by Platt, Sean
Ed rolled over, quickly wiping his face off with the side of his jacket, and spinning around to see Will holding his rifle and taking aiming at Williams.
He fired, hitting the infected woman in the head and sending her deformed blackened body to the ground in spasms. Will fired again as the child ran toward them, but missed.
The wee monstrosity was fast. It screeched from some part that was still a child, wailing that Will had shot its mother.
Five feet from Will, it sprang to its feet, swinging its clawed hands at the old man, knocking the rifle to the ground and hitting him hard in the chest as he flew backwards to the ground. The thing tumbled onto the floor as Will rolled over gasping for air and clutching his chest.
The creature got up, ready to finish Will for good.
Ed’s hand found his Glock on his holster and was blasting before the creature made it an inch farther. He fired twice, tearing its small head to nuggets of flesh, bone, and goo. Ed looked up, searching for a Dr. Williams that was already gone.
“Damn it!” he screamed, ignoring Will and running out the front door and into the night, looking for Williams.
There was no Williams, just six Guardsmen, all of them staring with pitch black eyes and faces beginning to congeal, standing between Ed and the woods where his truck waited. They began walking toward him.
Ed raced back inside and slammed the door shut, locking it, then turned to a staring Will.
“What is it?” Will asked.
“There’s six more Guardsmen out there,” Ed said. “They’ve been infected, and at a rapid acceleration.”
“It’s impossible to become infected and to change so quickly,” Will said, “unless . . .”
Ed finished Will’s hypothesis. “They’ve been infected all along and it’s been dormant? If that’s the case, then . . . Oh God.” He shook his head and tried to close his mouth. “It might have infiltrated the Facility already.”
* * * *
Chapter 10 — Boricio Bishop
Boricio waited until he knew Will was gone, then crossed the street and opened the door to his old house without knocking.
Sarah looked up in surprise. “Will’s not here,” she said. “He won’t be back until the end of the day.”
“That’s fine,” Boricio said. “I’m here to see my main man, Mr. Luca Bishop!”
Luca tore into the front room yelling, “Boricio!”
He smiled; even after two long years of Luca doing it, Boricio couldn’t believe anyone could ever be so consistently happy to see him.
“How come you’re here?” Luca asked.
“I came to visit you, Little Man. That’s all.”
Luca eyed Boricio with suspicion. Boricio nodded at Sarah. She took the hint and left the room. Boricio led Luca to the couch and sat. Before he could say anything, Luca said, “You’re here to talk about Dad?”
Boricio nodded.
“Why is he mad?”
Boricio sat in silence before wrapping his arm around Luca and pulling him into a relaxed lean against the back of the couch — much like he imagined they’d be leaning in another ten years or so, each of them holding a beer — then said, “Dad just has a lot on his mind right now. It’s crazy how occupied the old man gets.” Then, for a sprinkle of truth, he added, “And there’s a lot happening at work that he didn’t expect. Nothing for you to worry about, but definitely stuff that’s keeping him busy, and not quite here even when he is, if you know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean,” Luca nodded.
Boricio smiled.
Luca said. “But that’s not all the story, or even a lot of it.”
“It’s all the stuff that matters,” Boricio said.
Luca shook his head. “No, it isn’t. And now I feel sad because you’re lying to me.”
“Aww, little man,” Boricio said. “It’s not like that.” He squeezed his little brother tighter. “There’s just some stuff I don’t think you need to know. Not because I don’t care if you do, but because I don’t think you need to worry about stuff you don’t need to be worried about, you know?” He didn’t wait for Luca to answer. “A kid should have the chance to be a kid.”
“I see it all anyway.” Luca said pointing to his head. “If you don’t lie to me, then you can help me understand it.”
“Oh,” Boricio said, “I forget.” He paused, then added, “How much can you see?”
Luca said, “I see the what in what you’re thinking, but can’t see the why.”
Boricio scooted from Luca and pulled his arm back to his side. “Is this about you digging into other people’s minds?”
Luca nodded, then said. “I can see inside everyone now.” He swallowed. “And there’s more.”
Boricio could feel it, a special sort of bullshit that wasn’t really bullshit at all. Maybe he was only catching rebounds from Luca’s brain, but it felt to Boricio like they were sitting just seconds away from everything changing. He swallowed.
“There’s another Earth, mostly just like ours. And I know how to get there.”
Boricio laughed. “Hahaha, at least that’s funnier than that ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ thing you made me watch on YouTube.”
Luca’s face was cool marble, desperately wanting to warm.
Boricio swallowed again and asked, “What do you mean there’s another Earth?”
He repeated, “There’s another Earth, and I can go there.” Then probably because Luca knew what Boricio would say next, he added, “I’ve gone there before and I’ll go there again. I can even bring stuff back with me.”
“No way!” Boricio yelled, loud enough to pull Sarah to the doorway. He turned to Sarah, shook his head, and gestured for her that everything was kosher. Sarah left with a shrug and Boricio turned to Luca.
“That’s not possible!” he said, even though he could clearly see in Luca’s eyes that it was.
