Bad Things Page 14

  Kate and Mara grit their teeth, bracing themselves for this conversation.

  “I made cookies, you self-righteous jackass,” Stella barks from the back.

  Walter nods. Hard.

  “Fine. I’m sorry. That it?” Dibs asks. “That what you need to hear?”

  "Doesn't hurt," Walter says.

  Stella rolls her eyes. “It’s a start.”

  “You were kind of a…excuse me, Chief Dibs. We’re in mixed company here.” He turns to the ladies. “Mara and Kate, could we have a moment?”

  Mara and Kate look to one another. Are you kidding me?

  "Please," Walter continues. "I mean no offense, but I'm of a different type of upbringing. I know it's outdated, but I still believe women to be of a finer cut of cloth."

  Kate and Mara shrug. No idea where to go with that, but they peel off and head into the back of the Cougar, leaving Dibs and Walter alone in the front cab.

  Once Walter is satisfied the ladies are out of earshot. “Okay, you were a complete a-hole to me at the town hall. I brought you a fine plate of chocolate chip raisin cookies from Stella’s damn fine kitchen for God’s sake.”

  “A-hole? That’s why you shooed them off?”

  “Don’t deflect my rage, sir.”

  "Fine, again, I apologize." Dibs closes his eyes. Hurts so much to say. "I should have listened to you at the town hall. I was wrong." Deep breath. "The cookies were amazing, however."

  Walter gives a hard nod in acceptance, then offers his hand for a firm shake. Dibs takes the peace offering.

  “Okay. Now. Back to the unwanted visitors.” Walter dodges a hole in the dirt road. They’ve reached a slight incline not far from the meth lab land. “There’s a thought out there that advanced life has known about us on Earth forever. Ever since we’ve been here, at least. They’ve been watching us, studying our habits, even walked among us, but they don’t want to be here. Nobody out there wants to be here.”

  Dibs shakes his head. “What does that mean?”

  “Think of it like avoiding a bad neighborhood. The realtor takes you by there, you look around and say, Ah, no thank you.”

  “You saying that Earth is an undesirable location in the universe?”

  "No." Walter grips the wheel tight. "I'm saying Earth is the MOST undesirable location in the universe. The galaxy has collectively turned their noses up at us and moved on."

  Dibs chews on that one for a second. "So, who would come here to set up shop?"

  “You’re getting it.” Walter taps the tip of his nose then points at Dibs. “The worst in the universe.”

  “Or if they are the worst, and maybe…maybe if this King and his wives are on the run from something—"

  “Nobody will look here for them. They're claiming unwanted territory," Walter finishes.

  “And in case someone does come looking, they’ll want to take control of the place fast.”

  Walter closes his eyes. “Jesus. They’re going to Mayflower our bitch asses.”

  “Yes.” Dibs taps his nose and points to Walter. “Yes, sir.”

  Walter stops the Cougar. They’ve reached the front gate of the Christiansen brothers’ land. There's a fire burning down the hill somewhere deep in the woods beyond the trees. The first sign of life they've seen for miles.

  "Well, shit," Dibs says.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Dibs crawls on his belly to the edge of the hill.

  He convinced the ragtag bunch of the Stagstone Seven to stay back in the Cougar and let him have a look alone. Had to pull rank, I’m the chief and all that, but he eventually won out and slipped out with a pair of binoculars they found in the back. Looking out over the land it still seems so damn peaceful around here. The mountains. The streams. The trees that surround and protect the town from all the bad things in the world.

  Perhaps they did. But what’s going on with that fire down there isn’t from this world. No. That shit is from out of town.

  Just beyond the tree line, off the Christiansen brothers’ magical meth land, is a burning fire. A big one. Like a bonfire for a college football game. One that was created and carefully contained. Its flames rise up and lick the cold, nighttime sky. There's also a chained fence that closes off an area near the blaze.

  “What the hell?” Dibs says under his breath, pressing the binoculars tighter to his eyes.

