New Title 15

by Douglas, P. A.

  With his hand still on the door handle in the living room, he swallowed hard while looking at Sarah. The sound of the blistering death bellowed out from the kitchen.

  “What are we waiting on?” Sarah cried.

  “I just can’t…” Kyle grimaced.

  “Can’t what? What am I missing here?” Sarah tried pushing Kyle out the door.

  He didn’t budge.

  “I just can’t leave Ben Love in there like that. We need to do something.”

  “Like what?”

  “Anything,” he said. “I just can’t leave him behind like this to suffer. We need to end it.”

  Sarah gasped.

  “Do you have anything I can use as a weapon?”

  Sarah looked around at the messy living room space. The kitchen became quiet, and then feet began to shuffle. Ben was on the move. They needed to act fast.

  “I… I don’t know,” she said.

  He didn’t have time to come up with a real weapon. He needed to be creative. Kyle snatched up the long, cheap looking pole lamp that stood next to the front door. He slammed the top of it on the floor. The glass bulb cover shattered on impact. Lifting it up like a long-range spear, Kyle was satisfied. He yanked hard, pulling the plug from the wall.

  “This is going to have to do,” he said. “Stay here!”

  Sarah nodded.

  Making his way back into the kitchen, Kyle slowly moved forward. Hesitant, he rounded the corner, makeshift spear at the ready.

  “Ben… you there?” He called out.

  Blood and bile covered the floor at Ben's feet where he had been wrestling with the dog. A bulky thing protruded from his midsection, meaty and red. The skin on his arms was peeling away. The loose tissue and meaty chunks wilted to the floor with a loud, wet slap. His eyeglass frames were fused into his cheeks. The lenses spattered an almost solid black and red bursting from his eyes. His mustache was nonexistent; the hair had been singed away by the sudden fever. The bulky mass that stuck out from his belly shook violently in place. Somehow, the dog was still alive.

  Ben stepped forward, shaking from the monster inside. The skin on his lips peeled as he opened his mouth wide. The cheek tissue pulled tight, tearing his chin. As he started to speak, the loose chin tissue flapped awkwardly.

  “Join us, Kyle…” Ben’s voice was no longer recognizable.

  “How do you know my name? You aren’t Ben!”

  “I know all… We all know all, Kyle.” It staggered forward. “I know that you didn’t actually like Ben. You just put up with him. I know, because we are the Watchers! We have always been here, Kyle. Just waiting to be freed. It was only a matter of time. It’s all over now. Join us!”

  “That’s not true!” Kyle squeezed tight to the lamppost.

  “Yes it is, Kyle,” it said. “Ben looked up to you and you let him die! Look at what you did to him… you are worthless. You always have been. Just because you cleaned up to impress that slut in the other room, doesn’t change who you are. You are worthless. A slob! A nobody! No one loves you. No one wants to be with a loser, Kyle!”

  Kyle took a step back.

  “She doesn’t love you… She likes girls. Always has. Ever since her dad did those things to her.” It was getting to Kyle. “When she looks at you, she sees her father.”

  “Shut the hell up,” Kyle said.

  “It won’t be long now,” it cried. “Soon my brethren of old will… us… to… earth’s…end.” The fever was taking over, and its voice was failing. The cords in its throat were blistering with sores.

  “Fuck you!” Kyle lunged forward.

  The burst tip of Kyle’s makeshift weapon penetrated Ben’s abdomen. He shoved forward with everything he had. Ben, and the thriving beast joined to his belly, fell backwards. Ben slipped in the muck at his feet and landed on his back. Kyle pulled out the spear, determined not to make the same mistake that he had made with Z. Blood and thick sludge dripped from the lamppost. Ben lay on the ground gushing blood all over the floor. His attempts to speak only formed guttural hissing moans. Blood splashed out from his lips. Kyle gripped the weapon tighter.

  “I’m sorry, Ben. I really am. I wish I could have been more of a friend.”

