by Zack Archer
The Turk watched the crowd’s reactions, the way some cheered and others cursed as the bets were paid out.
I turned from the spectacle. “Why did you show me that?”
“Several reasons, the first of which was to show you the fine line between life and death. Sometimes it’s as thin as the blade on a knife.”
I didn’t say anything, but I had a strong desire to punch the Turk in the face.
“The second reason I showed you that was to convince you to play ball.”
“Why do you have to convince me? You already hold all the cards.”
“All but one.” He moved to within a few inches of me. “I know what’s left of our government sent you down here.”
I didn’t react. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The Turk’s face went wooden. “You can lie to the others, Nick, but don’t lie to me. You were sent here to find an antidote for the zombie virus.”
“No, sir,” I lied.
The Turk began breathing through his nostrils. “That’s not what she told me.”
He motioned to the cabanas again, and another curtain pulled back to reveal a familiar face.
Hollis.
She was a ghost of her former self, literally. Her complexion was pallid and her face was purpled with bruises and crosshatched with scratches.
“You probably already know, but she’s infected,” the Turk said.
I wanted to run to her, but three of the Turk’s guards had their guns trained on me.
“You’re lucky we didn’t put her down immediately,” he continued. “Not only was she bitten, but she attacked my guys. Broke two jaws, dislocated a few shoulders.”
“She’s a fighter.”
“No, she is a straight-up shitkicker, and those are in short supply these days. So, I overlooked her…lack of decorum.”
I stared at Hollis, who glared menacingly at the Turk.
“She’ll turn within the hour,” he said.
I held his look. “What do you want from me?”
“Here’s the quick and dirty, Nick. I know you had what people of high station believe is an antidote to the virus that’s fucked up the world.”
I stared at him.
“Just say yes and I’ll move on.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good boy.”
“I also know you hid the antidote somewhere.”
“You want me to say yes again?”
The Turk smiled. “I’d really love it if you did.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I want you to go and get the antidote for me.”
“Why?”
The Turk held up his hands. “Because I want to save your friend and then I want to save the world.”
“You’ll pardon me, sir, if I have a hard time believing any of that.”
The Turk sighed. He prowled around for a few moments. Then he put an arm on my shoulder and walked me over to the edge of the roof. One of his men handed me a pair of dark sunglasses, which helped with the blinding sun. The two of us stared down at the water—the other buildings, the boats, the people delivering supplies, contraband, and God knows what else below us.
“We’re rebooting the world right here, Nick. This is going to be the capital of a new country.”
“Sunlandia?”
The Turk waved his hand dismissively. “I just said that to humor the locals. It’s a branding thing. People need a name to get behind and that seemed appropriate at the time.”
“You sound like someone I knew back in D.C.,” I said, an image of the Madam Secretary flashing before me.
“I take it he was a visionary.”
“She thought so,” I replied.
“What happened to her?”
“That whole pride goeth before a fall thing,” I answered.
“How bad was her fall?”
“A real doozy.” He was silent and I continued. “What will you really do with the antidote, sir?”
“See if it works, first. If it does, we’ll find a way to replicate it. I’ve got a half-dozen physicians, chemists, researchers and the like scattered across the buildings. There are labs, dry ones out in the ‘burbs that we can use. Once we do that, we can start disbursing the antidote and eventually end the plague.”
“You’ll need the government’s help.”
He removed his sunglasses and I saw something, a dark energy flicker in his eyes. “What government? The one that’s been hiding out in some fucking bunker while the rest of us are sucking on this, trying to rebuild?”
“They’re still out there.”
“They forfeited any claim they had to rule when they took a knee. I am the government now. I’m the leader that this great country of ours needs.”
What the hell do you say in response to something like that? I just nodded and gave a half smile and groped for words to change the subject.
“What’s your real name?” I asked.
He smiled, the light reflecting off his blindingly white teeth. “Bartholomew Hill. Doesn’t sound like a leader’s name, does it?”
“I suppose not.”
“Hence ‘The Turk.’”
The Turk checked his watch. I saw more people strolling across the roof. One of them was Dixie. She had a thick bandage over the nose I’d broken.
“You’re moving out now,” the Turk said. “You have twenty minutes to find that case. It pains me to say this, but if you don’t make it back in twenty minutes, I’m afraid my guys will start removing pieces from your friend. I don’t think either of us wants that.”
“No.”
“Then you’ll help me?
“Yes, sir, but I need to speak with Hollis before I go.”
The Turk held up two fingers. That’s how long I had.
I moved over to Hollis, who shuffled away from the Turk’s goons.
“You okay?”
“Aside from getting my ass kicked and being infected with the zombie virus, I’m right as rain, Nick.”
I hugged her as the Turk’s men snickered.
“I can feel it inside me,” Hollis whispered. “The sickness, the virus, whatever the fuck it is. It burns, and there’s this freaky feeling like fingers are moving around, poking my organs.”
I hugged her. “I’m so sorry.”
