by Leito, Chad
Asa stood up, putting the chopping block with the assorted vegetables he had picked up back on the counter. He looked into Teddy’s face, and was shocked by his friend’s appearance. Teddy was loosing weight: the suit that he had been so delicately measured for last semester was now hanging on him. Both his eyes and his skin were a sick yellow color, as though his kidneys and liver weren’t functioning properly. Asa thought about telling Teddy that he needed sleep, but then reminded himself of how mad he got when Asa tried to assert that anything was wrong. He just wants to let it fester. Instead, Asa said: “The fajitas smell great.”
Teddy gave an enormous smile. “I don’t think the peppers are ruined; you keep this floor pretty clean.”
Something about the staggered way Teddy was speaking made the hair on the back Asa’s neck stand up. Before he entered, he was sure that he wanted to confide in his friend about all the things he had just witnessed in the woods. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
This is crazy! He’s my friend! I can tell him!
“I’m not worried about the peppers,” Asa said.
Teddy stared at Asa for a moment, measuring him. “I feel as though there’s something that you’re not telling me.”
Asa’s palms grew sweaty and he rubbed them on his suit. It’s normal that he’s a bit disturbed after last semester. Remember the half dead students chasing after us? I don’t think there’s anything particularly dangerous about Teddy. I just think this awful place has changed him. “Listen, umm, on my walk today I saw some things. I wanted to talk to you about them.”
Why am I talking so formally? He’s going to notice!
Teddy picked up the knife and held it firmly in his right fist. “Some things, eh?” He lifted the cutting board and slid the vegetables into the pan of meat with the blade.
Asa didn’t like jalapenos, but he did not tell Teddy. He did go all the way to the market in the middle of Town to get this food. I can eat it, even if I don’t like it.
“I have some things to tell you too, Asa.” Teddy said. “I’ve discovered something that I think is going to be very important. Here, grab a plate.”
Asa obeyed and the two of them fixed their meals. “You’ve discovered something?” Asa said.
Teddy waved the knife in front of Asa’s face. “Not here,” he whispered. “I have to tell you in the secret compartment. Let’s eat down here. You tell me your story while we eat, then we’ll go,” Teddy pointed his knife above the bathtub, and raised his eyebrows to say ‘up there.’
Unsure why Teddy was whispering, Asa asked, “why up there?”
“You’ll see. It needs to be up there.”
Asa couldn’t help but think that no one could hear his cries from the deep cave they had dug into the mountain. He brushed the thought away, and tried not to worry. Again he thought: Teddy wouldn’t hurt me.
The two of them sat down, and Asa told Teddy the entire story of what had happened in the woods. He talked about finding the two dead monkeys, following Joney to the Multipliers’ campsite, and of helping Jen get out of the trap (At this point, Asa couldn’t help but wonder if Jen had gotten back to her mountain alive). As always, Teddy was a good listener: he remained attentive and asked questions to clarify things when appropriate. As Asa told the story, he remembered why he liked Teddy. He’s polite, and he takes what I say seriously. He’s still the old Teddy, just a little…exhausted.
After eating a full meal and hearing what Asa had to say, Teddy looked much healthier. He’s at his best when he’s working on a problem, Asa thought. It’s what he loves the most. They sat in silence for a moment, Teddy considering what he just heard.
“And you’re sure that these Multipliers aren’t from the Academy?” Teddy asked.
“Well, I’m not sure, but I really don’t think those guys came from here. Teddy, you should have heard the way they were talking—they had weird accents. And I’ve definitely never seen anyone from the Academy look as grungy as they did.”
Teddy sat his plate down on the stone coffee table, and rocked in his wicker chair for a moment. “I don’t know what they could be doing,” he said. “And you said that they were on a mission… hmmmm. Maybe they’re out there and supposed to be setting traps for crows. There aren’t as many of them around these mountains as there used to be.”
So Teddy had noticed the crows disappearing too. “But they said they were waiting to get some sort of orders,” Asa said.
