by R. S. Scott
Karen stumbles into my room dressed in a T-shirt. “Karen.” I leap up in time to catch her fall. “Karen?” She struggles through blood-shot eyes and swollen cheeks. She smiles.
“Steve?” Karen laughs loudly. “Steve, what are you doing here? How did you get here?”
“Karen, are you high? On something?” I ask.
“I’m high, on life.” She again bursts out laughing and kicks the air. “Come here.” She kisses me deeply.
“Oh my God, peyote,” I say and spit and wipe my mouth. “That’s disgusting.”
“Jess liked it, but I only like it when I’m so high on life.” Karen laughs again. “Hey,” she points to the ceiling, “There’s a bird up there, like upside down, sitting upside down on the ceiling.” She gazes with defeated, dulled eyes. “It’s probably high on life too.” She forces a laugh.
“Jess is here?” I struggle with a disruptive Karen. “Hey, Jess is here? Where? Where are we? Karen?”
“Oh, something touched me.” She struggles to her feet, then glares at the earthen floor. “Are those ants? They’re so small.”
“Karen, come sit,” I say and lead her to the table. “How did you get here?”
“I walked, Keller, you should try it,” she laughs.
“Stay here.” I walk to the entrance to my right where Rebecca went. It is earthed. I approach the doorman, then past him to the other entrance. Again, it is earthed. “What the fuck?” I return to face the doorman. “I’d like my gun back, please.” He glares at me. With our eyes locked, I slowly reach and pull my gun, I back away. I turn to Karen who has fallen onto the ground. I turn back, and the doorman is gone. “What the hell is going on?” I examine the pistol. “Yes, this is my gun.”
I pull the magazine. It is full. I remove the top rail. The trigger assembly has been replaced. I hold a live weapon. I return to Karen who struggles to get to her feet. “Karen, how did you get in here?”
“Same way I did,” Daren Monroe appears behind me. I pull my pistol.
“I want out of here, fuck your plans. I’m leaving, get me out of here! Now!” I fire at his right leg. “Now!”
The round hits the cedar behind him.
“I’ll take that.” The weapon flies out of my hand and into his. “If I were here, that would have hurt a lot, Keller. Don’t do that again.” He pulls a flask from his pocket. “You want out of here, drink up. Texas wild tea, peyote mixed with green tea. It’s not bad at all. It has a bite to it, but not too bad.”
“I’m not drinking that.” I help Karen off the floor. “Fuck you and your tea.”
“The first drink is something you have to do on your own, Keller. You have about seven hours of oxygen left. The sooner we get started the better.”
“Where’s Jess?” I ask.
“That’s your blond whore? The white woman that we picked up at Borderland? The moon rose over the eastern constellations when she stumbled in.” He laughs. “There we were chanting, and she comes walking in. The medicine man freaks out and leaves, calling her a devil.” Daren looks on. “She was looking for you. Had a flat tire, but still, her intentions were innocent and bold. There she was, she was coming to claim her man. Against all that was happening, she was there to get you. Didn’t care about other things, wanted her tire fixed. We fixed her tire, gave her some peyote, and here we are. That woman has balls. Few Navajo women will go that far for their men. Most will just walk away. I can see why you like her. Anyway, drink up.”
“Did you hurt her?” I ask.
“I didn’t. But I can’t speak for others,” Daren smiles. “I’m just not into white women. They smell, and they act so…entitled. Not my thing. It might be yours but not mine.” I sit cradling a weeping Karen. “Drink up or die in here. Simple as that.” He steps backward and vanishes. I scurry to the site where he stood. Nothing, not even footprints.
“Karen, did you see that?” I turn to see Karen sipping from the flask. I rush over. “Give me that, don’t drink this. Damn it, Karen!”
“Over there.” She points at the wall. “Simon, and Tracy, right there.” Her index finger trembles. “Right there, hi! Hi, guys! Hi!”
“Where?” I turn to the empty cedar-lined, musky room. “Karen, where? Where?”
“Right there,” Karen says, pointing at nothing.
“Shit!” I stand pondering my options. “Screw it, bottoms up.” I take one swallow.
“No!” Karen knocks the flask from my hand. “No.” The bottle empties onto the earthed ground. “No.”
