Depraved 2

by Bryan Smith

  The assassin chopped at her neck again and this time Jessica didn’t get her arm up in time to repel the blow. The edge of the woman’s hand hit the side of her throat hard. Jessica gasped for air and the woman delivered another unimpeded blow to her throat. The second blow dislodged her and she wound up on her back in the hallway, clutching at her throbbing throat.

  The woman started to bring the gun around.

  Jessica pulled a leg back and kicked out at it. Her whole body was still burning with pain, but her survival instinct had kicked into high gear, dumping much-needed adrenaline into her system. The heel of her boot connected with the woman’s hand and the gun went flying through an archway into the living room. The woman scrambled after it on all fours. There was no time for delay. No time to worry about pain or what damage she might be doing to her body. She had to stop this bitch now or she would be dead.

  Tapping what felt like her last reserves of strength, Jessica surged to her feet and ran through the archway. The pain in her throat would have been disabling in circumstances even the smallest iota less desperate, but she pushed through it and got to the woman just as she reached the gun. Her fingers were curling around the automatic’s grip as Jessica launched herself at her again, slamming into her back and driving her to the floor again. She clamped one hand around her wrist and hooked her other arm around her throat. The woman thrashed wildly beneath her, but Jessica held on and continued to apply pressure. Beginning to panic, the assassin reflexively fired the gun twice. The slugs punched into the wall, sending chunks of drywall flying.

  Jessica pried the gun from her limp fingers as soon as the woman lost consciousness. Her instincts were screaming at her to start running, but she struggled hard to return to a state of calculating calm. The woman would be out for a few minutes. She had a small window of time to consider her next move. Heart beating faster now, she took a quick look around the apartment and soon located her handbag. A quick check of it verified her wallet and keys were inside it. She could only hope her car was parked somewhere in the vicinity.

  Time to go.

  There was no disputing that. Once she got away from this place and found somewhere to hole up, she could start sorting through the implications of everything that had gone down. But right now there was no time to think, only time for action.

  Jessica left the apartment without putting a bullet through the head of the assassin.

  She would have cause to regret this down the road.

  2.

  This road was the same as all the others that had once led into Hopkins Bend—blocked by barricades and plastered with signage warning travelers not to trespass. The language used was ominous. The land was now property of the federal government. The area was patrolled by armed sentries authorized to use deadly force against anyone caught violating the trespass warnings.

  Daphne Sanders glanced at her traveling companion. “Doesn’t that seem a little extreme?”

  Adam Vanek drummed his thumbs against the Saab’s steering wheel a moment before replying. He was leaning forward in his seat and squinting at the signs. Finally he shrugged and said, “That’s probably the whole point.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Adam let go of the steering wheel and leaned back. “The wording is just to put the fear of God into people like you and me. It’s a psychological thing. I bet a million dollars there’s no actual armed guards, but just the idea that there might be is probably enough to scare off most people.”

  Daphne nodded.

  Adam had parked his Saab at the side of Old Fort Road, a narrow rural road shrouded on both sides by tall trees. A dozen yards or so up ahead the now-barricaded Rural Route 42 forked away to the right. Beyond the barricade, another expanse of trees and lush greenery stretched away toward a bend in the road. The curvature of the road was sharp enough that she couldn’t make out much else in that direction, but there was no visible evidence of a human presence in the area.

  She popped open the door on her side and swung a foot out of the car.

  Adam seized her by a wrist. “What are you doing?”

  “What’s it look like? Getting out.”

  Worry lines formed around Adam’s eyes as he glanced at the signs again. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s not a good idea.”

  Daphne made a sound of exasperation and twisted out of Adam’s grip. “Are you kidding me? This was your idea.”

  Adam nodded. “I know. But that was when I was thinking of this place in an abstract way. I thought it’d be cool to visit a modern ghost town. But these signs and their dire fucking warnings are making me rethink that.”

  “Pussy.”

  Adam arched an eyebrow. “What did you just say?”

  Daphne smirked. “You heard me.”

  “I’m not a pussy.”

  Daphne shrugged. “So you say, but you’re the one who said the signs are bullshit.”

  Adam grunted. “You’re sort of paraphrasing there.”

  “Maybe, but that was the gist of it. You said there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  “Okay, that I absolutely did not say.”

  “It was implied.”

  “Like hell.”

  A silence ensued. As usual in moments like this, Adam was uncomfortable and unsure of what to say or do. Though she was his closest female friend, Daphne was a hard girl to read sometimes. Their relationship had never been anything other than platonic, which didn’t mean there was a lack of desire on Adam’s part. Daphne was beautiful. Her lush blonde hair and sculpted cheekbones compelled attention wherever she went, but there was so much more to her than good looks. She was smart and funny. She had an adventurous spirit, as well as an uncanny ability to make anyone feel like they were the center of the world. Being around her made the world feel more vibrant and interesting. Not falling instantly in love with a girl like that simply wasn’t possible. There was just one problem—she was in a committed relationship with another guy, had been for going on three years.

