by SW Matthews
“I still don’t understand why,” Andy said, shaking his head.
“Ego?” said Doc. “Insanity? A combination of several things? Whatever the case, it proves Cregor Hoff is a very dangerous man. Stopping him should be second on our list, after rescuing Pol.”
“I agree,” said Tuck. Then, turning to Andy, “I’ll volunteer for that duty, Skipper.”
“You’ll have to get in line behind Niner,” said Doc.
“He goes by Bandit now, by the way,” Andy said.
Doc nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably better.”
“What’s the story with him anyway? Is he like a ninja, or a samurai, or something?” Andy asked.
Doc smiled. “Nine—I mean, Bandit is a very unique boy. He was always very driven and ambitious, a lot like his grandfather, my dad, but not interested in money, or business, and not interested in medicine or surgery. He’s very introverted. He never really wanted to be around anyone, and I don’t think he ever especially cared about being a part of the Braxton family—which is why the new nickname is probably good for him. He’s been into martial arts since he was very young—karate, kung fu, aikido, ju jitsu, tae kwon do… you name it, he studied it, and with the best teachers we could find. Like I said, his mother was very supportive of his interests, and he blossomed with her support. He has become quite adept.”
“Well, as long as someone kills Hoff,” said Tuck.
“He would definitely like to. He and Pol have become very close over the last year. I never knew my son to be particularly interested in spending time with other people, but he and Pol formed a bond almost instantly. They would walk around the lake for hours, just talking. I’m happy he found someone he’s comfortable being around. But it just makes it even more sad that Pol is gone again.”
Doc looked over at Tuck. “By the way, Tucker. I understand you saved my life earlier. You’re quite the sniper. Thank you.”
Tuck nodded toward Doc, then Andy spoke up. “It’s been awhile since you’ve had a…human target, Tuck. Are you OK? Did you…feel anything?”
Tuck grinned. “Recoil.”
Andy smiled at his friend, then took another drink and looked out over the lake. The only sounds were those of Tuck readying the food, and the distant calls of loons echoing over the water.
“This really is a beautiful place you have here, Andy,” Doc said, dismissing Tuck’s dark humor.
“Thanks Doc. No sandy beach though, like you have.”
The old man smiled. “Yeah, that was the selling point for Gabby when we bought the land all those years ago. She used to walk barefoot back and forth along that strip of sand, happy as a lark. The boy took to that beach also—not surprisingly. He had been trapped in a lab his entire life. Over twenty years in a cage, never seeing the sky, feeling the grass, smelling the wind…”
Doc slowly shook his head and swallowed more mead. “He loved the feel of the sand, and he would laugh when the cold water touched his feet. He would play down there for hours,” he said wistfully, staring at the fire. “When I watched him down there, swimming, and romping around in the lake, I felt like he was truly a small boy for the first time in his life.”
“We’ll get him back,” said Tuck.
Andy nodded and raised his cup toward Doc. “To Pol.”
Doc managed a smile, then raised his bottle and clanked it against Andy’s cup.
“To Pol,” he said, before taking another drink.
***
When Piper arrived at the hilltop, the sun had begun to touch the treetops in the west. Doc’s kids had arrived, and all of the walleye was gone. Tuck had just removed the bread from the Dutch oven and was slicing it on the table by the porch.
“It smells great up here, Tucker,” she said as she approached the fire.
Andy filled a cup with mead and passed it down the line, from him, to Doc, to Rosie, to Bandit, to her.
“Did you fix it?” Doc asked.
“Yep, and you’ll never guess where it says the boy is.”
“Probably Denver, right? Back to the lab?” Rosie asked.
Piper took a long drink of mead. “Appalachia Island,” she said.
Everyone stared.
“Appalachia Island?” Andy said. “I thought that place was deserted, except for the Rock Hill prison.”
“Don’t forget the demons,” Tuck added as he brought Piper the first slice of bread.
Rosie looked at her dad. “They’re not real, are they? Those are just stories, right?”
“I’ve never been there myself,” Doc said, “but it’s always been accepted that the island was uninhabited, except for a skeleton crew to manage the naval base and detention camp on the southeast coast. The majority of the island was heavily radiated during World War 3. I’ve heard the stories, just like you have, about the disfigured savages on the northern end of the island—that they’re mutants from the radiation, or transformed survivors of the virus—but no one has ever taken those stories seriously. I suspect they were made up to keep people away from the contaminated area.”
“Where on the island is Pol?” Rosie asked Piper. “Is he at that Rock Hill place?”
“Nope. He’s about half way up the west coast,” replied Piper, before taking a bite of bread.
Chapter 8
Appalachia Island was eight hundred miles away, which meant six to eight hours of flight time, depending on wind and weather.
In preparation for the long trip, Andy retrieved the extra batteries from the storage cabin and secured them in the cargo area, along with a tank of water, smoked walleye, bear jerky, and extra blankets. He also grabbed Piper’s tool kit, so she could work on the radar jamming system during the trip. And since they didn’t know what to expect, the group had decided to err on the safe side by packing all their weapons. This included Andy’s sawed-off shotgun, which he was pretty good with, and his eight-shot revolver, which he wasn’t. Both weapons were secured in the cockpit. Tuck’s sniper rifle was stowed there as well, along with a submachine gun, and he would carry his sidearm, along with his sheath knife. Piper would also wear her sidearm, even though she hadn’t fired it in years. Bandit only had edged weapons, and they were on him at all times.
