by RR Haywood
‘Ryker?’ Maddox looked at the woman, his meaning clear.
‘Ah, he is loud,’ Lenski nodded, ‘he shouting and making noise and I heard him shouting with Mohammed.’
‘What about?’
‘I not know this, the music it is too loud no? But Darius he speak and make him calm.’
‘Okay.’
‘So what you do here alone?’ She asked quietly.
‘Thinking, we could move the fence out and take in those houses,’ Maddox nodded to the nearby buildings, ‘be better when the weather gets colder.’
‘It is good plan,’ she nodded.
‘Maddox!’ Mohammed sprinted round the corner shouting in alarm. ‘Ryker’s going fuckin’ nuts innit, he’s got a blade out.’
‘Take this and stay here,’ Maddox thrust the shotgun at a startled Lenski who held the foreign object at arm’s length.
‘What I do?’
‘Point and pull the trigger,’ Maddox shouted already running after Mohammed. He expected Ryker to do something stupid, in fact he was banking on it so he could sort the lad out properly, but pulling a blade is serious. A thin layer of smoke rests gently on the warm air above the open ground, caused by the fire burning from the pit and the joints being puffed continually. The constant bass beat of the music abruptly ceases as he charges past Mohammed towards the crowd gathered round the far side of the pit, all turned away and watching something blocked from Maddox’s view.
Pushing his way through Maddox breaks out from the crowd and Ryker stood holding a long knife, fresh blood dripping from the blade and soaking his hand. His eyes look wild, feral. Darius stood in front of him pointing his rifle at Ryker and shouting for the youths behind him to move. Sierra edging in closer also with her weapon pointing at the frenzied looking lad.
‘DROP THE BLADE,’ Darius’s voice booms out, the pitch higher and showing his young age.
‘FUCK YOU, I SWEAR DOWN I’LL SHANK YOU UP,’ Ryker screamed back, spittle flying from his lips as he backed away, eyes darting left and right.
Maddox stepped round Darius and spotted Zayden lying on the ground, his small hands clutching the bleeding wound in his stomach and crying quietly, whimpering for help.
‘Pull him away,’ Maddox shouted at the closest youths, pointing at Zayden, ‘get him inside and get something on him to stop him bleeding.’ Maddox, unarmed and glaring with wide eyes pushed past Darius to step in front of Ryker, ‘WHAT DID YOU DO?’ He roars.
Ryker fixed his eyes on Maddox, fear flitted across his face and he raised the knife higher, pointing it at Maddox.
‘He fuckin’ dissed me innit,’ Ryker shouted defensively.
‘He’s a fucking kid,’ Maddox bellowed back.
‘New rules blood, I ain’t getting dissed by no one,’ Ryker sneered waving the blade at Maddox. His drug and alcohol fuelled brain buzzes with adrenalin. The sudden ending of his medication for severe hyper-activity sending him steadily spiralling. Boundaries blurring as the position of crew chief boosts his self-image, propelling his behaviour to plummet as desperately tries to show his crew how ruthless and hard he is. Zayden, the small terrified lad sat near him smoking weed and drinking Vodka, trying to show Lauren he can hang with the bigger boys. As the banter got worse he tried to keep up, using swear words he’d never normally use until he crossed the line and laughingly called Ryker a twat. He over-stepped the mark and he had to be dealt with. Ryker, desperate not to lose face confronted him with a violent outburst of temper. Demanding he say sorry. Zayden laughed for a couple of minutes before realising the other youths were backing away in fear and leaving him isolated in front of the raging crew chief. He did apologise, despite feeling the shame in front of the terrified Lauren. But the damage was done and nothing Zayden could have said or done would change the outcome. Ryker needed to prove himself so he pulled the blade from his waistband and shoved the pointed end deep into Zayden’s soft stomach. Screams erupted as Ryker pulled the knife out and held the trembling child by one hand before shoving him to the ground with a look of disgust. Expecting a cheer for his actions Ryker was confused when he was suddenly surrounded with everyone yelling at him and Darius pointing his rifle.
‘You is a scrawny little prick,’ Maddox said through gritted teeth. The silence became profound as the youths flicked their eyes between the stand-off. ‘You hear me Ryker? I said you is a scrawny little prick. I’m dissin’ you Ryker, calling you out bruv innit.’
