Utopia: A Dark Thriller: Complete Edition

by Adam Steel

  ‘You here for the huntin'?’ Marv queried, not bothering to get out of his chair.

  ‘Could be. What’s there to hunt?’ Max answered lightly, as he continued to eye the assortment of killing knives.

  ‘Well there aren’t’ no bears,’ sneered Bud in the corner.

  Marv burst into a chuckle.

  ‘Whatever you want buddy, we got it. ‘‘cept for TV of course,’ he said, gesturing at a sign behind him.

  Max looked up. An iron crossbow had been suspended from the ceiling. It dangled like some demonic metal creature waiting to pounce. There was a big sign above the till which read: “Get back to nature at Deer Lodge. Say NO to technology”

  There were no Info-Coms, no T.V’s. No anything, to give them away. Ideal, thought Max.

  ‘Right now, I need a room for the night. Cheapest you got. First things first,’ Max said, nodding back at Aya, and grinning through his painfully swollen, lip.

  Marv smiled lecherously, and noted that Max was missing a front tooth.

  Chuck ‘snorted’.

  ‘A room! Thought you were going huntin'? Best huntin’s at night,’ Chuck challenged.

  Max looked back at him.

  Chuck farted again and said, ‘Want to rent a gun? We got some great rifles.’

  ‘For bears,’ Hank mouthed behind him.

  Max tried to look casual, but things were taking too long for his liking.

  ‘I didn’t realise there was any hunting going on out here,’ Max replied.

  Marv looked at Max, with a peculiar gleam in his eyes.

  ‘You’d be surprised who wants rifles out here,’ he said mysteriously.

  Behind him Bud added in, ‘…and you’d also be surprised at the amount of hunting that goes on outside Coney City. Just ask the TALOS boys,’ he said cryptically.

  Hank followed the comments with a burst of laughter. He laughed so hard that his enormous belly, wobbled. Max shivered at the mention of TALOS. He gathered his thoughts quickly and leaned in close to Marv.

  ‘I’m hunting pussy,’ he said sleazily, gesturing back at the shadowy image in the car.

  Marv sneered at him, while Hank laughed heartily behind them.

  Bud piped up, and joined in with the innuendos conversation.

  ‘Chuck couldn’t catch one of those either,’ he sniggered.

  Marv charged Max for the room, plus the ‘nice car’ and a ten per-cent ‘outside-pussy fee’ that he had just invented. Max slammed the credits down with his good arm and swept up the keys that Marv had eventually located.

  ‘Room 6. Last one on the rank,’ Marv finished.

  Max left quickly back to the car.

  Behind him, Bud leaned into Marv and said, ‘I don’t like the look of ‘im Marv. You catch his shoulder? He’s bleeding bad. What’s up with that?’

  Chuck leaned back in the corner and quipped, ‘Mauled by a bear. Betcha.’

  ‘Ayup,’ Hank agreed, reaching for another can.

  Aya got out the car dragging her bag (and the other bits they had lifted from Terrance and Timmy’s van) behind her. She kept in the dark as they made their way to the room. There was a very dim light hanging above the door of room six. Aya caught sight of Max. He looked grim. He was sweating heavily. Max was only kept on his feet by the Apexir burning through his system. It had been a supreme effort for him to just keep up the act for the men, even for just a few minutes.

  Max unlocked the door and they walked into the dingy shack. The room was large and dusty. The walls were adorned with a motley collection of faded pictures which were depicting hunting scenes. The living room doubled as a bedroom and to one side a door opened into a large bathroom.

  Aya hit the light and locked the door. Max headed for the bed and collapsed onto it, breathlessly. He tore weakly at the worker’s outfit that he had used to cover the TALOS uniform. Aya helped him to get out of the green outfit. As it was peeled away, she was horrified to see that his whole shoulder (and the makeshift tourniquet) was stained red. She undid his boots and pulled them off. Then she loosened his TALOS jacket.

  Somewhere nearby, a blue light was flickering. Neither of them noticed it.

  Her hand flew to her face, when she realised how much blood max had lost. He was sitting on the edge of the bed and he looked on the verge of collapse.

  ‘Oh Max. You’re bleeding to death. I’m so sorry…I...didn’t mean to,’ she stammered. ‘What do I do?’ she wailed.

