Campbell_Book One

Chapter 9




November 2001

Fort Macleod, Alberta



A loud rap on the door caused Lucy to jump to her feet, with Andrew hot on her heels. They’d been half asleep on the couch, watching Beverly Hills 90210 late into the night.

“Who’s here so late?” she wondered out loud, glancing at her brother, who had his newly acquired semi-automatic rifle at the ready. “F*ck’s sake. Put that away.”

Andrew shrugged and shook his head. “No.”

“Put the damn safety on.”

“F*ck no,” he muttered, his voice cracking as he peered through the peephole. “It’s a bunch of guys.”

“What do you want?” Lucy called through the door.

“We’re here for some cows,” the biggest boy called back, peering through the side window. “We heard you got some.”

You paying?” Andrew called back.

“Good money,” was the reply from another boy.

“I’ll blow your brains out if you’re f*cking with us,” Andrew replied gruffly, upon opening the door.

The three boys on the other side were giants, Lucy thought, as they shuffled in and took a seat at the kitchen table. Bigger than most she’d seen that were her age. In ball caps and hoodies, they looked like most of the boys she’d gone to high school with.

There were a lot of Indians in Fort Macleod, but she’d never seen any as big as them.

“How old are you?”

“I’m eleven and they’re both twelve,” the smallest one, who was still a good four inches taller than Andrew said, crossing his arms. Lucy had never seen a kid with so many pimples before. She found herself unable to look away from them, shiny against his ruddy complexion.

“You don’t look twelve,” Lucy growled.

“There’s no one left older than twelve, so I guess you’ll have to believe us,” the one with the strange light eyes said with a chuckle. “Honest Injun.”

“Where you from?” she asked, narrowing her eyes in an attempt to be more intimidating than her tiny frame would allow.

The biggest one, a stocky boy answered, pulling his hat off and nodding to the north. “Outside Calgary. We’re Blackfoot.”

“What?” she said, frowning at him. His eyes were dark, and he looked tired. Exhausted. “You from a reserve?”

“Yeah. An hour east of Calgary.”

“Oh,” she nodded. “Gotcha.”

“I’m James, and this is Corey and John.” He nodded at his friends, who gave a little wave. “Maybe put the gun away, bro?” He gave Andrew a friendly smile. “We’ve got nothing. It’s all in the truck.”

Cole appeared from downstairs where he’d been asleep and sat on the floor beside Lucy. Andrew put his gun down. “So you want a cow?” Lucy asked, searching her mind as to why James looked so familiar when she was certain they’d never met.

“We’re trying to get something going on our reserve with some cows. We got a couple, but we need a bull, and people say your bulls are nice.”

“They’re not our bulls,” Lucy said. “But we know the girl who has them.”

James smiled at the girl across the table, and he knew he’d come to the right place. She had a presence that was much larger than she was physically. He’d been looking for her for days. “You’re Lucy.”

“Yep,” she said, with a shrug.

“I’ve been dreaming about you,” he said quietly, as his friends continued their negotiation with Andrew over Angela Duncan’s cows. “Every night for a week. You and the cows.”

“I don’t dream,” Lucy lied, blinking at the boy in front of her, who was suddenly very familiar. He had a gentleness about him that conflicted with his large frame, and she remembered being caught off guard by the contrast when she recalled their meetings in her mind.

“Your nightmare,” James replied, his eyes wide. “I’ve walked through before, to find you. It’s ugly in there.”

“We cut him down last week, Bull,” Lucy said, her eyes welling up with tears as she found herself remembering a little more about the time they’d spent together and the name he’d asked her to call him. “And threw him in the river.”

“Did you do the other thing I told you to?”

“We did,” she nodded, thinking of the effort it took to hold him in place while they severed his head with the hacksaw. “Andrew did.”

“Good,” Bull said, with a smile. “You should move so he can’t find you.”

Lucy shivered at the thought of her grandfather’s disembodied soul tracking her down. “Maybe?”

“It’s okay for now,” James said, looking around. “He seems to be gone like the rest.”

