by Leito, Chad
Asa watched, helplessly as Allen took superhuman Multiplier strides towards Bruce. Time seemed to slow down. Asa thought about how, if it weren’t for him, Bruce wouldn’t be here. Teddy wouldn’t have been bitten. If only Asa’s father hadn’t made the contract dependent upon Asa staying in the Academy, these Multipliers wouldn’t be here. The Sharks would be just another team in the Winggame league, and there would have been no need for the Multipliers to interrogate Stan and plan an ambush.
If it weren’t for me, Bruce and Roxanne could continue on with their secret relationship. They are happy with each other.
Asa looked over to see that Jen’s eyes had widened in surprise and anxiety. Asa thought; maybe if I push the desk back and stand up, they’ll just take me. Maybe if they have me, they will see no need to search the rest of the room.
As Asa turned to look through the hole in the back of the desk, he had made up his mind. He was going to come out of hiding in hopes of saving Bruce.
But he saw that it was too late. His sacrifice would be futile.
CRACK
Allen punched his arm through the door to the restraining closet. Four inches of solid wood shattered.
Asa wanted to scream—to cry out—but there was nothing he could do.
Rose was on her wobbly feet, watching in anticipation. Asa guessed that her intoxicated brain wasn’t fast enough to realize what was happening yet.
Ned had pulled his body to a seated position. His hands, slick with blood, reached for one of the school desks as he tried to pull himself up.
In the moment, Asa forgot about Bruce’s special mutation—Bruce could see electric currents, even though solid objects. As Allen was charging, Bruce had been able to detect him through the wood. He had moved his body accordingly, and was able to dodge the punch. Allen’s hand groped inside the closet, but found only air.
The closet door shot violently outward, knocking Allen over. Bruce ran into the classroom and was headed towards the door.
When Allen had fallen over, Rose had begun running beside him for backup. Now, she stood in between Bruce and the exit.
For how heavy he was, Bruce was fast. He faked left, but ran right.
Rose was faster, though.
She stood on the concrete, grinning with black gums, as Bruce ran towards her. Bruce ducked his shoulders and slammed into her. Usually, this would not have worked against a Multiplier, but because Rose was intoxicated, she stumbled and then fell over. Bruce’s face lightened up, and he took two more steps towards the door before he was brought down.
While Bruce was dodging Rose, Allen had crawled over within an arm’s reach of the doorjamb. He caught Bruce’s ankle, and tripped him up.
Bruce was screaming, kicking, and hitting.
The effort made Allen laugh, and he pulled Bruce’s body towards him, and pinned him down. Asa’s heart was fluttering in his chest like a trapped bird.
“Look what I caught,” Allen growled to no one in particular.
Rose was getting to her feet with a disgusted look on her face. “Little brat knocked me over.”
“That’s why you’re not supposed to do heroin while you’re on a mission,” Ned said.
Rose rolled her eyes at him.
Realizing that trying to physically force Allen off of him was useless, Bruce stopped thrashing, but continued to breath heavily through his nose.
Allen had an enormous smile on his face, and he stared down at Bruce with hungry eyes. “What are you?” he asked. “A student? A graduate?”
“Wh-what do you mean?” Bruce asked.
BANG
In a flash, Allen had drawn his gun and shot a bullet harmlessly into the empty foyer. “Don’t play dumb with me, answer the damn question! Are you a student?”
“Yes!”
“What’s your name?”
“Bruce!”
“What’s your last name?”
“Turner.”
BANG!
Bruce cried out. Allen had shot another bullet into the empty foyer, but this time, he placed the gun right beside Bruce’s face before shooting so that the bullet just missed Bruce’s ear.
“Don’t lie to me, Shark. Don’t lie to me. I’m going to ask you again—what is your last name?”
“Thurman.”
“Ahhhh, yes! That’s more like it. Bruce Thurman. This is your fourth semester in the Academy. You’re on the Winggame team the Sharks. Last year, you were on the Jets, the season champions. I think that you’ll find I know a lot more than you’d imagine. I am very intuitive, and I have very good resources that spy for me inside the Academy.”
Asa’s eyes widened as he realized—Allen doesn’t know that Stan told us about them.
