Gene slammed the breaks, his cognizance in his super-Ire moment not lost. We both emerged from the car and ran back at the Alfa-Romeo Holliday R-444 truck, also now stopped. We growled and grunted uncontrollably.
Evans, a man with girth and such astounding muscle, removed himself from his truck, also with loud sounds exiting his mouth. He jumped at Gene, but Gene was somehow stronger, able to withstand the leap while taking down the man himself. I, as well, leapt on him and began to throw my overly-clinched fists at his enormous head. Over and over, not a break. The man had to die. The world needed his death.
But that was where the normal burn and kill of the Ire turned in a profound way. I likely would have been beaten to death by Evans, his body far more ample to destroy with bare hands than my own. However, I looked over at Gene during the melee and something was triggered inside me. It was deeper than I could have ever imagined something to be, so far down that the entire force of the world could not reach it. It was something I’d never felt, not even from my siblings. It was unabashed, irrefutable brotherhood.
Gene and I were one unit at this moment. I could almost hear his thoughts and likely he mine. We had only thought that this thing before us, the blood and bones-filled bag of shit, needed to be destroyed. And we did just that. We were faster, stronger, more aggressive, and most importantly, we were more focused on the destruction of Evans than he was of us. Thirty seconds after the fight had ensued, Evans was dead, his head a mangled and leaking relic of what it used to be.
I leaned back and pondered the moment, the normal routine following an Ire kill. Why did I do it? Why did this man have to die? The answers weren’t there, naturally. But now, I got part-two of the new form of the Ire. I knew what was about to happen. Gene would eat the man. Would I join in? Would I have a choice? We were, after all, one unit in this instance.
Don’t do it, Gene. I will not be able to join you in the task. I hoped he read my mind. But alas, he didn’t. He took a wet chunk of brain on the ground, brought it up to his mouth, and took a solid bite from it. He no longer balked, just went in head-first. In another turn, Gene looked at me as to say ‘Please dine with me’. I don’t know, perhaps the fervent nature of brotherhood took me over, but I forced myself to affirm his silent request.
I reached down and grabbed a small portion of brain on the ground. It was very warm, very wet, and very wrong in every possible way. This brain only a minute earlier was used to think, to act, to work. Now it was going to be my meal? Stop, you fool! You’re not this twisted!
Too late. I put probably a teaspoon of the gray stuff in my mouth and began to chew. I can’t honestly describe the taste. Maybe a little metallic, something like wet cauliflower, and a hint of paprika. And the texture neared that of overcooked pasta, perhaps some rubbery quality. I don’t perfectly recall exact details because I’m quite certain I was unable to control myself at the moment. If I had decided not to eat the man, I still would have eaten him.
My memory does not serve me all that well from here on. I may have eaten more, I may have stopped. I recall sitting on my butt with my legs stretched out fully before me as rain began bombarding my head. I sat about ten feet from the area where Gene continued to feast on Evans’ ruined body. I watched my best friend eating a human, the same human I’d helped eat. It overwhelmed me. I passed out.
My eyes opened on the blazing morning sun accompanied by the song of birds in a nearby row of trees. I was in the backseat of Gene’s car with a jacket over me. It smelled bad. Horrid. I looked down to see my clothes still covered in blood from the previous day, explaining that it did actually happen.
“You’re up,” Gene said from the driver’s seat.
“Gene?”
“Morning!”
“Gene, what happened last night?” I knew what happened, I just wanted him to tell me a lie to give me some grain of doubt to grasp.
“Evans is done, Wallace. Asshole didn’t know what we are.”
“What we are? We’re people, just like he is. Was.”
“He wanted to kill us for no reason. We got the best of him with our new Ire. It was glorious.”
And those were the words that sent me over the edge. I knew I had ingested parts of human. It was many, many hours ago. Still, I had to purge. I had to get as much out of me as possible. I jumped up from the seat and out of the car for the creek off the side of the road. I knelt down and attempted to shove my finger down my throat before realizing the emotions made it happen for me. I vomited with passion. My eyes remained closed, not ready to see brains or any other human body parts leave me. I must have vomited half my weight.
