“Guys, stop! Don’t come any nearer, please!”
“Barry, don’t do this!” Jenny’s brows furrowed in concern.
Barry forcefully ripped off a stick of dynamite from the homemade bomb belt that was taped around his chest and held it in front of him. He brought out a lighter from his coat pocket.
Mobydick nodded and gestured to his gang. “You two are on your own,” he yelled to the senator and the doctor as he followed his guys out. Some of his men snickered before running as fast as they could to the door leading to freedom.
When the senator’s guards heard the shot, they defied his orders to stay put and rushed inside. They bumped shoulders with Mobydick and his men as they ran the opposite way.
“Well, Stefan, my ride’s here, so I gotta go.” Terry hesitated for a few seconds. “Nice party, and hey, I was going to say tell your folks ‘hi’ for me, but I doubt you’ll be going where they are.”
Farkis bared his teeth, stepping forward as if he wanted to fight Terry again. Barry rolled between them and held the bomb up in front of the doctor. “Leave!” he snarled, keeping his eyes locked on the senator.
As Terry and his guards left, the medical team began leaving too. They followed the red line, scurrying out and down the ramp to the darkened garage. They drove away, some of them crying for the missed opportunity of becoming part of something big.
Chapter 31
Brett Bloodies a Mobster - Oakland
Outside the warehouse a breeze swirled a plastic bag through the air until it was snagged on top of the chain link fence. Another vehicle drove up and parked. When Brett climbed out and shut the driver’s door, he stared at the secret entrance between the two dilapidated buildings. This is where he’d seen and confronted his father that fateful morning almost six years ago.
When Jim had gone to bed well after midnight last night, exhausted from guilt and pain, the rest of them stayed up to talk. Brett agreed he would help them get into the warehouse. Although both Barry and Joey had different motives for getting inside, at this point they didn’t care about the differences. They wanted to use the others’ strengths and motivation.
The plan was to meet them here and Brett would show them the secret entrance on the other side of the warehouse. But Joey and Jenny were nowhere in sight. Brett was protective about his brothers, and no one was going to hurt them, whether it be financial or physical.
When he walked toward the front of the main warehouse, he noticed the front door was hanging open. Puzzled, he stopped to register his thought when he heard a crash and pounding footsteps. He squinted into the warehouse and startled, saw men sprinting to the entrance, yelling “Bomb, bomb!”
Brett recognized the third man back as the one and only gangster, Mobydick, and he froze. Memories of his dad, broken down and ashamed, came flooding back. He remembered his dad crying because he couldn’t bear the thought of facing his family, broke and on the verge of bankruptcy. His dad admitted he believed they were losing faith in him, and he’d been full of regret. But, as in any addiction, he was hooked: to the lure of the cards and the dream of rolling dice for a pot of money.
He made an instant decision and pivoted so his back was against the wall beside the entrance. After the second man ran through, he stuck his leg straight across the opening, not having anything else to use, hoping his plan would work.
His quick-thinking worked. Mobydick tripped over Brett’s outstretched leg and landed on his face in the dirt. He sputtered, not knowing what had happened. A huge man with a tattooed face tripped over Mobydick’s foot and landed on top of him, as did another man behind him. If Brett hadn’t been in a hurry to find his brother, he would have stopped for an earnest belly laugh.
Blood gushed out of Mobydick’s nose. He was screaming he couldn’t breathe with the two huge Samoan men piled on top of him.
“That’s for messing with our family, shithead!” Brett screamed.
“Who are you?” Blood streamed down Mobydick’s face as he picked out a pebble embedded in his cheek.
If Jim were here with him, he could have answered for the family, but Brett was only one person. He had to find Joey and Jenny. Watching macho gangbangers running out of a building screaming bomb couldn’t be a good thing. He ran down the short hallway and through the open door, calling out, anxious about his brother and his girlfriend’s safety.
“Joey! Jenny! Joey, where are you?”
Chapter 32
Dumpster Diving - Oakland
“Barry, think about this!” Jenny begged. “Think about your life! You have a job you love. You found new friends in us. We’ll be your friends, Barry, won’t we, Joey? We’ll come over, and we can hang out—”
“Barry!” the doctor said. “Barry, I was going to schedule you in! Didn’t I promise? I’m good with my promises. You had to give me time. I need some time, and we’ll both shine. You and me. You’ll be complete—”
“Shut up, doctor!” Barry said. His blood pressure was skyrocketing, he could feel it. But did he care? No! “I don’t care about you anymore! Can’t you see my time is up? I can’t wait for you! Don’t you understand? I’ve decided you’re going with me to my death.”
Jenny and Joey gasped. Barry turned in their direction. His eyes became soft for a split second, but in a blink, hardened again.
“Get out,” Barry said in a shaky voice. “I don’t have time to make friends now. Get out.”
“No!” Jenny eyes teared up, threatening to overflow. “No, Barry, don’t end your life like this!”
Barry shouted, spittle spraying from his mouth. “Go!” He directed his gaze to Joey. “Get out of here!” He lit the explosive’s fuse and they both jumped back. “You have six minutes to get out!”
