WWIV - In The Beginning

I again stood in the doorway of the kitchen, watching John. He had just finished topping off my drink. He smiled my way.

  “Thought you needed a refill.” He held his glass up to me. “You know, a man hates to drink alone.” He walked my full glass over to me.

  I gave a faux smile and looked at the light brown beverage. Something, somewhere in the far reaches of my mind told me not to drink anymore of the substance. “So John, tell me about yourself.” He returned to the stove and dropped noodles into the boiling water.

  His head moved slightly as he spoke. “Not much to tell. Retired businessman. Father, widower, gentleman farmer now. Pretty simple life. Especially with the power gone.” He looked at me again. His eyes seemed all wrong now. “What about you?” Maybe I was reading this wrong. Perhaps, Brit spooked me needlessly. “What about your daughter?” My stomach tightened.

  I smiled another fake smile. “Oh, not much for us either. Just regular boring people from Woodbury. That’s just east of downtown St. Paul.” He nodded like he knew where I was speaking of. “I’m a school counselor. She’s a student. Her mother works at a small business as a bookkeeper. Pretty standard life in the suburbs I suppose.” John turned and looked at me, holding his glass up and taking another sip. I copied his movements, careful not to take in any of the liquid. A bitter taste found my lips. Different from the oaky taste of the first few sips.

  “Well, she’s a mighty cute girl. Must be hard to keep her out of trouble out on the road all alone.” John sounded sincere, but I didn’t like something in his bare stare at the floor. He looked up at me again. “How old is she again?” My stomach knotted.

  “Thirteen.” I lied on purpose to gauge his reaction. His head nodded slowly as a small grin crossed his lips. An evil grin, in my mind. Now he stared at me coldly.

  “Is she even your daughter?” He shrugged. I didn’t like that; his movements were odd, out of place. “You know,” he took a step in my direction, “a decent man would share a find like that.” His eyes flared. “Doesn’t seem right to keep her all for yourself.” He wasn’t holding back any longer. My face got tense, my eyes narrowed. Each breath came hard. I set the glass down on the nearest counter and felt my pocket.

  “I think we’re going to leave, John.” My dark mood matched his.

  He shook his head. “Nah, I think you should stay. Her at least.” I watched as he picked up a larger knife from the counter. I could feel my heartbeat in my fingertips. I pulled the gun from my pocket and pointed at him.

  “No, we’re leaving.” I took a large step towards the doorway. “Brit,” I called out, “let’s go. Time to leave.” John grinned.

  “You go back out in the rain. That’s fine with me. I’ll give you a nice head start.” He set the knife down as Brit walked into the kitchen and gasped. His eyes narrowed as he stared at his prey. He licked his lips, twice. I felt Brit take my hand. “I know every inch of this county. I will find you.” His words were the darkest I had ever heard from a human being.

  “Just remember who has the gun, John.” It didn’t even sound like my voice as the words came out. I looked at the gun in my hand, extended in John’s direction. I could see it shake ever so slightly. Something he noticed as well.

  “Good luck out there, you two.” He dumped the sauce in the trash. No doubt he had drugged that too. “Try to be nice to people and get treated like crap in return. When am I going to learn?” He smiled one more evil smile, mostly at Brit. She pulled on my hand.

  We dashed past Trevor and out the front door. The rain was heavy, but we had no choice. I heard John call out as we ran back for the road.

  “Pair of idiots in the rain. I should kill you now, Bill. Save you the agony of dying of pneumonia.” I turned and saw the gun in his hand. I fired my weapon, wildly, missing John by a good 15 feet and striking his front window. The glass exploded and I saw John flinch, finally.

  We found a small grove of pine trees down a side road probably a half-mile from John’s House of Horrors. This would have to do for the night, I told myself. We dug into the brush as far as we could. It was wet inside but less direct rainfall reached us. Brit sat next to me crying, heaving with sobs. I hugged her more out of instinct than anything else. Things kept getting worse by the minute. Hope was vanishing so fast I couldn’t keep up.

  The rain came down harder outside our hiding spot. Almost as hard as it had a few days back when I found refuge in the barn with Jake. Inside our hiding spot, only a few occasional drops fell on us. A fire would be nice but out of the question. We had to stay hidden as much as we could from outsiders, mostly John. I didn’t want anyone to see us deep inside this cover.

  Brit finally quit crying. She sniffed a few times and looked around our shelter. I saw her nod a few times as she gave her silent approval. We couldn’t see more than five feet from where we sat. There was no way anyone could find us unless we made a critical mistake. I didn’t plan on making a mistake. I was quite sure Brit would just sit silently, all night if she must.

  “We’re safe here, Brit.” I had to say something. She sniffed several times and looked up at me with her dark eyes. She wiped away some tears. A few drops of rain fell on her tiny face.

