Necrotic Earth

by SW Matthews

  Piper turned to Andy. “I told you ‘Ouch’ couldn’t be his real name.”

  Doc chuckled. “Yes, when Gabby and I started coming here more often, I wanted to keep a low profile. I didn’t want to let everyone know I was part of one of the wealthiest families on earth, so I just used the funny name.”

  “And you’re a surgeon?” Andy said.

  “Yes. Before I came to Lakeland I was a pediatric surgeon at the Carson Institute in Denver.”

  “And when did you first come to Lakeland?” Piper asked.

  “Gabby and I bought the property in 2101, right after the war. We had the cabin built over the next couple years and would come stay for a few weeks every once in a while. Then in 2108 I retired from surgery and we decided to spend more time here. The plan was to fish and canoe, just get out of the hustle and bustle of the city.”

  A thought occurred to Andy. “Wait, you’re rich, and yet you bitch about my fees all the time—”

  Piper punched Andy’s arm to shut him up. “Go ahead, Doc,” she said. “That explains why you’re here under an assumed name. But it doesn’t tell us anything about what happened today.”

  Doc smiled. “Bear with me—I’m getting there. Cregor was married to my little sister, Katherine. He was a brilliant scientist. He was also very ambitious and determined. He was really a lot like my dad, to be honest, and Kat couldn’t get enough of him. They worked together at the Braxton Medical Research Foundation, which is on the same campus as the Carson Institute. We used to have lunch together…” He gazed into space as if bringing up a distant memory. Then his face turned somber. “They were married twenty-two years ago. She died the next year during childbirth. I haven’t seen Cregor since the funeral.”

  Doc sat up straighter. “This is where things are going to get a little hard to believe. The little boy you saw, he’s Kat’s son.” He paused. “He is the son of my dead sister, and he is twenty years old.”

  Andy stared at Doc, then at Piper.

  “Doc, that boy was not twenty years old,” Piper said.

  Rosie spoke for the first time. “Let me explain this part, Dad.”

  “Dad?” Andy asked.

  “Oh, sorry,” said Doc. “This is my daughter, Rosie. Niner is my son.”

  “Oh,” said Piper. “Niner…William Braxton the Ninth.”

  “That’s right,” Doc said. “Niner is his family nickname. Rosie—you go ahead.”

  Rosie nodded. “A year ago, I was finishing my surgery training at Denver University Hospital when I stumbled onto Cregor’s secret. I was in the last year of my five-year residency, and one of my friends was doing an off-service rotation…”

  “A what?” Piper asked.

  “An off-service rotation. You see, during residency you can rotate through different departments, other than your main service, like surgery, depending on your interests. One of my friends was contemplating going into research, so he rotated through the foundation’s resident-doctor program. Anyway, he was there late one night, working on a presentation, and he heard some unusual noises. A lot of yelling and screaming, and a lot of men working in one of the usually empty labs. He tried to check it out, but he didn’t have access to the lab where the sounds were coming from.

  “Of course, he knew I was a Braxton, so he came to me. I couldn’t do anything, but I thought Dad might be able to, so I called him. He was here in Lakeland, but he contacted some friends and helped me get a universal passkey. The next night I was able to get into the lab my friend was worried about. That’s where I found Pol.”

  “Pol?” Piper asked.

  “The little boy,” Rosie answered. “He had a ‘PO-1’ label on his cell, which looks like P-o-l, so I called him Pol. He said he didn’t have a name.”

  Andy shook his head. “I’m so confused. That little kid is twenty years old, and he doesn’t have a name.”

  “He said they only called him ‘the small boy,’” Rosie said. “He was very sweet, and smart. I spoke to him for a long time that night. His stories were amazing and terrible. He had been isolated, tested on, and tortured for years. He was very excited to be talking to someone.”

  “He had been in that lab for twenty years?” Piper asked, her eyes wide.

  “Not that particular lab. He had been in another lab for most of that time. He didn’t know where it was, but he said it was damaged or something. The noise my friend heard was him being moved into this new lab by his ‘guards,’ as he called them.”

