Badlands: Next Generation Collection, page 29
“About four minutes ago,” Addy answered.
Another nod, and then I kept my mouth shut. Boots moving silently over mellow yellow flooring, I ignored a plate on the counter with something sitting in a pile of sauce.
On the stove, a brown rusted pot was filled with potatoes and meat that had been browned—meat that obviously wasn’t from a cow or pig.
Hearing low voices and the soft sound of someone crying, I cautiously peeled back the black sheet hanging across the doorway. The hall beyond was dark, but light spilled from a room three doors down.
I edged forward, keeping a close eye on each closed door in case someone was lurking behind them.
“Too much stress,” a gruff voice drifted into the hall, followed by a feeble, “Let me see my baby.”
“Your baby is dead,” an older woman’s voice replied.
A choked sob followed her monotonous statement, growing louder in volume as the words hit home.
“There’s no need for tears, dear girl. You will be joining her soon. Jack, deal with this, please.”
Making sure Addy was behind me, I glanced back at Maliki and he wordlessly moved up to stand by my side. Together, we closed the distance to the bedroom, reaching it just a few seconds too late.
The man in overalls held an axe above his head, swinging it down a fraction before my finger pulled the trigger. There was a piercing scream cut short as the thick blade split apart Izzy’s face with a sickening crack.
A bullet found a home in Jack’s spine.
Izzy’s blood jetted across the pillow and sprayed up the floral wallpaper.
The man named Jack stumbled forward, releasing an agonized groan. Everything thereafter happened in quick succession. Maliki took out the remaining two men with perfect headshots, leaving me to handle the women.
The one who looked my age attempted to run at us. Her movement caused the first bullet to shoot clean through her throat. The second lodged in her chest, dropping her to the floor.
Sue was even easier; she stood in place with a smile on her face as if she’d come to terms with her fate. She too received a headshot. Before her body could fully come to rest on the floor, Maliki and I were at her side and searching for a key, leaving Addy to watch the hall.
“Around her neck,” Maliki stated, pulling at a leather makeshift necklace.
My eyes went to the small lifeless bundle that had fallen awkwardly beside her.
Leaving him on the floor didn’t seem right. I placed my gun in its holster and gently scooped the baby up. He was so small, so light. His eyes were closed and he looked perfect, but he was so cold and so...dead.
Carrying him over to the bed, I sat him on the end so that I could pull Jack’s body off his mother. Understanding my intent without needing explanation, Maliki tore the key away from Sue and then came to help me. He grabbed Jack’s neck and pulled him backward, dropping him to the floor. A sharp breath indicated he wasn’t dead yet.
Ignoring him, I gripped the handle of the ax and pulled, removing it from Izzy’s face on my second attempt.
Her nose, mouth, and forehead had been cleaved clean through.
Empty eyes stared at me as a sudden rush of blood bubbled up and spilled from the split.
Knowing we were on a timetable, I pulled my scythe out and cut the ropes the binding her wrists, and then the ones keeping her legs spread. Her placenta was partially out of her, cord still attached, but it wouldn’t matter much if it remained.
I’d known since seeing a photograph of Izzy that the chances she was alive were slim to none. But I didn’t think I would be a few feet away when she departed. Had I been a second sooner, I could have saved her. But my specialty was killing, and that’s what I was best at.
Still, it didn’t seem right to leave her or her baby to rot so openly—and they would rot. They’d decompose in this room with the same people who’d held them captive.
Once she was free, I hurried across the room and grabbed each of the tattered curtain panels.
I placed one on top of Izzy’s face and the other over the baby once I laid him beside her. “Let’s get out of here,” I said to Maliki, who’d taken to watching me in silence.
“Did you get the key?” Addy asked as soon as we hit the hall.
“In hand,” Maliki answered, holding up the silver object in question.
We filed back out of the house in record timing and he handed it off to Addy. “Get that to Z. We’ll be right there.”
She looked to me and I nodded to reassure her I was okay. With a reluctant side-eye, she hurried off, ducking beneath one of the sheets.
“What is it?” I asked Maliki once she vanished from sight.
“Help me get him down.” He gestured to Ace, making his way to the contraption he was being boiled in.
With no one to feed it, the fire had died down significantly, but that didn’t make the metal container any less hot.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Undo that knot. I’ll pull him out.” He pointed upward where a knotted rope was all that was holding up the chain wrapped around his legs.
Okay, easy enough.
I used my scythe again, stretching up to cut through the rope, careful not to rub against the pot. I could feel heat emanating from within.
After a few see-saw motions, it split in two. Maliki was fast and had hold of Ace’s body before he could go any further into the heated water.
“See, you’re not all bad,” I told him.
He made an amused sound in the back of his throat and proceeded to drop Ace’s body onto the ground like it was a sack of potatoes.
“I only got him down because he was one of ours. Dumb fuck got killed before he could get the ink.”
I knew he cared a tad more than he was letting on. We could be the most savage, fucked up people in the world, but what we couldn’t do is pretend not to give a damn about the people who mattered.
When someone was truly loyal, there was no time limit. Death may have been final, but it didn’t take that away.
