Zompoc Survivor: Inferno (11 page)

“Please, don’t,” Garza said softly.

“You’re a family man,” Hall said. “Let me show you the cost of defying me.” Garza stood straighter, like a man determined to face death with some dignity. But Hall turned and pointed the gun at the other two workers. It took a moment for Garza to get what was about to happen, but when it did, his face crumbled into abject despair. Hall pulled the trigger twice, and the woman and the boy fell. Garza fell to his knees with tears streaming down his face, looking like a man whose faith had just been shattered. Hall handed the gun back to Caleb and walked over to me.

“You object to my methods, Brother David.”

“Violently,” I growled at him.

“I didn’t enjoy it, but heresy must be punished. I only did what he forced me to do.”

“Bullshit. He didn’t make the decision to pull the trigger. You did. You’re just too chickenshit to own up to it.” A fist slammed into my back, and I fell to my knees from the pain of the kidney punch.

“I can see that you’re too upset to see reason. Brother Caleb, escort Mr. Stewart to someplace more…serene. Let’s give him a few hours to calm down and get his wits about him.” Hall turned away and left me facing Caleb. When he shifted his weight, I had just enough time to duck my head and avoid taking his punch to the jaw. Someone kicked me in the ribs as when I tried to get back up, then I saw Caleb’s fist coming down again, and the world went black.

I came to in a dark place. My ribs and my head were both throbbing, and I couldn’t feel my hands. Even breathing hurt. I tried to move and found my arms held in place behind my back. I heard the sound of voices nearby, and someone laughed. The talking stopped when I groaned as the sensation started coming back to my hands in prickling pins and needles. For a while I just laid there, letting the circulation come back to my hands and trying not to take too deep of a breath. When I finally opened my eyes again and looked around, I found myself in what looked like an office that had been stripped mostly bare. Faint light played in lines across the ceiling and paneled walls, and I could feel the rough surface of the carpet on my skin. Wires sprouted from an opening in the floor, and a broken chair sat at an angle in the corner. The floor creaked under me when I rolled over and looked toward the windows. The familiar red glow lit the night sky, and I could see the occasional flicker of white or yellow across the dropped ceiling from light moving below. For a while all I could do was lay there, but eventually I got to my feet and explored my improvised detention cell before I put my back against the wall and just sat there waiting to see if anything was going to happen.

The door opened at some point and I was pulled to my knees. More footsteps approached from the hallway and more men came in dragging another person with them. I heard a woman’s voice and a door opening nearby, then a man cried out in pain. They threw the other man down beside me, then moved to flank the door. On their heels, Caleb stepped into the room with a worker in blue holding a lantern in her hands. Hall came in after them as I blinked against the sudden light.

“Free his hands,” Hall said. I heard the sound of something being clipped and my arms were free. As I rubbed my wrists, I looked down at the man on the floor beside me and saw Kaplan’s battered face looking up at me. I barely registered Kaplan’s presence before one of the thugs punched me. The world went white for a second, then I found myself on the floor with my jaw throbbing.

“You lied to me,” he said with the same false jovial tone I’d heard him use with Garza. The thug behind me pulled me to my feet. “You said you didn’t know where the two Marines were, but my men caught them skulking around outside the compound, obviously trying to plan a rescue.”

“I didn’t lie, I just didn’t tell you everything,” I said through the blood in my mouth. I spat on the floor at his feet, thankful nothing but spit and blood landed on his shoes. “You believed what you wanted to.”

“I wanted to believe that a man like you would be at my side, rebuilding the world according to God’s plan,” he said. “And that can still happen. You have one chance to redeem yourself, Dave Stewart.” He reached out an empty hand, and one of his men laid a pistol in it. With a smug smile on his face, he tossed it to me. “Kill this man before me. Swear yourself to me, pledge your allegiance to God’s chosen prophet, and you’ll live.” I looked down at the gun in my hand, hefted it and tested the weight, then looked back at Hall. Kaplan looked up at me, one eye swollen almost shut, his face grim. He didn’t expect to survive the next few minutes. But Hall didn’t seem like the kind man who was willing to take any chances with his own safety.