  “So you broke him out?” Andy asked.

  “I wanted to, but someone showed up and I had to sneak out. I immediately called Dad again.”

  “I told her we were on our way,” Doc said, “and that she needed to get as much of Pol’s information as she could.”

  “And I did,” Rosie continued. “The information in his files was pretty limited, but what I did find was staggering. Apparently, my Uncle Cregor genetically modified his sperm and my Aunt Kat’s egg and implanted the zygote into her uterus. The result was Pol. According to the records I found, Pol only ages one year every six or seven years, and he has almost unlimited healing ability.”

  “Almost unlimited? Almost unlimited enough to survive three bullets in the head?” Andy asked Doc.

  Doc smiled. “He’s not dead, I promise. But we need to get him back. And since you led Cregor’s men here, you have to help us save him.”

  “How?” asked Piper without hesitation.

  “Hoff had placed a tracking chip under Pol’s skin. I removed it when we first rescued him, and as soon as we arrived here I placed one of my own. The problem is that this is the only way I had of tracking him.” He removed an electronic device from his belt and placed it on the table in front of him. “And that electrical net completely fried it.”

  Piper picked up the device and inspected it. “I can fix this,” she said. “But I need my equipment back home.”

  Just then the door to the cabin opened and Niner walked in, followed by Tuck.

  “Did I miss anything, Skipper?” Tuck asked.

  Andy looked him straight in the eye. “The albino kid is Doc’s nephew. He’s twenty years old, and can heal from anything. We need to go rescue him.”

  Tuck shrugged. “Okay.”

  Chapter 6

  With the bodies of the goons buried and their gear stored in the cabin, the newly formed team was airborne within the hour.

  Andy set the controls of the Loon on autopilot and headed back to the passenger cabin and sat next to Doc in the second row. “I saw that kid break metal cables with his bare hands,” he said.

  “Oh, yes!” Rosie exclaimed, turning around from her seat by the window in the front row. Her brother, in the seat next to her, leaned away from her so she could speak more easily. “He’s incredibly strong. Apparently, his healing ability affected his bones, ligaments, and tendons—it’s like they’re made of metal. He really is an amazing being!”

  “He really is,” Doc said. “He’s just incredible, really. And extremely intelligent. He remembers everything, down to the finest detail. He’s much smarter than me. In fact, he’s probably the smartest person I have ever met. This last year with him has been enlightening.”

  “How were you and Gabby able to get him out of the lab?” Andy asked.

  Doc’s face darkened. “When Gabby found out about the boy, she was determined to help him. She… she sacrificed herself to save him.” He paused to wipe away a tear. “Gabrielle was a mother, and she loved being a mother. Her mission in life was to help children, and she was excellent at it. Before Rosie was born, all of her free time was spent volunteering for children’s groups throughout Denver. And once Rosie arrived, Gabby became the epitome of the doting mother.” Doc smiled at the memory, and Andy saw that Rosie had tears on her face as well. “It was the same with Niner. Whatever the kids were interested in, she pushed them to learn and grow—in a positive, helpful way. She only saw their potential, and cherished their accomplishments, while not taking any credit.”

/>   “‘You did it, not me,’ she would say,” added Rosie. “Whenever we succeeded at something she was the first one to praise our hard work, and tell us we were living up to our potential. In the early days, I remember feeling invincible when she would tell me those things. But by the time I graduated medical school, I realized I would never have been as successful without her encouragement and support.”

  ”She was a remarkable woman.” For several moments, Doc stared blankly into space, remembering. Then he turned back to Andy. “When she found out about Pol, there was no stopping her. We left immediately.”

  “Braxton helijet?” Andy asked.

  “Yes. I called my usual pilot, and he came and picked us up the same day. We met Rosie and Niner at the Foundation.”

  Andy glanced at the young man sitting in front of him, who hadn’t moved during the entire conversation.

