BEYOND THE GRID BOX SET: The Complete Beyond The Grid series (book 1-4)

by Connor Mccoy

  From there, there was nothing but the sound of clomps in the hallway. Courtney must be leaving their room, though not very easily.

  “What do you think?” Domino asked in a whisper, “They’re in our room. We could catch them there, hold them. That just leaves Arnie.”

  “They might have weapons in there. Hell, they may have found ours by now,” Jacob replied no less quietly, “No, let’s wait until they go outside.”

  Voices picked up again. It was that couple. “I tell you, it’s hard to not go out of my mind around her,” Boss said. “And for crying out loud, if Sykes had to give us a girl, couldn’t he have given us one that was a little, you know, fit? Not so chunky around the hips?”

  “I know, I know,” Wickers replied. “Just bear with it a little longer. Remember, we’re not putting up with this arrangement for too much longer.”

  “Right. Just deal with it.” Boss inhaled deeply.

  Their conversation ceased. Jacob and Domino looked at each other. “Well, those two sound pleasant,” Jacob said.

  “God, that woman sounds horrible.” Domino widened her eyes. “Did she call Courtney chunky? I never would say that about a child. And what’s this about not putting up with their arrangement?”

  Jacob made a fist. He couldn’t say, but it didn’t sound pleasant. What did these two have planned for Courtney and Arnie?

  Before Jacob could ponder it any further, the voices picked up again. “Hey, you should get Arnie up and to the table,” Boss said.

  Jacob and Domino returned their attention to the door. Now Arnie Lerner was about to emerge. That meant all four of them would be in the kitchen.

  “That might not be a bad idea,” Jacob whispered. “If they’re all in there, we could show up, take them by surprise, pin them in there.” He chuckled. “You think they’d be expecting an ambush while they’re having scrambled eggs and toast?”

  Domino laughed softly. “Probably not.”

  The floor creaked through the door. “He’s awake,” Jacob said.

  “Pancakes?” Arnie asked.

  “Sorry, not today,” Wickers said. “But Terri does make fantastic grits. I’m sure you’re going to love them.”

  “Oh.” Arnie’s disappointment was so childlike that it seemed strange to come from the mouth of that tall lumbering man. Sykes and Courtney had mentioned that he was mentally challenged.

  If he’s no better than a child, how’s he going to react when Doms and I have to pull guns on his so-called parents? Jacob’s frown deepened. This situation seemed messier than ever. Maybe they should confront Arnie alone? But wouldn’t the man just scream for help upon being confronted by strangers?

  And what if Arnie attacked them? A fully-grown man with big muscles could do a lot of damage, and if he didn’t understand not to challenge an adult holding a gun on him, he or Domino might have to take action to stop him.

  Action that could kill him.

  Terri Boss threw her head back with a sigh. “Coffee.” She put the cup to her lips and sipped the precious liquid. This was her bright spot to the morning, no doubt about it.

  In the dining room, Courtney was busy chomping away at her meal. At least the food kept her quiet. Perhaps if Boss could start her off canning, Boss might be rid of her for most of the day.

  Guy, how the hell did we end up in this fix? She loved Guy Wickers. Hell, after the plug was pulled on everything, Guy was the only thing worth loving. He was a smart man, but sometimes he ended up in over his head. Hooking up with Jimmy Sykes seemed like the right move at the time. They had no other options.

  She drank some more coffee. Boss had no ambitions for a family, not since she had been forced to take care of her twelve-year-old niece when her sister went bankrupt. She detested her niece. The feeling was mutual. The two couldn’t stand each other. Somehow, Boss made it through three more years before she finally ditched her niece and ran off with Guy.

  Almost two months ago. I wonder how she’s doing without her phone to bury herself in. She smiled.

  As she raised the cup to her lips, Arnie Lerner passed by the open door to the kitchen from the hallway.

  He stopped, his eyes suddenly widening.

  Boss put the cup down. Arnie looked frightened for a moment, but then a blaze of fire lit up in his eyes. It was like something had set him off.

  Then he screamed.

  “Coffee!”

