by Milt Mays
He glanced back at the RX-7. What would it be like to have a dad again? He thought about walking down the wedding aisle with Alexis, his dad and mom in the first row smiling and crying. Okay, maybe Mom would cry. Dad would probably have a blank look. But he still loved Jeff. That was for sure. Maybe he would have a blank look, but he would be seeing Jeff in green. Green was good.
And what about Jeff’s kid? Dad never said anything about that. Did they put the child up for adoption? Or maybe Krista had an abortion. He hoped not. Hoped there was a child. If there was, he knew his mom wouldn’t give it up for adoption. No way. Maybe it was a boy. That would be cool.
He turned his head and looked back at the RX-7. If there was a boy, why had Dad not said something? Surely he would have. Then again, probably not. It took Dad a while to talk about people, even if they were family. But if Jeff had a son back there, Dad would love him. Might not show it in the usual ways, but he would love him. Jeff would love him, too. Jesus, God, yes. Alexis would too. Once they got back, they would be a family. This nightmare would be over.
A gust of wind flipped his hood back and chilled his neck. He looked at his watch. 3:16 and thirty seconds. Jesus. Almost two more minutes to wait. Forget that. He had to go in. After all, he had a gun.
Wait. Rachel knew things he didn’t. She had it under control.
“Jeff!” It was Rachel.
Chapter 70
Jeff ran. Once inside the hole in the wall, he stumbled on a brick and almost fell. He danced and slid on the rubble and finally stopped. He stared, aghast. Music played. Alexis, Alex and Rachel were all there, but not . . . no, not at all how he’d ever imagined.
A huge, weightlifter-looking guy was dancing with Alexis, stroking her blond hair with . . . Shit! Were those claws? His eyes glowed orange. He took in Jeff and smiled, showing fangs. Hungry and happy. Must be Jabril.
“Hello, boy.” The words rang hollow and emotionless, as incongruous as the smile coupled with the eyes. It reminded Jeff of a TV show about a tiger eying a water buffalo calf, immediately before running it down and tearing its throat out. The smile was enjoyment at knowing Jeff was his next meal, but the eyes didn’t care.
What happened to sleeping? Jabril was supposed to be out for the count.
The music came from the computer on the table, a tune Jeff was familiar with but could not place. Alex stood over Rachel, who faced the monitor. On the screen, a bald man’s face stared at her, grinning widely, one eyebrow canted.
Rachel turned her head toward Jeff and winked at him. He tried to avoid breaking into a smile. She was one cool lady.
Jabril and Alexis swayed back and forth. It was not rock and roll, but slower: slow enough to make Jeff want to vomit at the idea that Jabril had his true love in an embrace. They twirled and Jeff could see her eyes, glazed like someone hypnotized. At least she was not enjoying this. And the change in her eyes gave him hope she was coming out of it.
Jeff pulled the gun from his back and aimed it at Jabril’s head.
“Come now, boy.” Jabril’s voice was calm and he moved behind Alexis.
Jeff ignored him, kept the gun aimed. Alexis. Please. Read my mind. He wanted her to resist, duck, so Jeff could plant two bullets between Jabril’s fangs.
The music stopped. The rattling noise of Rachel typing—out of the corner of his eye her right hand moved the mouse. She was still trying; he had to give her that. But if Jabril was awake, what would happen?
The mouse clicked.
Jabril laughed. It was devoid of humor, more like a haunted house Jeff remembered going through with Krista. A laugh right before a zombie farmer stuck a bloodied pitchfork out at them.
“The General no longer has control.” He held a hand up. From it dangled something like a bloody scorpion’s tail. It had a sharp tip with shiny metal showing through the dark blood. “He controlled me with this implant. But as you can see,” he held the bloody thing high and tossed it at Rachel. “Alexis is mine, Rachel. You and Alex will pay for your sins. The world will pay for what they did to my mother and I will sit at the right hand of Allah.”
Rachel looked at him with disbelief and wide eyes. She squeezed her eyes shut, jaw muscles flexed.
Alex shook his head, blinked several times as if he had something in his eyes. He looked at Rachel and smiled that mischievous smile Jeff had seen that first time in Realfood. It seemed to say, Wait ’til you see this one. He turned and ran at Jabril.
Jeff aimed squarely at Jabril’s head, though Jabril kept dodging behind Alexis.
Alexis smiled at Jeff, her usual look. She was okay now. Then her eyes squeezed shut and she cried out in pain. Blood poured down onto her chest. Jabril had skewered her neck. He dropped her and turned toward Alex. Alex was almost on him.
Jeff fired once. But Jabril had moved. He swiped one hand at Alex. Alex’s arm fell off. Blood gushed. Alex faltered but kept coming.
Jeff fired again at a moving Jabril. Jabril grunted, but it did not stop him from slicing at Alex again. The other arm severed at the shoulder. Alex fell to the ground. Blood spurted everywhere. Alex never even groaned.
