Chapter 28
Ben didn’t speak to her the next morning as he prepared to leave. She held her breath as he criss-crossed the room in a slow, painful looking limp, gathering his things. She’d hoped that Gretchen and Ed would be accompanying him to the city but Gretchen said she wouldn’t go until she had sold the rest of the gasoline and would be a couple of days behind him.
Ben nodded; he barely looked able to stand much less walk fifty miles. The hand he raised to wipe the sweat collecting on his upper lip was shaking.
Niko went to his side and placed a hand on his arm. He was so hot. “I’m coming with you.”
He looked down at her, there was a glassy film over his eyes and he made slow, deliberate blinks as he focused on her. He tried to grin. “I don’t know Niko, you might slow me down.”
Her lips spread in a wan smile just before he began to cough.
They checked the supplies he’d packed, there was just enough water and food to last them their short journey and when Niko expressed concern about how much their hosts were giving away Lo brushed them aside. With the windfall from the gasoline they’d be fine. She handed Niko her oversized hoodie and the machete she carried ignoring Niko’s protests.
“Are you okay?” she asked and Ben nodded grimly as if he was preparing himself to cross an unstable bridge that was stretched across the mouth of a deep canyon.
“Wait.” Norm grabbed Niko’s arm and pulled her off to the side.
“You know he’s not going to make it to the city walking on that bad leg.” She said in a low voice and Niko nodded. She knew and Ben probably did as well. At the slow pace he was moving and if Jade’s instructions were accurate it’d take a week for them to reach the city and it was obvious that Ben did not have that much time.
“Take the wheelbarrow.” She suggested. “You can push it like we pushed the Slither to market.”
It was a good idea but she wasn’t sure if his pride would allow him to be carted to the city like an invalid. Luckily, he liked the idea as well; it was one that kept his leg attached to his body.
After several good-byes to Norm and Lo and the rest of their family they left, the wheelbarrow leaving a single furrow in the soft soil.
Their route took them past the acid lake, which was swollen from the recent rainfall, and in the direction of the market but they turned north before the sounds and scents of it could reach them.
“How are you feeling?” She asked as they rolled along, Ben was taller than her and his head and legs stuck out at sharper angles. He couldn’t be too comfortable.
“I’m all right.” He tilted his head back. “The view more than makes up for it.”
At first Niko had no idea what he was talking about, the harsh landscape peppered with treacherous potholes and dead trees was not pleasant to look at. Then she glanced down at him and realized that though sick and quite possibly near death he was still capable of leering at her.
“Keep doing that and the bottom of a pothole is the only view you’ll ever see.” She warned and he flashed her an unperturbed grin, uttering a laugh that quickly turned into a coughing fit.
“He doesn’t look so good.” A voice from behind her said as Ben curled in on himself.
Niko whirled around, the knife out and between her hands in a heartbeat.
Phin held up his hands casually, there were less members of his gang with him than the day before. “Whoa there, Niko. I don’t bite.” But his cold eyes said otherwise.
Niko cursed herself silently, she was always so aware of her surroundings, the people who survived Outside were the ones who spotted danger and avoided it long before it came upon them, and Phin was clearly dangerous.
He gave her an easy smile as he shoved his hair off his forehead with one hand. His eyes took in the wheelbarrow; the bandage around Ben’s leg, and Niko, who still hadn’t released her grip on Lo’s knife. He spat. “Going anywhere interesting?”
Ben climbed carefully out of the wheelbarrow trying not to limp too heavily as he went to her side. They could all see the effort it cost him to do so. “Who’s he?”
“Phin.” Niko answered trying to keep an eye on him and his lackeys who were beginning to spread out. “He’s from the market.” The market was about half a dozen miles behind them, it could only mean that she and Ben had been followed and even with Phin’s diminished entourage he still outnumbered her. Whatever was on his mind she couldn't allow the situation to get out of control.
“What happened to the Slither hand we gave you?” She asked instead of answering his question.
“Oh, that.” He gave her a stained grin that immediately told her that she had asked the wrong question. It was like her time in the city had wrapped a blindfold over her eyes and now she kept tripping over potholes. It was only a matter of time before she fell in one.
“I like it. It’s sharp, Jason died quick.” He spat again, the brown glob landing even closer to her feet. “Maybe I should have tortured him though; he tried to cheat you guys. Cheaters shouldn’t die mercifully, don’t you agree?”
She’d picked a really bad question. Ben glanced at her, he might not have completely understood the subtext of that question but he caught enough to be worried.
“Look what’s in here, Phin.” One of the guys had been digging through the wheelbarrow and had unearthed the backpack. He turned it upside down and dumped out its contents, thankfully in the cart and not the acid soaked ground.
Phin’s soulless gaze slid away from hers toward the wheelbarrow where his friend held up an Instameal packet molesting the package between grubby fingers.
“Well, well.” Phin tramped over to the wheelbarrow and examined the contents. “Is this what you were trying to sneak past me into the market? Looks pretty worthless.” He picked up a packet gave it a curious glance, obviously unable to read the words printed there. He tossed it to the ground where it was greedily consumed by residual acid. A smell like hot vomit wafted up from the destroyed packet.
She shot a quick glance at Ben before sucking in a breath and stepping forward. “We’ll let you take half.” And as much as she hated to say it she added. “Please. We’re sorry.”
Phin had unscrewed the cap of a bottle of water. He looked up again. “Half of what? This?” He laughed as if the thought was absurd. “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? This is worthless. Why would I want half of nothing?”
