by R. Brewer
She walked around to the back of the van and opened the door, revealing a box filled with food and water and another overloaded with electronics. Radios, listening devices, detonators. These she pushed to the area just behind the front seats, leaving the cargo area for the guard to lay in. She rummaged through the rest of the van, finding the guards' change of clothing and two boxes of ammunition. She spread a sleeping bag on the floor and slid to the back door and stepped out to help Eric.
Jodie wondered if she could trust Eric. Clearly, he was of the non-violent type, but she realized she'd probably scared him quite badly, and scared people did desperate things. She decided she'd better take care of any confusion he might be having over who were the good and the bad guys here.
Jodie approached the two men. Eric had tied his belt around the man's leg to act as a tourniquet. She pulled her gun out and chambered a round, getting both of their attention. She pointed it at the guard's other knee. "Now, you're going to tell Eric here why you were shooting at us. If I don't like your explanation, your other knee gets a bullet and we leave you here, tied up."
Eric backed up from the man, looking disgusted.
The guard whimpered and wiped his nose on his sleeve.
"Well, go ahead," Jodie said, taking direct aim at the man's knee.
"I don't know. I mean, I don't know the whole story. I just know about the tunnels and the insect things. They said there was a reward for you if we brought you in dead."
"Wait, let me get this straight now," Jodie said. "You would be fine killing someone for a reason you don't even know?"
The man looked down for a moment. "They would've killed us if we didn't go after you."
"And the insects?" Jodie asked.
"The bugs in the tunnel? You don't know about them?" the guard asked.
Jodie said nothing.
"The people down there, the ones who didn't die. They're all bugs now," he said. "Mutants and aliens and a mixture of both. I don't know what else. It's seriously fucked up down there."
Jodie thought of the experiments her mother had told her about as she lay dying. Alien hybrids. Could these things really be loose in the underground tunnels? And, if they were, how long would it be until one learned how to use an elevator and came to the surface?
"Let's get him in the van. I'll explain the rest to you while we travel," Jodie said.
Eric shook his head. "If it's all the same to you, Jodie, I'll just get in my truck and be on my way."
Jodie kicked the guard in his wounded knee. "Tell him what will happen to him if anyone finds him."
The guard writhed in obvious pain. "You came from Lakeview, right?"
Eric nodded, an expression of concern clouding his face.
"Man, you'd never make it back into town,” he said, gasping. “They're bringin' military equipment in now. It's gonna be like an extermination."
"Who is? Who is doing this? The government?" Eric asked.
The guard smiled, emitting a bitter-sounding laugh. "All the governments, man. It's the end of the world."
"This guy is crazy. We can't believe him," Eric said.
"You can believe me or not, but you got nowhere to go back to, anyway," the guard said. "You're a fireman, aren’t you?”
“Well, yeah. Why does that matter?” Eric said.
"They torched your station after you left."
* * *
Chuck plodded along behind Billy. As they walked, he bent over to look through the little square windows in each of the doors lining the hallway. He didn’t want to miss Jodie if she was in one of these rooms. Each step seemed to take a toll on him, though, and he wondered just how long he could go before he’d need to take a nap again. For some reason, he felt exhausted.
They came upon another room and Chuck peeked in. “Oh, no,” he said. “Fester, I want you to hold on to Billy while I go in this room. I don’t want you to look in there or come in until I tell you it’s okay. Do you understand me?”
“What’s in there?” Fester asked. “Is my mom in there?’
Chuck bent over to address Fester eye to eye. “Fester, I need you to watch Billy here for me while I find out what’s going on in there. You have to trust me. If your mom is in there, I’ll come and get you. Deal?”
Fester looked down at the ground. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll watch him.”
