Love Bug (3 page)

The mangled remains of both the vehicle and the Reds were strewn about the field.

“Must have crashed into each other,” Remmy panted as he steadied himself on a limb. At least the threat was gone. Whoever had been in that long, strange car wasn’t so lucky, but Remmy tried not to think about them.

Then he heard her. A thin wail echoed from inside the twisted wreck. A girl’s voice, desperate for help and raw with pain, cried out to anyone who could hear. Remmy hesitated. There was no way to know who this girl was or if she was ERC.
As Remmy saw another tangled mass of Reds cresting the top of the nearest hill, heading directly towards the wreck, those concerns no longer mattered.

Before he knew what he was doing, Remmy had dropped from the safety of the old pine and was heading directly towards the crash.

-4-

The ride to the Stele had been pretty much, what Cora expected. Her brother lost in a video game, her mother ignoring them, looking up only to bark an order or two and Cora silently sitting in the limo, wishing she were anywhere else. She hated the Stele. It was the main city and filled with countless monuments to her grandfather. A large stone slab stood upright in the center of the Stele, giving the city its name. The image of Cora’s grandfather was carved into the stone with an inscription commemorating the date he unveiled the Em-Pak and become an ERC saint. This was where Cora’s father would stand to deliver his speech and where Cora would have to perform for the masses.

Cora knew that her Em-Pak dulled her emotions, so she could only imagine how excruciating a family road trip would have been without one. Moments like these were the fleeting few where Cora was actually glad to have the stupid thing. Otherwise, her thoughts would inevitably wander to contemplating what life would feel like without the Em-Pak. Cora knew that it would be a very short life, thanks to the Reds and virus, but still she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to feel. Would things be different? Did the Emos that he
r father called terrorists and hated so profoundly really know something she didn’t? Was the risk worth it?

The limo’s soundproof cabin prevented Cora and her family from hearing the cries of the Reds as the
y closed in on the vehicle. Up front, their security officer pressed the correct buttons to override the guidance system. A machine wouldn’t be able to evade these things. There was no rational pattern to Reds’ behavior, so programming a guidance system to evade them was essentially impossible. All ERC vehicles with clearance to travel between cities were equipped with an override, allowing the security officers to take control, but never had it been used to avoid this many Reds.

The thick glass divider
slid down, revealing the security officer’s panicked look. “We’ve got a problem,” he croaked. Seconds later, his Em-Pak chirped loudly and he appeared calm. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Eldritch, I’ll get us through this.” He pressed the button to once again raise the tinted divider, but not before Cora saw a massive knot of people bearing down on their car. They looked wild, screaming and waving crude weapons. Their faces were all set in the same feral expression of rage and washed in crimson hues. Reds.

“Mom?” Cora asked, a note of concern vanishing with a single mechanical beep.

“We’ll be fine, sweetie,” Mrs. Eldritch waved dismissively, using the term of endearment out of habit, not affection. “Just sit back and relax.”

“Don’t be stupid
, Cora!” Xander snapped. “They’re just animals. You’ll probably have a full blown melt down if we pass a deer.” Cora’s brother, Xander, was twelve, but had already begun to prepare for his entrance into the politics. He idolized their father and resented the attention he felt was wasted on Cora. If an Eldritch was going to be the head of the ERC, Xander was determined it be him.

The world suddenly felt upended, the laws of gravity momentarily no longer keeping Cora and her family safely planted on the plush leather benches of the limo.
A blinding flash of white pain shot through Cora’s mind. Loud shrieks filled the cabin of the limo. Cora’s mind struggled to place the sounds. Were the sounds from the crash? Was it the Reds?

As the limo finished its tumble through the
field, Cora realized the sound had been coming from her own mouth. Her head throbbed and her throat was raw. An eerie silence settled over the passenger cabin of the limo. Dappled sunlight danced through the interior, filtered through cracked tinted windows.

“Mom?” Cora called again, the word calling to mind memories of her mother’s dismissive response from moments before. “Xander? Are you okay?” Her brother groaned, but didn’t respond. Cora’s mother was silent. In the front of the
limo, the security officer cursed loudly, sliding through shattered glass.

“Ms.
Eldritch, stay here,” the officer grunted as he slid out the broken side window. He drew his pistol and quickly scanned the area. “I’m sure that a recovery team is en route. Stay here where it’s safe, there may be more-…” The officer’s words were cut short as two sets of filthy hands clamped over his face and pulled him to the ground. A loud shriek followed by three erratic pistol shots filled the air outside of the ruined limo.

Something banged against the side of the limo. Blood, thick and red began to run down the side of the limo’s door creating the image of a hellish waterfall. It pooled and began slowly
to seep further into the vehicle. 