  “We’re going to die here. We’re dead people.” She sniffed several more times before continuing. “I didn’t want to admit it before, I didn’t even want to think it. But let’s face it, we’re dead.”

  I stared at her. “I’m not giving up. Not that easily. I plan on getting you to your grandparent’s house safe and sound. I promised you that much. I plan on keeping my promise.” She looked down and started sobbing. She had other worries.

  The rain came down heavier. Even in our pine fortress, the water began to seep in all around us. First, a few drops from above then a small stream ran under our feet. We were wet, miserable, and alone in the storm. Our only hope was that John hadn’t followed us because of the rain.

  For more than an hour, we sat silently as the rain fell. Every time I thought it was letting up, it rained even harder. Finally, hunger set in. I reached for my pack and the last of the saltines. There weren’t many left, but they would suffice. I looked left, then right – nothing. I looked behind us. Zero, no pack. That’s when it hit me.

  “Damn it,” I swore out loud. “That asshole has our pack. Crap.” Frustration set in as I thought of our alternatives. Slim and none were our choices. We couldn’t go back for the pack. This meant we’d be hungry tonight, and mighty low on ammo if we had to use the gun. Brit looked at me horrified.

  “We’re dead. We have no food, no water, no supplies. And if we get in a gunfight we only have, what? Eight shots?” She searched for answers to an awful problem. I frowned.

  “Ten shots. The clips still full.” I felt a little better.

  “You mean nine, right? You shot out his front window. Remember?” I cringed. Brit was right.

  Down to nine. I shook my head and laughed, water ran off my nose. “Did you see that window explode? And John’s reaction? It looked like he was going to crap his pants.”

  Brit finally smiled, but only a small smile. “That was so loud. I thought my eardrums were going to explode.” She watched the rainfall around us for several minutes before continuing. “Bill? What’s your family like?”

  I looked at the darkness closing in from all sides. My family. I hadn’t said much about them to Brit. I wanted to keep our lives completely separate. That seemed silly at this point. We were in this together, deep in this mess.

  “Sharon’s my age, 38. She’s tall and thin and beautiful. She has long, thick brown hair. When she laughs, her eyes twinkle. I love that twinkle.” I could feel Brit leaning harder against me, almost trying to absorb my words through my wet clothes. “We’ve been married ten years. Mostly good, some not so good; lately I suppose.” My face tightened. “Hard to say who’s fault it is. We’ve fought a lot the last bit. I don’t listen, she doesn’t listen, just the usual crap. I can tell you this though,” Brit looked at me closely, “I miss her a l
ot right now. Her and the kids are mostly what I’ve thought of out here. All of us making it to Bayfield safely.” I smiled. “All that other stuff doesn’t matter now. Just seeing my family again is all I need. All I want.” Brit wiped a mosquito off my left arm, my wet left arm.

  “And you have two kids, too?” She’d paid closer attention than I had thought.

  “Rita is eight. She looks just like her mother, when she was younger at least. Same long dark hair and beautiful eyes. Thin as a rail. And smart. Probably the best in her class.” I carefully thought of my daughter for a few seconds, how I missed her ever-present smile, her nice hugs and kisses goodnight. “She has all her mother’s good qualities and none of the bad. In Rita’s eyes, I can do no wrong. Sharon’s eyes, well not so much.” I smiled, not necessarily at Brit, but I smiled.

  “And your son?”

  “Dustin’s six. Just a regular six-year-old. All boy, all the time. He loves sports and X-box and just being alive.” My heart ached as I thought of my children so many miles away. “He has blond hair. I suppose he gets that from my side. Some of my brothers are blond. So was I when I was younger. Little, skinny, all boy. Skinned knees, elbows and all. Loves our dog more than any of us.” My heart fell further as I thought of Buddy. How long had it been now? Two days since he wandered off? I hoped he was okay, still alive.

  Brit brought me back to the present. “Do you think you’ll ever see your family again, Bill? You know, not what you hope for, but what you really think. Be honest. Are you ever going to see them again?” Brit was trying to deal with reality however she could. She wanted my honesty, she needed it.

  I felt a lump in my throat and tears pooled in my eyes. “No I don’t, Britney. Right now, right here, I don’t have any hope of that left. I was stupid to think I could ever get to Milwaukee much less Bayfield. Just how the hell are we supposed to do that? On foot much less.” Honesty hurt, I felt Brit squeeze a little tighter into me. “I was an idiot to leave Woodbury, my home. May as well die there as die out here on the road. Only a fool does something like this. I guess Sharon’s been right about me all along. I’m nothing more than a fool in a grown man’s body.” Darkness formed inside my spirit matching the almost black night around us.

