Haven (The Breadwinner Trilogy) (4 page)

VII

“I’ve climbed more steps today than I have in my whole damn life.”  Clyde trudged up the stairwell from the 11th floor followed by Ben.

“Feels that way, don’t it?  Probably wouldn’t be half as bad if it wasn’t so hot.”  Ben wiped the sweat from his face with the oversized t-shirt he’d changed into earlier that day.  The back of the gray shirt was already drenched in sweat.  “Really glad Gary had some extra deodorant.”

Clyde agreed as he adjusted his bandana around his thick braids.  “Alright, let’s wake these bitches up.”  Clyde tapped his gun loudly against a wall on the 12th floor.  “Come to daddy!”  Down the hall to the left of them a lazy eater in a dirty dress struggled to pull itself up from the floor.

“I got her.”  Ben jogged up to the eater in the pink dress and swung his bat hard from the right, smashing her head in.  Gore splattered the wall and she fell forward with a thud, bloodstained blonde hair covering her hideous face.  “Piece of cake.” 

Clyde was checking out the other end of the hallway.  “All the doors are shut.  We’re clear on this floor.”  They made their way up, the next two levels were empty, not even any lazy ones hanging around.  They continued one more level up and found a single open door at the end of the hall. 

“Yoo-hoo!  Anybody home?”  Ben called out.  He looked at Clyde and shrugged, they walked briskly toward the door.  The light hurt their eyes as Ben pushed it open all the way.  He covered his nose and mouth with his shirt and coughed.  “Jesus Christ.”  The half-eaten body of a woman lay sprawled out on the couch, she had a bullet hole in her head.  Ben guessed the rotted corpse on the floor with the back of its head blown off was the thing that had feasted on her.  He kicked it over with his foot and a lump of decaying flesh fell from its mouth.  Maggots and other bugs writhed about inside of the eater’s half missing skull and Ben gagged. 

Clyde vomited in the corner of the room near the window onto the dead body of a man with a gun in his hand.  “I’ve seen some nasty shit.”  He wiped his mouth and spat on the blood stained carpet.  “But this is fucked up.”

“Nice way to pay your respects to the dead there, pal.”

Clyde looked down at the dead man who had eaten a bullet.  “My bad, dude.”  He turned away and started walking toward the door but then stopped.  He crouched down, the crook of his arm covering his face, and pried the gun from the dead man’s hand.  He checked the chamber, “Empty.”  Shaking his head and dropped it in the man’s lap.  “Sad ass story.”

Ben returned to the living room after checking the rest of the condo.  “Let’s get out of here, place is empty.”  They stepped back into the hall and although the building itself didn’t smell very pleasant, it was like a breath of fresh air to leave the room of death behind.

Clyde spat on the floor again, looking at Ben.  “I don’t get it, Gary said this place needed to be cleared out.  Where the hell are they all at?”

“Probably downstairs, you heard how
them things started hollerin’ when he whistled.  We lucked out man.”  He pulled out his pack of cigarettes and held it out to Clyde.

He shook his head.  “Nah man, my stomach couldn’t take it right now.” 

Ben lit his cigarette and smirked.  “Good, I’m runnin’ low anyway.  Let’s get to it, I’m ready to get out of this oversized coffin.”

The two men nonchalantly continued on to the next level, they neared the landing and a putrid smell, worse than the one they’d encountered in the condominium on the previous floor, hit them in the face like a ton of bricks.  “What the fuck.”  Clyde rounded the corner and stepped into the hallway, his disgusted expression turned to horror when he was met by a huge group of eaters making their way to the steps.  “Fuck!  Get out of here, turn back!”  He screamed back at Ben.  Clyde scrambled to get back to the stairs.

Ben flew around the corner to make his way up the building but was blocked by an equally large group of eaters coming down the stairs.  “Holy shit!  Get back downstairs now!”  He slammed into Clyde on his way back around the stairwell and the two men went tumbling down the stairs.  Ben cracked his head against the bottom step of the floor below them and Clyde landed on top of him.

