Dead Man Walking

by Gary M. Chesla

  Dead Man Walking

  By

  Gary Chesla

  November, 24, 2016

  Copyright@2016

  Dead Man Walking

  Throughout history, many have proclaimed to know when the end of the world was coming.

  Mostly those on the streets of New York City carrying signs that say the end is near.

  However, most people would probably agree, they would never know when and how the world was going to end.

  It would also be impossible to plan for the end of the world.

  You can’t plan for something that is unknown.

  You would have no idea what to do, what steps to take, in order to survive.

  That is, unless you had already lived through the end of the world.

  Levi, his wife and their dog Buddy piled into their car and set off for Pine Rose Cabins, a resort in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California.

  They had reserved a cabin at Pine Rose Cabins for four nights.

  This wasn’t just any four-day getaway to the mountains, they were attending their son Logan’s wedding.

  Logan and his fiancé, Jamie, had been planning their big day for over a year.

  The wanted everything to be perfect.

  They had selected the perfect venue, the rustic and romantic secluded outdoor Hidden Creek Wedding Sight at the Pine Rose Cabin Mountain Resort.

  They had gone over every detail, from the outdoor ceremony, the DJ they selected, the place settings for the reception and the individual personalized name tags on the tables.

  However, when the big day finally arrived, they would find that maybe they should have spent a little more time preparing for the meaning of, “Until Death do you part.”

  Eric Brady graduated college with a degree in Biological Engineering.

  He had set lofty goals for himself and one day hoped to do something that would change the world.

  In an effort to further his career, Eric accepted at job a Davis Bio Enterprises.

  Davis Enterprises did research and analysis projects for the Defense Department.

  It was a job that appealed to Eric’s ambitions and his patriotism.

  However, when he was put in charge of a project that went against his ethical standards, he found himself conflicted as to what he should do.

  The fascinating complexity of the project and what solving the puzzle that confronted him would mean for his career and for mankind made Eric stay with the project for one more day. Then another day.

  Unfortunately, Eric soon found himself past the point of no return.

  No one knows when or how the world will end.

  That statement may no longer be true.

  *The names, characters and events in this story are fictional. Any resemblance to real people or places is totally coincidental and unintentional,

  except for George.

  Even though the real George has not yet achieved the level of accomplishments of his character in the story, I have no doubt he will meet and far exceed these exploits in the very near future.

  From what I understand, he is almost there now.

  Chapter 1

  Robert Johnson sat in his ten-foot by ten-foot cell.

  By any standard, it was a small cell, small enough to drive most men stir crazy.

  Spending all his time in a room this small, if a man wasn’t claustrophobic he would soon become so.

  The cell was also very plain with nothing that stood out to distract Robert’s attention from his thoughts.

  The walls were painted a dull dirty white.

  “Painted,” Robert laughed to himself. It looked like his cell hadn’t seen a fresh coat of paint in twenty years.

  Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, coated with many months of dust and dirt, making them stand out even against the dirty white color of the walls and ceiling.

  As a kid, he had been in haunted houses that hadn’t had this many cobwebs hanging from the ceiling.

  The cell was furnished with only a cot for him to sleep on and an old plastic lawn chair to sit on when he got tired of lying on the cot.

  The cot didn’t even have a blanket, just a pillow.

  The pillow like everything else in his cell was dirty.

  He could only guess how long it had been since anyone else had occupied this cell.

  His best guess was about ten years ago.

  It was also his guess that after the prior occupant had left this place, housekeeping had never bothered to come in and clean it up or to get it ready for him to be brought here.

  Robert sat up. He had just awakened after taking a nap.

  He didn’t know how long he had been asleep.

  He looked out through the bars that made up the front of his cell in place of a fourth wall.

  He could see the light shining down the hallway between his cell and the other cells that lined both sides of the passage.

  He assumed there was a window down at the end of the passage way. It was only a guess because he couldn’t see to the end of the hall way from his cell.

  It didn’t bother him that he couldn’t see where the light was coming from because he really didn’t care.

  He was just happy that he could see sunlight, that was something different because where he was before he never knew if it was daytime or night time.

  Old light bulbs that gave off a harsh white light had lined the ceiling outside his cell and had burned twenty-four hours a day.

  This soft natural sunlight was nice and would have been a welcome sight before but now he had better things to think about.

  Thoughts of his future occupied his mind.

  Only a few days ago, he had no future to think about, but by some miracle, that had all changed.

  Robert sat up, yawned and twisted his head from side to side to loosen the tightness in the back of his neck.

  His eyes then drifted to the yellow tray sitting on the floor in front of the bars near the front of his cell.

