by Dalton Wolf
“He…he tried to get me to sleep with him again about a month ago. But I said I was going to tell you, Tripper, so you’d know and we could make a decision together. He didn’t like that. He got really angry. He said he’d kill us all. He was crazy,” she explained in a rush. “And I didn’t have any proof…” she trailed off, her pretty green eyes pleading.
“I know it sounds crazy, but until what happened to Athena I didn’t have anyone who would even believe me.”
“We would have believed you,” Calvin said earnestly, indicating Athena and Trip with a gesture. Both of the others nodded agreement.
“Lola would have,” Lucy gently added. She lowered her head and said no more.
“I didn’t know that. And you guys don’t either. You only know because he’s not here now to tell his side. And I have Athena as proof now. He was a very persuasive person, in case you can’t remember.”
“But that’s just it, why rape you?” Joel said, scratching his head in thought. “He was good looking enough to convince most women with his looks and charm alone. It doesn’t make any sense. I’m not accusing you of anything; I just don’t understand it. I mean, I’ve seen him take down some of the best with a smile.”
“He didn’t even try,” she sobbed. “He just drugged me and took me. I didn’t have any choice, Tripper. I’m so sorry,” she put her face into her hands in shame and let the tears flow. Tripper rushed over and picked her up in his arms and she cried for several emotional minutes before regaining some self-control and continuing.
“And when he said he’d done it before, to all of your girlfriends…you didn’t see his eyes. I believed everything he was saying. And then he said specifically what he would do to me…in intricate detail—he was in pre-med for a while, you guys, and I don’t like the things he learned about anatomy.”
“He said some of that to me, too,” Athena spat in disgust
“I was truly afraid,” Sarah continued. “I mean, how many women has he done those things to? And what things? He looks so normal, and he’s so well-known. I mean, who was going to believe he would have done that? These past three months I have been living a lie. I was trying to act like everything was ok. Because I so wanted them to be ok. But he was getting more persistent. I thought something was going to…until this virus happened. Since then I’ve been watching him, waiting for something. I didn’t know what it was, but I was getting excited. I had several chances to confront him, but couldn’t work up the nerve. And then when Athena and I were alone on the roof, I knew what I had been waiting for. It was my idea to kick the winch from the roof. He raped me and I wanted to kill him. Because I knew Athena was next.” Sarah pulled back from Trip and looked up into his pained pale eyes.
“I never said anything because I—I knew you’d never look at me the same, Trip. Because I like the way you look at me,” she whimpered. “And more than anything in this world, I can’t stand the thought of you not…I really need you to want to keep looking at me…but that son-of-a-bitch was not going to do the same thing that he did to me to…to Athena…or to anyone else ever again.”
She paused again and looked around at the others. “I was never really ashamed of being raped, because I knew that wasn’t my fault and that he was an evil bastard. But now I’m ashamed of killing him. That’s not fair, is it? Does that seem right to you?”
“I think it’s natural,” Athena answered. “I hope it’s natural. Because I regret it, too, and I’m mad about that. He was a pig. No, that’s too kind. He was evil and he needed to die and we couldn’t have him running around out there where there aren’t any rules. There’s no telling what he might have become.”
“It’s still murder,” Sarah nearly whispered and buried her head in Tripper’s chest.
“We’re under Quarantine, Sarah, I think the rules are on hold for a while,” Calvin assured her. Several of the others nodded agreement and Calvin sighed, “I was getting ready to do it if you didn’t,” he finally admitted. “He was a danger to us all.”
“I think I was going to kill him before all of this,” Sarah admitted.
“So that’s why you were doing so much target shooting before things went to shit?” Trip asked.
“Yes.” She answered stiffly, with a sniffle.
“I thought it was because you were mad at me about something.”
“Not at you. Never at you. At him. Disgusted with myself for letting him do that to me, even though I knew it wasn’t my fault. Outraged that I was being a victim rather than fighting back. I guess I was training for what I thought I had to do, or might have to do eventually. I didn’t do the right thing, and by not doing so, I let a dangerous person stay out on the streets. I always thought I was a better person.”
“Hey, none of us thought he was capable of something like that.”
“I mean the next day. I thought I was the kind of woman who would go straight to the police and tell them what was done and put the bad guy away. Instead…I kept silent. I couldn’t risk my family and friends knowing I had done those things, even though it wasn’t my choice, and I wasn’t even awake, or at least not aware. I couldn’t have them see that. Because, what would they think? Would anyone even believe me? I mean, he was Brick Jacobs. He was almost famous. I was alone with him while you were out of town. You know how that looks to anyone outside our group? And you? I couldn’t let him send that stuff to you. And I couldn’t have you going to jail for killing him or hating me because of it. I can’t lose you, Tripper. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Babydoll. And I ain’t going anywhere. We do need to talk about it, though,” he added. “You can’t keep something like that locked up from the people you love and if we don’t deal with it, there’ll be resentment from you and suspicion from me, or something worse and…and I don’t want that. Communication is the key. You have to tell people and if they don’t care or try to help, they don’t need to be in your life. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. We’ll get through this together.”
