Five Miles
by Justin Skaggs
Jake sat quietly, clutching the pistol grip of the AR-15 tightly. His palms were sweating. His left hand nervously tapped the hand grip of the rifle. His heart felt ready to give out. The constant surge of adrenaline coursing through his veins was playing hell on him. Every noise, every creak of the lonely house above him caused his heart to pound so loud he could hear it in his ears.
“I gotta do it sometime,” he thought to himself. It had only been three days of solitude. He had been trapped in his house, with little sign of the outside world. Other than the occasional moaning sound, and distant gunfire, it was hard to remember exactly why he had tucked himself into the small corner of his basement.
“Okay, I planned for this. I trained for this. I am the weirdo survivalist freak that has waited a lifetime for the dead to walk, this is it, and this is my time to shine!” He stated proudly with growing momentum in each passing word. ”And yet, her I am. Alone. In the dark. In my basement.” He spoke the words aloud, albeit softly, trailing slightly at the end.
Chapter 1.
He began to play out the previous weeks in his head. Hoping that somehow when he was done with what were probably his last memories of other living people, he might somehow find himself in a different situation. Maybe, it was just a bad dream.
Three weeks before, he had just made the cross country drive from Camp Pendleton, CA to Rockford, IL. He’d bought a house, had a decent job lined up, he’d even applied at the community college. Life was looking up. He’d done his time in the Marine Corps. Now he was ready for a life without the ever impending deployment to the Middle East. He’d done three trips to Iraq, when he was in, and it wasn’t that he minded it all that much…It actually felt right for him, it just didn’t work out well for his marriage. He was in love with a girl, who could not have been more different than him. She was sweet, and caring, and concerned about saving the world. He was a gun toting Republican. She hardly even agreed with the Democrats. She wanted hemp to be legalized and western medicine to be made illegal. He was happy with her. She made all the bad memories he’d accrued in his life just disappear. She was his personal ray of sunshine. But she couldn’t deal with him constantly being gone. She couldn’t deal with his total lack of social skills with non-military types. He had a habit of alienating civilians. He was a little too cocky for her…But she had tried to make it work with him. She’d tried to be the Proud Marine Wife. When she served him the divorce papers, he’d made up his mind to get out and try his damndest to get her back. He had shown up unannounced. Other than the local VA employment Representative, his wife, Autumn, and her family, he didn’t know anyone to announce his moving in to. Debbie, his mother in law, thought he was crazy moving half way across the nation, to try and rekindle things with Autumn. They’d been legally separated for 11 months. In another seven, the divorce would be finalized.
After unloading the boxes, and returning the rental truck, he’d walked to her apartment. It wasn’t far from where he lived, and conveniently, it was right up the street from the U-Haul place. He hadn’t seen her in just over a year, and he hadn’t spoken to her for most of that. He’d tried to send her emails, even messages on those social networking sites…but she never got back to him. He had rehearsed everything he was going to say to her a thousand times on the long drive.
Trying not to grin, and realizing he was already turning red, he had walked up the flight of stairs on the front of the building and turned left, counting the apartment numbers as he went. Apartment 23. He stood for a minute, with his heart pounding almost as hard as it had the first time he’d seen her. He knocked, just a little too hard the first time, a little too soft the two times afterwards. He heard rustling inside. He saw a shadow move through the peephole. Then the door opened, only part way.
His heart sank.
As the smell of marijuana began to pour through the door, a tall, incredibly wide and shirtless man stood staring at him. ”Yeah?” The ogre said, with a clear tone of condescension.
Jake stood, simply blinking in disbelief.
“Hey, you need something?” The man asked again. Jake snapped back to reality, realizing he’d been just standing there, with his mouth half way opened.
“I’m looking for Autumn.” Jake was able to say, without adding the “You son of a bitch” he’d wanted to.
Spitting on the cement walkway just inches from Jake’s foot, the man answered Jake’s next question before he asked it. ”She just left for work, who are you?”
“I’m Jake.” Normally, Jake would have been ready to pound the dumb man, but his head was starting to spin.
“Oh, Jake, right. Debbie said you’d probably be stopping by. You want a beer, or a joint or something?” The man’s question only served to further confuse Jake.
“Fuck it,” and just like the tattoo on the inside of his lip read, “Why not?”
“I’m Chuck D. by the way.” The man said, while putting his hand out to Jake. Jake shook it, and tried not to squeeze too hard. Chuck pulled the door open, and turned to walk into the kitchen. Jake walked in to the small apartment. He looked around the room to see a small TV on a small TV stand, a couch that was much too large for the small room, and a small end table pushed against the wall, next to the couch. The end tables legs had been chewed by a dog at some point. An overfilled ash tray sat in the center of the table. Jake sat down on the couch as the shirtless man came back into the room with two beers in hand.
Bud light. At least, the fat bastard is trying, thought Jake to himself.
They sat, and Chuck D. talked. Jake drank. Chuck told Jake all about how Autumn had began working at the “Queen” strip club. How she’d moved in with him, when she couldn’t take living at her parent’s anymore. How she drank almost every night. The constant party her life had become. Jake fought back tears through most of it. It was as if the girl he’d loved, and left for war, was gone. The only thing Chuck said that Jake could take any pleasure in was the mention that he and Autumn had only briefly dated, and that as far as he knew she wasn’t looking for a new boyfriend.