  The tray was delivered to his cell around noon and had contained his lunch.

  Today he had had two cheeseburgers, French fries and a large paper cup filled to the brim with Coke. Now all that was left was the greasy paper plate with a few red splotches where ketchup had squirted out of the burgers when he bit into them and the crumbled up now empty paper cup.

  It had been a great meal.

  He thought the guards were joking when they asked him what he wanted to have for lunch. When they asked him what he wanted, he jokingly replied, “Two cheeseburgers, fries and a Coke.”

  In the old days, the days long ago when he was a free man, it was his regular order whenever he had a chance to go to a McDonalds, Burger King or any of the many other fast food restaurants he had liked to frequent when he had enough money to eat out.

  When the guards brought him his lunch, he of course didn’t complain.

  He just quickly ate, enjoying every bite, afraid they would come back to take the food away and explain they had made a mistake.

  He hadn’t eaten that well for as long as he could remember.

  Seeing the burgers and fries in front of him brought back memories of long ago.

  He was looking forward to the day when he would be able to go out and order a meal like this on his own, maybe with a new friend.

  With his stomach full and feeling like he needed a nap, he had soon fallen asleep with his thoughts. Thoughts about the better days that lay ahead for him.

  He was now awake, feeling well rested and content.

  By the angle of the light shining down the passageway outside his cell, he must have slept for a few hours.

  Robert smiled to himself as he studied the yellow tray.

  The tray was covered with little moving black specs.
r />   Ants.

  Not only were there ants on his lunch tray, but a line of the little pests ran across the floor, out through the bars and led off to somewhere out of sight.

  Robert quickly looked down at the front of his white jump suit when he caught sight of a black spec on his leg out of the corner of his eye.

  At first he thought it was an ant that had come over with the intention of taking him down the hallway, piece by piece to where ever they were taking the remaining specs of his lunch, but soon discovered it was just a section of one of the dirty cobwebs that must have fallen from the ceiling while he was asleep.

  He looked over his white jump suit.

  He liked this jump suit. The white color was relaxing and to him, signified hope, a new beginning.

  His last one was orange and had two large black letters on the back – D.R. The D.R. stood for Death Row.

  Yes, he much preferred this white jump suit, which by the way didn’t have any letters on the back.

  It was just plain white.

  The white of his jump suit, like the white color of the walls of his cell, was a dirty white.

  But he didn’t mind, as he didn’t mind the dirty white cell he had been living in for the last week.

  Being here was a big improvement over the clean cell and clothes he had where he was before.

  Robert Johnson had been on Death Row for the last ten years in the Georgia State Prison system.

  He had been convicted of the first-degree murder of a waitress in Atlanta ten summers ago.

  His attorney, a public defender he had been assigned had filed appeal after appeal over the last ten years.

  When his appeal was denied last month, he was out of appeals.

  His death sentence was scheduled to be carried out within ninety days.

  Robert was disappointed. Not because he was an innocent man. Far from it, he was guilty as sin.

  Of course he had killed that girl.

  In an Atlanta restaurant ten years ago, the bitch had flirted with him all evening, bringing him extra coffee and a free piece of cherry pie after his meal.

  All evening she had been flashing him that sexy smile of hers and an occasional wink.

  She seemed to go out of her way to rub against him every time she poured his coffee.

  Robert knew what she was doing. He knew the signals for what she wanted.

  After all her flirting, Robert wanted the same thing.

  When she got off work that night, Robert was waiting outside for her.

  She greeted him with that big sexy smile of hers and thanked him for the twenty he had left her for a tip.

  Again, she started flirting with him and seemed to be teasing him.

  However, when Robert decided it was time to end the flirting and get down to business, she began to protest and slapped him across the face.

  Robert became enraged.

  He wasn’t about to be denied.

  He dragged her into the alley behind the restaurant.

  The next day someone found her bloody body behind the dumpster where he had put her when he was done.

  Unfortunately, they also found his DNA under her fingernails.

  His DNA was on file with the police from a prior little mishap he had been involved in.

  It didn’t take the police long to come looking for him.

  When Robert’s last and final appeal was denied, he was disappointed, but hey, he had milked the system for an additional ten years.

  He was ready for what was to come. He didn’t really want to die, but he was also tired of the pressure of being on death row.

  He was ready to just get it over with.

  Robert stood and walked across his cell, all ten feet of it and looked across the passage and into the cell across the hallway from him.

  Ben Pierce was sleeping on a cot in that cell.

  Ben also wore an identical white jump suit and his cell was also a dirty white color, just like Roberts.

  One week ago, Robert came to this new place with Ben and another man, Joe Reynolds.

