by Trimboli, TJ
The ground met vent and Bobbi landed neck first against the table. The legs gave out. Everything was dark and at first, she could feel nothing but the pain in her neck. Panicking, she forced herself to move but nothing happened. Her brain sent out the signals but somewhere along the line, wires shred apart. She couldn’t feel anything from the neck down.
Bobbi panted, crying out. She opened her eyes seeing the mayhem unfolding around her.
Everyone was tearing each other apart. Men fought women, bloodying their faces with their fists throwing them around like they were a football before a big game. Some of the stronger women fought back against the men brutally splitting their faces open with whatever blunt objects they could find. One woman even used the handle of an axe to sodomize her victims. Children screamed, hiding beneath the chairs of slot machines waiting for it all to be over. It was absolute chaos.
Look at what we’ve become. Our bickering, our squabbling, all the politics, all the secrets, all the lies. We’re no better than the zombies. Does humanity even deserve to survive?
She didn’t know the answer to this anymore, but she pushed those painful thoughts away to a later time. At the moment, she needed to get moving again and sitting around, pondering existential questions were not the way to do it.
She thought as hard as she could about her feet begging her brain to send the signals.
Wiggle your big toe. It’s as simple as that.
She scrunched up her nose like she was going to sneeze, begging and pleading with her mind to align the right synapses and give her back her mobility.
At first, nothing happened but then she felt it. The tiniest flicker deep within the caverns of her mind. It’s what she assumed the big bang had started out as. A tiny bit of nothing suddenly igniting…sparking everything else to come.
She felt her big toe wiggle inside her shoes. Tears of joy strolled down her face. A body collapsed right next to her, blood seeping out of the wound in his back, drenching the back of her pants and shirt. The longer the fight went on, the worse it was for her people. They didn’t have the numbers nor the tenacity to take Kendra on like this. They were dropping like flies. She concentrated even harder this time, willing the feeling in her toes to travel back up to her brain sparking the rest of her body into motion. Then she looked to the side.
Kendra had just finished slicing one of her men into pieces and took notice of her. She charged towards her.
Bobbi felt a tinge of feeling course through her. The feeling was akin to a body part waking up after having fallen asleep on it. It traveled up her big toe through her legs, thighs, hip, waist, and finally ending at her arms. She flailed her fingers as Kendra approached.
The blade came down over her face in the blink of an eye. She had no time to check the rest of her bodily systems simply willing her brain into motion. She rolled out of the way off the table to the floor below landing on one knee. She rose ripping her hatchet from its resting place.
“Nice of you to join us,” Kendra remarked.
Bobbi stepped around the table stopping just short of Kendra. They sized each other up.
Kendra was well rested, free of any long standing injuries, and had the numbers on her side.
Everything of Bobbi’s ached. Blood dripped from just about every cut, bruise, or orifice she had. She would have to end this quick, there would be no room for error.
Kendra spoke again, “Oh, you know—”
Bobbi leapt towards Kendra before she could finish her thought, hoping the element of surprise would be on her side.
Kendra side stepped her, meeting blade for blade. She slashed at Bobbi’s back but she countered elbowing Kendra in the face. She fell back against a slot machine.
She may be well rested but she’s not you. She’s not a fighter, she’s one of the weak who hides behind their ivory towers only coming down to pick off the scraps. Keep on her. Bobbi faked going for a crushing overhead blow with her hatchet. As Kendra rose her blade to meet it, Bobbi landed a punch with her left hand directly into Kendra’s gut. Blood spewed from her mouth as she fell into Bobbi’s shoulder. She arched it upright as Kendra did shattering the girl’s nose in two places.
Kendra pushed her off retreating into the heat of battle.
Bobbi pursued.
As Kendra ran, she pushed countless men and women in her way to block Bobbi’s path.
Bobbi tore through all of them knocking them out with a one-two punch to the nose and throat. No more would die by her hand, except Kendra. She would be the last soul her hatchet would claim.