  Kyle shoved the tip of his weapon into Ben’s face. The glass of Ben’s frames shattered as the cheaply made lamp post breached muscle and bone. Ben’s head reared back, but his body continued to flail about. The thing that had been Ted, still kicked and squirmed in his belly. Kyle didn’t know what to do.

  He just left it.

  The dead dog was too small to lift Ben’s dead, unmoving corpse. It wouldn’t be getting up.

  Kyle stepped away, vomited on the kitchen tile, and then made his way back into the living room. No matter what that damn creature said, he tried like hell to push it out of his head. It wasn’t true. Kyle did like Ben and there was no way that Sarah saw her father in him. He wasn’t a nobody. He could change if he wanted to. He just needed the motivation.

  The front door was wide open and Sarah no longer by it. Light blasted in from the doorway flooding the room with brightness. His tired eyes struggled to adjust.

  “Sarah…” He called out.

  “I’m out here…”

  Kyle stepped out into the front yard. Sarah stood a few feet in front of him, her eyes focused on the sky. The rushing sound of helicopter blades roared around him as he went to her side. Three Chinook helicopters were passing overhead. He wasn’t sure if the helicopters had spotted them. It didn’t matter; the choppers weren’t stopping anyway, and they continued in the direction of the town. Was this the cleanup crew Ben spoke of? Were they going to be good guys or bad? Kyle remembered that Ben seemed to think running into them would be a bad idea.

  “Let’s go back inside,” Kyle said, touching Sarah on the shoulder. “I don’t know how I feel about being found just yet.”

  “What do you mean?” she replied. “They can get us the hell out of here!”

  “I have known Ben for a while and he was pretty smart. He was afraid of the cleanup crew, and he might have been right. Anyway, they aren’t going to land here any time soon. Please let’s just go back in and put our heads together. Figure out what the hell to do next. I don’t know about you, but it’s been a long time since I was awake this long. I feel like I’m about to fall the hell out.”

  Sarah agreed, so they made their way back to the house.

  The stench was getting worse inside. Ben’s body was decomposing rapidly.

  Kyle didn’t care. Pushing aside the piles of clothing on Sarah’s couch, he sat down. His body felt like heavy wet rags as he rested into place.

  “How can you stand that smell?” Sarah asked.

  Kyle sunk lower into the couch cushions. This was way too much for any person to go through in one night. Hell, it wasn’t even night anymore, his night had been so long. Mr. Hardy and those people at the grocery store, and the chase. Then Z and that poor Hispanic lady. After all of that, now Ben too. Kyle buried his face in his hands and began to rub his temples. How could any of this have happened?

  “I don’t know anymore,” he said. “I just need a minute, all right?” Kyle closed his eyes.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “I already told you, Sarah… I don’t know… I just need a…” Kyle fell asleep.

  Only more nightmares awaited.

  * * *

  Suddenly, Kyle Tanner woke from his terrifying dream to the stinging scent of death. Sarah’s house was rank with rot. Even after death, Ben’s body had continued to fester and decompose with ungodly blisters and sores. The stench clung inside his nose and churned bile in his stomach. How long had been out? He didn’t even mean to fall asleep. He must have been even more fatigued than he realized. Scanning the living room for Sarah, the front door was wide open with her nowhere to be found.

  “Sarah… You still here, in the house?”

  She didn’t respond. He called out again, only louder.

  “Sarah… where are
you?”

  He couldn’t shake what that thing had said through Ben earlier. Was it true that she would never open up to him as more than just a friend would? He hoped it wasn’t so. Then again, how couldn’t it be? That thing seemed to know a lot. All Kyle wanted to do was find Sarah, talk things over, and move on. He needed to get the feelings that he had been holding back for so long, out in the open. Would she feel the same way? She had shown so many different mixtures of emotion throughout the night. He really couldn’t tell one way or the other how she really felt about him. The thought of not knowing ate him up inside. Even with all that they had dealt with, he needed to know. Did he have a future with this girl, the woman he had been afraid to approach at the grocery store for nearly two years?

