Revenence (Novella 2): Dead Tired

by M. E. Betts

  "You'll be back at some point," the sadist menaced. "Alone." He slammed the door closed, leaving Adrian and Ragtop to themselves. They started down the walk toward Ragtop's idling pickup.

  "I thought I'd take you over to the shop," Ragtop said with a grin. "Pfeifer radio'd me not long after I left HQ to head to the shop. Turns out we'll be working together, getting that truck fixed up."

  "Your timing couldn't have been better," Adrian said as the two of them got into the truck.

  "I thought I noticed that," Ragtop said, making a U-turn on the extra-wide street to head toward the exit. "Didn't take you very long to find trouble in this place, did it?"

  "And I swear, it was without even trying," Adrian said, forcing out a heavy exhale and relaxing more fully into his leather seat. "Man, I honestly didn't wanna have to peacock for those asswipes, but...I don't know. I really think they could've killed me if I cowered."

  Ragtop shrugged as he exited the neighborhood, nodding briefly at the guard manning the gate. "It's possible," he said as he pulled out onto the road. "Pfeifer's not gonna like it, though. Those guys don't offer much to the settlement. You being a competent mechanic makes you more useful than the three of them put together. They'll be lucky if Pfeifer doesn't decide to make an example of them."

  They drove slightly further into town, where Adrian observed the comings and goings of many dozens of people. Every hip was equipped with a holster, and every face with a cynical gaze. In Amarillo, Adrian gathered, the caution wasn't reserved merely for the undead. Rather, it seemed that few, if any, of the residents trusted one another. Still, everyone seemed to be fulfilling some sort of role. Scavenging parties filled semi-trailers as they looted abandoned homes and stores. Every available mechanic bay Adrian spotted seemed to be fully staffed with workers attending to box trucks, pick-ups and buses. Everyone worked as one cohesive, if unsettled, entity.

  "Here we are," Ragtop said as they pulled into a large truck stop with a vast, dusty dirt parking lot. Nestled in the center of the property was a combination diner and convenience store. Slightly further down the lot was a sprawling car-care center with half a dozen bays equipped to service full-size trucks, and an additional three regular-sized bays on the far west side. A wide lobby connected to the buildings from the east. Even from a distance, Adrian could see the bustle of activity from the bays. Ragtop parked near the lobby, and he and Adrian exited the vehicle and approached the front entrance.

  "Welcome to your new nine-to-five," Ragtop said as he held the glass door open for Adrian. As they entered the lobby, Adrian was greeted with cool air and a shady reprieve from the intense sunlight. As he and Ragtop approached the door leading to the truck bays, situated past the front counter, he noticed the blonde woman seated at the desk eye both men.

  "You're new," she said to Adrian as he and Ragtop passed. Her voice was breathy and feminine, with a delicate twang, and her posture demure.

  "Yeah," Adrian said, offering her a smile. "I'm A.J." She responded with a slight blush, turning back toward her laptop.

  "See you around," she said, her voice sing-song in an unsuccessful attempt to cloak her feelings of vulnerability. "Lord knows I'll be making the rounds for my paperwork."

  "See ya," Adrian said, following Ragtop into the auto shop.

  "We're in bay 2," Ragtop told him.

  Adrian peered ahead of him as they approached bay 2. The men in bay 1 looked up from the box truck to which they were attending as the pair walked past. Adrian sighed faintly, steeling his gaze, then faced the men and gave them a curt nod. Most of them nodded back, and Adrian averted his gaze back to the front, to the truck situated before him as he entered bay 2.

  "Guys," Ragtop said to the two men gathered around the open hood, "this is A.J."

  "Hey there, fellas," Adrian said with a quick nod as he and Ragtop reached the group.

  "I hear you know your way around an engine," one of the men said to Adrian. His expression was stern and unyielding, bordering on confrontational. The name on his coveralls identified him as Dale.

  "Well enough," Adrian said. "I'll certainly do my part to get this ol' heap in tip-top shape."

  "Glad to hear it," said the stern-faced mechanic. "Now get in here, and put your money where your mouth is."

