Kizzy ran down the stairs as Iris emerged from the basement carrying a bag full of bottles and cans.
“Do you know where New York City is?” Kizzy asked.
“Why?” asked Iris as she set the bag on the table.
“I think that’s where the Enoch Headquarters are.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
Kizzy growled and stomped her foot. “You’ve never even heard of it?”
Iris shook her head.
Knowing the city may have been just a worthless as having the map.
They spent the rest of the day rummaging through the other locked houses. The sun was beginning to set as they went back to Iris’s house. Kizzy laid the bag of cans on the counter and placed the ax down next to the record player. Iris stared at the sharp tool.
“It’s for chopping wood,” Kizzy said. “In case it gets cold later.”
Iris nodded and began to put away the cans.
There was no sign of Diego. Could he still be asleep? Kizzy walked through the living room and up the stairs to the loft. The setting sun was shining brightly into the bedroom and Diego was in the exact same position she had left him. How could he still be sleeping? She walked over and hopped up onto the bed. He didn’t move. She nudged his shoulder. Still there was no movement. She rolled him over onto his back. His eyes were slightly opened, but he wasn’t breathing. A black pill bottle rolled out from his hand onto the bed sheet.
Iris came to the doorway. “What’s wrong?”
“He took some pills,” said Kizzy, the worry climbing up in her throat. She handed the bottle to Iris.
She sniffed it. “Smells like the Enoch compound, but reversed.” She stepped to the bed and felt on his neck with two brass fingers. Then she pushed his head back and used her other hand to pull open his eyelids. “He’s dead.”
“No,” snapped Kizzy. “He isn’t.”
“There’s no pulse on him,” Iris said. “He’s dead.” She started walking towards the stairs.
“Wait, where are you going?” asked Kizzy.
“I have to warm up the cremator,” Iris said as she walked down the stairs.
Kizzy looked at Diego, his face was white and his lips were bleached. There was a deep sinking feeling in her gut. Not him too. Why would he do this? She leaped from the bed and chased Iris down the stairs.
“He’s not dead,” Kizzy pleaded.
“Oh yes he is. I’m sure,” said Iris. “No breathing, no pulse, no movement in the pupils. He’s definitely dead.”
“We need to call a doctor,” Kizzy yelled. But Iris continued her march to the basement. Kizzy grabbed onto her cold brass shoulder.
Iris turned swiftly and stuck a finger in Kizzy’s face. “Do not ever again touch me. Doctors are for sick living people. He is dead. I have to take care of the body before it begins to spread disease.”
“But what happened?” asked Kizzy. “Why would he have done this?”
“I don’t know,” said Iris as she walked through the kitchen.
There was a knock on the door from outside. Iris stopped and looked at Kizzy with an expression of horror on her metal face. She bolted for the basement and closed the door behind her. Kizzy looked to the front door. The knock came again.
14
Leo entered his apartment and the phone was ringing off the hook. It instantly gave him a headache. He answered.
“Where the heck have you been?” came Chip’s voice on the other end. “I’ve been trying to call you for a half an hour.”
“I was... at a friend’s house.”
“I guess you’ve heard the news then?”
“Yeah, some dude killed Banshee.”
“Not a dude,” said Chip. “It was a girl.”
“Oh geez how’d that happen?”
“I don’t know. She snuck in somehow.”
Leo tried to think of how she did it as he turned on the TV. Every channel showed the same grainy footage from the theater of the girl running out from the dressing room. “A few more do that and we’ll have another plague on our hands.”
“That’s not even the worst of it. She and some kid she was working with escaped the city. Probably the same way she came in.”
“What were they pen-pals or something?”
“No idea. We’ll have to cover this up Leo. Patch whatever hole she found.”
“I can look into it.”
“No, I need you to take her out.”
“As in kill her?”
“What else? Wait hold that thought, I’ve got another call coming in.”
Leo paced the room while he waited. He needed to think of a good reason to get the girl back to the city alive.
“More bad news,” Chip came in.
“What is it?”
“Our guys lost them. They got away into the woods. We’ll have to go out after them.”
“You’re right. And well, I was thinking. Things could get pretty bad around here if people think they can get away with murder.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“Maybe we bring her back here, set up an execution or something. Show everyone what happens when you kill someone.”
“No, we can’t do that.”
“Just think of how it might escalate from here, sir.”
There was a pause on the other end. “Would you be willing to suggest it to the rest of the committee?”
“Yeah, I would.”
“Well, we’ll see what they say. Henry would be up for it I’m sure. Dr. Patel is a bit of a wildcard. But what about Morrigan? I can’t imagine he’d want an execution, what with all his peace and forgiveness crap.”
Leo rolled his eyes. “I bet we could talk him into it.”
“Ok, we can cross that bridge when we get to it. But we’re doing it in a civilized way. Suicide pill, televised, simple.”