‘Fuck you Maddox,’ Ryker screamed back, feeling a sense of fear creeping up inside.
‘Scrawny,’ Maddox drew the words out, dragging the sound so everyone could hear, ‘little prick innit, shank a little kid? You a pussy bruv.’ Maddox stepped forward, his arms down at his sides. Ryker backed up waving the blade at the advancing figure.
‘You ain’t a crew chief no more, you cleaning the toilets now innit, you got to clean everyone shit up. I’ll make you wear a dress and call you Nancy.’
‘FUCK OFF,’ Ryker screamed his face contorting with rage.
‘Nancy,’ Maddox goaded him.
‘FUCKOFF…’
‘Nancy.’
‘JUSFUCKOFF,’ Ryker’s words flew from his mouth as he lunged forward and swiped the blade at Maddox who simply blocked the swing and gripped Ryker by the wrist, twisting viciously and causing the blade to drop from his paralysed hand. Maddox pulled his fist back and repeatedly slammed the hard knuckles into Ryker’s screaming face. Writhing and trying to break free, Ryker desperately twisted and turned. Maddox stepping round with him and sending punch after punch into his face. The hard blows splitting his lips open, cracking teeth, breaking his nose, fracturing eye sockets and still he didn’t stop. As Ryker dropped down Maddox went with him using two hands to rein blow after blow into his head. Ryker slipped into unconsciousness as Maddox grasped him by his collar and started dragging him over towards the big drains. Ditching the twitching form on the ground he turned and pulled the shotgun from Sierra, opening the weapon and checking each barrel before slamming it shut. Without a break in stride he walked back, pointed the weapon at Ryker’s head and pulled the trigger. The booming retort rolled round the enclosed camp as Ryker’s head eviscerated, leaving a bloody stump and a pink mist hanging in the air.
A single piercing scream erupted from deep within the crowded youths. Young faces squeezing eyes closed, tears streaming down soft cheeks. No one spoke. No one moved.
Maddox turned round and stood facing the crowd as he quickly opened the breech and ejected the spent cartridge, instinctively pulling a new one from his pocket, ramming it home and snapping the weapon closed. Handing the gun back to Sierra he addressed the youths.
‘He had it coming,’ Maddox’s voice carried loud and clear, ‘but he was right about one thing, these are new rules. We don’t have the feds now, no courts and no trials. If anyone does shit like that they can expect the same,’ his street language slipped but not one youth noticed as they stared at their leader, hanging from his awful words. ‘I will take care of you, we will all take care of each other, we are family, but that…’ he pointed at the bloodied corpse, ‘is bad shit. We don’t use weapons on each other, if we have an issue we sort it out. You all watched Ryker shank Zayden. You should have stopped him but you was all too stoned.’ Maddox shook his head knowing they would have been too terrified to confront the crazed Ryker but using the time to ram a point home, ‘too much weed will fuck you up,’ he continued, ‘and we don’t mix weed with booze, parties over. Get this cleaned up and no weed for the next few nights.’ Maddox knew the Bossman wouldn’t like the ban, but he did say he was in charge.
The crew chiefs moved in swiftly, breaking the crowd apart and ushering them away. Muted chatter filled the air; the shock of the event was palpable. Maddox swept his eyes across the crowd, coming to rest on the soft orange glow coming from the open door to the units. The Bossman stood in silhouette watching the proceedings while puffing away on his joint. Maddox stared back as the orange glow came back again, then the
Bossman was gone, moving back to his quarters and leaving Maddox to deal with everything again.
Lenski appeared coming round the building, her hands free from the clipboard for the first time in days. She walked straight at Maddox and stopped when she saw the bloodied headless cadaver on the ground. Taking the sight in with a glance she betrayed no reaction, simply staring at Maddox with an intense gaze.
‘Zayden got stabbed in the stomach,’ Maddox said quietly.
‘Where is he?’ Lenski asked with sudden concern.
‘They took him inside.’ Maddox replied to the already running form of Lenski sprinting for the door. She pushed her way through the youths and disappeared inside.
‘I got this bruv,’ Darius said from nearby and motioning his head towards the dead body, ‘do what you gotta do, we’ll get it cleared up.’
Maddox nodded and walked quickly after Lenski, the crowd parting as the poker faced man walked through and entered the gloom of the units.