  Adrian, Ragtop and the two other men spent the rest of the day working on the truck, upgrading its engine in the hopes of enabling it to bear the extra weight that would come with being fully fortified. The sun was beginning to slink down close to the western horizon when the group called it quits for the day.

  "I gotta get over to the lobby," Dean said as he began to pack up for the day. "Take the usual paperwork to Pfeifer for Irene. She was probably already done with it half an hour ago, and she gets impatient if I make her wait."

  "What's the paperwork for, outta curiosity?" Adrian asked.

  "Daily assessment, more or less," Ragtop said. "To update him on how progress in the garage is going."

  "I deliver it to Pfeifer to save her the trouble," Dean said. "Those guys creep her out, and she seems like the type to scare easy as it is. See what a nice guy I am?" He started toward his truck. "See you guys tomorrow."

  "If we're lucky," Ragtop said as he and Adrian exited through the open bay door into the escaping sunlight, "we'll be able to start re-enforcing the undercarriage tomorrow."

  "Getting right to it, huh?" came a voice from nearby. Adrian and Ragtop glanced to their right, where Duncan stood about fifteen feet away, his arms folded and a near-smirk on his face.

  "That's right," Ragtop said. "No time like the present,you know?"

  "I can't argue with that," Duncan said. His gaze focused in on Adrian as he strode closer. "So A.J.," he said, "I must say, I've heard good things about you. I take it you have a pretty heavy background in vehicle maintenance and repair?"

  "You could say that," Adrian said. "I was a wheeled vehicle mechanic back in the service."

  "Is that a fact?" Duncan said. His expression showed that he approved, and that he may even be impressed. "That makes you very useful to us." He paused, as if waiting for Adrian to respond. "You oughtta be glad for that," he continued. "Being useful is likely to get you a certain status around here."

  "You might wanna tell that to the trash that he has to share a house with," Ragtop said. "I went over this morning to pick him up, and I'll be damned if all of them but Ross didn't have their guns drawn and trained on A.J. here. Couldn't have been at that house more than twenty minutes, tops."

  Duncan peered through his glasses, assimilating the information. "This true, A.J.?"

  Adrian nodded. "The three of them seemed pretty intent on a fight. If there was something I coulda done different to avoid it, I'd be hard-pressed to say what it was."

  Duncan produced from his pocket a mobile phone. He thumbed around for a moment on the screen before he spoke. "That's 315 Tumbleweed Circle?" he asked.

  "Yes sir," Adrian said.

  "I'll talk to Pfeifer," Duncan said, replacing the phone in his pocket. "Be careful around these guys, though. We do, admittedly, have some live wires here in town, so what you saw in that house is actually fairly standard, and a decent representation of the average dweller in Amarillo. Keep that in mind."

  "I'll do that," Adrian said.

  Duncan started into the parking lot. "I need to get going," he said. "You two keep up the good work. I'd like to see that truck finished inside of a week."

  He departed, leaving Adrian and Ragtop to themselves. They approached the pickup, which was one of the last vehicles left in the lot.

  "I don't have my own place," Ragtop said as he turned the key in the ignition, "or I'd let you stay with me."

  "I tell you, man, I'll have to kill a motherfucker if I go back into that house tonight," Adrian said. "I got half a mind to just stay in town somewhere overnight."

  "You don't wanna do that," Ragtop said as he pulled the truck out of the lot. "Town's not safe at night. I mean, it's safe compared to outside of town, but
lately, we've been getting a lot of undead wandering in after dark. Always headed from the west, although we don't know exactly where they're coming from. I've heard it could be the decrease in pressure or sunlight that makes them want to move at night, or maybe the fact that it's not as dry as it is during the day. At any rate, you want to be in one of the gated neighborhoods once the sun goes down."

  They drove to Adrian's subdivision, arriving just before the neon-red disc of the sun touched down onto the horizon.

  "I'll be here bright and early to pick you up," Ragtop promised before he pulled away, leaving Adrian to make his way reluctantly up the walk.

  Even before leaving the sidewalk that ran along the street, he could hear music pulsing from within the house. From the view afforded through the many windows that studded the facade of the home, Adrian was guessing that the occupants inside numbered in the dozens. He had already made up his mind not to enter the house when he saw a nude middle-aged woman being pushed against a window as she was entered from the rear, her breasts pressed flat against the glass. She and the gentleman behind her appeared equally inebriated, and she laughed and tried to converse with someone else in the room.