  Chapter Eleven

  Boss backed up a step as Arnie’s voice grew louder, his body quivering with each shout. “Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!”

  “What’s wrong? What are you yelling for?” Boss shouted.

  “No! No shout! No shout at me!” Arnie screamed, suddenly crossing the threshold from the hall and running toward her.

  Boss was so startled that she dropped the coffee cup. It shattered on the floor, spilling its contents.

  The coffee spill seemed to freak out Arnie even more. Screaming, he stomped on the liquid as if it was a hated insect. His boots kicked up some of the cup’s shards. One of them nearly struck Boss in the leg, instead bouncing off a nearby cupboard door.

  “Stop it!” Boss ran through the door to the dining room, to the table where Courtney was seated. “What the hell is wrong with you, Arnie? Are you crazy?”

  Arnie, who was still in the kitchen, raised his arms high and let out a roar.

  Courtney, still seated, eyed Arnie in the kitchen. For a change, she wasn’t wearing a snarky expression and seemed a little uneasy. Even Arnie’s rampage was concerning her.

  She’s been around this guy, Boss thought. “Courtney, what’s his deal? What the hell is wrong with him?”

  “Your coffee,” the teen said, “he hates it. Don’t you remember what Sykes said?”

  Boss struggled to remember. She hated to think about Sykes any more than she had to. Did he say something about coffee? Damn, what did Sykes say?

  Arnie kept stomping the floor, accompanied by shouts. He wasn’t stopping. Boss looked to the hall doorway. It was just a few steps away. Could she flee through the hall? But the corridor also opened up into the kitchen. What would Arnie do when she passed by? Would the hulking brute pursue her?

  “Unreal,” she whispered, “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  Arnie then took things up a notch by sticking his head out the doorway and into the dining room. His eyes were bugging out. Boss shivered. There was darkness in his eyes, maybe even murder.

  Courtney rose from her seat. “Yeah, you might want to get him to take a chill pill.” She slipped around behind Boss.

  Panic flowed through Boss’s veins. “Guy! Guy! Get your ass out here, right now!”

  Jacob tilted his head up to look at Domino. The pair had been listening through the door. “What’s going on?” Domino asked. “All I heard was ‘coffee’ over and over and some shouting.”

  Jacob strained to listen some more. Something bad was going down in the kitchen. Arnie was the cause. Why he would go berserk over coffee, Jacob couldn’t say.

  “Terri!” Guy Wickers’ voice vibrated through the door. “I’m coming!” His rapid footsteps could be heard racing down the hall.

  “Jay, what do you think?” Domino asked.

  “Better to wait a little longer.” Jacob’s hand reached down to the gun on his belt. He wouldn’t wait too long, though. There was a teenager among them, and if he had to, he would hurry to secure her safety if things got out of hand.

  “Terri!” Wickers yelled, his hand on his gun, as he charged through the hall and into the dining room. “Terri, what’s happening?”

  He looked around, trying to digest the scene as quickly as possible. Boss had been driven up against the wall. Courtney was close to the hall door, so close that Wickers almost hit her as he dashed into the room.

  The source of Boss’s fear was Arnie Lerner. The man just had kicked over the wooden table. He seemed trapped in a frenzy.

  For a moment, Wickers was ready to pull his gun and end the man right there. But Arnie wasn’
t pursuing either of the two females in the room. He was moving toward them, but not directly. He seemed more occupied with whatever demons he saw in his head.

  “Dad!” he screamed, “You…you…there?”

  Dad? What’s going on? Is he talking to me? Wickers couldn’t figure out what Arnie was talking about.

  “Guy, do something!” Boss screamed.

  Wickers tried to keep calm. He couldn’t outright kill this man. Maybe he could talk him down. “Arnold! Arnie!” Wickers even reached out and grabbed Arnie by the arm. “Stop it! Stop it now!”

  Arnie responded with a new roar and a violent thrust of his arm that flung Wickers onto the floor.

  “Guy!” Boss cried out.

  “Holy shit!” Courtney by now had reached the hall door and was ducking into the hall.

