Bottle Full Of Scorpions

by John Dominick

  Breaking all his ribs. Breaking his legs. Breaking both his arms. Using the stock of the rifle to smash in his face.

  I thought about getting a bug (don’t ask me how I’d get it, I didn’t bother figuring out that part) and dangling it over him while he slept, then letting it drop right on top of his fucking movie star face.

  Or locking him in the bunker with a couple of bugs and seeing how that went.

  I must have come up with another dozen variations using fire, burying him alive, caving the bunker in on him, strangling him to death.

  Then I started all over again from the beginning.

  Those daydreams were the best I felt all day.

  While I dreamed about killing him, I almost forgot how bad I hurt, inside and out.

  38

  They all came in as the sun was going down.

  Jon asked me how I was. I just shrugged.

  Noelle glanced down at me, then looked quickly away. That made me feel worse than any of my actual injuries.

  Craig acted like he didn’t even notice I was there.

  They talked a little, then ate.

  Now we’re out of spaghetti and meatballs.

  At least I got one of the last cans. It took me forever to eat the meatballs, but the spaghetti was easy enough to get through my swollen lips.

  27 cans of soup. 43 cans of vegetables. 19 cans of fruit. 10 cans of tuna fish. 103 liters of water.

  In 2 and a half days, we had gone from 198 cans of food to 99.

  Two months worth of food – the way I’d been saving it and eating it real slow –

  Gone.

  And 70 liters of water.

  Gone.

  While they talked as the sun disappeared, I just sat there in the darkness, daydreaming about a hundred different ways to kill Craig.

  Shooting him through the heart. Shooting him right in the middle of the eyes. Shooting him in the left eye, then the right one…

  In the background, the bugs whipped their tails.

  shikka-shikka-shikka-shikka-shikka-shikka-shikka-shikka

  I finally dropped off to sleep, and I dreamed of the same thing: killing Craig.

  Best night of sleep I’d had in weeks.

  39

  I felt better in the morning. Not as sore. I could eat a little bit faster, too. Didn’t take forever to get down a can of peaches.

  They ate their breakfast and then left me again in the bunker.

  27 cans of soup. 43 cans of vegetables. 13 cans of fruit. 10 cans of tuna fish. 99 liters of water.

  As they were walking out, Jon asked, “You feel like joining us today?”

  I shook my head ‘no’ again.

  “Alright, well…just yell if you need anything,” he said.

  I nodded but didn’t look at him.

  Noelle was the last one out. She paused at the bunker doors, then turned around.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  I looked up at her.

  I wasn’t just surprised, I was shocked.

  “…for what?” I asked, feeling as stupid around her as I ever had.

  “Because of what Craig did. I shouldn’t have…I shouldn’t have let that happen.” She gestured towards me. “I shouldn’t have let…this happen.”

  “I…” I blushed a deep red. I could feel it, like my face was on fire. “I’m sorry I…I was…watching.”

  She wouldn’t look at me.

  “Yeah…well…I’m sorry for what happened.”

  Then she walked out of the bunker and shut the doors.

  I felt ashamed that I had done what I did, and that I’d admitted it, and she wouldn’t even look at me.

  But I also felt the happiest I’d been in days.

  It wasn’t the strongest feelings I’d ever had for her. I’d felt something powerful when I saw her naked, but that wasn’t happiness. That was something else.

  That was want.

  Here, I just felt like…I don’t know. Like I’d accidentally killed somebody and the government was gonna execute me…and then I found out, no, it was all just a big misunderstanding, and I got to go free.

  I laid there on my mattress, the biggest, stupidest grin on my face, making all my sore spots hurt.

  I didn’t care.

  I laid there thinking about her all day. Kissing her soft…undressing her…touching her…having sex with her…

  But as hard as my dick got again, I didn’t touch it, not once.

  I couldn’t risk her coming in again and seeing me doing that.

  It would have been creepy.

  40

  They came in and took cans and soda bottles out for lunch. What we had left was 25 cans of soup, 41 cans of vegetables, 13 cans of fruit, 8 cans of tuna fish, and 92 liters of water.

