Utopia: A Dark Thriller: Complete Edition

by Adam Steel

  Ellie could feel Aya shaking uncontrollably and she put her finger to her lips and mimed, “Shushhhhh”.

  Ellie and Aya hadn’t noticed that Jon Li had slumped back onto the bed. His feeble protests were forgotten for the moment. They watched Max inch his way towards the window. They could see him crouching down, and glancing down into the street from the side of the window frame so as not to be seen from below. They saw his expression change, and he pulled back instantly. Max’s eyes flitted back and forth: calculating. Ellie and Aya could tell that it did not look good. They could see Max’s lips moving, but no sound came out.

  His lips spelled the words, “Shit…Shit...”

  Max’s body tensed and he crouched down and put his hand on the rifle. He saw movement at the gap under the door. A floorboard creaked outside. Max raised his pistol to the door as he grasped the rifle.

  Time went into slow motion.

  A deafening blast blew the door open and fired splinters of wood across the room. Max was thrown backwards by the spray of splinters: some of which were embedded in his arm. The rifle flew from his grasp and clattered across the floor. Dust and splinters of wood filled the air and mixed with the stink of gun-smoke. In a split second, four raggedy figures spilled into the room. One of the figures shoved a smoking shotgun straight into Max’s face.

  Max froze. His pistol half-aimed at the man. Max’s shot would miss. He knew that there was no point in trying to correct his aim. The stranger had him dead bang to rights.

  One of the other men plucked his pistol cleanly from his hand, as he thundered past Max disarming him neatly. Max held his hands up in surrender. He could feel the burn from the recently fired muzzle of the shotgun. He closed his eyes hard and waited for the blast that would put an end to his miserable life. In those instantaneous moments, he recalled the things that really mattered in his life. His baby girl Sophie and his lovely wife Sandy. His good-ole soldier mates. All long gone and dead. He would be seeing them all soon. He was glad that his miserable life was soon going to be all over. He missed his wife and little girl.

  ‘Move and you’re dead,’ the shadowy figure ordered.

  Max could hear the other men kick the bedroom door open. He tried to shut out Aya’s scream as their last line of defence was torn down. He opened his eyes and peered up the long barrel of the shotgun.

  The tall figure, who was holding it, was surrounded by smoke, and tiny dust devils, which swirled around the tails on his coat. The figure wore a long, black leather jacket, which was torn in several places. His brown hair was long and curly. A purple scar wound its way down his face, distorting the man’s grin. His dust-caked clothes were all black, and his leather boots were fastened up to his knees.

  One of the men called back to him from the bedroom where an almighty commotion was taking place.

  ‘Hey Lucian, you got that big fucker?’ the ragged man called.

  Lucian stared straight into Max’s angry eyes.

  ‘We’re supposed to hold him. If he does anything stupid - shoot him!’ the man called out.

  ‘Got it covered Edd,’ Lucian replied.

  ‘You heard,’ Lucian snarled at Max.

  He gave Max a stone cold stare. Max heard him. He realised that during the fleeting seconds when he had imagined that he was about to join his loved ones he hadn’t counted Aya in his list of things which mattered the most in his life. Max could hear her screaming from the bedroom. Three of the gang had forced their way into the bedroom, and were shouting and swearing at the two terrified women. One of them was making jubilant whooping noises. Max heard one of them slap Aya hard across the face. The sound made him wince.

  Aya screamed even louder.

  Thoughts of the gang potentially raping the two women in the next room, was too much to bear for Max, and his guts turned to knots at the frustration of not being able to help them. He looked towards the bedroom, and back at the tall man who was holding the shotgun to his face. Lucian pressed it hard into his cheek. Lucian’s piercing blue eyes, stared back at him. Their eyes were locked in a silent battle.

  Lucian slowly shook his head from side to side.

  Aya was screaming hysterically as two of the ragged men grabbed her and wrestled her to the floor. One of the men, who was wearing a red lumber jacket, was holding her down and trying to bind her struggling hands. He had been the one who had slapped her and he seemed to be enjoying himself. Every time the knot came loose, he hit her again. The other man was sitting on top of Aya. He was trying to ride her like some bizarre rodeo. He had spiky blonde hair and he had painted his face white, with black circles around his hollow eye sockets. His denim jacket was cut at the shoulders. Every inch of his exposed white flesh had been tattooed, pierced or scarred. He ‘whooped’ with excitement and brandished Max’s stolen pistol in one hand as though it was his trophy.