Chuck stood up straight and walked over by Billy, grabbing one of his legs tightly, forcing Billy to the floor, screaming. Chuck held Billy's leg up and pulled him along the corridor for about fifty feet, with Fester following. He let go of Billy’s leg and bent over to talk to him. “You people are pigs,” he whispered in Billy’s ear. “If you so much as move while I’m gone, I’ll tear your arms off and let you bleed out. Do you understand?” He turned to Fester and handed him the end of the leash. “If he moves at all, one inch, you pull on this leash as hard as you can. Can you do that?”
Fester nodded.
Chuck reached out and placed a hand on Fester’s shoulder. “Good boy. I’ll be right back.”
Chuck walked back down the hallway and stopped at the door he’d looked into earlier. The scene was horrific. A woman lay in the corner of the room, beaten and bloody. He tried the door and found it locked, so cocked his arm back and thrust it through the middle of the metal door. He pulled back, tearing the doorframe completely out of the wall. Chuck glanced back at Fester. “You okay, buddy?”
Fester nodded, pulling the leash taut.
“I’ll be right back,” Chuck said. “Remember what I told you, Billy.”
Billy nodded, his arms wrapped around his body in a protective manner.
Chuck entered the room, facing the woman on the floor. Her resemblance to Fester was undeniable. Same nose, same mouth, same build. As he turned to look for her attacker, a bullet pinged off of his rib. He spun around to find a shirtless man, his pants undone, standing next to a sink. On the counter lay a metal tray. Chuck guessed it was usually used for holding medical instruments, except this man was employing it for something else. Three lines of a powdery substance lay on the tray. As Chuck looked over at the man, a rage built in him that he’d never felt before.
The man staggered a bit, catching himself from falling by grabbing onto the counter. “Just what in the fuck are you supposed to be?" he asked, his voice slurring with spit dribbling down his chin. "Holy Christ, either I'm seriously wasted or you're one ugly dude."
A sort of fiery hotness came over Chuck. He felt as if every atom of every molecule of his metal skeleton was infused with fury. The room began to brighten, like something behind him was glowing.
“Holy fuck. What’s that?” the stoned man asked.
Chuck held out his arm, realizing it was glowing red. A little scream escaped his mouth and he wondered what could possibly happen to his body next. Dismissing it for the moment, he lowered his arm and stepped forward quickly, watching the man fumble with his gun. Before he could take another shot, Chuck had his hand wrapped around the gun and pulled it away. “What did you do to that woman?” he asked.
The man smiled. “Just having a little fun, is all,” he said.
Chuck grabbed the man around his neck and dragged him over by the woman on the floor. He threw the man down and stepped on his chest, hard, hearing ribs breaking. “I need to help her. You stay still,” he said, removing his foot from the man’s chest.
The guard looked back at him, eyes bulging, face reddening, his breath wheezing.
Chuck knew these noises meant he couldn’t breathe and turned away from him. The woman on the floor groaned and he reached out to check her injuries. She was unconscious and bled from her nose and mouth. Her clothes were torn, ripped off of her in a way that exemplified rage. Chuck could tell what the guard meant when he said he was having fun.
Looking across the room, he saw a gurney, like those he’d seen in all of the rooms. Chuck stood up, leaving the guard wheezing on the floor. He rifled through the cabinets in the room, coming up with sheets, antiseptic wipes and
a first aid kit.
Chuck cleaned and bandaged the woman’s wounds as best he could and gently wrapped her in a sheet before placing her on the gurney. He wheeled her out of the room, keeping his eyes on Fester as he entered the hallway. Seeing his mother like this was bound to be a shock. “Okay, Fester?” he asked. “I've got your mom here, I think.”
Fester turned in his direction, a look of horror washing over his face. He ran toward the gurney, forgetting about the leash in his hand for a moment, until the sound of Billy choking caught his attention. Fester threw the leash to the floor and ran to his mother.
Chuck moved back to give the mother and son some space, picking up the leash and turning to Billy, who tugged at the wire around his neck. Chuck noticed that Billy was wheezing quite loudly. "What's wrong with you people?" he asked, thinking that if he didn't really need him, he'd like to rip Billy to shreds, right then and there.
