“I was home in India during the derrible power oudage in 2012. I saw firsdhand whad happens when de power goes oud for exdended periods. Dalk aboud desdabilizadion.” He thought for a moment before finishing, “If an enemy wanded do do harm, he would durn off de power.”
“So, you think Avery is right, then?”
“Dad guy is smard. I bed he could pass circuid analysis.” I think he felt guilty for making a joke. He paused, shrugged, and then said, “I do. Id explains many dings. Id is wery scary as hell, bud I am nod sure how else you could explain de dings we are seeing.”
“Yeah, that cat is smart. William treats him like he’s about ten years old.”
“Do you dink all de people are gone?”
“Killed? Turned into sniffers? For all I know, maybe they’re hiding in their houses.” I thought back at the houses with the broken doors. “But not a lot.”
“Hopefully, id is only Barrow.”
I sighed. “Awful lot of trouble just to screw over two or three thousand people in a place no one cares about.”
“Jesus, Jack, you used to be so posidive.”
“Yeah,” I laughed, “not feeling very positive. I’m not going to lie about that.”
I was exhausted, but I could only manage to sleep for a couple hours. The fact that Aadesh gave Tom a run for his money in the snoring department didn’t help. Most of it was I just needed a drink, a snort, or just about anything that would’ve quenched my cravings. And I was in pain. My head and face ached and throbbed.
I gave a quick glance at my hands. They weren’t shaking yet, but they soon would be. There had to be something in that hotel that would help. I just needed to find it. I wasn’t going to be any help to Aadesh if I didn’t. That was my excuse, I suppose. It worked.
The worst part about being sober was being trapped with thoughts I couldn’t drown out. As much as I tried to make sense of things, I couldn’t. I barely wanted to, but the point is still I couldn’t. The EMP crap Avery talked about. The sniffers. What had happened back at the Patch. People were dying, and for what? Aadesh had killed people. I had seen people die. I had fought monsters and lived. I had killed at the very least a Sniffer or two. They were people before. So, were we murderers, or did it even matter? Did anything matter? Society can’t judge if it doesn’t exist. You had to be your own judge. I felt guilty.
I glanced over at Aadesh, still sleeping. I could not for the life of me understand how he could sleep. Things, I thought, were much easier for people who had never dealt with addiction. That, or maybe he was just more tired than I was. I doubted it.
I was never one who allowed for much introspection. I was a mover, and that’s what I did. I got up and moved around, albeit slowly and unsteadily. After all, the room was completely dark. Everything was dark, though. And that was the very reason I had to move. I had to stop thinking. I had to act. I had to get a fix.
Like a fulfilled prophecy, my hands began to shake. I really needed to find that drink. I wanted to feel bad about feeling that way, but it was what it was. It wasn’t like my vices were going to disappear because things went to shit. That things had gone to shit made my addiction worse. At that moment, at least, it sure seemed like it had.
I grabbed a working lantern we scavenged earlier and began my search. The third floor was devoid of anything to fuel my needs. I already knew that. While we were looking for food and other needed items, my eyes were peeled. Nothing. I should’ve waited for Aadesh to wake up before going, but addiction isn’t known for making people do the right things. With all the dudes who worked in the oil fields, booze or drugs should’ve been easy pickens.
I worked my way to the backside of the first floor of the hotel. Nothing. It was like the entire town had become puritan suddenly. It made me wonder if puritans drank. I bet they did. If I were one, I would’ve, I thought.
A blink of light shown through one of the windows. Hoping I was seeing things, I moved towards the window where I thought I saw the light. I didn’t see them at first because the snow had picked back up, but then one of them pointed the flashlight towards the hotel.
At least two people looked over the Sniffers Aadesh had killed. One of them, I guessed, was a woman, pulled something out of her pocket, and began speaking into it. After a few moments, she turned to the person next to her, appeared to say something, before both began sauntering towards the hotel, rifles at the ready.
I hadn’t even thought about my own lamp until they began walking. “Dammit,” I said, barely above a whisper. The lamp was small, and the windows were frosted, but I couldn’t help but think they had seen me. I wasn’t even thinking. I was so damn stupid.
I had reached the landing to the second story when I heard reverberations of the entry door closing shut from below. I began bounding the steps by twos until I got to the third floor.
“Wake the fuck up, dude! People in the building!” I yelled, way too loudly.
“Whad de hell?” He murmured.
“Just shut up!”
There was only one way out, and that was the lone staircase, which led to the downstairs lobby. There was no means of escape that didn’t potentially cross paths with the two, armed searchers. We had to make the room as unlived-in as possible, and then maybe hide under the bed or something, and hope for the best. “Quick, the food, blankets, and whatever else… put it under the bed.”
Aadesh was up, moving one way and then another, with nothing in his hands. “Grab something, dude. They’re close, bro!” I growled.
That seemed to knock him out of his stupor. He began to help.
After we stashed as much of our gear as we had time for, we squeezed under the bed. Being the bigger of the two, I didn’t fit nearly as well under the bed as Aadesh had. It was dark, I thought. Maybe they wouldn’t notice, but then it dawned on me: the blankets. There was nowhere to hide all of them. There were so many giveaways in that room. I cradled my rifle. We were so fucked.
A rumbling noise could be heard off in the distance. Sounded like heavy equipment of some sort. Sure, that was a bad deal, but I had more significant worries, like the footsteps just down the hall, followed by the crash of a door being kicked in, and then another and another. All the while, the rumbling noise grew in intensity.
“How are we knowing dese people are bad?” Aadesh asked in a barely audible whisper.
Damn, I needed a drink. My brain was refusing to work. I was shaking badly. Either it was from lack of booze and drugs, or I was scared. Probably both. I settled on telling him, “They’re not cops, bro, and they’re kicking in doors.”
Aadesh pulled his rifle in tight.
The woman shouted in a language I didn’t recognize, from just down the hall. There were screams. The kind that was so high-pitched the gender-type was lost in the primalness of it. Aadesh flinched. I think I spoke, but I don’t remember what I said. There were two quick shots followed by a thud. There was a laugh and then more words spoken I didn’t understand.
At the time, I didn’t even think about us missing whoever was hidden in one of the rooms.
Then there was another door kicked in, followed by another. They were close as hell. Vehicles pulled up next to the hotel. The rumble of the large vehicle was also outside by this time. People shouted. That there were now more people outside sucked hope out of the room like we were in space, and someone opened a window. I began sweating a cold, terrible sweat. I readied myself for what was about to happen. I wasn’t, and by the way, Aadesh held his hunting rifle, he agreed, wasn’t going out with a fight.