  “When Gabby found out about the boy’s abilities,” Doc continued, “and how he had been treated…”

  “She never liked Uncle Cregor anyway,” Rosie interjected.

  “No, she didn’t. And when she started hearing how he had kept the child a secret, torturing him and experimenting on him, she became livid. She kept saying how a person with those attributes could change the world, and Cregor was treating him—his own son—worse than a lab rat. I never saw her so angry. I honestly believe she would have killed Cregor if she had found him.

  “But we didn’t find him. We were able to retrieve the boy, but as we were making our way to the heliport, some armed guards found us.”

  “Armed guards in a medical research lab?” Andy asked.

  “I’m sure they were Cregor’s private security. There must have been a silent alarm or something. Maybe the boy’s tracking mechanism triggered an alert, I’m not sure—but they were there to stop us. If it weren’t for Gabby, we never would’ve escaped.”

  Andy saw the emotion on the older man’s face, and he didn’t ask for details of Gabby’s sacrifice.

  “My pilot flew us directly to the cabin here in Lakeland,” Doc said. “I gave him a significant sum of cash and told him to ditch the craft and disappear. He was a good man. He may still be here in Lakeland, I don’t know. I haven’t seen or heard anything from him since that day.”

  “And the tracking device?”

  “The boy told me to remove it—in flight, before we ever got to Lakeland—and how to destroy it. He knew what it was, and where it was. They had inserted it on his back so he couldn’t reach it. I used one of Niner’s knives. The boy didn’t flinch, and he healed almost immediately from the incision.”

  “He had endured much worse,” said Rosie.

  “Yes,” Doc agreed. “The tales we’ve heard over the last year would rip your soul apart. My brother-in-law is a cruel, brutal bastard.”

  “But why?” Andy asked. “Why torture the kid? Why even create the kid in the first place?”

  “We don’t know,” said Rosie. “The records didn’t state the purpose of the study, if there was one.”

  “I doubt if it was a part of any official project,” Doc said. “Cregor was driven by his own ambition and arrogance. He was probably just doing it to prove that he could. I have to admit he succeeded. The child is amazing.”

  Andy sighed. “That’s quite a story. I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen the kid tear those cables to pieces.” He stood. “Well, we’ll be landing in about an hour and a half. We’ll do what we can to help you, and help the kid.”

  He walked back to the cockpit. As he did so he noticed, from the corner of his eye, tears streaming down Niner’s face.

  ***

  About an hour later, Niner entered the cockpit.

  “You okay, kid?” Andy asked.

  Niner nodded. He’d regained his composure. “Yes. I have a question for you.”

  “Shoot.”

  “What is a Porkchop Express?”

  Andy, Piper, and Tuck all smiled.

  “It’s a truck, from a really old movie,” Andy explained.

  “Movie?”

  “Yeah, a really old one. See, when we settled in Lakeland and bought our property, we found a big container of ancient equipment and discs in the storage cabin. It was over a hundred years old, but Piper managed to figure it out, and got it working. We don’t exactly have a lot of options out here for entertainment, you know? So we watch those old movies occasionally. There are a few about truckers, like Smokey and the Bandit. They use CB jargon, you know, like niner?”

  “Bandit,” Niner repeated, thoughtfully. “I think I like that.”

  Andy laughed and nudged the kid in the stomach. “Bandit it is!” he exclaimed.

  Piper and Tuck laughed as well, and Andy saw the young man smile for the first time.

  Chapter 7

  They had decided to stay at the cabins that night while Piper worked on repairing Doc’s tracker—but one way or another, they would head off in search of the boy first thing in the morning. If the tracker couldn’t be fixed, they would begin their search at the Braxton Medical Research Foundation.

  Andy had just taken a seat by the fire pit, and was pouring himself a drink, when Doc crested the hill.

  “Piper said she works better alone,” he explained as he sat in the chair next to Andy.

  Andy handed Doc the bottle. “She does.”

  Doc took a swig and grimaced. “Is this Stockton’s mead?”

