by Platt, Sean
She must’ve seen his horrible excuse for a dive.
“Yeah,” he said. “It did.”
“Your first time diving?”
“Yes. That obvious?”
She smiled, “It’s OK, I used to be bad, too. But I got good. You will, too.”
“Thanks,” Luca said as her turn in line came up and she ascended the ladder. As he waited for the girl to dive, Luca heard the last thing in the world he wanted to hear — Shovel Face laughing as he approached with his friends.
“Hey, faggot,” Shovel Face called out.
Luca ignored him, holding his eyes to the ladder.
“Hey, I’m talking to you.” Shovel Face lightly shoved him.
Startled, Luca spun around, fists instinctively balling.
Shovel Face looked down and noticed, laughing. “Whatcha gonna do? Hit me?”
The two other kids with him, a fat kid with red skin and a monobrow and a skinny Hispanic with spotty facial hair, laughed along with Shovel Face.
“Just leave me alone,” Luca said, wishing he sounded less whiny.
Monobrow said, “Or what?”
Luca ignored them and started to climb the ladder.
“Yeah, I thought so,” Monobrow said. “Pussy ass faggot.”
Luca wanted to turn around and cut the smug smiles from all their faces. He hated bullies who picked on kids for no reason. He hadn’t done anything. They’d spotted him, recognized him as weaker or different from them, and decided to mess with him. It was like those wildlife documentaries he sometimes watched with his dad — or are those the other Luca’s memories? — where hunters spotted the weakest prey and culled them from the herd.
Of course with nature, the hunters were eating the weak. The circle of life had a purpose. But with bullies, there was no purpose except to make the bullies feel temporarily better about their pathetic lives.
The Darkness chimed in. Forget them. They’ll be irrelevant soon. They are no longer the top of the food chain. You are. We are.
Luca allowed himself a smile as he climbed to the platform. On top, about to step onto the board, he heard the jerks behind him clucking like chickens.
Block them out this time. Just jump.
Luca heard a sound he wished he hadn’t — one of the kids quickly ascending the ladder.
Luca looked back to see Shovel Face reaching the top.
“You’re not supposed to be up here,” Luca said, looking down for the lifeguard on duty — busy chatting with a cluster of girls.
Shovel Face smiled as he stepped onto the platform. “You’ve got five seconds to jump.”
“Or what?”
“I’m gonna throw you off.”
Luca’s heart raced as Shovel Face’s dead eyes narrowed in sincerity.
“One … ” Shovel Face started the countdown.
Luca braced his body.
“Two … ”
Luca carefully took a single step back, looking down to make sure his feet moved from platform to diving board without misstepping.
“Three … ”
Luca turned around and walked to the end of the diving board like a sailor forced to walk the plank.
“Four … ”
Luca looked down just long enough to make sure he was lined up correctly and that no one was beneath him.
“Fi—”
He closed his eyes and jumped.
Luca’s second dive was far better than his first. He didn’t dive hands first like he saw other people doing, but did manage to avoid a belly flop, keeping his feet pointed down as he sliced through the water.
As Luca’s feet touched the pool’s bottom he looked up to see two dark shapes growing larger. Shovel Face and one of the others had dived immediately after him.
Luca pushed off the bottom of the pool, hoping the boys wouldn’t hit him before he reached the edge.
He broke through the surface and swallowed a deep lungful of air, bracing for impact. The jerks landed milliseconds apart on either side of Luca, sending up giant waves.
He made another attempt for the pool’s edge. The last thing he wanted was to stay in the water with sharks.
He made it just inches before hands wrapped his torso and dragged him under the surface.
Luca gasped, swallowing and choking as he kicked off whichever of the two assholes was trying to drown him.
He managed to squirm free and grab some air. He looked around to see where the kids were, his eyes blurred. Monobrow was swimming in front of him, but Luca couldn’t see Shovel Face.
He felt movement behind him, but was too late to react before Shovel Face’s arms wrapped around his neck and yanked him into a choke hold.
