“Now,” Jack said, as he pulled open the door. Both Jack and Bernie vanished into the store.
I stood with my back to the store, staring out onto the street, it suddenly felt like a lonely place and I shivered at the thought of watching eyes.
“Harry, come in. It’s safe,” Jack eventually called.
I walked inside the store, which was a complete mess; the shelves of food had been spilled in every direction. I found Jack and Bernie standing over a man in a condiment aisle that also had canned vegetables and dried foods. He was holding onto a broken bottle that he must have thrust into his eye.
“Is she? Is she? Help me, the bottle… Finish it. I haven't the strength,” he mumbled.
“What do you want?” Bernie said.
“He wants us to help him complete his mission, doesn’t he?” I said.
“Grab my hands… push the bottle,” the man groaned.
“That wouldn’t be suicide if we help. He’ll die soon enough anyway. There’s nothing we can do for him,” Jack said.
“Perhaps we should help him? It would be like putting down a sick animal,” Bernie said, looking at me.
“Let’s have a think about it while we grab some supplies. I don’t want to hang around here all day.”
I was hoping that the man would die while we filled bags with food.
I packed cans of soup, chili, fruit, and some bottles of cola into two plastic bags and met Bernie and Jack back where the injured man was lying.
“Please, end it now,” he moaned.
Bernie pointed the rifle he had at the man’s head and closed his eyes.
“No, don’t do it. It will draw attention to us,” I whispered.
“I can’t just leave him to die like this. I can’t do it.”
“This man probably caved in the skull of the lady outside with a hammer. He would have done the same to you or me if we were in her shoes. Let him die.”
“Fuck this,” Jack said, stepping towards the man.
He stamped on the bottle, forcing it deeper into the eye socket; a thick purple stream of blood ran down the side of the man’s face. He let out a long breath, and his head flopped to the left.
Bernie looked over at Jack with fear in his eyes. Jack picked up his shopping bags and headed for the entrance.
“We need to stop debating and start making decisions,” he said over his shoulder.
Jack had ended the man’s suffering and given him what he wanted, but it still didn’t sit easily with me. There was no realistic way to imagine him being any kind of threat, so we should have left him alone. He could also have been an easy victim for any other killer heading in our direction. That would have taken care of another potential threat.
As we made our way back to Bernie’s apartment, I scanned the area, which was made up of housing blocks in a grid system.
“What’s the view like from the roof of your apartment block?” I asked Bernie.
“Pretty good. You can see quite far around. Why?”
“I am sick of feeling like we are constantly being hunted. It’s time to get a handle on our situation.”
“What are you thinking?” Jack asked.
“We need a diversion, some way of attracting attention. If killers turn up and take each other out, then it’s less for us to deal with.”
“What has this got to do with the roof?” Bernie asked.
“We pick a spot that we can observe from the roof,” I explained, “find a car, and turn on some loud music or set fire to it. We can then watch what happens from relative safety to see if there’s any kind of pattern or behaviour.”
“But that means we are drawing the killers to us as well. Isn’t it risky to create a loud noise in case there’s somebody in the vicinity already?”
“We observe an area that is a reasonable distance away for a couple of hours,” I answered, “and if there’s no movement, we run down to it, create the signal, come back, and watch what happens from the safety of the roof.”
“Wouldn’t smoke attract killers from miles around?”
“We don’t set anything on fire then,” Jack jumped in eagerly, “we just create a loud enough noise that can be heard in the local area. Let’s go up to the roof now and have a look.”
We dumped our supplies in Bernie’s apartment and went to the elevator that would take us to the top floor. Jack pressed the button and nothing happened. We both looked at Bernie.
“There must be a problem with the power,” he said.
Jack ran back to Bernie’s apartment. “There’s no power in here either, all of the appliances are off.”
I had wondered how long electricity would last if nobody was maintaining the system. We had no communications with the outside world now, and were on our own.
“We’ll have to go out again for some candles and a camping stove,” I said.
“I’ve candles. We can have cold food tonight and pick something up from a sporting goods store tomorrow,” Bernie replied.
We all trudged up the stairs discussing what the possible effects of no electricity would be. I remembered hearing that the Hoover Dam would continue to provide electricity for 100 years without any human contact. That obviously didn’t extend to suburban New York.
Out on the roof, we had a good view of the surrounding area and surveyed the immediate vicinity looking for a potential ambush location.
“Bernie, what’s that space over there with a few cars, between those two large buildings?” Jack said.
“It’s a parking lot for the two stores. That would work, I suppose.”
It was workable for what I had in mind. It was just over half a mile away, and we had a good view of the whole area.
“Let’s watch it for a few hours, and then go over and ramp up the volume in one of the cars,” I said. “I’ll take one of your Celine Dion CDs, Bernie – although that racket might scare people away!”
“That was Linda’s CD.”
“Sorry, Bernie, I didn’t know.”
“Fine, Harry, It’s not like we have anything better to do, there’s still a few hours of light left.”
