A boom exploded directly over their heads. So loud and sudden than everyone jumped at it. After so many days of no sounds of civilization, the burst of helicopter rotors blasting and engine screaming just above the roof surprised everyone.
From the other side of the room, Ethan heard the man shout and gasp. He could see the bed bounce violently as Madison and her rapist wrestled. The man holding a gun on Andrew and Ethan turned his head to look.
“What the fuck is—”
His question was cut off by Andrew, who jumped at the man and tackled him. The two of them fell over a coffee table. The two of them scrambled on the floor, cursing each other. Andrew grabbed the man’s gun hand with both hands and held it as the man tried to push Andrew off.
Ethan grabbed a lamp sitting uselessly on a decorative end table and ran to help Madison. She was in a similar situation. The dirty man was on top of her, trying to hold onto his gun with both hands. He was coughing and choking, face turning red.
Ethan charged at the man and swung the lamp at his head. The blow glanced off his skull, but it was enough to cut deep into his scalp. Scarlet blood seeped into his matted brown hair.
Madison wrestled the gun from his hand and kicked him off the bed. He rolled onto the floor, clutching the back of his head with both hands.
“Watch him,” Ethan told Madison before running back to help Andrew.
They were still wrestling. The Hispanic man was stronger than the other one, and Andrew struggled to hold onto the gun hand as the man punched him over and over. Ethan ran over and slammed the lamp down onto the man’s head. Ethan felt something in his skull break, and he stopped moving. Andrew pulled the gun from the man’s hand and quickly got to his feet, pointing it down at the limp body.
Andrew, breathing heavy, looked down at the man and saw that he wasn’t moving. He looked up at Ethan. “Go help her. Get that other asshole in here.”
Ethan rejoined Madison, who held her gun on her would-be rapist as he rolled around on the ground, staining the industrial-grade carpet with blood dripping from his scalp. Ethan saw that her bottom lip was cut and swollen, and her blue jeans were unfastened and unzipped. A flash of yellow underwear showed him how close she had come to disaster.
“Are you OK?” he asked.
She nodded. Speaking to the bleeding man, she said, “Get the fuck up and walk.”
The man rolled over on his back and looked up at them, whining, “I can’t see too good.”
“I’m going to blow your fucking dick off and let you bleed to death if you don’t get up!”
His vision must have suddenly improved because he looked up at her and slid to his feet. His legs were shaky as he walked over to rejoin the others. He flopped down onto the couch and leaned forward, holding his head in his hands.
Ethan wasn’t certain if he was hurt that bad or if he was trying to get sympathy. The man on the floor did not move.
“What are we going to do with these assholes,” Madison asked, pointing her gun at the man on the couch.
“Do what they were going to do to us. Kill them and take their stuff,” Andrew said.
Ethan hesitated as he held the heavy lamp, his only weapon, and looked at the dirty man sitting on the couch. He was still clutching his head with both hands, but Ethan could tell that he was listening to them.
“Alright. OK. So how do we—” Madison said.
Ethan looked over at her. “No. We can’t just kill them. We’ll take their guns and some of their stuff and leave them here.”
“And then what?” Andrew asked. “Leave them here so they can follow us? Or grab someone else?”
“Andrew’s right.”
“Look at this piece of shit,” Andrew said, pointing his gun down at the motionless man at his feet. “Look at his tattoos. This asshole’s been in prison before. Buncha times, I bet. He ain’t gonna suddenly find Jesus and stop being a rapist piece of shit.”
The man on the couch looked up at Ethan, fear in his eyes. “Come on, kid. You don’t have to kill us. I mean, Miguel might be dead already. And I promise I’m not going to follow you guys. I’m just going to stay here and hope those crazies don’t find me.”
Madison’s eyes narrowed, and she stepped closer to him. “What did you mean earlier? What you said before? Something about the other one?”
“No, no, that was something else. You know, like from before. And that was Miguel’s thing, anyway.”
Madison leaned down and screamed into his face, “Stop fucking lying! What did you mean?”
The man winced away from her, glanced up at Ethan, hoping to find help from him. But Ethan looked back and forth between them. He didn’t remember the man saying anything like that. The man slumped into the couch and pointed over his shoulder. It was in a darker area of the store, far from the natural light coming in through the windows at the front.
Madison looked to Ethan. “Go check it out.”
Ethan paused. The question was in his eyes.
Madison answered, “We’re not going to do anything until you get back. Just check it out and tell us what you find.”
Ethan looked around for a better weapon than a clumsy lamp. He found a butcher knife lying in the debris of Andrew’s fight with Miguel and traded the lamp for the superior weapon. He also found a cheap flashlight sitting on an end table. Fidgeting with a knife, he turned on the flashlight and walked towards the back of the store.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Ethan walked away from the group and past the home furnishings, past the bed on which Madison was almost taken. The store was darker there. No power meant no lights, and the only windows were at the front of the store. Only a hint of sunlight was able to find its way this far back.
He found the hallway that led to the restrooms, which was even darker than the rest of the store. The cheap flashlight created a weak circle of light, surrounded by darkness. He heard no sounds ahead in the hallway or behind from Madison and Andrew.
