A. R. Shaw's Apocalyptic Sampler: Stories of hope when humanity is at its worst

by A. R. Shaw

  With the Glock in his hand he scratched an itchy spot on the side of his eye. The smoke was getting worse and his eyes were driving him crazy. Come to think of it…the sirens were getting closer. The noise was a little louder out there.

  “So you talked to this Mr. Johnson? And you gave him a name and number for Dane to call back, right? What name and number? Who did you say you were?”

  She was breathing hard in and out, trying to suppress the pain. But she didn’t answer right away. “Who?” In fact, now, she was glaring at him.

  “Ah, see…that’s the Kim I know. That’s the one, right there.”

  “You goin’ to kill me anyway!” she screamed and then her chest heaved up and down.

  He nodded. “Yes…you’re right about that, Kim. I’m just trying to decide when.”

  That’s when he caught sight of someone outside through the frosted glass window, moving toward the back door of the building. The problem was, so did Kim.

  “Help meh!” she screamed out before he could stop her.

  Paul ran and skidded across the concrete floor, shoving one hand over her mouth, and with the other, he shoved the dangerous end of the Glock against her temple. She still struggled to scream out again and pulled against him.

  With a harsh whisper he said, “You shut up or so help me, I don’t care. You either get to live a few more moments pleading your pitiful existence or not at all. Either way you die. I don’t give a damn when I go to prison.”

  It was as if she was weighing the pros and cons of the situation and instead of screaming out, Kim continued rocking the pain away and heaving sobs as Paul watched the shadow approach the door.

  The knob turned.

  And when he least expected it, Kim bit the crap of his hand and screamed bloody murder.

  “Help meh!”

  Paul jumped up and away and as the door opened, he ran out of the warehouse and into the depths of the office building.

  “He’s trying to kill me!” he heard Kim’s screams dissipate behind him.

  Later, he’d come to regret that move but at the moment all he could think about was getting to Dane while he still had a chance.

  60

  Matthew

  “Sir, you cannot park here,” a fireman said, as if he was stupid or something.

  Matthew flashed his credentials quickly and the fireman waved him through the barrier. “Over there,” he said and though Matthew wanted to get a little closer to the Rebel Blaze building, he’d take what he could get and pulled the borrowed truck over into the next available spot.

  “Damn fire’s coming this way.” The wind blew in hot gusts between the buildings. It wouldn’t be long before this end of the Magnificent Mile was also engulfed. As it was, the other end looked like a warzone. Small planes were now dropping fire retardant on blazes just like back home. It was jam-packed with fire crews fighting a losing battle, and Matthew realized he should be there helping. Instead he was doing this. This meant more to him at the moment.

  Matthew hurried along the concrete sidewalk to the address on his phone and as he reached for the door a skinny man barreled through. Matthew caught the door.

  “Oh, sorry.”

  The guy’s glasses were knocked to the ground and Matthew reached down and picked them up and handed them to the guy, but not before he noticed the man was covered in spots of blood.

  “Thanks. You should get out of here. Building’s on fire.”

  “Do you know…” Matthew began to say but the guy took off running down the street and never looked back. Pretty soon, he’d know why.

  “Hmm,” he said and then heard bloodcurdling screams from somewhere in the back of the building. Matthew made his way from one office to the other. Up a few stairs and then down a few more. These old buildings were a maze once the newer generations got through with them. A box on the outside, a labyrinth on the inside. Then he came to a door that looked different from all the rest, something more modern, but whoever was screaming was somewhere beyond that barrier. When he opened the door, it was Dane that turned to him first.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked him.

  His eyes first went from Dane to the bloodied woman leaning against the wall, wailing with every breath. “What are you doing to her?”

  Dane shook her head. “I’m trying to help her. I didn’t do this, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  Matthew went to them, saw all the blood. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. I walked in and found her here like this. Again, what are you doing here? Wait, how did you find me, Matthew?”

  “Let’s talk about that later. We need to get her to the hospital. Ma’am, stop crying. Who did this to you? Are those gunshot wounds?”

  The woman nodded with tears streaming down her mottled face. Her bleached blond hair was stained with so much blood, providing a morbid but vibrant contrast. Matthew knew then he’d not get that picture out of his head for a while. Her hands were shaking like butterfly wings. “She’s going into shock. Let’s find something. Stanch the bleeding.” The woman’s eyes darted to a corner of the room and Matthew looked too. There, lay a gun on its side. “Is that the gun you were shot with?”

  The woman hesitated for the briefest of seconds but then nodded and began crying again. He grabbed what looked like a discarded plastic bag on a side table, put his hand through it and picked up the gun, then pulled the bag over the weapon and then shoved it into a large cargo pocket.

  Dane’s mind was still on Matthew’s appearance because she said it again. “How did you know where to find me, Matthew? Answer the question.”

  She was high or inebriated again, her words slurred a bit. How the hell was she getting the stuff? After knowing a little more about what she’d gone through he certainly didn’t blame her for wanting an escape. “Stop, Dane. I know a few things, all right? After you took off, I did some searching. I know what happened. I know what happened to your father and I put the rest together.”

