by James Hunt
Todd tapped his knuckles on the door gently and kept his voice at a whisper. “Alex?” There was no response. Todd repeated the faint assault on the door, and it nudged open a little further. The crack widened and Todd could see that Alex’s bed was empty. Todd pushed the door open wider. “Alex?” Todd stood in the doorframe as the door hit the adjacent wall. He wasn’t back yet. Todd dropped the book on Alex’s pillow when his knee scrapped against something hard on the edge of the mattress. Todd looked down to see a small sliver of black sticking out from under the bed.
Todd squinted. The shape of the object was something he’d seen before. The conflict of invading Alex’s privacy was overridden by the growing sense of dread coursing through his veins. He grabbed the corner of the object and slowly pulled it out. Todd’s heart rate doubled with every square inch that the laptop was revealed. There was only one way Alex could have obtained a piece of equipment like that. It had to have come from the Soil Coalition.
Chapter 14
The first rays of light had just peaked over the eastern horizon when Alex finally looked behind him. But there was no one in sight. Fire scorched his lungs as his breaths turned into wheezing gasps the longer he ran. He had to get to Todd. He had to tell him what happened. He had to explain. The people in Todd’s community were like his own. They looked up to him. They trusted him. And it was his job to protect them. Todd would understand that. He had to.
The community houses finally came into view. A burst of adrenaline propelled Alex forward, giving him enough energy to survive the final stretch. Alex would show Todd the laptop. He would show him Meeko, and Harper, and the rest of the town. He would tell Todd how the Coalition held his entire community at gunpoint. That would have to be enough.
The back door to his house grew larger and Alex reached out his hand. When he skidded to a stop just before opening the door, he almost collapsed, but he kept himself upright using the door handle as a crutch. His legs wobbled forward inside the house and wiggled underneath him like jelly. He knew the ruckus would wake up Ben, Dustin, and Brent, but he had to tell them too. He had to let them know what happened. He could still join them. It wasn’t too late. He could help turn the tide.
But those thoughts came to an abrupt halt when Alex saw Todd holding a gun, standing next to the kitchen table with the laptop Sydney had given him. White froth formed at the corners of Alex’s mouth from the run and lack of water, and his tongue felt too dry to form any words.
“Who are you working for?” Todd asked. Like the bodies Todd buried at the morgue, he was lifeless, cold, and void of any emotion.
“Todd, I can explain. Please.” Alex’s side and legs cramped. He could feel the oxygen-starved muscles spasm. When he tried to take a few steps forward, his knees buckled. His shoulder smacked into the wall next to him, and using it as a brace, he forced himself to remain upright. “I know what it looks like.”
“It looks like you’ve been working for the Soil Coalition,” Todd answered. “What’d they promise you? A nice job in an office building? Unlimited food? Well, I can tell you they won’t be able to promise that for you for much longer.”
“Todd, I-”
The flash of the gunshot and the slice of pain that cut through Alex’s left arm silenced him. The velocity of the impact spun him back around into the wall. His back smacked into the blood splattered behind him, which then smeared as he slid to the floor. He clutched his arm, trying to stop the bleeding.
Ben, Dustin, and Brent came flying out of their rooms. Each of them was still in a half-dazed, sleep-induced lethargy. Their bodies tumbled into each other as Todd gripped the pistol with the vindictive purpose of revenge.
“Todd, what are you doing?” Ben asked, his gaze roaming from the blood oozing between Alex’s fingers and the gun in Todd’s hand.
“He’s working for the Coalition!” Todd said with spit flying from his flushed face, pointing the gun at Alex. “He was using us! He was using us to save himself!” Todd walked over and jammed the pistol’s barrel into the side of Alex’s head. He moved his finger to the trigger. “How much did you tell them?”
Alex’s head was caught in a vise between the wall and the force of pressure applied from the end of the pistol’s barrel. Shivers of cold and fear vibrated down Alex’s body. He could see the faces of Dustin and Brent begging for Todd to pull the trigger. When Alex looked at Ben, he simply looked away.
