Skin Game Read online

  “Morphine?” Gil said, cocking her head at him. “I thought we started weaning her off yesterday?”

  “We did. Then I learned this little lady here has been suffering in silence. It seems her incision tore yesterday and she re-bandaged it herself. Like a fool.”

  Gill’s eyes widened. “Sam. What were you thinking? You should’ve told me.”

  “I didn’t want to trouble you,” I said.

  “Let me have a look,” she said, and stepped forward to do just that.

  “No,” Bowden said sharply as he grabbed Gill by the elbow. “I’ve already cleaned it and dosed her.”

  “How much are we giving her now?”

  Bowden stood and wiped his hands down on a towel near the bed. “I doubled her dose.”

  “Double?”

  “Yes, double, and will do so until that scoundrel returns.”

  Gill flinched at this. Almost imperceptibly, but it was there. “You mean Theo.”

  Any doubt I had as to her involvement. Who else would the doctor mean?

  As if reading my very thoughts, Bowden said, “Who else would I mean, ya daft girl?”

  “Won’t that make it difficult for them to travel?” Gill said. “With her drugged like that? I am sure Theo will want to leave as soon as he returns. That could be any moment now.”

  “I am certain Theo will manage. He always does.” Bowden looked to me with a grim nod. “She should be asleep any moment now.”

  I yawned and blinked lazily. “Thanks, Doc. I owe you one.”

  “Now you owe me two,” Bowden said. “Sweet dreams, child. And next time, you best let me know about such a thing. Else you can suffer without the benefit of my intervention.”

  Nodding in response, I closed my eyes and pretended to drift off to sleep.

  “Regardless of her mishap,” Gill said, “she looks much better.”

  “Yes,” Bowden said. “I did a mighty fine job if I do say so myself.”

  There came the rustling of movement as I assumed the pair headed for the door.

  “I’ll check on her in a few hours,” Gill said.

  “You will not,” Bowden said. “I’ll come and dose her myself.”

  “I can manage without you,” Gill said, a slight edge creeping into her voice.

  Bowden piffled and huffed. “Are you kidding? The last time I let you manage without me, our patient nearly tore herself in two. I will take charge of her care, and that is final.”

  “Fine,” the retreating voice of Gill said. Her angry footsteps echoed from the hallway.

  “Fine indeed,” Bowden whispered.

  There came a pause, and in this silence I wondered if I should peek at him. I opted not to do so, for fear of compromising our cover too soon.

  “Good girl,” he said. “Keep it up and I will get you out of this. I promise.”

  The door closed with a soft click.

  I wasn’t certain what to do after that. I suspected, from the doctor’s careful words that I was to just lay there all day, waiting for the inevitable. And to be fair, what else was there to do? Even if I could make it out of Convergence undetected, I was in no shape to flee. Either roaming outlaws or hungry undead would get me before I could make it a mile, much less the hundred to the border.

  This was awful. I wanted to cry, to scream and kick and pitch a fit like which the gentle folks of this small town had never seen. I did cry, inwardly. I wept inside for our lost purpose. For my mentor’s safety. For my own life. Wasted. All of it. There would be no cure, no escape across the border, but even worse, there would be no reunion between Mr. Theo and myself. He promised he would come back for me, and that would soon prove his undoing. If only there was some way I could warn him.

  As I lay there and silently wept, I grew angrier and angrier. How dare Dillon think he could just come and reclaim me like some lost animal. And how dare these morons think I would just lie here and wait for his arrival. I appreciated the doctor’s help and all, yet the more I thought on it, the more I knew I would rather face the abuse of passing outlaws or even the jaws of the undead to the fate Dillon surely had in store for me. I wouldn’t become his plaything. Not again. I needed to escape. Above all else, I needed to get to Mr. Theo.

  The building’s rooms lay connected by a continuous break toward the roof, each cell made of a high dividing wall that didn’t quite meet the ceiling. This allowed for sound to travel well. As long as someone wasn’t guarding their words or steps, I could hear everything that went on in the place. The only spots that held any privacy was Bowden’s office and Gill’s room, both near the door in the middle of the hall. As long as they remained behind those closed doors, I should be able to sneak out without much fuss.

