Flowertown

by S. G. Redling

  “What’s that you’re saying? Please? Please what? Please shoot you? Please take care of every fucking thing so you can sit around and get high? Is that what you want? Speak up.”

  “We were friends!” The words blew out of Ellie’s mouth in a spray. Bing grabbed her roughly by the hair and dragged her up.

  “You want to know why we were friends? You want to know why?” He yanked her hair to make her nod. “Because there’s only one person on this whole planet who has more contempt for you than I do. You know who that is? Huh?” He dragged her across the office and pushed her in front of a wall. Ellie screamed, trying to pull herself free, but he twisted her arm behind her and forced her head back. “There she is.”

  She saw herself in the mirror. Blood smeared from her nose, and her lip had begun to swell from Bing’s blow. He held her back to his chest, her hair pulled back tight, and hissed in her ear.

  “Nobody could possibly ever hate you as much as you hate yourself, Ellie. You let this happen. You made it easy because you are so goddamn pathetic.” She tried to turn her head away from the sight of her sweating face and panicked eyes, but he held her fast. “Would it have killed you to ever give a shit about anything? Or anyone? Hell, would it have killed you to take a fucking shower once in a while? Look at you. Look what you have made of yourself.”

  “No.” She saw blood and saliva spatter on the mirror and wished she could make herself go blind. “You did this. You did this with your drugs.”

  “No, Ellie, you did this. The drugs just made it easier.”

  The pain from his grip on her hair gave her mind a point of focus, and Ellie struggled for control. She gritted her teeth and glared at Bing’s reflection.

  “Fuck you.”

  Bing’s eyes widened in surprise. “Fuck me? Fuck you.” He slammed her forehead into the mirror. Ellie gasped and swore again. Again he pounded her forehead into the glass. She saw their image fractured. In the many shards, she saw Bing, and when he brought her face to the glass again, this time hard enough to make the glass fly to the floor, she saw him in her mind as she had seen him so many times.

  “Bird.”

  Bing banged her head once more against the glass, and Ellie could feel her legs tremble beneath her as blood began to run down the wall.

  “Bird,” she said again.

  “What are you saying?” Bing yanked her head back.

  “Bird. You look like a bird.” The light over his head blurred as she blinked blood out of her swelling eyes. “I know you.” Bing let her go and she swayed on her feet, her speech slurred. She forgot about the blood and chased her thoughts through the fog. “You looked like a bird. In the hospital. I knew you. I didn’t know Dr. Tabor. I knew you.”

  She tried to focus on Bing as he sat back against the desk and watched her sway. “I look different without my beard, don’t I?”

  It took a moment for the words to get through to her. She had to think what a beard was, and slowly her memory put the ideas together. In her mind she saw the face of her best friend in a thick, dark beard. And in her mind he transformed into that hated shadow-face of her nightmares, the face that had loomed out of the drug-thick soup of those long nights in East Fifth in the early years of Flowertown.

  “You were my doctor.” The words slipped from her lips like smoke.

  “Duh.”

  The breath that tore up from her lungs was hot. “You fuck.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Such elegant last words. You really are a piece of trash. It took me all of three sessions to know you would be a perfect event catalyst.”

  “Why me?”

  “Don’t kid yourself, Ellie. It wasn’t personal. You’re not that important.” He moved back around to the computer. “You’re just convenient. You were handy, but if you hadn’t worked out, there were half a dozen others I could have used. Big Martha would have been a fantastic face for a suicide bomber, but the sheer amount of meds it took to get into her head just wasn’t cost-efficient. Big bodies, big doses. You were a cheaper choice.” He looked over at her, running his eyes down the length of her body. “I mean that in every way.”

  Ellie spit a bloody wad onto the floor. “Guy is going to stop you.”

  He leaned over the keyboard. “Guy is going to run around like GI Joe and get himself blown up. His psych eval makes him a perfect candidate for one of our heroes. Brave, handsome, loyal, and stupid enough to fuck the one piece of ass that tries to blow the whole place sky-high. I love it.”

  She wanted to move. The back of his head tempted her to raise a chair and smash it into him, but her body would not obey her wishes. “Is that the irony you were looking for?”