  Max looked at her through groggy eyes. The Apexir was failing to sustain his battered body. Feebly, he gestured down at his TALOS uniform.

  ‘Reach down. Left leg - side pocket. Get that sachet out,’ Max whispered.

  She fumbled around in the pocket, and pulled out a silver sachet.

  ‘This?’ she said, holding it up.

  ‘Yeah. Tear it open. Don’t spill it. Yet,’ he instructed.

  His voice was growing ever weaker and beads of sweat were running down his face.

  ‘You need a hospital. You might bleed to death!’ she said, in a scared voice.

  Max ignored her. His eyes were closing. Together they eased his jacket off and unwound the tattered remains of one of Timmy’s shirts from around his shoulder. The wound itself was raw, and it was slowly oozing blood. The area around the wound had turned an ugly shade of purple, and, it was spreading outwards. It was obvious to Aya, that the wound was infected.

  ‘What now?’ she said, in a weak voice.

  ‘Use it on the wound,’ Max slurred.

  He was drifting in and out of consciousness. Aya emptied the contents of the sachet onto the wound, and held it in place with a piece of cloth from the shirt.

  Max groaned as the closing substance began to react. It made a horrid fizzing noise, and blood and white froth, oozed out of the sides of the cloth. She wondered how much blood a person could lose before they died. The bullet had lodged itself in his shoulder, but fortunately it had missed any vital arteries. She emptied out the contents of the bag that they had taken from Terence’s van. Most of it was useless hairdressing equipment, although she did find a first-aid kit, a pair of long, pointed hairdressing scissors, two miniature bottles of gin and a pack of towels bearing the motif “Terence and Timmy”. She went to apply a dab of gin to the wound, but Max snatched it from her, with his one good arm. Without hesitation, he downed the small bottle and collapsed onto his back, on the bed.

  ‘Thanks,’ he managed with a gasp.

  He fell into a deep sleep. His body had finally shut down against the onslaught. The burning pain had subsided. Aya knelt down beside the bed and put her hand on his burning forehead. She used the scissors to cut his sleeveless vest off, and then used one of the clean towels, and the other miniature bottle of gin, to clean the area around the wound. Then she applied a clean patch, over the fizzing wound and fixed it in place with a piece of dressings tape.

  Aya was left alone in the room. She shut the light off and came back to the bed. Max was breathing heavily on the bed. His chest rose and fell, in staggering gasps. She slipped out of her CURE uniform and climbed on the bed beside him. She lay her head upon his chest, and with one arm clinging to his battered body, she fell into an exhausted sleep.

  Somewhere in the room, a blue light continued to flicker faintly.

  Aya woke from a deep sleep to hear an owl hooting outside of the lodge. At first she was disorientated. She thought that they were in Max’s pad, and that everything that had happened, had been a dreadful nightmare. The gloomy clouds that had descended over the forest earlier had cleared and the moonlight was now filtering into the room through the thin curtains. Aya sat up and leaned over on Max. He was sound asleep, and he smelled strongly of sweat, and blood. He had sweated so much, that it had left her feeling sticky. She could smell the blood and mess on herself and it repulsed her. Her hands were covered in Max’s dried blood. Absently, she felt her hair. There was something in there. She fought the urge to retch.

  She got up and peeped out the window. Everything was e
erily quiet outside. She pulled the curtains back to allow the bluish moonlight to fill the room. She noticed that there was an old music player next to the window. She flicked the switch. Gentle music emanated from the machine.

  Over on the bed, Max grunted, drew in a deep breath and turned over.

  She swept up her clothes from the floor and walked groggily to the bathroom. She fumbled around until she could find the light switch. She pulled it and nothing happened. The bathroom was partly lit by the moonlight, and she gave up trying to make the switch work. A breeze was getting up outside and the flimsy curtain on the bathroom window lifted gently up and down over the gap. The music drifted into the bathroom. It was a low African beat, soft and gentle. She guessed it had been put there for the more romantic lodgers. She poured a generous amount of shampoo (that she had taken from the hairdressers van) into the tub and started to run the hot water. It made a generous amount of bubbles. She used some of the soapy water to rub off the worst of the blood stains from her jacket and hung it over the towel rail. Soon the bathroom was full of steam and the mirror on the cabinet fogged up. She used her finger to wipe the steam off the mirror on the medicine cabinet door. It ‘squeaked’.

