Until now.
In the past month, through various boards and chats, Grandfather sent seven messages, each sounding more desperate than the last.
Nobody lifted the lid off a cookie jar, which drew my attention to the present. He pulled out a whole wheat, raisin, and yogurt chip cookie. “Caren, are you hungry?”
She took the cookie from his hand. Her teeth sliced into it and she grinned, cookie crumbs tumbling down her jumper and onto the floor. Nobody picked up another cookie and held it out to me.
“No thanks.” My lips curled even as my stomach growled with hunger.
“Your loss.”
“Why not just eat the woodwork instead?” I shrugged. “Tastes the same.”
Caren finished her treat and hopped from the counter. “Can I play Cyborg 8?” she asked, referring to the computer game Nobody was currently developing. The same damn game I’d been warring with for four months. A hateful, evil game developed by my roommate just to torture me. A game Caren would probably solve before sunrise.
Nobody scratched his chin. “Bath first then game time.”
She frowned, pointing at the controller in my hand. “But Indeara doesn’t have to take a bath.”
“Honey,” Nobody said. “Indeara is not a role model for femininity. As a matter of fact, from now on whatever you see Indeara doing, you do the opposite.”
I put my feet on top of the kitchen table, sucked down the rest of my beer, and let out a burp. “What? Are you saying I’m not girlie? I’m plenty girlie!”
Nobody raised his eyebrow. “Is that an eyeball stuck to the bottom of your boot?”
Chapter 4
An hour later, stuck on level five of Cyborg and buzzed from too much beer on an empty stomach, I plopped onto my living room sofa, and watched Nobody and Caren solve the next twelve levels. Stupid game.
“Two cops came into Ivan’s today,” I said, kicking off my boots. Nobody grunted, his attention focused on saving the world from winged unicorns armed with Ricen bombs. “They were looking for Quinn.”
He dropped his controller and slowly turned to face me. Caren frowned, but took advantage of his distraction and shot his character in the head. “I kilt you.” She pointed at the screen, and sure enough, Nobody’s Cyborg lay in a puddle of sparks and metal, its curly blonde hair splattered red with blood.
“Go take your bath.” Nobody lifted Caren from the floor and shoved her toward the bathroom. Once she was out of earshot, he faced me. “Quinn? Ex-lover Quinn? Love of your life Quinn?”
I laughed. “Don’t be so dramatic. Yes Quinn.” A frown creased my forehead. “Poor Ivan. It’s one thing to disown your kid. It’s another to stand by while the HOA plots to kill him.”
“That’s family for ya.” Nobody nodded to the blinking message board and my grandfather’s message on it. “Whatever happens, blood is blood.”
“Not always.”
“What’re you afraid of?” He gestured to the nine-millimeter strapped to my thigh. “One little old man?”
“Mind your own business.” I tossed a cushion at his big, ugly head. “Curiosity killed the cyclops, or maybe it was my knife through your gut?”
“I’ll remember to sleep with one eye open.” Nobody turned his back to me and restarted his game. The sound of unicorn screams and exploding metal filled the room.
*****
Sometime in the middle of the night when the moon bounced off the concrete of the wall, I awoke, my body covered in sweat. My heart pounded and my breath came in short gasps, a tingling, like the touch of a ghostly lover arched along my nerves. With an effort of will I uncurled my toes and relaxed against my soaked sheets.
Memories of Quinn’s lean body and tapered hands flickered through my mind, reminding me of the pleasures of the flesh. Pleasure I hadn’t experienced in three long years. Sure, I occasionally dated but no mutant had ever filled the void left in my heart, or my bed. I frowned and quickly dismissed the traitorous fantasy before drifting back to sleep.
The perky voice of my laptop roused me a few minutes later. “You have mail.”
“And you have no soul,” I countered with annoyance. “But we can’t all be perfect.” The laptop remained silent, blinking with computerized condemnation. An email message appeared in my inbox followed by a blaring beep. The bleeping continued until I stomped out of bed and opened my Outlook.
Stupid machines.
Naked and frustrated, I stood in the moonlight glaring at the computer screen as if it held an answer to why I was awake at three in the morning, naked and frustrated.
