Bestial (28 page)

“No. I don’t think so. But you’re there now, is that right?”

“Yeah, go downtown. Sixth and Broadway.”

“Downtown? I don’t know. . . . I’m not sure how I can get there.”

“Mom, listen to me. Don’t take a car. The highways are bumper-to-bumper with hundreds of car wrecks. You’d never get through. …”

“Oh, Chris, you’re breaking up again. You’re at Sixth and Broadway. What was the building called?”

Through the static, she could barely hear him. He repeated the corporate name again, and she realized that he was gone. She had lost him.

Again.

No,
she decided.
I’ll find him. He isn’t gone; he’s just downtown. If he stays where he is, I can get to him.

How to get there was the question. She was at least twelve miles from Sixth Street, and Chris had told her not to use her car.

She had to get there. She needed to feel her son in her arms, to kiss his sturdy face, to never let him go again.

To apologize and make amends for her negligence and condescension.

Shoving the phone back into her pocket, she started back down the block toward what remained of her house. She didn’t want to lose the phone. It felt like a connection to Chris, a lifeline, tenuous as it was.

The second story of the house had collapsed into the conflagration below, and flames were licking their way across the lawn, toward the neighbors’ place. Cathy had done a complete job of it, and she wondered if the rest of the neighborhood was going to catch fire as well. Surprised, she found she didn’t care if the whole damn place went up in smoke. It would cleanse this rich, hypocritical place of all its affectations and Tartuffery.

When she saw the fire hadn’t reached the garden shed, she sighed and said, “Thank God for small favors.”

She pulled out her bicycle, a five-year-old Schwinn racer she hadn’t used in a long time. She had been quite an athlete during her college years, had worked off her pregnancy fat after Chris was born, had exercised in a gym that had cost a small fortune every month.

Hopping up on the seat, she concluded that her jeans wouldn’t be as conducive to pedaling as something more elastic, but she had nothing else to wear. She’d burned her wardrobe right along with all of her worldly possessions.

Shaking her head, she thought,
This is no time for regret
.
Comfortable or not, I need to get to Chris before nightfall or before he moves on to some new hiding place.

She wouldn’t get this chance again, so she bit her lip and began to pedal down the street. It was downhill, and it seemed easy to her. Her rustiness only took a few moments to dissipate. As she began to shift gears for the hill, she discovered she’d already shifted, that she’d done so without even thinking about it.

The clouds overhead darkened, and a humid depression settled over the city. Cathy hoped it wouldn’t rain. She had nearly fifteen miles to go.

As she turned onto the ramp to the outer belt, speeding past empty, abandoned cars, she felt the first warm aches in her calves. This was going to hurt by the time she arrived downtown. She wasn’t used to this kind of relentless exercise anymore.

But Chris was there, and the thought of seeing him again spurred her on. With a burst of speed, she whooshed by the automobiles that blocked the freeway. She stayed by the side of the road, only swerving or slowing when a car had wrecked outside the lines or something blocked her path.

Hang on, Chris,
she thought, feeling a steady throbbing in her thighs.
Mom will be there soon.

SEPTEMBER 18, 10:40 A.M.

C
hristian shook the phone, as if to bring his mother’s voice back on the line. “Mom? Goddamn it!”

She’d stirred up a hornet’s nest of feelings, and he had to stop himself from calling out “Mommy” to her. The little boy behind his rough exterior wanted to break loose, but he refused to show any weakness.

Chesya asked, “Is she coming? She’s really alive?”

He nodded, thankful for the way she pulled him out of his self-indulgent pity. “She said she was.”

“Then it’s settled. We stay here till she gets here. If it gets dark, we’ll … well, we’ll just have to see.”

“I still can’t believe it.”

“Your father?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t say.” He sat down at the Formica break table, resting his head in his hands. “You have family out there, Chesya? You don’t seem very worried.”

“I don’t have anyone, not anymore. Except that fool in the other room. Funny, we only met a couple days ago, but … yeah, he feels like family to me.”

“You like him?”

“Well, that’s a strong word. I can put up with him. You realize when we met he had a gun pointed at me. Not the best first impression. Still, there’s something about him. He’s smart, holds together pretty well. Know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” the boy said with a sheepish grin. “It means you like him.”