“…you can stay, but you sleep in the living room, on the floor,” Andrew said loudly. “You,” he nodded at Bull, noticing the attention he was paying to Lucy. “Stay away from my f*cking sister.”

“Shut up,” Lucy snapped. “And you don’t tell him what to do. He’s a friend.”

“You don’t know him,” Andrew sneered. “Just because he’s nice to you doesn’t mean he’s a friend. You should know that. You’d think you’d—”

Bull looked at Andrew in a way that made him stop mid-sentence and practically cower in his chair. “I am a friend. To Lucy.”



September 2012

Somewhere south of Campbell



When she was younger, Lucy Campbell didn’t like being underestimated. She found it insulting to her intelligence, and it irritated her that usually people thought she was weak simply because she was a girl. Now, she realized that being underestimated was a great gift, because it gave her a distinct advantage in a lot of situations. That day was no exception. She’d sobbed and cried and they’d thought her weak.

And boy, had she shown them.

“I need to brush my teeth,” she remarked, once again feeling her skin crawl at the thought of Ski-mask’s hands pushing against the back of her head. No amount of gargling pond water was going to make that go away.

“I need to bleach my brain,” Tal countered, shaking his head as he purposefully walked two steps ahead of her through the forest, presumably in the direction of the corpses and the car. “I never thought—”


“I never thought anyone would be stupid enough to try and kill people without any guns, and fail so f*cking hard when they had a clear advantage. I never thought anyone would be stupid enough to put their dick in the mouth of someone they didn’t know, who had just broken their knee. People are always going to surprise you Tal, and it’ll rarely be in a good way.” She knew he came from a different world than her, but his whiny response to doing what he had to was starting to grate.

“Ah,” he nodded. “So that’s—”

“Don’t talk about it,” she clipped. “And stop feeling so f*cking sorry for yourself. It’s done, and you’re alive. Poor you. They’d trade places with you in a minute.”

Tal sighed loudly and picked some twigs out of his chest hair as they emerged from the ditch to the spot off the road where the blood-spattered car was parked.

“So what now?” he asked sharply. “Since you seem to have all the answers.”

She rolled her eyes and walked around the car once before opening the driver’s side door. “We drive until we figure out where we are, or until we run out of gas.”

Tal opened the passenger side door and sat down, since she’d made it clear that she was driving. “Fine.”

“Do you have a better plan?” She pulled the seatbelt around her and raised her eyebrows. “Or would you rather walk to f*ck knows where.”

He reached in the back and pulled a book bag onto his lap. “Go ahead. You seem to have everything under control.”

“Look, if you want to part ways, have a great f*cking day.” She nodded at the door. “We don’t have to do this together.”

“Why do you get the car?”

She turned the key and the car started. “We’ve got like a quarter of a tank. They must have known there was gas somewhere close.”

“Well, let’s go find it then,” Tal replied, pulling a wallet full of old American bills out of the bag. “I guess wherever we are takes these.”

“What else is in there?” Lucy asked curiously, hopeful for a change of clothes. Despite her impromptu bath, she felt disgusting.

“A couple of t-shirts, a few pairs of gym socks, a retainer, some painkillers—”

“Give me the pain killers,” she demanded. “And a t-shirt.”

The massive t-shirts clearly belonged to Ski-mask. Lucy barked at Tal to turn his head as she stripped down to her underwear and pulled it over her. “Give me your belt.”

“I don’t have a belt. I’m wearing what I slept in, remember?” Tal said, reaching for the other t-shirt. “I guess you’ll just have to deal with a shapeless garment. Sorry.”

She reached for the bag and pulled the rest of the things out. Gum, which she promptly stuffed in her mouth, hand-rolled cigarettes, which she left on the dash, two Swiss Army knives, which she kept for herself, and an old ski-hat, which she tossed in the backseat.

“How the f*ck is that all that’s in here?” she exclaimed, annoyed at the kids they’d killed earlier for their lack of preparedness. “I thought East kids were perfectly suited to everything they did.”

“I don’t know,” Tal muttered. “These f*cking people.”

“I’m going to figure out what the hell is going on,” Lucy remarked, as they headed down the highway. “Because this is pretty far from a normal kidnapping, or at least one that I have ever heard of.”

