The Complex (22 page)

Bryan pushes his hand away. “No, I told you before—I’m legendary.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Still swaying, Bryan yells, “Hello!”

Which is when the guy with the gun spins to face them and squeezes the trigger.

Twenty-One - Terri, Caleb, Stephanie, Grady, Shaggy, The Exit, Bryan, and Mike: Speedy Stop Convenience Store, 282 Main Street

Terri is thinking about Sam, and how much he reminded her of her father, and wondering why she’s grieving for this man she barely knew. How is that possible? And yet, grieve she does, right up until a voice shouts out a greeting from somewhere to her left. The group stumbles to a frightened halt. Caleb squeezes her hand. Terri squeezes back, trying to figure out where they can run to. A second later, Shaggy fires Grady’s pistol. The shot seems extremely loud, and the muzzle flash leaves spots floating in her vision.

“Come on, motherfuckers,” Shaggy yells, stalking toward the darkness.

“Shaggy…” Grady reaches for his arm, but the younger man pulls away.

The gunshot echoes, then fades. Shaggy points the gun toward a chain link fence. The interior behind the fence is concealed in deep shadows.

“Caleb,” she whispers, “you stay behind me.”

He nods as she guides him into position.

“Don’t waste your ammunition,” Mendez warns.

“Hold on,” the voice calls. “We’re not like the others. Don’t shoot!”

Terri frowns. The speaker’s words are slurred slightly, as if he’s drunk.

“That’s right,” a second voice calls. “Please, don’t hurt us. My friend…he’s not thinking straight. He’s a little buzzed.”

“I’m thinking fine,” the first voice counters. “And that gunshot sobered me up. I told you they were like us.”

“Yeah, well then why did they just try to shoot us?”

“Because you scared us,” Stephanie explains. “Shaggy, put the gun down.”

“Fuck that. I’ve had it with this shit. I’ll shoot every motherfucker we see.”

Terri notices that Shaggy is standing taut, as if all of his muscles have turned to steel. However, despite his posture, Shaggy’s body seems to vibrate.

He’s having a breakdown,
she thinks.
He’s ready to snap.

“I mean it,” he growls, “I’m gonna start shooting every fucking person we see.”

“If you start doing that,” Mendez says quietly, “then I’ll have to assume you’re turning into one of them. We don’t want that to happen, right Shaggy?”

His tone is mild, even placating, but Terri still detects a hint of menace beneath his words. Mr. Mendez gives her the creeps. He has all night long. She doesn’t know why. Indeed, she barely knows him. She doesn’t even know his first name, or which apartment he lived in. But there’s something about the man that gives her bad vibes. She wanted to jump out of her skin when he helped Caleb into the swimming pool earlier, and carried the boy on his shoulders, but she allowed both to happen—chalking her unease up to nothing more than nerves over the situation at hand. But now, she’s not so sure it
is
just nerves. The way he’s watching Shaggy only solidifies her feeling of uneasiness about the man. Then she realizes something else. Mendez doesn’t blink. He stares at Shaggy the way a snake would study its prey—cold, emotionless…and unblinking.

Terri is pretty sure Tick Tock has that same sort of stare. She wonders if whatever has happened to drive their antagonists crazy is now happening to Mendez. And if so, could it happen to them rest of the, as well?

“Shaggy.” Grady shuffles up beside him and gently touches his arm. “Lower the gun, son. Please?”

All of the tension seems to drain from Shaggy’s posture. Without turning to look at Grady, he lowers the weapon and sighs. For some reason, the sound makes Terri feel sad.

Mendez steps toward the fence. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Mike. My friend is Bryan. Don’t fucking shoot us, okay?”

“Is there anyone else with you?” Mendez asks.

Before the hidden men can answer, a cry goes up from a nearby house. All of them jump, visibly startled. Terri recognizes the sound. She’s been hearing it all night.

“They must have heard the gunshot,” Stephanie says.

“Quick,” Mike shouts from the shadows. “Hide in here. Come over to the gate!”

