Handing the pipe back to Forty I leaned back into the thread-bare couch we were lounging on and watched the others in their various states of drug use. I didn’t know their names; I knew Forty and that this was his house, but there was no part of me that wanted to know any of the other addicts. Mostly due to the fact that several of them were pushing the plungers on the needles in their arms and I promised myself I’d never inject. No, I could snort, eat and smoke, but I’d never touch needles. Not after seeing what it had done to my parents. Of course I knew I was a big fat hypocrite for getting high then judging them, but I didn’t have any kids depending on me and only occasionally fucked for drugs.
I was pulled out of my introspect by a hand starting to creep up my thigh. Looking down, Forty’s dirty fingernails were caressing my leg where my skirt ended and I cringed a bit before shoving his hand away. “What the fuck, man?”
He looked over at me and smiled. “C’mon Ang, I know you’re almost broke and that was your last rock.” His smile only got more lascivious as he tried to pull the strap of my camisole down my shoulder. “You could earn more…”
Ok, sometimes I fucked for drugs. Forty knew that; I knew that. But I’d always thought he’d have my back and it wouldn’t ever come to that between us. Apparently I was wrong. Standing, I straightened my skirt and grabbed my bag off the floor. “I’ll be back.” I walked to the door and stopped before leaving to turn back. “You’ll get money from me Forty, and that’s all you’ll get.”
Laughing, “And how do you plan to do that, Ang? Get a job?” He laughed so hard at his own joke he almost spilled the forty of beer in his hand.
I fingered the switchblade in my skirt pocket for a second. “Nope. Like I said, you’ll get your money.” With that I left the room, closing the front door as gently behind me as I could; it’s never wise to startle that many people on that many drugs. He’d get his money, and hopefully no one got hurt in the process.
After leaving Forty’s, I walked down Main to the corner of 8th Avenue, where I ran into Sarah sitting at the bus stop, smoking a cigarette. Seeing me, she grinned, which made the sunburn across the bridge of her nose crinkle. I nodded my “hey” and sat down next to her.
I pulled a smoke from my pack and lit up. “I need to make some money,” I said through the cloud of smoke I let filter from my nose and lips, looking over at her.
She stared at me for a second, and then nodding, she stood up. “Let’s go, then.”
We started walking further down Main, into the heart of town. The late Friday night traffic creeped down the street, casting a glare from the headlights on the glass fronted shops that had long closed up for the night. I only half-listened as she told me all about the latest fight she and her girlfriend had had, focusing more on finding a John.
Sarah stopped talking as we spotted a few drunken college boys smoking out front of The Gatehouse, which was a popular bar for the “parent funded” kind. We had done this a few times and almost had it down to a science.
I pulled a smoke from my bag and hiked my skirt up a bit as we got within hearing range from the guys. “Any you guys got a light?” I smiled helplessly and let my voice lilt up. Sarah had already sneaked down the side alley that led around to the always dark parking lot in back, where I would lure our target.
“Sure, beautiful.” Bachelor Number One said, pulling a lighter from his pocket and lighting the end for me.
I took a deep drag and smiled gratefully. “Thanks.” I tilted my head coyly and batted my eyes, sizing him up. He wasn’t huge, but could likely take me without much problem. Lucky for me the red rims in his eyes told me all about how much he’d had to drink; he shouldn’t be too hard for the 2 of us.
“I’m Delilah. And you are?” I asked running my hand lightly down his sleeve.
He stepped away from his buddies whose attention was riveted to a small group of girls giggling a few feet away. “Mike. Damn, your eyes are beautiful. I bet your boyfriend tells you that all the time, right?” He winked at me and moved in closer.
I giggled just enough to know a slight blush crept into my cheeks, making me seem even shyer. Then I looked up at him, eyes wide and lips slightly parted, flicking my tongue out just enough to moisten my bottom lip. “Say, Mike, um, I think my car battery died, would you mind coming to take a look at it for me please?”
