by Jon McGoran
Just as I reached the top of the steps, I heard the door to the corridor opening behind me downstairs, then footsteps running on concrete. I tore open the door at the top of the steps and burst into a bustling kitchen. I recognized the staffers who had served dinner the night before, but working among them were chimeras, who all seemed damaged somehow, with withered arms or legs, or other deformities. Not good enough to hunt.
Some of them looked up at me as I burst through, unalarmed, unconcerned, just vaguely defeated as they went back to their work. I couldn’t tell what the chimeras had been spliced with. The last one to look away from me appeared to be a cat chimera, except for her arms, which seemed vaguely reptilian. She was peeling carrots with a gnarled hand.
I went up to her and said, “Do you know Rex, the really big dog chimera?” I held my hand high above my head to indicate his height.
She shook her head.
“How do I get out of here?” I didn’t know where I needed to go, I just needed to get away from whoever was chasing me.
The far wall had two doors. She pointed her peeler at the one on the right.
“Thanks,” I said.
As I turned to go, I saw a knife rack in front of her. I put my hand on the largest knife and looked at her. She cocked an eyebrow and shrugged, showing a hint of a smile. I took the knife and darted out the door.
The hallway I stepped into was like a different world. The walls were the same warm tones as the dining hall, and the floor had the same plush carpeting. I could hear the muffled approach of heavy footsteps. Directly across from me were three doors, evenly spaced twenty feet apart. I felt like a contestant on an old television game show. But this was no game, and I had to make a decision, fast.
I ran to the door to the right, flung it open, and dashed through.
In my mind I heard a game show buzzer: WRONG!
SEVENTY-NINE
I was standing near the front of an enormous ballroom, much bigger than the dining hall. There must have been thirty tables, each with at least six people. Most of the tables were occupied by chimeras, but the ones at the far side appeared to be rich, old white men. All of them had WellPlants. They were surrounded by a cadre of servants, standing behind them. Some had stacks of luggage as well, as if they had just arrived or were just leaving. I knew they were supposed to be the sponsors of this place, but a chill ran through me as I considered why they were really there.
To my right, at the front of the room, was a stage in front of a massive set of windows. Jasper was on stage with Del, one hand on his shoulder, the other holding a microphone. His mouth was open, like he’d been in the middle of addressing the crowd.
But he wasn’t speaking now. And they weren’t looking at him. They were looking at me, wondering what I was going to do.
I was wondering the same thing.
Seconds ticked by as I scanned the crowd. I spotted Rex sitting toward the back, staring at me intently, his muscles tensed, ready to act on what I said. Pell and Ruth and Sly were with him, their faces startled and concerned, the remnants of smiles slowly fading from their faces.
I was almost starting to doubt myself, wondering if I had somehow gotten it all wrong, when I spotted Mayor Randolph from Pitman sitting with the funders, glaring at me. He wasn’t wearing his H4H pin.
Then I saw Timms, staring at me, tapping his lips.
“Jimi, what are you doing here?” Del said, exasperated, annoyed I had messed up his party, almost like he was disappointed in me. He had no idea.
I looked around the room. Things were going to explode into chaos and mayhem when I said what I’d come to say.
I looked right at Del. “Pinecone Rock, remember?”
“Yeah, but . . . what about it?” He looked embarrassed.
I looked at Ruth and Rex, making sure they’d heard. Rex nodded.
“Ms. Corcoran,” Jasper said, “we’re in the middle of our sponsors’ banquet. The generous people who fund our mission have traveled a long way to meet the brave young chimeras that they are helping bring to Chimerica.”
He nodded at the back of the room, and a pair of guards began edging toward me.
“There’s no such thing as Chimerica,” I said.
A murmur ran through the room. If I didn’t have all the chimeras’ attention before, I had it now.
“These men aren’t here to save you,” I said, my voice rising above the buzz. “They’re here to hunt you.”
Jasper laughed. “Ms. Corcoran, that’s preposterous.” Even as he said it, he was flicking his hand at the guards, gesturing for them to hurry up.
