Apocalypsis 04 - Haven

arrest.”
    Her mouth dropped open. Then she frowned. “Under what authority?” she scoffed.
    “Under my authority,” I said, grabbing her upper arm and dragging her from the room.
    She tried to dig her heels in and stop me from bringing her down the hall, but it wasn’t even slowing me down. I was determined to end the nonsense; the insult thrown at Peter was the final straw for me. I needed to take care of her once and for all. This girl was a pure poison and something had to be done with her. We’d put it off for long enough. At this point it really felt like she was putting the people of Haven in danger.
    She kicked me hard in the back of the thigh, slowing us down and giving me a hell of a bruise.
    I turned around and smashed her in the collar bone, dropping her to her knees.
    “Get me a pair of handcuffs,” I said to Peter, holding her down on the floor by her hair.
    She was screaming like a woman possessed and swinging her arms around awkwardly, trying to grab a hold of me.
    “B-R-B!” yelled Peter, running down the hallway in the opposite direction.
    “I’m going to fucking kill you, you bitch! You’d better run far away because I’m not going to stop until you’re dead!”
    I put my knee in her back while I waited for the restraints to arrive. “Why all the hate, Gail? Why against me? What’d I ever do to you?”
    “Shut up.” Her voice was muffled, buried in her upside down shirt somewhere. “You know exactly why. You’re always walking around here like you’re the best thing since television, letting your friends do whatever they want and keeping everyone else penned in like animals. All you are is a slave driver. A zoo keeper. You’re nothing. All it takes is a single bullet to end your bullshit.”
    Her words hurt my feelings, and her threat chilled my blood. She wasn’t like Coli, a raving loon; she was just an unhappy person, jealous maybe, but so full of hate.
    Before I could do anymore dime-store psychoanalysis on my prisoner, Flick and Derek showed up, both of them carrying restraints and nightsticks. They were our small town police force, the single sheriff and only deputy.
    “What the hell?” asked Flick, reaching down to pull her up.
    Once she was straight again, Derek put handcuffs on her and looked her over. “You hurt?” he asked.
    “Not unless you count the wrist she practically broke. She’s fucking brutal you know. I guess in our new world being brutal’s allowed. You guys like people who hurt other people.”
    “Give it a rest, Gail,” said Flick. “Don’t you ever get tired of being a pain in the ass?”
    “Oh, sorryyyy mister Hollywood. What’s the matter? Bummed because you finally ran out of hair gel?”
    Flick looked at me, the restraint of many practiced hours of keeping the peace on his face. “Where do you want her?”
    “Put her in one of the closer cells. I need to send someone to talk to her.”
    “I’m not interested in listening to the preachers anymore. They can keep their god and all that other shit to themselves.”
    “It won’t be the preachers,” I said as she walked away with her jail keepers. “It’ll be the chiefs.”
    “I don’t answer to any indian chief!” she yelled over her shoulder.
    “They’re not indians,” I said softly, “they’re Native Americans.” I turned away and walked down the hall to the lobby. I had to go find Trip and Paci and ask them what we should do.

    ***
    I found Paci outside with the sheep. He was watching a group of kids get trained on how to sheer them using the manual scissor things they had, courtesy of the Creek tribe. The whole process was turning out to be a mess of wool flying all over the place and kids chasing bleating animals in circles.
    “Hey,” he said as I walked over to stand next to him. “What’s up?” His smile was warm, even though the constant sad look he had around his eyes over the loss of his brother was still there. It never fully went away.
    “We have a problem. I’m wondering if you and Trip can come help me.”
    “Supply issue?”
    “No. Gail issue.”
    He pulled away from the fence. “Again? When is that girl going to get a grip on herself?”
    “Pretty much never, I think. She sealed the deal with me today. Threatened to stab me and then put a bullet in me.”
    “Nice. I always said she must have a death wish.”
    “Yeah. I just don’t see how we can keep her here. She’s nothing but trouble.”
    Paci walked with me towards the prison entrance.