“One climbs up onto another,” she said. She stared at Kizzy.
Kizzy nodded.
“They only do that because they grow old and die.”
Kizzy nodded again.
“No we didn’t.”
Kizzy went to take something from her backpack that sat near Meg’s feet, but her right hand stopped short due to the handcuffs.
“Get that book from my backpack,” Kizzy said. “Turn to page 109. Human Anatomy.”
Meg removed a high school science text book from Kizzy’s bag and flipped through the pages. “Where did you get this old thing?” she asked.
“Out in the wilderness.”
“You’ve been to the wilderness?”
“Yep,” Kizzy said. This was getting tiresome.
“And you’ve really been inside the city too?”
“Oh, you believe me now?”
“I still have my doubts,” Meg said thumbing through the pages. “This is some wild stuff.”
Suddenly she landed on page 109 and went very quiet. Side by side were cartoon figures of the male and female human beings, nude, with their reproductive systems on full display.
“That’s what mutants used to look like?” she asked, pointing to the male of the species.
“Man,” Kizzy said in a hushed tone, the word had become all but a swear word over the years, said by their mothers when they stubbed a toe or pricked their fingers with a needle.
“What the heck is this?” Meg asked, as if she saw something unspeakably disgusting.
“The male anatomy,” Kizzy said, reading the caption.
“It looks gross; like a sausage.”
Kizzy nodded.
Meg continued through the pages, staring in astonishment at each picture. She came to the picture of the pregnant woman.
“What’s wrong with her stomach?”
“There’s a small person growing in there.”
“That’s weird.”
“It is.”
“And this can happen to you?”
Kizzy looked at the picture again. It must have been the thousandth time, yet it never ceased to give her anxiety. It all seemed so alien to her. “I guess so,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because the Enoch Pill doesn’t work on me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m dying,” Kizzy said. The words still stung every time she said them to someone new. “And since I won’t live forever my DNA needs to send itself through time by having children.”
The words sunk in to Meg’s face and she looked out the windshield in shock. Kizzy casually wondered if Meg would treat her differently now that she knew she was dying, just as everyone else did.
“Oh my god,” Meg shouted out of nowhere. “There’s a mutant.”
Kizzy followed her pointed finger to a field ahead as the headlights shined past a monstrosity. Hairless and white as an egg shell it lumbered through the waist tall corn field, chasing after a deer.
Kizzy slammed on the brakes and was frozen solid in the car seat. Her hands gripped so tightly to the steering wheel that her knuckles became white.
“Are you gonna go and talk to it?” Meg asked.
Kizzy couldn’t speak. What she saw was no longer a man, but an abomination.
The mutant grabbed hold of the deer with huge meaty hands and bit into its back leg. Blood spurted over the green plants and the deer flailed about trying to free itself.
‘Put the car in reverse and get the hell out of here,’ Kizzy thought to herself.
“That poor animal,” Meg said with sadness in her voice, she leaned over and honked the horn.
The mutant turned to the car.
“What are you doing?” asked Kizzy in calm disbelief. She wasn’t there in the car, she was floating above, watching all this happen. It felt as if she had spent more time floating above her body than actually in it lately.
“It was killing that deer,” she said.
Kizzy stared at the beast. The mutant sniffed in her direction. It dropped the deer, the animal sprang away on three legs into the corn. The creature marched towards the car, its eyes swollen and black. Its white face splotchy. It opened its mouth, the inside was full of black saliva, and screamed up into the sky. Kizzy could feel the noise reverberate through her chest.
Kizzy suddenly became very aware of the handcuff around her wrist. The car was going to break down, she was sure of it. She shifted it into reverse and spun the car around, kicking up dust from the dirt road. Kizzy looked in the rear view mirror, the mutant was beginning to pursue them and was gaining ground.
Kizzy felt like a rabbit being chased by a larger, stronger predator. Suddenly the deer leapt out from the corn. Kizzy spun the wheel to avoid the creature, but in so doing lost control of the vehicle and went off the road into a ditch. Kizzy pressed on the gas. The wheels spun loosely in the mud. She glanced back to the rearview mirror. The mutant was a few paces from the car.
“Why don’t you talk to it?” Meg asked.
“They’ve changed,” Kizzy said. “I don’t know what had happened.” She yanked on the handcuff. “You’ve got to let me out.”
“What do you mean they’ve changed?”
“Just let me out!”
“Okay, okay.” Meg quickly took the keys from her pocket, then stared at them in terror. She slowly looked up to Kizzy.
“What’s wrong?” Kizzy asked loudly.
“These are my home keys.”
“Okay?”
“Which means I left the handcuff keys back at home.”
“You’ve got to be kidding… Wait where are you going?” Kizzy shouted. “You can’t leave me here!”
“I have to get the handcuff key.” Meg ran from the car, looked back at the monster and shuddered. “Wait here.”
She disappeared into the corn.
“Meg!” Kizzy shouted, pulling at the handcuff.
The mutant approached the jeep, walking with a certain type of swagger, a sadistic determination in its eyes. Kizzy glanced to the back seat, there sat the shotguns like black, metal heroes. She reached back with her left hand, but the car crash had knocked them just out of reach, she could only get the tip of her finger to the barrel of a gun.