She thought about it as they drove, and none of it made sense. Why would they kidnap her, if they were trying to barter with Cole? Had all of that just been a clusterf*ck to distract her so they could grab her? It was all entirely illogical. Maybe that was East. Illogical. Every dealing she’d ever had with them had been ridiculous.

“There’s some sort of town up ahead,” Tal said, snapping her out of her thoughts. “And the fuel light just came on.”

She nodded, and pulled over. “We need a story.”

“Why, because you look like you stumbled out of a slasher flick?”

She glared at him. “That, and because we don’t know where we are, and I think we should probably keep to ourselves.”

“We’re traveling, murderous circus performers. How’s that?”

Lucy bemoaned the fact that, if life was very different, she might have found Tal funny. His jokes were terrible, but charming in their own way.

“Let me take the lead,” she said, shaking her head at him. “We need to get some weapons.”

“I tossed the tire iron in the trunk for old time’s sake, and there’s those knives in your side of the car.”

Lucy glanced at them. “The iron seems to be your weapon of choice.”

“If I never pick that thing up again, it’ll be too soon,” he said quietly. “What I did back there—”

“Was necessary. Enough,” she shook her head. “What kind of validation are you looking for? Do you want a hug? Because you’re not going to get one from me.”

Tal smiled at her, a real, genuine smile that she’d thought impossible a few hours earlier with all that had happened. “So I’m just supposed to do what you do?”

“Just follow along. There’s no point in coming up with a plan, because we’re just going to have to deviate from it.”

Tal nodded in agreement. “All right. I’ll let you run the show this time, but if this doesn’t work out you don’t get another chance.”

“But what if it doesn’t work out, and you get a chance and fail? Then do I get another chance?” Her eyes twinkled as she batted her lashes. “Then what if I fail again? What is failure, Tal? There are just so many questions I have—”

“You’re a joker, huh?” He shook his head and looked even lighter than he had a few minutes earlier. “I had no idea you were funny.”

“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” she replied, raising her eyebrows. “So let’s get through this so I can keep it that way.”

“I’m upset that I killed those people,” he said, as if to affirm he was responding properly to the trauma he’d endured earlier.

Lucy sighed loudly in response. “I’m not upset about anything I did. I’m upset that people thought they should challenge me, because I’ve already earned my stripes. And as far as I’m concerned, you earned some today too. Good for you.”

The town was a place called Champion, they determined from the bright spray paint on the overpass, welcoming them. It was obviously one of the new names that had sprung up all over the place in the ten years since history and tradition had lost almost all meaning.

“Where are we?” Lucy asked a chubby blonde girl that was probably about fifteen at the dilapidated gas station.

“Champion,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It’s Champion.”

“But where is Champion?” Tal inquired. “Like what area?”

“It’s Champion,” the girl said, deadpan. “That’s the area.”

“Like where on a map though?” Lucy sighed. “Like of old America.”

“Somewhere in the middle, maybe? I wasn’t never no good at map reading,” the girl said, tossing her hair behind her shoulder and giving them the once over. “Where you from?”

“Texas,” Lucy stated, bothered that anyone couldn’t know where they were geographically. “By way of California.”


“Long way from home, ain’t you?” The girl held out her hand for some cash for the gas, which Tal stuffed in her fist. “We ain’t get a lot of traffic through here. How’s Texas?”

“Delightful,” Lucy said dryly. “Where can we buy stuff here?”

“Old Walmart halfway through town. There’s people set up there with stuff to sell.”

“Thanks,” Tal nodded. “You have a great day.”

“You guys in some sort of a cult?” the girl asked, as they headed out the door. “With the t-shirts?”

They exchanged a look. “Nope,” Lucy answered, tugging hers down below her knees. “Just ran out of clothes. Got stuck out in some rain.”

“Good. We don’t like that shit around here. That’s more of a Jerusalem thing.”

Another look was exchanged. As far as Lucy knew, Jerusalem was across the ocean. “Okay, well, see you,” Tal said brightly. “And thanks for the gas.”