Jake thanked the man for the four beers he had shot gunned, and walked the five miles back to his house. He had the route memorized from the days he’d spent looking at online maps of the area.
Debbie didn’t appear to be on his side in all of this like he’d thought. She had clearly announced his presence to the newest ex-boyfriend. He stopped off at a drug store a few blocks from his house. He bought a bottle of Jack Daniels, a two liter of coke, and a copy of the local paper.
He spent the night drinking and smoking cigarettes, wishing he would have just stayed in Iraq. At least there he’d known what to do. There he was in his element. Here in Illinois, a place he’d only been once before when he’d gotten married, here he had nothing it seemed. He left the newspaper in the bag until the next day, when the hangover made it difficult to read…But the headlines screamed through his fog, “Pandemic Death Toll Rises to 1,000,” “Pandemic Flu Reported in Canada”.
He was already worried about the winter. This would be his first real winter. He’d never even seen snow. He gave a voice to his concerns. “Great, new flu to go with the new scenery.”
The next weeks had been fairly uneventful. He’d started work at BJ’s Guns, a local gun shop that had hired him on, primarily because of his veteran status. He spent the majority of his days cleaning the weapons that lay in glass display cases in the store. He was trying to muster up the courage to make the drive north up the small two lane highway that ran through town. He must have fought back the urge to go there a hundred times in that week. Twenty minutes up that road, just past a power plant, there was a large boat shaped building.
They called it the “Queen”. It was the best strip club in the area.
“All nude,” Jake caught himself muttering. He had no idea how he’d been so stupid to think that life would just stop until he was done with the war business. He knew she would probably have a job, hell, even the thought of her having a boyfriend had crossed his mind a time or two. But he’d never thought it would be like this. He thought he would just slide in and all would be well. That’s how it had been when they met. He just walked in to her life, and everything was perfect. ”Not this time I guess.” Again, letting himself think out loud.
Kenny, BJ’s grandson, overheard Jake’s ramblings. ”All nude? Are you going to a strip club? I would ask which one but the only all nude club around here is the one up 251.” Kenny stated, very knowledgeably. ”Mind if I tag along? I kind of don’t have a driver’s license.”
Jake thought for a second, and decided it best to change the subject without really giving an answer, “Why did you lose your license?”
Kenny smiled, and almost proudly stated, “Apparently, you aren’t allowed to drink and drive in this state. Who knew?” He paused for a second checking Jake’s reaction. When Jake chuckled, Kenny continued back to his proposition. “So, tonight the Queen? I’ll pay for the cover to make it worth your while.”
Jake attempted to explain himself, while not really saying anything about his situation. ”No I don’t really think tonight would be the best night for you to come with. I’m meeting a girl there.”
Kenny grinned, “Well, you old dog, you. I thought you seemed like my kind of guy.” And with that, Kenny walked over to the phone hanging from a wall behind the cash register. He dialed a quick familiar number, and waited for a response.
Jake could hear the rasp of the old Korean War vet on the other end of the phone.
“Hey Grandpa, Jake here has got a hot date tonight. The shops been slow today, can I cut him loose early?” Jake leaned forward in his chair, across the room, staring at Kenny’s back. He was hoping to hear the old man’s response. He was already dreading the night enough, and now he might be getting his nightmare realized a little earlier than he’d planned. He was excited to see Autumn, but not excited to see her there. He’d tried to call her, but Chuck had always answered the phone, and made excuses for Autumn’s whereabouts. He had no idea if she even wanted to see him. “Sure thing Grandpa, no, I’ll switch shifts with him…I’ll tell him. Okay,” Jake heard the old man say bye, and hang up. ”Yeah, no I love you the most, Grand pappy.” Kenny muttered, obviously to himself. He hung up the phone, and spun around to face Jake.
Kenny spoke with triumph in his voice. ”BJ said to make sure you take out the trash and that if you make it to work before noon tomorrow you’d better have stories ready to tell. I told him we can just switch shifts. You close tomorrow evening, and I’ll cover for you in the morning. Deal?”
Jake’s stomach began to turn, but he managed to stand up from his chair. He gently laid down the Dirty Harry style .357 he’d been cleaning on a cloth on the display case. ”Thanks man, yeah for sure, deal.” He said with as much enthusiasm as he could fake.
He took out the trash, and jumped in to his beat-up, old Camaro. The car had three different shades of rust, with a few primer painted spots. He could afford a better car. He’d been saving money since before he’d left on his last deployment. Even after the down payment on his house, he had nearly $30,000 in the bank. He kept telling himself that one day when he had time he’d work on the car. It was going to be a real terror. It was already fast and pretty soundly taken care of. He just never got around to the outside, or the inside, really. The seats sported cheap seat covers.
He put the car in gear and drove back to his house for a quick shower, and a change in to some nicer clothes. He even sprayed on some cologne. He had no idea why he was trying so hard. He talked himself out of going, and laid on his bed fully dressed. It was barely four o’clock. He knew that Autumn would already be there, though. Debbie had told him she alwas pulled doubles on Friday. Maybe she was on his side after all.
