“Home,” the blonde said.
“How far?”
The answer took several moments in coming. “About four blocks from here.”
“You live with your friends?”
“Yeah, we share a house together.”
“How many?”
Another long pause. “Five of us. Why?”
“Just wanted to know who I’ll be meeting, is all.” He motioned with is AK for them to start walking. “Why don’t you take us to your friends. We’ll make sure we don’t eat all their chips.”
Now petrified, the women could do nothing other than what they were told. They continued on down the sidewalk, this time with Nate behind them, munching chips. Martin followed along on the street, pushing the wheel-barrel.
They passed houses where people huddle outside around makeshift fires or inside with candles. Anyone who saw them zeroed in on Nate and Martin and then vanished from view.
If the women were hoping someone might intervene on their behalf, they were wrong.
Eventually they arrived at a cute two-story house. In the small front yard, three people were sitting around a large mound of glow-sticks talking and laughing.
Nate looked them over. Two red-headed babes and a gawky looking guy.
As they got closer, the people looked in their direction. Their expressions morphed into concern once they noticed Nate’s AK.
Nate’s group walked up onto the yard. “Howdy,” he said, cheerfully.
The others stood up, the two red-heads clutching at each other. The blonde and brunette ran over to them.
“These guys took our food!” the brunette said. “I think they want to rob us.”
“No, there will be no robbing,” Nate said with a smile. “You’re too pretty for that.”
The gawky guy walked up to Nate despite his weapon. “You guys need to leave. You’re not welcome here.”
Nate couldn’t tell if this guy was brave or stupid. He settled on stupid. “Now that’s not very friendly of you, is it? My friend and I need a place to hang out for a while. We thought we’d crash at your place. Your house is big enough.”
The guy put up a blustering front, probably to impress the girls. “I said you’re not welcome here. Leave.”
“No,” Nate said.
Shaking with agitation the guy said, “Who the hell do you think you are, fucker?”
“Who do I think I am?” Nate asked.
He shot the guy with a single burst from the AK, nearly cutting him in half. The women screamed in terror.
Nate looked them all over and smiled.
“Why… I’m your new king.”
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
“Are we there, yet?” Wyatt said.
They had been walking for what seemed like hours, but Wyatt couldn’t be sure. Time had lost all meaning once the entrance to the tunnel vanished from view.
“Almost,” Ethan said. He held the lantern high, its bright light creating glittery stars across the river next to them.
“You haven’t said anything in ages,” Wyatt said, casting his dead friend a suspicious look. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing,” Ethan said. “If anything, you are the one that is up to something. I’m just helping you along.”
“Okay, whatever,” Wyatt said. The syrupy feeling that had enveloped him early was gone. Now his mind was free to dance around all sorts of crazy thoughts. “You were always evasive, you know that?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I’m saying. You never shared with me your past or anything you were thinking beyond the next dumpster. Even after all these years.”
Ethan scoffed. “I need secrets, too, you know. You can’t corner the market on that. Other people have things they don’t want to talk about, either.”
“You’re avoiding the question.”
“No, I’m not. I’m choosing not to answer it, that’s all.”
They walked on in silence for a while. The tunnel did not vary in direction one degree, just a straight line. Nor did it dip downward, for which Wyatt was actually grateful for. He was hoping to get out of this place soon enough.
“My arms hurt,” Wyatt said for the twentieth time.
“And you know I can’t do anything to help with that,” Ethan said. “We’ll get those restraints off when we find some help.”
“Is that what we’re doing? Finding help? I thought we were looking for answers to questions, or some such nonsense.”
Ethan didn’t respond, only kept moving forward. Wyatt had little choice but to follow along.
After a while, Ethan said, “I was an accountant.”
Wyatt was poleaxed by this revelation. “No way! A numbers guy?”
Ethan nodded.
Wyatt shook his head. “That’s amazing. You never struck me as the office type.”
Ethan scoffed. “An office is its own kind of dumpster, believe-you-me. But if I had a choice between running reports all night in time for the month end cash flow or rolling around in garbage, I’d take the garbage option every time.”
Wyatt walked along in stunned silence. Then he said, “How much did you make?”
“Salary? More than cans and bottles.”
“No, seriously.”
Ethan was quiet a moment, then said, “Six figures a year. Not including bonuses.”
Wyatt laughed, looking at his friend in unabashed amazement. “I don’t believe it. Six God-damned figures a year. And now you’re… you’re… uh.”
“Dead?” Ethan finished for him.
“Yeah, dead. Sorry about that.”
“You have absolutely nothing to apologize for. What happened, happened. There’s no going back.”
Wyatt shook his head. “Yeah, but if I had handled those Feral Kids differently, maybe things would have turned out another way.”
Ethan shook his head. “No, it wouldn’t have.”
“What do you mean?”
Ethan stopped, catching Wyatt off guard for a second and nearly causing him to fall into the river.
“Whoa, hey!” Wyatt said. The river raged by, the lantern light creating silver serpents across its surface.
“Things were not meant to turn out differently,” Ethan said, his eyes never leaving Wyatt’s. “They happened the way they were intended to.”
“I don’t get it,” Wyatt said. He could feel the drying blood from his wrists on the small of his back, thick and sticky.
Ethan sighed, closing his eyes.
Wyatt waited, not sure what his friend was up to.
Ethan opened his eyes and looked at Wyatt. “If I hadn’t had died then I wouldn’t have been in any position to guide you. We would still be out there jumping into dumpsters and counting pennies.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that. Dumpster diving, I mean.”
“No, but you were meant for more than that and you know it.”
Wyatt mulled that over. “About that. What’s with me dipping in and out of… I don’t know how you would describe it…”
“Crazy?”
“Yeah, crazy. Why is that happening? It never happened before.”
“That you remember.”
This just confused Wyatt more. “Now I’m all turned around. You mean I’ve slipped into crazy-town before? Before today?”
Ethan watched his friend, the lantern mading his eyes appear like black pits. “Yes, Wyatt. You have. Many times. Now, can we continue on? We’re almost there.”
He continued walking, but it was the last sentence that snagged Wyatt’s attention. “We’re almost out of here? Really?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know? How do you know any of this?”
“You want to know the secret as to how I know we’re almost out of here?”
“Yeah, tell me.”