The Black Death (7 page)

This might be the arrangement, but it’s not a comfortable one.

The man with the rifle rapped his knuckles three times on the door, never turning away from them.

“How’s it hanging, Freebird?” the man asked in a thick Southern drawl, a much more pronounced accent than either Free or Danimal carried in his voice, and it reminded Matt of some of his Southern travels.

“Low and to the left, Henley. How you been?”

“Busy. All this fucking takes some work, y’know?”

“I can dig it. I got your crystal.”

“You know that’s not my problem,” the man said, scowling. “She’ll be out soon enough.”

As if on cue, the slot in the door opened. Matt caught a quick glimpse of a face behind it, and then several locks began turning from behind the door before it opened and the woman slid out.

If Free was slowly rotting away and Luther was all but gone, this woman was the next level. Matt had a feeling that she would have been hideous looking even without the rot, but with it, she was horrible.

She was dressed in Daisy Duke shorts meant to show the maximum amount of leg and a tight cropped top with a push-up bra, but the only thing getting pushed up was a pair of breast implants sliding around in festering wounds. Her face was done up with makeup but was rotting off her skull, looking almost as if it were sliding off inch by inch. Her eyes were sinking into her head, and her hair, dyed and highlighted, hung in damp spaghetti strands. Her walking and living was a mockery of all things dead. She walked up to Free and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“We brought you your stuff. More this time, too, just like you told Bucky your girls needed.”

“My girls do need the black if they’re going to stick around and do like they’re told. Bucky tell you Jesse Ann went feral? Tore up a trucker real bad, ended up having to put him down and dig a hole.”

“It was a real shame,” said Henley, standing now in front of the open door and looking even more alert.

“You dig one for Jesse Ann, too?”

“We was gonna—” said Henley as Sally interrupted him.

“Then I got a better idea,” she said. “Henley butt-stroked her with his army gun, and we tied her down on a board, all spread out. We popped a muzzle on her, and she’s good as new. Some of the boys are having a throw-down with her in back, said it’s like fuckin’ a wildcat. I wouldn’t know what that’s like, but I think I get what they mean.” Sally paused, taking the package from Free and then tossing it hand to hand. “This feels light, Free, big-time. Send your boys outside, or tell them to get in line for one of the girls, don’t much matter to me which one. But you and me gotta talk in the office.”

Henley stood aside as she walked back through the door into the rear of the RV and then took the offered pistol from Free before letting him pass as well.

“You heard Mrs. Sally,” said Henley. “And besides, it ain’t a bad night out, so go on, get. Freebird will be back out soon enough.”

Matt followed Danimal out the door and was beside himself to discover that, somehow, he was actually a little worried about Free. It was a ridiculous notion. The man was a horrible drug addict—he was slowly rotting away and contributing to all of the bad things happening here, but he also had an earnestness that Matt couldn’t help but appreciate.
I’d still put my ax through his head if I had to, and will, when the moment comes, but damn if I don’t feel for the guy being locked in there with her.

Danimal must have been feeling the same way as they left the trailer, because rather than wait by the door, he walked swiftly back to the van. Once they were there, he climbed into his seat, and Matt hopped into Free’s.

“What’s going on in there?” Matt asked Danimal, and for once, he actually cared about the answer. It wasn’t just a probing inquiry to report back to the sheriff.

“Nothing good,” said Danimal, “nothing good at all. Not for Free, not for us, not for nobody. I swear to God, if we’re low, I’m going to go fuckin’ kill Luther. I don’t care if he lives in a church. That ain’t no house of God anymore.”

“Can’t you call Bucky?” Matt said.

“What did you say?” Danimal asked the question slowly, as if he really was wondering what Matt had asked him. In addition, Danimal looked almost scared, as though there was some detail Matt was missing in asking him to make the call, and it was a damn important one.

“I asked if maybe you could call Bucky,” said Matt. “I don’t know if that’s possible, or something you can do, or if you even have his number, but if you can call, maybe he can help. He’s who’s in control of all of this, right?”

“All what?” Danimal asked the question at the same time that he opened a beer with shaking hands, dropping the cap on the floor and then taking a long drink from the bottle.

“All of this,” Matt said, spreading his arms. “All this meth stuff, the hookers in the RV, all the dirty stuff here—that’s his operation, right?”

