This Would Be Paradise (Book 2)

by N. D. Iverson

  “I’m sure you know playing dumb won’t work,” I said. “We know you led those assholes here, and we know you sent them after me. You know I’m immune. What was in the bag, Tim?”

  His eyes lit up before he could school his reaction. He knew I’d seen.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he deadpanned.

  “I thought you were smarter than that.” I tilted my head to the side.

  We stared at each other, him refusing to admit to his guilt.

  “He didn’t do anything. You heard him!” Karla yelled.

  “That’s because he’s a fucking liar!” Roy renewed his struggles, but Mac had him pinned in his arms.

  “Get up.” I grabbed one of Tim’s bound arms and helped him to his feet.

  I led him to the common area. Everyone else followed behind me like a funeral procession. I grabbed a plastic chair, sticking it in the middle of the room, and plunked him down. Tim didn’t resist, but I was sure he had something up his sleeve. Maybe more of his buddies were out there, waiting. Just to be on the safe side, I zip tied one of his legs to the chair.

  “Those guys you were talking to, they’re part of that gang?”

  No answer.

  “I’m really tempted to let Roy go after you.” I tsked. I hardly recognized the cold voice emanating from my lips.

  “What do you want me to say?” Tim said, redirecting the conversation.

  “I want the truth, not what you think we want to hear.” I looked him dead in the eyes. “I have a pretty bad head wound, and I had to kill a man thanks to you, and a little girl saw a person die in front of her. So I think you owe us a fucking explanation!”

  With every word, I was getting angrier. A hand rested on my shoulder, and I turned to see Elaine. She signaled toward the corner of the room.

  Once we were out of earshot, she said in a hushed voice, “Okay, you’re getting a little emotional. Maybe we should have someone else try.”

  I went to run my hand through my hair, only for the bandage wrapped around my head to stop me, and a flair of outrage surged through me. Maybe I was too close to this.

  “I think we should let Roy at him,” I said, and Elaine leaned back.

  “I thought you said that was a bad idea,” Elaine said.

  “Yeah, that was before he made my blood boil,” I said through clenched teeth.

  He was playing coy.

  “Let Roy go,” I barked to Mac.

  “What?” Mac asked, confused. Even Roy stopped struggling, appearing surprised.

  I looked at Tim. “I honestly thought you’d have a backbone, but I guess my people-reading skills aren’t very good. Maybe you’ll grow one once Roy questions you.” I glanced at Mac. “Let. Him. Go.”

  He opened his arms and Roy took a hesitant step. Then he regained his composure and almost ran to Tim.

  “Where’s my wife you motherfucker?” he spat in Tim’s face.

  Tim steeled his expression and remained silent. Roy wound up and let his fist fly again. Tim’s head whipped back from the impact, and he gurgled, blood dribbling from his lips. Slowly, he brought his head upright again and let the fresh blood trickle from his mouth to his lap.

  Roy’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears. His clenched hand trembled. He looked like Bruce Banner struggling to contain the Hulk.

  “We know it was you.”

  Another hit, this time to the gut.

  “My little girl is dead because you brought them here!”

  Tim wheezed from the next punch Roy landed.

  “What about Kyle, Linda, Elijah, José, Bernice!”

  José and Bernice were dead? I turned to Elaine.

  “The two men who broke in tonight shot them when they tried defending the place.” Elaine looked to the floor.

  My arms trembled as my mind struggled with this new information. This was too much. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You have a concussion. That was the last thing you needed to hear about when you woke up.” Her nurse’s tone had returned.

  No wonder I hadn’t seen them. I felt like a fool for wondering where they were, when all the while, they were dead, killed by those would-be kidnappers.

  The infected are supposed to be the enemy!

  This wasn’t fair. People were killing each other for no reason while the real bad guys were terrorizing us in undead droves. This new world disgusted me.

  Chapter 11

  “Stop!” Karla screamed as she shoved the older lady guarding her to the ground.

