Monster of the Apocalypse (6 page)

D
eo woke Lecti up. He slept well at first, but as the night progressed he became increasingly restless. Well before dawn he was wide awake.

Lecti woke, apprehensive. She really wanted to forget all about Toshi. She knew convincing her brother was a useless gesture before she spoke.

“Deo, we should talk about this again.”

Rolling up his sleeping bag and stuffing it into the bag in the dim light, Deo ignored her. He had already made up his mind. He was committed.

“We need to talk, Deo. Is it worth going back into a situation with three grown men to try to convince Toshi to come with us? She doesn’t want you anymore.” Lecti said, more forcefully than she intended. “She’s already made her choice. God, little brother, you know this. She’s treated you like crap before.”

Shouldering his pack, he replied, “You stay here then. I’ll go alone.”

“Can’t we....”

“NO, we can’t, Lecti. I’m going. I’m going now. You don’t want to go, fine.”

He jerked the door open and stepped out.

The thought crossed Lecti’s mind that she could stay behind. For the smallest fraction of a second, she weighed the possibilities. She didn’t want to die.

Struggling into her pack as she ran to catch up, she cursed her brother for a fool even as she admired him for his loyalty. Her father had called it “puppy love” and spoke about it as if it were wonderful. She hated it.

They didn’t say much as they walked. In the slowly gathering dawn they approached the old freeway and went under the overpass. The spray-painted sign on the bus became visible as the rising sun hit it. They stood behind the bus, dropped their packs and everything else that wasn’t necessary, and checked their weapons. They both loaded the empty chamber in their pistols. Lecti made sure the safety was off on the shotgun, and Deo pulled the safety back on the rifle, cocking the firing pin.

Lecti moved up the road to the north so that she would be coming in from a less visible angle. Deo would hang back since he had the rifle and was more proficient with it. He had no chance to sight it in as they didn’t want shots to be heard and make anyone nervous. He felt sure that it would be accurate enough for him to adjust quickly and accommodate for its idiosyncrasies. He didn’t like Lecti going in first, but he would not abandon her. He was going in anyway.

The open space loomed ahead. Lecti took her time, hoping to draw a warning shot or at least a shot that missed from a distance. She knew the dogs would have warned the occupants. That’s what they were for.

As she neared the ring of heavy equipment, she realized the bikes were no longer parked in front. The bare dirt spoke to her. Three fresh tracks led back to the road. The dirt was damp when they left, the tracks were crystal clear, and so they must have left yesterday.

Hal and Hey You were glad to see the siblings return, although for different reasons.

Hal had a plan. He had expected the kid, Deo, to lead his sister back because of his crush on Toshi. He was prepared, his trap set. Hal would get rid of the boy and have plenty of time to enjoy the young lady. His head was full of variations on fantasies he would soon fulfill.

The angle from her upstairs room was difficult for Hey You to watch Deo and Lecti’s advance. She was also expecting them to return. She recognized Deo’s state of mind just as Hal did. Knowing that Toshi would not be leaving with them, she came to a decision. It was difficult, but she worried that sooner or later it was likely that Hal would see through her coat of smelly rags and matted hair. If she could keep Deo safe, she intended to leave with him. That meant she would have to keep Lecti safe as well. Deo would not be leaving without his sister.

As they came inside, she moved to the balcony shadows to watch.

“Hey, good to see you back,” Hal greeted them with a friendly smile, “I thought you might have moved on after what happened. That wasn’t right. I just want you to know that. If I could have stopped them, I would have.”

Lecti didn’t like his tone. He was way too cheerful. She was immediately on guard.

Deo didn’t notice.

“Where did they go?” he asked. “When did they leave?” He was all business.

Hal looked hurt. It was part of his act. “C’mon, man, you don’t have to be like that. You’re fine, I’m fine, we’re all fine, and they’re gone. I’ll even give you your guns back.” He pulled them from underneath the counter and laid them on top. “See? I got them back for you.”

