The Long Dark Four-Way of the Soul

by Alden Odessa

  “The window don’t work,” Kyle said.

  “How the fuck does a window not work?” I asked.

  “Got me.”

  Had of I not just seen them ruthlessly kill two men, I may have called him a dumb-ass. I don’t have a lot of experience with the criminal underworld, but insulting someone with a fully automatic weapon seemed like bad form.

  “Do either of you have a knife?”

  “You gonna cut out the bullet?” the other man said.

  “No—I’m sorry what’s your name?”

  “Ricky.”

  “No, Ricky, I’m going to cut this sheet.”

  “Oh man, that’s the last of our sheets!”

  “I’ll get you new ones! Now pretty please, with sugar on top, if you have a fucking knife give it to me!” I was losing my patience with dumb and dumber here.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocketknife. I don’t know why, but for some reason, I was almost expecting him to pull out a machete, but as it was, it was just a little folded pocket knife.

  I took the knife (which was dull as all hell) and had to tear at the sheet with it until finally, I had managed to get a long strip.

  “Can you get me some water, please,” I said to the room.

  “We ain’t got none,” Ricky said.

  “What?!”

  “We haven’t had running water in a long time?”

  “What the fuck do you drink?”

  “We steal water from the laundry mat.”

  “Then go to the fucking laundry mat and get me some water.”

  “What do we carry it in?”

  “For fuck’s sake, is there a hole in the bucket? What do you usually carry it in?” I couldn’t tell if they were even bright enough to realize that I was getting seriously annoyed. “take a glass or a jug or a bowl, anything.”

  “We don’t have any of that,” Ricky said.

  What kind of fucking world did I just enter! These guys had nothing to use, which, as NPCs it almost made sense. They were here for a reason in the game, and I wasn’t sure what that was. They acted as protection for the owner and these girls, so I guess that this was some sort of side mission or just part of the storyline mode. I’m guessing “Balderson,” whoever that was, had more to do with the game than they did.

  Or, Balderson was a player. Part of the storyline was to raid this place or something along those lines. I could be head to head with another player right now. It’s not something I had really thought much about. I was thinking “storyline mode,” but I didn’t think about the fact that this was an online game that many people were playing at the same time.

  I could think about all of this later, right now I needed to deal with this young girl who was bleeding out on a bed that looked like it had been bled out on before.

  I had to think like the game, what would the game do and what clues had it given me up to this point to help deal with this situation. I got it!

  “Ricky,” I said, looking to him, “across the street, a few doors down from the laundry is a bar. I want you to go in there and tell them that Buster asked for a pint of whiskey and an empty jug full of water.”

  “Do you have money?”

  “I’ll pay you back, just go fucking do it, I’m trying to save one of your only sources of income.”

  “She’s not ours, we just work here,” Ricky said, matter-of-factly.

  “I can do it,” April said.

  I smiled at her. It was a nice gesture. “It’s not safe for you. Not with these ‘Balderson’ guys around.”

  I looked at the other girl and then at Kyle and Ricky. Both of them were kind of eyeballing April, who was still topless. It had probably been a while since they saw a girl as attractive and as clean as her. This pissed me off. It wasn’t a jealousy thing; this was more about the fact that April was technically my property and these guys were creeping her out.

  April’s comfort was still one of my top priorities.

  “Katie,” I said. “Do you have any other clothes?”

  “I think I have a shirt,” she said.

  She thought she had a shirt. It amazed me at how poorly these women had been taken care of. “Give it to April.”

  “What will I wear?”

  “We’ll get to that, just get it for me.”

  She ran to the other room and was soon back with a shirt. It was dirty and smelled of blood and sperm. I’d be damned if I was going to let her wear that. I told her to get rid of that shirt, and by get rid of, I meant burn. I stood up and took off my shirt and handed it to April to put on. I then looked at the rest of the room.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen. April and Kyle, you two come with me, we’re going to the bar to get some water and alcohol to clean her wound. Katie, stay here with Allie. Try to keep her awake, if not, she will not die from this wound, provided we can get it clean. Ricky, you stand guard. I don’t know who this Balderson guy is, but if he comes back, you make sure nothing happens to these girls.”

  None of them said anything; it made me wonder if maybe I had spoken too fast. Only April seemed active.

  “Okay,” said Katie.

  Then the two men nodded their heads.

  “All right, let’s go.”

  As much as I didn’t like the idea of spending the last of my money to save somebody else’s girl, I would do whatever I could to keep her from getting an infection.

  I knew the gunshot alone would not kill her. I had wrapped the sheet around the top of her leg tightly above and below the gunshot. I’m not for sure how tourniquets work, and I didn’t have time to think. I couldn’t remember if you wrapped it above the wound or below it, so I just did both. Hopefully, I hadn’t somehow caused more damage in the process.

  Now my concern was preventing infection because I’m pretty sure that that would kill her and there were two things I was going to need to avoid that. I would need to clean the wound, extract the bullet and then the hardest part. Find antibiotics.