She looked back and the beast stood right outside the car. Its breath fogged the glass. It stunk of rotting fish and its mouth and lips were all jacked up and swollen. It’s teeth were white and small, still the size of a normal person’s. The mutant picked up a stone and smashed it through the window. With the window gone, there appeared to be some sort of sound tormenting the beast, sending it into hysterics. It covered its ears and when that proved useless it tried to pull the door open, growling and barking like crazy.
The swaying of the car knocked the shotgun back to within reach. Kizzy grabbed hold of it and pumped the bullet into the chamber and fired at the beast. The pellets blew out a chunk of its shoulder, it screamed in anger. Black blood foamed to the surface. In a rage it slammed its arm into the jeep and knocked it over onto its side. The car tumbled over and came to a rest on its roof. Kizzy’s hung upside-down, the seat belt tight against her chest and abdomen, all the blood in her body rushing to her head. Her wrist still in the cuffs.
With one hand over its ear, the mutant got down on its and knees and reached into the passenger side window. It came to within an inch of Kizzy’s chest.
Outside, another jeep pulled up. The beast wasn’t distracted, he was dead set on Kizzy. A pair of boots hopped out from the other vehicle and shotgun blasts rang through the air. The beast screamed in pain. Black foamy blood spattered onto the dirt road and sizzled.
The mystery person dropped a small grenade on the ground and scurried around to the other side of the jeep. Kizzy stared wide eyed at the bomb. That thing was going to kill her! It went off in a flash of white light, but there was no explosion. Kizzy was blinded. The beast screamed. Kizzy heard the smashing of glass and metal as the car was thrashed from inside out by the blind mutant.
Kizzy tried to open her eyes even wider, but all she saw was white.
The next thing she knew a woman had opened the handcuffs and pulled her out from the jeep.
Kizzy stared at the woman as her vision slowly came back. It was the constable.
“Where are we going?” Kizzy asked.
“Anywhere but back there.”
They continued through the plants, knocking them to the ground. Kizzy was sure she could hear the mutant grunting right behind them. It could smell her, she was sure of it, and the beast was hungry. Suddenly the corn field ended and they came upon a small farm. Orange trees sat lined up along a small creek. The citrus smell mixed with the dirt and the adrenaline in her nose. A large, white, cow barn sat in front of the house and a spooked cat ran from it. Kizzy noticed a stream of blood draining out on the floor.
Mutants stuck their head out from the barn, as if they had heard her approaching. With the same disturbed frenzy as the other they came scrambling out of the barn towards her.
Kizzy and the constable hopped the fence and sprinted across the large green lawn and up to the farm house. All the lights were off inside. The constable banged on the door three times with an open hand.
An old woman opened the door and let them inside. They entered quickly and she closed the door behind them.
Kizzy looked out the window, the mutants stood in the middle of the lawn, seemingly unsure where she had gone.
“Make sure she’s alright,” the constable said to the old woman.
The old woman nodded took Kizzy to the living room. The constable continued to keep watch out the window with the shotgun firmly in hand.
“They’re just standing there,” she said in astonishment.
In the living room sat Meg, along with another girl their age, presumably her sister. There was no way of knowing who was older or younger. The old woman must have been their grandmother.
“You never came back for me,” Kizzy said as the old woman sat her down on the couch.
“The mutants cut me off,” Meg said. “And grandma wouldn’t let me leave.”
“Are you feeling okay?” the grandma asked, feeling her forehead and looking in her eyes.
Kizzy nodded.
“It’s not like she was defenseless, there were guns in the car,” Meg announced to the room. No one seemed to be listening. She must have mistaken the silence for disapproval. “And she said she had talked to mutants before.”
The grandmother gave Kizzy a dubious look, then glanced back at Meg, “I think you got tricked, Meg.”
“I had spoken to them,” Kizzy announced. “Before they changed.”
The old woman shook her head.
“Mentira es un pecado,” she said to Kizzy as if she was supposed to know its meaning just by her tone of voice.
“What’s that mean?” Kizzy asked.
“It’s a sin to lie,” Meg said.
“But it’s not a lie,” Kizzy said to the old woman respectfully. She addressed the rest of the room. “I met Josephine Yanloo, she told me everything about the pill and the plague and why everyone died. And she told me that I’m able to have children.”
There was complete silence as the old woman and the older sister looked at each other with eyes wide open.
“She thinks we used to make new humans the way the cows do,” Meg said to her older sister. The girl looked at Meg for a moment then down at the floor and tried not to laugh. She knew the truth of the matter, Kizzy could tell.
“She’s telling the truth, Meg,” the constable said as she entered the room.
“Is all of it true?” the grandmother asked.
“I think so,” the constable said, looking out the window. “It looks like we’ve got more company.”
Kizzy stared out the window to see the three mutants lumbering towards the house. They covered their ears as if the sound of something was hurting them.
“They’ll be hungry again before long,” the constable said.
“We’ve got to keep Kizzy safe,” the grandmother said. “If what’s she’s saying is really true.”
“We should barricade these windows and the doors,” the constable said.