  But there were times when Adam wondered about the depth of her commitment. Moments like when Daphne regarded him with her features arranged in a way that could be interpreted as a subtly seductive pout.

  Moments like right now.

  Daphne pulled her leg back inside the car and turned toward him. The look on her face made his breath quicken. “I have an idea.”

  Adam cleared his throat. Oh, yeah? What would that be?”

  She smiled. “I don’t want you to think of what we’re about to do as breaking the law.”

  Meaning she still wanted to visit Hopkins Bend, regardless of Adam’s new misgivings. And she was willing to use any means necessary to manipulate him into going along with it. He had never verbalized the depth of his feelings for her, but of course it was something she understood anyway

  “How should I think of it?”

  She reached out and touched his knee. “Think of us as characters in a fantasy story. We’re not Adam and Daphne. We’re other people and we live in a faraway, enchanted realm. I’m a princess. Obviously. And you’re a handsome commoner hoping to win my hand against all odds.”

  “Handsome, eh?”

  “Yes. Very.”

  “Huh.”

  The fanciful scenario was a little hard for Adam to swallow. He wasn’t an unattractive guy, but his looks were only a slight shade above ordinary. A fairytale princess would be unlikely to give him a second glance. Daphne’s tactic was an undisguised appeal to his male ego, nothing more. It was actually a little insulting.

  She seemed to sense his thoughts. “It’s a story, remember? A story can be whatever you want. You make the rules. You shape the reality. And in this story the handsome commoner is about to embark upon an adventure, a hazardous journey deep into the haunted forest to impress the woman he most desires.”

  Adam stared at her a long moment. “What are you really saying?”

  She stopped smiling and the dreamy tone she’d adopted was gone when she said, “I wasn’t too into the idea of c
hecking this place out when you brought it up, but now that we’re here, I really want to see it. Make it happen and I’ll reward you.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning you’ll probably get lucky.”

  Adam frowned. “What about William?”

  William Martin was the boyfriend. He was her world, her “everything”, as Daphne always put it. He was a nice guy who got along with almost everybody, just a genuinely good person all around. Adam always hoped for a reason to hate William, but it just wasn’t possible, which was why Daphne’s reply sort of disappointed him even as it stirred excitement.

  “William will never know.”

  Adam thought about that.

  Despite his moral qualms, this was a temptation he knew he wasn’t strong enough to resist. He would do as she asked. He was opening his mouth to say so when he heard the noise. Daphne heard it, too. She twisted around in her seat to peer at the road behind them. Adam glanced at the rearview mirror. At first he didn’t see anything, but then a hazy shape appeared in the distance. It took a few more moments to discern the outline of a law enforcement vehicle. The noise they’d heard was the rising rumble of a powerful engine.

  Adam’s hand drifted to the Saab’s gearshift.

  Daphne glanced at him. “Don’t do that.”

  Adam shook his head. “No, we better drive on. That’s a cop.”

  “So?”

  “So we’re parked outside a restricted area. He’s gonna stop and give us shit about it for sure if we don’t get out of here. Close that door.”

  Daphne didn’t reply and Adam took her silence as acquiescence.

  His hand worked the gearshift and the Saab rolled forward a few feet before he realized the door on Daphne’s side was still open. He stepped on the brake pedal and looked at her again. Her arms were folded beneath her breasts and there was a mischievous smile on her face. The car’s brief moment of forward motion had caused the door to swing open a little wider. “Please close the door.”

  Still smiling, Daphne shook her head. “Nope.”

  Adam groaned. “Please stop playing around. This is serious.”

  “Who’s playing? It’s too late, anyway.”

  Adam looked at the rearview mirror.

  Shit.

  She was right.

  The cruiser was right on top of them now and was beginning to slow down. Its flashers came on as it slid into place behind them at the side of the road. Though he couldn’t make out door emblems from his vantage point, Adam guessed it was from some other town a little farther down Old Fort. Being a ghost town, Hopkins Bend no longer had a police force.

  He glanced at Daphne. “Let me do the talking.”

  She laughed.

  “I’m serious.”

  “What’re you gonna tell him?”

  Adam shrugged. “I’ll say we stopped to take a picture of the barricade and that we’re about to leave.”

  Daphne rolled her eyes. “Great story.”

  “You got a better one?”

  “Just tell him we’re lost.”

  Adam shook his head. “No, because then we have to make up some lie about where we were really heading. Then there’ll be lies upon lies. It’s best to keep it simple. Stopping to take a picture is close enough to the truth that we don’t have to bullshit him. He’ll scold us and send us on our way and that’ll be the end of it.”

  Daphne pouted. “And we don’t get to see the ghost town.”

  Her tone was no longer playful. Daphne rarely turned genuinely sullen, but when she did, the dark mood often wouldn’t lift for hours. Adam knew if he didn’t act fast to prevent her shift in mood from becoming entrenched, the remainder of the day would be irretrievably spoiled. And then it would be another two whole weeks before they could hang out again. Once every two weeks, William traveled two-hundred miles to attend to operational matters at his company’s sister facility in Memphis. Daphne preferred to schedule her outings with Adam on those days because it was the one time of the week when she could easily spend time alone with him without William knowing about it.

