Chapter 34
John
John’s first thought was, unsurprisingly, that an IED had gone off. His head was ringing, his eyeballs felt ready to pop out of his skull. Panic had him on his feet before he knew what was happening. “Daniel?”
“Over here.” Her voice came from across the room and John saw through bleary red-washed eyes that she was tugging on clothes. Her crop top was on inside out.
“How’s your head?” She asked.
“How’s my…?” John clutched his skull as another wave of pain surged through it “What…what the fuck was that?”
“A Neurological Electromagnetic Impulse,” Daniel said through the sweater she was tugging over her head. “An NEMP.”
“And that is?”
Daniel moved her head from side to side, clearly struggling for a better description than ‘Neurological Electromagnetic Impulse.’ “It’s complicated.”
“Try and uncomplicated it,” John said, his head throbbing.
“It throws out a transient charge that makes people black out.”
“Great, yeah, of course,” John said clutching his aching skull. His ears were was now emitting a high ringing sound he associated with hearing loss. “I’m sorry, what?”
Daniel shoved her feet into her yellow Timberland boots. “It’s too hard to explain right now, Heathcliff. You need to put your dick away so we can get moving.”
John realized he was standing naked, his semi-hard cock swaying between his legs. He snatched up his cargos and pulled them on, still trying desperately to comprehend what had just happened. “So you did that…thing?”
“Yeah,” Daniel said, smoothing back her hair. “I’m sorry. I tried to warn you but there’s no secret code for ‘I’m about to activate some near-incomprehensible technology’ and I didn’t want Elkin to get suspicious.”
“But…” John said weakly then realized Daniel was right, there was no time for why’s and how’s. If she claimed to have set off a weapon that controlled people’s brains, well, he’d have to fucking roll with that. “How far does the blast radius for one of those things go?”
“If Mikey did his due diligence, everyone in the building should be unconscious,” Daniel said with satisfaction.
John’s hand slipped on his fly. “Everyone? For how long?”
“I don’t know; I’ve never used an NEMP before and we’ve only got thirty minutes until everyone wakes up! We have to move!”
“Okay. Okay.” John floundered for his boots. “Wait, why didn’t you pass out?”
Daniel was now so impatient she was hopping from foot to foot. “It’s the way NEMP’s were designed. The detonators are in a safe ambit and the blast radius extends around them. Otherwise it’s an entirely pointless weapon, ay?” Her kiwi accent had thickened with her anxiety. “Heathcliff, come on.”
“But I was right on top of you!” John protested. “How’d it get me?”
“You pulled back when the lights went out! Hurry up, dude.”
“Almost ready.” John picked up his T-shirt and saw it was covered in a slimy white substance. For a moment he wondered if it was some NEMP side effect and then he realized.
“Schwartz!” he shouted. “What the fuck?”
“Sorry! I panicked!” she said, still leaping from foot to foot. “I didn’t know what else to use!”
John threw his shirt-turned-jizz-rag on the ground. “We’re in your bedroom. There’s heaps of other shit to use.”
“I know, I’m sorry but you’re just gonna have to do this 300 style. By which I mean shirtless.”
He glared at her. “Fine. What now?”
“We escape.” Daniel pressed her weight against the door trying to force it open. “Shit, one of those idiots collapsed in front of it. Probably trying to listen to us fuck, the pervert.”
The door opened towards them, which would usually make kicking it out near impossible, but it seemed to be a hollow core, which was something. “Stand back.”
John braced his weight on his back leg and kicked the wood under the latch. Whoever was lying in front of it shifted and the door burst open.
Daniel smirked at him. “If you’re trying to make me glad I wiped up with your t-shirt, it’s working.”
John somehow found time to smile as he shoved Ronald and the other guy out of Daniel’s way. Both men had thin streams of blood running out of their noses and their eyes were wide open but unseeing. “Are they dead?” he asked, not particularly fussed.
“No.” Daniel bent over their bodies and studied them with interest. “They’re…think of it as paralyzed and asleep at the same time.”
“Works for me.” John reached down and yanked the pistol out of Ronald’s holster. The warm metal in his palms was like coming home. He stood up and aimed at the assholes chest.
