The Undesirable (Undesirable Series) (21 page)

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

As soon as I get through the concrete, I search for the Humvee Glenn told me would wait for us. Trees line the other side of the wall, and the branches press up against a brown and fallow crop field that stretches several acres. I run for almost a quarter mile before I find our getaway chariot under another large camouflage tarp. Fostino follows me.

“Think the keys are in the ignition?” he asks once he catches up to me. Our chests heave from the run.

“I don’t know.” We don’t whisper anymore. While I can’t make out his face in the darkness, his body touches mine. It’s electric. His fingers snake around my hand and squeeze tight.

“Here goes nothing.” Fostino pulls open the door and slides inside. Seconds later, the engine revs and he nods for me to get in on the passenger side.

“Sounds a lot quieter than I expected,” he remarks once I pull the door shut behind me.

“All the SSR’s cars sound like this one. Easier to stay out of sight if you can’t be heard so well. These Humvees only look like the one from The Party.”

“Where to?” His hand rests on the gearshift.

“North.” I point to the field in front of us. “I guess head through the field. If I remember, state line road is right up this way, and from there we can head east and hit the state highway from there.”

Fostino doesn’t speak. He takes his foot off he breaks and starts to drive. Every few minutes, I peer over my shoulder to see if anyone follows us. I don’t notice anyone. We turn onto the state highway in about 15 minutes.

“We should stop a little ways north of here at Nelson Nugent’s store,” I tell Fostino. “He’s in the SSR, and he knows a lot. He’ll help us. Glenn and I met up with him on the way down here.”

“How do you know we can trust him?” He gives me a sideways frown. Even in the moonlight, I can see it.

“We can,” I insist. “He gave us new IDs and supplies the last time we stopped there. I know it’s late, but I bet he’ll help us if we show up.” I watch the shadows of the Ohio farmland fade as we pass into rural Michigan. It all looks the same in the moonlight, but with each mile, I breathe easier. Fostino turns the headlights on low once we get about three miles out of town.

“You know,” he says. “Even with all this, I don’t hate The Party.”

“You don’t?” I don’t bother to hide the surprise in my voice.

“No. Many good people make up The Party. People who just do their job. They don’t make decisions. They’ve to follow orders. They’re not all bad people. I had friends. Real friends, I think.”

“But doesn’t that make them as bad?” I argue, “I mean, they stand by and allow awful stuff to happen! How do you call someone like that a friend?” I think of Fostino’s dad and of my own mother. They didn’t deserve to die.

“A lot of people don’t have any choice, Char.” He sighs. “They’re scared themselves. They can’t control or change stuff. How can I make you understand? People get forced.”

“You sound like a robot.”

“Some people have power in this world. We never did. It’s the one way I can make things make sense to me.” He shrugs.

Frustrated, I shake my head and roll my eyes a little. I’ve seen too much in the last few weeks to go along with anything anymore. There’s no way he’ll change my mind about it tonight. Another thought clouds my mind instead.

“We’ve been through so much messed up stuff,” I point out.

“Yep,” he says and his eyebrows knit together. “This has been the worst and the best few months of my life.” He reaches over, takes my hand, and folds it through his. After a few minutes, his thumb rubs the skin between my left thumb and index finger.

We hold hands in silence until we reach Nelson’s Grocery. A neon yellow “Closed” sign propped up in the windowsill tells us we’re at the right place. Fostino turns off the headlights of the Humvee and we slide into the abandoned parking lot of the store. Neither of us speaks. I open the backpack and pull out the blue flashlight. I tap it on my hand.

“You sure this guy’s here?” Fostino bucks his chin towards the door of the shop. “You’re sure about this?”

“Yes,” I push my next words out as strongly as I can. “He helped me before. He’ll help us again.” Not willing to listen to any protest, I pull the handle of the Humvee and jump out of the car onto the gravel.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

Fostino follows me and we’re at the screen door of the grocery in a few seconds. I pull the handle and find it unlocked. I can make out Fostino’s face from the neon sign, and he looks a little panicked. He peeks behind us to see if anyone comes down the road. We don’t see anyone.

1:00 AM.

Have we really moved so slowly?

“Should we go in?” Fostino asks in my ear. A click comes from his hand and I see he’s brought the gun with him. He slides it into one of the pockets of his pants. “Just never know,” he mumbles.