  Oddly, in all of Canny Valley, I had yet to see any hospitals, much less any doctors of any sort. Was this the kind of game that didn’t have that? Would I just be relying on finding power-ups somewhere along the line? Maybe some herbs to mix? Something like that?

  Another day, another list of questions.

  Luckily I was going to see a bartender.

  20

  Albert's Inadequacies

  It couldn’t be this easy, could it?

  The bottle of whiskey had run me ten dollars, and luckily the bartender had an empty jug that he filled with water. Because of course he did! This was all part of the story, right?

  I made it back to the room to find that both the girls were still there and Ricky watching the front door.

  I got in and got to work. I first pulled off the bandage and poured water over the wound; then I took the whiskey and gently poured it over the gunshot, this elicited a shout of pain from Allie. I was just thankful that she hadn’t passed out yet.

  I re-applied a new bandage around the wound which looked better and then re-applied the tourniquet. I had had a moment to think, and I remembered that you put the tourniquet closest to the heart, to prevent as much blood movement as possible. Amazing how much better you can think when you haven’t spent the previous ten minutes being shot at.

  I got Allie comfortable and waited. The biggest piece of information I got from the bartender was about a doctor. The bartender had handed me a card. It had a red cross on it, the universal symbol of a doctor. It read:

  Crossroads Motel

  Room 6

  I didn’t understand where that was, but I would ask some of my new friends here about it, just as soon as everything got settled.

  Allie had passed out, there was no way of really preventing that, I got her water, and I would need to get her something to eat. Something told me that these guys had no idea how to accomplish that. I asked them what they had to eat, and they just looked at me as if I had asked them a complicated question about astrophysics
.

  I needed to do a little more digging. “What do you guys eat?”

  “Whatever Albert made for us to eat.”

  “Who’s Albert?” I asked, knowing the answer the second the words came out of my mouth.

  “The owner,” Ricky said. “He took care of us. This was his place. We didn’t have much, but we rarely went hungry.”

  “You didn’t,” Katie interjected.

  “You tell a different story?” I asked her.

  “He was an asshole. He treated us like shit,” she said. “These black eyes and scars didn’t come from Balderson’s men.”

  I looked her over. With all the madness of the last hour or two, I had failed to realize just how bad she looked. Honestly, it was hard to discern what was a scar, what was a bruise and what was dirt. These girls were filthy. When I had cleaned Allie’s leg, it looked like it was the first time someone had cleaned it in this decade.

  They almost looked like something out of a magazine documenting long lost tribes. Their bodies were so covered in dirt and grime I couldn’t even get an accurate gauge of what they looked like. Their hair was matted, and they looked tired.

  “So you were his girls?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said as she looked at Ricky and Kyle nervously.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Go on,” Ricky said.

  “He treated us like animals. He never fed us, the only time we got hardly any food was when Ricky or Kyle would sneak us food.”

  I turned and looked at the two men. In all honesty, they didn’t look a lot better than the girls did. They just had clothes on. It didn’t look like they had been well taken care of in any way, shape, or form. They were thin, but you could tell that someone had fed them. It seemed odd they didn’t have food as it was pretty cheap down here. Tasted like shit, but it was food. Not to mention, the market was right behind them and the general store was right in front of them. They had no excuse to not have some sort of food.

  “Tell me more about Albert,” I asked them.

  “Not much to tell. He took us in; he fed us, he let us stay here, with the girls. All we had to do was provide protection. Things had been okay until Balderson came along and said he would take us out,” Ricky said.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why is Balderson trying to take you out?”

  “I don’t know. He said this was his territory now. Two men came around from behind the office, we ran them off, but we didn’t realize that it was just a distraction, there was a paying customer in room one, and he was a Balderson man. Then there was the other guy from the East came in. They had us at four points,” he looked at Kyle. “We were stupid and went after the other two and left Albert and the girls alone.”

  Uh-oh. The more I heard, the more I thought Balderson was a player and not a boss character or some sort of enemy I had to fight. If that was the case, I could be in for a challenge. NPCs I could deal with. I could get a general idea after a while what their gameplay would be like. I could figure them out because they were, in essence, a program. Therefore, they had programming to behave a certain way.

  Players, from my world, they were a wild card. I couldn’t predict how they would play the game. What’s worse is he wouldn’t know I was also a human and I couldn’t be for sure if he was either. It was kill or be killed, human or not.

  “What’s his story? Balderson?”

  “All I know is that he’s a big drug dealer over in The Corner. He came over here to deal at the market. Since then, we haven’t been able to get a decent girl or a decent client,” Ricky said, inadvertently insulting two of the girls in the room.

  I looked at Allie and Katie, “He means no offense, I’m sure.”

  “We were all together,” said Katie. “Kyle, Ricky, Allie and I.”

  “Where did you come from?” I asked.

  “North Night, we lived there, but it was getting too dangerous,” Kyle said.

