by Leito, Chad
“I know that they do humanitarian work,” Asa said.
Allen laughed. “I see that the answer is not much. The Academy does do some humanitarian work, that’s true, but they also do a lot of things to make money. One of those things is that they put their graduates into professional sports. The graduates perform well, but not too well to raise eyebrows, and then the money they make goes back to the Academy. The Academy has basically overtaken professional baseball and football; all the best players are graduates. For me, it makes the sport boring. I know who’s going to win. But basketball has remained relatively pure.”
They watched the game in silence for the next couple minutes. When Asa saw that there were only fifteen seconds on the clock, his heart began to sprint in his chest and he had to swallow his breaths to not hyperventilate. Allen was cheering for the Lions; they were down by one point. Their shooting guard put up a three-pointer at that time and scored. They were up by two.
Allen nodded and closed his eyes. “Fifteen more seconds, and we’re going to the championship.” He opened them, and went back to watching the game.
Asa looked at the gun again. He thought that he couldn’t be given a more perfect situation. He was captured on a night when one of Allen’s favorite teams played a crucial game in his favorite sport. Allen was distracted. Asa looked around, and saw that no one but Rose was paying attention to him, and she was intoxicated. Asa leaned forward, deciding to go for the weapon. His palms were sweaty. His hand inched forward and just as the ball was about to be inbounded…
“Can I please bite him?” Rose whined.
Allen grabbed the gun and pointed it at Rose; he hadn’t noticed Asa reaching for it. The barrel shook in Allen’s hand with anger. “Do you want me to shoot you?”
Rose stammered, “N-n-no. It’s just…”
“I HAVE TOLD YOU MY DECISION. NO! I BIT ASA’S FATHER AND I WILL BITE HIM!”
Rose nodded, she looked hurt.
Allen sat down and put the gun back on the coffee table, this time closer to Asa than before. He really is oblivious, Asa thought. A timeout was called in the game, and Allen relaxed a bit. He turned to Asa; “Did you know that I bit your father?” He smiled, black gums glistening.
Asa didn’t know how to respond; Allen must be mistaken. “My father was Edmund Palmer,” Asa said.
Allen nodded, his blue eyes shining as though something was funny. “I know who your daddy was. I bit him.”
Asa shook his head, remembering what Conway had told him about his father’s history. He didn’t want to argue with this Multiplier, but couldn’t help it. “No,” Asa said. “My father killed himself. Jul Conway told me.”
“Jul Conway should know. He was there. He’s right; your daddy did kill himself. But I bit him first.”
Asa just repeated the words, “bit him?”
“Sure did. Shot Salvaserum into him and everything. It was a big turning point in the war between Multipliers and humans; it was a big win for our kind. I’m sorry that you didn’t grow up with a daddy, but I hope you understand,” he flashed Asa a smile like he had just told a funny joke. “The Academy heard that there had been rogue Multipliers taking lives in Dallas, Texas. They were right; it was a few others and I—we were working separate from the Hive at that time. There was a gunfight, and, long story short, I had a clear shot at your daddy’s neck, and I took it. We were in this big warehouse. I hung back a bit in the shadows to see what would happen. He started crying, tears running down his face, only he didn’t look sad, and he told Jul Conway what had happened. After you get bitten, you fall into a deep sleep after a short time; some people only last a few seconds, and some people last a few minutes before going unconscious. But when you wake up, you are already thinking like a Multiplier. Your dad knew this, of course. He invented us.
“It was kind of cute, the way he handled it. He said goodbye to Conway, hugged him, and told Jul to say goodbye to his pregnant wife for him. Jul said he would. Then, your daddy held out a gun for Conway to take, and asked Conway to kill him. Conway said no, so your daddy took the gun to himself.”
Allen clucked his tongue. “I sure wish your daddy wouldn’t have done that. All his brainpower, he would have been a really useful addition to the Multiplier army if he hadn’t killed himself.”
The game was back on and the Cats inbounded the ball. Allen’s focus switched to the basketball game.