“Alright,” said Leo as he bit his lip. It was a step in the right direction at least.
“In the meantime get some sleep, Leo.”
“Wait, aren’t we going out after them?”
“We’ll let them get comfortable first,” Chip said. “Let them think we’ve given up.”
After Leo hung up the phone he heard something tapping on his living room window. He craned his neck to see what it was and his jaw dropped open. The white crow was there on his ledge, looking mangy as hell. From the sight of it, the dumb thing must have had gotten itself caught in something, since its wing was all jacked up. On top of that some of the feathers had plucked from its head and back. The other crows must have realized it was a freak and tried pecking it to death.
Leo, let it inside. It laid on the floor, panting heavily. Leo went to his jacket to get his gun, then shook his head. The neighbors would hear that, dummy. He scavenged through his kitchen drawers until he found what he was looking for. A little white box, the size of an old cell phone box. The suicide pill. That would be a more humane death for the little bastard.
Leo ground up the pill and mixed it with some water in a bowl. He brought it to the weak dying bird and watched as it pecked at the liquid.
“Sorry about all this man,” Leo said as he sat down on the couch.
The crow laid down and closed its eyes.
As he waited for the bird to croak Leo stared at the grainy news footage again and again. The anchor waxed lyrical over the great loss humanity had just suffered. But Leo didn’t pay much attention to that. Instead he stared at the girl, trying to figure out the expression that was on her face. She didn’t seem afraid or crazed. Just numb and disconnected. One question kept popping up into his head again and again. What had happened in that dressing room?
He woke up to tapping once more. He must have dozed off. The bird was at the window, peckin
g at the glass, only this time it was completely healed. All it’s feathers had grown back. What had happened? Leo tried to think. The only thing that made any sense was that the suicide pill worked as an Enoch compound blocker. And if the Enoch compound was already blocked? The vitamin E must have worked as some sort of rapid healing agent. But the damn thing was still white and mutated, useless for any experiment.
Leo opened the window and kicked it out. “And don’t come back.”
The white crow flew away once more into the city. Leo smiled and walked back to the couch, content with this good deed for the day.
∞
The knock came at the door again. Kizzy froze. The house was so small there was no place to hide.
“Kizzy?” came her mother’s voice from outside. “Are you in there?”
Kizzy slowly approached the door. “Is it just you?”
“Only me,” her mother answered.
Kizzy opened. Her mother stood there with a purple shawl wrapped around her shoulders and her left eye badly bruised.
“What happened to you?” Kizzy asked pointing at her eye.
“Oh, one of the police officers did it to me,” her mother said, gingerly feeling at it. “They burst through the door. I must have scared them.”
“Sorry.”
“They were looking for you.”
“I know.”
“You killed that musician,” her mother said.
Kizzy said nothing. She bit her lip and tried not to cry. She leaned onto the door frame and glanced to see if Iris was behind her.
“If I had known you were so obsessed with him,” said her mother, “I would have gotten you some help. I always knew you were disturbed, but I never thought you were planning on doing something like this.”
“It’s not like that,” said Kizzy.
“You’re going to be executed,” said her mother. “They’re going to take you back to the city when they find you. What you’ve done is too bad to warrant just being shot.”
Kizzy felt the doom surround her. There was no easy way out now.
“I should have never let you leave after Laura died. It was stupid of me. I should have forced you to stay and end it all right then and there. That innocent man would still be alive.”
“You’re right,” said Kizzy, crossing her arms. She felt the anger coming out in her face. “You should have.”
Her mother looked right into her eyes as her own were beginning to mist. “You took a life off this earth. Do you know how awful that is? How awful you are because of it?”
“I know!” shouted Kizzy. Her scream echoed through the house and off the walls of the surrounding homes.
“Kizzy, I love you, but you’ve become a monster.”
Kizzy’s head dropped.
“They’re coming back tonight,” her mother said with a sigh.
“I’m not supposed to tell you. They’re bringing dogs and night vision equipment. They said they’ll go easy on you if you turn yourself in. A less painful execution. I won’t tell them where you are, because you’re my daughter and I won’t take that choice away from you. But I think you should turn yourself in. There’s no place you can hide. They won’t ever stop looking for you.”
Kizzy nodded. She stared at the trees blowing in the wind, wondering if this was the last time she’d see them.
“You can come home if you want to sleep in your own bed,” her mother said.
Kizzy nodded again.
“I’ll always love you Kizzy, even after you are gone,” she said. She turned and walked back to the woods.
A cold silver tear rolled down Kizzy’s cheek as she closed the door.
Iris was standing behind her. “You’re wanted for murder?”
“There was a misunderstanding,” said Kizzy. “I was attacked.”
Iris’s eyes twitched back and forth, as if she was doing math equations in her head. “That doesn’t matter. There are no exceptions. You’ll be executed.” She slowly approached Kizzy. “I have to turn you in. There’s no other option.”