  Inside the fence are people. The people of Stagstone. Looks to be all of them. At least what’s left of them. A few hundred or so maybe. They’ve been stripped down to their underwear and look to be freezing out in the night air. Two of the wives walk the fence line with their blue blades glowing and red eyes staring down at the terrified people inside.

  Quick math in Dibs’s jumbled brain tells him if that’s what’s left of the town, then the rest are more than likely part of King’s new army. He shudders. If King has a thousand or so on his side, then what? The rest is what? These people are being kept as what? An icy shard of realization hits Dibs like a train.

  “Son of a bitch.”

  One of the wives enters the fenced-in area and grabs a man by the throat, lifting him off his feet up and out of the area. His legs kick. His mouth stretches wide, screaming for his life. A scream that Dibs thankfully can't hear. Everyone inside the fence backs up, cowering away from the red-eyed beast. Dibs wants to run down there with guns blazing. He wants to get in there and save that poor bastard from what's about to happen to him. But he knows he can’t.

  He sees the rest of the people inside the fence. That’s who he has to focus on. Children inside are crying, holding their parents close. Men and women try to be brave, but Dibs can see it on their faces. They are terrified. They’ve seen too much to hold on to hope. The monsters are keeping the rest of the town alive for a very specific reason. These people are being kept as livestock. It’s civilization building 101. Build an army, establish a food supply. Dibs grinds his teeth.

  The wife takes the man deeper into the woods. Away to something that is shrouded in trees and shadow. Dibs loses them in the dark.

  Turning his attention back to the fence, he sees a familiar sight. Carol. Carol his once faithful dispatcher and not so proud member of the Stagstone PD. Sure, she's been a significant pain in Dibs’s balls ever since he got here, but he's actually relieved to see her. She still seems to be hacking like she always did, however something seems off about her. Something strange in her expression. In her eyes.

  He looks closer and his blood runs cold. He sees the red streaks in her eyes. The greyish tone to her skin. He remembers Mara telling him about what went down before he and Kate came to the station.

  “Oh God.”

  She’s carrying something in her chubby fist. Something long. Something she’s gnawing on, tearing her teeth away from with hard whips of her stumpy neck.

  "Oh, Carol. You always were a sick twat of a person."

  It's a bone. A human femur bone. Carol is pulling away the last bits of meat clinging to the bone as if she's finishing off a hot wing. Once satisfied she's gotten all she can, she flips the bone into the fire. Next to the blaze is a severed hand that looks like it was bitten off at the wrist. Carol licks her fingers then gives an enthusiastic wave to the people huddled inside the fence.

  “That’s it.” Dibs gets up off the ground. “This shit? Gotta end now.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “No way in hell we’re leaving them down there.”

  Dibs’s eyes are focused on the fire down in the woods as he climbs into the Cougar. He hands the binoculars over to Walter, who’s still at the wheel. The twins bounce up and down in the back like baboons hopped up on lattes with cocaine-infused foam. They cannot contain their excitement over the idea of loading up and going in after the aliens. Their smiles spread as big as sunsets. Their eyes are as wide as manhole covers. Stella tries to bring them down, but it's no use.

  Mara watches on. She’s painfully familiar with this manic state her brothers get into. Evil Twin Juice, she calls i
t.

  “I agree.” Walter cracks his knuckles. He does a better job than his sons of containing his joy about riding in like John Wayne. He leans in to Dibs. “But I don’t want to take the whole family in there.”

  Dibs glances to the back. Sees the faces of Walter’s whacked-out family. Then Kate.

  "We don't know everything out there," Walter continues, staring through the binoculars. He catches an eyeful of a torso being tossed into the fire. He sucks in through his clenched teeth. "Could roll down there, all of us breathing fire, and slide our butts right into an alien kill zone."

  Dibs nods, then motions to Walter. Your move.

  Walter turns around to his family behind them. He sighs heavily, his mind grinding on what to do, then moves into the back of Cougar.

  Dibs motions for Kate to join him up front so they can talk.