  Andy nodded. “Yep. I deliver for Stock, and he pays partially in mead.” Andy took a long drink from his cup. “Alcohol content isn’t too high. I thought it was too early for Tuck’s ’shine.”

  “This isn’t considered high alcohol content?”

  “Nah, this is pretty weak.”

  Doc shook his head and took another drink. “So, can she fix it?” he asked through gritted teeth.

  “Absolutely,” Andy replied. “She was one of the best electrical engineers in the navy. Her specialty was radar and laser systems, but she had a knack for the mechanical side also. She’s one of the few eggheads who could actually make things work.”

  “I didn’t realize she was navy. I guess I really don’t know much about you guys.”

  “Yeah, we’re all navy. Tuck and I served together. I met Piper in the hospital, after I was wounded.”

  “Which hospital?”

  “Dole Medical Center, in Wichita. It was right after the surge in 2100, about six months before the end of the war. She had been at the tech center in Santa Fe, which was hit pretty hard by their air force and cruise missiles. Tuck and I were in the Texas desert, fighting ground forces.”

  Doc nodded. “Good hospital. I had friends there. Isn’t that about the time it was destroyed?”

  “Yeah,” Andy said. “I was getting shipped out when the attack happened. Only about half the people survived.”

  “I remember the surge,” said Doc. “We were ready to evacuate Denver. The Mexicans were getting desperate.”

  “I guess they figured they could either die fighting or die from the virus. They settled for peace and the vaccine.”

  “But not before doing their best to kill us all.”

  “No, they were relentless. Unspeakable acts… unbelievable cruelty…”

  “You met Piper then, though?” Doc asked. He spoke brightly, as if trying to lighten the mood.

  “Yep, she really helped me get through a rough time.”

  “So she fixed you, so to speak?”

  Andy smiled. “Well… let’s just say I’m a work in progress.”

  Doc returned the smile and raised the bottle. “To Piper.”

  “To Piper.” Andy clanked his cup against the bottle, and they both drank.

  As Doc refilled Andy’s cup, Tuck and Chief appeared. Tuck was carrying a large pack.

  “Ah, the chef has arrived,” said Andy happily. “What’s on the menu tonight?”

  Tuck set the pack down by the fire and started pulling out containers “Here’s some smoked walleye to tide everyone over while everything else is cook
ing,” he said. “The menu is roast moose, corn on the cob, and sourdough bread.”

  While Andy and Doc sampled the walleye, Tuck secured the moose to the rotisserie, buried the corn, still in the husk, in the ashes of the fire, and placed the large cast-iron Dutch oven—containing the sourdough loaf—on the edge of the heat to slowly bake.

  “Pol would love this,” said Doc as he savored the walleye. “That boy eats more than anyone I’ve ever met, and he loves natural food. His metabolism requires a lot of energy. He can eat a week’s supply in a day.”

  “Well, that explains the increased deliveries to your place over the last year,” said Andy as he chewed. “Although…”—he nodded toward Doc’s stomach—“seeing you now makes me wonder if Pol was the only one with a big appetite.”

  “Funny,” remarked Doc flatly. “You know, Pol said one time Cregor didn’t give him anything to eat or drink for three months.”

  “Three months?” Tuck exclaimed.

  “Why?” Andy asked. “Did he want to kill him?”

  “He was looking for his weaknesses, I think. Trying to figure out how to kill him,” Doc said. “He would take him as close to death as possible. Starvation, drowning, burning, freezing. He even dismembered him.”

  Tuck and Andy stared in disbelief, mouths open and eyes wide.

  “But that’s his son!” Andy said.

  “I’m telling you, Cregor Hoff is a lunatic.”

  “So, is the boy killable?” Tuck asked.

  “I think so,” Doc replied. “Pol’s regenerative function needs to be studied for years, probably decades, if we ever hope to understand it, let alone duplicate it. I believe Cregor was trying to accelerate the process by finding the limits and working backward from there.”