“The fuck are you doing, Rambo?” Daniel was already at the bottom of the stairs. “We need to go get Seb and Colt.”
John swore softly. He was itching to plant a bullet in that slimy fuck’s brain but he couldn’t do it in front of Daniel, not if he could help it. He’d have to come back. In the meantime…He quickly stripped Ronald down, placing his knives, disposable handcuffs, ammo and .32 pistol in his own pockets, then did the same to fuckwit number two. If either of them woke up and came looking for him they’d be dead before they hit the ground.
“Heathcliff, do you need help?” Daniel called.
“Nope, all good.” He kicked Ronald in the side. “See you soon, asshole.”
At the bottom of the stairs Daniel was again dancing on the spot in impatience. “We need to get to Seb; he looked bad when I last saw him.”
“I know.” John held out a gun toward her. “Here.”
Daniel stared at the proffered weapon like it was a banana. “No thanks. Pacifist, remember?”
“You can’t be serious with that right now?” John said.
“Ah, yeah I am. I’m not shooting anyone.”
“You don’t have to,” John said, jiggling the gun at her like it was a chocolate bar.
“Why would I have a gun if I don’t want to shoot anyone?”
John growled his frustration. “So people think you could shoot them if you wanted to.”
Daniel gave him a long, pointed look. “This is exactly what’s wrong with America.”
John closed his eyes. “Okay fine.” He shoved the revolver into the back of his overstuffed cargos. “Let’s go.”
They sprinted through the house and it seemed to John the place was four times as big as it had been when Daniel lived there alone. Or maybe it was just his eyesight. Whatever her brain bomb had done, his vision was impaired and he wasn’t steady on his feet. He clipped several walls as he ran, once knocking a painting of the ocean to the ground.
Just let Colt and Seb be okay, he thought. Dear God let this thing have worked.
They skidded into the dining room and John drew in a sharp shocked breath at what he saw. Elkin, Seb, and every one of the nine heavies were unconscious. Most of them had keeled over on the floor, but a few slumped on the table and one was lying on the splintery remains of a Cherrywood chair he’d clearly collapsed on. Their noses were dripping red and a few had bloody lips and ears. All of their eyes remained open giving them the eerie appearance of fresh corpses. John had a longstanding Hitchcockian fear of being paralyzed in his own body and he uttered a quick thank you that he’d only been unconscious for a second.
“Jesus,” Daniel said in a hushed voice. “It looks like someone set Jim Jones loose in here.”
“Is that not what should have happened?” John demanded.
“No it looks about right. It’s just…this is pretty fucked up, ay?” Daniel said, her eyes wide.
“You’re telling me. Where’s Seb? I can’t see him.”
“Over here.” Daniel ran to where their friend lay hidden, buried under the bulk of the man who’d beaten him. John shoved the fat bastard off Seb and seized his wrist. “Pulse is good. How long until he’s up?”
Daniel peered into Seb’s wide blue eyes. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? Why don’t you know?”
“NEMP’s are in their developmental stages. They affect people differently depending on their size and bone density.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” John demanded.
“Yeah, but NEMP’s aren’t exactly government-approved, Heathcliff.”
No, he supposed they wouldn’t be. “Gimme a ballpark, how long till he’s up.”
“I told you, thirty minutes from detonation onward, but it could be less.”
Panic settled like an unwelcome old guest in John’s gut. “Christ.”
That wasn’t nearly long enough. In order to escape, he and Daniel, a girl with the upper body strength of a wet blanket needed to carry Seb and a two hundred and twenty-pound Colt to the SUV outside and get them to safety. Meanwhile, if any of the Middlebend fucks came after them they were done for. He’d be killed on sight and Daniel…John recalled Walshaw’s promise to rape her before she died. His whole body tightened and he knew exactly what he was going to do.
“Drag Seb outside and shut the door behind you,” he told Daniel.
She didn’t move a muscle. “Why?”
“Because I have to make sure we can get out of here safely.”
He needn’t have bothered with the euphemisms. Daniel knew exactly what he meant. Her mouth thinned. “You’re not killing all these people.”