  Maybe Ben had been right. Kyle should have made his move long ago. However, it was too late for that now. You can’t undo what has already been done, or not done in his case. He knew all along what it was that held him from making his move. Himself. Since losing that job, he had been such a slob, a loser, and a cheat. He shouldn’t have taken the unemployment. He should have gone out and worked hard to earn his living like he had done all along, but how could anyone blame him? He was young and naive. People in their mid to late twenties always made stupid mistakes. Well, he was done with making them. It was time to move on. Time to make things right, with everything and with Sarah. He bit his lip and ran his hand through his greasy hair.

  Standing to his feet, he heard the faint sound of people talking outside, but this… this wasn’t what he had grown so accustomed to. These voices seemed usual, normal.

  What the hell is going on?

  Still lightheaded and groggy, Kyle staggered toward the open door. Following the indistinct voices, he stepped outside. The natural light of day blinded his vision as he stepped further out onto the porch. The yard was filled with people dressed in green fatigues. Most of them carried weapons. Kyle was shocked at the sight. How long had he been sleeping? How could he have not heard the racket of their arrival? Were they finally saved? What looked like several military vehicles lined the street out front. A small Medivac helicopter sat in the center of Sarah’s yard.

  Military personnel were scattered across the property. Kyle had never been much for the CSI type of television, but it looked as if they were taking land samples. Further off in the distance, a dozen or more people were walking around in genuine hazmat suits. These weren’t anything like the ones he and Ben had attempted to make. No, these were the real deal. What the hell were they doing and where the hell was Sarah?

  “But Dr. Minders said we needed to gather live samples if at all possible," a young soldier said into a two-way radio.

  Kyle stepped up, butting in. “Excuse me… excuse me, sir. Have you seen a woman? Thin… dark long hair?”

  The soldier ignored him, listening to the response on his two-way.

  A female soldier yelled out. “The other one is awake, Captain! What do you want us to do with him?”

  Immediately, two men stepped down from the small helicopter. The first was very large and stocky. His hair was short and his shoulders broad. He was wearing thick aviator glasses. A half smoked cigar stuck out of the right side of his mouth, and his right hand rested on his sidearm.

  Being short, thin, and old, the second man was not at all what Kyle expected. He was so frail that it took the big guy to help him reach the ground. He wore a long white overcoat and brown tie. His hair was a wild mess above his bug eyes that startled Kyle. At first, he thought the old man had something wrong with him, but then realized it was his glasses. They were odd and round. The old geezer reminder Kyle of Dr. Wily from Megaman.

  “Dr. Minders, the male is awake.”

  “I can see that, Corporal…” The old man’s voice was frail and shaky. “I’m a scientist, not a soldier.”

  Kyle watched as the soldier held his tongue at the remark.

  The old man and the large officer walked up to Kyle. His heart was racing with fear, thinking back on what he had heard on the radio, and what Ben had feared. He swallowed hard, hoping for the best, hoping they would tell him where the hell Sarah was.

  “Hello, my fine young man,” The old man said. “My name is Dr. Minders and this is Lieutenant Franks.”

  The big man nodded, puffing on his cigar.

  “I take it you have had a very long night?” the doctor continued. “From what your lady friend has told us, which is a substantial bit of information, you have met our friends, the Watchers. Is this true?”

  “What have you done with Sarah?” Kyle stepped forward. “Where is she?”

  For a rather large man, Lt. Franks stepped back not wanting to get too close to Kyle. Kyle sized the man up, wondering if it had something to do with the chemicals that were spread by that Plant explosion. He began to feel worried about it. Should he be wearing the same type suit as those people digging around out in the yard?” Kyle stepped forward again. Lt. Franks reached for his gun and Kyle froze.

  The doctor or mad scientist, whatever he was, must have noticed Kyle’s sudden concern.

  “No need to be so jumpy, gentlemen.” The scientist said. “As you can see young man, none of the soldiers or I, are wearing protective gear like those you see out in the yard. There is nothing to be worried about. We are all entirely safe. I promise.”