“Is it?” I said, backing away from them. “Then why is the mayor of Pitman here?” I looked at Mayor Randolph. “I notice you’re not wearing your H4H pin. Here in disguise, huh?” Then I turned back to Jasper, pointing at Timms. “And why is Timms here? Howard Wells’s right-hand man?” I looked at Timms. “Did H4H give you the day off?”
The chimeras all gasped. It was a strange amalgam of sounds, all those different species and splices and mixtures, all exclaiming involuntarily.
Now I looked at Del. “It wasn’t until I got home that I remembered where I recognized him from—marching with Wells, and with your dad, Del. The day after you disappeared, Timms was at a rally with these hatemongers. Practically running it.”
The guards were getting closer, and I backed away from them, toward the middle of the room. The chimeras backed away from me, unsure and not wanting to get caught up in whatever trouble I was causing. I held up the knife and waved it through the air, making the guards step back, too.
“Jasper isn’t here to protect you from the people of Pitman. He’s packaging you up for them. For Game Day. It’s a tradition in Pitman, isn’t it, Mr. Mayor? The pride of your town. Or at least it used to be, until there was nothing left to hunt. But now it’s back, right? I’ll bet you’ve got people coming from all over, don’t you? Probably paying some good money.”
“Jimi, what are you talking about?” Del said, his voice weak, confused. But he already understood. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.
“Now that chimeras aren’t legally people, there’s plenty to hunt,” I said. “And not just squirrels and raccoons—for the right price, you can hunt giraffes, leopards . . . even a Bengal tiger, if you don’t mind a little human mixed in.”
I looked out at the room full of chimeras. “You call this place Haven. They call it the Pitman Exotic Game Preserve,” I said. “And you chimeras are the exotic game.” Then I lowered my voice. “Just like Ryan was.” I felt a tear roll down my cheek, and I looked over at Rex and Ruth and Pell and Sly. “He didn’t make it.”
There was a moment of absolute quiet. Then Del turned to Jasper. “Is this true?” His voice cracked, his face crumbling.
Every eye in the place turned to watch them, including mine.
Jasper shook his head, almost bashful. He looked at his feet, then out at the sponsors’ tables.
He stepped away from Del. “Frederick,” he said, calling to the far side of the room. “Maybe you should explain.” He followed that up with a solemn nod.
One of the men sitting with the funders stood with a shrug and said, “A little unorthodox, Jasper, but what the hell.” He turned and whispered to the servant standing behind him. Then a gasp ran through the crowd and everyone ducked as he turned back with a hunting rifle in his hands, and he brought it up to aim.
Without thinking, I threw the knife at him. I’d never thrown a knife, and we weren’t that close. It didn’t spin through the air and sink into his chest. It tumbled, almost lazily. I was worried it might not even reach his table, much less hit him, but the handle hit his arm and it bounced up and sliced his chin.
I was trying to disrupt his aim, make him miss Del, and I succeeded. The gun went off with a bang and a hole appeared in the massive window behind Del and Jasper. Cracks radiated out from the bullet hole, turning the entire thing cloudy. It hung in place for an instant, then it dissolved, raining down in a mi
llion little pieces.
The chimeras scrambled in sudden pandemonium. Frederick screamed, “You bitch!” and turned the gun toward me. The two guards closed on me, and as I dove for the floor, one of them screamed with a bullet in his thigh. A bullet meant for me.
I scrambled for the door. Rex and the others were lost in the crowd. I could smell the electricity, hear the sound of guards shocking the chimeras. I was almost at the door when Del let out a roar. I turned and saw him towering over Jasper, who was cringing in fear. Del swiped one hand across Jasper’s face. Four deep gashes appeared, one almost severing his nose.
Del turned to the room and roared again, louder. His voice thundered, “I’ll kill you all!” He turned and leaped through the smashed window, disappearing into the night.