“What’s the matter Kendra? GOD turn his back on you?” Bobbi taunted.
Kendra ducked behind a slot machine pushing against it with all her might. It dipped off its frame leaning like the tower of Pisa, its end destination right on top of a small child crying his eyes out.
Bobbi leapt into action racing for the kid. The slot machine broke free from its pedestal careening towards the boy. Bobbi jumped at the kid tucking and rolling away with him in her arms. The slot machine shredded the chair the boy hid under in seconds. Coins exploded from its console smacking Bobbi in the back, arms, and neck. They felt like bean bag projectiles being shot out of a shotgun. She’d only used them once on the force, during a party held by Trent. Him and a few of his friends had enough alcohol in their system at that point when they thought it would be hilarious to get shot by them. He wore the welt for five weeks, and walked around clutching his stomach like he had an ulcer.
She rolled the boy off of her. “Are you okay?” She wondered.
The boy screamed but his warning came too late. The rope wrapped around her throat dragging her upward by her neck. Kendra squeezed tightly, the noose constricting her vocal chords. She tried to scream but nothing came out. Her lips turned purple, her neck bulged. She grabbed at Kendra but she was too quick to snatch.
“Look around you, bitch. See all this?” she muttered forcing Bobbi to survey the wanton destruction around them.
Bodies littered the floor. Men, women, children, dead, or bleeding out. A few stragglers still fought but it would be over before she succumbed. She could make out Hector in the corner fending off three men. She was surprised to see an older man such as he hold his own against so many but he could only keep up for so long. Soon, he would join the ranks of the dead and even sooner would she.
“You caused all of this. How many had to die because of you Bobbi? When is enough, enough? Huh? Will you not be satisfied until the whole human race is nothing but a memory. A grain of sand in time? You do not get to kill GOD’s creations, that is for him to decide.” Kendra spewed gripping the rope so tight, blisters formed and popped on her palms.
Bobbi felt the world slip away. Her vision blurred, the pain fell away, as she slipped into a euphoric unconsciousness waiting for the gates of the afterlife to welcome her in.
Then she took the largest breath possible.
The noose around her neck gone as she fell to the floor.
Vision returned, she turned to see what happened. The kid she saved was burrowing her hatchet into Kendra’s thigh.
Kendra grabbed the kid flinging him by his shoulders. She stumbled backwards woozy from the loss of blood.
Bobbi stood to meet her grabbing her by the shoulders. She ripped the hatchet from Kendra’s thigh drawing a blood curling scream. “Maybe I am just that Kendra. Maybe GOD did send me to do away with us all. He saw what you were doing and he knew. He knew how far his creations had faltered. Where he once sent a flood, now he sent a plague, zombies to wipe the playing field clean. And then he sent me, the last of the truly good on this Earth to pick the scraps clean.” She fulminated rising the hatchet over her head.
The ship rocked dipping down the side of a monstrous wave.
Bobbi and Kendra lost their balance slipping down the length of the room. They fell straight into the lone window by the casino cash out center. It shattered instantly against the force of their collision sending them both to the outdoor pathway. Water c
ontinuously splashed them in the face from off the railing. The storm was at its zenith raining down wave after wave upon their shore.
Bobbi stood but an oncoming wave took her right off her feet. The water crept back out to sea as quickly as it came, the undertow dragging Bobbi and Kendra with it. They crashed into the railing, the only thing separating them from a grisly demise in the deep, dark, tranquility of the ocean floor.
Kendra got her footing first leaping at Bobbi dragging her nails across Bobbi’s face.
She countered flipping Kendra off of her.
Lightning struck the ship behind her, sparks pelting the back of her head. Thunder rumbled seconds later. Kendra stood over her. Equidistant from the two of them was Kendra’s knife hovering right on the edge of the ship.
They glanced at each other for the briefest of seconds before diving for the knife.
