“I’m just going to make him let us in.” Eva started to get up, but Cole grabbed her arm and held her there. “Hey!”
“Look!” Cole said.
Jayne raised her burning hand in the air, pointed a finger, and then dipped it dramatically into the garbage can. The can went up in flames, an eruption of fire and sparks and smoke.
“See?” Cole said, proudly. He was proud of Jayne.
“Holy crap,” Brady said, “that exploded.”
“You didn’t…?” Eva started what sounded like a question.
“Shhhh,” Cole said.
Jayne gave Cole a thumbs up, and then she disappeared. Her cloud of black smoke joined the smoke from the can and billowed into the air. Mark swore when he saw the fire. His body jerked in the direction of the burning garbage can, then stopped, as though he were chained to the spot he’d been occupying since the trio had arrived.
“Come on,” Cole whispered.
Mark ran over to the can, which was burning quite spectacularly.
“Let’s go,” Cole said. “Now!”
They ran out of the bush while Mark tried his best to smother the fire, emptying a bottle of water on it with little effect. Eva, Brady, and Cole closed in on the clinic and only slowed down when they were near the entrance, where they sneaked through the front doors while Mark resorted to scooping up dirt and tossing it onto the flames.
The lobby was empty.
“Listen,” Cole started on his way to the unoccupied nurse’s station, “you guys go check on your people, I’m going to track down Scott.”
“Meet back here in what? Fifteen?” Eva suggested.
They all agreed. Eva and Brady ran off to see Wayne and Elder Mariah respectively, and Cole hopped over the desk at the nursing station to try and find the room assignment for Scott. He started to finger through papers. Nothing on the desk. That’d be too easy. The top drawer had a nursing schedule that was over a week old. Were the nurses also told not to work? Did Dr. Captain know that? If they weren’t working, who was looking after the patients? Second drawer…some snacks, pencils, an extra stethoscope…useless. The computers were on, but password protected.
“I guess we’re doing it the old fashion way,” Cole said to himself, opting to jog through the halls until he tracked Scott down—and, hopefully, information about the folder.
As Wayne had said, people in their hospital beds looked almost as sick as when they had the flu, but not the same sick. Still, Cole wondered if something was wrong with his blood. Did the cure in his blood only half-work, or just work for a period of time, and then people got sick again? Was that because they’d administered his blood the way they had? If any of this were true, it made sense why they were guarding the clinic and not letting people in anymore.
“Was that why you didn’t let me leave?” Cole asked Choch out loud, but why had they let people visit patients in the clinic in the first place? That didn’t make sense. They’d been kicked out just when Eva had asked about the vitamins. It couldn’t have been a coincidence.
He needed answers.
He jogged down a hallway, whipping his head from left to right while he ran, checking each room. No Scott, just sick-looking Wounded Sky residents. Wayne was right. They didn’t look flu-sick, just sunken. Pale. Tired. Depressed. He made a mental note of the symptoms, and to discuss them with Dr. Captain later.
At the end of the third hallway, Cole found a locked door.
“Hello?” he called, and he pressed his ear against the door to hear a response.
But none came.
He knocked, lightly at first, and then, when nobody answered, he knocked louder.
“Alright.”
It seemed to always come to this. He wrapped one hand around the doorknob and pressed his other hand against the door, then gave one hard, fast push. The door swung open and crashed against the wall. Cole looked down the hallway to see if the sound had alerted anybody, but it remained deadly quiet. Comfortable now that the coast was clear, Cole turned his attention to the room.
There, handcuffed to the clinic bed and attached to a heart monitor and an IV drip, was Scott.
18
GETAWAY
THE LIGHTS WERE OUT IN THE ROOM, and Cole kept them out. He walked over to the bed and stood over Scott. The beating Cole gave Scott at the camp was still tattooed all over his face in discoloured blotches, his blackened eyelids swollen shut. Cole felt a hint of regret that he’d hurt somebody that badly, despite what Scott had done.
