The Walker

It was evening by the time the girl and her brother got back to the bar. It seemed gloomier than before; the walker had thoroughly ruined the girl’s mood, as well as her plans. Her brother had his drugs, and had cheered up noticeably, but she only had the sour bourbon that Bernie put up cheap, and it was doing nothing for her. The bar seemed quieter too; the barmaid was whispering at the back with the veteran, Jim; they both seemed excited about something, and Bernie kept disappearing through the back door marked ‘private’.

She sighed and drained her whiskey. She couldn’t believe what had happened; Walkers were supposed to be good, and kind, helping people stand up to the government Philosophers. The man she had met was none of these things. Selfish bastard.

She looked around and managed to catch Bernie’s eye as she flitted in from the back.

The woman came forward, eyeing the girl, “Same again, my love?”

The girl nodded and the dour woman poured. As she went to leave, the girl’s brother piped up from his Flash induced stupor.

“Where do you keep disappearin’ our Bern’?” he slurred, spraying spittle on alternate letters.

Bernie glared at him, “None of your business young man, peoples what asks questions where they’s not wanted can gets in trouble, mark my words!”

She gave the girl a meaningful look and stormed out again, leaving the two of them alone at the bar.

As the girl glowered at her drink, thinking of what to do next, there was a loud crack and a shout from the private door. Bernie and Jim burst back in to the room; Bernie’s nose was bleeding and the old soldier was redder than usual.

He was shouting, “We should do ‘im now Bern! No one does that to my woman an’ gets away wiv it!” He began to pull something from his grubby jeans, but Bernie stopped him, dabbing the blood away with a greasy bar cloth.

“Nod ib da bar, nod ib da bar! People will see” She looked around conspiratorially and stopped her gaze on the girl and her brother, who had passed out again.

The girl swallowed her drink and stood up. “Sounds like you two need a hand. Who’ve you got back there this time?”

It was unusual for Bernie to start without her; Daisy usually chose the mark. Daisy asked again, “Who is it?”

Bernie piped up from the shadows, “We started without you, dear. You’ll unnerstand when you sees him.”

Daisy walked around the corner of the bar towards the two of them, leaving her gun and pouch with her brother. The couple looked at each other, then the barmaid took the cloth from her nose and arched an eyebrow sceptically.

“You wants payin’ fer this un? Or just gonna take his valuables again?”

Daisy replied, “We’ll see what he has first, talk about it after.”

Jim chuckled and rubbed at his milky eye. ”A proper mercenary, this un, an’ no mistake.”

Bernie dabbed at her nose; the blood had stopped but she was still fretting, “Well, you’ll definitely like this un then, my luv, he’s a right fancy chap and no mistake”

She gestured that the girl should follow, and headed through the door at the back of the room.

The girl sighed, and followed; she had only taken part in these robberies to earn a meagre living, and to keep herself in the loop.

The man they had robbed last week had turned out to be the wrong man; thin streak of piss, soft, too clean and prissy. The man had ordered something called Whine; she imagined that was why he had been constantly moaning. But he had worn an eye visor, the thing she had been searching for, for signs of the Walker. When he had proved to be the wrong man, she had taken it from him in a temper.

She followed Bernie and her partner as they scurried towards the back room, feeling the soft hairs at the base of her neck stiffen, wondering who their newest victim was.

As she stepped through the darkness of the narrow back room, she smelled the rot and dampness; it always surprised her how, despite the heat of the English autumn, the ageing buildings remained so cold and damp.

Slowly, her eyes started to adjust. They were in the small back room, longer than it was wide, smelling of dank rot and uncared for furniture. She could make out a slumped shape secured to a chair at the back of the room. The figure was big, or rather, was quite tall, definitely a man: she could hear his deep breathing; for someone who had been captured he was strangely calm. As she got closer to the man she could make out more details, his chest was large, still, his head... She stopped dead. Even in the gloom she could make out the dull gleam of Walker’s visor.

Bernie had gotten to the far wall, next to the prisoner, and had turned on the tiny lamp on the ancient, rotting desk behind the chair; it threw the room into stark relief. The girl could see the mould now, not just smell it. Ancient metallic beer kegs lined the left wall; the secret back entrance to the alley was on her right. But she was focused on the walker. He was slumped and bleeding from under his visor. They had taken his bag, along with his pistol and cloak, and put them on the desk behind him, his hat lay forgotten on the floor.

As she came closer he looked up at her and chuckled hoarsely.

Everything happened at once. The veteran was quick on the uptake. The old man’s smile faded and became a bestial snarl as he lurched towards the girl, his crippled leg giving him strange, animalistic movements. Bernie ran to the desk, reaching for the walker’s pistol, still in its holster.

As she fumbled with the strapping, the veteran grabbed for the girl, latching onto her sleeve and pulling her ferociously, “She’s wiv him!” He growled at her, yanking her across the room.

The girl and the veteran tumbled; she kicking and punching with all her might, he trying to get his gnarled hands around her throat. The girl panicked; he was strong for his age, and had been trained well. As his hands found her throat and squeezed she lashed out, desperately trying to stop him choking her. The old man leered down, his single yellow eye too close to hers. She could smell his breath, strong alcohol and old food, and could see the tiny burst veins on his nose and cheeks.

As lights started to pop in her vision, he snarled, “Stay still, m’girl. This won’t take long.”

He began to laugh, but was cut off; the girl had managed to get a knee free and it had found home. As he wheezed and loosened his grip, she scrambled to her feet and swung him with all her might towards some of the stacked kegs to her left. He crashed into a small pile, knocking the tower over. His bulk was quickly lost in the pile of falling debris.

Bernie screamed; she had still not managed to get the gun from its holster. The girl was panting; she looked to where part of the scarred man’s body protruded from the mess of metal. He was not moving and a pool of blood was seeping from under the heap, spreading slowly along the floor.

Bernie screamed again, “You killed ’im! You killed ’im! What did you do that fer?”

Suddenly she was hurtling towards her, waving the holster like a flail; leather straps whipping round her head as she ran.

The girl tensed and dodged; Bernie went storming past, staring wide eyed at the girl.

She tripped and fell, bringing yet more kegs falling down around them. The girl managed to leap clear; Bernie was not so lucky. The girl covered her ears against the cacophony of falling metal.

As the dust calmed and the crashing stopped, she could hear something over the sound of her own heavy breathing; a dry, bass rumble. She slowly turned around to face the walker, still in his chair, hands and legs bound, chuckling to himself quietly.

She clutched her chest, struggling to regain her breath and control the adrenaline surging around her body. Her hands shook, she felt like crying, her heart was about to burst free and join her blood with Jim’s on the floor. She collapsed onto one of the overturned barrels, holding her head in shaking hands.

“What are you laughing at? You know what this means? I’ve killed someone! Two people! We can’t stay here anymore; people will come looking when they know what happened!” She turned to him, wide eyed, but the walker only laughed harder.

As she glared and spat, he slowly stopped laughing, and grinned at her.