The Rabid: Fall (15 page)

21

I awaken to loud footsteps on the stairs and voices weaving in and out of each other; begging, cursing, commanding.

Katia and Sonny!

Daniel and Guy shove them into the bedroom, hands bound behind their backs.

Katia’s face is streaked with blood and her right eye is swollen and purple.

Sonny appears to have fared better; he’s got a single gash across the top of his forehead.

“On your knees, both of you!” Daniel booms, sweeping Katia’s feet from under her when she doesn’t comply quickly enough.

“What is going on?” I jump up, wearing only my boxers. The only thing keeping me from charging are the pistols leveled at their heads; Daniel is behind Katia and Guy has a hand-cannon snuggled up against the base of Sonny’s skull.

“They are following my orders.” Lydia walks into the room, twirling the strings on her bathrobe. “They are playing their roles. You could learn something from them.” She stands next to Katia and picks up a strand of her hair between her fingers, examining it the way one might examine a gnat they’d just squished; disgust and curiosity.

“Katia, sweetie, it’s going to be okay.” I crouch down, trying to make eye contact with her, but she keeps turning her head away, until she’s staring at the floor. “Look at me, Katia. Let me know you’re okay.” Silence. “Sonny? Are you okay?” He follows Katia’s example and turns his eyes to the floor. I stand, voice trembling. “What the hell have you done to them?”

Lydia cackles. “Me? Oh, Tim, I didn’t do anything to them. I haven’t touched a hair on your sweetheart’s head…until now.” She lets the strand fall back into place and walks towards me, still twirling the strings on her robe.

“This is between us, Lydia. There’s no need for them to be here.”

“Between us? Really? You’re going to use that line now? According to you, Tim, there’s nothing between us. You married me with a gun to your head, remember? And you can’t seem to stop thinking about this little whore, so I brought her here for you.” She coils around me like a snake, hands on my chest, nails digging into my skin.

“You’ve made your point. There’s no need for them to be here. I get it. I was wrong.” Katia is broken. Silent tears breach the corner of her working eye as she shivers like an abandoned street dog in the middle of a New England winter.

“Your words are empty, Tim. You’ll say anything to spare your friends. You’ll say you love me. You’ll even say
I do
. You hurt me. I’m not going to sit here and pretend. When it comes to you, I’m vulnerable. But I’m strong. I bounce back quickly. I’m willing to fight for what I want. And right now, this is me fighting…for you…for us.”

“This is manipulation, that’s what this is.”

“Oh, Tim,” she grabs my face and turns it, “I know it seems that way. But it’s not. No, there’s a deeper purpose here.”

“This isn’t going to do anything except make me hate you. They are not your pawns. Let them go.” My heart races as I watch Daniel’s finger dance near the trigger of the pistol, the muzzle scraping Katia’s scalp like some nuzzling beast.

Lydia slides back to Katia and sinks down beside her. She brushes her hair back and whispers something in her ear, smiling up at me the entire time; the evil queen toying with her subjects. “You’re going to fuck me and she’s going to watch. You’re going to show her that you’re no longer in love with her. And you’re going to make her fall out of love with you. It’ll simplify things going forward.”

“No, I’m not. Let them go.”

Lydia stands, holding onto a clump of Katia’s hair, jerking her head back and making her squeal. “Yes, you are. You’ve played me for a fool once. The second time will have consequences.”

“Lydia, I—”

“Test me! I’ll have them put down like dogs, right here in front of you!” Lydia lets go of Katia’s hair and shoves her head forward. As she slinks towards me, she drops her robe. She’s wearing the same pink bra and panties, the same Cheshire grin, licking her lips expectantly. If anything, the presence of onlookers seems to have excited her more. She pushes me back on the bed and straddles my lap. She’s kissing my neck and grinding me, moaning my name. “You’ll see after this,” she whispers. “You’ll see that it’s better after this. Once you’ve let go of those feelings, once that connection is broken, it’ll be better…it’ll be easier; then we can start to fall in love. Oh God, Tim! Put your hands on me!”

I set my hands against her flexing ass. I don’t grope, I just set them there; a robot obeying input. My face is against her shoulder. I look up and catch Katia’s eye. There’s a sadness that wasn’t present before, new cracks in the shell.

I press my hands against her hips and shove her back to her feet, standing and skirting away from her. “Not like this. I can’t like this. Get them out of here. We can work this out in private.”

“What did I just say?” Her arms are stiff at her sides. Her voice is a low roar.

“I know what you just said. Now hear what I’m saying. Not like this!”

“I told you that testing me would have consequences.”

“Listen to reason, for one second.”

She continues like she can no longer hear me. “And unlike you, I keep my promises.”

“No, listen to me, for one second, please?”

“Kill Sonny.” She waves her hand as if she’s simply dismissing Sonny from her presence.