“I’m not an idiot,” I said as I put the pistol to my own temple and pulled the trigger. The click of the firing pin falling on an empty chamber was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard in my life. I tossed the gun back to him. He laughed aloud as his men looked at me wide eyed in disbelief. Kaplan looked pale and shaken as well.

“How’d you know the gun was empty?” Hall asked.

“Wasn’t heavy enough,” I lied. The last thing I wanted him to know was that I was starting to understand how he thought, and it made me look much cooler than I really was. The way his brain worked wasn’t knowledge I really wanted in my own head, but I didn’t have a lot of choice there. I’d pour bleach in my ears later…once I was a long way from this place.

“You may not be much of a fighter, but you are still a dangerous man, David,” Hall said thoughtfully. “Bring him,” he said as he gestured to the men behind me and left the room. They grabbed my arms and pulled me along behind him. He stopped by one of the windows facing into the plaza below us. Men with lanterns walked along the outer edge of the open space, and others patrolled the rooftops, apparently watching the inside of the compound as closely as the outside. I looked over my shoulder and saw men standing guard in front of the door next to the room I’d just been pulled out of and another pair guarding a room on the opposite side of the open area we were in.

“So, is this where you offer me a place at your side if only I see the folly of resisting you?” I said. “Because we both know how that scene’s gonna go.”

“No, David,” Hall said sadly. “You’ve proven to me that you’re too smart for your own good. It would be easier to just kill you right now. But after today, it’s more important than ever to show my flock that I am as fair as I am stern. So, tomorrow you will share the fate of the Marines. You will be burned at the stake, unless of course you repent, in which case you’ll simply be shot.”

“Wow, how could I resist that option?” I said.

“I’m sorely tempted to keep you alive,” he said casually.

“That’s worse than burning me at the stake,” I said as I wiped the trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth. “But you’re good at that kind of torture, aren’t you?”

“I’m a man of God, Mr. Stewart,” he said. “Torture is beneath me.”

“I watched you kill Earnest Garza’s family down there,” I snarled. “You left him alive and killed his wife and kid in front of him. You can’t tell me that isn’t torture.”

“I didn’t kill
his
family,” he said, then turned his head to face me with a cold smile. “I killed the family of a complete stranger. Now no man will follow him or any other man in this compound except me.”

“Now I almost wish the gun had been loaded,” I said.

“This is why I hate to kill you. Any other man would be begging me for his life. A weaker man would have shot his best friend to stay alive. But you…damn!” he exclaimed happily. “You’re defiant to the last! You are Lucifer to my Yahweh, Pharoah to my Moses. You defy me when no one else will. It would be smarter to just shoot you, but the thought of defeating you…of breaking you while you failed to defy my rightful reign on Earth…I have to admit, you would be one Hell of an enemy. But God’s Will is clear in this. You must die tomorrow.”

“Just leave Amy out of this. She’s done nothing wrong, not even by your twisted logic.”

“I would never hurt that precious girl. In fact, I came here to tell you that she will become one of my brides.”

“Now I really wish the gun had been loaded,” I said. “I need to see her.”

“No,” Hall said. “She’s mine now, David. I won’t let you try to poison her against me.”

“You don’t know Amy,” I said with a laugh. “Unless I give her my blessing, you’ll never be able to be alone in the same room with her.”

“Are you saying she’d try to kill me?” Hall asked with a disbelieving smile.

“Not at first,” I answered. “If you were lucky, she’d get around to it eventually, though.”

“And you’re just going to give your blessing on our union.” He shook his head.

“I’m not doing this for you. It’s the only way I can make sure my little girl survives. The fact that you get something out of it makes me want to puke.” We traded glares for a moment, and I made sure I was the first to turn away. His mouth quirked up in a smug little grin, and he looked at one of his thugs.

“Have the girl brought over.”

