DeadEarth: Mr. 44 Magnum (2 page)

The hour came and went in what felt like an
instant. Shade found herself standing next to her sisters in the
stable. Blood from Shadowless Night and Delilah soaked the floor.
Her father threw down a layer of hay for Lou’s sake, but it didn’t
help much. She clung to Rikka with her face half buried in her
side, shaking uncontrollably.

A table separated the sisters from their
father, and the horses behind him. Rikka’s knife and a loaded 9mm
pistol rested on it, waiting for Shade to choose one.

Their father was an ex-Navy SEAL with a
penchant for mind games. Though he stood at a meager 5’7”, his
strength, prowess, and know-how was matched by none. He taught his
daughters everything the Navy and life had taught him.

His muscular, clean-shaven face was locked in
a stern expression as he stared at his middle child. Shade imagined
her expression matched his as she prepared herself for what she was
about to do. With a heavy sigh, she walked over the table, picked
up the gun, and ejected the clip onto the floor. She popped the
bullet out of the chamber and let it fall to the ground as well. A
quick glance at her father’s expression revealed nothing, like he
expected that of her.

She hated that.

Shade picked up the knife and walked past the
table to the stall housing Lou’s horse, Your Not-So-Ordinary
Enigmatic Puppy. She smiled when she thought of his name. She
helped Lou come up with it five years ago when Mom gave the colt to
her. She told Lou that great horses had great names. Lou wanted her
horse to be the greatest, and gave him a name to fit.

Shade tucked the knife in her belt loop and
slowly opened the stable door. Puppy greeted her eagerly, nudging
and licking at her hands for an apple that would never come.

“Long goodbyes, Shade,” Rikka reminded
sternly.

Shade ignored her. She walked around the
horse, brushing the soft brown coat with her bare hand. When she
neared the horse’s rump, she removed the blade and circled around
the other side. Shade looked to her sisters, and then to her
father. Taking a breath, she pulled the dagger back and stabbed the
horse in the rear, barely piercing the flesh of his croup. Puppy
neighed and bucked. He darted towards the open barn door, nearly
colliding with Lou and Rikka, who narrowly managed to dive out of
the way.

A liberating smile spread across Shade’s face
as she watched him go. Before meeting her father in the barn, she
broke out sections of the gate, leading him to true freedom. It was
her plan for Delilah. She’d give him the night to saunter about,
and then wake up early to track him. She knew a great place in the
woods near a shed she and her mom built ages ago. It wouldn’t take
much work to fence off a makeshift pasture. They had plenty of wire
lying around, and no one would miss they hay and vitamins needed to
keep him healthy.

Puppy was a third of the way across the
grazing pasture when her dad slid the gun off the table and picked
up the magazine.

“You could have made it quick,” he said,
loading the weapon. “Now, Pup’s going to die slowly.” He pulled
back the slide and released it. Taking his stance, he aimed…

“Dad, please,” Shade screamed. “Please. We
have—”

…and fired.

All three sisters covered their ears as three
jarring cracks filled the barn.

Chapter 2: “The world’s dead. I don’t think
it’s coming back.”

Shade lay in bed staring up at the ceiling.
Dried blood caked her hands from her battle with death. After her
father shot Puppy, she ran across the baron grazing pastures and
tried to stop the bleeding. She couldn’t. And her dad was
right—Puppy did die slowly. She watched the life fade from his eyes
and knew she would never be able to forget it.

Her dad entered the room and sat on the foot
of her bed. He didn’t say anything for a long moment, so Shade knew
he was in ‘Dad mode’. Gently lifting one of her hands, he ran a
warm, damp rag along her palm and fingers to clean off the blood.
Shade snatched it away and turned her back to him.

“Sooner or later, they would have died—”

“We have enough hay to last a while, Dad.”
She spat his name with all the scorn she could muster. “That was
just a lesson to you. Shouldn’t you be congratulating Rikka? She
passed.”

“If we didn’t kill them, someone else would
have. Food is growing more and more scarce, Bug. A month and a half
in and martial law is declared… Meat is a commodity that people
will start killing for...”

