The Pure: Book Three of the Oz Chronicles (9 page)

“He asked me this as if he were asking
me why I let the milk in the refrigerator go sour. He didn’t give a thought at
how uncaring it sounded. I didn’t know how to answer.

“‘C’mon,’ he said. ‘Let’s not kid
ourselves. Your family’s dead or worse. It’s your fault. Why didn’t you save
them?’

“I thought I said ‘I...,’ but it could
have been a pathetic squeak of a sound, or I may not have said anything at all.
I was shocked and horrified by the question. Not because I hadn’t thought about
it before. I thought about it a million times a day. I didn’t save my family.
Whatever their fate, I was responsible. I was the husband and father. It was my
job to protect them. I failed.

“‘Do you want to know what I think?’
Carl asked.

“I didn’t but I didn’t have enough
wherewithal to tell him. I just sat there dumbfounded and let him speak.

“‘You’re not a man, Archie.’

“The tears began to fall.

“‘Your little boy, what was he? Two,
three years old?’

“I don’t know what possessed me to
answer, but I said ‘Fourteen months, three days.’

“Carl laughed. ‘I bet you know his age
to the hour. Did he know any words?’

“‘A couple.’

“‘Did he know how to say Daddy?’ He
leaned in.

“I nodded.

“Whispering now, he said, ‘I bet you
even money he was calling for you when they got him.’

“I went numb.

“‘Your wife, too.’

“I raised my arm and rammed my elbow
into Carl’s chin. His head jerked to the right and blood shot out of his mouth.
He didn’t cry out in pain. He brought his hand up to his face and rubbed the
site of impact.

“‘Nice shot,’ he said hovering his head
over the plate in front of him. He spat out a tooth, took a swig of water,
swished it around in his mouth and spat the red fluid into the glass. He held
up the tooth. ‘If you want to keep on surviving this world, you got to get rid
of the fragile parts that are holding you back, including those thoughts that
tell you what’s right and wrong, or where you failed. They don’t matter. If you
let them matter, you’re dead.’ He stood up. ‘You lost your family. I don’t
care. Is that clear?’ He didn’t wait for me to answer. He moved to the door to
the hallway. ‘Tomorrow we see where your people fit into our group. When you
get your assignments, you’ll do your duties with no questions asked.’

“‘And what if we don’t want to join your
group?’ I asked.

“I got some satisfaction when I saw him
grin with one less tooth. ‘Archie, it should be abundantly clear to you by know
that not joining our group is not an option.’ He opened the door. ‘By the way,
if you ever raise a hand to me again, I’ll have your hand cut off.’ With that
he disappeared into the hallway.”

***

“The redhead escorted me to the pens. I
got the sense that she was ordered not talk to me, but once we were in the
cover of darkness, she couldn’t resist any longer.

“‘My name is Madison,’ she whispered.
There was some awkward silence before she spoke again. ‘I’m sorry about your
family.’ More awkward silence. ‘I’ve never seen anyone talk to Carl like that.’

“‘Yeah, well it wasn’t the best idea I
ever had,’ I said.

“‘I know he seems like a bad guy, but
he’s not. If it weren’t for him, half of these people would be dead. The other
half would probably wish they were dead.’

“‘You’ll forgive me if I don’t throw him
a parade.’

“‘His methods may seem harsh...

“‘I actually think it would be better if
we didn’t talk about... him.’ I said sharply as we rounded a corner of hedges.
I couldn’t take her rationalizing Carl’s behavior anymore. She seemed a little
hurt by my tone.

“The pens were a hundred yards ahead.
They were small dog pens. Tank, April, and Little Bobby where huddled together
in one pen. It was maybe eight by twelve feet. There was nothing but hard
ground for them to sit on.

“There were other pens. Most of them
were empty, but I counted at least three others that housed people, animals, or
creatures of some unknown origin inside them. There were more pens that
stretched beyond the darkness. Whether they contained captives or not, I didn’t
know, but throughout the night we heard grunts, groans, and crying coming from
the deepest darkest recesses of the pen area.