I lead Karen back to the table. I pull a root beer from the cooler Rebecca had brought. “It was only one swallow, just one.” I open a can. “Let the good times roll!” Karen and I share a root beer.
A door appears to the right. Sage smoke starts to seep in. Karen opens another soda, takes one sip and hands it to me. My thirst is voracious. I drink all of it in several swallows. I note the smoke lingering, then moving toward the other wall where another door appears. I point to the smoke, as it seems alive. It contorts and weaves about, mimicking boats on water, moving about with the waves and currents. I smile. I turn to Karen. “Wow.”
“What?” She smiles a seductive smile and licks her sultry lips. “What is it?”
“You’re…beautiful,” I say.
“Aw, thanks, Keller.” She squeezes my hand. I gulp another can of soda.
I point to the dancing smoke. “Look at that, isn’t that so cool?” It then turns into different shades of orange and green. “Wow.” I look down to a void. The earthed ground seems translucent. “What the fuck?” I look about then nearly fall. “The root beer, it’s in the root beer.”
We are led down a corridor of earthen halls dimly lit, varying in grades as we descend, then stagger up some stairs. “Where are we?”
“Keep walking, Keller. That’s some good root beer, huh?” Daren laughs.
We appear back on earth ground, in a house centered north on the Nelson compound. I recognize the massive lava butte beyond the dirty window. The walls seem to move at their free will. I walk but then do not. I turn to gaze in different directions, my vision then holds what I had just seen for mere seconds, then fades away. I feel no pain, yet I am more aware than ever. I am plenty high on peyote.
I forcibly enter Karen. Her legs tighten, and a grimacing yelp escapes her lips. She pulls my shirt and quickly we are face to face. I can feel her breath on my chin. I look up at the wall opposite in sheer defiance.
“Come on, Keller, you animal. You will name your son after me, won’t you?” Daren paws at Jess who now wears a mask of pure disgust.
“Please don’t hurt me.” Jess recoils.
“Keller! You bastard, you will do what your great grandfather failed to do. Come on, get busy!” Daren grabs my rear belt and shoves me forward. I go deeper into Karen as she yells. Daren pulls me back then forward. Again, I glare at the wall in defiance. In the distance, a house ignites. A hogan with a lava wall starts to burn. Flames dance up to and beyond the mud covering as a giant spider perches on top, engulfed in flames. With its many faces and terrible eyes, it weeps.
“More juice!” He puts a dirty cup to my mouth. Warm sour soup enters my mouth. “Swallow it! Strong stuff, isn’t it, Keller?” Daren laughs, “We’re not giving her any more peyote, but your white bitch can have some more.”
He hits me on my left brow with his bat. I crumble onto Karen.
“Stop!” I hear Karen, her voice trembles. She wraps my pounding headache with her arms. “Please stop.”
He hoists me up again. “Look alive, Keller. We’ve only begun.”
My senses seem alive but sedated. The walls move but do not. The smoke from the fire moves with a mocking face and laughs, but does not appear to do so. With my left hand, I steady myself, but I fail to sense it is happening. Daren hits me across the right shoulder with his bat. “You can still feel that don’t you? Give it a few more minutes.” He hits the same spot again. “You will let me know, won’t you, Keller. When that arm starts to live
on its own?” He hits me again.
Daren hits me on the right brow with his bat. Nerves there scream and pulsate. “You fucking amateurs, what do you know about copulation? Absolutely nothing. Come here, bitch.” He grasps Karen and puts her on her hands and knees in front of me. I turn and eye the doorman to see him laughing. Jess whimpers with eyes closed, her hands bound to the doorpost. The doorman kicks dirt onto her face.
“Let’s see you, Keller. Damn, you’re ready for this aren’t you?” I reach down to cover my crotch. I use my other arm to steady myself. My hands are where I sent them, but I fail to sense they are there. I look down to see Karen, still wearing a sock on her left foot. The walls seem to move on their own with massive insects climbing on them. A snake appears in the corner, watching, almost speaking in an audible voice.
“Bite this!” Daren shoves a measure of folded straw into Karen’s mouth. “Bite it, you bitch! Bite! Bite hard!” Karen obliges as Daren brings a piece of cedar and places it between her hands. “Grab it, like your life depends on it, grab! Now!” Karen grasps the cedar. “Crush it! Press into it with all your might! Now squeeze it hard!” Karen obliges and tenses. “Crush it!”
