Cruel Justice by William Bernhardt

Author:William Bernhardt [Bernhardt, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-4532-7715-7
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2012-09-04T16:14:00+00:00

37

ABIE TRIED AS HARD as he could to keep his eyes open as Sam dragged him from the apartment to … someplace else. Abie couldn’t remember ever being so tired, ever having to fight so hard just to keep his eyelids up. Every so often he would lose the battle. His lids would fall and his body would droop, but a swift jerk on his arm from Sam would urge him onward.

He didn’t have any idea where they were. He knew he should try to find out, should try to look for landmarks, but his dazed mind simply wasn’t capable of it. Maybe he could run to a phone, he thought fleetingly, or stop someone on the street. But Sam selected their route too carefully, weaving in and out of alleys and crossing through abandoned buildings. They never passed anyone, and they never came near a phone.

A few scattered, blurry images were all Abie could distinguish. He was certain they had left Sam’s apartment. As they passed through one building he saw numbers, lots of yellow numbers. No, not yellow numbers—numbers on a yellow background.

They headed toward a dark opening, not a door but … a hole. Through the hole … it was dark inside. Forbidding. Abie was afraid that once he was in there, he might never come out.

They passed through the opening, and then plunged into the darkness. It became dark, and cold. At times Abie could barely see anything at all. Then they walked through a wall. …

His mind rebelled at the thought. Walk through a wall? You can’t walk through a wall, unless you’re a ghost, and Abie didn’t think he was, at least not yet. But that’s what they had done.

And there were airplanes. Abie definitely remembered seeing airplanes. Were they up or down or …? He was so confused.

They emerged from the dark building. The glaring light made his eyes water. They walked for a long time—how long he wasn’t sure. Minutes? Hours? He still had no coherent sense of time.

Finally, when he thought he couldn’t walk any farther, they approached another crumbling ruin of a building. Sam slowed as if they were going inside. Abie eyed Sam carefully. For the moment Sam was intent on his destination, eagerly marching toward the building with Abie firmly in hand. With the least movement possible, Abie quietly dropped his book bag onto the sidewalk. They entered the ruin and walked up an old wooden staircase. The stairs creaked and swayed beneath their feet; Abie felt as if the whole thing might give way at any moment.

They stepped through a door at the top of the stairs. And then. …

“Here we are,” Sam said.

For the first time since they left the apartment, Sam released Abie’s arm. Abie moved away from him and concentrated as hard as he could on seeing. There was something lying on the ground, something flat and white with brown spots.

A mattress.

And there was something beside the mattress. Something standing on three long spindly legs.

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