Ghoulish screams rent the air, interrupting Abby’s train of thoughts. “Thought you said the zombies were gone,” she said, turning to Edmund.
Edmund shrugged. “We keep a few on hand for entertainment…and sometimes we get some fresh ones during these games.”
Even from way up in the skybox, Abby could see the men in the middle of the field breathing heavily as fear consumed them. The muffled screaming mingled with a loud beeping as the back end of a large semi-truck emerged from one of the tunnels on the field. The truck continued to back up until it stopped next to one of the faded yellow goalposts.
“And are those men volunteers?” Abby asked.
“In a way,” replied Edmund, still staring at the field below. “They volunteered for a plot to fuckin’ assassinate me. It didn’t quite work out, so this is what they get.”
Turning to Abby now, Edmund’s eyes darkened. “If you’re gonna hit the king, you better fuckin’ kill the king.”
Despite her best effort to appear unaffected, Abby shivered at Edmund’s words. She’d stared down some dangerous and terrifying men before, but Edmund took it to the next level.
Edmund stood up now and strode over to the blown out window. With a wink to Abby, he turned to the crowd below him, spread his arms wide, and spoke with a booming voice that carried his words to every corner of the stadium.
“If you read the paper, then you already know what’s going on here!” he began. “But for my friend Abby and for those of you living under a fuckin’ rock, allow me to explain. A couple weeks ago, these assholes tried to kill me. Apparently they’ve had the good life for so long that they forgot who gave them that good life. They forgot that it was Edmund who brought them here, cleared the city, and restored services that they thought were gone forever. It was Edmund who brought their fuckin’ lives back!”
“You’re a murderer!” one of the men from the field shouted back. “A two-bit thug pretending to be a king!”
“Oh yeah? Well who’s the dumb motherfucker about to die like a pig, huh?” Edmund said. He let out a short bark of laughter and continued. “These fuckin’ pricks didn’t even have the balls to look me in the eye when they tried to kill me. Thought they could distract me with a game of poker while their friend shoots me in the back like a coward. But it takes more than one fuckin’ bullet to kill Edmund!”
The men with rifles below gave a jubilant cheer, and the crowds behind them joined in to create a roar of approval for their leader. Abby scoffed and a look of pure befuddlement settled onto her face. How could such a heinous criminal command this kind of love and respect?
“You three wanted my attention, well now you fuckin’ got it. I am going to sit here in my cozy seat with a cold beer and watch with rapt attention as you stupid fucks die like the good-for-nothing bitches you are.”
Just then, the back of the semi dropped open and nine zombies charged out, running full tilt at the three men on the field. The crowd watched in pensive silence, allowing the war cries of the undead to be the sole sound in the stadium. The marksmen stationed around the field hoisted their rifles, preparing to unleash a torrent of automatic gunfire into the pack of zombies should they take even one step towards the stands.
Abby knew the men down there stood no chance of surviving this attack, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the grisly spectacle. The zombies pounced, one or two earning a knife to the head at the point of impact. The men fought the creatures with everything they had, stabbing with their knives and swinging their hammers. But three zombies to a person was simply too much.
It was over in seconds. The three men collapsed to the field as the surviving zombies chewed on their faces and limbs. No one cheered, but no one looked away. They understood that this was a message from Edmund to everyone in the city, a message that informed them of the punishment reserved for traitors, with postage paid for by those three fresh corpses.
Of course, they did not stay corpses for long. After half a minute of their flesh being consumed by the zombies, they turned and began to move again. The handlers who’d brought the zombies in sounded an air horn to get their attention. The creatures turned to see a couple of dressed-up mannequins standing inside the trailer. Without hesitating, they charged the decoys, flinging themselves into the trailer which was promptly closed, locked, and then double locked.
“Well that was just awful,” Abby said. She turned and made to leave the room.
“Hey, those fuckers had it coming,” Edmund insisted. “They tried to kill me, what would you have me do?”
“Not that!” Abby fired back. “You can’t just do things like that, Edmund! It’s cruel, for one thing, and don’t pretend there aren’t a lot of people out there who have good reasons to see you dead.”
“I don’t fuckin’ care! If someone wants to see me dead, they better eat right, sleep well, and hope they outlive me because I ain’t dying anytime soon. Those assholes didn’t have to try to kill me, but they did. They failed, so they got their punishment. And as their intended target, it seems only fair I do what I want with them.”
“Fair? That’s fair to you?”
“Aye, fair. They should consider themselves lucky I didn’t do to them what I did to the fuckface who actually pulled the trigger on me.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“Well you’ll probably see him on our way out. He’s still getting what he deserves. Come on.”
Edmund left without another word, expecting Abby to follow him. Muttering a curse under her breath, she followed, feeling as if she had no choice. The two armed guards fell in behind to bring up the rear, but Abby didn’t spare them a second glance. She stared straight ahead, her steel-grey eyes boring holes into Edmund’s back.
