Black Sun by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 34

As usual, they woke with the morning heat. Ryan discovered the difficulty of getting out of bed with sore abdominal muscles, and Abigail felt the aching of bruised knees. Asleep or not, the warm comfort of Abigail’s bed somehow sent the world far away, leaving only the two of them wrapped in the safety of each other’s arms. Following their usual routine, they washed with bottles of cold water, prepared a breakfast of camping food and briefly talked about their intentions for the day. Abigail was more excited about going to the plaza than she was the previous day. Ryan, however, was going solely for her. He would do anything to ensure her safety and happiness. Nothing else seemed to matter – even his own life.

They cleaned up what was left of breakfast and by the time they left the air was clear and warm, perfect for a day out for something other than survival. As they walked to the plaza, Abigail took Ryan’s hand with fingers interlaced. Although he enjoyed having the morning breeze in his face, he remained vigilant, knowing they weren’t the only people living in Albany. Among the remaining survivors, at least a few would choose to live by overpowering the weak, taking what they wanted. Now, they soon found themselves walking toward Crossgates Mall, but stopping near its entrance, they looked to the right and saw Stuyvesant Plaza in the distance. Overcome by excitement, Abigail pointed. “There it is!” she said.

Ryan expected it to be much smaller but, at least, they wouldn’t have to wander through open hallways, listening for the presence of others. They could simply walk past its many storefronts while still remaining outside and if a problem arose, escape would be easy.

“C’mon,” she continued. “Let go!”

Ryan appreciated her excitement, but felt the need to slow her down. If there were survivors in the area, the last thing they needed was to attract attention, and as Abigail began to run toward the plaza, he gripped her hand, pulling her back. “Abby,” he began. “We have to be quiet about this. We don’t know who else might be around, okay?”

As excited as she was to get to the plaza, she paused a moment to think about what Ryan was saying and, taking a moment to regain some common sense, agreed that they should proceed with caution.

Remaining watchful, they soon arrived at Stuyvesant Plaza and quickly found a directory listing its various store locations. Although Abigail had been there before, she took the time to study it carefully and soon discovered the location of the Sorelle Gallery of Fine Art. Once again, Abigail was quickly overcome with excitement as she led Ryan the short distance to the gallery. However, there was one thing she hadn’t thought of, something that, since the beginning of their journey, she had become terrified of and this would be waiting for her in the gallery. “It’s right over here!” she said.

Ryan attempted to hold her back, again seeing the need for clear-headedness.

“Abby, we have to take our time with this,” he said. But his words went unheard as Abigail gripped the stainless steel door handle and as she pulled open was struck with an odd feeling that something was out of place and turning to Ryan she expressed her concern.

“We had to break into the last two malls we went to. Why would this door be unlocked?”

Ryan was at a loss for an answer, but suggested that they proceed with caution.

Walking into the gallery, they paused to listen for any sound that might indicate a human presence, but heard only the deafening sound of silence. By this time, they had become accustomed to its heaviness, but there remained the familiar gnawing sensation of fear, something that they now realized was instinctual. Ryan let the door close quietly as Abigail proceeded to walk amongst the many works of art, studying them with the critical eye of an artist. She immediately picked out her favorites as Ryan kept a watchful eye through the gallery’s glass façade while standing off to the side in order to make himself less visible. Having no interest in art, he chose to stand as a sentinel, watching for any movement outside that may indicate a potential problem.

Abigail continued to wander the gallery, admiring those compositions she found herself attracted to, while looking at others with a critical eye. After thirty minutes, she decided it was time to leave but, turning to Ryan, remarked that she wanted to return for an occasional fix of art. However, just before leaving, she suddenly remembered there was also a bookstore in the plaza as well. “Oh, shit,” she began. “There’s a bookstore here too. We have to go there. I promise, this will be the last place we go to, then we can go home, okay?”

Ryan thought they had spent too much time there already, but cautiously agreed on the condition that they stay for no more than fifteen minutes. Abigail didn’t think this was nearly enough time to peruse the bookstore’s shelves, but agreed nonetheless.

Leaving the gallery, Abigail was quick to point Ryan in the direction of ‘The Book House’, a fairly large bookstore consisting of a maze of rooms one could easily get lost in. This time, Ryan decided to have a look around as well. When they weren’t out gathering food and supplies, they were spending most of their time doing nothing. While Ryan occasionally suggested the use of Abigail’s weed, she decided to save as much as possible, not knowing how or when she would be able to acquire more. At first, they stayed together, but soon Ryan discovered that he had no interest in the books Abigail was looking at and wandered off to the section on science, taking him to one of the back rooms, away from Abigail. But, as she continued to attentively peruse the art section, Abigail felt a slight breeze waft against her cheek. Knowing that the door of the bookstore was closed, she was momentarily taken aback by where it could be coming from. Without power, the lack of ventilation left the air humid and stale. As instinct and fear took over, she turned around to find a hand quickly grasping her by the throat, tight enough to silence the scream now trapped by the grip of a stranger. Stepping in close, Eli spoke to her in an almost kind voice. “I have watching you for a while,” he said. “I gotta tell you sweetheart, I haven’t gotten laid in a long time and I think you and I are going to have some fun, right now, and I don't care if you’re alive or not.”

