“What did you want to speak to me about?” Tabitha said all business now.
“I wanted to talk to you about what happened earlier. I wanted Fred here to confirm what I am about to tell you. We were not here to kidnap your daughter. Fred saw an opening and decided on his own to abduct her. We were as happy about that turn of events as you were. Had he escaped he would have left us here taking the fall for something we had no part of. We are here to try and help you and your husband work things out. We hoped we could help the two of you reach some form of an understanding that would make life a bit easier for your daughter.”
“You say you had no part of trying to kidnap my daughter, but you are wrong. Just by bringing that man back here you have to accept responsibility for his actions.” Tabitha said.
“By using that line of thought then you are responsible as well.” I said.
“How do you come to that mister Collins?”
“You ordered your men to take her from our home. What did you think was going to happen next? Did you think we would just say, ‘Well shucks, I guess we lost the kid, hope they don’t come back for anyone else?’”
“Any normal group of people would not have risked themselves so needlessly for a man and child they had known for barely a month.” Tabitha said. She seemed to be taking the fact that we would dare help her husband rather personal.
“I guess you missed the memo about us being anything but normal. If we are responsible because we brought him here, then you are responsible because you created the situation that made us bring him here. It’s like that circle of life thing in the Lion King…without the monkey.”
Tabitha looked at me for a long time. She sat back in her chair and seemed to be sizing me up. I refused to speak again. I thought this was most likely some Jedi mind trick that was designed to get me talking in hopes of getting me to say something that she could use against me. Eventually Tabitha looked to her bodyguard slash maintenance man and told him to take the others back to the cell. She needed to speak to me privately. Amanda raised an eyebrow at me, but I shook my head no. She followed the others back out and down the hall.
“Why bring us all here if you were just going to send them back so quickly?” I asked.
“Mister Collins, you are a problem. I don’t like problems.”
“You do have my sympathies. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard the ‘you’re a problem’ speech. Actually, the first time I ever heard it was in middle school. The vice principle had absolutely had enough of me. Can’t say I blame him. They never did find the school mascot, but I still contend that it wasn’t my fault. Well, wasn’t completely my fault.”
“Are you on drugs Mister Collins?” She asked.
“No, but that is another common assumption about me. Honestly, I’m not very extroverted at all. I guess you have a way of making me feel at ease. I really do want to help you and your family. I’m not a very confrontational guy. I’m not looking for a fight.”
She stood and walked around to where I was standing. She touched my chest with the tips of her fingers and began to slowly drag them up my chest as she spoke. “Well, I wonder what you would do then, if a fight just happened to find you.” As she finished speaking she slapped me across the right side of my face. She slapped me hard.
“Well if a fight found me I guess I would have to fight back. I am not afraid to hit a girl, fair warning.”
Tabitha Baker laughed at me. She took a step back and sized me up again before sticking out her chin and say, “Go ahead then. Give as good as you got.”
Often my mouth runs up a bill that my body has trouble paying. This was one of those times. To hit or not to hit? Either way had pros and cons. I decided that I needed to do whatever I had to do to keep this conversation moving forward. The only chance I had was to keep her talking long enough to let something slip. Something that I could turn against her. I had no choice. I had to lash out.
I slapped her across the left side of her face. The force of my slap rocked her backwards two steps and her face almost instantly took on a red glow where my hand had struck. Her hand came up to her face. Her eyes had gone wide when the blow had landed and I had expected her to call in the guards to kill me right then and there, but that wasn’t what happened. She smiled at me and took a step closer putting her face inches from mine.
“Oooooh, mommy likes.” She said. I did my best to hide the shocked expression from my face, but we were so close she had to catch hints of it at the corner of my mouth and eyes. She grabbed the back of my head and pulled me to her, kissing me. Her tongue was shoved into my mouth and I thought, “She’s tongue raping me.” The thought made me want to laugh. She pulled away and I did my best to put an evil smile on my face, but it’s hard to pull that off when you’re needing to wipe the spit off your face from a big slobbery smooch with Cruella De Vil. She took a few steps back from me while I ran my tongue across my teeth making sure she didn’t steal one while ransacking my tonsils.
“When I first saw you, I thought we had a lot in common. You are quite a bit like me Charlie. I find that very attractive.”
“That would explain the last few minutes.” I said.
“Here’s my deal for you, because I like you. Take Fred and leave. Go back home and forget any of this happened. Do that and I will let your group live. You can even take that idiot Dewey with you, if you like. If you leave him here, I think I’m going to throw him off the roof.”
“And Samantha?” I asked.
“She stays here, with me, where she belongs.”
“It would seem that where she belongs is a subject that is open to interpretation.”
“Not at all. She belongs here where it’s safe. Now I suggest that you take my offer while I’m still allowing you to leave. If you stay things won’t end well for you.”
“No.” I said sitting down in the chair across from her desk to emphasize that I was going nowhere.
Tabitha laughed. “Some advice Charlie, you need to recognize when you’re beaten and act accordingly.”
“The last person who said something like that to me, is dead.”
