Time ticked by and Roy continued to pace. An hour had gone by and Tim still hadn’t shown his face. As far as he knew, we were all oblivious to his involvement. We hadn’t let Karla leave; she’d more than likely warn him.
I picked at some of the food the girls had rounded up—the crackers and another juice box—but my nerves prevented me from eating anything else.
We barely talked, other than to explain what had happened to Karla. She vehemently denied that Tim could have done anything like that until she was red in the face. Mac suggested she was too close to Tim to see the situation clearly, and I swore Karla considered punching him in the face.
Mac came over to me and took a cracker from the box.
“What should we do?” he half whispered.
I set down the cracker I was nibbling on.
Why is he asking me?
“I don’t know,” I replied just as quietly. “Short of locking Roy up, there’s nothing we can do until Tim shows up.”
Elaine joined our little think-tank. “This will go really badly once Tim shows up. Roy is just getting angrier.”
We all looked over at Roy. I could almost feel waves of anger radiating off him.
“We need to intercept Tim before Roy does something,” I said. “Maybe handcuff Tim as soon as we see him. The element of surprise is all we have.”
“There are some zip ties in the storage room. I’ll go grab some.” Mac took off in search of our handcuffs substitute.
Karla glared suspiciously at us but remained sitting and kept chewing her nails. Mac came back and showed us the black zip ties in his coat pocket, then asked, “How do we do this?”
“Unless there’s a secret entrance you guys didn’t tell me about, there’s only one way in,” I said. “Someone strong should open the door when Tim comes in, so they’ll be behind him when he enters. We’ll talk to him to distract him until the doorman tackles him to the ground. And then we’ll tie his hands behind his back.”
“Why not just grab him?” Elaine asked.
“He’s military. I’d say he’s trained in combat. Our best bet is to knock him to the ground and use our weight against him to pin him down while we tie his hands up.” This was all guesswork on my part.
Mac raised an eyebrow. “I take it I’m the doorman?”
I bit my lip. “Sorry. It’s nothing personal. But the more weight we have to hold him down, the better.”
“That’s the nicest way to call someone fat I’ve ever heard,” Mac said. If he was offended, he didn’t show it.
I shrugged. I had nothing to say that would make it any less rude.
“You should probably get up there then,” Elaine said. “Who knows when he might return?”
Mac grumbled but left to go play doorman and give José a break. Karla watched him disappear with narrowed eyes. She got up, but Roy’s glare returned her to her seat. I didn’t see Bernice down here with her sniper rifle; she must have gone back to the roof. In total, there were only ten of us in the common room. Hardly a worthy defense.
Elaine grilled me again on how I was feeling. The wound on my head was throbbing again, so she left to get me some painkillers. A loud cough came from the front entrance—Mac signaling that Tim was here. I took a deep breath.
“I’m just bringing him a water bottle. Tell Elaine I’ll be right back,” I announced to the people in the room, trying to sound aloof.
Roy looked suspicious but returned to fidgeting. I walked calmly to the entrance.
Please let this work.
I was in no shape to fight and this would get messy if we had to resort to violence.
Mac jerked his head toward the doors as I approached. “Just saw the truck headlights pull up.”
The outline of a figure solidified as it approached the front door.
“Hand me the ties!” I hissed when I reached Mac.
We hadn’t planned this very well, but I had myself to thank for that. I grabbed the ties and retreated as I stuffed them up my sleeve. Mac opened the door, and Tim walked through. I pretended like I just came around the corner.
“What happened?” Tim had the gall to ask.
“There was another attack,” I started as I saw Mac widened his stance.
With a shoulder in the lead, Mac flattened Tim. They flew to the floor, and I ran up to them as fast as I could. Tim was in shock, but he recovered fast and tried to buck Mac off. Mac had managed to gather Tim’s hands behind his back, and I tightened the zip ties around his wrists, binding them together.
“What is this?” he demanded, attracting an audience from the other room.
With his arms secured behind his back, Mac yanked Tim up. Roy dashed for Tim, his eyes full of pain. I jumped in front of Tim, intercepting Roy.
“Settle down! We need to do this the right way!” I yelled.
Roy shoved me out of the way, and before I could grab him, he swung at Tim. I heard the sound of cartilage crunching. Tim’s nose was now bent to the side and blood trickled down his chin. Mac released Tim in favor of restraining the enraged Roy. Tim fell backward with a groan, landing on his side, his arms still behind his back. Karla went to run for him, but Elaine got in her way.
“No you don’t,” Elaine calmly said to Karla.
Karla’s hand flew to her belt.
“I don’t think so.” One of the older ladies pointed her gun at Karla.
We all stood frozen in the weirdest Mexican standoff ever, except for Roy, who was still struggling against Mac, trying to get to Tim.
“Roy, you need to calm down.” I jabbed at finger at him. “We won’t get anything out of him if you beat the shit out of him.”
