The Rabid: Fall (13 page)

17

The air is thin and crisp as I exit the house and start towards Ronald’s to deliver the bad news. As I pass the narrow entrance to Próta, I notice the bus is pulled up out front and Guy and his crew are loading up supplies. They’re all decked out in their Sunday best.

“Heading out on another rescue mission?” I ask, leaning against the front gate.

“Just a patrol, but we always manage to get into something. Where are you off to so early?” Guy hands a duffel bag full of shotguns and rifles off to one of his squad-mates.

“Meeting with the big guy.”

“I heard about that.”

“Who hasn’t?”

“Don’t let it rub you the wrong way. It’s hard to keep a secret around here.”

“Pros and cons of communal living, I suppose.”

“Yeah, but if you ask me, there are a lot more checks in the pro column.” He seems eager to get out on the road. “I don’t know what Ronald wants with you. Just remember, Daddy Trask knows best.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Tim!” Lydia is hanging out of the bus, waving excitedly.

“I think she wants a word with you.” Guy slaps me on the arm.

Lydia jogs towards me, blonde locks flowing behind her like bicycle streamers. “It’s so good to see you.” She grabs my hands.

I pull away.

Undeterred, she grabs them again. “You slept on it?”

“I did, yeah.”

“And you’re going to give my dad the good news, right?”

“I, well, I’m—”

“Tim, we’re going to be so good together.” She squeals a little and laces her fingers through mine, just like Katia. Except she doesn’t feel like Katia; her hands are too cold, too bony, too rough. She’s not Katia, not even close. “Look how good we fit. It’s like we were made for each other.”

“Listen, I nee—”

She presses a finger to my lips. “Hush. Not now. It’s going to be perfect.”

“Lydia, get your butt in here, kiss your boyfriend later!” Guy yells through an open window. Everyone onboard the bus is watching us.

“Gotta go.” She looks like she’s going for my lips. I turn my cheek to her instead. She plants her kiss and skips away. “See you tonight, Tim!”

***

Ronald’s guards pat me down and take my handgun before letting me into the house. The stairs groan beneath my feet as I ascend. The adrenaline bubbles in my belly. I pause at the top of the stairs, trying to get the words straight in my head.

No stuttering. No backing down. Say what you’ve gotta say and leave it at that. Have some balls.

One of the guards is holding the office door open for me as I approach. “Go in, Mr. Trask is expecting you.”

Ronald is sitting behind his desk as I enter the room. He’s got a book open and is scanning the pages with an index finger, lips fluttering. He looks up and removes his glasses as the door slams home at my back.

“Tim, my boy, come in and take a seat.”

“I think I’ll just stand, if that’s okay by you.”

Ronald stands, refusing to be upstaged. “Not sure I like the tone you’re taking.”

“Sir, this isn’t easy to say, so I’m just going to—”

He holds up one hand, leaving the other on his hip. “Hang on, before you go any further. You’re sure you’ve thought this through? I mean, really thought this through?”

“I’ve chewed it over until my jaw is sore. Regrettably, my answer has to be no.”

“That’s unfortunate, Tim. I’ve got to say, I was really hoping you’d come in here with good news.” His steps boom against the floor, they are spaced out and deliberate, guiding him towards the window. He stands there, grim-faced, looking out over his minor kingdom. “But you’re a strong-willed man. When a strong-willed man has his mind set, it’s nearly impossible to get him to change course. I know this because I too am a strong-willed man. To move him, you must use force…he must be compelled.”

“I’m sorry, sir. But I’m afraid there is no compelling me. This is my final answer, and I’d ask that you respect that.”

“Respect?”

“I’m asking you to respect my answer, if nothing else.”

“This is what you do, isn’t it?”

“Excuse me?”

“You take. You leech.You use. We bring you in, we feed you, we put a roof over your head, and you just want to scurry away, a rat with the cheese.”

“We were up front with you. We told you our intentions. There’s been no attempt to scurry away with anything. I don’t know what your problem is, but I think this conversation is just about finished.”