“I think Nelson’s in the back,” I whisper as I pull the door open and step inside the doorframe. I shuffle down one of the dark aisles. Something tells me to be quiet. I make it to the back in a few minutes and fumble around for the door I know hides Nelson’s secret room. Fostino’s warm breath snakes across the back of my neck.

“I’ll go first,” I say, once I grasp the door handle. I click it open. “He knows me,” I explain.

I open the door and sweep my eyes around the small room. My eyes adjust to the light as I make out the button on the back wall of the room. If Nelson’s in the building, I know he’s down in the secret basement. I cross the room, punch the button, and the floor falls away.

“Stay here,” I look back over my shoulder at Fostino. “Keep watch. I’ll see if I can find Nelson in the basement, and when I do, I’ll call you down.”

“Okay,” Fostino replies, but I can’t mistake the uncertainty in his throaty voice. He braces one arm on the frame of the door to the room.

I use the flashlight to show the way down the steps of the basement. Nelson’s secret lair is creepy in the night light and unsettling with just me inside. I shine the light on the video wall, across the supplies and over the rest of the first room.

“Anyone there?” I call out as loud as I dare.

Where is he?

I take a few tentative steps towards a second, more hidden room we didn’t explore on my first visit here with Glenn. The door to this room hangs open like a tattered book. The flashlight falls on more supplies, a generator, and a cache of weapons hang on the wall. I make out Fostino’s voice upstairs.

“Charlotte, what’s going on down there?”

I whirl around. “I’m okay,” I call back. “Give me a few minutes.” I pause before I take one more step into the second room. Moments later, a hand whips around my back and pins both of my arms. I drop the flashlight in surprise. Another hand claps my mouth shut. I try to bite down on the hand but the fingers hold my jaw open.

“Just a few minutes,” a voice says in my left ear. The arms tighten. “’All I need, Party Princess.”

In horror, I realize the words come from Nelson Nugent.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

Nelson reaches a leg around me and gives the door to this second room a swift kick. The metal door shuts with a soft click. His arms tighten around me and his muscles constrict as I start to struggle with his hold. He might as well be a two hundred pound boa constrictor.

“Soundproof, Princess,” he says before he takes his hand off my mouth and pulls a gun out of his pants with a deft action. He holds it against me. The metal jams between my jawline and my neck.

“Fostino! Fostino! FOSTINO!” I ignore him and scream anyway. All the cells in my body need him to hear me now. I notice every bead of sweat on my body. I taste the fear in my mouth. I hear every breath Nelson Nugent takes. Terror replaces the blood in my body.

Fostino must hear me, now.

“You stupid girl.” Nelson laughs and his stomach presses against my back. “You need to learn how to listen. If you even try to move, I will shoot you right now. Right through that little skull of yours. Don’t think I’ll hesitate.”

My breath comes out in hot protests. The seconds of my life wind down like the end of an hourglass.

“Do you know there’s a price on your head?” Nelson asks as he takes a few shuffles backwards and pulls us both deeper into the small room. “Ever wonder how much?”

“No. I don’t care how much,” I mumble through gritted teeth. I need to figure out what to do, and fast.

“It’s more than you think, honey.” he sneers as his lips brush my ear. Nelson doesn’t give up an inch on his titanium grip around my arms. “Stamps for a lifetime from the government. A pardon for all I’ve done as a member of the SSR. Commendations. Celebrity. The gratitude of a nation. All the women I want. It’s very attractive. I’m sure you can imagine the possibilities.”

“You can’t do this,” I choke, my throat dry. “It goes against everything you’ve worked for.” Even though it’s cold in the room, sweat pools on my upper lip. I gulp. Frantic, I wait for the door to fly open.

It doesn’t.

“God, you little cliché. Such a sad little slut. Like what they said about your mother.” Nelson chuckles and sounds even more evil. “And it won’t be long now. The Party knows you came here. They’re on their way.” 

My heart stops beating for a second as I take in his words.

This is it.

“Do they want me dead or alive?” I ask this as I inch my hand down the side of my thigh to the small knife I threw in my pants as Fostino and I left the tornado shelter. I soon touch the steel handle of the blade with the smallest of movements.

“Dead,” Nelson asserts almost before I manage to get the question out. “Really, it’s nothing personal. I should have shot you before now, Princess, but I want you to know why I will kill you. Isn’t that how it always works?” I don’t miss the derision in his tone. My index finger and my thumb pull the blade out of my pocket with the utmost care.

