DeadEarth: Mr. 44 Magnum (3 page)

Lou smiled. “Okay. Well, it wasn’t any of us,
right?”

“Right,” Shade said as she walked over to the
table and sat down. She had been wracking her brain for an answer
for weeks with no success. She knew the rest of her family had
thoughts on the matter too, but no one openly discussed them. It
seemed like everyone was silently waiting for a
geo-something-ologist to offer up not only an explanation, but a
solution as well.

“Are we ruling out pollution, too? You know,
like the holes in the ozone, gamma radiation, and stuff like that,”
Rikka asked with a raised brow.

“I think so,” Shade said. “If it was
pollution, I don’t think it would happen so quickly. I mean,
wouldn’t there be signs? I don’t see Mother Nature tossing in the
towel before even stepping in the ring.”

Rikka nodded thoughtfully. “So, it’s a
unanimous ‘no’ for pollution?” Shade and Lou nodded as well. “What
about…” she shrugged, “some kind of weapon someone lost control
of?”

“Like a sci-fi movie,” Shade said with a
laugh. Rikka cut her eye at her middle sister until the giggling
subsided. Shade locked her eyes on the table and huffed as she
shook her head gently. She suddenly lost the desire to want any
part of the conversation.

“Hmm,” Lou grunted, pursing her lips
together. She was clearly taking the idea seriously. “Maybe they
didn’t lose control of it.”

Shade and Rikka looked at their youngest
sister quizzically.

“You think someone did this on purpose?”
Rikka asked. “What would the endgame be?”

“It’s like Dad says, scare someone enough and
you can get them to do anything you want.” Lou uncrossed her arms
and went back to nibbling at her lasagna. It was a clear sign that
the conversation was over. She had arrived at her conclusion,
however bizarre.

The older sisters locked eyes, silently
questioning each other about the possibility of using fear to
achieve world domination. After a full minute, Rikka was the first
to break eye contact. She shook her head, seeming to banish the
thoughts from her mind, and eased her chair back on four legs.
Following her lead, Shade stood and returned to the refrigerator to
lean on as she ate.

An hour later, Shade sat on her futon with
her feet propped up on the windowsill, listening to the thick
nothingness that crawled in from her open window. Once upon a time,
the yard was alive with chirps, hoots, and buzzes of every pitch
and variety. Her mother used to tell Shade about how she felt left
out. Every night, the bugs and birds were partying and never once
did they invite her along. She smiled at the memory, but it quickly
faded. There wasn’t a party anymore. Everything was dead or dying.
Her mom didn’t answer her calls or return her messages. Her dad
left, leaving her to deal with Rikka’s rage on her own. And on top
of that, all Shade could think about were the last words she said
to her parents, especially her mom.

Initially, after the divorce, her mom left
the ranch and found a nice little apartment ten minutes outside of
town. Then, even though their family was broken, it was easy to
imagine that nothing had changed. Shade and her sisters still saw
both parents around the dinner table every evening. And even though
they had a lot to work out, her mom and dad still managed to laugh
and joke together—if only for their daughters’ sake.

But then her mom was offered a
‘life-changing’ job halfway across the country. Rikka urged her to
accept it, but Shade and Lou begged for her not to. Their family
was already broken, she didn’t want the pieces scattered in the
wind—especially since Rikka received and accepted a scholarship to
a college two-hundred and twenty-nine miles away. Shade didn’t want
her family to completely fall apart, but that’s exactly what
happened when their mom accepted the job.

“Fine. Go,” Shade said the day her mom was
set to board the plane. “But don’t expect your family to welcome
you back with open arms when it doesn’t work out.”

That was the last time she’d spoken with her
mom. Nine days later, the world started to die. When Shade finally
mustered the courage to reach out, it was too late. Her mom’s phone
was disconnected and she stopped logging on to her Facebook
account. Though Shade still logged in to check from time to time,
her last status update always read, I truly miss the loves of my
life. Shade. Rikka. Louise. I’m thinking of you always.