Gene rushed over to my side. “Are you okay, Wallace?”
I didn’t say anything, opting to puke a whole lot more out.
“Let it out. Just it the stuff go.”
From my kneeling position I looked up at him, bits of vomit dangling from my mouth and my nose running like a badly mistreated faucet. “You,” I whispered. “You made me commit cannibalism. Gene, why did you make me eat him?” I was engorged with so much rage that I could not let it out, hence the general silence of my retort to the crazed man. “I ate a person.”
“You were never forced to eat him, Wallace.”
“Bullshit! I saw your eyes. They beckoned. I heard your brain. It called for me, Gene. It said ‘Do this with me’. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“Wallace—”
“Tell me I’m wrong, Gene!” I was destroyed. The tears poured from me like a waterfall. I suddenly missed the days when regret after killing was simply the regret of killing. The regret of devouring a person hurt immeasurably worse.
“You performed without coercion,” Gene said. “Wallace, I would not lie about that. If I’d forced you then you know I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. What I do is what I do, not what you do. What you did was decide to join me in that act. I was not responsible, Wallace. You were.”
I began slurping the water like a dog at the bowl. I had to get the taste of human out of my mouth. I hoped all that vomiting had removed it from my system, but I realized too many hours had passed and it was now part of me, to my utter dismay. I could vomit no more. I could drink no more. All I could do was wallow in my grief. I sat on the bank of the creek and stared at the running water.
Gene sat beside me. “Last night—”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Gene.”
“Last night was something new, something of a brand new world. We shared it, Wallace. And here we are, two feet from each other, no Ire in sight. It’s all part of a bigger plan, I believe. I’m not in love with you. No, I’ll never get over losing Jack. Never. But our bond, it’s special.”
“Enough with the fucking bond,” I said in teeth-gnashed mumbles. “We’re not connected.”
“We are, Wallace! You can’t run anymore. Last night was proof.”
“I said shut up about last night.”
“Why hide what happened?”
“Because, Gene, I did what no human was ever meant to do! I took the body of a human, dead for a matter of seconds, and I ate it! I fucking ate it, Gene! I’m every brand of trash. On a molecular level, I’m garbage. On a galactic level, I’m garbage. I will never un-eat that man! Can’t you see that?”
It was now Gene’s turn to get emotional. He stood and walked away to stand in the direction of all the plains before us, and away from me. “We have something special. The fact that we have no symptoms when we’re beside each other is more than enough proof. Yet you are just so stubborn in believing it’s nothing.”
“Goddamn it, Gene! I do believe there’s something there, but why does it have to involve eating humans? That’s the part that gets me, that makes me think you just don’t have everything working right up there. I don’t eat people!”
“It was a moment, okay? I didn’t plan it, you certainly didn’t. But it was there. And it was between us, the bond once again. You chose to eat because I ate as well. Forget the past and all the things you were told is tab
oo from your mommy and daddy and teachers. When the Ire came at us, we were doomed to change forever. Consider this to be part of that change. A metamorphosis of everything, if you will. And try, just try, Wallace, to think of it as something good as opposed to something deplorable.”
“Demons would spit in my eye right now if they existed. It’s that bad, Gene. Nothing you can say will make me accept the feast of another person as a good thing.”
Once again, I’d had it with Gene. I didn’t care at the moment that we broke Mother Nature’s rules. He was evil, pure evil. His words proved to me that he very much enjoyed hunting humans and eating them. I walked away and into the woods. I did not want to go back to Gene’s car, so I didn’t.
~~~~
Chapter 18
Equals Nobody
This place was so strange, these empty plains. I would traverse a lush collection of trees and running water followed by fields of nothing across the hot August horizon. Then more trees. I found a little hill; probably more along the lines of a mound than anything, but still a mild break in topography. But this place was strange because it seemed to accept my very fresh ambition of immediate isolation. I was re-isolating myself in a sense, maybe mourning for the days of the development. They seemed like so long ago, not just a week and a half ago.
