The Enoch Plague (The Enoch Pill Book 2)

by Matthew William

  “I’m sorry,” Kizzy said.

  “Don’t be,” Josephine said, shaking her head. “I was wrong.”

  Kizzy didn’t say a word. She didn’t want to agree, but she didn’t want to say that it was alright either.

  Josephine leaned over and kissed her forehead. Kizzy sat there shocked.

  “We’ll go to Uncle together,” Josephine said. “We’ll fix this goddamn world so that you don’t have to give up your future.”

  “Do you mean it?” Kizzy asked.

  Josephine nodded with red, tearful eyes and a smile.

  They walked back into the house, but no one else was around. Leo and Diego must have each gone to their separate rooms.

  “I’ll talk to Leo,” Josephine said.

  “What are you going to say?” Kizzy asked.

  “I don’t know… I don’t know how I’m going to forgive him, but what else can I do? Hold on to bitterness forever?”

  Kizzy was impressed, she didn’t think Josephine had it in her. “And you’ll tell him that we’re all going together?”

  “We’re all going together,” Josephine said. “That’s the only way.”

  Kizzy went to her room, pushed aside the IV drip, and sat down on her bed. She was completely exhausted and her body ached. Diego came in and sat down beside her.

  “How are you?” he asked.

  “Good,” Kizzy said. “A bit confused, but I’m okay.”

  “It must have been fate that caused your birth.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “It’s just so... out of the ordinary. It shouldn’t have happened. I mean, Leo told me everything and it all makes sense now why you exist. And why I exist. I have to protect you. It’s destiny.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Kizzy said, although she didn’t know what to believe. She just knew what things definitely weren’t so.

  “There’s a plan for everything Kizzy.”

  “Again, we’ll see.”

  “We will. Goodnight Kizzy.”

  “Goodnight.”

  He went and laid on a rug on the floor and wrapped a blanket around himself.

  “What are you doing?” Kizzy asked.

  “Going to bed.”

  “Did you sleep there last night?”

  “Yeah. Is that alright?”

  “Why there?”

  “I got used to sleeping on hard surfaces. And I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  “Isn’t it uncomfortable?” she asked.

  “Sort of.”

  “There’s room up here,” she said, scooting over on the bed.

  With a smile he hopped up and laid next to her. Kizzy turned off the light.

  She tried to get some sleep, but all she could do was stare up at the ceiling. She was nervous with anticipation. Out of nowhere, she had a father. It was nearly two months ago now that she had lost her mother, but they had never gotten along. Logic would dictate that she should get along great with her father. Nonetheless, the loss of her mother had left such a massive cavity in her chest that nothing ever seemed like it would be big enough to fill it. Now with a father, that emptiness would be gone.

  And here she was on the precipice of gaining that relationship. What were the chances that they would cross paths multiple times without ever knowing who the other was?

  It was pure luck. Maybe not fate as Diego had implied, but rather blind, impartial happenstance.

  Whatever it was, Kizzy was eager to live another day, a feeling she hadn’t had in a while. The prospect of becoming a mother had been laying constantly on her horizon and the passing of time only brought it closer and closer. And with that problem possibly solved she almost felt ready to be happy.

  They next morning she awoke in that dazed fog that tends to follow a poor night’s sleep. Diego was still asleep next to her. With slow steps Kizzy went out to the kitchen.

  Leo sat there at the table, probably waiting for her, staring out the window, holding a cup of tea. The bag’s string was woven between each of his fingers. Kizzy sat down across from him and smiled, waiting to hear what nuggets of wisdom he had for her, anticipating whatever father/daughter coronation was the custom back before the plague.

  Leo looked up at her, his grayish blue eyes full of some unknown emotion, he sighed and looked back down into his cup.

  “So...” Kizzy said, almost in the tone of a question, not sure of where to go next. “You’re my father huh?”

  Leo gave a weak laugh and lightly knocked on the table. He stared back out the window. “Look, I uh don’t know… what you’re expecting ...”

