by catt dahman
For everything positive and good, something was negative and evil. Balance. They lived in a womb together, were born together, and then were separated by a decade and a half. Now was the time for them to be reunited to create balance again.
Zane hoped that when Katie read the note he left for her, she would forgive this action and understand that there was no other choice. He was just fifteen, but he knew he loved Katie, and he wanted, above all, to buy her and his other friends at least a few more years. If Pascal weren’t stopped, they would be tortured and dead within a month. Zane felt Pascal’s plans for his world of fire and teeth.
Before he could lose his nerve and because he wasn’t anything but a teen boy who could do a few great tricks, Zane stood on the cliffs above the water at Hopetown.He imagined his twin’s withered, deformed face, and despite the terrible things that Pascal had done, Zane forgave him for everything although the boy would never ask for forgiveness. Zane brought to mind his beautiful mother, Leandra and brave father, Danny.
In his mind, he saw Fred, Ariel, and Anders, and he sent Gabe all the love and warmth he could. Zane wished years of a good life for Katie. He felt love for his adopted parents and siblings who had given him a second family.
And then he asked for strength for this last thing he had to do. He imagined being five again and his sweet mommy holding his hand and smiling.
And he really hoped this opportunity wouldn’t be wasted because another chance would not be available.
If Pascal weren’t stopped, there was no end to what kind of damage the child would accomplish.
If Kim made a different choice, then that was okay as well because he might need to save the old man or Hannah or make sure the doctor didn’t test his ideas on any more people. Zane thought that removing Pascal was the best course of action although he wasn’t allowed to tell Kim that. All he could do was to make it possible to destroy Pascal.
This was all free choice. Kim grimaced. Choices spun in his head: his daughter, a good man, remove the doctor, Pascal.
Kim let his breath go as he squeezed the trigger, knowing that like Zane had said, ‘he would have one shot, and there would be no second chances’.“None shall know,
as none will remember…innocence,” Kim sang.
Time moved again. Len stood frozen as he saw everything before them, not understanding all of it. Beside him, Kim already raised his gun and fired a shot. How did he move so quickly and know what to do?
Len thought he saw Zane, of all people, up on the bluff and blinked, but the teen seemed to be swan diving off the cliff, into the air, and to the rocks and water below. It had to be a trick of the light as the sun shown and glittered off Pascal, no longer absorbed, but reflected as a glow.
A fraction of a second later, Pascal’s head popped open as Kim’s bullet hit him. The boy with a withered face rolled off the cliff into the water and boulders below.
Pascal’s tumble off the bluff was with far less grace than Len thought Zane used in his imagination. Kim felt a wave of sadness as he, too, saw Zane make the sacrifice and understood it. Kim made the right choice.
With Zane dead, Pascal could die. It was balance. The young boy had just a split second to look shocked that this could happen to him; he was livid and wanted to lash out, but he was outwitted and out maneuvered. Then he was dead, his head as ruined as Zane’s was.
Len saw Gabe beside the zoo’s gate, but he didn’t speak, and Len thought he heard Gabe wailing with sadness; how would Gabe be here?
To one side of the man on the ground, Len thought a man named Wheeler cried out and a bullet hit Hannah high in her chest. Damned if the crazy doctor didn’t take off running down the slope to the gate. It all happened at once. “Kim?
Len meant to ask if his friend saw and heard the same things, but Kim’s arm dropped, and he looked bereft. Footfalls pounded close, and Len knew the rest of the team was coming, but they were too late and unprepared as he was; only Kim had been ready to take a shot when it mattered.
“What the hail is going on?” Carl asked.
Was that…Diamond and Pascal?”
“Pascal is really dead now,” Kim said, “and yes, it was.”
Before anyone could react, Diamond was through the gate with Gabe following him at a run. Julia, Ponce, and Matt ran to Hannah, who was covered in blood, snapped on their gloves, pressed gauze to the girl’s chest, and scooped her up to get help for her.
“She’s Kim’s daughter; she wasn’t dangerous,” Julia snapped at Robert.
