by Rod Little
The group gathered around the table in the lobby while Jason and Camila cooked their second batch of canned stew. Even Lucy was up on her feet now and poured water for everyone. Tina silently stared at the table. They told Bohai all they knew about Walter, Dexter and the Grinners. He listened, and then shared his own story.
“I have strange news from the outside world,” Bohai said. “You can believe me or not, but it's something we have to consider.”
“Go ahead,” Shane said. “I'm all ears.”
“There are three factions of mutations,” Bohai told them. “You've already seen the lizards.” There were nods and groans around the table. “There are also spiders, and bats.”
“Haven't seen bats yet,” Jason said, listening from the stove. “That's messed up. I mean, they can fly. Could be a problem.”
“We've seen big spiders, though.” Shane shuddered, and added, “Totally creepy.”
“Those are the three types,” Bohai continued, “at least in this part of the world, in North America. There might be other creatures in other parts. I don't know. The lizards are the biggest faction, by far outnumbering everything else in this region. Then the spiders, and the bats are the smallest group.”
“Small bats?” Camila asked. “Or small groups of giant bats.”
“I, uh... assume it's the second one,” Bohai guessed. “Anyway, the three of them have formed their own armies, and are getting more organized. Those three armies are getting ready to go to war against each other. It won't be nice and neat and clean, you understand? It'll be a bloodbath. Like any war.”
“And we're caught in the middle,” Shane said.
“The middle of a war that doesn't involve us,” Camila added.
Sam disagreed. “That's not true. It does involve us. It's probably the reason the war is being set up. To ultimately wipe humans out.”
“He's right,” Shane conjectured: “Think about it. If you wanted to get rid of the people in this country, on this planet, or whatever, but keep the infrastructure, the best way is to make the inhabitants kill and eat each other. Bring us down from inside. So you mutate them into three different types of creatures, mortal enemies, and send them after each other. When the war is over, all you have to do is take out the winners, who've already killed two thirds of your problem. And the buildings and infrastructure all remain whole, not damaged. You take over all the cities and homes, and populate them with your own people.”
He crossed his arms, proud of his deduction and ready for his much-deserved applause.
“If that's true,” Camila asked, “who is doing this? Is it another country? Or terrorists?”
“Or something of a more alien kind.” Shane winked as he cast his presumption. He was enjoying spinning this tale. Years of watching old science fiction movies, was finally paying off.
“This genetic technology might not be beyond the scope of a country here on Earth,” said Sam. “It could even be a mistake of our own government. An escaped virus. It could even be Walter!”
“Damn right!” Jason pounded his fist on the counter top. “Government cover-up. I've been telling you.”
“Or aliens,” Bohai said. “My friends think it's something from the sky. From space. But they don't know for sure. No one knows.”
“How do we live through that kind of war on Earth?” Camila asked.
“We keep our heads down,” said Shane. “We bunker up in here. Close the windows and stay inside. Let them kill each other out there. Let them wipe each other out. Then we'll deal with the winners.”
“Which will probably be the lizards, based on the numbers,” Sam said, “and then we're right back where we started.”
“It's more complicated than that,” Bohai interrupted.
“Why?” Lucy shrugged. “It makes sense to stay out of it.”
“Maybe,” said Bohai. “But we have a decision to make. The spiders want to ally with us.”
That brought a cold silence to the room.
Even Jason stopped stirring the stew. “What the hell, man. You serious?”
“The lizards outnumber everything, by far. The spiders want to team up with us. They'll protect us here, if we help them in the war against the lizards, and – eventually – the bats.”
“That's crazy,” Lucy said with a stony face. She stared out the window, and it was hard to tell what she was thinking.
Camila raised one hand like a traffic cop, then lowered it. When she had everyone fixed on her, she said “Waking up and finding that everyone you know is gone: that is crazy. Seeing your next-door neighbors mutate into reptile things: that is crazy. This business here, this is just common sense. And I'm on board.”
Sam guessed she would have made one helluva wife, mother, or soldier – take your pick. They were all the same job, someone once told him. He liked her strength. She could probably hold her own against any man... or creature.
“It does make some sense,” Sam said. “In a way. If they don't have the numbers to beat the lizzies, then they need us. And we certainly need them! An army of eight-legged soldiers on your side, that sounds pretty good right now. Up until this moment, it seemed it was us against the world.”
“And when the war is all over?” Jason asked. “What then?”
“Then,” Bohai said, “they side with us against the powers that started all this. We take back our homes.”
“Aren't spiders too small?” Mark stated more than asked. No one had even noticed him until now. “I mean, too small to help against those big monsters?”
“Some have gotten bigger,” Bohai said. It was an understatement, but he didn't want to throw too much at them at once.
Jason blushed. They may have killed one of their new allies in the night. At that moment he was grateful that Sam and Mark had buried it and hidden the evidence.
“I love a good fight,” Shane yelled, and slammed his fist on the table. He sounded excited again. “What the hell. Let's go to war, people.” He raised his glass and drank.
“Damn government siding with aliens,” Jason rambled, as he dished out the stew. “I told you! They've been doing it since Roswell.”