As Hal knew, Deo wasn’t having it. Drawing his holstered pistol from across the counter and pointing it in Hal’s face, he snarled, “I don’t need my old guns. All I need is information. Tell me where they went and when they left.”

“Whoa, whoa there,” Hal raised his hands. “They left about noon, yesterday, or a little after, and they asked me about the road east. Old Highway 50.”

Relief flooded Lecti. She laid her hand softly on Deo’s extended arm. “It’s okay, brother. You heard what he said, and we have no way of catching up.”

Feigning a concerned look, Hal replied, “Oh, if you want to catch up, I could help you with that. I’ve got resources. I’ve got just what you need. But why would you want to catch up to them? They don’t have anything you need, do they?”

Hey You was listening as she heard Hal bait the hook.

The momentary look in Deo’s eyes made Hal glad that Deo had lowered his gun. Deo wilted. Lowering his gaze to the floor, he said, “Toshi. They have Toshi.”

The fevered flash of satisfaction in Hal’s eyes was obvious to Lecti. She was standing to one side, and Hal was concentrating his attention on Deo.

Hal made a show of sudden understanding. “Oh, is that what you’re worried about? No, no, she didn’t go with them. She’s still here.”

The information was unexpected. Both Deo and Lecti were stunned, Deo with sudden relief, and Lecti with disappointment.

“Where is she?” pleaded Deo. “Why isn’t she here?”

With a sympathetic look, Hal extended his arm across the bar counter and patted Deo’s shoulder. “Dude, it’s early. She’s still sleeping it off. When they left they told me not to disturb her. That she was going to sleep all day and wouldn’t be up until this morning. She’s just down the hall.”

Hal spun and started off. “C’mon kid, I’ll show you.”

Deo followed like a puppy. He had no concerns other than Toshi.

When the bikers left and told Hal that Toshi was going to sleep through to the next morning, Hal became suspicious.

Opening the door to peek in on Toshi, Hal was not surprised to see blood stained sheets with a grey foot projecting out from under them. The bedclothes were piled on top of her beside one of the beds. Someone had shoved Toshi to the floor and then slept on the bare mattress next to her body. Hal was used to blood and bodies. This body would be used now to set a trap. He got to work.

The room down the hall was set up to accommodate guests as well. The difference was that the new room had no windows and had large, heavy locks that worked automatically when the door was closed. A locked door to an adjoining interior room had a small, wire-reinforced window and a slot large enough for a tray. Hal had replaced the original door with this one from the psychiatric wing. The adjoining room was an operating theater. Hal had used the room often and knew that once someone entered, they would never walk out.

Toshi’s face was smudged with blood and swollen. Hal placed her in the bed, positioned so that she faced away from the door to the hall. Her hair cascaded over the pillow, tossed in a way to look natural in sleep. The bruised body was covered with a blanket to her chin, hiding her shoulder.

Standing back to admire his work, Hal was satisfied. Two dumb kids would walk right in.

Hey You was concerned. She knew Hal was setting up the room to trap Deo and Lecti. She would rather keep them out of the room. She’d been instructed to clean up the operating room enough that she knew what occurred there. One of the blessings she counted was that she had never been asked or ordered to participate. Hey You knew that Hal was sick. Beyond sick, abnormal. If she could save Deo and Lecti, she might finally escape.

As Deo followed Hal, Lecti hung back. She followed slowly and just as she was about to pass under the balcony and into the hall, she heard a soft whistle.

Lecti looked up.

A dark, smudged face, dark irises surrounded with white, met her gaze.

Softly, so softly that she almost didn’t catch it, she heard, “Careful.”

A hand moved in an unmistakable gesture across the throat.

The warning happened so fast that she didn’t have time to stop before she passed under the upper floor. She looked ahead as Hal opened a door and, speaking too low for Lecti to hear, motioned Deo in.

As Deo entered his web, Hal looked back to watch Lecti approach. He was shocked to see the pistol unholstered and pointed at his chest. The set of Lecti’s jaw, and the determined stance as she came to a stop, told him enough to keep him from moving.

