Jenny Plague-Bringer: (Jenny Pox #4)

by J. Bryan

  “I don’t want to reach my full potential. I don’t want to use the pox ever again.”

  “Your choice is to accept your place and work with us, or to stay locked up in this cell for the rest of your life. All we want now is to test and learn. We’ll table any discussion of national defense applications until you’re comfortable talking about that. Do we have a deal?” He folded his arms and watched her face.

  “I can’t do any testing now, anyway,” Jenny said. “With all these whirli-gizmos attached to me, I’m sure you’ve noticed I’m slightly pregnant. I can’t use the pox, it’s not safe for the baby.”

  “You’re only half-term. We can’t wait months to begin testing.”

  “Then I suggest you don’t go around kidnapping pregnant women.”

  “Everything I do is for the greater good,” Ward told her. “When you see that, you will join us.”

  “Whose idea of the greater good? Yours?”

  “You will cooperate with us, Jennifer.” His eyes seemed to grow dark as he stared at her. “You will submit to testing when I order it.”

  “I’m sorry, General, but like I said, my hands are tied.” Jenny raised her cuffed hands.

  He glared at her, then shook his head as he turned away. The guards followed him out and slammed the steel door behind them.

  Jenny looked around the concrete lab. They hadn’t bothered to provide her with anything to read or a TV, but she had plenty of past-life memories to watch. This place crawled with them. She wondered if she was in the exact same lab where they’d tested her so many times. She looked around at the concrete floor, but she didn’t see any bloodstains.

  * * *

  Juliana felt a wave of relief as she stepped into the lab. No animals today, just more beige machines full of dials and knobs. They hadn’t made her touch any more animals since the goats, and she hoped they’d decided not to do that anymore, after seeing how much it upset her. She didn’t mind letting them monitor her and swab samples from the gory lesions she summoned to the surface of her body, and photograph her naked as Dr. Wichtmann kept insisting, but she had resolved not to kill any more animals no matter how much they pressured her. They would have to adjust their testing to that. Maybe they already had.

  She stood near the exam table and looked up at the windows high above. They’d dimmed the lighting on the observation deck, so the windows looked like black mirrors. She had no idea whether anyone was watching her.

  A few minutes passed, and she grew more and more uneasy. By now, the biologists and doctors should have been here in their gas masks and elbow-length rubber gloves, poking and prodding at her. The room felt unusually cold today, too, and she shivered in her light dress and folded her arms in around herself.

  A steel door opened, and two uniformed S.S. men in black gas masks entered, rolling a surgical gurney. A man was strapped to it with wide leather belts, his mouth bound with a cloth gag. He lunged his shoulders and hips uselessly, grunting and screaming against his gag. It was hard to tell his age, because his face and head had been carelessly shaved with a straight razor, leaving them cross-hatched with cuts and scrapes. He was stripped to his stained underwear, and deep lash marks were carved all over his body. It was clear he’d been tortured, and starved as well, his ribs jutting out through his skin.

  The S.S. men rolled him to the center of the room, then turned and marched toward the door without a word to her.

  “Wait! What’s happening?” Juliana asked.

  They ignored her and hurried out, locking the door behind them, leaving her alone with the tortured man squirming on the gurney. His head flopped toward her, his eyes wide, and he made some desperate pleading sounds against his gag.

  “Please hurry.” Dr. Wichtmann’s voice sounded over the intercom.

  “Hurry? What do you expect me to do?” Juliana asked.

  “You know what we expect you do,” Wichtmann replied.

  “You want me to infect him?”

  “Death is preferred.”

  “I can’t do that!”

  “Do not fear, Juliana.” Kranzler’s deeper voice spoke now. “This man is a convicted criminal. He will die whether you are the instrument or not.”

  “He is?” Juliana looked at the suffering man. “What was his crime?”

  “Treason.”

  Juliana had been hoping to hear he was a raper of women and a murderer of children. “What kind of treason?”

  “I cannot disclose that. Rest assured, he is the lowest sort of mongrel, barely a man at all,” Kranzler said.

