Dead Weight

8: Redemption

"Turn right at the next street," he said.

Kevin obeyed and turned when they reached the street.

"All right," the man said and sat down on the passenger seat. "Now just go straight. Not too fast. Don't want to overheat the radiator." He glanced back at where Nick was lying on the floor and laughed. "I'm Richard. What's your name?"

Kevin didn't say anything. He just kept driving and looking straight ahead.

Richard nodded. "That's fine. You can be that way."

"Ben told us about you," said Kevin.

"Only good things I hope. Where is he now?"

"I killed him," Kevin said flatly. "Him and his brother."

Richard whistled.

"I was going to finish him off," Kevin cocked his head back, indicating to Nick, "when he stole the RV, so I came to get it back."

"You're one tough son of a gun," said Richard. "You even managed to flood my community with schizos while you were at it. I barely got away."

"Karma."

"What?"

"Ben told us that you all kicked out people because they were old or weak. You deserve what happened."

"Yeah, well I might have reconsidered lowering the age range if I knew there were some badasses like you," said Richard. "Tell me, what would you have done?"

"We help people. We don't leave them to die."

"Says the kid who killed Billy and Ben."

"You kill, you die."

Richard laughed. "Oh? In case you haven't noticed, the world has gone to hell. If I tried to help everyone, we would have all died. You say if you kill, you die? Well being too weak to be anything but a leech for food and medicine is the same as killing in the long run."

Nick groaned and moved on the floor.

Richard looked at him with disgust. "So what should happen to him?" he asked Kevin.

Kevin didn't say anything.

"Now, I wasn't there," Richard continued, "but I'm positive this little chicken shit didn't kill anyone himself, am I right?" He took the kid's silence as confirmation. "But indirectly, he was the cause of everyone's life that was taken today. There's no denying that fact." Richard pointed the gun at Nick. "By your logic, he should die."

Nick was on his back now. He hazily looked upside down at Richard and pleaded under his breath, "Help me."

"Pathetic," said Richard.

Kevin slammed on the brakes just as Richard pulled the trigger. The bullet ripped through Nick's face, shattering the left side of his jaw and blowing out some of his teeth.

Richard's head slammed into the windshield. He opened his eyes just in time to see Kevin plunge a knife into the side of his neck. Richard screamed out in pain, dropping the gun in order to clutch at the knife. As Kevin bent down to grab it, Richard pulled the knife out and sunk it straight into the boy's back. The gun flew out of his grasp and straight in front of Nick.

Still in a state of extreme shock, Nick's eyes registered the gun in front of him. He grabbed it with his left hand and weakly lifted it up and pointed it at Richard.

Richard pulled the knife out of Kevin's back and saw the gun trained on him. "Don't you ever fucking die?" he said to Nick. Clutching his neck with his left hand, he rose from the chair only to be hurled back down as Nick emptied the gun of the remaining four bullets. Richard would not be getting up again.

He let the gun drop to the floor and crawled towards the kid's body. Kevin's eyes were flowing with tears, his body trembling from trying to hold in screaming out from the pain.

"Auuffllauhh uhhlla kah." Nick meant to ask if he was okay, but his drooping tongue could not form any meaningful syllables.

"Dad," Kevin cried out. "Dad, I'm sorry."

Using every ounce of strength he could muster, Nick lifted himself onto the driver's seat. He felt dizzy as he looked around to figure out where they were. His eyes wanted so badly to close and go to sleep.

The RV was moving forward slowly since the brake pedal wasn't being pushed down. He struggled to move the steering wheel using only his left hand in order to orient the vehicle to drive straight along the road. There would be a turn coming up that would put them on the street where the motel was, but at the speed they were going, it would take far too long. His right leg was useless now, since he didn't have the strength to fight through the pain anymore, so he used his left to gently press on the gas. He wanted to push down more, but even the gentle pressure from the pedal was proving difficult to overcome. Using the brakes would be out of the question.

He let go of the gas as they approached the street and again he used all the strength he could muster to turn left. It wasn't enough. The RV propped up onto the sidewalk and scraped against a building until it came to a complete stop.

Nick let his body rest against the seat. "Tthhllaahha," he said, wanting to say, "Sorry kid, I tried." He let his head fall and turn to the left. What was left of his chin rested against his collarbone. Despite all of his injuries, he didn't feel in as much pain as he did just moments ago.

Before allowing his eyes to close, he looked through the window at someone running towards the vehicle. Thinking it was a schizo, he resigned himself to his fate and accepted that this would be the end. The end of a long and terrible day that itself was the end of a long and terrible journey into the end of days.

"Kevin!"

The distant voice stopped his eyes from shutting completely. He looked at the schizo running towards him once more, only this time, it was Henry running.

"Kevin!" Henry's voice shouted, closer and clearer now.

Nick was happy then. There was no solace or redemption to be had, but he felt proud to reunite father and son, even if he could only manage to get them part of the way. Even if this whole thing was his fault.

Taking his last breath, Nick let his eyes close.