“Where ya goin’? We’re just getting started.”
Shovel Face shoved Luca back under, squeezing his arms tight around Luca’s neck. He couldn’t break free.
They’re actually trying to drown me!
Luca couldn’t believe how quickly they’d escalated from a scare on the diving board to attempted murder.
What kind of monsters are these?
He squirmed, kicked, and flailed, attempting to break free, but Shovel Face held his grip tight.
Luca begged The Darkness to help him.
Kick his knee.
Luca kicked back hard to where he thought the boy’s knee might be. He struck, hard and felt something crack.
Shovel Face screamed and let go of Luca.
He didn’t bother to look back at Shovel Face, or to search for Monobrow and Jerk Number Three. Luca raced for the side of the pool.
As he neared the edge Luca heard someone behind him, swimming fast. He could still hear Shovel Face crying; it had to be one of the others.
He didn’t dare look back.
Luca pulled himself up and out of the pool.
Go to the diving board.
He didn’t understand the logic of climbing back up the ladder, but couldn’t question The Darkness, who had far superior instincts.
“Hey, faggot!” Monobrow yelled.
Luca ignored him, grabbing rungs and climbing up.
The lifeguard whistled, repeatedly and seemingly shriller each time. Luca didn’t look to see if he was whistling at him or just now noticing the injured Shovel Face in the pool.
“Stop right there!” the lifeguard yelled.
Luca paused, halfway up the ladder, and looked down to see Monobrow halted just as he was about to follow Luca onto the ladder.
“He just attacked my friend!” Monobrow said.
The lifeguard looked up at Luca, “Come down.”
“No, they tried to drown me!” Luca cried.
He started climbing again, eager to put more distance between himself and Monobrow. While the lifeguard appeared to be around eighteen or nineteen and looked like he could fight, Luca couldn’t imagine that he would listen long before chasing Luca up the ladder to extract revenge.
The lifeguard whistled again as if it would bring Luca down, then followed with a stern, “Get down, now.”
Luca cried out, “They tried to drown me!”
Luca saw Rose approaching the lifeguard and Monobrow.
The Darkness spoke in Luca’s ear: Go to the diving board, now.
Luca wasn’t sure of Its intention, but he listened, stepping away from the ladder, onto the platform, then out to the diving board.
Below, Luca heard Rose ask, “What the hell is going on here?” playing her Adult Card with perfect pitch.
She’s buying you time, The Darkness said.
For what?
To do what must be done.
What?
Look down.
Luca looked down and saw the pool crowded with kids, surrounding Shovel Face, looking at him like a car wreck. Some were asking if he could walk, and a couple offered to help him out.
The Darkness spoke: Now is your chance.
Chance to do what?
To do what you wanted. Kill him.
Kill him? No. I don’t want to get in trouble. I w
ant to go home.
You broke his kneecap. Sometimes the only way out of trouble is to plow through it.
Luca felt an odd vibration coming from the pool. With it the sound of static. No, not static, but the voices — no, thoughts — of every swimmer in the pool.
I’m connected to all of them? How?
Suddenly, there was nothing but silence below, save for Shovel Face crying.
Look down, The Darkness said.
Luca looked down. Everyone in the pool — ranging from young children to adults — was staring up at him blankly.
They’re awaiting your command.
Luca looked down and saw that even Rose was staring, as if he’d somehow frozen time and hypnotized the world.
Shovel Face looked around and screamed, “What the hell is going on? What did you do?”
Luca smiled at the jerk’s confusion. Even though Shovel Face was a Neanderthal, he could sense that Luca was somehow responsible for whatever was happening. Luca could taste his fear, palpable, sweet like sugar from ten feet above.
Luca stood on the diving board’s edge, no longer paralyzed. He wasn’t afraid of heights, he was enlivened by his position above them all.
Luca yelled, “I’m gonna give you to the count of five to get out of the pool.”