  Wickers stumbled up while also retreating, fearing that Arnie would attack him. But the man just was standing in place, screaming and flailing his arms.

  “His dad,” Courtney said softly. “His dad would throw coffee on him whenever he got mad at Arnie. Sykes and his men were talking about it. Arnie and his dad didn’t get along.”

  “That must have been one hell of a bad relationship.” But it helped Wickers to understand what Arnie was feeling. Maybe now Wickers could talk Arnie out of his rage.

  He approached Arnie again, but tried keeping out of the man’s immediate range. “Arnie, Arnie relax! Your dad’s not here!”

  Arnie shouted again.

  “We’re here!” Wickers emphasized the “we.” “This is your new home and you are safe and no one is going to hurt you. We’re friends.” Wickers repeated “we’re friends” several times. It seemed to help quiet Arnie. “There.” Wickers froze a smile on his face. “You see?”

  Arnie, trembling, looked at Wickers as if he didn’t fully trust what the man just had said, but it was enough to finally stop his rampage.

  Wickers kept smiling. He had to make Arnie feel as safe as possible. “You see? It’s just us. This is your new home, and we’re about to go outside and begin a busy day in the fields. Does that sound good?” Wickers widened his smile to show off his teeth.

  Arnie relaxed even more. Now he seemed genuinely calm and responsive. “Yes,” he said, “sounds good.”

  “Great.” Wickers looked over Arnie’s shoulder at the turned-over table. “Say, how’s about you do us a favor and pick that table back up?”

  Arnie turned around. “Oh. Sure.” He shuffled toward the table, looking at it as if he had no idea how that piece of furniture had become overturned.

  Suddenly, Wickers felt a woman’s hand grab his arm. “Terri?” he asked as he turned around, coming face to face with one angry woman.

  “Guy!” Boss whispered harshly, “What in God’s name just happened? Did Courtney just say that cof—” She cast a glance at Arnie, who was occupied with pulling up the table, before continuing in a lower voice. “—that drink makes him fly off the handle?”

  Wickers, backing up, nodded once. “Yeah.”

  Boss next turned to Courtney, while maintaining her fury. “You think you could have said this earlier?”

  “Should have listened to Sykes,” Courtney said, a little sing-songy. “He did mention there would be trouble.”

  “Enough.” Wickers pointed to the hall. “Courtney, go to your room. Terri will be there in a few minutes and take you to start learning canning.”

  “Fine by me.” Courtney rushed off.

  With the teen gone, Boss took Wickers by the arm. “We have got to talk about this. Now!” She started pulling him toward the hallway.

  Footsteps approached the den. Jacob and Domino kept silent as they increased in intensity. Jacob feared that whoever was coming would walk up to the closet and try opening it, but the footfalls stopped before they reached the door. The good news was the two pairs of feet halted so close that Jacob and Domino could hear the voices of Wickers and Boss very clearly now.

  “Good God!” Boss said with almost a screech. She spat out a string of expletives before she continued with more cogent thoughts.

  “I cannot believe the hell we’re in! Guy, this is too much! That…that nutcase is going to fly off the handle over a stupid cup of coffee! What else is wrong with him? Is he going to kill us in our sleep?”

  “I don’t know,” Wickers said, but he barely had finished before Boss continued.

  “Well, I’m sorry, but I’m not putting up with this. I am not sharing this house with him or that girl for one more night! We’re getting the hell out of here today! There’s enough supplies for us if we grab them. I know it.”

  “I hear you. Just try lowering your voice,” Wickers said.

  Boss did as she was asked, though her tone remained audible through the door. “Guy, we can’t stay here. You know it.”

  “I do. I just don’t want us to be caught out there without enough supplies. We don’t know when we’re going to find a new haven. We might be walking in the woods for days or maybe a week or two. Sykes did clean out a lot of canned food.”

  “Well, it’s not like we can take a hundred jars of food with us. There’s enough for the two of us to last a long time,” Boss said. “We don’t need to make Courtney can food for us for a few days.”

  “But maybe one day would be enough,” Wickers said.