Chapter
6

Sow the wind…

~ Man is free at the moment he wishes to be ~ Voltaire

I hit the floor in the stripped out office like a side of beef. With my hands tied behind my back again, I counted myself lucky I didn’t end up with a dislocated shoulder or another concussion. The door closed behind me amid the sound of muffled laughter.

“If you knew the gun was empty, why didn’t you play along?” Kaplan asked. I rolled over and saw him as a darker spot against the wall.

“Because oddly enough, this is exactly where I need to be,” I said as I sat up.

“You can’t be serious,” he said. “There’s no way you planned things this way.”

“Planned it? Hell no. Until you showed up, I had something completely different in mind. But now that you’re here, I need to be here, too. Besides, I need to get my gear back.”

“That’s way too risky,” Kaplan said. “We just need to get the hell out of here. Nothing fancy, just a straight up run for the wire.”

“Screw that,” I said. “Ever since the shit hit the fan, it’s like someone’s taking my stuff every other day. Just once, I’m gonna get my shit back. Now, did they catch Hernandez, too?”

“Yeah, she’s in the room next door. So, what’s your plan?”

“For now, we wait. Then, we hope none of these idiots have ever watched Star Trek. Now, shush. I’m thinking.” For once Kaplan seemed to listen to me, because he didn’t say another word. Eventually, the door opened again, and Hall led Amy in.

“Dad!” she cried out and wrapped me in a tight hug. “Daniel says he’s going to kill you tomorrow morning,” she said as she pulled away. Tears ran down her face, and her cheeks were splotchy.

“Yeah, baby,” I told her. “And there’s nothing we can do about it. So I need you to listen closely to me, because this is the last time we’re going to get to talk to each other. I need you to go
by the book
, like Saavik. Remember the lesson Kirk taught her about that?” She blinked at me and her brow furrowed into a frown.

“On Regula?” she asked uncertainly.

“Yes, regulation 46A. Remember?” She bit her lip as she gave me a quick nod. “Good. Now, I know that you sometimes do exactly the opposite of what I say, but I want you to listen carefully to what I’m about tell you now. First off, I want you to keep my survival strap. Second, I don’t want you to try to sneak out of your room and I certainly don’t want you to try to come see me again. And don’t just obey the prophet out of form. He’s going to be your husband. Respect him like you would me. He has my blessing to marry you. Do you understand?” She took a deep breath and I saw her hand go to her wrist. Then she slapped me.

“I hate you,” she said in her best teenage drama queen voice. I felt the survival strap fall into the open place between my thigh and the floor, and I shifted my weight as if the blow had knocked me off balance. “But I’ll do what you said. I’ll do everything
by the book
.” She stood and stormed out of the room with her hand over her mouth. Two men followed her, but Hall stepped in close to me.

“What was that all about?” he asked. “What did you mean about going by the book?”

“It’s from a movie,” I told him after a few seconds. “You wouldn’t understand.” He drew his pistol and pointed it at me, then considered for a moment and turned it on Kaplan.

“You have ten seconds to enlighten me,” he said as he pulled the hammer back and turned his head so he could see his target and casting half of his face in shadow.

“Starfleet officers have to face a test, a no-win scenario,” I blurted out. “It’s a test of character. Kirk taught her that how we handle defeat is as important as how we handle victory. I’m trying to prepare her for that.” He smiled and uncocked the hammer, turning his face completely away from the light.

“She’ll learn that lesson well enough if she ever defies me.” He stood and strode to the door. “She will learn to obey and respect me, David.”

“It’s Dave, asshole,” I said. “Only my mother called me David. Before you go, I have a suggestion for you.” He laughed and turned back to face me.

“I’m aquiver with anticipation,” he said.

“Pray.”

“Just what should I pray for?”

“That I can’t get out of this room. Because if I do, I’m coming for you, and the last thing you’ll hear is the sound of my voice.” He laughed and pulled the door closed. Other voices joined his as they faded away.

“What the hell are you thinking?” Kaplan asked me through swollen and bleeding lips. His voice barely carried to me, but I could hear the anger in it. “You don’t just tell a delusional cult leader you’re coming after them. This isn’t an action movie, and you’re not Rambo.”