Karen’s back muscles contract.
“Harder you bitch! Harder! Come on, what’s the matter with you, you fucking whore! Harder!” Karen arches and trembles, muscles tightening tighter and tighter. “Put your back into it, you slut!”
Daren comes behind me and shoves me into Karen. It’s sensitive, far more than ever as the surrounding walls become alive and twist into itself. I pull backward readying to roll into a ball and cower into a dark corner. I feel embarrassed and deeply shamed, a debilitating shame, a soul-wrenching shame. I wish for death.
He pulls me backward then forward back in as a scream comes from Karen.
“Faster you monster! Faster!” His shoves continue until my legs are soaked, and Karen collapses. I stand, drunk on pleasure.
“I’m making a man out of you, Keller.” Daren grasps me by my neck, “You can’t be a Rainmaker, but we have the next best thing, don’t we? Officer Keller.” He laughs. “A variant of a corn god you will be…eventually. You will be the one to kill the beast in the mountain to the west. You.” Daren points his index finger at me, “You need to unlearn your ways and become a slayer. The rest of these people you don’t need.”
“Let them go, please,” I say.
“Why? Keller, why?” Daren asks.
“Because I ask.” I feel nerves again come alive in my right shoulder. I have been struck again with the aluminum bat.
“Why the hell would I do that?” Daren says.
My sight starts to fade. Then darkness envelops my senses.
“Keller! Wake up, you monster!” Daren yells.
I am groggy and desperately weary beyond description.
“That peyote won’t last long, but only as long as it needs to.” He laughs.
The earth seems unbounded, the walls seemingly invisible. I struggle to my feet with feet that will not cooperate with my cognitive commands. I fall yet again.
“Keller, get over here.” I seem obedient as I stumble to Daren’s table. “You recognize her?” In the distance is Jess, unclothed.
“Now, do your worst with all you have learned in the white man’s art of romance. Do your worse, take her and make her yours,” Daren commands.
“Jess, I’m so sorry,” I say and fall to my knees. “Please, forgive me. I’m so sorry, I’m sorry.” I sob.
“It’s OK, Steve, it’s OK.” Jess looks on with comforting eyes. “It’s OK.”
“Fuck her, you beast, fuck her!” Daren’s voice echoes loudly.
“Steve, my dear Steve. It’s OK. Come. I’ll take care of you.” She approaches me. I look down at her feet where a void seems to exist.
I back away. “A spider, oh no.” I look away frantically.
“Steve, come to me. Steve, fuck me. Come fuck me, please.” She glides effortlessly on long archaic arachnid legs. Bending at the all the wrong points where a knee or elbow should bend. “Steve, my dear Steve. Come to me.”
I recoil backward.
“No, no! I hate spiders, no!” I back away to the opposite wall where a rattlesnake looks on. It snakes away void of any rattling. I cover my eyes as my nerves come alive and goose bumps become mountains that collide loudly and violently against themselves again and again. “I hate spiders, no.” I tremble uncontrollably.
A voice appears. “Keller, you must do this, my son, please.”
“Father? Is that you?” The arachnid limbs seem on top of me. The arachnid limbs make contact. Sharp, small claws penetrate my skin. “Father? Help me, please! Help me!”
Daren’s voice breaks the madness. “Fuck her, Son, do it! Now! Now!”
I hesitate and weep. I cover my face with my hands. “No.” Through my fingers I see a giant arachnid, its long limbs squat over my waist as its many rows of eyes glare into my soul. “No.”
The darkness seems to retract. Loud blasts ring out in my ear. The sun seems alive around me. The room is filled with inhuman cries and ballistic cracks.
“Keller! You OK? Keller! Where are his clothes? Keller?” I look up to see Holden, standing tall hoisting a machine pistol and a flashlight. I whimper in fright. I know I am safe.
“Jess? Where’s Jess?” I reach out to Holden, out of an automatic reaction. “Jess, where’s Jess?”
“Steve, you OK?” Holden asks.
“No, I drank the stuff, I think. He made me drink the stuff. I drank a lot of the stuff,” I say.
