Deadlocked 7 (6 page)

He set the blade on Paul’s shoulder and twirled it so the edge scratched against his prisoner’s neck. “I don’t give second chances, Paulie, so let’s just pretend you didn’t say that. Now I’ll ask you again, and you’d better not lie. When did you kill the traders?”

“About a week ago,” said Paul.

“And you’ve been ambushing folks that come to trade here?”

Paul nodded.

“Do you have any prisoners?”

Paul shook his head, and then nodded. “Just one. Look man, I’m sorry, I never wanted to be a raider. I swear, man.”

“Just answer my questions. Where’s the prisoner?”

“She’s in the fuck truck,” said Paul. “She’s a red head, like the one you had in your group. Mac’s a fan of the red heads. He’s got her tied up in the truck, and calls her his girlfriend, but she’s got a big mouth on her. He might’ve killed her by now.”

“How many are in your group?”

“Twelve.”

“All men?”

“Yeah,” said Paul. “We sent the womenfolk off with the kids. This was my first time with the men. I never done nothing like this before, man, I swear. Please don’t kill me.”

“Be quiet, I’m not going to kill you,” said Arthur. “Put your hands down.”

“Thanks, man. Oh thanks, I was pissing myself. I thought you were going to…”

Arthur put his hand over Paul’s mouth and then stabbed The Bleeder up through the base of the
young man’s skull. Paul tensed, but then fell limp, a victim of a kill technique Arthur had learned from the men in The Department.

Arthur guided Paul’s body to the ground, holding the hilt of his blade as if it were a handle, and then set his boot against the back of the kid’s head. He jerked the blade free, causing a disturbing crackle of bone and squish of blood. Then he made his way to Benny’s body and stuck the blade into the unconscious boy’s neck. He thought Benny was probably already dead, but there was no sense taking the risk.

This was what he’d been trained for, and Arthur refused to allow the murders to weigh on his conscience. There would be time for regret later, after he saved the girls.

The bodies bled too much to try and hide the evidence of what happened, so Arthur left them beh
ind to be covered by the blizzard. He scooped up a handful of snow and used it to clean The Bleeder, which was dripping with syrupy blood.

Each member of The Rollers was trained in specific war skills. Annie was a gifted sniper, while Kim was a tactician and leader. Arthur, however, had proven to be adept at stealth. Any children of the Rollers that showed promise as competent soldiers were sent to spend a few months training with The Department, but Arthur was one of the only children that had been asked to stay. They were impressed with his skills, and tried to convince him to stay with them. After a year, he decided to return to the Rollers, having built up the confidence to pursue a relationship with Kim, who he’d been in love with since they were kids. 

The raiders were in their tents, oblivious to what was about to befall them. Arthur planned to kill them all, but he needed to make sure Kim and Annie were safe first. He headed straight for Kim’s tent and could see a man standing at the entrance, his head peering in.

Arthur
wasn’t far when a nearby tent opened. A raider stepped out and stretched his arms high into the air as he yawned, a victim of terrible timing. He saw Arthur approaching and said, “Hey there, pal. What are you doing with that…”

Arthur grabbed the man’s greasy hair and thrust The Bleeder into his temple, silencing him.
The raider’s right eye bulged, pushed forward by the blade as it speared into his head, and his mouth opened wide as his tongue stiffened. It looked like the victim was in a perpetual state of screaming, but nothing other than a gurgle escaped. Arthur knew that the knife would be lodged in the man’s skull, and didn’t dare waste time trying to pull it free. He let the raider’s body fall to the snow with The Bleeder still deep in his head. He didn’t want to draw attention by starting to shoot, but Arthur didn’t need guns or knives to kill a man.

Whoever was going
into Kim’s tent hadn’t heard the commotion behind him, and didn’t expect to feel Arthur’s hands on his back.

“What the heck?” asked
Mac as Arthur slipped in beside him.

Arthur pushed his way into the tent and wrapped his arm around Mac’s throat as he went. He let himself fall to the ground and
slipped his legs up over the black raider’s body to keep him from flailing his arms. Annie was smart enough to stay quiet as Arthur choked Mac to death.

The raider glared at Annie as Arthur squeezed the life out of him. “Get his legs,” said Arthur.

Annie pulled Mac’s legs into the tent, but the raider tried desperately to kick at her. She held on tight as the undulating man tried to breathe, but Arthur was too strong.

The raider finally stopped moving, but Arthur
wasn’t willing release him yet. He looked at Annie for approval, and she seemed to understand what he was asking without him having to speak. She nodded, so Arthur held tight until the man was dead.

“Are you okay?” asked Arthur
after he was certain the raider had passed.

“Yeah, you got here just in time.”

“Where’s Kim?”

“I thought she was with you.”

*   *   *

August 24
th
, 20 years after the apocalypse

Arthur is in the church, just after Kim died and before the helicopters arrived.

Arthur had stopped David from going outside when they heard his mother’s name being shouted, but the boy was determined to see what was going on and had slipped away during the chaos. Arthur heard Kim and Laura speaking, but hadn’t been able to see his wife until she was running back up the hill, towards the fire and into the horde. That’s when the explosion occurred, and he lost the mother of his child.

The loss crushed him, and he stood staring at the destruction, unable to comprehend what had happened. For a moment, he was certain the explosion had occurred closer to the camp and that Kim was probably a safe distance away. He stared at the mass of shredded body parts, expecting to see his wife running away from it. Perhaps she’d thrown a bomb back behind her and was now safe. Arthur kept up hope until he heard Laura’s pained wails. That’s when he knew Kim was dead. He cried out her name and started to sob, and then he turned to reach out for his son only to find him gone.

