“That’s not boring, Chemistry is a great field!” she said.
“Tammy! Who is this?” a slightly older man in a tie and jacket asked and walked up to us.
“This is Simon. Simon, meet Gregory, Gamma chapter president.” Tammy said as she took my beer so that I could shake hands.
“Simon, call me Greg. Only the girls call me Gregory, it’s a Greek thing. We use full names across chapters. You going to join us Gammas?” Greg asked.
“Dunno, not really sold on the whole Greek thing really, I’m a freshman, this is all new to me. What’s on offer?” I asked, interested but guarded.
“We have ten million a year in research grants and a full robotics lab on site. We partner with the Taus and their Geology lab, and also have a Chemistry lab a short walk away. We also have vacancy in the Lodge here, a swimming pool in the back and we partner with the most beautiful Sisterhood on campus!” Greg looked to Tammy and raised his beer, “To the Tau sisters!” to raucous and thundering party cheers.
“Sounds pretty good, I came in as chemistry major so having lab access would be fantastic.” I shrugged and reached for my beer from Tammy.
“The lab is top rated, 6th in the nation? Something like that. We even get a few interns from White Sands every year.” Greg started to eye the room, looking for his next conversation.
“Sounds awesome Greg, I will stick around and talk to a few more people.” I nodded.
“No worries, Tammy here will take good care of you for the night, stick with her and she will stick with you!” he said and wandered to the next pair.
“I guess we are sticking together?” I smiled.
“For the evening, we pair with prospective pledges to help them mix in the crowd. Easier for you and everyone else to get introductions that way, plus you get a pretty girl on your arm for the evening!” Tammy laughed and nudged me.
“No complaints there, none at all!” I said, and took a drink.
“Come on, I have a few other people you should meet. I think Jeremiah is out back by the pool?” she said loudly and got a few nods from her sisters.
“Jeremiah this is Simon. Freshman, chemistry.” Tammy offered as we walked up to a large group of brothers in ties.
“Welcome to the party Simon, this is Jake and Ross. Jake is a brother, Gamma through and through. Ross is a Delta but we try not to hold that against him!” Jeremiah rubbed on the shoulders of the visibly uncomfortable Ross.
“Just try not to overflow the pool this year Jere? It was a mess to clean up last year, took the whole week to pump and dry our sub-basement.” Ross cringed.
“That was bullshit man, some idiot pledge sat on the escape valve, wasn’t too dandy being in the pool when that happened, but then again it did get me and Tammy close together!” Jeremiah laughed and winked at Tammy.
“In your dreams Jeremiah.” She stuck her tongue out in an obnoxious display that seemed out of place.
“What is a Delta? It wasn’t on the list.” I had never heard of them, and the mention didn’t escape me.
Ross shrugged and ignored the topic and walked away out the gate.
“Bah, Deltas man!” Jake shook his head.
“Deltas are our back neighbor; they don’t do much recruiting, not really. They organize the Greek walk, organize Rush week, organize the tour of lodges, manage the yearly Greek pairings…” Jeremiah explained.
“Puppet masters!” Jake shouted and Jeremiah rolled his eyes.
“Secretive bunch, they are part of the university but nobody ever sees much of them. Bunch of retro freak shows if you ask me.”
“Retro?”
“Most of them wear very anachronistic clothes, renaissance fair type stuff, or hand me down shit from the 1970’s. They don’t associate much, and they are co-ed. But they keep themselves to themselves.”
“Tell him the rest?” Tammy prodded.
“They also own the school, sort of. They own the land the school is on, and lease it to the school. They also have government types coming and going, military and research eggheads that make even the Psi guys look couth. Real black bag type shit.”
“That sounds really, really wild.” I remarked.
“They also have more research funding and patent money than the rest of the houses combined. You know Albert Hendricks?”
“The tech billionaire?”
“Yea, he was a Delta but never graduated, the school gave him an honorary degree a few years after he left. But he is one of the few anyone knows about, most Deltas just disappear for a year at a time and get mailed their diploma.” Tammy continued.
