Evil Origins: A Horror & Dark Fantasy Collection (79 page)

“I appreciate that, Sully, but that’s not
what I’m concerned about. I need to get back to my place and see if I
can find my wife. I need to know if she’s alive, and if she
is, I need to find her.”

Sully turned the truck onto another street, grimacing before
speaking again.

“Maybe we can help you. There ain’t
much the Keepers hold sacred, but family is definitely up there.”

The truck rolled to a stop in front of an abandoned school on
Cedar Road. Sully killed the engine and tapped the bed of the
truck. Crystal and two men helped Alex out and carried him inside. Barely conscious, the veterinarian was clearly in trouble. His skin
had turned gray, and his eyes seemed to roll around in the sockets.

“Your pal has lost a lot of blood,” one of the men said to
John.

“We’ve all lost a lot,” replied John.

Sully led John through a maze of corridors until they arrived
in what used to be an auditorium. The place stunk of cigarette
smoke and rotten paper. On the stage, a bunch of milk crates and old
lawn chairs sat around a fire ring.

“Home sweet home,” said Sully.

John sat down and rubbed his burning eyes.

Chapter
33

The sun crawled through the heavy curtain of the storm
front. Renegade geese flew over the frozen land in a fighting
formation. Cold moisture glistened off the pitch-black surface of the
asphalt. The final survivors of summer leaves clung to the branches, while many
fell to the snow-covered ground.

Commander Byron poured a hot cup of coffee
from one of the pots set up in the auto shop. The soldiers had rigged an
outlet to a car battery, which gave them enough power to brew the inviting
beverage. Byron placed the end of his knife in the cup and mixed a packet of
sugar into the black coffee. The first sip stung his tongue
and paralyzed his taste buds before allowing the pleasant, bitter bite of the
coffee to take hold.

Sometimes, life is about simple pleasures
, he
thought.

The two soldiers from across the street now
stood guard at the front of the shop, arriving with the morning light. Byron
debriefed the men, who saw nothing during the course of the night save for
stray animals. The three men drank coffee and smoked, none of them eager to
wake the woman and start the trek to her house.

Byron dug in his pockets for the satellite
phone. The black plastic shone in the winter glaze, the display
temporarily cold and dead. He made the call and finalized the
plan. For security’s sake, Byron considered smashing the phone to pieces
on the hard sidewalk, but hesitated. He shoved it back into
his pocket and hoped he would not need it again.

***

“That smells great,” said Jana.

One of the guards had unlocked her door earlier in the
morning, and she’d wandered from the room. The commander
stared at her. Jana’s hair fell down upon her shoulders. She wore a
tight T-shirt, holding her breasts high. Her jeans rode low on
ample, curvy hips. Byron snickered as the other soldiers stole glances.

“Come, join us,” said Byron.

He surveyed the damage he had done to her delicate face the
night before. When the swelling went down and the purple
bruises subsided, she would heal, except for the missing teeth.

“I’m sore, you son of a bitch.”

“I am truly sorry you brought that pain upon yourself. I am not enjoying much of the torturing of women, I hope you see
this.”

Jana drew her finger across a swollen lip and winced.

“I’m not convinced of that.”

Byron handed her a cup of hot coffee. Jana held it to the
corner of her mouth with care, and attempted to pour it into her throat. The liquid struck the open, raw wounds of her mouth and she dropped
the cup to the floor. She glared at Byron through tears of pain.

“It will heal faster than you think.”

“Don’t talk down to me. I’m a nurse. I
know what it will take. And I know that teeth don’t grow
back.”

“Can we move past the hostility and work together?”

“As long as I’m your prisoner, there is no
such thing as ‘working together’. You’d better remember that if you let
your guard down for one second, I’ll do my best to cut your throat.”

Commander Byron smiled. The grizzled
warrior relished the threat and became excited by it. He
motioned to the guards. They appeared on each side of Jana, and one of
them grabbed her by the shoulder.

“There is no need to spill any more blood,
or coffee. Both are valuable liquids, are they not?”

Jana got the message and let her body go
limp, sliding back into the chair. The guards stepped back but stayed
within arm’s reach of her.

