There's Blood on the Moon Tonight

by Bryn Roar

  *******

  Bill, Rusty, and Tubby had gathered together down by the concession stand. Huddled on the floor. Bill had his arms around their sobbing shoulders, listening to their tales of woe. Bud felt relief, knowing it wouldn’t fall to him to tell his father the bad news. Of course, even more than that, Bud was relieved to see his father alive and well.

  Tubby and Rusty barely looked up when they came in. Neither realized that their friends had showered and changed. Such was the toll on their psyches.

  Bill saw his son, and a huge smile broke across his face, his bushy mustache spreading from ear to ear. “There you are! I was just about to go looking for you two!”

  Josie flashed on the shower and blushed.

  “Hey, Pop,” Bud said, fiercely hugging his father. “Thanks for sending Robbie out for us like that. The two of you really saved our bacon tonight.”

  “I‘m just glad I had him handy. If I’d gone after you on my own, like I really wanted to, I don’t think we’d have had the same happy ending.”

  “He sure scattered those Romero rejects! Where’d you go today, Pops? When we got here this afternoon, Rusty and I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

  “Let’s catch up while we get a bite to eat. You guys must be starving.”

  “I couldn’t eat a thing,” Tubby sniffled.

  “Me neither,” Rusty concurred.

  “Listen, boys: I know your hearts are breaking right now and it feels as if nothing in the world matters anymore, but despite all that I’m gonna need you to keep up your strength. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

  Thinking of Joel on the mainland, Josie said, “Are we gonna take one of the boats in the harbor?” She smiled. “You say the word, Bilbo, and I’ll swim across that river!”

  “No, Joey. I’m afraid they won’t let us leave.”

  “The Rabids won’t bother us as much in the daytime.” Josie thought of the Firehouse, how close it was to the boardwalk. “As long as we steer clear of the deeper shadows, that is.”

  “I’m not talking about the Rabids.” Bill gestured over at Rusty and Tubby. “We’ll talk about it later, dear. Let’s take care of our boys here first.”

  Tubby wiped the snot from his nose. “Really, Mr. Brown. I couldn’t eat a thing. I just wanna…just wanna…, he yawned hugely, “just wanna go to bed.”

  Rusty started shaking all over, his lower lip trembling. Tears welled up in his deep-set eyes, his glasses fogging up. Josie could almost hear the shrill wail of that freight train as it ran right over her dear friends.

  “Come here, me love,” she said, wrapping her arms around Rusty, and all at once he fell apart. Screaming and sobbing into the sheltering warmth of Josie’s bosom.

  Bud stepped back, letting his father and Josie take matters in hand. He grabbed the shotgun, laying on the counter, and followed his dad.

  Without another word, Bill guided them back to the Overlook apartment. Josie carried Rusty over to the couch, where he curled up onto her lap, his sobs hitching further and further apart, at last coming to a stop. She ran her fingers lightly over his head, humming softly in his ear. Across from her, Bill sat Tubby down in his Lazy Boy.

  Tubby just sat there, still and quiet, staring vacantly at the swirling ceiling fan over his head. Bill covered him with a blanket, and then did the same for Rusty.

  Josie lifted Rusty’s head from her lap and slipped a pillow in its place. He had already fallen asleep. Bill turned down the dimmer in the living room to a faint glow. He gestured for his son and Josie to follow him.

  As she and Bud took a seat at the kitchen table, Bill took some sandwich fixings from the fridge. Bud laid the old shotgun on his lap. It wasn’t as efficient as a Mossberg, but by god it had sure done the job that afternoon. “I guess they told you what happened to us today.”

  Bill nodded as he put some bacon in the microwave. “I can’t believe Ham Huggins is dead. Lord, I thought that big man was indestructible. I’m sure gonna miss him. Betty Anne, too.” He looked over his shoulder, his eyes tense and haunted. “None of you were bitten or scratched were you?”

  “No, sir,” Josie assured him.

  Bill sighed and nodded his head. Josie could see his lips, silently praying: Thank you, God. Thank you.

  He turned to them, his eyes for now free of ghosts. “I sure was surprised to see you kids back so early. Ham told me he wouldn’t be back until Saturday, earliest.”

  “He knew the Tolsons’ and I were anxious to get back home,” Josie said, feeling more than a little responsible.

  “That’s what Rusty told me. If I’d known that, I would have found a way to stop you from docking today. I can’t believe the Coast Guard even let you through!”

  Bud’s upper lip exposed his canines in a familiar snarl. “If you think I would’ve left you in the middle of all this madness, Dad…you’re nuttier than one of those naked assholes out there.”

