No trace, p.7
No Trace, page 7
“Better than me, right now.” The pretty woman answered with a small chuckle. “How are we going to get out of here, Tyler?”
The man shook his head and grimaced. “I seriously doubt we’re going anywhere for awhile.”
“Why?”
“The ground is swept free of any rocks for us to use them as weapons. The cameras are permanent. That metal door we came in through cost a lot of money. The electricity that zapped that kid was suppose to do major harm.”
“It killed that poor boy.”
“Yes…Yes it did.” He sighed and ran his fingers through his mop of brown hair.
They both sat back contemplating their future. Silence once again descended on the group of ten, each becoming more introspective as time turned from noon to afternoon. They were tired, hungry, thirsty and shocked numb by the events of the day. Energy seemed to drain from their bodies as if it was being siphoned out. Most curled up and went to sleep. There was nothing else to do but wait and see where their fate was heading.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Booker sat for hours. At some point, he scooted his back to the wall and stretched out his legs. Every once in a while he would glance at his brother. He wasn’t sure why. Whether to reaffirm that he had really been killed or to reassure himself he wasn’t dreaming, he just didn’t know. It didn’t seem to help his shock. Nothing changed; Uno was still dead.
It was late afternoon when he finally roused himself to stand and get back on the bus. His bravado was gone. His spirit broken. When he stepped up the stairs, a few eyes sought his and all he saw was pity in their expressions. Booker didn’t care. He flopped down in the first double bench and curled onto his side.
For all his seventeen years, Uno and he had been inseparable. They had played as toddlers and survived middle school by joining the Bloods. This gang was feared and allowed only black teens entry once they had been blooded. Uno had taken to the life with a vicious appetite for hurting strangers. To gain entry into the gang, they had mugged and beaten up two young men, and then, been pommeled by their own gang. This initiation had then allowed them to be part of the Bloods. The life-long bond was permanent. The only way you escaped was death.
When the two brothers went out together to find victims, Uno was the one who took the lead. He would spot two college teens sporting varsity letter jackets and went after them with a lust for the fight. Their prey would gladly give up their wallets and phones, but Uno always felt it wasn’t fast enough. His club would appear, and he would strike them across their heads before they even had time to duck. Once they went down, Uno kept beating, as if in a frenzy to consume a long-overdue meal. Booker could hear bones breaking, muscles being ripped away inside their bodies, but Uno didn’t stop.
Finally, when there was no breath left in the boys, did he look up at his brother who had stood by and watched in horror.
“We got their money, Books.” Uno raised his hand in victory and Booker slapped it lightly. “I won’t tell the boys you didn’t do anything.”
“We didn’t have to kill them.”
“Shit! What’s the fun of just taking their wallets and phones? Come on, bro. We’re in forever. Bloods for eternity.”
Booker had just nodded and glanced back down at the mutilated bodies lying on the sidewalk. He shook off the sadness of lives taken and followed Uno away from the crime scene. What if someone saw them? What if there was a camera nearby? He really didn’t want to go to jail.
Hustling after his brother, he looked around and out into the street. It was three in the morning and there was no one traveling. Bars had been closed for an hour and rush hour was still a couple hours away. There was just the two brothers and the two dead souls out in the night.
Once back in the lair of the gang, Uno tossed the boys’ wallets and phones on the table before one of the higher echelon brothers. His chest was puffed up and blood splattered his face, hands and clothes for all to see.
“And you?”
“Yeah, that stuff is from both of us.” Booker stated, his voice just slightly off kilter.
“Did he help?” The man asked Uno.
“Absolutely, Manch. He held them, I beat the shit out of them. Might have killed one of them.” Uno lied without missing a beat.
“Good.” The man said and opened the two wallets, taking out the cash and pushing it down into his front pants pockets.
“You need us for anything else?” Uno’s excitement was beyond any containment.
“Get the fuck out of here. You’re needed when I say.” Manch sneered and ran a hand across his tightly braided hair.
Booker grabbed his brother and pulled him from the subterranean hideout. “Come on, let’s go home and sleep.”
Uno balked for a second, his stare drilling into the top of the leader’s head. Booker pulled him harder and finally the boy relented. All the way home he thought about the way his brother had gone after the two teens with such bloodlust. He wasn’t above fighting but to kill with such glee, it left a rock in his belly. Booker shrugged it off and never said another word.
Over the next several years, they both became integral parts of the Bloods. Uno moved up in the ranks and Booker rode his coattails. They never went back to school, rarely went home, just lived on the many mattresses that were scattered around the lower level of the condemned building. They ate, drank and lived Bloods.
Now, Booker felt adrift. Their plan had been to mug the passengers on the bus and bring back the bounty to Manch. Instead, Uno was dead and he was trapped in a cave with a bunch of lame, white motherfuckers. Everything had gone so horribly wrong. He couldn’t believe Uno was dead. The grief that had first pulsed through his body was now just gone, in its place was only a numbness. Not caring what happened to him, he curled up and went to sleep. His brother was gone. Uno had kept him glued together. Now, the storm that raged inside him was growing and trying to take him away from it all; from sanity itself. He didn’t care. Uno was dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Around five o’clock, the door opened. Uno’s hand was still burned to the knob so his body moved as the opening enlarged. It almost looked as if he was rising from the dead. A man walked in from the bright sunshine and pushed the body away from the doorway, the hand finally releasing its hold and flopping to the ground.