Bobbi smartly stayed low using the railing as her buffer from the open ocean. A wave surged into her but her grip on the railing held her in place.
Kendra jumped towards the knife ignoring any and all safety techniques Bobbi employed. The wave hit. It was massive with no end in sight. The wave finally broke and Kendra had disappeared.
Bobbi stood up gripping the top of the railing. She looked over the edge searching high and wide for the false prophet of God. The water was blacker than the sky, she could see nothing. The water surged at her feet fleeing back to where it belonged. Bobbi turned and was met with a clothesline from hell. Kendra connected right at her throat flipping her over the railing as if she was the last entrant in the Royal Rumble. She never had a chance of gripping the railing. She fell and all she saw as she fell to her death was Kendra’s wide-eyed, evil smile. She gave her the finger and left.
The free fall felt forever. Bobbi could see another wave careening towards her. She would never get the chance to peruse the depths of the ocean below. The wave would crush her against the ship killing her instantly.
At least it will be a quick death. She rationalized.
Breath escaped her as she collided with a hard surface. She gasped for breath turning over to notice her new digs. She was lying in the middle of the escape boat Morris had returned in. In their effort to stop Kendra, she had completely forgotten they had tethered it to the side of the boat at the fishing level. What luck? She had no time to count her lucky stars or ponder this bit of Deus Ex Machina for the wave she thought would be her demise leapt forth to meet the side of the ship.
It lifted the escape boat sideways spilling her inside the shipping level. Water overflowed the room tearing into the halls half submerging the level. She fell on top of a box filled with god knows what but boy, it must be heavy. She laid upon it catching her breath. She couldn’t help but laugh. She’d just survived an impossible scenario and better yet, Kendra now thought she was dead. The odds were ever in her favor.
The water sloshed around her. Turning to see what the commotion was, she saw a fin protruding out from the depths—a large one at that. She leapt up, pulling her feet out of the water. The box was barely above the waters tip. She stood upon it gleaming her first shot of the shark.
It must be twelve feet long and had to weigh at least three hundred pounds and now it circled the box she stood upon. Bobbi looked around for an exit. The door was ajar but the hallway beyond was just as submerged as this room, the shark could easily follow her. A ventilation access shaft loomed a few feet away from her but it sat too high up to reach. She would have to jump from the box to have any shot of coming within arm’s length and she didn’t have the stamina to jump so far and high.
The shark lunged out of the water nipping at her heels.
She kicked at its nose, and it forcefully lashed its tail against the box splintering some of the wood. The right side of the box crumbled inward. It wouldn’t hold much longer.
Losing her balance, she felt the box dip towards the open square in the side of the ship. The water was being sucked back out to sea and the tide was dragging the box with it. She turned for the door but knew she had no shot of getting out, the undercurrent was too strong.
The shark circled around the room coming back towards her. This time, it swam straight towards the box.
He knows he can break it.
Bobbi gazed towards the vent. The box was flowing at a perfect angle, she would pass right underneath it on its way to the open ocean.
She bent her knees, there would be only one shot to make this.
If not, I’m shark food.
The shark bared its teeth. The water flowed outward.
She was nearing the vent.
Five feet.
Four feet.
Three feet.
The shark’s nose rammed the box snapping it in two.
Her feet wobbled falling from the box. She reached upward stretching her arms as far as she humanly could, feeling like Michael Jordan trying to make the last basket for the toon squad. Her right hand missed the vent by inches slipping from the sweat upon her fingertips. Her left hand fell upon the razor’s edge so forcefully, it cut up her fingers. Blood dripped down upon her face. She paid it no mind, she had more than her fill of blood on her body this trip to ever be nervous about the substance again. She held on with one hand watching the shark slip past her, back out to sea.
Bobbi reached her other hand up grasping with both hands and with the stamina and upper body strength of an Olympic gymnast, she pulled herself into the vent and crawled off to finish this once and for all.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
TRENT
Darkness.