Jeff fired again, this time at a stable target: Jabril’s ear canal. Jabril’s head shuddered. He turned his gaze on Jeff and there was a crater out of the other side of his head where his temple should have been. The bright orange in his eyes flickered.
He stared at Jeff and the crater at his left temple began to fill in. “You cannot kill me.” The orange glow returned to the eyes. Jabril smiled, fangs white.
Jeff fired twice more, aiming between the fangs. Jabril’s front teeth disappeared, but the fangs remained. He hissed and gargled, spat out a glop of dark clot and tongued at the gap in his upper teeth. He started to walk toward Jeff.
Then Jabril’s eyes got wide and he groaned loudly. He dropped his gaze to his chest. Alexis’s hand was buried into the area under his ribs. She pulled out his heart and presented it to Jabril’s face. “It really is true. You don’t have a heart. At least, not now.”
Jeff thought for sure the heart would start beating and crawl back into the chest. Didn’t Alexis know she was supposed to say something like the guy in the second Raiders of the Lost Ark? Nom, nom-chiva. Nom, nom-chiva.
The light died in Jabril’s eyes as he smiled at Alexis and murmured, “Thank you.” He dropped to the ground.
Jeff ran to Alexis to hug her. She was alive. Jabril was gone.
But, he stopped at Jabril’s body. Why was Alexis not happy? Was Jabril’s body moving?
The sound of weeping filled the room. Rachel knelt in a pool of blood, bent over Alex, her head on his blood-soaked chest. His chest did not move.
Chapter 71
The church bells rang. Jeff stood outside and laughed. Today was going to be a triumph, despite all the bad that had happened that day at Ambrosia’s ranch house.
It took a few months to clear everything up, though it had only taken five minutes for Jeff’s dad, The Best Dad In The World, to destroy all of Ambrosia’s GMO files. While he had been sitting in the RX-7, Dan had quickly finished the trap and finished Ambrosia. If the world wanted GMO foods, they would have to go to the other companies more interested in doing it the right way, putting real science and humanity above the dollar. Not only that, he’d fixed it so that General Hanson would never have control over anything again. The CIA did not take lightly to the General having attempted to kill so many Americans. According to the records Dan uncovered and sent to the head of the CIA, the General had wanted all those “ants,” as he called anyone of lesser means, particularly the “foreign pests,” to die. Then his privileged few in the Army and Ambrosia could enjoy the spoils, including the remaining years of fracked oil. Distributing these tainted GMO foods to the less-than-privileged in the U.S. and to the rest of the world would assure that Ambrosia and the U.S. Army had many more than the fifty years of oil—more like a hundred and fifty.
The CIA didn’t bother to try the General in a military court. He went straight to a dark
hole of prison, somewhere on a Caribbean island.
And Jabril? Alexis had not been satisfied with merely ripping his heart out. Or rather, it had been Rachel who insisted on cutting his head off. Alexis did it quickly. It was easy. She had the technology. Right at her fingertips. Jeff wasn’t sure what Rachel did with the head, but it was not headed for any freezer, he was sure of that. Maybe they incinerated it to ashes, like they said they did to all the fanged mice and GMO plant mistakes.
The world was better for having no Ambrosia, no General Hanson, and no Jabril, but it was nowhere close to good. Jeff knew that. First there’d been Rocca’s funeral: military, with honors at Arlington, flags and uniforms everywhere. Rachel said he would have hated it, that Rocca always hated D.C. and ceremony. But there had been a lot of his buddies from Afghanistan and Iraq who needed closure. His daughter and ex were there, too. Jeff met them, offered condolences, but didn’t really feel too sad. He never really knew them. Maybe he was distracted with his own plans. But Rachel and Alexis knew Rocca well and were a total mess. Watching them was tough. They attended the wedding of Rocca’s daughter two weeks after that. Not that it made Rachel or Alexis feel any better.
The highs and lows of emotions were not nearly over. A week later they buried Alex in a private ceremony deep in the wilderness of the High Sierra, next to his and Rachel’s stone cabin, under a large Ponderosa pine overlooking a stream and meadow. No military, no twenty-one-gun salute, no uniforms. One U.S. flag flew in front of the cabin. There was a wake afterwards with a lot of crying, but also a lot of dancing and music, with Realfood folks contributing a feast, and everyone eventually coming to grips with Alex’s death. Except Rachel. It had been rough on her, though she was finally getting better. Maybe it was the wedding. And the other little surprise.
But Jeff couldn’t figure Alexis out. She was a very complicated woman. As if any of them were simple. She’d cried at the wake, made toasts to her dad, and then clammed up. Maybe one day it would come out, probably had to. He didn’t ask her. Wouldn’t either. It was up to her. He pictured the first time he’d seen her with Alex, the first day at Realfood: the excitement and sparkle in her eyes, the running to him, the big bear hug. He knew without a doubt she never meant any of those words at the end. Not a one.