Allen pressed the gun against the bottom of Bruce’s chin. “I’ve heard, Bruce, that you’re renowned for your Winggame plays. You’re a man of strategy. Well, so am I. And if there’s something that I know, it’s that you never want to give a playmaker time to come up with plays. So, we’re going to play a game. It’ll be fun. Here’s how it goes: I ask a question, and then you have one second to answer. If you take longer than one second to answer, or if your answer is bullshit, I’m going to put a bullet in you. Do you understand?”
Bruce’s eyes rolled around. “I…but...what?”
BANG!
Allen shot Bruce in the left foot and Bruce screamed in agony—cords stood on his neck and his face turned red.
When the screaming subsided and turned into sobs of fear, Allen spoke: “That was more than one second. I thought that you were smart, Bruce. Was I wrong?”
“NO!” Bruce cried out.
“Good job. Far less than one second. Now, for some harder questions. Why are you here?”
“Winggame practice—we meet here.”
“Do you meet in the closet?”
“No.”
“Where do you meet?”
“In this classroom.”
“Then why were you in the closet?”
“I don’t know.”
Allen pointed the gun at Bruce’s foot and smiled.
“Wait!” Bruce said. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. “DON’T SHOOT!”
“Answer the question.”
“I got into the closet when I saw that Multipliers were coming in.”
Allen considered for a moment. “And you were just in the classroom, waiting on the rest of your team to show up? One second to answer.”
“YES!”
BANG!
Allen put another bullet into the same foot.
Bruce screamed in such a high octave that Asa would have thought it impossible. His face turned purple with the effort.
“WRONG!” Allen’s chin was now covered in black Salvaserum. “I said no bullshit answers!”
Rose giggled as she lit another cigarette. “You don’t have practice with the lights off, idiot!” she said, mocking Bruce. She took a drag. When she removed the cigarette from her mouth, the filter was coated in slick, black Salvaserum.
“She’s right, Bruce,” Allen said calmly. “Before I ask this—remember the one second rule. Where is the rest of your team?”
Bruce hesitated. Asa wondered if he was taking longer than one second to answer. He felt like everything was moving so slowly now. Jen took his hand and squeezed it.
“I don’t know where they are!” Bruce screamed.
Allen pointed the barrel at Bruce’s already mangled foot and hesitated.
Bruce elaborated: “We were supposed to meet here. I was taking a nap—I always do before practice. Then I heard you guys out there, and I got into the closet.”
Allen grunted. “I suppose that sounds plausible. What do you guys think? Rose? Ned?”
“He’s lying,” Rose said.
“You can’t prove it, though,” Ned whispered. More color was returning to his face, but he still appeared to be in acute pain. Asa was in awe at how quickly he was healing.
“Ned’s right,” Allen said to Bruce. “I can’t really prove it. Luckily, I don’
t have to prove anything here, right?”
Bruce inhaled sharply.
BANG!
Bruce’s foot was mostly gone now—bloody bones protruded, and held up knots of muscle and spongy fat. He was screaming and crying.
“That was a question, Bruce. When I say ‘right?’ at the end of a sentence, it makes it a question. You understand that, right?”
Bruce continued to scream as though he hadn’t heard. Allen pointed the gun. At the last moment, Bruce understood what had just been said and cried: “RIGHT! Right! You’re right!”
He broke out into sobs.
Allen used the barrel of the gun to push a strand of blond hair behind his ear. He smiled at the Bruce’s agony. Asa had never seen someone in so much pain; he had never watched someone be tortured before. Bruce’s foot was difficult to look at—it’s hard to believe that the hunk of bloody meat I’m staring at is part of a human, Asa thought.
A thought came to Asa’s mind that made his heart flutter: He looks like he’ll do anything to make it stop. So far, Bruce had been faithful to Asa and Jen—he had shown courage in not revealing their hideout. But how long can he keep this up? How far will he go for us? Will he die to keep our whereabouts secret?
Asa believed that he was about to find out.