  Once the place fell quiet, and I was certain both the doctor and nurse were either gone or busy, I slipped from my bed and began to rummage around the room for useful things. Thankfully my treatment room doubled as storage, though most the things I found in the crates were just medical equipment. Just to the left of the crates, however, lay a trunk. I cracked the lid and was delighted to find my own things. My clothes, my pack, even my bedroll. I grabbed a few of the empty bottles from the medical crates and tossed them into the trunk with my other things. I closed the trunk, leaving everything inside. No need to drag it out until I was ready to leave.

  I needed to scout a bit first.

  After slipping out of my room, I crept down the hallway, past the other crowded storage rooms. I knew the one near the middle held crates of hardtack and some dried meat. There were some barrels of ale around here as well. I would try and fill some of the empty medical bottles with the bitter brew before I left. I would need food and water if I was to survive a single night in the wilderness. That and a weapon. I would’ve given anything for a gun. I doubted I would find one just lying about.

  I made my way to the last room, where I found exactly what I had hoped for. The food, not the weapon. I grabbed several strips of beef—at least I hoped it was beef—and a few squares of dried biscuits. I couldn’t find the ale, and decided it must have been moved to the kitchens. I was lucky the food was left behind. I stuffed the things into a handkerchief I found lying near the crates, tied it up and made my careful way back to my room. I opened the trunk and tossed the food inside. Just as I closed the trunk and got to my feet, I heard a voice at the door.

  “What are you doing up?” Gill said.

  Panic swept over me. Caught in the defiant act of escape before I had even left the building. What could I say? What should I do? I did the first and only thing that came to mind. I buckled at the knees and collapsed. I went down hard, striking my head with some force against the trunk as I allowed my body to fold under me. I could’ve fallen in a more guarded way, yet I knew if I had taken care in my collapse I would’ve given away the falsehood of it. To my dismay, pain jolted up the side of my head, from neck to crown, and with it my world narrowed to a tunnel. The tunnel drew further and further away from me, until it was nothing more than a pinpoint.

  “Samantha!” Gill shouted.

  It was the last thing I heard before the blackness consumed me. There was no longer a need to feign unconsciousness for Bowden’s plan. I had knocked my own fool self out with my desperate move.

  * * *

  I came around to the pained cry of my mentor.

  “Aw, God, no!” he yelled.

  The pain in his voice was enough to drive me from the blackness that held me tight. I opened my eyes with a jerk, sat upright, and immediately regretted it. The darkened room spun in lazy circles and my stomach lurched with each pass. I lay back in the bed, trying to make sense of what I had heard, of why it was so dark when it was morning only moments ago, of what happened to me, when a pair of men burst into the room. One carried a lantern and the other a pistol.

  “I don’t think we need the gun,” the lantern man said. “
She’s supposed to be pretty drugged up.”

  “I don’t care if she’s dead as a doornail,” the gunman said. “I heard what she done to Frank and Bert. She’s a wildcat.”

  I closed my eyes and waited for them to come to me. I wanted to spring to my feet and put up a fight, but my mild concussion, combined with my previous deal with Bowden left me in a semi-helpless state. The men pulled me into a standing position, taking no care with the placement of their filthy, groping hands as they all but dragged me from the building and into the night air. We paused a moment just beyond the door. I gave a quick but mockingly drowsy glance across the courtyard. A grim sight met me.

  The entire citizenship of Convergence lay across the ground, from wall to wall. The groans of the dying played a constant tune of agony to which my heart ached in time. I looked over the place in a slow scan, recognizing each face of the men I had come to know in the last few days. My eyes finally landed on the stables just in time to watch those awful men dragging my bound mentor. I knew he would die there. This was truly the end.

  As if adding insult to horrible injury, my vision filled with the approaching image of utter dread. Dillon Thomas, that madman of a tyrant who nearly had his wretched way with me. The same man I hoped was burning in Hell after Theo loosed the undead on the town of Newton. Not dead, though from the looks of his twisted face he surely wished he was.

