Page 15 of Crucified By the Dark
“Hey, get up.” The light flicked on in his small room. Jeremy groaned and covered his face as it blinded him.
“What’s going on?” he yawned.
They had a thing about clocks here or maybe a lack of a thing. You couldn’t find one to save your soul, and the only answer he ever got from Morry about it was that you should know what time it is from the position of the sun.
“I said, get up, now,” Morry’s stern voice bit out.
He swung his legs over the side of the small bed and sat up. A pile of clothes was tossed at his feet, followed by the thud of a pair of black boots. He jumped.
“Get dressed and meet me out front. You have five minutes,” Morry said and left the room.
What happened to the woman that held his hand through the nights he was going through shit? He hadn’t seen that woman in a couple of weeks, and he wondered if she was ever that nice or if it was all part of his hallucinations.
Slipping out of the sleep pants, Jeremy pulled on the snug boxer briefs and cargo pants before yanking on the socks and boots. Last was the T-shirt and hoodie. He wandered out to the hallway and realized it was very early because the entire bunk area was silent. As he neared the doors, he saw the lights of a vehicle and swallowed hard.
What the hell did she plan on doing to him this time? Had he proven to be too much work over the last six month? Was she getting rid of him? Were they taking him somewhere to dispose of his body? The worry only got worse when he stepped outside. Morry and Judd leaned against a black Hummer that looked identical to the one Dean drove.
“What’s going on,” he asked, shuddering as lightning flashed in the distance. The white streaks rippling through the dark clouds promised rain. He wondered if it was also a sign of what was to come.
“Get in the back,” Morry said, pushing away from the Hummer. He watched Judd as he walked around to the other side of the vehicle and got in the passenger side.
He swallowed the lump in his throat as fear kicked in. The last time he was ordered into the back of a vehicle, it ended with him in the hospital with broken ribs and his ass bleeding from the abuse he’d taken. It wasn’t his finest moment, selling his body for money. If his parents had seen him….
He shuddered at the thought, the look of disappointment that he was sure would be on his dad’s face and the disgust in his mom’s eyes.
“I said, get in,” Morry ordered, firmer this time, and pulled open the back door of the Hummer.
“Are you planning on killing me?”
The corner of her lip curled up and did nothing to settle the feeling in his stomach that made him want to vomit. “That’s going to depend on you. Now get in. It’s time for a lesson.”
Oh, he didn’t like that word. He wouldn’t like this, but he found himself putting one foot in front of the other and climbing into the black vehicle. She closed the door, and he balled his hands into fists on his knees to keep himself from grabbing the handle and jumping right back out.
The problem was, where was he going to go? There was nowhere to go. It was desert for miles in every direction outside the horseshoe-shaped canyon where the Legions had set up base. The first day he was allowed outside after he arrived, he realized just how secluded and off the map they really were. A large vulture had flown overhead with a dead snake in its claws, and the reality had his insides turned to ice.
They pulled out of the large metal gates, and their path took them further into the bowl shape of the canyon rather than out toward civilization. No one spoke. It was awkward, and with each passing second, his anxiety grew until his knees bounced in time to the flashes of lightning in the sky. Morry stopped the vehicle but kept it running and got out to open his door.
“Let’s go. We’re here.”
Jeremy stared around at the vast nothingness and the darkness beyond that. He glanced back at Morry’s eyes reflecting the lightning and thought he might faint. What the hell had he gotten himself into? So far since coming here, he’d been strapped down on a bed, made to scrub toilets, peeled a million potatoes, and was forced to run until it felt like his legs were going to fall off. He was in the middle of fucking nowhere with a woman who looked like she wanted to kill him, with her sidekick, who openly detested him. This wasn’t good, no matter which way you sliced it.
Fuck, just get out of the Hummer. If they kill you, they kill you. At least the pain will be over.
Jeremy slipped out of the truck, and Morry closed the door. She walked around to the back of the Hummer and opened the hatch. She came back with a shovel and smirked as his mouth fell open.
“Here, take this,” and held out the shovel.
“Okay, this may sound like a stupid question, but what exactly am I doing out here in the middle of nowhere with a shovel?”
Morry smiled, walked toward the front of the Hummer, and leaned against the hood between the two headlights. “Pick any spot in the beams and start digging.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” he said as he made his way in the direction she’d indicated.
“And I don’t plan to. Now start digging, or you will fail the lesson. Then it will be latrine duty for a month.”
Well, that meant she didn’t plan on murdering him. At least, not right now. From toilet germs, that was another story. Jeremy stuck the shovel in the ground and threw the dirt to the side, then did it again and kept digging. Right about then, he wanted to bury Dean. How could the man think this was going to help him? Sure, he was off the drugs, but the cravings were still just as terrible, and now he had to deal with the emotions and guilt he’d been avoiding. Now he could add this to the list of shit.
“How big do I need to dig the hole,” he asked, his hand sore from the wooden handle. He shook out his palm and knew that blisters were forming.