“Jerusalem?” Lucy raised her eyebrows as they locked the car doors. “Where the f*ck are we? Let’s get what we need and start north.”

The Walmart store was a lot like the old Walmart, except with shittier stuff, Lucy determined quickly. The two stayed close and wandered through the aisles, finding very little of anything they were in need of. Lucy found some too big underwear, a bra, a new t-shirt and a pair of ill-fitting jeans, and Tal found himself outfitted in something Lucy knew as a Canadian tuxedo, consisting of a lot of denim, and a pair of black canvas sneakers that fit him.

They got a lot of looks and whispers as they walked around, although neither of them should have stood out based on appearance alone, at least once they were in normal-ish clothing. They both ate, a lot. Fresh, uncooked things. It was the sort of thing Lucy was used to, but she knew from Tal’s hesitation that he was out of his dietary element. On their way out of town, once they confirmed which way north was, they passed what looked like an operational motel.

“I think we should get some sleep. Maybe a few hours,” Lucy suggested. It was now very late afternoon, and she realized that she was exhausted, although it wasn’t so much about the sleep as the shower that she hadn’t had yet. “Maybe we can figure out more about where we are, or call home, or something.”

“Do you think it’s a good idea to call home?” Tal said curiously. “Especially in your case?”

Zoey. She hadn’t thought about Zoey at all since she’d woken up, and now that her memory had been jogged she felt like she’d been punched in the gut. She needed some quiet time to strategize. In the last two weeks, everything had been turned on its head.

“No. It’s not,” she said quietly. “You’re right. It’s hard to say who is there, and what’s changed.”

“I guess you have a rat.”

She glared at him as she parked the car. “No kidding.”

They checked in under the names Laura Black and Tyler Wood, which Lucy made up off the top of her head. No one asked for ID. The hotel, formerly part of the Day’s Inn chain but now run by some seemingly industrious kid who offered the rooms up hourly, was mostly shut down due to a lack of demand, save for one floor, which, much to Lucy’s chagrin, only had one room with one king-sized bed available for the whole night. If they’d wanted to switch rooms a few times, they could have had two queens, but she knew that was ridiculous, despite her intimacy issues.



***



Tal was very curious as to why the two queen-sized beds were more popular than the king. He mentioned it several times, but the girl checking them in seemed to have no idea. Lucy forked over the money and grumbled to herself so quietly that Tal couldn’t understand what she was grumpy about as they took their small heap of newly purchased and borrowed belongings up two flights of stairs and let themselves into their room for the night.

They were both surprised that it was as clean as it was, considering the exterior of the building and the girl that had checked them in. It wasn’t an unpleasant place, with pale blue walls and yellow bedding in the form of a handmade quilt. There was soap in the bathroom and some full-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner in the shower. Tal sat down on the bed, which was firm, but bearable. He didn’t realize how exhausted he was until he put his head down on the pillow while Lucy spent the better part of an hour in the shower.

He had the feeling she was crying from the tiny noises he heard over the gushing water, but he didn’t figure she was looking for his reassurance. It felt strange to him to ignore her, perhaps because he’d spent a lot of time comforting Leah, often with disastrous results. Comforting Lucy Campbell would likely be like trying to assuage snakes in a pit, he imagined.

Tal wasn’t much of an opportunist, he decided, realizing that in a few hours he’d be sharing a bed with the most powerful women he’d ever met. She was beautiful, and smart, and the idea of anything scandalous happening between them felt repugnant in a way. He’d killed three people earlier that day, and not just simply with a gun. He flashed to blow after blow, which he’d disconnected from at the time, but were now playing in his head. Crack. Brain matter. Blood. Dead eyes. Over and over again. He let himself feel it all in a way he hadn’t while it was taking place. He absorbed the nausea and disgust, and did his best to justify his actions to himself. He’d done what he’d had to do.

“Shower’s free,” Lucy said, derailing his train of thought. She frowned at him in the door in a long white bathrobe tugged tightly around her, her exposed skin scrubbed and red. “I left you a towel.”