  “What did you do with Sarah?” Kyle insisted again.

  “Not to worry. Not to worry.” The old man ushered Kyle away from the house and toward the chopper. “Come with us. Come… We have something to show you. We have been working on making contact with the—”

  Lt. Franks glared at the old man, cutting him off before he said too much.

  With the doctor in the lead and the lieutenant following up the rear, they walked through the bustling activity of soldiers. Kyle eyed Ben’s car nearby, wishing like hell he could just grab Sarah and be on his way. It wasn’t going to be that easy. He knew better.

  As they reached the chopper, Kyle turned to face the house again.

  “There is nothing back there that can help you. Come along…”

  Just as Kyle was ready to give up and get into the helicopter, he saw her. She lay motionless in a patch of high grass at the far side of the front yard. His heart stopped and his body went cold. Sarah was…

  “What the hell did you do to her?” He shouted.

  Darting toward her, he stepped away from the mad scientist and his muscle. Kyle landed hard on his knees in the grass at Sarah’s side. Her body was cold and she wasn’t breathing.

  “What did you do? Why?” He cried.

  “He knows too much,” Kyle heard someone say.

  “I need him alive!”

  And that’s when Kyle heard it. The gun went off and everything went black.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Kyle Tanner’s head was throbbing with pain. He tried opening his eyes, but couldn’t. The bright luminescent glare blinded him, making his head hurt even more. The sounds of footsteps were somewhere nearby. As he came to, he realized that he was standing upright with his back against a wall. His arms were bound at his side and his legs were tied. He couldn’t even turn his neck. He was strapped in place. Struck with fear, a single tear ran down the side of his stubbly face. His heart began to race. Ben had been right. This wasn’t good, not at all.

  He tried opening his eyes again, but couldn’t. The light sent sharp sensations through his temples.

  He could hear people talking, but couldn't make out what they were saying. Even as the voices drew closer, he struggled to understand them. His mind was a blur of terrified anticipation, and it was then that he remembered Sarah, and Ted, her dog. He remembered finding her lying in the cold, damp grass beside her house. They had done something to her.

  She was dead. There was no denying that.

  Kyle remembered his grandmother’s funeral. She died when he was a young boy, but still to this day, it had haunted him. He knew why. The open casket was what had scared him, even gave him nightmares. He k
new the moment he touched Sarah’s cold body. It felt so similar to his dead grandmother that day at the funeral home. Her skin was stiff, lifeless, and clammy, just like Sarah’s was.

  But why did they kill her and not me? Why am I still alive, and where have they taken me?

  He whimpered and began to quiver. He winced trying to adjust his eyes to the light.

  “Well, well, well… Look at who has finally decided to join our little science experiment.” The man’s voice sounded familiar, but Kyle struggled to place it.

  “How much longer until we begin, Doctor?” A female asked.

  Her voice was stern, something Kyle didn’t like one bit.

  The footsteps grew closer. They were getting louder. As the two sets of steps closed in on Kyle, he felt like his heart was going to explode from his chest. What the hell was going on? With his eyes stretched to stay open, he watched as a male and female figure approached him. They were blurry as hell and his eyes were starting to burn. He pulled against the restraints, but it was useless. He was too weak.

  “What the hell is going on?” Kyle demanded, his voice raspy.

  “Sounds like somebody needs a glass of water,” the old man said, stepping right up to Kyle.

  It was that old doctor from Sarah’s front yard. Kyle was sure of it. He was hard to see, but unmistakable. He was short, white headed, and wearing an oversized white coat.

  “Here, son,” Dr. Minders said. “Have a glass of water. You have been out for quite some time young man.”

  Before Kyle could respond, a cold glass touched his lips, and tilted forward pouring out liquid. Trying to refuse the gesture and demand that they explain what the hell was going on, Kyle began to choke. Water ran down his face and chest as he coughed up what water went down the wrong tube. Catching his breath, the cup reached his face again. He was malnourished and definitely thirsty. Not refusing this time, he sipped the water as it was given. More than anything, he needed a smoke.