  “But what about me? If you hadn’t come along, what would have happened to me? I might have been pawned off to the highest bidder, you know. You saved me from that.” Brit tried to smile at me, but I shook my head in disgust.

  “Don’t be a child, Brit. Don’t think like that. This is bad. This is real bad. If we don’t get somewhere soon we are going to die – soon.” She tightened her lips and looked down. “And what’s to say when we get somewhere it’s not as bad as this? We could be jumping from the frying pan straight into the fire.” She pushed away from me and looked off from my gaze. I grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, quickly, scaring her. “All we have left in the world right now is the clothes on our backs and a pistol with nine shells. It’s gone from bad to worse and now to tragic. You’d been better off never leaving your father’s house, never meeting me at all.”

  She looked harsh; tears streaking her face intermixed with rain. “All I have left right now is YOU,” she screamed, lashing out at me with her tiny fists. “You! You alone!” She heaved again with sobs. “My dad beats me. He hits me with his fists and whips me with a belt. I have the scars on my back to prove it. My mother is a crack whore, Bill. She screws the 65-year-old landlord for her half of the rent most months. The half my grandfather doesn’t pay.” She grabbed my collar tightly, clenching it in her fists. “Do you have any idea how awful it is for a young girl to lie in bed at night and have to listen to that? It’s gross, it’s disgusting. That’s no way for anyone to live.” She stood and looked down at me seriously. “You think we’re dead now? Welcome to my life, Bill. I’ve been walking around dead for as long as I’ve been alive. I’m an aid check from the county for those two worthless pieces of crap they call my parents. I’ve wished I was dead so many times I’ve lost count. I am dead, Bill. I have been all my worthless life.” I rose and looked her in the face. I had an idea things weren’t good, but never this bad.

  “I’m sorry Britney. I’m so sorry. We’ll make it, we’ll get there. I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll get you there. I promise.” She pointed her right index finger and spoke slowly to me.

  “All I have ever wanted in life is to have a normal family. That’s it, nothing else. You’ve had that your whole life. After 14 years of hell, it’s my turn. It’s not fair. Why do other people have it and abuse it? Why can’t I be happy? That’s all I want. I’m not asking for too much, am I?” She trembled from either sobs, or the rain, or both.

  I pulled her in close and held the small teen. I’d dealt with so many children like her over the years, but it was never personal. It was always their problem, their family’s problem, the school’s problem. Britney McMahon had started off just like the rest of them, not my problem. Get her to Grandma’s house and she could be someone else’s issue. But now in the darkness, in the rain and flashes of lightning, in a world gone so bad so fast, I realized I was still fooling myself. Britney McMahon, all five-foot-three and ninety pounds of her, was mine to deal with. I was her safety, her security, her provider, her mother, her father, her everything – all wrapped in one neat package. Without me, she would die, maybe even worse. With me, well, she stood a chance. Not a great chance, but at least a chance.

  I leaned down and spoke into her ear, as she continued to cry. “Okay, here’s the plan. We are going to sit tight right here until the rain lets up. When it does, we are going back on the road. We are going to find your grandparents’ place no matter what. Got it?” I felt her nod against my chest. “We’re not dying out here. Not yet. We are giving it everything we have from this point forward. We’re not going to be negative any more. Only positive.” I felt her nod again. “And once we get to where we’re headed, we’ll figure things out.” I gave her a tight hug. I felt better, I was sure she did as well.

  As we sat down Brit looked at me again with a troubled expression. “Aren’t you worried about that guy, John? Won’t he be coming after us?”

  I thought for a moment. “Maybe. But not in this rain. He has to wait for it to lighten up, just like us. And he’ll never find us in the dark. We’ll be gone like a thief in the night.” I held up our protection. “And if that doesn’t work, I guess hot lead will have to change his mind. Nine shots are plenty to make a man feel pretty unwelcomed.”

  I could tell that Brit was buying my speech. Heck, even I believed the words. Brit gasped and looked up.

  “I think I remember the road. Like 290th or something like that. We’re close right?”

  “Yeah, maybe a mile to the west and another to the north. Once we get out of this current spot we should be able to get there in a couple of hours. We just need to avoid John.” I sighed deeply. My pity party had left as quickly as it had come. “Brit, what made you think of their address in the middle of all this?”

  I knew she was smiling, I could just tell. “I work pretty good under stress. Kind of a product of my upbringing. If your dad is going to slap you because he can’t find his cigarettes in a drunken stupor, you get pretty quick at thinking on your feet.” She was quiet for a moment and then looked up. “I don’t ever want to see him again, my dad. Or my mom. But she might be at Grandma’s already. But I hope not.”

  I understood. This was a chance for Brit to start anew.

  Chapter 30