Cruel World(98)

The whole place had a haunted look.

Quinn tried the door and it opened easily. There was a service counter straight ahead adorned with stuffed animals, tshirts, and sweatshirts all emblazoned with the Crowfoot County Park logo. A worn pool table rested before men’s and women’s bathrooms. Beside them was a set of stairs leading up to the second story. Glass littered the floor beneath two broken windows, dried blood on the edges still hanging in the frame.

He did a quick sweep of the second floor, which housed mostly boxes of dusty papers and survey maps. A sprawling desk sat before a door to the left, and when he opened it, the smell of decay hit him like a slap.

A man’s body was in the middle of a small office. A shotgun lay beside him, along with most of his skull. Quinn shut the door and returned downstairs.

“It’s clear,” he said, coming even with an overstuffed chair that Alice sat in, Ty cuddled in her lap. Their darkened reflections looked back at them from the blank TV screen on the wall.

“Good. I’m shot,” Alice said, cracking one eye open to see his reaction. He shook his head.

“Not your best work.”

“Tough crowd.”

“There’s a…” Quinn drew his thumb across his throat and motioned to the floor over his head. “So I think we should stay down here tonight.”

“Do we have power?” Alice asked.

He moved to the wall and flipped a few switches. Nothing happened.

“Back to the dark ages,” he said.

“Isn’t that the truth.”

Quinn strode to the front desk and pulled a map from a display case, spreading it out on a nearby table. He traced a snaking line that ran from the lodge they stood in to a black dot marked ‘Ferry’. He checked the drawers behind the counter, his attention on the silent vending machine in the corner of the room. After a moment, he found a stubby key in the furthest right drawer.

“There’s a town only six miles from here,” he said, crossing the room.

“Yeah. I don’t think I could go another step there, champ,” Alice said.

“Don’t worry, mom; Quinn’ll carry you,” Ty said, patting her hair.

“Oh he will, huh?” Alice said.

“Yep. He’s like superman. ‘Member he carried you all the way up that hill?”

Quinn couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face as he unlocked the vending machine and pulled out three bags of chips and three warm cans of soda. He brought the food to them, opening Ty’s for him before settling himself on the corner of a cold fireplace.

“I’m going as soon as I’m done eating,” Quinn said, chewing a handful of chips. They exploded with flavor in his mouth, and he couldn’t remember something tasting so good in his life.

“What? No. You’re staying here. It’ll be dark in a few hours. We have to secure this place for the night,” Alice said, her eyes open wide now, more alert than she’d been all day.

“I have to go. You know it,” Quinn said, pointing to her injured leg while Ty munched on his chips and turned his head whenever one of them spoke.

“Quinn—”

“I’ll be back before dark, no problem. And I’ll leave you the rifle.”

She sighed and sipped at her pop. “Never met someone so stubborn.”

“Can I come with you, Quinn?” Ty asked.

“No,” they both said in unison. Alice blinked and suppressed a smile. Ty frowned and continued to eat, his face toward his lap.

Quinn finished his chips and slugged the last of his soda down before setting the rifle beside Alice’s chair. She unbuckled the holster holding her revolver and handed it to him.

“There’s only six in that, make each one count.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He was almost to the door when Ty yelled for him and came hurrying as fast as he could across the room, one hand held before him, the other out to the side. Quinn knelt and grasped his arm when he was close enough to touch.

“Don’t go,” Ty said, his lower lip trembling.

“I have to, buddy. It’s important.”

“But what if you don’t come back?”

“I’ll come back. You don’t need to worry about that. You stay here and keep your mom safe, okay?”

The boy nodded and then leaned in closer to him, his voice dropping to a whisper.

“I wasn’t asleep last night when you guys were talking.”