used as a fish tank.

  “What’s up, Bill?” Zack said.

  Bill kneeled in front of Priya.

  “Can I use your radio?” he said. “Just for a moment?”

  Priya looked up at her uncle, who shrugged.

  “It’s up to you,” he said.

  Then Priya looked at Zack, who nodded. It was all Bill could do not to snatch it out of her hands. She gave it to him.