“They were going to kill us,” John said, heartbeat pulsing in his ears. “We don’t have enough time; you said it yourself, we need to stop them from coming after us.”
“We can do that by leaving John.” For the first time her use of his real name didn’t give John a thrill. His hands had already begun to shake under the combined body shock and pressure of what was to come and he didn’t need her slowing him down further with her infuriating hippie bullshit. “They’ve seen us Daniel, they know our faces. They’ll be able to track us wherever we go. I’m better off—”
“Murdering thirty people in cold blood?”
John looked into her eyes and remembered the bottomless, agonizing fear he’d felt as he watched her scream for Seb. “If that’s what it takes to keep us safe, then yes. Now get out and let me do this.”
She laid a warm hand on his shoulder. John shuddered at the contact, still not used to the sensation. “No.”
She stood up and walked over to Fabian and dug around in his pockets, pulling out two pairs of disposable handcuffs. “There are ways to impede people that don’t involve bumping them off. We can tie them up.”
“You can get out of those.”
Daniel threw the cuffs to the floor. They rebounded off the marble and bounced up to her hips. Then she screamed, a scream of pure uncut frustration that tore through John like a rusty saw. “Oh, okay, John, we should fucking kill them instead. What is wrong with you?”
“I’m going to keep you safe,” he shouted, trying and failing to keep a lid on his anger, the noise echoing around the room, bouncing off the walls.
“How will starting a blood feud with an evil multinational corporation keep us safe? I saved our lives and I am not sitting back and letting you execute all these selfish greedy fuckface arseholes!”
“They’re our enemies.”
“Yeah and haven’t you heard? Killing your enemies only makes more.” Daniel’s voice had gone quiet again. “Please, John. We could have tied half of them up by now. Seb and Colt need us. The car’s packed, I know a place where we can go, let’s just run. Get out of here.”
In the pit of his stomach John knew she had a point—killing everyone would create a hundred and one more problems but it wouldn’t sate the rage building inside him like a small bomb. Nothing would. He’d thought he was going to die today, die watching his worst nightmares come true and his resentment that Daniel could be so level headed after everything that she’d endured was more than he could take.
“You didn’t have to watch!” he shouted. “You didn’t see yourself curled up in a chair wishing you were dead. You didn’t have to listen to Walshaw talk about raping you in the bed where we just made love. Elkin gave them permission, Daniel, and that sick fucking bastard was going to make us watch, he was going to make us joi—”
John broke off, feeling humiliatingly close to tears. “She doesn’t deserve to live,” he said finally. “None of them do.”
“Babe.” Daniel’s lower lip was trembling. “Babe, please…”
“I can’t live knowing they could hurt you again. If they kill you or Seb or Colt, I’ll fucking lose it, I know I will. I can’t face the end without them.”
Daniel shot a nervous look at Elkin’s unconscious body. “Okay, so I’m just going to ask you one thing then I’ll…I’ll stand by while you do whatever you need to do. John, what’s your gut telling you?”
At the merest suggestion his consciousness delved down, as though it had been waiting for him to ask. “That we should tie them up and run,” he muttered.
Daniel bent her head so he wouldn’t see her relief. He loved her a little for that. That and the fact that she didn’t try to touch him, to comfort him. Instead she picked up the handcuffs and walked over to Elkin. She was slumped on the Cherrywood table, silvery blond hair spilling across the wood. Daniel seized both her hands and stuffed them into the plastic cuffs, yanking the straps tight.
“You’re good at that,” John commented, still feeling dazed.
“Ask nice and I’ll do it to you later.”
He chuckled, because he didn’t know what else to do, then realizing he was wasting time, stood up and joined her. They moved quickly around the room, Daniel binding hands while John emptied pockets. As he worked his body relaxed and his mind narrowed in on their next objective. “Where’s this place we can go?”
She hesitated. “A Grassroots base, near the mountains a few hours from here. It’s secure and I know they’ll let us in.”
“But?”
Another glance at Elkin. “I haven’t been in contact with them since I found out about…You know…”
John nodded. “Is that a problem?”
“No, they’ll let me in but I’ll be in the shit. They’ve had people looking for me for months.”