“We arrived at the door to the pen
holding my crew. It was padlocked shut. Madison unlocked it and hesitated
before she opened the door. ‘I could talk to Carl,’ she said.

“‘About what?’ I asked.

“Turning to me, ‘Your accommodations. I
might be able to get you into the house. You’d have a bed. A fully stocked
kitchen to raid at night.’

“‘Thanks,’ I said walking past her and
opening the door. ‘But I like these accommodations just fine.’ I stepped into
the pen and pulled the door shut. The others didn’t bother to greet me as I
entered.

“She clicked the padlock back in place.
‘Suit yourself.’ She started to walk away and then stopped. ‘Lose the fight.’
“‘What?’

“‘Your first test,’ she said. ‘Lose.’
She walked away without another word.

“‘Test... fight?’ I said to the
darkness.

“Tank started to laugh.

“‘What?’ I asked.

“‘Nothing. I just think it’s funny that
she thinks she has to tell you to lose the fight. Obviously she’s never seen
you fight.’

“I nodded and gave him a hard look. ‘Ha,
ha.’ I sat across from the others with my back against the chain link wall of
the pen. ‘You guys okay?’

“‘Super,’ April said giving me the same
hard look I had given Tank. ‘You should have seen the lovely oatmeal they gave
us to eat.’

“‘They feed you?’ Tank asked.

“‘Ahh, yeah,’ I said. ‘Oatmeal. Like
you.’ I tapped Little Bobby’s foot. ‘How you doing, Little B?’

“He pulled his knees to his chest and
turned away.

“‘Look, Bobby, about what I did back
there. I didn’t want them to hurt you.’

“‘You hurt me,’ he mumbled.

“‘They would have hurt you worse,’ I
said.

“‘You called my cartwheel idioptic.’

“I dropped my chin to my chest and held
back the urge to laugh at him. He had me there. ‘I did, and I’m sorry. I was
just trying to help.’

“He started picking at the chain link
wall. He wasn’t in the mood for a reconciliation. I backed off.

“‘What did you find out up there?’ Tank
asked.

“I thought about his question. I learned
things were getting more and more hopeless by the hour. I learned the world
ended and apparently all that was left behind were cowards and jerks. I learned
that given the right tools and circumstances I probably could have taken
another man’s life. I rubbed my chin and said. ‘I learned we’ve got to do
whatever we can to get as far away from this place as possible.’

***

“We were dragged out of the pen at first
day break. A pair of lackeys I hadn’t seen before threw warm water on us as we
lay sleeping on the ground. They took great joy in our startled reaction to
their wake-up service. They handed us bowls of cut fruit and gave us five
minutes to eat it. The fruit had spoiled sometime ago, and we spit it out long
before our time was up.

“They guided us through a path that took
us past all the other pens. They were empty. I had the feeling the fight
Madison wanted me to lose involved one of the missing occupants from the other
pens.

“We passed a large oak choked by Spanish
moss and entered a horseshoe-shaped bowl surrounded by small hills, lightly
sloped, about thirty feet high. Carl and his followers sat on the hillside
looking down on us as we approached.

“Carl clapped, ‘The entertainment is
here, boys and girls.’ The crowd cheered.

“We were in an arena. Our first test was
upon us. I scanned the crowd and saw Madison leaning against a tree at the
highest point of the biggest hill. She nodded. I could read the meaning in the
nod. Lose.

“Across the small field, at the foot of
the hill immediately in front of us were what I could only guess were the other
captives.

Only one was remotely human. And he was
twice the size of Tank. The other creatures were freaks in every sense of the
word. There was some kind of part ape part Délon that I would later find out is
known as a Dac. There was a Bashir, and something they called a halfer that
defied description.

“‘Pair ‘em up!’ Carl shouted. ‘Halfer
forward.’

“One of Carl’s soldiers jabbed the
halfer in the back with a pitch fork and forced it to the middle of the field.

“‘Let’s see, who shall we pair our
halfer friend with?’ “‘The big one,’ a member of the crowd shouted.

