The Long Dark by Billy Farmer (best book club books for discussion .txt) 📗

there was a single loud pop. I recoiled as I felt intense heat on my face. It hurt but not as much as I thought it would. Over the terrible ringing in my ear, Sam yelled something. I heard something else, too. Kelly was chambering another round in the rifle. She had missed everyone on the first try, including me. She must have fired wildly at Sam and Titouan. There was no other reason I was alive.

There was a struggle – a body hit the floor. I fought with the pistol tangled in my belt and oversized fleece top I was wearing. “Goddammit,” I yelled.

I saw Kelley swing the butt of the rifle around, catching Titouan hard on his upper shoulder or the side of his face, it was hard to tell. With lightning quick reflexes, she had her pistol up and ready to fire at Sam, who must’ve been unlucky enough to be hit with the rifle as well, as he still seemed to be reeling from something.

I finally managed to untangle the pistol and brought it up to firing position just as she was getting ready to shoot Sam. I remember hoping that I had clicked the safety off before leveling it to fire. Kelley shrieked while staggering backwards before finally falling hard to the floor. She lay there screaming and kicking, as much out of anger as anything, I thought.

I kicked the rifle out of her reach, and then picked up the phone she had dropped. It was big for a modern phone, somewhere between the size and look of a satellite phone and an older Blackberry. On the keys were symbols I didn’t recognize – maybe Korean or Chinese. Goosebumps spread up and down my arms as the potential implications washed over me.

“What do we do with the bitch?” Sam asked, his face set in a hard grimace, as he hobbled his way to my side. With his leg banged up like it was, he was very lucky he didn’t end up dead.

“We take her back upstairs. We’ll deal with her there.” I then handed Sam her pistol and told Titouan to get the rifle. He didn’t move, though. He was probing his mouth with his fingers.

“Are you okay, Titouan?” I asked.

“No!” He walked over to where she sat, and, without any warning, kicked her in the face with his heavy boot. Her neck snapped back with such force, I thought he might’ve broken it. “You crazy bitch,” he spat. Something solid hit the floor.

Kelley was a tough chick. I had to give her that. A solitary tear flowed down her cheek. She angrily pawed at it, erasing any signs of weakness. With the copious amount of blood flowing from her busted lip and potentially broken nose, she looked to be possessed. She glowered at Titouan, and he returned the favor, moving ever so slightly back in her direction.

“Easy, son, she’ll get hers,” Sam said.

“Fuck!” Titouan yelled.

Sam and I gathered her up and took her back upstairs.

When we got back to the conference room, Avery stood at the door, nervously awaiting our fate, while Tish sat in the corner of the room, blankly staring at what seemed like nothing. From what I could tell, the baby was no longer with us. She lay limp in Tish’s equally-limp embrace.

Tish finally looked up as I sat Kelley down hard in one of the executive chairs. The two of them exchanged angry glances, but no words were proffered. Kelley didn’t flinch or look away. There was no remorse or anything bordering guilt residing on her anger-ladened and battered face.

I asked Avery to fetch me some duct tape and a wet rag. He quickly did as I bade.

“You alright, bud?”  He didn’t answer. Instead, he gave me what I asked for before walking over to where the baby’s blankets were, grabbed them, and draped them over both Tish and baby.

I turned my attention back to Kelley. She’s lucky as hell I was a terrible shot. The bullet grazed the side of her shoulder pretty good, but not enough where she would bleed out. With a few stitches, she’d be fine. As for her nose, it was broken. I let her wipe the blood from her face, while I applied the bandage.

“Go get the bastard from the conference room. Make sure you lock the stairwell doors on your way back up. They’ll be coming sooner than later,” I said.

Sam checked the pistol for sufficient ammunition and headed out the door. Titouan slung the rifle over his shoulder and was on Sam’s heels.

“Titouan,” I said, “he needs to be alive. No stupid shit.”

He spat another mouthful of blood but nodded his head in agreement.

After she was cleaned up and bandaged, I secured her to the chair with the duct tape. Only then did I check her pockets for weapons or other useful things. I suppose I should’ve done that before taping her up like a mummy, but frisking was new to me. She spat a bloody glob on me as I removed a small vile of white powder from a small pocket on the front of her coat. The poison, I thought.

I wiped the spit off my face without bothering to say a word. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction.

“I found this hidden in the baby blankets,” Avery said.

Tish asked to see it, but she was interrupted by Kelley’s loosing of expletives towards Avery. I told Kelley I would tape her damn mouth up if she didn’t shut up. She slammed her head into the headrest of the chair, cursed, and settled into a hard stare at me.

Avery rebuffed Tish in favor of giving what he found to me. It looked like a small tube of toothpaste. You wouldn’t have wanted to brush your teeth with it, though. Whatever the stuff in the tube was a little of it went a long way, and damn did it smell terrible. I then realized the stuff on Kelley’s coat smelled exactly like