Asa felt numb. For the past semester, he had viewed his father as a coward who killed himself when things got tough. But that wasn’t true. His father had sacrificed himself, bravely, for a noble cause. He didn’t want his intellect and knowledge to be put to use by the Multipliers. But why didn’t Conway tell me this? Maybe he was scared of what I would think; maybe he didn’t want me to know that my father was once bitten by a Multiplier.
The cats passed inside, and then back out to the perimeter. Asa suddenly felt brave, like his father. The gun was three inches from his knee on the table. He wanted to sacrifice himself like his father; he didn’t want to become a Multiplier. They’ll have to take me down, but they’re not biting me.
Asa’s hand went for the gun.
On screen, the cats sunk a three-pointer. They won by one point. The horn sounded and the game was over.
Allen grabbed the gun before Asa could.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
He shot the TV off its stand. Glass was strewn on the floor, and the smoking television lay on its back, broken. Ned, Michael, and Joney were all looking at Allen in alarm.
“WHAT KIND OF DEFENSE WAS THAT?” Allen screamed at the broken television. He was breathing hard, his chest rising and falling. “Season’s over because of some terrible defense.”
There was a beeping sound in Allen’s pocket. He took out a small, handheld radio. “WHAT?” he said into it.
And then, a voice came through the other end that Asa would never forget. I should have known. It was Teddy. “Allen? Michael? Anybody there?”
Allen spoke back into the radio: “We’re here, Teddy. What can we do for you?”
“Have you gotten him?” Teddy asked.
“Yeah, we got him. Do you want to talk to Palmer?”
Teddy didn’t respond.
“Teddy, you there?” Allen said.
When Teddy spoke back, Asa thought that he sounded like he was crying. “Yeah, I’m here. No, I don’t want to talk. Just checking in.”
The static stopped and then there was silence on the other end of the radio.
Allen turned to Asa: “You’re learning a lot about your history tonight, aren’t you? First that your dad was bitten by a Multiplier, and now that your best friend turned on you. It’s not a good night for you; that’s a lot of bad news.”
Asa didn’t know what to say. He wanted to vomit, cry, and tackle Allen all at the same time. He had never felt so enraged, so hurt.
Allen twirled the gun around on his index finger. “But now the time has come for you to be bitten.” Allen smiled. “I’ve been looking forward to this.”
Asa bolted. He stood up and ran as fast as he could towards the mouth of the cave. From behind him, he heard Allen yell, “Not you, Rose! Get him, Ned!”
Ned wrapped his muscular arms around Asa. Asa was no competition for him; Ned was impossibly strong. Still, Asa kicked, and screamed and cried like a newly caged feral raccoon. Asa was actually hissing, which surprised him.
“Bring him over here, Ned. Thanks a lot. I know that you’re upset, Asa, but it’s just like a little boy who doesn’t want to get his vaccines; it will only hurt for a bit, and no matter how hard you fight, we’re still going to do it. It’s only a little injection.” Allen sounded amused at Asa’s struggles.
Trapped in Ned’s arms, Asa wished that he could electrocute Ned, but the tingling sensation wouldn’t come. Ned easily carried Asa over to the back of the room, where Allen was unfolding and expanding different metal contraptions. Asa was wide eyed and crazed with fear.
Ned threw him down onto a stretcher, w
hich was sitting atop two crates and tied down. Asa writhed and wiggled, but it was no use. Using handcuffs, Ned secured Asa’s arms and legs to the stretcher and then he and Allen backed up, admiring their work. Rose was lurking far behind them, glaring at Asa.
“Good work, Ned,” Allen said. “And you too, Palmer. It’ll be much easier if you don’t fight it.”
Allen walked over toward Asa, and began to press buttons on a device situated higher than Asa. Asa looked up and saw an electronic monitor hanging above him. “Don’t worry,” Allen said, seeing the fear in Asa’s eyes. “This is just a standard medical monitor. We’ll keep an eye on your oxygen saturation, your heart rate, and your blood pressure. The change from human to Multiplier is pretty dramatic, and sometimes a person’s heart stop. But don’t worry, we have epinephrine, and are all very good at CPR. You probably won’t die.”