Mike’s chest puffed up like a rooster and I could just about smell the pride of being able to rescue a helpless girl wafting from him.
He offered me his arm, “Lead the way, beautiful.”
Smiling up at him, I took his arm and led him around the side of the bar, away from his friends and the lights from the street. I could feel him trying to fight the alcohol enough to come up with something clever to say, but I knew he wouldn’t have time as we reached the end of the alley where Sarah was waiting.
We’d done this enough times to college kids passing through that neither of us ever worried about being ID’d.
I stopped and faked being lost for a moment. “Damn, I thought the parking lot was back here somewhere…” I looked up at him sheepishly.
He smiled and pulled me closer. “Well, at least we’re alone now.” He started to run a fingertip across my collarbone when I caught sight of Sarah sneaking up behind him.
“Make one move and you’ll regret it,” she said, pressing a blade into his back.
“What the-“ Spinning, he caught her off guard and I watched in horror as Sarah panicked and drove her blade into his side. His eyes got big and scared, but before he could yell again, I reached back and punched him as hard as I could, aiming up and out into his nose, watching as blood started to spray everywhere. He went down hard and we didn’t waste any time grabbing his wallet from his pocket and running for all we were worth back down the alley. We didn’t stop until we were 7 blocks up, then cut across back onto Main Street.
I stopped to catch my breath and turned accusing eyes on her. “What the fuck, Sarah! You didn’t have to stab him!”
She looked at me and pulled the wallet from her pocket and shrugged. “It’s his own fault for scaring me.” I watched her pull a wad of bills out, count it, hand me half and throw the wallet into the bushes that were bordering the auto body shop we had stopped in front of.
Shoving her take in her pocket, she smiled at me, winked and kissed my cheek before shoving her hands in her jacket pocket and starting back down Main. “See you next time, Ang.”
I stood there for a moment, watching her leave. Sarah was the kind of person who never gave a fuck about anyone but herself and one of these days she was going to get us both killed. I shoved the cash in my bra and started back towards Forty’s house. “What the fuck am I doing here?” I muttered to myself, hiking my bag higher up my shoulder as I walked.
“Hey, I see lights!” Ty’s excited words pulled me from my thoughts and I was suddenly smack dab back in reality.
I had no idea how much time had passed, but we’d apparently made it to the end of the woods and I stopped next to Ty to see what he was pointing at. Just up ahead there was a house with boards over the windows, but you could still make out a faint light around the cracks.
“Should we risk it? We don’t know who’s in there.” The concern in my voice was echoed by the expression on Chloe’s face. She obviously didn’t trust people any more than I did these days. Smart kid.
I looked up at Jack, waiting for him to weigh in on the situation. He took a final drag off the cigarette that had been dangling from his lips and stomped it into the dirt below. He looked at me, looked at the house, then the ground. Too bad one of my super powers wasn’t telepathy because I’d sell major organs for the chance to read his mind.
We were standing on the edge of a small cul-de-sac, staring at the neat little row of houses on the edge of the woods we were using for cover. The sun had sank and there was just enough light to make out the light coming from the largest house on the end.
“I say we keep going,” I said, determined to avoid civi
lization at all cost. I didn’t want to risk anything else happening to one of us or anyone else learning that I’d been bit; that was a great recipe for a bullet in my brain.
Ty looked at me, and for a moment I could see the man struggling to find his place in the world from behind the eyes of the boy in front of me. “No. We need to eat and rest,” looking back to the house, “Besides, there can’t be too many people in there and we could take them if we needed to.”
“Easy for you to say,” I muttered, resigning myself to yet another terrible idea. But I wasn’t going to argue as my bladder decided to inform me I’d need to find a bathroom, and soon.
Jack pulled us into a semi-circle before anyone could rush off full force. “Fine, let’s see if they’ll let us crash for the night. But if anything even remotely seems off, we’re out.” That was all he said and we all nodded in agreement. No one wanted to fight anymore and I could hear every belly in the group arguing over whose was the most empty; we needed to eat.
