Find the Shiftless
Find the Shiftless
MAX
“Max!” Finn’s voice shatters my ear drums and I nearly shift right there in defense of my hearing.
Leaping back far enough to sizzle my back on the cold burn of silver bars, I fix him with an impudent frown and snap, “Goddessdamn you, Finn! Are you testing my fucken reflexes or what?”
Finn snorts, throwing a pointed look around and that’s when I realize I’ve been stood here in this prison hallway, a captive to my thoughts, long enough for two of the juvenile inmates and one dumb lucky cameraman to pass clean out upon their respective cots,
“Damn it,” I grumble, dragging a hand down over my face in disbelief. “I wanted to throw that little bastard in the hole and then record my own little video. One of him sniveling and begging like the coward that he is, just to make his mama proud.” I shake my head, my eyes falling on the peacefully resting teenager that somehow looks much younger than he did when I met him this morning. “That little fuck should not be able to sleep so easily.”
Finn chuckles humorlessly, “Oh, I completely agree, but Max-” his gaze falls over me with concern etching his features “-we should leave them be for now.”
My head jerks in his direction, anger rising once again and tightening my core. My jaw clenches then falls open with a curse, but before I can utter any more than that he hurries on-
“We have to get back to the hospital, remember? And you’re still covered in blood! The guards downstairs have already arranged a hot shower for you in the locker room and rustled up a fresh set of clothes for you—they’re prison guard black, but I doubt returning to Blanca’s side still drenched in her blood is going to play any good part in her recovery.”
He’s right. I know he is.
Sighing so heavily I think I feel a lung drop, I burn each one of the still conscious troublemakers with the heat of my glare and say, “You all can have the night to reflect, but I recommend you get comfy, because not a one of you will be leaving this place until I have unfucked your minds and beat new morals into you. I have a very specific plan for you boys, and if that plan fails…I’m afraid there will no longer be room for you in this pack.”
Every one of their faces pales and, finally, I begin to see that remorse they’ve been devoid of up until now. So, I hide a smile and follow Finn and Alfred downstairs to where my shower awaits.
As the last trace of blood swirls down the drain, my phone blares to life and I reach out of the stall to snatch it off the bench, swiping the screen up to accept the call even as I begin toweling off. Elder Cyrus’ name glows up at me and I curse.
“Whatever it is, Cyrus, I promise I am much too busy to-”
“I am at the hospital, Max, I saw the video and I got here as quickly as I could…I wanted to see Blanca, but I haven’t been able to make it in the door. I-”
“Haven’t been able? And why the hell not? I told Maize when I left that you were the only person-”
“Perhaps if you’d let me finish!” the old bird snaps and despite myself, I smile. “I haven’t been able to get in, not because of Maize, but because of the mob that is presently flooding the entrance.” Mob? What? “You have to get here, Max. Quickly. Or I’m afraid they’re going to tear the place apart.”
My body rocks up with fear and I listen more attentively, drawing on all the sounds in the background while hastily getting dressed. A cacophony of broken shouts and angry curses blanch my ears before I hear Cyrus speaking again as if to a crowd.
“Calm down please! Just calm down! The Alpha will be here shortly and you may address all of your concerns to him, but I am warning you, if you breach that doorway, there will certainly be hell to pay!”
What the fuck?
“Cyrus!” I hiss into the phone, throwing on my boots without tying the laces and exploding out of the locker room with my sights set on the exit.
“Y-yes, Max? Oh move you damned fool!” Cyrus’ old tremble rises as he curses at someone that must be blocking his intended path. “Max?”
“Where exactly is this mob? Which entrance?” I ask him, signalling for Finn and Alfred to follow me as I fall into a jog and burst out the doors and into the open parking lot. They do so with silent reverence, Finn’s brow tightening at the sound of the word ‘mob’.
“What do you mean—where exactly—at the hospital entrance, that is where exactly!”
I swallow a retort about how times have changed since the invention of the wheel and that now, there’s more than one entrance to the medicine man’s hut in favor of saying, “Right, I know, but I am asking more specifically—is it the ER entrance, the front entrance, or…the back entrance?”
Throwing open the doors of the SUV, I shove Jericho out of the front passenger seat without saying a word and he flips me off before falling into one of the back benches with Alfred and Finn.
Then, turning to Jared, I mouth, “Hospital, now,” and he takes off in a spray of gravel and dust, roaring away from the prison toward the eastern district of my territory.
“Oh…” Cyrus replies, mildly confused. “I…I’m not sure then, I-I believe we are at the Emergency entrance…I wasn’t aware there were more.”
Well, of course you weren’t.
“Okay, Cyrus. Do you know why they are there? I mean, what are they demanding? Is Maize not admitting any new patients for some reason or-”
“No, Max! They are here because of the video!”
My chest turns to ice. “Fuck.”
Cyrus huffs as the crowd grows louder around him. “They are here to find the Shiftless.”