by Jay Mackey
53
Nevada, April 2018
Jack sat on the floor, bleeding slowly. He somehow knew his own fate. Yet he felt content. For the first time in maybe forever.
Is this normal, that I can do my own diagnosis? Do other doctors do this? I can sit here and say, well, the slug did not pass through. Based on the fact that I’m still alive, it didn’t destroy my heart or major vessels. On the other hand, I’ve had significant bleeding. So . . . Fuck!
These poor kids. How did I get them involved in all this?
CJ is the one, though. My own flesh and blood. It seems impossible that we’d end up together like this.
Has it been my fault? I feel like it is. I’m the only one who’d known Blankenship. But who is Blankenship after? It’s CJ.
So Blankenship’s people have been following CJ. But to what end? To find more family members and hope they’re like Aphrodite and Zeus? That’s what Blankenship implied. Hoping that CJ would lead him to a secret community of aliens. Christ.
Still, none of this would have happened if I hadn’t become involved. I could have let the kid go after that first encounter in the library. But even then, I’d felt a vibe, something, that told me this kid was special. I couldn’t let it go.
And now, here we are. CJ staring out the window, waiting for something to happen.
Penny, who knows what she’s thinking? She looks like she’s getting ready to make a break for it, pacing like a cat in a cage.
God, will they ever forgive me? I wish they’d never come. No, I don’t really wish that. I wish that they’d come before. Sometime long ago. Before . . . before . . .
It’s so peaceful here.
CJ, standing near the window, said, “Someone’s coming.”
54
Nevada, April 2018
CJ was looking out the windows in the large room at the front of the space, trying to see if there was any activity out in the parking lot. There wasn’t. But now he heard someone banging around the back door. He ran toward the sound.
Penny heard it too. “God, Oval, did you clean up the broken glass from where you broke that window?”
“Yes,” he answered. He was sitting next to Jack, trying to keep him awake. “At least I think I did.”
CJ stopped in the hallway outside the back room where the back door was located, holding the gun at his side. He gritted his teeth, trying to steel himself in case someone busted through the back door.
The door rattled. A voice called out, “Hey, looks like this window has been busted out.”
Someone answered, but CJ couldn’t make out what he said. Then the first voice again. “No, there’s some cardboard or something stuck up in here.”
The man outside poked at the cardboard, which promptly fell to the floor. CJ quickly ducked back out of sight, holding his breath, gripping the gun tightly.
“I can get in here,” said the voice.
CJ could hear some scrabbling sounds, which he interpreted as the man sticking his arm through the broken window and feeling around for the lock. CJ tried to swallow, but his mouth was too dry.
“Wait,” another voice said. This one sounded like Blankenship. “A car’s coming. Come on. Let’s see if it’s Trey with our new guests. Those kids aren’t going anywhere.”
A third voice answered. “No, but they’ve got to be here somewhere. No way they ran off through the desert. Not with one of ’em on crutches and another one shot.”
Blankenship again, moving away, said, “Oh, good, it’s Trey and . . .” The rest was unintelligible, as he got farther from the door.
55
Nevada, April 2018
Gus sat uneasily in the passenger seat, looking in the outside mirror occasionally to see if the white car behind them was still there, which it always was.
“Where are you taking us?” he asked. It seemed like they’d driven a long way since they’d been carjacked. “It looks like we’re heading out into the desert.”
The man in the back seat responded, “Land is cheaper in the desert.”
“But the kids are here, right? They’re okay, right?” Violet, said, rubbing her temple again and shaking her head.
“The kids are fine. So just shut up. We’ll be there soon.”
Gus knew that Violet was not doing well. Nothing could be worse than having a child in jeopardy, even being held at gunpoint. He did what he could to comfort her—held her hand, tried to put up a brave face. But it was hard when he was stressed to his limits, too.
Violet’s lips were trembling. She looked like she was having a conversation with herself. Gus shuddered to think what she could be saying.
After another series of turns on empty streets, surrounded by desert, they came around a bend. The man in the back told them to turn into a driveway, which led into a long parking lot. It appeared that they were going to a strip mall. An abandoned strip mall. Only a couple of the storefronts had signs. The one on the end, where they pulled up, had a small sign. BK Labs, it said. It showed the only lights in the area.
There were three other vehicles in the lot: a large cargo van, a big black Cadillac sitting just in front of the door to the lab, and a green Mazda on the other side of the Cadillac. Violet parked near the van, and the man told Gus and Violet to get out of the car and go inside.
Melissa stopped the white car off to the left and a little behind where Violet had parked. “That’s the green car that Penny and the kids were in,” she said, exiting the car and pointing at the car she recognized as Jack’s. “Are we supposed to believe they’re here?”
“What is this?” asked Kevin. “BK Labs? Why would Penny be at some lab in the middle of nowhere?”
Gus passed around the back of the car to join Violet, who was staring, not at the lab, but behind them toward the road they’d just come from. Gus turned to look that way too, and saw only desert. Nothing was moving.