Clyde hurried to get up as the first of the many eaters made their way down the stairs.  “Ben!  Man, you alright?  Get up!”  He struggled to help Ben to his feet.  Ben groaned and put a hand up to his head, his fingertips came back with a small amount of blood on them.  “Come on man, we’ll patch you up later.”  The surge of eaters from the back of the horde pushed the ones in front down the steps.  They flowed down the stairs like lava, landing around Ben and Clyde’s feet, snapping their jaws and grabbing at their ankles.  Clyde lifted a leg and smashed his foot down on one of the eater’s heads.  “Ben!  Get a fucking move on!”  He shoved him forward and into the hallway.  Clyde tripped over the grabbing hands and rolled onto his back, kicking the moaning faces that clawed their way toward him.  Ben grabbed Clyde under his arms and pulled him back and away.  One single eater clung to Clyde’s leg and was pulled with him. 

“Get her the fuck off of me man!”  Clyde tried desperately to kick her free but the dead woman tightened her grip on his flesh, breaking the skin.  Clyde cried out as she buried her nails into his leg.  Ben pulled his gun out and shot her in the head.  His ears burned from the shot and added to the agony of the already throbbing pain in his head.  He shot three more rounds into the closest eaters and pulled Clyde to his feet.  They ran down the hallway toward the open door at the end.  Clyde ignored the pain in his leg as he ran backwards, firing into the group of the dead and putting a few more down. 

“Get in here, come on.”  Ben pulled him inside and slammed the door shut.  He turned around and saw Clyde on the floor, his pant leg pulled up.  “Are you bit?”  Ben brought his gun up and pointed it at him.

“No!  Fuck no!  Get that fuckin’ gun off me!”  Clyde had his hands up, “Seriously, I’m not kidding.  I wasn’t bit!”

Ben hesitated but brought the gun back down to his side.  He knelt down and inspected Clyde’s leg.  He could see the deep punctures, where the eater had grabbed him, but that was all, no bite marks.  Blood ran down Clyde’s leg from the wounds.  “Go in the bathroom and see if there’s anything in there to clean that wound up.  Those things are full of disease and I’m not feelin’ much like watching you die from an infection.”  Clyde disappeared somewhere in the condo and Ben stood in the middle of the living room, staring at the door.  The dead pounded and growled, trying to get in, but they never would, the doors were too strong.

Ben kicked the dead eater on the floor angrily and threw himself onto the loveseat, staring at the dead woman on the couch across from him.  “This is just great.”  He closed his eyes and put his head back, wondering if this was the room he would die in.

Samson, Gary and Andrew flew up the stairs in a panic, the three men stopped when they reached the 15th floor.  The group of hungry dead were gathered at the end of the hallway, trying their hardest to break through the reinforced door.  The men went unnoticed by the distracted horde, even as they panted loudly, trying to catch their breath. 

Samson pointed at the horde and pointed at his shotgun, raising an eyebrow.  Andrew had both handguns ready to go, he nodded and looked to Gary.  Gary shook his head no and ran back into the stairwell.  The other two followed him.

“What the fuck are you doing man?  My brother’s in there!”  Andrew angrily whispered at the Brit.

“Be quiet.  Do you really think we have enough ammo to put them all down?”  Andrew blankly stared back at him.  “We need to get to my stash now, while they’re still interested in that door.  Now come on, let’s move it.” 

The tired men pressed on.  They didn’t stop to check any of the floors, there wasn’t any time for that.  They made it all the way up to the 24th floor and Gary pulled his set of keys out.  Fumbling on the large ring for the right key, he finally slipped it into the heavy door and pushed it open.  “Grab some shit and let’s go.  I’ve got to find something.” 