“Peyote. Here, put on your clothes. Jess, you too. Karen? You OK? Karen? Untie her. What the hell happened here? Put that club down, put it down!” Gunshots ring out, I lay limp, I am so tired. I hear Jess scream.
A loud commotion ensues beyond the walls as gunfire erupts. I lay still, unsure what to do next.
CHAPTER 21
I sit in the Polacca emergency room wearing a light blue gown. The room is cold as are the stainless steel instruments the doctors use. I drink my fifth bottle of water with a commotion in the next room. I ignore it and stare at the floor. The floor tiles are irregular, the corners of the room are dusty and dirty, the tiles are also misaligned.
“Officer Keller, how do you feel?” The Hopi doctor asks.
“My head still feels funny, and I had to turn that light the other way. It’s too bright,” I say.
“That’s understandable.” He returns, “Your tests came back negative. You do not have any STD or any other infections.”
“Thanks, Doc.”
“You do need to rest, though. Sleep is essential, but I know that might be a bit difficult considering the amount of peyote you ingested.” The Hopi doctor looks on.
“Thanks, Doc. I’ll try and sleep. Wake me if I start fidgeting,” I say.
“I’ll pass that on to the nurse. I’ll get you another blanket, as well. And we’ll put you in your own room shortly.” The doctor turns to leave.
“Hey, Doc. How are Karen and Jessica?”
“As good as can be. Jessica did not ingest as much peyote as you both did but the severe psychological trauma is there considering what you three just endured. Just give it time. Karen became violent initially, but as the effects began to wear off, she’s doing better.”
“Thanks, Doc. Appreciate all your work.”
“Not a problem.” The Hopi doctor leaves the room. I stare at the corner lamp. I close my eyes and again see a bloodied haze, a madness contorting and eating itself. Of loud screaming and unimaginable anguish. I open my eyes and stare at the lamp. I’m too terrified to sleep.
“Morning, how’s your head?” Holden waltzes into my room.
“What’s up, Holden.” We shake hands. “Good to see you.”
“How are you feeling?” he asks me.
I sit silently holding my fork over my breakfast. “Hard to say. When I close my eyes, I see it all over again. I start shaking and get scared. Nightmares, too. Damn.” I scoop scrambled eggs into m
y mouth. “You see Karen? How is she?”
“She’s…OK. She’s scared, pretends she’s not, but she is. Sleeps with all the lights on and has nightmares, too. And Jess won’t talk to anybody. A medical courier came for her yesterday night.”
“What? And you tell me now?” I say.
“She didn’t want you to know. She left you this envelope before she left,” Holden hands me an envelope.
“What the hell is this?” I see metallic items inside. “Oh shit.” I toss it at the adjacent table. “I guess that’s that.”
“It was Tracy. She led us to you, knew exactly where you guys were, told us exactly what to say and what to use to get into that room in the mountain,” Holden says.
“Mountain?” I ask.
“We didn’t go in, we didn’t have to, and the burning hogan gave it away.”
“Is Tracy still in Phoenix? With the feds?” I ask.
“Yes, but they killed that soldier trying to get him to do something he didn’t want to, so they let Tracy out. She’s still in the hotel. They don’t want her coming back just yet,” Holden relays.
I sit bewildered. I retrace my thoughts. “Daren, where is he? He kept hitting me with his bat.” My right shoulder aches terribly.
“The hunt is on for him,” Holden confirms.
“But you guys had him. When you came in, he was there in that room,” I say, bewildered.
“No, but his guys were there. They put up a fight, and we ended up killing half of them. Just a big shootout against idiots who can’t aim.”
“Then what happened?” I ask.
“We went back to the mountain room Tracy told us about. It was empty, so we fired up five gallons of diesel, and there he was. He took off westbound. None of us ever seen a man burning and moving that fast. It was like watching one of those volcano shows on TV, with the lava bombs flying out, but it was Daren,” Holden says.
“He was on fire and still ran?” I say and finish my breakfast.
“Yeah, and Tracy’s dad, Daryl, is out and about now. Trying to be some sort of informant, pretending to be a turncoat or something just as stupid. We don’t trust him. He says he didn’t know his brother was still alive. Nobody believes his lying ass.”