He wondered if he was being pushed away so they could decide what to do without him. He crept down the darkened hallway, one hand holding the flashlight, the other hand holding his knife at the ready.
When he came to the door marked Men, he paused and pressed his ear against it. It was thick and heavy, and he heard no sounds coming from the other side, though the smell of old shit and piss was stronger back here. He slowly pushed the door open and was immediately assaulted by the smell.
Leaning in, he held his breath as he scanned the light around the restroom. Three urinals and three stalls were against the left wall while three sinks were against the right. A large mirror over the sinks reflected the light and created confusing shadows in the room.
He went into the bathroom to make sure that he did not overlook anything. Opening the stalls showed that the two squatters continued to use the restroom though the toilets did not function. The closed-up room just concentrated the stench of their waste and made his eyes burn from the ammonia-like smell. He left the room before he was sick.
Ethan went to the women’s restroom and listened at the door, which was also silent. He did not notice the same smell coming from this door, but he wasn’t sure if he could ever smell anything again after the men’s room. He opened the door and scanned the room.
Lying on the floor, her wrists tied to the posts of one of the stalls was a girl about Ethan’s age. She was naked and on her side. Looking at her face, Ethan saw her dry lips behind the red hair that clung to the grime on her face. She did not move. The blood crusted on her thighs was all he needed to see to know what had been done to her.
He closed the door and stalked back to the group. In his mind flashed the image of Madison tied to the stall. His sister. His mother. He saw all of the people who had died. It was all senseless, and he could do nothing to stop it.
Until now.
When he approached the group, Madison saw the resolution on Ethan’s face. “Ethan?”
“You killed her!” Ethan screamed as he lunged at the man on t
he couch, who turned to look at Ethan as he approached.
“Ethan!” Madison yelled.
Ethan stabbed the sharp blade into the man’s neck before he could raise his hands to shield himself. That single attack was enough to kill him, but Ethan continued.
He held the man down with one hand and stabbed him with the other. Each stab of the knife wasn’t just to kill the man. It was to kill each day of walking, each horrible thing that Ethan had seen, endured. It was to kill his fear and his hunger. It was to kill his helplessness.
Ethan didn’t stop until the blade stuck between bones inside the man’s chest. Ethan saw the man’s blood on his hands and wrists. He slid back until he fell to the floor and looked up at what he had done.
The man’s body laid back on the couch. His head tilted far back, and his eyes rolled back as if searching for an escape that would never come. The butcher knife stood up from his chest like a horrific flag pole, signaling Ethan’s sin. Blood streamed out of a dozen wounds and dripped down onto the carpet. His shallow breathing shuddered and stopped along with his twitching feet.
They froze, breathless, shocked by the sudden violence.
“Dude…” was all Andrew could say at the moment.
The emotion of it all came flooding into and out of Ethan. This time, it was his turn to sob. He laid back on the floor and sobbed. His hands, sticky with drying blood, laid against his stomach. He squeezed his eyes tight as he tried to push away the images of the past few days that continued to flood his mind.
Madison knelt beside him. Setting down her gun, she brushed Ethan’s hair with her hand. She didn’t try to stop his tears. She knew that they were necessary. She only tried to comfort him as they flooded in.
Andrew was curious about what prompted so much violence and emotion from Ethan. He glanced down at the motionless man at his feet and realized he might never recover. He picked up the flashlight where Ethan dropped it and went back to check to restrooms.
Ethan laid on the floor, barely aware of anyone’s presence. His body shook hard from the sobbing. The only words he could say, “I just wanna go home…I just wanna go home…I just wanna go home…”
Madison sat with him and tried to comfort him as best as she could. A moment later, they heard Andrew call out to them, “She’s still alive! Bring me some water!”
Ethan’s sobs subsided at hearing the news. Madison slid away from Ethan and grabbed one of the bottles of water from a case the squatters had hoarded in their nest.
“I’ll be right back,” she said before running back to meet Andrew.
Ethan sat up and dried his eyes. He looked at the bloody mess of a dead man on the couch and then over at the other man, still lying where Ethan crushed his skull. Ethan looked back and forth between the two of them and realized that it was all him. He did these things, killed these men.
The day was only halfway through, and he had already killed four people. He wasn’t even old enough to drive. He wondered if he would be found guilty of murder. Was it self-defense? Should he feel pride or shame? At that moment, he was too exhausted to feel anything.
He got to his feet and slowly walked back towards the restrooms. His pace quickened when he heard Madison and Andrew.
“Shh. It’s OK. You’re going to be OK. It’s all over now,” Madison said.
“I’m going to find a knife so we can cut these ropes,” Andrew said. “I’ll be right back.”
Andrew almost ran into Ethan as he emerged from the women’s restroom. He stopped when he saw Ethan and took a moment to check his face.
“Are you OK?”
Ethan nodded, unable to meet Andrew’s eyes. Shame at what he did and how he reacted was now asserting itself.
“OK, good. I’m going to look for a knife. Get a blanket or something so we can cover her up.”