  Kate climbs up, squeezing past Walter into the driver’s seat. Puts her hands on the wheel. Feels good. “This is pretty damn cool,” she says with a purr.

  Dibs leans over and kisses her. Not sure what came over him in that moment, considering all that's going on, but felt he needed to get that in.

  Kate pulls back with a half-smile on her face. “What was that for?”

  “For snuffing out that wife with your whore shoe.”

  “Oh, you liked that?”

  “So hot.”

  They laugh and share another, longer kiss.

  Walter takes a seat between Stella and Mara in the back. Stella is trying to keep the twins from buzzing and twisting all over the Cougar. He breathes in deep. Thinks of saying something, stops, then starts again.

  “We need to go down there and save those people.” Walter looks into Stella’s eyes. “But I don’t think we should all go.”

  Stella shakes her head no. She has no intention of sitting this one out. The twins stop bouncing. What the hell? is plastered across their tiny, insane faces.

  “Stella.” Walter takes her hand. “I don’t know what’s down there. I can’t have all of us go and maybe not all come back.” Tears start to well in his eyes. “We’ve done too much. Come too far to get to this point and I can’t…I just can’t.”

  “Walter.” Stella takes his hand.

  “Stella.”

  “I’m dancing with who brought me here,” Mara butts in. “You crazies can do what you want, but I’m going in with them.”

  The twins nod, pointing to their big sister. We’re with her.

  “I know.” Walter smiles and places a hand on Mara’s shoulder. “You should. Those people need you.”

  Mara's heart swells inside her chest. This is the first time in her almost eighteen years the man has given her any form of recognition, let alone praise. She wants to break down and hug him, but knows that's not their way. Their way is to roll down there and slaughter some aliens. Their hug? Deliver an ass-beating.

  Walter surprises everyone. He hugs Stella tight and whispers in her ear. “Take the twins and go back to the house. If this goes sideways, we might be coming in hot.”

  “But…” She pulls away, looking into her husband’s eyes. Stella knows her husband. She knows that he’s serious. Knows that a fallback position is mega-important in any battle. “Should I jack a car?”

  “Yes. Maybe the—”

  “Black Caddy on Snowbird Lane?”

  Walter leans back. You couldn’t knock the grin off his face with a tire iron. He has such pride in his wife. She saw the car on the way in, made a mental note, and brought it up at the perfect time. He places Stella’s face in his hands. “I. Love. You.” He plants a kiss on her.

  She bites his lip, drawing a crack of blood.

  He loves it. Feels a little life in his pants.

  Mara wants to throw up.

  The twins are starting to understand this isn’t going to work in their favor. They’re getting pissed. Little deranged faces growing redder and redder by the second.

  "Now, boys." Walter wipes the blood from his lip. "You need to listen to your mother now."

  Their miniature jaws clench.

  “This isn’t your fight. Not yet. There will be more, many more, but this ain’t the one.”

  The bubbling rage under their skin is palpable.

  Stella sees it. She readies herself. Arches her back. Clinches her fists.

  “Now, darn it, boys.” Walter gets ready. He’s been here before too. “Stand down. You’ll get your shot at those alien sons of—”

  The twins launch at their father like two psychotic bowling balls fired from a cannon. Walter is thrown backward, slamming into the back of Dibs’s seat. Dibs’s face plants into the windshield. Stella grabs at the legs of one of the twins. Her arms thrash around like she's caught a shark by the tail. Mara gets her fingers in the mouth of the other, pulling him back by his lip. It's not working. The force of the little whackos is terrifying, yet inspiring at the same time. The foot wriggles free from Stella.

  Now it’s Stella’s face that goes red. Real red, real fast. “Stop this shit right fucking now!”

  The force of Mama’s bark makes every living thing in the Cougar stop cold. Everyone sits up straight as if a board was shoved up their ass.

  “Decisions have been made. Twins are with me. The rest of you, go kill them.”

  Some of the Stagstone Seven might have pissed their pants.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Mara checks her shotgun, her sidearm, then finally the thirty-eight on her ankle.