“My problem, Tim, is with people like you. People that think everything in life is free. That’s part of what got us here in the first place; a lack of personal responsibility, everyone out for themselves, politicians covering their asses, no matter the cost. Not here, not while I’m in charge, no sir. I made you a generous offer. If you want to slap it away, that’s fine.”

“Good, glad to hear it. I’ll be on my way.” No need in carrying this on. We’ve still got a few more days in this loony-bin. I don’t want to ruffle feathers that don’t need ruffling.

“Not so fast, Tim!” Ronald’s voice booms at my back.

I turn, arms crossed tight over my chest. “Yeah?”

“I wasn’t finished.”

“By all means, you’ve got the floor.”

He’s got his hands in his pockets and his blazer pushed back. He’s watching me, chin down, dark shadows passing over his face. “You can slap my hand away. But you won’t slap my daughter’s hand away. I won’t allow it.”

I remove my hat, sigh, and scratch my head. My patience is wearing thin. “You’re what folks in Georgia refer to as
shit out of luck
. Respect me or don’t. Call me whatever you want. I’ve given you my final answer. You break that news to Lydia however you see fit, it’s not my burden.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” He raises an arm slowly and undoes the latch on the window, popping it open with a flick of his wrist.

A familiar scream strangles the air from the room.

My knees buckle; I grip the back of a chair just to keep myself upright.

“Care to have a look?”

The edges of my vision are blurring. I trip and stumble to the window, slicing my leg across the corner of the desk. I slam my right hand into the center of Ronald’s chest, shoving him back. He doesn’t protest, he just laughs and brushes the creases out of his shirt.

They’ve got Katia in the middle of the street. She’s on her hands and knees, coughing and spitting blood. Daniel and two of his underlings are standing over her, cackling; grown children torturing an insect with a magnifying glass. Daniel slams her ribs with the toe of his boot, ripping another haggard scream from her lungs; she’s crying out for me.

I bolt for the door. It bursts back in my face as two of Ronald’s guards storm the room, rifles leveled at my chest.

“Tell your men to get out of my way!”

There’s another loud pop of bone crunching against bone.

Another broken cry from Katia.

“You’re not in control of this, Tim.” Ronald approaches me from behind.

“I swear to Christ, if you don’t call off your dogs, I will burn everything you love to the ground!”

“You sound like a desperate boy, a boy out of control, a boy out of his mind, armed with nothing more than a forked tongue and toothless gums.”

I come around with a right hook that I feel quite confident about, but Ronald isn’t there. He’s ducked beneath my swing. He counters, burying a fist in my belly. It takes all the wind out of me and hunches me over. I reach out blindly, trying to catch myself on something stable, but before I can find an anchor,he slams my face with a knee. I leave my feet for a few seconds and land like a pile of bricks on the hardwood. Ronald’s foot comes down on top of my chest, pinning me against the floor. His guards stand over me, their rifles in my face.

Blood in my mouth.

Katia’s screams in my ears.

A sinking feeling in my gut.

“Do you feel that, Tim?”

I grab his shoe, but he only presses down harder, grinding his heel into my sternum.

“This is what it feels like to be truly powerless; that swift slap to the face that forces you to accept that you’re no longer in control. I’ve been there, when my wife was taken from me.”

I can hear them kicking her.

Laughing.

Her cries are now dull groans, denoting each merciless impact.

“Please…stop…I’m begging you, please stop hurting…her.”

“There is nothing I will not do for my daughter. If she asked me to rip the moon from the sky, I would build a space shuttle and find a way to do it!”

“I’ll do whatever you want.” Tears sting the corners of my eyes.

“I know you will, boy.” He removes his foot and crouches beside me. “You owe me a debt of gratitude. You will pay it in full. For some reason, my little girl is quite fond of you. Puzzles me to no end, but then again, she’s always been a bit of an enigma to me. Be that as it may, you will give her what she wants. You will marry her.”

“Marry her! What?” As soon as my shoulders come off the floor, his foot is back on my chest, deflating my lungs.

“Something not clear about what I just said?”

“N-no,” I cough, “I’ll…do it. Please, stop…hurting—”

His foot leaves my chest. He takes his time getting to the window. His men get a few more solid shots in on Katia before they’re put back on the leash.