Looking at Ace, I knew he didn’t deserve this, either. Another thing about death: she could be swift and painless or cruel and agonizing. Seeing tufts of curls missing, his eyes gouged out, ears removed, and his lips sewn shut, I could only assume Ace’s had been the latter.
“This was more than simply cooking him, Malik.”
“Yeah, I can see that now,” he replied passively.
Just like that, the anger and pain came rushing back like a thick cloud of steam. It burned in my gut and grew bigger the longer I stared. It tasted bitter and had my nails digging into my palms hard enough to draw blood.
Two people who fucked us over were responsible for this. The Stags never would have had him if they didn’t set us up. I was left again with same question. Why? Why did they do this?
“Oh, shit,” Greer mumbled, walking closer to where we were standing.
“Hey.” Maliki’s hand came up and pinched my chin, forcing me to look away from Ace. His earthy eyes peered into mine, and I wished I could climb inside them.
They had become my safe place, somewhere the chaos couldn’t reach me.
“They’ll pay for everything they’ve done, I promise,” he said, as if he had just read my mind. As in tune as this man was with me, I wouldn’t be surprised if he could.
I swallowed and nodded, stepping away when the sound of an engine became more prominent.
“We got company,” Greer sang, jogging over to the gate.
He poked his head out and relayed what he saw. “Big brown pick-up, at least six ankle-biters.”
I quickly did the math on that. Six people wouldn’t be hard to take out, but I only had two bullets left and a case-full in my bag back at the SUV. Who knew when I would be able to restock; wasting them on some cannibal fucks wasn’t appealing at the moment.
The sheet lifted, Addy, Zane, and Darrian coming through. The redhead was hobbling slightly. I knew right then that she would slow us down.
“He needs to carry her,” I said to Addy directly because this was her man. “We’ve got to go—more just got home.”
“The butcher boys,” Darrian gasped.
Addie’s eyes went from me to Zane and Darrian. Without objection, she said, “You heard her.”
The look he gave her could kill, but there wasn’t time to deal with their bullshit.
Thankfully, he hoisted Darrian up like she weighed nothing and didn’t choose now to engage in an argument.
We slipped out of the yard, moving back the way we had come. The darkness was both a positive and a negative. It made it so that we could move stealthier. It also allowed the pick-up’s headlights to illuminate our rapidly moving forms.
Three different shouts followed us, but no one was stupid enough to slow.
“Through the abattoir. It will be harder to track us if they decide to come play,” Addy rushed out. “Stay behind me,” she commanded Zane, cutting in front of him and using both hands to slam the metal doors open.
I knew the smell would intensify because it seemed to be strongest when we passed the old warehouse, but fuck was it nauseating.
I was used to the stench of death and infections, but this was nothing more than rotting bodies.
The doors slammed shut behind us with a loud echoing bang.
Before my eyes could begin adjusting to the new wave of darkness, Maliki’s hand was wrapping around my wrist and he was all but dragging me forward.
“I can see; let me lead you.”
He wasn’t going to get a protest. How stupid would that be?
“Greer, help Addy,” I told him, not giving a damn how Zane felt about that. My cousin wasn’t going to be walking blindly in a factory of graves.
Greer didn’t care either, because brushed past me to do as I’d told him.
From outside, yelling grew louder.
They would either try to race around the building to cut us off on the other end, or they’d come after us through the door we had just entered from.
With all the litter and barrels behind this place, one route was obviously faster than the other. I gripped Maliki’s hand, trying not to breathe in too hard. The odor was tickling the back of my throat and making my eyes burn.
As my vision adjusted to its normal state in the dark, I could make out multiple graffiti tags and moss covered walls.
“Satanas, this is disgusting,” Addy groaned when we got to the center of the building.
There was a narrow split in the ground, the chute livestock was once sent through to be slaughtered. It had been filled in with human carcasses, one piled on top of the other, and, from what I could see, the fresh corpses were all on top, each missing something.
“They’ve been doing this a long time,” Zane commented, moving surprisingly fast for someone toting an extra load.
“Long enough they had something valuable to give a panhandler for two people,” Maliki replied.
I glanced above us and saw the old track was partially down, leaving meat hooks to dangle aimlessly.
“They aren’t chasing us,” Addy pointed out just as we reached the end of the building. “Why wouldn’t they be after us? You two just killed half their family.”
“Greer, take her,” Zane demanded, passing Darrian off.
He walked forward and moved Addy out of the way so that he’d be exiting first. “Now, you keep your ass behind me,” he directed at her.
The doors were pushed open with a forceful shove, and welcome nighttime air poured in, still not fresh or clean but a huge improvement nonetheless.
There was silence outside. No yelling, no screaming. Nothing.
We silently crept out of the abattoir. As my boot crossed the threshold back onto muddy soil, the hairs on my neck stood up in warning.
“Someone is out here.”
On cue, a man screamed a battle cry and charged at us from behind the building, long machete in hand.
We collectively moved back as the machete was swung. Dodging it easily, Zane grabbed hold of the man’s wrist and twisted it back with enough force that he snapped the bone, creating a bulge beneath the skin.
