Garden : A Dystopian Horror Novel

by Carol James Marshall

  Wincing, Madam felt exhaustion cascade over her, but she needed to remember this. She struggled to keep her eyes open and remembered herself being hurtled against Dolly’s closed bedroom door. She had given Dolly her first dose of YUM, and shortly after, barely minutes later, Dolly’s small hands had curled into fists, her mouth twisted into a sneer while her big brown eyes turned milky white.

  When her eyes went white, she attacked Madam, Dolly’s small toddler legs propelling her forward, her rosebud hands like talons ready to claw her mother’s face to shreds.

  Madam had picked herself up and thrown Dolly away from her. The toddler slid across the carpet and rolled against a wall. As Dolly clumsily tried to stand again on her little legs, Madam ran, slammed that bedroom door shut, and held her body against it, feeling Dolly slam against it, but keeping it closed while Madam screamed for a guard.

  Madam remembered that as the door rocked with Dolly’s body blows she questioned how such a small…thing could have so much strength and hate.

  The corners of Madam’s vision faded. Death’s scythe was almost fully visible. She could see Death’s hands gripping the handle with long lacquered nails.

  Mmm, thought Madam. How fitting.

  “Not yet, you old bitch,” Madam whispered to Death. She would go, she knew she would. But she’d be forced to go. She knew this as well. She still had one more beating in her. One, maybe two more swings of Sir’s fists before Death could claim her. There was no way she’d close her eyes now and let herself slip away with Death. No, there was too much venom in her bloodstream, even if it now pumped weakly through her veins.

  Madam tried to turn onto her stomach to crawl away, but Sir’s hands stopped her, keeping her in place. Was he talking? He was. She wasn’t listening. Ever the scientist, her brain was busy putting scant pieces of theories together.

  When did she lose her edge? At what point did it all fall around her and she did not notice. Her empire had fallen and she with it. How could that have happened when she’d so carefully aligned everything. She’d considered every possibility for failure and addressed it. She’d built all this with her sweat, with her genius, and Sir—a man—was not going to have it, even if it meant her last breath.

  Voices interrupted her pondering of theories. There were more people in the room now. She heard harsh words and realized the people here Sir had not invited. That made her laugh, though it hurt to do so. Sir had uninvited guests to his kill-the-wife party.

  Serves him right, Madam thought, and she rolled to her belly and dragged herself away by pulling on the firm fibers of her expensive carpet. If she could get herself outside, maybe she could stand, and if she could stand maybe there would be an escape.

  Madam willed herself to rise onto her hands and knees. She needed to hurry, hurry before they noticed...

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Fly Where She May

  Even in the darkness, Danny could see Dolly’s eyes were now a milky white, the color of a fluffy cloud on a sunny day. The white was unsettling enough, but Dolly’s sudden actions had been horrifying.

  Danny wiped blood from his face. Under the trailer with Nutri-Corp officers above, Dolly had launched at Danny, clawing him with her once delicate hands and savagely biting her brother’s cheek. Danny’s attempts to get her off him were half-hearted. He didn’t want to hurt her; she was his sister. His little sister. It was the one called Manuel who pulled Dolly away and held her fast.

  Danny doubled over, panting wildly as he tried to gain his composure. He dug his knees into the ground, doing his best to steady himself.

  The boy Jacob studied Danny then Dolly. Jacob sat between Danny and where Manuel held Dolly, waiting, Danny assumed, to hurt the girl or protect him from being hurt by her.

  At this point, Danny wasn’t sure about anything or anyone. The world had crashed down on him. Jen was nowhere, and now Dolly was...

  She’d bit him deep enough blood ran into his mouth. He spit it out then vomited when he realized his sister had chewed on him. Dolly had ravaged his cheek like an animal pulling flesh from a kill. He pushed Dolly from his mind. For now, he left his little sister in the hands of Manuel.

  Manuel had stunned Dolly with a blow to the head, and as Danny tried to collect himself, Manuel dragged her from underneath the trailer and found rope among the supplies the sisters kept in a lean-to next to their trailer. He hog-tied Dolly and called softly to Danny and Jacob to come out of hiding. Jacob scrambled out quickly, and to Manuel’s surprise, so did Danny. The boy was probably beyond bewildered by his sister’s behavior and behaved without a thought.