There was nothing but silence and faster breathing from Boricio, until Luca finally spoke. “You want to believe me, Boricio, but you can’t,” he said. Then after another second, he said, “Dad already saw it. So I can show you too.”
“Wait,” Boricio said. “Will has seen this?”
“Yes,” Luca nodded. “And call him Dad.”
“When did Dad see this?”
“I dunno, a few weeks ago,” Luca said. “But he didn’t go with me, even though I think I can might even be able to take people. He didn’t want to come. Do you want to come with me?”
“That sounds like six pounds of vanilla ice cream, covered in fudge, kid soldier. Just tell me what to do and you’ll be halfway to having it done.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” Luca said. “You can close your eyes, but you probably won’t have to. I like to close mine.” Luca closed his eyes as he finished his sentence.
Boricio had no idea whether he would have had to of closed his eyes or not, since the millisecond he did, he was already somewhere else.
He opened his eyes to a chain link fence, a few feet away from where the two of them were standing beneath a stop sign, with patches of grass growing through the cracks in the sidewalk around it.
“Where are we?” Boricio said.
Luca pointed to the chain link. “That’s my old school.”
“Wait...what?” Boricio turned to Luca in disbelief, and then up the puffy white clouds in the perfect California summer sky. “This is Las Orillas?”
Luca nodded again, then turned around and curled his fingers into the chain link, except for his pointer, which was aimed straight at another Luca, who was on a playground pretending like he was Indiana Jones, swinging from a plastic slider, then onto the rubber mat while loudly humming the theme song. The other Luca sprang up from the mat, then ran to the back of the line of kids, laughing.
Boricio shook his head. “It’s not possible.” He pointed to his chest. “Can he see us?”
Luca nodded. “If he looked over, he could. But I think he’s too busy playing. But I talked with my dad, . . . or
his dad, anyway. He thought I was the other Luca, so I didn’t get caught.”
Luca looked like he might cry, and then said, “But Luca hasn’t seen me. I’m afraid of what will happen if he does. That’s why we have to go now. I just wanted to show you so you could believe me like you wanted to.”
By the time Luca finished his sentence they were standing in his bedroom, even though they’d been sitting on the couch when they teleported away.
Boricio said, “Can you control where you come back?”
There was a light knock on the door. Sarah said, “Are you guys in there?”
“Yup!” Boricio said.
“I could’ve sworn you were downstairs.”
“We were, Boricio said,” but then we came upstairs. He waited a second, then said, “Sorry we didn’t ask first.”
There was light laughter, followed by a long pause, then “Okay,” before Boricio heard Sarah’s slowly fading footsteps.
“How specific can you get with where you come back?” Boricio asked again. “We were downstairs and now we’re upstairs. How much can you control that?”
“Not sure,” Luca shrugged. “I’ve never really tried. Hold on.”
Luca disappeared. Five seconds later, Boricio heard a pebble slap the window. Boricio ran to the glass, and stared down smiling in disbelief. Luca was downstairs by the tree, standing by it and grinning ear to ear.
A big, beautiful idea bloomed inside Boricio’s brain as Luca vanished and then appeared back in the room in front of him.
Dr. Williams wouldn’t help him. But what if Boricio went to Williams with a vial? Boricio was pretty damned sure he could convince the man to take a chance on Rose then.
But how the hell do I ask Luca to break into Level Seven and steal the vials?
Boricio didn’t even need to ask, though.
The boy was staring at him.
Luca smiled and said, “Yes, Boricio, I’ll get the vials for you.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
YESTERDAY’S GONE
EPISODE 16
“The Variable”
* * * *
CHAPTER 1 — Boricio Bishop
Black Island Research Facility
Level Seven
September 2011
morning
ONE MONTH BEFORE THE EVENT…
While most people could be swayed by logic or an emotional appeal, Boricio was starting to think that the only way to open Dr. Williams’ mind was with a crowbar.
He’d gotten the doctor alone in his office and asked him to work his magic again — to please use the vials to create another serum. It had worked with Luca. It would work with Rose.
But Dr. Williams was afraid of incurring the wrath of Boricio’s father, Will.
“He’s not your boss, he’s a consultant,” Boricio had said.
“You know as well as I that if he doesn’t greenlight a project, it goes nowhere. I’m lucky to even have a job after what happened with Luca — and that was a success! Imagine if we fail.”
But Boricio couldn’t imagine a world where that would happen.
“I’m losing her,” Boricio said, his voice cracking as he played up his sadness a bit to try and work on Williams’ sympathy. “She’s in constant pain, she’s paralyzed, and her memory is only getting worse.”
“These things take time,” Dr. Williams said. “You have to be patient. This isn’t nearly as pressing as Luca’s situation had been. She is stable and just needs time to heal.”
“Do you know what it’s like to have the woman you love look at you like you’re a stranger?” Boricio asked.
Of course Dr. Williams didn’t have a response to that, either in words or emotion. His face was nearly blank, in fact. He simply said, “I’m sorry, Boricio.”
Boricio waited him out a moment, allowing the silence to push the Doc into saying more.
