Shades of Gray (3 page)

“Oh. Shit.” Mia finally realized what this guy was.

Our new friend, Andy, was a cannibal. I mean, I didn’t know for sure, but I had a damn good feeling. Jake raised his rifle and leveled it on Andy, causing Mia to do the same. This stopped him from moving forward, and he held his hands up in front of him, cleaver still gripped tightly.

“There were more people here a week ago, Kase. Where are they?” Jake whispered quickly without taking his eyes off Andy.

I had been wondering the same thing. Obviously most of them were dead and eaten; there had been more than this one man living here when the distress call came in. Michael had mentioned hearing other voices in the background, and he’d also mentioned talking to a woman. Our experience with the last crazy bunch of assholes had us wondering if the remaining survivors here were going to burst from the houses with guns blazing.

“Where are the others, Andy?”

Those hairs on the back of my neck started doing their little dance again as my mind instantly played the image of kids chained up in a basement, some tortured, some beaten, slowly starving to death as a handful of crazed adults cut away small pieces of their flesh, a little at a time.

“Oh, them. They’re inside, where it’s warm. Can’t stand the cold, like me.”

“And what were you doing before we interrupted you?” I asked.

His eyebrows went up and he waved the cleaver in the direction of the house on our right, one of the front houses. “Well, I was going over there to get supper.”

My eyes flicked towards that house and I noticed the back door stood wide open. I scanned over to the other front house; the back door was open as well. If I followed my own logic and stayed with the cannibal theory, then this guy was using the fireplaces to cook people.

I swallowed hard and tore my eyes away, forcing them back on Andy. I hadn’t heard the response over the radio, but it usually didn’t take long for the Blackhawk to arrive. We weren’t that far from Blueville Correctional, as the crow flies. I guessed we only had to keep ourselves alive for another fifteen minutes. In this situation, it was backup, not an evacuation.

“Where are they? The ones you say can’t stand the cold, like you,” Mia piped up beside me.

Her voice was strong and clear, and when I glanced over I saw she looked very calm. Her right index finger barely touching the trigger of her rifle was the only thing that gave her away. Andy turned sideways and waved his hand towards the house he had been leaving when he saw us.

“Over there.” He kept watching us with an empty smile, the kind that never reaches the eyes.

“Why don’t you ask them to join us out here?” Mia asked. Andy shuffled backward towards the house. “No, no, Andy. Don’t move. Yell for them to come out.”

The nutjob scratched his head with his empty hand, shaking it and grunting. “Nooo, no I can’t do it, ma’am. Really sorry and all, but I just can’t do that.” He shifted from one foot to the other.

I clenched my jaw and pulled my rifle tightly against my shoulder. This asshole looked like he was about to run, and if he did, I’d go against Waters’ instructions.

“We should go in,” Jake’s voice hitched. I shook my head once as Mia continued talking.

“Why can’t you do that? You know we’re here to help you, right? Get you folks out of here, someplace warm and safe?”

She had even started lowering her rifle.

Well, I understood where she was going with this, but no way was I lowering mine. Andy scuffed his feet around a few minutes, biting his lip and trying to decide whether he wanted to talk to Mia or not. Maybe he was trying to decide which part of her to eat first. I caught myself wondering why there had been a body in the front yard. Wasn’t that a waste of food to these people? My eyes drifted to the snow-covered ground.

Cannibals. Corpse in the front yard. Snow…they’re using the snow for refrigeration.

“Well…I had to restrain them,” Andy finally said. He actually managed to sound guilty.

“How many? How many are left and why did you have to restrain them?” Mia pressed.

I was beginning to think he wasn’t going to answer; his face puckered up like he was going to cry and he kept looking back at the house.

“Well, Marie got bit, then she bit a couple others. They killed her right away, which I thought was pretty wasteful. Then later…” He scratched his chin, trying to remember. “Later they left and never did come back. I suppose they must’ve run into some kind of trouble. I don’t know for sure now. I had to restrain the rest.” He held his hands up, cleaver still waving, his face alarmed. “Now they weren’t
all
bit. Just two of them. But I said to myself, ’Self, you better tie them all up, cause if the others don’t come back, you’ll never be able to control all of them by yourself.’ So that’s just what I did. Took those kids upstairs, tied them all up, kept the grownups downstairs where I could see them. There’s not as many now as there were…”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the barrel of Jake’s gun shaking.

“Anyways, there’s five lef—”

A bullet from Jake’s rifle stopped poor Andy short of finishing his grisly tale. I’d been so engrossed with what he had been saying that the sudden shot startled me, causing my rifle to almost fall from my hands. Andy was knocked back on his ass, the cleaver skidding across the snow. He screamed and grabbed his shoulder.

Then he did something I couldn’t
not
laugh at: little hairless Andy started throwing a tantrum.

He threw himself backwards, looking for the world like he was going to make a snow-angel. Crying, shouting, swearing, and kicking his feet. The works. Mia actually had to punch my upper arm to shut me up. I cleared my throat several times while she snapped her head around, doing a quick scan of the area. Of course she saw nothing, so I dismounted after her. Jake was already off his horse and kicking at the gate, casting a few glances back at me. He grunted each time his foot slammed into the wood, and after several kicks, the gate flew back.

We slung our rifles over our shoulders and drew our handguns. Jake walked straight over to Andy, Mia and I headed towards the house Andy had stepped from. Just before Jake pulled the trigger and stopped Andy’s crazy screaming, I thought I heard the far off
thwump-thwump
of a helicopter. Mia was ahead of me, taking point, and I could hear Jake jogging to catch up. Just as we started up the porch steps, Jake passed me and pressed himself against the wall on the left side of the door. Mia did the same on the right, which left me to go in first. Great.

