by Michael Bray
It was a question he didn’t think he would be able to answer until the time came. If his daughter’s smiling, drooling face swam out of the darkness of his mind, just as he was about to squeeze the trigger, what would he do then?
He closed his eyes and pushed the thoughts aside. They would do him no good. He splashed more cold water onto his face and was about to leave when he heard a subtle, hollow thud coming from one of the stalls. Lee turned off the tap, plunging the restroom into silence. He turned towards the three white stall doors, which were all closed.
“Anyone in here?” he said, his voice sounding incredibly loud and crisp in the silence of the room. He held his breath and waited, but there was no answer. He took a cautionary step towards the doors, wishing they were the three-quarter length ones with the gap at the bottom so if there was someone— or something— hidden inside, then he would at least be able to see it. He wanted to run, to turn away and pretend whatever he heard was nothing more than a harmless short fuse in his overworked mind, but something inside him—perhaps pride or even stupidity— wouldn’t allow it. Even though his instincts were screaming at him to just go, to get back to the others and leave whoever was in here to their own devices, he found himself taking another cautious step towards the doors and at the same time reaching inside his jacket for the gun. It felt heavy in his hands, and even though he had expected holding it to empower him, it did nothing to settle his nerves. With a trembling hand, he pushed the first door open, holding his breath and waiting for something to leap out and grab him, but the stall was empty. He exhaled and wondered how long his frayed nerves would hold out. He moved cautiously to the next door, straining his ears for any hint of sound. He pushed, but it held firm.
“This one is used, sir,” came the quiet, broken English from the other side.
“You okay in there, fella?”
“Yessir, thank you. I just eat too much.”
“Sorry, pal.”
“No problem, sir.”
Lee was about to holster the gun when he saw the T-shirt screwed up in the corner of the room. He recognized the design, white with a silk print of Marilyn Monroe on the front. It was torn across the shoulder, and Lee’s instincts bristled to life. Instead of fear, a sudden rage came over him instead, because he knew the T-shirt belonged to Leena. Lee licked his lips and adjusted his grip on the gun.
“Hey, fella, you wanna open the door and let the girl out of there?”
“Go away and mind own business.”
“That’s fine with me, pal. You just let her out of there, and we can leave it at that.”
“Girl mine. Go find own girl.”
“I don’t think so, fella. You let her out now, or I’m coming in there. You should know I’ve got a gun, pal, and I’ll use it if I have to.”
He took a step back, spread his feet and pointed the gun at the door.
“You hear me in there, mate?”
“Yesyesyes. I send out girl!” spat the frustrated, disembodied voice from behind the door.
The lock clicked open, causing Lee to almost pull the trigger, but he somehow held his nerve. Bo had one hand over Leena’s mouth; the other was around her bare waist, and he had a short, sharp knife clutched in his podgy grip. Lee tried to assess Leena’s wounds as best he could without reacting. Her shoulders and arms were covered in bruises and superficial bite marks, but as far as he could tell none looked particularly deep. To Lee, they bore all the hallmarks of torture rather than to actually cause any real damage. One thing was for sure. Bo wasn’t like the others here, at least if what Garrett had said was anything to go by. Lee wondered if he was perhaps some kind of hybrid – half human, half vampire. A slave of sorts destined to live forever to serve his masters. Leena’s eyes were wild and frightened, and she stared pleadingly at Lee. Somehow he forced himself to stay cool as Bo pushed her ahead of him, his sweaty, bloated head only just visible over her shoulder.
“See? Girl is okay. You give me gun, and I give you girl,” he said from behind his human shield.
“No chance, pal,” Lee said, knowing even if he were confident with a gun, the shot would be hard. He couldn’t take the chance of hitting Leena. Even so, the way his hands were shaking took the option of firing away from him anyway.
“You give me gun or girl die,” Bo barked, glaring over Leena’s shoulder.
Lee looked for a shot, any large enough area of flesh he could aim for, however Bo was frustratingly well hidden. Lee had always been good at bluffing. It had got him out of many a tough situation, although the stakes had never been as high as they were now.
“Look, mate, I have my own problems. You leave her be and we’ll all walk out of here, and that’ll be the end of it. I don’t wanna have to kill you.”
“You leave now.” Bo grunted.
“That ain’t happenin’, fella. Not without the girl.”
“I tell master. Master won’t be happy.”
“If you don’t let her go, you won’t see outside o’ this room, pal. That I can guarantee. It’s your call.”
He could hear Bo grunting as he processed the information.
“Okay, okay. You back up. Go to door and I send the girl.”
“Fine, fella. Just take it easy.”
Lee inched toward the door, keeping his gun and eye trained on Bo, who shuffled after him, holding Leena tight and the blade of his knife pressed against her throat. Lee could see Bo’s fat, reflection in the mirrors above the sinks, and saw with dismay he was naked. He didn’t want to think too much about what the horrible little man would have done if he hadn’t been disturbed.
“Okay, I let girl go now,” Bo grunted, releasing his grip on Leena. She sobbed and ran to Lee, hiding behind his arm. He could feel her trembling against him. Lee trained the gun on Bo, who stood defiant despite his nakedness. He slowly raised his arms with a smug look on his sweaty face.
