“Oh God, I’m so sorry,” he said weakly. “I’m so very sorry.”
Dan had heard it all before.
He walked through the kitchen and into the back yard. At the end of the garden was a shed where his father kept tools. Dan found the key under a flower pot where he knew his father hid it. He unlocked the door, took Alex Salty’s shotgun from a rack and went back to the house.
“Have you called the police?” His father looked up as Dan entered the room. “I didn’t mean….”
The words died in his mouth as he saw the gun in his son’s hands.
In Vietnam, Alex Salty had been trained to act first and think later. He leapt from the couch and bolted out the front door. But, as a soldier, he had taught his son how to handle a weapon. Dan followed him.
His father sprinted down the garden path and onto the street, zigzagging as he ran. The boy calmly raised the shotgun to his shoulder, took aim and fired.
Salty was catapulted into the air and landed, face down, in the street.
Dan dropped the shotgun. Across the road he could hear a neighbour screaming.
He ran back into the house and sprinted upstairs to his bedroom. Opening the top drawer of his bureau, he grabbed his savings, fourteen dollars in all. There was also a small business card. He took that as well.
He could hear police sirens as he darted down the stairs. The teenager fled through the back door and across the gardens, vaulting fences.
By the time the police had surrounded the house he was on the bus to Denver.
29
Amblin Cottage 2000
D.B. Salty sat back and lit another cigarette.
“My fingerprints were on the knife that killed my mother. Naturally, I got the blame for that murder too.”
“I didn’t know,” Apathy said in a small voice.
“Neither did Emily. It wasn’t something I wanted to talk about.”
They listened in silence to the fire crackling in the grate.
“My turn now.” Colin cleared his throat loudly. “In nineteen tickety boo, US Army Intelligence had a very clever idea. They set up a facility in Arizona to see if troops could kill goats by concentrating their mental powers on them.”
“Excuse me?”
“Actually, it’s true. Didn’t work – though one soldier claimed to have offed his pet hamster just by looking at it.”
“Colin knows a lot of stuff,” Dan grumbled. “Most of it useless.”
“In 1974 they had a better idea. A test was circulated through US schools, devised by a scientist named Markus Kelty.”
Apathy’s eyes narrowed at the mention of Kelty’s name, but Colin was warming to his story.
“It was supposed to highlight children’s strengths and weaknesses, in order to make them easier to teach – but was withdrawn after a national outcry by child psychologists, who protested it had no value in that area whatsoever.”
“Which was perfectly true,” Dan added.
“Absolutely. It was actually a cleverly disguised psychological test of another type. A con, if you like.” Colin raised his glass in admiration. “I appreciate a good con.”
“It was designed to show which children had sociopathic personalities.” Dan said sourly. “The results were given to US army intelligence and they made a list of all the children who had these… symptoms.”
“When those kids left school the army intended to approach and recruit them,” Colin continued. “People with sociopathic tendencies lack normal empathy. They don’t really understand how other people feel and don’t fit into society well. Ideal raw material for being moulded into army killers.”
“And you took that test?” Apathy asked her father.
“Showed up as a true blue, certifiable nut job.” Dan shook his head angrily. “But it didn’t make me bad. Lots of people with sociopathic personalities live perfectly normal lives.”
“Well… you did shoot your father.” Colin said disarmingly. Dan ignored him.
“A few months after the test I was approached outside my school by a Major Whittaker from Army Intelligence. The Major said the military was interested in recruiting me when I graduated. Gave me a business card and told me to keep quiet about it.”
“The card in the drawer.” Fascinated by the story, Apathy lifted her glass of wine from the table and took a sip. “The one you took with you when you ran from the police.”
“I was in deep trouble. I didn’t know who else to call.”
“Major Whittaker came and rescued your father.” Colin picked up the thread. “Offered him a deal with the devil.”
“He said that the police had psychologists too. That if they caught me they’d find out about my personality and lock me away for life. So he offered me a way out. The army were doing research in a place called Sheridan Base in the Mohave Desert. If I agreed to take part, they’d set me up with a false identity afterwards and I could go free.”
“Your father foolishly accepted.”
“I was fourteen years old!”
“What happened?” Apathy took another taste of wine. She was starting to get used to it.
“Something went wrong with the experiment.” Dan picked up a burning coal from the hearth, tossed it back into the fire and blew on is fingers. “The whole base went mad and your grandmother got me out.”
“I know. My mum told me the rest of the story.”
“Your mum didn’t know the entire story.” Dan glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. “It’s getting late.”
“I slept plenty in the van.” Apathy looked daggers at Colin. After a moment Dan shrugged and carried on.
“Louise brought me up in Diamondback trailer park and, eventually, your mum and I left and settled in Austin.” He took the corkscrew off the mantelpiece and opened another bottle. “One day, I got a message from Louise asking me to come back. Just me.” He looked tentatively at Colin.
“She really should know,” the younger man said uneasily.
“Then you better tell her.”
Colin looked suddenly lost, his knee jiggling nervously.