  They came in for dinner as the sun went down. 22 cans of soup, 37 cans of vegetables, 13 cans of fruit, 6 cans of tuna fish, 86 liters of water.

  I didn’t care.

  I had a smile on my face the whole time.

  I was still smiling when I dropped off to sleep to the shikka-shikka-shikka of the bugs.

  I slept even better than the night before.

  41

  I got up the next morning feeling okay. I mean, I was still sore all over, but it didn’t feel like I had broken glass in my joints. In fact, after breakfast (22 cans of soup, 37 cans of vegetables, 7 cans of fruit, 6 cans of tuna fish, 81 liters of water) I even joined them when they went outside.

  The sunlight was blinding. I blinked at the emptiness of the desert all around.

  “Lazarus come forth,” Jon joked. I smiled, cause Grams made me read the Bible all the time and I knew what he was talking about.

  Craig just spat in the dirt. “About fucking time,” was all he said.

  I ignored him.

  It took me a long while, and it felt like somebody was thumping all my bruises, but I climbed the ladder to the top of the RV. Once I was up there, I just collapsed on the plastic rooftop under the shelter.

  “Get out from under there,” Craig growled.

  I squinted up at him. The sun was behind him in the sky.

  I hated the son of a bitch, but I wasn’t exactly in good enough shape to argue with him. I started to move –

  “No,” Noelle said. “Ben, you stay there and rest.”

  Craig looked pissed. “If he’s lying there, there’s no room for anybody else!”

  “You hurt him so he has to lie down, so you can stay out in the sun.”

  “He should just go back to the bunker if he’s so fucking fragile!” Craig barked.

  Noelle glared at him like he should shut the fuck up.

  Amazingly, he shut the fuck up.

  I got up after an hour or so, though, so the girls could sit under the shelter. Noelle smiled at me as we passed, and I felt ten times better.

  I spent the afternoon staring off into the distance. Craig kept talking about how he was going to go look for some gas and they’d get to a grocery store soon.

  “So why haven’t you gone and done it?” Noelle finally asked.

  “Ben here needs to show us the best spots to look.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have beat him up, then, huh?” I heard her say under her breath.

  I smiled.

  I think Craig heard, too, because he glared at her.

  He didn’t stay pissed forever, though. At lunch, he told her, “Hey, come with me, let’s go get some food for everybody.”

  “Take Jon,” she said.

  “I want you to help me,” he said.

  “I’ll go with you, man,” Jon offered.

  “Noelle should go with me.”

  “Ah. Gotcha,” Jon said, and smiled at Kristin, who smiled back at him.

  Noelle kept resisting, but Craig went over and started whispering stuff in her ear. She kept trying to shrug him off, acting all pissed…but then she stopped shrugging. And he kept whispering.

  Finally she followed him down the ladder.

  “Don’t take too long,” Jon lau
ghed at them.

  I didn’t get it until they didn’t show up after five minutes. “What’s taking them so…”

  Then I felt my insides clench together like a cold hand was squeezing them.

  She’s fucking him.

  Jon saw my expression. “You did kind of interrupt them the other night there, buddy.”

  My face felt like it was on fire.

  “Yeah, we were talking about slipping into one of the RVs – Craig really wanted to – but I remembered what you said the first night about the bugs nesting in there. I talked him out of it. Told him it would ruin his day if a scorpion bit his balls off while he was busting a nut.”

  Jon laughed. Kristin made an ewwww face.

  I just felt like I was going to throw up.

  Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes.

  I didn’t want to watch the bunker, but I couldn’t help myself.

  There was suddenly a high-pitched scream that was muffled by the iron doors.

  I sat up straight. So did Jon and Kristin.

  Then we heard what she was saying.

  “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY FUCKING GOD”

  And then kind of a loud grunting noise, and it was quiet again.

  “I think that was the finale,” Jon said, and settled back down.

  I felt like I was going to die.