  “Then we’ll have to spend one more night here. She can’t wrap it up in a day! Guy, what are we doing to do about Arnie?”

  “We’ll lock him up for the night,” Wickers said. “He can stay in here.”

  “Guy, I don’t like the idea of sharing the same roof with him. Maybe it’s time to, you know, put him down.”

  “Kill him?”

  “Guy, you think we have a choice? Look around us! The world’s gone to hell. You never know what’s going to happen, who will pop out from the shadows…” Boss sighed.

  “And it’s not like he’s, you know, going to make it very long. He’s messed up in the head. He doesn’t know how to fend for himself. It’d be better if he went quickly and without pain, don’t you think?”

  Wickers exhaled slowly. “How about we worry about what to do today first? You get Courtney started on the canning. I’ll have Arnie get to work outside. Maybe if he works up a sweat, he’ll get tired and won’t feel like going postal for a while.”

  “Just think about it. If you feel like he should take his final journey in life out there…”

  “Like I said, let’s just worry about getting started with the chores,” Wickers said quickly. “We’ll be gone soon enough. I promise.”

  The conversation ceased. Boss and Wickers stepped away from the door and soon became inaudible. They must have left the den.

  Domino let out a sigh as she propped her head against the door, then spoke in a harsh whisper. “Jay, you heard those two, right? I don’t like this. I don’t know what happened in the kitchen, but they’re talking about killing that man and leaving that girl all alone here.”

  “I know.” Jacob ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on with that Arnie Lerner man, but from what Sykes said, he’s like a child mentally. He probably doesn’t understand what he’s doing or what’s going on.”

  “But you can’t just let him be killed for that!” Domino’s jaw tightened. “Jay, these people are horrible! They’re going to leave that girl all alone here once they’ve used her to can food for them. We have to move.”

  “We will. But let’s wait a little longer. Guy is taking Arnie outside to the crops. If that woman is having Courtney can food, they’ll do it on the cast iron stove on the outside porch to vent the smoke. At least I hope that’s where they’re going. That puts them all outside. So, then we get out of here, go through the house and lock the doors. That’ll box them out.” He rubbed the side of his head, the skin warm from being pressed against the door for a while. “Then we try to deal with them one by one.”

  “Courtney should want to join with us. They’re going to leave her behind. We have
to tell her that,” Domino said.

  “I’m sure she doesn’t want to be around those two, but that doesn’t mean she’ll join up with us. We’ll need time to talk to her. Can you do that?” Jacob looked down at his dirty clothes. He also ran a hand down the side of his unshaven face. “I don’t think I’m going to make the best impression.”

  Domino laughed tiredly. “You poor thing. You haven’t had a bath in ages.”

  “Neither have you,” Jacob added. “I think it’s an improvement, actually.”

  With a laugh, Domino lightly punched Jacob in the arm.

  Jacob turned his gaze to the door. He was eager to open it up and step into the den, to finally access his house for the first time in more than a week. “This is going to be over soon, Doms. I know it. We’re going to have our house back.”

  I just hope no one has to die today to get it back, he thought.

  Chapter Twelve

  Courtney, still fuming over her ill-fitting overalls, stood on the porch before the wooden table in the shadow of the home’s awning near the kitchen door as Terri Boss explained the canning process to her. The woman still was rattled from Arnie’s freak-out and thus sounded more irritated and impatient than usual. It was a shame, because canning did not sound as complicated as Boss explained it. It even sounded, to Courtney’s surprise, easy.

  Still, Courtney had to stop Boss and ask her to repeat certain steps. Boss would scowl and restate whatever Courtney had missed.

  So, I just leave the jar on the stove for about ten minutes until the air inside is evacuated and the inside of the jar becomes a vacuum. That’s how the food is preserved. That’s pretty cool, she thought.

  The stove before her was easy to light. Thankfully, it was not electric, or they would be screwed. It worked by the simple use of coals or wood underneath the metal grill that could be lit by a match or a lighter. Courtney just would have to be careful not to touch the grill while the stove was in use or immediately after the fire was lit.