He turned his hand and water poured out of the bottle. Niko couldn’t help it, she gasped and everyone else looked shocked as well. Ben’s fever-borne flush fled leaving him with a doughy grey pallor. Phin tossed the empty bottle aside and it rolled a few feet across the ground until the acid caught up to it and began to consume that as well.
He reached into the wheelbarrow again and pulled out another water bottle, their last. Theatrically, he began to unscrew the top.
“What do you want?” Ben burst out. He glared at Phin, the glassy sheen his fever brought to his eyes making him look particularly crazed.
Phin smiled, as if everything that had happened in the past few minutes was merely the penultimate act leading to his answer and quite possible it had been.
He pointed the uncapped bottle at Niko. “I want her.”
“No.” She and Ben said at the same time.
Phin spat. “Really? What can you possibly do about it? You can barely stand, much less fight me.”
He walked toward her and Niko quickly raised Lo’s knife between them. “Come any closer and I’ll cut you.”
He didn’t appear greatly concerned about her threat only stopping when the tip of her blade pressed against his belly. She stared down at the knife; her hand was shaking slightly. She would only need to take one step to plunge it deep into his stomach.
Phin dipped his head slightly, trying to catch her eye. “Look at me, Niko.”
She could do it, she had killed Slithers before, they looked humanoid but they were still monsters so this should be easy. She was just dealing with red blood instead of blac
k.
“I said look at me.”
She glanced up into his cold eyes. “I know what you’re thinking.” He said. He wrapped his fingers around the blade, his touch light enough that the edge did not cut into his skin. “But if you kill me then my friends will go after your friends and maybe we can change their feelings about men. Normandy’s cute and she has those adorable little scars, she’s probably used to it.”
His grip around the blade constricted slightly and his skin began to dimple. “Come with me and you’ll be taken good care of. Maybe I’ll help you find your brother.”
Niko closed her eyes a brief image of Jared flashing behind her lids. She sent out a silent apology to Norm and Lo hoping that they would be able to defend themselves if his gang decided to follow their dead leader’s final orders.
She opened her eyes and Phin’s expression grew furious as he read the answer blazing from brown irises. He took a large step back, out of her knife’s immediate reach; thin rivulets of blood springing up from sliced fingers. Niko raised the machete because she didn’t believe sparing his life would make him consider sparing theirs or that of Norm and Lo’s.
A small red explosion erupted from his back and for once his cold eyes were made bright with shock, a shock that was mirrored in her face as well.
For a moment time was still and no one moved. Then he coughed and a wash of scarlet poured out of his mouth along with clumps of brown chaw. He grabbed onto her hoodie as he fell forward, nearly bringing her down with him. Phin’s mouth gaped open and closed silently as he tried to form words but the crater in his back had robbed him of speech.
Beyond Phin stood Ben who gritted his teeth as he struggled to keep himself upright. In his hands was a gun.
Hardly anyone carried a gun anymore, especially not Outside where they were hard to come by and even harder to acquire the ammunition that went with it. Not to mention the fact that they were spectacularly useless against Slithers. Luckily, Phin wasn’t a Slither.
She stared down at him as impassively as he would have as Phin’s grip on her loosened and he slowly slid to the ground, leaving a hot smear of blood on the front of her hoodie.
His so-called friends bolted, leaving their leader on the ground to be slowly nibbled on by acid. She stepped over his dead body.
“Are you okay?” She asked Ben. He was panting heavily hands pressed against his knees. He looked up; his face was dripping with perspiration.
“Yeah, I think so.”
He threw up.
Niko danced backward a couple of steps. She glanced over her shoulder, the members of Phin’s gang were still retreating, she hoped they wouldn’t decide to go after Lo and Norm.
Ben coughed once and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “How ‘bout you? You good?”
She nodded. “Where’d you get the gun?” She’d never seen him use one before so he must have acquired it recently.
He straightened, the gun was a dull silver color with a black handle and she dimly recognized it as a revolver. “Gretchen gave it to me. She thought I might need it.”
He wobbled, clasping a hand on her shoulder to keep from falling to the ground and though he hadn't done much physically, the encounter with Phin had taken a lot out of him.
“We need to get you to the city.” She said.
“But what about Phin?” He protested. “You heard what he said and he dumped out all our water.”
“We can’t go back.” She said, hating how heartless she sounded. “If you don’t get treated soon, you’ll die. Norm and Lo kill Slithers, they can take care of themselves.”
The gun hung limply from his fingers and he laughed once, a rueful little chuckle, but he did not disagree with her.
“Thank you.” She said once they were rolling along again leaving the body of a former gang leader behind them. “What you did back there ...” Even up to the last moment before Phin had been shot she wasn’t sure if she would be able to kill him. He wasn’t a Slither and though she had seen many people die she had never taken the life of a human being even if Phin probably didn’t completely qualify as one.
“I didn’t want him to hurt you.” He said softly. He had the gun cradled against his stomach.
After a few moments he tilted his head back and looked up at her. “Does this mean I get a kiss for saving your life?”
Niko uttered a loud sigh; she should have seen that one coming. “You just barfed Ben, that’s gross.”
He looked disappointed for a moment then glanced at her again with raised brows. “How about some other time then?”
She looked down at him, expectant brown eyes, lion nose, and mouth. “Alright.” She said and laughed at his surprise.
As night began to fall Niko hurried to find shelter. Eventually she parked the wheelbarrow in a building where only a corner of it had survived the constant wear of the elements. Someone had been kind enough to balance a sheet of metal where the two points met and hopefully that would be enough to protect them if it decided to rain.
They broke open an Instameal packet and had dinner though Ben hardly ate any of it.
Niko Page 36