Without

by E. E. Borton

  He was the worst kind of opportunist. His position in the community allowed him to further his personal, sick agenda while hiding behind the pulpit. With all eyes and ears on him, he could twist their perception in any direction he pleased.

  It wouldn’t surprise me if he confessed to all the killings during one if his services and then had the entire congregation forgive his transgressions. All he’d have to do was empower them with the choice of whether or not to continue following him. He’d wax poetic about how the devil made him do it, but the Lord had shown him the light. With a promise to lead his flock to glory as a flawed man who has been saved, he’d win that forgiveness. He knows the church was the last hope for many in the town. He knew they’d do anything to keep that hope alive – even if it meant protecting a monster.

  Dawn was breaking as we walked up the front steps of our home. Complete exhaustion from the grueling hike helped my attempt to keep Perry from confronting Rick. He could barely raise his arms to push the straps of his pack off his shoulders. When it hit the floor in the foyer, we all sensed something was wrong. Turning to see Doc sitting on the couch alone in the dim light, his face proved us all right. He was a mess.

  “Where’s Donna?” asked Perry, hyperventilating with fear.

  “She’s gone,” replied Doc, trying to sit up. “So’s Kelly and River. They took them last night.”

  “Who took them?” asked Joey.

  “Rick and several of his men from the church,” answered Doc. “That’s where they are now.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked, sitting beside him, assessing his injuries.

  “I tried to stop them,” said Doc, lowering his head. “There were too many of them. I wasn’t strong enough.”

  His white hair was tussled, encrusted with blood from a gash on the top of his head. A lump the size of a golf ball was swelling over his black eyes. Blood was still oozing out of cuts on his face from the punches he suffered. He winced in pain, holding his left side as he tried to move.

  “Just sit back, Doc,” I said. “Tell me what to do.”

  “Nothing you can do, son,” said Doc. “They kicked in a couple of my ribs. I think one may have punctured my lung. I’m going to need my bag from the house.”

  “Joey,” I said. “Go get Doc’s bag. Get all of the bags.”

  As Doc labored to breath, Joey flew out the door. I went into the kitchen to wet some rags to help clean him up. Perry returned to us with a dry towel to put pressure on his bleeding head wound.

  “Why did he take them?” asked Perry. “Why did he do this to you?”

  “I don’t know,” said Doc. “Rick came over to find out why we weren’t at the clinic. I told him what I told the girls. I said that you guys had caught up with the men in the hills who had attacked Kelly and River. He became agitated, asking me a bunch of questions about what was going on. Then he left. A couple hours later, his goons showed up. After they worked me over, they gave me a message to give to you.”

  “What’s the message?” I asked.

  “He wants you to go to the church at dusk,” said Doc. “Just you, unarmed and alone. If he sees anybody else, he’s gonna kill them. When you get there, he’ll let the women go.”

  “He knows,” I said.

  “He knows what?” asked Doc.

  “That we’d be coming for him,” said Perry. “Those men in the hills were his men.”

  “His men?”

  “Yes,” said Perry. “He’s the one who raped Kelly and River and burned her baby. He also murdered about a dozen drifters and buried them in a field behind his house. He kills the men and uses up the women. He’s the devil, Doc. And none of us saw it coming.”

  “Come on, Perry,” said Doc, laying his head back on the cushion. “We all knew. I mean, we didn’t know the details or how this would play out, but are you truly surprised?”

  “No,” said Perry. “But I am truly sorry.”

  “Why are you sorry?” I asked. “You had nothing to do with this. You couldn’t have known.”

  “He’s a drifter,” said Perry. “He’s not from here and he’s not family. I should’ve seen this coming. There was something in his eyes the first time I met him, but he convinced me otherwise. Now my wife and daughter are gone. They’re gone because I wasn’t smart enough to figure him out.”

  “Bullshit, Uncle Perry,” I said. “Cut this crap out now. He’s a fucking animal and he fooled everyone. None of this is your fault. I’ll make things right, I promise.”

