“You can’t stay here, I can’t help you.”
I tried to look offended and picked up my bag. He slung his rifle by his side and started walking back to the house. I glanced across; Jack was hidden behind the wall.
“Hold on, can you help me with directions? I’ll just get my map,” I said.
Anthony turned back, shrugged his shoulders, and appeared bored. He looked up after a rumble of distant thunder.
During his brief moment of distraction, I pulled the Beretta out and pointed at his face in a single movement.
“Hello, Anthony.”
His eyes widened and he took a couple of steps back, grasping the rifle with his right hand.
Jack appeared to his left and shouted, “One more false move and you’re dead, your turn to reach for the sky.”
He held up his hands, “You’ve got this all wrong, that’s not my name.”
“The AR-15, the black Range Rover, the questions? Fuck off. You’re Anthony from Genesis Alliance,” I replied.
Lea ran up and stood behind him. He jerked his head to one side as he heard her footsteps approach, but kept his eyes on me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about; I’m just a regular guy who got through all of this by staying inside.”
“Is there anybody else in the house?” Jack said.
“No.”
“Put your hands behind your back and kneel.”
He complied; I could see his hands shaking.
“There’s someone you might like to meet,” I said.
He nervously looked at me. Lea walked around and faced him at my side.
“Oh shit,” he gasped.
“That’s him, that’s Anthony.”
Jack walked towards Anthony and smashed him in the face with the butt of his rifle. He fell and lay moaning on the ground.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“You’re going to find out soon enough. Tie him up, Jack,” I said.
Jack bound his wrists together and pulled him up to his feet.
“Where shall we do this?” Jack said.
“That garage. That’s where Jerry said he had a device, so we might find more things in there,” I replied.
“The fucking lizard. I knew it,” Anthony screamed, saliva sprayed from his mouth.
“You need to talk, Anthony, these guys are serious,” Lea said.
“Why are you doing this? What do you want from me?”
“Oh, come on, why do you think we are doing this?” Jack replied as he marched Anthony to the garage.
I swung open one of the large double doors and looked inside. In the far corner was a device, the same size as the one in Jerry’s barn. Along one side were typical garage contents, a mower, a hoe, a barbeque on wheels. On the other side, were stocks of food, water, and a desk at the end of the room. I walked over to the desk and found an impressive looking hunting knife and a Ruger LCR placed neatly on the right hand side. I checked the cylinder of the Ruger and it was fully loaded with five rounds.
“Jack, I’ve got us a pocket-pistol.”
“Nice one. I’ll take that.”
I placed both weapons in my bag, and then looked at a whiteboard hanging above the desk. Spidery writing in marker-pen was scrawled across it, but the codes and writing didn’t seem to mean anything. It would be easier to make Anthony talk, than attempting to make sense of his writing.
“Sit him down, Jack.” I said.
Jack pulled Anthony down by his shoulders and he dropped to his knees. Anthony looked across to Lea.
“Get these two to back-off and I’ll sort this out with Ron.”
Lea shook her head and took a step back.
“Just to let you know up-front, we water boarded Jerry, and cut his toes off with a pair of bolt-cutters to get him to talk. Don’t even think about wasting our time,” I said.
He didn’t know that Jerry still had all of his extremities attached and only suffered minor wounds.
“Are you going to kill me?”
“We’re not murderers like you. Tell us the Genesis Alliance plan or we move to stage one,” Jack replied.
“I can’t, he’ll…”
Anthony closed his eyes and rapidly nodded his head.
“If that’s how you want to play it,” Jack replied.
He reached into my backpack and pulled out the can of pepper spray.
“Any plastic bags around here?” Jack said.
Lea found one full of seeds, emptied it, and handed it to Jack. He walked around to the back of Anthony.
“Last chance, tell us about Genesis Alliance,” he said.
“I can’t, please you must understand.”
Jack sprayed the can across the front of Anthony’s face, and then covered his head with the plastic bag, holding it airtight around his neck. Anthony bucked violently and sucked all the air out of the bag, causing it to tighten around his face. After twenty seconds, Jack released him and he collapsed on the floor gasping for oxygen.
As he looked up in fear with bloodshot, streaming eyes, Jack picked up a roll of masking tape from the garage floor and held it up.
“I’ll tie his legs together, Harry, you take his shoe and sock off.”
“What do you want to know? I’ll talk.”
Anthony cracked a lot quicker than Jerry. I positioned myself in front of him and leaned down.
“What’s going to happen next, is there going to be another one of those activations?”
“Yes, tomorrow, but I can help you. Get me that—”
“Tomorrow? What time?” Jack snapped.
“Eleven in the morning, I only found out yesterday.”
“I don’t give a shit when you found out. Is it triggered by Ron in Monroe?”
“Yes, did Jerry tell you that?”
He looked at Lea suspiciously.
“Don’t look at her, look at me. You said you can help, how?” I replied.
“I can neutralise you, it’s a simple procedure, trust me.”
“Trust you? As if we would let you carry out any procedure on us. What about the next activation, and the one after that? We’ll never know when it ends,” Jack said.
“It’s a one-time procedure. Over there, in the corner, the cattle prod. Just zap yourselves on the head, it works.”
“Christ, you must think we’re all stupid.”
Anthony shook his head.
Jack was right, Anthony’s suggestion seemed ridiculous. We had found out that another activation was on its way and I couldn’t put my faith in him to help us avoid the consequences. He may have not been as openly offensive as Jerry, but I had to keep in mind what these people had done. I rubbed my eyes as I thought of what would happen to us, and any other survivor if we were hit with another activation. I turned to Lea.
“How far is Monroe from here?”
“About two hundred miles. We’d easily make it.”
I looked at Jack who nodded.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I said.
“Yeah, we need to deal with the organ grinder, not his monkeys. There’s no point wasting our time here with him.”
“I can help you. Seriously,” Anthony protested.
“Jack, tape his legs up.”
He nodded, pushed Anthony forward, and pulled his legs together.
“Lea, grab that masking tape and wrap it around his ankles and knees,” Jack said.
“What are you going to do with me?”
As both of them secured Anthony, I found two dog bowls amongst the clutter along the left hand side of the garage. I filled one of them with three cans of peaches and poured two bottles of water into the other.
“I’ll give you a clue; we’re not taking you to Splash Universe,” I said.
I headed out of the garage and over to the Range Rover, placing the dog bowls on the back seat.
“Make sure he’s secured and put him in the back,” I said.
Jack and Lea heaved him into the Range Rover as Anthony pleaded for mercy. I opened the driver’s side, took the keys, stabbed each tyre, and then opened the rear door by Anthony’s head.