“Look, man,” stammered Danimal, “you’re new here, and just passing through. You don’t know some of the things going on behind the scenes here. Bucky’s been the dude for a long time, a big dude.”

“But he’s not now?”

“Hey,” said Danimal. “It’s not like that, and I couldn’t tell you exactly what’s up. Bucky is the man, but he’s been off. Big-time off.”

“So he can’t help?”

“That doesn’t matter. None of this conversation matters. Free is going to explain to Sally that Luther, being the dope fiend that he is, stole some of her delivery and smoked it. Just wait. He’ll be out any minute.”

“He might and he might not,” said Matt. “That outcome assumes he tells them that Luther did it and that they believe him. Has Free ever come up light before?”

“I don’t know, man.”

Matt leaned across the center console between the two bucket seats in the front of the van, close enough that he could smell the beer on Danimal’s breath and look dead into his eyes.

“You don’t smoke the black flake, do you?”

“Hell yes. I love the shit.”

“No, you don’t. And you don’t need to lie about it. I know you’re clean. You might like to drink, smoke dope, and maybe even do the regular blue speed, but you don’t dig on the black,
never even tried to do it, as a matter of fact. I know that. So level with me, Danimal, and do it quick. Free might need us in there.”

“Goddamn, Matt. The stuff you’re saying could get me killed. Maybe even get
both
of us killed. You’re not from here. You don’t know how stuff works. Look, Bucky used to be the man around here, but you knew it because he was always around, always partying. Everyone loved that dude, even the people he leaned on a little too hard.”

“What if Bucky knows the black is bad but doesn’t care?”

“Man, this has to stop. Let’s go over and see if Henley knows how much longer Free is going to be. I can’t talk about this shit, I told you.”

“If we go in there, that big asshole at the door is going to shoot us if Free is in even the smallest amount of trouble. We either go in knowing we have to put Henley down or we accept that Free might not be coming out.” Matt gave a look to his arm, where a watch would be if he wore one. “Could already be running a bit late as far as Free is concerned, too.”

“Look. Free is fine. We’ve been dealing with Sally forever. She knows how things go and how Luther can be when he starts getting really high.”

“Yeah, and what if Sally is ripping off everybody? You know how I knew you didn’t smoke the black? Sally smokes a ton of it.”

“No, she doesn’t,” said Danimal. “Sally’s been clean for years. Everyone knows that. She gets drugs and hooch for the girls, but other than cigarettes, she’s clean, never touches a drop.”

“It’s in her eyes, plain as day,” said Matt as he opened the passenger door to the van, sliding the ax loose from the bag, then pulling the duffel over his shoulder. “I’m going to go get him.”

“You can’t do that,” hissed Danimal in the front of the van. “If you go in there, they’re going to kill you.”

“No,” said Matt, “they’re going to try.”

***

Matt crossed the lawn in a fast walk, with Danimal at his heels. The bigger man was having some trouble keeping up, but Matt wasn’t too concerned about Danimal being much help. The man was just too scared, too freaked-out over Free to be in a fight right now. Matt figured there might be some low-level pimp types who doubled as guards in the part of the RV with the girls, but if they went in fast, got Free, and then walked back out to the van, they might be okay.
The trick would be to have no shots fired. Gunplay would get everybody going nuts—whores, patrons, and the people he really needed to worry about, the ones with more guns.

Matt walked between the smoking and waiting men, the ax tucked tight next to his leg so that it would be harder to see in the darkness. He opened the door to the RV and hopped quickly up the steps, moving fluidly, as if he’d been born to be here.

Henley, the big man with the Stoner rifle, was raising the gun as the door opened, and without thinking, Matt threw his ax. The blade cleaved through Henley’s head, dropping him, and stuck in the “steel” door that he was standing in front of. Danimal shut the door behind them and was staring at the body. Ignoring him, Matt pulled the ax free from the door and gave it a swift kick.

The door collapsed in on itself—
just cheap aluminum, doesn’t matter how strong the locks are
—and Matt raced through it, ax in hand, with Danimal behind him. He could see Free’s boots on the floor, just the toes, though, and so Matt assumed he was sitting. He still hadn’t made Sally, and it wasn’t until he was past the bathroom and into the short room at the end of the hallway that he realized she wasn’t there.