“Ross shows every year, during Rush week. Met him when I pledged, like five years ago. But you won’t see him the rest of the semester.” Jeremiah shrugged and yelled “Beer!” and one was tossed to him.
“Enough about the Deltas, you are here for us! The Gammas!” Jake yelled to a chorus of shouts.
“Gamma!”
Tammy and I wandered around the pool a bit, keeping conversation. But she was far above and beyond me, a senior with her feet wet in graduate studies already. She made me feel like an ant, just magnificently intelligent. Something I imagined I was going to have to get used to.
“Should I get you another beer, or are you going to continue down the road?” she asked.
“Please? I think I will hang our here for now, if that’s cool?” I smiled.
“Well, looks like I did my job well then!” Tammy winked, “I’ll be right back.” And walked away.
The toga framed her nicely, blonde hair in the spotlights around the pool. I looked around the crowd, Gammas seemed alright. Normal people, smart, but normal people. Somewhere I could see myself for four years getting to know and being a part of. The Tau sisters all seemed like achievers too, much more than the Gammas. Every Gamma seemed to have an interest in chemistry, robotics, mathematics or rocketry. Whereas the Taus were into astrogeology, exobiology, theoretical physics and next level computing. At times it felt like the Taus were really running the show as I continued to people watch waiting for Tammy to return.
“Get her!” a voice behind the fence behind me yelled.
“Keep running, we can do this all night!” another voice yelled.
“Gonna catch you, ha! She tripped!” a third laughed in a tone I didn’t like.
Then a scream, a piercing scream, the kind you hear in movies when the damsel summons the hero. A desperate, muffled, panic filled scream.
I looked around, either nobody else heard it, the music too loud, or they were all ignoring it.
I never considered myself a hero, although every little boy has his superhero fantasies. Trouble was never something I looked for, and I was always the first to walk away from a fight. Maybe it was the beer, or something in the scream but I couldn’t ignore it. The girls scream pierced me and I jumped the fence into the alley.
About fifty yards down three guys had the girl down on the asphalt behind a car. Beating her in a way I had never seen another person hit before.
“You’re gonna kill her!” One of the trio said.
“That’s the idea isn’t it?” another said and hit her again.
“He said we could have anything, anything for the asking. Just had to do our part, and I’m gonna do it.” The third said and picked up a stone paver from the back of a house.
I didn’t say anything, I didn’t yell, I didn’t scream “Stop!” Or anything, seems stupid, maybe I could have saved her that last kick to the side, the one that broke her ribs. But all I could do was sprint; every ounce of energy focused and pushed to get to the girl as fast as I could humanly move.
Somehow I managed the gap quickly enough and planted both feet full sprint into the chest of the one holding the stone over her. He collapsed, hitting his head, the stone landing on his abdomen. I turned to the other two, and clocked one just below the ear with a fist causing him to stagger and then run off.
The third, fresh and unphased just smiled at me. “Hero eh?”
“Not
gonna let you hit her again.”
“Any idea who this is? How much money her head is worth?” He questioned.
“Doesn’t matter, raise a fist, lift a leg, do anything but back away and I will end you tonight.” I bluffed, I was never much of a fighter but I did have a way with words.
“You stupid bastard.” He said and took a step forward before screaming in pain.
I looked down and the girl had knifed him in the inner thigh as he stepped forward. Ending his evening.
The girl looked up at me briefly, “Get me out of here. Please?” she begged with the ragged whisper before losing consciousness. The bulk of her a broken and bloody mess.
Not thinking, I picked her up and carried her down the alley to the back of the Gamma Lodge.
“Oh shit!” a few voices remarked as I reentered the courtyard.
“Is she dead?”
“What happened?”
“Tammy!” I yelled, shaky. The aftermath of adrenaline finally hitting me.
“Where’d you go?! Oh damn, someone call an ambulance!” Tammy shouted and several people got on their flip phones after being ordered to action out of their shock.