“Everything you taught us, was it just to
survive?” Shade turned to her father. “Or was it to survive and
protect the ones we love?” By the look in his eyes, she knew the
answer. “Let me tell you something, once the world runs out of its
meat and plants reserves, what do you think they’re going to turn
to? I guess I should just kill you, Mom, Lou, and Rikka now before
someone else comes to do it.”

Her father opened his mouth to speak but she
shouted for him to leave. He paused for another moment, and then
stood and walked towards the door. Before he exited, Shade called
out to him.

“Did you kill her foal?” She didn’t want to
know the answer, but she needed to.

He responded by closing the door behind
him.

Tears of anger and sadness streamed down
Shade’s cheek as she hammered her pillow. It was moments like these
that she hated her father. Everything was a test or a mind game to
him. She understood why Rikka killed Delilah and Shadowless Night.
It was out of duty, and Shade could forgive that. But her father...
He could have shot Puppy in the head. She would have understood
that. A clean, quick death. But he didn’t. He wanted him to suffer.
He wanted to teach his daughters a lesson. And she was tired of
learning lessons.

The door opened again. This time Lou emerged.
Shade hid her hands under her pillow and smiled through her tears.
“Hey, Lugia,” she greeted with a shaky voice. Lou smiled
broadly.

Lou was obsessed with Pokémon and loved being
called one. Shade was the only one patient enough to learn
everything she could about the game and series. When she found out
about the Pokémon Lugia, she gave the nickname to her sister.

As a sixteen year old, Lou stood at an
unassuming five-eight. A perfect blend of both Shade and Rikka, she
sported long hair and a lighter skin tone. She had the slight
angular face and curvaceous build of her oldest sister, but Shade’s
freckles and temperament…mostly.

“Thank you for trying to save Your
Not-So-Ordinary Enigmatic Puppy.” She never used his nickname. “Dad
says we need them for meat.” The dejection in her voice was
evident.

Shade wanted to tell her sister how much of
an idiotic jerk their dad was, but she held her tongue. Rikka had
just finished easing Lou out of her isolation. The last thing Shade
wanted to do was to say something that got her riled up. “He’s
doing what he thinks is right,” she said instead.

Lou meekly glanced around the room. Nothing
had changed since the last time she was in there. The walls were
still barren and white. A long, Spartan dresser dominated the
longest wall of her bedroom while a futon occupied the smallest.
The only thing that added any life to the room was the loaded 9mm
that sat on the window sill. And if it wasn’t for the abundance of
natural light and fresh air pouring in from the open window, the
room would have looked no different from an asylum’s dorm room.
Living frugally was just another part of her father’s lesson.

“I saw the last leaf fall,” Shade said.

“Do you think it will grow back?”

Shade turned and looked out the window. There
was no green anywhere. She never realized how colorless and bland
the world looked without the green of grass or trees. Even the
birds and the crickets stopped singing their harmony. She found
herself searching the grazing pastures to see if her father put out
a bale of hay for the horses. Then she remembered the blood on her
hands.

“No. The world’s dead. I don’t think it’s
coming back.” She looked back at Lou. “But don’t worry. We have
enough food and medicine in the bunker to last us a while.”

“Fifty-five years,” Lou clarified. “I’m going
to ask dad how long the horse meat will last.” Without another
word, she skipped out of the room.

Shade pulled her hands from under her pillow
and rolled out of bed. She followed Lou out, but turned left into
the bathroom instead of heading downstairs.

An endless stream of news poured out of the
TV. Shade tried her best to ignore it as she washed the blood from
her hands, but when the anchorman announced a personal plea from
the President, she paid rapt attention.

“President Arsenaught is calling for all
reserve and able-bodied ex-military personnel to report to the
nearest recruitment office to assist our overwhelmed forces in
keeping the peace...”

The television went silent. Except for the
running faucet, the entire house was silent. Shade cut off the flow
of water and reached for a hand towel as she listened, waiting for
the slightest sound. She stepped out of the bathroom and looked
over the balcony and into the foyer. Rikka stood in front of the
door with the remote in her hand staring up at Shade.