Damn Quinn.
Ms. Perky computer honked again. “You have mail!”
I rolled my eyes and opened the flashing message. Not overly surprised to see my grandfather, Arthur Resden’s scrawled electronic signature at the bottom.
A perfect end to a perfectly fucked up day.
His message continued in the same vein as the rest he’d sent over the last month. The family needs you…, rightful place…, etc, etc. I scanned through it, and stopped at the last sentence. A lump formed at the back of my throat as I slid to the floor.
The old man was dying.
I stared at the computer screen until my vision blurred. My only living relative was dying, leaving me the last of our bloodline. I was alone. The thought terrified me. Grief, the kind I hadn’t experienced since my parents’ deaths, filled me.
Nobody came into my room and put his hand on my shoulder. “When do you leave?”
“Tomorrow.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
I shot him a half-smile. “Not as sorry as dear old Gramps is gonna be when he gets a look at me.”
Chapter 5
Less than five hours later, wearing my favorite abet only dress, I twirled in front of the mirror and frowned. My hair fell in curly ringlets around my face. My lips and cheeks appeared unnaturally bright. Dark brown lines lined my eyes, drawing attention to their eerie green color. “I look stupid.” I gestured to the woman in the mirror, a woman who looked nothing like me.
Nobody shook his head and scooped up a handful of cereal from the box. “Only a little.”
I stuck my tongue out. “At least I only look stupid.”
“Here.” Ignoring my insult he passed me a computer chip no bigger than a dime. My heart thundered in my chest as my fingers curled around it. In my hands I held freedom. Many mutants had killed and died for a small chip like this one.
“It’ll get you through the gate, but won’t stand up to real scrutiny,” he said. “Oh yeah, it’s also only good for three days.”
“Thanks.” I nodded, tucking the DNA passport into my pocket. “The three day rule is awful Mutantrellaish, don’t you think?”
Nobody glanced down at the too small, black stiletto heels on my feet, shoes borrowed from the still missing Mei’s closet. “Not in your case. But be careful, Princess, a coach turning into a pumpkinmatoe is the least of your worries.”
“I’ll be all right.”
A banging outside our apartment drew our attention. Nobody peeked out of the window keeping his large frame against the wall. “We got trouble. Reptoes. Three of them,” he said gesturing to the three half-human, half-lizard gangbangers tearing apart Mei and Caren’s downstairs apartment.
“I don’t need this today. Get her ready to bug-out.” I waved to Caren, who lay sleeping on our couch tucked under a tent of blankets. As a Luna-child she cycled through life in sync with the rise and fall of the moon. Any deviation would harm her.
Nobody nodded, dropped his box of cereal, and wrapped the tent around Caren’s small body. Footsteps pounded on the stairs outside. Nobody glanced at me, question in his eye.
“Go. Now.” I pointed to the back of the apartment, and the trapdoor that led underneath the building. From there Nobody could disappear into the underground sewer system and hide forever. Not that anyone with a sense of smell would want to, but it was nice to keep one’s options open.
“You sur
e?” He shifted the child in his solid arms and frowned.
“Yeah.” I kicked off my stiletto heels and pointed my nine-millimeter at our front door. “There is only three of them.”
Bam.
The door shook as the first reptoe slammed, what I assumed was his head, against the wood. The steel bar across the doorframe held, but a minute crack appeared just below the door handle.
“Watch your dress. Bloodstains are impossible to get out of silk.” Nobody nodded to my clothes as he and Caren vanished toward the back of the apartment and down the trapdoor. I did not want to know how he knew that.
Bang.
Again, the steel bar held, but the door in front of it shattered showering me with splintered wood. It dug into my flesh, tearing tiny holes in my pantyhose. I glanced down to assess the damage. Damn, all the nail polish in the world wasn’t going to fix those nylon runs.
The first reptoe head appeared through the fractured hole. Calling him ugly would’ve been an understatement. A normal Reptoe fell somewhere around a minus five on the looks scale. This one ranked about ten below that.