Shovel Face looked up and laughed, though he couldn’t mask his fear or confusion.
“One.” Luca said.
“Fuck you, freak!” Shovel Face yelled.
“Two.”
“You don’t scare me.”
“Three.”
“Whatcha gonna do? There’s one of you and hundreds of us!”
“Four.”
Shovel Face cried out, “Fuck you!”
“Five,” Luca said as a smile crossed his lips.
Go.
As soon as Luca thought what to do, everyone in the pool acted, en masse, closing in around Shovel Face.
“What the fuck?” he yelled, turning, hopping on his one leg as people crept closer, bumping into him.
Someone hit him in the back of the head.
Shovel Face screamed, spinning around to face his attacker.
A woman jumped on his back, opened her mouth wide, and bit down hard on the side of the Neanderthal’s cheek, ripping the skin from his Shovel Face.
He screamed as he tried to throw her off.
He went under.
Many more piled on, keeping Shovel Face under, drowning him as they hit, kicked, gouged, and bit into his flesh.
Luca smiled then turned to find Monobrow, standing beside the lifeguard, still staring up at Luca as if awaiting instruction.
Luca turned his attention at the lifeguard, and inserted thoughts into his head.
Go.
The lifeguard snapped into action, kicking Monobrow’s feet out from under him and slamming him to the ground before he knew what was happening. The back of Monobrow’s skull hit the concrete with a sickening thud.
Though he was dead in an instant, Luca directed the lifeguard to grab both sides of the fat kid’s head and repeatedly smash it into the concrete, turning the soup of splashed-up water into ruby goo.
Luca wasn’t sure where the Hispanic kid had gone off to, so he searched.
No loose ends.
From below, Rose called out, “Stop!”
All at once, Luca’s connection to the crowd was severed.
Screaming started as people reacted to bodies and blood. Luca wasn’t sure if they were aware of their involvement, though judging from the residual emotions he didn’t think so.
Fear and confusion shrouded the crowd as they rushed to flee the pool.
Suddenly, they all stopped, and everything went still.
What’s happening?
“We can’t leave this mess,” Rose said, her voice in his head.
Luca realized that she was controlling the people in the pool. He’d never seen her exact control over more than one person, not without sending a bit of The Darkness inside them.
Luca looked down in the pool, startled to see everyone go under at the same time as if engaging in some sort of breath-holding contest.
He looked down, and the horror hit him. Men, women, and children. Innocents. Rose was planning to drown them all.
“Stop!” he yelled down.
“No, we can’t leave witnesses.”
Luca watched as The Darkness’s tendrils spiraled from her mouth, found the people still outside the pool, grabbed them, knocking them down, forcing its way into their mouths.
“Stop!” Luca cried out. “You can’t kill all these people!”
“I didn’t do it, Luca. You did. By losing control.”
Luca tried to access his own powers, to intervene, but he wasn’t even sure how he’d infiltrated the minds of everyone in the pool to begin with.
Please, stop her, he begged The Darkness.
She’s right, The Darkness said. We can’t leave this many witnesses.
Luca stared down helplessly as the hundreds of lifeless innocents people began to bob in the pool.
He spotted the girl, Ashleigh, whose worry about disappointing her mother he’d shared just moments ago. She was floating, face up, dead eyes wide open, staring at her killer.
Oh my God. I did this.
* * * *
CHAPTER 2 — EDWARD KEENAN
Somewhere in Maine
Ed pulled his pickup into the parking lot of Tom’s General Store, immediately following the early morning crowd’s dispersal. The small lot’s only other vehicle was an old Harley whose best days probably predated Woodstock.
Good, Gary’s working.
He got out, looking up and down the highway one last time before entering the shop, just to make sure no one was coming. The store was smack dab in the middle of nowhere, scabbed on a long stretch of highway with woodlands and nothing in every direction, the nearest town five miles away.
It had been three weeks since shit hit the fan with an infected Sullivan, and Ed had yet to see anything on the news about himself, dead agents, or the murder of Brent’s wife. Still, this offered little comfort.
