“It’s possible. If the dogs can’t smell anything we might just have to assume they were.”
“Well, we’d have to extend the search outward then, huh?”
“In what direction Leo?” Chip asked. “If they did this, and who knows why they did, they clearly aren’t thinking straight. If I were a betting man, I’d say they won’t survive another three days out here. And without an Enoch pill that’s all they’ve got.”
“We can’t just let them get away.”
“They’re not getting away. There’s no such thing as getting away.”
Just then a swarm of crows came blasting out from the forest. They cawed and cackled as they swirled in the air. All the men dove to the ground. Leo remained standing, staring, then realized just how out of place he must have looked and got down himself. What were they doing here?
Chip scrambled over to the porch of a nearby house and waved frantically. “Leo over here.”
Leo crawled, pretending to be afraid.
The crows settled down on the tops of houses and in the trees. They sat silently just looking at the ruins of the house.
Lana whimpered.
“It’s ok girl,” Chip said, stroking her neck. “What are they doing?”
“I don’t know,” Leo said. He knew alright. Morrigan wanted to see for himself what had happened. So much for trusting him to do his job.
“Man, they creep me out,” Chip said with a shudder. “My grandma used to say they’re the ghosts of murdered men.”
“Eh, they’re not so bad,” Leo said. “They actually not so dissimilar to us. We share a lot of the same reproductive chromosomes. That’s why they like the beans so much.”
“How do you know so much about them?”
“Just from reading I guess,” Leo said. “Look, what are they doing now?”
All at once the crows flapped their wings and ascended high up into the air. In a swirling cloud they swooshed back into the woods. Then there were gone.
“Looks like they didn’t find anything either,” Chip said.
“No, they didn’t,” Leo said. Morrigan was going to be pissed.
“Well, let’s pack up then too.” Chip stood up and stretched.
Leo stared at his fingers. He didn’t want to lose them. He sighed. To his left he noticed that the weeds on the side of the house were parted, as if somebody had walked through them recently. It could only be seen from up on the porch. “Chip, were any of the guys over here?”
Chip looked out at the men and shook his head.
Leo hopped from the porch and approached the weeds. The ground was scraped, as if the person had a limp. The scraping led from the torched house and down the street towards old route 46.
“We found them,” he said, trying to hide the relief in his voice. “We found them.”
∞
Kizzy awoke in a panic. It was morning. The pain pulsated in her hand. She remembered the night before she had rinsed it in a cool stream just to ease the pain. But now it was even worse. The skin was black in parts and white and dry in others. It had begun to swell and blister while she slept. She tried to move her fingers, but it was too painful.
Sitting up she felt a kink in her neck from sleeping in the strange seat. Fogged windows were all around her. Diego had told her it was a car.
He was asleep in the back. She reached and nudged him. He jerked up with his hands out in front of his face as if he was expecting to be hit.
“It’s just me,” said Kizzy.
“Yeah, I see that,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. His face still had the pattern of the car seat pressed into it. He wiped the fog from the window. “Where are we?”
“Outside someone’s house,” said Kizzy. “Do you think they’ll have any painkillers or something inside? My hand is really killing me.”
“Can I see it?”
She lifted it to show him. He gagged and covered his mouth.
“Sorry,” she said.
They got out of the car and walked to the brown brick house. The roof had a thick layer of moss growing on it. The property was surrounded by the woods and tall grass and weeds grew up in the front lawn.
“Man, why didn’t we sleep in here last night?” asked Diego rubbing his neck.
“It was locked,” said Kizzy. “How much do you remember anyway?”
“Just Iris going crazy and lots of fire,” he said, shaking his head.
Kizzy rolled her eyes. “Those pills really screw you up don’t they?”
“Look, I’m sorry,” said Diego. “I was just really stressed from the day and they put me to sleep.”
“Well, Iris wanted to cremate you,” said Kizzy. “And that’s what messed her up. She was fine until she saw you come back from the dead. Do me a favor and don’t take them anymore.”
“Alright,” said Diego.
“Let me have the bottle,” she said putting out her hand.
“I took the last one yesterday,” said Diego. “And I left the bottle at the house anyway.”
“I don’t want to see you like that again,” said Kizzy.
Diego rolled his eyes and approached the house, looking in through a window. “How are we going to get in?”
“These windows are unbreakable,” Kizzy said, feeling at a chip in the glass. It was from the night before, she had tried to break through with a brick.
“There’s bound to be an open window or something,” said Diego.
They walked around the side of the house, Diego pushing up on each window with his palms. None of them moved. They walked around back. Some orange fish happily swam around in a little pond.
“Wow, I’m surprised they survived this long,” said Diego. He tried the first window on the back side of the house. He pressed up with his hands flat against the glass. It budged the tiniest bit. “Oh come on, you know you want to.” He pushed a little more and it slid open completely. He looked at Kizzy and grinned. “See there’s always a way in,” he said as he pulled himself up onto the sill and dropped down into the house.