  All around them, Manuel heard the Nutri-Corp officers rampaging through the camp. There was only a matter of time before they found this trailer.

  Jacob instantly understood Manuel’s hand gestures and helped Manuel carry Dolly as Manuel led them deeper into the woods, to a cave well-camouflaged with overgrown brush. Manuel focused on moving; every thought in his head concentrated on making his feet move forward, onward. If he let his thoughts stray from this task, he knew where they would go. They would go to the empty bag of skin that had been Robert, and Manuel didn’t have time for that now. His son…their son had to survive and, for some reason not yet revealed to him, so did these monsters of Madam’s.

  He plunged ahead, with no stray thoughts.

  The cool air in the cave made Danny’s sweat-covered back quiver. Danny grimaced but stood still. He was confused, as despondent and lost as a child. He barely noticed that Manuel had taken Dolly deeper into the cave. The sounds of her wrestling against her bounds made too much noise.

  Manuel had explained, “I don’t want to attract any predators, and that includes Nutri-Corp officers.”

  In these moments, Danny realized he was no good at life. His upbringing had not prepared him for flight or fight, only flight. Making the hard choices, being a leader… He’d failed miserably at that. He was nothing but a puppy, following his betters and doing what he was told. This angered and resigned him to his fate.

  Manuel reappeared from wherever he had left Dolly. He didn’t look at Danny, his eyes instead on Jacob. A fatherly assessment of how his son was doing. Jacob’s bright red hair was on end, sweat poured from him, but he smiled at his father, reassuring him that for now, he was fine. When Manuel looked at Danny, it wasn’t in a fatherly way.

  Manuel took his canteen from his belt, gesturing for Jacob to do the same. After a swallow of water, Manuel asked, “What was that?”

  “I don’t understand the question,” Danny responded, with a pinch of impertinence in his tone. Danny realized he sounded like Madam, and he softened his inflection. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Why did that thing… Why did she do that?” Manuel capped his canteen and flopped to the ground, the way a person did when all energy is drained, when no life is left in their legs to stand.

  Danny sat, too, wanting a moment to rest before he had to think again.

  “I don’t… I don’t… I have no idea. I’ve never...” Feeling tears well in his eyes, Danny paused for a moment. “I’ve seen nothing like this, ever.” Danny looked over at Manuel. He’d known exactly what to do with Dolly. “Have...have you?”

  Even as he asked the question, Danny felt dread envelop him. What if Manuel had seen those white eyes stare back at him and what if the outcome was every nightmare Danny could imagine it being?

  Nodding, Manuel looked through his backpack, found another canteen, and handed it to Danny. He gave Jacob an MRE, and Jacob gave his father a broad smile.

  “Yes, one time. Robert…” Manuel’s voice broke, but he quickly continued, “He caught a child with white eyes like that. He tied it up, brought it back to his Popper cages. He tried for weeks to help the child, cure it.”

  Manuel handed Danny an MRE, but he had no appetite and waved it away. “Did Robert cure the child?”

  Jacob scooted to sit by his father, and they shared the MRE. Manuel patted his son's back and kissed the top of his
sweaty head before he answered Danny. His voice was flat, almost passive. “No, we will have to do what Robert had to do.”

  Danny knew he shouldn’t ask, but he had to ask. “What was that?”

  “We will have to kill her, or she will kill us.”

  Incensed, Danny blurted, “What are you saying? I won’t let you kill my sister!”

  “We have to. There’s no other way.”

  “But… But you said you only saw one. Maybe she’s different.” Danny’s stomach clenched. He was going to be sick again. He didn’t think he had anything left to bring up.

  “Yes, only one,” Manuel said. “But we learned a lot from it. We had to keep it tied like a rabid animal. If we left its hands free, it would try to dig out of the cage. If we got too close, it only wanted to scratch our eyes out. It killed any animal that wandered close to its cage. We had no choice. If it got out… We had to kill it.”