Free was tied to a chair and had a red rubber ball gag in his mouth. He was sweating profusely and struggling at the restraints holding him, but his eyes got a little hopeful when he saw Matt and Danimal.

“If you’ve got a knife, start cutting him loose,” Matt barked to Danimal before he pulled the rubber ball from Free’s mouth. It plopped onto Free’s damaged neck, making the wound glisten with saliva.

“Hurry up,” said Free. “She’s coming back!”

“Where did she go?” Matt asked. “Why did she just leave you here?”

“She was on her cell when she left, covering the mouthpiece to talk, and then she took off. If she was calling who I think she was calling, it’s not going to be good.”

“Who, Bucky?” Matt asked. “Would he be able to approve her offing you for delivering another light load?”

“You talk too much,” said Free to Danimal, who cut through the second leg restraint, and Matt loosened the one on Free’s left arm. Free stood, rubbing his wrists, the ball gag still slung around his neck.

Matt smirked at the sight and added, “Now you’re free. Let’s get out of here.” Matt led the way, with Free and Danimal behind him.

Free gasped when they were out of the hallway and he saw the body on the floor. “Damn!” he said. “You killed Henley? He was good people.”

“He didn’t look too nice when he was aiming a gun at me,” said Matt. “Take his rifle. We don’t need somebody else shooting us in the back with it.”

Free grabbed the rifle off the floor and took his pistol from Henley. Matt opened the door, then walked outside. The men with their cigarettes were still there, but it wasn’t until the three were walking among them that Matt realized all of them were watching him, Free, and Danimal with coal-black eyes.
How did they all get so high so fast?
The thought was dashed from Matt’s head when he saw Sally and realized they had a very serious problem.

She was standing at the far end of the group of men with a knife in one hand, a cell phone pressed to her head in the other, and fury in her eyes. She clicked the flip phone closed, her eyes shifting from Matt, to Free, to Danimal.

“Get ’em, boys,” she said. “They die, and the ass is on the house tonight.”

The group of men fell on them immediately. Matt barely had time to get his ax up as a black-eyed man lunged at him. He shoved the man away from him and brought the ax down onto the top of his attacker’s head, splitting his skull and dropping him to the ground.

Next to Matt, Free and Danimal were cracking shot after shot into the torsos of the men who were rapidly advancing on them. Some of them came bare-handed, but others held tire irons and other clubs.

Another black-eyed man, fissures of rotting flesh lining his forehead, charged Matt with a large bowie knife. Matt waited until the last possible second, then sidestepped the attack and brought the ax down on the back of his head, making it pop off his shoulders before the body and the head were joined on the ground.

From behind him, Matt heard a gunshot. It was close, so it had been either Free or Danimal shooting, but that didn’t make things any better. More would be coming, and if they were all turned, Matt, Free, and Danimal were going to be overwhelmed on the lawn. Matt cracked another skull as one of the things came after him, and he bashed another with the backside of the ax as it headed for Danimal.

“Run!” shouted Matt, but they’d waited too long, and all that was left to do now was stand and fight.

Danimal had apparently realized that, in order to kill, he needed to shoot the drug fiends in the head. Matt saw snippets of Danimal firing only when they came close enough that he was sure not to miss. Free was still fighting as well, though as far as Matt could tell, he’d given up on the rifle as a gun and was instead using it as a club, apparently unable to find time to take the Glock from its holster. Matt was busy as well, felling and killing two more of the men, before the hookers, johns, and pimps from the whorehouse were upon them.

As deadly and bloody as the battle already was, Matt saw two things that were far worse, and they were running ahead of the pack on all fours, with black eyes and faces twisted by the flake.

The two junkies split before they hit Matt, Free, and Danimal’s ever-shrinking circle of safety. One of them was rail thin and looked as though she’d been deprived of food. She had a muzzle made of leather and metal hanging around her neck, and there were deep gouges in her face from it. The other was a monster of a man, tall, fat, and just plain old big in every possible way. Matt was yanking his ax free from the head of another dead ghoul when he came to the realization that the two beasts were attempting to cut off Matt, Danimal, and Free’s slow progress to the van. Deciding the risks were worth the attempt, no matter how dangerous, Matt ran from the circle of killing to try to face them before they could overwhelm the three of them from the rear as they fought off the others who had spilled from the RV.