He muttered confused apologies. “They were yelling and threatening…the boy was…” Robert looked to Adam. “I asked her to settle down and to stop advancing, but she asked about Kim and came at me; I didn’t know. The boy already had come at me and tried for my gun; that’s why he has a cut on his head.” Matt didn’t ask opinions or wait but stepped sideways and fired his pistol into Adam’s head as the young man struggled against people who held him; he was trying to get to Hannah.
“He’s a hybrid…watch his fluids…he’s infected.” Now, he looked at Kim and Len.
“There, it’s done. I did it. Right or wrong, he’s a mad dog I put down.”
“Thanks,” Robert said.
“Your man there…Wheeler? Right? He’s infected. Adam’s blood dripped into his eye,” Kim said, his stance dejected. Matt heard that and kicked at Adam’s dead corpse.
Wheeler got to his feet with help from Dale. “How did you see that?” He brushed a hand across his eye and wiped blood away. “All this time and a drop of blood infected me.”
“Are you sure? Kim…from here…you can’t see,” Rae began.
“I’m positive,” Kim said.
“That isn’t fair,” Robert said.
“I had one shot…one choice…is Hannah…?”
“She’s alive right now,” Teeg said, watching Kim with confused eyes, wondering what happened. He couldn’t figure it out but knew something huge did happen.
“What about the crazy doctor?” Rae asked.
“I think Gabe went after him. That was Gabe, wasn’t it, Kim?” Len asked.
Kim nodded.
“How could Gabe find us? He was here? Why? He stays close to Zane.” Rae didn’t understand this. “Gabe? That’s crazy.”
“But it was Gabe, and he did go after the doctor. I think he’ll catch him, too. I think Zane sent him,” Len said.
“I don’t think Zane needs Gabe anymore,” Kim said.
Len saw how sadly Kim said that. “I’m confused.”
“So am I,” Rae added.
Len shrugged a little. “I always liked that song “Innocence” that Cinder Montaine sang. I thought you were singing it, Kim.”
“Yup. I was,” Kim admitted. He watched as Dale’s crew stood around Wheeler, crying and upset. One of the women kicked at Adam’s body while Wheeler spoke softly.
Kim and Len went to see how Hannah was doing while the rest discussed the events and stood ready with guns if they were needed. Kim knew people had questions, but he didn’t have good, ready answers.
“That was freakishly strange,” Len said.
“Yup.”
“Did you understand it all?”
“Parts. Not all,” Kim admitted.
“You seemed to see that Adam was about to lose a drop of blood, so you could have shot him.
You saw the gun on Hannah and could have saved her.
Diamond was right there, and we all wanted to pop him.
And then you had Pascal, the wonder boy, in your sights…the one who never seems to die, no matter what.
You had that pistol up before I could understand half of what I was seeing, and you didn’t seem surprised really. In fact, you said you would have one chance.
It was as if you knew it was about to happen,” Len spoke conversationally. “I’m fast, but that was really fast. I never saw you raise your gun, and I ain’t sloppy.”
“I was fast. The world was slow. I didn’t really know what was going to happen. I knew
that I was about to make a choice and only one,” Kim suggested.
“I don’t get how and why Gabe was here or why you said that about Zane when I thought I saw…well….” Len felt Kim’s eyes on him. “I thought I saw Zane diving off that damned cliff, but it was sunlight. But then you mentioned him. And it was weird you were singing that song. I thought I heard Gabe humming, but that’s impossible.”
“You would think so.”
“And Zane doesn’t need Gabe? That’s pretty weird for you to say when we’re miles apart and have no word from there, yet you seem to know it as fact. Why would Zane suddenly not need Gabe as his body guard?”
“Was that a question?”
“You know it was. What happened?”
“I think that was the last magic in the world right there.Pascal is gone and can’t hurt anyone, and that was my choice: to save the world from pure evil over my daughter or an old man.” Kim sighed, and his voice broke unevenly.
