Richard Stephenson - Collapse

“I walked in on an old black man watching a room full of naked children play while he jerked off. Both my kids were in the room.”

“No fucking way. What’d you do to him?” Tank inquired with much anger.

“Broke his neck and ripped his balls off.”

“You really ripped his balls off?” Tank screamed.

“Well, in a manner of speaking. They didn’t really come off, just busted ‘em open really good.”

“That is so fucking awesome! Holy shit, I can’t believe it!”

Richard shook his head. “No, no. Not something I’m proud of. It happened in front of my kid. Really screwed him up.”

“Shit, man. Sorry. That’s rough.”

“So you killed another guy? He try to stick up for the baby-raper?”

“Nope, that one was an accident. I’m surprised you never asked me about this. Why didn’t you?”

“Tell me about the accident and I’ll tell you.”

“Fair enough. Before I went to trial I escaped from the county jail.”

“Kinda figured that. Wouldn’t be sent to Highland Valley straight from the world without at least one escape under your belt.”

“Again, you never asked?”

“Didn’t need to, remember? Didn’t care inside, knew everything I needed to know. Don’t change the subject, fucker, keep talking!”

“Well, I escaped before my trial. Needed to get my kids away from my ex-wife and get out of the country.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Look, I’m not even gonna try to pretend like it was her fault. I’m not gonna deny that I’m the one that screwed up my kids, but she didn’t lift a damn finger to get our boy any help. She just figured that if she ignored the problem, he would turn out fine. And she completely erased me from my daughter’s memory! My baby girl started calling another asshole ‘Daddy.’ No way I could let that happen.”

“Damn! That’s fucked up! Who was this asshole?”

“Guy my wife was cheating on me with.”

“I’d escape just to kill that fucker.”

“The thought did cross my mind. Her new husband had a hard time dealing with my kids. Too much baggage so he divorced her not long after. She couldn’t deal with it and started smoking oxy. It was only a matter of time before the kids got hurt or the state came in to take them away. No way was that happening, so I escaped to go and get them.”

“OK, so how’d you end up killing another nigger?”

“Well, I had to lay low after the escape. Made it up into the mountains. Actually lived up there about a month hoping they’d look for me someplace else. One morning I was fishing and two hikers happened up on me. Can’t believe I let them sneak up on me. Thought I was way out of the path of any hikers. Well, anyway, I thought I had them believing my story. I knew the instant one of them recognized me. Could see it on his face. He knew that I knew, and things got ugly. They were scared to death of me. I tried to calm them down, and I was so close to convincing them to just walk away and pretend they never saw me. One of the guys got spooked and started running. I tried to stop him, but he got even more freaked out. He fell down the hill and got impaled by a broken tree branch. His lung collapsed and he was bleeding out. I did everything I could to save his life but it was too late. I didn’t even notice his friend had run off, convinced I’d murdered his buddy. Once the guy died, I took off, but it was too late. They knew exactly where I was and caught me.”

“You tried to fucking save him?”

“I did. You got a problem with that?’

“Yeah, I got a big fucking problem with that, you know I do. But you saved my life and that trumps shit every time. And you still killed a nigger baby-raper. That pretty much squares things with me. You got convicted of killing that piece of shit?”

“Well, the charges stacked up pretty quick — escape, assaulting a peace officer, bit a guy’s ear off when I stole the ambulance; they got me on serious assault for that one. Grand theft auto for stealing the ambulance. But the second murder was what sealed my fate. The guy lied on me, said I attacked his friend and pushed him down the hill into the branch. Left out the part about me trying to save his life.”

“That’s a true nigger for ya right there.”

They were both silent for a few minutes. Richard was going over the plan for tomorrow in his head when Tank asked, “How are we getting all the way to Denver?”

“We have to find a car when we start getting closer to Vegas. We can’t actually enter the city with the National Guard checkpoints. Our primary focus right now is water. We have enough food, but we won’t make it long without fresh water.” The two escapees still had plenty of food, thanks to the stash Spider had found in that empty cell before they made their escape. Water was another issue.

“You think it’s safe to drink water outta that stream down there? No telling what kind of shit’s in that water.”

“I can make it safe to drink.”

“I knew you were gonna say that.”

The two men settled in and managed to sleep a few hours before the sun started to peek up above the horizon. They climbed down the other side of the ridge and prepared to hike across the desert floor to the riverbed. Richard dug out the extra laundry they’d brought with them and fashioned it into desert gear. They stripped down to their boxers and each draped a bed sheet over their bodies like a robe. They also covered their faces with a white t-shirt to help filter the dust.

“You ready?” asked Richard.

“Let’s get some water; I’m ready to start drinking my piss. I’m that thirsty.”

“OK, move at a nice, steady pace. Focus on moving forward with as much efficiency as you can, using the least amount of muscle power. Breathe through your nose and keep your mouth shut. Don’t talk unless it’s totally necessary.”

“Why, do I bore you or something? Telling me to shut up?” Tank teased.

“You know how much I enjoy our little talks, but talking uses more lung power and dries your mouth out quicker. Also stops you from breathing through your nose. Your nose is a much better filter than your mouth.”

“Okay, got it. Let’s get moving.”

The two men headed out in the direction of the stream. Richard stopped a few times to pick up brush and dead vegetation to use in a fire. After they’d been walking for a few hours they finally made it to the riverbed.

It was bone dry.

“Shit! What the fuck, Richard? Thought there was water in this mother fucker!”

“Take it easy! There’s water, I’m positive. We just have to follow the riverbed up a ways before we get to it.”

They followed the riverbed for two hours and never saw so much as a drop of water. The sun was high in the sky; it was fast approaching noon. The temperature increased with every hour as the sun got higher in the sky. When the noon day sun was overhead, it was scorching hot. Richard had hoped they would make it to the water before sun got too hot. He had wanted to set up the shelter so they could get out of the sun and rest up for their night walking. By mid-afternoon, it would be pushing one hundred and twenty degrees; they didn’t have a choice, they had to build a makeshift shelter and wait it out.

“We have to stop.”

“Stop where? There a Holiday Inn around here I don’t know about?”

“No, Billy. We have to get out of this sun for a few hours and rest.”

“Fuck off, smartass. You really building us a house from your bag of tricks?”

“Well, maybe not a house, thinking more like a nice little cabin.”

“Can’t wait to see this.”

Richard began constructing the makeshift shelter from the many supplies they’d carried up the mountain. The upholstery cut from the SUV along with bed sheets made an excellent roof when propped up with sticks. The duo managed to avoid laying on the hot riverbed by using the windbreaker, vest, and extra clothing as “carpet.” It was rustic, but functional.