Garden : A Dystopian Horror Novel

by Carol James Marshall

  To presume worthlessness while being worthwhile was Robert’s concept.

  Robert stood at the front of this gathering, preparing to speak while his flock waited with anxious eyes and furrowed brows.

  Gardeners didn’t gather often. To huddle together was not safe. Better to be spread out if a Nutri-Corp attack struck. That way maybe some would escape.

  That was Robert’s idea, too.

  Suzy sat in a plastic lawn chair that she had dragged over from a nearby trailer. The chair was stuck in some vines, hidden to an outsider’s eyes, but Suzy spotted it. She was proud of herself for it.

  These gatherings were never long, but today Suzy’s heart was heavy, her mouth dry, and an ache swirled in her body that she could not figure out. Jacob sat next to Suzy on an old towel. He kept glancing at her, eyes full of worry, and Suzy loved him for it. Without thinking, Suzy held out her grubby hand to Jacob, who took it without hesitation. They sat together, watching Robert pace the front of the trailer while he waited for all who would come to show up.

  Suzy tried hard to sit straight, pull her chin up. “Andale, pues,” her mother would say while straightening her up with a gentle pull and tug. Suzy told herself that she was a big girl now. She would listen to what Robert had to say at the meeting. She would pay attention, be an adult.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Lola said to her mother.

  Lola looked at their mother across the kitchen table, eyeing Suzy as she spoke.

  “Susana esta pequeña.”

  Suzy was little then. She remembered Lola putting crayons out in front of her along with a page from a coloring book. Baby ducks dotted the page.

  Yellow crayon grasped in her chubby little kid hand, Suzy had watched their mother frown at Lola. Suzy wondered why her big sister always seemed to fight with their mother.

  “The man told us if we worked at the factory we’d get our own apartment and Nutri-Corp would take care of immigration,” Lola’s mom said in Spanish.

  Suzy’s mother looked at their father for help. He didn’t bother looking over. Lola squinted, looking over at Jen and Suzy. Suzy wondered if Lola believed what her mother had said. Life’s problems like immigration even at a young age didn’t seem that simple to Suzy.

  Coming out of her memory fog, Suzy squeezed Jacob’s hand like Jen squeezed hers under the kitchen table that day their parents announced they were going to work at Nutri-Corp. It was the sisters’ signal for “I got you.” Growing up with two illegal parents who worked two jobs each at all different hours, the girls had learned to lean on each other and protect one another.

  Suzy would end up crying here. She could feel it coming, but she stopped it. She needed to hear what Robert would say, and if she cried, it would scare Jacob. And everyone would pay attention to her. Lola and Jen would take her back to their trailer and treat her like a baby. She didn’t want that any more. She wanted to know the news.

  With a sniff, Suzy told herself to stop thinking of her mother, stop thinking of how her mom got mad at Lola then, yelling at her, “Entenda tu tambien estas aque illegal. Quiero protegerte.”

  “Quiero protegerte...” Suzy whispered, looking directly into Robert’s eyes. He wasn’t there, Suzy could tell. Robert’s brain was somewhere far away from his body, but he stood there ready to pour out words like a water hose and everybody there was supposed to drink it up. Suzy decided she wasn’t thirsty after all.

  Suzy tugged at Jacob’s hand and whispered to him, “I want to go home. I’m sick.” Jacob nodded, and the two quietly left the trailer. Suzy glanced at Lola and Jen. Their eyes were glued to their little sister, but they did not move. They both knew leaving now was too risky.

  Outside the trailer Jacob stopped and picked up Suzy to carry her back to her trailer. He was gentle, as always, but he held her firmly, locked in his arms. She didn’t resist. Instead, she allowed her head to slump onto his shoulder and enjoy the thump, thump of his heart.

  “We must be thankful for all that we have. Show our gratitude to the earth for our food, the sky and trees for our air, the blessings of our leaders,” Robert said. He pointed to Manuel and Daisy but not himself.