  “It,” Danny murmured. His sister was not an “it.”

  A screech echoed around the cave walls, a high, thin scream like nothing Danny had ever heard. Every hair on his body stood on end. That screech was… It couldn’t be human. No human could sound like that.

  Danny jumped to his feet and ran toward the direction of the sound. There must be an animal in the cave. What if it was trying to hurt his sister?

  Lola put both hands on the handle of the large cooler and pulled the massive door open. She stood in the cooler's doorway, not waiting this time for someone to scold her for trespassing. Instead, Lola looked over the floor-to-wall stacks of metal boxes that almost filled the cooler. She shivered, though it wasn’t from the chill air but from her gruesome interest.

  All the boxes were alike. They were rectangular, small but bigger than a shoe box. The boxes were plain, not labeled.

  One hand holding the large door open, she ran her other hand over her buzzed hair. Grimacing, Lola wondered what could these boxes contain? Medical supplies. It had to be medical supplies, she told herself.

  Ice had crusted on the door, on the boxes. Some were completely encased in a thick layer of ice. Others, closer to the door had only a skim of frost. This was a freezer, not a cooler. Why would medical supplies need to be frozen? Why would medications need to be frozen?

  It wasn’t right. She kept staring at the boxes, seeing her breath frost in the cold air. Somewhere a fan hummed, circulating the cold air so it reached every box. Lola looked at the door. She wanted to explore in here, but she was afraid if she let the door go shut, she wouldn’t be able to get back out.

  And the thought of being trapped in here with whatever the boxes held terrified her. She stepped back out of the freezer and let the handle go. The freezer door shut immediately with a whoosh. Lola looked around. Two sturdy metal chairs sat off to one side of the door. She dragged them both to the door, reopened it, and propped it open with the chairs.

  Her safety net in place Lola faced the boxes. She didn’t feel ready to open them, but she had to. She just had to.

  “Okay, so, gently—gently—put your foot on the gas.”

  The car lurched forward, almost knocking down several trees.

  “Geez, girl, I said gently.”

  Jen nodded, and this time she pushed the gas pedal softly.

  “Better,” said Robert, leaning back against the seat in the old truck. He laughed softly, almost a snort, and said, “I can’t believe you talked me into teaching you to drive.”

  Jen sped down the highway now, away from Nutri-Corp City, away from The Hills.

  Jen tried to shake off that memory of Robert, and she didn’t know why. She was headed for the dirt road that led to the Gardener camp to pick up Danny and bring him back to The Hills. What happened after that, she wasn’t sure.

  Jen didn’t want to be sure about any aftermath. She wanted to forget that she abandoned Lola in the battle against Nutri-Corp, left her little sister with a stranger, stole a car, stole weapons, and stole supplies.

  She didn’t want to be sure about anything. What Jen wanted was to drive too fast and feel the wind on her face as the car surged forward. She wanted to scream, sing, and then go faster still.

  She loved the rush she felt. This had to be what freedom felt like. A feeling of being unencumbered. No strings attached. Fly where she may. The speed of the car, the whirl of wind from having all the widows open made Jen feel as if she could be anyone, anywhere.

  She didn’t have to be Jen. She didn’t have to be a sister. She didn’t have to be anything to anybody but herself.

  She could be something she always wanted to be, free.

  Jen slowed the car and reluctantly came to a stop at the turnoff to the dirt road leading to the Gardener camp. The camp was more prison than a home. She saw that now. If she kept driving, she’d be free, free of everything and everyone.

  How could she think such horrible thoughts? What kind of person abandons the people who love her and would do anything for her? She was wicked. Terrible. Not only a liar but...

  Jen had to save Danny, bring him back to The Hills, pick up Suzy, find Lola. She had to. Didn’t she?

  Slamming her hands on the steering wheel, Jen turned off the car lights. She was the only car on the highway but no need to call attention to herself in the car like a sitting duck.

  Her chest was tight. It hurt to breathe. She sobbed, pounded the steering wheel, the seat next to her, her own head. Her own screaming echoed among the trees, and she stopped. Her hands fell to her sides, and she sniffed back the snot running out of her nose.