“It was my choice, and I don’t know if I made the right one, but I think I did. I think Zane had to die if Pascal were going to die; it was the only way. Pascal, given the chance, would have made my brain cook in my skull, but he was distracted. I feel like shit about Zane; Katie sure was fond of him….”
“You think something bad happened to Zane?”
“Don’t you?”
Len nodded. “Yes, I feel like he…went off a cliff.”
“Me, too.”
“What a strange morning,” Len said. He paused outside a building. “Jules? It’s us.”
Julia came out and ran a hand through her short hair, her eyes dark with worry and muttering in Mexican as she sighed.
She and the others did everything they could for Hannah.
“It’s bad; I don’t know if she’ll make it, Kim. I’m sorry. I hope she’s strong enough.”
“Do what you can. Please. It’s Hannah,” Kim replied. “Beth….”
“I know. Beth will be so hurt if we lose her. We will try Kim. You know we love Hannah.”
“We have to clean the wound and stitch it. We already have cauterized a few places.” Julia hesitated as Kim winced, “but she survived that shock so far.
“She’s a strong girl. Dale and them have saline so we’re running an IV, but drugs are old; she lost a lot of blood, Kim, and the shock is very real. I am going to personally do some stitches; I have gloves.”
“The bullet went through and through, so it is out, but her back is a mess. Just let us work on her, and if she is strong enough, she will make it. The bleeding is much slower now, and that’s a good thing.”
“She’s strong.”
“And Ponce reminded us that hybrids can handle pain better and heal faster…not like magic but the little bit helps. Overall, she’s well fed and healthy; that’s a lot she has going for her.”
“I could’ve saved her this pain,” Kim said to Len, shifting his eyes to the ground.
“And then after she was okay, Pascal would have stood on that bluff and fried her alive with a bolt of lightning. Then, he would have sent locusts to eat us or a rain of acid….”
Julia stared at Len with shock and then turned to Kimball and said, “That’s true. I have had so many nightmares about that kid…him and fire-breathing dragons, and you just can’t kill a dragon. I don’t know how you did it, Kim.”
“I had some special help. He was the stuff of nightmares for sure.”
Julia whispered as if she were still scared of Pascal, “My kids…I’ve heard them say ‘better be good or the dragon boy with one eye will get ya’.”
“Jeez, Jules,” Len said.
“I’m sorry that sweet old man is infected by that little son of a bitch, Adam. Dale said Wheeler led them back when this all began; they loved him.”
Chapter 21
Time Gave Me A Chance
Ponce never left Hannah’s side after she was stitched, antibiotics were given to her via the IV, and cream was applied to her flesh. The doctor bandaged her with masses of gauze and tape.
Ponce did all he could since he was immune to the infection she carried in her blood. Patiently, he changed the bandages and packed gauze, wiped her sweat, and took care of her.
The bleeding stopped, so the wound was only a slow, light seeping, and no infection set in. She had to lie on her side, which put pressure on the wound in front
and in back, but they had old painkillers that helped.
She never complained about the pain but listened as Ponce read books to her; she liked the long one about a bad man named Randall Flag, the Walking Dude.
She didn’t feel shy as Ponce undressed her to change the bandages and saw her bare breasts.
Because she couldn’t recall some details, Ponce had to tell her about Adam attacking Wheeler, knocking him down, accidentally infecting him with his blood, and about Matt’s killing Adam. Hannah didn’t react strongly.
“He was acting strange; he was always angry and was violent. Adam was always mad about something. Ponce, I think he attacked some people and…you know,” Hannah added.
“It’s better you’re free of him,” John Ponce told her.
Dale, DeVon, Robert, and Bella were upset after Dale waited for Wheeler to show infection with a high fever and pain, and then they took care of him.
“He faced away from me, and I did it,” Dale wept. Wheeler accepted his fate, telling his friends how he loved them and gave them some advice. He suffered the pain and nausea, waiting on the dizziness before he told them he was out of time.
Robert and Dale wanted to kill Adam all over again for causing this.