  What a joke, Jen thought. This was his doing. Manuel might have stirred the batter while Daisy added the eggs, but Robert had baked the Gardeners’ thought system and iced the cake. Robert was the God whose words all Gardeners leaned on for not only hope that one day the world would change but for assurance that choosing to live hidden in the woods was a wise decision.

  Daisy, Jen noticed, looked glassy-eyed. She had never been “right in the head.” Daisy always seemed on the verge of tears or collapsing over the slightest thing. Today she sat like an animatronics Stepford wife, waiting for someone to press her On button.

  “Gratitude that we are not under the eye of Nutri-Corp,” Robert continued. “The only thing we should be under are the trees. This is how we should start our day, every day.” Robert took a sip of water, and the room held its breath waiting to hear what else Robert would say.

  “We are on our own out here,” Robert continued, waving his hands wide. “All we have is each other against the rule of Nutri-Corp and their poison pill. So, let us also be grateful for each other.”

  Lola felt Chandler tense, even though she wasn’t touching her. With every word from Robert’s mouth, Chandler’s fingers curled tighter and tighter. Lola took one of Chandler’s hands, held it in hers, and ran her fingers over Chandler’s skin. Small, soft strokes. Lola didn’t want to fight Robert. She didn’t want to fight Chandler. All she wanted was for this speech to be over with so she could run back home and see what was going on with Suzy.

  Robert pointed to Chandler, motioning her to come to him. Lola reluctantly let go of her hand. Chandler stood and marched--not walked--to where Robert stood.

  “This is Chandler,” Robert announced. “The Martinez sisters saved her. She is a Gardener now. One of us.” Robert paused allowing the Gardeners to nod and welcome her. Robert stepped aside, giving Chandler room to respond to the welcomes.

  As Chandler charged to the front of the room, Jen thought she saw Daisy twitch. She watched Daisy as Chandler spoke.

  “Thank you for welcoming me to your home,” Chandler said. “I promise to work hard and earn my keep.” Chandler gave everyone in the room a polite smile and a nod, her posture perfect, her stance solid.

  Robert clapped, and the others followed. He stepped back to center stage and motioned for Chandler to resume her seat.

  Without hesitation, Chandler spoke again. “You… We are not alone,” skipped from Chandler’s mouth. “I came from a place called The Hills. The people of The Hills have fought several battles with Nutri-Corp and won. The Gardeners can join them. You could...”

  Daisy stood, looking at Chandler, her left hand, palm flat, drawn back to slap Chandler, but Manuel grabbed Daisy by the back of her shirt pulled her back down into her chair. Daisy howled, and Manuel did nothing but growled through clenched teeth.

  Chandler never flinched, never wavered. She continued, “Nutri-Corp snuck YUM into our town. Handing it out like Halloween candy. The citizens of The Hills watched what YUM did to those who took it. They took quick action jailing whoever dealt in YUM. Later when Nutri-Corp officers tried to take over the town, the citizens of The Hills fought them back with whatever weapon they could get their hands on. Nutri-Corp was driven out of The Hills by its people. We could fight Nurti-Corp with help from The Hills.”

  Whispers bounced around the trailer. Gardeners looked at Chandler, at Robert, at each other, some nodding. Others clenched their children tighter or placed their hands over their hearts, mouths wide in shock.

  The air in the room crackled as if hit by a spark. Chandler had lit a fire that would never be put out.

  Robert moved in front of Chandler, hands up, palms out to hush the crowd, trying to bank that fire. Both Jen and Lola smiled at his now pale, drawn face, how his eyes darted about the room. There was anger there, too. Had Robert beli
eved Chandler would simply bow and scrape, behave like the rest of them? The air of discontent now weighed on his and his husband’s shoulders.

  “Don’t get excited,” Robert said, lips forced into a smile. “The Hills are far from here. At least one day’s journey. Their fight is not our fight.”

  Robert’s words didn’t soothe the crowd. Some Gardeners stood, filing from the trailer in clusters.

  Lola left, too, running to her trailer and thinking nothing but of Suzy.

  Jen looked at Chandler and almost shivered from the energy of the spark she had lit. They nodded to each other and left the trailer together. Tonight, they’d put their plan in action.