  Aya examined her face. It looked awful. Her eyes were sore, appearing a creepy, alien green. The effect hadn’t worn off yet. She wondered if it ever would. Jack had said nothing about it being permanent. Not that she trusted any of the lies that he had fed her. She was convinced that he would have blinded her, if it was in his interest. She was thinking that Jack was a sleaze-bag and that he had ruined her life, whereas, Max had always tried to protect her. Yes that was it, she thought.

  Mentally, she rearranged the past events into a more pleasing order. She promised herself that if she ever saw Jack again, she would make him eat his fucking hat.

  She examined her face more closely in the mirror. It was bruised and her long, black hair, contained globules of something red. She shuddered and opened the medicine cabinet door. Inside, she found a red candle and a box of matches. She lifted the candle out and balanced it on the nearby sink basin. She picked the match box up, took out one long match and struck it. For a few seconds she looked into the flame: mesmerised. It shook violently between her fingers. She put it to the candle and dropped the match in the sink. The candle sprang to life and flickered in the draught from the partly open window. The colour in the room changed to a moody, dark red as the music beat softly. The bath was full to the brim, and a delicious scent filled the room.

  She took off Aarif’s engagement ring: placing it inside a pot at the end of the bath. She undid her bra, pulled down her panties and stepped out of them. Then she climbed into the frothy warm bath. Before she lay down in the bath, she used the hairdressing scissors to cut the hardened globules of red mess from her hair. A lock of her black hair fell to the floor (complete with a piece of Hawkins). Aya put the scissors down on the side of the bath and slid her naked body under the water.

  She could see Max through the gap in the door. He slept soundly: lost in dreams of red waters.

  The music drifted in and the candle flickered gently. She took a flannel, wet it, rung it out and pushed it firmly down over her eyes. She closed her eyes thinking of the train-wreck of events that had led her to this point. He’ll be looking for me. Aarif. He’ll know what I’ve done. Mother will make all the excuses in the world, but once he sees my face on the Info-Com, he’ll think I’m a wanted criminal, an embarrassment. He’ll be furious. He’ll kill me just like he did to the other woman in his hotel. If he finds me before they do.

  The ring ‘blinked’ inside the pot. Its blue sapphire had come to life.

  The curtains fluttered and the candle flickered in the soft breeze.

  Aya gently stroked her long hair, disentangling it and wiping the blood from its black strands. The foam in the bath turned pink, and bubbles popped blood. She lay partly submerged thinking. Cherry Hammond, he’d beaten her to death. How could he do that? Aarif’s is no more than a sadistic, murderer: a vile beast, who takes pleasure in torturing women. It couldn’t be possible. Maybe it wasn’t real; some illusion. It looked like they’d covered it up. Ajit, TALOS. They were all there. At least there’s no marriage to the evil man, she thought

  The blue glow, coming from the pot where the ring was nesting, grew brighter.

  BLINK…BLINK

  The music drifted far away. Aya ‘sighed’ hard, and tried to unravel her thoughts. Max had thought that she was mad when she told him what she had seen on the strange Info-Pad. She had been unable to explain it well enough. It had all been so confusing. She thought that no one was ever going to believe her, except the woman on the train with the red shoes who had given her the strange device. Who was that woman? she thought.

  BLINK…BLINK…BLINK…BLINK

  I shot Max. I could have killed him. What are we going to do? He could die. He could bleed to death. So much blood, she thought despairingly.

  BLINKKKKKKKKKKKK…

  Suddenly someone grabbed her ankles and pulled her bodily, under the water. A heavy hand, pushed hard down on her chest, holding her under the water. She kicked out hard, fighting for her life. Soapy bath water and foam sloshed over the sides, flooding the bathroom. She thrashed around for her life. Its TALOS…Its TALOS…they found me, she thought. She tried to scream and water spurted into her mouth. The soapy bubbles tasted sour and harsh: burning the insides of her mouth. The massive hands held her down firmly. The pain was unbearable. She thrashed hard with her legs, kicking out and hitting the body of the person that was holding her down. She opened her eyes under the water. They stung madly. She couldn’t see a thing through the tangled blackness of her own hair. She was drowning in soap. The pain in her lungs was unbearable.