“I’m going to enjoy eat you. Then I eat her,” he said, flashing a sick grin.
Leena was gripping on to Lee’s arm, hiding behind him in much the same way as Bo hid behind her.
“Leena, get your shirt,” Lee said, nodding towards the corner. Bo started to move the second his eyes were averted, but Lee saw it and turned his full attention back to the piggy little man.
“That’s a good way to get yourself shot in the bloody face, fella. You get me?”
Bo glared at Lee but held his ground. Leena retrieved her shirt and pulled it on. She was still trembling and sobbing quietly.
“Now I’m a man of my word. I know you sick, filthy bastards don’t understand the idea of respect, but we had an agreement, and I’ll stick to it. Now the girl and me are gonna leave. But remember this, fella. If I see your fat, ugly fucking face again, I swear I’ll put a bullet between your eyes. Understand?”
“I’ll tell,” whined Bo, fidgeting from foot to foot.
“I’ll tell and they take you first. Then I have the girl!”
Bo was drooling and snarling. Lee didn’t think it would come, but he found the ability to unleash a cool, calm smile which he was pleased to see had the desired unsettling effect.
“I look forward to it, you little fuck-ball. Now remember what I said.”
“I remember. I remember everything.”
Lee and Leena backed out of the restroom and into the relative safety of the store.
II
Now fully dressed; Bo opened the bathroom door, fully intending to slip away quietly and tell his family about the human with the gun. He never had a chance, however, and only registered the flash of the muzzle and the deafening roar of the gun as the bullet sheared away the top of his head. His one remaining eye rolled back as his brains splattered in a claret mist all over the white wall. Lifted off his feet, he slammed into the bathroom door which swung open, leaving his twitching corpse lying half in, half out of the restroom. Lee was standing feet spread, shoulders relaxed, and gun poised. He had no issue with what he had done. Granted it had ruined the escape plan, but he knew that he co
uldn’t leave this horrible little man alive, and had to put an end to him.
The roar of the gun had caused frenzy, and Lee was vaguely aware of terrified voices and the sound of people running. Garrett grabbed Lee by the shoulder and spun him around.
“What the fuck did you do?” he spat, glaring wild eyed at the twitching corpse of Bo.
“I had to, Ray. I had to end him.”
The door to Nicu’s office burst open and he was there, his face which up until then had been a picture of serene control was now twisted into a mask of rage.
“Kill them all!!” he roared.
“You just killed us, you dumb shit! You ruined everything! ” Garrett growled at Lee.
Lee, however, was smiling. Garrett thought he had gone, lost like Mark and the others, but Lee’s eyes focused and found Garrett.
“No, I didn’t. I just proved they can be killed, fella.”
“No good if we’re dead too. Come on, let’s go. We have to move. NOW.”
The two ran to meet the rest of their group. At the opposite side of the store, Nicu and his family started to rampage.
Chaos
Violence was something Garrett had only seen in movies or grainy news footage, and as a result he was completely unprepared for the speed and ferocity with which the fragile peace broke down into chaos. Garrett kept his gaze fixed firmly ahead, and did his best to ignore the screams and the wet tearing sounds which seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. Nicu’s staff – his family- who had been up until that point placid, were in frenzy, indiscriminately attacking. Garrett saw the Hispanic man who briefly was a part of their group taken down by two of them, one plunging his teeth into his throat whilst the other held his twitching, thrashing body still. Shelves were knocked over, blood sprayed the goods, ejected at velocity from severed arteries as the rampage went on.
Garrett, Lee, and Leena met up with Donald, Helen, and Cody.
“What the hell happened?” Donald blurted.
“Never mind that now. We have to go!” Garrett snapped, hurrying towards the back of the store. The group made for the black double swing doors that gave onto the concrete preparation area where Garrett had last seen the butcher working on Arsenio’s dismembered leg. Garrett was in the lead, Lee just behind with the gun drawn as they tried to distance themselves from the rampage. They were met near the entrance by Bernard, who, like them had set about getting as far away from the bottom of the store as he could. He was wide-eyed and had a perplexed, horrified look about him. For all of his talk and bravado, the single gunshot had dissolved his group, and with it his influence. He now stood alone. Despite the horror of the situation, Garrett felt a smug sense of satisfaction at Bernard’s belated epiphany they were in mortal danger.
“I didn’t know… how could I know?” He grunted, looking from Garrett to Donald and back again.
“You made your choice, son. Get out of our way,” Donald said firmly.
“Let me come with you. Please!”
He sounded desperate, and although Garrett would have loved nothing more than to make him sweat a little, there was no time.
“We can argue about who was right later. Come on.”
Bernard nodded and fell in with the group as Garrett barged through the double doors, preparing for his confrontation with the immense mountain that was the butcher. He was relieved to see that the cold, concrete floored room was empty.
“Lee, watch the doors, the rest of you stick close!” Garrett barked, not for the first time wondering how he ended up in command of such a ramshackle group. However, the rest of the group wasn’t moving. They were standing in a frightened huddle, trying to process the mind-numbing horror of their surroundings. Garrett had seen it before and was surprised that now on his second visit, he had barely even noticed the array of severed limbs, hollowed out corpses and the stale, copper stench of blood.