“Scott,” Cole whispered.
He didn’t stir.
“Hey!” Cole said. There was no point whispering. Nobody came when the door slammed against the wall, and they weren’t going to come because he’d raised his voice.
Cole poked him in the arm. “Hey, Scott.”
This time, Scott grunted in response, moving his head from one edge of the pillow to the other.
“Scott!”
Scott tried to lift his arms. The handcuffs stiffened and his arms recoiled. His eyes blinked open. “What the fu—”
“Scott.” Cole inched closer to the side of Scott’s bed. He checked the clock on the wall. He had a few minutes before he had to meet Brady and Eva in the lobby, and he needed to be there. If Mark had gone back to his post, and there was no reason to think that he hadn’t, they’d need Cole’s help to get out.
“You…you’re alive.” Scott sounded like he had the worst sore throat ever.
“They didn’t tell you?”
“I haven’t talked to nobody.” Scott tried to inch upward, to sit up a bit, but gave up. “Thought I killed you.”
“I thought I killed you, too…before you stabbed me in the heart,” Cole said. “And after you killed my friends.”
“What do you want me to do? Say I’m sorry?”
“No,” Cole said, “I want information.”
Scott turned his head away from Cole. “I’m not gonna tell you shit.”
“Who hired you to kill my friends? What else are they doing? What have they done?”
Scott didn’t respond.
“Answer me.”
“I told you, city boy. You’re barkin’ up the wrong tree.”
“Was it them? Who are they?” Cole reached over to Scott’s arm, and squeezed it. “What do they want?”
Scott let out a yelp.
“Tell me who they are,” Cole demanded.
“If I tell you anythin’, they’re gonna kill me. They’ll really kill me, bro.”
“Who!?” Cole put his left hand on Scott’s forehead, and turned Scott towards him. He placed two fingers against one side of Scott’s windpipe, and his thumb on the other side. “Do you want to die then, or now?”
“What the hell are you doin’?” Scott croaked.
“I’m going to Roadhouse you, asshole,” Cole said.
“Roadhouse me? What the hell does that mean?”
“What the hell does…you seriously haven’t seen Roadhouse?”
“What’s that? A movie or somethin’?”
“Patrick Swayze?” Cole waited for a response, but Scott’s eyes were glazed over. Cole sighed. Now he felt like an idiot. “I’m going to rip out your windpipe if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”
“You wouldn’t do that.”
Scott was right. Cole wouldn’t do that. But he needed to make Scott believe that he would. Cole took his hands off Scott and wrapped them around the hand rail. He ripped it off the bed and bent it into a U shape. It clanged against the floor. Cole put his hand back on Scott’s windpipe. He was committed to the Roadhouse thing now, even though Scott didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Shit, how did you—” Scott breathed.
“Now.” Cole pressed down.
Scott started to choke under the force.
“All’s I…know, if you’re lookin’…for answers here, you’re in the wrong place, kid. Far’s I know.”
A bit more pressure. “What’s the right place?” Cole hissed.
“They got big…plans for the facility. I heard them…” he coughed, “…heard them talkin’ about it.”
“Of course the facility,” Cole mumbled to himself. “What were they saying?” he asked.
“Screw…you. I’m done. Roadhouse me or whatever.”
Cole’s fingers began to shake thinking about going back to the research facility. His whole body started to shake. Cole took his hand away from Scott’s throat. He gave him as tough a look as he could, despite feeling as weak as he suddenly did. “You’ve told me enough.”
Scott tried to reach his throat, but the handcuffs prevented him. He swallowed, and it looked painful. “You go there and you’re as dead as I am.”
(Say it, CB! Please say it!)
Cole rolled his eyes. “Then I’ll see you in Hell,” he mumbled reluctantly.
(YAAASSSS! You could work on your delivery, but it was still worth it.)
“Excuse me!”