Looking across the street, I counted at least 5 dead wandering aimlessly; body parts dangling and various bodily fluids left in their wake. They didn’t seem to notice the lights on in the house we were focused on, and didn’t seem to notice us either.
Pulling my sword from my sheath I whispered, “No bullets. Let’s keep this quiet. We don’t want to cause anyone to rain bullets down on us in a panic.” My answer was the sound of various blades being pulled from various holsters as we fanned out into the street, picking our targets.
I crept up behind a young guy in a dirty red fleece hoodie, shorts and sandals. A chill made its way all the way down my body until I was sure every hair I had was standing straight up. He was missing half his face but the glinting of twilight in his blond hair reminded me so much of the guy Sarah had stabbed in the alley that I was worried for a moment it was the same guy.
Hearing my footsteps, he turned and snarled, starting to lunge at me. It wasn’t the same guy and I felt nothing but the steel slide through his neck as I jammed my blade then turned it sharply until his eyes rolled back and he started to fall.
Wiping the blood off on his sleeve, I crept over to the grandmother in a paper thin night gown that had seen the kid fall and felt the need to investigate. She jumped at me, gnarled fingers curled and spit and blood running down her chin; features twisted into blind rage.
Without so much as a blink, I stuck my foot out when she got close enough, tripping her and rammed my sword into the back of her skull when she hit the pavement. I felt numb as I pulled my katana out of her skull and wiped the brain matter on the back of the floral gown she would now rot in. It was like each time I killed someone, a part of me died. I worried for a moment that I was running out of compassion and wondered how many more kills I had left in me before I didn’t give a fuck at all anymore.
I looked up just in time to watch Ty land a roundhouse kick to what I was assuming was grandpa. Grandpa stumbled which gave Ty an opening to swing his sword almost in a full circle, granting him the momentum to nearly sever the dude’s spine. I was filled with awe at the sheer grace of it all. Ty didn’t strike me as the athletic type, but apparently he’d been holding out information, with moves like that.
Standing in the middle of the street for a moment, we inspected all directions in the event we’d missed anyone, but there was nothing. The only sounds were the heartbeats of the others, all racing at the same pace, with the exception of Roscoe. He just sat there, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth and tail wagging. Shaking my head, I found it unsettling that I was jealous of a dog and his carefree attitude.
No one said anything as we slowly made our way up the drive to the house our eyes had been on. As we got closer, I could hear whispering through the walls and the erratic staccato of hearts racing. I stopped before we got too close and motioned for the others to stop as well.
Holding my hands up over my head, “We mean you no harm. Please let us stay the night, there are children with us.” I whispered trying to sound as helpless and scared as I could. So far I’d had a lot of practice, so I was apparently convincing enough because I spied the barrel of a shotgun poke its way through the boards covering the small window above the front door.
“How many are you?” A gruff voice came out muffled from behind the door.
“My name is Jack Jones, and I’m with my friends Angie, Ty, Chloe and our dog Roscoe. Please let us in, we won’t cause any trouble.”
That got someone’s attention because the sound of a deadbolt being unlocked was immediately heard and the door creaked open far enough for a face to appear alongside the rifle.
“Jack Jones? The movie star?”
“Yes, that Jack Jones.” I head Jack’s eyes rolling as he said it, but I was grateful he wasn’t above using his quickly diminishing star power to grant us passage.
“Well c’mon in then,” The man said while unlatching the chain lock and opening the door far enough to squeeze out with his rifle and survey the lawn for any dead stragglers. He cast a wary glance at us before continuing. “Any ya’ll been bit?”
“No sir. We’re just really tired.” Chloe stepped forward so he could see her for all her tiny, messy glory.
He looked her over and immediately softened. “Alright, get in here. All ya’ll.” He motioned with his head and we quickly shuffled past him into the house, stopping in the entrance long enough for him to bolt back inside and watched as he chained and locked the door.
