Sepulchre

by Jay Harez

  “So what did he do?” asked Fetus.

  “He started working on a cure. People call it Aqua Riga, or King’s Water or Aqua Vita. It’s the most powerful medicine ever made and no one in history actually found the formula…except maybe, Doctor Miguel,” said EggHead. EggHead was a man who had reached the end of a long journey.

  “Do you know how to make it now?” asked Fetus.

  “Mostly. I will need to get to a laboratory and work on it, but I have most of it here in this manuscript,” said EggHead jabbing a finger at the unrolled document on the table.

  “What happened to the doctor?” asked Fetus.

  EggHead looked around. He wanted to make sure the others weren’t within earshot. He and Fetus could hear the three men at the far end of the warehouse moving things around and occasionally one, two or all three would come out and refill the containers with siphoned fuel for the generators.

  “Research requires…needs…he had to do tests, lots of tests, to get the formula right,” said EggHead.

  “So?” asked Fetus.

  “He would sometimes test his formula on people, the local people, and sometimes the results were horrific.” EggHead said.

  “What’s horrific mean?” asked Fetus.

  “You do like to learn don’t you,” EggHead responded.

  Fetus just smiled because this was all new and exciting to him. He didn’t even know people had been here that long ago.

  “It means the results were bad. There are stories about people going insane and killing each other, sometimes members of their own families or whoever was close by at the time. Others became suicidal. Some ripped the skin off of their own bodies while others lost the ability to speak and rambled on in foreign languages, screaming and ranting. All of them were extremely violent, there are even stories of cannibalism,” said EggHead.

  “Did the Doctor stop testing his formulas when these things started to happen?” Fetus asked.

  The driver, Alonzo, Leaf and the loader approached the pair’s work area.

  “I’m backing my rig up so it blocks the hangar doors. You keep doing what you’re doing,” said the driver as he passed by.

  The driver made his way around the semi and climbed in. Alonzo and Leaf walked over to look more closely at the corpse.

  “Don’t touch that,” EggHead said.

  Alonzo and Leaf both looked at EggHead as if he had lost his mind.

  “Please,” EggHead added.

  “You two have been playing with this thing all night like it’s a ragdoll,” said Leaf “What difference if we touch it.”

  “We haven’t…” Fetus started to say more but stopped when he looked at the corpse. Its arms weren’t wrapped around its knees anymore. Instead both arms rested on the sides of the bowl like the arm rests of a chair as if it were relaxing…or preparing to stand.

  EggHead was staring at the body also.

  “Which one of you did that?” asked EggHead.

  “This is not the place where you ask the questions, Senor EggHead. Here you do what you are told and I do the telling in this depot, comprender?” Alonzo asked rhetorically.

  The big rig started up. The driver backed the trailer to within one foot of the big hangar doors at the south end, parked and unhitched the trailer section. The gambit wasn’t designed to stop the doors from sliding open but to act as a second line of defense if anyone got the notion to ram the door down. The doors would stand up to anything short of a tank so it really wasn’t necessary, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.

  “Leaf neither of us have touched the body, I swear” Fetus said looking Leaf in the eye.

  “Where is the loader?” asked Leaf.

  Everyone looked around but he was nowhere to be seen.

  “Loader!” shouted Alonzo. No answer came.

  The loader could have been hiding in any of the trucks cabs or cargo areas. He could have been hiding on top of one of the cargo holds and just out of sight. Wherever he was they all knew he hadn’t left the warehouse.

  The driver returned and parked the semi-tractor midway into the warehouse and got down from the cab. He walked over to the group, saw them scanning the area, and instinctively began looking around warehouse.

  “What are we looking for?” asked the driver.

  They all knew the sound of a straining engine but this wasn’t the engine of a vehicle. It was distant and coming from the north end of the warehouse near Alonzo’s office and the sleeping areas.