Sighing, Shade turned her attention to the
cool northern breeze floating in. She inhaled deeply but stopped
mid-breath when she heard the distinct whine of the rusted stable
door. She eased her feet off the sill and leaned forward. Rikka?
she thought as she searched the darkness. But she hadn’t heard her
sister leave the house. Shade stood, scanning the illuminated porch
just below her window. The back door was closed, and it didn’t open
from the outside. Unless Rikka went out the front door and circled
the house, she was still inside.

Shade tore her attention away from the window
when she heard the faint click of her bedroom doorknob turning.
Without a moment’s hesitation, she grabbed her 9mm and aimed it at
the door as she ducked behind the futon. With eyes already adjusted
to the dark of her room, she stared intently at the door as it
swung open.

“Shade. You in here?” Rikka whispered.

Shade stood. “You heard it too?”

Rikka nodded. “And Lou’s in her room.”

The stable door creaked again, and then eased
shut with a gentle bang. Someone was trying to be quiet.

The sisters remained perfectly still,
straining their ears for the slightest sound. Two long minutes
passed before the silence was broken—this time by the jiggling of
the back door just below Shade’s room.

“Five eight six nine six two zero,” Rikka
whispered urgently. “Get to the bunker. I’ll grab Lou and meet you
down there. Don’t open the door for anything.”

Rikka’s gaze hardened as she gave the
instruction. The twinkle in her eyes faded much like the glint in
Puppy’s eyes when he died. The transformation was near immediate.
The Rikka she knew and loved was ripped away, replaced by a warrior
that took lives without a second thought.

The room grew cold as a chill dragged itself
up Shade’s spine, as fear and utter admiration mingled in her
chest. She tore her eyes away from her sister as she made her way
towards the staircase. She wondered if she would ever be able to
let go like that—to allow herself to be fueled only by duty and
survival.

She didn’t know. But as long as Rikka was
around, she was sure she’d never have to find out.

Shade darted towards the stairs, conquering
them two at a time. She nearly fell as she swung around the
banister towards the fake thermostat attached to the wall on the
side of the staircase. She flipped up the cover to reveal the
keypad, and punched in the code—five eight six nine six two zero.
She stepped back as the hydraulic system silently lifted the bottom
half of the staircase to reveal another set of stairs that
descended into the bunker. Shade hurried inside, tripping the
motion sensor that closed the door behind her.

The lights flickered to life once the door
sealed. The bunker was about the size of two average bedrooms. Two
army-style bunk beds took over the far right corner while food,
water, medicine, munitions, bleach, fuel, electric heaters, and
clothing took over the remaining space on the walls. Two SUPRQUIET
generators sat on either side of the couch in the ‘living room’,
dividing the entire space into three sections. The back end of both
generators were encased in metal that channeled the exhaust through
the floor and outside.

Their father recently moved a TV into the
shelter and purchased over four hundred DVDs to keep them occupied.
Board games, cards, and a PlayStation 4 were stored on the shelves
under the television.

Shade’s heart pounded in her ears as she
headed for the weapons cache. She grabbed a M1911A1 pistol equipped
with a suppressor and flicked off the lights. Taking a few breaths
to get her heart rate under control, she aimed her weapon at the
entrance.

“You better not come in here hot,” she
whispered to herself. Images of both her sisters flashed before her
mind. Shade instinctively tightened her grip on the pistol, but
forced herself to relax moments later. “Be safe, Rikka.”

Seconds passed like minutes. Even though she
was in a soundproof room, Shade strained her ears in attempts to
hear even the slightest of sounds. She was met with silence. A
thick, foreboding silence. For a moment, she imagined that was what
Death sounded like, but she quickly banished the thought from her
mind.

Light pierced the darkness as the entrance
opened. Shade lifted the pistol as she squinted through the white
haze. She saw Lou first. Rikka stood directly behind her with a
hand firmly placed over her mouth. Lou tried to pull away, but her
attempts were futile. Fear instilled itself in her gaze as her eyes
locked on the weapon aimed in her direction. It took the middle
sister a long moment to realize Rikka threatened her with a pistol
of her own.

The staircase closed behind them. Only when
it sealed did Rikka release her little sister. Lou began to
cry.

“You alone down here?” Rikka asked, not
lowering her weapon.

“Just me and the voices in my head.” Shade
replied. That was code for all clear. Anything else would have
resulted in gunfire.