Bohai ignored him and continued, “We have access to explosives and weapons the non-humans can't operate. That's why we'd be a useful ally to any side.”
“But we need to think about this,” Sam said. “We'd be siding with an unpredictable army. With spiders. That doesn't seem creepy to you?”
“Sure. But if they protect us against the lizards,” Shane held up his hands. “How is that bad?”
“I don't know,” Sam shook his head. “What do you think, Bohai? You're the one who... talked with them. What's your take?”
“I can hear them, that's a positive for starters. I can't hear the lizards. I feel nothing from them. We'll never be able to get along with that side, with their reptile army. But the spiders are smart, and peaceful. They won't attack you without reason.”
“Actually... we killed one,” Jason admitted. He decided to come clean, and tried to sound sincerely apologetic. “It came over the wall, but I guess it didn't really attack us. It was just here. It startled... some of us... a good bit.” He didn't want to say Ken's name aloud.
“They won't strike against us,” Bohai promised. “But, if we want their protection, we need to form an alliance with them.” He gathered his thoughts and tried to explain: “And they are different from the lizards. The spiders have feelings, are empathetic. The reptiles are not; they're just blank to me, almost insane. Mindless and insane.”
“Can a spider really take on a lizard,” Shane asked. “I mean the weight difference... those lizards are huge. They're raptors!”
Sam couldn't erase the image of Ken being devoured by the writhing throng of lizards earlier that day.
“The tarantula venom is potent,” Bohai said with confidence. “One bite can kill a being ten times its size. Small tarantulas eat rats and mice.” He paused, and added: “Nietzsche said the best weapon against an enemy is another
enemy.”
Shane was convinced. “They got my vote. I'm in.”
The group voted. It was unanimous, except for Tina who didn't vote. Staring down at the table, she silently ate and listened to the debate around her. Occasionally she touched her many bracelets, a nervous habit that was increasingly a part of her. Camila reached across the table and comforted her by touching her hand, but Tina did not react; she was not yet ready to climb out of her emotional spiral.
Bohai nodded. “Tonight I'll go out and tell them.”
“Well, that doesn't seem too weird,” Shane said. He was trying to be funny, his trademark defense mechanism, but he just sounded worried. He was dealing with a mixture of both fear and excitement at the prospect of a battle plan. Everything sounds better before it becomes a reality.
“Can you come with me?” Bohai asked Sam.
“You want me to go with you?”
“Yeah. It would help. You don't need to be scared.”
“Okay. Sure, if you need me. I'm not afraid, anyway.” But he was afraid.
I'm going out with Bohai to talk to the spiders. What's to be afraid of... besides the freaking spiders? And everything else!
Shane returned to his sarcasm, which summed it up best: “Well, that doesn't seem too weird, either.”
Chapter 19
Dexter had not stopped making plans to get into Walter's lab, but that now he was more distracted with thoughts of revenge on the boys, and on getting Sam back. He had a special interest in the boy with the extraordinary powers, and he needed the women back to keep these asinine backwoods men busy.
One of the few who actually saw the amber-green fog come down from the sky, Dexter knew what had happened in the cities. He had told no one, but he knew. He knew everything. Or at least he suspected he knew, but he cared less for that than for his own selfish revenge.
For the past nine years, anger and the desire for retribution had been festering in Dexter for a number of reasons, not the least of which was his brother's rejection of him. He had been kicked out of the family, disowned and sent away for his political views. Anger had become a way of life for him. Now far away from his childhood home, he missed it. He missed a lot of things, and that only served to anger him more.
Dexter had several personality disorders, and his temper was but one of them. Since his teen years, he had always lacked the ability to let go of insults, slights, or anything he felt had embarrassed him. He punched a teacher once for disparaging one of his physics theories. That was in high school.
Now, much later in life, he had not softened or matured. If anything, each year made him angrier and more sullen.
He leaned back in his chair and twisted a Rubic's cube in his hands, which he could usually solve in 33 moves. When his henchman walked in, he glanced up and threw the cube on the desk.
“We've been watching their camp,” Mitch told him. “They go out back to get water every day. Usually just one or two of 'em. We can capture two of their group, easy, I'm sure.”
“No,” Dexter said. “No more fun and games. This ends now. They took off Harry's hand, and killed four of our people. And that doesn't count the casualties from the lizards. That was all their fault – setting off those explosions. And God knows what deal they struck with Walter!”
“You don't want them alive anymore?”
“Only the boy with the magic tricks, and the two girls.” Dexter said. “The rest are dead to me already.”
“So what's the plan, boss?”
“We're driving straight down their throats.”
“The bazooka?”
“Take fifteen men. Drive two trucks up to their gate and ring the doorbell with the M1 cannon. You blow it away. Blow their door to hell. Once inside, you kill everyone except the boy. And if you can, get back our two princesses. The men need a distraction; they're starting to annoy me.”
Mitch pulled out a cigarette but didn't light it. He knew Dexter didn't like the smell of smoke. He was a little afraid of the smaller man. “And if they have more chicks?”
