"Severe?" she asked. "How severe?"
"With Adam you just hope and you pray," began the Sheriff.
"You're genuinely concerned," said Eve with surprise.
"But then he bounces back anyway," finished the Sheriff, taking a sip of coffee.
That was the Sheriff she knew. Always regarding the Doctor with a modicum of disgust. She looked at the Sheriff, scrunching her face as she leered at him for leading her on. The Sheriff's lips curled up on one end into a side grin, but his smile quickly disappeared as he looked towards the door.
It was Adam, bursting into the office, carrying a large box, and wearing mismatched oven mitts on his hands.
"Eve," began Adam, dropping the box on the desk. "I'm glad you could make it."
The Sheriff eyed the box crushing files on his desk.
"Say, Doc. Do ya'-," but Adam cut him off.
"I do!" said Adam, presuming the Sheriff was offering him coffee, then ripped the Sheriff's mug from his unsuspecting hands.
"Thanks, Sheriff," he said, and having chugged the last of the Sheriff's coffee, he returned the mug to the Sheriff's outstretched hand.
"You're… welcome," muttered the Sheriff, but Eve could tell the Sheriff had already had his fill of Doctor Adam Townsend for the day.
"So what was the big emergency?" asked Eve as she watched the Sheriff continue muttering to himself while he filled another mug with coffee for himself.
"I'm afraid I'm leaving Atom Town," said Adam, dramatically staring into the distance long enough for the concept to soak into the room.
Everyone just turned back to their tasks. The Sheriff continued pouring his coffee. The deputy shadowed him, grabbing a mug and patiently waiting for the Sheriff to pass the pot.
Adam turned back to his audience, clearly not getting the reaction he'd expected.
"Please… no more tears," said Adam. "I want you all to move on… without your beloved Doctor Adam Townsend."
"Done," said the Sheriff, returning the pot to the burner. The deputy picked up the pot to find no coffee remained for him, and solemnly put his mug back on the cart.
"I don't think you're understanding the gravity of what I'm saying, Bob," cautioned Adam. "I'm afraid this means you'll have to replace me on the bowling team!"
"Criminy, you're right," said the Sheriff with fake concern. "Miss Adams, you ever bowl?"
"No."
"Well you do, now," smiled the Sheriff. "That was a close one." He snickered a bit as he sipped his coffee.
"Right," said Adam, opening his box. "Here is my key to the city, twelve of my doctorates, and this trophy for 'Handsomest Doctor in Town’."
"They have a trophy for that?" asked Eve suspiciously.
"You think I'd make up my own trophy?" snapped Adam.
"Yes," confirmed Eve.
"And I suppose you think these are fake too?" asked Adam, cradling another pair of trophies in his arms.
Eve read the engraved plates; ’Brilliantest Atomic Genius’ and ‘Best Looking Capricorn in a Lab coat’. She rolled her eyes back at Adam.
"They were buy two get one free, like I was going to pass that up?!" confessed Adam, dropping the trophies back into the box.
"So what's with the oven mitts?" asked Eve.
"He was getting to that whether you asked him or not, Miss Adams," said the Sheriff sipping his coffee and plopping his rump down in the deputy's chair. As the Sheriff's weathered cowboy boots popped up on the deputy's desk, the deputy looked for seating likewise. He sat down in the Sheriff's chair, but quickly disappeared behind Adam's box.
Adam smiled, now having the attention of the room he'd been waiting for.
"Prepare yourselves!" he began. "What you are about to see is far too shocking for mere words… Behold!"
Adam dramatically ripped off his leftover mitt to reveal a frighteningly… normal hand.
The room deflated as they sighed their disappointment.
"Is that a fresh manicure?" asked Eve.
"Perfection in science requires perfect cuticles, Eve," Adam smiled as he admired his own fingernails.
"Startin' to worry about you, boy," said the Sheriff.
"Just now?" Eve asked sardonically.
As Eve began to turn away, Adam grabbed her shoulder. "But wait… you're right to worry, for there's more!" he promised.
"Yes, another hand," said Eve. "I've seen it bef-".
"Behold!" Shouted Adam as he threw off the right oven mitt.
Eve froze. It was the same hand he had regenerated in the lab, but now it was gray and mottled. The skin was scaled over. His fingers were sharp and clawed. It almost looked like the hand of…
"Alligator," she said out loud.
"Yes, a reaction to the formula, or perhaps the sustained exposure to the cobalt rays," explained Adam.
"It looks terrible," said Eve.
"You're telling me," said Adam. "I'll never play the piano again."
How Eve had missed a piano sitting in the room, she couldn't say, but there it was all the same, blurting out a single sour note as Adam's mutated fist pounded down on it.
"I didn't know you played the piano," said Eve.
"I don't, but now I never will," said Adam solemnly.
Unable to see from behind the box, the Deputy stood back up. Adam immediately seized him with a one-handed hug.