"I don't know nothin' about what happened to that woman," Billy said. "I didn't have nothin' to do with that. Nothin' at all."
Chuck reached up to a conduit near the ceiling and tied Billy’s leash to it. “Fester, I’ll be right back.” Chuck picked up the door he’d thrown in the hallway and dragged it toward the room. Once inside the room, he pulled it back in place as best he could. No need for Fester to hear everything he was about to do.
* * *
“Yes, I said aliens,” Jodie said. “For the tenth time, that is. Aliens. Get over it.” She’d spent the better part of the last hour explaining Gypsum’s plan to Eric. Fortunately, the Gypsum guard was forthcoming with information as well. The more painkillers Eric gave him from the med kit, the more he talked. The pills were taking their toll and the guard nodded off briefly and jerked awake again.
“So, next, you’re going to tell me that we’re going to Area 51, where we’ll find an alien spaceship, and, oh, maybe some alien bodies, and we’ll just what? Shoot our tasers at them?” Eric laughed so hard that he couldn’t catch his breath for a moment. “I have to say, Jodie, or Agent Watts, or whatever you like to be called, you have some great stories.”
The guard pushed himself up on his elbows. “Ain’t no story, pal. We’re all toast. If she blows that motherfucker up, like she says she’s gonna, then you can start laughing at aliens. Until then, well, kiss your ass goodbye.”
“You know, I never caught your name,” Jodie said, glancing in the rearview mirror.
The guard smiled. “Who, me? You wanna know my name?” he asked.
Jodie nodded.
“Well, my mamma named me Romeo,” he said. “No shit. She saw some frickin’ play or somethin’ and that’s what she came up with. Not no fuckin’ Tybalt or Mercurtio. Romeo. Yup. Do you know how much shit I took for that in school?”
Jodie found herself on the verge of laughing. She was so tired and emotionally exhausted that she felt herself giving into giddiness.
“No, but, by all means, tell us,” Eric said.
The guard laughed. “Well, a lot. My friends call me RJ now. Romeo Julius. That’s what my mama named me.”
Jodie almost let herself feel a moment of happiness, but reality played like a film reel in front of her eyes. Her father and everyone she cared about were in trouble. Her best friend had been killed. Many people had lost their homes, their lives, their loved ones, all because of Gypsum. She felt the urge to laugh mixing with the need to cry and bit her lip to keep from doing either.
“RJ, the trick is going to be getting into the Gypsum installation,” Jodie said. “Do you know how we can do that?
RJ sat up a little taller. “Well, you bet your ass I do. You know, you can’t go walkin’ in the front door, though, don’t ya?”
Jodie nodded. She wondered why people let themselves be led around like sheep. This man seemed to be following whoever would give him the most attention. Then, she realized that was the way Gypsum worked to begin with. Make people feel important and they’ll do anything. “Okay, RJ. Tell us what we need to do.”
* * *
Chuck wondered if he would be able to control his temper long enough to not kill Billy right away. "Get up. You're going to show us where Christy is. Then, we're going to get Fester's mom to a doctor." Chuck kept telling himself not to pull too hard on the leash. Over and over, he tried to convince himself to keep Billy alive. Besides, he didn't want Fester to see the result of any more violence today.
Billy pushed himself up from the floor.
"Fester, do you need help with that gurney?" Chuck asked. "We should be on our way so we can get your mom some help."
Fester shook his head.
Chuck stepped back toward Fester and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "She'll be okay, son," he said. "Let's go."
CHAPTER 14
David woke up shivering. His body felt cold. Not the kind of cold that comes from being outside, but a damp feeling that penetrated him to the core. He realized his head ached. He couldn't see anything and reached up to rub his eyes, but his hand hit something solid just above his body. A few seconds ticked by before he realized he was inside something. He touched the wall above him, feeling smooth metal no more than six inches above his face. He tried to slide down, meeting resistance at a few inches below his feet. Twisting his arm, he reached above his head, but there wasn't enough space, so he scooted his body up, hitting a wall again. Panicking, he felt the walls to his sides, his fingers running over a cluster of holes in the metal. Air holes, he thought. Just like the steel boxes we put the hybrids in. With the realization of where he was, an involuntary scream escaped his mouth.