Cole had been walking down the hallway towards the lobby, but he turned in stride to find one of the doctors he’d seen at Elder Mariah’s room just after his blood had cured her. “Yeah?” He tried to remember her name.
“Hold up!” she demanded, coming quickly out of a room.
Cole stopped in his tracks. He was almost at the lobby. He listened for Brady and Eva, but didn’t hear anything. He figured he had some time.
“Yes?” Cole waited until the doctor caught up to him.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” The blonde-haired woman had a clipboard in one arm, and she pulled down a surgical mask to reveal the bottom half of her face.
Cole put on his best acting effort. He looked around as though he were lost. “I don’t know. I was trying to check on my Elder.”
“Elder? Your grandparent, or…”
“No, my Elder. A community Elder. Mariah Apatagan?”
Dr. Ament! That was her name.
“She’s in the other wing,” Dr. Ament pointed broadly in the direction of the other side of the building, and then, as though she’d forgotten that he wasn’t supposed to be here, she added, “are you…was there not somebody at the front door?”
“Oh,” Cole turned towards the lobby, then back to Dr. Ament, trying to think quickly. “He was preoccupied, so…”
“Well, Mr. Harper, you’re not, like I said, you’re not allowed in here.” Dr. Ament hugged the clipboard to her chest. Cole wondered what was on that clipboard. He brushed past her, into the room she’d come from. She chased after him, grabbed his shoulder, and turned him around just as he saw yet another sick patient.
“Well, Dr. Ament,” Cole said, “I want to know what’s going on here. People want to see their friends and family.”
Dr. Ament looked for some indication of how he knew her name because it wasn’t anywhere on her clothes. “That’s just not possible, we’re keeping community members out until—”
“But everybody’s recovered, right? Why would you need to keep family away?”
“We need to understand how it happened, their condition, how it improved so quickly and drastically, and until we do…look, we’re looking out for Wounded Sky’s best interests.”
“The patients look terrible. When Elder Mariah got better, she looked better than all these people right away. What’s happening with them, if they got better so quickly and drastically? Huh?”
Dr. Ament looked like she was scrambling to think of something. “Just, ummm, unforeseen complications in the recovery.”
“You don’t get better from something, then get sick again right after!”
Dr. Ament took a deep breath. “You know, it might help matters if you would allow us to confirm some evidence we have access to, and take a blood sample.”
Cole took a step back. “You have the files,” he gasped.
“The files? What files?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about! The experiments when we were kids, how mine worked and the others didn’t. Ring a bell?”
“It certainly does not.” The clipboard dropped from her chest to her hip, and she raised her own two-way radio. Pressed the button. “I’m calling security.”
Cole slapped it away and it skidded down the hallway.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Dr. Ament went for the radio, but Cole held her back.
“I think one of your patients needs your attention,” he said.
“What?”
Cole ushered Dr. Ament into the room she’d come from. He closed the door and snapped off the door handle, trapping her in there for the time being.
“Let me out of here!” her muffled shout escaped the room, but it wasn’t loud enough to alert Mark or anybody else.
“Sorry-not-sorry,” Cole called back, “but while you’re in there, try being a doctor!”
Cole got to the end of the hallway and turned the corner to find Brady and Eva in the lobby, out of Mark’s sight. They had a guest with them, too. In a wheelchair, looking weak, pale, and cold, sat Elder Mariah. When Cole saw her, he didn’t question Brady and Eva about why they decided to take her away. She was dying. Again. He rushed over to her, knelt at her side, and put his hand on her hand.
“Elder,” he said through tears. “What did they do to you?”
“She won’t say.” Brady stepped around to the front of the wheelchair and looked at his kókom with a pained expression, as though he were sick, too. “I asked her a bunch of times.”
“Elder…” Cole looked her straight in the eyes. She didn’t look away, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she put her hand on his. Her skin was like ice. She turned his hand palm up, then raised her index finger and started to trace his scar. All the while, she didn’t take her eyes off him.