Andrew looked around in disbelief at the amount of weapons in the living room before him.  “Where did you get all of this?”  His mouth hung open at the boxes of ammo, the stacks of guns, the bladed weapons piled on the couch.

“That doesn’t matter right now.”  Gary snapped at him and fished around in a cabinet under the dead television set. 

Andrew holstered one of his own handguns for a .357 Magnum sitting alone on the coffee table.  “Shit, it’s as if you were waiting for me.”  He turned the gun over in his hand, admiring it.

Samson shook his head and smirked as he loaded up a second shotgun.  “Gotta love a cop and his guns.”

“Better than a lawyer with a gun.” 

“I’ll second that.”  Gary called out from the floor, pulling out three pipe bombs.

“You’ve gotta be shittin’ me.”  Andrew had seen and confiscated many a homemade explosive device before.  “Let me guess, doesn’t matter where you got that from either?”

“You’re catching on.  Now let’s hope our friends downstairs haven’t lost interest in what’s on the other side of that door.”

They quickly made their way back downstairs and crouched in the stairwell.  Gary poked his head out, pulling a lighter out of his pocket.  The eaters were still pointlessly beating on the condo door, a few of them just stood around growling at one another, growing bored with the task at hand.  Gary pulled his head back and held one of the pipe bombs up in front of his face.  “The good man that put his skills to work on this right here is probably standing over in that group over there.  So, it’s a little ironic if you ask me, but, never the less, I am grateful for it.”  He looked at Samson and Andrew, “This is going to be very loud and quite jarring, but as soon as the dust has cleared.  We go in guns a-blazing.  Alright?”  The other men nodded and sat back on the steps.  Samson covered his ears as Gary lit the short fuse. 

Gary ran down the hall to get closer to the horde.  “Fire in the hole you sorry sack of twats!”  He reared his arm back and tossed the pipe bomb into the group of eaters, backtracking quickly and jumping into the stairwell.  He covered his ears and looked at the other men, “Cheers.”

VIII

The three men huddled together in the stairwell with their hands over their ears, waiting for the explosion that would give them the upper hand against the eaters.

Samson furrowed his brow, unsure why nothing had happened yet.  He was about to open his mouth and say something when it happened.  He heard the explosion and the doors popping free of their frames.  The group of eaters roared once and then ceased.  Pieces of ceiling crashed to the floor and sheetrock crumbled and caved.  The three of them barely felt any shockwave on the stair case, the building was solid, and Samson had never been more pleased with structural integrity.  As quickly as the eruption had occurred it was over and followed by silence.  Andrew popped his ears and Gary crawled over to peek his head out.  Bodies lay unmoving on the floor surrounded by arms and legs.  Only a handful of badly maimed eaters remained and were beginning to pick themselves up.

“Drew if that ain’t you out there I’m gonna kill whoever just pulled that shit!”  Andrew heard the feminine yell of his brother from the unit down the hall and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Let’s take care of the rest of these chumps and get the hell outta here.”  Andrew leapt from his spot on the stairs, Magnum out, and began taking care of the dead. 

“Jesus Christ, can we not fire guns inside?”  Samson cringed with each shot fired, the ringing in his head was unbearable.

“Better to get it done quickly.  Just deal with it, you’ll be fine.”  Gary joined Andrew in the long hall and the two quickly disposed of what was left of their previous obstacle.  Heads popped and bodies dropped to the floor, never to be a nuisance again.

“Boy, am I glad to see you.”  Clyde emerged from the room, putting a bullet in the last eater’s head that stood between him and his brother.  The two brothers embraced, laughing at their luck and circumstance, never so elated to see one another in their lives.

“A little warning would have been nice.”  Ben joined the rest of the group in the hall.  “I’d be pretty pissed if I was killed by a flying door.” 

Gary lead the way back upstairs so that the five of them could gather as much ammo, guns and other things as they were able to carry in one trip.  “Not looking forward to coming back here very soon.”  Gary locked the room up and followed the men back down to the 11th floor.  He hadn’t noticed Clyde’s limp until they were making their way back to the double doors on the sky bridge.