  Without speaking Leaf, the driver, and Alonzo all took off at a run toward the generators. As they got there Fetus could hear the engine grind and strain and finally seize. Moments later Fetus and EggHead heard Alonzo let loose with a string of expletives and threats aimed at no one in particular. The lights on the south end flickered for a few seconds and finally died.

  The semi’s trailer and half of the small trucks along the walls were lost in the total darkness. EggHead and Fetus heard the familiar hiss and abandoned the work space instinctively moving toward the half of the warehouse that was still lit. They joined the other three men who were checking their weapons at the front of the semi-tractor.

  “I’m going to kill that fucking loader,” Alonzo muttered to his Mac 10.

  “Fetus get into the sleeping area and stay there,” said Leaf.

  “You go with him,” said the driver pointing his finger at EggHead and then pointing his thumb toward the north end of the warehouse.

  “I need to get my work or this whole trip was pointless,” said EggHead and started making his way back to the work space.

  A few minutes later they heard EggHead scream and saw him running back towards the little group with his arms full of documents and books, some flying loose as he approached.

  “It moved!” EggHead shouted collapsing to the floor, clutching at the loose materials.

  “What moved?” Fetus asked.

  “The body, it…” EggHead looked at the faces of the men around him. “It moved! Listen to me!” he implored as he snatched at the scattered scraps of paper and books.

  The faces of the men standing over the researcher ranged from angry to confused; the common thread was that they were all very tired. At this time of night they were all supposed to be sound asleep.

  “You saw the body move?” asked Leaf.

  “Well, no,” said EggHead “I walked past it and it was just like we left it. I turned my back, started gathering my things and heard a hiss behind me. I thought it was a snake, but when I turned around, he was facing me,” he concluded.

  The men all simply stared for a minute. Then they all started to chuckle and that turned into roaring laughter. The driver could barely catch his breath, Alonzo was doubled over and Leaf was starting to tear up. Deprived of sleep and constant adrenaline had lead to a kind of punch drunkenness.

  “Sometimes being on the road can make you see things,” the driver offered.

  They others kept laughing over EggHead’s protests.

  “The kid heard it too!” EggHead shouted above the three pointing at Fetus.

  Leaf stopped laughing immediately and looked at Fetus, who was studying the floor of the warehouse intently. The laughter of the driver and Alonzo had begun to subside.

  “Fetus, did you see the thing move?” Leaf asked.

  “I heard a noise, but we thought it was a rattlesnake. We even looked for it…” he said and trailed off, feeling uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the three.

  “Kid, did you see any movement?” asked the driver in a very gentle voice.

  “No.” Fetus said still looking at the floor.

  The men didn’t look at EggHead as he went from crawling on all fours and collecting his documents to a sitting position on the concrete floor. EggHead just sat there staring into darkness that engulfed the other end of the warehouse. Fetus felt as if he had betrayed his new friend, the first friend - after Leaf - who had ever seen value in him.

  Fetus bent down and started collecting some of the spilled papers. After
he had a handful, he approached EggHead with the documents extended in front of him. The other three men had gone back to the generator room and couldn’t see Fetus and EggHead frozen in place. Fetus helped EggHead to his feet. Although the man wasn’t injured physically it was clear that his mind had taken a beating. All of his life Fetus had heard about things like the chupacabra and brujas and he was accustomed to people saying they saw things that couldn’t be explained.

  Fetus had never seen any of these things himself, but he knew those that claimed they had, did not take the experience lightly. EggHead began to mumble the words: ‘it moved’ repeatedly. Fetus knew his new friend’s mind had been damaged by something he saw or at least thought he saw.

  Fetus led EggHead to the sleeping area and put him in one of the beds furthest from the entrance. He figured the deranged mutterings would be less offensive the further he was from the group.

  The men gathered to look at the generators.

  “Smells like syrup,” said the driver.

  “Sugar. That mother-fucker put sugar in my generator!” Alonzo shouted as he kicked the bulky machine.

  At that moment they heard a guttural and ragged scream. The noise came from the south end of the warehouse, the dark end, and then the scream stopped just as suddenly. The sound of boots running along the catwalks fell on the group in the lighted area. They all checked their weapons for what was at least the tenth time and slowly stepped out of the sleeping area.

