Apocalypsis: Book 4 (Haven) (31 page)

She held it up threateningly at him.  “It’s a knife, and it’s sharp, so shut up.”

I whipped the side of my hand over and made contact with her wrist, sending the metal flying across the table and crashing into the wall.  It fell to the floor with a loud
clank.

“Ow!” she shrieked.  “What’d you do that for!”

I sighed.  “Gail, I’m putting you under arrest.”

Her mouth dropped open.  Then she frowned.  “Under what authority?” she scoffed.

“Under my authority,” I said, grabbing her upper arm and dragging her from the room.

She tried to dig her heels in and stop me from bringing her down the hall, but it wasn’t even slowing me down.  I was determined to end the nonsense; the insult thrown at Peter was the final straw for me.  I needed to take care of her once and for all.  This girl was a pure poison and something had to be done with her.  We’d put it off for long enough.  At this point it really felt like she was putting the people of Haven in danger.

She kicked me hard in the back of the thigh, slowing us down and giving me a hell of a bruise.

I turned around and smashed her in the collar bone, dropping her to her knees.

“Get me a pair of handcuffs,” I said to Peter, holding her down on the floor by her hair.

She was screaming like a woman possessed and swinging her arms around awkwardly, trying to grab a hold of me.

“B-R-B!” yelled Peter, running down the hallway in the opposite direction.

“I’m going to fucking kill you, you bitch!  You’d better run far away because I’m not going to stop until you’re dead!”

I put my knee in her back while I waited for the restraints to arrive.  “Why all the hate, Gail?  Why against me?  What’d I ever do to you?”

“Shut up.”  Her voice was muffled, buried in her upside down shirt somewhere.  “You know exactly why.  You’re always walking around here like you’re the best thing since television, letting your friends do whatever they want and keeping everyone else penned in like animals.  All you are is a slave driver.  A zoo keeper.  You’re nothing.  All it takes is a single bullet to end your bullshit.”

Her words hurt my feelings, and her threat chilled my blood.  She wasn’t like Coli, a raving loon; she was just an unhappy person, jealous maybe, but so full of hate.

Before I could do anymore dime-store psychoanalysis on my prisoner, Flick and Derek showed up, both of them carrying restraints and nightsticks.  They were our small town police force, the single sheriff and only deputy.

“What the hell?” asked Flick, reaching down to pull her up.

Once she was straight again, Derek put handcuffs on her and looked her over.  “You hurt?” he asked.

“Not unless you count the wrist she practically broke.  She’s fucking brutal you know.  I guess in our new world being brutal’s allowed.  You guys like people who hurt other people.”

“Give it a rest, Gail,” said Flick.  “Don’t you ever get tired of being a pain in the ass?”

“Oh, sorryyyy mister Hollywood.  What’s the matter?  Bummed because you finally ran out of hair gel?”

Flick looked at me, the restraint of many practiced hours of keeping the peace on his face.  “Where do you want her?”

“Put her in one of the closer cells.  I need to send someone to talk to her.”

“I’m not interested in listening to the preachers anymore.  They can keep their god and all that other shit to themselves.”

“It won’t be the preachers,” I said as she walked away with her jail keepers.  “It’ll be the chiefs.”

“I don’t answer to any indian chief!” she yelled over her shoulder.

“They’re not indians,” I said softly, “they’re Native Americans.”  I turned away and walked down the hall to the lobby.  I had to go find Trip and Paci and ask them what we should do.

***

I found Paci outside with the sheep.  He was watching a group of kids get trained on how to sheer them using the manual scissor things they had, courtesy of the Creek tribe.  The whole process was turning out to be a mess of wool flying all over the place and kids chasing bleating animals in circles.

“Hey,” he said as I walked over to stand next to him.  “What’s up?”  His smile was warm, even though the constant sad look he had around his eyes over the loss of his brother was still there.  It never fully went away.

“We have a problem.  I’m wondering if you and Trip can come help me.”

“Supply issue?”

“No.  Gail issue.”

He pulled away from the fence.  “Again?  When is that girl going to get a grip on herself?”

“Pretty much never, I think.  She sealed the deal with me today.  Threatened to stab me and then put a bullet in me.”