  Adrian reached a fork in the front path, taking the route that led to the side of the house and ultimately to the back yard, in lieu of the one that wound its way to the front door. Upon reaching the back yard, Adrian spotted a covered wooden gazebo situated at the end of the path, encircled by landscaping left to die. He entered the gazebo, laying his duffelbag down on the foot of a cushioned chaise lounge. He planted his rear end in the middle of the chair, swinging his legs around and up so that his knees and shins rested on top of the bag. He reached back to interlace his fingers behind his head, settling back and attempting to rest his body as best as he could, if not his mind.

  He lay there for the remainder of the night, waiting for the Sun to come up. No one bothered him in the back yard, although one drunken young man had stumbled out the back door just in time to projectile vomit across the patio and into a sandbox. No sooner had he finished his purge, than a woman's arm reached out the door, grabbing him by his collar and pulling him back intro the house. He willingly obliged, leaving Adrian alone once again.

  He managed to get a few hours of sleep, and he was awoken early in the morning by a loud quarrel from inside the house. He saw a bright planet hanging low in the eastern sky, which was warm with the glow of the imminent sunrise.

  Adrian rose from the chaise lounge, stretching his limbs, and lifted his duffelbag. He meandered to the rear of the garage, ignoring the shouting match occurring inside the house, and emptied his bladder. From there, he cut through the yard next door and made his way toward a small park across the street, near the front of the neighborhood. He decided to wait for Ragtop there, where he had seen a bench near the street on his way into the subdivision, overlooking a fountain that now sat dry.

  As he crossed the final yard and reached the street, Adrian saw that the bench he had seen was currently occupied. The figure appeared at first ghostly in the low light, with dark, curly hair framing a glowing, near-white face with two large, dark eyes set in and following Adrian's every move. From across the street, he couldn't discern the age or gender of the individual. As he came closer, however, he became reasonably sure that the person was a teenage girl or very young woman wearing an unsettling grin. Her passively deranged countenance had already convinced Adrian to wait somewhere else when she spoke.

  "Where's all the water?" she blurted. As Adrian continued in the opposite direction, her voice became a growl. "Where did it go?" She rushed Adrian, crossing the ten-foot berth he had left before he could respond. He vaguely contemplated the notion that this was, perhaps, the most inexplicably perturbing interaction he could recall ever having, if not the most frightening. She tried to lunge for his throat with both hands, and he responded with a hard swing of his duffelbag in her direction. From the dampened cracking sound produced, he gathered that the length of his shotgun inside the bag had made contact with girl's ribs.

  As she reeled slightly, he took the opportunity to run, bolting down the street toward the common building where Shelby had taken him into the neighborhood. Behind him, the girl howled in frustration. Her rage over the case of the missing water rose in furor, volume and pitch, until several dozen individuals emerged from their homes to investigate. Adrian turned back, watching as they attempted to incapacitate the unarmed young lady. After a moment, two of them rushed her from behind with a piece of tarp, each holding one end, while she was distracted by a third person. They wrapped her in the tarp, and the largest of them slung her over his shoulder as she screamed in protest.

  Adrian turned to start toward the common building, gasping in surprise as another pale face popped out from the darkness, this time directly in front of him. He sighed, calming himself, as he realized that it was Shelby.

  "What sort of unholy Hell just broke out?" she asked.

  "Uh--" Adrian paused, trying to articulate in his state of continued confusion. "Some girl just tried to choke me," he said. "She asked what happened to the water, and then went crazy. I didn't want to have to hurt her, so I ran. Some folks came out and subdued her, took her home, I guess."

  "Creepy-lookin' little thing?" Shelby asked. "Short, dark curls and those big, crazed eyes?"

  "Sounds like the one," Adrian said.

  "Yeah, good call, running away," Shelby said. "It's best to keep your distance from her. You can't hurt her, 'cause she's Pfeifer's niece. He's all the family she has, but he wants little to do with her on account of her going bat-shit loco when the world fell apart. That's why he dumped her here, and why we have to deal with her now and treat her with kid gloves." She paused. "What are you doing walking around at this hour, anyway?"