After a full minute of silence, the storm
came. Their father tore through the back door and beelined to the
stairs without so much as a glance at his daughters. Lou followed
him in but stopped just short of the staircase. He brushed past
Shade and walked into his room, closing the door behind him.

Pissed, Shade cursed her father under her
breath then walked to her room and slammed the door. She paced for
a moment, searching the cell she called a room for something to
throw. There was nothing, so she kicked a hole in the wall instead.
Her father always found new and exciting ways to get under her
skin.

Shouts sounded from the other side of the
door as Rikka confronted her father.

“So you’re leaving, just like that.”

“I have a duty to my country, Rikka—”

“Yeah? And what about your family? You’re
just going to leave us here? The world turns to shit and you just
up and leave?”

“Watch your mouth. And I’m leaving to protect
you. If the government fails, everyone’s screwed. The President
herself asked for —”

“Fuck the President,” Rikka screamed. Dad
fell silent. Shade listened as his thick boots pounded the ground
as he walked past her door.

“There’s plenty of food, water, and weapons
in the bunker. Just stay on the farm until I get back—”

“And if you don’t come back?”

“I’ll be back in two months, tops.”

“But if you don’t come back,” Rikka pressed.
“What are we supposed to do?”

There was a pause. Shade walked over to her
door and stared at it, waiting for her father’s response. Her
breaths were deep, but soft as she strained her ears to hear his
response.

“If I don’t come back, I taught you
everything you need to know to survive. Use it. You’re in charge…
until I get back. And I will be back.” He started down the
stairs.

“So that’s it. Just like that, you’re
leaving.”

“Long goodbyes just hurt more. I love you.
Lou. Shade, I love you too. Stay safe, and I’ll see you soon.”

Shade listened as her father walked
downstairs, through the living room, and out of the front door. The
house was silent again as the weight of what just happen fell over
each of them. Shade opened the door. Rikka stood right outside of
it staring down the stairs in utter disbelief.

“Did...did he just leave?” It was a stupid
question, but Shade had to ask.

Rikka looked at her, awe dominating her
expression. “Yeah,” she muttered.

“Just like that? With a two minutes warning
and a half-ass goodbye, he just left?”

Rikka sighed, shedding the perplexed
expression. “Fuck. Now I have to kill and gut the rest of the
horses.”

Chapter 3: “Be safe, Rikka.”

Shade remained shut up in her room while
Rikka tended to the horses. She didn’t want to hear, see, or smell
what the horse gutting process entailed. Of course, her father made
her do it from time to time, though on smaller animals. She could
never wipe the look of utter disgust from her face when she cut
open their stomachs and watched everything spill out. And the sound
it made…

The first time she left her room was for
dinner. Rikka was anal about the family eating at least one meal
together, especially after their parents’ divorce. Dinner was the
designated ‘family meal’. Though Shade preferred eating alone, she
wasn’t big on conflict. She ate with her family simply to humor her
sister and keep the words—and occasionally fists—from flying. She
never sat at the table though. Their mother always ate standing up,
and Shade took up that trait, much to Rikka’s dismay

“Are the horses...?” Shade cast her eyes
downward to her plate of leftover lasagna.

“Yeah. They’re...” She glanced at Lou. “Just
stay out of the barn.”

Shade nodded and went back to eating.

Lou set her fork on her plate and crossed her
arms in front of her. It was a ritual of sorts for her. Anytime she
crossed her arms at the dinner table, a question would follow. And
they were never easy questions. The last time she crossed her arms
at the table, she all but forced her father to explain what an
orgasm was. That was a very awkward meal.

“What could have made all the plants die at
the same time?” she asked, looking from Rikka to Shade expectantly.
She would not continue eating until she had a satisfying
answer.

Rikka set her fork down and leaned her chair
back on two legs. She thought for a moment before offering a
rebuttal. “I think it’d be easier to narrow down what it couldn’t
have been, don’t you think?” It never ceased to amaze Shade how
kind and gentle Rikka was to Lou, and how much of a bitch she was
to her.