The horror that swelled through Arthur upon realized that his son was missing teetered on madness. Kim’s death, and his inability to grasp it, seemed to confuse his reaction to his son’s disappearance. For a moment, it felt like David had evaporated when his mother died, and Arthur was unable to breathe as he stood
in the vestibule of the church.

He
panicked, and started rushing through the throngs of people inside of the church, screaming for David. He was using a crutch that Jill had given him, his right leg still useless after the accident in the field. Clyde tried to stop him, but Arthur refused to calm down until he knew David was safe. Clyde agreed to help search for the boy, and headed to the stairs that led to a room above the vestibule, under the steeple.

That’s when the helicopters could be heard swooping in, and the survivors of Vineyard inside of the church were familiar with the sound. The crowd grew fearful, some wailing and others clutching their loved ones, all while Arthur continued to push through them in search of his son.

Annie’s expert aim took out one of the helicopters, and Arthur recalled training with the young girl with The Department in southern Colorado. She’d always been a remarkable shot, and he could see the result of her aim as one helicopter fell to the road and rolled into the camp’s perimeter. The calamity of its crash caused the survivors in the church to scream out, but the chaos was stilled when they heard another helicopter’s chain gun start firing.

The attack devastated the psyche of the group, and no one thought they would survive. They had no way of knowing how many helicopters were out there, and most of them assumed a squadron had come to finish what they started in Vineyard.
Arthur tried to scream out his son’s name, but his voice was muted by the cries of terror as the thudding explosions of gunfire echoed through the sanctuary.

That’s when Arthur
figured out where his son had gone. He knew that Annie was in the steeple, and David would’ve tried to get a view of his mother. Arthur was near the dais of the sanctuary, past the pews and the crowd of people. There was a door in the back that led to the area where the wounded pilot had been taken, and Arthur was headed there when he realized he was going the wrong way. He gazed back at the church’s entrance just as the steeple fell. His heart seized, and his breath was all but stolen as he tried to make his way back. It was almost impossible to hop through the crowd, and he started to scream at them for help. They did what they could, but there were so many of them that they had trouble moving aside as he pushed through.

When th
e bell broke free and fell, everyone became silent. The bell smashed through the ladder, causing an ominously low clang with each strike on the rungs, until it hit the floor on the second story, just above the entrance to the church. A malaise swept through the group as the bellowing hum filled the church. There was a sense that the world was collapsing in on them, and their sanctuary was ending.

Arthur stared at the door that hid the stairwell leading upstairs. He knew that Clyde had gone up to find David, and was
terrified that they had both died when the steeple collapsed. He didn’t realize he was holding his breath until the door opened and Clyde came out with David in his arms.

“David!” Laura came in from outside, screaming for her grandson.

Arthur continued to make his way through the crowd to reach his son. Clyde set the boy down, and he stood dazed. The boy was pale and staggered to the wall to support himself, his crutch lost.

“He’s okay,” said Clyde. “Annie was up there.”

“She fell,” said Laura, and her voice broke when she spoke, as if the emotional dam that was keeping her sane threatened to burst.

Clyde looked at Arthur and nodded. Arthur mouthed a thank you, uncertain that he could even speak, and continued to move through the crowd to reach his son. When he
got to him, he fell to his knees and grasped the boy. He pressed David’s head into his shoulder and gripped the back of his hair. He wanted to be strong for the child, but his grief overwhelmed him. David sobbed as he rubbed his hands on David’s shoulders. Then he held his head back to look at him, but the boy just stared, bereft of emotion.

“Are you okay?” asked Arthur.

“Mom’s dead,” said David.

“I know, David. I know.”

He stared at his father and stated, “Annie’s dead too.”

“Are you sure?” asked Arthur.

Then David focused on his father’s eyes. The boy shivered as if suddenly cold, and then his demeanor turned fragile. Arthur felt the boy’s rigid stance crumble, as if he’d suddenly lost the will to stand. “Mommy’s dead!” He screamed out and fell into his father’s arms. “Mommy’s dead!” He wailed, an avalanche of despair, and Arthur held onto him as tight as he could.

“I know, buddy.”

“Mommy’s dead!” David started to cry, a torrent of tears that wet Arthur’s chest. “She’s gone. She’s dead forever. She’s dead!”

Arthur tried to calm
David, but he was inconsolable. His pain overflowed as he sat shaking in his father’s arms. “I’ll never see her again. I’m never going to see my mom again.”

“I’ve gotcha, buddy. I’ll be here for you.
We’ll be here for each other.”

David calmed and stopped sobbing. He put his hand on the side of Arthur’s face and stared into his father’s eyes. Tragedy had steeled him, and David’s eyes were filled with anger. The once loving and docile boy had learned to hate. “Promise me you’ll kill them.”

“What?” asked Arthur, more frightened than confused by what his son had said.

“Promise me you’ll kill all of the people that did this. You have to murder them, Daddy. Whoever did this, you have to kill them. Promise me.”

Arthur had never seen such hatred, and he never wanted to see it from his son. The once angelic child now pleaded for revenge, and Arthur had never felt a deeper sense of heartbreak.

David grit his teeth. “Kill them all.”

Thirteen
years after the apocalypse

Arthur and Annie are at the raider’s camp.

“No, she’s not with me.” Arthur stood over the corpse of the raider that had been in Annie’s tent.

“She left a few minutes ago to meet you in your tent.” Annie slipped on her coat and then got her gun.

“They took me out to shoot me,” said Arthur.

“Well, I’m glad they suck at their jobs,” said Annie. “Do you need a gun? I think Kim left hers in the bag.”

“No time,” said Arthur. “I’ve got mine still. Come on, we have to go.”

“Where? What’s the plan?”

He glanced at her as if surprised she needed an answer. “Find Kim and get out of here.”