Pain radiated through Cora’s body, but another odd sensation filled her mind. Something twisted in Cora’s insides, tightening around her heart and making it hard to breath
e.

“Xander?
Xander, please,” Cora pleaded. A throaty scream resonated outside of the limo. More could be heard in the distance.

The strange feeling tangling itself around Cora’s insides intensified. Bile burned the back of her throat. For the first time in her
life, Cora felt fear.

Cora tried to stifle it, tried to keep her mouth closed, but with no practice, Cora was unable to keep the scream inside.

-5-

A voice in Remmy’s head screamed for him to stop. What he was doing was completely stupid, he knew that it was, but he couldn’t stop himself. Something about the girl’s scream called to him, beckoned to some innate primal urge to protect.

Moments before Remmy dropped from the
tree, he watched an ERC officer crawl out from the vehicle. The man drew a pistol and checked the surrounding area, but failed to look on the top of the wrecked limo. Two Reds descended on him, dragging him to the ground, tearing into the soft flesh of his face with hands and teeth. The ERC officer flailed, firing shots wildly. One found its target and dropped the Red to the ground.

The second Red lifted the ERC officer from the ground and slammed him against the side of
the ruined vehicle. Screaming wildly, the Red buried its teeth in the man’s throat. Blood gushed from the wound, coating the door of the vehicle.

Remmy had seen blood before, remembered the Martinez family, but he had never seen carnage of this sort, had never been front row to observe the Reds’ violence firsthand.
It was overwhelming, like stumbling into the middle of someone else’s nightmare.

The girl screamed again and the Red’s attention was suddenly drawn inside the wreck. More Reds stampeded towards Remmy and the crash site, their screams filling the air. Reds had always been avoided, never fought and Remmy momentarily doubted he had the skills or instinct to kill one, but as the girl cried for
help, Remmy’s mind filled with thoughts of Jessica. Had she cried for help? Begged to be let go before the Reds did whatever they had taken her to do? Anger flared in Remmy’s mind and he fought to keep it down. He needed to allow enough to keep his mind sharp, but not enough to overwhelm him. His breathing steadied as he picked up a rock. It was heavy, about the size of a large apple and fit nicely into Remmy’s palm. It would have to do.

The Red knelt down and tried to scramble into the wrecked vehicle. It never saw Remmy coming. Never saw the rock crashing into the side of its head.

Remmy swung the rock a few more times, his hand becoming sore, but his fingers unable to put the stone down. The Red stopped moving, but more screams threatened from a rapidly diminishing distance.

Crawling inside the
vehicle required Remmy to wade through a tepid pool of the officer’s blood. Remmy struggled not to vomit.

“Help!” someone called from the rear of the vehicle. “Please help!”

Remmy wiped sweat from his face and peered through the shattered section of dark glass that separated him from the passengers.

“Come on!” Remmy shouted. “We need to go now! There’s not much time!”

The girl shrieked at the red face that looked at her through the divider. Seeing her fear, Remmy suddenly realized that he must have wiped blood across his face.

“I’m not a Red,” he yelled. “Am I screaming? We don’t have time for this. Come on!”

“My brother,” the girl gasped, “he’s unconscious. And my mother…my mother…” A sudden deluge of tears cut off the girl’s words.

“Your mother is gone
. I’m sorry,” Remmy said, mustering all the compassion he could give the current situation. “Slide your brother to me and I’ll carry him. Can you walk?”

“I think so,” the girl
said, as she began moving her brother towards the opening.

Remmy grabbed the boy and pulled him out of the wreck. The girl followed close behind.

“Thank you,” the girl choked, tears still streaming down her face.

“You’re welcome,” Remmy grunted as he lifted the boy onto his shoulders. “We need to move, now! Run for the trees.”
Remmy pointed back towards the copse of old pines.

The Reds’ screams grew louder, but Remmy refused to look behind himself. He needed to believe that he would make it to the trees
and that he had a chance. If he looked behind him, Remmy knew the Reds would get him.

“Climb!” Remmy yelled as the girl reached
the tree.

“Climb?” she asked. “I don’t know how…I’ve never…”

“Just grab the branches and keep going,” Remmy coached. “Get up a little and then help me pull him up.”

The girl leapt up and began climbing. She was a quick learner. As Remmy hefted the boy into the
branches, he noticed that the girl had stopped crying, a look of determination set in her face. The girl looked amazing, like the pictures, Remmy had seen in books at school. She had the confident expression of the statues Remmy had seen of Roman and Greek goddesses. This girl was strong.

The Reds closed in on the tr
unk of the tree just as Remmy pulled himself into the safety of the tree. They screamed in frustration.

“What do we do now?” the girl asked.

