Rufus pointed down to the floor and then, continuously signaling for them to follow, he hurried to the outside of the structure.
They followed him and Rufus led them to the other side of the mural wall. He crouched down to a small bush surrounded by broken branches, reached his hand in and lifted. The entire bush along with the branches lifted.
Rufus pointed down.
“They’ve hidden the stairs,” Hal said.
Chaka interpreted. “He says this is a hiding place of many young Primals.”
Frank smiled arrogantly. “Oh, yeah, I guess that gift did come in handy after all. Huh, Hal?”
Hal ignored his remark and was the first to head into the hatch.
TWENTY-ONE – Beginnings
Ellen didn’t get much sleep, in fact she didn’t believe she would get any. But the second she sat on the side of the bed and took off her jeans, she plopped sideways and passed out.
She slept so hard, she didn’t dream and the ringing phone jolted her awake. She reached for it and saw it was Jenny. She panicked thinking she slept in for school until she saw it was only seven in the morning.
“Hello.”
“Ellen, hey, did I wake you?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. What’s up?”
“I figured you were sleeping. Because I just couldn’t see you letting Billy out on the streets with Frank before the sun was even up.”
“What?” Ellen sat straight up.
“That’s what I thought. They were all over town this morning, both drinking coffee. I know Frank feels more youthful since his magic cream but it’s not responsible. He even said he’s not coming to school today.”
“I’ll handle it. Thank you for telling me.”
“And Ellen, he shouldn’t drink coffee. He’s already small enough.”
“Thanks, Jenny.” She hung up and stood.
What the hell was going on? Dean was supposed to be with Hank. Maybe Dean gave Billy permission to be with the clone. She stumbled from her bedroom and no sooner did she pass Alex’s room, she knew what was going on.
“Dean!” she blasted her loudest.
Dean jumped and rolled out of bed with a thump to the floor.
Alex didn’t budge.
“What’s going on?” Dean asked.
“How about you’re sound asleep and our son is out running around Beginnings with the clone.”
“Which son?”
“Which one do you think? The abnormal one.”
Dean huffed a little with a chuckle. “Well, El, they’re all strange in their own way.”
“Dean. It’s Billy.”
Immediately, Dean jumped up. “Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll find them. Where are they?” He asked
“All over. I have no idea.”
He held up a hand, tripped over dolls and walked to the door. He kissed Ellen on the cheek and walked out quickly. “I’ll find them.”
“Dean.”
He kept walking.
“Your ...” the door closed. “Hair.” After shrugging, Ellen headed to the kitchen to make some coffee. It was going to be an interesting day.
<><><><>
When Dean walked from the house, he knew immediately it was an odd sight to see, but a welcome one. He looked at his watch. Joe had just stepped on his porch and took a seat. Joe rarely was still home at seven. However, he held a steaming cup of coffee,
“Morning, Dean. Nice hair.”
“Joe.” Dean took a few steps, stopped, veered off quickly to Joe’s porch, reached over the railing, grabbed the coffee and walked off.
“Dean!” Joe yelled. “Goddamn it.”
Dean sipped as he walked. He needed it and enjoyed it even though Joe used cream. What he wanted to do was down that whole cup, but it was too hot. He steadily sipped until he made his way through the living section, then he finished it and set the cup on the steps of Hap’s house.
He rushed through town to the clinic. His lab was dark.
“Morning, Dean,’ Patrick said.
“Oh, hey, did you see Billy and Frank?”
“A while ago, but they left. Said something about the bakery.”
“Thanks.” Dean spun around.
“Nice hair.”
“Thanks.” Dean kept a steady pace, straight down the hall and out the door. He crossed the street and saw Dan coming out of the bakery. “Hey, Dan.”
“Wow, good hair. Did Bentley do that?” He laughed.
“Um, yeah. Have you seen Billy and Frank?”
“I saw them this morning up at the killer baby region.”
“What!” Dean squealed.
“Dean, please, it’s Frank. He was fine. After that, I haven’t seen them.”