For the next hour, we watched the parking lot and surrounding area in three arcs, but didn’t see any signs of life.
“Time to get things moving,” I said. “Jack can you stay on the roof and cover us?”
“The chances of hitting the killer are slim from this range, but I can at least give you a warning.”
“Good enough, Bernie and I will scoot down there, get the music turned on, and then run like mad. You okay with that, Bernie?”
He nodded back.
Bernie and I descended the apartment block steps and walked onto the street; I tapped his shoulder and set off towards the pistol on Queens Boulevard. Neither of us said a word as I retrieved the Glock, carried out a make-safe procedure, and checked the magazine. I slid the magazine back into the pistol grip and handed it to Bernie. He nodded and immediately cocked it.
Bernie led the way to the parking lot. Once there, I looked up for the top of our apartment block. Jack was visible and we waved at each other.
“Harry, this one is open and has the keys in the ignition,” Bernie called over from a Honda.
It seemed the owner had jumped out in a rush and was one of the two corpses a few yards away. One had been strangled, judging by the marks on her neck. The attacker was lying face down next to her in a pool of his own blood.
Bernie started the car and the engine roared into life.
“Quick, put this in the CD player and turn it up full blast, we’ll jog back the way we came,” I said.
The engine noise was drowned out by ‘My Heart Will Go On’, by Celine Dion, taking both of us by surprise. It was loud, very loud.
“Come on, Bernie. Let’s get out of here,” I shouted.
As we left the car park, I heard the sound of gunfire in the distance; we both stopped and looked around. Nobody was in sight, but I changed my mind about our pace.
“Run.”
&
nbsp; Bernie kept up a strong pace, and eventually, I was struggling to keep up with him. We made it back to the apartment block and crashed through the door.
With the door behind us, I bent double with the exertion and breathed in heavily. Bernie was sweating and leant against the internal wall. I nodded and we slowly climbed the stairs, catching our breath, and back out onto the roof.
I struggled to get my words out to Jack. “Who was it? Where were they? Did you hit them?”
“I didn’t see anyone and didn’t fire that shot. I think it came from a few blocks to the right,” Jack replied.
“So who fired the shot?” Bernie wheezed.
“Who cares as long as they didn’t shoot at us or see us? Hopefully, it was a killer finishing themselves off,” I replied.
Both Bernie and I sat down next to the wall with Jack and looked over at the parking lot. I could hear the music drifting over from the distant Honda. Nothing happened for the next hour, the running engine would prevent draining of the car battery as long as the car had fuel. This could go on all night, although we wouldn’t be able to see anything in the dark.
“Look! Down there to the left of the parking lot by the row of trees. There’s somebody behind the furthest one on the left,” Bernie pointed.
I scanned along the trees and saw a man with his hand out in front of him and close to his face. It appeared he was armed and watching the parking lot. He ducked from one tree into a doorway, and then cautiously entered the parking lot. He checked the bodies lying on the ground, opened the driver’s door, and pointed his weapon inside.
“Don’t turn the music off,” Jack said.
The man didn’t adjust the volume, instead, he crouched behind the car. He had turned our trap into his trap, which was exactly what I wanted. Now there were four of us waiting.
“This is working well so far,” Jack said.
“What do you think, Bernie?” I said, after nodding agreement.
He was looking down to the right, the opposite direction from which the killer had come, and didn’t say anything at first.
“Oh, God…” he replied, “…I think we’ve fucked up.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Behind the blue van, over there.”
I looked down and was horrified to see two people stooped behind a blue van. One male and one female, both carried pistols.
“They might just be having a look and don’t want to get too close, would you?” I said, more out of hope than belief.
“If I received a message to come to Elmhurst, I might see it as a signal,” Jack replied. “Could this be Lea Ash? Maybe they fired the earlier shot.”
The pair moved up behind the next stationary vehicle. They had around six vehicles and forty yards between themselves and the parking lot. There was no mistaking which way they were heading now, as they moved up to the next car.
“Oh shit, how can we warn them? Jack, fire a warning shot,” I said.
“It won’t do any good and we would be risking our own position,” Bernie said.
Shouting a warning or firing a flare would be even worse ideas, they would both bring unwanted attention onto our position. I didn’t have time to run down and head them off, so we had no sensible options.
I looked back out to the road. It was too late anyway. The man and woman were now hiding behind the last car and looking over at the lot. I felt helpless as I watched the scene unfold.
“They have already survived for at least a few days in this madness, and then made it to Elmhurst. They might be alright…” Bernie said.
The pair slowly entered the parking lot and started to look around.
“Do you think you could hit the killer from here if we see him first?” I asked Jack.
“No,” Jack replied, “and I’ve already said that we don’t want to be attracting people here.”
Bernie had been right. This was a fuck-up.
“Come on, come on. He’s behind the car. He’s behind the car,” I caught myself murmuring aloud.
It looked like the man sent the woman around the back of the car, while he approached the passenger window. I took a deep breath.
