by Blou Bryant
Jessica stepped forward, her smile no longer sweet. Blood dripped down her face as she pressed the gun to Fords head. “Why do boys think they can hit me?’ Jessica asked and drove a knee into his groin.
Ford fell to the floor and curled into a ball, and Jessica kicked him in the face with her muddy Pradas. “Do you think that’s polite?” she asked, “hitting a girl?” She pulled the trigger again, this time, shooting him in the shoulder of his good arm. “That,” she said, “is no way to treat a lady.” Ford groaned, a guttural sound, and shifted as if to rise. She shot one last time and he stopped moving.
She turned, her smile unchanged, and leveled her gun at Wyatt. “Now that he’s out of the way,” she managed to say when Hannah propelled herself off the ground into her. The contact knocked both of them back into the chair.
The moment Jessica hit it, metal cuffs snapped around her neck and head and locked her in place. Her arms and legs flailed, but her head didn’t move. Hannah rolled off her, the gun now in her hand.
Jessica flailed for a moment, and then her cries were interrupted by a wet sucking sound and several clicks from the machine as it activated. The three others watched in horror as her body spasmed three times and then fell limp.
At a metallic, whirling sound from the machine, Jessica’s eyes opened again. What Wyatt saw in them was a terror he’d never before imagined.
Shocked into action, Wyatt ran back to the other room and attempted to disconnect Joe, pulling wire after wire out of the boxes. After five or six, he gave up and pushed on the first shelf, and forced it over.
It fell on the other shelves, knocking them down one after the other like so many dominos. Electricity sparked as machines crashed into each other, but Wyatt didn’t stay to watch the room catch fire. He ran back to the chair room.
When he arrived, Teri and Hannah were staring at Jessica in the chair, their faces grim. “Did it stop?” he asked.
Hannah ran over and hugged him tight. “Too late,” she said.
Wyatt held her for a moment and then motioned for her to take Teri away. He approached the chair slowly, careful, even though Jessica was held down by the straps on her head. One arm hung to the side, twitching slowly. As she came more in view, he could see that her skin now hung loose, as if she’d been partially drained.
What was most awful was her face. It sagged, loose skin hung like melted wax. A thin trickle of blood ran down from her broken nose into her mouth. Blood dripped down into her jaw, which hung open. Her tongue lolled out, moving slowly, side to side. She didn’t – couldn’t – speak.
He stepped back and was about to turn away when her eyes opened, and she turned her head directly towards him. The whites of her eyes were no longer white, they were stark red, the color of blood, her pupils were black. Her eyes tracked him as he approached her. “Jessica?” he asked. She didn’t reply.
“What do we do?” he asked Hannah, who stood near the door, Teri in her arms, shielded from the sight of the creature in the chair. She shook her head; she didn’t know any more than he did.
Teri said, “Leave.”
Wyatt stared at her, and at the smell of smoke from the computer lab, he agreed. As he took their hands, the sprinkler system came on and they left through the door that Joe had opened for them when they’d arrived.
He turned to look back as they left the room and saw Jessica’s eyes still following him. He shut the door behind him, there was nothing he could do for her now.
Chapter 27
Waved off of the base without difficulty, they turned right, towards Detroit, towards Chicago and towards a new life. The trio were well off the base when they pulled over to give room to fire trucks headed in the opposite direction. They didn’t speak, bodies aching and minds confused from the events of the last three days
Miles passed in silence, and the landscape of central Kentucky flew by, soothing broken spirits. White fences framed rolling fields and tidy homes surrounded by tightly mowed grass. Teri fell asleep moments after they got in the car and Hannah followed soon after, her head against the window. Wyatt kept to the thin back roads, not sure where he was headed but content that they were moving and that they were together.
The BMW hadn’t started, but they’d found keys in a Honda Civic and had taken that. It was probably for the best, as the other car was likely reported stolen. A hundred or so miles from the Depot, he remembered the phone in his pocket and threw it out the window. He wasn’t sure that someone was tracking them, but also wasn’t positive that they were as off the grid as Joe had promised.