Terri watches as the others all glance at each other. Then, Mendez leads them forward, around the chain link fence and a retaining wall, until they reach a gate. She peers into the darkness but can’t see anything. Then, a young man in a black t-shirt and shorts emerges from the shadows on the other side of the gate. He sort of reminds Terri of Randy. Then she remembers that Randy is dead, and is suddenly overcome with guilt that she hasn’t grieved for him more this evening. Maybe it’s the stress of the situation. Maybe she just hasn’t had time to grieve. But if so, then why did she feel so sad about Sam—someone whom she’d just met?

The stranger opens the gate and urgently waves them inside. Terri guides Caleb in front of her, feeling how tense and frightened he is. She wonders what long-term effect this will have on her son, and her heart breaks even more.

“It’s going to be okay, baby.”

Sure it is,
she thinks.
I’ve been telling him that all night, but it’s not okay. If anything, things are proceeding to get worse. I’m lying to him. Yeah, it’s to keep him calm and ease his fears, but still…I’m lying. What if they get in here? What if they find us and we can’t escape? The last thing I did was lie to my son…

“I’m Mike,” the young man says. “This way. Hurry.”

He motions toward a cluster of metal ducts. Kneeling between them is an older man with graying hair dressed in a Hawaiian shirt. An empty bottle of liquor lies at his feet. Terri supposes he must be the aforementioned Bryan.

They all crouch down and press close together in a tight knot. Terri smells alcohol on both Mike and Bryan. And despite their dip in the swimming pool, she smells underarms and sweat and smoke from herself and her neighbors. She desperately wants a shower. And a hot tea. But mostly a shower. She kisses Caleb on top of his head. The boy’s hair also smells like smoke, but beneath that she still smells her son—that intimate scent she’s known since she first held him in her arms. It’s the smell of his pillow and his clothes. It lingers, and gives her hope.

Her breath catches in her throat as footsteps pound down the alley. Simultaneously, a great commotion breaks out in front of the store. Although they can’t see their pursuers, they hear the now all-too-familiar growls and laughter and cries. Glass shatters, and there are a series of loud booms as somebody begins striking something metal. Someone snarls on the other side of the retaining wall, and Terri gives Caleb’s hand a reassuring squeeze. His skin feels very cold, and when he squeezes back, she can barely feel it.

A group of hunters emerge from the alley and cut around to the front of the store. Terri catches glimpses of them as they pass by the fence—naked and bloody, clutching weapons, hair askew, eyes alight with a maniacal combination of fury and glee. One of them carries a severed head, swinging it back and forth like a handbag. Around the throat of another dangles a necklace of penises and ears, crudely fashioned from a length of baling twine. There is no rhyme or reason to their numbers, no common denominator among those who make up their ranks, other than their nudity and predilection for slaughter. Black, white, brown, young, old, handicapped or in perfect health—the crazies don’t discriminate. Apparently their ranks are open to all, and if what she’s seen so far tonight is any indication, they offer the same courtesy to their targets. She wonders about their methods—about what drives their need to destroy and slaughter. Why are they engaged in such wholesale destruction?

Because they’re crazy,
she thinks.
Crazy people don’t need a reason to do the things they do. They do it because they’re crazy. Or, at least, that’s how we see them. I wonder how they see themselves. Do they perceive themselves as crazy?

The cacophony continues from around the front of the store, but the noises in the alley are fading. Then, Terri hears a new sound—slow, plodding footsteps. Her eyes widen. When she looks at the others, she sees that their eyes have done the same.

Tick Tock’s shadow precedes him. When he finally appears, it’s all Terri can do not to scream. She holds her breath as he lumbers past, his greasy bulk only inches from the chain link fence. He’s close enough that Terri hears him wheezing like an asthmatic tractor trailer. Drool runs down his chin. His head tilts back and forth, back and forth, like some bizarre metronome.