  Bing looked over at her, eyebrows raised. “Now you’ve decided to pay attention? How did you know about the irony factor? It’s a huge selling point to cement tragedy in a media-covered event. People lap it up. But no, that wasn’t the intended irony. Like your incredibly malleable mind, it was just a bonus.” He looked back at the screen, typed in a few more keystrokes, and swore as the computer beeped. “Don’t think I’m not appreciating the irony right here in front of us as my brilliant escape is being held hostage by the very computer that is going to cover my tracks.”

  Ellie took a step forward to look over his shoulder. “Do you know what a smart bomb is, Ellie?” He didn’t bother to see if she answered. “I have a virus hidden in my own medical file—well, Ian Billingsly’s medical file. There are only a handful of people who know my alias. After what happened to Tabor, I decided not to take any chances. If anything had happened to me and someone tried to delete my file or mark me as ‘deceased,’ I hid a worm that would be activated to corrupt every bit of data on file. If I disappeared, so did their vaccine research. Now that I’m leaving, I’m detonating that little rascal. I’ve got all the research here on my external drive. This is going to ensure that Feno keeps up their financial end of the bargain—and doesn’t decide to grow a conscience once their stock goes back up.”

  “I’m not going to blow anything up for you.” Ellie tried to make her voice strong, but the blood running down the back of her throat made her whisper. “You can’t make me, no matter what you do.”

  “Oh, honey, you really are dense, aren’t you?” Bing sat back against the desk and folded his arms. “Did you really think I would put the success of my venture on your lame stoner ass? I don’t expect you to do anything but flail about helplessly like the crazy person the world thinks you are. My team is setting off the explosions. My team is getting me out of here.”

  “Guy’s team is finding them before you can set them off.”

  “When we’re done here, Guy won’t be able to find his dick with both hands. We have provisions for all eventualities. The best-case scenario is that I get out, the press comes in, and before the whole world, bombs with your name on them blow this shit hole right back to hell. Then, as we read off the names of the hundreds of lives you took, the CEO of Barlay Pharma breaks in with the heartbreaking and, yes, ironic revelation that you mistakenly believed nobody was getting out of Flowertown when, in truth, everyone was being released. The world will shake their collective heads at the senseless tragedy and cruel irony.”

  “That’s a lie.”

  “Which part? The bombs with your name? Yeah, but you already knew that. Oh!” Bing let his mouth hang open in mock surprise. “You mean the part about being released? No, that’s true. Well, it would be true if that wouldn’t bring down the shit storm of all time onto Feno and Barlay Pharma. Believe me, the celebration of the cure would be quickly overshadowed by the first autopsy. Whew.”

  Ellie heard herself begin to pant again, her heart hammering in her ears as she tried to absorb what he was saying. “Who’s cured?”

  “Everybody. Q, E, H, they all work. They’ve worked for over a year, closer to two.” Bing spoke casually, as if he were discussing a baseball game. “We had to be sure, of course. You know, cure, reinfect. Cure, reinfect. Bring in Feno newbies for some clean slates. Side effects
, fatalities, they took forever to straighten out. Turns out Equilibrium has the fewest side effects in the short run and can actually be adapted to a spray to neutralize the chemical should it get into the soil again.”

  “What are you saying?” Blood flew from her lips as she lurched forward. “Why aren’t you letting everybody go? Why aren’t you letting us out?”

  “Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what the months of reinfection have done to your livers? Your bones? Hell, your tooth enamel is enough to make this place look like the Island of Dr. Moreau. No, the most important thing we need at this point is to make sure no bodies get out. That’s why incineration is the best-case scenario.”

  “I’ll kill you.”

  “No, you won’t.” He didn’t sound concerned as the computer beeped. “The virus is launching, so all my tracks are covered. Don’t bother scheming, Ellie. Trust me. I’m smarter than you. Even if Guy and his little band of heroes get most of the bombs dismantled, at the first explosion, when the press is here, Flowertown is going to be locked down tighter than ever. Plan B. Nobody will ever see the outside world again.” He checked his watch. “The absolute best ending you can hope for is to spend the rest of your miserable life tied to a bed in a very white room being pumped with mind-altering medications.” He grinned as her jaw went slack. “Sounds like something from a nightmare, doesn’t it? Oh, wait, it is something from a nightmare. Your nightmare. The white room. White, white, white. Am I right?”