Andy was a little anxious about the whole thing. The Loon hadn’t spent more than three hours in the air at one time in many years. He hoped the old girl could withstand the round trip.
Piper was waiting for him by the dying fire when he returned to the cabin.
“Think she’ll hold together?” she asked as Andy sat next to her.
Andy rubbed his whiskers. “You know, Skinner’s plane isn’t as old. She’s faster, more maneuverable…”
“We have better avionics.”
“Thanks to you. But I just don’t know if structurally she’s up to it. We’ve patched a lot of holes and jerry-rigged a lot of defects over the years.”
“She can do it, Andy. She has to.”
“I know. I was just thinking, maybe Jimmer…”
“No, Andy. We have to save the boy.”
He paused, then nodded.
“The whole story is just so unreal…” Piper said, staring into the fire.
“Yes,” Andy said quietly.
“And absurd, and tragic…”
“I know.”
“I mean, that little boy never had a mother.” Piper’s voice cracked. “And his father, that son of a bitch just gave him a life of… of chaos, and terror!”
Andy remained silent, letting her vent her emotions.
“I mean, can you imagine being just a baby and having someone do those things to you?” Her eyes filled with tears. “Not knowing that you would heal from whatever they did to you? Just knowing that they kept hurting you, day after day? Your whole life?”
Andy tried not to think about it.
“It’s not fair! Goddammit, Andy! It is not fair!” Her tears now flowed freely. “It was so easy for that asshole to create the boy, and then he just abused him, for twenty years! All his life in a
lab! No love! No hope!”
Andy gently tucked stray strands of hair behind her ear, away from her tear-streaked face.
“He had no one. No one who truly cared about him,” she said.
“He does now,” Andy replied, tears forming in his own eyes.
They sat by the fire and held each other for several minutes.
Finally, Piper said in a whisper, “Why can a worthless piece of shit like Hoff have a child, and we can’t?”
Andy just held her tighter.
“We would have been great parents, Andy. I know we would have.” She sobbed for a moment, then continued. “You are such a good man. Supportive, loyal, protective…and I… I really wanted to be a mom.”
“And you would be a great mom, Piper,” he replied softly, and kissed her forehead. “And I would love to raise a whole pack of kids with you. But it’s just not in the cards for us, babe.”
“I know.”
Together they wept, grieving for their inability to create a child and mourning the tragic path of the innocent boy’s life. Silently they vowed to him, and to each other, that they would do everything within their power to find him.
***
The next morning, there was still a layer of fog on the lake as the team loaded into the Loon. It was customary to wait until the lake was clear before taking off or landing a waterplane, but Andy figured no one else was up this early, so it was safe to proceed. Besides, they had a long trip ahead of them and everyone was anxious to get moving.
Andy pulled his jacket out of the trunk, then handed out blankets, which Rosie and Doc accepted, but Bandit declined. He handed one to Piper as he entered the cockpit, then settled into his seat.
Takeoff was uneventful, and once they were above the fog, the sky was clear and the forecast for another beautiful day was confirmed.
The first couple of hours were quiet, with very little conversation. Eventually Rosie made her way to the cockpit, and Andy asked her a question he had been wondering about.
“Why did Hoff make the kid an albino?”
“I don’t think he meant to,” Rosie said. “In the notes, I found where he referred to the limitations of his first attempt.”
“First attempt? You mean there are others?”
“No, I don’t think so. I never found any reference to any, and Pol was the only one at the lab. But he may have wanted to make others. He thought the decreased pigmentation, or albinism, was due to the increased amount of energy needed for the rapid healing.”
“What were the other ‘limitations’?” asked Piper acidly, looking up from her work on the radar-jamming device.
“His main concern was the delay in aging. He mentioned several times how the slow growth rate was a negative factor with regard to the objective—though he never stated what the objective was.”
“So he didn’t like the low pigmentation or the slow growth. What else?” Andy asked.
“He didn’t like that he could be starved to the point where his healing ability returned to normal. Or that he could drown.”
“Wait—when he didn’t feed him for three months, his healing ability went away?”
“Well, he still healed like a normal person, but yes.”
“He starved him for three months?” Piper said. “And the boy survived?”
“Sorry, I guess I didn’t tell you that,” Andy said.
Piper turned to look at Tuck. “We’re killing that son of a bitch, Tucker.”
Tuck nodded in agreement.
Andy faced Rosie again. “So this kid, Pol, he’s probably going to live for what? A couple hundred years?”
“Totally unknowable at this point. I’m working under the assumption that he’ll live at least three or four hundred years, but he could potentially live forever, depending on what we learn about him.”
Andy sat in quiet awe, considering the possibilities.
“Which is also why it’s so important to educate him,” she added.
“Educate him on what?” Piper asked.