  "As it turns out," Adrian said, "there's some real sadistic fuckers in that house you assigned me to. I figured I would wait for my ride somewhere else."

  "Uh-oh," Shelby said, sighing and nodding up the road. "Why don't you take a walk with me? You can sit on the patio so you'll be able to see when your ride comes through the gate. I'll fix us some coffee."

  "A cup of coffee does sound alright, I must admit," Adrian said, following Shelby up the sidewalk toward the oversized, rambling common building that could be seen hulking just down the street.

  "I've already got a pot made," Shelby continued as they started down the lengthy blacktop driveway. "I'm up early every morning, trying to get this neighborhood in order. And so I was sitting there in my kitchen, peacefully drinking my coffee, when all that screaming broke out." She shook her head. "I swear, it's this place that's gonna be the death of me. Fuck the zombie apocalypse, that's nothing compared to the shit I deal with." She forced a high-pitched laugh as they reached the patio, and Adrian sank into a cushioned chair.

  "So I'll just wait here," he said.

  "You sit tight," Shelby said. "I'll be back in a sec'. Cream and sugar?"

  "Yes, please," Adrian said. He watched the entrance to the subdivision while Shelby disappeared into the house, returning minutes later with two cups of coffee, one steaming.

  "Here you are, hon'," she said, handing the fresher, hotter cup to Adrian.

  "Thanks," he said, noting as he looked up to take the mug that her smile was a step or two beyond friendly, her eyes sparkling with the intention of a woman who not only knew what it was that she wanted, but had full confidence that she would get it.

  "So first things first," she said as she settled in across from Adrian, "what exactly happened in that house?"

  "Those fellas are outta control," Adrian said. "Someone's gonna wind up dead over there, and I doubt it'll take long. I didn't wanna make anyone else that person, nor be the unlucky sucker myself, so I didn't even bother to go in there last night."

  "Where did you sleep?" Shelby asked.

  "Lucky for yours truly, moneyed folks in the old world tended to have patio furniture that's nicer than what I had in my living room back in the day," Adrian s
aid. "A night in the back yard gazebo wasn't half bad, though I can't say I want to make a regular thing of it."

  Shelby smiled, leaning down onto the wicker-style aluminum coffee table. She leaned her weight onto both elbows, framing her bosom with her arms. "You could stay here with me," she said.

  Adrian had known it was coming, in one form or another. His face tightened.

  "I don't think your father would like that," was all he could manage.

  "Pbbft," she scoffed. "I'm grown enough to make those sorts of decisions for myself." She rose from her chair, stalking across the short distance between herself and Adrian. She crouched in front of him, her hand reaching between his legs. "The offer stands," she said, her voice a purr.

  "Stop," Adrian said. "Ragtop--"

  Shelby shook her head, a mischievous grin lighting up her face. "I radio'd him while I was in the kitchen and told him to pick you up from here, but to give you about half an hour." She paused, grasping his hand, raising it and taking his fingertip between her lips. "I told him it was paperwork stuff."

  "Not out here," Adrian said, his heart racing as he glanced around, her hand on his zipper.

  "Then will you come inside?" Shelby asked, rising slightly to breathe into his ear and kiss the lobe.

  Half an hour later, Adrian stumbled out the front door and into the daylight. Ragtop was already waiting.

  "Morning, cowboy," Ragtop said as Adrian climbed into the passenger seat.

  "Morning," Adrian said. "I hope you weren't waiting too long."

  "Awhile," Ragtop said, "but it's alright. I know what Shelby was trying to do, and I know damn well that to her, your feelings on the matter didn't factor in. Figured I'd be here in case you had to run."

  Adrian laughed. "In case I needed a getaway vehicle. Thanks, man ."

  They reached the entrance to the subdivision, and the guard nodded as he lifted the gate to allow their passage. Ragtop headed toward the shop, opening his window to flood the truck's cab with fresh, cool late summer air. Adrian followed suit, resting his forearm on the rim of his open window and allowing his fingertips to rake through the air as the truck barreled forward.