by North, Geoff
The woman was shaking beneath him. This isn’t like her, he thought. His nose was buried into the back of her head. Fiona wasn’t scared of anything. And how did her hair get this long? He licked the inside of her ear, tugged roughly at the lobe with his teeth. This isn’t Fiona, it can’t be.
Roy continued to press her up against the rock with his crotch, the arm holding her waist went to her arm. He worked his fingers to her hand holding the flashlight and pulled it away. Roy kept the tight grip around her face and turned her around. He shone the light in her eyes.
“Not Fiona… The other bitch. What was your fucking name?”
The woman’s eyes were starting to roll back up into her skull. She would pass out from asphyxiation if he didn’t let go of her. Roy lowered his hand and she gasped for air. It took her a few more moments to respond. “Grace… My name is Grace.”
Roy leaned in, smacked his forehead into the bridge of her nose. It wasn’t hard enough to break bone, but the back of her head hit the rough rock. Grace felt the blood begin to trickle down the back of her neck seconds later.
“Amazing Grace. Why have you come down here?”
“Not… Not my choice. Fiona brought me here, just like you.”
“What did you do, Amazing Grace? How did you offend that psycho bitch?”
“I… I fell in love with Louie.”
Roy leaned his head back and laughed. The sound was roaring and terrible. “You and Louie? What is it about that little fucker? He can really get inside people’s heads, can’t he?”
Grace nodded. “We tried to make a run for it, but Fiona had us all figured out. Louie made it… He kept on going without me.”
“That’s the Louie Finkbiner I remember. In it just for himself. I should’ve crushed his head into the rubble with my boot where I first found him. He crawled up from a hole in the ground… and that’s where he ended up putting me in the end.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
“Oh yeah, I’m gonna kill you hard. I’m going to fuck you, and then I’m going to eat that nice ass of yours. Then I might fuck what’s left.”
The light flickered once, twice, and then went out completely, leaving the two back in black. Roy went for her throat again, but an agonizing pain shot between his legs. He staggered forward, expecting to run into the woman, but Grace had already moved out of the way. His face hit the wall and he slid to the ground. She kicked me in the fucking balls. Can’t let her get away… won’t let her get away with that.
He started for his left but his ears picked something up to the right. He reached out with his long arms and found her. Not enough to grip on to, but enough to knock her off balance. He heard her fall, the breath knocked out with an agonized wheeze as she hit the dirt. He jumped on her, put his hands around her throat and started to throttle. This was his favorite way to murder people. It was the closest he could get to his victims—feel that life seeping out between his fingers. “Looks like I’m just gonna fuck you when you’re dead.”
Grace fought with a strength she wasn’t aware she possessed. She twisted, made it onto her side, and swung with both arms. One hand found the flashlight. She grabbed onto it and dropped the heavy end against the bone of her attacker’s wrist. One of the hands let go and Grace twisted some more. Roy fell off of her, but not enough to allow her to escape completely. He dragged her back, Grace struck out with the flashlight again. There was one last flicker of light as it hit his mouth. She saw a tooth dislodge from his ugly mouth and a stream of blood jetted out before it died again.
“You’ve got some energy in you, I’ll give you that much.” He punched her hard in the stomach. Grace collapsed again, the fight all out of her now. She heaved for air but could find none. He stepped on her back, holding her to the ground. “You ready for this?”
Grace heard his pants zipper come down.
Roy reached down and clawed his fingers into the waistband of Grace’s blue jeans. He tried pulling them off with brutish force. The man was big, and he was strong, but the fabric wouldn’t give. Her entire body scraped back along the rock floor. Grace found her breath, managed to suck a double lungful of air in. “Don’t do this to me. I can get you out of here, I know the way to the central mine shaft.”
“That’s what Carl said,” Roy answered with a grunt. He was still working on her pants, he had forced them halfway down her backside. “No, shut your mouth and let me do this. I’m sick of people begging for their pathetic lives.”
“I just came from there, you know I did. The elevator door… Fiona left it open.”
Roy stopped. “Bullshit. You’re lying to me.”
Grace considered her next words very carefully. The man would rape and kill her, no matter what he found in the main chamber. But if she kept lying to him, he would make her suffer. If she told the truth—if she could establish some kind of sick trust—perhaps with his monstrous strength and obvious will to survive, she could get back up topside. He could get her out of here if anyone could. “Okay, that was a lie. The gate’s locked tight. But if we work at it together, maybe we can break the lock, climb the emergency ladder up and out of here.”
Roy didn’t say a word. He didn’t continue his attack, either. A good sign, Grace hoped.
“The flashlight’s dead,” he said after half a minute. “You think you can find your way back in the dark?”
“I can find my way, I just came from there.”
His big hands were still on her buttocks. He pulled them away slowly. “Okay, Amazing Grace. I’m going to trust you. But when this is over, once were up and out of here… and after I’ve murdered Fiona, we’re back to square one, you and me. I’ll do to you what I’m gonna do to her. Understand?”
Roy’s idea of a deal would still see her brutally raped and murdered. But it would buy her time, and if she was smart, a chance to escape not only from this underground tomb, but from him as well.
