Adrian Smith - The Rule of Three

“What about in there?” Boss said, pointing at a white metal cabinet in the far back corner. It had dirt encrusted tarps stacked on top of it and several containers of nauseating liquid piled beside it. Some of the container lids were lying scattered on the floor. Dee shook her head at the mess.

“Yes. It’s a possibility.”

Dee hurried over. Deep gouges and scratches on the doors became visible as she drew nearer, and the heavy padlock had been cut and tossed aside. Someone had beaten them to it again.

Dee growled inwardly and clenched her hands into fists. She was frustrated, hungry and tired. All she wanted was to find Jack and get to the cabin. When he hadn’t shown up back at the house for over ten days, she had assumed the worst. Only determination and her love for Jack had kept her going. She could feel the weight falling off her from the lack of food and the now-constant fear of the creatures. Creatures from some sick nightmare. Variants, Boss called them. Dee wondered, for the hundredth time, Variants of what?

Dee felt a slight breeze on her neck, she pivoted and gasped. A shotgun was pointing straight at her. Another was at Boss’s head. Two tall, overweight men held them. Dee looked down the barrel and into the hard brown eyes of her captor, who was grinning at her, missing front teeth. Dee cursed herself. She’d been so caught up in her thoughts she hadn’t heard the men approach.

Missing Teeth winked at her. “Hello, sweetcheeks. You looking for these?” He waggled the gun.

“Yeah, we were, actually. Want to give them to us?” Dee glared back as she inched her hand towards her katana strapped to her back.

“Naughty. Naughty,” Missing Teeth said. “Hands where I can see them.”

Dee held up her hands. “What do you want?”

“You, of course.”

“I don’t think so,” Dee said. She breathed deeply and stepped closer to the smelly chemicals.

“You’re funny. And cute too. This is going to be fun.” With his gun, he gestured towards a wooden pallet. “Go sit over there. If you seem like you’re enjoying it, I’ll put a good word in with the monsters.”

The reality of the situation dawned on her. Rape. Even at the end of the bloody world, these bastards just wanted to live out their sick fantasies. Typical.

“Guys, c’mon please. It should be us against the Variants. Not this!” Dee said. She held out her hands palms down, trying to pacify the situation.

“Variants?”

“Yes, Variants. The Americans call them Variants.”

Missing Teeth stared at her. He frowned and his face reddened. Dee thought she saw a hint of confusion flit across his eyes before he spat on the floor.

“Look, sweetcheeks, I don’t give a toss what some Yankee Doodle Dandy called them. Simon and I are going to have a little fun with you. SO MOVE YOUR ARSE, NOW!”

Missing Teeth grabbed Dee by her shirt front and hauled her to her feet. Dee started screaming as loud as she could. Struggling against the man’s grip, she kicked out at his shins.

“It’ll do you no good. It’s just us. Soon you’ll be with our monster friends. So kick and scream all you want.”

Boss started struggling with Simon, trying to wrestle the gun away from him, but Simon was too strong, too quick. He leant back and swung the gun stock, connecting with Boss’s head in a savage blow. Boss hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Dee watched him thud to the ground. “He’s just a kid, you bastards!” she screamed at the men.

Missing Teeth and Simon laughed as they dragged her over to a wooden pallet covered with wool sacks. They started whooping and hollering like a couple of boozed-up teenagers.

Dee fought with everything she had. There was no way they were going to take her. She had fought off guys before. She blamed the rape culture for the way men thought they were entitled to act. In a flash, a memory raced through her mind.

A water-filled quarry. Dee and her friends were enjoying the last of the summer before university. A few drinks in the sun. She fell asleep under a tree while her friends swam out to the rock in the middle of the lake.

Dee woke to a rough, calloused hand over her mouth and hands grabbing roughly at her. She struggled and fought like a trapped cat. Finally, she connected with a well-timed knee to the groin. The man tumbled off her, clutching his balls. He rolled around on the ground, cursing at her. A red mist descended over her. She picked up a nearby rock and smashed the man in the head. Again and again and again. Another man Dee hadn’t seen tackled her, knocking her to the ground and out of her rage. Seeing her friends running up from the lake shore, the second man ran off. Dee looked down at the rock she still held. She could see blood and grey brain matter, and tiny fragments of skull. She promptly doubled over and vomited.

The police arrived and took Dee away in an ambulance. Later they arrested her for manslaughter.

A lengthy emotional and soul-destroying trial ensued. It exposed Dee to a very corrupt and male-favoured system. Psychiatric evaluations deemed her fit for trial, but thankfully she was found not guilty by means of self-defence. The media called her the mouse that roared. The rapist’s family yelled daily abuse at her. After that, she withdrew from society, finding comfort in books. In movies. In gaming. Where people are essentially anonymous.

It took meeting a special guy to bring her out of her shell. To live life on the outside again.

Dee would always remember the stench of her attacker’s breath. A mixture of cheap bourbon and cannabis.

Thinking of her past gave Dee strength. She reached down inside herself and began to struggle as if her life depended on it. She scratched. She kicked. She ripped her fingernails over Missing Teeth’s face and bit into his hand.

“Hmmm… I like it when they fight.” He grinned down at her. “Hold the bitch’s legs down.”

Simon grabbed both her flailing legs in a vice-like grip. Together, the men managed to wrestle her onto the pallet.

She looked up into Missing Teeth’s eyes, silently pleading with him. Searching for some decency. Hoping to change his mind while looking into his eyes. Hoping to ease the evil in his soul. Anything to stop what was about to happen.

Dee didn’t hear the first gunshot. Missing Teeth’s head exploded, brains and skull splattering all over her. The sight of his lust-filled eyes seared into her memory. His body slumped, pinning her legs.

She heard the next couple of shots and saw Simon look down at the gaping holes in his chest. His lifeless body toppled over. Dee shuddered and pushed Missing Teeth’s body off her. She stood and stared down at his nearly headless body and she spat on him.

Asshole.

“You all right?”

Dee spun towards the source of the voice. A stocky, muscular man with a long wizard beard and white hair approached her. He was dressed in green cargo pants, a green shirt and a black combat vest filled with magazines and even a grenade or two.

“You all right?” he asked again.

“Y… Yeah, I think so.” Dee shook her head. Too many things were happening at once today. “Boss?”

“Sorry, what?”

“Boss. Sorry, I mean the kid?”

“He’ll be fine. He took a nasty blow to the head, though.”

“Thank you,” Dee said, kicking Missing Teeth again. “I’m Dee. I call the kid Boss.”

“You’re welcome. Ben. Ben Johns.” He glanced around, eyes alert. “We need to move, I don’t know how many of those creatures have been alerted by the gunshots.”

“At this time of day?”

“Yes,” Ben said. “Let’s grab the kid and go.”