by Pam Jernigan
“Y... yes.”
From her position near the back of the room, it was pretty easy to move behind the half-wall, into the wet-lab. She leaned up against the wall. From here she shouldn’t be visible from the other side of the cage. For a long moment there was silence, punctuated only with some quiet grunts. You’re an idiot, Karen. This is what she got for actually listening to and believing the word of a monster. It was laughable, really. What had she been thinking? He had an excuse to be mindless; she didn’t. She rolled her eyes at herself.
Then she heard whistling, coming from the outside, and froze. It came closer, then stopped. A voice came through. “I’m here at the cattle pen. Everything’s fine.” There was a pause. “They’re not moving much. Continuing my rounds.” A pause, then the whistling started up again, gradually getting fainter.
She wasn’t sure how long she waited until she heard Leo call, “Karen. It’s okay.” She stuck her head out to take a peek, and it did seem like the coast was clear.
She walked towards the cage, watching him watching her. “You just keep surprising me. Thanks for the warning.”
He shrugged, then said, “Pro… tect.”
“Wow.” She regarded him for a long moment. “Okay, I’ll return the favor. Don’t talk when that doctor’s around. He’d have you dissected before you could finish the sentence.”
He slowly nodded. “Secret.”
“Yeah, secret.” She was overcome by a yawn and decided to take the hint. “Well, I’m not finding anything and I need my beauty sleep. So, um… goodnight, Leo.”
“Good night, Kar… en.”
She chewed her lip, limping towards her room, and wondered if warning Leo had been the right thing to do. What if cutting open Leo’s brain would allow Borsa to fix all this, save the world? It didn’t seem likely, but what did she know? She’d have to figure it out later. After some sleep, maybe she could decide if sacrificing one person to save many was a good deal or not. Especially considering the person in question wasn’t exactly a real person.
#
She had talked to him.
She had listened to him.
And she wasn’t afraid.
Those three thoughts kept bouncing around inside his head the rest of the night. Leo sat, leaning against the wall, staring at nothing, keeping his expression blank. Which was actually kind of difficult because his lips kept wanting to turn up at the edges. This was a new feeling, and he liked it. He thought it might be called happiness.
Karen had a clarifying effect on him. He didn’t know why, but that didn’t even begin to bother him. He was able to think, and think more clearly, when she was around. Even after she’d left, the effect had persisted.
It had occurred to him that being in this cage was probably a bad thing. The other Mindless barely noticed their surroundings, just reacting as various emotions came closer or further away. They would like to feed again - to feel again. They had even reacted to his emotions, and he barely had any. But they weren’t desperate yet.
The sky was brighter now, and people had begun stirring, moving around outside. In the daylight everything had colors, even the things not broadcasting emotions. He could still sense the energy, but the humans in this camp weren’t feeling anything very strongly. Not for more than short erratic bursts. Even that was too far away to satisfy the Mindless for more than seconds at a time.
There were people inside the walls, too. He felt one coming, now. It wasn’t Karen, he could tell, so he didn’t bother looking. It was the doctor that Karen had warned him about. Karen didn’t trust the doctor. Speaking was a ticket to being dissected. Whatever that was. She knew he could speak. His thoughts churned slowly, reaching the eventual conclusion: She must not have told the doctor about him.
He wondered why.
Meanwhile, if Karen didn’t trust the doctor, then he should probably watch the man. Well, not watch. That was too obvious. Listen, though. And feel.
Maybe Karen would come back, and he could tell her. That would be… good.
#
Karen woke up feeling tired. And very sore, all over. For a moment, she envied Leo and his kind; they didn’t feel pain the way she did. She popped some pain meds and struggled to dress. The pills should kick in soon, and the best thing to relieve the aches was exercise. She did a stretching routine, allowing herself time to wake up and clear her mind.