“What did you tell them?” Todd repeated.
The pistol’s barrel scraped across Alex’s scalp as Todd slowly forced Alex’s head to look him in the eye. The bloodlust that Alex saw staring back at him wasn’t a mind that could be penetrated with pleas or cries of mercy. The same laws of absolutes that Todd had used in the lab were applied to every other aspect of his life.
“I’m sorry,” Alex said.
Todd leaned his weight into the pistol, and Alex flinched as the pressure against his forehead doubled. The muscles along Todd’s jaws flexed from his clenched teeth. The muscles in his finger spasmed slightly over the trigger.
The front door to the house burst open and a unit of sentries flooded the living room. The first few tackled and subdued Ben, Dustin, and Brent, who blocked the line of sight to Todd. Then a similar blow knocked down the back door and another unit of sentries invaded the house. Todd removed the pistol from Alex’s head and managed to fire two rounds before a bullet caught him in the shoulder and he was tackled to the floor.
The screams that left Todd’s mouth were the emaciated shrieks of pain and betrayal. Even with the bullet to the shoulder, Todd thrashed and howled until his throat was raw. One of the sentries picked up and cuffed Alex, then marched him behind the rest of the prisoners.
Outside, similar raids had been enacted on the rest of the housing communities, pulling every citizen from their home. While the sentries gathered the rest of the community in one large mass, the sentry that cuffed Alex pulled him toward the middle Humvee of a long line of cars. The windows were tinted, and when the door opened, he saw the smiling face of Gordon Reath.
“Hello, Alex.”
Jake exited the front passenger door and joined Gordon and Sydney, who had a laptop with him. He wouldn’t even look Alex in the eye. Betrayal was going around today.
“Well?” Gordon asked, ignoring the gunshot wound to Alex’s arm. “Do you have it?”
“No.”
“Search him.”
The sentry detaining Alex immediately patted him down and pulled the thumb drive out of his pocket. He handed it over to Gordon, who gave it to Sydney. He started the download onto his laptop. While the data uploaded, Gordon walked over to Alex and poked his finger into the bullet hole in Alex’s arm. Every centimeter that Gordon penetrated into the wound sent a symphony of pain throughout his entire body.
“It’s all here,” Sydney said.
Gordon removed his finger and Alex collapsed to his knees. “Good,” Gordon said, then knelt down next to Alex. “What do you say we tell the community the good news?”
The sentry lifted Alex up and marched him behind Gordon until he was standing directly in front of the entire community. All of the faces that had thanked him for what he did for Emma would now curse him for the same reason.
“I’m sure most of you are wondering why you’ve been awoken so early at the start of your day. For the past few weeks this man,” Gordon said, pointing at Alex, “has been working for me. He’s been gaining your trust, manipulating you into giving me what I want. What that man created.” Gordon singled Todd out in the crowd, whose head was tilted to the side as what blood remained in his system tried to clot the wound on his shoulder. “I have to say I admire the work you’ve done, Dr. Penn. And I can assure you it will be put to good use. And thanks to the effort of Alex, I can now share Dr. Penn’s work with the rest of the communities around the country. Now, that is the good news, but I’m afraid there is a bit of bad news that comes with it. See, despite the magnificent accomplishments of Dr. Penn, this community has broken
Coalition laws. And that cannot go without punishment.” Gordon motioned to his sentries, who pulled both Emma and Todd forward, leaving them next to Alex. “These two will be sent to a farm camp, and the rest of you will be subjected to thirty lashes each. Be thankful for my leniency.”
Tears poured from the corners of Emma’s eyes as the sentries pulled both her and Todd to the Humvees. She jerked and resisted, spitting every curse she could think of at Alex’s face. “We trusted you! We trusted you!” She repeated those words until the door shut on the Humvee and it drove off.
Alex was thrown into the Humvee with Gordon and Jake, while Sydney rode in the Humvee behind them. A medic sat in the very back seat of the truck and tended to Alex’s wound. He didn’t resist or move. Alex simply let the medic work on him, although he wished the bullet wound was big enough for him to bleed out.