In an ideal world, he would have warned them in advance, told them to prepare themselves for what lay ahead. However, that was before, in a lifetime before Lee changed things by shooting Bo in the face. Even Bernard now looked as broken and frightened as the rest of them as he tried to understand the true horror of his surroundings. It was as if someone had let the air out of him slowly, and he was now a deflated shell of a man who, like the others couldn’t take his eyes from the grizzly display that surrounded them.
“Donald, come on!” Garrett croaked, his eyes flicking to the double doors and knowing there was little time before Nicu’s staff were onto them. Donald blinked, and then he was moving, grabbing Helen by the arm.
“Where? I don’t see a way out.” He grunted.
There was a door behind the countertop where Garrett had last seen the butcher and a corrugated steel door to the loading bay which looked to be run electronically. On the floor in front of the door was a dried trail of blood. It was plain something had been dragged through at some point in the recent past.
“See if you can open that loading bay door. Lee, you come with me and see what’s in there,” Garrett said, pointing to the closed door behind the counter.
“Bernard…” he began, but Bernard wasn’t listening. He was still staring at the dismembered limbs, his mouth moving, perhaps in silent prayer to whatever god he believed in. Garrett could see his mind trying to process the signals sent by his eyes and rejecting them. He supposed it was hard for Bernard. For a man who seemed to live by the rules of rationality and order, he was having a particularly tough time of making sense of being trapped in a nest of flesh-eating vampires who were now pissed off and coming for them.
“Bernard!” Garrett repeated, actually feeling a little sorry for the man. “Dammit!”
He shook his head, knowing any attempt to communicate was, for now, a lost cause.
“Cody, you watch the door and keep your eyes peeled for anyone coming this way.”
Nobody argued. They were too afraid to think for themselves, and so did as they were told. Donald, Leena, and Helen made for the loading bay door. Bernard continued to stare and try to make sense of his surroundings. Garrett hurried around the bloodstained countertop, Lee with him. He grabbed the door handle, and then looked Lee in the eye.
“You ready?”
“Yeah.”
Garrett swung the door open, and the pair stepped inside. The room was a small and unremarkable office, containing a single table at the far wall and a bank of monitors offering views of the store from various security cameras. A second door was halfway open and revealed the top of a descending staircase.
“Lee...” Garrett said, nodding towards the staircase.
“Got it,” Lee replied, moving to the open door with the gun held out in front of him. He ducked his head through the doorway.
“Fuckin’ stinks of shite down there.”
Garrett agreed. He wrinkled his nose at the somehow sweet, yet bitter smell and somehow managed to swallow the urge to vomit. The walls of the staircase were bare stone and wet with damp. Garrett couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling surging through him as he looked down to the faint light from below where the steps curled away out of sight, that something down there was looking back.
“Well fella, whaddya think?”
“No, not yet. Let’s see if Donald can get the door open before we go down there.”
“No arguments here, pal. You think there’s anyone down there?”
“I hope not.”
“What about this butcher fella?”
In all the confusion and blind panic, Garrett somehow forgot about him already. Perhaps he was subconsciously blotting the one real obstacle to their chances of escape out of his mind.
“He could be down there. I haven’t seen him anywhere in the store.”
“But we can’t be sure?”
“No.”
Lee lowered the gun and turned to Garrett.
“You want me to poke my head down there and check it out?”
Garrett paused, and then shook his head.
“No. Not if we don’t need t
o.”
Garrett turned to head back to the others when Lee put a hand on his shoulder.
“Look, pal, between you and me, I’d rather not take the others down there unless we know what we’re dealing with.”
“I hear ya. And for the record, I’d rather not go down there at all, unless we have to. Believe me, it’s an absolute last resort. Let’s see if we can get the loading bay door open first, okay?”
“Whatever you say, fella. You go on. I’ll wait here and make sure our butcher friend doesn’t sneak up on our arses.”
“Keep your eyes open.”
“You don’t need to tell me twice, mate. Go on now. See to the others.”
“The controls are operated by key,” Donald grunted between gritted teeth. “Gimmie a hand!”
Garrett hurried over, hooked his fingers under the metal sliding door and gave his all, but even with their combined strength, they couldn’t move it. It was securely locked in place.
“Forget this. It’s not working, back into the store!” Garrett blurted.
“No,” Cody said, turning back to the group. He turned away from the window. Garrett could see from his ashen face that something was seriously wrong.
“We can’t go back. Not in there.”
Garrett started towards the door to see for himself.
“Don’t. You don’t need to see what’s out there.”
Garrett nodded and turned back towards the group. They were now watching him and waiting to be told what to do.
“We’re trapped here, aren’t we?” Donald asked.
“Not quite. There’s a staircase in the back. It could lead to a way out.”
“Please,” Leena said, looking from Donald to Garrett with frightened eyes. “Please don’t let them get me.”
She was shaking, and her eyes had a glassy sheen.
She’s close to the edge, Garrett thought to himself, and then realized the same could be said for all of them.