  Bill did a double take on his son’s face, seeing a devotion there he thought he had lost forever. Not since the boy was nine had Bill felt truly loved by his son. Affection, sure. Love, no. Most of the time Bud seemed barely aware of his presence. Bill knew that he wasn’t any better in this regard, treating his son more like an honored guest than his own flesh and blood. It was easier that way. Replacing emotions with polite deference. Truth was, neither had said ‘I love you,’ to the other since the heart-and-soul of their family was ripped from their lives. As if saying it might jeopardize the other’s life. Bill used the awkward pause to finish making their turkey clubs. He set them on the table, along with three old Flintstones jelly jars, filling the cartoon glasses with orange juice from the fridge. Josie picked up the glass and ran her finger over the familiar characters. Betty, Barney, and Bam-Bam. The Brown boys were like a couple of frat kids, living on their own for the first time; most of their utensils, plates, and cups were of the garage sale variety. The kind of mismatched stuff that only a bachelor would consider buying. Bill had shipped all of his wife’s things to his estranged daughter a long time ago. The mere sight of a butter dish, once used by his lovely wife, was enough to send him into a deep funk.

  “Where’d you go today?” Bud asked his dad again.

  Bilbo pulled up a chair and sat down. “Out looking for that rat bastard, Clint Bidwell.”

  “By the looks of his office, he’s skipped town,” Josie informed him. “Did you go to his house today?”

  Bill looked up from his sandwich. “He’s dead.”

  No one at the table seemed distressed by the news. In an afternoon full of grisly surprises, the death of Doctor Clint Bidwell seemed par for the course. Besides, the rat bastard’s services were no longer required.

  “Those things get him?” Bud wondered. There wasn’t a trace of pity in his voice. Just curiosity.

  “Looked like. I found him on the floor of his bedroom. Something had been snacking on him before I got there.” Bill shook his head. “I looked around but I didn’t find any more information on RS13.”

  Bud’s eyebrows twitched. “RS13?”

  “That’s the name of the super rabies strain Bidwell discovered. Or should I say, invented.”

  “How do you know all this, Pop?”

  Bill glanced over at Josie. “I got my hands on some documents that helped me to connect the dots, son. I don’t have all the answers. Just enough to know Moon Island is now in a state of quarantine. The government doesn’t want any loose ends that could tie them to this manufactured virus. Which is why I don’t think they’ll let us leave here anytime soon. Whether we’re infected or not.”

  “Oh, my God,” Josie swore. “So that’s why the whole bloody Coast Guard is anchored off shore!”

  “So there’s more than one ship out there now? Doesn’t surprise me, really. Just proves my point. We’re not leaving this rock, kids. And in case you haven’t tried to radio out yet, they’re blocking all transmissions as well. Phones too, of course. Land lines and cells. They don’t want the virus, much less new
s of the virus, to make it to the mainland.”

  “Did the pictures turn out, then?” Josie asked Bill. Her sandwich remained untouched in front of her. She nibbled absently on a potato chip.

  Bill gauged his son’s reaction to Josie’s question before answering. Bud’s eyebrows had formed familiar battle lines between his furious eyes.

  “Not all of them, sweetheart. You snapped the pictures too far away from most of the documents; the words for the most part just blurred together. Only seven of the twenty-two photos came out clear enough to decipher. But let me tell you, those seven photos scared the shit out of me…. If you’ll pardon the language.”

  “Wait a minute,” Bud said, feeling as if he’d just sat down halfway into a movie. “Would you mind telling me what you two are talking about?”

  Josie told Bud what she and Tubby had done together, leaving out the part where Bidwell had molested her, of course. After she finished, Bud looked ready to erupt. He turned on his father. “Did you know about this?”

  Josie put her hand on Bud’s arm. “I asked your dad to process the pictures. The ones Ralphie took while I was getting my check up. Bilbo knew nothing of our plans.”

  “So you were all alone in that exam room with Bidwell?” Bud asked her, incredulously. The blush on Josie’s face told him all he needed to know.

  Bud glared at the door separating them from their friends in the other room. “It doesn’t surprise me you would do something so reckless, Red. But I can’t believe that Tubby would let you take that kind of risk without telling me first! I thought I knew him better than that.”

  He turned to her with dawning horror on his face. “Did that asshole…”

  “No, love,” Josie smiled tightly. “He gave me a checkup. That’s all. Same as you and the sleeping boys in there. Nothing happened, all right? I was just keeping him busy while Ralphie took the pictures in his office.”

  Bud stared into her green eyes, looking for the truth, while at the same time not wanting any part of it.

  Josie leaned across the table and kissed him on the mouth. “Let it go, Bud. It’s over and done with. And I’m sorry I did it behind your back like that. Don’t blame Ralph, either. He didn’t want to go along, but I made him.”

  “You made him? Give me a break, Joe!”

  “Let’s just say I have some information he doesn’t want to get around, and let’s leave it at that. Hell, he’d moon the Pope himself if I told him to!”

