Kevin let out a sigh of relief and started nodding his head. “Fair’s fair, sheriff. You’ve got a deal.”“And the rat just came straight toward me across the parking lot. So I kicked it away, and it got right back up and headed straight back toward me. And I was just like, ‘are you serious right now, rat?’ I mean, if it’s going to come straight at me, I’m just going to kick it again, you know?”Kevin sat completely motionless, his spoon in his mouth, hand still wrapped around the handle, staring at the stranger with a completely blank expression. He wasn’t sure if this random story was supposed to be funny or not, but he wasn’t having it. He was in a foul mood. At the station they had made him strip off all of his clothing to make sure he wasn’t concealing any weapons. At the least they had allowed him to shower - in a shower with hot water, even - and had brought him new, clean clothes. And he had to admit, it was actually really nice to wear clean clothes for the first time in a ver
He turned and headed toward the entrance of the building. Kevin was so stunned by the sheriff’s response that for a moment he didn’t move, but not wanting to lose the sudden offer of generosity, he decided it best to quickly fall into step behind the other man.When they reached the guards Mills motioned to Kevin and let them know it was okay for him to enter, and one of the men unlocked the door and held it for them as they passed through, then locked it again behind them.Mills led the way briefly down a couple short hallways and then stopped before a door. He turned to look at Kevin with a solemn expression. “I recommend you be very careful where you stand and move in there. With all your parts.”“What?” Kevin asked, unsure if he had even heard the man correctly.Mills didn’t respond other than to open the door and step on through. Kevin followed behind and then immediately jumped backwards as something lunged at him from the darkness.He bounced into Jensen, who started to laugh.
With that, Mills headed off with Rodrigo, and Jensen and Kevin continued their journey to the station. They hadn’t gone far when Zahra came bounding up to them. “Hey stranger!” she said to Kevin. “Hello little one,” he replied. Zahra did not seem to like that. She crossed her arms and leaned on to her back foot. “I am not little,” she insisted. “Zahra, what are you doing here?” Jensen asked. “I just wanted to say ‘hi’ to the new guy. See how he was settling in. What do you think of our town?”Kevin simply shrugged, but Jensen gave the real answer. “It doesn’t matter. He’s not staying.”“What?” Zahra practically screamed the word. “Why not?”“Because he doesn’t belong here,” Jensen again answered for Kevin. “And where else would you go?” she asked. Demanded, really. Kevin shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Almost anywhere is safer than here.”“What?” Zahra’s brow knit in confusion. “Shut up!” Jensen hissed, shoving Kevin against the nearby wall. “Sheriff said not to talk about th
“Jesus, he has no ears, sheriff!”Mills looked down at Alan, who he only just now realized had come along. Alan was bent over the first man and trying to inspect him, without much success as the wounded man kept screaming and writhing in pain. “Yeah,” agreed Kevin. “You see, this is his dog here, and apparently he felt the dog needed to be taught a lesson that could only be taught by cutting his ears off. So I figured he might like to try that lesson out himself. After all, a teacher’s gotta be able to give as good as he gets.”“Jesus, you really are insane,” said Mills. Kevin simply laughed. “If being sane means torturing dogs for entertainment, then I’ll happily be insane, thank you.”“Dammit man, they’re just dogs! These are people.”“No,” Kevin hissed, waving at the people on the ground again, still with the knife, “these are animals. This, this right here?” He lifted his hand high as he patted the dog gently on the head a few times, “This is an intelligent and caring creature w
“Wow. You can’t stop moralizing for one second, can you?”Kevin took a deep breath, realizing he was losing control. The confined space was doing that to him. “Look, what I’m saying is, I didn’t do anything to those people that they didn’t deserve. And if the only way that justice was going to happen was through me, then I’m glad it did.”Mills shook his head, just in constant disbelief at the things this young man would come up with.“Well, Darren? The man whose ears you took? Doc says he’s probably gonna need assistance the rest of his life. In a society where I don’t have people to spare. Ideally, your punishment would be to spend the rest of your life being that assistance, but I can’t trust that you wouldn’t just try to end his life when you 'logic out' that he’d somehow be better off dead. So if the only way he’s getting justice is by keeping you in here, locked away, then that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Really, you should be grateful to be in here. Out there they want to
But it was too late for her to take it back now.“What do you mean, you ‘heard’ him?”“Um, I… I just mean, I heard him walking.”“What, like his footsteps?”“Yeah,” Zahra said quickly.“You heard his footsteps from a great enough distance to be sure he wasn’t with anybody else?”With a frown, Zahra realized how unlikely that was.“No,” she conceded. “He was also dragging a box on some skateboard looking thing.”“And what’s in the box?”Zahra shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. Honest.”Mills nodded. “Okay, I believe you. Where’s this box now?”“Sheriff, you don’t want anything to do with that box,” Kevin said, before Zahra could answer.“Hey! No one’s talking to you.”“Sheriff, you have to trust me-”“No!” Mills stood up and crossed the room to the cage. “Don’t you dare talk about trust. I gave you a tiny amount of trust and it got me four men in a hospital room with gaping wounds. So don’t you dare talk to me about trust. Your chance is up.”He stormed back to Zahra, grabbing
It was only a matter of time now until the end.He let out a sigh and turned away from the gathered men, and spotted Zahra standing off to the side of the room, staring at the proceedings with a look approaching terror plastered on her face. “Psst,” he whispered, trying to let the noise of the men working cover up the sound as much as possible, and waited for her to notice. She didn’t. “Psst. Zahra. Zahra, come here.”Slowly she turned to face him, her expression becoming much more doubtful as she did.“Zahra, cut me free.”She shook her head. “I’m not really so sure that’s such a great idea,” she replied, but she was at least matching his hushed tones.That was something. “Zahra,” he continued, leaning as far forward as he could against his restraints, “I trusted you in going into the town. Now I need you to trust me. I need you to cut me free, and then you need to run. Like. Hell.”She stared down at his bonds, but then something occurred to her and she looked back at him again, h
The darkness felt like it spun on into eternity, and he dreamed of hiding inside of it forever. But slowly he crawled his way back out, opening his eyes with what felt like a Herculean effort.The light seemed so bright and he closed his eyes again. Being back in the darkness made him feel like he was spinning and falling. He didn’t like the sensation and opened his eyes once more.“Joe, better get down here. He’s awake.”The voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once, filling the air around him with more sickening, dizzying whirls. His brain felt fuzzy, he decided. Like, literally fuzzy. Like mold. Or a peach. Or Fuzzy Wuzzy.A face appeared before him, leaning over him, and for the first time he realized he had been staring at a wooden ceiling. And now he was staring at some woman’s face.“How are you feeling?” the face asked, and he realized it was the same voice that had spoken a moment before. “Fuzzy,” he answered. And then after a moment he clarified, “Fuzzy Wuzz