  Ellie tried to shelter the prone Jon Li, but she was wrenched from his side, and pinned up against the wall. A dirty hunting knife was held to her throat. The young man wielding the knife was thin and scruffy. He looked anorexic. Two lines of dried snot, ran down from his nose. It looked red and sore. She could smell the stench of his body odour.

  The man tying Aya’s hands cursed in frustration as the knot slipped yet again from Aya’s struggling hands.

  ‘For fuck’s sake, Bird! Cut that shit out. I can’t tie this with you moving her around all the time!’ he swore at the figure sitting on top of her.

  Bird gave him an injured look. He jumped off and leapt back into the other room, where Lucian was holding Max at gunpoint. The skinny young man jeered at Ellie. He made lurid suggestions about the women to his accomplice, while he coaxed the knife back and forth in front of her neck.

  ‘Hey Red - what do you prefer - blondes or brunettes?’ he jeered, mauling Ellie’s long, blonde hair.

  ‘Oh Yeah, I know, neither - 'cause you can’t get it up!’ he added, and roared with laughter.

  ‘Go fuck yourself Edd,’ Red retorted.

  Edd (or Skinny Edd, as he was known) and Red were arguing with each other over the sexual attributes of each of the women. Red finished securing Aya’s hands and heaved her to her feet. He stood her up against the wall next to Ellie. After he had tied Ellie’s hands, he clamped his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming. He had a wicked smile on his face.

  Max snarled and spat at hearing the commotion coming from the bedroom.

  ‘LET 'EM GO YOU FUCKERS! COMON TAKE ME!’ he yelled back into the bedroom.

  Lucian ground his boot into Max’s bandaged shoulder to shut him up.

  ‘You got a filthy mouth there partner. Odd for you lot as you’re all so fucking disciplined,’ Lucian spat at him.

  Max glared back at him. The shotgun dug into his cheek.

  Birdman had gone back into the living room where Max was being held by Lucian. He was rummaging through Max’s rucksack full of weapons. He moved in quick, jerky motions, like a nervous bird. He ‘grinned’ at Max with a mouth full of yellowed teeth, while he ejected the pistol clips with a satisfying ‘click’.

  ‘Got us a nice haul here boss, real primo stuff!’ Birdman exclaimed, towards the shattered entrance door.

  He hopped up and down.

  ‘Pack it up bird,’ a rough voice demanded.

  It came from the direction of the doorway. Max strained to turn his face towards the new voice. He caught a glimpse of a large man standing in the doorway. The man was wearing a black trilby. His hair that was long, grey and tied into a ponytail. He was wearing a long, oiled trench coat. He was unshaven and dirty. He had a gold earring in his right ear. It was in the shape of a dragon. His belt bore an old style western pistol holster. Nestled in the holster were two, old-style revolvers. He was holding a large jagged knife in his right hand. A number of notches had been etched into the blade.

  Max counted 14.

  The expression on the strangers face was grim. He strode purposefully into the room and put his hand on Lucian’s shoulder. He studied the roo
m – taking in the scene.

  ‘Good work, Lucian,’ he said simply.

  Lucian did not respond. He remained focused on Max’s glaring eyes.

  ‘This all of 'em?’ the stranger asked.

  Skinny Edd hauled the two women into the room and hurling them to the floor.

  ‘Got it covered boss. There’s one more in there, but he’s a goner by the looks of him. Red’s in there with him,’ Skinny Edd replied, and gestured into the bedroom.

  ‘We got the car?’ the stranger asked.

  He bent down and collected Max’s rifle from the floor.

  ‘Got it, Boss. Rust and Jeevo are stripping her down now,’ Skinny Edd put in.

  The stranger nodded briefly: satisfied, then he turned on Max.

  ‘Nice set of wheels you had back there. Not your usual kind of transport for you fuckers, eh?’ he spat.

  Max said nothing. He lay still under Lucian’s unflinching gaze.