The first hours were uneventful although Wyatt held his breath as they passed two police cars and he didn’t relax until they were no longer visible in his rear view mirror. Neither turned, nobody paid them any attention. That was a wonderful change, but he figured it’d take a long time until he truly relaxed.
He left the radio off, this was a chance to take advantage of his only quiet time in several days. The clear blue sky was brilliant, illuminating the churches they passed along the way. Forty-three churches – he’d counted, of course – passed by them before Hannah finally stirred. It took her a while to pass into the real world, her eyes opening and closing several times. Wyatt didn’t rush the process; she’d had a long three days as well.
He was up to forty-seven churches when she finally said, “Hey.”
That was as good a start as any. “Hey back. How are you?”
“A bit… confused. Was that all real?” she asked and then said, “Is this all real?”
“Seems like, yes, unless we’re both dreaming the same dream.”
“I hoped it was a dream. A nightmare, actually,” she said.
“Some nightmares are real,” Wyatt replied. “And some dreams, too. I thought you were dead, yet there you were and here you are.”
“Here I am,” she echoed. “And I’m hungry.” She pointed to a hand-lettered sign ahead of them that advertised fresh fruit, “Can we stop, do we have any money?” she asked. They pooled their resources and they didn’t have a whole lot, but cherries were well worth it after they day they’d had, and they picked up two small baskets. With the windows rolled down, they continued on the road to somewhere, spitting pits as they went.
“So,” he asked once he was quite a few cherries into the basket, “shouldn’t you be, you know, dead? How is it you’re not?”
“When all of you passed out from the gas, I was a bit woozy but that’s about it. They were surprised when they opened the doors and saw I was still standing.”
“And they took you into the basement?”
“I guess so, I’m not sure though. A bunch of them jumped me. They didn’t give me a chance to surrender. I don’t remember much after that.”
“Did you get a few shots in before they got you?”
Hannah laughed and said, “I don’t know what you did to me, but boy am I hard to take down. They punched me, hit me, kicked me, there was even one guy with a bat. There were at least three of them down before a group got me on the ground and started biting,” she grimaced, “they tried to drink my blood, they were nuts.”
“That’s gross.”
“You don’t know the half of it, to be held down and have to feel it. Oh, God, and to and listen to the sound of someone sucking at your wounds? Crazy gross,” she said. “But, whatever you did to me, it makes me heal fast and allows me to take a lot of damage. The bad part is that it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”
Wyatt nodded and wondered what he’d done to her. Was it a good thing? She saw him a glance and said, “It’s messed up, but can I do? It’s better than being dead, right?”
“Way better.” He felt his face twitch.
Hannah took a cherry, rolled it around in her mouth and spat the pit out the window. “Don’t be an idiot. Whatever you did saved my life. And who wouldn’t give their right nut to have superpowers?”
Wyatt thought about that for a while, he was on the way down from the rush of the last few days and was back to h
is usual self, meaning overthinking. Whatever he had still running through his veins worried him and they didn’t know what the long term effects of what he’d done to Hannah and Teri would be.
Shifting the mirror, he checked on the girl in the back, who was still sleeping peacefully. “You know, she’s changing, Hannah. Big time changes, even more than you.” As he described the use of electricity and the ability to control people, he wondered if she’d believe him.
“Wow,” was all Hannah could say. “Can you give me a bit of that?”
“If I could, I’d give it to myself but I have no idea how any of this works,” he said. He held his right hand up, the wound on it still not healed. His left hand, holding the steering wheel, was even worse. “Joe talked a lot, but I really don’t understand, he said that I and the person I give it to need to work together.”
Hannah grabbed his hand and held it tight. There was pain at the touch, but he didn’t let go. “We’ll figure it out,” she said. They held hands as he drove and he felt the frustration leave him. As he relaxed, the last three days caught up with him. With Teri still asleep, he asked the question he’d been dreading, “What about the others? Did you see what happened to them?”