  “Okay, stop. This is all stuff I’d love to learn about your backstory, but right now, I just don’t have time. Allie doesn’t have time. We’ve got to get her to a doctor and get this bullet out of her leg and get her some medicine, or else infection is gonna have its way with her,” I said. Buster the character was taking over and Doug the player didn’t have a say in learning more about theories as to the gameplay of Canny Valley.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out the card for the doctor. “Where is The Crossroads Motel?”

  “It’s in The Crossroads,” he said as if I had any idea what that meant.

  “Where is that?” I said and got back an empty and confused stare for my efforts. “I’m new around here.”

  “It’s in The Gallows. It’s the four corners of The Lower Bottoms.”

  “So, dead center?”

  “Yeah,” Ricky said.

  “Okay, one of you carry Allie, that’s where we are going?”

  “Why?”

  “Cause I hear it has a good nightclub and I feel like dancing the night away!” Again, no one said anything. “No. There’s a doctor there!”

  “That’s hardcore Balderson territory.”

  “Well then, I guess it’s a good thing we’ve got some fucking guns, isn’t it? Come on, let’s go.” I looked at Katie. “Do you and Allie have any clothes?”

  “Albert made us stay around naked.”

  “You had nothing? Have nothing?”

  “We weren’t allowed to leave, but I think we have some pants and a shirt.”

  Albert seemed like a real piece of work. “Okay guys, all of you, listen to me,” they all perked up. “I’m gonna get us out of this, but you have to trust me, and I’m gonna trust you until you lose that trust. You’re with me now. This motel, this is mine now. My territory. We can’t leave it unguarded, so one of you will have to stay here, while we get Allie to the doctor. In fact, Katie, you stay here as well. One of you two yodel heads stay here and make sure Balderson’s men don’t come back. How big of an outfit is he?”

  “Outfit?”

  “How many men? We just took out two, how many more does he have and are they experienced killers or are they just re-purposed drug runners?” They were all having a hard time keeping up with me as I spoke. But there was nothing I could do now. The brains of Buster Rockknocker were taking over.

  “We don’t know. He hasn’t been in The Landing for long though.”

  “Okay, good. You two,” I said, pointing to the men. “You’re the muscle for now; we’re cleaning up these streets, The Landing is gonna be a safe place for my girls to operate. Speaking of which. Katie, you belong to me now, and I know that may be scary considering your last boss. Trust me when I say that I’m different from the others, I won’t hit you, and I will always do my best to keep you safe. In exchange, I will make sure you eat and are clean. Not this shit. You’ll be treated kindly and fairly. In turn, you work for me now. You fuck for me now, and you do exactly as I tell you when I tell you. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Can you speak for Allie in this matter?”

  “Yes, she will agree.”

  I looked toward Kyle and Ricky. “You two, you in or are you out? This will be the one time that I ask.”

  They both nodded.

  “Okay, Kyle, pick Allie up, we’re taking her to the crossroads. April come with me. Ricky, stay here and make sure nothing happens to Katie. How far away is The Crossroads?”

  “Fifteen minutes,” Ricky said.

  “Then let’s get the fuck over there and get her fixed up. I’m gonna drop her off at The Side Light on the way back and then we will come back here with my two cleaning ladies and get to work on this place. Get these girls cleaned up and get them to earning; I can’t make any money in this place with it looking like shit and Katie you aren’t gonna earn looking like that either. It’s time to get to work!”

  Buster was in charge of them now.

  And me.

  21

  Crossroads<
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  So far as I could tell, The Crossroads Motel was abandoned.

  Once I had gotten out of The Landing and into The Gallows, everything went to shit. The Landing wasn’t a great place, but there was life. There was also a little light. What passed for daytime in Canny Valley, mixed with the light coming off of The Falls and The Upper Bottoms, gave way to a little life, there were actually people there. They didn’t hide away. I saw people at the market, and there were people at the general store. It almost felt safe.

  At least until I stumbled upon a firefight.

  The Gallows was an ugly place. There were no signs of life at all. They said this was thick with Balderson’s people, but if that was the case, then they must operate like cockroaches because I didn’t see a soul.

  When Betty had told me about The Gallows, she said it was dangerous and not a place that you wanted to find yourself. The thing I had to keep reminding myself of was the fact that the bartender had wanted me to come here, which means that the game wanted me to go here. This was all just part of the process.

  Oddly, this comforted me.

  We went to room number six, which appeared to be boarded up I began to wonder if I had been led into a trap. I was on guard and was ready for anything that might happen as I knocked on the door.

  It surprised me to hear and feel metal when I knocked. This wasn’t a boarded-up wooden door at all. It was metal. The wood that was on the front of it was just layered on top, with the sides overlapping the seal of the door. It was all designed to give the appearance of abandonment from afar.

  A small window opened up in the door, and a gruff voice came from the other side... “Yeah?”

  “I’ve got a hurt girl.”

  “How’s she hurt?”

  “Gunshot. Thigh.”

  “You got money?”

  “Not much.”

  “Come back when ya do!” With that, he slid the window closed. I don’t know what I expected, some nice old man, willing to help a woman in need?