“I know. You think he bought it?” I asked as I squirmed around until I could reach my survival strap.

“Bought it? I think he’s gonna have every son of a bitch he can spare camped outside his door tonight.” His mouth opened like he was going to say something else, and he narrowed his unswollen eye at me. “That was the idea, wasn’t it?” he asked softly.

“Kinda, yeah,” I said. I worked the strap around with my fingers until I felt the cool metal shape of my dog tag. Once I had the tag in hand, I slipped my thumbnail under the edge and hoped I had the right side. Otherwise, things were going to get a little bloody. Luck or memory were with me and I felt the thick edge of the single edged razor that was taped to the underside of the dog tag. I pushed it forward and felt it slide free. My luck held in that I didn’t slice my fingers open when I picked the blade up off the floor, and I managed to only nick my arm a few times as I sawed my way through the cords around my wrists. As I worked, I counted slowly and kept the count going once I was finished, waiting until I’d reached a thousand before I moved.

“What the hell?” Kaplan hissed when I pulled my hands around from behind my back. “How did you manage that?”

“Dave’s Rule number four: Plan ahead,” I whispered as I went to work on his bonds. “I really can’t take credit for this one, though. My friend Nate was the one who showed me the trick of hiding a razor blade under the dog tag.” His hands came free and I slipped the razor blade back into place while he started to massage his wrists. While he tried to get some feeling back in his hands, I went to the window and looked across the way at the hotel. For an hour nothing happened. Then one of the balcony doors on the third floor opened, and a small figure slipped out. The dark form slowly climbed from balcony to balcony until it was at the corner of the building, then dropped a length of white linen that unrolled until it dangled about five feet off the ground. My heart pounded as I watched Amy climb down the knotted sheets until she was near the bottom. She dropped to the ground and reached up to the dangling end. It was then that I realized that she’d tied the strips of linen into a long loop. She untied one end and pulled it until it fell to the ground at her feet. Most of the guards were looking outside the wall, and none of them were looking up. Unlike earlier, I couldn’t see any men watching inside the compound. If Kaplan was right, then Hall would have most of them watching his door. With Amy clear, I went to the hole in the floor and grabbed the edge of the opening. With a quick tug, the tile popped free, revealing almost a foot of crawlspace under the floor.

“I won’t even ask how you knew that was there,” Kaplan said as he came over to the eighteen inch gap in the floor. “Rule eighteen, right?” I nodded as I dragged the wobbly chair over to the middle of the room and stood on it. My fingers came up an inch short of the ceiling tile. Kaplan nudged me and took my place on the chair. “What am I doing?” he asked.

“Make it look like someone crawled up there,” I said. He stretched up and knocked the ceiling tile aside, then fumbled it as it slipped out of the frame and tumbled down. I caught the white square before it could hit the floor and slowly set it down. “Now, down the rabbit hole,” I whispered. Kaplan slid in first, and I told him to lie on his back. He slid down into the dark hole, and I followed suit, pulling the floor tile into place over myself. We pulled our shirts up over our faces to keep the dust out of our noses. On our backs, the going was slow, but there was almost no way to get back out of the crawlspace if we were face down. I was having a hard enough time not getting claustrophobic as it was. I counted the tiles by touch as I dragged myself along, slowly making my way toward the next wall. When I got to it, I figured out that I didn’t need to worry about counting tiles.

The walls were marked by metal studs and a thick beam that ran along the floor. My pulse hammered in my ears as I struggled to figure out how big the opening I was going to have to squirm through was. Slowly, my fingertips found the edges, and I breathed a muted sigh of relief. It felt like it would be tight, but I thought I could get through it. A few minutes of silent wriggling and scraping later, I was through and Kaplan reached out and tapped my right arm to let me know he had made it, too. I groped about for wires and finally found a bundle near my left hand. I followed it along until it bent upward, and pushed the tile up.