  Footsteps approached.

  Leo stopped and looked eagerly to see who was coming. Kizzy turned and saw Josephine walking right back out the doorway.

  “This isn’t...” he sighed and set down his cup. “I’m not...” he shook his head and got up and left. Kizzy sat there at the table wondering what had just happened. This wasn’t the reunion she had in mind. What had she done wrong?

  She sat by herself in the kitchen for a moment, feeling more alone than she had in a long, long time, with just his cup of tea for company.

  An instant later Josephine came back through the door. She sat down in the chair next to Kizzy and wrapped an arm around her.

  “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she said, as if she could read Kizzy’s mind.

  “Why does it feel like I did?” Kizzy asked, looking out the window.

  Leo was standing beneath the walnut tree in the yard smoking a cigarette.

  “He’s a flawed person,” Josephine said. “There’s something wrong with him. That’s probably what made me attracted to him in the first place.”

  “What should I do then?” Kizzy asked.

  “Nothing,” Josephine said, holding her close. “Welcome to the wonderful world of dealing with parents.

  Kizzy nodded and stared at the tea cup.

  “He’s the bad guy here,” Josephine said.

  “It doesn’t feel like it.”

  “Help me with something,” Josephine said.

  They gathered up all of the computer pieces from the floor and laid them out over the table. Josephine soldered some pieces back in and replaced those that were broken. It was a nice, relaxing distraction. Once the computer was working again, Josephine opened the file that stored the blueprints for the Uncle facility. She printed them out into large blue squares and spread them out on the table.

  “So this is it,” she said, overlooking the blueprints, an almost childlike glee and mysticism to her voice. She pointed to one end of the facility. “We’ll enter here. We’ll turn the power back on here and we’ll speak to Uncle in the communication room here.”

  It was a small, square room down below the rest of the facility, like a strange arm penetrating into the earth.

  “Why is it separated like that?” Kizzy asked.

  “Because that’s where it’s the most quiet. Isolated from all the noise of the world. Uncle is a brilliant mind, but flawed and without imagination. You give him the facts and he can come up with inspired solutions. But left on his own, that’s where his limitations become obvious. We start him up and we’ll give him all the facts. And then we’ll sit back and bask in his brilliance.”

  “And if he doesn’t know what to do?”

  “He’ll know,” Josephine said without a trace of doubt.

  Kizzy couldn’t help but think of the answers she had expected and failed to get from Leo. Would Josephine feel the same emptiness if Uncle was unable to answer her questions?

  Diego wandered into the kitchen. A fourth wheel to all this madness.

  “What’s all this?” he asked.

  “It’s where we’re going,” Kizzy said.

  “Looks fun.”

  Josephine rolled up the printouts and slid them into a leather carrying case. “How strong are you feeling?”

  Leo came running into the house, holding the black duffel bag. “We have a problem.”

  “What is it?�
� Josephine asked.

  “Mutants,” he said, panting as he opened the bag and took out a shotgun.

  “How many?” Diego asked.

  “All of them, I think.”

  “Are you serious?” Josephine asked

  “Why would I even joke about this?” Leo asked, nervously loading the shells into the gun.

  The others ran through the house turning off the lights and closing the windows like madmen.

  “Where are they headed?” asked Diego.

  “They’re headed for Kizzy,” Josephine said.

  “They can hear me somehow,” Kizzy said, tired and perplexed that the seemingly mindless mutants were able to track her down.

  “It has something to do with sound,” Josephine said. “I just don’t know what it is yet.”

  They sat in the dark living room, waiting. Josephine lit a lantern and sat it on the coffee table. They could hear the mutants walking right outside the house, growling, moving slowly.

  Josephine began to speak. “The mutants left me because they could tell that I’m infertile. They were brought out to the country because they could hear Kizzy. You make some sort of siren song to them, and it will disturb them to no end until they destroy you.”