This was my independence, my own life as my own person at last. No rules, no leashes, only myself. Why did it take me so long to find this? It was making sense why I chose to remain without a friend for all these years. I was preparing myself for this brand of life.
Where to start? How about that barn structure with a badly broken windmill by it? Sounds good. The wood on the barn was more damaged and weathered than the body of that man I’d eaten the previous day. No! Got to stop thinking about that. It’s too damn soon.
I entered the barn. It smelled of mold and dirt, not animals like it once housed. The farmhouse beside it had been long burned to embers. From my view I could even see a very vivid aged skeleton in the pile, a sign that the people inside likely met the same fate as those houses back in Cosmos. Though only a week and a half removed from that image, I could care less anymore. I was jaded. Eating humans will do that.
I made a bed in the exceedingly dry hay at the top part of the barn. I honestly didn’t expect the loft area to hold, as everything about the barn was beyond a rotted state. It held. I reached in my pocket for my cell. I’d not checked to see if Gene had tried to call since I abruptly left.
But my cell wasn’t there. It was in Gene’s car. Brilliant. I thought of it as a positive thing, a fresh start to a fresh mind. Thinking of Gene would only bury me deeper into misery. Oh, I was still miserable. I tried to hide it, to tuck it in, but it would not work. Life with that man was a joke and a nightmare all at once. If only the previous day was really a nightmare and not a gloriously terribly fact.
I was becoming a bit cold. I was also growing hungry—all the food I’d eaten in recent days was gone thanks to my violent vomiting episode. But nowhere, not anywhere I could ever think, was there food. Starvation for Wallace Auker was imminent.
I lit a fire in the loft using matches I’d found in a crate on the ground floor of the barn. The inside of the crate also contained a soft-core dirty magazine from 2004, a rusted pistol sans ammo or magazine, a very tiny spiral-bound notebook and pen well-preserved inside a plastic baggy, and a pig skull. I took the notebook and pen. It was something different for me.
I kept the fire maintained safely inside a large iron wok-looking thing. As it raged, I opened the notebook and inspected its contents. It was a diary of sorts by a boy. My eyes were opened to both the story and the nearly unreadable, grammatically dreadful chicken scratch throughout the notebook.
My name Lawrence Piper an Im 13 year olds an from Black Wolf Kansas. I hope sombody read this becaus Im scared. People all started to killeachether all suddin for no reason an I feeled somthing to. The day is Agust 1 and the years is 2030. I cant find my dad. I thank he mite have ben killed by all the stuff when it happend. My mom is probly dead to. My sisters our probly dead to I thank. I dont no why people half to killeachether today an Im real scared. I found this notebook in moms dressor an ran for the barn becaus I dindt want to git that feling again. I hav food with me so I May eat it I hope it last awhile becaus I dont no how long I be up here in this barn.
Itis midnite now and Im cold an my house is onfire. I thank one of my sister’s was in there an she is probly dead or she died urlier I dont no. I run outof food alredy an Im hunrgy an I want some more food. I herd of the radio of thangs like this all over the world rite now an nobaudy can explan why its hapening. Im steel scared an I hope I dont feel that feling again when I did the morning.
Im hurngy steel an I want to find food I dont no where to look the next house is to miles way. I ben up in this barn for a day an I thank the world has gon crazy becaus every one is dieing all over the radio sais thay are. I can smell the smoke from my burned house an it smells bad. I cryed lots last nite an I no why becaus I thank this is theend of the wordl. I will try an go find food today an hope I dont git that feling again it dusnt feel good.
I thank its Agust the therd becaus I rember when I poot the date in this book a cupple days ago I dont no I coud jus go back an look I gess. I found a cake in a house a cupple miles way today an it was stail but taste ok I thank. I will go for moer food latr becaus I thank I need moar then cake. Meat woud taste good to.
