Red Sky - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel Read online

  Oh my god. The guy was insane. We were in more trouble than I’d even realized.

  “I didn’t get a shot.” My head was shaking from side to side vigorously.

  “Me either,” Bronx said. “We’re just as in the dark as you are about all of this.”

  The man laughed but stopped abruptly. Darkness filled his eyes as he raised his fist and threw into the side of Bronx’s face.

  Bronx’s head drooped down and rocked slicked before he straightened himself. The man put his flashlight several inches from Bronx’s face. Blood trickled out of a small cut on the side of his lip as he narrowed his eyes to avoid the light.

  “Lies,” the man said.

  What had either Blair or Maggie told the men?

  Bronx’s jaw stiffened. The man pulled the light back quickly, and I couldn’t see Bronx’s face any longer, but I could hear his groan.

  “Okay, I can see we’re going to have to do this the hard way,” the man said placing his hands on his hips. “So, everyone got sick at the same time, the sky was red, my family,” he said clearing his throat. It looked like he’d wished he would have chosen his words better. “My people had to wear these masks, so we didn’t get sick. Thank goodness we were prepared. But here’s the weird thing, there are people out there like you and your friends, that didn’t get sick and die.”

  “I got sick,” I said.

  The man stared at me hard. He raised his hand and slapped me across the face.

  I closed my eyes. Through the prickles of where I’d been hit I could hear Bronx’s chair moving across the floor.

  “I’ll kill you!” Bronx spat. “What kind of man raises his hand to a woman? Tied up no less.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the man raise his foot. He threw enough force behind the kick to Bronx’s face that it knocked the whole chair backward.

  “Bronx!” I shouted!

  “Bronx? What the fuck kind of name is that?” the man said looking over his shoulder at one of his sons. They both laughed as if cued. “I can see these stupid fuckers aren’t going to talk. We’ll have to do to them what we did to their friends.”

  The man walked over to Bronx while one of his sons turned my chair. He grabbed my head and forced me to look down at them while the other pointed his flashlight at them.

  “Leave him alone,” I cried, but that just made them laugh more.

  The man placed his foot on Bronx’s head and pushed it down flat against the ground. He turned up to me, and all I could see was blackness in his eyes.

  “Are you going to talk or am I going to have to crush his skull?” the dad asked.

  “What do you want to know?” I said trying to sound as though I was going to cooperate. The only problem was I had no idea what to say, and I was afraid that no matter what I said, it would be the wrong thing. I now understood why either Blair or Maggie had talked.

  “I want to know what they gave you… the vaccine or the antidote or whatever it was,” the man said.

  I shook my head trying to stop the tear that leaked out of the corner of my eye. “There was no drug. We all got sick!”

  Bronx gritted his teeth as the man pushed down harder.

  “Are you sure about that?” the man asked.

  “Okay, okay! Stop! There was a medication,” I screamed.

  “I knew it!” the man said lifting his foot only slightly. “Did you work for whoever was behind this?”

  I shook my head, but then his grimace quickly changed it to a nod. My stomach was in knots.

  “Do you have the drug here?” the man asked.

  I had to do whatever I could to get him to release Bronx.

  “Yes!” I said shaking as I noticed Jamie’s wide eye peeking out from behind the blanket. He was less than four feet away from Bronx and the man. “It’s in the bathroom. Let me show you.”

  Jamie’s eye widened further.

  “Where is it?” the man asked.

  “Take me into the bathroom, and I’ll get it for you,” I said.

  “You think I was born yesterday?” the man said. “Describe it.”

  I tried to think of what I had in my medicine cabinet that wouldn’t obviously be pain medication. The only thing I could think of was what I’d been prescribed after my mom died.

  “It’s the only one in there. Brown bottle. White top,” I said between sharp breaths. The second the man saw the drug listed on the label he’d slam his foot down on Bronx’s head.

  I had to do something. And fast.

  Twenty-Eight

  The man that had been standing behind me walked away and into the bathroom. I could hear him moving things around in my medicine cabinet.