Inside, he made his way through the building to the lights in the rear section with the adult plants. Zayden laid out on blankets. The tiny body looking more like the child he was than ever before. His top pulled up to show the bright red blood making his skin look pale and white. The body inert, the chest not rising or falling. Maddox stops inches from his head and looks down to the pale face and the eyes staring lifelessly up at him. From this angle it looks like Zayden is staring straight into Maddox’s eyes. He survived the apocalypse only to die on the filthy floor of a drugs factory, stabbed to death by a teenager high on drugs and booze. Streaks of tears mark the child’s face forming clean lines through the dirt. The blood on his hands is red and wet, glistening from the lights shining on the plants.
Thoughts burn through Maddox’s mind, spiralling and plummeting but still his face remains expressionless. Not one kid had been lost since this began. There had been injuries, sprains, cuts but not one of them had been bitten, but right here and now, staring down at the lifeless form of a child bled out from a needless single stab to the stomach makes him feel dirty.
‘What we do now?’ Lenski stood up wiping the blood from her hands on a rag.
‘We bury him,’ Maddox replied.
‘Where?’
‘Here.’
‘No. We need the ground for crops, not here.’
‘Where then?’
‘Somewhere else, is there a church here?’
‘Yeah, and a synagogue and a mosque, but no ground on any of them. Just buildings.’
‘Somewhere, do you know his house?’
‘Yeah.’
‘It has garden?’
‘No, he lived in a council flat.’
‘At the school then?’
‘We need the field for crops too…and he hated school, they all did.’
‘I not know,’ Lenski sighed dropping her head.
‘Wrap the bodies in refuse bags and sheets; put them in the sentry hut.’
‘Okay, I do this. Where are you going?’
‘To see the Bossman.’
Maddox walked away, shoulders brushing against the leaves of the plants stretching out to absorb the light shining down. Sweat on his head shining from the heat and humidity. He walked through the units, reaching the door of the Bossman’s room, walking straight in without pause. The lights off and the room reeked of cannabis, heavy smoke hung in the air stinging his eyes and catching in his throat. The soft orange glow ignites from the chair behind the desk as the Bossman inhaled another drag of his joint. Maddox stands feet from the desk, his anger and hurt suddenly abating from the shock of finding the Bossman sat alone in the dark. His eyes slowly adjust to the gloom as the light from the still open door permeates the room. The silhouette of the Bossman forms gradually. Sat back in his chair and staring straight at Maddox. Waiting in silence.
‘Is he dead?’ The Bossman asked his voice low and hoarse from the harsh smoke.
‘Yes,’ Maddox replied.
Silence descended again. Oppressive and charged, the end of the joint flares as another drag is taken. The Bossman exhaled slowly, smoke spiralling from his mouth.
‘Ryker stabbed him,’ Maddox added.
‘So you shot Ryker,’ the Bossman’s reply is instant and challenging.
‘He stabbed Zayden,’ Maddox replied equally as quickly.
‘So that makes you jury judge and executioner does it?’
‘What?’
‘You’re a killer,’ the statement is tinged with a very slight slur but the tone is dangerously low.
‘We’ve all killed,’ Maddox said.
‘The infected don’t count,’ the Bossman said.
‘So what should I have done?’ Maddox asked after a long pause.
‘I’ve been watching you Maddox, watching how they come running to you. They didn’t come to me when Ryker stabbed Zayden, they ran to you.’
‘You put me in charge, I been on the ground with them for the last few days…’
‘So that makes you number one now does it?’
‘What? No!’
‘Seems like it to me, Maddox the great. Doesn’t smoke weed, doesn’t drink. Holier than fucking thou ain’t ya…
‘Boss…’
‘…You sold this shit and made money but you never touched it, never liked being out of control did you Maddox. Now look at you, got a whole camp running at your every whim, shooting little kids in the face…’
‘Boss!’
‘Go and wash my boys and girls…Go and eat vegetables my boys and girls, don’t smoke drugs my little children…I am Maddox. I am fucking better…’
‘Boss please,’ Maddox asked his tone low and still unable to see the Bossman clearly in the dark shadows.
‘What?’ The Bossman suddenly asked, ‘what do you want from me?’
