Chapter 36

The countdown began.

“Five! Four! Three! Two! One!”

With a silent prayer, Mike threw the switch, and for the first time in three weeks, the lights flickered on at Overton House to the loud cheers and applause of the thirty-six healthy survivors gathered together in the cafeteria. Students, teachers, nurses, and soldiers alike. All but the two soldiers keeping watch at the lookout, and Linda, who graciously volunteered to keep an eye on the patients in the ICU and PCU, so that Kali and Renata could join in the celebration.

The festivities didn’t last long for Mike and Eric, however, as they shortly began a sweep of the building, on the hunt for any powered-up, high-load appliances or mechanical systems, whose subpanels and breakers should already have been switched off.

Two dozen girls immediately began to recharge phones and laptops that had sat dark and silent for so many weeks. Mike monitored the draw on the battery bank, satisfied that it was well within the range of his calculated estimates. They had plenty of stored energy for not just lights and charging, but low voltage appliances as well. Including the tankless water heaters.

Mike erroneously thought they were electric, until Eric pointed out that although they required electricity to run their onboard electronics, they were in fact heated by natural gas. Needless to say, this bit of good news instantly made Mike and Eric the undisputed heroes of dozens of young girls who’d suffered cold showers for weeks, and the lines for the bathrooms soon extended into the hallways.

With restored power lifting everyone’s spirits, Mike could now focus his full attention on the critical food mission, scheduled for the day after tomorrow. There was still a ton of preparation work to do, but after a long night of Olympic-class sex with Kali and Charmagne, and an even longer day with Eric at the truck rental, it would have to wait until the morning.

Michelle Hsi approached with Endora Hardin, and Mike was struck by the extreme changes to not just Endora’s demeanor, but her appearance as well. She dressed far more provocatively now. Many of her pants had been converted into cutoff shorts, with each newly made pair higher-cut than the last, until the most recent failed to fully cover the bottoms of her cheeks. Likewise, many of her t-shirts had been converted into woven midriffs with revealing necklines.

“Good job,” Endora said with an intense, mesmerizing gaze.

“We need to talk to you about something important,” Michelle said.

“Can it wait?” he asked, eager for a hot shower of his own.

“Sure,” Endora said. “Hopefully you live that long.”

Mike furrowed his brow. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Not here,” Michelle said, taking his hand. “Upstairs.”

They climbed to the fourth floor, where the other members of the Robotics Club were present and waiting for them. When Michelle locked the door, Mike felt a sense of unease, like a tiger walking into a trap.

“What’s going on?” he asked, keeping his back to the wall. Could he even take on eight teenage girls at once? He wasn’t sure, but if he saw a syringe, he was going down swinging.

“Relax, Mike,” Endora said, taking a seat on her bed. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

Just hearing her say that made him feel anything but relaxed.

“It’s about Ms. Linda,” Michelle said.

“What about her?”

“We think she’s planning something.”

“She wants to kill you,” Endora said plainly. “She’s planning it, right now.”

Mike looked at the faces of the eight girls who, just three weeks earlier, drugged and sexually assaulted him in his basement lab. Now they had him locked away on the fourth floor with what had to be the most unbelievable tale he’d ever heard. But their expressions revealed no deception. All he saw was concern. Except for Endora, who seemed amused by his silence.

“Told you,” she said to the others.

“He’ll believe us,” Michelle insisted. “He has to.”

Mike lifted his hands and shook his head. “Hold on a second. What makes you think Linda wants to kill me?”

“Because she thinks you raped us, Mike,” Endora said. “She’s believed it from the very beginning, and it’s all she thinks about.”

Of course, he knew how she felt about him. Including her certainty that he was a villain. But he never imagined that she’d try to take justice into her own hands. He took a seat in one of the small study chairs and wiped his face. Then he looked at Endora.

“How do you know all this?”

“I’ve been sneaking into her house for weeks, and I’ve heard her talking about it. She’s been planning it for days.”

“Wait a minute. Talking? To whom?”

“Kristin.”

Mike stared at her. “Kristin Richardson?”

“She’s been at Linda’s house since the blackout, and before you ask why she’s there, it’s because they’re a couple. They’ve been keeping it a secret for years.”

The expression on his face caused Endora to smirk. The faculty were well aware of Kristin’s sexual orientation, but Linda? No wonder she kept it hidden. If the Board of Trustees knew she was having an affair with one of her subordinates, they would have fired her in a heartbeat. Mike opened his mouth to ask a question, but Endora anticipated it.