  “We are on a schedule,” Wichtmann’s voice added.

  Juliana shook her head, backing away. “I can’t.”

  “You can,” Kranzler said. “We are in a war, Juliana, of civilization against barbarians. In a war, you must kill.”

  “I’m not at war with anyone,” Juliana said. “And I’m not German, so if you guys are planning a war, that’s your problem. You have to get this man a doctor right now!”

  “You do not give orders in my lab!” Wichtmann snapped. “Apply the touch.”

  “No!” Juliana folded her arms and walked to the door. “Let me go. Let me go home. I want to return to America, right now. I’m not staying here and doing this.”

  There was a muffled conversation, as though someone had covered the microphone, and then Dr. Wichtmann spoke in a resigned voice: “Testing is concluded for today. You may return to your quarters.”

  “I don’t want to return to my quarters, I want to get Sebastian and leave this place. And that’s all I’m going to do.”

  “Juliana, please relax yourself,” Kranzler said. “We cannot make transportation arrangements immediately. If you still wish to leave in the morning, we will happily put both of you on a train.”

  Juliana took a deep breath and tried to calm down, but the bleeding, screaming man wasn’t going to allow that. His face and voice would echo in her mind for the rest of her life.

  “Fine. Thank you,” Juliana said. “We’ll be happy to take a train in the morning. Now, please, somebody help this person!”

  “The medical staff will enter when you leave,” Dr. Wichtmann said. “No one wishes to be exposed to your condition.”

  “I’m going, I’m going, just send them down.” Juliana stepped out through the door, past a couple of armed S.S. guards, and hurried along the corridor toward the dormitory. The guards trailed her at a distance until she reached her hall.

  She spent the rest of her afternoon sitting on her bed, knees to her chin, and shaking.

  Eventually, Mia came home from her own testing, and she hurried over when she saw the horrified look on Juliana’s face.

  “What’s wrong?” Mia asked, taking one of Juliana’s gloved hands. “What happened? Tell me.”

  “They wanted me to kill somebody,” Juliana whispered.

  “Are you serious?”

  “He was strapped to a table. Everyone acted like it was no big deal, like I wasn’t even supposed to care about killing some helpless person.”

  “Why would they think that?”

  “Because I’m a monster.” Juliana laid her head on her knees. “Just a monster who can’t touch anyone. Death in a white dress.” Juliana pulled her hand away from Mia’s. “You shouldn’t touch me.”

  “You’re not a monster.” Mia rubbed her arm through her sleeve. “You’re the only sane person here. I’m so glad you came, Juliana. I felt like I was losing my mind.”

  “I’m not glad,” Juliana said. “I mean, I’m glad I met you, but this place is just...scary. I told them I wanted to leave. They said they’d put us on a train in the morning.”

  “Oh, no!” Mia’s face broke down, and she covered it with both hands. “You’re going to leave? You’re leaving me here?”

  “You can come with us. To America, if you like.”

  “I can’t!” Mia was already crying. “Juliana, my father sold me to them. They’ll go back and punish my family if I leave.”

  Juliana’s shou
lders sagged. She didn’t know what to do now, and she wondered how the people running the base would react.

  She found out a few hours later, when Alise stopped by their room just before dinner, while Juliana and Mia were quietly reading.

  “How are you two today?” Alise asked. “Anything exciting happen?”

  They both shook their heads.

  “You look so cute today,” Alise told Mia. “New make-up? Or did you change your hair?”

  “Same old everything,” Mia told her.

  “Well, you look beautiful. Listen, I need to speak with Juliana in private for a minute. Want to go on to the dining room, and we’ll see you there?”

  “I suppose I could...” Mia rose slowly from her bed, but she looked uncertain. “Are you going to be all right, Juliana?”

  “I’m fine,” Juliana nodded her head, though she didn’t feel fine at all. She felt repulsive and evil. “See you at dinner.”

  Mia trudged out of the room, clearly not wanting to leave Juliana alone with Alise. Alise closed the door behind her, then turned her gray eyes on Juliana, who still sat on the bed.