From the opposite direction, a man came walking through the parking lot with a smile on his face, followed by two others. The first man, an older man, walked slowly toward the group emerging from the cars.
Violet grabbed Gus’s arm. “CJ’s here,” she said.
Gus looked at Violet. She put her hand to cover her mouth. Then she looked up in the air, as if to pray, and screamed, “Now! I need you now.”
56
Nevada, April 2018
CJ moved back to the front room, where he spotted Penny near the window. She held her hand up to her lips when she saw CJ.
“Shh,” she said, pointing out to the parking lot.
CJ crept up next to Penny. He saw two cars pulling in. Noga got out of the passenger side of the first car, Penny’s father’s black SUV, and Nini got out of the driver’s side. A big man got out of the back.
So Blankenship was telling the truth. Nini and Noga were coming here. I hope they’re not being kidnapped, that they’re here to rescue us. But it sure doesn’t look that way.
Blankenship and his two buddies, Stringy Hair and Skinny Kid, appeared, walking toward the cars from near CJ’s location, next to the bottom of a roughly U-shaped string of storefronts. Blankenship stopped next to Nini and said something to her.
Penny’s parents got out of the second car, a white car. It was starting to get dark, so CJ couldn’t be sure, but the man who got out with them was wearing a white shirt and looked very familiar.
“That’s the dude who’s been following us,” said Oval, who had moved up to the window.
Penny pointed to the sky and said, “Something else is coming. Sure hope that’s the cavalry, coming to the rescue.”
Is that a plane? No, a helicopter, maybe.
CJ saw Noga turn to look up at this copter, or whatever, coming at them. It hovered for a few seconds before coming down for a landing in the desert on the far side of the parking lot.
“What is that thing?” asked CJ.
Blankenship waved his arms. He seemed to be trying to get the new arrivals into the lab, assisted by Stringy Hair and Skinny Kid.
White Shirt and Big Man turned toward the plane, dodged behind the white car and fired their guns at the men in black jumpsuits, who quickly ducked down behind some bushes in a landscaped section of the parking lot. Nini, Noga and Penny’s parents all sheltered behind the black SUV. Blankenship and his two men ran back to the lab.
CJ tried to open the front door, which was locked. Penny grabbed him, and said, “Don’t go out there. You’ll be a sitting duck.”
“I’ve got to help Nini and Noga,” he said.
“Let’s go around back,” she said, starting for the back door.
CJ grabbed her by the arm. “You stay here and watch Jack. You don’t have a gun.”
He ran out the back, down the back parking lot toward the door in the back of the lab. He didn’t have a plan, other than to sneak up on Blankenship and his guys and help out. He had a hard time catching his breath.
Running too fast? Got to get my breath.
He slowed and tried to breathe. As he neared the lab, he heard something behind him. Whirling around, squeezing the gun, he saw Penny, following. She was holding her hands to her face. As she neared, he saw that she was crying.
“He’s dead.”
He didn’t know what to do, so he reached around her and gave her an awkward hug.
She stepped back, looking up into his face. “I went over to check him out, and he was . . .” she sniffled. “He wasn’t breathing. Oh, God.”
Suddenly, she took a startled look at something behind him. He turned, just as someone emerged from the door to the lab. It was Skinny Kid, either trying to get away, or—
Only ten feet away, Skinny Kid immediately saw him and turned, raising his hand, which held a gun.
CJ reacted, pointing his gun and squeezing the trigger. Skinny Kid went down. The sound seemed to come after. BLAM!
He stood with the gun still pointed at the kid. His hands shook so badly, he nearly dropped the gun.
Penny cried out, “God! You shot him!” She stepped forward and kicked the gun that had fallen out of Skinny Kid’s hand. Then she went over and picked it up. Still crying, she kicked Skinny Kid, once, and then again. Angry.
“Is he . . .?” said CJ.
“Serves him right,” she said, and kicked him again.
CJ stood, mind blank, hands shaking. He stared at the kid on the ground, but he didn’t really see him.
A burst of gunshots coming from out front made him jump.
“Come on,” said Penny. “Let’s go. They need our help.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the back door to the lab. He followed, but looked back at the kid once more before entering.
57
Nevada, April 2018
Gus was in a bad position, but he didn’t know what to do about it. He, Violet, Kevin, and Melissa were crouched behind Kevin’s SUV, hidden from view of the two men with guns using the white Cadillac to shield them from whoever came out of that plane across the parking lot. The two were shooting at the men who’d exited the plane, but there wasn’t fire coming from the men near the plane, probably because they were afraid of hitting Violet and the Hancocks.
He reached down and pulled his gun out of the ankle holster he wore, carefully because he was in plain view from the lab, where the old man and two others were holed up. That was probably where CJ was, if he was here. Gus didn’t think he could just rise up and shoot the two guys by the car without fear that the old man would shoot him, or worse, Violet. Or, of course, the Hancocks. He’d have to wait and see how things played out.