“Thanks,” he said quietly, as he looked at her thoughtfully in the hopes of understanding her a little better. He knew there was something about her that appealed to a lot of people, beyond her great breasts and rare smile. He felt it, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever feel clean after that,” he said absently, as he walked into the steamy, soapy-scented room.

Her hand clamped down on his shoulder and gave a firm, reassuring squeeze. He turned around and she looked at him with a wise expression far beyond her twenty-something years, and full of empathy. “You just feel cleaner. Never clean like you were before.”

“I’ll be okay,” he said resolutely. “I will be.”

“You will be,” she nodded back, her mouth turning up into a small grin. “And you’ll be better for it, because that’s how good people come to terms with the bad things they’ve done.”

Her hand dropped from his shoulder and crossed over her body once again, and if two people ever had a first moment of camaraderie, he thought that that was it for them.

“I’ll see you…when I’m cleaner,” Tal murmured, giving Lucy a slight nod. “And we’ll get some sleep.”

“Rest. I’m not sure how much sleeping I’ll do.” She sat on the bed with a sigh. “I mean, we might be safe here, but I can’t get dragged off again. I hurt all over. And we don’t have any weapons.”

Tal hadn’t considered that, but it was just as likely here as it had been in Campbell; possibly more so. The only advantage they had here was that they’d killed their captors and done their best to be anonymous in town.

Except they’d parked their car out front.


“We should lose the car,” Tal decided. “Maybe tonight.”

“It’s got enough gas in it that it would go up in flames pretty well, but I think we drive it some more, then torch it. For tonight, we’ll go move it when you’re done in the shower—”

“I don’t think we should split up,” Tal interrupted. “Not until we know what’s going on.”

He had no illusions about his ability to survive on his own. It would diminish significantly without Lucy around. He was sure of that. He didn’t like being alone on a good day.

“Agreed,” she said with a nod. “Unless you’re part of some grand scheme to dethrone me.”

He chuckled. “Don’t give me too much credit. I’m second of a half-rate region. Do you think people were so paranoid before? Like our parents’ generation?”

“Nope,” she said, shaking her head. “And look where that got them.”

The shower was good. Necessary. He scrubbed his hands until they were sore, and when he was as clean as possible, he sat on the edge and let the hot water wash over him for a little while longer. Since his family had died, Tal rarely felt the need to speak with God, but there, alone, he felt an almost undeniable need to repent in some form, to express remorse for what he’d done, not because of the end result, but because it was necessary, and he wished it hadn’t been. A number of prayers from his childhood, the kind that were stuck in one’s head for their entire life even if it had been years since properly recited, came to mind, and he found some comfort in that: the idea that even though he knew he’d strayed far from his faith, there were parts of it still in him. No matter how long-ignored, they were still very real. There was always room for forgiveness in his faith. That was something he remembered absolutely.

He left the shower feeling cleaner in every way.

Lucy and Tal moved the car a ten minute walk down the road and parked it in front of an abandoned farmhouse. It was dusk and the building loomed dark against the grey sky. They locked the doors and walked back together in silence, their arms bumping against each other now and then. They entered at the rear of the hotel, avoiding the kid at the front desk in the hopes that if anyone asked about them he’d mention that they left and hadn’t returned.

Once back in their room, Tal shoved the dresser in front of the locked door and they awkwardly settled into bed, on either side of the pillow wall Lucy had constructed between them.

“I’m not going to touch you,” Tal grumbled. “It’s a little insulting that you’d think—”

“I’ve got intimacy issues, okay?” she snapped. “Maybe it’s not about you.”

“I won’t hurt you. I was out there too, just like you.”

She looked young, the confidence she’d thrown up every other time he’d seen her cracked, and broken behind her eyes. “I don’t think you’re playing a part. You were covered in your friend’s blood, and you’re not cut out for putting forth such a huge deception. If this was a game, Connor Wilde would be here, putting his mediocre acting skills to the test. He wouldn’t have sent you.” She rolled over, away from him. “Go to bed.”

Tal rolled away as well, to the far edge of his side of the bed. “We can be in this together. We could trust each other. It doesn’t have to mean anything beyond that. When we’re done, we don’t owe each other a damn thing.”