“Yes. Perfectly.”
Roy pulled her back to her feet. “Lead the way.”
Grace started out and paused after only two steps. She had no idea where she was anymore. The attack and the plunge back into darkness had left her disoriented. She turned around—a natural habit—looking to see the path. There was nothing of course, it was all the same, all dark. Roy pushed her. “What’s wrong? Get the hell going.”
“I—I’m not sure which way.”
“You’re going the right way… I know.”
Grace could move more easily now. She was no longer alone. And even though Roy was a monster, she knew who he was. Even the company of a maniac over none at all was better in her opinion. They went on for what seemed to Grace like an eternity, padding and stumbling in the blackness. Finally her hand came to a corner. She turned right knowing they had found the central shaft.
She sped up, imagining the way before her a wide clear open space, and smacked her leg into the corner of the arc welder. Roy’s grip on her arm came loose and Grace had the urge to run. Stupid idea, where would I go?
“What the hell did you run into?”
“Welder.”
Roy grunted. “Where’s the elevator?”
Grace felt his hard fingers wrap around her wrist again. She started to move where she thought it was and ended up against the wall. She shuffled to her left a few more feet and found iron. “Here it is.” She rattled it for effect.
“Get out of the way.” He shook the door much harder. It sounded like thunder in Grace’s ears. “Fucking thing,” Roy cursed.
“Did you think we were just going to be able to walk in?”
“Shut the fuck up.” He reached in through the bars and explored. Roy found a padlock. It was thicker than your average lock, but perhaps not unbreakable. A lot smaller than the bars, he thought. If I could find something to wedge inside and give it a good twist… Maybe then. “I met a guy in the tunnels a while ago, said he’d found a few tools. You didn’t see any, did you?”
“I just got here. Didn’t have much of a chance to chec
k things out. Water and food were my first priority.”
Roy thought hard. It’d taken him many long months to find his way back here, and it had been entirely by accident. Searching for Carl’s hidden stash of tools and finding anything strong enough to pry the lock open could take many months more, possibly years. He had to work with what he knew was nearby.
“That welder. Take me back to it.”
Grace led him there, going slow but still managing to hit her knee against the sharp corner. “Here.”
Roy felt down before lowering to his knees. It was enclosed in a metal casing roughly three feet high and three feet wide. His thumbs found the corners, and his heart began to race. The metal was rounded here, thicker. Like rebar, he thought. I can work with this. He pushed the entire thing over onto its side. He grabbed onto the bottom edges and tried forcing it off, like he had with Grace’s his pants. The cover came off much easier. Roy ignored the welder itself, and explored up inside the innards of the case that had been covering it instead. His fingers settled on thick rebar along the sides. Reinforcement…protecting the welder from falling rock. If he could free this four-foot piece of rebar from the case, he could use it as a lever inside the padlock. The spot welds holding it in place were small, and there only two of them. Lousy job. I can get that fucker out of there. He took the cover, swung it over his head, and smashed it into the rock wall.
Grace jumped back. “What the hell’s wrong with you? Are you having some kind of fit?”
There was a second loud smash as Roy pounded it against the wall. “Relax, I’m not throwing a tantrum. I’m getting us out of here.”
Roy struck the now mangled case three more times into the rock. There was a clanging noise as he pulled it back, preparing to strike again. The iron bar had come free and dropped to the ground. Roy found it, and started for the elevator door on his hands and knees. His shoulder drove in to the upset welder. “Fuck!”
“Over here,” Grace called out.
She called again and Roy followed the sound of her voice. He found her legs a few seconds later, climbed up, and rested against the elevator shaft door. He pushed the bar through and found the padlock with his fingers. Roy feared at that moment the bar wouldn’t fit in the space between the shackle. It did, just barely. When the bar was halfway through Roy stopped and chuckled. “Fiona’s gonna be sorry she left that welder down here. Stupid bitch shouldn’t have left a goddamn thing. Didn’t she know how resourceful I was?”
Grace wanted to correct him—explain that if it wasn’t for her, he never would’ve found the main shaft. She kept quiet.
Roy grabbed both ends of the bar and twisted. He grunted with exertion. Grace could hear the strong grip of his palms clutching the metal. Roy twisted more, grunted more, but the padlock remained locked.
Grave grabbed at his tattered shirt sleeve. “I can’t help get us out of here if I can’t see what you’re doing.”
Roy continued to struggle. “Trying to snap… lock… with the bar.”
Grace felt along the bulging muscle of his left arm. Her hand settled over his shaking fist. She ducked under the arm, feeling for his other hand three and a half feet away. Touching him made her want to retch. “No, it won’t work this way. You have to put more pressure on one end. Pull it more through to the right, and I’ll help pull down.” The bar scraped through until there were only two or three inches left sticking out from the left-hand side of the padlock. Grace wrapped her small palms around Roy’s gigantic fists on the other end and they pulled together. They heaved, they tugged. The lock stayed in place.
“Pull harder, you weak little bitch. If this doesn’t work, I’m gonna take the bar out and shove it up your ass.”