He crabwalked over to Violet and asked her if she knew what the hell was going on.
“Well, that’s my grandfather, I believe, over there behind the shrubs.”
“Your grandfather? Over by the plane? The one who hollered and told everyone to drop their guns?”
“Yes. And that’s no plane. It’s not the same as the one that came when I was a girl, but that’s no plane. You should remember that.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do. How could I forget?”
“And that man who came over and introduced himself, the one who ran back inside . . .” She pointed to the lab. “I know him too, I think. He’s one of the doctors. One of the bad doctors. I’m almost sure.”
“Jesus. What did we get ourselves into? And CJ. How did he get in the middle of all this?”
Looking over the situation, he got an idea. “Get in the car,” he said to Violet, awkwardly opening the rear door of the Hancock’s SUV from his knees. Violet gave him a funny look but climbed into the front seat. Then Gus crawled forward and told the Hancocks to get in too.
“Why?” asked Kevin.
“Because we have bad guys out there . . .” He pointed toward where the two gunmen were crouched. “. . . and back there in the building, so there’s nowhere to hide except inside the car.”
Kevin and Melissa both climbed into the back seat.
“Where are you going?” asked Kevin as Gus shut the door behind him.
“Under. To try to get a clear shot.”
58
Nevada, April 2018
CJ and Penny crept down the hallway, Penny leading, CJ following without thinking. When they reached the room where they’d been held captive, Penny took a quick look in, and then pulled her head back and said, “Clear.”
That woke CJ up. “Jesus,” he whispered. “You’re watching too many bad movies.”
With a dirty look, she turned abruptly and proceeded down the hall. He continued following, trying to steady his hands in case he needed to use the gun again. It felt heavy; he wondered how he’d ever managed to fire it before.
He looked back toward the door they’d come through. Would Skinny Kid sneak up behind him? Or was he dead?
They slowly went past two closed doors and approached the doorway at the end of the hall. The door wasn’t closed all the way and a sliver of light escaped around the edge, trying to fight the darkness of the hall. Penny reached for the doorknob, but CJ grabbed her before she could push the door open.
“Wait,” he mouthed, as she turned to see why he’d stopped her. “Let me.”
She shrugged and moved aside so he could take the lead.
He slowly pushed the door open with one hand, holding the gun with the other, trying to keep it steady. He peeked around the slightly open door, down another short hallway into what looked like a waiting room at a doctor’s office. There, standing on either side of a large window, were Stringy Hair and old man Blankenship. They were talking to each other, but CJ couldn’t hear what they were saying. They were too far away to shoot if CJ were inclined to try, which he wasn’t.
Immediately to his right was a reception office, with a half-wall between it and the waiting room. On his left was a closed door in the center of a wall.
Penny tugged him back into the hall. “Let me see,” she mouthed.
He nodded and stepped back. “Just don’t shoot at them,” he mouthed.
She peered around the door. Something caught her attention, and she turned to CJ. “I’m going in,” she mouthed. She squatted low, and made a circular motion with her hand, which CJ interpreted to mean she was going to slip into the reception area and stay low. He was afraid she’d be spotted, but she slipped through the door before he could stop her.
He quickly grabbed the now-open door and pulled it, leaving it open just enough so he could peer through the crack. The men in front hadn’t moved, so Penny was safe for now. He could see her crouched down in the reception area, reaching for something on a desk. It looked like a cell phone.
Oh, no. She’s not going to make a phone call. Not when she’s only ten feet from two men with guns!
But then he heard a loud WHAM! Something had exploded outside.
> Blankenship yelled, “What the fuck was that! Those fuckers are using some serious weapons out there.”
“Goddamn car moved,” said Stringy Hair, loud enough for CJ to hear.
“Where the hell is your pal?” asked Blankenship. “He was supposed to circle around and get the drop on those fuckers out there.”
Stringy Hair mumbled something in reply.
“Well, go out the back way and find him.” Blankenship pointed right at CJ. “And find some way to stop those assholes out by the ship.”
Stringy Hair checked his gun, and then turned and started walking straight for the door that CJ was hiding behind.
59
Nevada, April 2018
Gus realized quickly that he wasn’t going to get under the SUV. When he’d been younger, he thought, it would have been no problem. Scoot under, crawl on his belly. No big deal. But at age seventy-one, it wasn’t going to happen. Fortunately, there was a big van parked nearby, and while it was farther from the two men he was after, it was just enough higher off the ground that Gus could squeeze under it without seriously wrenching his back.
Crawling on his no-longer-flat stomach, he maneuvered himself into position behind the left rear wheel of the van. He could see the two men, but he didn’t have a clear shot. The white car was parked at an angle to Kevin’s SUV and his view of the men was partially blocked by the front of the SUV.
The two men, one wearing a white shirt and the other, the big man who’d held him and Violet at gunpoint on the drive here, periodically rose to take a shot at the two black-suited men who’d jumped out of the plane, or whatever it was.