Teddy shrugged. He rocked in his chair with his fingers interlocked over his gaunt abdomen. “I’m thinking that what I have to show you might help clarify things. You think the presence of the Multipliers has to do with you?”
“I guess so. Whenever Multipliers are doing anything, I can’t help but wonder if it’s because of me. After all that happened last semester, it’s hard to think it’s a coincidence that they’ve set up camp so close to my dwelling.”
Teddy looked over Asa, his jaundiced eyes were firm and unmoving, as though trying to communicate something unspoken. “I agree with you, Asa. I think that you’re the reason they’re here.”
Teddy rocked some more, and stared at Asa while the wood creaked beneath him.
Asa looked away, pretending to not be disturbed by his friend’s intent look. He couldn’t help but wonder what Teddy was thinking.
“C’mon,” said Teddy, rising. “I want to show you that thing now.” Without looking behind to see if Asa was following, Teddy climbed up into the tunnel over the bathtub. Asa heard a splash as Teddy dove in and began to swim up towards the safe room.
All of a sudden, Asa felt as though he wanted to vomit. With Teddy gone, he let the misery he felt flood his face. “I don’t want to follow him, I don’t want to follow him,” Asa whispered. He hadn’t moved an inch from the stool on which he sat.
The tunnels leading up to the secret compartment were narrow and dark. And Asa hadn’t been up there in weeks: Teddy could have added some trap for him.
He doesn’t need a trap. He’s undergone such intense mutations that I’m no match for him.
Suddenly, an image of Teddy laughing two weeks ago bombarded Asa—his teeth barred, his face red from cackles as he spoke:
…just to drill you and Charlotte’s…HAHAHA!...heads off. And kill you, you know? Just take my drill and…WHAHAAHA!...over with…
And then today, those jaundiced and unfeeling eyes staring at Asa as he said:
I agree with you Asa. I think that you’re the reason they’re here.
Asa was breathing very rapidly, and he was beginning to sweat. “And if he gets rid of me, Teddy won’t be the freak who’s friends with the murderer anymore.”
The reasons to leave, to walk out the door and not follow Teddy up into the compartment (it’s like following a lion into a den) were almost overwhelming. But then, a calm voice of reason rose from the back of Asa’s mind:
I’ve been going through a hard time. The things that I saw on the back of King Mountain have hurt me. They’ve scarred me. I can’t let this make me paranoid. I can’t allow this to jeopardize my only friendship.
Reluctantly, Asa stood and walked over towards the bathtub. Though he was still benefitting from the strength boosts he received after climbing the back of King Mountain, his legs were shaky beneath him.
Asa stepped onto the lip of the bathtub and looked straight up. Where ceiling should have been, there was a tunnel carved into the stone. Asa paused, took a deep breath, and then began to climb up. The stone was cold against his hands, and when he reached the top, he was looking straight ahead into a connected tunnel that dipped down and was full of cold water. Asa thought about how when they created the secret compartment they decided to have the initial entrance be through a water tunnel above the bathtub. This was so that someone investigating the dwelling would think that it was nothing more than a water storage: it wasn’t uncommon for the students to carve out a high place in their dwelling so that they could fill it with snow that would become usable water when it melted. Asa thought his s
ecret compartment was well concealed: The tunnel grew black and dark before sloping upwards to the safe room.
WHAHAAHA!...over with…
Asa shook his head and tried not to meditate on his fears concerning Teddy. He lifted his body, legs still shaking, up above the water tunnel. After taking a deep breath, he pierced through the water and began to pull himself forward.
Completely submerged, Asa army-crawled forward, his eyes open wide. Because the tunnel was so small, a proper stroke was impossible. Once Asa had entered the tunnel with his hands above his head, he did not have enough room to bring them down by his side while in the tunnel. Kicking softly, he slowly crawled forward in the confined space. Though his eyes were open, he soon was not able to see; each step he crawled forward with his numb hands brought him deeper into darkness.