Lecti motioned Hal inside.

This was not part of the plan, but what could he do? Hal stepped inside just as Deo
screamed.

As she followed Hal, Lecti hesitated at the door. The scream had unnerved her to the point that she had almost pulled the trigger. She motioned Hal to the far side of the room.

“On your knees, asshole. On your knees and face the wall.”

Hal stayed alive by doing exactly as he was told.

Deo was holding Toshi in his arms. He was sobbing and rocking back and forth. Lecti could see that Toshi was dead.

Concentrating on the situation was difficult. Lecti wanted to rush to Deo, to comfort him, to take away his pain. With some difficulty, she kept her attention on Hal and still managed to assess the room.

It didn’t look lived in. There was nothing out of place. No clothing on the chair, no glass half full of water, no shoes kicked off as Toshi would have done. She would not have slept in the bed, either. Lecti also noticed the reinforced glass, the tray slot, and the automatic security locks on the doors. They would engage if the door closed. A key was necessary to open them.

“What happened here?” Lecti drilled Hal with her gaze, “She didn’t die here. She didn’t sleep here.”

Hal was surprised. He underestimated this little girl. “You’re right, you’re right. They killed her in the other room.”

His mind was working as fast as it could. He had to sound plausible. “I put her in here for you.
For you. I knew you’d come back for her. I didn’t want you to see all the blood. I wanted it to be nice for you. It was ugly. I tried to clean her up for you.”

If she would just move into the room and away from the door, Hal was ready. But he was too far from the door and on his knees.
If he could just get her in the room and distract her for a moment.

Deo raised his face from Toshi. “They did this?” He sobbed, “Why, why did they do this?”

Hal responded, “Look kid, they’re animals. They used her and threw her away. Tell your sister to put the gun down, and we’ll take care of her. We need to clean her up. We need to bury her.”

Lecti suddenly realized what this room was intended for. It just came to her.
An epiphany. It gave her the chills and strengthened her resolve.

“Deo, pick her up. Pick her up, and take her out to the barroom. Put her on a table out there.”

Deo nodded his head, his eyes to the ground. Sobbing, he lifted Toshi’s body, cradling it to his chest. As Lecti stepped aside he left the room and staggered down the hall, weeping uncontrollably with his burden.

Lecti didn’t know what to do with Hal. It occurred to her that she could shoot him where he was, and that was an attractive thought for a moment. She considered locking him in his own room, but was afraid that he might have a hidden key. In the end she just let him go.

Addressing Hal with all the fierceness she could muster, Lecti warned him, “Stay away from us, and don’t try anything.”

Deo had collapsed on the floor with Toshi’s body. He sat cradling her head in his lap, bending over to caress her face.

Looking up at Lecti, Hal several paces behind, Deo said, “I’m going to bury her. I’m going to bury her, and then I’m going to find them.” Deo’s voice became cold, cold and hard as steel, “and when I find them, I’m going to kill them.”

Deo’s eyes were hard, his gaze unwavering.

T
oshi had been beaten to death. She had no wounds other than those from hard blows. Sponging her body with water was impossible for Deo, so he sat in a daze on the far side of the room. Lecti did not want to share this experience with Hal, so she told him to go dig a grave. He sulked out with a shovel and pick from a hall closet. Lecti could not help thinking that he must have used them before since they had been kept so handy.

A calm
settled over Lecti as she worked. This was a job she had witnessed in Roseburg. Her father helped in burials. She had noticed the calm in him and others that prepared the body while those surrounding them wailed and ranted in mourning. Now it was her turn and she understood.

A form materialized out of the shadows. A dark hand reached for a sponge, dipped it in water and joined in the task. Nothing was said until the body was clean. Without any communication a bond was formed.

Looking up and engaging the stranger’s scrutiny, Lecti hesitated. She noticed the heavy unpleasant odor when this person appeared. She noticed the fine bones of the hands covered in beautiful, unlined skin. She knew this was a young woman from the hands. Now the dark eyes bored into hers. There was an unspoken moment of acknowledgment, a quiet appreciation of this shared experience, a kinship forged in their shared sisterhood, a bond of youth and mutual interest.