EIGHTY
When I got back to the door I had come through, I found it locked behind me. They were all locked. I fought a moment of panic as the guard pushed his way toward me, using his shock batons to cut a path through the mass of terrified chimeras jammed up against the other doors. I caught a glimpse of Rex slamming into one of those doors. It buckled and gave way, and chimeras began streaming out through it.
But the guard coming after me was blocking my way to that door, so I decided to go the same way Del had, up onto the stage and out the window. I didn’t know what to expect, but as I got closer, in the light spilling out, I was relieved to see a small deck about six feet below the window, and the lawn maybe eight feet under that.
I jumped through the window and onto the deck, swung over the railing, and lowered myself as far as I could before dropping the last few feet. A lot of the others began doing the same. When I looked up from where I’d landed, I could see chimeras leaping through the air above me, illuminated by the light coming from inside. Some stuck the landing and some hit hard, but they all took off running, streaming across the lawn in every direction.
I heard a crackling, sizzling sound as a guard and a chimera tumbled through the air over my head, the guard shocking the chimera with his baton in midair. The chimera screeched and they both landed awkwardly, with a sickening snap. The baton landed several feet away.
The chimera rolled away, shaking her head, dazed from the charge. The guard got up, too, one arm dangling bent and useless. His good hand reached for the baton, but I got to it just before he did, snatching it away as his hand closed on empty space. He turned and looked at me with a face twisted in pain and anger and hatred. I jabbed him in the belly with the baton. His eyes rolled up as the rest of him dropped down. I gave him a few seconds for good measure, understanding now the urge to hold it there like Del had. I could feel the rage in me, compelling my arm to push that baton hard into his gut and keep it there until he was dead.
But I didn’t. I let go and left him moaning and coughing on the ground. Then I ran off, trying to figure out what to do next. I wished I had Rex to help me figure it out, and for a moment I felt a blast of devastating fear and sadness at the thought he might not be okay. But I pushed that aside. I had to think.
Game Day wasn’t until tomorrow, but fenced in the way we were, it might as well have been Game Day right then. If the hunters had night-vision goggles, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel, and that’s really what those sick bastards were paying for.
As I headed toward the trees, headlights swung out from behind the lodge, sweeping across the lawn. Looking back, I saw a pickup truck with half a dozen guards in the back. One of them reached out and shocked a chimera, then jumped out to handcuff him. Almost immediately, another guard did the same.
The woods were alive with blue sparks. It looked almost like fireflies, but I knew they were chimeras being shocked in the darkness.
Unless I did something about the fence, they would eventually get all of them. All of us. And in a couple of days, we’d all be dead.
I looked back at the truck as yet another of the guards shocked a chimera and jumped off to immobilize him.
The pickup bounced violently as it crossed the dirt road, almost pitching the two men still in the back. Then it curved around, heading in my direction. They’d seen me.
The driver’s window was open. It gave me an idea.
I held my baton close to my body and ran slowly, veering to the left so the truck would come up on my right. I could see the headlights streaming around me, hear the motor noise getting louder, closer. It took every ounce of willpower to maintain my pace and not turn around. From the corner of my eye I saw the front of the truck just pulling even with me. When I saw the side mirror, I turned and threw myself at the driver’s window.
One of the guys in the back of the truck lunged forward, his baton spearing the air where I had just been.
I dove through the window, jamming the tip of my baton under the driver’s ear. He clenched the wheel tight and his foot must have jammed down hard against the brake, because we slammed to a stop.
My ribs smashed painfully against the window frame. The guy who had tried to shock me flew over the front of the truck, tumbling through the air and landing in a heap twenty yards away, lit up by the headlights. The guy still in the back slammed hard against the cab and crumpled to the bottom of the truck’s bed.
I kept my baton jammed under the driver’s ear. His eyes were rolling up, and his mouth was foaming, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I didn’t pull the baton away until I had the door open. The truck started rolling forward again, and I grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him to the ground.
He wasn’t wearing a seat belt.