“The others get away?”
I nodded. She smiled. “Score one for the good guys.”
“I’m going to get the antidote,” I said.
“Christ, don’t give it to him,” she said.
“I don’t have a choice. He said he’s willing to use it on you if I do.”
“You trust that asshole?”
“Do I think I can trust a man who just made a woman fight an alligator on the top of a high-rise in downtown Miami? No. But going out there buys us some time.”
“Time isn’t something I have a whole lot of,” Hollis replied.
I kissed her on the forehead and then Dixie grabbed me.
It was time to go.
22
I was marched at gunpoint down five flights of stairs and then ushered out onto a waiting boat, a sleek, fifteen-footer with a silver-painted hull that made it appear like a bullet. Dixie glared at me.
I motioned toward the boat. “I’d say ladies first, but first, you’d have to be a lady.”
“You broke my fucking nose, asshole,” she snapped.
“You’re welcome.”
She growled and grabbed the scruff of my neck, forcing me onto the boat. Then she shoved me down into a seat at the back. Three other men boarded the boat. Dixie sat across from me, a pistol in one hand and an insanely large knife in the other.
“Give me a reason to use this,” she said, motioning with her eyes to the knife, “and I’ll gut you.”
“You have some serious anger issues.”
“Fuck you.”
“Pretty sure that’ll be exhibit number one.”
She swiped the knife near my knee. The blade kissing the skin, drawing a bead of blood. I
yelped. Dixie seemed delighted by that.
“Just like I thought. You’re a screamer.”
“That’s funny?”
“What is?” she sneered.
“So was Sadie,” I replied, grinning ear-to-ear.
Dixie lunged at me with the knife but one of the men held her back. The motor turned over and another man shoved us away from the building as we thundered off down a canal.
Dixie knew the way back to the glass building where I’d been captured. The ride wasn’t long, maybe ten minutes, which didn’t give me a whole lot of time to plan an escape. My only hope lay in finding the case with the antidote and trusting that Dixie and the others would take me back to the Turk in one piece so that I could save Hollis. Dark thoughts swirled in my head as I struggled to come up with a way out of the predicament while wondering what had become of Deb, Raven, and the others.
I spotted the building in the distance. Our driver cut the boat’s engine as we drifted in close to it. There was another craft nearby with five men aboard.
“Just in case you get any stupid ideas,” Dixie said, her eyes hopping from me to the other boat.
“Pretty sure it was a stupid idea to come out here,” I replied.
She snickered. “The Turk has a way with words. Probably made you feel all warm and fuzzy back there, didn’t he?”
“Not like Sadie did, but close.”
She grumbled. “The joke’s gonna be on you, Nick.”
“Looks like it already is.”
“What do you think the Turk’s gonna do once he gets the antidote?”
“Save the world.”
She laughed so hard she nearly fell over. “More like he holds what’s left of the world ransom. Think about it, shit for brains. If it wasn’t for the plague he wouldn’t be on top of the heap. You think he’s just gonna give that all up?’
“He could still be on top and save people.”
She made a face. “He could give a shit about humanity. Think about the plague during the Middle Ages. Wiped out nearly forty-percent of the world’s population, but a decade later things were just fine.”
“Except for the forty-percent.”
A nasty grin gripped her face. “Ants will eventually find a way to build another goddamn ant hill, that’s what the Turk always says.”
“The man’s got a way with words.”
Dixie grabbed a metal pole and planted it in the muck outside. It was time to go. We disembarked and plodded through the water, entering the rear of the building. We made our way up to the dry hallway, then took the staircase up the landing and entered the door I’d knocked down before.
Dixie had her pistol planted in the small of my back the entire time. I turned and shoved the gun aside.
“Keep doing that and I won’t find the antidote,” I said.
The gun came back up. “You have eight seconds to move, asshole.”
“Does Sadie know?”
“Seven seconds.”
“She doesn’t, does she? Yeah, I figured that’s probably why she ditched you.”
Dixie bared her teeth. “You don’t know shit.”
“I know that what Sadie has going on in the ‘Glades is better than what the Turk has.”
“Yeah, living hand-to-mouth in a fucking jungle beats a penthouse any day of the week, right?”
“Least Sadie and the others haven’t lost their souls.”
“In order to lose your soul, you first have to have had one.”
She jammed the end of her gun into my stomach, doubling me over. “Get moving or I’ll blow your goddamn head off.”
Clutching my gut, I took a step and the floor gave way. I fell forward, only to be stopped at the last second by someone grabbing the back of my shirt. This gave me enough time to thrust out my stump and good hand. My head smacked the ground, but I managed to grab onto the secure edge of the rotten section of subflooring. The HUD popped back up and I could hear Slade. His voice was barely above a whisper, but I could hear him. I dangled there, looking down on the floor below me which was completely flooded.
“Looks like you can use a little help,” Slade said.
“Just a bit,” I replied.
“I’ve got a plan. Get yourself out of the hole and I’ll let you know what it is.”
