Run Away Baby

“Your nose ain’t stuffed up.”

“Yes it is!” She sniffed weakly a couple of times. “See? Please,” she turned to Charlie, “tell him that I won’t be able to breathe if my mouth is covered. I’ll suffocate. I’m not kidding. Please!”

“Don’t cover her mouth,” said Charlie.

“Are there really bullets in here?” Meggie said.

“Yeah there’s fucking bullets,” Rake said to Meggie, not looking up at her as he wound tape around Abby’s ankles, affixing them to the aluminum chair legs. Then he got right up in Abby’s face, extra close, his warm beer breath huffing against her eyeballs. “Fit as a fiddle,” he said. He stood up and dusted himself off.

“Can you show me again how to use this thing?” asked Meggie.

“Cock it, point and click. Only you’re not going to have to worry about it, because our prisoner’s gonna behave herself. Right?” he said.

“Right,” said Abby.

“Now you sit tight. Let Meggie entertain you with some of her stories. Have a little story time. Chuck and me’ll be back before you know it.”

Abby pressed her lips together, aware that it hadn’t hurt at all when he’d ripped off the tape that had been covering her mouth. Perhaps because he’d just applied it, or maybe it was old or not really the ‘good stuff’ after all.

Charlie stood up then and he and Rake began walking in the direction they supposed the neighbor lived. It wasn’t long before they were back. They picked Abby up and carried her in her chair toward the two small sheds.

“What’s going on?” Meggie yelled, dancing along beside them.

They dropped Abby between the sheds, then turned and were on their way again. Meggie brought her chair over along with a handful of hotdogs. When Meggie handed two of the hotdogs to Abby, she inhaled them both, too hungry to complain that they were slimy and uncooked, or that Meggie had been holding them in her bare hands.

Meggie stood there watching, pointing the gun at Abby like she thought she was supposed to do. Every couple of seconds she’d flail the gun around as she swatted away mosquitoes.

“You’re making me kind of nervous,” Abby said.

“I’m nervous too,” said Meggie.

“We don’t have to do what they tell us, you know.”

“Well,” Meggie said. Abby waited for her to continue, but she didn’t.

“I don’t think you need to point that at me unless I do something bad. And if you accidentally kill me, they might be mad because I’m guessing they have more use for me alive right now,” Abby said, trying to sound reasonable and not bossy.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” said Meggie. She lowered her hand with the gun to her side.

“What are they going to do to those people?” Abby asked.

“I don’t know. Probably… Oh, I don’t know. You never know with them.”

“You mean they’re both unpredictable? Charlie too?”

“Especially Charlie,” Meggie said with a laughing snort.

Abby shook her head.

“It’s buggy over here without the fire,” said Meggie. “Why do we have to sit over here?”

“Probably because they realized once they got into the dark and looked down at the fire that they could see us way too easily.”

“So?” said Meggie.

“Well, if they could, so could anyone else who was looking. And I’m taped to a chair. It looks a little suspicious.”

“Oh. Right. I’m gonna look in Rake’s truck for some bug spray. You can’t move, right? You’re totally stuck there?”