I lookd athe left over from my house an I find burnd body of my siser shes dead. Im gone end my writng in this notebook becaus I thank the world is endin an there willbe nobaudy to wread it in the futore. I will put itin the crate in this barn. I am gon go to the lake an drown my self becaus I dont want live any mor. I miss every one an they are not comng back good bye every one I hope too meet you all in the after here.
I couldn’t help but produce a tear, followed shortly by many more. I could feel the kid’s fear in those words. I felt the loneliness that he somehow knew he was going to endure. The pain of every bad emotion mixed together into one lurid potion of his words gave me some perspective. I was in pain, had been for twenty years. However, like I did twenty years ago, I opted to survive. I chose to live rather than ending myself. It was a sentiment I’d somehow forgotten. Little Lawrence Piper could not handle it. Little Wallace Auker, on the other hand, could and did.
So what that I’d eaten some human bits? Well, it really was a very big deal that I had eaten human bits, but that was the past, albeit only about a day old. Nevertheless, damn me for letting it drive me the way it did, for my future was all that mattered. I was alive this long for some reason. I would have to continue longer, and I likely would need Gene to make it happen.
Gene. That psycho. Why did I need him? He brought nothing but agony and dread to my life, or at least that’s what he did anymore. It was a transition from a gleaming soul to a brooding devil in such a short period of time. I let myself get emotionally abused by him in the past week. I had to reexamine this somewhat outside the box. Gene never actively tried to hurt me, and even when he did hurt me he still couldn’t understand it as a painful thing. The same concept could be said of a cat that tends to bring dead animals to the door as gifts. They are all about love, not the morbid acts of catching the gifts. Gene saw in me the brotherhood that I somehow found while feeding on Evans. While I would no longer eat another human, I had to rejoin that brotherhood, if only for the sake of my own humanity and sanity.
It had become quite obvious that I needed to remove myself from that barn, to go back to Gene and say I’d take him the rest of the way to Oklahoma. After all, he was the only person I’d talked to in person in two decades and that just couldn’t be tossed aside. Too important. I would go find him in the morning, if I could.
But nature had dominion over me. I tried to doze off under the humid stars I saw through the cracks in the roof of the barn. An ember escaped the wok and onto the floor of the barn loft. With so much moisture lately, it amazed me just how easily the
floor caught fire. Within a minute the fire had spread to three or four adjoining floorboards.
I watched the fire without any real urgency on my part to leave. It didn’t bother me that this barn, a relic of a time forgotten by the Ire, would be burnt to a crisp in a few short moments. And I had no intention on calling the barn home whatsoever. I was in no immediate danger; if the flames came closer, I’d just climb out the window behind me using the ladder to the ground. No biggie.
The flames very rapidly jumped up from the few boards and quickly engulfed the entire area of the loft. Alright, no more time to watch. I had to exit the barn. As I turned around to the window, I saw the area before it had also become involved with fire. The ladder leading to the inside of the barn suffered the same fate.
“Just go through it,” I growled.
I quickly lunged for the center ladder, landing on my stomach before it. Flames danced across my clothes and a little on my arms. I quickly began to descend the ladder only to see my shirt had been ripped halfway off, the victim of a stray nail jutting from the floorboard near the ladder. I would later find the gaping wound in my stomach directly related to this nail.
Once at the bottom, I took a quick glance up to see the roof had become consumed in fire and spread at the rate of almost a foot every five seconds. I immediately turned and ran out of the barn, leaving in the inferno the notebook from the little dead boy.
There was a direct parallel of this occurrence to that of little Lawrence Piper. I could not remain in the barn, lest I become the wastes of nature. Lawrence’s reason for leaving was exactly the same, as he would fall victim to the elements if he’d remained in the barn. I pitied the boy, as his destination was his sure death while my current destination was possibly a good life.
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