Slowly, I gaped back up at the person who’d saved me. Dixie. She had one eye closed, looking down at me over the barrel of her gun.
“And here I was going to thank you,” I said.
“Save it. Pulling you back from that hole just delayed the inevitable.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Still believe that things are gonna end well for you and the others?”
I nodded. “I’ve got hope.”
A nasty grin spread over her face. “See, that’s the thing about hope. When it ain’t grounded in reality it just kinda crumbles and then what do you end up with? Despair.”
“You gonna be offended if I call you one twisted bitch?”
She grabbed me by the hair and pulled me out of the hole. Then she kicked me in the ass and I stumbled down through the corridor of shattered glass until I located and entered the space with the cubicles.
“How ‘bout that plan, Slade?”
“What do you think is going to happen once you find that antidote?”
“I’ll be given the keys to the city?” I asked.
“If by keys you mean some lead in the back of your head.”
“Are you telling me you don’t trust Dixie and the Turk?”
Slade chuckled. “They will send you on to your reward as soon as they can.”
“What do you propose?”
“A distraction,” Slade said. “See the cubicles coming up?”
My eyes shifted. I saw them.
“Where’s the antidote?”
“The cubicles on the right.”
“Send Little Miss Sunshine to the left,” Slade said, referring to Dixie. “Then you jog right, snag the antidote, pull it out and hold it fucking hostage. No antidote unless you’re taking back to the top of the building.”
“Okay,” I said. “That sounds good. What’s the rest of the plan?”
“That is the plan, Dekko.”
“What happens when I get back to the Turk?”
“I haven’t gotten that far.”
Before I could respond, Dixie pressed her gun into my back and I pointed to the cubicles off to the left. “It’s there. It’s right over there. You can’t miss it.”
Dixie moved left and I swung right, jaunting over to the cubicle with the stuffed penguin pinned to a foam wall. I slid the attache case out of the accordion file, opened it and plucked out the chilled vial.
I turned just as Dixie realized I’d fooled her.
She aimed at me.
“Pull that trigger and I’ll destroy the antidote,” I said.
“You don’t have the balls.”
“Try me, bitch. One squeeze, and the glass shatters. Guess who’s gonna get blamed for it? By the way, it ain’t me.”
She lowered the gun. “You are so fucking dead.”
“Not yet,” I replied. I gestured in the direction we’d just come from. “This time, you lead and I’ll follow.”
Dixie cursed under her breath, but she did as ordered, leading me back to the boat. We climbed aboard and I clutched the antidote vial with everything I had, realizing it was the only leverage I had. We motored through the flooded city and on several occasions I spotted the faintest hint of a boat trailing us out in the distance. I closed my eyes and prayed that it was Sadie and the ladies.
The Turk was overjoyed to see that we’d returned with the antidote. Surrounded by a bevy of beautiful ladies, he began clapping as soon as he saw me. “Bravo, Nick, bravo.”
Having placed the vial back in the chilled antidote case, I held it up for him to see.
“I’d like the antidote, please,” the Turk said.
“And I’d like to see Hollis.”
“The vial first.”
“Not if you want it,” I replied.
A shadow passed over the Turk’s face. He was pissed at my little act of defiance but didn’t want the others to see. He whistled, and Hollis was brought out again. She appeared to be on the verge of death. Her skin was the color of moldy cheese and she could barely hold her head up or walk.
“She gets the antidote first,” I said.
The Turk shook his head. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“We have a new deal.”
The Turk took three steps toward me. “I’m going to give you a chance to reconsider what you’re doing, Nick. If you play your cards right, you’ll have a seat at my table. If you don’t, I’ll make sure you die a horrible death.”
“I’ve already died once, Bartholomew,” I replied. “I don’t have the same fear of death I used to have.”
The Turk’s face tightened with rage. “You’d risk everything for a girl, huh?”
“She’s not only a girl,” I replied. “She’s my friend.”
The Turk took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Your funeral.” Then he shouted, “Bring her over!”
Hollis was dragged over to me. I put my arm around her.
“Can you stand?” I asked.
“Barely.”
“I’ve come up with a plan.”
“Wonderful,” she said.
“It involves us leaving.”
“Just like that?”
I nodded. “Just like that.”
“Can I ask a question?”
“Ask away,” I replied.
“Exactly how much time did you spend devising this plan?”
“My usual.”
“Two minutes?”
I smiled and nodded. If we were going out, we’d do so together. Backing up slowly toward the exit off the roof, I was very mindful of the seventy or eighty weapons that were pointed at us and the pissed-off people holding said weapons.
“We’re leaving. I’m giving Hollis the antidote, and then I’ll leave the rest of it for you,” I said.
The Turk smiled. “You know what I learned from the cartels, Nick?”
“No.”
“It’s better to be good at chess than checkers.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
The Turk held up a small metal cube. He pressed a button and an electrical current seized my body. My fingers and toes curled up and I bit my tongue as I collapsed to the ground.