He moved on and on, until his surroundings were pitch dark. He supposed that Teddy might not have yet lit a candle in the secret compartment, and there was only one small lantern lighting the dwelling: it makes sense that it’s this dark. It’s not a trap.
Unsure if it would even be possible to back up if he had to, Asa continued on in the dark. His lungs were beginning to feel tight, but he wasn’t yet ready to exhale his air supply.
Teddy’s spent the last two weeks up here. Alone.
Crawling onward, Asa saw a dim, yellow light coming from an opening on the top of the tunnel in front of him. Scolding himself for worrying about nothing, Asa crawled until his head was sitting under the small opening the light was coming from. His chest felt strongly constricted at this point, and he was glad to look up into the opening and see that the surface was only ten feet above him. As the tunnel moved upward, it became brighter.
But instead of resurfacing above, Asa remained where he was for a moment. Something wasn’t right.
The last time Asa had been in the secret compartment, the water tunnel merely curved upward into the safe room. Now, instead of the tunnel making a turn, it continued on forward into the dark. The incline that led to the glowing surface was now an adjacent tunnel instead of a continuation of one tunnel.
Asa looked at the fork in the water passage. Above him was the surface, and before him the tunnel went on for an unknown amount of time into the dark. Asa stretched his fingers out into the darkness and couldn’t feel an end.
Has Teddy carved out a new tunnel? To what?
His chest really hurting at this point, Asa released his breath and decided that he didn’t have enough time to continue exploring in the dark, cold water. His bubbles rose to the surface and he followed them.
Asa took a deep breath and crawled out of the water into the candlelight. After a few more yards of a widening, inclining tunnel, Asa reached the safe room.
It smelled wonderful. Asa saw the same kind of scented candles the Academy had furnished the rec room with glowing around the enclosure. I guess that Teddy stole those too. A hammock made out of intertwining green and yellow jungle vines hung wall to wall. The safe room was relatively bare, other than that. Along the back was a small drain that ran off the side of the mountain, far away. Above this drain was a working faucet: Teddy had explained last year that, using wristband drill attachments he had made, he was able to make a long, narrow opening on the mountainside that led to a compartment in the middle of the mountain. Snow was constantly filling up this opening and dropping down into the compartment above the safe room. Due to the heat of the fires in the surrounding dwellings, the snow then melted and would run out into the safe room whenever someone turned the knob. Asa knew that there was probably more to it than that, but Teddy didn’t bother trying to explain all the architectural facets of the project to Asa.
The newest object in the room was the small television that Teddy had taken from the trash in the second-semester common room; the flatscreen was propped up on a small, stone stand. There was still a mass of cracks along the right side of the screen, but not enough to make the image unintelligible. The power cord ran from the back and had been modified on the end so that the three prong electric plug had been cut off. The wire was stripped at the end, and the conducting metal within was twisted together with metal coming off of Teddy’s armband computer.
The television screen went from black to a glowing CNN.com homepage. Teddy turned and raised his eyebrows at Asa: “We’ve got internet now. Pretty cool, huh?”
Asa was so taken back that for the moment he forgot about the dark tunnel that had been added to the water passage in the past two weeks.
“It runs off my armband,” Teddy said. “I swear, it’s like they wanted us to hack this thing. It can do anything.”
“Teddy!” Asa said, alarmed. “Aren’t you worried that they’ll be able to detect you using the internet on your armband?”
“What’re they going to do, kill me?” Teddy let out a shrill laugh that Asa ignored.
“How did you get the television through the water passage anyways?” Asa asked.
“I found an ice chest in the rec’s kitchen. The television fit nicely inside; just barely fit through the water tunnel.”
“You stole an ice chest too!?”
“No,” Teddy said. “I borrowed it. It’s now back where it belongs. But come here, you’re going to want to check this out.”
Dripping wet and cold, Asa walked over to a spot in front of the television and sat down. He looked at his armband and thought about how there was an Academy meeting scheduled for later today in the middle of Town. His armband didn’t appear to have any messages on it yet. Asa returned his attention to the screen.