“Just so you know, our agreement still stands,” Gordon said. “You did what you were supposed to, and I’ll make sure you and your community are taken care of. Congratulations, Alex. You saved them.”
***
The first face that Alex saw when he arrived back in his community was Meeko. The boy sprinted toward him, his tuft of thick black curls bobbing along the way. Despite the pain and stiches in his arm, he lifted Meeko into the air.
“We weren’t sure if you were coming back,” Meeko said, whispering into Alex’s ear.
The rest of the community slowly made their way out to greet him. Each gesture of thanks and gratitude, every pat on the back, every touch of adoration that he received brought with it a sting of shame. Harper came out, his face sullen, tears streaming down his face, and gave Alex a heartfelt hug.
“I know you tried to save her,” Harper said.
Alex nodded. Harper’s wife was just another casualty in the wake of Alex’s good intentions. Once the collection of “thank yous” and “welcome homes” subsided, Meeko led Alex to the house that replaced their old one after the explosion from the sentry’s raid on their food stash. Meeko had moved in with Harper, along with the new doctor in the community who replaced Warren after he was killed.
The Coalition had provided some luxuries that the previous home lacked, such as sofas, new mattresses, and a cabinet that actually had food inside.
“I haven’t felt hungry lately,” Meeko said.
Gordon did keep his word. In the dark recesses of his mind, he thought that maybe the nutrition reports had been falsified, but they weren’t. It was real.
Alex made sure to seal the bandages around the stitches on his arm tightly before stepping into the shower. He turned the handle and let the warm spray wash over him. It had been three years since he’d felt warm water like this. Years of grime, dirt, and blood washed off him and swirled into the drain between his feet. Even after he was done washing he just stood there, letting the water beat against the back of his neck. He stayed in that shower until the water lost its heat. After drying himself, he made his way to his room where a bed was neatly made and his sack sat on top.
“A sentry dropped that off while you were in the shower,” Meeko said, appearing in the doorway behind him. “They said it was from your room in the other community you were in.” He then got a running start and jumped onto the bed, causing the bag to tip over and spill some of the contents. Alex noticed the corner of a book poking out, and he picked it up.
“What’s that?” Meeko asked.
Alex found the edge of the bed absentmindedly and sat down. He ran his fingers over the book’s cover, feeling the indentation of the title and the author’s names. Ernest Hemingway. Alex handed it to Meeko, who flipped through some of the pages. That’s what Todd was doing at the house.
“Who’s Ernest Hemingway?” Meeko asked. “Alex?”
Alex grabbed some clothes and went back to the bathroom to change. Once he was dressed, he entered the kitchen. He pulled open the drawers until he came across what he hoped he’d find. A knife.
Meeko ran in after him, asking Alex what he was doing, where he was going, but Alex didn’t answer. All he could focus on was getting down to the main gate. All he could think about was evening the odds. All he wanted to do was get the murderous feeling out of his head.
When Meeko tried following him down the path to the community’s front gate, Alex shoved him back inside the house. “Stay inside. And do not follow me.”
Alex flipped the blade flat against his forearm and concealed the handle with his hand. From the front, you couldn’t even tell he had the knife on him. The walk down felt long. All he could hear were Todd and Emma’s screams. All he could see were the faces of disgust from everyone in the community before he left. All he could think about was that fucking book.
Per usual, two sentries stood watch at the front gate. The two looked at each other as Alex continued his march right toward them. He wiggled his fingers slightly to adjust his grip on the blade. From what Alex could tell, the sentries had no idea what he was carrying.
“What do you want?” the sentry asked. “It’s too late for any requests, so you’ll have to wait until morning.”
“I have a message for Gordon,” Alex answered. “I need you to tell him immediately.”
“Well, what is it?”
The two sentries stepped forward and clustered together. It would make for two easy kills. The moment Alex was within an arm’s reach, he swiped the edge of the blade across the first sentry’s throat on his right and before the other could touch the stock of his rifle, Alex had the tip of the knife stuck through his Adam’s apple.