“‘The girl,’ another one shouted.

“‘Yeah, the girl,’ someone else
concurred.

“Carl smiled. ‘Ladies first.’

“One of our escorts shoved April toward
the halfer. I stepped forward but was immediately punched in the kidney, which
sent me to my knees.

“April tried to step back a couple of
times, but each time she was pushed forward by one of the goons. Tank dropped
his head in shame. He was too afraid to do anything. Little Bobby paced
nervously. He tugged on Tank’s arm a few times trying to get him to help April,
but Tank only responded by pulling his arm away. I attempted to stand, but
couldn’t catch my breath from the kidney punch.

“The halfer was poked repeatedly with
the pitch fork until it couldn’t take it anymore . It hobbled hurriedly and
wrapped its purple arm around April’s neck. She screamed bloody murder. Her
only defense was to bite it, but the ugly beast seemed to take joy in her
choice of defense. It picked her off the ground and tossed her aside with
little effort. April pleaded for help as she crawled away from the approaching
halfer. I stood despite my pain and turned to the punk who had punched me in
the kidneys. I motioned for him to come closer. He witlessly agreed. As he leaned
in to hear what I had to say, I gave him the same elbow to the mouth I had
given Carl the night before, betting that this crony wasn’t as tough as his
boss. As I expected, he tumbled to the ground. I took the opportunity to turn
and run out into the middle of the field. The crowd booed me. I helped April to
her feet and positioned her behind me. The halfer seemed tentative. It didn’t
know what to do. It clumsily lunged for us, but I gave it a light tap on the
shoulder and it fell in a heap to the ground. It’s impractical build of half-man
half-Délon obviously didn’t make it very fleet of foot. It made its way to its
knees and flailed wildly, grabbing for my feet, but I easily moved out of its
reach. The crowd grew more and more impatient at the creature’s ineptness and
my interference.

“The creep I had knocked out with the
elbow to the face was coming too. Happily, I watched as Tank feigned helping
him up, but really struggled to keep him flat on his back. Our second escort
was too occupied with trying to get me off the field to notice. I was just
about ready to feel like we had won the day when I was faced with an unexpected
development. The halfer’s head was flattened like a pancake.

“I saw the Bashir draw back its enormous
fist, its mouth open in a victory roar, strands of mucus stretching from pointy
tooth to pointy tooth creating a grotesque web.

“‘My opponent, I presume,’ I said.

“It didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure if
Bashirs could talk. They had a great reputation for smashing things. But they
were not known for their gift of gab. It raised both fists and brought them
down to the ground with an earth-shaking thud, leaving large dents in the hard
ground. The force of the blow knocked me back into April and we both stumbled
backward. The Bashir leaped forward and snapped its massive jaws. Its two huge
tusks stopped a whisker short of the monster’s black eyeballs when the mouth
clamped shut.

“April screeched in my ear. The Bashir
recoiled slightly from her scream. It was a promising sign. I screamed, but it
had no effect. Maybe my voice was too deep. ‘Scream,” I said to April. She
processed the request for a second and then let out a bloodcurdling scream.
The Bashir cupped its massive hands over its ears. ‘Again,’ I said. She happily
complied. The Bashir stepped back. It was working. It was too perfect to be
true. ‘Keep it coming,’ I said, but this time she did not respond. I turned to
see goon number two muffling her screams with a meaty hand over her mouth.

“I turned back just as the Bashir had
made up the ground it had given and then some. The monster was just a foot or
two away. Just as I was about to give up and let the smasher do its thing, I
heard another scream. This one was not quite as high pitched as April’s but it
was a decent imitation. A glance to my right revealed Little Bobby screaming
his ever-loving head off. I could have kissed him.

“The Bashir did not have the same
reaction to Bobby’s screams as it did to Aprils. Instead of repulsing him, the
freak of nature was drawn in by Little Bobby’s screeching. In fact, it even
lost interest in me. It tilted its head and examined poor little stupid Bobby,
and Bobby was too dumb to stop screaming.