She hated the man. He himself killed one friend of hers and had a hand in the deaths of countless others. He was a sick, sadistic murderer on his best days. Witnessing the massacre he orchestrated down on the field and listening to his justifications awoke those old memories in her. And yet…
And yet while she’d been walking with him, telling him all about the things she’d done since Zach died, she almost felt like a true friend of his. At his side, in the midst of a flourishing community, he almost seemed normal. Hell, they’d shared a joke or two along the way, laughing like old pals having a reunion.
How did that even happen? Abby chalked it up to the part of her that insisted on seeing the good in everyone. That part no longer called the shots, and years of life lessons learned the hard way had tapered its persuasive abilities, but she still listened to it from time to time. That must be it, Abby thought. She got sucked into his cult of personality and was a little careless. It wouldn’t happen again.
***
“Still think what happened back there was unfair?” Edmund asked Abby, gesturing towards the iron cage in front of him, hanging from a wooden beam.
Abby eyed the modern gibbet in front of her, fighting to keep her emotions under control. The man inside the cage was naked, and his sunburned and blistered skin clung to his bones. If he was not dead, he appeared to be just about there. In fact, he wasn’t even moving. He stood with his back against the cage, motionless.
“Hey! You fuck!” Edmund screamed as he threw a rock at the cage. The man inside jerked his head up and turned to face Edmund with a look of fear that Abby had not seen in a very long time.
“Were you sleepin’?” Edmund asked.
“No, Edmund! No sir, I wasn’t sleeping!”
“Because you fuckin’ know sleeping hours are from four to seven in the afternoon, don’t ya?”
“Yes, Edmund. I know that. I wasn’t sleeping, please!”
Edmund clicked his tongue and wagged his finger at the man. “You were sleeping, my friend. And here I thought you were learning your lesson. Looks like you need another week in there.”
The man dropped to his knees and wrapped bony fingers around the sides of the cage as tears spilled from his eyes. “Please, Edmund. Don’t do this! I’m fu
cking begging you, please! Have mercy! I’ll never betray you again! I’ll do anything, please! Anything!”
“Anything at all?” asked Edmund.
“Yes! Yes, yes! Anything! Name it and I’ll do it. Just please, for the love of God set me free!”
“Okay. Just go ahead and sit in that fuckin’ cage for another week and you’re free!” Edmund laughed and he turned to walk away.
“Hey!” Abby hissed and she grabbed Edmund’s arm, stopping him.
Edmund looked at her like she’d just rammed a knife between his ribs. “Careful, lass,” he whispered. “My friendship has limits.”
Undeterred, Abby stared back and spat out the words, “Just let him go.”
“Abby, that stupid fuck tried to kill me. I have to make an example.”
“Believe me, you’ve made an example. This…this is just evil at this point! What more can you do to the man? You’ve already tortured him for God knows how long. Banish him or something, but let him go, damn it!”
Edmund eyed Abby in silence, his eyes flitting up to the cage only once. Abby seized on the opportune silence to make one more plea. “Do it for me, okay? You said you feel indebted to me for Zach’s death, well, this is what I want. Let him go.”
“You want me to free that fuckin’ guy?”
“Yes. Please, Edmund.”
Edmund shrugged. “Fuck it. Fine. I’ll free him.”
“Oh, Christ! Thank you!” The man in the cage blurted out between sobs of joy. “Thank you, Edmund! You’re a saint! A fucking saint! I’ll go, I’ll leave right now, I promise! You’ll never see me again!”
Edmund stepped towards the cage and looked up at the man. “Of that, I have no doubt.”
A single tick of the second hand was all it took for Edmund’s revolver to clear leather and fire a round at the man. The bullet tore into the man’s head and his body flopped down at an awkward angle, pressed up against the sides of the cage like a mannequin in a slim closet.
Holstering his smoking revolver, Edmund turned back to Abby. “There, I freed his soul. You fuckin’ happy?”
Startled by the gunshot but not surprised by Edmund’s actions, Abby stared back defiantly. “Just take me back to my friends, please,” she said.
***
Just as Edmund had promised, the Raiders were honored guests while they waited for Abby to return. With Edmund’s soldiers by their side, they were treated to a free meal, drinks, and flirtatious advances from several women, though Jax made it quite clear to his men that nobody would be going off alone with any of the women.
It was a long and uncomfortable wait as the men could not be certain that Edmund did not mean to kill Abby and the rest of them. They were still nursing their drinks around a large table at a bar when Edmund and Abby finally returned.
“You assholes have a good time here?” Edmund asked as he approached the Raiders.
Jax nodded his head. “We did. Thank you for the hospitality.”
“Don’t mention it. Now get the fuck out of my city. My guys will take you back by boat again. Go tell your fuckin’ bosses that Chicago doesn’t belong to them.”
“I will tell them that,” Jax insisted, “but they are almost certainly going to want to speak with you. Can we arrange a chance for talks?”
“That’s funny, I could have sworn I told you to fuck off just a moment ago, and yet you’re still here.”
“I’m just warning you that there’s no way our commanders will receive your message without at least a little push-back.”
“They can push back on these fuckin’ nuts!” Edmund yelled as he grabbed the crotch of his pants. “Are you fuckin’ listening to me? The fuck is your problem?!”