  All three of them had been on death row together in Georgia.

  All three of them were to have been put to death this month.

  The three of them had become friends, well, Robert guessed they had become as good of friends as one could become being on death row.

  Maybe it was more of an acknowledgement that they all shared the same fate.

  In the outside world, Robert could never envision the three of them hanging out together, going to ball games or triple dating.

  But on death row, they were someone that each of them could identify with and feel a sense of kinship.

  Not only were they each facing the same death sentence, but none of them had had a visitor for the last five years.

  None of them had anyone on the outside who gave a shit what happened to them.

  There was no one else for them to talk to or to confide in.

  Even though they were all guilty and deserved their fate, in a time like this they each needed someone to at least pretend that they cared or at least understood.

  Robert guessed if nothing else, misery liked company.

  None of them wanted to die without knowing that someone would miss them when they were gone.

  Robert had brutally killed that waitress. Ben had shot four people in a car out on Route 95 in a fit of road rage when they kept honking their horn and making rude hand gestures at him when he wouldn’t let them pass.

  Robert felt that both Ben’s and his situations were understandable and could have happened to anyone.

  Now Joe wasn’t like Robert or Ben. Joe was a crazy bastard. He had strangled and stabbed his wife and three kids one night after having some weird dream where God told him to do it.

  Under normal circumstances Robert would not have wanted to associate with someone like Joe.

  He preferred to hang around with normal people, like himself.

  But on death row, he didn’t have a lot of options.

  They were all going to die and that knowledge alone was enough to overlook why they were there and just accept each other for the comfort and kinship that they needed.

  None of them had any other options to turn to so they just looked to find the comfort and sympathy they needed where ever they could find it.

  They didn’t have anyone else to turn to and it wasn’t as if they were going to be judged by others for the company they kept.

  Besides, they would only have to associate with each other for a short time.

  Robert looked through the bars at Ben as he lay on his cot, sleeping like a baby.

  Robert smiled to himself.

  They were all here together as if by a miracle.

  Robert had once seen a movie called “XXX”.

  He wondered if he would be able to get a tattoo of “XXX” on his arm.

  If it didn’t interfere with his mission he would like to do that and get that tattoo.

  That would be cool.

  As his date of execution was getting closer, one day a man in an Air Force uniform came to the prison.

  The man and the warden met with Robert.

  The man said, “Uncle Sam needs you.”

  At first Robert had no idea what that meant.

  But the man explained that if he would agree to a special assignment with the Air Force, his conviction would be set aside. He would be given a new identity and a new life.

  His old life would disappear.

  He was informed that being he didn’t have any friends or family, that it would be easy to do.

  He would be given a new life and he would be doing his country a valuable service.

  Robert couldn’t believe it. This was just like what had happened in the movie “XXX”, except for the part about his old life magically disappearing.

  Robert asked how the Air Force would make his old life disappear.

  The man from the government explained that the prison would release a notice that Robert had been executed o
n the scheduled date. The release would state that he was cremated and his ashes scattered over where ever Robert wanted.

  Robert said he would like the press release to say his ashes were scattered over the Grand Canyon. He had always wanted to see the Grand Canyon and thought it would be cool for anyone that noticed, to believe that his ashes were scattered there.

  Robert agreed to take the Air Force’s offer. He didn’t care what they wanted him to do. He didn’t even ask the man what kind of plans they had in mind for him. Anything would be better than what would happen to him if he stayed at the prison.

  He did have one question however, “Why fake my death? Why not just pardon me?”

  The man from the Air Force explained with the secret nature of the work he would be doing, it was better for Robert to be given a new identity and be able to start fresh.

  “The girl you had killed, her family could cause problems. The bad publicity could make it hard for you to carry out your new assignment effectively. Secrecy was imperative if their plans were to work,” the man explained.

  It didn’t take much to satisfy Robert. He was just excited that he was getting off death row.

  Besides, he knew if he didn’t like what the Air Force had in mind, once he was free he would just disappear.

  If he would have known about DNA and about his DNA being on file, he would have disappeared ten years ago where no one would have ever found him. Robert considered his change of fate to be a second chance in more ways than one.

  The man seemed a little concerned when Robert said he couldn’t wait to tell his two friends that were on death row with him, about his deal.

  “This is a secret project, no one can know about this,” the man said looking concerned.

  “Don’t worry,” Robert replied, “they don’t have any friends or family to tell. Our secret will go to the grave with them, they are going to be executed in a few days, just like I was supposed to be. I was just hoping to tell someone. This is so exciting. Who would have guessed, me, a secret agent man?”