“We need to wrap the body in something,” whispered Lecti. “Sheets would be good.”

Hesitantly, as though unused to speaking, Hey You replied, “I’ll bring them.”

Returning quickly, they proceeded and soon Toshi was bound in linen. Body bags from the morgue were available, but Hey You didn’t like them. She brought a piece of almond colored, lightweight canvas, and a heavy needle and thread. Using large stitches, the task was complete.

Still sitting apart, Deo was left to muse over his inner turmoil while Hey You invited Lecti upstairs.

Lecti hesitated. “I can’t leave Deo.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll just sit up there where we can watch over him.”

A small table with two chairs in the shadows was a comfortable place to observe the lower floor. They spoke together in low voices, discussing and explaining their circumstances. Hey
You spoke hesitantly at first. She had little experience at conversation, but Lecti made her feel comfortable quickly. Lecti learned about how Hey You hated her own name, why she dressed and smelled as she did, and verified Hal’s perversions. Hey You listened to Lecti speak about her father and the circumstances of his death, how they ran and found Toshi outside a small town south of Redding, California, and how they had traveled and survived. Lecti told Hey You that she should pick out a new name. It had not occurred to Hey You that she could do that.

Hey
You sipped from one of the two bottles of water she produced from a partial case on the floor. “I like that idea. I’ll have to give it some thought.”

A nagging question was in the back of Lecti’s mind. She asked, “Did Hal really kill Toshi? He told us that the bikers did it.”

Hey You thought about the conversation she had with the older biker. It was just yesterday morning. He woke her up early with a light tap on her door. How he figured out which room was hers was a mystery. He asked about Hal and if she was safe. When she denied being in danger, he seemed skeptical but let it go. He asked for a couple of bottles of bourbon, and since Hal was still asleep, Hey You got them for him. Stuffing the bottles into his saddlebags, he prepared to leave.

“Aren’t you going to wait for your friends?” Hey
You asked.

“They’re not my friends,” he replied. “You sure you’re okay?”

She nodded, and he rode off, up to the freeway entrance. Instead of taking it, he veered south into town.

Hey
You told Lecti about his early departure. Lecti was interested to know that he had not been part of the murder.

Coming back to Lecti’s question, Hey You replied, “No, Hal didn’t kill her. She was dead when Hal looked in the room. They really did tell him that she was sleeping late. She was too old for him. He wants you, though. You’re young enough. You have to be careful.”

Her mind working overtime, Lecti considered what to do. She knew Deo was serious about pursuing the bikers. Solutions to keeping them out of harm’s way seemed remote. Telling Deo that Hal was the one who killed Toshi would keep him from chasing the bikers. Deo would kill Hal, and that wasn’t a bad thing except that Lecti did not want Deo to kill anybody. He had never taken that step. For that matter, neither had Lecti. She had come close this morning. The odds of catching the bikers were slim. She could deal with that eventuality later, in the unlikely chance that it ever happened.

Deo’s mind was past the biggest part of his grief. He was into revenge mode. The bikers were dead. They just didn’t know it yet. His age gave him a dangerous overconfidence, and his rage destroyed any chance of a reasonable perspective. He remembered something Hal had said, and began weaving it into a plan he was forming.

Digging a grave was not part of Hal’s plan. He was fuming. Here were two kids, one an object of his desire, and he wasn’t able to acquire them. It was not likely now that he would be successful. Why had he failed? They could not be that smart or that lucky. He thought about turning the dogs on them in his anger, but he knew that it would just end up being a good way to lose his dogs. He would maintain his friendly demeanor and try to find an opportunity. He wasn’t giving up yet.

At about three feet, Hal judged the grave to be deep enough.

A body-sized bundle of canvas was laying on a gurney when Hal returned. The gurney was light and collapsible and would serve as a stretcher if they got into rough ground.