“Really? You don’t strike me as the killing sort Charlie. Isn’t it a bit late in the game to start using false bravado to try to impress me?”
“The way I look at it, if my tonsils didn’t impress you then I’m most likely shit outta luck. You can believe what you want. I know what happened and how it went down. Threats were made, lives were ended, I’m still here. Just like I will still be here tomorrow morning when the sun rises. I don’t lose, especially to people like you.”
Her face mocked a look of being hurt. “People like me? Oh, whatever do you mean?”
“I mean people who cut corners. People who believe we’re back in the age of might making right. People who assume they are smarter than everyone else. I’ve dealt with your kind before. You’ll fair no different.”
Tabitha’s smile had turned itself down a notch or two. I was doing everything I could to press any button I could find. So far, she had been a rock. Seeing her smile falter gave me a bit of hope. Attacking her intelligence seemed to be the way to go. I just hoped I didn’t push her too far.
“People like you think that everybody else should just bow down. It’s pathetic, what were you before all of this happened? What menial job did you hold that prepared you for your new career as leader of the free world? Just because you have muscle to back up your insane commands doesn’t mean you are smart enough to know what you’re doing or that you’ll be able to figure out how to out maneuver someone like me.”
When I fired my last volley at her ego I could see the damage it was doing. Her face was blood red and her eyes had narrowed almost down to slits. She couldn’t speak, not yet. I think if she had tried to yell at me the only thing that would have come out would have been some William Wallace battle cry. She sat there staring at me and brooding. Eventually her temperature cooled enough to speak.
“My job before all of this? I was a lawyer.
I double majored in law and psychology and graduated top of my class. It was my belief that having the psychology degree would help me better understand how to manipulate witnesses and judges during court and I was right. I know how to control people. I know how to play people. I know how to bend them to my will and make them do exactly what I want them to do. I have made a career out of it, and I had become very wealthy. What were you in the old world? Who are you to question me? Anything I want, I take. I look at any problem and I can see the angles. I know how to manipulate the variables to get the outcome I desire. You think you are smarter than me? I’m here to tell you that you’re not. You will lose this fight with me Mister Collins. I will win this game we are playing and when I do I will take away everything you have left in this world because when I play, I play for keeps.”
Tabitha Baker had crossed to the door as she spoke. opening it, she yelled at somebody to take me back to my fish bowl jail cell.
I was drug down the hall and thrown to the floor of our peek-a-boo suite. I looked up at Amanda. She smiled at me and shook her head.
“Mission accomplished?” She asked.
“Mission accomplished.” I answered.
NINE
“What mission?” Fred asked. “What did you just do? What did you make me help you do?”
He was sounding as if he was about to have a complete breakdown. I smiled at Fred and picked myself up off the floor.
“Don’t worry about it Fred. We’ve got a plan and we’re moving forward with it.”
“And nobody considered telling me about this plan? Nobody thought I might want to know these things? How could you keep me in the dark like this?”
I looked Fred in the eyes and dropped my tone from a playful one to a tone of dead seriousness. “I know you’re not about to start complaining about people having secrets after everything you’ve pulled today.” Fred looked at me and seemed to think about it. He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it back.
“Whoa! Check her out. Momma is pissed.” Marky Mark said behind Fred. I turned and saw Tabitha storming down the hall. She paused to look in at me, and if she could have shot daggers out of her eyes I would have been ducking for cover.
“What did you say to her? Charlie, what did you do?” Fred asked.
“I would think it would be obvious what I did.” I said looking out at Tabitha as she disappeared on down the hall.
“Your plan was to make her mad? What were you thinking?” Fred said.
“It’s like I always tell the new members of our community, you have to play to your strengths. I’m really good at making people mad. Always have been. Could explain why I never got married.” I said.
“Or never really had a girlfriend before Veronica.” Amanda added. I gave her a look.
“Okay. That was just cold.” She smiled at me. “But it is the truth.” She said.
“Would you two shut up and answer me!” Fred almost yelled.
“Yes, Fred. I made her mad. Yes, I did it on purpose. Yes, that was part of my plan. No, I really don’t care if you approve or not. No, I did not take into account your feelings or desires. All I am currently concerned with is not getting us killed.”
Fred looked absolutely lost.
“Your…plan…for not getting us killed…was to make the woman who can have us killed, mad at us?”
“Now you’re catching on.” I said as I slapped him on the shoulder.
“Oh, you’se doing the whole angry thing your dad taught you.” Marky Mark said.
“Yup, as soon as you lose your temper you’ve lost the fight.” I said with a smile.
“I am taking it that the evil crazy lady lost the fight.” Amanda said.
“Ohhhh, she went down hard in the third. It wasn’t pretty.”
“What fight?” Fred asked.
“In that office we were both fishing for information. The fight was who would break and let something slip first. She let damn near everything slip at the end. Then she threw me out.”
“So you’se know what’s going on then?” Marky Mark asked.