  The woman’s cries lessened.

  “Put the rest of what together?”

  “Look, I’m not going to talk about this right now. Let’s get this woman to the hospital and then we’ll talk about a lot of things.”

  “Who did this to you?” Matthew directed his attention to the victim, who was now biting her lower lip to keep from screaming out. The woman shook her head as if she didn’t know or didn’t want to say, while she held onto Dane’s hand for comfort.

  “Sick bastards,” Matthew said. “Look, we’ll have to carry her out of here. There’s not a way we can get an ambulance here.” He reached under the victim and began scooping her up into his arms but she was heavy and he strained.

  “Wait, Matthew, did you see anyone else in the building when you came in?” Dane said, stopping his momentum to lift the lady.

  He said, “No,” but later he would realize his answer was wrong. He should have said yes, despite the urgency to get the traitor he held in his arms to medical care she so desperately did not deserve.

  61

  Paul

  Paul reined in the panic that kept rising through him like a rocket. He’d nearly been caught by a stranger in the act of murdering Kim and then again at the door, some guy came at him. What he had to do now was get the hell out of there. Find a plane that would take him to Montana. Search for her again. He, for the first time in years, had a lead. This Tucker Johnson guy—he might know where she was.

  In the meantime, since he didn’t kill Kim, she would likely go to the very people that she betrayed on a daily basis for help, the police.

  A warrant for his arrest was imminent. God, why didn’t he kill her when he had the chance? He couldn’t even do that right. Kim deserved to die. It was in the best interest of society to take her out. No one would argue with him if they knew all the facts. Hell, there’d be a parade, even, once he revealed all of her crimes, from petty theft to outright murder. “Freaking…Kim,” he said as he ran, snarking his at his own failings
as he went on through back alleys.

  Still, in the back of his mind he held onto the chance that he could find Dane again. Explain things. Maybe after she understood everything he built for her, she could forgive him. And still, beneath it all he still felt hurt she never wanted him. To have someone not reciprocate those feelings cut him more than anything ever would. He had to get over that in time but those feelings never fully went away. All of that ended the night Daniel died.

  Those images never left. Seeing Dane surrounded by fire as she knelt over her father. He could still hear the conversations, the shouting, the struggles just below the surface every day since.

  After they broke in through the back porch, Kim kept watch while he went inside, to the laboratory of the old house. It was that squeaky floorboard down the hall to the lab off the living room he’d always tried to avoid when hatching the plan to break in and steal Daniel’s idea. But Daniel wasn’t supposed to be home. It was poker night with the guys. His best friend the Colonel set it up at his place, three blocks over in a room above his garage. Daniel had even bought cigars for the evening. There was no surprise his car was still in the driveway. He would walk there and walk home on a nice evening, never knowing that his trusty assistant was going to come back after the day was done and break in to photograph Daniel’s secret technique for reconstituting alcohol from a dry powder back to a viable source. He wasn’t supposed to be there. Paul took his phone out in the darkened room. It would only take a second. He watched Daniel many times use the biometric safe where he kept the journals of his work, never a computer guy. He didn’t trust them. He’d trusted Paul though, by letting him into his home and teaching him what he knew. And he was betraying that trust in the worst way; still, he felt it was for the greater good. Just as his daughter refused his love, her father refused to see what an asset Paul was to him. He was willing to be that man. The one who’d take on the red tape. He was the one willing to put up with all the regulations and nonsense, as Daniel said. Paul would prove it to him. He would prove to Dane’s father he was worthy of his trust and his daughter’s love. He hoped in time they would both see his value as well.

  After getting into the safe, he photographed the breakthrough formula Dane’s father spent years researching as nothing more than a hobby and on his way back to the main room, he found Daniel standing in the dark corner of the living room, his arms crossed. His old retired Pulaski tool, which always lay in the corner of the room, was instead in his hand, with a firm grip on the handle.

  “Paul! What are you doing here?”

  His voice sent a shock through him, making him jump three feet back. “Daniel, you scared me. I left my phone on the table. I…knew you were at the Colonel’s. Isn’t it poker night? I didn’t want to disturb you.”

  He’d coughed and cleared his throat. “You’re lying to me, son. That back door stays locked. Only Dane has the spare key.”

  Paul had put his hands out, ready to explain, but then it was too late. “Daniel…don’t…Nooo! Oh my God. Why? Kim…Jesus!”

  He was struck from behind. Kim had crept up; Paul would never forget the ghoulish look on her face as she hit the old man over the back of the head with a tall cast iron candlestick that usually stood by the fireplace. He’d fallen to the floor. His Pulaski tool toppled to the side.

  She lowered the candlestick and asked, “Did you get it?”

  He couldn’t answer. The question didn’t register. “What did you just do? Why…”

  “Paul, did you get what you were looking for?”

  “Yes. But you…you killed him.” He collapsed to Daniel’s side.

  “Don’t touch him.”