“What’s the matter there?”  He pointed at Clyde’s blood soaked pant leg.

“That’s nothin’, just got scratched up.”  He waived a hand at Gary and continued toward the door.

Gary stopped walking and raised his weapon.  “Show me.  Now.”

“What the fuck is with people wantin’ to point guns in my face today?  God damn, chill out.”  He bent over and rolled his pants up to prove to Gary that he wasn’t bitten.  “Satisfied?  You think Ben would have let me walk out of that room if he knew I was bit?”  He stared at Gary, hands on his hips.

“How’d that happen?”  Andrew crouched down to take a closer look at his brother’s leg.  “This looks pretty bad.”

“One of them dead things was a little too excited.  She scratched me up somethin’ nasty, wouldn’t let go.  I cleaned it, it’ll be fine.”  Andrew inspected the wounds closely, they were deep and starting to ooze pus. 

“Well this needs to be cleaned again.  With no doctors we can’t risk an infection.  Who knows the diseases these things carry.”  He stood up and looked at Gary.  “You mind takin’ that weapon off my brother now?”

Gary didn’t move.  “You just said a very interesting word, Andrew.  Disease.  These things carry the disease that ended the fucking world in case you don’t remember.”

“Hey!  Hold up, I didn’t get bit!”  Clyde started moving toward Gary but Andrew put an arm up, blocking him.

“I’m sorry, I can’t risk it.  I’ve been through it before.  I can’t lose everything again.”  Gary slowly put his finger on the trigger.  “I’m sorry.”

The men all began yelling at one another and the tension was thick.  Finally Ben stepped in front of the gun and put his hand on the barrel.  “We give it a day.  If he doesn’t show signs of turning then we know that it’s only the bite.  You said it yourself when it happened before, you didn’t know the person in the building had been infected.  Now you know.  You’re aware of it.  You can keep an eye on it.  We’re not puttin’ him down like this.”  The two men glared at one another, Ben’s stern eyes bore into Gary’s and after what felt like a silent eternity, he finally dropped the gun.

Gary brushed past him and didn’t speak as he retrieved the hidden set of keys and let everyone out of the building.  “Don’t make me regret this.”  He said quietly to Ben as he exited the central tower.  Ben simply nodded and kept following the others.

Veronica sat bored on the couch nursing a water bottle, flipping through an out of date magazine when she heard the click of the lock.  She threw the magazine down and stood up, holding her PVC pipe close. 

The group of men walked solemnly through the door.  “What’s the matter?”  She couldn’t help but show her concern, she dropped her pipe back onto the couch.

“Nothing, where’s Juliette?”  Andrew dumped the pile of weapons he was holding onto the recliner and left in the direction Veronica pointed.

“You guys sure made a hell of a racket.”  She walked toward the stuff they were unloading in the living room and marveled at the guns, knives and other things that were before her.  “Wow Gary, you sure weren’t kidding when you said you had an armory.”

He feigned a smile and began sorting through the contents on the recliner.  She looked at Samson who stood nervously in the kitchen, tossing a water bottle back and forth between his hands.  Ben had made a bee line for the back balcony.  “What’s everybody’s problem?”  She leaned against the silent refrigerator.

“It really is nothing, Veronica.  We’re all just a little tense.”  Samson finally opened the bottle and took a sip.  “Things got a little hairy but everything’s fine.”

“Yeah I can tell you what happened.”  Clyde joined them in the kitchen.  “Trigger happy Gary over there is what happened.”

“Excuse me, but I saved your life, remember?”  Gary stood in the entrance, hands propped up on the entry way.

“Oh yeah, I remember, and then you tried to take it.”

“Tried to take it?  Will someone please tell me what’s going on?”  Veronica raised her voice a bit, hoping they would explain.