In the light of day, she wondered at herself. Had she just had a very weird dream, or had she really made friends with a monster? Maybe… neither. Okay, she’d talked to him. It. But that didn’t make them friends. Still, there was something. He had protected her, for some mysterious reason, and saved her life, and pointing him out to be dissected would be a very poor way to repay him for his… kindness. Focus, Karen, she told herself, firmly shutting down the whole topic. Ignoring the mental image of his face, which whispered around the edges of her mind.
Forget the monster; she’d actually found some interesting things in the files, and there was likely more. She still wanted to get home, but maybe it would be worth it to stay a little while longer, to capture more knowledge. After reading Borsa’s notes, his reluctance to share made more sense - she could totally understand people condemning his methods - but it diminished her opinion of him. The man was willing to let people die just to maintain his pride. Not nice.
She went in search of breakfast. Apparently she’d slept in; what she found was more of an early lunch, but she wasn’t inclined to be picky. She spotted Curt entering the room when she was almost finished and waved for his attention. He smiled. “Hey, Karen, good morning! Give me a second to get my lunch; I’ll sit with you.”
“Great,” she said, waiting impatiently for him to join her.
“No ride for you today,” he announced as he seated himself.
Oh. Not sure whether to be disappointed or relieved, she asked, “Why not?”
“Busy on other jobs today.”
What sort of other jobs could they have? Salvage, maybe. “Okay. How about tomorrow?”
He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. “I’ll have to ask. Or, you know, you could stay. We can always use new people, and most everybody’s picked a group by now. We’d be happy to have you.”
No, no, no. She forced a smile. “Thanks, but I’ve gotta get back to my sister.”
“Fair enough,” he said, conceding the point. He frowned. “The other thing is, we don’t like to go near the city.”
“Really? Why’s that?”
He shook his head. “We’d prefer they didn’t know we existed.”
Nope, nothing creepy about that at all. “Well, you could get me close, though, right?” She paused. “I mean, I don’t have to tell them anything about you.”
“That would be appreciated. Not swearing you to silence or anything. But still.” He took a big bite and chewed thoughtfully. “We could probably get you pretty close, but you’d have to walk the last little bit.”
She shrugged. “It should be safe enough.” As long as she could get someone to open the door. That might be a sticking point. No, they had people on guard, right? She’d just never approached the gates from the outside. “I’m willing to take the risk. My family - my baby sister’s there, and I need to get back to her. To them.”
His expression softened. “Yeah, I get that. Well, I’ll have to talk with the garage master, but I’m sure we can work something out.”
Karen smiled. “Thanks.”
“Sure. And hey, I’m glad I found you; Dr. Borsa wants you to come to the lab, see if you can point out the creature that captured you.”
Karen kept her smile in place by force of will. “Okay, sure.”
“You know, we can’t figure out what happened, there,” Curt confided. “The Mindless kill people, they don’t kidnap them.”
Karen shrugged. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense.” She paused, then added, “It’s not like they were going to explain it to me.”
Curt laughed. “No, I guess not. Well, maybe the doc will figure it out. All you’ve gotta do is tell him which one to investigate. It’s daylight now, shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Oh, crap, decision time. Advance the cause of science, or cover up for a monster?
#
It was late morning when Karen arrived. Leo had been sitting on the floor, letting his thoughts dry up for a while, but when he felt her coming, he sat up straighter. Mindful of her warning, he did not stare at her. Glanced once - he couldn’t help that - but that was all.
“Dr. Borsa, Curt said you wanted to see me?” She sounded casual, but felt… something akin to fear.
“Oh, yes, yes I did. I was hoping you could identify the monster that abducted you yesterday.”
It took Leo a moment to work out that Borsa was talking about him. Karen was stressed but still controlled, so he stayed calm, too.
“Oh, yeah. Um, let me think…”
He could tell by her voice that she had moved closer to the pen. He continued staring at the ground, trying very hard to have no expression whatsoever, wondering what she would do. She knew who he was. The doctor didn’t.