  Karla reached for her weapon, so I reacted fast and ran up to her. She turned to me, ready to fight, but she hadn’t been expecting my elbow to connect with her face. I made sure to use my good elbow too. She fell to the floor on her back. Her gun skittered to the floor, and I kicked it out of her reach, placing a knee on her chest to stop her from getting back up. Karla looked shell-shocked and didn’t put up a fight.

  “Look, you can either stay or I can have someone take you elsewhere.”

  She tentatively touched her eye, which was already puffing up where I’d hit her. Her elderly guard had since gotten up and came over to retrieve her. Karla was still in shock when the lady grabbed her arm, in a tighter grip this time. She must have never been it a real fight before.

  Something inside of my head shifted into place. Karla and Tim were more than likely together, and even if they weren’t, she was like his second in command. Maybe I could use that to my advantage. Cold thoughts circled in my mind. Perhaps my concussion was worse than I’d thought.

  I picked up Karla’s handgun. That got everyone’s attention. Tim’s eyes widened when I aimed the weapon right at Karla’s head, my arm steady as a surgeon’s hand. Elaine gasped and Mac stepped forward.

  “Don’t,” I warned.

  His eyes pleaded for me to stop.

  “I hadn’t pegged you for a cold-blooded killer,” Tim spat, breaking his silence.

  “Glad I finally got through to you,” I said, aware I’d taken my first step into the role of villain. “Now give us the answers we want. If not for yourself, then for Karla.”

  I was scaring myself at this point, feeling like a real-life James Bond villain, minus the Russian accent. I held back the laughter bubbling in my chest, although it would have fit the part I was playing rather well.

  Is it really just a role? I didn’t doubt that I wanted to hurt Tim, and this would do the trick.

  No matter how much I hated him, Karla had done nothing to deserve this. At that, regret and guilt gnawed at me. I had no choice but to use her as a pawn. I would never shoot her, but I had to make Tim think I would. I cocked the gun. Concern reflected in his eyes. I’d found my opening into Tim.

  “All right,” Tim said through bloody teeth. “Put the gun down, and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

  I lowered the gun to my side. “Go on then.”

  “I did bring them here. I traded information for guns and ammo.”

  “Are they after immune people?” I asked.

  Tim looked away. “I believe so. At least that’s what they wanted to know about.”

  “Who are they?” Roy piped in.

  “Mercenaries.”

  So they did horrible things for pay.

  “Does that symbol on the side of the building belong to their gang?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you one of them?” I glared at him.

  “No, I just take a cut for information.”

  “Bullshit!” Roy yelled.

  “I’m not lying!” Tim yelled back.

  This was the first time he’d raised his voice. Maybe he was unraveling.

  “Then why?” Roy’s voice sounded strained.

  Something in Tim snapped, and he let loose, turning into a completely different person.

  “How do you think I found all the military-grade weapons and rations, hmm? They were payment. If I scratch their backs, they scratch mine. This place is held together by will and duct tape for Christ’s sake! You ha
ve no idea what it’s like to be in charge of a bunch of people, let alone ones who can’t protect themselves worth shit! Do you think this is fucking easy on me?!”

  Tim panted, chest rising and falling as he eyed the group. I held no sympathy for him. If he didn’t want to be the leader, then he should have passed on the responsibility to someone else. Because of him, innocent people were dead. Innocent people were missing, with those gang members doing who knew what to them. We already had one plague to deal with; we didn’t need another one.

  “Where did they take the hostages?” I asked.

  Tim swallowed. “I don’t know.”

  Roy hit him again.

  “I don’t know!” Tim groaned. “All they told me is that they need immune people for another group trying to create a cure or something.”

  “So right now, my wife is being experimented on?”

  Roy bounded toward me, and I stepped back instinctively. He ripped the gun from my hand, and in my growing pile of less-than-proud moments, I let him. Tim sat fully upright in his chair, his leg still tethered to it, his back as straight as a cement wall.