“The Dogs?” she asked, and he nodded. She shook her head, “I don’t know, I’m not sure. I wasn’t in the fight for long.” she said and looked to the backseat. “Jessica shot Esaf, I saw that much before she turned and ran out after you and I don’t think he made it. And I’m rather sure that Vasca was stabbed, at least once, he was on the ground when Ford knocked me out.”
Wyatt experienced an almost physical pain at the news. He’d came to care for Teri and the news that her dad was likely dead, that she was alone in the world, was hard to take. “Damn,” he said, and the two lapsed into silence for a time.
The miles drifted lazily by as they chewed on cherries and drove. Hannah eventually asked, “Where are we going?”
Wyatt took his time to reply, “I don’t know. We’re heading north, but I guess we can’t go home.”
“Why not? Because the police are waiting for us?” she asked.
“They might be, might not. Joe said he’d cleared our names. He killed us, officially, at least and might be strange for our parents and hard to explain if we show up, alive and all.”
“What do we do then?” she asked. “Where do we go?”
“Right now, north. How about Canada?” he asked.
“Too cold, the people are too polite and there are way too many mosquitos. Can’t we go in the other direction?” she replied. “Can we decide later? You know what I want? A burger, coming back from the edge of almost death is hungry work.”
“We should get Teri some food, her body needs to be nourished, and we’re like her parents now.”
Hannah, looked terrified at the thought of being a parent. “I don’t have any more money,” she said, “what about you?”
There was thirty-seven dollars left after the cherry splurge. “Not much,” he said. “You figure they’ll take me back at McDonald’s after the media’s reported on our cross country killing spree?”
“They might not. Hey, if we get jobs, do we have to pay taxes? We’re dead, after all.”
“Always look on the bright side,” Wyatt said. The back roads they’d been on didn’t have any restaurants, so he kept an eye out. Fifteen minutes later, on the outskirts of a small town, just off of the thirty-one in Indiana, there was a big sign for an In-N-Out.
Hannah let out a long sigh. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
Wyatt shook his head. The parking lot was packed. “Nope, too many people. There is a corner store further up, we can get bagged burgers.”
She put a hand on his knee and squeezed hard enough that it hurt. “We’re not going to eat garbage. I’ve been on the run for three days. I’ve been locked in a trunk, punched, shot, bitten and I deserve a real burger. Pull over before I beat you into a pulp. And remember, you don’t heal like me.”
He didn’t argue, signaled and pulled over. As he joined the drive-through lane, Hannah said, “No way,” and pointed to a parking space. “We’re eating inside.”
“We’re on the run.”
Hannah replied, “If we’re still wanted, then we’ll get caught eventually. If Joe erased us, then we’re fine, if he didn’t, I might as well have one good last burger.”
He parked next to a big Ford F150 and they woke Teri, who seemed none the worse for wear. “Food time,” Wyatt said. She smiled and, when out of the car, hugged them both.
As they entered the busy restaurant he felt a panic attack coming on. Everybody seemed to stare at them, and perhaps they were, given the state of their clothing. “Hannah,” he whispered, “our clothes are ripped and you’ve got blood all over you.”
Hannah got in line and whispered back, “Look around you. This isn’t Henry’s of Paris. If anything, we’re among the best dressed here. Shut up and order,” she said and stepped forward. “Hey, I’ll take two cheeseburgers, fries, and a large chocolate shake.”
“What about Teri?” asked Wyatt.
“That’s for me. You two can order whatever you want,” she said and patted her stomach. “Damn I’m hungry. Make that an extra-large shake.”
“We’ll be broke!” he whispered.
She put an arm around him like they were a couple and whispered in his ear, “We’ll be broke sooner or later, let’s do it now and enjoy it.”
Orders in hand, they sat by a window, and ate in silence. Halfway through the meal, Hannah and Teri started signing. Wyatt gave up trying to understand after a minute and returned to gazing out the window and watching the room to see if they were recognized.