We saw the man slump backwards onto the ground with both arms outstretched as the delayed sound of a shot echoed up to us. The woman was still crouched behind the back of the car when we heard the second shot. The woman ran around to check on her partner and knelt next to his body. I looked down and closed my eyes.
“What do we do now?” Jack said.
Bernie looked at me.
“Those two shots will have attracted even more interest than the music. It’s going to be dangerous down there,” he said.
I had to do something.
“You two stay here and keep a look-out; I’m going to get her. I’ll look this way when I get down there. Direct me if she moves Jack, if you see a killer nearby, then hold your rifle above your head with both hands.”
Before Bernie or Jack could argue, I ran for the stairs and quickly descended them.
Once outside, I ran towards the parking lot. I knew from our first trip that it was around three minutes away, and was hoping that the woman would still be there. It seemed unlikely that she would stay, but I knew that finding her once she went into hiding, would be difficult and dangerous – especially on my own.
Just before I reached the parking lot, I looked up at Bernie’s apartment block. Jack was holding his rifle above his head with both arms.
I waved an acknowledgement and cocked the Glock, Jack pointed towards the trees that the first killer had approached from. I was suddenly confused, as I gave the instructions in a rush before heading down the stairs. I didn’t know if Jack meant the woman had gone towards the trees, or if that was where the killer was. I thought of what I would have done in his shoes and decided he was pointing towards the killer.
I moved quickly into the parking lot and saw the woman kneeling about twenty yards away, over the body of her partner.
“Lea Ash?” I whispered loudly.
Her head shot up, “Who the fuck are you?”
She raised a silver Beretta and pointed it at me.
I put my finger to my lips and gestured towards the trees to the left of the parking lot.
“Shhh. There’s somebody coming to try and kill us.”
“Stay the fuck back,” she shouted. “How do I know that you aren’t the one trying to kill me?”
“We’ll have to do this quickly. Look up there. You see my brother holding a rifle above his head? That means he can see a killer,” I said.
“That could be a dummy for all I know. They’ve tried to fool us before.” She stepped towards me, keeping a two handed grip on her weapon.
“A dummy with two mechanical arms?” I snapped.
I looked back up at Jack who was now waving frantically.
“Look,” I said, “you can kill me after if you still don’t trust me, but for now, there’s danger coming our way and I would rather not die. Get behind the car.”
I picked up my weapon, held it by my side in a non-threatening way and walked behind the car. The killer was slumped against the door with an entry wound in his temple. I took the revolver out of his limp hand; it was empty of rounds, so I quickly discarded it.
“Hands up,” the woman screamed from the other side of the car.
“Get around here or you’ll be dead in a minute. I could have shot you by now if that was what I wanted,” I shouted.
I looked back up at Jack who seemed to be aiming his rifle just to the left of the parking lot. Using my moment of distraction, the woman ran around the side of the car and put her Beretta against the side of my head.
“How do you know my name, are you one of them?” she asked.
I couldn’t blame her for acting like she did, we were in a crazy world. I needed to convince her quickly, to improve our situation.
“We were the ones on twitter,” I said. “Can I pick up my Glock now? There’s somebody coming.”
“Wer
e you watching when Chris was shot?” she shouted at me again. I ignored the question.
I could now hear footsteps coming towards us. I turned and looked at the left-hand side of the parking lot. A large man in a dirty white vest, holding a steel pipe, came around the corner and walked towards us.
“Don’t trust that man, missy, he killed my friend,” he shouted.
He must have heard some of the argument and was trying to use it to his advantage.
“Is this true?” she said, and pointed her weapon at my head again.
I was starting to think I might have to shoot both of them; the time for being reasonable was over.
“If I am the fucking killer and I killed his friend, why didn’t I kill myself straight afterwards?” I snapped.
“Okay, I believe you,” she said.
She backed away from me, pointing her Beretta in my direction.
“Will you help me kill him?” she said to the newcomer.
What was she doing?
“Don’t do this, please,” I said, shaking my head.
As the man got within five yards of her, he raised the pipe behind his head. I raised the Glock, but before I had a chance to fire, Lea span around and shot him in the face. The round passed through his cheek and he collapsed backwards, before making a strange snorting noise. We both looked at each other, I went over to where the snorting man who still held the pipe was lying, pointed the Glock at his forehead, and pulled the trigger.
“There, are you happy now?”
There was no time to hang around, my trap had been effective, but I was standing in the middle of it. There were three fresh bodies on the ground; the problem was that one of them hadn’t been a killer.
“We need to get out of here. The music and the shots will attract more of these people. We’ve an apartment a short distance away that’s been safe so far. Are you coming or not?”
“I don’t see what choice I have,” she said.
As we made our way to Bernie’s, I considered giving her more reassurance, but we were still in the open and the threat level was high. We reached the entrance door that I had foolishly left open and I led her into Bernie’s basement apartment.
First Activation: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller Page 9