by Blou Bryant
Vasca cleared his throat and tapped Wyatt on his arm. “Kids, this is Teri, my daughter, Teri, this is Wyatt and Hannah.”
Wyatt said a tentative, “Hi,” and looked at Vasca, who was watching him closely. He blushed, knowing the older man had seen his disgusted reaction to the child. Hannah, on the other hand, pushed her chair out, came around Sandra and knelt down next to Teri.
“Hi sweetie, did you have a good ride?”
The child gurgled and made a clicking sound in reply.
“Can I have a hug?” Hannah asked. The child gurgled again, and Hannah looked to Vasca, who nodded. Wyatt watched and didn’t understand how she was so comfortable with… it. She hugged the girl and stroked her long white hair. The child hugged back, and she laughed, “Oh, you’ve got quite a grip.”
All Wyatt could look at was Teri’s left ear, which was twisted and only half grown. He felt disgusted at the sight and then disgusted with himself for his reaction. He tapped his fingers three times on his knee in an effort to reduce the stress he felt at his reaction.
The girl watched him closely, her stare disconcerting him. She signed to her father and he said, “I don’t understand.” She signed again and Vasca said to Wyatt, “Teri told me to tell you, ‘three’, if that means anything to you.”
What the hell? He looked at the others at the table to see if anyone had, somehow, given away his habit. To Teri, he said, “What are you, five or six? How’d you know?” Wyatt locked eyes with the little girl. She had piercing eyes that were greener than seemed natural, with disturbing flecks of white that looked like starbursts.
Teri signed and Vasca interpreted, “Teri saw you take three breaths and then your forearm moved three times, just enough to show that the muscles were being used.” He paused. “And, she’s eleven, not five or six. The genetic defects that prevent her from speaking also have slowed her physical development and make her look younger than she is.” With pride, he said, “She has a high IQ and an even higher EQ.”
Wyatt finally understood why the Dogs had taken him in and why they’d been willing to protect them without so much as a dollar changing hands. It wasn’t altruistic, it was all about what he could do for them. “So you want to use the virus in me to cure her?”
“Yes.”
“What makes you think it can?”
“Esaf, explain,” Vasca said.
Esaf had touched none of the food Rocky had brought for them and had been quiet while drinking a large coffee as the others talked. No wonder the man was so skinny, thought Wyatt. “Teri has multiple anomalies in her DNA that have caused significant developmental issues.” Esaf took a sip of his coffee and said, “I believe that the virus you claim infects you can be engineered to give the body an ability to fix itself, to direct its own genetic changes.”
Wyatt didn’t buy that, “That sounds a bit crazy, more than crazy, that’s not possible. If people had the power to control their own evolution, they would have already, we’d know of it. A thousand gurus in India try every day to live forever, and yet every single one who ever lived, also died.”
“True, but they’re idiots, wanting isn’t enough, there isn’t some mystical secret. We could grow wings, the instructions are there in our DNA, but we couldn’t fly even if we had them, we’re too heavy. It’s also possible that we can live forever, but our code is written to kill us. We die because we’re coded to die.”
“And repair is in the code of viruses?”
“Don’t you have the ability to heal, young fool? Of course, our DNA already has the code to heal. Our bodies don’t evolve to heal like a salamander, for instance, which can regrow limbs, but it’s all there, just not used.”
He drank his coffee, finishing it in one long gulp, and waved the cup at Rocky, who got up to get the tall Doctor a refill. “Even if it’s not in our DNA, if it exists in nature, it might be in viruses. Our bodies have more virus cells in them than ‘human’ cells, but unlike our cells, a virus isn’t active, it’s hardly even alive.”
“So how does a virus give us the ability to change?” asked Hannah, listening more intently than Wyatt was. To him, it was all a lot of blah-blah-blah.
“Viruses don’t change us, they’re nothing more than a genetic information delivery system whose outside is built to trick our cells into taking them in. Inside is DNA or RNA that can be adopted by our bodies, that’s it, nothing more. Once inside, the virus hijacks the cell to make copies of its own DNA which it spreads throughout the body.”