“She’s sick. Radiation, just like everyone else. Linda’s been stealing medicine and treating her at her house, but she’s probably going to die soon.”

“Oh my god,” Mike whispered, staring straight ahead. “Poor Kristin.” He almost asked why Linda didn’t bring her to the clinic, but the answer was obvious. Instead, he asked, “How long does she have?”

“Days, maybe a week. She has sepsis, or at least that’s what Linda thinks.”

“Fuck.”

Michelle interrupted his commiseration. “We have a plan.”

His eyes came up. “A plan for what?”

“A plan for how to keep you safe,” she said, opening her laptop. “But it requires you to bend the truth a little bit.” When his eyes narrowed, she turned the laptop to face him and pressed on the trackpad.

The video was chaotic. Onscreen, Mike lay semi-conscious on a mattress made of foam. A topless Mia Clark kneeled between his legs with her hand wrapped around his dick, a shocked expression on her face. All around them, the girls of the Robotics Club, all of whom were mostly or partially undressed, screamed in panic. All but a fully nude Endora, who stood eerily still, as if in a daze, with her unfocused eyes trained on Mike and Mia.

Over the screams of the girls, he heard Linda talking.

“ ... are you doing? Don’t stop! I told you to keep going. Mommy’s naughty little boy needs to be punished.” She laughed and the camera slowly zoomed in on Endora, until she filled the screen. “Oh god, look at how cute you are. Are you my good little girl? Why don’t you come over here and eat mommy’s pussy, baby.”

The video abruptly ended.

Mike’s jaw hung open. Then he jumped to his feet.

“What the fuck? What the fuck? She set this up?” He gripped his hair and paced around the room, his heart going a mile a minute. “That bitch! That fucking bitch! It was her all along! Oh my god. Oh my fucking god!”

He spun to face the girls. “Oh Jesus, I can’t believe she did that to you girls! Has she been threatening you? Is that it?” He bared his teeth and clenched his fists. “I’m going to fucking kill her! She’s been using this against me the whole fucking time, making my life a fucking living hell!”

Endora and Michelle shared a look, then Michelle closed the laptop.

“Sit down, Mike,” she said, but he couldn’t sit.

“Fuck that!” he shouted, approaching her with his hand held out. “Give me the laptop. Give it to me, Michelle! I’m going to show everyone exactly what she did!”

“It’s not real,” Endora said. “It’s fake.”

Mike looked at her and blinked several times. “What are you talking about? How is that a fake? I fucking heard her! I heard what she said!”

Endora smiled. “You worked in Hollywood, didn’t you?”

“What?”

“We made the video,” Michelle said. “Endora recorded Linda and Kristin having sex, and I mixed Linda’s voice over the original audio and added the zoom effect.”

Both his heartrate and his breathing were still elevated, but his face slowly contorted into a look of bewilderment. He twisted his shaking, outstretched hand to point at her laptop.

“Wait a second. Y-you made that?”

She shrugged sheepishly. “Pretty convincing, huh?”

Mike slowly backed away and lowered himself onto the chair, catching himself on the upright back when he nearly missed the seat. He shook with so much adrenaline-fueled anger that he had trouble sitting still. They made that? He looked at Michelle.

“Show me the original.”

Michelle played it for him and he collapsed backwards into his seat and wiped his face. He was actually sweating. What am I going to do? he asked himself. Could he use that doctored video against her? It didn’t just exonerate him. It also painted Linda as both a child molester and a kidnapping rapist. Could he do that to her?

“We can’t use that,” he said in a shaky voice.

Olivia stood up. “She’s trying to kill you, Mr. Me- Mike! Over something you didn’t do! Over something we did! She needs to be stopped!”

“I don’t care!” he said, standing up as well. “It’s one thing to prove my innocence, but to pin this on her instead? No fucking way! That’s just as bad. Even worse, actually, because I fucking know for a fact she didn’t do it. Jesus, how could you guys even come up with such a fucked up plan? This is even worse than what you did to me!”

The girls shared uncomfortable, shameful looks, until their eyes settled on Endora. Mike looked at her.

“I take it this was your idea?”

She didn’t look nearly as ashamed as the others. “That’s why we ran it by you first,” she said calmly. “We’ll figure out something else, instead.”

“No! The last thing I need from any of you is more help. You’re all the reason I’m in this spot to begin with. Just stay the fuck out of it.”

“But what about Ms. Linda?” Michelle asked in an urgent voice.