As I got in, I made sure to buckle up before I jammed my foot on the accelerator and drove down the dirt road, toward the gate.
A couple of chimeras darted through the beams of my headlights, but mostly I just caught glimpses of them in the darkened woods.
I was hurtling down the dirt road, barely keeping the truck under control, when a hand reached through the window and grabbed my hair. I’d been so intent on not running anyone over, I’d forgotten about the bad guy in the back of the truck.
I screamed and reflexively turned the wheel in his direction. A series of large branches smacked against him, forcing him to let go. I looked behind me and saw him standing in the back of the truck with a large sliver of wood sticking out of his upper arm, glistening with blood. He touched the tip of it, then glared in my direction. I jammed the accelerator down as hard and fast as I could. He staggered back against the tailgate, but he didn’t go over.
Then I slammed on the brakes. He crashed into the cab once more, his face smushed up against the glass, but he was still there. I waited until he got to his feet, then hit the accelerator once more. Again, he staggered to the back but didn’t go over. I was terrified for my life, but I was also starting to get annoyed. I slowed the truck to a moderate speed, then gradually accelerated, watching in the mirror as he made his way toward the cab.
I grabbed the wheel as hard as I could with my left hand, bracing myself against what I knew was coming. When his big arm reached in once again to grab me, I jabbed him with the baton, holding it in place for a good three seconds. Then I pulled it away and slammed the brakes at the same time.
I don’t think he even hit the cab as he flew overhead, his limbs completely limp. He disappeared into the darkened woods with a sound of cracking branches and a loud thud.
I turned back onto the dirt road and floored the accelerator. I didn’t know how much farther I had to go, but I knew I needed to build up some speed. I honked the horn and flipped the lights on and off as I went.
The gate appeared thirty feet in front of me. Two chimeras were climbing on it and I blasted the horn at them. They both turned, their eyes wide, and jumped off, rolling into the bushes.
Then I blasted through the gate, sending the two sections cartwheeling into the darkness in opposite directions.
A bunch of chimeras ran for the opening, but two guards with batons ran to head them off. It wouldn’t be long before reinforcements showed up, with more potent weapons, too.
> I realized they could easily cover a single gap in the fence.
I held down the accelerator, the tires skidding on leaves and dirt as I weaved through the trees and curved back around. Fifty yards to the right I punched back through the fence, this time tearing out a thirty-foot section. The second time was more fun and less scary. I may have laughed out loud, even as the front tires blew out from the fence barbs.
In the darkness I could see chimeras streaming through the second hole behind me. I was back inside the fence, though, and that made me nervous. Plowing through the brush and bouncing over the rough terrain, I could feel the wear and tear on the truck.
My plan was to punch one more hole in the fence, then keep going, drive the truck as close as I could get to Pinecone Rock and go the rest of the way on foot. I’d meet up with the others, and then we’d be gone.
I found another gap in the trees, and I was just turning the wheel to aim the truck at the fence when out of the corner of my eye I saw a figure emerge from the trees to my left.
The air filled with blue sparks and every muscle in my body went rigid. My mind screamed, “What the hell is going on?”
But I knew I had been shocked. My neck burned where the baton had connected. I lost control of the truck. Luckily it swerved to my right, pulling me away from the baton, but I was seriously dazed from the brief contact.
I was just coming out of it when the truck hit a tree stump and went up on two wheels. I braced myself, waiting for it to slam back down, but it teetered for a second and came to a rest on the driver’s-side door.
Through the back window, in the darkness, I saw an evil grin coming closer, a sinister blue flicker getting brighter as he approached, fingering the trigger of his shock baton.
I fumbled with my seat belt, finally releasing it. Then I pulled the handle on the passenger-side door and pushed. It opened a couple inches, but it was heavy and I didn’t have the leverage to get it open. I put my feet on the steering column, climbing up and pushing myself between the door and the metal frame of the truck. When I finally got out, he was almost on me. I jumped, hitting the ground hard. Then I took off running into the black night.