The couple simply stared at each other for what seemed like at least two centuries to those watching.
“So my vents are safe?” Hephaestus eventually broke the awkwardness by stomping towards the stairs with the vent he’d pulled from the street earlier now resting solidly on his shoulder. “It is ok if I wish to go up there and replace this? I do not have to worry about my ass ending up in the alley on my back looking up at you two?” he asked Athena with a grin.
Nobody laughed.
“What? Too soon?” with a hearty bellow he ran up the stairs, the two-hundred pound vent bobbing on his shoulder as lightly as a if it weighed only a hundred.
The group sat around talking, smoking and snacking throughout the night. They talked about life. They talked about love and friendship. They discussed the future and the past and movies and friendship and their plans for surviving the apocalypse. No one wanted the night to end, each wanting to show their full support for Athena and Sarah. Slowly, one-by-one fatigue took them all and they wandered off to their rooms for sleep. No one mentioned Brick’s name again for some time. He was forgotten, a bad memory that had faded slowly away with the influx of new, better memories, like the zombie Armageddon.
Escape from Kansas City
Hephaestus and Quinn wandered into the gaming room late the next morning and the eager look on their faces forced Calvin to pause the co-op game for a moment.
“It is done, Calvin. It is time to go,” Hef stated firmly. Both men simply turned and walked out.
A cheer broke out amongst the collected friends and after some excited hugging and kissing, they rushed out of the room to prepare. It was time to go, time to escape their dying city.
“I’ll call the others and tell them to get ready,” Tripper called out, already halfway across the massive chamber heading to the workshop, pulling his chainmail over a brown t-shirt.
Between the parents and the military, the Fortress was packed and cleaned spotless by the time Calvin and the others arrived t
o escort them to the Dungeon. Megan was still withdrawn, but at least she was responding to outside stimulation again. Her eyes would now focus on a person when they spoke to her and she would eat when they set a plate of food before her. Other than that, she would sit quietly in a corner until someone made her move. At one point Alex and the Worm even tried to entice her into playing some of the games Tripper and Athena had taken the Tesla to bring back, but after losing her boyfriend and slipping into this poorly made horror movie, she had checked out of reality. Bringing her back would take time and patience.
Mr. McClintock was better, but still not quite ready. He would answer questions when asked, but would volunteer nothing. He was frequently found staring at the pictures pulled from the boxes he had brought along. Whenever someone needed a hand, however, he would be the first to volunteer, his beautiful ivory teeth bared in a fake smile that was always betrayed by the loneliness lurking behind his haunted, forlorn eyes. He was sad and slowly adjusting, only truly smiling when the two children were around causing trouble. Naturally, the other parents had tried to get Ed, Megan and the children into the same room as much as possible. The children were quite bright and quickly realized they were being used to help the other two and were more than excited to finally be doing something constructive for the people keeping them alive and fed.
Alexandria was still hopeful that her parents would be found, but she had decided, for now, to pretend that she was a lost princess on a quest through the mountains of India to find her lost family, who had gone down in a plane crash. The vehicles were their elephant transports and everyone else was there to protect them from the local tribes, who were uprising to protest the recent Toucan feather tax.
“What, the zombie Armageddon wasn’t good enough for you?” Tripper asked her on the way out to the Paddy Wagon.
She looked at him as if he were stupid. “Zombies aren’t real,” she stated snobbishly. “My Mommy and Daddy always told me that.”
Tripper didn’t want to state the many obvious facts in that statement to the little girl, since it didn’t seem to be that obvious to her and also it would be quite cruel. He decided instead to go with Calvin’s favorite tactic, reason.
“Why India and why Elephants?” he asked.
“Because tigers are too small to carry us all, duh,” she said as if he had become somehow stupider since his last question.
“Why not Hippos?”
“Hippos are the most dangerous creatures on the planet, dummy. They kill more people than lions do.”
“I did not know you knew that,” Tripper admitted.
“Even my little brother knows that, and he’s just a worm. I don’t think you really knew. I’m not so sure you’re very smart, Tripper. That’s why you’re just an elephant wrangler.”
“You know what,” he spat haughtily, forgetting reason. “Calvin is an idiot. I don’t think I’m going to talk to you anymore.”
“Good,” she spat back. “I’m above you anyway. Go feed the elephants, peasant!”
“As you wish, Your Highness,” Tripper mumbled and stomped back inside to grab another box of supplies.
“Having trouble with the princess?” Sarah asked.
“Sorry, can’t talk now. I have to feed the elephants,” he replied dryly. “I’m apparently the Elephant wrangler in these parts.”
“Hey, lighten up. She just lost her parents,” Sarah explained.
“I get that,” Tripper said. “I’m treating her like I would if she hadn’t. She likes it.”
“Oh,” Sarah conceded as she heard Alex calling for the Elephant Wrangler to come and help her onto her mount.
“Fine, good luck with that.” Sarah shrugged a surrender.