Like the office we’d just been in, this one was stripped down to almost nothing. When I popped my head up out of the floor, I saw movement a few feet away. A dark form shifted and I could make out two wide eyes looking at me. Silver glinted dully in the faint light, and I could make out the length of duct tape they’d put over Hernandez’s mouth. I pulled myself halfway out of the crawl space and put one finger to my lips.

“I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you,” I whispered. Even in the near darkness, I could see her eyes roll as I moved behind her and went to work on the rope on her wrists and ankles. She ripped the duct tape off her mouth with a stifled grunt.

“Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” she asked in a hoarse whisper.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she said softly. “But a couple of his blackshirts are gonna sing like Mariah Carey.” I nodded and gestured toward the opening in the floor where Kaplan was.

“Well, come on down into the creepy dark place under the floor,” I said. “We have cookies.” Kaplan slid down out of sight and Hernandez followed him. I shimmied down behind her and pulled the floor tile back into place. Once we were hidden again, I went back to the frame of the wall that we’d just crawled through and followed it further into the building. Above us, we could hear our guards talking and pacing. We waited until we couldn’t hear them before squeezing through the wall framing, then made our slow way across the floor in the dark, cramped, and hot crawlspace, keeping track of each other by touch and sound alone. Finally, we hit another wall. A tile creaked nearby as weight shifted above it, and I smiled behind my t-shirt. Again, we squirmed between the metal supports, and I slid further on until I figured I was in the middle of the room.

“Are you sure about this?” Kaplan demanded from beside me.

“Hell yes,” I said as I popped the tile free. I ended up emerging under a desk. I crawled out and smacked my head against the underside of it in the dark. I bit down on a curse and stifled the urge to smack something as I felt along the surface until my fingertips fell on something cloth covered and lumpy. Running my hands over it resolved it into the shape of one of the assault vests, and after a few moments of groping over it, I found the pocket with a flashlight and pulled it out, covering the lens with my palm. The LEDs flared under my hand, and I switched the setting to a low blue light. In the soft glow of the LEDs, we found ourselves in what passed for the armory and storage room. Long arms were stacked up against one wall, pistols were laid neatly on metal shelving units, and a handful of submachine guns were laid out on desks. On the opposite wall a variety of tactical gear were stacked on desks and shelving units. Military ammo boxes shared space with smaller cardboard civilian ammunition on shelves next to the tactical gear. It was like Christmas came early. Our gear was tossed on the desk in the middle of the room that I’d come up under, but our guns had already been stacked with the other weapons. As quietly as we could, we grabbed our weapons first. Once the weapons were secured, Kaplan went to the stacked ammunition and started grabbing boxes while Hernandez grabbed a couple of range bags and stuffed M4s inside them, then tucked handguns into one of the bigger side pockets. I did the same with a pump shotgun and a boxy pistol Hernandez thrust at me. We laid our vests on the floor and then lashed the range bags inside them and left a length of cord free to drag them with. Finally, I picked up one of their radios, lashed Amy’s vest and gun to the range bag, and dropped the bundle into the crawlspace, then turned to my two companions. They nodded, and I tied my bundle to my ankle and slid back down into the dark.

An hour of slow, sweaty crawling later, we hit our first concrete wall. It had been twenty minutes and several yards since we’d heard anyone nearby, so I took the chance of popping one of the tiles up a couple of inches and looking around. We were in an empty hallway. I pulled myself up out of the crawlspace with aching arms and dragged my burden out as Hernandez and Kaplan pushed tiles up and joined me.

“At least this time,” Hernandez whispered, “it’s the Marines coming up out of the floor instead of aliens.” Kaplan grinned at her and pulled his gear up out of the hole beside him. We started getting into our gear, and once again I was struck by how comforting the Deuce’s weight felt across my back. I’d grown up with guns, and I’d spent the better part of a year with an M9 glued to my hip over in Iraq, but I’d never felt anything like the easy confidence that settled over me when I shrugged into my vest and felt the line of the scabbard against my back. The extra weight of the armor seemed to disappear after a few moments as well.