Moonlit Retribution

Chapter Eighteen

“Was that entirely necessary, Antonio? I know the old coot was becoming a nuisance, but really, this could have been done in a much cleaner fashion.” Mella sinks to her knees beside me, clinically scanning Andy’s cooling body, like she’s going to find that he’s actually alive if she simply looks hard enough.

“What the fuck!” I shriek, my voice cracking hoarsely at the end. Whirling on my knees, I face Ríjez, who’s leaning against the trailer, gun hanging loosely in his fingers, his gaze as empty and lifeless as Andy’s. “Ríjez! What the hell was that about!”

Still staring into nothing, he blinks once, then slowly shakes his head, reaching a hand to his temple as if succumbing to a nasty headache. He tries to look at me, but he just keeps shaking his head and grasping at his temples.

Frantic, I turn to Mella. Surely she has to be stable about all this if she can find room to add in a snarky comment. “What are we going to--? How are we--?”

She waves me off, flicking a lock of auburn hair behind her ear. “Hush now. Pull the cart--”

“Trailer.”

She huffs sharply. “Bring that rickety freaking slab of wood over here before I smack you into next week,” she says levelly, eying me coldly; much too similar to the calculating, snake-like look of those things. I’m too terrified and confused to disobey her. Scrambling to my feet, I begin to heave the trailer closer, making Ríjez stumble a little from losing his support. He shakes his head as I grunt with effort and finally seems to regain enough sense to assist me.

“What are you thinking?” Ríjez asks Mella, who’s taken a crouched position at Andy’s heels. She looks up sharply, eying him with a mixture of disdain and worry.

“I’m thinking you’re as much of a dumbass as I had originally assumed. Grab his head. Vessa, push the other one over.”

Obediently, with a grunt of exertion, I shove the leaden weight of the girl’s body as far to the other end of the trailer as is safe. They collectively heave Andy’s dead weight and slowly shuffle to the cleared end of the trailer. Andy’s body crashes to the old wood, making it squeak slightly and tilt forward. Ríjez and I pull the tongue up to keep the bodies from tumbling off.

“Alright, so what’s the plan?” Ríjez exhales, falling against the trailer in exhaustion. The virus must really take a lot out of a person.

Mella pierces him with a furious gaze. “You tell me, brainless. I’m not the one who embraced the sudden urge to murder our dear leader.”

“Look, let’s not start--”

“He would have shot her!” Ríjez shouts rabidly, eyes wide in fury, gesturing wildly towards me. “What the hell was I supposed to do? Let him kill your precious little guinea pig? I’d never hear the end of it!”

“Oh, let’s not pretend that this is only about her importance to me, Antonio,” she counters in a sickly sweet voice. “Though, really--”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m just some fucking lab rat!” I snarl, not bothering to nurse the hurt I feel at his admission that he only intervened to keep Mella off his back. “Both of you, just shut the hell up!”

They rear back in unison, both apparently shocked at my outburst. Mella’s eyes are glittering with a mixture of pride and murderous intent, while Ríjez is simply glowering at the ground. “We’ll go to the pit,” he says finally, emptily, hefting the trailer back up. “Dump him in with Dev.”

Never taking her unnerving gaze off of me, Mella replies dryly, “And tell everyone back home, what? Perhaps an old fashioned Beam-Me-Up-Scotty?”