  “Brown bottle,” I shouted and both the man and his son turned to look at me. Both of their guns were down, but it looked like Bronx was about to lose consciousness.

  “All I see is headache medicine, and that same anti-depressant mom has,” the son called out.

  Shit.

  I forced a smile, but the dad was glaring at me. He jerked his head, and his son took a step forward and aimed his gun at the side of my head.

  “It’s in there,” I said holding my smile. “Unless my brother stole it when he was here.”

  The two men exchanged a glance.

  “She’s lying,” the dad said jerking his chin again.

  His son lowered his gun and grinned before slamming his closed fist into my face near my eye. Pain pounded through my skull giving me an instant headache and blurring the vision in my left eye.

  I winced just as Jamie launched himself out of his hiding spot and into the man in charge. They fell to the ground, rolling and rocking as Jamie tried to get on top.

  “Shoot him!” the man yelled.

  I kicked my leg up knocking the gun out of his son’s hands.

  “Bitch!” the son said bending down to pick up the gun. I kicked him as hard as I could with both of my legs.

  “Stop!” the other son shouted as he stepped out of the bathroom. His gun pointed at Jamie. Before I could raise my foot again, the other son had his gun back against the side of my head.

  I couldn’t tell if Bronx was conscious or not. The darkness and my blurred vision was making it even harder to see even with the occasional flashes of light from their flashlights.

  “Okay, okay!” Jamie said climbing off of the dad.

  “Kill him!” the dad screeched backing away. His gun wasn’t in his hand. “Kill them they’re all liars! They’re contaminated! He touched me! He was on top of me! Kill them!”

  My eyes scanned the floor looking for the gun. Not that I could do anything about it with my hands tied up… and even if I could find it, I wouldn’t have any idea how to use it.

  “Let me think!” the son that had come out of the bathroom said. His gun inching closer to the space between Jamie’s eyes.

  His finger trembled.

  “Pull it Danny!” his brother said.

  “I haven’t done this before,” Danny said, his voice shaking.

  “And you don’t have to do it now,” Jamie said.

  Danny grimaced, and Jamie held up his hands.

  “Give me your fucking gun, Dan,” the dad demanded. “Enough of this shit.”

  Just as Dan reached over to hand the gun to his dad, my front door flung open. Nick was standing there, his face bruised and bloodied. His shirt and hands were covered in blood.

  Blair was behind him just as bruised and bloodied, she looked smaller.

  Nick was holding a gun just like the ones the men had, but in his right hand, he held his pistol. Blair was holding her very own gun but kept hers down at her side.

  Nick’s eyes quickly scanned the area. He didn’t hesitate to put a bullet into the man at my side. Blood splattered onto my face, and the guy dropped to the floor.

  “No!” dad cried out.

  Before he could pull the gun away from his other son, another bullet ripped through the air. Blood pooled out of the hole in the dad’s forehead.

  �
��Don’t shoot! Please!” Danny said stepping back toward the bathroom with his hands in the air.

  Nick stared at him.

  “Are you the one that shot my friend?” Nick asked.

  “No,” Danny answered quickly. “That was Ron. I’ve never even killed a fly. At least not on purpose.”

  “Untie them,” Nick said over his shoulder.

  Blair’s entire body seemed to shake as she stepped into the apartment. She pulled one of the steak knives out of the drawer and walked over to me, looking into my eyes for a second before she started sawing at the rope.

  “Jamie, pick up the guns… bring them to me,” Nick ordered, and Jamie promptly obeyed. “Is he okay?”

  Jamie shook his head.

  I stood as the rope fell away, rubbing my wrists as I walked over to Bronx and dropped to my knees.

  “Bronx?” I said shaking him.

  He groaned. “Yeah.”

  “He’s alive,” I said over my shoulder, and Nick slammed the door shut and locked it.

  “Use that rope, and tie up our new friend, Danny boy here,” Nick said.