In his arms, he carried a box which he set down on the ground just inside the door. Without saying a word, he backed up and then quickly exited. Slamming the door shut, the sunlight was once again blacked out.
There were some quiet murmurings on the bus for a few moments and then Brady stood. “Could be food.”
“Let’s go look.”
“I want to come, too. Just to get off this bus.” Helen insisted.
“Yeah, and I want to walk around, maybe go pee somewhere.” It was Brittany. “I still haven’t gone since Ms. Bus Driver fell out of the bathroom.”
“Let’s everyone get out, set up a portable john somewhere.” Tyler suggested as he stood and moved toward the front of the bus.
With that, everyone stood up except the thin man, autistic boy and grieving black youth. They hadn’t moved and no sound had escaped the teen’s mouth in hours.
“You want to get out and see what’s in the box?”
Robby glanced up, not meeting Tyler’s eyes, and shook his head. “Stay on the bus.” He whispered, his rocking starting up once again.
“Okay, but you’re going to have to get moving at some point, Robby.”
Tyler left the boy and exited. There was an excited murmur from Helen and Brady as he saw them rummaging through the box that had been delivered. Brady held up bottles of water and wrapped sandwiches.
“I guess we’re prisoners with rights.” He smiled as he twisted off the top of one of the bottles and chugged the entire contents down in one long sip.
The other passengers grabbed a sandwich, two bottles of water and scattered about the ground to enjoy the unexpected meal. At some point, the thin man and Robby exited the bus and approached the food.
Tyler scampered quickly to his feet and placed his body in front of the box. “Name?” He pointed at the little man with a balding pate. Reaching into the box, he handed Robby a sandwich and two bottles of water.
“You will not prevent me from eating.” The deprived man sneered.
“Yep. That’s just what I’m going to do, asshole. Stop being a pompous fucker and just tell all these people your name.” Tyler was angry at the whole predicament they were in and was taking it out on the arrogant man.
“Eugene Novak.” The man sniffed and placed a handkerchief over his hand as he reached for a sandwich and bottle.
“See, was that so hard, Eugene.” Tyler snarled and then walked away to sit next to Helen against the far wall.
“Everyone deals with hardship different ways.” She patted the man’s thigh.
“He’s just a haughty little asshole.”
“Yes, you’re probably right, but we have to try and get along.”
Tyler sighed, “Yeah, I know. Just taking my anger out on the little prick.”
He unwrapped his sandwich, lifted an edge of bread to glance at the contents. Ham, cheese and mustard on spitball white bread was the fare of the evening. Sinking his teeth into it, he closed his eyes in the delight of food. He realized it had been almost twenty-four hours since he had last eaten and the sandwich was gone way too fast. Chugging his water, he peered at Robby. The boy was sitting on the bus step, an unopened sandwich next to him.
Tyler got up and went and squatted next to the teen. “You need to eat, Robby.”
“I want my father.”
“I know, kid, but right now, we are stuck here.” He opened the sandwich and gave a half to the boy. “It’s ham and cheese and pretty good for us hungry guys.”
“I want peanut butter.”
“Sorry, kid. This is all I can offer.”
The boy didn’t reach for the sandwich just dropped his head into his chest and sat rocking. Tyler rewrapped the sandwich and uncapped one of the water bottles. He placed it next to the boy and moved back to Helen.
“Autism is one tough disease.” She said. “I had a student once who was autistic and he did all right if everything went smooth. Throw a fly in the ointment though and all hell broke out. One time, someone took his two pencils and that was the end of that lesson. He screamed bloody murder until security could get him out of the room. No sir, it’s a hateful disease.”
“Can’t make him eat.”
“Nope, but maybe we can get him a peanut-butter sandwich.” She nodded with purpose. “Help this old woman up.” Her gnarled hand reached for Tyler’s and he lifted her onto her feet.
She walked over to stand in front of one of the small cameras and pointed to Robby and then to the sandwich wrap in her hand. “He wants a peanut-butter sandwich. He won’t eat anything else.” Her shout made everyone glance up from their meals.
“You hear me in there! You gotta feed us right!” She paused and waved again at the teen. “He needs peanut butter.”
Standing there for a few more moments, she finally moved back to Tyler and carefully seated herself once more on the ground. “They didn’t answer.” She chuckled and shook her head. “What do you think they want? I mean, I have no money, no jewelry, no property. What worth am I except to my family and grandkids. Why me?”
Tyler shrugged not having any more answers than the old woman. He had asked these same questions over and over and never come up with any solutions. It was frustrating. A whole day had come and gone and they still had no feedback from their captors.
“They don’t want us dead, that’s evident from the sandwiches.”
“And…?”
“That’s all I got, Helen.”
“Humph.” She sighed and went back to taking tiny bites from her sandwich.