"Deputy… whatever," began Adam, not caring about his actual name. "How I'll miss all of us getting a good chuckle out of your untimely demise."
The deputy furrowed his brow, not enjoying the prospect of death, comedic or otherwise.
Adam moved towards the Sheriff who looked up from his chair.
"Hug me and I'll end you, Townsend."
"You know you'll miss me," smiled Adam.
"Not if I aim right," he said, patting his pistol.
Adam backed away and turned to Eve, his eyes growing melancholy, his hands reaching for hers.
"Eve, I know this will be difficult, but I want you to move on."
"Adam, there's nothing between us," reiterated Eve, slapping his hands away.
Adam gripped Eve's shoulder with his right hand.
"Denial can be an ugly thing…" he stopped, pulling his hand back, transfixed on his own mutation. "But not as ugly as the monstrosity I've become."
He slowly backed towards the door' still studying his reptilian hand.
"You must all try to forget me," he almost wept. "I want you all to forget the day you first heard the name Doctor Adam Townsend. I bid you… farewell!"
Pete opened the door and Adam rushed out. Pete had barely looked up, as if he'd been anticipating Adam's hasty departure all along.
"And there he goes," said the Sheriff, pulling out a fresh cigar from his shirt pocket.
Eve watched as Adam struggled with the door handle of his car outside, the gator hand unable to grip the handle.
He cradled the monster mitt in his other, perfectly capable hand, choked back tears, then turned and ran down the street.
Eve watched him head out of the town square until he was out of sight.
She looked at Pete lingering in the doorway, then to the Sheriff, still sitting with his feet up, now lighting a cigar.
"Shouldn't we go after him?" she asked the room.
The Deputy looked to the Sheriff.
"Who?" asked the Sheriff, enjoying his cigar.
"Doctor Townsend. Adam. You know, the lizard-boy that just ran out of here sobbing like a baby?" Eve was getting frustrated.
"Not ringin' a bell," chuckled the Sheriff, clearly enjoying his Adam-free world.
Eve snatched the cigar out of his mouth and dropped it into his coffee. The orange embers of the cigar hissed as the coffee fizzled out all signs of life. If that wasn't enough, she knocked one of his boots aside, where it slipped off the desk and clomped back onto the hard wood floor.
Fire in his eyes, the Sheriff slipped his other boot to the floor, slid is wet cigar out of
his coffee and pointed it at Eve.
"You can't let me enjoy this moment for jes' five minutes?" He hollered at her. "Man asked us to forget him, I'm sure he had his reasons!"
"You can't seriously pretend he never existed?" scolded Eve.
"Watch me!" growled the Sheriff, shoving his soggy cigar back in his mouth.
Eve looked around the room. The box, awards, even the piano was gone.
"Wait, where did all of his stuff go?" asked Eve.
The sheriff was still fuming. "Look, you wanna’ run all over tarnation after that quack, be my guest! I gave that up years ago."
"I can tell," said Eve. "You stay here and keep giving up. I'll go after him," she nodded to Pete, still holding the door, then marched outside.
Pete silently followed, while the Sheriff waded in the awkward silence of his office.
He scratched what little hair remained on his bald head. The Deputy mirrored him, quietly scratching his own head.
"Obstinate, too big for her britches… That woman's on my last nerve!" he barked at the Deputy.
He took a deep breath and slowly let it out, clicking his lips. "But she ain't wrong," he said staring out through the window.
"Dagnabbit!" he said with resignation. "Fetch me my hat."
10
Compact Car
As Eve sat down in the car and slammed the door shut, a light from her purse began to blink on and off.
"Great," she said, checking for Pete. He was still outside, preoccupied with something. With what, she didn't care. Still fuming from her frustration with the Sherriff, she slapped open her compact communicator and chirped an angry,
"What?!"
"Large pepperoni with olives and extra cheese, all the crust toppers, and an order of cheesy sticks,” said the voice from her compact. Eve knew it was Agent D. After all, who else would call her on a makeup mirror from the future? She had no more tolerance for moronic men.
"That's it? That's all you're calling me for? Pizza?!" she shouted into the device.
"You're right," said D. "That's not going to fill both of us up. Simmons, you wanna' split another chocolate brownie thingy with me?"
"Sir, I don't think that's Chubby's Pizza," advised Simmons, stepping into view on the little screen.
"What's the difference as long as they deliver?" scoffed D.
"It's Eve!" she reminded him. "I'm a little outside your delivery zone by about a hundred years!"
"One sec," said D, quickly covering the camera until all Eve could see on screen was the palm of his black glove.
"It's Eve,” whispered D. "You think she saw me?"
"Sir, I think she can still hear you," reminded Simmons.
"Alright Simmons, be cool," said D.
"I'm a cucumber sir," said Simmons.
Agent D took a deep breath, then removed his hand and addressed Eve as if nothing had happened.
"Eve, there you are. Just checking on the mission. How’s it going?"
"It's not," said Eve. “The chalkboard got erased. What I have is incomplete and now apparently Adam's left town forever."
