by Tim Miller
Finally, she looked at Derek.
“What are you looking at? Get out of here. You fuckin’ stink.”
He didn’t argue, as he walked through the door and back into the hallway. Derek barely made it into the hall when he heard screaming and shouting. Two security guys came walking by dragging a woman in a shiny dress.
“Derek! Help us out man!” the short, bald one called out. He recognized the guy but couldn’t remember his name.
“What’s going on?”
“Camila said to put her in the furnace, but the bitch keeps dragging her feet. Get her legs…dude. You all covered in shit? What the fuck?”
“Long story.” Derek removed his jacket and stuffed it in a nearby trash bin. He bent down and grabbed the woman’s legs. She kicked and flailed at him until he got both of her feet in his grip and followed the men down the hall and around the corner. They went down a flight of stairs and to a freight elevator. They took the elevator down where they ended up in the lower level of the building.
The woman continued to scream that her dad was a state senator or something. They reached the incinerator where a man in coveralls was working, with a large bin, tossing body parts into the fire. Between the heat and the smell, Derek thought he might throw up again. The guy at the furnace had a bandana over his face.
“What the fuck is this?” he asked.
“Boss lady said she goes into the fire.”
“No! Please! My family has a lot of money! We can pay you! We can pay you! Please! No!”
“Well, shit. She one of the new ones?”
“Yeah,” Bald guy said. “She freaked out her first time in the rooms. So Camila said to burn the bitch.”
The furnace guy sighed.
“All right. Let me find a crate.” He strolled into a side room and began digging around. The woman continued screaming and struggling.
“Hey buddy!” Bald guy yelled. “Could you hurry it up? The bitch is getting squirrelly here!”
The furnace guy came out of the room pushing a large wooden crate. The thing was a little over four feet long.
“Just stuff her in there. You’ll have to fold her over.”
She screamed again as the men shoved her inside. Derek pushed her legs up over her head until her knees were touching her face. He held her ankles down until Bald guy flipped the lid closed. Derek moved away and it took all four of them to push against her kicking to get the lid closed. They nailed it shut as Derek stood. The furnace guy was standing a foot away looking him up and down.
“What the fuck happened to you?” he asked.
“Nothing. Can we just do this?”
“Just pick up the crate and set it on these tracks” The man pointed to the set of rollers leading into the incinerator. They placed the crate onto the rollers and stepped away. The man took a long T-shaped rod and pushed it into the fire. Derek could hear the woman pounding and screaming. This was the first time since he’d been at the Club he’d had a direct hand in killing someone. He remembered the story Blake told him and wondered how he felt watching a human being burn alive.
He watched the box disappear into the fire. Once it was in, he turned and started walking away.
“Where you going Derek? Don’t you wanna watch?”
“No, I’m good,” he said. He got on the elevator and hit the up button. Wondering when he could change his clothes. Shit wasn’t the only thing staining him.
Chapter 20
Laura spent over an hour cleaning up when she got home. Most of it in the shower. Getting the bloody chunks out of her hair took forever. The shower drain was stained red by the time she’d finished. Too bad there wasn’t a shower for her mind. No way she’d ever expunge the images she’d seen the past few days. Maybe this mission would end up killing her. She didn’t suppose that would be the worst thing. After everything she’d seen and done the past few years she was convinced there was no afterlife.
If there was a hell, the Country Club was it. Other than that, she decided we are all nothing but walking sacks of meat and bone. Once our meat sacks were done, then that was it. She could use a super long nap after all of this. Until that happened, she had shit to do. Once she felt she was clean enough, Laura pulled on her robe and grabbed a bottle of wine before sitting on the couch. She took a drink straight from the bottle while trying to figure out what Brett was doing there.
Her first thought was to call Mr. White and just ask him. But she decided against it. Instead, she had to try and contact him somehow. How would she get a message to Brett without setting off any alarms at the Club? She’d have to wait until tomorrow. She couldn’t even find the place if she wanted to. Taking another drink of wine, she heard something in the kitchen.
Laura stood and made her way there. She gripped the neck of the bottle, prepared to swing it at an intruder if needed. She heard the clanging of pots and pans and wished she had a gun handy. Moving slowly to the door, she pushed it open and stepped inside. She lowered the pan when she saw who it was.
“What the fuck? What are you doing here?” she said.
Mr. White turned to her and smiled.
“Well, hello Laura. Things are going great at the club, I see.”
“And how would you know? And why are you in my house?”
“Your house? Getting possessive are we? You forget who put you here?”
“Fine. What do you want?”
He turned back to the cupboards and dug through pans until he found what he’d been looking for. There were glasses shoved behind the pans. He removed a glass and held it out to her.
“You going to share some of that wine?”
She stepped forward and poured him a glass.
“I’m going to have to restock the liquor cabinets when you get through here. I’ve never seen a small girl drink so much. How do you function?”
“I drink a lot.”
“Fair enough.”