“Everything. He’s extremely intelligent. He’s already quite adept at mathematics, including advanced concepts which I can’t even understand. Apparently my uncle encouraged, and even helped with the math, but he also let him read whenever he wasn’t experimenting on him, and he’s already quite knowledgeable about many, many things. Plus, he has enormous potential for growth. I mean, just think about it… he has several lifetimes he can spend learning. He really could be a huge asset to the human race.”
“If he’s psychologically stable,” Piper said.
“That is a legitimate concern, in light of his life to this point, but the time at my father’s cabin seemed to be very medicinal for him. He’s very logical, and he understands what happened to him, and why his father was doing it, even though there’s a tremendous amount of resentment, as there should be.”
“Does he understand what he is?” Piper asked. “That he’s different from everyone else?”
“Yes, and that seems to be the only real sadness in him. He feels alone, and I suppose he is. He’ll outlive all of us, by hundreds of years.”
***
When they were within an hour of their destination, Andy turned to Piper. “How are things looking on radar?”
“There’s a pretty bad storm on the south end of the island, but we should be fine. The tracer is near the ruins of some city, I don’t know what it was called, about ten miles from the west coast. According to the map there’s a river just to the north, the Potogahela, which pretty much transects the island west to east.”
Piper continued to look at her displays. “So we’re getting close—you guys worried?”
“Nah,” Andy replied. “Just rescuing a superhuman little boy from an evil scientist at a location we know nothing about except that it’s on an island inhabited by mutants. No big deal.”
Tuck grinned through his bushy beard.
“What’s the deal with that?” Piper said. “The demons, I mean. You guys know anything?”
Andy and Tuck gave each other a look.
“C’mon guys,” she insisted. “You’ve gotta tell me what you know.”
“You tell her,” said Andy to Tuck.
Tuck nodded. “Well, Sparky, we’ve heard stories. Not too sure how reliable they are…”
“Just tell me!”
“Okay, okay.” He turned in his seat to face Piper. “We had a guy on our team…”
“Zeta Two?”
“Yeah, Zeta Two. He wasn’t one of the original members. He was a replacement when we lost our artillery man. He was kind of a troubled kid, got into some discipline issues early during his service, but the numbers of people available were low, so I guess they decided to give the guy a second chance and we got stuck with him. Anyway, before he joined us, he was stationed at Rock Hill for several months as punishment for some stupid thing he did. He was always telling stories about the place. And he said the demons are real.”
“And you believed him?”
“He’d seen them. Not in person, but on the cameras they use for surveillance. He said they looked like humans, but deformed somehow, and they acted like cavemen. Not like mindless zombies or something, but just more… primitive, I guess. He said they scared the shit out of him, so he straightened up and managed to get a transfer to our team. He said he would rather die fighting Mexicans than get eaten by a demon.”
“Damn.”
“I know. And according to him, they’re the real reason there’s a base and prison there. To keep the mutants from getting off the island.”
“What?”
“Yeah. He said the only thing he did while he was there was occasionally check on the few prisoners they had, monitor cameras, and repair drones. The drones were tracking the coast, and the Potogahela River, twenty-four hours a day.”
“Are you shitting me?” Piper asked.
“Nope. He also said there was a small building by the river that they were responsible for guarding via drone, but he didn’t know any
thing about it. And given the location you’ve pinpointed, it sounds like that’s exactly where we’re going.”
Piper turned to Andy. “What the hell is going on here?”
“I don’t know, babe, but we’re about to find out.” He pointed out the windshield, where the island was now just visible in the distance.
Chapter 9
As the plane crossed from water to land, Piper spoke up. “Something’s coming in fast, Andy—can’t tell what.”
“What?” Andy asked.
“I said I can’t tell! It looks small, but big… I don’t know.”
“It’s drones,” Tuck said, looking through the windshield. “A bunch of them.”
“Yes—that’s it! A big swarm of small drones coming to intercept us.”
“Dammit!” Andy said. “Everyone hold on! Get ready with the countermeasures!” He gained altitude for a possible swarm-against-one dogfight.
“I thought you said they were used to keep the demons on the island!” Piper said.
“They’re firing,” said Tuck calmly.
“Damn, they’re fast,” said Piper, watching her monitor. The electricity flickered. “What was that?”
“They hit us,” Tuck said. “With like, an EMP or something.”
Piper unbuckled and stood up to look out of the windshield with Tuck. “They’re lasers,” she said, her eyes wide. “They have laser weapons. When the hell did that happen?”
“Lasers?” Andy said. “Since when can lasers be weaponized?”
“I didn’t know they could. Maybe it’s plasma?”
“What’s happening?” Doc yelled from the cabin.
“Just hold on back there! Piper, strap in!”
As soon as Piper was once again buckled in her seat, Andy maneuvered into a dive, getting the drones to follow.
“Hit the measures!” he yelled.
They had installed spare components in the tail to deter pirates, and Piper flicked a switch to release them. But as Andy pulled up and banked, Tuck reported failure. “No good,” he said. “The drones flew right past them. Looks like they’re staying on our east side—like they’re trying to herd us west, back over the water.”