“Somehow I doubt that. You find him, get him to finish the formula. D out.”
"So," began Simmons, "Does this mean we're not getting pizza?"
The screen went to static, then black.
11
Fare Play
Her cab driver had stopped, transfixed on what was going on inside the Sheriff's office. He had been watching as the Sheriff locked up and headed out back with the deputy in tow, loading into the patrol car.
Eve looked up from her compact to see Pete watching her.
"Whatcha' doin'?" asked Pete, having opened the taxi door without her noticing.
Eve had no cause to hide her conversations with D from Pete, but she didn't feel he needed full access either. After all, she only knew that he'd been an agent, nothing more.
"Just fixing my face,” she said, slapping the compact shut.
“Yeah, I hate it when a face goes and falls off," smiled Pete.
"What kept you?" she asked with a hint of impatience in her voice.
"The Sheriff,” started Pete. "Ain't seen him leave the office for nothin' short of a murder or a funeral. Ever." Pete looked for the Sheriff's patrol car, but it was gone. "Yet he just took his Deputy to search for the Doc, and in case you haven't figured it yet, he ain't the Doc's biggest fan. You musta' struck a chord."
"Where do you suppose he went?" asked Eve.
"After Adam, I reckon," said Pete.
"I mean, where do you suppose Adam went?" Eve pressed.
"Oh I suppose he get to where the gators go," surmised Pete.
"The zoo?" Eve guessed.
"No, Miss Adams, we ain't that fancy," he chuckled. "The Swamp, most likely."
"Swamp?" said Eve a bit confused. "Pete, I’ve been all over this town this week, it’s surrounded by desert. I've even checked the county map."
"Well that's your problem, right there. Black Swamp ain't on the map," explained Pete. "You want old' Pete's advice, you'll stay put. Here…"
Pete pulled out his map from the glove box and unfolded it.
"Now, I ain't been able to share this with no one before, but you see these marks?" he started, pointing to markings, circles and "X"s surrounding the outskirts of town. "Each of these spots here are where I've towed in patrol cars. And these are more I just heard rumors about."
Pete handed Eve the map.
"Now, you see what they have in common?" he asked her.
Eve looked over the map. Pete had clearly drawn roads and labeled the desert, even Dead Rock Mine where she'd nearly been killed by a giant spider and Adam doppelgangers that turned out to be aliens, but nowhere on the map was a swamp.
"Yeah, none of it is helping me find Black Swamp," she said, tossing the map back to Pete.
"Not one of these spots is in town," explained Pete. "It's a simple lesson. You leave the map, you don't come back."
"I have to go, Pete," insisted Eve. "It's my mission. You gonna' take me, or am I taking your cab?"
"I wasn’t offering my cab," said Pete.
"And I wasn't asking, Pete," said Eve in a slow, deliberate tone that Pete realized meant she was fixing to take it by force.
"It may not look it, Miss Adams, but 'ol Pete's pretty spry. I don’t think the lady can take him," he smiled. "B'sides, don't nobody drives the cab but Pete."
Pete begrudgingly started the engine.
As his headlights ignited the road in front of them, Eve saw a familiar foe, crawling across the concrete. Lefty!
"Pete…" she began, but the old cabbie cut her off.
"You're temptin' fate, Miss Adams," he scolded her, pulling forward. "One day the hand of fate might just catch you."
Lefty disappeared under the cab with a loud THUNK!
"I don't think that'll be a problem," smiled Eve.
The taxi drove off into the darkness for Black Swamp.
12
Not Always What They Pier
The taxi began to rumble as it left the safety of the concrete and continued down a gravel road.
Pete was silent. His eyes were opened wide as he searched the sides of the road intensely. His headlights tried their best to cut through the night, but the darkness continued to swallow the scenery with an insatiable hunger.
Eve had never seen Pete like this before, but she understood his look. Fear. No longer was he the even keeled mentor. Pete was genuinely scared.
“You look like you’re scared of your own shadow,” commented Eve.
“It ain’t my shadow I’s afraid of, Miss Adams,” said Pete.
“You ever think you worry too much?” asked Eve.
“It's how's I stays alive,” Pete added.
“Not much of a life,” said Eve.
“I'd rather live to regret than not live at all,” nodded Pete. “B’sides, can’t complete my mission if I ain’t around.”
“And what mission is that?” Eve asked, still not sure why Pete had been hiding out in this town for the better part of a decade. “Why exactly were you sent in?”
“Gator,” said Pete.
“Gator?” asked Eve, but her words stopped short as Pete slammed on the brakes and the cab skidded sideways on the road!
Eve nearly flew into the dashboard! When she looked up, she could see why he'd stopped.
In front of the headlights was the end of the road, and more importantly a full grown alligator!
"We're here, Miss Adams" said Pete.
Outside Pete's window was an old marina. A pair of lights lit the path towards a battered store and boat dock.
Atom Town Book 2: Hands of the Swamp! Page 4