  “Let’s talk, Juliana.” Alise sauntered towards her, then pulled out the chair from Juliana’s writing desk and sat just a few feet away. “You can be honest with me. Are you unhappy here?”

  “They wanted me to kill someone today.”

  “Oh, he was only a common criminal,” Alise said. “You have to understand, Juliana, that with your touch being so...medical, they have to test the effects on people. Why not criminals? It’s not like we’ll ever run out of them, unfortunately, and the Reich has already sentenced them to death. So their death should at least have value, shouldn’t it? Add something to the knowledge of humanity? Like how your power works. That’s worth the life of a man already sentenced to die, isn’t it?”

  “I’m not going to kill anyone for them. You can tell them I said that when you report back.”

  “Juliana, I’m here because I’m worried about you.”

  “I doubt that,” Juliana said.

  Alise glanced at the door, as if concerned someone might be spying on them. Then she leaned closer and whispered, “I want to show you something. About me and my power. But you must promise to keep it secret. Will you?”

  “If you want.” Juliana shrugged.

  “This might seem strange, but be calm and watch.” Alise took in a deep, slow breath, filling her lungs all the way, her gray eyes fixed on Juliana’s face. When she exhaled, she breathed out a cloud of what looked like tiny, pink, fluffy flower petals. Juliana flinched as they landed all over her face, neck, and arms...but then she felt much, much better.

  The delicate little petals melted into her skin like sugar cubes in hot tea. A few of the pink flakes drifted into Juliana’s gaping mouth and landed on her tongue. They reminded her of cotton candy from the fair, and every sweet thing she’d ever tasted.

  Juliana sighed and relaxed. The world had a beautiful golden glow now, radiating from Alise, the girl she loved with all her heart, even if she hadn’t realized it until just now.

  “You’re so sweet to come see me,” Juliana said. “You’re so...perfect.”

  “I know. Are you happy now?”

  “I am happy when you’re near me.”

  “And you trust me, don’t you? You know that anything I ask you to do is for the good?”

  “Of course.” Juliana beamed. At that moment, she would have jumped off a cliff in the desert if she knew it would make Alise happy. Her heart had never felt so alive and so vulnerable. “You’re a good friend, Alise. I want us to stay friends.”

  “Why wouldn’t we?” Alise look puzzled.

  “Weren’t you mad at me when you got here? You were mad about...something.” Juliana couldn’t remember. All she could think about was Alise, beautiful, fascinating Alise. “Let me think...”

  “I know what it was. You said some silly thing earlier, to Dr. Wichtmann. You said you wanted to quit the research, leave the base, and go back to America. That’s not true, is it?” Alise looked as if she were about to tear up and start crying, just like Mia had. “Oh, no, I can’t lose a friend like you. Promise me you’ll never leave me, Juliana.”

  “I wouldn’t leave you.” Juliana’s heart ached sweetly, just knowing that Alise felt the same way about her. “I couldn’t leave you, Alise. I...I think I might love you.”

  “I love you, too, Juliana.” Alise stood and winked. “Let’s go have dinner. I’m glad we could talk things over. I’ll walk you to your lab tests in the morning, if you like.”

  “I’d like it very much.” Juliana beamed at her as they left her room, toward the small dining room where the test subjects had been segregated ever since Juliana’s arrival.

  It had never been easy for Juliana to make friends, so she couldn’t believe her luck, having a friend like Alise who lived just down the hall.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  An electronically amplified voice woke Seth from his sleep: “The general is here to see you.”

  “Huh?” Seth sat up, his hair sticking out in clumps. He tried to get his bearings. He was on a very small, uncomfortable bed in a concrete room like a prison cell. He faced a steel door where a young man in a black uniform looked at him through a thick pane of glass. “Where the hell am I? Is this Alabama?” Seth asked.

  “You are in a classified research facility.” A hard, gruff voice took over. The young man in the window moved aside and was replaced by a man in his late forties or early fifties, with bright green eyes and close-cropped red hair, going gray. “You and Jennifer Morton have been taken into custody because of the mass death in Fallen Oak.”