“Edmund, settle down and think,” said Abby, interceding before the argument could escalate further. “Jax doesn’t have the authority to leave you alone here. If you want to scream at someone and tell them to eff-off, let’s set up a meeting, okay? Can we meet with you again in a few days?”
Edmund breathed loudly through his nose, his gaze darting from Abby to Jax and then back to Abby. “Fine. We’ll fuckin’ parley. Tell your fuckin’ boss to meet me at the old Comiskey Park homeplate. You know where that is, aye?”
“I remember it,” Abby replied.
“Noon, three days from now. Those are my terms for a meeting and they’re non-negotiable.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Have yourself a good time at that whorehouse?” Abby teased Hiamovi as they disembarked from the boat, back where they’d left the Rangers that morning. No one had spoken a word during the trip back, but now the tension had eased considerably and the boat turned itself around to return to the city.
“Can’t say that I did,” Hiamovi laughed. “Though I do regret you and I didn’t have any time to ourselves back there. I bet they had some pretty comfy beds we could have tried out..”
“Yeah, too bad Edmund kicked us out so soon.”
“So I guess your reunion wasn’t so merry?”
“Ugh, don’t even call it that,” Abby said, rolling her eyes. “Honestly, I’d forgotten all about him. He was a sadistic psychopath seven years ago, and he hasn’t changed a bit.”
“So why is he so friendly towards you?”
“I don’t know. I don’t understand anything about him and why he does the things he does. I also don’t understand why I don’t hate him more than I do.”
“What do you mean?”
“I hate him, Hiamovi. I watched him murder a friend of mine, and just today I watched him murder a prisoner. It made me angry, but…but I didn’t feel angry, you know what I mean?”
Hiamovi furrowed his brow in confusion. “Not really.”
Abby breathed in and blew it out through her nose. “Okay, so you know how sometimes little things can make you kinda angry? But it’s a cool kind of angry, right? And then things happen or people do things that make you really feel the anger. You get warm, you sweat, you clench your jaw. You know?”
Hiamovi nodded his head, so Abby continued.
“That’s what I should feel when I think about Edmund, but I don’t. I’m angry, but it feels more like the kind of anger when you stub your toe. You’re mad, but as soon as you stop thinking about it you stop being mad. Do you understand now?”
“I think I do, yeah,” said Hiamovi. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe it’s been so long you’ve just come to peace with it, like you’ve done with other things.”
“No, it’s more than that,” Abby replied. “There’s something about him, a kind of charm or cult of personality. It’s not just that I’m not as angry as I think I should be, but a part of me actually wants to like him!”
“Seriously?”
“Yes! I don’t understand. When he and I were just walking and I was telling him all about where I’ve been and the things I’ve done…we laughed, we joked, I felt happy to see him again after all these years, like it really was a reunion. I know how sick that is, but I can’t help it.”
Hiamovi nodded his head but didn’t say anything.
“What are you thinking?” Abby asked.
“Do you think it has anything to do with Zach?” he asked.
Now Abby looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you told me before that he met Zach once, right? So maybe your brain has linked the two of them. Maybe running into Edmund like this touched on memories of the last time you saw him, when your dad was still alive.”
“That’s…certainly possible,” Abby replied as she chewed on her lip.
“It’s a little bit of a reach, but it’s all I’ve got.”
“It helps a lot,” Abby replied with a smile. It was nice to have something to explain her conflicted feelings around Edmund, and it did make at least some sense, but she wasn’t totally convinced yet. Maybe the idea needed a little time to sit inside her head.
More Rangers and a team of Navy SEALs had showed up by now, so the group was much larger than it had been that morning when Abby and the othe
rs returned. Jax spoke with the other squad leaders and brought them up to speed on the situation in the city, then had Todd get in touch with the higher-ups behind them.
“Tell them we’re going to hold here until we get further instructions,” said Jax. “Sounds like we need someone with enough authority to negotiate with this motherfucker.”
“You got it, Gunny,” said Todd, and he turned his attention to the hulking green radio beside him.
Jax turned from his radio operator and called for Abby, motioning for her to follow him and the other squad leaders.
“Yes?” Abby asked, stepping up alongside Jax once they’d all put some distance between themselves and the other Marines and soldiers.
“I assume you’ve filled ‘Movi in on your day with that asshole,” said Jax, “now I’d like for you to do the same for us, please.”
“Well, it was everything I expected but still full of surprises.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, he’s the same blood-thirsty psychopath I met years ago, but he’s actually built quite a community here. He trades with other communities, Jax. Across Lake Michigan and down river. There’s some Canadians he does business with, and apparently Cuba has taken over the south-eastern United States.”
“Cuba? Cuba took over Florida?” the SEAL group leader asked.
Abby nodded. “That’s what Edmund told me, at least. He says he trades with them too.”
“And you trust him?” asked Jax.
“Not with my life, but I trust him to tell the truth,” Abby replied. “We should meet him at the time and place he specified. I think I can convince him to stand down.”
“Well, that may not be up to us,” Jax grunted. “This has to get run up the chain of command fast, and they’ll determine what we do next.”
His Name Was Zach | Book 3 | Their Names Were Many Page 21