  I remembered how Dale always said, I make the bitches scream their fuckin’ heads off when they come.

  Craig made Noelle scream when she came.

  I felt more worthless and alone than I’d ever felt in my entire life.

  Craig had beat the shit out of me. He had my gun, he had the girl I was in love with, he had a bigger dick than me, he wasn’t a geeky, scrawny virgin…and he made her scream when she came.

  I wanted to die.

  42

  They came out flushed and sweaty, with cans of food in their arms and several bottles of water.

  When they got up on the RV again, I sat at the far end of the roof staring off into the distance. I didn’t want to look at her.

  I didn’t want to see how happy she was.

  “Show-offs,” Kristin said as they opened the cans.

  “Oh my god,” Noelle said, real embarrassed. “You heard that?”

  “Who DIDN’T hear that?” Jon said. “If there’s anybody alive for two hundred miles, they heard it.”

  “Oh no,” Noelle groaned.

  “You guys can be our distress beacon. Our SOS,” Jon joked.

  “Yeah, except you can shout, ‘Oh my God, oh my GOD, OH MY GOD,’” Kristin teased.

  I looked back behind me. I couldn’t not look anymore.

  Noelle was red as a beet, and had her head in her hands. Her shoulders were kind of going up and down, and I could tell she was laughing, not crying.

  All I could think was, That should have been me down there making you say that. That should have been me down there.

  Craig looked real smug, like he was the motherfucking man. Then he stared at me right in the eye and smiled. Like, That’s right, asshole, that was ME fucking her brains out.

  I had to turn away, I felt so sick.

  “Yo, Ben, you want some beans?” Jon called.

  “…yeah,” I said, trying hard not to let them hear how messed up I was.

  He slid the can of beans over the top of the RV towards me. I grabbed it and turned back to the desert.

  “In fact, I think you’ve given me a really good idea,” Jon said.

  Kristin giggled.

  “Come on,” he said in a low voice.

  “Okay,” she agreed.

  “Hold down the fort for us,” Jon called as he went down the ladder.

  I watched as he and Kristin ran across the trailer park to the bunker and slammed the doors shut.

  Five minutes later there was more moaning and high-pitched shrieks. And this time Jon was shouting, too.

  That went on for a good five minutes, then finally there was a long scream and shout from both of them.

  “Try-hards,” Craig smirked, then called over to me. “Hey, Ben – who’re you gonna fuck?”

  “Craig,” Noelle snapped.

  “Oh, yeah, that’s right, I forgot, you’re just gonna fuck your hand.”

  “CRAIG!” Noelle yelled, furious.

  I didn’t answer. I just kept eating my beans and staring out into the desert.

  43

  They came back to the RV, all sweaty and big smiles on their faces.

  Jon came up the ladder first. “Ohhh, Jesus, man, I needed that,” he grinned.

  “I think you were putting a little too much effort into it,” Craig joked.

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “I think you were just trying to outdo us.”

  “We did outdo you.”

  “Yeeaaah…when I make my woman scream, it comes naturally, so to speak. She doesn’t have to fake it.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “No, no, I don’t swing that way, bro. I only fuck chicks.”

  I was only halfway listening to them. I was watching Kristin on the ground. She hadn’t followed Jon right away. She was down there adjusting her bra, like it was uncomfortable or something.

  I was in love with Noelle, but I have to admit, Kristin was pretty good-looking. She had big, full tits, maybe fake…I don’t know for sure. I only knew if boobs were fake when a girl in Playboy was laying naked on her back and they were pointing straight up, and I didn’t think I was going to get to see that with Kristin. But she was good-looking. So while she was adjusting her top and her bra, I couldn’t stop myself from watching her, watching the edges of her tits move under her halter top.

  So I was the first one who saw the bug. And I saw it too late.

  It came in from her side. It was already midair when I saw it. I was far enough back that I couldn’t see much over the edge of the RV roof, except Kristin adjusting her bra – so I didn’t even have time to yell before it hit her.