“Oh my God.”
“I did.” Josephine said from behind. “I saw your clone.”
“Excuse me, what?” Dean asked.
“Your lookalike, your son, Skippy. I saw him with the big dummy about an hour ago. They were headed into containment.”
“Thank you.” Dean started to leave.
“They aren’t there,” Josephine said. “The hot queer chased them out. It was funny.”
“Do you know where they went next?”
“What do I look like, your fucking game partner in a Where’s Waldo Challenge?”
Dean cringed.
“Are you looking for my nephew and brother?” Jimmy Slagel asked as he came from the bakery.
“Ah, Jimmy, yes, thank you.” Dean said. “I forgot you were in town.”
“Yes, everyone does,” Jimmy said. “Yesterday I thought my brothers all went somewhere and didn’t invite me. Then I saw Frank. He looks good since he dropped the weight.”
“Uh, yeah. Do you know where he went?”
“I tried to talk to him but he kept walking. Being an asshole, hiding Billy from school, Jenny said. They went below to the cryo labs.”
“Thank you.” Dean grabbed hold of Jimmy’s arms. “And uh, I’m sorry everyone forgets about you.”
“Eh, it’s been that way my whole life.” Jimmy shrugged.
Thanking him again, Dean headed toward the Cryo tunnels.
Sure enough, he knew when he approached the lab he had found them. The light was on and it carried into the tunnel. He buzzed in and was surprised to see Henry there as well.
Billy was across the lab seated before a computer, while Henry and Hank appeared to be hanging out by the counter.
“Billy.” Dean called out.
Billy turned around. “Oh, hey, Dad.”
“We were looking for you. We were worried.”
Billy snickered. “I’m sure.” He returned to the computer.
Dean noticed the bandages on Hank’s arm. “What happened to him?”
“Guilty.” Billy raised his hand. “I was trying to get blood.”
“What?”
“Then I stepped in,” Henry said. “William taught me. Then I helped with blood the last outbreak. It took a few tries but we go it.”
Dean looked at Hank. “Why did you let my son do that?”
“He said he was you.”
“In my defense,” Billy said. “You thought I was him, so I just went with it.”
Dean looked at Henry. “And you encourage this?”
“Hey, I saw them getting kicked out of Containment. I just wanted to get them out of sight.”
Dean nodded. “Billy, what are you up to?”
“Running some test. Not just blood. I’m still learning that. But other tests.” He slid from the stool, walked over and grabbed his book bag. He removed a notebook and handed it to Dean. “I wanted to test him with different people, different scenarios. For example…” Billy reached up and pointed. “It’s not Frank, it’s whatever you did to him. Killer babies flew for the fence and tried to attack when they saw him. Dan from Security said it was the magic cream because he never saw them get that bold. I saw its him.”
“You could be right.” Dean flipped a page.
&nb
sp; “And it is amazing how many people didn’t think twice about him. They just assumed he was Frank. And by the way, you may want to do something with that hair.”
Henry laughed. “I didn’t want to say anything. It’s funny.”
Dean scooted over to the mirror over the sink. The entire right side of his hair stood up. “Swell.” He tried patting it down, then gave up. “All this is really cool of you to do, and I appreciate it, but …”
“But nothing. I can’t look at DNA. I’m still learning that program, but I can work a microscope. You need to take a look at his white blood cells. Specifically the T and B cells.”
Dean walked over to the microscope, flipped on the computer and brought the image to the screen. “Holy shit.”
“What are they?” Henry asked.
“Basically, your body defenders,” Dean replied.
“Someone mutated him.” Billy said. “It wasn’t you.”
“Don’t be too sure about that,” Dean said.
“For real?”
“Just something me and Ellen were working on when we were practicing cloning and embryos. But I am years from perfecting it. Years.”
“Maybe during gestation?”
“Possibly.” Dean rushed across the lab to the long white cooler.
“Dean?” Henry quizzed. “What does all that mean.”