“Take them if you want, I don't care. But I want all the boys killed, except that one, the one who can miraculously survive a gun shot. Bring me the heads of those other two bastards I sent to see Walter. I want those trophies. I know they struck a deal with Walter and his precious team of yes-men. Where do you think they got those little bombs? They are terrorists. Bring me their damn heads.”
“You got it, boss,” Mitch grinned. He was antsy and itching for something to do, anything away from the compound. Dexter gave him the creeps, as did many of the other men, for that matter.
Dexter pulled out a new list of chemicals he wanted. His laboratory was built, but needed to be stocked. He had accumulated almost everything he required, but he still lacked some of the information for what he was building, the dark cloud spinning in his mind. Holes needed to be filled, and Walter had the key that might fill in the gaps.
Walter is next on my list, he thought. After those kids, Walter's head will be on my mantle.
Dexter's hatred for Walter was heated and stoked on a daily basis. It bubbled in his brain like a witch's cauldron of porridge set way too high. It was actually anger at his brother displaced on poor Walter. Hatred of the whole world was close to spilling over into every part of his life. It was only a matter of time before he might even turn on his own men. Insanity resides in the most inhospitable of vessels, and lunacy is the hardest intangible to contain.
He handed over the list of chemicals. “These are the rest of what I need.”
“We may have to go into Pittsburgh for this stuff,” Mitch warned. “Unless you let us take Walter's lab.”
“He won't have these, and I told you it's not time yet. Stop asking me.”
“Sorry, boss.” Mitch backed off. He didn't want his head on the back wall, too. “It'll maybe be a two-day trip if we go to the city. But at least we can get some good supplies while we're there.”
“You can go tomorrow.” Dexter scribbled something on a piece of paper. He was always writing illegible notes to himself. “Tonight you take the Peak. Take that lodge from those kids.”
“Okay, boss.”
“At midnight. Exactly at midnight.” For some reason this was always an important point for the obsessive compulsive scientist. Everything had to be at very specific times, usually even numbers.
Crazy freak! Mitch thought.
“Then tomorrow afternoon we'll get back to building the lab. Take the men on the overnight run tomorrow.”
“Tonight at the Peak, after they're dead, we'll take all their supplies, too,” Mitch assured him.
“No need. We're taking over their place. We'll make it an outpost for our expansion.” Dexter still thought he would take over the world someday. “Leave a few guys there.”
“Good idea, boss.”
“And Mitch.”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Trophies. I want trophies.”
Mitch glanced at the back of the room, where the heads of two people floated in giant jars, preserved in a solution. There were fingers, too. The skulls of lizards and humans also lined the back wall. The side wall held an array of empty test tubes, not yet built into a lab. It was a tapestry from Frankenstein.
“You got it, boss.” He headed out quickly. He was dying to light that cigarette.
Chapter 20
After dinner, Bohai took Sam on a quick hike into the woods, twenty minutes deep into its murky recesses. At a clearing, he stopped and spoke to a small spiderling, then sent it on its way through the dense growth of trees. The two boys relaxed against a maple trunk and waited. Nights were getting cooler up here, and a crisp breeze rattled the leaves. There were no crickets or moths – nothing but a quiet forest.
“Can I see you do it?” he asked Sam.
“Do what?”
“You know what.”
“It's not a carnival act or a card trick.”
“I know, Sam. But I showed you what I can do.”
Sam couldn't argue with that. “Fair enough.”
Extending his arm, hand out and palm up, Sam generated a small sphere of electricity about the size of a quarter, then increased its size ten inches. Purple and blue, it looked like a novelty plasma ball, the ones sold with the black lights and Halloween posters at malls. Except this one had been produced from thin air. Against the closing darkness, it glowed bright. A few giant spiders came out of the shadows for a closer look. Sam hadn't even realized they were there. He raised the ball higher into the air, then exploded it, and the sparks faded into nothing – like mini fireworks. Other than a brief crackle, it had made no sound.
“The spiders are impressed,” Bohai told him. “That's important.”
“Thanks. I guess.”
“I'm sorry you lost someone today. I heard about it.”
“Ken. Yeah. He was an alright guy. It was pretty awful. Happened on the supply run, before we found you. Pretty bad, pretty gross.” The image of the sea of tormented lizards still haunted Sam. He tried to downplay his grief.
“Sorry.” Bohai squeezed Sam's shoulder, then turned his attention to movement in the dark forest.
The spiders began moving away, giving a wide berth to the clearing. At first Sam thought they were leaving, but then he realized it was to make room for something else.
What approached them next took Sam by surprise. It impressed and terrified him at the same time. He thought about how he might describe this later to his brother, but words would never do it justice. Some things in life have to be seen in person.
Crushing wild brambles and bushes as it crawled forward, a colossal tarantula entered the clearing. The size of an elephant, it moved slowly and deliberately. It towered over the boys and raised itself up on eight hairy legs, each one longer than twelve feet. Its two shiny black fangs tucked under its head were the size of rhino horns. Beautiful, if a frightening being can be described as such, its hairy legs and abdomen sported orange and yellow stripes along an otherwise velvet back body.
When it reached the boys, it lowered itself to the ground, and tucked its legs in close to its abdomen.