“We wait,” Remmy said, knowing that the boy needed medical attention. “Hopefully, if we’re quiet, the Reds will wander off. They get distracted pretty easily.”

“Thank you,” the girl said again.

“You already said that,” Remmy smiled. “You don’t have to say it twice.”

“I’m Cora,” she smiled. Another strange feeling blossomed in Cora’s
chest, this one warm and pleasant. “That’s my brother, Xander. Is he going to be okay?”

“
I’m Remmy,” Remmy grinned. “I think he’ll be okay. He just looks banged up.” Even though Reds surrounded them, wanting to tear them apart, he couldn’t help but smile. This girl was beautiful, unlike any Remmy had ever seen before.

“You’re an Emo, aren’t you?” Cora asked.

“That going to be a problem?” Remmy smirked.

“No,” Cora smiled
, “no, it’s not.”

-6-

Assemblyman Eldritch sto
od in the small foyer that led into the main garden of the Stele house. Being the highest-ranking member of the Citizen’s Assembly, he was given the privilege of living there. His family was kept safely inside the city walls and conveniently out of the way at another house. Eldritch could vaguely remember the feelings he had once had for his wife, those intense and overwhelming emotions that drew them together, that were now dulled by his Em-Pak, allowing him to focus single-mindedly on his work. He was important, made decisions that allowed citizens to endure, allowed humanity to endure and some day, so would his children, especially Cora. She showed great potential and would hopefully carry the Eldritch family name further into the pages of history.

With the shackles of his family removed, as well as all feelings of guilt, Eldritch had climbed to a point where he answered to no one, except of
course, the ERC. All were accountable to them. But someday, with the proper handling, Cora could find herself the head of the ERC, something that Eldritch had yet to attain.

Eldritch had always marveled at the genius nature of his father’s invention. Em-Paks were designed to control emotions, but
not the urges behind them. People still strove for power, had the urge to procreate, but lacked the emotions to interpret the importance of these actions beyond continuing the human race. There was no joy in parenthood, as it was simply a means to an end. There needed to be a new generation to carry on the important work of the ERC, so there needed to be children. Parenthood was that simple.

“Sir,” an aide said from the doorway. From the way his Em-Pak was chirping
repeatedly, Eldritch knew whatever the aide was going to tell him was going to be unpleasant.

“Yes?” Eldritch snap
ped. “What is it? We’ve got to film the final address. Is my family prepped for the cameras? I want Cora directly to my right.”

“It’s about your
family, sir,” aide said slowly. Eldritch was worried that the man might actually break his Em-Pak from the stress he was currently putting it through.

“Yes, yes,” Eldritch
grumbled, as he quickly reviewed his talking points. “Make it quick.”

“Your family was been
delayed, Mr. Eldritch,” the aide continued.

“Delayed?” Eldritch growled. His eyes temporarily flared with anger before his Em-Pak beeped, soothing these feelings. “Was there car trouble or something of that nature?”

The aide hesitated. “No sir, it wasn’t car trouble. It appears that their limo was ambushed by a pack of Reds.”

“Ambushed?” It was Eldritch’s Em-Pak’s turn to work overtime. “
A pack of Reds?
That’s nonsense. They never travel in groups of more than two or three.”

“Apparently
, sir, they do,” the aide answered. “The feed from the limo’s cameras showed at least two large groups of Reds closing in on the limo before it crashed. We estimate somewhere between forty to fifty Reds. An ERC recovery team was prepped the second we received the distress call from the limo’s guidance system, but I fear they will arrive too late. Your wife appears to have died in the crash as well. Your children have apparently been taken. Teams will be sweeping the area for them as soon as we have your go ahead, sir.”

“My wife is dead?” Eldritch asked.
“My children have been kidnapped?”

“Yes sir,” the aide nodded. “That is what preliminary reports seem to indicate, but there’s something else, something unexpected.”

“Unexpected?” Eldritch scoffed. “As if an entire pack of Reds is anything but that? What else could be unexpected?”

“Before we lost the camera feed,” the aide paused, “well, before it cut
out, we saw the image of what appeared to be a young Emo male. We suspect that he was working with the Reds.”

“Working with them?” Eldritch asked, his voice betraying a note of concern before his Em-Pak corrected his feelings.

“Yes sir,” the aide nodded. “We can’t think of why else the Emo would be there. The Reds are just as likely to kill them as they are us, but this boy was somehow at the crash site unharmed.”

“I see,” Eldritch said slowly. “
Cancel the recovery team, but keep me informed of the situation,” he barked over his shoulder as he walked towards the large double doors that would let him into the garden.

Some small piece of him
screamed for him to feel something, anything at this news. Fear that the Emos and Reds might be working together, sadness over the death of his wife, concern for the safety of his children, but the only thing that Eldritch felt was opportunity.