“Clyde, go clean your leg up, will ya?”  Samson tried to hand him a water bottle but Clyde shrugged it off, disappearing into the room with the medical supplies, intentionally bumping into Gary in the process.  “Gary thought Clyde had been bitten.  He’s nervous about the scratches he got when they had a close call but seriously that’s it.  Nothin’ to be concerned about alright?  We’re gonna keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t get sick.  It’s gonna be fine.”  Samson started toward the front door.  “I’m going to get cleaned up.”

“Why was that so hard to explain when ya’ll first walked in?” 

“Sorry little love, everybody has had a long day.  We’re just tense.  The sun’s starting to go down.  Let’s take it easy the rest of the night.”  Gary walked off into his bedroom to wash up and left Veronica to her thoughts.  She heard the sliding glass door open and shut.  Ben stopped in the entranceway on his way toward the front door.

“I need a bath.”  He looked down at his filth covered hands.  “How was Juliette while we were gone?”

“The most boring person ever.  I thought she might have overdosed on Xanax at one point.”

“Figured as much.  I’ll meet you back in here when I’m done.  I’m starving.”  He paused before leaving, “Do you mind checking in on Clyde?”  And closed the door behind him.

It wasn’t that Ben wasn’t appreciative of Gary’s hospitality, but at what point do you bite the hand that feeds you?  Clyde had grown to be a friend of Ben’s, both him and his brother had.  The fact that it was just so easy for Gary to accept Clyde’s undetermined fate sat uneasy with him.  Someone he had just met that day had stepped into their already damaged comfort zone and almost killed a member of their group at what could or could not be a threat of infection.  Maybe somebody somewhere in the world had figured out just exactly what this disease was that caused this sudden end to the world, but Ben knew for a fact that nobody in this tower knew.  “Trial and error.”  He said under his breath as he let himself into the unit he shared with Samson and Veronica.  The door to Samson’s room was closed, Ben thought it best to leave him be.  He hadn’t quite figured the man out yet.

He drew himself a saltwater bath and scrubbed his skin until he thought it might bleed.  Once he was done rinsing he dressed himself in fresh clothing and dug through his bag.  He retrieved a small joint and internally rejoiced that it hadn’t been left back in Franklin Woods.  He grabbed an oversized decorative conch shell from off the bedside table to serve as his ashtray and sprawled out on the king sized bed.  Lighting his joint he tried not to think about his journey and how he’d ended up here.  He chalked it up to servitude; leading Andrew, Clyde and Juliette out of the city, his main focus on ensuring Veronica’s safety.  But somehow he had found a way to fail Sal and Lucy.  Ben lay back on the comforter, letting the bed pull him in and encase him in its warmth.  His entire body ached, if felt like every muscle in his body screamed at him.  He closed his eyes.  Had he failed Veronica too when her brother died in the street?

When Ben opened his eyes again the glaring light from the sun was invading his room.  A light film of sweat covered his body and he groaned, propping himself up on his elbows.  He checked his watch, it was a little after 8am the next morning.  “Holy shit.”  He washed his face in the bathroom and brushed his teeth, thanks to Gary’s overabundance of hygiene products.

The condo was empty and he was correct in assuming that everyone was over at Gary’s.  When he arrived they were all seated in the living room.  The unit smelled delicious and Ben’s stomach growled.  “There he is!”  Gary cheerfully greeted him.  “Come on in then, have a bite to eat.  Juliette’s cooked us up some spam and powdered eggs on the balcony this morning.”  Ben grabbed a plate and helped himself to what was left in the kitchen before sitting at the breakfast bar.

Gary got up from the recliner and grabbed a seat next to Ben.  The others chatted away in the living room, scraping their plates clean.  “Listen, mate, the others and I, we’ve put what happened yesterday behind us, alright?  I’m hoping you and I can do the same?”

Ben chewed a piece of meat with his mouth open and stared at Gary awkwardly for a moment.  “Sure.  Sounds great.”