REMI
Less than an hour after I left Gage to finish off the tortured man, he enters my room, his hands covered in blood.
“So, you couldn’t have cleaned yourself up first?”
“I wanted you to see my work. What I’m willing to do for you.”
“I think I’ve seen enough.”
He pulls the chair up to face the bed, so we can talk.
“Did you like killing him?” I ask.
“It’s not that I take joy from killing, but there is a satisfaction I get from giving someone what’s coming to them.”
“You’ve said you’ve killed before. Why?”
“Special forces. Wartime kills. Then the apocalypse hit, and that raised my count further. Don’t think for a second that I’m noble. I’m not. I’ve done things that would make you cry. That would make God cry.”
“You were military? Why didn’t you tell me? You said you fixed problems. I assumed you were…bad.”
“Because I was bad, and being Special Forces, I did fix problems. A lot of problems. I was good at my job, able to stomach things others couldn’t. It’s what made me so good at being in the Civil Police.”
“Did you kill for the Civil Police?”
“Yes.”
“What happened with them? Are they what’s left of everything?”
“Me and some buddies took down the Civil Police and their masters throughout the city.”
“So you were…good?”
“You should know better than to call me that. I’ve done things that would see me in the electric chair several times over.”
“Those three women that died…”
“It was actually four.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Have you ever heard of the term honeypot?”
I shake my head no.
“It’s a person who engages in a fake relationship in order to gain knowledge, information, or resources. The women that died by my hands were a part of gangs meant to trick men.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“I’m good at what I do. Most of them contacted me over a month ago, when there were a lot more people. It’s one of the reasons we put the broadcast up. So many were dying at the hands of opportunists. When you finally showed up, most of that had already passed.”
“I still can’t believe you made me walk through the city. I was almost killed.”
“And yet you weren’t. I admit that what I did wasn’t very thoughtful, but if you were going to carry my child, you needed to perform in dangerous situations. I couldn’t have you freeze up. I needed to make sure you could follow simple instructions. And it’s not that I didn’t help you at all. Throughout the night, I led them away from your path, and took many out. A few ended up returning.”
“You led them away?”
“I tried to make it easy on you, and for the most part, it was. I hadn’t expected that jack-off down the hall.”
“How’d he go down?”
“Suffering.”