“So you came all the way out here to talk about the liquor cabinets?”
“No. Of course not. You’re doing great work.”
“You said that. And how do you know what happens there? I haven’t spoken to you for a few days.”
“I know. You think you’re the only one we have inside?”
“No. I saw Brett today.”
“Oh.”
“You lied.”
“I did no such thing. I told you he was on assignment elsewhere.”
“Yeah. He’s not, he’s here.”
“He’s elsewhere in the club. Trust me, telling you he was there would only compromise the whole thing. We are nearing the final phase.”
“Of what?”
“Of taking them down. That’s what you want, isn’t it? He’s in much deeper than you are. He’s been there for months. You saw. He’s on the cleanup crews. He can’t leave. He lives at the club and has to go in and clean up all that slop. You were losing your shit over eating a few babies.”
“Jesus fucking Christ. Do you hear yourself? Is this shit normal for you?”
“I apologize. Just trying to put things in perspective. This operation has a lot of moving parts.”
“I’m curious about your organization. Why are you the only one I’ve seen from it? Other than Kyle, your guy who got me from jail. I’ve not seen anyone else from this group of yours.”
“That’s by design. Trust me. The less you know the better. If you get discovered, you can’t tell them what you don’t know.”
“And why do you go by Mr. White? The guy who runs the club is Mr. Black. What the fuck is that about? You guys gay lovers or something? He your ex-boyfriend?”
“Did you always talk like this around Brett?”
“Maybe.”
“Of course. Look, over the next few days we are going to make our move. You’ve done well hanging in there. I’ve no doubt no one else could have gotten this far and got it done the way you have.”
“So what does your move consist of? Or you not planning on letting me in on what the end game is here. I
mean you going to have a SEAL team bust in or something? Bomb the place? What?”
“Nothing like that. We have several people in place already. When the time comes, you will know. Trust me.”
“Ok. Not helpful. Then what do I do?”
“You do what you do best.” He finished his glass, sat it on the table and walked out. She stood there watching until she heard the front door slam. She took another drink straight from the bottle before hurling it against the wall. To her dismay, it didn’t shatter to pieces. It just bounced off the wall and onto the tile. She stood there watching it roll across the floor more frustrated than she’d been earlier.
Whatever was happening must be a big deal. He could have told her all of that over the phone. He didn’t actually tell her anything, just a bunch of vague, useless bullshit. For a second she thought of her plan to disappear, but knowing Brett was inside, she couldn’t just leave him knowing what they’d do to him. She walked into the living room and to the bar. Opened another cabinet and took out another bottle.
Chapter 21
Brett finished mopping the floor of the empty room as his partner scrubbed the walls. The whole place smelled like bleach. He’d been working cleanup at the Club for months. There had been times he forgot why he was there in the first place. Mr. White had gotten him inside. He had no idea how or what strings he’d pulled. But his cover story was he’s been on cleanup at the club in Florida but being moved here.
Camila hadn’t questioned it. One of the security guys was also working for White and had been the one to bring him in. Brett wasn’t sure how many people White had on the inside, but he wished something would happen. He wasn’t sure how much of this he could take.
“Ok, all done here,” Clint Thiele, his partner said. Clint had been here longer than he had. He knew Clint wasn’t a plant. He’d been a friend of Amelia’s. She’d brought him here one night on a date, but Clint freaked out. Amelia begged Camila not to kill him. So she put him on cleanup. The guy had been a spoiled rich kid, so this was a huge step-down. As it was, he barely spoke. Hardly anyone on cleanup talked. It was like they were all too depressed to speak. So they just lumbered around through their meaningless existence.
Brett nodded to Clint as he rinsed the mop and packed up the supplies. This was their last room of the night. Brett placed the supplies into the cart and pushed it down the hall. As they headed for the elevator, Blake the security guy came walking past. Brett couldn’t stand him.
“Hey! It’s the undertakers! What’s up guys?” Blake called out. Brett tried to keep his head down as he pushed the cart past. Instead, Blake stuck his hand out, stopping the cart.
“What’s wrong man? How was the cleanup today? Anything good?”
“Can we just go?” Brett asked.
“Oh come on. Just making conversation. Hey, just curious. You ever fuck any of the dead bodies before you bring them downstairs?”
Blake looked into the other cart which was a modified laundry cart Clint was pushing. That one had what was left of the body in it. This one had been a middle aged woman.
“Damn, looks like she was hot at some point. So you all feel her up?” He reached in and squeezed one of her dead breasts. Her throat had been cut and most of her limbs severed. “I always wondered what it would be like to fuck a chick with no arms and no legs. I mean at least she couldn’t claw my back, right? But for real. I mean when you go in those rooms they’re still warm. You don’t give them a feel? Stick your dick in for a bit?”
“No. We don’t do nothing like that,” Brett said.
“Damn shame. I sure as hell would.”
“Can we go?”
“Dude. You guys always sulk around here like someone just shot your dog. Is your job that depressing?”