Tyler stared at the other passengers. Most had finished their meager dinner but still sat on the dusty ground, unwilling to reenter the bus. That beast sat in the cave, surrounding them with its enormous girth, suffocating them in their thoughts of what could have been if their mornings had been different. Each of them wished they had made alternate choices so their butts hadn’t landed on this particular bus. Wishes of a changed past were just that, dreams and hopes. They were here and at the mercy of whoever had them and what they had planned for their captives. It was a horrifying loop that jogged through their brains as they sat staring at the walls around them. How were they to escape?
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
At eight o’clock the lights went out. Total darkness surrounded them and there were gasps of fright and a few murmured prayers. The occupants on the bus grumbled and complained at the blackness that surrounded them, but the lights did not come back on. It was bed time and there was nothing they could do to change that scenario.
Julia guided Lizzy into the seat in front of her and had her lay down on the cushion. The girl rebelled when the mother tried to leave.
“Stay with me, Mommy.” The seven-year old pleaded.
“I will until you fall asleep and then I’m going to lay down in the seat behind you, okay.”
Julia felt her daughter nod and then stroked her back until Lizzy’s breathing evened out and she was sure she was asleep. The mother left that row with one last touch on her daughters sleeping form and plopped down next to Tyler.
“Not tired, huh?” He scooted over toward the window.
“It’s eight o’clock and I haven’t done a goddamn thing all day. I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep now unless they gave me drugs.”
“What do you do?”
“Emergency Room nurse.”
“Diesel mechanic.” Tyler responded. His voice was quiet in the dark, but he felt it echo through the blackness.
“You come up with any reasons why this is happening to us?”
“Not really. Helen is a retired school teacher. Brittany’s into something illegal but don’t know if it’s drugs or what? That briefcase is locked on her wrist and she doesn’t have the key. Brady is just a college boy, hoping to finish his Senior year. Rosa and Mateo just help at a large home in Scottsdale.”
“Eugene?”
Tyler shrugged even though he knew Julia wouldn’t see it. “Just a prick.”
He heard her swallow a choked laugh. “I saw you confront him for his food.”
“Just don’t like the asshole.”
“And the gang kid?”
“Don’t know his name, but he’s pretty messed up over that other kid’s death.”
“Yes, that is obvious.” She was silent for a long time and Tyler thought she had left his seat. Suddenly a hand touched his shoulder and then his face. “I’m scared.” Julia whispered.
“Scootch in next to me. We can hold each other until one of us falls asleep.”
Julia moved closer to Tyler and leaned her head on his shoulder. “You seemed pretty messed up this morning.”
There was a long silence where she didn’t know if he was going to answer. Finally, she felt a deep inhale and then a whispering of breath on the top of her head.
“I brought a girl home from a bar last night and she died in my bed.”
“What?” Julia sat up and groped for his hand.
“Cops let me go to work, but told me to stay in town in case an accidental overdose wasn’t the cause of death.”
“And you got on this bus?”
“Actually, the detective just put me on this bus. I’ve been thinking about that all day. I usually ride the bus but not this one. My job is northwest of my apartment and I take the line up toward Cave Creek. I wasn’t in any mindset to question him when the bus just happened to pull up and he pushed me onto it. So weird…. Like he made sure I got on this bus.” Tyler spoke his musings aloud.
“Cop getting paid to get you on this bus?”
“But why? I have nothing. I work, go to a few bars and then go back to work the next day. Why take me? What is the point?”
The two adults were silent and Julia lay her head back on Tyler’s shoulder. He could feel her relax and her breathing even out as the blackness stroked them into a night of sleep. After about thirty minutes, he slipped out from beneath her head and lay her gently on the seat. Moving to the open cushions behind him, he lay down, his legs hanging over the edge and tried to empty his mind of the turmoil the day had brought. At some point, deep in the night, his body and mind finally shut down and sleep claimed him. What tomorrow would bring was everyone’s guess. If odds had been taken, they would have all been losers.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The lights came on at five in the morning. There were grumblings and murmurings as sleepy-eyed passengers woke.
“Guess we aren’t sleeping anymore.” Brady stated and then stood.
“I’m taking the left side in the back of the cave, you women take the right.”
“It’s like we’re in prison.” It was the black youth who had lost his brother.
“I think we are.” Tyler extended his head. “My name is Tyler.”
The youth stared at the hand and then up into the white man’s face for a long moment. Then with a shrug, he shook his hand hard.
“Booker.”
“Sorry about your brother.”
“Yeah, what the fuck, you know?”
“Yeah, I do.”
They both stood for a second longer and then Tyler motioned the youth to exit. The rest of the passengers followed suit, dealing with morning needs in their respective corners.
“That was goddamn humiliating.” Helen grumbled as she adjusted her clothing. “Can’t even pee alone.”
Just as she was about to speak further on the indignities of their plight, the door at the front opened. A different man came in, set a box on the floor and yelled loudly.
“Helen Babinsky!” It was a call for the older woman to come to him.
Helen exited the bus but stood right next to the door. “What do you want with me?” Her voice was raised in anger.
“Come with me.”
“Like hell I will. You got no right to hold any of us prisoners and I’m not going anywhere with the likes of you.”