“Nice.  I always said she must have a death wish.”

“Yeah.  I just don’t see how we can keep her here.  She’s nothing but trouble.”

Paci walked with me towards the prison entrance.  “She’s always bothering Jenny.  She’s come to me a couple times asking for advice on how to convince her to share the codes.  I always tell her to just drop it.”

“Thank you for that,” I said, glad Paci was smart enough to know how to handle her without advice from me.  “Gail is the last person in this entire place I’d trust with the codes.”

“Exactly.  She makes me really nervous.”

“We have to decide what to do with her.  Like have a trial or something.  I need you and Trip there to help me.  I can’t do this on my own.”

“The mark of a true leader … knowing when to ask for help.”

“I learned a lot of what I know from my dad but also from your brother.”

Paci smiled briefly before looking a little sad.  “Yeah.  My brother taught me everything I know.  I didn’t really appreciate that before, but I do now.”

We rounded the corner to the front of the building and saw Bodo standing at the fence, staring out towards our traps set into the road.

“Go ahead inside.  I’m going to talk to him,” I said.

“See you in a few.”  Paci left me, passing through the open glass door.  Gail’s bad news had apparently made its way to the lobby.  I could see and hear kids talking in groups.

I walked over to join Bodo.  I stood at his side for a little while, saying nothing.  Things were more than strained between us.  We’d pretty much taken a time out, spending more time apart than together.  We each had our own cell-rooms, and they weren’t near one another.

“Hi,” he said finally.  His voice was rough with emotion.

“Hi.”

“Is dare a problem?”

“Yes.  Gail again.”

“She needts to go.”

“Yes, she does.”  My chest tightened.  There was so much to say, but I didn’t want to be the one to start.

“I think I should go too,” Bodo finally said.  “Maybe chust to have a break for a little while.”

I pressed my lips together to keep them from trembling.  This was so not the time for this.  But it was happening, and to stop it would have been disrespectful.

“Why?  Why do you have to go?  It’s dangerous out there.”

“Yes, it is.  Dat’s true.  But in here it’s dangerous too.”  He looked down at the ground, holding onto the fence with his fingers above his head while he kicked the gravel with his toe.

“Not really.  It’s safer here than most places.”

“Maybe for some things.  But for my heart, it is not safe.  It is destroying.”

I knew what he meant.  Every day that I saw him moving around without me, doing his thing and smiling when I wasn’t a part of his life, a little piece of me felt like it shriveled up and died or something.  It was a painful process, this one of letting go.

“Where would you go?  To the Amazons’ place?”

“Maybe.  Or maybe I will go to da Keys and make anudder contact point for us.”

“A pilgrimage?” I asked, kind of joking but kind of not.  Maybe a road trip is what Bodo would need to get his head back on straight.

“I don’t know what dat is.  But I needt to find my own place dat doesn’t have Paci dare.”

I sighed.  “Why is it always about Paci?  I haven’t done anything to be with him.  I’ve been all alone since … since I found out about what you did.  Since before that - since the day I told him I could never be with him because I was with you.”

He dropped his hands from the fence and looked at me.  “But you are not with me.  Not now.”

Tears were in his eyes and mine too.  I shook my head.  “No, you’re right.  I’m not.  I wanted to just forget that you lied.  I wanted to, but I couldn’t.  I was so disappointed in you, Bodo.”  My words were barely a whisper.  We were finally saying what had been cooking in our minds and hearts for two weeks.  It was horrible but necessary.

“We both didt bad things.”

“Yes.  We did.  But I told you the truth, all of it.  Without you even asking me about it.  I’m not saying I’m guilt-free, but I think I did the best I could under the circumstances.  And I told you so you’d have the option to make your choice about me.  But you didn’t.”  My voice trembled with emotion.  “You outright lied.  You kept things from me.  Even when I confronted you, you continued to lie.  If Kirsten hadn’t come here and visited us, I’d still probably be living under the shadow of your lies.”

His jaw clenched.  “Kirsten.”

“Don’t be mad at her.  She wants you for hers.  She’s very up front and honest.  You can’t blame her for trying to take you away.”

“I blame her for everything.”