“So they’re parasites?” Wyatt asked.
Esaf shrugged and said, “Like I said, there’re more virus than human cells in us, who’re the real parasites? They’ve had a long role in our development and life. A significant part of our DNA comes from viruses.”
Wyatt asked, “So, what’s special about mine? The scientist at the facility said this was blank.”
“The genetic information was removed, it’s a delivery system. Imagine a missile without a bomb inside it.”
“So…”
“Normally, what scientists put inside the virus cuts out a small piece of our normal DNA and replace it with a better, or at least different version. It’s just like taking a computer program and replacing just a few lines of code. That’s what a computer virus does, it directs the program to make a few, very precise changes.”
Esaf continued, “What you have inside doesn’t have those directions yet, you have the equivalent of a missile in you, but it’s an untargeted one, and if it’s armed, it has the potential to be a small bomb or a huge nuke.”
“I’ve got a genetic nuke in me?” said Wyatt. Now he was interested and simultaneously terrified, “What does that mean, what’s the impact to me?”
“I don’t know, this has never been done before, the possibilities are endless,” said Esaf.
Wyatt was aghast, “You’re kidding. You don’t know? Sandra said you were a genius at this. Someone must have tried it in the past, let’s look it up on the internet. Hell, give me my phone, I’ll Google it.”
Esaf nodded, “I am a genius, in this at least,” he said in his rough whisper. “Trust me, you won’t find anything on the Web. Not the normal Web, at least, although there have been experiments.”
“And, what were the outcome of the experiments?” asked Wyatt, suspecting Esaf was talking about himself.
“Everyone died or was so horribly broken they wanted to die. Unchecked DNA mutations are like cancer, the human body isn’t built to handle them.”
Wyatt thought about the experiments Sandra had told him about when they were at the compound. They would do the same to him, their goal wasn’t to save him, he was nothing more than the already dead body, a carrier for the parasites that Esaf needed to cure the child. Wyatt stared at Teri and her broken face and body. Well, I won’t sacrifice myself to save you, he thought. “So, what’s next,” he asked, wondering how he’d manage to escape and where he’d go when he did.
“We find a lab,” said Vasca. “We draw blood and we search for traces of V32 in you.”
“Do you know a safe place?” asked Wyatt with hesitation. It wasn’t like they could just march into a local hospital and ask to use their equipment.
“We have a couple options, people Esaf has worked with online previously, we know a group that might help us.”
“Other mad scientists.”
Vasca grinned evilly, “Only some are scientists, and only some are mad.” Teri signed for a moment and Vasca interpreted him. “Teri says we should ask you how you feel about this.” He looked at the girl and then turned back to Wyatt, his eyes cold, “I don’t agree.”
“I’m not sure it’s in my best interest that I should go with you,” replied Wyatt, firmly.
Vasca chuckled darkly and pulled a knife, pressing it into Wyatt’s side, “It’s a Taco Bell. Do you think anyone would stop me from making you?”
“They’d not stop you, but every one of them would tape it and it’d be on the internet in minutes. Jessica and her dad would
n’t be far behind,” he said, tired of being driven by others. His gaze wandered to the green-eyed child, who was signing furiously.
Hannah said, “Oh, enough from you two men, stop trying to figure out which one of you is the biggest jerk. Vasca, you’re not going to stab, shoot or bludgeon him, at least not with Teri here. You need him to help her. Wyatt, you’re not going off on your own, look up at the TV,” she said, and pointed at a screen opposite the group, “and see what your alternative is.”
Hannah stood up and raised the volume. Jessica was on the screen outside the Red Dog, tears in her eyes. “It was awful,” she said, “all the blood, dead people, I thought I’d be dead too. Please,” she said, looking directly into the camera, “someone stop them before they kill again.”
The feed shifted to a press conference with Golde on a large podium, surrounded by police officers. “I’m announcing an award of one million dollars for the capture of the animals who attacked my poor, innocent little girl.”
Hannah turned the volume back down. “One million dollars, we should turn ourselves in,” she joked.