“Cover me.” I strode through the doorway, gun up and eyes darting back and forth, quickly seeing the kitchen I had walked into was empty.

I lowered my arms and heard the other two come in behind me, fanning out and clearing the hallway ahead. Mia nodded and I continued, down the hall, around the corner, and into what I assumed was the living room. Jake and Mia were right on my heels, pushing past me to fan out again, all of our sidearms raised and aimed at five people tied to chairs, forming a circle in the middle of the floor. The furniture had been pushed back to give room, and there was a sickening amount of blood all over the hardwood floor. Some of the people were gagged, some were not. Some had old wounds, clotted and crusty with blood, some had fresh wounds still oozing red.

Some were alive, some were not.

The dead ones were the only ones not gagged, which made sense I suppose. Who would want to get close enough to a snapping, rot-infested mouth to stuff a sock in it?

“Jake, upstairs. Mia, stay here,” I said.

Jake’s heavy boots thumped up the stairs seconds later. I stepped up to the circle, watching the people closely, watching the deadheads even closer. Those who’d been gagged were staring at me with wild eyes, some with tears falling from them, begging to be released. I walked around until I stood behind them and faced the two deadheads across. I raised my gun, counted to three, and squeezed off two shots. Their heavy, raspy breathing stopped as their heads fell forward, chins almost touching their chests. I took a step backwards, saw I was standing in blood, and looked over at Mia.

It’s on my boots. I love these boots.

Blood. It’s always blood.

These bleeding bastards ruined my boots…teach them a lesson…

My arms lowered, the barrel of my handgun pointing towards the floor. Mia holstered her own and came forward.

“You’re okay, we’ve got help coming. You’re all going to be okay,” she said gently, forcing a smile on her face as she edged closer to me.

She laid her hand on mine, hinting that maybe I should holster my weapon.

I’ve got that look again
.

I heard her sigh, just barely, after my sidearm was safely tucked away. I thought about giving her a smile, then decided against it. She would have known it was fake as hell.

She’d been on my ass for a couple of months about it. The Look, she called it. I was never really sure what she was talking about when she went off on one of her rants, but I knew it was something she took very seriously. I think it scared her, though I don’t know why. I’d never hurt her or any of the others. I suppose actions speak louder than words, and evidently my actions had been less than desirable as of late.

I felt fine. A little stressed, a little tired, and sometimes I saw things I later found out weren’t there, but I didn’t see that to be enough reason for all the scoldings I’d been receiving. I hadn’t
hurt
anyone, and as long as I was getting the job done, what the hell did it matter?

Jake stomped back down the stairs and joined us in the living room. Before we could ask, he shook his head, the look on his face telling us everything we needed to know about the fate of the little ones. I shoved a hand through my hair and blew out a long breath.

“Help me get these people loose, I hear the chopper,” Mia said to Jake.

They went to work on the bindings, some of which had cut through clothing and skin. The three still alive were trying to smile, bobbing their heads in thanks. I noticed the old man was gone. And the women. Maybe Andy left the men for last because the kids, women, and the old man had been easier to kill. Except that didn’t make sense, he had somehow put them in these chairs and restrained them, hadn’t he? He’d also had help for a while, if his story had been true. Where his buddies were now, I didn’t know. Hopefully dead. Hell, maybe they’d been part of the welcoming committee outside. Maybe WVU guy was one of them. I hoped he was, I hoped they all were. At least then they would have gotten what they deserved.

Karma’s a bitch, boys.

This thought made me smile, which Mia just happened to catch.

“Kasey, go outside and meet the guys, would ya?” she snapped, cutting through the ropes wrapped tightly around the third man.

I blinked and stared at her. I was confused for a moment, then realized I must have had The Look. I cleared my throat, turned on my heel, and walked outside.

Get your shit together, Kasey. Get it together
.

I jogged down the porch steps and across the yard, dodging Andy’s body, making my way out the gate and to the horses as the helicopter touched down in the street nearby. The rush of wind from the rotors whipped my hair around and agitated the animals. A young man in camouflage jogged over and asked about the situation.

“We’ve got three alive, the rest are dead.” I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. “You might want to check the other three houses though, just in case,” I shouted over the noise of the helicopter, knowing full well they wouldn’t find anyone else.

Nothing but blood.

The man turned back to the Blackhawk and made a few hand gestures to his buddies perched inside. Two more men jumped out and jogged over, then the three of them went through the open gate and towards the house. I listened to their shouts and turned away, shooting a look towards the helicopter before pressing my forehead to Daisy’s.

The reins for all three horses were gripped so tightly in my fists that my knuckles were turning white.

“Get your shit together, Kasey,” I whispered. Daisy snorted in agreement.

* * *

“I think my saddle sores have saddle sores,” Jake moaned after climbing onto his horse.

“No kidding. I’d say it’s time for a break.” Mia turned to me, the leather creaking when she shifted her weight. “Whatcha say, Boss? Do we head back?”

I watched the helicopter move off in the direction of the prison. I’d been purposely emptying my head. It was ridiculous, how quickly my mind had started reverting back to those early days. The ones right after the world went to shit and I was suddenly all by myself. Granted, I’d always been something of a loner, but never to the point of being considered a hermit. I had family, friends, coworkers. I could have surrounded myself with these people anytime I’d wanted. Back then, I could always get away when I’d wanted as well. That’s why I had moved to my grandfather’s big house on the mountain after he died.

Then people started coming back from the dead.

My freedom to choose company over loneliness had been ripped from me. They were dead. My family, my friends, were all dead. At least, I
thought
they were dead. That was worse. Thinking something, instead of knowing. The uncertainty. The Unbearable Question.