Novel Excerpt: Vigilante

I walked up the dock; my thick-heeled boots thudding on the rotting boards, my mind alert for certain danger.  I always went there when I felt restless.  I knew some would notice me.  There was always someone to notice me.  After a drink and a gamble the men stumbled into my path.  They stared at me with vacant eyes, trying to focus.  They wanted me.  I could sense it.  It made me feel powerful.  They couldn’t touch me but I knew one would try.  They always tried.

“Hey baby.  Ain’t you scared a’ the dark?” 

I knew it was directed at me, but it wasn’t enough to make me stop.  They’d have to try better than that.  It was my game tonight.

“Hey honey!”  The same voice called out, “I know yer waitin’ for me.  You heard how big I was.” 

This made his friends laugh.  I heard the low guffaws and the slap of a hand on a back.  They were behind me, but I could smell their breath.  They radiated stale cigarettes and cheap whiskey.  I heard laughter again and they moved a little closer.  It gave the ringleader more courage.

“Hey, pretty baby! You lookin’ for your mama?  I think I found her in the alley.  Come with me, we can find her together, make it a threesome.” 

“My mother is dead.” I said to the man behind me as I turned to face him and his friends. “You like corpses?”

There were four of them.  The ringleader was tall and dark with an unkempt face and a scar over his left eye.  The one on his left was fat, and unsteady on his legs.  The other two seemed to be brothers.  They were fair haired and their faces were burnt and ravaged by the elements.  Their clothes were dirty and caked with ocean salt.  You could tell they were from abroad with something exotic in their blood.

The fat one laughed and elbowed his buddy.  “Carl don’t care long as they warm!  Remember Morocco?”  The other two laughed remembering the image.

“I din’ know she were dead!”  Carl cried venomously.

“Course you did!  You’se the one who slit ‘er throat!  She bled all over you while you had yer fun!”  One of the brothers answered.

“Yeah, ruined it for the res’ of us.”  The other countered.

These men cared nothing for life.  They only knew money and petty pleasures.  Modern day pirates, they sailed, pillaged, raped and took anything they wanted.  They knew no boundaries. They killed for fun.  I stared at them with loathing in my heart and a song in my eyes.  They were the lowest of creatures, these dirty, foul men.  I knew they would spread their stink and filth if I didn’t stop them.  I wanted to kill them, and the fact that there were four of them only made it more fun.  It promised to be a good night.

I started walking towards them throwing a seductive smile on my face.  The fat one seemed to have forgotten I was there.  He stared at me first in surprise that I was approaching, then with lust and greed in his blank eyes.  Laughing, the brothers turned to me, one in amusement and the other in skepticism.  They were used to this, used to women, but I was different, they could sense it.  I had a secret.  They had no idea how different I was.

I walked right up to Carl, the ringleader, and saw that the scar over his left eye was fresh.  He stunk, but I ignored the stench and crooked my finger in the direction of the alley.  I knew they would follow.  Even men like these are easy prey under the powers of women.  The problem is women don’t seem to realize it.  Women just give it away.  Not me.  The night belonged to me.

I led them into the darkened alley.  I heard one, probably the fat one, stumble and crash into a garbage can.  A cat screeched at him as he swore.  

“You boys afraid of the dark?  Or is this spot good enough?”  I called back over my shoulder.

Carl leered at me and started unbuttoning his fly. 

“Only if was good enough for you, princess.”

I slowly took stock of my surroundings.  I quickly had to learn that everything could be used as a weapon.  The others chuckled softly, looking to him for leadership to see what would happen next. I knew from the Morocco story that these men were prepared to do anything.  I wouldn’t give them that chance.  I quickly spotted a rusted fire escape hanging three feet above me, a couple bags of garbage spilling out of the closed doorway of the building on my right, a broken glass bottle near the foot of one of the brothers and various broken stones and bricks littering the alley floor.

“I like small dirty spaces.”  I whispered deeply, my voice hinting at sexual, “who wants it first?” 

I unbuttoned my black blouse a button or two, almost revealing the promise of my body.

“How if we share you all at once?”  The amused brother smiled at me and revealed two broken teeth,

“There’s enough holes for all of us.”

“I don’t know if you can handle me.”  I taunted as I flipped my hair over my shoulder.

Carl laughed loudly up to the sky and took a step forward.

“Why don’t you boys share her first?  I want to watch.”

Like puppies, both brothers eagerly stepped up.  I shrunk into a crouch then quickly leapt into the air.  I caught the fire escape with both hands, swung my body towards them and caught the brother on the left in the face with my boot.  He crumpled to the ground holding his nose.  Blood spurted on the wall beside him.

“You bitch!”  The other one screamed at me. 

The fat one took a hasty step back and tripped on the garbage near the door.  He went down with a thud that knocked the wind out of him.  He sat there clutching his chest.  I quickly swung my body again and wrapped my legs around the other’s neck.  One quick snap and he hung lifeless in my grasp.  He dropped to the ground, his neck oddly bent, blue eyes still open.  I dove back into the alley and caught the scent of the blood pouring out of the first brother’s face.  He was standing now beside Carl still clutching his broken nose.  The blood dripped over his fingers and ran down his face.  The smell overpowered me.  The aroma of his life seeped into my senses and triggered an animal instinct in my brain.  I wanted him.  I wanted them all. 

Carl swung at me but my reflexes allowed me to easily escape his drunken attempt.  I ducked, rolled and grabbed the broken glass near his foot.  Springing to my feet I plunged the bottle into the neck of the remaining brother.  Carl gaped at me with disbelief in his eyes.  The fat one still cowered on the ground.