  Danny’s eyebrows drooped. “What are you going to do to me? Whose blood is that on your shirt?”

  “Your mom’s,” Nick said curling his lip up at one end. “And this, over here,” Nick said pointing at the other side of his shirt, “is your sister’s.”

  Danny’s shoulders started to shake, and his head fell down. He didn’t struggle as Jamie and Blair tied him to the chair.

  I was working my fingers quickly to untie Bronx. Nick knelt down beside me with the steak knife in hand.

  “Let me,” he said quickly sawing Bronx free.

  I wrapped my arms around Bronx’s weak body and tried to lift him. I sniffed, and Nick placed his hand on my shoulder for a moment before helping me get Bronx to the sofa.

  “I’m okay,” Bronx said sounding intoxicated. He waved his hands at us as he rested his head back. “The room is spinning.”

  The flashlights strewn about gave enough light that I could see Nick was staring at me.

  “Are you okay?” Nick asked after a long moment. His fingertips moved up toward my eye, but he quickly pulled them back.

  “Yeah, I’m okay.”

  “My head is killing me,” Bronx said.

  “That’s because he was standing on it,” I said resting my hand on his thigh. I looked back at Nick. “What happened out there?”

  Nick shook his head. “Nothing good. They killed Maggie. Crazy fucking family.”

  Blair walked over to the chair. Her body moved stiffly… awkwardly as she lowered herself down.

  “They tortured us,” Nick said, and Blair looked away. Nick looked over at Danny. “The stupid fucks thought we were somehow involved in all this. Demanded we tell them what was going on.”

  “I’m sorry I told them about you,” Blair said. “They were going to kill Nick. I couldn’t have his blood on my hands too.”

  Blair looked down at the blood on her hands. The blood that belonged to the crazy family, but something told me she wasn’t seeing their blood, she was seeing Maggie’s.

  “It’s not your fault,” I said.

  “I should have lied,” Blair said shaking her head. “But they were going to kill us both if they came back empty-handed. I needed to buy us some time.”

  “Bronx went out there… he saw where you were being held,” I said.

  Nick looked over at Bronx seemingly impressed. Bronx’s eyes were a little wider, and he seemed to be coming back from wherever he’d gone.

  “How did you get free?” I asked.

  “With the three of them gone, it wasn’t too hard. The other times they left we didn’t know when they’d be back, we had to hope that this time we had more time.” Nick said scratching the back of his neck. “We were tied up just like you.”

  Nick held up his hands, and even in the darkness I could see the raw, cut up flesh.

  “Blair managed to wiggle free a day or two ago after they… they…,” Nick’s said his words fading.

  “After they beat me,” Blair said. “They didn’t tie me up very good.” Her chin jerked toward Danny. “He’s not very good at tying.”

  Danny sniffed hard. His cheeks were red and tear-streaked. “I’m not good at anything. If you hadn’t murdered my dad, he would have told you that himself.”

  “After she got me free, we did what we had to do to get back here,” Nick said, pressing his lips tightly together.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” I said. If he hadn’t come back when he did, Bronx, Jamie, and I would probably be the ones lying on the floor… dead.

  “I’m glad to be back,” Nick said with a small smile. He stood and slapped his palms on his thighs. “I’m starving.”

  I stood and waved my hand at him. “Sit, let me get you something.”

  “If you insist.” Nick shrugged and sat back down.

  “Can I get you anything, Blair?” I turned to her. She still seemed to be shaking.

  “Sure.” Her head turned to the side. “But what are we going to do about him?”

  I shook my head and turned back to Nick. I didn’t even know what to do about the dead bodies on my apartment floor. It sort of felt as though I was in a dream… rather, a nightmare.

  “Oh God,” Danny said. “Please don’t kill me.”

  “I promise nothing,” Nick said. “I’ll have to sleep on it.”

  When I stepped into the kitchen, I couldn’t help but look over my shoulder to make sure someone wasn’t standing behind me with a gun pointed at the back of my head. I jumped when Jamie stepped up next to me.