“It means, if Billy’s right, like LEP are bred to withstand the elements, he seems to be bred to be impervious to infection,” Dean explained. “This was done either on purpose or by nature.”
“What are you doing now?” Henry asked.
“Testing that theory,” Dean said. “With something I know we can cure.” He opened the case. “I’m looking for Typhoid.”
“Dean!” Henry snapped. “You can’t give him Typhoid. That’s highly contagious.”
Dean winced. “You’re right. I was aiming high.” He looked at Billy.
Billy shrugged. “I’d go with staph. You have pretty good results in beating that.”
“Staph. Yes, Thank you.”
“Is it right?” Henry asked. “Honestly, is it right to do to him.”
“Probably not.” Dean replied, then went back to searching the case.
TWENTY-TWO – POLW
When Frank was eleven years old, he and Doug Mason used to head down to the abandoned Tire and Lube shop on Fifth and Oak. There they would hide out and make the old Tire and Lube their clubhouse until they tore that place down. The basement of the church reminded him of that time. It was obviously a place where the younger ones ‘hung’ out. There was food and other items. Even short torches for light.
“We may want to think about camping here for the night,” Hal said, as he took a break from searching. “It’ll be dark in a couple hours.”
“Yeah,” Frank agreed. “Right now the torches are helping but once we lose the sun through that hatch it could be too dark.”
“Got it!” Robbie announced. “I think.” He lifted Hal’s sword and pushed it into the ground. It clanked. “Yep. I’m sure this is the spot.”
“Well don’t dull my sword,” Hal stated. He stood and looked.
Finding the box wasn’t as easy as they planned or it sounded. Any markings left by Dean were long gone and instead of digging everywhere, they used the sword as a searching tool, drilling into the ground. There had to be fifty groundhog looking holes.
“Has to be it,” Frank said. “It’s near the wall.”
Robbie returned the sword to Hal and grabbed a piece of branch, they had gathered sturdy sticks for the actual digging.
It didn’t take long to uncover the slab of marble that rested on the box,
The box itself was long and heavy and both Frank and Chaka to break the seal and open it.
They all cheered.
“I wouldn’t have believed this to work,” said Chaka. “What is this?” he pointed.
It wasn’t what Frank expected to see first thing when opening the box. A small baby doll rested on top, around its neck hung a plastic covered note.
“In case you need this in your Planet of the Apes world. Danny.”
“Oh, Danny is funny.” Frank lifted the doll.
“Why is that there. I thought you needed weapons,” Chaka said.
“Inside joke.” Frank handed him the doll. “We may need it.”
Chaka took the doll into his hands and as soon as he touched it, the doll cried out, “mama.” He dropped it. “It speaks.”
Frank laughed then dove into the box.
In fact, all three of the Slagel men dug into that box as if it were Christmas time.
“Weapons, Dean Ami, ammunition,” Hal accounted for the items.
Frank immediately grabbed a weapon and loaded it, then he reached in the box. “My snack cake.” Frank pulled it out. “Look how good it looks.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Hal said. “It looks petrified. So please don’t eat it.”
“Fine.” Frank placed the newer weapon behind the waist of his pants.
“Hey, guys,” Robbie held up a bag. “Dean left a note. A long one.”
Hal held out his hand. “Let me see.” After getting the bag, he opened it. “Oh.”
“What’s it say?” Frank asked. “Read it.”
“It says. Mission is over,” read Hal. “Good news, Johnny is in Beginnings. Fort had his own time device, sent Johnny back and went off to another time long before the plague.”
Frank gave an impressed nod to Chaka. “You called that one.”
“And …” Hal continued. “He has a warning. Please watch Robbie. Apparently, he had returned in a glitch of time and disappeared again. He was bound to a post, badly beaten, and his arm nearly tore from his body.” Hal handed Robbie the note.
“Oh, wow.” Robbie said. “I wonder how that happens.”
“Bound, beaten and torn apart,” Chaka said. “That is the Segavas.”