Taking a few deep breaths, he tried to remember how he'd ended up in the hybrid containment area. His head ached deeply and he reached up, feeling a sticky patch of matted hair just above his left eye. Someone had hit him. He remembered leaving his wife and son in a room where he told them to wait. He'd gone to meet with Ted Renfro to keep up the facade of being a willing participant in Gypsum's plan. But, Renfro already knew what David's real intentions were. To rescue his family and get the truth out about Gypsum. Somehow, Renfro knew it all. David realized the room where he'd talked to his wife and son must have been bugged. He cursed himself for not knowing better.
He lay still for a few moments, trying to calm himself, breathing deeply. David slid his hand into his pockets, finding them empty. One thing could save him. If only he could find a way to get to it. He could still feel the leg holster strapped to his calf and shifted his foot as best he could to feel if the holster still held his gun, but he couldn't reach it. He bent his leg as far as possible and twisted his body, grabbing at his pants, pulling his leg toward his hand.
Sweat streamed into his eyes and he struggled to breathe. The little amount of air provided by the holes in the side of the box seemed thick and stale and, for the first time, David realized that the ventilation system in the containment boxes wasn’t turned on. He could well run out of air completely before reaching his gun. He kept stretching, until he could feel the gun underneath the fabric of his pants. Inch by inch, he pulled his pants leg up, exposing the grip. Finally, it was in his hand and he brought it up to his chest.
That was when he felt the vibration. A low rumbling that shook the metal in the cabinet ever so slightly. Something didn’t seem quite right. The installation had been built by boring through solid rock a mile beneath the surface of the earth. What kind of force could cause the walls to vibrate? Whatever the source, David knew only one thing. He didn’t want to be here to find out what it was. He’d shoot the locking mechanism on the containment box. Then, once he was out of this tomb, he could worry about finding his family and escaping. He shifted up on his side the best he could and took aim.
* * *
Jodie zipped up the front of the combat uniform. Certainly not a stylish look and not exactly the best outfit for the desert heat, but concealing, which was what she needed. She watched as Eric buttoned the front of his shirt and smelled the armpits.
“RJ, you need a bath,” Eric said.
RJ groaned something unintelligible in response. He’d fallen asleep shortly after removing his shirt and lay in the back of the van, subdued by the pain medication.
“Jodie, I’m sorry about earlier,” Eric said. “I didn’t know --”
Jodie waved her hand at him, as if to wipe away the apology. “Of course you didn’t know. You can’t blame yourself for questioning." Thinking about how everything started only a few weeks ago, she said, “I didn’t believe it, either. The scale of this, the Gypsum installations, the decades of building and planning, were almost incomprehensible to me at first. Not to mention the sheer insanity of it all. What they’ve done so far to the earth, well nothing will ever be the same.”
"I still don't understand why they would torch a fire station," Eric said. "A lot of people were depending on help from our guys."
"Unfortunately," Jodie said, "That's exactly why they torched it. They don't care about anyone and they want everyone out of this area."
Eric reached out and touched Jodie’s arm. “Your mother . . . how could she be part of such a horrible thing?”
Jodie shook her head. “Greed, I guess. I don’t know. I can’t help but think she got involved because she thought she was doing some good, but that sure isn’t the way it turned out.” She shoved the tail of the shirt into her pants, which were a size too big, but would work. Jodie cinched her belt the best she could, tied back her hair and stuffed it under the cap she pulled down on her head. Eric handed her the aviator glasses RJ had given him. “Well, how do I look?”
Eric laughed. “Way too pretty to be one of those guards. Maybe you should wear the shirt I have on. At least you’d smell the part.”