  Dillon hadn’t survived the attack of the undead without ill consequence. A mere week or so before, I admitted ashamedly to myself he was indeed a handsome man. All trace of those boyish good looks were gone, replaced by a mass of twisted and rent flesh. The right side of his face looked as though a wild animal had clawed it to the muscle, leaving behind a gnarled mass of struggling to heal tissue. He wore a glove on his right hand, probably because of more injuries beneath. I giddily wondered why he didn’t wear a mask while he was at it, and spare all of us the insult of having to see his horrible face.

  He joined me at the entrance just as his men were tying my hands together at my waist. Dillon yanked me to him by the rope and kissed me on top of the head. He laughed, loud and cruel, then placed his arm around me, guiding me in slow steps toward the gate.

  “I missed you, my love,” he hissed in my left ear. “We have so much to catch up on.”

  Before we reached the exit, Mr. Theo shouted from behind us, “Wait!”

  Dillon let go of his hold on me and turned about, allowing me to glance past him to the man I hadn’t been certain I would see again.

  Yet see I did, and what an awful sight it was. Mr. Theo stood before the stables, bound at the wrists and bleeding from several wounds across his face and arms. He looked beyond exhausted a man on the verge of collapse at any moment. I don’t know when he had returned, or how long he had been back from his mission. Certainly he would’ve woken me upon his arrival, which suggested Dillon had gotten here first. Mr. Theo was in a bad state, true, but I knew he had reserves of strength not available to the average man.

  “Wait!” Mr. Theo cried again. “I give up.”

  My heart leapt into my throat at those words. What was he thinking!

  “What was that?” Dillon asked in a shout.

  “I said I quit!” Mr. Theo shouted in return. “I give up. You win.”

  Dillon paused a moment, as if thinking about this, then pushed me into Gill’s arms and crossed the yard to the stables. Gill pulled me to her, turning me away from the ensuing drama as she cradled my head onto her breast. My skin burned with disgust at her touch. I wanted to shove her away, but I held my façade and kept still.

  “Listen carefully,” she whispered. “He doesn’t know you can’t conceive.”

  “What?” I asked in a muffled drawl against her breast.

  “That bastard doesn’t know you can’t have children. I didn’t tell him. You must keep it a secret or he will just kill you outright.”

  I didn’t understand. If she was working with him, why didn’t she tell him the truth? This confused me, though not enough to shift me out of my over boiling anger at her for selling all of our souls to her master. I raised my face and blinked lazily at her. Behind us, I could just hear Dillon and Mr. Theo grumbling at one another.

  “I can’t promise anything,” she said. “I will try my best to protect you from him for as long as I can.”

  “Who will protect you from me?” I whispered.

  Gill smiled down at me obviously confused. “What was that, child?”

  I flared my nostrils as I twisted my fists into her blouse, pulling her tighter to me. No one noticed our interaction; they were too focused on the drama playing out between my mentor and that maniac. I stretched to my tiptoes to come face to face with Gill. “I said who will protect you from me? Because I am going to kill you. I don’t care if it’s the last thing I do. I will kill you as soon as I get alone with you.”

  Fear filled the woman’s eyes as she measured my words.

  I left her jawing the air in silence as I relaxed and returned my head to her uncaring bosom. I closed my eyes and took a small moment to relish the speedy thumping of her worried heart.

  There came some commotion from behind us, and I lifted my head again just in time to see Dillon all but dragging my mentor behind him.

  “Sir?” one of his men said. “Are you sure? I mean, it could be a trick.”

  “Did I ask for your opinion?” Dillon shouted. “I heard Theo just fine. You all heard him. He gave me his word. His word! And we all know the word of Theo is gold. Pure gold. Isn’t that right, slave?”

  “That’s right,” Mr. Theo said.

  Dillon paused in his step.

  “Massah Dillon,” Mr. Theo added quickly.