Once inside, my eyes took a moment to adjust to the partial light. It was a modest, 2 story affair and there was camping gear strung about the living room. Electric and gas lanterns were scattered about a pile of sleeping bags and I almost missed the bright, curious eyes checking us out from around the kitchen door.
I turned back to the man, “Excuse me sir, may I use your restroom?”
He walked past me and gestured down a dark hallway. “Second door on the left, water bucket’s next to the john. Only pour a little into the tank before flushing.”
I nodded and grabbed Chloe’s hand, dragging her with me. The hall was dark and fuck only knew what we’d find, but I wasn’t about to be caught with my pants down alone.
We took turns with our business then quietly crept back to the living room where everyone was huddled around Jack like he was a rare artifact. I guess in some ways he still was.
I caught the tail end of Jack telling the small group about our harrowing adventures, noticing he left out some key facts. Facts like what really happened at the Dome, but I wasn’t about to show our cards to strangers.
Seeing me and Chloe peeking around the hall, he smiled. “And this is Angie and Chloe.”
The faces turned on us and I found myself forcing on what I hoped was a non-threatening smile. “Hi.”
The old man nodded in hello to us and cleared his throat before turning back to Jack. “So where’re you folks headed?”
Jack sat down on the floor next to Roscoe and rubbed his beard. “We were thinking of heading to the airport, getting a plane and head north.”
I tried to hide the surprise from my face at the partial lie and was incredibly glad no one was looking at me. I was a shitty poker player.
The old man sat in the recliner across from Jack and set his rifle on the ground, leaning up against the chair. “Oh yeah? What’s up north?” He seemed curious, but not suspicious so I took that as my cue to sit down next to the others.
Jack shrugged. “Not sure. Maybe Canada; I’d bet those bastards wouldn’t last long up there. I’ve got family in D.C. that I was hoping to check on so that’s a possibility too.”
I kept my eyes to the ground and tried to look busy petting Roscoe, which apparently was the idea because suddenly Chloe and Ty were just as interested in the dog as well. I didn’t bother trying to join the conversation as it was very clear this was “man’s business”, but decided that would likely work out to my advantage at some point.
Peering up through my eyelashes I tried to get the lay of the place as best
I could. I could hear the old guy’s heartbeat, plus 4 more in the nearby kitchen. If I had to guess I would say at least one was a child.
I directed my attention back to the old guy to catch him inspecting Jack intently while stroking his chin.
He coughed and spit a wad of tobacco into a nearby spittoon before speaking. “That’s a nice fairy story. Now tell me the truth.” His voice was gruff, like sandpaper that had been used time and again yet never lost its grain. If I looked ‘Good Ol’ Boy’ up in a dictionary, I was willing to bet there’d be a 10x8 glossy of this guy. Glancing around the walls, I spotted family photos littered amongst medals and a picture of him as a younger man in a military suit. Fuck my life, more military.
Jack and the old guy stared at each other a moment longer before Jack nodded and continued. “To be honest sir, while we were at the AlamoDome they captured Angie and abused and experimented on her. Now she can do things we can’t explain and wanted to see if there is anyone left out there working on a cure because there’s a solid chance it’s in her blood.” Well fuck. If looks could kill, Jack would be a rotting corpse staining the carpet at that very moment.
“What do you mean ‘experimented’ on, exactly?” The old guy cast a mistrusting eye my way and I felt his blood pressure spike. I made him nervous, which made me nervous considering he was obviously former military and my shiny new distrust of anyone in a uniform was still very present.
Looking up, I decided to meet his stare dead on. I was under no circumstances going to be pushed around. “I found out too much, they took me, injected me with god only knows what, beat me, raped me, and I was glad to see them die. Then I got bit and didn’t turn.” I stood and pulled up my shirt sleeve so he could see the near faded bruise with the faint outlines of teeth marks around it.
This is the End (Book 2): Not Dead Yet Page 6