  “Fuck you.”

  He shook his head. “Poetry. Where the hell is my team? We’ll just sit tight until they get here. Then I can show them what you did to poor Mr. Carpenter. You’re so violent.”

  Ellie fought back a scream. She hated Bing, or Dr. Byrd, or whoever the hell he had become. She hated her inability to act. Of all the helplessness she had felt over the years of containment, this was a fresh slice of hell that burned her skin. She wanted so badly to blow a bullet through his brain, but she knew her hands would not obey. Breathing in hard through gritted teeth, she closed her eyes. Bullets weren’t the only weapon she had.

  “Rachel always told me you were a sick fucker.”

  “She did not. She is far too smart to think that and way too classy to talk like you.”

  Ellie snorted. “Are you kidding? We used to laugh our asses off about you and your little flirtations. She used to call you The Beak.”

  “Nice try.” Bing shook his head and looked away, but Ellie could see the tendons in his neck stretch as he tried to calm himself. “But since you couldn’t even pay enough attention to change your underwear every day, I doubt very seriously you could even comprehend the subtle nuances of a lovely girl like Rachel.”

  “Subtle nuances?” Ellie laughed out loud. “She was a fucking farm girl. She wasn’t the Virgin Mary. She wasn’t even a virgin. I think you were just about the only guy in Flowertown she didn’t fuck, or at least blow.”

  “You shut your mouth. You have no right to talk about her like that.”

  “And you do? You’re going to blow her ass up. Of course, I guess that’s the closest you’re ever going to get to doing anything to her ass…”

  “Hey!” Bing jabbed his finger at her. “I tried to get her out of here. I tried to get her cleared on the detox. There was no reason she had to suffer like that. I was the one that got her the Equilibrium shot. I was the one that got her a chance to leave. What the hell did you do?”

  “You didn’t do shit.” Ellie knew how much this snarky tone of voice got under Bing’s skin. “All you ever did was fawn over her and bother her.”

  “I blew up the goddamn records office for her!”

  “For her? You think Rachel wanted people blown up?”

  Bing leapt to his feet and barked into Ellie’s face. “Rachel wanted out and I was making it happen. They were supposed to give her enough Equilibrium to cancel out the detox. But those stupid fucking monkeys in the lab got it wrong and now she’s blue-tagged while you’re still dragging your useless ass around as healthy as a horse. She was supposed to be outside the zone when all of this went down. You were supposed to be up there in the records office, you stupid bitch. Big Martha lied and said you’d gone out for cigarettes. She said you’d be right back. I guess I can’t trust any of you psychopaths.”

  “You set the bomb? You killed those people?”

  Bing smiled a hard smile at her, his tone that of a naughty child. “You know what else I did? I stole your fucking chili. Right out of your desk. I didn’t even think about it. I just took it so I could have something for Rachel that night, thinking she’d be better. Thinking we could mourn your pathetic life. Stupidly, I worried later that you might realize that I never go to Dingle’s to get that shit and then I thought, ‘Like Ellie is going to put anything together.’” He slapped his head for emphasis.

  He was trying to be sarcastic and taunt her, but Ellie could see his temper fraying. She knew a little something about that. Bing thought he was a master manipulator, but Ellie was familiar with button-pushing herself. She smirked at him. “Ever wonder why I used to spend so much time up in your room?”

  He laughed. “To get away from your wide circle of friends?”

  “To get away from the porn shoot that was always going on in Rachel’s bed.”

  “You suck as a liar, Ellie.” His face did not look so certain.