They blocked all possible entrances with the furniture in the house. Couches were propped up in front of windows, tables and chairs in front of the doors.
“What’s the plan now?” Meg asked.
“Wait for the storm to pass,” the constable answered. “Once there’s nothing left to eat, they’ll move on. Until then we can’t take them in a fight.”
“Can’t we call somebody?” Kizzy asked.
“They took down the phone lines,” the older sister said.
“And I left my radio in my jeep,” the constable said.
“Well, should we eat then?” the grandmother asked finally. “No use in not eating, right?”
Meg’s sister’s name was Esther. Kizzy had never met her before, she was about eight years older than Kizzy was. As they fixed the food in the kitchen she spoke to Theresa in the hallway.
“Did you see Clarice out there?”
Theresa shook her head and pursed her lips. “I’m sure she’s fine. There’s other farms nearby. Powe, Neidermeyer, Estelle. She’s safe at one of them, I’m sure.”
The girl nodded in agreement, clearly not believing it.
“How are you feeling by the way?” the constable asked.
The girl shrugged.
Theresa put an arm around the girl and hugged her just like Kizzy had done just an hour before. The girl began to cry and the constable stroked her hair. As far as Kizzy could see, there were no mixed feelings, no calculations, just pure maternal instinct. The opposite of Kizzy.
Theresa turned and caught Kizzy looking. Kizzy looked away for some reason. The constable approached her.
“Don’t forget who you really are, Kizzy,” she said as she walked into the kitchen.
Who she really was? What did she mean by that? A killer? A fugitive? A potential mother? Kizzy stood confused.
The grandmother pulled on Kizzy’s shirt to get her attention and showed her to her room. The window in there was barricaded with a dresser. Kizzy pulled the curtain to take a peek outside and there stood a mutant looking in. Kizzy gasped and backed away from the window. The mutant began to snarl.
The grandmother pushed the curtain closed and the mutant went quiet once more.
“Maybe it’s better if you stay away from the windows,” the grandmother said.
Kizzy nodded. She washed up and went down for the midnight snack.
“I don’t like being locked up like this,” Meg said as she stared at her salad.
“At least it’s only your first day as a prisoner,” Kizzy said.
“They’ll pass along,” the constable said, the doubt in her voice shining through.
“How many of them do you think are out there?” Meg asked.
“I counted three,” the constable said.
“No I mean out there in total.”
“There’s about 100,000 in the city,” Ester said.
“They’d take out the entire county, no problem,” Meg said.
“Unless they already have,” Ester added.
The grandmother slapped her hand down on the table. “That’s enough. I will not let my table be doom and gloom. Everything will be good. We must wait for it to blow over. That’s all.”
Everyone went quiet.
Meg looked scared.
The constable just raised her eyebrows and shook her head.
“Everything will be alright,” Kizzy said.
“Thank you,” the grandmother said.
“Once I meet up with Josephine, she can fix everything and make it the way it once was.”
The constable groaned. “You know, I don’t understand your fixation on bringing things back to the way they once were. You don’t know what it was like.”
“Aren’t things broken?” Kizzy asked.
“Broken?” the constable said, setting her fork down on her plat
e and folding her hands. “You know what, Kizzy? I worked in law enforcement long before the plague. That was a world that was broken beyond repair. Do you know how many murders we had in my county each year? How many robberies? How many rapes? You wouldn’t even want to know. Not to mention some of the more unspeakable crimes. Now? Not one murder in this county since the plague. Robbery is non-existent. Folks keep to themselves and respect each other’s space. Rape’s unheard of since the men have all been locked up. So, no, I don’t think things are broken. But tell me, what’s your informed opinion on the matter?”
“Maybe I don’t want to be a mother,” Kizzy said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” the constable asked, bewildered at the change of subject.
“If things don’t get fixed then I have to be a mother,” Kizzy said.
“Whose idea is that?” the constable asked.
Kizzy just shook her head and looked down at her salad and imagined carrying around a thing, a tiny creature in her stomach. Unless Josephine fixed things then that was what needed to happen.
“Is that what you’re afraid of?” the constable asked.
Kizzy hadn’t thought of it until that moment she had said it. In fact, it went straight from an abstract feeling, to her blurting it out as fully-formed words, without her mind ever setting it to a thought. Kizzy sat back in the chair afraid of what she might say next.
“Is that what Josephine wants you for?” the constable asked.
Kizzy shrugged and looked away.
“She can’t make you do that,” Theresa said. “That’s wrong on so many levels.”
There was an uncomfortable silence as the constable shook her head.
After everyone had poked at their food for a few minutes they all retired to their private rooms. Kizzy closed the door and was about to inspect the books on the shelf when the constable came into her room. Kizzy stared at the woman for a second, unsure of whether she could trust her or not. Their relationship had evolved numerous times over the past few days.
“Thank you for taking care of me earlier,” the constable said.
“It’s fine,” Kizzy said.
“I know you don’t trust me,” the constable said. “And that’s understandable. I don’t know how to I feel about myself either.”
Kizzy nodded.
The Enoch Plague (The Enoch Pill Book 2) Page 10