  “Listen, Roy—”

  “Shut up,” Roy cut Tim off, waving the gun in Tim’s face. His eyes followed the piece as if he were hypnotized. “Don’t give me some bullshit about not knowing what they’d do to her. You knew exactly what would happen. You just didn’t give a shit how many lives you ruined. My daughter’s dead, and my wife is being treated like a lab rat because of you!”

  Okay, this really had gotten out of hand. Not only had I threatened someone who hadn’t deserved it, but Roy also seemed ready to kill Tim.

  “Listen to me!” Tim’s screeched. “If you do anything to me, you’ll lose your only lead.”

  Roy pointed the gun right at Tim, and we all stood a little straighter. Elaine looked at me, her mouth open and eyes wide. She wanted me to do something about it, but did I want to?

  “You’re not much of a lead. You haven’t given me anything to go on.” Roy inched closer.

  Tim gulped, pupils dilating.

  I stepped closer as well, and Roy said, his back to me, “Don’t. This is my interrogation.”

  “No one’s sticking up for this asshole, but Tim is right: he’s our only lead,” I reasoned.

  Roy could slap him around all he wanted, but a dead witness was useless.

  “I can signal them again,” Tim said. “I still have the channel they use.”

  So that’s how he was contacting them. Tim must have some sort of CB radio.

  “What do you use?” Roy asked.

  “I found a trucker’s radio a while back and found their channel.”

  “Where is it?”

  “In my room.”

  “What channel?” When Tim didn’t answer, Roy yelled, “Well?!”

  “Seven.”

  “That’s all I need.” Roy aimed and shot.

  I lurched forward, people screaming all around me. At that close of a range, Roy didn’t miss. The bullet entered Tim’s left temple, throwing his head back. His body went limp, his head hanging over the back of the chair, out of view. Smoke rose in white tendrils, as if Tim were releasing a drag of a cigarette.

  That brief illusion was shattered when blood dripped onto the worn floor like red paint poured from a can. Karla let out a distressed cry and sank to the ground in tears. Some of the older ladies fled the room, and the rest of us stood frozen in shock.

  Chapter 12

  I remembered one time, back in elementary school, when a classmate named Eric had managed to coax a skunk onto school grounds. He stood at the break in the metal fence for most of our lunch recess, waving his bologna sandwich enticingly at the black-furred creature. After a while, it crept up to the fence, only to spray Eric and make off with the sandwich he’d dropped.

  Eric sputtered as the kids closest to him ran as far downwind as they could get. When he approached the crowd with hesitant steps, they all backed up from him in a wave of disgust. He burst into tears, and eventually a teacher hosed him off outside before calling his parents. For days, he stunk, no matter how much his parents must have bathed him, and no one would go near him. It was like he’d been involuntarily quarantined.

  I kind of felt like Roy was suffering from the same fallout poor Eric had, except this time, people had more of a reason to keep their distance. The one’s who’d witnessed the shooting firsthand were too shocked and traumatized to keep quiet and had gossiped to the rest of the populace by the time morning came. Roy quickly become the resident leper. Eyes sunk to the floor when he would pass by, and people were quick to move out of his way, only to cast him dirty looks when his back was turned. He wouldn’t last here much longer. Either he’d pack up and leave, or an enraged group comprised mainly of elderly ladies would throw him out.

  What no one knew, except for the ten or so of us who’d been there for the interrogation, was that Tim had been a two-faced traitor responsible for leading those mercenaries here and causing the deaths of at least ten people. But a public execution hadn’t been the answer to his crimes, and it had left us with more questions. The image of Tim’s head whipping back from the impact of the bullet was seared into my mind.

  I tried to convince myself this wasn’t my problem, that this had nothing to do with me or me staying here, but I kept getting sucked in like a bird into a jumbo jet engine. I wanted to leave with Chloe and continue on toward John’s gun shop like I’d planned to days ago. I wanted this whole thing not to bother me. I didn’t want to care. But something inside me had made me stay to help fix the disorder and broken pieces.