Mo came out wearing some of the clothing they had picked up on shopping day with some silvery-blue chain mail over it. She wasn’t happy about the colors, the material, the designs, or the fit of…well of anything. She had found a makeup kit in the supply boxes and after several hour-long showers had rebuilt herself to near-super-model status. Boomer was following her around trying to make conversation with several very heavy boxes stacked on his arms, making his already large biceps bulge unnaturally. But she was pretending not to notice. Boomer, however, had spent an entire year in theater courses and knew how to draw an audience. She laughed a lady-like tinkle when he ‘tripped’ and sent both boxes tumbling over one of the desks in the lobby as he rolled over the same desk and landed on his feet, scooping up the boxes and acting as if nothing had happened. Nothing spilled out because both boxes were well taped, and now he knew that she was, indeed, paying attention. The lovely dealership manager shook her head and sashayed down the steps and through the waiting doorway out into the street.
“You’re going to put your armor back on before you go out there, right?” Calvin asked him.
“Uh, yeah. Of course, Cal. I was just…”
“I know what you were just.”
“Hey, nothing is gonna come. We got the streets covered three different ways.”
“Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
“Who said that?”
“I did.”
“I mean before you.”
“God.”
“What?”
“It’s from the bibles.”
“Bibles?”
“Hebrew and King James. The latter was born out of the former.”
“Right. I know that…what does it mean?”
“Pride comes before the fall.”
“What?”
“It means put your damn armor back on.”
Boomer sighed in resignation, placed the boxes on the desk and ran back inside to get his mail shirt.
Outside, the parents piled into the back of the Paddy Wagon arguing about who had won the last round of Rummy and drank the last bottle of ’38 something or other. Where they had picked up the rare wines, no one ever found out, but no one could recall having noticed the Blue SUV that was parked in the back lot, either. Calvin made a mental note to ask Batmouche about it later, but never did. The friends escorted the civilians and supplies over without mishap. When that was done, they came back for the soldiers and to close up the Fortress. Everyone took a moment to say their fond farewell to the place that had protected them for the harshest week of their lives, each wondering if they would ever see it again, or their fine city. But it was time to go. The super vehicle wasn’t going to wait on anyone. It would, actually, but no one wished to make it wait. In fact, no one wanted to stay one minute longer than they absolutely had to.
Sometime around noon, they were all finally gathered together in the Dungeon and the rest of the supplies were stacked outside the huge mural door, ready to be loaded. The vehicles had all been moved to the far side of the massive garage, off of the turntable section and Hef had moved each person into the exact spot from where he wanted them to view the vehicle for the first time
Gimp Bait and GI Jane stood at the back, each in thick, shiny, black leather armor and each highly impressed by their surroundings.
“This is a house?” ‘Gimp Bait’ asked incredulously.
“It’s the small one, Gimp…er, Baldwin” Tripper lied for effect.
“Tripper.” Hef chastised him. “This is not true, Private. It is one of my homes, but it is more accurate to call this my workshop or factory. My other homes are in other states and countries. One is larger, but this is where I spend most of my time.
“No, that is not true,” Trip argued. “Your big mansion is seventy-five thousand square feet. That’s pretty damn big for a real house.”
“This place is nearly two-hundred thousand square feet, Tripper Grissom. And the house you are thinking of is my little villa in Italy.”
Gimp bait whistled, highly impressed. The sergeant simply shook his head at the extravagances of the rich. The Captain seemed to be a mask of emotionless apathy. G.I. Jane was already bedding the man in her mind.
“Ooh, I’m so excited,” Felicia danced on her
toes.
“You’re excited? I’ve been whining about this since the first time we came here,” Scaggs muttered dryly.
“I bet it’s going to be the vehicle from Damnation Alley,” Tripper guessed. “What do you think?”
“Hef doesn’t like to do anything that’s been done before,” Calvin pointed out. “You know that, Trip.”
“Bet it’s two busses joined together into one massive vehicle,” Joel suggested.
“It’s got to be some kind of boat,” said Lucy. “Any perfect escape vehicle has to float or it isn’t perfect.”
Tripper snorted. “We’re in the Middle of the country. We’re landlocked.”
“We don’t know what it was originally designed for. And we don’t know how far we’ll eventually have to go,” she shot back. “What if the whole country gets Infected? You wanna just hang around along the coast because we can’t go into the ocean?”
“It’s not a boat, Lucy,” Tripper insisted.
“Screw you, Tripper. You don’t know what it is.”
“I know it’s not a boat.”
“I know what it is,” Scaggs interrupted them.
“Not again!” Tripper threw up his arms in disgust.
“Sorry. I’ll write it on a piece of paper and you can hold it and see if I’m right,” she grinned, handing him the piece of paper onto which she had already written her guess.
“I saw tread pieces. It’s a giant tank,” Gus stated firmly.
“Of course it’s a tank,” Athena grunted. “It has to be able to withstand attack so it will be armored and that would pretty much make it a tank. But what kind of tank?”