  The group made their way to the halfway point of the large building. Instinctively they all stopped with the darkened half of the structure ahead of them and the lighted half behind. They eased their way past the semi-tractor and stood by its rear wheels peering into the dark opposite end of the structure. The sound of the men outside could be heard more clearly now. It seemed as if the urgency from earlier had passed. They could be heard laughing and talking. What most disconcerted the men inside the warehouse was the sheer number of voices. It sounded like hundreds had gathered outside to participate in the siege. Then above the growing den they heard the raspy breathing.

  “Alto!” one of the guards shouted from the catwalk.

  “Alto!” shouted the second guard from the other side.

  Leaf pushed Fetus behind him and began to step backwards raising his gun at the same time. The raspy breathing grew louder as the men retreated.

  The first shot left the men’s ears ringing. A .308 rifle is loud even when fired out of doors. To discharge one indoors, even in as big a space as the warehouse, was to do so at the risk of permanent hearing loss. Everything began to happen in slow motion.

  Bullets burst through the upper windows. The surrounding forces had decided to return fire without confirming they were being fired upon first. Glass rained down on the trucks parked along the walls. The guards opted to lie down on their catwalks and conserve their ammunition.

  Fetus stopped the slow but steady retreat of the group into the sleeping area and pointed toward the darkened area. Leaf turned to look in the direction he was pointing, followed by the driver and finally by Alonzo. Lying on the floor of the warehouse just at the edge of the lighted area was a man’s hand. It still twitched and grasped at invisible objects. The incoming fire slowly tapered off. The assault wasn’t nearly as frightening or dramatic once the glass stopped falling. Alonzo was the first to recover his wits and began walking with absolute confidence toward the hand.

  “We got you, you piece of shit!” said Alonzo as he bent over and grabbed the loaders wrist. The driver and Leaf, followed by Fetus, approached Alonzo as he began pulling the corpse into the better lit northern half of the warehouse.

  Alonzo walked toward the others dragging the loaders body like a trophy hunter who had bagged a bull elephant.

  “You see,” said Alonzo “it is simple. This is your mover of mummies and generator sweetener.”

  “Dio de madre!” said Fetus.

  “Check your load amigo,” said the driver as he produced a pistol from the small of his back.

  Alonzo turned and looked at the body releasing the wrist almost simultaneously, Alonzo was undone. He stumbled backwards and fell on his rear end.

  The loader’s skin had taken on a waxy appearance and sagged in places, turning a pale purplish color from blood loss. Both legs were gone below the knee. The skin and muscle tissue had been removed almost half way up both thighs but the bones remained. The protruding bones looked polished except in a few places where small curved markings added texture.

  The sound they heard next was too deep for a scream. It started as a voice from the dark end of the warehouse and quickly became a roar. The sound reduced everyone in the warehouse to frightened prey animals. The few remaining panes of glass at the topmost level of the warehouse shook. Fetus covered his ears. Leaf clutched a small cross hanging around his neck and the driver went down on one knee and swept the darkened end of the warehouse from side to side looking for a target.

  “What in the name of God?” Leaf asked in a whisper.

  “I figured it out,” said a very calm voice from behind the group. Startled, everyone turned and pointed their weapons at EggHead.

  EggHead was wearing a wry grin and holding the piece of parchment he had found. His hair was standing up in places and his eyes kept darting around the lighted area of the warehouse as if expecting something. None of the men moved as EggHead approached the mangled body of the loader. He gingerly lifted one of the legs up by the exposed tibia. After a cursory study, he applied the same degree of scrutiny to the other leg and let it drop back into position.

  EggHead quietly approached the group and looked at them in a way that said everything is going to be fine. Fetus knew different. The driver and Leaf’s faces said they were interested in any possible explanation but Alonzo was clearly debating whether or not to shoot EggHead in the face. All of them remained silent and EggHead took the cue. He told them the same story he had told Fetus and then continued with a theory of his own.