The sisters lowered their weapons
simultaneously. Rikka closed her eyes and sighed heavily. When she
opened them, Shade could see the glint of life in her eyes again.
Her sister was back. For now.

Rikka placed her gun on the generator and
kneeled down next to Lou. “There are at least six of them. I
couldn’t tell if they had any weapons. If not, they do now.” Rikka
wrapped her arms around her sister and whispered apologies in her
ear as she kissed her cheek.

“Three pistols, a rifle, and a box of ammo
for each. And that’s if they find all of them. We’ve got more than
that under one of the bunk beds.”

“Even still, we wait until Dad comes back. If
he wants us to come out shooting, he’ll give us the word. Until
then, we stay put, okay?” Rikka asked.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Shade
replied.

Chapter 4: ‘Use it to your advantage, but
never become a victim of it.’

A month and a half in the bunker was enough
to drive Shade batshit. She took to pacing around the generators
while Rikka and Lou played Mario Party on the PS4. She wasn’t a
gamer, and Rikka and Lou were too far gone in a Mario competition
for something like Monopoly. So that left her to her own devices.
Or rather, walking around devices. And cleaning them.

Shade took apart, cleaned, and reassembled
every gun and rifle they had in the bunker. Every blade was made
razor sharp as was every arrow and caltrop. Smoke grenades and
flashbangs were all polished and meticulously placed back on the
shelf. Everything Shade thought to do, she did. And after three
weeks, nothing was left.

“Dad’ll be back in a week, give or take. Just
relax, Shade. This might be the last time we have to do so.”

“Have you ever thought about what’ll happen
if he doesn’t come back? What do we do then?”

Lou slammed the PlayStation remote on the
ground and darted over to her older sister. Before Rikka had a
chance to reply, Lou began pounding on Shade’s chest and face while
screaming incoherently. Shade tripped taking a step back and fell.
Lou landed on top of her, still hammering her with unrestrained
fists.

Rikka was on them in a moment, pulling her
flailing sister off as Shade slid back towards the bunk bed. Her
eye throbbed and her nose was bleeding, but otherwise she was fine.
She felt lucky considering the broken bones and concussions her
sister usually gave when she had a violent episode.

Rikka managed to pin Lou’s hands to her side.
With a practiced technique, she tucked her face into Lou’s neck to
thwart the head butts and fell back on the couch so she could wrap
her legs around her thighs to stop the kicking. Lou still screamed
at the top of her lungs.

“We have a tranquilizer gun,” Shade
suggested, pinching the bridge of her nose to stop the
bleeding.

“No. No, I got her.” Rikka said. She took a
breath. “Stop cry-ing. Thing with be-eee okay,” she sang softly.
Her voice was like flower petals, delicate and smooth. “No need to
fight. I’ve got you.”

That was one thing Shade admired about her
sister. She could make up a song on the spot and sing it
angelically. Her melodies always calmed Lou down when she had an
episode.

Shade sighed and picked herself off the
floor. She made her way to the medicine cabinet as the fringes of a
headache settled behind her left eye. The cabinet was organized
from left to right; weakest to strongest. She grabbed the Tylenol
and swallowed two dry. She chewed a third for faster results. It
tasted like vomit, but she was used to it. After she sealed it, she
put it back on the far left, label out.

Just to have something to do, she turned the
rest of the meds so the labels were facing outwards. Vicodin and
OxyContin stood at the far right. She paused with her hand on the
OxyContin, wondering how she’d feel if she took one. Part of her
wanted to try it, but a bigger part of her didn’t want to give up
the clarity of a sober mind. She put the vial back on the shelf and
closed the cabinet. She’d missed her chance for recreational drug
use.

“I’m going to take a nap before this headache
gets any worse. Call me if you need me,” Shade said.

Rikka didn’t respond, just kept singing.

***

Anxiety hung in the air like smog as the time
for their father’s arrival grew near and finally passed. Rikka
cursed more, Shade cleaned and paced more, and Lou withdrew inside
herself. Apart from the gentle hum of the generators, silence ruled
every inch of the bunker with an iron fist. Entire days passed like
that.