‘Ryker was bad, we talked about it earlier. You told me to watch him…he fucking stabbed Zayden. He had to go.’
‘Go?’
‘What…’
‘Go where Maddox, where did you send him?’
‘Boss, you know what I meant. We couldn’t kick him out. He’s too dangerous and could have whipped up support from the survivors on the estate. We had to sort him…’
‘We Maddox, we did that did we? We decided to shoot him did we?’
‘You were watching, you could have said something.’
‘Say something to the mighty Maddox…you might have decided to shoot me with the other barrel.’
‘I wouldn’t do that,’ Maddox said softly. The Bossman was stoned out of his mind, slurring but his voice was hard. Maddox had never seen him like this. Never seen him showing the effects of cannabis and never drunk.
‘Coming after me next are ya?’
‘No Boss.’
‘Wanna be number one eh my lad?’
‘No.’
‘Numero uno…Maddox the numero uno,’ the Bossman giggled suddenly. The wheezing of his chest clearly audible.
‘Boss I’ll come back later.’
‘No!’ The Bossman snapped, stopping Maddox as he turned to the door, ‘you overstepped the mark boy…who are you to tell them not to smoke weed?’ The slur of his tone ends as he spit the words out.
‘They needed a break…’
‘Don’t speak back to me,’ the Bossman growled, ‘I’m the boss here Maddox. I make the rules. It seems you’ve gotten a bit too big for your boots my lad.’ The Bossman rose from the chair, stubbing the joint out and easing himself round the desk. Pausing briefly to gain his balance from wobbling on unsteady feet he walked round to stand directly in front of Maddox. Closer now Maddox can see his eyes are vacant from the weed and his face looks drawn. Standing face to face the Bossman slapped Maddox round the face. Once. Hard. The sound ringing out and causing Maddox to flare his eyes. With gritted determination he stands his ground and shows no reaction.
‘Come on Maddox,’ the Bossman reeked of tobacco, alcohol and weed, breathing foul breath into Maddox’s face. ‘Come on then boy,’ he goaded again, pushing
Maddox in the chest.
Feeling a rare surge of anger Maddox squeezes his hands into fists at the side of his body, tensing his muscles and staring straight ahead.
‘You know what you are Maddox…’ The Bossman leant in, millimetres from the youth’s face, purposefully breathing a low blast of fetid air into eyes. Maddox held his rage in check, hard lessons learnt from a hard life and every ounce of strength pitted against showing a reaction.
‘You know what you are…boy…’ the Bossman poked Maddox in the chest with the end of one finger, prodding his pectoral muscle and forcing him back a step. Seeing the reaction, the Bossman repeated it, prodding harder and forcing Maddox back again.
‘I’m gonna tell you what you are….’ He poked his digit hard into the muscle forcing Maddox to half turn as he stumbled back, quickly regaining his balance and breathing deeply.
‘You…are a jumped up street nigger,’ the atmosphere changed instantly as Maddox whipped his head round to glare straight into the eyes of the suddenly frightened Bossman. His fists clenched and he exhaled once. The rage driven into cold fury and he lashed out hard. Driving those already bloodied knuckles into the Bossman’s face.
The Bossman reeled back, slamming into the desk and crying out in a strangled yell. Scrabbling furiously on the desk the Bossman brought his knee up hard into Maddox’s groin. He flinched back enough for the Bossman to roll away, falling with a thump to the floor and crashing into the chair he was using just seconds before.
Recovering quickly, Maddox knew this had to end. The Bossman won’t stop now, his pride, his power, his survival hinges on beating Maddox. Both men knew the prize at hand and the forfeit if they lost. Maddox launched himself over the top of the wide desk intent on landing on the older man and finishing the job. The Bossman, suddenly alert and realising the danger grabbed at the pistol grip poking out of the open drawer. Maddox slammed into him, driving him down into the ground and forcing the air from his lungs. The Bossman, in reaction tensed his hands and pulled the trigger of the pistol not seen by Maddox. The gunshot deafened them both in the enclosed room, the ricochet pinging off followed instantly by the sound of splintering wood. Maddox reacted quickly, now knowing his employer and mentor was holding a gun he drove the back of his elbow into the Bossman’s skull. His face slammed against the hard floor, nose breaking as the Bossman screamed with agony pulling the trigger again and desperately trying to buck the youth off.