  He reached his hand up and lightly touched the skin just under my eye. “It’s swelling.”

  “I can’t see clearly out of it,” I said repeatedly blinking as if that would help.

  “I should have acted faster,” Jamie said letting his hand fall to his side. “If I would have done something sooner, it wouldn’t have happened.”

  I shook my head. “You don’t know that maybe something worse would have happened. Maybe we wouldn’t even be standing here right now.”

  I looked up and noticed there was a touch of light peeking through the curtain. It would be morning soon.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Danny watching us. When I turned, he quickly looked away. He didn’t look like he could have been a day over twenty.

  Poor kid.

  Nick stepped in front of me blocking my view of Danny. He grabbed the snack bar from my hand and devoured it in two bites.

  “How much food do we have left?” Nick asked.

  “Still what we have in the bags, but not much.” I crossed my arms. “I’m sure we can find more in some of the other apartments.”

  “Lots of stuff at Danny’s place. Well, something to worry about for another day,” Nick said nodding at Jamie. “Help me move their bodies?”

  Jamie nodded and followed Nick over to the first body. Danny’s brother. He lowered his head and started sobbing.

  I watched them as they dragged the body out of the door and into the hallway. Blair stared at her feet, and Bronx turned, looking at me over his shoulder. His face was swelling more and more by the minute.

  I turned toward the freezer to grab an ice pack but stopped. There was no ice. The only thing I could do to help Bronx was to offer him some pain relievers.

  As I walked toward the bathroom, I noticed the light at the curtain was brighter than it had been. Bronx followed my gaze and walked over to the window. He pulled it to the side so I could see the bright sun.

  I smiled, and he smiled back. The only thing I was going to allow myself to think about was that it was a good sign. We would figure things out. We would be okay.

  Twenty-Nine

  It had been several days, and things were still blurry. When I blinked, for a second, things seemed clear, but they’d quickly blur right back out.

  The swelling in Bronx’s face had mostly subsided, but the bruises were still visible. Nick and Bla
ir were healing as well… at least physically.

  Blair didn’t talk much. Mostly she looked as though she was in a perpetual state of shock. The only time she was animated was when Nick was next to her whispering into her ear.

  It was clear they’d been through hell. I didn’t ask. None of us did. If they wanted to talk, they would in their own time, and maybe I didn’t even want to know.

  The rain had stopped, but some of the flooding remained. I frequently checked out the window, hoping it would have receded, but it hadn’t. Debris and the occasional pale body bobbed up and down as the water pulled them around the corner of the apartment.

  Nick and Jamie had scrounged through some of the other apartments and found more food, but our water was running low. We were going to have to go, but even Nick seemed to want to wait until we had to. Maybe for Blair. Maybe for himself.

  I couldn’t blame them for not wanting to go back out there. The idea was nearly terrifying. But I couldn’t let myself go there. I couldn’t let myself think about it.

  Besides, after what had happened, it only made me want to get to my grandma quicker. If she was still alive.

  “Hey,” Bronx said knocking lightly on my bedroom door.

  “Hi,” I said smiling at him.

  He closed the door slightly as he stepped inside my room. “Thought you were sleeping.”

  I shook my head and stepped away from the window. I tried not to frown at the small, nearly healed cut on his lip.

  Until the cuts, scrapes, and bruises were gone, I wouldn’t be able to forget. Who was I kidding? I wouldn’t ever be able to forget… the injuries and my blurry vision were a constant reminder.

  “Danny’s been crying to come out,” Bronx said.

  “Again?”

  “Nick let him out. Set him up near the window,” Bronx said. “He’s just a kid, but I just couldn’t be in the same room as him… not right now.”

  I swallowed hard as he took a step closer. He slid his hand around the back of my neck.

  “And I wanted to check on you,” he said, his voice rumbled through my body. “I hate when you're out of sight.”

  Bronx pulled me closer and pressed his lips to mine. I kept my eyes closed as he pulled away, not wanting the moment to end.