Week 34: Return to Right

Mike may have been stronger than me. He may have had the upper hand more often than not. I certainly fell for more than one of his traps. However, this did not make Mike better than me.

You see Mike was also deeply flawed. Aside from the obvious psychotic problems, he was also cocky and overconfident. He underestimated me, and that proved to be Mike’s downfall.

It started around noon. Mike drug me out into the middle of I-20 with my legs and hands bound. Brenda was left tied up in Mike’s rig. Jonas and his two henchmen stood off to the side to watch and wait their turns. Brad had become Jonas’ prisoner and was handcuffed to a guard rail just behind them. The short bus of carriers was parked on the other side of the guardrail.

Mike started off with a few good kicks to my stomach, just to soften me up. Meanwhile Jonas and his megaphone called for Matthew to come out, all in that preacher style cadence. I just curled up in a fetal position and took it. There wasn’t much else I could do.

When Mike paused I took my shot with the only weapon I had. I asked Mike, “You going to show Matthew how you can beat up a helpless prisoner or you going to make this a real fight?”

Mike laughed. He walked over and bent down next to me whispering in my ear. “I know you are trying to get me to untie you. You think you just might have a chance if you can trick me into cutting your ties. Well I tell you what. I am going to fall for it. Just to prove to you that you don’t have a fart’s chance in a hurricane.”

First I felt the binds around my legs break free, next the ones around my hands. Then I was up on my feet… and quickly knocked back to the ground with my eyes stinging and blood pouring from my nose thanks to a sucker punch from Mike.

I managed to get a few good punches in, but Mike barely seemed to notice them. Let’s face it, before the infection Mike was probably honing his skills in bar fights. Meanwhile the closest I had come to a fight was a shoving match in sixth grade. So, yeah, Mike was a better fighter than me.

But that was okay. If I have learned anything over the last eight months, it is how to take a beating. I would just absorb it, lock the pain away, and wait for my chance.

After a while, Mike had me on the ground with his knees pinning my shoulder to the asphalt. Mike repeatedly slammed the back of my head into the roadway. Things were getting blurry and it took everything I had to stay conscious.

Then I thought I heard Matthew’s voice. And that is when Mike stopped. Mike looked at the horizon and began smiling ear to ear. He raised one knee, began to stand up, and then paused. Mike looked back down at me to gloat one last time with that big grin on his face.

That’s when I grabbed the mouthpiece that was hanging around my neck, Matthew’s mouthpiece, and jammed it right into Mike’s eye. All the way. Mike fell to the ground twisting and clawing at it.

With renewed strength I jumped to my feet and began stomping on Mike’s head. I was vaguely aware that one of Jonas’ goons was raising a gun to shoot me, but I didn’t care. As luck would have it, I didn’t have to.

A shot rang out and the face mask of Tweedle Dee exploded with blood. Tweedle Dee was dead. A few seconds later another shot rang out and Tweedle Dum was dead, too. By this time Jonas had taken refuge behind Brad.

Me? I was still stomping on Mike’s head. There wasn’t much left of it by the time Matthew reached me. Matthew pulled me away and hugged me at the same time. After a minute, I finally realized it was him. It was actually Matthew. I hugged him with every ounce of strength I had left.

Then a lady clothed head to toe with a cloak over her head stepped out of the tree line with a sniper rifle in her hands. With one hand she kept the gun trained on Jonas and with the other she pulled her cloak back.

It was Sarah. Sarah the carrier we had met so long ago. She had been Matthew’s help. “Consider us even” she said and smiled.

“Gladly” I replied.

Just then Jonas slowly stood up with both hands raised; in one he had the keys to Mike’s handcuffs.

“Now I just want to let your friend here go. Then after my act of good faith maybe we can discuss the situation a bit further.” Jonas bent down, unlocked Brad, and took a step back.

Brad stood up and quickly punched Jonas in the face. Jonas just smiled at him then returned the favor by spitting in Brad’s face. The spit was thick and white. Jonas was also a carrier.

Within a matter of seconds, Brad fell to the ground and turned before our eyes. Sarah had to put three rounds in him before he fell back down, dead for real this time. 

By that time Jonas had disappeared.