“Beautiful and wise, a nice combination.”

Jana rolled her eyes.

“Today we are marching back towards your house. We must find John and then report to Father. If you do not
incite a fight, you will not find one. My men are expert
marksmen. They will eliminate any threats to our movement on my command.
Gather your things together. We leave in twenty
minutes.”

“I thought we were going to Reggie’s house,” protested Jana.

“Sometimes plans change, my dear.”

“Christ. Why can’t you let us be?”

“I have my orders, and I will follow them. When
man discards orders, society breaks down. Go pack your things.”

Jana turned and stomped into the storeroom. She packed a bag of loose clothes, given to her by Sally. Jana
thought about her and Jay, and then decided that it would not do any good to
speculate. She tossed pieces of beef jerky, her battered cell
phone, and a bottle of water into the bag. Then the commander searched
and removed any potential weapons from her possession. However, with the modern
world brought to its knees, he found no reason to keep her phone.

Commander Byron and his two guards had
their backs to Jana when she exited the storeroom. The one on the left
looked over his shoulder to let her know they monitored her location. Jana
sighed and lamented the slim possibility of her escape from their hands.

The group set off at a fair pace and, for a
man with a cane and limp, Commander Byron made good time. The foursome
stuck to the main avenues and traveled east, away from downtown Cleveland. The
guards kept their rifles angled toward the side of the road, and the Commander
walked directly behind Jana.

They covered nearly seven miles during the
daylight. As five o’clock neared, the early arrival of the November
night swallowed the day. The group stopped at a crossroads. A
bank stood on one corner, with a service station across from it. On the
other side of the street, a Phoenix Coffee sat next door to a Chinese
restaurant. All of the businesses contained gaping windows and
no movement.

“The Phoenix. I like the name of that place. Maybe they will have more coffee,” said Byron, nodding toward the
guards.

The two soldiers held up a hand, signifying that Jana and
Byron were to wait outside until they could secure the building.

Byron removed a silver cigarette case from his pocket. He opened it and drew out a hand-rolled smoke. He offered one
to Jana, but she refused it.

“I pulled this from a dead soldier in the hills of Kabul. The bullet that killed him entered his heart inches from the pocket
that held this. I cannot read the inscription on it, so I often look at
it and try to imagine what it says. Some days it is a message
of hope, and other days it is one of vengeance.”

“I’m cold,” said Jana.

“I didn’t think I would make it out of that godforsaken
country alive,” he continued. “Afghanistan is the most
wretched place on earth. In the summer, it is dusty, hot, and filthy. In
the winter, the cold will burn your fingers and toes right off. And the women, they cover themselves from head to foot. There
is no, shall we say, recreation for a soldier in that place. The
tobacco, in this case, kept me sane.”

Jana sat on the curb, staring at the remnants of a Styrofoam
cup while the commander spoke. She thought about the person that purchased the
cup, in another lifetime. He was on his way to work perhaps, stopping in for a
quick shot of caffeine and a buzz to start his day. Before the
rest of her daydream could unfold, the two soldiers came back out of the coffee
shop.

“All clear,” the soldiers said to Commander Byron.

The foursome spent an uneventful night in the Phoenix. In the morning, the commander managed to find undamaged beans. They’d
brought the car-battery power with them and were able to get a drip machine
running. Most of the shop sat in shambles, as an explosion had taken place in
the main sitting area, leaving a substantial gap in the roof. Wind
blew snow and rain through it, which ruined most of the product in the store.

They headed east again. Jana recognized the streets
themselves, but struggled to recognize the places. The
buildings sat void of all life. She never realized how much humans
influenced the mosaic of the neighborhood. In the afternoon,
they picked up Mayfield Road. She felt the closeness of Plainfield Road,
their final destination. However, the Commander’s pace slowed. The toll of the
hike had robbed him of his energy. They took longer and more
frequent breaks. His limp became more pronounced, and they covered half
as much distance as they had the day before.