It was like a light switch in control of a very dim and dying light finally flicked off.  That was the moment I stopped feeling so terrible about Bodo wanting to leave.  It was so simple.  Just one sentence.  Something deep inside me was glad he’d finally said it out loud.

“Kirsten is blameless.  It’s you who’s to blame, Bodo.  I hope one day you can look in the mirror and understand that.”  He had so much growing up to do. 
Why hadn’t I seen that before?

He turned towards the building and shoved his hands in his front pockets, not looking at me anymore.  “Do you needt help with da problem inside?”

“You can help if you want.  I’ve asked Paci and Trip to do a trial of some sort with her.  We need some kind of fair process to figure out her sentence or whatever.”

“I will take her to da Amazons with me if you want.  Dat’s something I can do for you, if you let me.”

“I don’t want you to go.  It’s dangerous.  And even though you and I aren’t together anymore, it doesn’t mean I don’t love you anymore.  You’re family.  I don’t want you to put yourself in danger, especially not for an idiot like her.”

“I have to leaff.  It’s too much pain for me here.  Dat Paci is in luff with you and soon you will luff him too.  He’s a good boy.  Dat’s true.  I don’t like it, but dat’s true.  He iss very much like his brudder dat way.  He will be good to you.”

Bodo started walking towards the building.

I ignored his foretelling of my future love life.  I was in no position to be falling for any boy anytime soon.  I wasn’t good at it.  “If I can’t change your mind, I hope you’ll accept whatever we can offer to keep you safe on your trip … to the Amazon place or the Keys.”

“Yes, I will do dat.  I don’t want to die.  I just want to be happy.”

My heart spasmed with the pain, knowing that Bodo couldn’t be happy with me, anymore than I could be with him.

Maybe if our world had been like the old one, we could have moved on from the lies.  But then again, probably not.  In the old world I would have had my father’s wise counsel, and he surely would have told me that I couldn’t build a life with a person I could not trust.

Bodo was a good guy, and I knew he’d always have my back.  But the boy I chose to spend my life with had to have not just my back, but my heart, too.  He had to protect it with everything he had, not be careless with it.

Lies were carelessness in fancy packaging.  I was done with all of that useless garbage.

Chapter Eight

PETER HAD MANAGED TO GET a good portion of the kids who weren’t busy working or guarding the perimeter to gather in the main dining hall.  Trip, Paci, and I sat at a long dining table and Gail stood in front of us, her handcuffs off.  Flick and Derek stood behind her and Ronald and Jamal stood at her sides.  Everyone else rested at tables and benches around the room.

“Gail, do you know why you’re here?” asked Paci.  His voice and expression were the picture of patience.  He sounded so much like his brother, it was spooky.  As soon as the first word was out of his mouth, the murmuring of the gathered crowd stopped.

“Yes.  Because of her,” she said, gesturing at me.

“No, you’re here because of
you
,” said Trip, annoyed.  “And your behavior that’s put all of us in a bad spot.  Now we have to decide what to do with you.”

“Let’s get this done,” said Paci.  He sounded very tired.  “I need someone to tell us what happened.”

Peter stood up and moved to Jamal’s side.  “I’ll tell you what I saw.”

“He’s just going to give everything from her side.  They’re both in on it,” argued Gail.

“You’ll get your chance.  Just wait,” said Paci.  “Peter, please go ahead and tell us.”

“Gail had come to us again to ask if she could work with Jenny and the EWS, like she has many times before, and we told her no.  She complained that other people get special treatment - she mentioned Fohi - and accused us of playing favorites and being unfair.  And then she started slinging insults and got Bryn upset, so Bryn went up to her and then Gail brought out a knife.”

Several kids gasped out in the audience.

“And she threatened to kill her with it or a bullet.”

“She attacked me!  She hit me!  It was self-defense!”

“Gail, wait your turn,” said Paci.  Turning to Peter, he said, “Is that all?”

“Yes.”  Peter sat down.

Paci turned to me.  He spoke louder than he needed to for the benefit of the crowd.  “Is this all true?”

“Yes.”  I nodded to everyone who was looking.

“What was the insult?  What got you upset?” asked Trip.

I thought about it for a second, but decided it was just too inflammatory to say.  She needed to be judged on her behavior, not her stupid hangups.  “It’s not important.”