Wyatt didn’t laugh. She was right about accepting help, he couldn’t do this on his own, not yet at least. Five minutes later, he followed the group and left the restaurant in a soberer mood.
Chapter 15
“Sandra, you take point and Rocky, follow a few car lengths back. We’re going to see The Ancient One,” Vasca said. “You know the way, Sandra? We can’t use GPS with the cops after us, it’s too easy to track.”
“No problem, boss-man, I remember from our last visit,” she said, a twinkle in her eyes, “How could I forget?”
Vasca opened the back of the van, a large gray machine with tinted windows. “In with all of you, let’s get on the road.” A family was getting out of a car next to them and the mother stared for a moment at Wyatt, a vague look of recognition in her eyes. Vasca slammed the door shut before she could make the connection to whatever news site or show she’d seen him on.
Hannah was still as excited as she had been since she’d woken up, and immediately started talking to Teri, who replied with clicks, grunts, whistles and occasional signs. “Slow down, Teri,” Hannah said a few times. “I’m having trouble understanding you!” Wyatt took his seat and watched her warily, worried about the effects of what he’d transferred to her. So far, it looked too good to be true.
Vasca called back from the front, “It’s modified ASL. She was signing early when she was a few months old. She made up a lot of his own signs over the last years, at first we corrected her, tried to get her to use the right ones, but we eventually gave up, she’s stubborn.”
“They’re probably better than the regular ones,” said Hannah. “I bet you’re a smarty pants, aren’t you?”
Vasca replied in an annoyed tone, “Just because Teri looks young doesn’t mean she should be treated like a baby.”
Teri grunted and clicked, and signed towards the back of the driver’s seat.
Hannah laughed, “I believe she swore at you, Vasca, she knows I don’t think she’s a baby.”
Teri signed several more words and Hannah laughed, and said, “That’s right, he’s just an old guy who isn’t any fun. Teach me some of your signs,” she said and the two of them launched into their own conversation.
Wyatt kept quiet. He closed his eyes and guessed at the time. It was probably six thirty or six forty-five. He looked to the front, the dash said it was now 7:00, ouch, he thought, off by fifteen minutes. As always, he was aware his compulsions were stupid, or at least that’s how he was supposed to feel about them. On a day like today, he could cut himself some slack and not feel guilty.
They drove another hour, the van quiet other than occasional questions from Hannah when she didn’t understand something Teri signed. Wyatt tried to understand why she seemed so relaxed and happy at the moment. She, like him, was wanted for murder, pursued by a possible psychopath and her father, their only friends a gang of ‘Altered’ people looking to drain his blood to help them make themselves even weirder.
Hannah noticed he was staring at her and the sour expression on his face, and asked, “What, aren’t you enjoying being on the run with a bike gang? It’s exciting!”
“Does nothing phase you?” he asked.
“Only your handsome black eyes, lover boy,” she said, and giggled at her own joke. Teri signed for a moment and Hannah blushed. “You’re eleven, don’t say that!” she exclaimed.
Wyatt looked at the little girl and noticed the person behind the face for the first time. Her smile was twisted, but there was a spirit to her that radiated outward, and he suspected she was one of those people who got more attractive the more you knew them. He asked Hannah, “What, what did Teri say?”
“Ask her yourself.”
“Fine,” Wyatt said and focused on that small, disconcertingly strange face. “What did you say?”
Teri signed again, slower this time. He didn’t catch much other than, one small phrase, and asked, “Big sugar, is that what you said?”
Hannah laughed and Teri made a sound like a double hiccup, and sign to her new friend, who laughed even harder. Hannah said, “Yes, it was something like that, sugar.”
Feeling hard done by, he grunted and looked back to the front. “Are we there yet?” he asked and wiped the sweat off his brow. He was overheated and, as uncomfortable as people made him, Teri was much worse, with her piercing eyes and strange face.
Vasca said, “Almost, perhaps fifteen minutes away.”
“Do they know we’re coming?”
Esaf replied in his low growl, “They do, but they know nothing about you. Keep quiet when we get there.”