“My whole mess began on a winter’s day, December 1994.” He set down his glass on the mantelpiece and clasped his hands together.
“That was the day I killed my mom.”
30
Diamondback Trailer Park
1995
Louise Martin opened the door and enveloped Dan in a fleshy hug. She had dark circles under her eyes and her hair was now more grey than brown
“Welcome home, honey,” she beamed. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
“You too Louise. How’s tricks?”
“There’s a racoon living in the garbage can and the kitchen needs painting.” Louise ushered Dan inside. “What about Emily?”
“In blissful ignorance.” Dan was equally brief. “Where’s Colin?”
“He’s in the shed.”
“You locked him up?”
“He’s collecting firewood.” Louise gave Dan a scornful swipe.
“Yeah? I don’t like the thought of him anywhere near an axe right now. How much does he know?”
“Enough to make him pretty nervous.”
Dan plonked his bag in the middle of the floor.
“Then we better have a little talk with him.”
Colin sat on the couch, hands on his lap. He hadn’t grown much since Dan saw him last and it looked like he was always going to be a head shorter than his adopted brother. Still, he was good looking, with a bowl of straight black hair, bright blue eyes and a gap in his teeth that mirrored his mother’s.
He and Dan exchanged pleasantries, then quickly ran out of things to say. Dan and Emily had left when he was eight and they hadn’t been back too many times, because of the distance. The prolonged absence and the age difference had stopped them ever being close.
Colin knew something was up. His knee bounced up and down, one foot drumming the floor as it always did when he was nervous. Louise and Dan sat opposite, drinking Coors. Nei
ther said anything, unsure of how to start the conversation.
“I know something’s happening to me.” Colin started the ball rolling. “And I know it’s got something to do with why we live out here in the middle of nowhere.”
“Can’t argue with that.” Dan looked at Louise for assistance.
“Give it your best shot, honey. I don’t know what to say.”
“In some Indian tribes,” Dan began falteringly. “There was a ritual the braves used to go through before they became a man.”
“The Vision Quest,” Colin broke in. “The young warrior would travel to somewhere totally isolated. There he would seek a vision usually in the form of an animal, a bird, or a natural force like thunder and lightning.”
He closed his eyes as if reciting from memory.
“This would be his guardian, a reflection of the Great Spirit in each seeker, and it would remain all his life to help and protect him, especially if he kept his heart purified.”
Dan looked suitably impressed.
“Colin knows a lot of things.” Louise smiled at her son approvingly.
“I read a lot.” The boy admitted. “Not a lot else to do round here.”
“We need you to go on a sort of Vision Quest for a while.” Dan nodded to a weighty bag lying beside the window. “You’ll have a tent and provisions and…eh… books if you like.”
“But you have to stay isolated until we come and fetch you,” Louise added
“That doesn’t sound like a quest. More like a quarantine.”
“Jeez you have smart kids,” Dan whistled.
“It all came from me, hon.” Louise almost smiled.
“You know about the experiment at Sheridan base, fourteen years ago?”
“Mom told me. It all went wrong.”
“Well that’s an understatement.” Dan leaned forward in his chair. “We never worked out exactly what the scientists were trying to do. We do know that they produced something that killed everyone on the base except Louise and me.”
“You really don’t know why?”
“We’ve had years to come up with theories.” Louise sat down next to her son. “I was pregnant with you at the time. That’s the only explanation I can think of why I wasn’t affected. And this thing… we think…. it…” Her voice choked with emotion.
“We think it bypassed Louise and went straight into you,” Dan finished.
“What is this thing you’re talking about?” Colin looked down at himself with barely disguised repulsion.
“I honestly don’t know. We just know it makes people go crazy.”
“What’s going to happen?” Colin’s leg drummed harder. Louise put her arm around him and gave a reassuring squeeze.
“It’s going to come out of you, baby,” she said softly. “Soon, we think.”
“Will it kill me?”
“No it won’t,” Dan broke in quickly. “It won’t do you any harm at all. But we think it will hurt other people, just like at Sheridan. That’s why you have to be completely isolated when it happens.”
“You won’t be totally on your own.” Louise ruffled her son’s thick hair. “Dan will come and check on you every day.”
“And why won’t it affect him?”
“It’s hard to explain.” Dan rubbed his temple awkwardly. “But you see I have this personality trait…”
“No need to go into the gory details,” Louise interrupted. “Let’s just say we’re pretty sure he’s immune.”
“That’s how we know that you’ll survive.” Dan took a long swallow of his beer. “Because I was the subject of the last experiment they did at Sheridan Base and I’m still alive.”
He wiped froth from his mouth.
“But whatever it was killed all these people, originally came out of me.”
The Curse of Apathy Walton
The larvae of the Cicada bug live underground for most of their lives before emerging in their thousands and becoming fully formed insects. The largest of these, Brood X, only surfaces every 17 years.
In some parts of Northern America, however, the larvae have begun emerging much earlier in their cycle. As yet, scientists, have no explanation for this anomaly.