  Those words sounded so foreign coming from my mentor’s lips. He might as well have been speaking that wretched French language of Mr. Boudreaux. Dillon yanked Mr. Theo across the yard, coming within a few inches of me. Time slowed to a crawl as we moved past one another. He favored me with a soft smile, and I returned it, unsure what was now happening. Our exchange ended as quickly as it came, with Dillon’s men shoving me back into the long building while Dillon himself escorted my mentor from the town of Convergence.

  The men treated me with less care on the return to my room. They grabbed me by the wrists and all but pulled me toward the small chamber, then tossed me onto the bed. I landed face down with a groan and feigned losing consciousness. It wasn’t a difficult feat, considering the pain radiating from my abused belly.

  “Dillon don’t want her no more?” one of the men said.

  “Nope,” the other said. “You heard him. He wants that nigger instead.”

  One of the men rolled me over and raised my nightgown. I winced, but kept from crying out. The last thing I planned on doing today was giving myself over to these two morons. Yet I wanted to hold my illusion of ailment as long as I could.

  “She’s good,” one said. “Nice and young. I like ‘em young.”

  I felt weight on the bed, and a hand roamed up my thigh.

  “What are you doing?” one said.

  “What do you think I’m doin’?” the other said. “I’m gonna take her. No sense in wasting a good lay. I hear tale she might be a virgin, too.”

  “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t touch her with your fingers.”

  “Why not?”

  “Think about it, ya idjit. There must be something wrong with her if he traded her for the nigger.”

  “Ya think so?” The hand left my leg.

  “I know so. Besides, you planning on screwing her while this place burns down around your horny ears?”

  “Naw, I reckon not.” The weight rose from my bed.

  I kept my eyes closed as the presence of the men retreated. I heard the door slam closed as they exited the building. After this, I held my breath and counted to ten in my head. Shouts and cries came from beyond the building, all
moving toward the southern gate. Dillon and his men were surely leaving. I released my breath and cracked my eyes. The smell of smoke hit me at once, as did the flickering light of live flames.

  The men weren’t lying. They had set Convergence on fire. I needed to get out of there.

  I rolled off of the bed and stumbled to the trunk. Dropping to my knees, I threw open the unlocked chest and discovered to my delight my hoarded items were undisturbed. I pulled my things from the trunk and set about to readying myself for the journey ahead. In the middle of my rushed dressing session, a new sound arose. A shrill shriek, like the cry of a banshee, filled the air. I paused as I recognized the noise right away for the terrible thing it was. The moans of the dying men had elevated to shrieks of torment. Those not shot outright dead by Dillon’s men were now catching fire and burning alive. I closed my damp eyes as I wavered for a moment on the edge of a moral question. Should I risk my flight by putting those men out of their misery? Or should I focus on my own escape.

  I prayed that God would take the men quickly, as I couldn’t help them now.

  By the time I shouldered my bag and made it to the doorway of the building, the fire had spread to every corner of the gate. The flames leaped from thatched roof to wooden strut, catching each lean-to and shack on fire in turn. The long building was made of brick with a slate roof, and would probably withstand the fire for some time to come. I couldn’t remain long enough to discover the truth of this. The smell of cooked flesh made me gag as I coughed on the black smoke rolling around me.

  Just under the shrieks of the dying, I could hear Dillon’s troupe of hooligans at the south end, hollering and shouting in glee at the sight of the burning town. I rushed toward the northern side, which was blessedly not entirely aflame yet, though quickly on its way. I pulled the wooden gate open and rushed through, ignoring the sounds of the men burning alive behind me. Part of me wanted to circle around and follow Dillon’s caravan. I needed to free Mr. Theo. I needed to find and rescue my mentor.

  No. Mr. Theo traded his life for mine because he knew I could escape to the border. Or at the very least, he surely hoped I would. He didn’t have to tell me as much, I could read it on him as they dragged him out of Convergence by his bound hands. He had bought me much needed time. I had to use it to find Mortimer’s contact. The world deserved to know about the cure, not just Dillon and his minions. It was hard to hide in the bright light of the roaring flames, but I did my best to sneak away into the hillside as yet another town burned down behind me.