It washed over his being encompassing every pore, every synapse, and every thought of his psyche. He assumed he was dead, languishing in the void of eternal night but it felt wrong. His body ached, his mind collapsing like a building set for demolition. He must still be alive, trapped in the rotted husk of a decrepit, disgraced, disgusting former cop.
Like a butterfly breaking free of its cocoon, Trent sat up as if he were the Undertaker and tonight was ™Wrestlemania. He looked around unsure of how he got here, all he could notice was the blood. Lots and lots of it. He looked up, not knowing what it was he hoped to find out, confused when nothing in his vicinity made sense. He had no recollection of falling seven stories, no recollection of being stabbed three times by a little girl, but most importantly and horrifyingly, he remembered every bit of his plan to find Bobbi, and make her his wife once more.
He rolled over righting himself to a standing position. He had no feeling in his left arm but he couldn’t tell anyone even if they asked him. He was far too drunk and he would need only one part of his body anymore…two once he made his way back to the wine cellar.
Thunder roared in the distance. Trent fumbled forward grasping a ledge in front of him to keep him upright. The double doors beside him had been torn from their hinges like someone threw a grenade at them. Inside was a battlefield, dozens of bodies strewn around the casino.
Blood had been splattered everywhere. Trent scanned the room seeing nothing more than bodies lying around as if they were having a slumber party or camping in the woods. He couldn’t tell the dead from the living anymore, the sick from the healthy, friend from foe.
A ceramic planter doubled over behind him shattering into pieces, leveling dirt at his feet but to Trent it looked far more sinister. He jumped back at what he saw to be blood seeping its way towards him. Staring at the planter, he saw the corpse of his beloved.
Bobbi lay with her head split open like an egg shell, yolk pouring from the wound.
He fell at her knees delicately cupping her head in his hands. He never felt the razor sharp edge of the planter slice at his fingertips. All he saw was Bobbi’s eyes looking into his, her beautiful vivacious, luminous eyes.
“She did this Trent. It’s her fault we can’t be together anymore,” she spoke rubbing her palm against the grainy scratchiness that had become his beard. “I wanted us to be as one again. To feel you inside me. To feel alive again. I love you.” Her lucid s
parkling eyes turned dull and gray, the opaqueness of them sucking in the warmth of her glowing stare. A solitary tear rolled down her cheek.
“I love you baby. I should have been there to protect you. I should have been there every step of the way, making love to you, cuddling you, keeping you out of harm’s reach.” Trent mused kissing her soft, supple, dead lips never once tasting the soil of dirt against his mouth. He spotted a figure down the corridor in front of him. It slithered down the hallway favoring its left leg. It was hurt, slow moving, easy to overcome. Trent let the dirt slip through his fingertips as he crouched into a pouncing position like a cheetah stalking its prey.
The figure never once saw him coming.
He moved with the efficiency of a black panther stalking through the trees. With five quick, silent strides, he was upon the figure clawing at her robe tearing it into pieces. The figure fell forward falling into the room on her right. She threw the door shut in his face but using his foot as a door stopper, he barged his way in. The figure came into view, disgusting Trent.
It looked like a mole, no hair on its body, with droopy breasts and blood pooling down her thigh. The mole rat scurried backwards to the bed.
Trent removed his belt letting his pants drop to the floor and he pounced.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
BOBBI
The heat became stifling.
Bobbi laid unfurled in the tight, enclosed space to the best of her ability. Her bones ached, skin burned, peeled, cut, bruised, and battered. It was the most punishment ever inflicted upon her. She could line up every injury she ever received on the job and it still wouldn’t amount to what she’d endured today. She was physically and mentally drained but she couldn’t stop now.
The job wasn’t over yet, high noon hadn’t rung, the butchers still ran the shop.
Willing her bones into motion, she continued crawling down the access shaft towards a junction. She repeated the same steps as last time memorizing the steps she took earlier.