Tim was military—brutal force wouldn’t work—but I had to admit, I found myself wanting to kick his teeth in too. That would have to wait. I controlled my temper and turned to Tim, who was wiggling his face, trying to assess the damage.
I walked up to him and he eyed me through narrowed slits. I crouched next to his fallen form.
“I’m sure you know playing dumb won’t work,” I said. “We know you led those assholes here, and we know you sent them after me. You know I’m immune. What was in the bag, Tim?”
His eyes lit up before he could school his reaction. He knew I’d seen.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he deadpanned.
“I thought you were smarter than that.” I tilted my head to the side.
We stared at each other, him refusing to admit to his guilt.
“He didn’t do anything. You heard him!” Karla yelled.
“That’s because he’s a fucking liar!” Roy renewed his struggles, but Mac had him pinned in his arms.
“Get up.” I grabbed one of Tim’s bound arms and helped him to his feet.
I led him to the common area. Everyone else followed behind me like a funeral procession. I grabbed a plastic chair, sticking it in the middle of the room, and plunked him down. Tim didn’t resist, but I was sure he had something up his sleeve. Maybe more of his buddies were out there, waiting. Just to be on the safe side, I zip tied one of his legs to the chair.
“Those guys you were talking to, they’re part of that gang?”
No answer.
“I’m really tempted to let Roy go after you.” I
tsked
. I hardly recognized the cold voice emanating from my lips.
“What do you want me to say?” Tim said, redirecting the conversation.
“I want the truth, not what you think we want to hear.” I looked him dead in the eyes. “I have a pretty bad head wound, and I had to kill a man thanks to you, and a little girl saw a person die in front of her. So I think you owe us a fucking explanation!”
With every word, I was getting angrier. A hand rested on my shoulder, and I turned to see Elaine. She signaled toward the corner of the room.
Once we were out of earshot, she said in a hushed voice, “Okay, you’re getting a little emotional. Maybe we should have someone else try.”
I went to run my hand through my hair, only for the bandage wrapped around my head to stop me, and a flair of outrage surged through me. Maybe I was too close to this.
“I think we should let Roy at him,” I said, and Elaine leaned back.
“I thought you said that was a bad idea,” Elaine said.
“Yeah, that was before he made my blood boil,” I said through clenched teeth.
He was playing coy.
“Let Roy go,” I barked to Mac.
“What?” Mac asked, confused. Even Roy stopped struggling, appearing surprised.
I looked at Tim. “I honestly thought you’d have a backbone, but I guess my people-reading skills aren’t very good. Maybe you’ll grow one once Roy questions you.” I glanced at Mac. “Let. Him. Go.”
He opened his arms and Roy took a hesitant step. Then he regained his composure and almost ran to Tim.
“Where’s my wife you motherfucker?” he spat in Tim’s face.
Tim steeled his expression and remained silent. Roy wound up and let his fist fly again. Tim’s head whipped back from the impact, and he gurgled, blood dribbling from his lips. Slowly, he brought his head upright again and let the fresh blood trickle from his mouth to his lap.
Roy’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears. His clenched hand trembled. He looked like Bruce Banner struggling to contain the Hulk.
“We know it was you.”
Another hit, this time to the gut.
“My little girl is dead because you brought them here!”
Tim wheezed from the next punch Roy landed.
“What about Kyle, Linda, Elijah, José, Bernice!”
José and Bernice were dead? I turned to Elaine.
“The two men who broke in tonight shot them when they tried defending the place.” Elaine looked to the floor.
My arms trembled as my mind struggled with this new information. This was too much. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You have a concussion. That was the last thing you needed to hear about when you woke up.” Her nurse’s tone had returned.
No wonder I hadn’t seen them. I felt like a fool for wondering where they were, when all the while, they were dead, killed by those would-be kidnappers.
The infected are supposed to be the enemy!
This wasn’t fair. People were killing each other for no reason while the real bad guys were terrorizing us in undead droves. This new world disgusted me.
“Stop!” Karla screamed as she shoved the older lady guarding her to the ground.
Karla reached for her weapon, so I reacted fast and ran up to her. She turned to me, ready to fight, but she hadn’t been expecting my elbow to connect with her face. I made sure to use my good elbow too. She fell to the floor on her back. Her gun skittered to the floor, and I kicked it out of her reach, placing a knee on her chest to stop her from getting back up. Karla looked shell-shocked and didn’t put up a fight.
“Look, you can either stay or I can have someone take you elsewhere.”
She tentatively touched her eye, which was already puffing up where I’d hit her. Her elderly guard had since gotten up and came over to retrieve her. Karla was still in shock when the lady grabbed her arm, in a tighter grip this time. She must have never been it a real fight before.
Something inside of my head shifted into place. Karla and Tim were more than likely together, and even if they weren’t, she was like his second in command. Maybe I could use that to my advantage. Cold thoughts circled in my mind. Perhaps my concussion was worse than I’d thought.