Teddy typed on his keyboard, and in the search box, the words “Robert King Death,” appeared.
“Why are you searching that?” Asa asked.
“Just watch.” The webpage loaded, and Teddy used the arrows on the keyboard to select a news video from a list shown.
Asa remained quiet as the program loaded. He stole a glance over at Teddy, who was wearing a wide grin on his still dripping face.
Instantly, a long list of videos popped up on the screen: “What’s next for Troy Webber?” “FBI Under Fire,” and “Alfatrex Employee Speaks Out After Boss’s Murder,” were among the options that could be chosen. Teddy selected one that said, “Police Chief Speaks of Robert King’s Death.” He looked back at Asa in the dim, yellow light of the single candle and said, “Bet you weren’t expecting this.”
Asa shook his head, his throat felt dry.
As the webpage loaded, Asa noticed that the television screen was dimmer than normal, as though the armband that was powering it didn’t have enough power to make it light the screen the proper amount. He was still mildly anxious about the prospect of Academy officials somehow detecting the internet use. Surely they monitor the armbands. And if they do catch us, the television is in a secret compartment over my dwelling!
The video began to play on the cracked screen. There was a sky image of an enormous mansion at night, lit up by harsh, white beams from a dozen helicopters circling above and the headlights from an army of police and government vehicles that swarmed the pristine green lawn, which was now marred with tire tracks. A set of three crows flew over the property. Even before reading the caption at the bottom of the screen—“Home of Dead Alfatrex CEO and Owner”—Asa knew that he was looking at Robert King’s house: the great expanse of clean white rock, which was rumored to be four times the size of the White House, the lawn of grass, which was kept in better condition than a golf course at a Masters tournament, and the clear, blue lake-sized pool that stretched well out of the camera frame could all only belong to the richest man in the world, Robert King.
Over the undulating sound of helicopter blades, a news reporter narrated: “I’m told that L.A. Police Chief Vincent Caltrone will be delivering a statement momentarily, but now here’s the footage we showed you late last night—can we zoom in a bit?—and if you look at the front door, you can see Los Angeles police officer Troy Webber, who has become a bit of a public sensation of late, being led away from Robert Ki
ng’s mansion in handcuffs by his fellow police officers. He is being charged with first-degree murder after he live-streamed a video of him killing Robert King, the owner of Alfatrex, from a webcam late last night. Let’s frame over to the press conference, where it appears Vincent Caltrone is about to make a public statement about last night’s murder.”
The scene changed: Teddy and Asa were now looking at a crowd of reporters, all standing before an empty podium with thirteen microphones on it: each of these microphones had a different TV or radio station logo displayed on the side. On the bottom portion of the screen was the caption—“Police Chief Vincent Caltrone Delivers Statement About CEO Murder.”
A sick man walked from the right side of the screen. He was wearing a suit and tie, which he adjusted as he took his place behind the microphones to face the crowd. He didn’t look like police chiefs usually look—large, healthy, and intimidating—but underneath the suit it was clear that there was a body consisting of more bones than anything. The gray skin was taut over his cheekbones and his thin lips were stretched over his teeth. He was balding, but not in the usual male pattern that started at the front and slowly crept back over the top. No, this was the spotted, diffuse balding pattern of someone whose body was undergoing such a biological struggle that it didn’t have the extra nutrients to waste on such superfluous things as hair growth. The thin, patchy hair that still existed on random areas over his scalp was a washed-out blond color. His breathing rattled into the microphones. Surrounding his eyes were dark circles, marking blood vessel degradation: this made him look slightly like a raccoon—a very sick raccoon.
Asa and Teddy instantly recognized the signs of the Wolf Flu.
Despite his illness and impending departure from the living, there was a determination in the man’s eyes. He was going to work and do his job to the best of his abilities until the disease dragged him to the grave. The chattering of the crowd ceased as the man began to talk.