He immediately began to scream at the top of his lungs. Kizzy froze and her spine stiffened. She tried to look into the window but it was too high up. Had he landed on something and hurt himself? He continued to scream. She could see him jump up and run out from the room into next.
“What is it?” she yelled.
He was now dead quiet. Kizzy shook off the shock and ran around to the front of the house. Diego stood in the opened front doorway. His face was completely pale. He spit on the ground, looking as if he was going to be sick.
“What happened?” Kizzy asked.
“Why don’t you go and look?” said Diego.
She walked past him through the doorway and was immediately hit with the smell of old dusty flesh, just like the room she had discovered in the house with Iris. Kizzy peaked around the corner into the room he had entered. On a bed, beneath the opened window, laid two skin covered skeletons, a bed sheet covering their lower halves. Kizzy gasped and looked away as a chill ran down her spine. Their mouths were open and their eyes were hollowed out.
“They must have died during the plague,” said Kizzy, turning to Diego.
“Yeah,” he said with a shudder. He walked to the door with his face down towards the floor and pulled it closed. “How’s your hand feeling?”
“It’s getting worse,” she said.
“Well, let’s see what they’ve got here.” He went to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet.
Kizzy wandered into the kitchen, her steps moving slowly over the smooth tile floor. It felt eerie to be where no one had been for so long. She started opening cabinets.
“They’ve got some Tylenol,” called Diego from the bathroom. “And what looks like some aloe vera.”<
br />
She grabbed a bottle of brown whiskey from the shelf and held it up to Diego. “This will probably work even better.”
In the next cabinet she found some coffee mugs and alongside an Enoch pill bottle.
“Hmm, they had the pill,” said Kizzy. “But the plague got them anyway.”
“Well, was it opened yet?” asked Diego.
Kizzy grabbed the bottle and gave it a shake. It felt half full. Usually there were 30 pills per bottle. She opened it and emptied the pills out into her hand. “16..18..20 pills.”
“Maybe they forgot to take them?” asked Diego.
“Three days in a row?” asked Kizzy.
“It’s weird.”
“Should we even be here?” Kizzy asked.
“Why?” he asked.
“Can’t we catch it?” she asked, nodding towards the bedroom. “From them.”
Suddenly he seemed very nervous, as if he hadn’t thought of that possibility.
“I don’t know. I not sure how it works.” He put out his hand. “Let me have one then.”
Kizzy took out pill for herself, gave Diego the bottle, and poured the whiskey into two mugs. Immune or not, she didn’t want to catch the plague.
“I hope this works,” he said.
He took a swig of the whiskey and grimaced. “Ooh that’s strong.” He coughed.
Kizzy took a sip. It burned as it cascaded down her throat.
Diego took another sip and smiled as he did a little dance. “My love kills me,” he sang to himself.
Kizzy laughed but closed her eyes. Looking forward to the moment the pain would fade.
“Should we pour some of this on your burn?” he asked.
“Won’t that hurt?”
“Yeah,” he said. “But it might prevent it from getting infected.”
Kizzy looked the her swollen, blackened hand. The pain was making her dizzy. “Ok,” she said finally. “Do it quick.” She handed him the bottle held her hand out over the sink.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes – just do it!” she said.
He turned the bottle over and let the whiskey pour out onto her flesh.
A blinding pain shot through her hand, arm and neck. She screamed and slammed her other hand down on the counter top.
“Sorry,” said Diego with a grieved expression on his face, as if he had cause all the pain.
“It’s ok,” she said. Her arm was shaking involuntarily. She grabbed the bottle from him and took a big swig. She stumbled into in the living room and collapsed onto the couch. The walls around her were swirling.
“Are you alright?” he asked. The next thing she knew he was right over the top of her.
“Can I have some of that Tylenol now?” she asked.
Diego woke her up. He had the bottle of whiskey and three small red pills in his hands.
“I’ve found a couple of cans of food here, but no can opener,” said Diego. He slipped on a pair of shoes that were sitting next to the front door. Kizzy hadn’t realize he had been wearing just one shoe since Iris’s house. “I’m going to check next door. I’ll be right back.”
Kizzy closed her eyes and tried to think of something besides the pain. It was like noise from a speaker turned all the way up.
Think of something else. What would they find in New York? Would Enoch still be there? What could he do for her?
She imagined a beautiful building, the only thing standing in a desolate city. They would enter and there would be an elevator at the end of a long hallway. She would look to Diego and he would nod knowingly to her. She should go first, this was her quest. Slowly, she would walk to the elevator, but there would be some sort of test to get in. Maybe the buttons wouldn’t work or there would be questions to gauge the intelligence of the person trying to enter. With Diego’s help she would solve it. They would take the elevator up to the top of that tall, grand building and the doors would open and then there he would be – Dr. Enoch. With his sincere smile and perfect hair. This was the person who would fix all of her problems. He would find a way to bring Laura back and Banshee too. Kizzy could go back to living with her mother, but things would be better this time. She would be happy to be home, happy to be safe and happy because she would be normal and fixed and she would live forever. She wouldn’t be tempted to listen to the city music any longer. It had left a bitter taste in her mouth that would keep her away forever. And she could meet Diego from time to time as he roamed the country side. And the woods wouldn’t frighten her anymore, because Iris was dead. She had been melted into nothingness in the basement of that awful house. Just a blob of unrecognizable metal that couldn’t hurt a soul. Things would be good. Finally.