  “So what can we do?” Leo asked.

  “I don’t know. We’re stuck here until I can find a solution,” Josephine said. “What I can’t understand for the life of me is why the noise the men reported hearing had two tones.”

  There was a loud crack of breaking wood. Leo sprang to the window and opened the curtains an inch.

  “Keep it closed,” Josephine shouted to him.

  “I’m just looking out,” he yelled. “They’re tearing the siding off the house. Kizzy get away from the window!”

  Kizzy backed away to the far end of the room by the fireplace.

  A mutant’s arm came smashing through the wall and grabbed Kizzy by the shoulder. Leo came and blasted the shotgun three times, taking off the arm at the elbow. The hand kept hold of Kizzy’s shirt, she yanked it off and threw it to the floor. The mutant screamed outside and pulled his entire body through the wall.

  Leo stood between the mutant and Kizzy.

  “Timothy, calm down. It’s me Leo. Get a hold of yourself!”

  The mutant went berserk. With the back of its hand it knocked Leo across the room and into the wall. The hanging pictures fell and Leo spit blood out onto the floor. The mutant’s hand made a fist so tight that black blood began to drip between its fingers. He smashed his arm into the fireplace and the stones crumbled to the floor. Kizzy backed away. The man grabbed a desk and hurled it at her. Kizzy could only watch as it tumbled towards her. At the last second she was tackled out of the way and behind the flaming couch. The desk burst into pieces against the far wall. It was Diego who had saved her. Kizzy tried to run for the duffel bag, but the mutant crossed the room and grabbed her by the leg, pulling it out from under her. She slammed violently onto the floor. The mutant towered over her, covering its left ear. It appeared to be in tremendous pain. It raised its fist to strike the death blow.

  “No!” Leo yelled. With the shotgun he fired into the mutant’s stout torso. It screamed as black blood was splattered across the room. Kizzy ducked down. Leo pumped the shotgun and fired again and again and again as he marched towards the beast. The three blasts entered the flesh of the creature, but none proved fatal.

  But the mutant was distracted enough for Kizzy to crawl away. The mutant reached for her again and grabbed her by the ankle. Leo emptied three more shots into its chest, pumping the shotgun with shaky arms. The mutant was knocked back by each shot, until finally it fell to the floor. Still it crawled towards Kizzy.

  Now out of ammo Leo took the shotgun and swung it like a baseball bat into the back of the mutant’s skull. Again and again he bludgeoned the mutant. Finally, the beast stopped moving. It was apparent the man was now subdued but Leo, still in a rage, continued to wail at the body with the shotgun again and again and again. Soon he stood, hunched over, panting, staring up at the others with frenzied eyes, covered head-to-toe in black blood.

  “I think you got him,” Diego said.

  “I think I’m gonna die,” Leo exhaled. He stepped away from the mutant and winced in pain. “And I think I broke my damn ankle.”

  Kizzy helped him stay on his feet.

  “How did you do that?” Josephine asked, staring at the downed mutant.

  “I did a lot of pushups in prison,” Leo said.

  Two more beasts came barreling through the hole in the wall.

  Kizzy helped Leo as they all went to the lab. Josephine closed the door behind them.

  “This is an extra-durable security door,” Josephine said. “So it should buy us some time.”

  There was a loud bang from the other room as a dent appeared in the wall next to the door.

  “At least the door’s strong,” Leo commented.

  “The rest of the lab is barricaded too,” Josephine said. “At least that’s what the contractor told me.”

  She pressed a button and slowly the metal covers on the windows began to descend.

  Kizzy and Diego laid Leo onto the bed that sat in the corner of the room. Kizzy looked out the windows. One overlooked the backyard, the other the porch. Unfortunately, the car was out of view around the front of the house.

  “Leave them open so we can make a run for the car,” Leo said, trying to get up and falling right back down onto the bed.

  “Let me take a look at that,” Josephine said and got down to examine his ankle.