These kids were encroaching on Hal’s territory. He resented them searching through his home to find what they needed. That they might have gotten help didn’t cross his mind.

When Lecti and Hey You broke off their conversation, Hey You admonished once more, “Be careful. I’ll be watching, and if you get into trouble and I can help, I will.”

As Lecti stepped onto the staircase, she reached out and took Hey You’s hand. “Thanks. I’ll be careful. You, too, you be careful.”

Hey You stayed on the balcony. She wanted to ask if she could go with them, but a strange reluctance held her back.

The grave was west of the hospital. It was an area that Hal began to use when burying his first victims. He tired after digging two graves and started dumping the remains in a wash to the north. Now, after setting the gurney beside the grave and lowering the body inside, Deo, Lecti, and Hal bowed their heads for a moment. Lecti detested the facade that Hal was projecting. He was scum, and Lecti couldn’t wait to exit his company.

Returning to the hospital foyer, they remained quiet, wrapped in their own thoughts. There were so many thoughts, plenty to fill their heads without speaking and creating more clutter.

It was getting late. Hal offered a meal, which Lecti was inclined to reject. They needed to eat. Finally Lecti offered to help Hal prepare it. That was the last thing he wanted. Hal was fully capable of using the drugs in the pharmacy to doctor their food. He realized that once again Lecti had dodged a bullet. They went to the kitchen together to fix the meal.

Hospital kitchens were impressive. They were geared to producing mass quantities of food efficiently and still have the ability to specialize in satisfying the needs of patients with unusual dietary requirements. Hey You knew this from her studies, but Hal, and now Lecti, were only impressed because of the size, the massive stainless steel surfaces, and the quantities of hardware.

Staying away from Hal, Lecti watched. She had no intention of helping to prepare the meal. She would not get that close to Hal. Her hand rested lightly on the butt of her holstered revolver.

The reefers still operated on the solar energy from the hospital roof. The system was built to last and was simple to repair, so Hal managed to keep it running with little effort. Fresh vegetables from a garden on the roof barely filled one shelf. A small amount of fresh meat occupied a meat drawer. The rest held canned goods. Cans in a low temperature reefer stayed good much longer than on a room temperature shelf. Lecti did not see the drawer with preserved garden seed. It was seed from an organic source and intended for harvesting more seed as much as growing food. Hal was rich. His wealth was preserved food and the ability to grow more.

Tuna salad on a bed of fresh lettuce, sliced tomatoes on the side soon filled three plates. It looked good to Lecti, and she hadn’t seen anything to make her suspicious. She wondered why there were only three plates. Either Hal was not going to eat or Hey You was on her own.

Hal picked up a plate and started to leave.

“Wait a minute,” Lecti objected. “Put that down and get a tray.” She wasn’t going to fill her hands and give Hal an opening.

That was exactly Hal’s intent. He was stymied again. This little bitch was really getting under his skin. Once again he would have to create an opportunity.

Lecti noted the position on the tray of the plate Hal had picked up. She followed him out of the kitchen and up the stairs, keeping her distance.

“When we get up there, Hal, you put that tray down and back off.”

If he had the option, Hal would have wasted her right then, other desires
be damned.

Hal put the tray on the center table where Deo was sitting. Deo paid no attention. He was lost in his thoughts and barely noticed.

As Hal backed away, Lecti picked up the plate that Hal had originally selected. She chose another to put in front of Deo. Standing opposite the table from Hal, she indicated to him that the remaining plate was his to take.

What Lecti had done was not lost on Hal. He smiled externally and fumed internally.

They ate in silence. Hal had not had a chance to drug the food. Deo ate very little.

As Hal failed, he became even more determined. He weighed his options, trying to piece
the puzzle together to get what he felt he now deserved. He deserved Lecti simply because she was managing to frustrate him.

The dogs weren’t his only option. The Uzi under the bar would at least satisfy his blood lust. He wanted more. Patience, he told himself, patience.