“I hit him,” Shaggy whispers. “I know I shot…”

Mendez glares at him, forcefully holding a finger to his lips. Shaggy falls quiet.

Tick Tock pauses for a moment, his head still keeping time, and Terri is certain that he can hear her heart beating.

Then, he heaves himself forward again, moving on to join the rest of the horde at the front of the store.

“What the hell was that?” Mike mouths when he’s gone.

“A friend of ours,” Grady mutters, clutching his chest.

Another series of loud bangs rings out.

“I think those are our cars,” Mike says to Bryan.

Bryan nods. “So much for your idea about driving to the checkpoint.”

Terri notices that Bryan has a southern accent. She turns to him. “What checkpoint?”

“A guy said there’s a National Guard perimeter on the outskirts of town. We were debating trying to make it there when you folks showed up.”

“What guy?” Mendez leans forward, speaking in hushed tones. “When did you hear about this?”

Bryan shrugs. Terri still smells the booze on him, but his eyes seem clearer now.

“I don’t know. Maybe ten minutes before you got here. A guy passed by with a rifle. He said he had a police scanner, and before the power went out, he’d heard that the National Guard had set up a perimeter in the next town over.”

“Which town?” Grady asks.

“Dallas, I think?”

“Dallastown,” Mendez corrects him.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Bryan responds. “Sorry. I’m not from around here.”

A loud crash echoes from out front. It is followed by the sounds of the mob breaking into the store.

“We barricaded it earlier,” Mike explains. “Sounds like they’re inside again, though.”

“The fat guy,” Bryan mutters. “The one with the twitchy head? Is he looking for you?”

“We don’t know,” Stephanie admits. “Maybe. We’ve sort of been…on the run from him all night.”

Bryan sighs. “Sounds like he’s a determined son of a bitch.”

Terri’s eyes are drawn to Mendez. While the others whisper or glance around fearfully, flinching at every new noise, he remains calm, appraising the situation. He stares at a nearby door which has been blocked by a fifty-five gallon drum. Then he studies the retaining wall and the chain link fence.

“I don’t know if he’s hunting us or not,” Mendez says, “but they were obviously drawn here by the sound of the gunshot, or perhaps your shouts. It is pure luck they didn’t see us hiding back here, but that will change the moment they come through that door.”

“Don’t worry,” Mike says. “That barrel is full. It took both of us to move it. Damn thing weighs a ton. They’re not getting through there.”

“Then you haven’t seen what we’ve seen tonight,” Mendez tells him. “Eventually they will. We’re sitting ducks here. They can trap us easily. We need to move on.”

“Move on to where?” Terri has to struggle to keep from sobbing. She’s afraid that if she starts crying now, she won’t be able to stop, and that’s not going to help Caleb’s emotional state.

“Dallastown,” Mendez replies.

“Are you insane?” Grady gestures angrily. “You know how far a walk that is?”

“Yes,” Mendez says. “About two miles.”

“On foot,” Grady counters. “With however many of them there are between us and this National Guard barricade that we don’t even know for sure exists.”

“It beats sitting here waiting to die,” Stephanie says.

Terri nods. “I agree. We can’t stay here, tempting as it might be.”

The sounds of destruction inside the store grow louder.

“I’ve been thinking,” Mendez whispers. “These people haven’t been attacking each other. The only time they fight among themselves is when they’re in each other’s way. They’re like pack animals. So, how are they identifying each other? What’s the one thing they all have in common?”

“They’re naked,” Terri answers.

“Exactly. I think we should be, too.”

“Absolutely not,” Stephanie says, her voice growing louder. “There’s no way.”

“Keep your voice down,” Mendez replies. “And on the contrary, it might be the only way. If we’re naked, they might mistake us for one of them. It could save your life, Stephanie.”

“No,” Stephanie insists. “I’m not taking my clothes off in front of a bunch of strangers.”

Terri hears the girl’s voice cracking with emotion, and speaks up quickly. “Me, either. I’m not comfortable with that. And I’ve got Caleb to think about.”