The people from the other settlement pitched in to bury the bodies of Adam, Pascal, and Wheeler while Cal said prayers over them. Gabe came in that night with blood-soaked papers clasped in one hand and a vial in the other. He tossed the vial
and papers into the fire after showing the others.
Dr. Henry Diamond was dead.
Gabe mimicked that he crushed the man’s head with his bare hands.
“We didn’t know he was a bad guy…just he and the kid stayed off to themselves over at the far gate, and that’s it,” Dale said once he had heard the story about Pascal and Diamond.
“My people had to do some hard things after they found…well…a few people over in their rooms that the doctor experimented on. It looked like a cross between black plague and the zombie infection with their swollen buboes and moaning.
I guess he took people he had found; there were three, and they were put down and buried properly,” Dale explained, “we didn’t know how evil he was.”
“We didn’t know,” Bella repeated, “it could have been one of us he tried that stuff on….”
“I didn’t mean to shoot your daughter.The boy yelled, demanded food, and asked about the doctor…if he were there.She was with him; he knocked Wheeler down, so I fired. I’m sorry.”
Kim assured Robert he understood it was a mistake. “Hannah can be intimidating and a force to be reckoned with. I understand.”
Cal and Dale spoke a lot in the following days about how a settlement should be set up and how all of Cal’s people wanted to stay and build something at the zoo.
Dale and his people were thrilled as it meant less scavenging and more growing of food and raising animals. The supplies they brought in would give them a strong start, and the walls of the zoo were secure. Robert and the women were excited about the possibilities. They began planning a settlement that would work well.
Cal asked Len if it were okay that they wanted to stay. Len promised it was more than okay.
“She’s still hanging on,” DeVon told Kim the second day after Hannah was shot. “That is a good sign if anything is. The infection is light, almost none; she’s just so weak. But she is awake some of the time and listens to Ponce read to her.”
“You believe in signs?” Kim asked DeVon.
“I believe in possibilities, and I believe in time. I’ve made it this long. Ten years ago, I was a stripper running from zoms,
and I met the rest, and they became family to me. If I had stayed like I was, I might be on drugs or worse, but here I am. Time gave me a chance.”
“You’re good with the elephants.” Kim smiled. He had seen how the creatures seemed to like DeVon’s attention, vying for her to scratch and talk to each of them.
“I like them,” DeVon said. They helped with the heavy work about camp and responded to DeVon quite well.
“We were seven at one time, and then we met the rest, but only Dale made it,” she told Kim about the raid on the hospital. He asked a few questions and then grinned. “What?” she asked.
Kim just laughed. DeVon frowned. She asked him if he had gone crazy.
When he stopped laughing, he told her about how Cory and Kevin joined them.Kevin had a partner until Alex was killed a few years back. Cory had proven himself to be a strong fighter, and Kim told DeVon how, in the basements of the compound ten years back, Cory saved a lot of people by being strong and calm.
“Kevin and Cory? Oh my, God. I have never stopped wondering about them. Wow. I’m glad to know.”
“Both are good guys.”
“You don’t know how glad I am to hear that. I know everyone is staying here and making plans, but could I go with you to your place and see Kevin and Cory? We have so much to catch up on, and I want to tell them how we made it and then…about Wheeler. We all loved him.”
“I can’t promise you that you’ll have help getting back, but you’re welcome to join us.”
“Good deal. Are you taken, Kim?” she had heard he was but still asked.
He laughed. “Yup. Gotta wife and eight kids, counting Hannah. Three adopted. You’d love my wife, Beth. She’s up-front like you are and honest. She’s strong and can be hard as nails, but she is tender hearted, too. And she’s smart. I know she’d like you a lot.”
DeVon blushed. “Your wife is lucky. She was shot by that kid Matt put down who infected Wheeler?”
“Yes. He didn’t shoot her, but he was fighting with her, and another woman shot Beth. She’s gonna be okay. I know that.
Adam was like Hannah--a hybrid; only, he was by choice and took the inoculation himself, and Hannah was forced to take the treatment. He didn’t need to go wrong, but he was just a scared kid.”