Twice, he thought he caught people paying them some attention, but nothing came of it at first. As they finished up, an old man sauntered by, his tray and remains of his meal in his hand. He stopped next to them and stared, an eyebrow raised.
“Yes?” asked Wyatt.
“You know, kids,” he said, “you are the spitting images of those two killers out of Chicago I seen on TV these last days.”
“Oh ya?” said Wyatt, clenching his fists, ready for a fight.
“Yup,” replied the man.
Hannah piped up, “We keep getting that. I think he looks more like the guy then I look like the girl.”
“Yup, I think you’re right,” he said. “Pity what happened, but they got what they deserved,” the man continued, “Well, have a good un,” he concluded, and burped in a satisfied way. “Scuse me,” he said to the two ladies, nodded to them and walked away.
Under his breath, Wyatt said, “Well, looks like Joe did what he said,” and finished his burger. They left without incident, no longer worried about police or arrest.
They returned to the back road and continued north. “Home?” he asked at one point, breaking the silence. Teri was asleep again and Hannah kept her voice low.
“Where is home, now? We can’t go to Chicago, you’re right. How about the Dogs?”
Wyatt didn’t want to spend the rest of his life as part of a bike gang, especially one made up of Altereds that would want to use him for his special gift. All he wanted was time alone. He wanted to sleep, wanted to recover, and wanted silence and peace.
Hannah and Teri were in his space. He liked them, but he needed a break. If he could have, he would have stopped the car and walked across a field to the woods and fallen down to sleep for days.
“Pull over,” she said finally, compassion in her voice. Wyatt didn’t argue and stopped the car. “Get out,” she said. He looked at her to see if he could figure out what she was doing but was too tired to argue, his mind not able to focus on the moment.
Standing together, car on one side and a cornfield on the other, Hannah gave him a hug. “You look awful,” she said. When he didn’t reply, she pointed to the passenger seat. “Get in, get some sleep, I’ll drive. We’re going to Detroit” she said. Wyatt was relieved that someone else made a decision and simply nodded.
&nb
sp; Hannah continued, “We’re going to the Dogs because we have no money and they have beds and food and they owe us, and because Teri needs to go home. Once we’ve slept a few days and ate a few meals, we can talk about our plans. Or you can decide what you’re doing, alone if you want. Either way, you don’t need to think about it right now. Deal?” she asked.
Wyatt nodded, absentmindedly counting posts in the fence between him and the corn, his mind shutting down. He nodded, got in the car and didn’t wake until Detroit.
Chapter 28
He opened his eyes slowly, painfully. Every inch of his body ached, and he knew it would take weeks to heal, and the pain would only increase. Wyatt took his time waking, and this time it was Hannah’s turn to not rush him.
At first, he didn’t recognize where he was. They were in a city, the crumbling buildings and empty roads looked like most of Chicago and what he’d seen of Detroit. Far in the distance, he could see gleaming skyscrapers against the darkening evening sky, but they were far away from that world.
“Where are we?” he asked. Hannah looked flush and recovered, her body continuing to heal itself at a remarkable rate. A little of that mojo would do him well, he thought, and winced as he clenched and unclenched his hands and stretched out his arms.
“Detroit, but where in Detroit I have no idea. I’ve tried to retrace our steps but I’ve not been able to find the compound. I didn’t want to wake you or Teri, but I suppose we’ll have to get her up.”
“She’s a kid, I doubt she knows how to find her way home from wherever we are.”
“Do you have a better idea? I doubt we’ll find the Dogs in the yellow pages.”
“Yes, we will. Their bar is called the Red Dog Inn, remember?” Neither had a cell, so they drove for another twenty minutes looking for a phone booth. The first five they saw were broken, three of them had no receivers at all. All had been relieved of their phonebooks. Finally, at the sixth they found a working phone and got the operator to give them the number and address.