With Abigail’s face turning red, she began desperately struggling against him, raking her fingernails across his face in an attempt to gouge at his eyes. However, instead of being angered by her feeble attempt at escape, Eli found himself aroused by it. “Oh, looks we got a fighter here, don’t we?” With breathing becoming increasingly difficult, Abigail began drooling as she fought for even the smallest breath of air. Then, Eli’s hands began to wander up beneath her blouse, stopping at her breast.

“Well,” he began. “What do we have here?” Squeezing to the point of pain, he flushed with arousal and, again, offered a remark about his intentions. “That’s nice, isn’t it? We’re going to have so much fun. Well, at least I will.”

In what seemed to be a final burst of energy, Abigail brought up a hand and scratched him across the eyes, tearing open his cornea, sending him into a fit of rage.

“You fucking cunt!” he yelled.

This resulted in a hard slap across Abigail’s face, nearly rendering her unconscious, but the sound traveled back through the bookstore and quickly caught Ryan’s attention.

Still in a state of rage, Eli pulled Abigail down to the floor and tearing open her shirt continued to violently grope her, leaving bruises and fingernail marks on her breasts. Now, Ryan was struck with the intense feeling that something was terribly wrong and making his way to the front of the bookstore slipped his nine millimeter out from under his belt. Within moments, he encountered the terrifying scene as Eli, with his hand firmly covering her mouth, began unzipping Abigail’s pants, anticipating the pleasure of a completed assault. But, as he began to slip his hand down between her abdomen and her pants, he felt the cold sensation of the end of Ryan’s pistol against the side of his head. With a smirk on his face, he turned to look at Ryan, making eye contact as he taunted him about his intentions. “You plan on using that thing, asshole,” he said. His arrogance was as obvious as his sarcasm as he continued to tease him.

“Fuck-head, you don’t have the…”

His words were suddenly cut short by the loud crack of a single gunshot as the round entered the left side of his skull. Exiting the other side, it exploded through a large hole, scattering blood, brain matter, and skull fragments against the wall. Now, Eli’s lifeless body crumbled to the floor as blood continued to pour from the gaping hole in his head. As the front of the bookstore filled with the misty smoke of burnt gunpowder, Abigail got to her hands and knees and crawled into a nearby corner. She had quickly gone from the intense fear of being violated to hysterical crying over what might have been had Ryan not been to bring an end to the violence that had suddenly befallen her.

With Abigail in a state of hysterics, she quickly crawled to the nearest corner. Too shocked to cry, she sat quivering with her eyes staring off into a distant nothingness. Now, with Eli’s body lying in a pool of blood, Ryan went over to Abigail and crouching down tried to talk her through her hysteria. Suspecting that Eli may not have been alone, he saw an immediate need to leave and return to the safety of Abigail’s apartment.

“Abby,” he said.

He spoke to her gently, avoiding any physical contact. He knew very little about human behavior, but his instincts told him never to touch someone who was this agitated. “We’ve got to get out of here. We need to get back to your place, okay?”

But his words went unheard as Abigail sat trembling in deepening hysteria, bordering on catatonia. In spite of this, Ryan continued his attempt to calm her.

“Abby, come on, we have to go. We’ll sort all of this out when we get back to your place, but we have to go, now.” He brushed a finger through her hair and, noticing its calming effect on her, watched carefully as she exhaled, her body beginning to relax as her mind slowly regained awareness. Finally, with her senses having fully returned, Abigail looked over at Eli’s body and flew into a rage. Getting to her feet, she walked over to the lifeless corpse and began stomping on it.

“You fucking cocksucker!” she yelled. Continuing her rant, she persisted in her assault, cursing in a loud, angry voice.

“I’ll fucking kill you!”

Seeing how irrational she had become, Ryan chose to end her outburst. Pulling Abigail away from the body repeatedly told her that the man on the floor was, in fact, dead, but his words were followed by more hysteria as Abigail continued to curse what was left of Eli.

“I don’t give a fuck!” she screamed. Attempting her repeated attack, she kicked at the body, only for her foot to penetrate empty space.

Having pulled her away, Ryan picked her up off her feet and swung her away from Eli’s body, facing her in the opposite direction.

“Abby, listen to me,” he said. “We have to leave. We don’t know if there’s any other people out there. He may not have been alone, so we have to get out of here, okay?”

Abigail nodded as tears flowed down her face and with a gentle hand Ryan helped her to her feet. Looking at the horrific scene of Eli’s body lying with his head nearly blown in half, she inched her way around it as Ryan prompted her with a quiet voice. “It’s okay,” he said. “Take your time.” Walking her out of the bookstore, he carefully scanned the area for any others who may be either watching them or waiting for Eli. But in spite of seeing nothing, he still assumed that there must be someone nearby and refused to ever again let his guard down. From now on, he would always be by her side.