Rose took a hefty swig from her metal flask and then wiped her mouth with the back of her arm. She was covered in so much blood and Salvaserum that her dark hair was plastered wet to her scalp. “Will you let me bite him, Allen?” she said. She spoke in a whisper, and Salvaserum spilled out of her mouth when she spoke.
Bruce was sobbing gently now. He was losing a large amount of blood.
“If he gets bitten, I’ll let you do the honors,” Allen said. “But we may just want to kill him.”
Rose rubbed her hands together in lust; her eyes were almost as red as her bloody face. “Can I kill him, boss? You know I’ve wanted to get some action. If I can’t bite him, will you at least let me kill him?”
“We’ll see, Rose. I’m not making any promises.” He grabbed Bruce’s cheeks forcefully with his hand to get his attention. “I may bet angry and accidentally slip up,” he growled.
Bruce moaned in fear.
Underneath the desk, Jen picked up Asa’s hand and brought it to her cheek. It was wet with tears. Asa took Jen’s hand and brought it to his own cheek; he was crying also.
SMACK
For no apparent reason, Allen cocked his arm and backhanded Bruce across the face. Bruce’s lip broke and blood ran down his cheek into his hair.
“You remember the one second rule, don’t you Bruce?”
Bruce winced and answered immediately. “Yes! Yes!”
Allen smiled. “Very good. You’re a quick learner. Now, here’s the question: If you don’t…” Allen paused, thinking of the best way to word what he was thinking, “cooperate, you will be punished.”
“Okay,” Bruce whispered. It wasn’t a question, but Bruce was so keyed up and anxious that he couldn’t help but respond to everything.
Allen continued: “Would you rather be punished by being killed, or would you like to be turned into a Multiplier?”
Bruce’s eyes widened. Asa didn’t think that he expected the question. “Ummm.”
“One second, Bruce.” This time, Allen pointed the gun at Bruce’s face. His blue eyes looked so cold in that instance that Asa believed Allen could tear Bruce’s head off without blinking his iceberg eyes.
Asa’s nerves were on hyper drive—he was thinking at an incredible pace.
In that time, he came to the conclusion that if, in fact, Allen knew that Jen and Asa were hiding under the desk, Asa wouldn’t be able to tell. It seemed that Allen had no trace of a conscious, and so his facial expressions and mannerisms wouldn’t betray a plan to kill Asa and Jen after he was done with Bruce.
Suddenly, a certain, terrible thought crossed Asa’s mind: He knows we’re under here. He’s going to kill Bruce, make an example of him, and then come interrogate us.
What to do then? Leave? How? Asa didn’t see any other option but to sit at this point. He wondered if Jen had a plan.
“Kill me,” Bruce whispered. For a moment, the fear disappeared from his face as he met Allen’s eyes. “I’d rather be dead than like you.”
“Okay,” Allen said. He did not mind the insult in the lightest. He was behaving in a completely clinical way. He pressed the gun so hard up against Bruce’s chin that it drew his head back. “This is going to be your last question, Bruce.”
“Wait!” Bruce said. “I have a question for you.”
Allen looked mildly interested. “Go on.”
“What happens to me if I cooperate?”
Allen smiled. “I see. You are quite the strategist, aren’t you, Bruce? You seem to see that…”
CLICK
Allen pointed the gun at Bruce’s foot and pulled the trigger. “Ooooh, you are one lucky son of a bitch! I’m out of bullets! I asked a question. I said, ‘You are quite the strategist, aren’t you, Bruce?”
Bruce’s eyes were wide. “I am a strategist, I AM! I’m sorry for not answering!” He broke down and started crying again.
“No reason to apologize, young Mr. Thurman. I’ll let that one go. How does that sound?”
“Good! GREAT!”
Allen smiled. “Excellent.” He took a handful of bullets out of his pocket and began to slide them into the clip as he spoke. “As I was saying. Being a strategist, you would like to know what your options are before I ask the next question. That’s smart. Very smart. I don’t know why you would cooperate if you saw no gain. Here’s the deal, Bruce. If you cooperate, I give you my word that I’ll let you go, without further harm. Now, of course, I could be lying, but you’re not really in a position to be choosy. And, of course, you might be wondering why letting you go would be a good option for us; it may not make sense to you why a group of Multipliers would let you go in this situation.”