  “All kidding aside, I think you might be the only guy in Flowertown that hasn’t put it to her.” It was childish, and what she was saying was untrue, but Ellie wanted to see the pain it drove into Bing’s brain. “You know Tito, that Mexican kid who works at the library? I came in one day after work and they were going at it. I’m no anatomy major, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t doing it the way God intended.” Ellie laughed, hearing Bing’s breathing get hard. “She used to tell me that getting it in the ass—”

  She looked up in time to see the white skin of Bing’s elbow as it crashed into her face. She heard nothing but a crunching sound as she collapsed to the floor, clutching her face, blood pouring out between her fingers. Above her, Bing screamed, but the sounds around her had vanished. The feel of blood evaporated, replaced by the familiar tingling in her hands and feet.

  Ellie felt her throat closing off and hot, mottled spots rising on her skin as rage flooded her body like ecstasy. In one short blow, she was no longer kneeling on the floor of the care center. She was back to the early days, on her knees, gushing blood in the medical tents where all the people around her were dying in puddles of their own filth. Only this time she hadn’t been vomiting for days. This time she was well fed and her legs were strong. This time she wouldn’t need a box cutter to take down the man before her.

  She saw Bing’s eyes widen as she lunged from the floor, her hands like claws tearing into him as an inhuman howl tore from her throat. Whatever control he thought he had over her evaporated as her mind went back to the blackest of the black rage that had consumed her. Ellie punched and tore, clinging to the body before her, the impact of her lunge pinning him to the desk beneath her. Bing pulled at her, screaming, but she was too close and held on too tightly.

  Her hands dug at his skin, sometime tearing, sometimes punching. She didn’t feel the bruising of her bones against his skull or the scrapes of his teeth breaking against her knuckles. He tried to flip her off of him and they tumbled to the floor together, Ellie clinging to his clothes and skin like a creature from hell. He punched at her, but she was beyond feeling. He tried to smash her head against the floor, but she craned forward and bit down hard on his lower lip, his blood pouring as his skin gave way with a thick, popping sound. There was nothing to see on his face but blood, and still Ellie clawed and screamed and bit, not thinking of escape or rescue, thinking only of violence and the sounds of his pain.

  She didn’t register the sounds of gunfire until a piece of ceiling tile rained down on her like glitter. Bing was keening, his lip pierced between her teeth, and she could just see his eyes wild through the blood. She heard
heavy boots in the doorway and bullets flew very near them. Ellie released her hold on Bing’s face, and she had to turn away to keep from inhaling the river of blood he poured down on her.

  “Shoot her!” Bing screamed, his words garbled by the damage done to his face. Two guards stepped forward, their guns out, but Ellie was quicker and kicked Bing off of her toward them. The closest guard jumped back to avoid being splattered by blood, and Bing lurched in a puddle of wetness beneath him. The second guard fired into the crowded room as Ellie launched herself under the metal desk. Lying flat on her stomach, she squeezed herself under the back of the heavy furniture and slithered out into the open space between two file cabinets.

  It was bedlam behind her as Bing screamed unintelligible commands, and Ellie used the confusion to risk getting to her feet and running. Bullets tore through the doorframe over her head and she was down the back hall. The hall was dark, but Ellie’s eyes were sharp with fear, and as angry shouts and heavy footsteps filled the hall behind her, she saw the emergency exit light ahead.

  She didn’t slow down, knowing if the doors were locked it wouldn’t matter if she knocked herself out. It would be preferable to what she would encounter at the hands of Bing’s team. Like the bullets heading her way, Ellie smashed into the emergency door and tumbled into the darkness of the alley. She jumped over a pile of trash and pounded into the darkness. Her hands were slick with blood and sweat, and she felt what she held in her left hand trying to slip away. In a pool of light from the streetlamp, she was surprised to see what she held. It wasn’t the gun. That was gone. Instead she clutched the small plastic case that held Bing’s external hard drive.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The electric light on the block made Ellie feel vulnerable, so she ducked back into the alley behind the buildings. She had to get to the north med center. She had to find Guy. She knew Bing’s men would be looking for her; Bing needed the external drive she carried. He could get out without it, but after that virus he had released, this held the only records of the testing Feno had done. That meant it must also hold the proof that they were no longer contaminated, and that meant she needed it more. Ellie jammed the small plastic case deep into her pocket, not trusting her sweaty and blood-slick hands to hold it while she ran.