At seven-feet tall, he could’ve played forward in the MBA, if not for his green-colored skin, wide, flat forehead, and embarrassingly small tail. He wore a purple bandana around his head indicating his membership to the Loco Reptoe Seven. The Seven was a violent gang of thugs who occasionally worked for the HOA.
Ugly, as I’d nicknamed him, ripped the bar from my door and stormed through it. He growled, sending a plume of stale fly breath into the air.
I shot him in the head.
Blood sprayed my living room walls. Staggering once, the reptoe dropped to the floor, face first. A gooey puddle of brain mush circled his head. I gagged as a stench like spoiled milk and dead frogs erupted from his carcass. Tears burned my eyes, but I kept my gun leveled at the broken door.
A second reptoe, this one a little shorted than his cohort, pushed his way inside the room. I fired. It would’ve been a kill shot except he ducked as my finger squeezed the trigger. My shot went high, blowing off his right ear. Damn.
Grabbing the bloody stump of cartilage that used to be his ear, he yowled in pain. Much to my dismay, a few seconds later a freshly regenerated earlobe began to grow in place of his old one.
Shit.
My finger squeezed the trigger again, but Earless swatted the barrel away before I got the shot off. A burn like the darkest hellfire raced from my elbow to my wrist where his talons shredded my skin. Veins and tendons burst from the wound, rendering my fingers and most of my hand useless. I swallowed back a yelp ignoring the intense pain, as I searched the ground for the nine-millimeter that had flown from my hand. My mutated cells began to repair the damage to my arm as I scanned the floor. Give me an hour and I’d be as good as new.
As long as I survived the hour.
The third and final reptoe entered the fray, and my odds of an unscathed getaway faded. This reptoe meant business. His grey eyes and steel tipped talons glowed with evil intent. His desire to inflict pain radiated from his poreless skin. He’d enjoy watching me bleed. The sick fuck.
“Where’s the kid?” His cold eyes locked on me. “We want the kid.”
“And I want to lose five pounds and for you to get the fuck out of my house.” I let my mind go blank, switching from human emotion to binary assassin. My mutated cells hummed with focus. Primitive focus. Protect. Kill. Destroy. “But it doesn’t look like either of us is gonna get our wish,” I added for his benefit. After all, reptoes weren’t too smart, and I hated subtleties.
Steel Tips nodded, his flat forehead reflecting my own deadened stare in its shiny surface. He and the other remaining lizard crept forward, circling me with cold efficiency. I watched their every move, waiting for the chance to strike. Step closer, I thought willing the more dangerous of the two forward.
With surprising speed Earless tossed his body at me like a Frisbee. I sidestepped and he flew into, and through my wall, landing in the kitchen in a messy pile of broken lizard and dishes. A steak knife stuck out of his sternum. A dull steak knife at that.
Dumb luck, but I’d take it.
Indeara: 2, Lizards: 0.
Drywall dust obscured the air between Steel Tips and me. I lost sight of him and paid the price for my mistake. His talon scrapped across my midsection tearing through my sensitive flesh, puncturing a semi-vital organ or two.
Liver. Maybe my spleen.
“Your death is not honorable.” He twisted his talon deeper ripping away chucks of muscle and bone. “And it will hurt.”
I bit my lip to keep from screaming and stumbled back a few steps, but thankfully I stayed on my feet. His claw popped from my flesh with a wet plop. Pain tore down my nerve endings and chewed its way to my brain. I wanted to puke, to black out, to do anything to stop the icy burn inside my stomach.
Instead, I took a sharp breath and dug my heel into the floorboards. I threw my weight into a full-roundhouse kick, my aim centered on his greenish throat. However, he twisted at the last second, and my blow glanced uselessly off his right shoulder. But I wasn’t done yet. I followed the kick with a punch to the suprascapular nerve running down the backside of his scaled neck.
A direct blow like that would’ve felled a lesser man, but Steel Tips just grinned at me. I was in serious trouble. My blood soaked the front of my dress and splashed onto the floor. I slip twice, nearly falling on my ass, only to recover in time to ward off a barrage of flying lizard fists.
His talon pierced my left side, tearing a hole from my hip to my ribcage. “Where’s the kid?” he asked again.