31
Five Miles North of Diamondback Trailer Park
1995
Dan helped Colin erect his tent in a clearing on the slopes of Mount Peters. There was a breathtaking view across miles of silver birch and they could see Lake Champlain twinkling like a strip of Aluminium in the distance. Dan sucked in lungfuls of mountain air.
“God it’s beautiful up here,” he enthused. “And if there’s a living soul within miles of this place I’ll eat my own underwear.”
“Please don’t.”
“You can’t build a fire in case a ranger sees it and investigates, but I packed you a gas stove.” Dan sidled up to the boy, who was staring, transfixed, at the view. “You gonna be OK?”
“I’ve lived in the woods all my life.” Colin stuck his hands stoically in his pockets. “But how do you know this… thing is going to happen now? I don’t want to be up here until I turn into some beardy mountain man.”
“Ants.” Dan shielded his eyes and gazed across the vista. “They started popping up all over Sheridan base just before the massacre. Louise said the same thing’s been happening here.”
“That’s all you got to go on?”
“Plus your age. I was almost sixteen when it happened to me. I’m sure age has something to do with it, but don’t ask me what.”
“That’s pretty vague.”
“If we’re wrong, the worst thing that’s gonna happen is you get to spend a few days surrounded by the tranquillity of nature.”
“True.”
“There was one other thing. The personnel at Sheridan started acting funny in the days before the disaster. You notice that with the people in the trailer park?”
Colin’s eyes opened wide. “Yeah, I did!”
“Arguments? Fighting? That kind of thing?”
“No.” Colin bent and began unpacking the rucksack “They seemed much more open and friendly than usual. Kept wanting to come to the cabin and party.”
“Really?” Dan was taken aback. “Well, I’m no scientist, but I know it doesn’t do any harm to take precautions.”
“You know, I’m not scared at all.” Colin reached out his hand, surprising Dan with the adult gesture.
“See you in a couple of days. I’m off to do a quick rain dance and hunt some buffalo.”
Colin knew woodsmanship. He hung his provisions in a tree to stop black bears coming to investigate the new food supply, cleared the film of snow away from his bivouac and dug a latrine. For the rest of the day he explored his surroundings until the muscles in his calves ached. That night he read his books by a small kerosene lamp and slept with the tent flap open so that he could see the stars. This far from the city the night sky was awash with pinpoint lights. He fell asleep listening to the whirr of crickets.
The next day was just as uneventful. Dan arrived at noon with a huge pastrami sandwich and a bottle of Gatorade.
“You got the good end of this deal,” he wheezed, collapsing onto the grass. “Louise’s truck can only manage half way before the track gets too snarled. I’m gonna have to run myself ragged just to bring you a lunchtime treat.”
“Watch where you sit.” Colin took a bite out of his sandwich. “There’s a few ants around. The cold kills them straight away, but they’re determined little buggers.”
“Listen. I’ve been waiting for the right time to tell you,” Dan had regained his breath sufficiently to hold a conversation. “I got news. Me and Emily are gonna have a kid. You’ll be an uncle.”
“Congratulations!” Colin spat out crumbs through a wide grin. “What did mom say?”
“She doesn’t know yet. I didn’t want to tell her until this was all out of the way. I wanted her just to be happy, not to have to worry….”
“About me?”
“Yeah, about you.”
“You’re a decent guy, Dan. You always looked out for her.”
“I’ll look out for you too.” He passed Colin the Gatorade.
“I promise.”
The next night passed as uneventfully as the last. Colin rose with the sun, made breakfast and sat with his back against a tree, reading a book.
Then he began to feel strange.
It was a little like heartburn with an accompanying sensation of light headedness. Within half an hour he was drenched in sweat and shaking badly. But the boy had spent the last two days mentally preparing. He wasn’t afraid.
He put down the book, drew his knees up to his chest and held them, taking deep, even breaths.
“Just stay calm,” he repeated, over and over. “After this life will go back to normal.”
He closed his eyes and rocked backwards and forwards.
“Just stay calm. Just stay calm. Just stay calm.”
He felt the ground begin to vibrate.
His eyes shot open. His throat constricted and he tried not to gag.
All around him the forest floor was moving. Frosty leaves, twigs and moss undulated as if the very ground had turned to liquid. Colin sprang to his feet, back to the tree.
Then they emerged.
Hundreds of wriggling grubs, pushing their way through the frozen soil. Not ants but sticky white blobs of flesh. Only there weren’t hundreds. There were thousands. The boy looked around in terror, trying to comprehend what he was witnessing.
The fat squirming slugs surged from the ground, bloated and half formed, with stumpy mucus coated legs and waving antennae. They squirmed, carpeting the forest floor in an unspeakable writhing mass.
There weren’t thousands. There were millions of them.
Colin looked down and screamed.
His boots had vanished in a thick, squirming pool of translucent goo.
He got up and ran. Branches whipped at his face, lacerating his cheeks. He tripped over a root and sprawled, hands sinking into the wriggling white sea. He leapt up with a cry of horror waving his arms in the air.
The Kirkfallen Stopwatch Page 10