I stall him some more. “Why would you betray the SSR?” I ask. “Why work so hard and then go back?”

“I’m tired,” he says. “Tired of running. Tired of looking over my shoulder. Besides, when I bring you in dead, I’ll also take Cooper’s government one of the most valuable things they’ve ever had. You won’t be a physical threat any more. And I’ll be a hero.”

“You trust Maxwell Cooper?”

“No. I trust cash. Cold, hard cash. And you’ve got 20 million stamps on your head.”

“I guess I would kill me too.” I nod against the pressure of the gun to my throat. The knife slides into my hand and I keep a tight grip on it.  

“I wouldn’t do this without making it worth it,” Nelson concedes. “You can’t want to live, anyway, Princess. Look at your life.”

“You’re right,” I say as I make the slightest movement with the blade and aim the sharp end at Nelson’s fat thigh. He may be a boa constrictor, but I’m a mongoose ready to strike.

I take in one sharp breath. I squeeze my eyes shut, raise the knife, and plunge it into Nelson’s thigh.

“Argh! You little brat!” Nelson recoils away from me. He fires his gun at the same time. A bullet lodges into the wall as the gun falls. He hunches over, yelps, and grabs his bleeding leg.

I yank the knife out of his leg and pull away from Nelson as he falls. I step away from him. I turn and lift the knife again. I aim it at his chest. He yells. No longer than a second passes before I turn my head, lean down, and stab him somewhere near his ribs. Nelson screams one more time, but I hardly hear him now. Then, just like that, he’s silent.

Without checking to see if Nelson’s alive or dead, I get up and run for the exit.

“Fostino,” I call as I race up the stairs. “Are you still up there? Fostino?” My voice gets louder with each question. “Fostino?”

Once I reach the doorway between the store and the secret entrance, he speaks. “Charlotte!” His sharp whisper cuts through the store. “Be quiet. Someone’s outside.” 

Oh, no.

As my eyes adjust to the store, they just make out Fostino. He crouches behind a large rack of supplies near the door, his gun cocked and ready.

“Get down,” he orders, still in a whisper. He doesn’t take his eyes off the door. I slide to the floor and hide behind the end of a row of auto parts. I turn my head so I can peek around the row and watch what happens next. We’re both silent. A few seconds pass.

Then I hear the voice.

“Nelson?” the man asks from somewhere outside the store. “Nelson, do you want me to come in?” His boots crunch on the gravel as he walks toward the store. “Is Charlotte still here?”

“Oh, God. Here we go. This is it,” Fostino mutters, and I just barely hear him say it. He stands up as the man comes closer to the store. When the man reaches the screen door, Fostino puts one hand up and steps out from behind the rack. “It’s alright.”

“Oh, wait, you’re here, too,” says the man. “We’ve been looking for you for a couple of days, ever since your last patrol.”  Not only is this a member of The Party, but Fostino knows him.

Fostino knows him.

I rock back on my feet a little and pull my head back behind the row as the blood drains from my face. Now I can’t see them. I just hear them.

“Well, I figured I’d find her myself.” Fostino laughs. “Since I know her so well.”

“So that led you out here?” The door slams as the man steps inside the store. “Seems a little odd to travel out here, don’t you think?” 

“She took us out here,” replies Fostino. “But I knew all along about this place. So I let her. I was just keeping watch for you, since I figured The Party was on our trail.”

I grit my teeth to stop from crying out. My breath already comes out in hot spurts through my nose. Fostino’s not the person I thought he was at all.

Not at all.
 

The man snorts. “I wasn’t far away when Nelson made the call to us saying you guys had stopped here. Seemed like a good chance to finally get her and bring her in. Twenty million stamps is a lot. God, I can’t wait for that reward.”

“Me either,” says Fostino. “She’s still downstairs.”

“Perfect.” I hear a few more shuffling sounds from the front of the store as someone picks up a few items from one of the shelves. “Remind me to get a few things for the wife before we leave. Nelson’s got a good set up here.”

“He does,” replies Fostino. “Why don’t you lead the way?”

“Of course.” The man takes one step, then another. I squeeze my eyes shut, helpless to figure out what to do next and paralyzed with fear. Dread floods every inch of my body. Within a few more steps, he’ll be right next to me. Before I know it, he’ll see me. There’s no way I’ll escape now. I’m already dead.

That’s when I hear one crisp, smooth gunshot.