Northern Exposure: Episode Five

by Luken Du Pont

  Chapter 14

  I felt a nudge at my side but paid no attention to it, persistently it did not cease. Still thinking I was in the bunker asleep next to Smith, I demanded he stop kicking me and laid still. But the nudging was relentless. I had had enough of the old man’s constant agitating and woke to give him a piece of my mind. As I opened my eyes I found a shotgun pointed in my face and realised I was not asleep on the mattress with Smith, no I was about to get my head blown off by Sharif. He and Sky stood watching me like a pair of prison guards vigilantly policing a ruthless inmate. I was now at the mercy of the three most ruthless survivors in the City, now my only hope was for the lord to have mercy on my soul!

  They found me.

  I mumbled to myself, “just get it over with,” louder I repeated “just get it over with.” Knowing they could not understand a word I was saying, frustration built up until I was at snapping point, I shouted in a sarcastically contemptuous tone, “JUST KILL ME ALREADY!”

  “No not yet, who’s going to help me read to the girls” Sharif smiled.

  Why-what? He understood me, how was this possible. I looked at my hands; they had turned back to normal, this could only mean I was human again. As an exuberant eruption burst out of my soul I tried running in the opposite direction. I did not get far though as I was whipped right back to the floor. From one predicament to another, I found myself bound around both ankles with thick wires like a prized pig, unable to move. The wires were fixed to an even thicker chain that was wrapped then pad locked around a large steal drainage pipe. But why did they go through all the effort of trying to kill me in the bunker just so they could capture me and bring me back home, their actions were as confusing as the transformation I had just endured. In a way I was quite relieved I thought, “If they were going to kill me they would not have wasted all the energy bringing me back.” But Before I had the opportunity to ask them why they had not just killed be back in the passage, Smith exited the bunker door.

  Smith walked towards me, I sat with my head lowered ashamed to look him in the eyes, subconsciously I guess I felt like I had let me down, becoming the monster. If I had just listened to him that day and not gone to the SS mart with Sky none of this would be happening. This was a lesson in humility I would not soon forget; as he advanced I acknowledged the consequences of my actions and waited for the hand which would deal out my punishment! The closer Smith approached the more my heart pounded, it was so strange even with all this power I still shivered in the presence of the old man, and no matter how much I told myself I could crush him like a bug if I transformed, it did not change the fact that for now I was not the beast I was just ordinary old me. Like he always did he wasted no time addressing the issue, that’s one thing I admired about the old man, he was not one to beat around the bush, and he spoke his mind regardless of how bluntly his message came across.

  “Tell me kid what do you think family is?” I sat in silence unresponsive to his rhetorical question, he continued. “Well one of the dictionaries definition of family is all decedents of a common ancestry.” “My definition is a little bit more relevant to us, I like to think of family as a group of people willing to die for one another, a group of people who have come together by circumstance and have developed a bond as thick as any mother and daughter or father and son.’’ ”That’s what I like to think of as family.”

  “You Cairo are family, so you need to know how hard the decision to drive you away was for all three of us.”

  I burst out in an outraged protest, “Do not patronise me Smith I am not an ignorant little child, you talk about family but last I checked families don’t try killing each other when one of their members are in dire need of their help”

  Sympathetically he shook his head in acknowledgment of my despondent demeanour, “Cairo, I know you think we tried to kill you, I understand your doubt in our compassion towards you, but just think about who you are dealing with, before you come to any more conclusions.”

  ”Do you not think the three of us could have destroyed that monster if we truly wanted to, especially in such a weak and vulnerable state during the transformation?””You have bared witness to what we are really capable of Cairo, deep down you know no matter how big and strong you were as that monster it would not make a difference with all this fire power lying around.”” I mean you were almost on the brink of death, it would take a few shots and not even that monstrous thing would have been able to survive.”

  I thought about what Smith was saying, and in a way he was making sense, surly if they wanted me dead I would have been laying lead filled in the passageway by now. But even if their intention was just to run me out of the bunker, what was their reasoning in bringing me back? Too much was still left unanswered I would need a more descriptive explanation if he wanted me to believe him. Eventually I asked him the question which most rattled my brain, “Why did you bring me back?”

  “I brought you back for one reason, like I said before you are family.””I understand the way we reacted was harsh but there was method behind our madness, we had to drive you out the bunker during the transformation, knowing you would turn back it was a risk we had to take.””We could not have you in here with the girls while your body went through such an unstable transition.”

  “Please Smith there was no way you could have known I would turn back, I bet you are just telling these lies in a futile attempt to cover you own evil injustices which you all laid upon me.”

  “Look boy I don’t exactly have all the answers but I am doing my best here to make sure you and the rest of my family are as safe as possible in this complicated time.”I had struck a nerve in the old man the one thing Smith hated was when someone judged his loyalty to those held dear to his heart. Looking back now I should have put a little bit more faith behind his reasoning to do what he did, in all my time I had never seen him put himself ahead of his family, he would bend over backwards to ensure the safety and security of every single person down here, so why would he do something different towards me. I held back my snappy remarks as he continued his story and hope as he concluded I would get the answers which eluded me.

  ”About a year into your coma while I was sweating my ass off in that damn hot bunker, I decided it was a good a time as any to get some fresh air.” I would take you with me as well, taking you out every afternoon had become somewhat of a ritual I practised daily, after Sky had warned me about how keeping you confined in the stale mouldy air of the bunker would depreciate your already poor health conditions.””Getting you out into the fresher air of the passage ways once a day would not be the magical cure we hoped for, but at least it would allow those week lungs of yours the chance to breath.“

  “Anyway that’s not important, about a year into your coma as I sat by your side conversing with you while you lay completely unresponsive.””A figure appeared at the end of the passage, at first I thought it must have been my mind playing tricks on me, but the shadow just kept creeping up towards us.”

  ”As it appeared into the light I saw it was a women or the outline of a women at least.””I was so confused, I mean what would a women be doing down here in the sewers all alone, no one knew about the bunker besides us, more importantly how did she get down here?””Then it hit me, reaper!”” I remembered the previous morning as I hauled down the groceries with Sharif, he and I must have left the man whole lid open on our last trip to the grocer, allowing the creature access to our home.”

  ”I wanted to dash for the safety of the bunker, but realised you were still on the floor.’’ “Left with only one option I pulled my machete from its holster and readied myself for a fight””The shadow Reaper came closer and closer.””Soon she was just a few feet from me and showed no signs of stopping.””I waited for her to get just a few inches closer before I would bury my blade into her skull.””But the creature acted in the most peculiar way as it fell to my feet and begged for help!”

  ”She was definitely not a Reaper; this was
a human women who was in dire need of medical attention.”” I had to act fast; the poor woman was so depleted from wounds she had sustained top side, that I was not even sure if she’d make it back to the bunker alive.””So I dragged her mangled body back to the bunker as gently as I could before returning to get you. “

  “It took us two days of constant nurturing until eventually she returned to a semi conscious state.”“Sky was pitted in a constant battle trying to break this women’s fever and disinfect her septic wounds. Luckily by the second day she had managed to stabilize the women well enough for her to barely speak.””She was grasping onto her last breaths of life, I knew she didn’t have long and regardless of how much Sky tried helping her she just wasn’t getting better.””She had a large wound in her left leg and it had become severely sceptic, and another on her right breast, I assumed a reaper attack.”

  I interrupted Smith.”What does all that have to do with me turning into that prodigious beast?”Smith just put his hand on my shoulder as he did each time he tried to console me before continuing.