“I don’t have anyone I can trust,” she muttered. “No one. Not anymore.”

“I hooked up with your girlfriend, night before last,” Tal replied as he rolled onto his back, avoiding her gaze. “I don’t know why I did it. I knew it was stupid.”

She looked at him for a few minutes, and he waited for her to have an emotional response. Scream. Hit him. Storm out. Something. None of those things happened. She simply raised her eyebrows and looked at him critically.

“You’re weak. Killing those a*sholes may have been the most worthwhile thing you’ve done in a long time, if ever.”

Her words stung, a little, and not because she was wrong.

“You don’t know me,” he muttered.

“I know you’re constantly apologizing for doing the things you want, to others, and probably yourself. That’s not exactly a sign of strength.”

“So what? I should have owned the fact that I went down on your girlfriend? Would that make me stronger in your eyes? I think it would make me an a*shole.”

“I already knew about you and…” She couldn’t even say her name without feeling like her head was going to explode with hurt and anger. “Her. She told me.”

“She ran back to your room and told you?” He raised his eyebrows, and confusion stretched across his face. “Huh.”

“She’s the reason we’re in this whole mess, if I had to guess.”

“Explain,” Tal said curiously. “Because I wouldn’t have drawn that conclusion from the conversation we had.”

“She’s the only one that knows my comings and goings enough to let someone know when Cole was snatched, and when I was outside that morning. She knew where we both were, and she likely knew you were hungover and slow, and that’s why they drugged you.”

“Or you could just have someone watching your house. I’ve been to your place twice and it’s felt like the f*cking wayward center for random drop-ins both times. I don’t think it was Zoey.”

“Well, we’ll have to disagree on that point.” She frowned in disapproval. “She’s manipulative, and you let yourself be a pawn, for what?”

What, indeed, Tal thought to himself. A few minutes of private self-deprecation, accompanied by a lackluster, emotionless orgasm?

“If there were shrinks, I’d certainly be seeing one. There’s no doubt about that,” he replied. “Leave me the f*ck alone.”

In some ways, Lucy reminded Tal of Leah when she was younger, before she’d been pushed and shoved out of the game by Connor when they were preteens. Lucy was stronger though, and not for the simple fact that she’d risen above the men in her life. She just was. She probably always had been.

“You don’t need Connor, you know,” Lucy murmured. “I bet that’s why he keeps you close.”

Tal wondered briefly if it was Lucy sent to try and f*ck with him, but disregarded the thought when his mind flashed back on the scene from earlier. “He keeps me close because we trust each other, and as you mentioned, that’s pretty rare. And I’m the numbers guy. I’m not the out-there, hacking-people-up guy.”

“But neither is he.”

“He’s got the balls to order the hackings and sit there and make sure the job’s done though, and cred with the hackers. I don’t. I never wanted to know anything about that.”

“You can’t just be the numbers guy,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “You can’t just take without suffering a bit.”

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t really want it unless you’ve suffered for it.”

Tal shook his head thoughtfully. “I disagree.”

“Would you kill to keep the things you have?” Lucy demanded.

Tal shrugged. “Depends on what things you’re referring to, I guess. I just killed to keep the thing I value most.”


She propped her face up on the pillow wall and cocked her head at him. “What about other things?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I didn’t know I’d do that before today.”

“I think you knew,” she said, rolling over. “Don’t look at me while I’m sleeping.”

“I don’t know why you think I’d want to look at you sleep,” Tal grumbled, rolling over as well. “So we’re sleeping? Both of us?”

She shrugged. “If we don’t get some sleep, we’re not going to be much of a match for anything. F*ck it. Let’s sleep.”

Tal did watch her sleep, after he got up to go to the bathroom a couple of hours later and he was sure he wasn’t going to get caught. Her dark lashes twitched ever so slightly, as her body relaxed, curled up into a loose ball, the blankets clutched tightly around her.

He liked her in an honest, straightforward way, even though he knew he shouldn’t. She was obviously unstable and unpredictable. But she was smart though. She didn’t need time to process like he did, weigh every option. She just went for things. Made up a name at the door. Did what she had to do.

Tal admired that.