I picked up Karla’s handgun. That got everyone’s attention. Tim’s eyes widened when I aimed the weapon right at Karla’s head, my arm steady as a surgeon’s hand. Elaine gasped and Mac stepped forward.
“Don’t,” I warned.
His eyes pleaded for me to stop.
“I hadn’t pegged you for a cold-blooded killer,” Tim spat, breaking his silence.
“Glad I finally got through to you,” I said, aware I’d taken my first step into the role of villain. “Now give us the answers we want. If not for yourself, then for Karla.”
I was scaring myself at this point, feeling like a real-life James Bond villain, minus the Russian accent
.
I held back the laughter bubbling in my chest, although it would have fit the part I was playing rather well.
Is it really just a role?
I didn’t doubt that I wanted to hurt Tim, and this would do the trick.
No matter how much I hated him, Karla had done nothing to deserve this. At that, regret and guilt gnawed at me. I had no choice but to use her as a pawn. I would never shoot her, but I had to make Tim think I would. I cocked the gun. Concern reflected in his eyes. I’d found my opening into Tim.
“All right,” Tim said through bloody teeth. “Put the gun down, and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
I lowered the gun to my side. “Go on then.”
“I did bring them here. I traded information for guns and ammo.”
“Are they after immune people?” I asked.
Tim looked away. “I believe so. At least that’s what they wanted to know about.”
“Who are they?” Roy piped in.
“Mercenaries.”
So they did horrible things for pay.
“Does that symbol on the side of the building belong to their gang?”
“Yes.”
“Are you one of them?” I glared at him.
“No, I just take a cut for information.”
“Bullshit!” Roy yelled.
“I’m not lying!” Tim yelled back.
This was the first time he’d raised his voice. Maybe he was unraveling.
“Then why?” Roy’s voice sounded strained.
Something in Tim snapped, and he let loose, turning into a completely different person.
“How do you think I
found
all the military-grade weapons and rations, hmm? They were payment. If I scratch their backs, they scratch mine. This place is held together by will and duct tape for Christ’s sake! You have no idea what it’s like to be in charge of a bunch of people, let alone ones who can’t protect themselves worth shit! Do you think this is fucking easy on me?!”
Tim panted, chest rising and falling as he eyed the group. I held no sympathy for him. If he didn’t want to be the leader, then he should have passed on the responsibility to someone else. Because of him, innocent people were dead. Innocent people were missing, with those gang members doing who knew what to them. We already had one plague to deal with; we didn’t need another one.
“Where did they take the hostages?” I asked.
Tim swallowed. “I don’t know.”
Roy hit him again.
“I don’t know!” Tim groaned. “All they told me is that they need immune people for another group trying to create a cure or something.”
“So right now, my wife is being
experimented
on?”
Roy bounded toward me, and I stepped back instinctively. He ripped the gun from my hand, and in my growing pile of less-than-proud moments, I let him. Tim sat fully upright in his chair, his leg still tethered to it, his back as straight as a cement wall.
“Listen, Roy—”
“Shut up,” Roy cut Tim off, waving the gun in Tim’s face. His eyes followed the piece as if he were hypnotized. “Don’t give me some bullshit about not knowing what they’d do to her. You knew exactly what would happen. You just didn’t give a shit how many lives you ruined. My daughter’s dead, and my wife is being treated like a lab rat because of you!”
Okay, this really had gotten out of hand. Not only had I threatened someone who hadn’t deserved it, but Roy also seemed ready to kill Tim.
“Listen to me!” Tim’s screeched. “If you do anything to me, you’ll lose your only lead.”
Roy pointed the gun right at Tim, and we all stood a little straighter. Elaine looked at me, her mouth open and eyes wide. She wanted me to do something about it, but did I want to?
“You’re not much of a lead. You haven’t given me anything to go on.” Roy inched closer.
Tim gulped, pupils dilating.
I stepped closer as well, and Roy said, his back to me, “Don’t. This is my interrogation.”
“No one’s sticking up for this asshole, but Tim is right: he’s our only lead,” I reasoned.
Roy could slap him around all he wanted, but a dead witness was useless.
“I can signal them again,” Tim said. “I still have the channel they use.”
So that’s how he was contacting them. Tim must have some sort of CB radio.
“What do you use?” Roy asked.
“I found a trucker’s radio a while back and found their channel.”
“Where is it?”
“In my room.”
“What channel?” When Tim didn’t answer, Roy yelled, “Well?!”
“Seven.”
“That’s all I need.” Roy aimed and shot.
I lurched forward, people screaming all around me. At that close of a range, Roy didn’t miss. The bullet entered Tim’s left temple, throwing his head back. His body went limp, his head hanging over the back of the chair, out of view. Smoke rose in white tendrils, as if Tim were releasing a drag of a cigarette.
That brief illusion was shattered when blood dripped onto the worn floor like red paint poured from a can. Karla let out a distressed cry and sank to the ground in tears. Some of the older ladies fled the room, and the rest of us stood frozen in shock.