  Robert had turned away from the crowd after the first Gardener got up to leave. When he turned back, he noticed that Manuel was gone. Robert’s gut churned with a feeling of bad things coming. His husband was all Robert wanted in this world. When he did not see him in his seat but saw only the face of his angry sister, Robert momentarily wished the ground would open beneath him and swallow him whole.

  No, he wished the ground would swallow Daisy whole.

  Danny eyed his little sister with suspicion “So, you’re telling me you can get into Madam’s computer?” He raised an eyebrow at Dolly, who smirked in response.

  “Yes,” she answered, agitated.

  “The one on her desk? The one she lets no one touch?”

  Danny needed access to his mother’s records to learn exactly where Jen’s parents were, but it couldn’t be this easy. Could it?

  Dolly patted Danny on the head and said, “Yes. I’ve pretended not to watch or care when she’s logged in a zillion times. I’ve been on it before. I have the log in memorized.” She folded her arms and looked at her big brother with some sass. “You’re welcome.”

  Danny wanted to grab his sister, hug her tight, but refrained. Instead he said, “Well, thank you! When can we get in? It’s… she’s always...” Danny stopped, needing to guard himself against saying too much to his sister. She didn’t need to know that when he thought of their mother, it was always in terms of “her,” “she,” even “it.” Danny didn’t think that was the way a son should think of his mother.

  “Tonight,” Dolly said, matter-of-factly. “We can do it tonight. She’s going to a late meeting…” Dolly shrugged. “…somewhere, and Sir will go with her.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Fatherhood

  Micah chewed on a burger while leaning against the side of a building nowhere near where he should be. He chewed the burger, knowing what it was but not who it was. That thought caught Micah off guard, and he laughed.

  “What’s funny, fool?” Leo snarled at him, flipping a burger onto a bun and handing it over to a woman who looked on the verge of either tears or singing Amazing Grace. Micah couldn’t figure out which.

  “I was thinking, mi amigo, that this burger here, right here…” Micah waved the burger around. “I know what it is, but not who it is.”

  Leo shot Mika an angry look as the woman was about to take the burger from Leo shrank back. Leo looked directly at her and said, “Este pendejo.”

  The woman, Micah knew, had probably saved for that burger for at least a week, and her hunger easily swayed her to believe Leo over Micah. After all, Micah was Nutri-Corp elite, slumming on the bad side of town. He was not to be trusted; he was giving up the good life to hang out there, which meant his brains were twisted up or he was spying.

  The only thing that saved Micah from getting knifed when he skulked around these parts was that Leo put up with him, and that meant something.

  “How do they not get sick?” asked Micah meeting eyes with Leo. Leo's upper lip lifted into a sneer. Clearly, he didn’t want to answer Micah. Instead, Leo only shrugged. “Look, Leo, I need some real meat, real vegetables, real food.” Micah had wanted this to sound like a question, an unasked one—“Could you get me…”—but Micah knew it sounded like a command. He needed to get Clarissa back to eating real food, get her off YUM before their child was more mutant than human. Visions of a mutant baby kept Micah awake at night.

  Sleepless nights weren’t something he was accustomed to having. Always lacking a conscience, this sudden onslaught of morality, this caring and empathy for his unborn child was all-consuming and obsessive.

  Micah was new to feelings, and it unnerved him.

  “Do I look like a grocery store, mamon?” Leo wiped his hands on his apron and shook his head. “You white boys come here asking me for tires, vegetables. What's next?”

  “My wife is pregnant. I need real food in her.”

  “What makes your wife more precious than any other lady who’s knocked up around here?” Leo answered.

  Leo’s anger triggered Micah’s conscience again. Leo was right, even if Micah felt as if Leo had slapped him. All this newly discovered morality had dug up a side of him he wasn’t comfortable with. He preferred the Micah who didn’t care about anything, gleaning what he could from life with no concern for anyone else. This more humane version of himself was distasteful.

  “You’ve got a point,” was all Micah could say. Even he caught the touch of sadness in his voice. Or was it retreat in defeat? Should he wuss out and give up so damn easily?