Guy pulls the trigger before I can protest. The bullet goes through the back of Sonny’s head and takes most of his face off, spreading bloody chunks of bone and tissue across the carpet. His faceless body hangs there for a moment, wobbling back and forth, before collapsing forward.

“You bitch!” I raise my fists, with every intention of beating her ass to death.

“Another step and I’ll kill this cunt!” Daniel booms, dropping the hammer on his pistol.

Lydia moves towards me, unafraid; confident that my leash is secure.

She’s right.

As long as Katia’s in danger, I’m tied to the post.

God, that was stupid.

I shouldn’t have…

Seeing the pain on her face, I couldn’t…

“Tim, my love, I didn’t want that. You have to believe me.” She puts her head against my chest. “I just needed you to know how serious I am about this…about us. I’ll do anything for us. Do you believe me now?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Let’s focus on happier things.” She grabs my arms and turns my back to Katia and…Sonny. “Sit.” She removes her bra and panties and stands there.

My eyes are staring at the ground.

At her feet.

Through her feet.

My mind is somewhere else entirely, walking the halls of hell, adding another portrait to the ever-growing wall of horrors: Bo ripped apart, Lee beaten to a pulp, my sister dying in my arms, and now Sonny’s ruined face. 

Lydia clears her throat. “Tim, I’m here.”

I shake my head, startled. I look into her eyes. I want to poke them out with my thumbs, shove them all the way to the back of her skull while she screams and squirms in agony.

She uses her eyes to direct mine. I catch the hint and slowly look over her body.

It’s a body. Nothing more. 

Tits.

Stomach.

Hips.

Pussy.

Thighs.

It’s hard to appreciate the beauty of a tree when you’re swinging by a noose from its branches.

“Hands, Tim.”

My arms feel like they’re lined with lead weights. I struggle to lift them. I place my hands against her stomach and she immediately grabs my wrists and pulls them to her tits.

“How does that feel?” she gasps.

“It feels…good.” The need to cry is building inside of me and the will to fight is crumbling away. I’ve got to hold strong. The moment a tear escapes, it’s over for Katia.

The only way to fight is to stop fighting.

I give myself over to Lydia.

As she pushes me back on the bed and mounts me, I respond to her. She does most of the work, leaning forward and whispering in my ear as she thrusts and rotates her hips. I close my eyes and imagine I’m somewhere else; somewhere with Katia and music and sunshine. It seems like an eternity, but in reality, only minutes pass before Lydia rolls off of me. She is soaked in sweat and breathing heavy.

“Oh my God, Tim! That was incredible!” She pushes herself up. “Do you see now?” At first, I think she’s talking to me. I turn my head and see she’s looking at Katia. “Answer me, skank! Do you see?”

Daniel jerks Katia by her hair, like he’s trying to stop a horse. “She’s talking to you, bitch.”

“Hey—” One look from Lydia presses me back onto the mattress. The command is right there on the tip of her tongue. Just an utterance from her and Katia will be lying in a shallow grave beside Sonny.

“So, Katia, you were about to say something?”

Katia’s good eye is bloodshot from crying. She nods and looks like she’s about to speak, but before she can get the words out, her face scrunches up and she’s taken by another wave of emotion.

“It’s okay, dear. Take your time.” She’s getting off on this, on standing over her defeated prey and prodding at their wounds. The love-struck Southern belle is nowhere to be found. It hits me like a sack of bricks. This isn’t about her loving me. It’s about getting what she can’t have and conquering it. She’s just as power hungry and twisted as her father.

“I see…I understand,” Katia mumbles, bubbles of saliva popping across her lips.

“He’s with me. He loves me. He wants me. You see?”

“I see,” she sobs and drops her head.

“Get her out of here and send someone to clean up this mess.” Lydia lies across me, intertwining her legs with mine, her fingernails running up and down my body. I remain still…so still, playing dead, hoping the bear won’t bite. “We’re going to be happy together. I can see it.” She nudges me with her nose.

“See what?” I respond to the input like a good robot, hands locked behind my head, staring up at the dull white ceiling, imagining that it’s a beach.

“Our children playing in the front yard, us watching them, old and happy and fat. Oh, I can see it. Can’t you?”

“Of course. I see it.”

The images I see don’t involve a front yard or children. They have nothing to do with a fat wife and an unhappy life.

They are dark and violent.

What do I see?

I see myself standing on the horizon, looking down over Próta, a blade in one hand and a gun in the other. There’s a storm forming at my back. Soon, I will descend the hill and I will cut them down.

22

Lydia departed early this morning to go visit with her father. I’ve spent most of the day in the living room, draped across the couch, staring at the ceiling. There are magazines and books, but I can’t focus on anything for more than a few seconds without the images from last night leaping from around the corners of my mind like carnival workers in a cheap haunted house. I try a few times, flipping through the pages of random magazines, but all I can see is the bloody crater where Sonny’s face used to be.