The first sentry that he sliced convulsed on the ground, his fingers curled and clawing toward the sky, trying to call for help but unable to form any sound other than gargling. Finally, enough blood flowed from the four-inch gash on his throat and the twitching ceased.
Alex kept the blade in the throat of the second sentry until he couldn’t hold the man’s weight any longer and he dropped to the ground next to his comrade. He grabbed one of the sentry’s rifles and marched over to the sentry housing where the rest of the wolves slept. He crouched low, ducking under the windows. He knew there were at least another half-dozen inside. The clip in the rifle was full. He had plenty to get the job done. He nestled the muzzle of the gun into the crack of the door and reached for the handle. He gave it a slight push and the door creaked open.
The darkness inside was thicker than it was in the streets. Each sentry had their own room, and the first one was to his left. The sentry inside was fast asleep. Alex slit his throat before he could open his eyes. As the sentry choked on his own blood, Alex moved to the next room. When he entered, the sentry from the first room must have rolled to the ground, because the thump that sounded woke the sentry that he was sneaking up on. Alex wasn’t close enough to use the knife by the time the sentry was alert, so he sent a bullet through his forehead, knocking him back to his pillow.
The rest of the house was alerted to his presence, and Alex quickly went back into the hall where he knocked off two more sentries that were quick to jump out but slow to aim their rifles. The last two seemed smart enough to realize that they had better cover inside their rooms.
“Put down the gun!” one of the remaining sentries ordered. “Do it now!”
Slow, quiet, steady breaths escaped Alex’s mouth. The rifle tucked against his shoulder and the light touch of the trigger against his fingertip all felt connected. He was aware of each individual groove of the floor beneath him. He could hear the quiet waft of air coming from the vents in the building. And he could hear the rapidly beating heart tucked behind the wall. This was hunting, and all Alex had to do was be patient. Let the game come to me.
And finally, his patience paid off. The sentry poked his head out in search of a better view of Alex, but he got more than he bargained for. The bullet that entered his left cheek then quickly exited the back of his skull dropped him before he could line up a shot. Before the sentry’s body hit the ground, Alex turned his attention to the last animal, which he heard clawing in the
back, scurrying away from the rest of the herd to protect itself. It no longer had safety in numbers. It was alone. It was vulnerable. It was afraid.
The air vents blew the game’s scent across Alex’s nostrils, and he quickly ducked as a bullet exploded into the drywall behind him. More shots were fired in rapid succession. The animal was firing blindly, wildly. The explosion of bullets continued until it was replaced by the click, click, click of an empty magazine.
With the animal out of ammo, Alex turned the corner, putting the creature in his sights, but he didn’t pull the trigger. In the trembling, clutched hand of the beast was a grenade with the pin pulled. “You kill me, I kill you.” It was one last desperate attempt to save himself. “I mean it! I’ll fucking do it!”
Alex didn’t lower the rifle. He had a clear shot right between the beast’s eyes. He kept his finger on the trigger. He closed his right eye, focusing the accuracy of his left. He had his shot. All he had to do now was pull the trigger and he would have ridden this place of its infestation.
“Are you fucking crazy? I am not bluffing. I will fucking do it!” the sentry said.
“So will I.” The moment after Alex squeezed the trigger, he sprinted for the exit. As soon as he had his left foot outside the sentry’s housing building, the grenade detonated behind him, sending a rumble through the entire structure and propelling a blast of smoke, debris, and human flesh into the air.
It wasn’t long before the community members came out of their houses and surveyed the mayhem and damage that Alex had wreaked upon the community. Among them was Meeko. He appeared around the legs of Harper as he poked the lifeless body of one of the sentries on the street.
“Alex,” Harper whispered, his voice more breath than words. “What did you do?”
Despite the looks of fear and the amount of death around him, Alex felt calm. He could feel himself free of repercussions and consequences. The community members circled around him. “While I was gone, I came across a man with a cure for the dead soil around us. A man who has been trying to free us from the Coalition. He’s solved the soil crisis. And we have to stand with him.”