  The light from the rising sun was quickly spilling into the common room through the large window. Elaine, Mac, and I had spent the night cleaning up the … mess. Tim was wrapped up in a sheet outside, awaiting his burial. His body had been the hardest thing to deal with. We’d had to cut the zip ties binding his wrists and maneuver him onto a sheet, all the while his head leaked blood and brain matter. At one point, Mac had excused himself to go throw up in the hallway. Once we’d gotten Tim’s body outside, we started in on the bloody mess that was the floor. Lucky for us, the building had cheaped out with linoleum, and there was no carpet.

  I stood and stretched out my back. Looking down at our poor excuse of a murder cleanup job, I could see that the linoleum would be forever stained a russet color. I ripped off my rubber gloves and threw them into the garbage bag Elaine had labeled “Hazardous Waste” with a Sharpie.

  “We’re not done yet,” Elaine said as she slapped down the rag in her hand on the floor, where it landed with a wet splat.

  “I am.” I cracked my neck.

  My head was throbbing from the concussion, and I was pretty sure Elaine knew I shouldn’t be exerting myself. My eyelids were sagging like a used mattress as fatigue set in.

  “We need sleep, Elaine,” Mac groaned as he hefted himself up from his crouched position.

  The worst of it was cleaned up, and you could hardly tell someone had been shot in the common room.

  Elaine rubbed at her forehead. “Fine, but do you have any idea how many diseases are spread from human remains? That’s why we have to be meticulous.”

  I let out a bark of laughter. “I think we’re already covered there. Have you not seen the world lately?”

  Her nostrils flared at my comment.

  “Listen, we’re going to go get a few hours of rest. That includes you too, Elaine.” Mac looked at her. “And then, when our heads are clearer, we can deal with this.”

  “You’re forgetting about concussed here,” Elaine said.

  Oh, so now she was concerned for my health. How convenient.

  “I think pulling an all-nighter means I’m in the clear, but just in case, I’ll have Chloe shake me awake every few hours.” Chloe would be diligent with any task I gave her.

  We dragged the makeshift hazardous waste bags outside then drudged upstairs for much needed sleep. I barely got the instructions out to Chloe before I collapsed on the bed
in our new apartment. The old one was still airing out from the earlier incidents. The last thing I remember was Chloe setting the timer she’d borrowed from Mac’s kitchen. As instructed, Chloe woke me up every three hours on the hour. It wasn’t the best sleep I’d ever had, but it beat no sleep. Then someone woke me a third time.

  “Bailey, I know it’s too early to be wakin’ you up but somethin’ is goin’ on downstairs. I think it’s about Roy,” Chloe told me, her voice breaking through my foggy brain.

  Judging from the bright light flooding the room, it was afternoon. Everyone had had the day to make things worse, and knowing this place, that’s exactly what happened. I swung my feet over the bed and rubbed my temples. My head still hurt; I’d have to get more pills from Elaine.

  Chloe grabbed my arm and yanked it. “Come on. Amanda is cryin’. She thinks somethin’ is goin’ to happen to her dad.”

  I guess a lynch mob had formed while I was sleeping.

  “Where’s Amanda?” I asked, shaking my head to clear it further.

  “In her room.”

  “Go stay with her, okay?”

  She nodded at my request.

  I dragged my stiff body out of the surprisingly comfy bed and dreaded every step that brought me closer to downstairs. I needed to leave this place and its shit behind me. Standing on the second set of stairs, I could already hear the swarm of people below.

  “He can’t stay here anymore. He’s a cold-blooded murderer!”

  “He killed Tim!”

  “Enough!” That last voice belonged to Elaine. “I agree his actions were hasty, but there are some parts of the story you don’t know!”

  I hit the landing of the main floor and followed the yelling to the rec room, which smelled of bleach. The room was hot from all the worked-up people congregated there. Heads turned toward me as I approached.

  “She’s partly to blame too!” An elderly lady in a flower patterned blouse jabbed a boney finger my way.

  Surprise stopped me dead in my tracks. They were blaming me for this too?

  “She needs to leave. She pointed a gun at Karla!”

  “I was never going to pull the trigger!”