Finding a blanket was not difficult. There were shelves of them nearby, more blankets than they would ever need. Ethan felt his way down the dark hallway to return to the restroom. The flashlight was laid on the floor to illuminate the girl. Madison knelt beside the girl and tried to pour sips of water into her mouth.
The girl laid onto her back and swallowed down the water, and life seemed to return to her with each drink. Ethan slipped the heavy comforter over her naked body. Seeing someone in need, a deeper need than his own, drove away the feelings of grief and helplessness and gave him a new purpose.
He looked to Madison. “Do you think she will make it?”
“Andrew thinks so,” Madison responded with giving the girl a moment to swallow the water. She looked down at the girl and muttered, “I’m glad you killed him.”
Ethan didn’t know how to respond, so he didn’t. Andrew pushed the restroom door open, holding the butcher knife. Using the bloody blade, he cut the cotton ropes that held her wrists at the post in the floor. Once she was free, he curled his arms under and lifted her.
“Let’s get her onto a bed.”
They laid her on the same bed used by the rapist squatters and removed the ropes from her wrists, which were red and raw from days of being bound. Andrew checked her vitals as best as he could with no equipment while Madison continued to give her water. Ethan went back down the stairs to retrieve the grocery bag with the first aid supplies he took from the convenience store.
They tended to the redheaded girl until she seemed to slip from unconsciousness to peaceful rest. The three of them sat together nearby where they could watch her.
“Are you sure she’s going to be OK?” Ethan asked.
Andrew nodded. “Yeah, I think so. She’s not running a fever, and I can’t find anything wrong with her that’s serious. I mean, other than the obvious. But she isn’t going to walk far today. She still needs food and water. Maybe she’ll be good tomorrow.”
Madison looked around the dark store. “I would rather not stay here any longer than necessary.”
“Well, the other option is that we find another vehicle and we drive the rest of the way into San Marcos.”
Ethan added, “That might be safer anyway. There might be more of those kinds of guys out there.”
Madison asked again, “So what are we going to with them?” indicating towards the two squatters.
“Fuck ‘em,” Andrew stated flatly. “One of them is dead already. My guess is the other one won’t last long without serious medical attention.”
“Why not?” Ethan asked.
“Most people when they’re knocked unconscious, they wake up just a minute later or so. He hasn’t moved at all. So, either he’s really good at faking it, or there’s some serious brain injury that he isn’t going to recover from. Personally? I don’t give a shit. After what they did, they can just sit here and rot for all I care.”
Neither Ethan nor Madison argued with him.
Ethan spoke up, “Andrew, why don’t you stay here with her in case she needs help? Madison and I can go search the parking lot. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and someone left the keys in their SUV, and we can drive out.”
Andrew nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Take the guns just in case. I’ll start searching the store for stuff to take with us. I believe I saw the shoes downstairs.” He waggled his finger at Ethan’s pink flip flops.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Ethan found running shoes that fit him well. They weren’t as good as hiking shoes, but it was a high-end department store, the kind that his mom and sister would go to, and it didn’t have any. Luckily, he found a baseball hat and sunglasses.
Madison changed her clothes entirely. She gave up the blue jeans and T-shirt and went for lighter pants and a long-sleeved shirt she rolled up the sleeves on. She put her hair up into a neat bun at the back of her head and also put on a baseball hat.
In the low light of the store, Ethan thought she looked like a model from one his mother’s clothing catalogs. The soft light hid all of the dirt on her face but still made her green eyes sparkle. But even the low light couldn’t hide her broken lip.
They checked the guns and fo
und that they were loaded with a few rounds missing. They searched the store but could not find any more ammo. Apparently, the squatters didn’t bring any with them.
Ethan grabbed a school backpack and, together, they went back into the parking lot. Though it was only early spring, the Texas sun was bright and glared off the rows of windshields and chrome.
Ethan picked up the .357 revolver from where he tossed it and stuck it under his belt. Madison carried her baseball bat in one hand with her pistol in the other.
They were much more cautious this time. They were not going to let themselves be taken by surprise like before.
Separately, they moved through the rows of vehicles, peering inside, searching for one that would suit their needs and with keys inside. Sometimes, they would see movement out of the corner of their eyes, but it was only a vulture hopping between cars, feeding on the purple, bloated remains of someone who did not make it out of the parking lot alive.
Eventually, Madison found an SUV that looked as if the previous owner stopped in the middle of the parking lot, turned off the engine, and walked away. It started right up when she turned the key and even had a half of a tank of gas left. She smiled and waved at Ethan as she drove around to pick him up.
By the time they returned to the store, Andrew had changed into clean clothes and gathered up a couple more backpacks he loaded with food and first aid supplies from the gas station. A few blankets were piled up next to the backpacks but, otherwise, the load was light. When they commented on how few things he gathered, he commented, “You won’t believe how much useless shit there is in a store like this.”
Madison cleaned the sweat and grime off the redheaded girl and helped her into clean clothes. The girl was awake now but did not speak. She only watched the three of them as they helped her into the SUV.
Ethan thought that her pale blue eyes seemed to probe all three of them for some secret like she was searching for something that she couldn’t quite place but would know it when she saw it. Ethan wondered what would happen once she found what she was looking for.
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