Asa’s chest was rising and falling with harsh breaths. He remained still while Allen tightened a blood pressure cuff over Asa’s left arm, and then taped an oxygen and heart rate monitor clip around Asa’s left index finger.
Allen was smiling as he did this. Salvaserum was beginning to coat his lips and covering his big, blocky teeth. He was looking forward to biting Asa.
“Now, when you wake up, you’ll feel different. A lot different. This is normal. You won’t be able to produce any Salvaserum yet, but you’ll still be thinking like a Multiplier, which will be good. After you wake up, we’re going to take you on a little mission with us. We’re going to be visiting Town in the middle of the Academy.”
An image of Jen’s eyes widening as Asa held her by the throat rose to Asa’s mind, and he lost it. He began to scream and writhe on the bed. Allen stood back, watched Asa pull uselessly against the cuffs, and then moved back beside him when Asa relaxed.
“I told you, it’s useless to fight this,” Allen said.
Asa realized that he was crying. “Why don’t you just kill me?” Asa asked.
Allen shrugged. “I thought about it, but I think you could be of use. You could show us how to get where we need to go tonight, after you wake up.”
Asa looked at the ceiling. He imagined all of the students at the dance, having a great time—drinking, dancing, and laughing.
Asa felt something cold on his neck and jumped.
“Relax,” Allen said. “It’s just a disinfectant—betadine. It lowers the rate of infection in those bitten. Relax.”
Asa didn’t think that relaxing was possible. He watched as Allen dipped a sponge into a bowl of dark red disinfectant and then rubbed in on Asa’s neck. When he was done, Allen rubbed his hands together. “Ready?”
There was a beeping sound above Asa, and he looked up.
Allen stood up and pressed a button on the monitor. “That’s just letting me know that your heart rate is fast. But that doesn’t help us. I think that’s to be expected.”
He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt, and when he pulled it away, it was marked with Salvaserum. The shirt was stark white; “This was my only shirt left,” he said, examining the stain. “Oh well. We’ll be back at the Hive before long.”
Asa tried to think of something that he could do to slow down this process; he needed more time. He didn’t want to be a Multiplier. Now, Joney, Michael, Ned, Rose, and even Edna were watching the proceedings.
“WAIT!” Asa said.
“What is it, Palmer?” Allen’s voice had changed from a normal tone to a demonic, low rumble.
“I-I-I… Jut hold on!” he shrieked.
“He don’t have nothin’ to say, Allen, he just is stalling. Go ahead an’ bite the poor sucker; take ‘im out of his misery.” Joney said.
Asa’s mouth felt dry. Allen was hovering over him.
“Gladly,” Allen growled.
He grabbed Asa’s left shoulder, and his hair. He bent Asa’s right ear towards his right shoulder, exposing the left side of his neck, and then bit with the speed of a viper. Asa screamed louder than he thought was possible, and the noise echoed off the rock walls. The other Multipliers were laughing. Allen continued to bite down; the pressure was incredible. His incisors were dull, but he had bit so hard that he had broken through Asa’s skin to his muscle.
The worst part of the experience of being bitten by a Multiplier was that Asa could actually feel Allen’s Salvaserum being pumped into his body. The process went on for over a minute, and Allen moaned during the process.
By the time it was over, Asa’s neck was bloated and swollen with how much Salvaserum filled his tissues. Allen withdrew, and Asa watched with horror as his blood squirted from his open wound and splash across Allen’s shirt.
“You hit an artery,” Ned said.
Asa was beginning to feel woozy and sick.
“It’s okay,” Allen said. “Salvaserum makes blood clot fast.”
The arterial blood squirted from Asa’s neck once more, then the bleeding subsided. The Multiplier bite felt warm and infected. Asa felt feverish.
I am a Multiplier now, he thought with horror.
Then, his vision went gray.
Just before he completely passed out, he heard Joney say: “Swee’ dreams, Palmer! See you in a bit and you can help us on our mission in Town. Maybe you’ll even see your date from the dance!”
Then, he drifted out of consciousness.
39
After Being Bitten
Shortly after the blood squirted on Allen’s shirt, Asa began to feel detached from the reality that surrounded him. Time was starting to dilate and contract.