True, the world was nowhere close to good. Yet, marrying Alexis today would go a long way to overcome the wrongs. As he stood outside the church, decked out in a linen suit and apple-green tie and a white carnation in his lapel, ready to walk in and begin the ceremony, he laughed again. It was a cool little church, in the southeast corner of Colorado. Realfood country. It dated back to before the Civil War: stucco walls, brass bell, oak pews. Built by brave people in a time where hard work, hope and faith meant not only survival, but living life. Like Rachel’s grandparents in that small house on Logan Street in Denver, where they helped their huge family during the Great Depression. They believed good would triumph, that human beings could make the world into a better place. Alex had done that. Rachel had done that. Now it was Jeff’s turn. With Alexis.
He opened the big wooden door and walked inside. Way down on the right side of the aisle, Dad held Adam in his arms next to Mom. And what a surprise—Katie was there. She’d put on some weight, but her smile cheered him even more. Dan actually had something other than a blank stare on his face. He was smiling; Adam was giggling and waving. Mom was crying. She was the Best Mom In The World, too. Without her, Dad would have died from depression, Adam would have been orphaned. Yet Dad lived, and Adam was a little man with wondrous words and happy eyes. Mom had saved Dad. Dad had saved the USA. They both had saved Adam and Jeff. Thinking about being with his family and his beautiful son, Jeff almost cried. But it was too great a day, too great an occasion. Plus, he had a lot to live up to.
#
Rachel stood on the left side, the bride’s side of the aisle, and looked back at Jeff and Alexis. An emptiness gnawed at her stomach, not having Alex. But seeing his green eyes and smile on Alexis cheered her enough so she could smile back. It had taken a lot of makeup to hide the black creases under her eyes this morning. She hadn’t slept more than a few hours each night since his death. Alex would love this church. Perfect for his baby girl. And he would want Rachel here supporting her. Alexis was the hope of the world.
Maybe, thought Rachel. What if Jabril had changed her DNA? All Rachel needed was a tube of Alexis’s blood to tell. But Alexis had not only refused, but adamantly. Her eyes had changed from green to a sort of purplish glow. Then she’d smiled and hugged Rachel and said, “I love you Mom, but whatever happens, happens.”
It had been that way for millions of years. So, it was all up to Jeff and their children.
Jeff was a little thin for Alex’s old navy blue suit, but it worked. He had on a new green tie. Something old, something new. Jeff was a great guy. Alexis loved him. He loved her. And God knows Rachel loved her. Her smile got wider and she felt like crying, but held it back. Not now. Not today.
She breathed in and slowly exhaled, wanted to say “Ohmm.” She imagined Alex and his mischievous smile. Good one, Rache. But wait ’til you see this one. A warm calm engulfed her, like Alex putting his arms around her. She held up a fist and clenched it at Alexis and Jeff. They saw her and nodded, then looked at each other. Yeah. Wait ’til you see this one.
#
Jeff wanted to run down the aisle and hug Rachel. But when he saw her raise her fist and determined look, he knew she was ready. Not okay, but ready.
The Realfood crowd was on the bride’s side, many Jeff recognized. But Dad’s side and the rest of the church were filled with people he’d never seen. Then again, maybe he just didn’t remember.
A small man with jet-black hair in an impeccable black tux and tails stood next to Jeff. Sam. He had Alexis’s hand on his arm. You’d never know that less than two months ago, surgeons had removed half his intestines. He had asked to give Alexis away. Rachel never argued once. And since Sam was a good friend of both sides of the family, he was not only going to give Alexis away, he was also Jeff’s best man. Jeff’s high school friends felt too distant. His war friends were all dead. Sam tied everyone together. It felt right.
Sam put a hand on Jeff’s arm. “I’m glad you wore his suit.”
“Me too,” Jeff said. He worried at first that Rachel would fall apart seeing him in Alex’s suit. But she seemed to love it.
“Are you ready for this?” Sam asked Jeff.
“Ask her,” he said. After all, reading his mind was what she did.
Alexis’s blond hair glowed. The dress was so white it seemed fluorescent. It fit her well, too. Though white didn’t quite fit, her being two months along. “Like mother like daughter,” she had said. Yeah, he had a little déjà vu going on as well. Mom and Dad actually seemed to love each other again.
She nodded and looked at him. The green flakes in her eyes danced. Jeff fell into a warm bath he was going to enjoy the rest of his life. Him and Alexis. The future. Damn right, the world was a better place.
Sam led up the aisle with Alexis. Jeff followed. That was just fine with him. Tomorrow he might lead. They were a team so it didn’t really matter.
The End
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Milt Mays has written three other novels, two were award winners at the Pikes Peak Writers Contest. If you enjoyed Anodyne Eyes, two other novels are connected:
The Next Day Alex, Rachel, Rock, Jabril and Sam Houston.
Dan’s War, Dan and Jeff, with Sam Houston continuing.
The other novel:
The Guide : a serial killing doctor in the wilderness.
You can learn more about Milt or contact him at his website, www.miltmays.com ,or his Amazon Author Page ,or on twitter @mmthriller, or Facebook
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