“You know, Tim, I really hate having to resort to violence. There should be no need for me to twist someone’s arm in order to get them to contribute their fair share to the betterment of their country. You had me fooled. I thought you were smart enough to grasp that concept. No matter, it’s a lesson you’ll learn in time, one way or the other. Get him out of here.”

The guards shoulder their rifles and pull me from the ground.

“Oh, Tim, the wedding is tonight, so do make sure to clean yourself up. And try to look happy. If you ruin my little girl’s wedding day, I’ll kill Katia.”

18

They’ve got me under guard in the guest house, handcuffed to the bed.

Katia is gone.

Sonny is gone.

All of our gear and our weapons are gone.

I can hear the guards outside the door speaking in hushed tones. Daniel gave them specific instructions:
If he gives you any shit, shoot him; big man’s orders
.

I’m sitting here and I’m playing the movie back in my head, trying to figure out where we made the wrong turn.

Was it back on the road, when we accepted the bus ride?

What other option did we have?

This was a no-win situation.

Pre-determined fate.

A flip of the cosmic-fucking-coin; we got tails.

I’ve got to figure a way out. I won’t lose anyone else. There’s a loose string somewhere on this blanket, I just need to find it, pull, and unravel Ronald, his crazy bitch daughter, and their Koreshian band of lunatics.

The door creaks open and Lydia enters the room, the guards hot on her heels. “Leave us alone.” She waves them off and they bow out obediently. “I was hoping that it wouldn’t come to this, Tim.”

“You were hoping? What did you expect? That I was just going to drop the girl I love because your dad asked me politely?”

“You don’t love her.”

I jerk against the handcuffs, shifting the entire bed frame beneath me. “Look at me! Look into my eyes! When I get the chance, everyone that put their hands on her is going to die bloody! Now tell me again how I don’t love her!”

“You don’t love her. You just think you do. And you’re not going to hurt anyone. Trust me when I say this, my dad will kill her if he has to. I don’t want that, but I can’t stop him.”

“Of course you can. He’s doing this because of you.”

“Silly boy, he’s doing this for us.” She sits on the end of the bed and places her hands on my ankles. I pull my feet away, folding my legs up. “He’s giving us a future; a beautiful, bright future where we can have anything we want. You can have anything you want. Just ask me, Tim. I’ll give it to you.” There’s more than a hint of suggestion in her voice. It does nothing for me. Every word from her lips tastes bitter, spiked with the most noxious of poisons.

“You’re crazy, all of you. You’re out of your fucking minds.”

“I can understand your anger. This is sudden. It’s new. It’ll take some getting used to. But I know that, given time, you’ll find your feelings compatible with mine.”

“Why do you want a guy that doesn’t want you?”

She gives me a nurturing smile and gets all doe-eyed, running a hand down my chest and resting it against my stomach. “That’s not how I see it, my love. You know those movies where the not-so-popular girl is crazy about the jock? The entire movie is spent with her trying to get the attention of her one true love and finally, at the end, if it’s a good movie, the jock realizes that he loved the girl all along. I think that’s what’s going on between us. Not that I’m not popular, because I am. But I recognize the chemistry between us. I see our potential. You just haven’t seen it yet and that’s why you’re here, handcuffed like this. But you will, soon enough.”

“No, I won’t. Let me go. Let my friends go. I’ll forget this happened. We’ll leave.”

She shakes her head and tries to kiss me.

I twist away, moving as far as my shackles will allow. I’m now rolled onto my side, facing away from her.

She scoots up the bed and sits by my head. “It’ll take time. This reaction is completely normal. But be careful. I’m a tough girl, but I’m still a girl; my feelings bruise easier than most. That’s not something you want to do.” She leans down, lips brushing my ear. “Do not embarrass me at my wedding. You’ve only seen my sweet side, my best side. But I have another side. Trust me, you don’t want to see it.” She stands and leaves.

I don’t think fellas fantasize about their wedding day. I know I never did. But if I’d pondered on it everyday of my life, from birth, to right here, right now, I don’t think I could have ever conceived this.

Forced down the aisle with a gun to the back of my head.

Chivalry is dead.