  “How?” said Perry. “Have you seen that place? It’s not a church, it’s a fort.”

  “Fort God,” I said, smiling. “I’ve heard.”

  “He’s got over forty armed followers up there who’d shoot you down the second you stepped foot inside. There’s no way you’re going up there. No way, son.”

  “He’ll let them go,” I said. “He wants me, not them. He’s already taken what he needs from River. Killing her and Donna would only bring more problems. He wants a showdown at dusk with me.”

  “Why you?” asked Perry. “Why not me? He knows I’ll come after him once Donna and River are safe.”

  “Because Kelly doesn’t want you,” I said. “He needs to take away the thing she wants. He needs to own her. I’m sure in his twisted mind he thinks she’ll turn to him when I’m out of the picture. Everything will go back to normal in his world.”

  “It won’t be a showdown,” said Doc. “He’s going to kill you. You know that, right?”

  “Well, I don’t plan on making it that easy for him,” I said. “But right now, we don’t have a choice – my life for theirs. It’s that simple.”

  Joey returned a few minutes later, damn near death himself from running the entire route. Doc pulled out several items, laying them out on the coffee table. After lying down, he started giving me instructions.

  I inserted a large syringe into his left side. As I twisted a valve on the end of a device, blood and air hissed out of the line. It was as if someone had just punctured his tires. In an instant he began to breathe easier.

  After stitching up the gash on his head, I apologized to him. It was going to be an ugly, crooked scar. (At least his hair would cover it.) We cleaned up the cuts on his face as he periodically released the pressure inside his chest cavity through the valve, allowing his lung to inflate. Only time would tell if his body would recover from the multiple injuries. There were many reasons why I needed to save Kelly, but her being the only person who could save Doc was the first.

  Doc faded off to sleep on the couch with Joey doing the same in the chair beside him. Perry stood, motioning for me to walk outside to the deck with him. I knew what he was going to say, but it was my turn to have deaf ears.

  “We’re gonna figure out another way,” said Perry. “So I don’t want you worrying about going up there alone. I can’t let you do that.”

  “Yes, you can,” I said. “You can because there’s no other way. The people we care about the most in this fucked up world are in trouble. My going up there will put them in a safe place. Nothing else matters.”

  “There has to –”

  “Stop this,” I said. “You’re not going to change my mind. Look, I’ve only known Kelly for a short period of time, but I’ve fallen hard for that girl. You and Donna, you’ve been married longer than I’ve been alive.

  “Uncle Perry, I see how much you love her. I see the little things you do every day to remind her of that. She’s your world and so is River. I mean, my God, what that woman has had to endure since all this started. She lost her husband and child, but she still has the two of you and Joey. She deserves a chance to be happy and live a full life. I can give her that. I can give you back your bride and give Joey back his mother. And I can do all of that by just showing up at dusk.”

  “You love her, don’t you?” asked Perry, giving me a warm smile. “You love Kelly.”

  “I do,” I said. “I never thought that would be possible again, but here I am, feeling it. She deserves a hap
py and full life, too. I’m going to give her that, even if I’m not here to be a part of it.”

  “Why are you doing this for me?” asked Perry.

  “Because if he wanted you instead of me,” I said, “if you had the chance to give me a life with Kelly and save your family, you’d already be there waiting for the sun to go down.”

  He didn’t argue my point.

  “We need to try to get some sleep,” I said. “We’ve got a busy evening ahead of us.”

  Walking up to my room, I sat on the corner of the bed. For a man who had tried so hard to survive, I wondered why I was so anxious to trade in my life. I’d soon be facing the king of cowards, unarmed and outnumbered forty to one. I knew if anything happened to me, Uncle Perry would scorch the earth getting to him. There was some consolation in that thought, but it wasn’t the reason. Lying back, closing my eyes, the reasons came to me.