“You cut her throat.”  I mocked the gang leader with a vicious parody of his own story.  “You ruined the fun for the rest of them.”

In one quick swipe I dragged the broken glass across the neck of his friend never taking my eyes from Carl.  He stared at me with eyes wide with panic and disbelief.  Twisting my head I put my lips on the wound.  I could feel his heart beating wildly.  Gradually it slowed as he struggled a bit in my arms but his life slowly left his body.  Too quickly it was over and the body was heavy in my arms.  I faced Carl once more.

"Surprised?" I mocked him.

Carl started towards me but I hurled the body of his buddy towards him.  He tried to catch it but the deadweight caught him off guard.  He made a small moaning sound as he supported the body of his friend.  The look on Carl’s face made me smile.  He was stunned in his terror, his mind rebelling from the death in his arms.  He stared into the lifeless eyes of his partner and nearly shook from fear.

I felt no remorse for this man.  His life was not worth saving.  I stared at the two of them with complacence.  I was not sorry that I killed them and as he looked at me and I knew he could see it.  He threw the body to the side and charged at me, an unearthly howl escaping his lips.  Even on some primitive level he wanted revenge.

I used his momentum to my advantage.  I ducked underneath him and threw him over my right shoulder.  I heard him hit the ground and went in for a kick.  My high heeled boot caught him right in the eye.  Half blind he stood up shrieking.  I knew that even in this area all that noise was sure to attract attention.  I swung my arm and forced my hand into his windpipe.  Chocking, he was forced back against the wall under the fire escape and eventually slid to the ground.

I leaned in really close to look him.  I wanted him to know who I was.  I wanted him to remember me.

“You’re dead now.”  I whispered

Novel Excerpt: Life After

Chapter One:

Finally in the End

“We've done it.” I thought as I stood in the horses’ pen at the far end of The Property.

We had suffered grievously over the last two decades. We had endured beyond the full scope of natural emotion. Our world had deteriorated and our race had been pushed to the brink of survival. We had seen much, done more and survived through the darkest days.

“After all these years,” I whispered to my mother, “we've done it.”

She looked at me with her dark eyes and I could see the years etched inside her soul. She smiled slightly, with some mistrust then turned to go. I watched her, my mother, so strong and resilient. A beautiful match for my father who was the one distinctive and unwavering personality who had led us all to the Now Days. The peace and harmony were of his doing and I knew his deeds and fair justice here would influence the rest of humanity forever. We weren't the only ones, but we were the biggest and most prominent Community not only surviving, but thriving these 20 years after the most devastating outbreak ever to affect mankind the world over. It had destroyed most of humanity, yet our precious community was still alive.

“All but one.”

Yes, one didn't survive. Truthfully . . .

“All but two.”

The pain of remembering threatened to spill down my cheeks. Both of them closest to me. Both of them a part of me. Both of them my legacy. My father and my child. I didn't want to remember. I didn't want to acknowledge. There was beauty in daring to believe that my daughter lived on in the laughter of the children. There was courage in repeating old stories that kept my father's presence near. But I tried to forget. I tried to forget a lot of things.

I've almost completely forgotten the Old Days. That's what we called them; the Old Days. They have no other name. The Old Days were nothing now but legends. We tell our children stories of oil booms and convenience stores with rows and rows of candy, ice cream and other tantalizing treats. Some of the older ones would tell us marvelous, unbelievable stories of airplanes, giant metallic birds, flying within hours to exotic, tropical destinations. They'd speak of huge buffet tables covered with tons of food and all the rum you could drink. They talked of huge cities with buildings so tall they pierced the sky. They told us of the layers and layers of glass windows and the miles of grey and black concrete. People worked in these buildings. 'Office jobs,' they called them. I imagined cities full of glass towers; huge, sprawling complexes filled with unimaginable luxury. I had left when I was only 6. I could barely remember my old, brick school let alone the downtown core of the city I lived in. I remembered my house, my bedroom, the bathroom.

All that was gone. That life has been destroyed. The few of us left had managed to carve an existence out for ourselves that, although it didn't mirror the modern day life we had all left behind, it certainly mimicked. We had tried our best to reinvent strategies that would bring to life old luxuries. Electricity, indoor heat, refrigeration. These discoveries, all but taken for granted in the Old Days, had been denied us so long. Long enough to recognize the gaps left by their absence. Long enough to create a need for suitable substitutes. Long enough to realize that our old way of life was completely unsustainable. We'd been surviving off of so little that it was hard to accept the fact that mankind had once lived off of excess and monstrous greed. From what I remember and what I've been told, our old way of life was too much. Nature always finds a balance between the creatures that thrive and multiply on her surface. When rabbits grow in number, wolves will gather. It's law.

What we had managed to do was create a Community that could sustain itself in the aftermath of such devastation and ruin. We had escaped the repulsive fate that had made victims of billions of others. We might actually be considered the 'first race' of people after the epidemic. We had created a Community based on Now Day morals and beliefs. No excess. No greed, or power. No possessions. No consumerism. All of our needs were met, the need for water, food, shelter and human interaction. We have created a micro-society that doesn't rely on the great indulgences of the past. We don't need oil to fuel our homes and keep us warm, we eat what we find or catch. We respect Nature and are in turn blessed by it. We don't have computers, or cell phones, we don't have television or the internet. We make our own clothes and grow our own food. We don't have supermarkets, gas stations or buffets. We work by the light of the sun and keep warm by the fire at night. Our life is simple and satisfying. It was hard to relate to the stories of the Old Days. That life sounded rushed, mad and driven to stress and disease. We worked hard during the day, leisurely entertained ourselves at night and fully participated in our Community. We knew that if we wanted to survive, we'd have to survive together.