Hope and Undead Elvis (32 page)

He wrote on the paper,
I'll be back this afternoon to "try again." Duce's orders. Don't have the baby!
This last he underlined, then waved the paper at the bathroom, indicating Hope should flush it.

She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror in the vanity alcove. She didn't look nearly mussed enough. She shook her bushy hair, frizzing it out, and rearranged her clothing into a more sloppy appearance. But there was one thing missing, and she knew it would hurt. "You have to hit me," she whispered.

"What?" Josh's voice came close to being too loud.

"Hit me! In the face." Hope pointed to her cheek. "Right here. Give me a bruise, maybe a black eye."

"I can't do that!" he hissed.

"Dammit, Josh, nobody's going to believe it if I'm not marked up. I can't do it myself."

"I can't!"

"You have to." She clenched her teeth and squeezed her eye shut as Josh made a fist and looked down at it. "For God's sake, Josh, I used to be a stripper. I've been beaten up before. One little punch isn't going to kill me."

He looked like he wanted to throw up. Instead, he cocked his fist back and swung it at her.

She leaned into it. She knew he wasn't swinging hard and it had to look real. His fist crashed against her face, just below her left eye. Pain blasted through her skull, whiting out her vision. She stumbled back to sit hard on the bed, jostling her baby and making him kick her ribs. "Son of a bitch," she mumbled. She couldn't see anything but stars out of her left eye. Blood dripped from her nose onto her white t-shirt. It didn't bother her; it would add to the authenticity of her being an assault victim. She spat more blood onto the carpet so she wouldn't swallow it.

Josh looked horrified at what he'd done, but Hope gave him a thumbs-up. She could already feel her cheek swelling from the blow.

"We can talk more this afternoon. I'll shut off surveillance if I can," Josh whispered.

Hope nodded. "Haven't you done enough already? Get the hell out of here, you bastard!" she screamed at him.

He fled out the door. She waddled after him, only to find her way blocked by a couple of burly guards who looked both mean and uncomfortable at the idea of confronting a recent rape victim. They stammered about her not leaving her room.

"Tell Duce I want my dog," she called after Josh. "And I want to see Margaret." She looked at the two guards through her swollen face. Her vision was returning to her left eye, albeit blurry. "And one of you assholes can go find me some ice." She threw a chip at them and stalked back into her room. In the bathroom, she wetted a washcloth and attended to her bleeding nose.

The bleeding stopped after awhile, leaving the bathroom sink streaked with pink. Hope wiped it down the best she could, not out of any sense of duty toward the Casino's appearance or as a concession to Zane Duce, but because she'd seen enough blood spilled over the past few months that she didn't need to be reminded of it.

She ate what food remained in the room, knowing it might be awhile before she got any more, and she wasn't going to waste any chance to pack on a few more calories. Every mouthful of food meant her baby would be
that
much healthier,
that
much more likely to survive birth.

Birth.

Hope had made a conscious effort not to think too hard about the impending challenge of delivering her baby, but Josh's pseudo-rape had brought it to the forefront of her mind. She had less knowledge about the process than even the typical woman, she figured. She'd never had the sex discussion with her mother. She'd seen enough fellow strippers get themselves knocked up by the worst sort of man that she'd convinced herself never to put herself in that kind of situation. Now it was facing her, and she was terrified of what it meant.

She knew birth was supposed to be painful and traumatic, and in this new, broken world, she wouldn't have the luxury of epidurals, IV drips, and thoughtful nurses providing ice chips, focal points, and breathing advice.

She might not have any help at all.

Even if she managed to deliver her own baby, what then? What chance did a helpless infant have in the cruel world that seemed to have been abandoned and left broken by its creator? There were things like inoculations which he would never get. He could catch anything. Anything! A moment's inattention from Hope could get him taken by a wild animal or one of the vicious monsters that some men had let themselves become. She'd nearly starved during her journey across the fractured landscape. How could she hope to provide for her son?

Crippling fear threatened to overwhelm Hope. She lay back on the bed, her arms wrapped around her belly, and let the tears come. Unlike in the past, these tears weren't those of sadness, frustration, or fear. They were shed for her son, for all the things that might make her cry in the future.

Because once he was born, she would have to be stronger than ever. She wouldn't be able to let down her guard for a moment and indulge herself in the weakness of tears for fear she might lose him. So she cried for things that hadn't yet happened. Skinned knees. Fevers. Hunger. Broken bones. Frustration. She cried for the misery left in the world which would be his legacy. She cried for herself and all the things she had lost already, and all the things she knew she had yet to lose.

And then, when she was finished crying, she smiled, for there was always hope.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Hope and Josh

Boredom threatened to overwhelm Hope for the hours of her imprisonment. She'd tried to turn on the television, hoping there might be some kind of on-demand movies or games or anything to help pass the time, but the remote wasn't working, and nothing happened when she pushed the power button below the screen. The flat plastic expanse mocked her, like a darkened mirror that turned everything into shades of black.

She closed the door latch so nobody could enter the room without breaking it, and thought about drawing a bath, but the tub only provided a trickle of cold water. The sound of it splashing on the porcelain made her have to pee.

What would her life be like here if she stayed? She'd be well-cared-for, at least until her baby was born. That could happen in a week, or a month, but not any longer than that, she knew. Would Duce take away the baby right away? Was he going to feed her son himself and raise the boy as his own? The boy would live a life of comfort under Duce's watchful eyes. That couldn't be such a bad thing, compared to the hardships Hope's future would hold.