“Get back to Trix,” he demanded, taking hold of the machete and using it against the cannibal, driving the end into his stomach and then pulling it back out.
“I can’t leave you,” Greer refuted. “And why are you doing my job for me? I protect you, amigo, not the other way around.”
Maliki surged forward, still maintaining his grip on my hand. He nudged Greer on the way, forcing him start moving down the drive. “He’s coming too, dipshit, now move!”
That had him co-operating.
Zane kept the machete in his hand and moved so he was beside Addy.
The descent was slippery, but spotting the SUV idling down at the end had us picking our pace up. We were almost there when the roar of an engine urged us to run.
I laughed as I nearly fell on my ass, skiing down the driveway. Maliki’s hold kept me upright, dragging me along.
“Hurry your asses up!” Trix yelled out the window.
We reached the SUV and piled inside the back, practically on top of one another.
The door was slammed behind us in the fleeting seconds before a massive pick-up bumped the rear end, shoving us forward.
“Y’all always in some bullshit lately, you know that?” Trix grumbled, shoving the SUV into drive. Tires screeching, the truck shot forward, leaving the cannibals to follow.
Chapter Eleven
once
They didn’t tail us for more than fifteen minutes. In the middle of the street, they made a U-turn and headed back the other direction. That didn’t seem like a natural thing to do unless they were planning to find us again with reinforcements.
A few minutes later, Zane was telling Trix to pull over. He tapped the interior light switch and twisted around in the passenger seat once we were fully stopped.
“I need you to tell me everything important,” he said, staring at Darrian.
She shifted beside Greer, toying with the hem of the shirt he’d given her to wear.
“I didn’t see much. They had on those deer masks when they took me and killed…” She swallowed.
It was the first sign she was uncomfortable. Darrian had been through much more tragic shit than being held in a kennel, and I knew she didn’t give a flying fuck about Ace’s death.
“Fuck what you saw; what did you hear?” Addy questioned.
Darrian looked at her for four long seconds and then glanced away. It could have been chalked up to intimidation; Addy wasn’t known for being sweet or gentle. Or it could’ve been insecurities, since Zane was fully on board with this relationship.
The two were complete opposites. One red-haired and tattoo free—for the most part—the other blonde, inked, and a princess.
Only problem was that I knew Darrian, and this wasn’t normal behavior. Had this been another time, she and Addy would have had to be pulled apart.
“This is bigger than us. Bigger than what we thought. I heard the Stags discussing some other faction, some religious fucks called a..r…?”
“A-R-C,” Nyx spelled out, moving further into my side. “We heard about them on the radio. They’re new, supposedly.”
“What about them?” Zane asked.
“There’s a deal in place, and someone’s being traded. They didn’t speak openly, but I pieced together what I could. All I know is that the Stags are not as strong as they think they are.”
From my peripheral, I caught Addy and Nyx exchange a look I couldn’t decipher.
“None of that tells us much,” Greer said.
“There’s something…a man they kept calling Cardinal. He has a house in Lake Placid, said he stays there every other week. He might be worth talking to.”
“If Glenwood is the lodging town near here, Lake Placid isn’t too far. It might be worth checking out,” Greer suggested.
Zane stroked his chin and nodded in agreement. “All right. At this point, it wouldn’t hurt.”
“How are we going to know which house is his?” Addy asked.
“The nicest one?” Darrian more questioned than asked.
“That was very helpful,” Nyx deadpanned.
With a sigh, Zane turned around, tapped his fingers on the arm-rest, and then, just like I knew he would, twisted back to ask my opinion. He should have learned by now to do this in the first place.
“What do you think?”
“I think we need to drop our handicap off in the lodge town with Greer, because we’ll need Trix, and continue on our way. Come back for them when we’re done.”
“You’re going to leave me?” Darrian asked, sounding offended.
“Well, Zane isn’t going to keep carrying your ass around,” Addy snapped.
“You can’t—”
“She’s right, I’m not. You can either go to the town and wait, or get the fuck out and I’ll see if you’re still here on my way back through.”
I laughed at the baffled expression on her face. What had she been expecting? She and Z were friends; nothing between them would ever develop past that. He wasn’t going to piss off Addy to please her. Siding with any woman over yours, even if she was wrong…that was reasonable grounds to have your balls removed.
You either pretended to agree or shut the fuck up until further notice. It was that simple.
In the end, Darrian wisely chose to keep her mouth shut, settling the debate with silence.
Turned out Lake Placid was closer to the town than Greer had estimated.
We dropped him and Darrian off and ensured they had a room at the town lodge, and then continued on our way.
Approximately twenty minutes later, we were leaving the truck in an old alleyway and footing it through a lucrative neighborhood.
“It’s really quiet,” Trix said, turning her head left and right to take in the massive houses surrounding us.
The silence didn’t bother me. If anything, it gave me the time to reflect on everything that had transpired over the last twenty-four hours. It was one thing to assume someone was dead but another to see that person’s dead body. No amount of looking at the past would change the future, though.