  Her face was the first image. I hadn’t seen it since I destroyed my parents’ home, trying desperately to suppress it. But now it was a source of comfort. As the aroma of strawberries filled the air, I could feel Sam close to me. This time she didn’t have to make the decision. I was doing that on my own. I felt her hand touch mine, letting me know it was the right thing to do.

  Sam’s face was replaced with a vision of the future. I reached back into my memory of watching Uncle Perry and his family sitting around the dinner table, finding a way to grow closer while the world fell apart around them. After all they’d done for me, it made me smile knowing I’d be the reason they’d have more of those moments together.

  Before I drifted off to sleep, the last face to come to me was Kelly’s. The single regret I had was that I might be seeing it in this world only one more time.

  Chapter 50

  Something Wicked

  I woke up trembling.

  It wasn’t because I was nervous or scared; it was because I was freezing. When I fell asleep, the temperature outside was in the high eighties. But a couple hours later, a cold draft was pouring over me through the open window. After putting on warmer clothes, I looked at my pocket watch. I had three hours until dusk.

  Taking my time getting ready, I was pleased to feel the warm water hit my face in the shower. (The drastic temperature drop had been so sudden that the water hadn’t had time to cool down inside the tank.) I’m not sure why, but I wanted to look my best, shaving and running a comb through my hair. After a final inspection in the mirror, I went downstairs to check on Doc.

  Perry was awake in the chair beside him. Joey was sleeping on the floor next to the couch a few feet away. I watched as Perry leaned over to listen to Doc’s breathing. I realized they were taking shifts, releasing the pressure in his chest cavity as he slept. It may have been because I was facing a desperate challenge, but I smiled, thinking about how vigilant, sincere, and selfless my family and friends were. These were the best people I knew.

  “How is he?” I whispered, kneeling beside Perry.

  “He talks in his sleep,” said Perry, smiling. “Says the damndest things. That’s when I can tell he’s having trouble breathing. I just twist that knob, and he drifts off again. I’m worried about him.”

  “Yeah, me, too,” I said. “We need to spring Kelly so she can help him.”

  “I’m worried about you,” said Perry, turning to look me in the eyes. “I’ve been going over it in my head. I can’t figure a way out of this. Have you come up with anything?”

  “No,” I said. “I was too busy sleeping like a baby.”

  “This ain’t right,” whispered Perry, standing. “I should be there with you.”

  “Crazy weather, huh?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “It is,” said Perry, allowing the change. “When it drops like this, it usually means somethin’s comin’.”

  “Something wicked this way comes,” I said.

  “What’s that?”

  “A book,” I said. “I read it when I was a kid. Scared the shit out of me, but I finished it anyway.”

  “That sounds like you,” said Perry. “You like to finish things, don’t you? You’re not one to run and hide, are you?”

  “Oh, no, Uncle,” I said. “There are plenty of times I want to run and hide. It’s the reason why I ended up here. But the thing is, it always finds you. Mr. Dark will always find you. No, it’s better to just face it and get it over with. I’d rather die fighting than live running.”

  “Mr. Dark, is that a character in that book?”

  “It is,” I said. “He collected people. Most freely sold their souls for a promise of everlasting youth, but ended up being slaves to him for the rest of their lives. Mr. Dark ran a carnival that traveled from town to town collecting those souls.”

  “Sounds like Pastor Jenkins is your Mr. Dark,” said Perry.

  “He’s our Mr. Dark,” I said.

  “What happened to him?” asked Perry. “This character in your book.”

  “He was defeated by kindness and love,” I said. “Kinda hokey, huh?”

  “Not at all,” said Perry. “I think that’s how it’s done.”

  Doc started mumbling. Joey woke with puffy eyes, trying to bring us into focus. Perry reached over and twisted the valve, putting Doc back into a quiet sleep when the hissing stopped.

  “I’ll take over, dad,” said Joey, stretching.

  “Okay, son,” said Perry. “Your cousin and I need to head into town now. I want to stop by the museum to see Bruce. He’s got a nice collection of antique instruments. He’s pretty good at predicting bad weather. I think somethin’ wicked is comin’.”