“Three guys in the alley, two ran off, one still…” I managed to get out before a handful of Gammas emptied into the alley like a mob.
“Ambulance is on the way.” Jeremiah approached phone in hand. “Holy fuck, is that Mavin? Tammy? Is that fucking Mavin?”
“Doesn’t matter who it is right now, just matters the ambulance gets here and fucking quickly.”
“Somebody go get fucking Ross at Delta, fucking now!” Greg shouted orders. “Beat the fucking door in if they don’t answer, but get him here now!”
“Holy shit, that is Mavin.” Jake commented.
“Not fucking helping Jacob!” Tammy shouted. “Get some towels or something! Anybody from the medical campus here? I don’t think she is going to make it!”
“Simon did you see who did this?” Jake asked.
“Never seen them before, but I would recognize them.” I offered.
“You saved this girls life dude.”
“Not yet he hasn’t.”
All the conversation around me and I could only look down into the face of the girl in my arms. Not knowing anything about her, just that she needed help and I felt so helpless. “It’s ok little bird” I offered and rocked her instinctively and out of panic. The ambulance arrived slower than I could have imagined, raised her onto the cart and did their best to stabilize her.
“Broken collarbone, dislocated femur and knee, head and leg contusions… broken ribs?” the EMTs chattered off into their radio and readied her for transport.
“Step away from her, now!” Ross ordered loudly and confidently, his demeanor from before completely changed.
With him four men in combat gear with guns slung over their shoulders and at the ready, behind him two others in plain clothes.
“We are EMTs, we are transporting her to Regional.”
“No, you aren’t. We will take care of her. I am this woman’s physician.” A woman flashed a medical identification card and after some argument the EMTs released her to them. The man and woman in plain clothes rushed her down the alley on the cart with two of the guards running behind.
“What the fuck happened?” Ross demanded.
“Fuck man! This pledge Simon walks in like ten minutes ago Ross, with her broken and bloodied, weren’t even sure it was Mavin at first man. She’s that fucked up,
I don’t think she’s gonna make it man. Somebody fucking killed Mavin man!” Jake continued with his unhelpful commentary.
“Shut the fuck up!” screamed Ross, holding back tears.
“Heard a fight in the alley and a girl scream.” I tried my best to recount, “They were beating her, never seen anyone beat anyone like that before. Said something about being offered money or something to kill her. Had a big rock, three of them. Never seen… anyone beat like that.” I was still in shock and disbelief.
“You fought three guys off my sister, drunk in an alley?”
“No defensive wounds on him, he just carried her. Lots of blood in the alley, rock and signs of a fight. Found her knife too.” One of the guards said and handed the bloody knife to Ross.
“Fucking hell.” Ross shook his head. “She just wanted to enjoy the party for one fucking evening.”
“They have her stable, Doctor Gables says she is going to make it.” Another guard said after a chirp in his earpiece.
“Fucking hell.” Ross said again and offered his hand to shake mine. “Thank you Simon, I am pretty sure you saved my sisters life tonight. Eternally fucking grateful.”
“Y… yea. Sure.” I stammered as they walked away toward the nondescript concrete building across the alley.
A large portion of me wanted to go with them, to check on her, to be with her. I had taken charge and held this girl in my arms while her life seemed to slip away. Then in a whirlwind she was gone and I was surrounded by drunken partiers and sorority girls.
“Dude, you saved Mavin! Holy shit!” Jake spoke up.
“Drink this.” Tammy offered me a bottle of beer, rather than a party cup. “Aren’t you just full of surprises? Eh Simon?”
“Who’s Mavin?”
“Nobody knows dude, she is like a ghost.” Jake laughed.
“She’s not a ghost Jacob, ghosts don’t bleed do they? You drunk asshole!” Tammy growled.
“What? I am so lost.”