  Oh, shit, that again, Seth thought. “So...Alabama, then?” he asked.

  “You are very far from home, Seth. My name is Lieutenant General Ward Kilpatrick, U.S. Department of Defense. We’re very concerned about the threat to national security represented by you and Jenny...especially Jenny.”

  “Jenny’s not a threat to anybody,” Seth said.

  “How can you say that, after witnessing the slaughter in Fallen Oak?” Ward asked. His voice crackled from the ceiling, slightly delayed from the movement of his lips.

  “Those people were trying to kill her. And me. So my sympathy is kind of limited,” Seth said.

  “Were they not people you knew personally? Teenagers and teachers from your school? Your church pastor? Your mayor?”

  “I did know them,” Seth said. “A lot of them were assholes.”

  “But did they deserve to die?”

  Seth shrugged. “Once you say it’s okay to murder somebody, aren’t you kind of saying that it’s okay for somebody to murder you? I mean, fair’s fair.”

  “You have no remorse?”

  “I wish it hadn’t happened, but I’ve had plenty of time to get over it.” Seth smiled. He realized that he was something...more than he’d been before. He remembered scores of past lives, and he was now the sum of thousands of years of experience and knowledge. He was no longer just Seth Barrett from Fallen Oak, he was the healer, veteran of many human lives.

  And he knew all about the man who stood before him.

  “Where’s Jenny?” Seth asked. “I need to see her.”

  “I’m afraid she’s in isolation at the moment,” Ward said.

  “You have to take me to her.” Seth walked toward the window, looking Ward in the eye. “Right now.”

  “You are not in charge here, Seth. Seeing Jenny is a privilege you’ll have to earn.”

  “Earn how? By obeying you? Being your pet dog?”

  “I’m giving you the chance to redeem yourself by serving your country, Seth. I’m only going to offer it once.”

  “I’m not going to work for you, General Kranzler. I’m not going to kill for you.”

  Ward’s eyes widened at the name. “What did you call me?”

  “I called you General Kilpatrick,” Seth said. “That’s your name this time around, isn’t it, Kranzler?”

  �
��You said it again.” Ward’s voice was a low growl. “Why? Where did you get that name?”

  “Do yourself a favor, Kranzler, or Ward Kilpatrick, or whatever you think your name is,” Seth said. “Let me and Jenny go now. You’ll wish you had, I promise. And I do keep my promises, lifetime after lifetime. All of them.”

  “You’re in no position to threaten me!” Ward snapped.

  “Maybe you’re the one who doesn’t understand your position, Kranzler.” Seth stepped even closer, looking hard into the man’s eyes. “Because it looks to me like you’re the one who’s trapped. Like Alexander. The same life, again and again.”

  “Who is Alexander?”

  “He’s dead, so it doesn’t matter. I killed him. It was a long time coming...but, like I said, I keep my promises.” Seth grinned at Ward through the thick window.

  “You just blew your only chance.” Ward’s face turned a dark crimson.

  “My one and only chance?” Seth asked, even as Ward and the guards departed down the hall. “Not like my last one and only chance, in 1933? Or my next one and only chance, when you bring us all back to the same place again in another hundred years? How many times are you going to set up this same situation, Kranzler? Hello? Is this thing on? Where’s Jenny, Kranzler?”

  Ward and his guards continued on out of sight.

  “That went well, I think,” Seth said, wondering if the man could still hear him. He looked around the room, wondering whether he’d been in this exact cell before. It didn’t look like it had been cleaned since 1933.

  Seth felt a giddy high from having so many of his memories restored, as if he’d been sleepwalking all his life and finally woken up. He could see how Kranzler, or Ward, was trapped in the same drama, creating the same situation again, apparently unaware that they’d all been here before. Jenny, and their unborn baby, had to be here somewhere. To understand the present, he needed to study carefully his memories of the past...

  * * *

  Sebastian walked into the dining room where the test subjects ate at a long table. Evelina, the dark, quiet Slavic girl, sat alone at the end, and he greeted her, as he did every time. She mumbled something back without looking up from her boiled beef and potatoes, which was actually a big response from her.