“You can’t,” said Kizzy.
“I must, it’s in my programming. I must obey the law.”
“Please don’t.”
“There isn’t a thing you can do to stop me.”
Iris opened the front door and was about to leave when she heard footsteps from the other room. She froze. Diego came stumbling down the stairs. He held onto the couch as he walked towards the kitchen. Smiling, pale, thirsty. There were dark bags under his eyes “Can I get some water?”
“You’re alive?!” Iris and Kizzy said at the same time. Iris said it in the form of a question. Kizzy’s was an exclamation.
“Uh, yeah, I am. Can I get some water please.”
Kizzy ran to the sink and filled a wooden cup with water.
“Your pulse was stopped,” Iris said. “You were dead.”
“I’m a deep sleeper,” said Diego.
“But I almost cremated you,” said Iris.
“What? Why?” asked Diego suddenly becoming alert and angry.
“Because it’s my job,” said Iris. She brought her hands up to her head and moaned. “I’m faulty. How many living people have I accidentally cremated?”
Kizzy brought the cup of water to Diego. He swallowed it down in three huge gulps. “Can I have a little more?” He sat down in a chair and laid his forehead on the table.
“Living people!” Iris groaned. “How many did I turn to dust? I can’t live with myself. How many could there have been?”
“Probably none,” groaned Diego, his face on the table. “Please Iris, I have a headache.”
“You don’t understand,” said Iris. “My programming is set to self destruct if I cause any harm to a human being. But this is worse. This not knowing what I may have or may have not done. I’m stuck in a gray area. Somewhere between a one and a zero. I can’t handle it.”
“Don’t you have medical records or something you can check?” Diego asked.
“Yes... yes that’s a good idea,” Iris said becoming calmer. She walked down the stairs to the basement.
Kizzy watched Diego at the table. It looked as if he was in incredible pain.
“What were those pills?” she asked.
“They’re nothing,” he said.
“We really thought you were dead,” said Kizzy.
“Well, I wasn’t. Ok?” He sounded annoyed. His eyes were half- closed and his hair was all over the place.
“The cops are coming back tonight,” Kizzy said. “They’re bringing dogs and night vision equipment.”
“How do you know?” Diego asked, sitting up in the chair.
“My mother told me,” said Kizzy. “She was just here.”
“Ok,” said Diego. “So how are we going to have them take you and not me?”
“Well, wait a second,” Kizzy said. “I found out where the Enoch Headquarters are.” She took the Enoch pill bottle from her pocket and showed it to him. “New York City.”
Diego’s eyes became big as he looked up at her. “Where is that?”
“I don’t know. Iris doesn’t know either, but we know the name of the city at least.”
“Well that’s super. That could be anywhere in the whole wide world. And they’re coming here tonight. No, we’re not taking any more chances. You’re turning yourself in.”
“Turning myself in?”
He nodded.
Suddenly the idea of being tortured to death was a real possibility. She had to keep running, but Diego would never allow that as long as she was his key to freedom. “But my mother said that you were to be found guilty too.”
“What?” snapped Diego.
“They said that since you helped me escape, you were an a
ccomplice. I told her you had nothing to do with it. But it doesn’t matter what I say, they’re taking you too.”
Diego began to laugh. He put his hands on his stomach and cackled up at the ceiling. There was something different about him now. He was unhinged, out of control.
“Why are you laughing?” she asked. “The police could be here any minute.”
“Because you’ve screwed me.”
“That’s no reason to be laughing.”
“Oh, I’m sorry for enjoying my life for once.”
“I just need you to focus,” said Kizzy. She felt her hands turning to fists.
“Forget it. Nothing matters anymore.”
“Did those pills make you like this?”
“What do you care?” shouted Diego. He pushed himself away from the table. He walked over to the cupboard and took out another bottle of wine.
“What’s wrong with you?” Kizzy asked.
“Nothing,” he said. He popped the cork down into the bottle with a knife and took a swig as he sat down at the table.
“Yes, there’s something wrong with you,” said Kizzy.
“Why don’t you just go by yourself and find New York City?”
“Why are you acting like a child?” yelled Kizzy.
“Just go by yourself. I’ll hang out here with Iris until the cops come and get me.”
“I thought you were different,” said Kizzy.
“Well, it looks like I’m not,” said Diego.
“Nope, just another mutant from the city who doesn’t care where he goes in life.”
“Well that’s where you’re wrong you little bitch,” said Diego. “I couldn’t wait to get out of that dump. I’ve been saving up to go and live on my own, where I wouldn’t be bothered. Where I wouldn’t be bullied. But you have no idea about any of that. You think the city is alright because you don’t know any better. And now you’ve ruined my life. You’ve ruined everything. Because now I can’t run anywhere without somebody chasing me.”
The Enoch Pill Page 15