“Yeah,” Cole said, “scars. The northern lights. I remember.” He thought back to the time they’d spent by the fire, and the story she’d told him about how the northern lights were created. That the sky had been cut, and out of the wound came the heavens. The northern lights were the scars that came from that wound.
“We need to get her out of here,” Brady said.
Elder Mariah shook her head.
“That’s all she does when…” Brady put his hands on his hips and stood up “…when I talk about getting her out of here, she just shakes her head, like she wants to stay.”
“Not safe,” she said weakly.
“Why?!” Brady asked.
Cole grabbed Elder Mariah’s hand and squeezed it. “We’re getting you out, Elder. We have to. I’ll keep you safe.”
“Not worried…for…me,” she whispered.
“Is your dad this sick?” Cole asked Eva. “Should we get him out too?”
“He said he’s fine,” Eva said. “He told me not to worry. I mean, he looked fine, so…”
“But is he?”
“Let’s just worry about Elder right now, okay? How do we get her away from here?” Eva asked.
“Mark will flip when he sees us,” Brady said.
“Leave Mark to me,” Cole said. “There’s no other way to go. There’s a guard at the side exit, too.”
They left the lobby, with Cole walking at the front, Brady pushing his kókom behind him, and Eva at their side. Cole first noticed the extinguished garbage can fire, the wood and metal receptacle charred and smouldering. Then he saw Mark. Mark gave Cole a good stare-down, and then he looked the group over, paying special attention to Elder Mariah.
“You’re screwed now,” Mark said.
Cole saw Mark’s hand tightening around the handle of his gun. “We don’t want trouble, Mark. We just want to leave.”
“You asked for trouble when you broke in.” Mark unclipped the strap on his holster. Before he could draw, Cole stepped forward and took a swing at him. Cole’s knuckles connected with Mark’s chin, and he spun around and collapsed to the ground. His gun came to rest near the garbage can. Cole picked it up and shoved it in the back of his jeans.
“That,” Eva said, “was awesome.”
“Second
ed,” Brady said.
“Let’s get somewhere safe,” Cole said, all business.
Soon, they were out front of Brady and Elder Mariah’s place, standing around the fire pit in the front yard, a modest fire burning, not high enough to attract attention. Cole was standing a few feet farther away from the fire than anybody else.
Brady added a piece of wood, then stoked the fire. It snapped, and a few embers jumped into the air. Elder Mariah reached for him and brushed his arm. “Nósisim.”
Eva backed away and stood beside Cole, giving Brady and his kókom space.
“Nókom?” Brady said.
“You need to…take me to the land,” she said. “Do you know where I mean?”
Brady nodded. “Yeah, your cabin. Why?”
“Because they don’t…know about it. They won’t find it.”
“Nókom, what are you afraid of?”
“I’m more afraid of losing you…than I am of them,” she said. “You’ll need to come with me…to the land. You’ll be safe there…you can help me get my strength back.”
“Safe from what?”
“I can’t…”
Brady sighed. “How long is this…how long do I have to go for?”
“Don’t know,” Elder Mariah said, and then she hesitated. She tried to talk, but she couldn’t, or wouldn’t. “You…”
“What?” Brady took his grandmother’s hand. She was shaking. “You’re scaring me.”
“You need to call…your parents. Have them come, too.”
“What?” Brady stood up. He paced back and forth. He crouched down in front of his grandmother, covered his face, and then he rubbed it like he was trying to peel off his skin. Finally, he looked up. “Do you know what you’re asking me to do? I haven’t talked to them for—”
“I know. But for all they’ve done, and said…they’re still family. Right now, they’re in danger.”
“Your cabin is…it’s really small, Nókom. They’re not going to stay in a small cabin like that, not with me. They won’t do it. I won’t, and they won’t.”
“I’ll figure this out, Brady,” Cole said. “It won’t be long, I promise.”
Brady looked at Cole. “What, now your mission is saving me from my homophobic, intolerant, jerk-face parents?”
Monsters Page 16