  Bill blinked. “And you would have done that to the poor boy had he said no? Spilled all his secrets?”

  Josie did her Mona Lisa impression again. Laughing eyes. Secretive smile. “You’ll never know now, will ya?”

  Bill laughed gustily. “Gawd all mighty, son! What have you gotten yourself into with this girl? If I was you I wouldn’t be telling Big Red any deep dark secrets.”

  Bud gave Joe a murderous look. “Too late for that.”

  Unimpressed, she stuck her tongue out at him, and then turned to Bill. “So what ‘d you learn from my detective work?”

  “Okay, Nancy Drew. Let me start from the beginning. And our dearly departed Doctor Bidwell is where it all begins. Once upon a time, kiddies, he was one of the top virologists in the world. A rising superstar at the C.D.C out of Atlanta.”

  “So what was he doing here on this pissant island?”

  “Hiding in plain sight, son. He moved to Moon when he heard tell there was a need of a family physician out here, over thirteen years ago.”

  “Why would a hotshot scientist like that take such a lowly position? Dishing out booster shots and lollipops.”

  “Because of the Research Center,” Josie said. “That’s his real job, isn’t it? Like you said, the Family Practice is just a convenient place to hide in plain sight.”

  Bill pointed a finger gun at her. “Bulls-eye. Like I said, Bidwell once worked for the CDC. Their leading expert on rabies in fact.” He let that sink in for a moment. “Along with two other colleagues at that institution, Bidwell refined the post exposure process, wherein an infected individual gets one shot of human rabies immunoglobulin and four doses of rabies vaccine over a fourteen day period. A very unpleasant ordeal. Long and short of it is Dr. Bidwell got that ordeal down to one shot! And thus a star was born. His ego got out of hand, though, as did his obsession with the rabies virus. He refused to consider working on any other viruses that weren’t in the Lyssavirus genus, of which rabies reigns supreme.

  “Eventually he was fired because he spent more time trying to mutate the damn disease than he did in controlling it! There were even rumors he’d been trying to sell his permutations to outside sources.”

  Josie gasped.

  “I know, right? After losing his high profile job with the CDC, Bidwell began searching for a position with an independently owned research facility.”

  “So that’s where our Research Center comes in?”

  “In a roundabout way,” Bill said. “You see, because of the scandal involved with the CDC, no one legitimate could afford to hire Bidwell. Because of the possible fallout, you understand. But to put him on the payroll as an advisor? Sure. That was doable.”

  “Pretty smart when you think about it.” Bud said. “While his left hand is cooking up trouble, his right hand is on the pulse of the island. Taking care of us, and risking our welfare all at the same time. What a douche bag.”

  “Wasn’t Jessie Huggins ever suspicious of him?” Josie asked. “He had to have wondered why a man so overly qualified would want to hang up his shingle here.”

  “My guess is Bidwell left much of his past off his resume. As I recall, like the Sheriff’s position, there weren’t too many applicants. Jessie Huggins couldn’t afford to be too particular. Case in point: our upstanding Sheriff. Jessie didn’t exactly run background checks on these fellows, you understand. He was probably overjoyed just to have an honest-to-goodness doctor on the island! Besides, it’s not like I ever suspected the man, either.”

  “So while he had his ear to the wall, here in town, he was in fact working for the Research Center?”

  “Bidwell is the Center, Bud. Well, was. Early on in his tenure there, he went from being an undercover researcher to being the C.E.O. In fact, he’s their main stockholder now. The Center used to specialize in animal testing. Consumer products, primarily—but as the general public became more aware over certain cruel practices utilized in that process, the Center began to lose its main source of revenue. That’s where Bidwell came in. He shut down any testing that wasn’t viral in nature. In short, the Center became a research facility for the prevention and cure of viral diseases. Such as the West Nile virus and the ever-adapting flu virus—and, of course…rabies. The Army was, until very recently I believe, footing most of the bill.”

  Bud’s jaw muscles visibly clenched. “Why did they pick Moon Island for their crazy fucking experiments?”

  “Because it is an island, son. One of the farthest islands from the mainland on the whole eastern seaboard. This place is perfect for that sort of testing when you think about it. If something nasty escapes, it has nowhere to go but in our laps.” Bill spread apart his arms in an expansive manner. “And as you can see…we’re easily quarantined.”

  “It sounds as if their intentions were at first headed in the right direction,” Josie said. “When did it go wrong?”

  “From the very beginning. Oh, I’m sure they were pursuing those other avenues as well. That was the Center’s cover, after all. For you see, Bidwell’s true work, his calling, if you will, is against the law.”

  “The making of a stronger rabies virus?”

  Bill nodded. “More specifically, son, the selling of such a disease and its eventual cure.”