Then, he felt as though the stretcher he lay upon opened up and he fell through it.
He moved through the air for a moment, shifted, and landed on his feet.
He looked around. The familiar smell of a lemony wood cleaner came to his nostrils. The sights around him were familiar, too. He was standing in an expansive wooden room with enormous bunk beds lined up in rows. One end of the room ended in a series of doors and a staircase, and the other end of the room was walled with an enormous window that looked out onto the mountains of the Academy, the Moat, and Town. Taxidermied, mutated animals with unnaturally large skulls were mounted upon the high walls—giraffe heads, the upper half of a charging bull, a bear.
I’m back in the Fishie dormitory, Asa thought. But how could that be?
He looked down and saw someone sleeping with a blanket pulled up to her shoulders. I’m in the female Fishie dormitory. He looked over her smooth skin, her blond hair, and watched her chest rising and falling.
It was Jen.
Asa looked at her for a moment with affection, and bent forward, wanting to kiss her neck while she slept. Only, when he got closer, he found that he wanted to do more than kiss her. I want to rip open her neck with my teeth and pour my venom into her.
He stepped back, startled by the thought. He was breathing hard. A clock ticked on the wall.
He tried to remember how he had gotten here. He recalled being bitten by Allen, and his arterial blood squirting onto Allen’s white shirt. Then I fell asleep, he tried to convince himself. That’s all. This is just a hallucination.
He felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle up. He could see Jen’s pores in the moonlight that came in through the vast window in the back of the room. He could hear the breath coming in and out of her nose. He reached up and touched the bedframe above her. He could feel the swirling indentions and bulging knots of the wood.
This is much too real to be a dream, he thought.
Is it possible that I unconsciously walked here? Or that there is an error in my memory?
And then a terrible but somewhat satisfying pressure built up in the roof of his mouth, and Salvaserum began to overflow out his lips and splatter onto the floor. He felt dizzy as he looked at Jen. He was in immense pain, and he knew that he wouldn’t feel better until he bit her. He bent down, jaws open, and leaned over her bed…
But instead of making contact with her neck, he fell straight through her. A moment later, he landed in a g
rocery store’s warehouse. There were great rows of forty feet tall shelves that held labeled cardboard boxes. The air smelled of blood, sweat, and gunpowder. And there, in front of Asa, was his father. Edmund Palmer was slightly shorter than Asa and not as well built. He had a thick, prickly beard of dark hair. Asa could see himself reflected in his father’s glasses. There was a gun in his dad’s hand.
“Dad?” Asa said.
But his father didn’t hear him. It was as though Asa was an apparition. Asa noticed a single tear trickling down his father’s cheek; his father wiped it away with the back of his hand. Edmund’s neck was bleeding and the wound was saturated with Salvaserum; he had just been bitten by Allen.
“Take it,” Edmund said. He held out the gun to someone who stepped out of the shadows.
At first, the figure was hard to recognize, and then light shone upon his face. He was tall and black with a harsh scar beneath his left eye.
Conway.
Conway was bawling. He gave Edmund a startled look. “I can’t take that. What do you want me to take that for?”
Edmund became sterner with him. “I need you to shoot me. And when you get back to the states, I want you to take care of my wife and kid. Can you do that for me?”
Conway was hysterical. He shook his head and his tears spilled off his face and onto the ground. His lips were trembling and coated with saliva. “Why would I have to do that? You can take care of them!” Conway was in denial.
Edmund sighed: “I’ve been bitten, Jul. This is the end for me.” His voice shook with sorrow. “If I live, I’ll be a great asset to the Multipliers. I will be one of them, Jul! It’s better if you just put me down.”
Conway was backing away, shaking his head, whispering, “No, no, no, no, no.”
Edmund looked upwards for a moment. Then he held the gun up to the middle of his forehead.
“NO!” Conway cried.
BANG!
Asa sat up, wide eyed and scared. He felt hot, feverish. He looked around, gasping in the air.
He saw the rushing waterfall, the candles, the cots, and the fallen television. He realized that he was in the cave, and that he had just woken up from a very realistic dream.