  Kizzy kept an eye on the windows, hoping the mutants wouldn’t come around front. They all continued to pound on the other side of the wall. The dents were growing deeper and deeper.

  “Well, it’s a sprain and not a break,” said Josephine. “But we won’t be able to make a run for the car.”

  “What can we do?” Diego asked.

  “Old tricks always work the best,” Josephine said as she took the cross from her duffel bag and went to put it into her laptop. “Oh no...”

  “What is it?” Kizzy asked.

  “The computer doesn’t have the right input,” she said. “I never got around to installing a USB drive.”

  “So?”

  “So the cross won’t work,” Josephine said.

  Kizzy eyed the USB in the woman’s hand. “Oh yes it will.”

  Josephine held it away from her. “It’ll kill you.”

  Diego and Leo meanwhile were flipping the bed up on its side to barricade the wall. The mutants on the other side continued to bashed against it. Plaster crumbled down to the floor.

  “Woah,” Leo shouted, struggling to stay in front of the bed with his gimpy ankle.

  “Do you have a radio anywhere?” Diego asked.

  “Not that I can think of,” Josephine said.

  “Think!” he yelled.

  “I don’t know,” Josephine said.

  “The cruisers were equipped with pretty good speakers,” Leo said.

  Diego ran to the window.

  “What are you doing?” Kizzy asked.

  “Buying us some time. You have the keys?” he asked Leo.

  Leo reached into this pocket and tossed them to Diego.

  “Where should we meet you?” Kizzy asked.

  “At the highway exit,” Diego said.

  Josephine pressed a button and the windows slid open.

  “Wish me luck,” he said as he hopped out the other window and down to the ground.

  The mutants stopped their banging on the other side of the wall.

  Before Kizzy could even speak Diego was gone, and she very distinctly realized that that could be the last time she saw him. It was moments later that he came driving into view, loud reggae music blasting from the speakers, and the mutants giving chase. The police cruiser sped down the one and only road away from the house.

  “That kid’s an idiot,” Leo said. “But he’s braver than I am. We’ve got to get out of here.”

&nb
sp; Soon after the car left hearing range, Josephine cracked open the lab door. Outside, the kitchen was empty.

  “They’re all gone?” Kizzy asked.

  Josephine nodded.

  They left the room and crept towards the front door. Leo had his arm wrapped around the two women as he limped.

  Kizzy rounded the corner and came face to face with a mutant in the living room. It was the one Leo had beaten to within an inch of its life, now standing up on its own two feet. The three healthy humans stood there in shock. The mutant struggled to stand. It growled. Black blood bubbled from the wounds on its snow-white flesh. It slapped its ear as if its hearing was going in and out. It stared them and the hatred grew in its swollen black eyes. It came tumbling towards them.

  Kizzy screamed and a crow flew in through the hole in the wall. It began to peck at the mutant, going directly for its face. With the beast distracted they were able to run out the door and into the garage where Josephine’s old electric car sat.

  “That thing won’t start,” Leo said scornfully.

  “We might as well try,” Josephine said.

  They climbed in, Josephine pressed the button and the car started right up.

  “Finally a bit of luck,” she said as she pulled out of the garage and drove off, back towards the highway. “After everything that’s happened I feel like I deserve a bit of luck.”

  14

  “Make sure you use a pulse-transmitting USB,” Josephine commanded.

  “That’s oddly specific,” Devon said, looking up from the instructions and the blueprint of the office building she had sent him.

  “It has to be if we want to use it.”

  Devon scribbled a note. “2 pulse-transmitting USBs.” One would be for her, the other for him. Naturally, hers would be empty. He’d be back in control soon enough. It was all so distasteful to be taking orders like this, especially from a woman

  “I’ll get you an invite to the facility,” Josephine said, “as a sub-contracting programmer. You’ll have to make your own VIP tag, I’ve sent you the specs. That will get you into the deepest depths of the building.”