“Yeah, I’m really not sure. I mean, it all happened so fast.”
The doctor was not pleased. “Hmm. Well, I was hoping… you see, I have a new formula to test, and I wanted to try it on that one, since it was clearly unusual to start with.”
Karen’s fear was flickering under the surface, growing a little brighter; detectable to him although not yet to the others, apparently. It made him… jumpy, but he didn’t move. She was… protecting him?
“Sorry, can’t help you.”
“If you can’t, you can’t,” Borsa said, displeased. “Very well, I’ll just pick one. Curt said it was this one in the blue that was on top of you, on the road.”
Karen’s fear intensified, and the others started stirring. “Yeah, maybe,” she said, doubtfully. “But I think he just got shoved on top of me by the other guy.”
There was no doubt. She was protecting him. That was… incredible. Why would she do that?
“Are you sure you got all of them?”
“Yes, I believe so,” Borsa said. “Or so they tell me. They were looking to capture me some new specimens, which is why they used rubber bullets and nets.”
“Wait, bullets? I didn’t even remember that part.” Her fear was twisting, slightly, mixed with something he couldn’t name. “I guess I’m lucky I wasn’t hit.”
“I would say so, although the rubber bullets probably wouldn’t have killed you. They were designed to stun, not wound. The Mindless are relatively insensitive to pain, but they can be knocked over.”
“Maybe that’s what knocked that one on top of me.”
“Hmm, I suppose it was. So, if they’re all the same… which do you think I should study next?”
“You’re asking me?” Her fear had lessened, but she was still uncomfortable. “I don’t know. Maybe… the guy in the red tie?”
There was a pause, during which Leo had to work very hard to avoid turning to look at them. If he remembered correctly - which wasn’t certain, because yesterday he’d only just begun to climb out of the fog - the guy with the tie had been the other one who’d tracked Karen at the library.
“Very well, that one looks like a good choice,” Borsa said, finally. “I’ll get the soldiers to extract it for me.”
#
She was going home soon, she reminded herself as she left the lab. Tomorrow, maybe the day after. And every single Mindless in that cage was headed for… death by science. So there was really no point in steering Borsa away from Leo.
She’d done it anyway, automatically. That was worrisome. She had to remember that she was not friends with him.
She saw a sign that said “Medic” and headed towards it. The man sitting inside winced when he saw her. He was a little taller than her, with thinning, sandy blond hair. “I was wondering when I might see you,” he commented, rising and gathering some supplies. “They said you were pretty banged up.”
“Um, yes. I’m Karen, by the way.” She looked around the room; it seemed like the clinic at home, only with more boxes, then looked back at the medic. He was the oldest person she’d yet encountered in this camp; she’d estimate him at sixty something. Good. He’d probably gone to a real medical school, back when those were more of a thing.
He nodded. “I know. I’m Dr. Stein, but you can call me Christoph. Borsa’s the only one we call doctor around here, but I do most of the actual medicine. With assistance from Alexi, of course.”
“Hey, good to meet you.” She shook his hand, then got right down to business. “So, Alexi did a blood test?”
“Yes, I checked the sample this morning. You’re clean.”
Thank God.
“Anyway, if you had been infected, you wouldn’t be here talking to me right now,” Christoph said, wryly. “The conversion doesn’t take that long. Come on, we’ll go back here and I’ll check you over.”
He led her into a back room. A little privacy, then. Good.
It was a standard ‘where does it hurt’ medical exam. And the answer was ‘everywhere’. Finally, Christoph sat back, and just looked at her.
She looked back. “So?”
“So, you’re fairly banged up.”
“Is that the medical term?” She hadn’t really needed a medic to diagnose that much.
He smiled, briefly. “It’s accurate.”
“Yeah, okay, but what can you do about it? I need some ibuprofen or something. Acetaminophen with codeine would be even better.”
“I could do that. But we’ve got something else that would help you a lot more.”