  It was all a blur. Daniel’s head lay in a puddle of blood on the hard wood floor. “We’ve gotta get him to a hospital. Call for an ambulance.”

  But as he took out his phone, Kim snatched it up and pushed it into her pocket instead. She was giving the orders now. She ran around doing something in the lab that in moments smelled like something burning, but he wasn’t paying attention. He could only look at what he’d brought upon Daniel. Then she pulled him away, getting him up and out of there. It wasn’t until they were nearly out of the door that he could see flames encroaching out of the lab and then a small explosion had them ducking. Smoke billowed out the doorway.

  Sammy was waiting in the car. He was always the driveaway man. Blocks away, Paul realized what she’d done. What they all did…what he had brought upon Dane.

  “I’ve gotta... I’ve gotta go back. She’ll be coming home soon.”

  “No. Paul…you listen to me. You can’t go back there. You have to wait until Dane calls you. You have to wait until they contact you.”

  It all came to him then. “Let me out. Give me my phone.”

  Sammy slammed on the brakes.

  “Don’t stop.” Kim looked at the driver. “What are you doing?”

  Sammy started to explain.

  “Give me my phone,” Paul said as he got out of the car and went to the passenger side.

  She didn’t budge. He held out his hand and demanded again, “Kim, give me the phone.” It was as if he’d just realized what he’d done. What he allowed Kim to do.

  She wasn’t going to just hand it over…that’s what he realized. She had his phone. She had the secrets. She had Daniel’s secrets in her pocket.

  It was the first time he’d ever attacked someone. He hauled her out of the car. She fought him but in the end, he got the phone from her. He even punched her in the throat to get it.

  As he stalked away, he heard her yelling at Sammy about how he didn’t defend her. Her…a woman being hit by a man.

  62

  Dane

  “Matthew, you take her. I’m not leaving.”

  “If you think for one minute I’m falling for that crap, you’re dead wrong. You’re not going anywhere without me, Dane. I pretty much stole a truck just now for you. We’re getting her to the hospital and then you and I have a conversation waiting for us.”

  Dane was shaking her head quickly. “What?” The injured lady wouldn’t let go of her as Matthew repositioned her in his arms. She wasn’t exactly petite, and Matthew struggled with her weight.

  “I can’t, Matthew. I can’t leave this place. I can’t let it burn.”

  “The building? Dane, there’s not a lot you can do about that right now. I’m sure he has insurance. Look around. We’ll be lucky if we don’t get caught in it. Now, don’t argue with me right now. Get the door. Let’s go.”

  She had to admit he was right. Even in the few inebriated minutes since she’d discovered the injured woman on the floor, the fire had come closer. She looked around the warehouse and saw the boxes of packets everywhere. Her father’s dream. One that Paul had stolen and murdered him for. Though she couldn’t prove it at the time, she knew now he had something to do with her father’s death that night. There was no way he could have reproduced the formula without having access to her father’s private files, and she knew damn well he kept them in the safe that was destroyed in the fire, even though it was certified to withstand the heat.

  After that, she was a damn mess. Of course, Paul tried to talk to her. He tried to take care of her, but he didn’t know what else had happened that night. She kept that a secret. She couldn’t let anyone near her. Only the nightmare kept playing over and over in her mind. She’d withdrawn from everyone and had the perfect excuse to do so. Her father had died, her only living relative, but Paul and her father’s friends kept trying to reach her, and then there was the funeral and having to find a place to live to continue training as a firefighter amongst all her father’s friends... She couldn’t take it anymore. She left without saying goodbye only a few weeks later. She disappeared because something wasn’t right with Paul and her father’s death and she was weak and afraid, if she was honest, of the man that had violated her earlier that night.

  It was that fact that she tried to deny. She was scared of him. Scared of the ruin and scared he might try it aga
in. She didn’t listen to Paul’s warnings. She thought perhaps it was her own fault. She’d continued to date the guy despite the fact that she’d been warned. The attention he gave made her feel like she’d never felt before. And when she realized he was pushing her far too fast and she’d resisted, what Paul had warned her about became a violent truth.

  63

  Matthew

  They’d hustled with the injured woman back to his truck and had to stop several times to get a better grip. At the same time, he did his best to keep an eye on Dane. She was acting funny again and he knew she’d been in the sauce or whatever it was. If he could just get her dry a few days, keep her safe, they could deal with this together. She could bolt at any minute and Matthew wavered to decide what he’d do with the injured woman. He wasn’t beyond dropping her to the ground and running after Dane instead. He wasn’t going to let her go, not now…not when he knew she was hurting like this and hell-bent on finding this Paul guy.

  “We’re almost there.” He stopped because she stopped. “Over here, Dane.” He jutted his chin. “Right there; open the truck door, please.”

  She walked the rest of the way, though she dragged her feet. She looked as if she was trying to make a decision herself. He had to keep her on track. To her credit, she opened the back door of the double cab and helped him place the woman inside.

  “What’s your name?” Dane asked the woman. “In case you black out and we need to contact someone for you.”

  The woman shook her head at first.