“Guess we’ll deal with that when we get there.” John threw a clip of ammo onto the increasingly large pile they’d taken from the heavies; pistols, holsters, batons and mags all stacked on top of each other like Halloween candy. He dug past what felt like a million gum wrappers in the young Hispanic guy’s pocket and pulled out his tactical knife. “That’s the last of em. I’m gonna run upstairs, tie up the two fucks by your door. You think you can drag Seb to the entrance?”
“Yep.” She seized Seb’s arm and began tugging him towards the door, her boots squeaked against the marble as she strained with what was clearly all her might. “I really should have done more strength training when I had the chance huh?”
“You’re fine,” John said crossing his fingers behind his back. “Promise you’ll move as fast as you can?”
“Promise. Promise you won’t off anyone?”
John uncrossed his fingers. “Promise. Meet you at the door in two.”
He might have promised not to kill them but nothing was stopping him from slamming a boot between Ronald’s legs. Paralysis or not the bastard was gonna feel that when he came to. Less satisfying was the fact that both he and the other guy appeared to be waking up, muscles in their faces and hands were spasming and John was sure he saw Ronald blink. Whatever Daniel’s NEMP had done their free time was almost up. He took the stairs two at a time racing towards the front door. Seb’s unconscious body was there but Daniel wasn’t.
“Shit!” John’s panic was mounting again. There were another eight guys in the surveillance quarters to take care of and any number of them could be scattered around the grounds. “Schwartz, where are you?”
“In the dining room!”
John ran towards her voice, sweat beading on his brow. “We need to—Sweet Jesus.”
Daniel straightened up, a tactical knife in hand. “You like?”
Elkin was now bald. Slumped in her Cherrywood chair, pale silvery hair lying around her like discarded feathers.
John grinned. “Thought you were a pacifist?”
“I am. She didn’t feel a thing.” Daniel swung Elkin’s large leather handbag over her shoulder, stuffed to the brim with guns. “What’s up?”
“What’s up?” John’s repeated. “What are you doing in here? Why is Seb lying at the front door like this is Weekend at Bernie’s?”
“I pressed his palm to the pad and it didn’t open. They must have written you three out of the system.”
She gestured at the room. “We need one of these dickholes to get out. I figured Elkin was the best choice, she’s the lightest, so I gave her an awesome haircut so you’d feel better about not killing her. What d’you think?”
John shook his head. “I think you’re…Let’s get out of here.”
It should have been easy to carry Elkin, she weighed about as much as a sparrow but John felt sickened touching her skin. Besides, loose hairs kept floating up into his nose and eyes. “She’s seizing up,” he gasped.
Daniel struggled to press the woman’s twitching palm onto the keypad. “Yeah it happens when they wake up. We need to hurry.”
She wrenched the door open and they discovered three guys unconscious on the lawn, flopping like a fish out of water. “Fuck!” John shouted.”
“I know.” Daniel resumed dancing on the spot. “We’ve only got eight minutes to get Colt and the car. What do I do? What do I do? Whaddoido?”
John released Elkin from a much greater height than he would normally have and picked up Seb. He moaned against his shoulder and jerked so violently John almost dropped him.
Daniel’s face went white as a sheet. “Oh fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He’s almost up. Should I go tie up the dudes? Should I carry Elkin to the surveillance quarters? Are you going to kill everyone? Please don’t kill everyone. Fuck, what do we do?”
“Head for the SUV.” John’s command voice blared out of him at a hundred decibels. “Now Schwartz.”
Daniel looked mildly offended but she shot like a bullet towards the car. John followed her, straining to keep Seb against his chest. The afternoon was light and breezy, the colors coming from the flowerbeds bursting out at him like paintballs. Natural light poured down, burning John’s already oversensitive eyeballs. The car Colt had packed was mercifully unlocked. John piled the twitching Seb into the backseat, every muscle in his arms burning and turned to Daniel. “I think the keys are still in SQ.”
“We don’t need them, I can start the car. What about the cunts on the lawn?”
Unthinkingly John wondered how she made the worse swear word of all time sound adorable. “You stay here, I’ll tie ‘em up and get Colt.”
“But—”
“I’m not leaving them out here with you and Seb, now get in the car.”