Allen returned the clip to the handgun and put a bullet in the chamber. “We are in a great position to let you go, Bruce. We don’t need you. We have plenty of Multipliers here to do what we intend to. And, I believe that if we let you go, you’ll be a good little boy and not tattle on us.”
Bruce was nodding fervently.
“Besides, if you did tell people that three Multipliers shot your foot off, or whatever you might tell them, it won’t matter. We have a mission that we will complete tomorrow night. The wheels are set in motion, and nothing will stop us now.”
Asa suspected that Allen was lying about letting Bruce go, but there was no way to know. Something in Allen’s inflection made Asa believe that he would kill Bruce no matter what. But does Bruce sense that?
“Is that pretty clear, Bruce?”
Bruce nodded, and then his eyes moved over so quickly that Asa almost missed it. For just a flash, Asa believed that Bruce glanced over at the desk with regret in his eyes.
He’s going to give us up, Asa thought.
Jen must have thought so too, because she squeezed Asa’s hand tighter.
Ned licked his lips with a black tongue. His expression was now one of hunger, not one of pain. Rose was overcome with a fit of tremors. Her body was shaking in sporadic, repetitive motions and Asa wondered if she was experiencing some kind of overdose. Still, her eyes were locked on Bruce. She was dripping Salvaserum from her bloody mouth.
“I’m going to give you three seconds for this question, Bruce. If you take more than three seconds to answer, I’m going to step aside and let Rose take over. If you decide you won’t answer, I’m going to step aside and let Rose take over. If you give me an answer that I don’t believe, I’m going to step aside and let Rose take over. If, though, you give me something that satisfies me, I’ll get up and leave. I hope that’s clear.”
“Very clear.”
“Good. Here’s the question: Where is Asa Palmer?”
Asa felt his throat tighten. Even from across the room, he could see beads of sweat on Bruce’s
forehead. In light of the question, Asa was beginning to wonder if Allen was being honest in his intentions; Maybe he doesn’t know I’m under here—maybe he will really let Bruce go.
Jen was squeezing Asa’s hand so hard that his fingers were turning numb.
Once again, Bruce’s eyes betrayed him. He looked right at the desk with an expression of worry and regret. Asa thought that the emotion those eyes conveyed was, I’m sorry about this. Asa realized that he wouldn’t hold it against Bruce if he revealed where he and Jen were hiding. He has Roxanne to worry about. And he’s going to be a graduate next semester if he lives through this. He has so much to look forward to. And if he lies, it will all be over.
A rolling nausea crept into Asa’s abdomen as he thought about what it would be like to tell Roxanne about Bruce being killed. He couldn’t imagine the hurt on her face—he couldn’t imagine seeing the tears. At that moment, he wanted Bruce to give them up—he didn’t want anyone else to die on his behalf.
Bruce inhaled before answering.
“Go to hell,” he said, and than he spat on Allen’s face.
Allen’s lips curled up in anger; this was the first hint of emotion he had shown during the entire encounter. He wiped Bruce’s saliva off and stood up. Rose was dancing on her feet with excitement. “Very well,” Allen said. “Do what you want, Rose.”
Asa closed his eyes; he couldn’t watch. He heard Bruce scream one last time, and he heard Rose growl from her chest. There were sounds like a struggle, and then what sounded like leather being torn apart. These noises went on for twenty seconds. After that, Asa never heard Bruce’s voice again, and there were just the repetitive ripping sounds.
Slow tears rolled down Asa’s face.
Asa sat there for a long time, listening to Rose tear hungrily at Bruce’s dead body. There were sounds like a dog lapping up water—he believed this to be Rose drinking Bruce’s running blood.
The grotesque noises stopped, and Asa opened his eyes. Rose got to her feet, still trembling. “Thank you, Allen.”
Allen smiled. “It was a pleasure watching you work.”
Asa tried to not look at Bruce, but couldn’t help it. His body had slid five feet over, and there was a line of blood on the floor where it had been dragged. The body was mutilated. Rose had taken off most of the skin on his face, and torn open his abdomen so that his small and large intestines were exposed.