“Mavin is a campus legend, people say they have seen her every year since like the seventies. It’s bullshit, it’s probably a line of daughters or a grand-daughter or something, just a family resemblance that drunken seniors like to recount stories about to drunken pledges. The Deltas keep a lot of stuff in house, I wouldn’t be surprised if they recruited within families, we do a bit of that in Tau too.” Tammy explained.
“You took on three guys Simon? Holy shit, what a freshman!” Jeremiah chanted, “Simon! Simon! Simon!” and the gathered crowd echoed.
“After an introduction like that, I hope you really do pledge Gamma.” Laughed Greg.
“Right now, I just wanna go to bed. I’m fucking done.” I blurted out.
“I will walk him.” Tammy offered and helped me up.
We walked through the house and the music had stopped, the party winding down. Tammy held my arm tight and held back anyone asking questions or offering accolades. At the sidewalk she stopped and held my shoulders.
“You did good Simon, holy shit. You did really fucking good.” and kissed me on the cheek. “I will see you around, good luck with school.”
Chapter Three: Tuesday
Sammy didn’t believe any of it, called me a liar and laughed. I was lit when I passed out, but he was still drunk in the morning. When he saw my bloody clothes in a heap on the floor his tone changed completely.
“You saved a girl?”
“Might have saved her from dying, but she was pretty fucked up by the time I got to her. It was horrible, three grown ass men just intent on just outright beating the poor girl to death.” I shook my head, the drunken memories slowly sinking into feelings and emotions rather than factual notations in my mind.
“I need a shower.” I said, just as the sound of the suitemates across the bathroom clicked the lock on the door. “Damn.”
Sammy laughed, “Can’t catch a break this week can you?”
I just shook my head.
“How did things go at the Sigma house?” I asked, only half interested.
“Those guys are awesome, they let me pledge. Lots of rules to follow and community service, and pledge classes after regular school. Still, totally worth it.” He attempted to justify his almost instant domestic servitude to people looking to take advantage.
“Your choice man, hope it works out for you.” I decided to let him have his moment.
The knock at the door was a surprise; Sammy opened the door with a smile expecting to see our suitemates from next door.
; “Are you Simon?” I heard a voice say from the hallway.
“Naw man, come on in.” Sammy replied.
Stepping through the door a tall and lanky fellow with black hair and a distantly Asian look about him. “You Simon?” he asked, nearly emotionless.
Not sure what to say, and getting nervous I replied, “I am, but I don’t want any trouble.” As I stood up.
“Aw shit.” Sammy said from the back of the room.
“Nothing like that, I just want to be sure I have the right person. Simon that saved the girl in the alley at the Gamma Lodge last night?” the man stared into me in a way that made me extremely uncomfortable.
“Yea, do you know her? Is she ok?” I jumped at the chance for information. “It was all a blur last night.”
“You saved her life. Literally saved her from death. Can you tell me exactly what happened, and what was said?”
As I recounted the story the man stood emotionless and stoic until I got to the part about feeling helpless as she bled in my arms. His eyes started to water slightly and his lips pursed, but only silence came from him.
“One last question. You said something to her, do you remember what it was?”
“I did? She was passed out, I was just trying to comfort her.” I stammered.
“You called her something, do you remember what it was?”
“Um, I think it was little bird? My mom used to call me that when I was a kid, and she seemed so little and helpless. It just slipped out.” I explained thinking I had done something wrong.
The man nodded his head, and pulled an envelope from his jacket and placed it on the desk. “This is for you, thank you for your help.”
Then he turned and walked out the door closing it quietly behind him.
Sammy and I looked at each other and I opened the envelope. Inside was a cashier’s check for $50,000. “What the fuck?”
“Holy shit dude, who was that girl?” Sammy exclaimed.
I jumped up and ran out into the hallway, “Hey… hey!” I yelled after the man who turned to face me.
“I don’t want your money man, I just did what anyone would have done. I just hope she is ok. Is she ok?” I asked genuinely.
“She will be, physically. But she isn’t… nevermind.” The man stiffened.
Deltas: Delta Horizon Book One Page 2