Daniel looked like she wanted to protest but merely licked her lips. “I’ll open the gate and wait for you.”
“Good. Once I go in for Colt start counting, it takes longer than three minutes for us to come out you start driving, okay?”
Daniel glanced at Seb’s unconscious body then nodded. “Okay but…try to come back.”
John pressed a hard kiss to her forehead. “Be careful, Schwartz.”
“Bye, Heathcliff.”
John sprinted toward the guys on the lawn who were now moaning and rocking from side to side like overturned tortoises. The anger in their spasming eyes as he tied them up was palpable. The instant he was done he scooped up Elkin, whose mangled scalp looked particularly bad in the bright sunlight and pelted toward the surveillance quarters. The mere seconds it took to scan her hand on the fingerprint pad felt like an eternity.
Mangled relief flooded him as the loud shouts confirmed more than one person was up and about. He dumped Elkin in the hallway coat closet and moved up the hall toward the monitor room, his stolen gun drawn, praying against all the odds that it was Colt.
“Tell me what that was or I’ll spray your fuckin’ head across the wall!”
Pure exhilaration flooded John’s veins. It was Colt. That stupid, oversized motherfucker was alive, and until John heard his voice he didn’t realize how fucking terrified he’d been.
“I don’t know what it was! I’ve never felt anything like that in my life,” a man, Walshaw, screamed.
“Bullshit!” There was a loud crash as though Colt had thrown something at him. “Tell me what you did!”
“I didn’t do anything!” Walshaw sounded on the verge of tears. “Don’t hurt me, please don’t fucking hurt me.”
John crept forward. A half a dozen of Middlebend’s Guards were littered around the floor like human trash, some twitching and moaning, others completely unconscious. Walshaw and Colt were standing at opposite sides of the room. Walshaw was trembling, blood crusted around his ears and stubbly cheeks but Colt…John sucked in a breath. Colt looked like Carrie right after her date with a bucket of pig entrails. Blood was drying around his ears, eyes, and mouth and there was a flat murderous rage in his eyes that was damn near terrifying. Both of them were holding Berettas and both were pointed at the others head.
“Tell me what you did,” Colt said. “Tell me and I’ll shoot you in the brain and not the balls.”
“I can’t!” Walshaw babbled. “I can’t.”
“Yeah, that’s what Daniel kept saying.” Colt raised his gun. “So I’m gonna show you the same mercy. Goodbye, asshole.”
But before John could think, before Colt could shoot him in the guts or the dick, he’d stepped forward and punched Walshaw in the back of the head, as hard as he could. It wasn’t a clean swing, his knuckles glanced off Walshaw’s scalp, burning like hellfire but it still had the desired effect. The squat little fuck dropped like a stack of bricks.
“John?” Colt gaped at him like he was Christ reborn. “You’re alive? What about the bomb?”
“It wasn’t a bomb, it was a…thing Daniel set off. She’s fine. Seb’s fine too. We need to get you to the car.”
“Jesus.” Colt swayed on the spot. “Jesus I was sure…”
“We’re fine,” John repeated firmly. “Don’t go fainting on me, we need to get you out of here.”
“What about…?” Colt gestured to Walshaw’s limp form. “You wanna kill him or should I?”
It was tempting but…John shook his head. “We’re takin’ the high road today.”
In other circumstances Colt’s crestfallen face would have been funny. “What if I do him in the leg?” he asked.
“No, and hurry the fuck up, we need to move.”
“One sec.” Colt nudged Walshaw’s thighs apart with his boot. “I know it’s gonna be hard to believe when you can’t sit down without crying but this is your lucky day shitheel.”
He slammed his foot deep between the man’s legs. John shuddered, evil or not or not a man had to sympathize. “You done?”
“Think so.” Colt stepped over Walshaw’s body and pulled John into a messy hug. “I’m so fucking glad you’re okay.”
“Me too,” John said, staggering slightly under Colt’s weight. “How long were you passed out for?”
Colt pulled back, confused. “I wasn’t. There was this weird buzzing noise and everyone collapsed around me. I broke out of my cuffs, tried to get out but I could barely see straight so I beat the shit out of these assholes instead.” He gestured at the limp bodies on the floor. “Then Walshaw woke up and pulled the gun on me. Why? How’d you get in here?”