All of a sudden Kizzy had the feeling that she wasn’t alone. She leaned up and looked out the window. Just the forest and a solitary house across the street. She laid back down. Where was Diego? She was on her way to the kitchen sink to get a glass of water when she heard a strange sound coming from the other room, like the cracking of wood. She looked to the bedroom and gasped. Iris was climbing in through the opened window.
Kizzy was paralyzed in fear.
Iris tried to force her way in, but the window wasn’t big enough. She pushed up on the glass with her back. The wall and the ceiling above it cracked. Kizzy looked to the kitchen for something to throw at her, anything to stop her. There were only some plastic bowls on the counter top. Kizzy threw them, but they did nothing to slow down the machine.
Iris ignited her flamethrower onto the two corpses on the bed, torching them into ash. She looked up with wild eyes at Kizzy as if to say, “You’re next.”
The flamethrower spouted fire but Kizzy backed all the way to the end of the room. The flames came close enough so that Kizzy could feel the heat from the tongues. She ran to the stairs as Iris broke free from the window frame and hopped down to the floor. Kizzy leaped up the stairs in three steps. Iris was right behind her. Kizzy turned to the left and scrambled into the bathroom, slamming the door shut. There was only one window in that room, Kizzy tried to open it, but it was stuck. She turned. The door was knocked off its hinges into the shower curtain. Iris marched over and kicked Kizzy in the chest. She fell backwards onto her back. Iris marched over and stepped right on her right forearm. The foot was cold and heavy as the bone in Kizzy’s arm felt like it was going to snap. Iris pulled the trigger and the flames spouted from the mouth of the thrower, scorching Kizzy’s hand.
The pain was insane. Kizzy looked at her hand. There were holes in the flesh and it was all burning. Burning like crazy. She screamed and opened her eyes.
It was late afternoon. She was alone in the house, laying on the couch. The door to the bedroom was still closed. Her heart was beating and her body was sweating. It had all seemed so real. But thankfully Iris was gone and Kizzy didn’t have to worry anymore.
Her right hand was pulsating in pain. She reached for the whiskey and the painkillers. A plate of beans sat on the floor next to her. She wasn’t hungry. She swallowed five of the painkillers and chased them with a swig of the whiskey, then another.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her right arm, careful not to make contact with her hand. It was really swollen now. Her fingers were almost twice the size they had been before.
She walked to the kitchen and found a rag in one of the drawers next to the oven. She turned on the tap. It sputtered and shook for a few moments, before rusty brown water came coughing from the spigot. Kizzy stood there for a good minute before the water finally began to run clear. After waiting a few more moments to make sure it was completely clean, she placed her arm under the icy, cool water. It felt like a hundred needles piercing her flesh at once. She gritted her teeth and kept her hand under the stream until she could feel the pain no longer. Then she shook the rag, soaked it and w
rapped her hand. It still hurt like crazy, but it at least felt cool on the damaged skin.
Where had Diego gone? She looked out the window above the sink. There were a couple other houses out there, but no sign of him. He must have come back to give her the beans and then disappeared again. She walked upstairs. The steps creaked as she climbed. It was disorienting, the layout of the second story was different than it had been in her dream. The hallway and all the rooms were to the right. They were all dark and empty.
She walked back downstairs and opened a door next to the bedroom. It opened out to a garage where Diego was halfway into the engine of an emerald green car. The aluminum garage door was closed and the room was lit by candle light.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
He turned and smiled, his arms were covered in black engine grease. He wore an old red hat backwards.
“You’re alive?” he asked.
“Wish I wasn’t,” said Kizzy.
“Is it that bad?”
“Yeah... Will the car work?”
“Well, that’s the plan,” he said, climbing back into the engine. “Just hard when everything has twenty years of rust on it. But we’re lucky this guy had a bunch of tools.”
The car’s two back wheels were removed and the rear axle was up on cement blocks.
“What happened to the back wheels?” asked Kizzy.
“They were rotted out,” said Diego. “These front ones were ok though. I’ll have to get a couple more from one of the neighbors.”
Kizzy looked out the window at the houses nearby. They all had multiple cars in their driveways, ones that looked nicer and in better shape than this one. “Why didn’t you get one of those cars out there?”
“You think it’s fun pushing a car around?” he snapped.
“I was just asking.”
“And I’m just saying.”
“You take everything too personal,” said Kizzy. “It was just a question.”
Diego scowled and crawled out from the engine. “Whatever,” he said. “This hunk of junk should start now.”
The Enoch Pill Page 17