I’m still under guard. They aren’t exactly subtle. Every few minutes, one of them moves heavily through the living room, driving their boot-heels through the floorboards, rifles clutched against their chests, staring at me sideways. I just stare back and throw up the occasional middle finger. I want a fight, but I’m pretty sure they’ve been ordered not to mess with me as long as I stay within these four walls.

The front door opens. It’s gotta be another guard making his rounds, though it seems a little early; one of them came through less than two minutes ago.

“You guys just can’t get enough of me.” I throw an arm across my eyes to block out the sunlight.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be.” The man standing over me is not a guard. He’s got a blond, receding hairline and round spectacles. He’s the crazy bastard from the street; the doctor. He’s carrying a brown bag with a white cross on the side made out of duct tape. “But seeing as how you’re part of the family now, I’ve been instructed to perform a physical.” He sets down the bag, crouches, and pops it open.

“You’re the guy, the one that was harassing me; Daniel called you…Peter.”

“Percy, my name is Percy. Harassing you? Is that what you think I was doing?” He shakes his head as he removes a stethoscope and sets it in his ears.

“What are you doing? What is this?”

“I told you, I’ve been ordered to perform a physical. Lift your shirt,” he instructs as he blows on the bell. “This might be a little cold. Breathe in.”

He’s right, it’s a little cold. “There a point to all this?”

“Trask wants to make sure you’re healthy, that you’re not going to drop dead on his daughter and any future children you breed. Breathe normal.”

“That’s considerate of him,” I make no effort to mask my sarcasm.

“It’s sort of pointless; I can’t draw blood or take x-rays. But it makes him feel better and I don’t have much of a choice, so here we are.” He stows the stethoscope and wields a small rubber hammer.

“The other day, you were trying to warn me, weren’t you?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” He taps one kneecap and then the other; my legs jump as expected.

“Yes, you do. You were telling me to leave. You knew this was going to happen.”

“You wanna lower your voice a little?”

“You knew! Didn’t you?” If anything, my voice is louder.

“You’re dense, kid, you know that? Real slow. Yeah, I knew. I tried to warn you.” He drops the hammer back into the bag. “You decided to write me off as crazy.”

“You were acting crazy.”

He pushes his glasses up on his nose and looks at me indignantly. “Excuse me, but it’s not like I could sit there and have a conversation; they’re watching me, very closely. I had to be as brief as possible.”

“That’s some paranoid shit you’re talking, Doc.”

“What do you think all of this is, huh? This is what they do. If they see you as valuable and you don’t feel like sticking around, they find a way to leverage you into staying; usually that leverage is someone you love.”

“That what they did to you?”

He swallows hard before braving an answer. “Yeah, that’s what they did to me. They have my husband. We were some of the first people here. We came with Ronald, his daughter, and a few others from Washington to help found this place. Wasn’t long before Ronald started to get power hungry, a little crazy; all of us could see it happening. By the time we decided to try to do something, it was too late. He formed up that group that Guy leads to go out and poach survivors.”

“We weren’t poached.”

“Sure you were. They bring you in. Maybe they show you a movie, feed you a hot meal. They romanticize this place to you. And if you’re not cooperative, if you don’t choose to stay, they find a way to
make
you stay.”

I guess we were poached. “What about the caravan doing runs back and forth to Washington?”

“He fed you that line? They’ve only come through once, haven’t seen them since.”

“That lying bastard.”

“He is that, he is definitely that. I’ve never seen anything quite like this, though.”

“Like what?”

“The situation with you. Usually, they are after essential personnel; teachers, construction workers, doctors.” He pats himself on the chest. “It’s almost like he took you as a plaything for his daughter.”

“That he did. They hurt Katia bad in the process.”

He nods. “I treated her wounds.”

I jolt forward, inches from his face. “You know where they’re holding her?”

“Whoa now, ease up, kid.”

One of the guards comes marching by. He stops, gazing down at us suspiciously. “You almost done, Percy?”

“Getting there.”

“Hurry it up.”

“You can’t rush good medicine.”

“Well, I am, so hurry it up.”

“Alright, you got it, wrapping it up.”

The guard stands there for a few more seconds before marching out the front door.

“You know where she is?” I whisper, once the door is closed and we’re alone.

“Storm cellar, about a half mile from here; it’s under heavy guard, so don’t get any wild ideas.”

“You’ve got to help me get Katia out of there.”

“No way.” He secures the medical bag. “You’ll end up getting yourself and all of them killed.”

I grab his arm as he goes to stand; he’s a small man, but it still takes a considerable amount of force to hold him in place. “You know this place. You have access to areas I don’t; they won’t even let me out of this house. All I need is a gun and a silencer. That’s it. That’s all I’m asking.”

The front door opens. It’s the same guard. “Time’s up. Let’s go, Percy.”

He looks at me, at the guard, and then back at me. “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

Percy leaves.

I fall back across the couch and reach for the closest magazine, trying to keep my mind focused on the present and off of the thought of having to spend another night with Lydia.