“Oh, go to hell.” She laughed despite herself, covering her mouth. “How’d a kid like you get to be so smart?”

“Living on the street. It does that to you. You get smart, or you get dead.”

In a humbler tone, she said, “It must’ve been terrible for you.”

He shrugged. “Hey, didn’t you say you found a TV?”

“Just a couple doors down. I can’t get anything, though. Electric’s still out. I didn’t see a radio.”

“Then let’s look for one,” Christian said. “There’s bound to be one in this place somewhere, and it’ll … it’ll get my mind off my mom.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she said, and they moved down the hallway.

In the laboratory, Andrei watched Rick through the Plexiglas barrier. He pouted, his lower lip jutting out, his eyebrows lowered.

“You let me out now?” he asked.

Rick, who had been searching through the papers that blanketed the floor, turned to the voice. He still appeared a little embarrassed by the Siberian’s nudity, but he pretended it didn’t matter.

“You gonna change into one of those things?” he asked.

“Yes. Tonight. I will be changing to beast again. At least, for some of night.”

“Yeah, that’s what the scientist guy said in the book. Three full moons, then you’re right as rain for another month.”

Rick found several broken beakers, but none of them were labeled. Their interiors were encrusted with something yellow and crumbling. They smelled terrible, too. He wondered if these had contained the mysterious cure.

Turning to the naked man, but averting his eyes a bit, he asked, “You ever see the French scientist make something called Serum A?”

“Yes … yes!” The man moved toward the barrier. “You have found it? It is there?”

“What do you know about it?”

“I have seen it. He, what is word, bragged about it.”

“Well, shit!” Rick said, standing from the mess; pieces of glass and paper stuck to his knees. “What’s it look like? We need to find it and get it to somebody who can distribute it. It could save … I don’t know how many people.”

“I could help you,” the Siberian said. “If you are willing to help with me.”

Rick sighed. “Knew there was a fuckin’ catch in there somewhere.”

“I don’t understand you. Catch?”

“Let me rephrase: What do you want?”

Andrei leaned against the back wall of his cell and crossed his arms over his hairy chest. “I want to get out of here. I want to go back to my home and see my family.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged.”

“I want out now.”

“Well, sport, that’s where we have a problem. You’re going to change again, and we have enough on our hands without setting loose the original monster that started this clusterfuck.”

“It was not me who started this. It was that Frenchman. He brought me here. He changed the disease and let it get loose on the city.”

“In any case, we can let you out tomorrow morning, as long as we find the keys to that plastic cage. Just as soon as you go back to being human.”

Andrei thought it over for a moment, then he asked, “How can I trust you to not run away?”

“You want outta there? We’re your best chance. What’s the serum look like?”

“It is clear, like water. The Frenchman keep it in a safe in the wall behind chart. Just over there.”

Tacked up on the wall, the chart showed Andrei’s metabolic rate as he changed into a lycanthrope. Rick tore it away, let it fall to the floor. A digital safe was embedded in the plaster, the buttons arranged in rows of three, like a phone.

“Great. I don’t suppose you know the combination?”

Andrei grinned, and Rick thought he could detect the animal in it. “I pay attention. I watch real close. The Frenchman opens it all the time.”

“Well,” Rick asked with a shrug, “what is it?”

“Ah, no. I think I don’t give it to you. I think you let me out, and I will open safe. I want out of cage. I want for to be human all the time. Why would I lie to you?”

“I could think of a thousand reasons.”

“It easiest thing in the world. You let me out. They keys are in the desk drawer on a … what you call it … a circle.”

“A key ring?” Rick asked, opening the desk drawer.

“Yes. Ring for keys.”

“So I let you out to open the safe—then what? You attack me? Overcome me? I do have a gun. I could just shoot you on the spot.”

“But I have … oh, what is word, bargaining chit. I know where there is another weapon. A good weapon. If I let you have other weapon, you let me out so I open safe and get serum. I am human again. You watch me with weapon. Everyone happy as oysters.”

“I still don’t like it.”

“You got other choice?”

“Yeah, I let you rot in there.”

“That not a good choice.”

“Looking pretty righteous to me.”