Brett just stood there looking at the man. It was hard for him to hide his disdain for Blake, or any of the security guys or members. He’d gotten better at it. Part of him felt like this had been a step-down. For years he and Sophie traveled the country taking out these assholes one at a time. That is until they got caught. It was Mr. White who gave them this second chance. As much as he hated this, it was better than sitting in jail. At least some days. Others he wondered if he’d been better off taking his chances in prison.
“Fine. Be that way,” Blake said taking his hand off the cart. “Just think about it, dude. Maybe the only ass you get. Unless you guys like to bang each other.”
Brett and Clint finished pushing the carts onto the elevator and into the lower level. There, they handed the waste off to the guys at the incinerator and headed back to their quarters. Brett was glad he at least had his own room. It wasn’t much. It had a cot, with a small bathroom, a shower and a mini fridge. They brought down meals a few times a day. He went inside and took a quick shower. Once he finished, he pulled on a t-shirt and shorts and sat on his cot.
Seeing Sophie earlier had thrown him off. He had no idea Mr. White had recruited her as well. Somehow, they’d gotten her in as a member. He was glad to see how good she looked. Her hair was shorter and a different color. She was a tough girl, but at least he only had to clean up the messes. She’d have to make them. He hoped whatever they had her doing didn’t change her. It had to be hard on her. Sophie’s hate for the club and its members was intense. He only hoped White would turn her loose soon. Brett had seen her in action. He knew what she was capable of.
It had been weeks since he’d gotten any word from White as to what was going on. For a while he’d wondered if the whole operation had fallen through and if he was stuck here permanently. If that were the case, no way he would go on. He’d drink a bottle of bleach before spending the rest of his life in this place. When he’d seen Sophie earlier, that had given him hope. That told him something was about to happen.
He leaned back on his cot and picked up one of his old paperbacks. They brought him books from time to time. He could get any book he wanted. He just had to give them the title and author and a day or two later he had his books. This one was Pet Sematary by Stephen King. He’d read it before, but it was a good escape for him. He was surprised he wanted to read anything horror related since his daily life was a horror show. Yet this was unlike anything that happened at the Club.
As he opened the book, a slip of paper fell out. It was folded over several times. Brett sat the book down and lifted the paper, unfolding it. He figured it was an old book marker someone had used before. When he opened it, he was shocked to see what was written on it.
Tomorrow. Be ready.
Chapter 22
Derek arrived for work as ladies were beginning to come in. He hoped this night would be less eventful than the night before. He could do without another shit shower or having to burn someone alive. Unfortunately, this place didn’t give you time off due to stress or have a counselor on staff to process the horrors you were forced to commit or see each day.
Most of the new girls had returned. There was one more missing. He wondered if Camila had her killed also. It was better not to think about it. Later, the one girl had caught his eye. Laura he thought her name was. She was the one who was fucking Camila the other night with a severed dick. He felt incredibly dirty for having been so turned on by that. At the same time, he wondered if this was his lot in life shouldn’t he just enjoy it?
This night, Camila had asked him to work the rooms. What that meant was walking up and down the hall outside the rooms, ready to step in if any members needed anything. He’d only ever done it once. He was usually down in the holding area or the control room. He got to the hall and saw Blake walking up and down.
“Hey man!” Blake said. “What’s up?”
“Not a whole lot. You working the hall too?”
“Yeah. I’ll be at the far end. I think you’ll have rooms one through four.”
“Not so bad.”
“Right? Much better than being down in holding. Fucking stinks down there and everyone screaming… The control room just gets boring. At least here we can move around and get i
n on some of the action.”
“What action?” Derek asked.
“I don’t know. Didn’t Amelia have you helping her out the other night?”
“Yeah, she had me hold some spike in some dude’s ass while she hit it with a hammer. That’s how I got covered in shit.”
Blake threw his head back laughing.
“Dude! She is fucking savage. I love that lady. She’s nuts. That is seriously bad ass.”
“Yeah it was great.”
“Hey. You’re lucky. She had you help her. We’re just the help. We don’t get any play time like these guys do. Not unless it’s some shit like the other night with that new girl who flipped her shit.”
“Yeah.”
“All right man. I need to get in position. I’ll talk to you later.” Blake turned and headed down to the far end of the hall. Derek turned and went the opposite direction. As he walked, some of the room doors were partially open. He could see people strapped to tables, chairs and one woman was hanging naked upside down with her hands and feet tied up.
He stood at his post for almost an hour before members began heading to the rooms. It wasn’t long before the new girl, Laura came down the hall in his direction. He tried to look ahead and not make eye contact. However, as she walked into the room she stopped and looked at him for a moment. He turned his head and met her gaze.
“Good evening, ma’am. Can I help you with something?”
“No, I don’t think so. You’ll be down here all night?”
“As far as I know. Why?”
“No reason. Oh, do you know if Mr. Black will be here tonight?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t. He kind of comes and goes as he pleases.”