  It’s the third time she’s checked them.

  Kate has a Glock on her hip and an M16 cradled in her arms like a baby. Walter wishes he had his fifty-cal nestled in his arms, but he’ll settle for the M16 and Glock combo when the time comes. He'll be manning the Big Hog cannon up top until the time he needs to go boots on the ground with this mission. Happy to go, either way, he's said several times.

  Dibs thought about his weapon selections. He's decided to go by way of two shoulder holsters, a Glock in each, and an assault rifle in his paws. To start with, at least.

  They actually discussed the selection process, talked it out. It’s understood this will be a close-range fight, much like the party at Voss’s, only they need to be more careful. More bullets will fly, but they need to be more controlled. There are a lot more civilians around this time. More chances for a stray bullet to hit the unintended target. Good news is the civilians are contained to one area, so they can at least fight freely outside that area.

  The learning curve is steep on this thing. The goals are simple, however.

  Dibs has found over the years that simple objectives are best and easiest to remember when things slip into apeshit status out in the field. Field used to mean the streets of one of the world's largest cities, but in today’s case, it’s a natural field.

  The first goal is to free the good people of Stagstone. Second, kill as many of those alien fucksticks as possible. Third, kill the wives and, if at all possible, remove King from the living as well. The importance of these goals is jumbled. The order keeps getting changed. Where they should rank has been moved around. Dibs agrees with Kate. You can’t free the good people of Stagstone if the alien fucksticks are still running around trying to eat them, or if King and the wives are trying to convert them to the Shit Side. Shit Side is another phrase Dibs hopes catches on.

  They didn’t, however, discuss what would happen if they failed.

  Walter places a hand on Mara’s shoulder. “If they turn me, I want it to be you who blows my brains out.”

  Mara scrunches her face, pulling away. “Dad, what the hell?”

  “What?”

  “You want me to put a bullet in your brain?”

  “Yes. I mean only if it comes to that, of course.” Walter shrugs. “I’ll do that for you. If you want. It’d be an honor.”

  Mara thinks she gets it, but still. She decides to let it go.

  “How about we not let that become a thing?” Kate says. “We watch out for each other out there. Keep one another safe.”
<
br />   Mara agrees.

  Walter would rather they hash all this out ahead of time, but eventually he nods in agreement.

  "We done playing grab-ass?" Dibs asks, starting up the Cougar. He got a quick tutorial from Walter on driving this beast. It's easier than he thought. Not to mention, what he's about to do doesn't require a whole lot of high-level navigational skill. Drive straight down the hill. Fast is better than slow. Kill bad things.

  “We going to do this or what?” Dibs tries to act as if his heart hasn’t rocketed up into his sinuses. “Like to get the world back to normal.”

  “Are we really doing this?” Kate asks the question more to the universe than the people in the Cougar. Kate's nerves aren't much better than Dibs’s. Dibs takes her hand. She squeezes it tight, then with the softness of a whisper, says, "I'm ready."

  Walter claps his hands and looks to his daughter. Feels like he’s about to cry. Stops himself with a massive sniff, then climbs over to handle the Big Hog.

  Mara is the only one who looks excited. As much as she’s hated her upbringing, she has enjoyed using some of the skills she’s worked on mastering since she was two. A person doesn’t get much opportunity to use next-level survival tactics in a world that isn’t under attack. She cracks her knuckles. Pops her neck. “Holy shit,” Mara says through a laugh. “This is going to be so great.”

  Stella chases the twins down the vacant streets of Stagstone.

  She's in an all-out sprint, about ten yards behind her little racing monsters. She'll gain ground then lose ground. Those short legs can really motor. They’re not far from the black Cadillac Stella wants to boost. The perfect ride to get them back to the family compound. As her legs burn and pump, she thinks of Mara and Walter. She knows they will be safe. She knows what they can do, but she still worries. She's a wife and a mother and pressing pause on the worrying is not part of the gig.