A “For Lease” sign hung by one corner in the front window of
a deserted flower shop. The door slanted off its hinges,
sticking in the sidewalk out front. Shattered glass spread out from the
epicenter of the front door.

Inside, most of the cooler units and
display cases stood empty. The lingering smell of roses lifted Jana’s
spirits. She found a handful of dried flowers in one corner
and scooped them into her bag. Unlike the previous night’s stops, the
back room of the flower shop sat in disarray. The floor held two inches of
water that poured in from an open back door and hole in the roof.

“Looks like we’ll all be sharing this room
tonight,” said Byron.

Jana sat in a corner and pulled her knees up to her chest.

“We are a mile from your home. Tomorrow
we will arrive. I must remind you that if you try anything, anything at all, I
will have these men fill you with holes. I have an order, but
I will not jeopardize us for you.”

Jana ignored him. She rolled her eyes and kicked the remains
of a vase across the littered floor.

“I have to go,” Jana said.

“Escort her,” Byron said to the soldier nearest him.

“Can you show some decency? Where am
I going to go?”

“Nowhere, because you will be escorted. Go
with her.”

The man followed Jana through the store and out the back
door. She found a half wall separating one parking lot from the next. Jana stepped over it and squatted. The soldier could see her
from the shoulders up. Jana stared right through his cold eyes while relieving
herself. She stood and pulled her pants up at the same time, providing a
glimpse of her ivory flesh. The soldier’s eyes never left
hers.

Each man took a corner of the store for their personal
sleeping space. The soldier that escorted Jana outside sat
across from her while the other one stood guard at the front door. The
commander fell asleep. His snores rattled the existing glass inside the shop.

“If you come near me, I will slit your
throat,” said Jana, who possessed no weapon except her own rage.

With a burning stare, the soldier grinned through yellowed
teeth.

***

“Sir, there is movement on Mayfield.”

“Where?”

“A mile or so out. The flower shop.”

The sergeant overseeing the house on Plainfield Road
stiffened.

“Radios off. Get a patrol to recon. Do not engage and do not reveal yourselves. Get back here in
one-hundred-twenty minutes with an update.”

The soldier trotted away. Another
joined him as they moved south on Plainfield toward Mayfield Road.

Chapter
34

“There is heavy shit going down.”

John opened his eyes and thought for a second that a
rebellious Viking warrior had escaped from Valhalla. Sully’s
red hair surrounded his upper body, urged on by the dry winter air. He
braided his beard in various places. A black, leather vest struggled to hold
the bulk of man inside it. Numerous patches and symbols covered the vest, many
of which meant nothing to John. Sully wore a black holster
over one shoulder and rested it on his left hip. His eyes revealed
turmoil, but a certain level of excitement as well.

“Why bother to help after you ditched us at
the Jigsaw?” John asked the question and pulled back from Sully, fearful
that he may have offended the red giant.

“Pure luck, brother. Its like I
tried to tell you before. We were in the area, heard gunfire,
and jumped in the fray. Didn’t know it was you until I put my crosshairs
on your chest.”

John laughed with an uncomfortable tick. “Don’t
know whether to thank you or run.”

“You might wanna do both,” replied Sully.

Crystal appeared at Sully’s right and whispered into his
ear. Sully’s expression did not change or betray his thoughts.
She walked back behind the stage to check on Alex.

“He’ll be okay, but he ain’t goin’
anywhere. Dude’s lost a lot of blood and we got no way of fixing that. Only time can replenish it.”

“How long?”

“Crystal thinks maybe a couple days, or maybe a week or two.
It all depends on the shape his body is in and how quickly it can heal. Settle in, dude. We’ve got plenty of beer and women to go
around.”

John’s face flushed and he balled his fists
at his sides.

“I can’t wait.”

Sully handed a beer and bottle opener to John. He paused and
raised one eyebrow.

“Huh?”

“Its like
I
tried to tell
you
. I gotta get to my wife. I know she’s alive and I think I know
where she’ll be.”

Sully popped the top off of the beer and
let the bottle cap roll through his feet and over the edge of the stage. It
took a suicidal jump and landed with a puny clink as it hit the concrete floor
of the first row.