  ‘Helppppppppp,’ she screamed under the water.

  The sound came out as bubbles, which she could hear clearly through the underwater world. Her lungs and heart were bursting. Every nerve in her terrified body was electrified. She frantically reached along the sides of the bath for anything to fight with. Her fingers grasped and slipped on the sides. Her nails broke, and pain shot up her fingertips. The hands held her down tightly and terror filled every cell of her body. Help me…I’m going to die. I’m going to die… help me, she thought. She banged her arm on the side of the bath and something cold fell in. She heard it clatter and scrape under the water. She groped: panic stricken to find it, as it slipped under her back. Her fingers wrestled to find leverage and grasp the object. Grabbing it tightly, she used every last effort in her dying body to bring it up and thrust it hard into her killer.

  The scissors stabbed him hard in the eye. His hands immediately let go, and she sprang up spilling most of the foaming pink water onto the floor. Aya gasped for air and choked, trying desperately to pull her hair (which was stuck to her face) away, so that she could see her attacker. He staggered back – holding the scissors that were embedded in his right eye. His feet slid on the slippery floor, and the Goliath of a man fell backwards, cracking his head open on the sink basin. It made a sickening ‘crunching’ noise as bone hit porcelain.

  The candle went out, but there was still a blue light coming from the moon outside. Aya stared in disbelief. It was Ajit! She recognised his attire, even in the dim light. He was lying under the sink basin ‘twitching.’ His brains were leaking from his cracked skull and the scissors were protruding awkwardly out of his eye socket.

  Aya jumped out of the bath and slipped immediately on the wet floor. Aya was on her knees gasping for breath. She coughed and spluttered the soapy water out of her lungs and nose. She crawled across the floor into the bedroom and still gasping and coughing, she yanked hard on Max’s limp hand. He stirred and groaned.

  ‘Max…Max…Help…’ she spluttered wrenching his arm.

  Max opened his eyes.

  ‘Hmmrph?’ he mumbled, sounding confused.

  Aya was pointing to her back and choking. She was half on, and half off, the bed. Max came awake and slapped her hard
on the back and she threw up a spout of hot water.

  ‘What the fuck happened?!’ he shouted.

  Aya shook her head and pointed towards the bathroom. Max swung his legs off the bed. Aya was clutching at his arm, indicating that they should go to the bathroom.

  ‘In there!’ she managed.

  Max lurched towards the bathroom and shoved the door wide open. The first thing that he saw was the dead goliath, lying underneath the sink with a pair of lethal looking scissors, sticking out of one eyeball.

  ‘He tried to drown me. I think I killed him. How did he know where we were?’ Aya blubbered.

  Max knew who it was, lying dead under the sink. Then Max noticed something blinking on the floor. Aya looked on in horror. The ring was glowing bright blue and blinking very fast.

  ‘It’s a tracking device. That’s how he found you,’ Max said in disgust, picking it up and crawling over to the toilet.

  He threw it down the toilet and pulled the flush.

  ‘Follow that turd, arsehole.’

  Max got unsteadily to his feet and pulled Aya up.

  ‘Get dressed. We’re leaving.’

  Aya scrabbled to her feet, backing away from the still body of Ajit. In death his one remaining good eye, remained cold and soulless. It had not changed at all.

  ‘I thought it was TALOS,’ Aya said, and coughed.

  Her throat was covered in bruises.

  ‘If it had been TALOS you wouldn’t have known about it. What he did? That was personal.’

  ‘Aarif sent him. It’s Ajit,’ Aya croaked.

  Aya was getting into her clothes while Max went over to the window in the living room. They could hear noises outside.

  ‘Who is it?’ Aya said trembling.

  Max squinted through the tiny split in the curtain. He saw Marv, Hank, Bud and Chuck piling into the forestry truck. They each carried rifles and copious amounts of Revive-U beer.

  ‘What are they doing out there?’ Aya questioned, as she pulled on her clothes as fast as possible.

  They heard the sound of the truck starting up and its headlights lit up the room. Max ducked down behind the curtain. Muted voices permeated the thin wooden walls of the Lodge. The Forestry truck turned around and its lights moved around the room until they disappeared. Aya crept over to the window and watched through the split in the curtain, as its red tail-lights, faded into the forest.