He still had no idea if Sullivan was alone in his infection and was responsible for the attempts on Ed and Brent’s family or if the director, Bolton, had also been compromised. Either way, Ed was certain that the Guardsmen, and all other agencies, were likely in pursuit — to either find out what happened or to silence them.
Either way, Keenan had to stay off the radar.
Ed was done with the agency, done with the Guardsmen, and on his own with no more resources. No one to turn to, and no one for help. He managed to secure one last safe house in Maine where he was lying low with his daughter, Jade, and Teagan, Becca, Brent, and Ben.
The house was well stocked, but Ed found himself trekking into town every few days for supplies — diapers as Becca was nearing two-years old but still refused the potty every time. They also needed fresh milk and other staples that seemed to run dry no matter how much he stocked.
Ed pulled his black cap low, covering his eyes before raking his fingers through his thick beard and pushing his way through the shop door. The bell rattled against the glass, announcing a visitor to Gary, wherever he was. The store belonged to yesterday, a time before clean shops with minimal stock. This shop was crammed so deep that Ed had to wonder if the owner was a hoarder.
Maybe we should’ve just bought this store to hide out in.
As Ed walked the aisles, stuffing his plastic tote full of supplies, Gary came out of the back stock room. The clerk was fifty-something years old with long gray hair and a longer mustache, carrying a box filled with cigarette cartons to stock the shelves behind the front counter.
“Hey, Jack,” Gary said, greeting Ed with his assumed identity.
“Hey,” Ed said, “how’s it goin?”
“Same shit, different day.” Gary ambled toward Ed, on his way to the front.
Ed didn’t care much for the other clerks. They looked at him oddly, as if in suspicion. G
ary didn’t seem to give a shit. From their few conversations, Ed could tell that Gary had lived a tough life and wouldn’t annoy his customers with the wrong sorts of questions.
“How’s the wife and kid?”
“Same shit, different day,” Ed joked.
“Ha!”
Gary leaned toward Ed and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Had some folks come in asking questions on Sunday, asking if I’d seen a guy, two girls, and two kids. Showed me a picture.”
“That so?” Ed asked, wondering if he should drop his basket and reach into his jacket to grab his Walther PPK.
“Yeah,” Gary said, looking like he was about to start asking the kinds of questions Ed had hoped that he wouldn’t. “Looked familiar.”
“Yeah? So, what else did he say?”
“He said they were wanted for some serious shit, but wouldn’t tell me what. Asked if I’d seen anyone that fit the description.”
Ed kept calm, watching Gary’s reactions to mine the man’s aim. Gary was good at holding emotions close to his vest.
Is he fishing for information, or wanting me to know that he knows I’m not who I say?
“So, what did you say?” Ed asked, meeting Gary’s eyes.
“I told him to get fucked, that’s what I said, Goddamned government types always up in people’s business.” Gary laughed.
Ed smiled, allowing himself to release the slightest sigh of relief.
Gary continued. “Didn’t look a thing like anyone I knew. For one, the guy was bald. And he certainly didn’t have a beard.”
Ed smiled. Gary was good people, as Ed’s grandpa would’ve said.
“Well, I better go stock these.” He patted the side of box.
“All right,” Ed said. “Thank you.”
“No problem. You let me know if you need any help dealing with pests.”
Ed wasn’t sure what kind of help Gary was offering, but smiled and thanked him just the same.
Ed finished shopping, paid in cash, then went out to his truck, acid boiling his stomach. He looked around, searching for anyone camped out with their eyes on the store.
The woods could be crawling with agents, and Ed wouldn’t be able to see them.
Gary might not have knowingly sold him out, but there was no way of knowing if the man had managed to mask his initial reaction to the photo. If the agents had seen the slightest trace of recognition they’d be on the store, waiting — and now closing in. Like Ed, they were trained to spot lies even from the best liars.