There was a knock at the door.

"Open up," said Josh's rough voice from outside. "I'll break it down if I have to."

Hope padded over to the door and unlatched it.

Josh entered the room with a tray.

"Don't hurt me again," Hope whimpered.

"Cooperate, and I won't have to. If I have to fight you again, I promise you that Duce will send in other men to do the same until you go into labor." He shut the door and set the tray down on the end of the bed.

"God, he'd really do that?" asked Hope.

"Yes," whispered Josh. "He's made no secret of it. There are a lot of men here who want to be rewarded for starting your delivery. A
lot
of them."

Hope shivered at the idea of a parade of rapists coming through her room. She was already a little afraid of sex, which was why she'd avoided it her entire life, and the possibility of a gang-rape made her feel lightheaded. "If I was going to have this baby that way, I'd want you to be the one," she said. "You've been really nice."

Josh blushed beneath his beard. "I'm not like this most of the time. Duce put me on the inventory assessment crew because I pay attention to detail and don't get swayed by emotional outbursts. The man is scary at how good he can identify people's strengths and weaknesses and exploit them."

"Why haven't you left before now?"

"Didn't have anywhere to go. Working for him kept me out of Down Below. Here, eat something. Keep your strength up." Josh uncovered the food tray to reveal a microwaved sandwich, thick with grease, a can of 7-Up, and a chocolate pudding cup. He held up the latter. "Last chocolate pudding in the world right here, I bet. This was in my own stash. I want you to have it."

Hope smiled at him and touched his hand. "Share it with me?"

"There's only one spoon," he said.

"It's okay. You've already raped me today. I think I don't have to worry about cooties from sharing a spoon."

Josh put his chin in his hands. "That's not even funny. I wouldn't ever do that. Ever. But they were going to send someone else to do it, and I couldn't let that happen. I pulled rank."

"I'm glad you did." Hope peeled back the foil cover from the cup and licked the fake chocolate from it. The artificial sweetness was far more prevalent then when she'd eaten them in the past, before the world ended. Nevertheless, it did taste good, and she ate it slowly, savoring every bite. She was careful to leave half of it for Josh.

"Duce is going to kill you after the baby's born," he said as he took the spoon from her. "I heard him discussing it with one of his other lieutenants. He's afraid of you."

Hope nodded. She had expected as much after her similar treatment at the convent. "Because I represent a threat to his power, right?"

"Something like that. I don't agree with that at all. I mean, Duce has done a lot of good things for people here. He's given them a place of safety."

"He's given them a place of slavery," said Hope. "Everyone in this building is beholden to him."

"I know. God, it's so hard to see the darkness when he's providing light."

Hope touched his hand. "There's a lot of darkness out there. I've seen it firsthand. And everywhere I've gone, it seems, the Righteous Flame is following after me."

"Who's that?"

"Bad, bad people. They're cannibals, driven by a religious zealot whose devotion is to burn the entire world. First I ran into them in a forest far away. I got past them, but then I wrecked my car. Woke up in a convent, of all places. The sisters there were just as bad, in their own way. They were trapped in their beliefs, and were letting one of their own murder them one by one to stretch out their food supplies."

"God, that's horrible!"

"Their leader wanted to take my baby for herself too. Before she could, I don't know, put me back into a coma again, the Righteous Flame attacked the convent. They…" She sniffled as she recalled the screams of the nuns as they were assaulted and eaten.

Josh squeezed her hand and said nothing.

"I escaped with one of the nuns. We found a safe place to stay, with a man who was a mechanic. He and the nun wound up falling in love. And get this. He was Muslim. A Muslim and a Christian loving each other without their religions getting in the way."

"Sometimes people fall in love. It doesn't make any sense, but they do."

"I know." Hope realized Josh was still holding her hand. She looked up at him. He blushed again and drew his hand back.

"Where are your friends now?"

"I don't know. Safe somewhere to the south, I hope. The Righteous Flame found me again and we had to split up. I didn't want my friends to risk themselves traveling with me when the most evil people left in the world were following me." She sighed. "Somehow, they found each other in this broken world. They're having a baby too. I envy them."

"Why?"

She laughed softly. "I didn't get to enjoy the process of making a baby, Josh. I'm still a virgin."

He blinked. "You're
what?
"

"I wasn't pregnant before the world ended, and then I was."

Josh's mouth hung open in pure shock. "So whose baby is it, then?"

"I don't know. He's mine. Someone once told me he's got a destiny, to fix the world." Hope took a bite of the sandwich. It was gummy and salty and she needed the 7-Up just to wash it down.

"That's a pretty powerful thing to lay on an unborn baby," said Josh. "Or his mother."

"I know."

"So now you're alone again."

"I have Fidel. He watches over me. And Undead Elvis in the basement. And even Margaret." She reached out and took his hand again. It was warm and rough, like he'd spent many years working with his hands. "And you, too."

"I'd… I'd really like to travel with you, if you'd let me."

Hope lowered her eyes. This man genuinely
liked
her, in spite of the mysterious baby in her belly, in spite of her stripper background, and even in spite of the dangerous zealots who seemed intent upon her destruction. It made her stomach feel all fluttery, like when her baby had been much smaller. He was being far more active than normal. "We'd like that," she said softly. "Here, want to feel?"