“You don’t want them to steal the golden goose, do you?”
Esaf grunted, “Trust me, little sugar, you don’t want them to. They’ll blood you in a moment.”
And that, thought Wyatt, is how a nickname is born. He asked, “Blood me?”
“That’s what they call it. They’re vampires, they call themselves Cainites for reasons I’ve never bothered Googling.”
Oh, really? It had been a weird day, and it kept getting weirder. He sat silent for a moment, considering what the strange doctor had said. “That’s not possible,” he said. “Is it?” The world was turning out to be a lot more interesting and complex than he’d ever thought.
Esaf chuckled, “Oh, they’re not like what you’d see in a movie, but they call themselves vampires, so we play along, who are we to judge?”
Vasca chimed in, “Big, scary vampires. Make sure to wear a cross or silver,” he said. Wyatt wasn’t sure what was so funny, he had lost his sense of humor.
They’d caught up to Sandra, who turned down a side-road. Vasca followed her and a few miles down, they turned again, this time into a driveway that wound through old willows, their branches reaching for the ground.
A large sign at the entrance warned that “Trespassers Surrender ALL Rights.” At the end of the driveway was an old, decrepit wooden house ready to be swallowed by the dense forest that surrounded it. In the late day’s sun, shadows fell across the paint that peeled to reveal older coats. The windows all appeared to be blacked out, and Wyatt involuntarily shuddered in anticipation of meeting the vampires.
Vasca followed Sandra’s motorcycle around the house and pulled into an open barn. Rocky followed soon after and the group congregated in the entrance. “What’s the plan, boss?”
Vasca said, “Stay here, Rock, watch the bikes and the van. We may need to leave on short notice. Sandra will spell you in an hour and give you a chance to get food. Everyone else, let’s go. Keep your mouths shut. Esaf and I talk, and only we talk, understood?”
Wyatt nodded and followed Vasca. Hannah walked next to him, “I’ve never met a vampire,” she said, in a conspiratorial whisper. Teri made a clicking sound and signed. Hannah watched and said, “Oh well, that’s fun too.”
“What?”
Hannah just smiled and walked past him, and he jumped when she
goosed him on the way by. “You’ll just have to see for yourself, won’t you, little sugar?” she said wickedly.
They walked to the front door and Wyatt watched his step to avoid broken boards in the wrap-around porch. The house was bracketed by two large turrets that had seen better days, old cedar shingles falling off in places, covered in moss in others. They reached the door and before Vasca could knock, it opened with a creak. He winced and Vasca laughed out loud.
A thin woman with long, stringy black hair was already walking away from them as they entered. Her reedy voice floated back, “Linkin has awoken, he awaits you in the reception room, by the fire.” Absent-mindedly she waved her left arm at a door and then glided up the staircase, not bothering to look back to them.
Vasca turned back to Esaf and said, “God I love visiting these guys,” and walked boldly through the open door. “It’s like a sixties pulp movie,” he whispered and then, shouted, “Linkin, we’re here, you can’t get up to greet your guests?”
Wyatt followed Vasca into what appeared to be a combination of living room and Victorian reception. He gazed around at the wide open space, its high ceilings framed by once magnificent wooden moldings. The floorboards were wide and dark wood that had seen better days. The room itself was filled with ancient chairs and couches which were more poor university student décor than modern vampire. Directly opposite the entry was a great fireplace flanked by two winged chairs.
From one chair came a voice that wasn’t clearly male or female, it cracked into a bizarre falsetto. “Oh, Vasca, don’t make me get up to greet you. Come on in and join me. I’m so cold, I’m always cold. I want only the warmth of the blaze and the company of an educated man.”
Vasca approached the chairs as the voice continued, “The Earth is overrun with simple animals, I’m pleased to receive you and yours, and while you are beasts, you’re ones that at least can entertain.” A hand gestured at the chair next to him, Wyatt noting long, thin nails, painted black. As Vasca took a seat next to Linkin, Wyatt walked to a long dark couch, sat down and leaned in to better see this leader of vampires.