  Birdman snatched up Max’s rifle and presented it to the stranger, bowing as he hopped away. The stranger cocked the rifle and expelled the bullets one by one. They clattered to the floor.

  ‘Not your usual armaments either,’ the stranger continued. ‘Well you really fucked up now. You come to my turf. Shoot my friends. Think you can just come and take us away?’ the stranger threatened.

  Panic stricken thoughts raced through Max’s mind. Who do they think we are? Who’d come out to this desolate shithole? Wait. The uniform. TALOS! Fuck. They think I’m TALOS! Max was seriously regretting wearing the black and red uniform into The Wastelands. He had assumed that it would be empty. They must be the remnants of the gangs who survived The Reckoning, he thought. He realised (with some dread) that they were the descendants or survivors of the same gangs that he would have fought against in numerous campaigns. They would hate TALOS with a passion. He knew that they were all in very deep shit.

  An excited voice came out of the bedroom.

  ‘Drago! Uh, Boss! Get in here. You got to see this!’ Red yelled.

  Drago left Max and strode into the bedroom to where Jon Li was lying. Ellie started to plead with Drago, but Skinny Edd jabbed the dirty knife at her throat again and spat something ineligible in her face. The point pieced her skin and it stung. She felt a tiny trickle of blood leak down the side of her neck and she froze.

  Jon Li lay slumped on his back on the bed. He was trying to say something. His head was swimming from the loss of blood. Drago stood over him.

  Red waved his filthy fingers at Jon Li and said, ‘Boss…Look!’

  The silver key gleamed on Jon Li’s chest. It rose and fell hypnotically. Drago stopped dead. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped. He whispered under his breath.

  ‘Fuck me. It’s one of 'em. A fuckin' Mason!’

  Drago’s face lit up with total disbelief and joy at the monumental prize which he realised they had bagged.

  Jon Li tried to speak again.

  ‘Wait…please listen!’

  Red bent over Jon Li and grinned. Jon Li opened his eyes and looked at the man who was bending over him. The man had no hair. It was shaved back to the scalp. He had a tattoo on one side of his temple. The tattoo was of a swirling Celtic pattern. His thick black eyebrows combined together to create a mean frown, even when he smiled. Red put his hand around the back of Jon Li’s head and lifted it up from the pillow. He looked at him squarely in the face.

  ‘We hear ya pal, but do you hear us?’ he queried, in an almost friendly manner.

  Jon Li was about to respond, when Red head-butted him hard in the face. The audible ‘crack’ of splintering bone was heard in the next room. Jon Li collapsed back onto the bed with his busted nose, gushing with blood. His vision swam.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ Red sneered, admiring his handiwork.

  Skinny Edd’s voice carried from the other room.

  ‘What is it boss? What we got?’

  Drago came back to his senses. When he spoke his voice was still barely above a whisper.

  ‘We got one of 'em,’ he managed.

  ‘What?’ came the reply.

  Drago grabbed Jon Li’s splayed arms and dragged him off the bed and he hit the ground with a painful thud. His brain rattled inside his skull as it hit the decaying floorboards. It felt to him as if his face was on fire. He couldn’t ever remember being in so much pain.

  It’s a nightmare. A nightmare.

  Drago dragged Jon Li’s limp figure through the door, like a prize piece of meat. He dumped him in the middle of the room triumphantly next to Max.

  ‘Jackpot guys,’ he said simply.

  Red and Skinny Edd dragged Ellie and Aya into the room and threw them down on the floor next to Jon Li and Max. Skinny Edd still held the knife to Ellie’s throat.

  ‘Don’t move bitch!’ he spat, and leaned over to take a look at the shining key that was hanging from Jon Li’s neck.

  Ellie shook her head in acknowledgement and wriggled from his grip. She put her hands to her throat and rubbed it: wiping the blood from her neck. Skinny Edd shouted out to Birdman who was dancing back and forth, with his new-found loot in his hands.

  ‘Hey Bird. Come and look at this!’ he called.

  As he did so, two fresh lines of snot flew from his nose. One of them landed across Ellie’s cheek, he sucked the other up between his lips. Birdman leaped over towards them. His nose chain swung from side to side.

  ‘What,’ he squawked.