  “Miguel Llull de Santiago was a risk taker. He was passionate about his work and pursued every avenue to further his research that the technology of the times would allow. According to this,” he gestured with the parchment “he clearly crossed the line ethically and from the standpoint of his own personal safety. The story is that some of his ‘patients’ died in his care and were scheduled to be entombed the following day. During the interment process the patients, mostly young boys, attacked several of the people attending to the procedure and killed them. The boys were last seen fleeing into the jungle although they were thought to be already dead,” EggHead paused and looked around the warehouse some more then continued. “The local chief had to blame someone and a white man with his strange ‘magic’ potions and religious beliefs was the most likely candidate.” EggHead walked around the body studying it for a moment then continued. “The truth was that doctor Llull had discovered what he was looking for but he had not anticipated the side effects. Among them were dementia, violence, paranoia and greatly increased physical strength, plus a number of other mental illnesses. The king ordered him to be entombed…alive. Knowing what penalty awaited him, he took the elixir himself. And as you can see it works.”

  “Are you saying that thing in the rock has been alive for – what - almost four hundred and…sixty years?” asked the driver.

  “Listen to me senior EggHead. This is not the time for crazy. Do you understand?” asked Alonzo gesturing with a newly found machete.

  “We are in the midst of what is possibly the greatest scientif…” EggHead stopped talking when Alonzo took a step forward.

  The driver stepped forward and placed himself between EggHead and Alonzo.

  “You have balls driver. Do not lose them over this loco cabron” Alonzo gestured over the shoulder of the driver toward EggHead.

  “He gets delivered the same way I picked him up or I don’t get paid,” said the driver locking eyes with Alonzo.

  The two men stood like that for what seemed a long time to Fe
tus. They were feet apart but neither reached for his gun. Although it was night, and cooler than the daytime, everyone was sweating.

  Alonzo started to speak when strange sucking and tearing sounds started to come from the darkened half of the warehouse. It wasn’t a very loud noise but its proximity made the hairs on the backs of the men’s necks stand up. They really couldn’t see anything past the illuminated border dividing the north and south halves of the building. The lights were so bright on their end that they were blind past the semi-tractor.

  Everyone but the driver turned to focus on the source. The driver kept his eyes locked on Alonzo whose curiosity was making his eyes dart toward the sound. Alonzo started to shift his weight back and forth on his feet. Leaf stepped past the two of them with his pistol pointed into the void. Fetus and EggHead followed him. Finally Alonzo ended the stand-off and began to drift in the general direction of Leaf and the others. The noises continued. Fetus could see the little red points of laser light sweeping the floor in random patterns as the guards tried to track down whatever was drawing the men’s attention.

  As they approached the source of the sounds the group huddled close together. When they got within what they presumed was a few feet of the noise, the driver shone a tiny hand sized Mag-Lite in the direction of the sound.

  The creature looked up at them. For a moment everyone froze in place. The adrenaline that causes a person to perceive time as moving more slowly allowed Fetus to take in the scene.

  The creature or corpse was gnawing on the exposed arm of the loader whose body had been pinned under the door. The creature’s skin had taken on a bluish color much like the cartoon characters Fetus watched on Saturdays when they held their breath too long. It was still just a skeletal frame with its aqua-marine skin drawn tightly over it, but its shoulders seemed to be slightly broader. Where previously there was a scrawny bird-like neck with a sharply jutting Adams apple, now sinew was visible under its skin. Where the skin had been sunken above the clavicle, there was now a more solid form and some of the bandaging had fallen away, allowing the lower jaw movement. Most frightening of the changes were the eyes. The one visible eye had a milky opalescence like a creature born in a cave. The mummy was down on all fours like an animal and the stench was greater now than it had been. The creature had removed the forearm from the dead loader and was gnawing on it furiously when the light shone on it. In a flash, the creature turned and scurried away on all fours into the shadows with the arm dangling from his mouth.