  “Why do you want to drive this hunk of junk, anyway?” asked Robert. He was amused. Early on, he was always grinning, happy. The Gardener camp was new back then. Every morning felt like hope. Every day felt like the Gardeners were doing something for humanity not hiding like rats.

  “Because one day I will drive away from here, and you’ll never see me again,” Jen answered, giving Robert a nod that meant business.

  “Mmmm, not in my truck you won’t,” was all Robert said, no judgement, no backlash.

  Jen wiped her hands on her jeans and looked at the roads ahead of her. There was a road to parts unknown, and there was a road she knew far too well. She had to choose. It wasn’t the weight of her choice she struggled with but the consequences that would come from it.

  Either way, she wasn't sure how she would live with herself after.

  Turning her lights back on, Jen drove.

  Lola opened the first box, only a little, enough to glance inside, but not enough to take a real look. It was a coward’s act.

  Through the slit between the box and its hinged lid, Lola saw a red bag with Bio Hazard written on it. Mouthing the words “Bio Hazard,” Lola steadied herself to open the lid all the way, but her hands wouldn’t move.

  “Andale. ¿A qué esperas?” she told herself. She inched the lid open, and Lola could see an outline of what was in the bag. That outline made her bones shake.

  She tried but couldn’t tear open the bag with her bare hands. Her shaking hands stretched the bag tight against its contents. A body. A small body. The corpse of a baby. With the bag tightly drawn against the body, Lola could make out toes, legs, hands, chin, and...

  Lifting her hands away from the body, the bag, the box, Lola took two steps back and let it fall to the floor. Somehow, that made the bag split. Lola took a tentative step closer. She saw a chin, a mouth, nose, and…

  The baby had no eyes. There was nothing but the blank canvas of skin where the child's eyes should have been.

  Violently shaking, Lola backed up until she collided with a section of wall with no boxes. Her clothes stuck to the ice on the wall. She wished she could leave the image of the dead, eyeless baby here. Pluck it out of her brain, stick it against the ice, and leave it hanging there for someone else to deal with.

  She looked at the seemingly endless stacks of boxes. Were there dead babies in all of them? Did all the babies have no eyes? She had to know. She had to find out and tell everyone what she saw here. This had to
be one of Madam’s many dirty secrets.

  Lola set the box upright, thankful the bag didn’t spill out. She closed the lid, set it aside, and reached for another box from a different stack.

  Lid open, Lola pulled on the frozen Bio Hazard bag until it split. That took a while; she had to keep blowing on her icy fingers. Sucking in a breath, she widened the split. Toes, feet, legs, torso, three arms...

  Lola shook so violently, she almost dropped this box, too. She steadied herself, closed that box, and reached for another.

  No toes, no feet, a torso, a too-thin neck, half a head.

  Another box. Toes, too many toes. Small delicate baby feet covered in extra toes.

  Lola again looked around the freezer. There were dozens, maybe hundreds of boxes. Why save the corpses?

  Her legs could no longer hold her, and she needed to feel some warmth. The freezer was a crypt, a place of terror. It needed to be burned to the ground, to cleanse the earth of such immense horrors.

  Where were the parents? Why hadn’t they buried their babies? Did they not grieve? Did Madam not allow it?

  A movement stopped Lola from stepping over the chairs blocking the freezer door open. A scrape. The softest of sounds of friction, but there.

  Somewhat reluctantly, she turned to look at the boxes in the farthest corner of the freezer. And she saw it.

  A box buried beneath four other boxes moved, pushed itself ever so slightly out of its stack. These boxes must be recent additions; they had no ice or frost on them at all.

  A rat behind the box?

  Did hospitals have rats?

  Wherever there was garbage, of any kind, there were rats.

  Maybe at some point a rat had crept in the open freezer door? Looking for a meal. That was it. That was what made the box move.

  The box moved again. Rather, the rat moved the box again, Lola told herself.

  I can’t let the rat stay here, Lola thought; I need to get it out of here or it’ll get a box open. Worse, it eat the babies.