Victim City Stories Issue 1 by Dale Hammond - HTML preview

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Saturday Afternoon

 

"Have you checked her pulse?" asked Austin.

"Like I have to!" Montana sobbed.  "Look at her!"

Amber was still naked on the bedroll.  Urine and blood stained diarrhea had poured out from between her legs.  Vomit smeared her cheek.  Her head was tilted to one side, enough that her mouth was still full of puke and urine.  Flies buzzed at her crotch and mouth.  Her lips were blue.  Her open eyes stared at the ceiling.

"Maybe we can give her CPR?"  Hayley tried to turn Amber's head to clear her mouth.  Her neck was stiff.  Hayley closed her eyes as she cleared Amber's mouth with two fingers.  "Oh, god, she's cold!"  Hayley wiped her fingers off on a pillow, then absentmindedly sniffed them.  "Jesus, is this fucking piss?  Did someone piss in her mouth?"

"Must have been Colt," said Greg, trying to sound ignorant.

"Jesus Christ!" yelled Montana.  She looked around the loft and made a mental headcount.  "Where's Kurt?"

"I'll get him," said Drew, eager to get away from Amber's body.

"What makes you think it's Colt's piss?" Hayley asked, accusingly.

"Who else would piss in somebody's mouth?" Greg returned.

"I guess we'll all know after the DNA test," said Montana.

"What DNA test?  She OD'd, plain and simple," Austin objected.

"We don't know that," said Montana.  "She could have choked to death.  Either way, they’re going to do an autopsy and find out, and I doubt they'll ignore the fact she's coated in semen."

"C'mon, you'd probably find the DNA of half of VC in one of her holes," said Greg.

"You shut the fuck up!" Montana yelled.

"If I were you, I'd be more worried about the drugs in her system," said Greg, looking at Hayley.  "And where Amber got those drugs."

"Everybody knows she's got plenty of scripts of her own," said Hayley, looking defensive.

"Just like everybody knows that you sell her the extras you get from your parents," accused Austin.

Montana shook her head.  "Maybe she would still be alive..."

Hayley cut her off.  "Oh, like when they pump her stomach they won't find the pills you get from sucking off your therapist!"

"You fucking bitch!"

"Shut up!"  Angela screamed.  She had been crying with her hands over her face.  She dropped the veil only to show a mask of rage.  "Fuck all of you!  I have a full scholarship!  I am getting out of this fucking city, and go somewhere where nobody knows me, and get a fucking boyfriend, and I am not letting this pilled up slut fuck it up!"

The others stood in shocked silence as Drew brought in Kurt, half dragging him by the shoulder.  "Alright, we're all here," he said.  "Do you know something, Kurt?  You were probably the last person to see her.  I mean, I think there's a lot more jizz on her than when we all left her."

"What?" said Hayley.

"Nice one, Drew," muttered Austin.

"Great, so you all took a turn on the dead girl," said Montana.  "That's just great."

"She wasn't dead," said Greg.

"Well, she wasn't moving a whole lot, so maybe..."

"Shut up, Drew," said Greg.

"Fuck you.  Maybe she was already dead.  At least that means we didn't kill her.  Wait, is that against the law?"

"Probably not in VC," Austin muttered.

"Look, we'll just wash her off before we report it," said Greg.

"They can still find the DNA," said Montana.  "And you'd have to explain why she was cleaned up."

"The lake," said Hayley.  "We can put her in the lake, say she drowned.  Then there's no autopsy, no drug test, no DNA.  We're all clear."

"No good," said Angela.  "They would still do a drug screen, and she would need to have lake water in her lungs."

"Maybe we could give her the Heimlich in the water and it would pump some in?" said Hayley.

"That might work," Angela considered.  "They'd still want to know about the pills."

"Is there anything that will clean her out?"

"I don't think so.  Not after she's dead."

"Maybe we can google some of this shit?" Austin offered.  "Can anyone get a signal?"

"Don't google shit!" said Greg.  "They can check your search history."

"You guys can keep freaking out," said Drew.  "I didn't do shit."

"You fucked a dead girl!" said Montana.

"We don't know if she was dead.  'Sides, I just jerked off on her."

"Great," said Montana.  "They can still get you for desecrating a corpse or something."

"Even if they can't make any charges stick, we're going to get raked over the coals," added Austin.  "All of us."

"We could just get rid of the body," said Hayley, not liking the words after they came out of her mouth.

Austin shook his head.  "Then she'll be missing, and we get even more questions."

"She didn't have to have died here," Angela started.  "We take her body back into town and leave it somewhere.  I don't think it would surprise anyone if she turned up in an alley dead."

"Did anyone know she was coming out here besides us?" Greg asked.

"No," said Montana.  "Wait...no.  I don't know, I can't think."

"What about Colt?" asked Angela.  "If we have a story, we need to get it straight with him."

"He's in this deeper than anyone," said Greg.  "He won't say shit."

"God, I can't fucking think," said Angela, tears still coming.

"We all need to calm the fuck down," Montana added, looking through Amber's purse for prescription pill bottles.

"I'm not taking anything if they're sober," said Hayley, pointing at the boys.

"Fine, we'll take something, too," Greg offered.

"That's a good idea," said Drew, thinking.  "We all need to sleep on it.  All of us.  Things will make more sense after some sleep."

"Jesus, I don't know if I'll ever sleep again!" said Angela.

"That's what these are for," said Montana, shaking the pill bottles.  "Mixed with a little alcohol and you'll go right out."

"Isn't that what got us here in the first place?"

"I know what I'm doing.  But I'm not taking shit unless everyone," Hayley pointed at Kurt, "takes one.  I'm not waking up with a stomach full of piss and jizz."

"Fair enough.  Everyone takes their medicine.  Montana, divvy up the doses."

Montana picked a Xanax, Ambien, and beer cocktail for everyone.  Hayley got a double dose because of her tolerance, and she gave herself double to not look suspicious.  Drew also got a larger dose because of his size.  Drew looked at each person stone faced as they washed the pills down with beer, making sure everyone swallowed.

"Let's get out of here," Hayley murmured.  "I don't want to pass out in this room."

"I think someone should hold on to Angela's car keys until we wake up," said Austin.

"I'll hold on to them," said Drew.

"What if you drive off?" Montana objected.

"God, the whole point of sleeping it off is so we stop..."

"I've got an idea," said Greg.  "Bring your keys outside."

Angela got her keys from her purse and met the others in the front lawn.  She handed the keys to Greg, who promptly threw them on the roof.

"What the fuck!"

"Great, asshole, now how do we get them down?" said Montana.

"I can get them down," Drew offered.

"Not with a bellyful of pills, you're not," said Greg.  "That's the point.  Anyone manages to stay awake longer than the others will be in no shape to climb around on the roof.  Everyone has to wait until we're nice and sober."

"That's actually a pretty good idea," said Hayley.

"Until we actually need to find the keys again," said Angela.  "Anybody remember where they landed?"

Montana lit two cigarettes and gave one to Hayley.  The three girls sat down on the porch steps.

"I can feel it kicking in," said Hayley, starting to smile.

"You ever do Ambien sex?" Montana started.  "I hear..."

"Amber's dead, isn't she?" Hayley asked.

"Yeah."

"Fucking bitch couldn't wait two days."