“Almost. Give me a few minutes to work it all out in my…”
I was going to say “mind” but that never happened. I had been looking at the window, watching the sun go the rest of the way down. Suppertime had already come and gone at Wal-Mart and here as well. They had been away eating when we arrived. I wondered how could it be dark already? How could we have been gone all day? Then it hit me. The last tumbler fell into place. I saw everything; the whole plan appeared in front of me. It was genius. I had to give Tabitha credit; she really could see the angles.
As soon as I was able to see Tabitha’s plan I was able to see our way out. It was risky, but if I pulled it off, we would be returning home with much more than our kidnap victim. We would be able to take the first step to cementing ourselves a future.
“Charlie? You’se okay?”
“No. I mean yes. I mean…Fred?”
“What Charlie?”
“When I first spoke to your wife she said this wasn’t the first time you had run away. She said the first time you ran, you went somewhere close. She thought that you were testing how safely you and Samantha could travel in this world and how easily you could assimilate yourselves into a community of survivors. That place you ran to, it was Food City wasn’t it?”
Fred didn’t answer he just looked down at the floor.
“While you were there you met the leader of the Head Hunters, that’s why he thought you looked familiar.”
“I didn’t meet him.” Fred said. “He was there helping install the sections of wall they had built to reinforce the big glass windows in the front of the store. He must have seen me and remembered.”
“Tabitha killed those people and burned down the store in retaliation for them taking you in, didn’t she? That’s why the leader of the Head Hunters calls her the enemy. He knows she did it, doesn’t he?” I asked.
“She did it, but it wasn’t because of Sam and me. We had been back a couple weeks when Food City fell.”
“What happened?” I asked. But Fred just looked at the floor again.
“I really don’t know. One day Tabitha showed up with her guards. She called me out right in front of Food City’s leaders and took us back to the Medical Center. I was thrown into an office and kept there for days, maybe weeks. Time just seemed to blur after a while. When I got out, everyone was gearing up to go to war. I only have second hand knowledge here, but what I was told was that the leaders at Food City were unhappy with how Tabitha had treated us and had begun making moves to try to free us. There had been several deaths and one member of the other group even made it up here before being killed just outside Samantha’s room.”
“But you are absolutely sure it was Tabitha that killed the people and burned the store?” I asked.
“Yes. There is no doubt.”
“Is there any proof of that?”
Fred gave me another concerned look. “Charlie, what are you planning?”
“Fred I just need to know the answer to my question. Is there any proof?”
“I’m not answering that until I know why you want to know.”
“Fred. You have to understand, I am planning on grabbing your kid and heading to Wal-Mart like the devil himself was after us. To do this we are going to have to go straight down State of Franklin Road. Only problem with that is about halfway between here and home sits the Head Hunters who vowed to kill us if they ever saw us again. So, here’s the deal. I have to have something to give their leader to barter our safe passage through their land. Can you give that to me? Can you give me the smoking gun that condemns our evil queen?”
Fred nodded. “Yes. Yes, I can. Tabitha made me inventory everything they were able to bring back from the battle. Spoils of war she called it. She wanted to know everything we had so she could figure out a rationing schedule.”
“This inventory list is still here?” Amanda asked.
“Yes. I know where it i
s, but I have to get out of here first.”
“She’ll let you out.” I said. “Is there anyone else here beside Dewey that you can get to help us escape?”
“What’s wrong with Dewey?” Fred asked.
“He’s blown. You used him to many times. Tabitha’s planning to throw him off the roof. If you want to save his life you better tell him to come with us as well.” I said.
“I have a friend. Susie will help me, but we’ll have to take her.”
“Get them. Get the proof. Then come get us. We leave as soon as you come back.”
Fred smiled at me. “I’ll do my best. Thank you Charlie, for everything.”
Fred walked to the door and spoke to the guard. Again, he was let out of the room. Again, it was just what I knew was going to happen.
“You’se think he can get the girl and the proof?” Marky Mark asked.
“Oh, I have no doubt. Tabitha is probably so pissed at him already that he will do anything he can to get the girl and get us out of here.” I said.
“It is your contention that Tabitha Baker actually wants us to kidnap her daughter?” Amanda asked.
“She was counting on it. Her plans hinge on it. I am sure the last time Fred spoke to her she told him to do anything he could to get us on our feet and out the door. He’s scared out of his mind of that woman. I don’t know what she is holding over him, but it must be pretty good.” Okay, another lie. I had a fairly good idea what she was holding over him, but I wasn’t ready to spill that secret. Not yet.
“What is your plan then?” Amanda asked, and then added, “You do have a plan, don’t you?”
“Why does everyone always ask me that?”
“You’se gotta admit Charlie, you’se seem to be winging it most of the time.”
I gave them both a look. “I am not winging it. Yes, I have a plan. Step one, we get Samantha and the proof and get out of this room. That part is in motion.”
“Yes.” Amanda said watching me.
“Step two; get out of this hospital and down to the parking lot. Step three hope to god Jane and Sass are back with all the goodies that were on my list. If they are, we put those items to good use.”
A Good Distance From Dying_Book 2_Samantha's Song Page 26