“But if I am human again, then you get one more person to fight. Also, you get another bargaining chit. The serum. The army probably desires that, yes?”

“Yeah, they probably do. Where’s this weapon you think’s so great?”

“In filing cabinet, bottom part.”

The cabinet rested on its side at the end of the room. Rick opened the bottom drawer and removed a dart gun, fully loaded with tranquilizing darts.

“Whoa,” Rick said. “Like the big game hunters use?”

“They use it on me to make me sleep, and it always works.”

“How many darts does this thing hold?”

“Six. That’s six monsters we can force to go to sleep,” Andrei said, pacing his cell restlessly. “Now you let me out? Now I get you serum, and I get somewhere safe.”

“Looks pretty safe in that little cell of yours.”

“You hear things in here. Like things going boom, blowing up. If it’s bad in city …”

“Oh, it’s worse than you think.”

“. . . then I no want to be blown up when a gas explosion comes.”

Looking into the Siberian’s eyes, Rick didn’t think Andrei was lying.
Then again, it could have been the beast within, using its wiles to get set free.

The heft of the dart gun in his hands made up his mind. He opened the desk drawer, pulling too hard and nearly dumping it. He caught it, but a large key ring spilled from inside, jangling to the floor. As Rick picked the keys up, he felt the reassuring weight of them in his hand. He walked over to the Plexiglas cage and began testing the keys in the locks. Within minutes, the door was opening with a pneumatic hiss. Andrei stepped out of his prison, stretching his arms.

“That feels wonderful,” he said. “Thank you, my friend.” He grabbed Rick, encircling him in a hairy bear hug. “I promise you I will be all better now. The shot … it will do the trick. No?”

“Hey, hey, buddy,” Rick protested, trying to escape from the big man’s clutches. “Watch it with the naked hugging, okay? How about opening that safe?”

Rick raised the dart gun and pointed it at Andrei’s barrel chest. The Siberian shrugged, still grinning as though giddy with the fresh air.

“Yes. Is time.”

Andrei punched several numbers into the safe, then turned the handle. Rick pushed him aside with the dart gun, and Andrei stepped away, hands in the air.

“Serum help me now, will it not?”

Rick pulled on the handle, keeping one eye on the Siberian and one on the opening safe. The door was heavy as he opened it, but he soon saw two shelves. One contained a stack of paperwork and a small stack of hundred-dollar bills, which Rick swiftly pocketed, adding to the thousands he had stolen earlier.

The other shelf held three rows of beakers full of a clear fluid. Rick left them secure inside the safe.

Andrei leaned against the outside wall of his Plexiglas cell, arms crossed.

“Looks like you knew what you were talking about, Andrei. I’ll get you out personally if this stuff works.”

“Get me out?” he asked, confused. “But I am already—”

Rick shot him with a dart. The feathered shaft stuck out of Andrei’s left hip. With fury burning in his eyes, the naked Siberian took one step toward Rick. He wavered, faltered on his second step, and fell to the floor.

“Sorry, buddy,” Rick said. “I’m not taking any chances.”

Setting the rifle aside, he grabbed Andrei’s legs and dragged him into the cell. The man was heavy, solid with muscle, and Rick struggled to turn him through the entryway. He left Andrei in the middle of the cell and shut the door; the mechanism hissed and the bolt clicked into place.

Rick returned to the safe and pulled out the papers. Then he sat behind the desk and began to read, praying there was an answer to their problem within their pages. He whistled as he perused them.

SEPTEMBER 18, 11:30 A.M.

C
athy really began to feel the ache in her thighs and calves as she steered her bike through the stalled and wrecked cars that blocked the exit to State Route 71 South. It had started as a faint burning sensation, a comfortable, familiar glow she recognized from her past exercise regimens. Her blood was pumping hard, touching places that hadn’t been stimulated in years. The lactic acid in her muscles pulsed. Her ass was also getting sore, unaccustomed to the shape and size of the bicycle seat.

Gritting her teeth, she fought the urge to stop, certain that she would cramp if she did. Chris was waiting for her downtown, and she raced with a passion she had never felt before in her life. The need to feel him in her arms again, if only for a moment, eased some of the agony. She’d never felt so maternal, so full of love for anyone … not even Karl when they had first married.