She sat up straighter. “Great! What is it?” And why hadn’t anyone offered it to her earlier?
“It’s a combination, salve and injection.”
Needles? She slumped a little. “Oh.”
“The salve helps the surface damage, the bruising. The shot stimulates healing. The Doc invented it, from his research,” he explained. “The Mindless heal pretty fast, and he wanted to know why.”
“Okay. You sure it’s safe?”
“Yes, we’ve all used it. There is a downside though.”
Of course there was. She just looked at him.
He shrugged. “It also knocks you out for four or five hours. The enforced rest helps your body to focus on healing.”
“I’m not sure about that.”
“I certainly understand,” he said, smiling. “Tell you what, I’ll give you a syringe, and you can inject yourself at bedtime, if you choose to. That’ll give you hours to decide.” He rummaged around in a drawer and came out with a capped, filled syringe. “I’ll give you a bottle of salve, too.”
The salve was in a jar previously owned by pickles, but she was cool with that. She accepted the syringe with a more doubtful glance. As far as she knew, nobody was manufacturing these anymore, so… “How?”
“How do we have syringes?” he asked, sitting back. “Well, we brought some when we set this place up, but I’ll be honest. We recycle. I sterilize them very carefully, believe me. Hasn’t been a problem yet.”
That was alarming. It made sense, but still. Ick. She held it carefully by the middle and kept the capped needle pointing away from her. “Thanks.”
He shrugged again. “You know how to do an injection?”
“Yeah, learned it in basic,” she replied. She’d preferred the part about shooting guns, but everyone got some medical training. She carefully tucked the syringe and jar into her knapsack. As if it wasn’t already heavy enough.
“Good.” He stood up and opened the door. “Come by tomorrow and tell me how you’re doing.”
“Okay. Thanks,” she said, taking the hint and walking out. “See ya.” Now what was she supposed to do? She wasn’t sure she trusted the people in this camp enough to be drugged unconscious for hours. Especially not the creepy mad scientist.
Leo, maybe - she’d already been unconscious around him and escaped unscathed. And how messed up was it that she’d rather trust a monster than a human? She really needed to get a grip.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Leo could feel two people approaching from inside the building; they felt like soldiers, with their fear under control. He saw out of the corner of his eye that they had guns. They raised them and both started shooting at the caged Mindless.
The ones that were shot fell over. So did Leo as some of the toppling bodies combined to knock him off his feet. Instinct kept him still, sprawled on the ground, until the thuds and shots stopped. Once it was clear that no one was moving, the door on the lab side opened. Leo was more or less facing that direction and watched through slitted eyelids. Working quickly, the soldiers dragged Red Tie out of the cage and closed the door. He noticed that it didn’t take a key. That might be significant.
One of the guards called back towards the hallway. “Okay, Doc, we got it.”
The doctor walked in, glancing at the cage before focusing on the body on the floor in front of him. He prodded Red Tie with the toe of his shoe. No response. “Excellent.” He went past them further into his lab and returned holding a small… thing. Glass tube, with a pointy end. Leo couldn’t remember the word for it.
“Get it up on the table,” the doctor directed. “I’m not bending down to the floor, and I’m not risking a syringe.”
Oh, that’s what it was called.
The guards fumbled a little but then got the unconscious body up onto the waist-high table. “Is this good, doc?”
“Yes, it’s fine, thank you. Now step back… no, not that way! I want you out of my way.”
The two moved as directed, exchanging a look, and Leo caught a trace of something near to anger. They didn’t like the doctor, he decided. But they did what they were told. He wondered why.
Dr. Borsa stuck the pointy end of the syringe into Red Tie’s upper leg and pushed with his thumb. His thumb moved but the glass thing didn’t. Were syringes supposed to do that?
After a moment, he stepped back, carefully pulling out the syringe. “Put it back in the cage,” he directed, and the soldiers complied.