  She screamed. I don’t know if it was from surprise or pain, but she shrieked in a voice that was not faking it.

  A big splotch of red bloomed on her green shirt where the bug sunk its teeth into her side.

  I think I screamed after that. Noelle started a few seconds after me.

  Jon whipped around and looked over the side. Craig sat up so fast, he nearly knocked the gun off the top of the RV.

  “Oh Jesus OH JESUS OH GOD,” Kristin shrieked, and tried to swat away the black shape now attached to her side.

  Tiny drops of blood pattered on the dirt as she stumbled backwards.

  “KRISTIN – OH MY GOD, KRISTIN!” Jon screamed from the ladder. He tried to start down after her, but Craig held him back.

  Another bug scurried out from under the RV and launched itself into the air. This one hit her thigh, and scrambled up to join the other one on her stomach.

  She screamed again, hysterical, tears rolling down her face as she tried hitting at them. She didn’t try too hard, probably because they were dug in. If she’d hit them too hard, it woulda torn a big hunk of flesh out of her side.

  “KRISTIN, COME HERE!” Jon screamed. Every cord in his neck was standing out. “JUST CLIMB UP THE LADDER, BABY, JUST CLIMB UP THE FUCKING LADDER, KRISTIN, JUST CLIMB THE GODDAMN LADDER!”

  She stumbled forward and grabbed the rungs.

  That’s when the mouth of hell broke loose under the RV, and a dozen bugs swarmed out from underneath.

  It was like watching a bunch of ink spill out on the ground. Except the ink was all moving, and thrashing, and had teeth.

  Half a dozen bugs chomped on her feet and calves. The other half sprang into the air and bit into her thighs, her ass, her stomach.

  Amazingly, she didn’t let go of the ladder. She reached for the next rung, and then the next, even as the things covered the entire bottom half of her body like flies on shit.

  “SHOOT THE FUCKING THINGS!” Jon screamed at Craig, who was fumbling with the gun like he didn’t know which end was wh
ich.

  “I’m trying, I’m trying!” he yelled.

  Jon laid down on his stomach and strained his hands down toward her. “KRISTIN!”

  She was almost to him. She was screaming, and tears were running down her face.

  The bottom half of her body looked like wads of black tissue paper stuck to a hunk of raw meat.

  Half-dollar-sized drops of blood kept plopping on the ground beneath her.

  Then the drops turned into one long, steady stream.

  “FORGET THE FUCKING GUN!” Jon screamed at Craig. “HELP HER, HELP HER!”

  Craig tossed the gun aside and bellied down on the roof, extending his arms to Kristin.

  I looked at the rifle and thought for a split second, I could get it now.

  But I couldn’t tear myself away from the horror in front of me.

  “KRISTIN HONEY, TAKE MY HAND!” Jon screamed.

  She reached out – strained –

  And snagged his hand.

  “I GOT YOU! I GOT YOU!” he screamed.

  He immediately slid a few inches further over the edge, swung his other hand down, and clasped her wrist. He started to hoist her up.

  She had stopped making any noise, but her mouth was open in a silent scream so big that I thought the edges of her mouth might tear. Her eyes were bright, but the rest of her face looked white as a sheet.

  The bugs were writhing over the entire bottom half of her body like some black, plastic cocoon. Red gushed on the ground beneath her.

  Part of me thought, Jesus, what happens if they haul her up here and those things get loose on the roof?

  “KRISTIN, GIVE ME YOUR OTHER HAND!” Craig yelled as he reached down.

  She kicked off the rung with her feet – or what I could see of her feet, under a layer of chewing, pulsing bugs – and swung her other arm into the air.

  Craig caught it.

  Both guys yelled and grunted and groaned as they lifted her up.

  They almost made it.

  By that, I mean, they almost got all of her up on the roof.

  Then suddenly, the lower half of her body just broke apart from the top.

  The bugs must have chewed clean through her middle. Probably bit her spine in two. Once her backbone was cut and the skin and muscle was ripped all the way around, gravity did the rest.