  “Huh?” asked Joey.

  “Take care of Doc, son,” said Perry. “Kelly and your mother will be here soon to help tend to him.”

  “Hey, brother,” said Joey, standing, giving me a hug. “You’ll sort this out. I know you will. I’ll see you later tonight, okay? We’ll polish off that jar.”

  “That sounds good,” I said, returning the hug.

  As we were walking into town, we both stopped at the same time. We felt something, but had no idea what it was. I stretched my jaw, reaching up for my ears after they popped from a sudden change in the air pressure. It was as if we were driving up a mountainside road.

  “Did you feel that?” I asked.

  “I did,” said Perry. “It’s getting colder, too.”

  We walked into the museum to find Bruce and Parker hovering over a book on the desk. Neither one turned as we walked up behind them. Bruce kept tapping a barometer as Parker spewed out numbers.

  “I thought the damn thing was broken,” said Bruce, turning around after he finished his reading. “But it ain’t.”

  “What are you babbling about?” asked Perry.

  “We’ve been keeping track of the barometric pressure for over a month,” said Parker. “It’s never gotten this low. Hell, I can’t find a reading this low in any of our almanacs.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Bruce. “I watched it drop off the scale.”

  “So a storm is coming?”

  “Not just a storm, Perry,” said Bruce. “A hurricane. A big one.”

  “Is that possible?” I asked.

  “We’re gonna find out soon,” said Parker. “Best head home and get ready for this thing, whatever it is.”

  When neither of us moved, Parker closed the almanac and stared at us. He knew there was something weighing heavy on our minds. He cleared his throat.

  “What’s the problem, fellas?” asked Parker. “You should be haulin’ ass home to your family.”

  “My family’s at the church,” said Perry. “That’s where we’re going,”

  “I didn’t think your people were church goin’ folk,” said Bruce.

  “They’re not,” said Perry. “At least not that church.”

  “He’s got Kelly, too, doesn’t he?” asked Parker.

  “You’re a very perceptive man,” I said.

  “You don’t live as long as I have being stupid, son” said Parker.
“What’s that oddball want?”

  “Me,” I said. “He wants me for them.”

  “Can’t say I didn’t see this coming,” said Parker. “As soon as she took a shine to you, he turned cold. He tried to hide it, but I always knew he was lookin’ to have her.”

  “You got a plan?” asked Bruce. “I mean, you’re not just gonna walk in that compound, are you?”

  “That’s the plan,” I said.

  “He’s gonna kill you, boy,” said Parker.

  “I suspect he’s going to try,” I said. “But it doesn’t matter as long as I see the girls walk out of there in one piece. After that, I’ll figure something out.”

  “It’ll be too late then,” said Parker. “Oh, well, at least I’ll have another shot at her with you out of the picture.”

  “Parker, you’re about the meanest sonofabitch I’ve ever met,” said Bruce. “How could you say that to this man?”

  “Well, hell, Bruce,” said Parker. “If he’s just gonna give up like that, what’s the harm?”

  “He’s not giving up,” said Perry, staring him down.

  “Okay,” said Parker. “You want me to go with you and whoop his ass? ‘Cause that’s what I’d do.”

  “I appreciate the offer and the pep talk, Parker,” I said. “But we need to get moving. I hope to see you guys later.”

  We walked out of the museum, looking up at the sky as we stood in the road. There wasn’t a cloud in sight. A light breeze pushed cold air across our faces, but there were no other indications that foul weather was approaching.

  “This is as far as you go, Uncle. If he sees anyone else with me, he’ll hurt them.”

  “I know I’ve said it a bunch, but this ain’t right,” said Perry. “How can you be so calm?”

  “Go home, Perry,” I said. “Wait for them. And don’t even think about telling me goodbye. You know I’m not going down without a fight. He’ll make a mistake. But right now I need you to go home.”

  “Thank you,” said Perry. “Can I at least say thank you?”