Grace did more than that. She pulled and lifted her feet from the ground at the same time so her entire weight was suspended in the air. There was a loud snap. Grace fell back down to the ground on her knees as the bar slid out the final few inches.
Roy reached excitedly in and found the padlock open. “Fuck, yeah!”
Grace didn’t share his enthusiasm. She tried crawling away, knowing now that there was no need for him to keep her alive. His hand wrapped around her ankle. “We’re in this together, you and me. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you until you’ve seen the light of day one more time.”
He pulled her into the empty shaft with him. “Where’s the goddamn ladder?”
Grace went to the right. “This way.”
She found the steel rungs and started to climb. “Not so fast,” Roy said, pulling her back to the ground. “I don’t want you getting any more stupid ideas. You would try and step on my fingers, or kick me in the face. I’ll go first.”
He started up. There was a mile to go, it would take hours. He didn’t think Grace would have the strength to make it halfway. When that time came, Roy would let the woman fall to her death. But nothing would stop him from reaching the top. Nothing in or on earth could stop Roy Rodger from taking out his revenge on the two that had put him down here.
Chapter 8
The temperature had risen outside their vehicles by twenty degrees, but it was still a chilling minus ten Celsius. It was a lot colder than normal for this time of year, the beginning of spring. But this wasn’t a normal season, Angela realized. There had been no spring, and there would likely be no summers for many years to come. The atmosphere was choked with smoke from fires burning across the world, and the upper atmosphere was still saturated with radioactive fallout. The temperatures across the planet continued to plummet. A new ice age had begun, and man had been the cause.
Their long drive from the north had officially come to end. They had turned east onto the Trans-Canada highway less than thirty minutes ago. Caitan pulled Owen’s red extended cab into an empty parking lot. The name of the town they had just entered was Tarantan. The population eleven months ago had been nineteen-hundred-forty-two. The population this afternoon—as far as Angela knew—was zero.
They had stopped briefly in half a dozen other small towns along the way. Those towns had made Tarantan seem like a metropolis. Hayden had managed to syphon enough fuel from abandoned cars to keep them going, but other than that, none of the tiny villages had anything else to offer; the houses, the restaurants, the depressing little post offices and community centers had long since been emptied. Tarantan was the first town they had been since setting out with the promise of a finding a little bit more.
“Why are you making us stop at a school first?” Caitan asked.
“Why not? The last place I’d want to go after the Apocalypse is my old school,” Angela said.
Caitlan chuckled. “I might… to burn the damn thing down.”
Amanda and Michael giggled from the back seat. Angela ignored the comment altogether. “And if most other people tried to avoid it, maybe we’ll find something useful. A First Aid station, maybe a nurse’s office.”
Caitlan lowered her voice considerably. “Michael will need more than Band-Aids and tubes of stinky grease for skinned knees… They won’t have the kind of medicine that helps with radiation sickness.”
“We’ll try the hospital next, if this town even has one.”
Caitlan glanced up at the rear-view mirror. Hayden was pulling up in the Buick behind them. She could see Fred Gill flapping his gums in the passenger seat. He probably wanted to make the hospital his first stop more than she did.
The two women instructed Michael and Amanda to remain in the vehicle, and to lock the doors until they returned. They met Fred, Hayden, and Nicholas on the front steps of the school.
Caitlan shook her head. “I’m not sure what we’re gonna find inside… I don’t think it’s such a good idea to take the boy with us. Why don’t you leave him with them other two? They’ll be safe so long as they keep the doors locked.”
Hayden squeezed the boy tightly against his chest. “I promised myself I wouldn’t separate this group anymore. We either all go together, or I’ll wait in the truck with the kids.”
Caitlan an
d Angela exchanged a look, and Fred spoke for both of them. “Makes sense to me. We’ll be safe if we stay together, outside in the vehicles, or inside the school. So let’s all go in.” He motioned for the twins to join them.
The seven moved slowly toward the front doors. “I lived less than an hour’s drive from this town,” Fred said quietly. “When the Army set up camp in Rokerton, I never had the chance to come here and treat survivors. They wouldn’t let me leave.”
Angela could hear the regret in his voice. “You did what you could. That’s a lot more than most people can say.”
Fred nodded somberly and tried the doors. They were locked tight. “Well, that’s that.” He turned back towards the vehicles.
“Are you going to give up that easily?” Caitlan asked. “Didn’t you see those broken windows over there?”
They followed her to the side of the building where two wide windows running along the ground had their glass panes smashed out. They knelt down and saw snow swirling about on a wooden gymnasium floor.
“It looks like we have a way in,” the old doctor said. “But I’m not going first and breaking an ankle.”
Michael was on his hands and knees before anyone else could say a word. “Then I’ll go.” He turned around and dangled his feet in first. Hayden and Caitlan took hold of his arms and lowered him to the floor. They helped Amanda next, and the adults followed one after the other. Fred went last, taking the longest amount of time, and complaining the entire way.
The main doors leading into the rest of the school were locked. They went in a line through an equipment room and found another door at the back. It was locked as well. Hayden kicked at it in frustration, snapping off a small chain and flimsy lock on the other side.