  The excitement was tangible, and for a second, Lucian glanced away from Max’s eyes to see what all the fuss was about. Max tried to move. Lucian kicked him hard in the ribs and returned to standing over him with the shotgun held hard in his face.

  Birdman caught sight of the key and gibbered excitedly.

  ‘The key! The key!’ he squawked.

  He began to prance around hysterically.

  Drago bent over and examined the key and Jon Li’s laboured breathing ruffled his hair.

  ‘Is it real?’ Red questioned, pointing at the key.

  ‘I don’t know, looks it,’ Drago said, touching the key with the tip of the knife.

  He suddenly released the knife from the chain of the key. He had a strange feeling that the key had ‘bitten’ him and he thought he heard it speak.

  “Leave me alone. OR ELSE I WILL KILL YOU”

  Jon Li closed his eyes and groaned.

  ‘You got one boss!’ Birdman shrieked.

  Skinny Edd nodded at Jon Li and said, ‘Finally. Give him a taste of Mary and Jane.’

  Drago hesitated. He slid the knife back into the leather pouch which was tucked into his belt beneath the oily coat. He started to draw the two revolvers from his belt. Ellie whimpered in the background. Drago stopped in mid-draw. A confused and fearful look came over his face. The light gleamed off the blood-stained key he was looking at. The room had become crowded and claustrophobic. He looked over at Ellie. She was rubbing the trickle of blood from her neck, and for a second, he saw the same look in her face.

  Skinny Edd nudged Drago in the side and he flinched. Birdman had become suddenly very still. He was waiting for the execution. His eyes were alight. They were like those of a child on Christmas morning.

  ‘Uh, Boss?’ Skinny Edd encouraged.

  Drago released the gun handles, and rose to his feet.

  ‘Tie his hands,’ Drago ordered, looking back at Max. ‘Get their stuff. We’re taking them back,’ Drago said decisively.

  Skinny Edd caught the look in Drago’s eyes. No point in arguing with him, he thought.

  Birdman was already stuffing Max’s rucksack with everything that he could find.

  Jon Li slumped backwards into semi-unconsciousness and the voices from the dark figures melted away in the distance. The silver key clung to his neck for its own life.

  The group gathered up the bags, while Red bound Max’s hands roughly. Only when they were securely bound did Lucian relax his grip on the shotgun.

  Aya had begun to drool constantly. She was gibbering quietly o
n the floor. Her wrists were bleeding from the filthy rope that had been around them.

  The gang stripped Max of his weapons collection. They helped themselves to his spoils while he looked on angrily and helplessly. They emptied out the dwindled medical supplies from his uniform, along with his last tabs of Apexir. He prayed silently that they wouldn’t find the strange red vial that was concealed inside his trousers. He had been saving it for when the truly, deep shit happened. He wished that he had been able to get hold of it at that moment. He noticed that they seemed to know how to fleece down a TALOS soldier well. They had checked all the usual places that the uniform could hold weapons.

  Birdman had been looting the room and stuffing whatever he could find into Max’s pack. Skinny Edd slapped Birdman around the back of his head when he caught him stuffing another piece of rotting broken wood into the rucksack.

  ‘Quit that,’ he said, sounding annoyed. ‘We don’t need any more fucking broken wood.’

  Birdman grinned manically at him.

  ‘Might come in handy,’ he whispered to himself, and continued to add a few broken rusty nails, and a small clump of dirt, to his collection.

  Drago directed his orders at Skinny Edd.

  ‘You. Take the women. I’ll watch him.’

  ‘Lucian….and you,’ he said pointing to Red. ‘Pick him up,’ he ordered, pointing to Jon Li.

  Lucian shouldered the shotgun expertly, and the pair hauled up Jon Li each putting an arm over their shoulders. His head lolled on his shoulders. He was mercifully, unconscious. Drago ordered Max to get to his feet and walk. He was answered with a string of colourful obscenities. Skinny Edd hauled Ellie to her feet and pushed her towards the door. She stumbled twice.

  ‘Who are you people? What do you want? We haven’t done anything! Where are you taking us?’ Ellie questioned.

  Birdman appeared beside her as if by magic.

  ‘Dustmen! That’s us. Dustmen!’

  Skinny Edd slapped him around the head again, sending him yelping off into the lead.