  Leo yelled for a young kid who hung around the building to come over. Leo gave the kid a small cup and told him to drink up. After he did, Leo handed him a double patty burger.

  As the kid walked away with his burger, Leo pointed his spatula at him and said to Micah, “That kid lost his mom last week to Old Town. Her tics got so damn bad the Nutri-Corp police hauled her away in front of everybody, including her kid.”

  Micah watched the young man walk to a group of kids, some his age, some younger. He stopped and tore the burger into pieces, handing each child in the small group a chunk. He took none for himself.

  Leo smiled at the scene. Micah almost fell for the charity and sweetness of it all until he remembered where the meat came from. There wasn’t a cattle yard for hundreds of miles.

  “I might be able to find you some of what you need,” Leo said, whispering. “For some tires.”

  “Tires? Who needs tires?” Micah asked bluntly, even though he knew Leo wasn’t the type of man to goof with.

  “Some fool who thinks he’s going to drive away from here,” Leo responded. He side-eyed Micah and added, “Isn’t it time you get gone? Go home to this wife you talking about?”

  Micah smiled at the realization Leo was the closest thing he had to a friend, and with that realization he felt gut-punched.

  “I can get tires,” Micah said. “Tell this ‘fool’ to find me. Maybe we can help each other out.”

  Leo’s only response was a grunt.

  Lola placed her hand on Suzy’s forehead then touched the tip of her ears. Suzy was hot enough for steam to rise from her. Lola felt her throat tighten to the point of almost choking her. Panic glued her to Suzy’s bedside even as she questioned her ability to care for her sister. If this was serious, what would she do? There was no doctor in the Gardener camp.

  Lola stood, deciding she would lie to herself, tell herself she was strong. She was a queen. She would figure this out. There were no riddles she couldn’t solve. She also told herself that it was okay to lie to herself, to pretend to wear the crown on her liar’s head. If that meant she could save Suzy from whatever poison that had made her ill, then these lies were different. These lies were blessed and would be forgiven.

  A knock on the door of their trailer broke Lola’s thoughts. When she opened the door, sweat poured down her back, as if she had stood in the sun for hours.

  Robert stood there, eyes hung low. He didn’t speak but handed Lola a bottle of children’s Tylenol. He spun and walked away. No words of wisdom. Nothing but this simple act of mercy, love, kindness.

  Lola raised Suzy’s head waking the girl enough for her to swallow the liquid medicine with the smallest of sips.

  Jacob, who had seen his father at the door, smiled, and kissed Suzy on the foreh
ead before he left.

  “Now would be the perfect time to scrub her clean,” said Jen, peering down at her bundle of a little sister sleeping on a cot in the living room.

  Lola smiled and said, “What’s the biggest bar of soap we got?”

  Chandler squatted next to Suzy looking intently at her, almost like a doctor or nurse would. “She’s badly congested,” Chandler said.

  Lola couldn’t help to notice the worry behind Chandler’s eyes.

  Then it happened, the moment Lola knew would come. She witnessed Chandler and Jen stand in solidarity in front of her, to confront her, demand her attention.

  Jealousy overwhelmed Lola’s panic about Suzy, but the jealously quickly faded when Lola realized they stood as one, not for each other but for a cause.

  The cause was her. The cause was to work against her. The cause was to break her heart. Lola was sure of all of it.

  “We are heading into Nutri-Corp City tonight,” Jen said flatly, as if she reported that rain was in the forecast. “Danny is waiting for us. Danny will help us get our parents.”

  Dismally, Lola responded, “Thank you for not lying to me.” Those words startled Chandler

  “I wasn’t going tell you, but…” replied Jen when Lola looked at Chandler.

  Lola then looked her sister in the eye, ignoring Chandler, who was not her sister, who was not one of them in her heart anymore.

  Lola answered, “Not telling is the same as lying. Sabes eso.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  He Loves Her

  Chandler took a long look at Danny. He was lean, well-groomed. His clothes were new, his skin smooth, every single hair on his head in place. By Danny stood a beautiful young girl with golden ringlets of hair bouncing off her shoulders. They both were gorgeous and shadowed with fear.