  “We’ll get into the town.”

  Daphne lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? How?”

  Adam frowned.

  That was a good question.

  He had just started thinking about it when Daphne started screaming. Her change in demeanor happened with such abrupt totality that he couldn’t begin to process it for a few seconds. She kept screaming, an ear-piercing sound that was explosively loud in the Saab’s interior. When Adam realized her gaze was trained on a spot somewhere behind him, he twisted around in his seat and gaped at something that made him squeal in fright.

  Holy shit! Is that a—

  3.

  The boom of the gun ripped another scream from Daphne’s already straining lungs. Yet another followed in its wake as the back of Adam’s head blew apart. Blood, brains, and bone fragments splattered her face and blouse. More gore struck the dash. The body of her friend was falling toward her an instant later, the ruined back of his head coming close enough to give her an excruciatingly vivid look at the bloody, jellied remains of his blown-out cranial cavity.

  She pushed at the body and scrambled away from it, falling backward through the open door. She landed on her ass on the road’s gravel shoulder, but her legs were still inside the car. Turning her head, she looked beneath the car and saw the booted feet of the assailant. He was still over there on the driver’s side. But then the man’s feet turned and began to move toward the front of the car.

  Daphne shrieked and scrambled backward, extracting herself fully from the car. Once she was clear of the Saab, she rolled over and got to her feet in a shallow ditch. She got a look at the man’s leering face as he came closer. His dark hair was long and greasy and his face was covered in a thick layer of grime that looked like a combination of dirt and engine grease. He wore a mechanic’s shirt with the name Earl stitched on a patch above the breast pocket. The gun clutched in his right hand was a big one, a gleaming nickel plated monster.

  Earl almost certainly wasn’t legally authorized to use a law enforcement vehicle. He was some kind of unhinged lunatic on a rampage, a cop killer driving a stolen cruiser. Daphne could think of no other logical explanation for what was happening. She needed to put some serious distance between herself and this greasy redneck son of a bitch before he started putting some ugly holes in her beautiful body with his gigantic gun.

  But her options were few. She couldn’t take off down the road. He would shoot her down or catch up to her easily enough. She also couldn’t just stand around and hope to be rescued by the invisible army sentries the signs said were stationed in the area.

  There was just one thing to do.

  She wheeled away from the advancing predator and dashed into the woods. Amused by her terror, the man named Earl cackled and fired his gun into the air. The blast jolted Daphne’s already overdriven heart. The image of what a single bullet from that gun had done to Adam’s head was still at the forefront of her consciousness. The prospect of the same thing happening to any part of her body caused anything resembling coherent thought to temporarily abandon her. Maintaining constant, rapid forward motion was her only goal and at this she was successful for a time, moving with instinctive agility as she leaped over obstacles on the ground and ducked under low-hanging branches. She covered so much ground so quickly the part of her brain that managed reason and rational thinking began to click back into gear. Maybe she could risk taking a peek over her shoulder to see if the deranged mechanic had followed her into the woods.

  Maybe—

  Daphne gasped as her foot snagged on a vine. She was going too fast to do anything but pitch forward and land face-first on the ground. There had been no time to brace for impact. The patch of ground where she landed was flat and relatively free of rocks and tree stumps, but the force of the landing sent a shockwave of brutal pain through her body and temporarily immobilized her.

  For long moments, she remained on the ground
, a prisoner of the pain, but soon she discerned the faint sound of vines crunching beneath the fall of booted feet. So Earl had followed her into the woods. Of course he had. She had watched him commit cold-blooded murder. He wouldn’t want to leave behind a living witness to the crime.

  The fact of Adam’s death hit her with fresh force and kept her on the ground for precious moments longer. That he was definitely dead was something she couldn’t deny. Under other circumstances—say if he’d died in a car crash—perhaps she would have had the cold comfort of temporary denial common in the wake of tragedies.

  Right now, however, all that mattered was action. She braced her hands beneath her and gritted her teeth against the pain as she got to her feet, crying out in pain as soon as she was fully upright. She immediately regretted it.

  A mocking voice sang out to her from somewhere in the woods: “I hear you!”

  This was followed by another of those maniacal cackles

  Daphne whirled about, unable to get a fix on the location of the voice. She had been down for the count for a few minutes. He might have had time to get ahead of her. He might be circling her even now, enjoying taunting her as he lurked somewhere just out of sight.

  Maybe a dash back to the road was in order. She could haul Adam’s corpse out of the Saab and burn rubber out of this fucking place. She hated the thought of abandoning her friend’s body, but it would take too long to wrestle him into the passenger seat. She hated being that coldly pragmatic about the remains of someone she’d cared so deeply about, but in truly desperate situations you did what you had to do, regardless of how awful it was.