“Fuck you.” I spat a glob of bloody saliva in his face. “When I’m done kicking your lizard ass, you’re gonna wish you’d never been hatched.”
He chuckled, thrusting his claw in deeper. The steel tip, already inches away from my heart, burrowed closer to the fast beating muscle.
Oh, I’d survive the wound, and the one in my stomach. My mutated cells had already begun to heal me, but a nick to my heart would be fatal. I knew it, and from the heated look in his eyes, he did too.
“You remind me of my momma. She was almost too pretty to die too.” He laughed as he plunged his nail further inside my body. “Maybe if you beg I’ll end it quick.”
Nice offer, but I’d never go out like that, even if I trusted the word of a reptile with mother issues. Grayness seeped into my vision. I was fading fast. It was time to end it. Reaching inside myself to the place where violence raged I found the will to fight, to live, if only to beat the stuffing out of Lizard-Boy.
I leaned into his talon and managed to slam my heel into the fragile patella of his right knee. His claw extended farther into my body, settling somewhere in my stomach, but his attempt at killing me was only half-hearted now. I kicked at his knee again, and he screeched.
Taking advantage of his distraction, I pulled away, scooped up Mei’s stiletto shoe, and jammed it between his bulging eyelids. He staggered back a step, his mouth opening wide but no words emerged.
I spiral-kicked high into the air, ramming the pump deeper into the reptilian cortex of his pea-sized brain. The crunch of heel breaking bone sounded in my ears, and Lizard-Boy dropped to his knees. A pulse of red brain goop spurted from his forehead. His eyes focused on me, going a little cross-eyed, but still his look sent a rush of adrenalized fear throughout my bloodstream.
“Killed by Shirley Fucking Temple,” he said. “Ain’t that a bitch.” His left arm jerked once and he crashed onto the floor.
Chapter 6
Four hours and twenty trash bags later, the only remnants of my brush with death were a stack of black bags filled with reptile parts piled high in the apartment dumpster, a reptoe-sized hole in my kitchen wall, and a ruined silk dress stained with lizard extract. I’d had worse days.
As predicted, my mutant cells healed my wounds in short order leaving me without a single scab or scar. Sure, my body ached in a few new ways, but overall, I was the picture of mutated health. I couldn’t
say the same for my dress, so I slipped into Mei’s abandoned closet, and struggled to pour my size-eight body into her size-three clothes. I hoped Mei was all right, but after the visit from the reptoes, I had my doubts.
Until I could locate Mei, I’d do my best to protect Caren. Really, how hard could it be to raise a kid? Like plants, if you fed and watered them they’d grow. I winced, thinking about last year’s birthday present from Nobody, a once thriving cactus, now just a prickly dirt mound.
I glanced in Mei’s full-length mirror and held back a scream. My hair stood on end as if I’d licked a light socket and my carefully applied makeup had streaked down my cheeks, giving me all the appeal of Ronald McDonald after a one-night stand.
Who wouldn’t want me as a granddaughter, I thought, sticking out my tongue at the mess in the mirror. Oh well. No turning back now. I scrubbed at my face, patted down my hair, hefted my bag over my shoulder, and headed for life beyond the wall.
*****
“Please scan your DNA.” The guard at the gate leaned against the wall, his board eyes flickering over my body. So far, the two-sizes too small dress I’d borrowed from Mei’s closet had worked wonders. My mutant cabbie had offered to carry my bag, a man at the gate offered me his place in line, and now the guard seemed to be paying my boobs more attention than he paid my faked DNA.
Dressing like a girl had its advantages, or so I thought, until my thong took a voyage to uncharted territory. I shifted trying to dig the offending garment from my butt without drawing the guard’s attention to my plight.
“Miss?” The guard nodded to the scanner. “Please scan your DNA.”
“Sure thing.” I smiled, passing my hand with its pilfered DNA chip burrowed under my skin across the glass. A beep sounded and a green light appeared.
The guard waved me through the gate. “Next,” he called without asking for my name or destination. It all seemed anticlimactic somehow, as if I’d spent my life waiting to pass through the gate, and in the end, it looked and smelled just like the other side. The grass was no greener and the air no cleaner.
The Body Dwellers Page 2