“Enough already! I’ll deal with Linda, Michelle! Not you!”

He stormed away, yanking on the door until he remembered it was locked. Jesus Christ, those fucking girls! What the hell were they thinking?

“Mike, wait!” Michelle yelled, catching up to him on the second floor. “I’m sorry, okay? We just want to help.”

She looked to be on the verge of tears, and despite how furious he was with her, he couldn’t help but be softened by her intentions, however misguided they might be. He eyed the door to his bunk room and jerked his head.

“Get inside.” When he shut the door behind them, he pulled her to his bunk. “Sit down.”

He pulled up a chair and sat directly in front of her.

“You can’t fuck with people’s lives like that,” he scolded her. “I know how smart all of you are, but this ... this is wrong. What you did to me was wrong.”

He leaned back and sighed. “Now look, I forgive you for that, okay? But you have to start making better choices. All of you. You can’t just do something simply because you can. You have to think first!” he said, pointing to his temple. “Think about the fucking consequences. Think about how what you do affects other people.”

He stood and paced away from her. “I know Linda is ... well, she’s a fucking bitch, is what she is, but she’s not evil. She’s just ... fucked up. She loves you girls, and just like how you believe your fucked up plan to frame her is somehow going to protect me, I’ll bet you a million dollars she believes her fucked up plan to whack me is somehow going to protect you.”

He returned to his seat and leaned forward, clasping his hands together. “I’m sorry things turned out this way for you girls. I really am. Your lives were never meant to be like this. You were all supposed to graduate high school and college, and go off to have brilliant careers and get married and have kids. But this is your reality now. Childhood is fucking over!”

Tears streamed down her cheeks, and he softened his voice.

“We’re in a fight for our lives here, Michelle. Don’t you realize how serious all this is? Death and misery are all around us. We’re weeks away from starvation. People want to hurt us. They want to hurt you. You need to start looking out for yourselves, because, one day, we might not be here to do it for you.”

She covered her mouth, and a distraught cry escaped her lips.

“I know that’s not what you want to hear, but you need to hear it. I almost died taking Layla and her friends down that hill, and Theresa almost died after what they did to her, and if you didn’t hide Marcus the way you did, they probably would have killed him. And that was just in the first week, when things were still relatively calm. What do you think it’s going to be like three months, or six months, or a year from now?”

He took her hands. “It’s time for you girls to grow up. You can’t be kids anymore. You have to be adults now. But that means being responsible. No more crazy schemes. The time for playing games with other people’s lives is over, do you understand me?” When she nodded, he squeezed her hands and smiled at her. “I know you do. You’re one of the smartest people I know.”

He stood up and she stood too. When she wrapped her arms around him, he returned her embrace.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“I know, sweetie.” He hugged her tightly to his chest.

The door cracked open.

“Hey, Mike?”

Kali’s face appeared in the doorway. She looked at him with expressionless eyes, then slowly retreated and closed the door behind her.

It was like old times again. Benny the Cook. Nelson Petty, one of Wyatt Beechum’s long-time enforcers. Blackjack Cassidy, a one-time pimp who handled recruitment, trafficking young teen girls from as far as Charlotte, Knoxville, and Greensboro. And then there was Big Jay, a certified sociopath who’d done more hard time than anyone else Emmett knew.

Benny, Nelson, and Big Jay had been holed up in the meth lab when the bomb dropped, and Blackjack had been in a basement brothel, getting his dick sucked. The rest of the gang were unaccounted for, except for the old man himself, who’s bloated corpse they found rotting in his mountain home. But Emmett and Harlan left notes at their usual dead drops. If anyone else was still out there, they’d make their way to Morgan Creek, eventually.

The boys all had stacks of food in front of them. Five thousand calories each. Gifts, courtesy of the Caldwell brothers. Twenty-thousand calories was a lot to spend all in one go, but Emmett and Harlan were buying loyalty, which these days, was more valuable than food.

In the middle of the living room, a skinny young girl, no older than fourteen or fifteen, struggled to fit her small hand inside her mother’s ass. Nearby, six other women, some with their kids, waited on standby for their turns.

“Why the fuck do you pay them?” Blackjack asked at one point. “Why not just beat the shit out of them and make them do it?”

Emmett shared a look with his brother. This was the downside of working with a bunch of career criminals. The solution to every problem was always brute force. There wasn’t a long-term thinker among them. He leaned closer, so as to not be overheard.

“What would be the point?” he asked under his breath.