“No need to wonder.” Hal took the note. “It won’t happen.”
“That’s right,” Frank said. “Robbie goes back. He goes back now. Hal, you have the pendant, give him yours. I have one in my pack…” Frank pointed. “And the other is hidden at the beach if we need to go there.”
“No.” Hal stood. “No. We all go back. We go back together.”
Chaka cleared his throat. “I know my beautiful pet may be having my offspring, but would it be too much to ask for a pendant? I would like to not go back just yet. I believe this is my time. Either things have changed or it is before the ravaging war. I would like to find my family. To see them. I lost them all. My parents, my brothers, all died. I would like to see them.”
Hal nodded. “Absolutely. And you don’t need to return. Jenny will understand. If this is where you need to be, then you stay. But we … “He pointed. “We leave. Our mission was to find Fort and Johnny, they aren’t here.”
“We talked about this, Hal,” Frank argued. “We did. We talked about brother bonding and sightseeing.”
“Before we knew something happens to Robbie,” Hal quipped.
“That’s why we send him back,” Frank said. ‘Don’t you want to see how the LEP live? How advanced they are?”
“No.” Hal shook his head. “I believe we have seen enough. Landscape is different, time has changed, humans have regressed, we don’t need to see the LEP.”
“I do,” Robbie said. “I really want to see them. I mean, Chaka says his Hubra are civilized. Let’s go find his family.”
“It’s highly irresponsible to take that risk,” Hal said. “It really is. We go back now, the adventure is over.”
“Come on, Hal,” Robbie pleaded. “Let’s do this. I’ll be careful, I promise. And you guys know there can be problems. Are you really gonna let something happen to me?”
Passionately, Hal looked at him. “I cannot take that chance, Little Brother. With you or Frank.”
“Frank?” Robbie asked. “Come on.”
“Hal, let’s just stay one more day. If we don’t find the LEP, we leave,�
�� Frank said. “We’ll have his back.”
Hal huffed, then pointed at Robbie. “Fine. However, any inkling of trouble, any … you go back. If I have to drag you there myself, you are going home. Deal?”
Robbie grinned. “Deal.” He darted a kiss to Hal’s cheek.
Frank clapped his hands together once. “Okay, we’re good. Why don’t we just kick back here for the night.” He reached for his bag. “Then tomorrow we’ll …” He paused and his eyes lifted upward to the sound of galloping.
“I didn’t hear a tusk trumpet,” Hal said. “Did you?”
“Hal, you know horses. Any guess how many are up there?”
Hal listened. “Not many. Four, five. Maybe six tops.”
Chaka inhaled sharply. “The language.”
“What about it?” Hal asked.
“It’s not the Segavas,” he replied. “It’s the Hubra, my tribe. Listen.”
Frank held his ear piece tighter to try to pick up a voice.
“The Elder Primal said they came this way. Search.”
“Fuck!” Frank bit his lip. “The old man turned us in.”
“They must have hit their camp,” Chaka said, “he bartered.”
“Frank?” Robbie whispered. “The hatch. It’s open.”
“Shit.” Frank moved toward the stairs when he saw Rufus run that way. “Rufus, stay back.”
Rufus ran up the stairs and Frank rushed to follow him. The moment the boy’s head emerged from the hatch, he was lifted high and fast.
Frank charged after.
“No.” Chaka stopped him. “Let me. I will say I followed him down here. Stay.”
Chaka raced up the stairs. He called out as he did, “I am a friend. I am from…” Chaka didn’t get to finish. No sooner did his upper body clear the edge of the hatch, a club of sorts swooped down, nailing him so hard in the head, the moment and strength of the hit lifted him up from the stairwaell.
“Fuck,” Frank grunted. “So much for that.”
He listened to the voices.
“I thought he was a Segavas.”
“Clearly he is not. No one wears clothing like this. Get him medical attention.”
“Check the area, the star men are here.”
“Star men?” Hal questioned.
Escape the Planet of the LEPS: Beginnings Series Book 28 Page 10