“I understand,” Dr. Williams said. “And I want to help you, Boricio. But even if I believed the procedure was safe, which I’m not sure that I do any more, Will Bishop will never allow it. We’ve done so much with the Remedy Project — I’ve done so much with the project — and I can’t risk its future on another of your whims.”
Boricio ignored the slight, though it was hard not to blast back. Instead, he tried a reasoned approach, and played one of two cards he had.
“Healing Rose is in the best interests of the Remedy Project.” Boricio paused, then revealed his second strongest card. “What if I told you I could get my hands on a vial?”
A sudden streak of red flushed the doctor’s face. Williams said. “We’re not having this conversation.” He cleared his throat, clearly agitated.
Boricio realized he wasn’t just crossing the line; he was dragging his ass like a dog on carpet and smearing a trail of shit along the way.
William’s said, “This is borderline treason, Boricio. I have to ask you to leave now, and to never bring this up again. I hope things change soon, and that we can figure out what’s happening with Luca, and get Rose the help she needs. But in the meantime, I’m growing increasingly uncomfortable with this topic. You promised no more than five minutes, and we’re now into our twentieth.”
Boricio’s second best card hadn’t worked, so he played one better — and his last.
“I know about The Goliath Project,” he said. “And I know how badly you’d love for Will to sign off on it.” Boricio leaned across the desk. “But he won’t, will he, Doc? Will’s just not much of a team player these days, is he?”
The doctor said nothing.
Boricio leaned back in his seat and continued, “Well, it’s a good thing I am. I know how I can get Will to John Hancock all over the Goliath Project, and I’m confident enough to give you a guarantee that I’ll make it happen. What do you say, Doc?”
Williams shook his head, his eyes as wide as his face was red. Boricio couldn’t tell if he was surprised or angry that Boricio knew about Goliath. Or perhaps he picked up on the subtext — if Williams didn’t help him, he’d make it damned difficult to get Goliath passed through.
“I’m saying the same thing I’ve been saying all along, Boricio — I’d love to help you, but I can’t. Not even with a promise of getting me a vial, or a green light on Goliath. Will has his reasons for refusing your requests, and even if I don’t agree with all of his reasons, it’s my job and responsibility to listen.”
“But it’s not!” Boricio could feel the growl growing inside his voice. “That’s only true if Will genuinely knows better. But he doesn’t. Not this time. He’s not a scientist, right? At least not like you.” Boricio waited for the flicker of agreement he knew was inside Williams to flash across his face. “And because Will isn’t a scientist, he is impeding the project’s progress by withholding the vials from you and your team, right?”
Williams cleared his throat and repeated the party line. “He has his reasons.”
“What if you could have absolute, unhindered access to the vials?”
Williams shook his head. “No one has that kind of access.”
Boricio pulled one final ace from the inside of his coat, then gently set the vial on the doctor’s desk, the glass cylinder of bright blue liquid packed in clear plastic to protect it.
Williams stared at the vial, his eyes nearly as wide as his open mouth.
His hand dropped to the desk, hovering an inch above the vial before he quickly snatched back his fingers as if they were centimeters from the fangs of a snake.
Williams stroked his chin, then scratched his head and tugged at his ears, wrestling with something inside him for a long while before finally turning to Boricio and saying, “How . . . how did you get that?”
Boricio laughed, though the laugh was closer to a cackle.
“There are two sorts of secrets, Doc — the kind you want to keep inside because they mean a helluva lot more if they’re never so much as whispered, and the other sort where you wouldn’t dare utter a whisper, even if you wanted to. This one,” he nodded toward the
vial, “is both.”
Williams turned his back to the vial, then got up from his desk and began to pace as if his chair had grown too hot to sit in.
Boricio said, “Take it or leave it, Doc. The choice is yours.”
Williams stared at Boricio without saying a word, almost like he was practicing the same sort of in and out, in and out slow breathing Boricio had begun to master over the past few weeks. He finally turned back to his desk and ran his fingers over the vial, his fingers grazing the length of the plastic casing from top to bottom.
“We can’t do this,” he shook his head and whispered. “Can we?”
Boricio had him.
“We can, Doc. That’s why I’m here.”
**
Two days later…
Boricio and Dr. Williams had been in Rose’s room for nearly 15 minutes. Warm anticipation was burning up and down Boricio’s back as he made small circles on the linoleum behind the doctor. He’d managed to avoid Will during the past two days, and Will was scheduled for his weekly meeting with Sullivan which usually ran longer than it was supposed to.
The stage was set, but doubt began to lay seeds in Boricio’s head. He tried not to allow it to show, however. If he let his uncertainty show, Rose would get spooked.
It wasn’t doubt so much that the serum would work. He had faith that it would, even if it had some slight side effects as it had with Luca.
But, he wondered, was it fair to inflict those side effects on Rose? What if she teleported to another world like Luca had? She’d be terrified. Or worse, what if she teleported into the middle of a highway at rush hour or something? While Luca had seemed somewhat excited about his new ability, Rose might not see it as a gift, but rather a curse.
So, Boricio was forced to consider if the risk was worth the reward.
Was her life truly so miserable now that it wouldn’t get better in time?
Am I doing this to help her or am I doing it out of selfishness to have my old Rose back?