John slung an arm around Colt’s waist. “Tell you in the car.”
Colt’s face grew stern beneath the blood. “Okay, but just tell me one thing.”
“What?” John said urgently.
“Why d’you have no shirt on? Tryin’ to make this rescue sexy or something?”
John swore. “Daniel wiped…Oh fuck you, asshole, we’re leaving.”
Colt sniggered.
By the time they made it to the hallway Elkin was well and truly awake, banging on the closet door demanding to be set free. Colt was extremely confused by both her baldness and why she was in stuffed in a closet, but happily restrained her as John pressed her hand to the door. She was a lot less obliging now that she was conscious. “You won’t get away with this,” she kept screeching while she attempted to claw at John’s face. “We’ll find you. No matter where you go we’ll find you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” John said, stuffing her back in the closet and shutting the door. “Tell it to a wigmaker.”
They staggered outside, John fighting to support Colt’s weight, and found Daniel had driven the SUV over the smooth emerald lawn, several rosebushes, and a couple of statues to park it right next to the surveillance quarters.
“Hey guys,” Daniel said, hanging out of the window. “Two and a half minutes. Noice.”
You could have seen Colt’s grin from space. “Princess! You’re okay!”
“So are you!” Daniel took in his bloodied appearance. “Kind of…Why does it look like your face is having a period?”
Colt doubled up laughing then, without warning, crumpled into a pile on the ground.
“Fuck!” John and Daniel said at once.
“Is he okay?” she asked leaning further out of the window.
“He’s okay, he’s just lost a lot of blood.” John bent down and hauled Colt up, his overtired muscles screaming in protest. “Can you open up?”
“Emotionally?” Daniel said, grinning with the manic edge John now recognized as panic. “What do you want to know?”
John was in no mood. “Enough humor, Broad City, open the passenger seat so I can haul this asshole in.”
But Daniel didn’t move, instead she stared at him her eyes so bright, she looked like she was about to cry. “John.”
“What?” he said worriedly. “What’s wrong?”
“You’ve seen Broad City?”
“Yes!” John hauled Colt up higher, every muscle in his chest burning with pain. “I saw the girls on the Daily Show and…Jesus, Schwartz, just open the fucking door!”
Daniel dived into the back seat and threw the door open. John was relieved to see Seb sitting up. “You good?” he asked as he shoved Colt into the car.
“He’s great,” Daniel assured him. “He just needs sleep and a shower like bloodface over there.”
Colt stirred a little in his seat. “I got this blood on me…by being…incredibly brave.”
Daniel’s expression softened. “I know you did, Tarzan.”
Colt reached forward, fumbling for her hand. “Princess, you know that I—”
“We can catch up later,” John said, slamming the passenger door shut. “Schwartz, move so I can drive.”
“Fuck off! You can barely walk in a straight line, I’m driving.”
“Fine.” John climbed into the passenger seat and strapped his belt across his chest. “Let’s just get out of here before someone gets out of the cuffs and fucking shoots us.”
“How are they meant to shoot us with no guns?” Daniel muttered but she released the brake and started toward the driveway, ignoring Colt’s demands that she run over the men struggling on the lawn. John held his breath as they passed through the wrought iron gate as though expecting some unknown force to bounce them back. It didn’t. Daniel steered them out of Castle by the Sea as though she’d never been held prisoner there at all.
“Holy fuck.” Daniel stared into the rearview mirror. “Holy fuck I’m actually getting out of here.”
“You sure are,” Colt said, gingerly turning his neck so he could look behind him as well.
Though he’d happily never lay eyes on it again John couldn’t help but look back as well. When he saw that big ugly ass mansion getting smaller by the second he remembered something his mom used to say whenever they went on a trip. “Everyone say ‘bye house.’”
“Bye house,” Daniel and Colt chanted.
Seb gave a loud wet cough and all of them turned to look at him in concern.
“Are you okay, kid?” John demanded.
One of the corners of Seb’s broken, bleeding lips turned up. “Fuck you, house.”