Jenny cried as Joey grabbed her around the waist. They stumbled out of the room, trying to find their way out. Barry wasn’t watching them leave. He only had eyes for the doctor as he backed him up into a corner of the room, the homemade bomb in front of him.
Unbeknownst to them, they had taken a wrong turn and entered a door leading to the room with the Ferris wheel and the piano music. They both stopped, stunned, feeling like they were actors in a horror movie watching the Ferris wheel of bodies go around.
Joey pointed to a naked body in one of the cars. “Kilmer!” Jenny stared back at him, but he didn’t have time to explain. They heard a familiar voice calling their names from the other side of the partitioned wall.
“Joey! Jenny! Joey, where are you?”
“Here! We’re here!” Joey bellowed. “Brett, we only have a few minutes. Barry has bombs!”
“Okay, I’m here! Stand back.”
Joey put his arm around Jenny as they backed up when the temporary wall began wobbling. They heard the heavy thuds of impact, and after the third thud, the wall fell over with a crash. The collapse caused a domino effect, dragging the connected walls down all around them. Dust and debris filled the air, the twinkling lights of the Ferris wheel going hazy.
“What the hell is that?” Brett shrieked, entranced with the now exposed Ferris wheel.
“Never mind. Let’s get out of here, quick!”
They ran toward the front door, Brett shoving Joey and Jenny ahead of him. He figured the gang members would have left by now. Once they’d passed through the front door, Brett motioned to them. “How much time?”
“Only a few minutes,” Joey replied.
Brett figured they had two choices. They could run, dodging flying debris and burning timbers he anticipated would come, their fingers crossed they’d make it. Or their second choice, find shelter.
He made a quick decision when he spotted a dumpster up ahead. “Quick, take my hand!” He and Jenny grasped hands and he pulled her to the dumpster, lifting her up by her waist. He hauled her up and over the lip before dropping her in the rest of the way.
Gesturing to Joey, he laced his fingers together and Joey placed his foot on his palms, diving in next. Then Joey stood up and pulled Brett in. They huddled togethe
r shaking with fear, protecting their heads with their arms.
Within minutes, they heard a thunderous explosion. The dumpster shook as debris came raining down, pounding down around them like a monstrous hailstorm.
After everything settled, they climbed out of the dumpster and hugged each other. Shaking, they tittered with nervous relief because they had survived.
Then cried because Barry hadn’t.
Chapter 33
Fat Farm Graduate - Tokyo
A teenaged girl, one among the twenty or so other students leaving the museum, stopped in mid-stride, causing a chain reaction. Students behind her stumbled into each other muttering expletives accompanied with not so complementary hand gestures. She was focusing on something ahead of her and was oblivious of her misstep.
“I swear I know that girl,” she said, thoughtful. For her best friend’s benefit, she pointed to someone who was sitting on the steps, reading. “Where have I seen her before?” KimberlyAnn stared at the girl, twirling a few strands of hair in concentration.
“She’s pretty. I wish I had her figure,” Ashley said. “Hey, come on. They’re leaving without us.” Ashley sprinted for the bus that would take them back to school.
KimberlyAnn glanced at the queue in front of the bus and figured she had a few moments to spare. She bounded down a few steps below the girl, and pivoted facing her.
“Excuse me, but we’ve met before!” KimberlyAnn said. “I can’t believe how different you are. I mean, your face is still the same, cute, but your body…”
The girl sitting on the steps closed her book. “Do I know you?” she replied, puzzled.
“Yes, yes!” KimberlyAnn snapped her fingers. “I’ll always remember that day. It was the day I had to get up at an ungodly hour—well, only two hours after I went to bed because Ashley Facebooked me and... never mind. Yes, I know you! You’re the girl who was waiting for the market tour the same day my mom and I were, remember?”
The young woman sitting on the steps took off her sunglasses and blinked. “Ah, yes, yes, now I remember. You’re the American girl who was sitting on the concrete.”
KimberlyAnn grinned and nodded. “Yes!”
The girl nodded back. “I’m Kaneko. I was with my father that day.”
“You do look great!”
“Thank you. I’m surprised you recognize me. Hardly anybody does.”
“I recognized your face, but your body... it’s so different!”
Kaneko giggled. “Oh, you mean because my body was so fat before and now it’s skinny?”
KimberlyAnn giggled back. “Well, I wouldn’t put it that way, but yeah. You lost a lot of weight. How’d you do it?”
Ashley shouted and waved her arm out of the bus window, catching KimberlyAnn’s attention. She waved back and held up one finger. “One minute!”
When she spun back to Kaneko, KimberlyAnn gasped. “Oh my gosh!” She pointed to Kaneko’s neck. “What happened?”
Kaneko’s eyes flitted up into the air as if she had to concentrate, placing a palm on her neck scar. “Oh, this? I’ve had this since I was a baby.”
“I don’t remember seeing the scar when I first met you,” KimberlyAnn said. She felt somewhat confused. She rushed on, her youthful eagerness to connect overtaking her concern. “I would love to have your digits so you can give me some diet tips later.” She took her cell out of her backpack. “I’d like to get a new body, too!”
“Oh, you’re not fat,” Kaneko exclaimed as she recited her phone number.
“Ha, pinch right here and tell me I’m not fat,” the girl squealed, placing Kaneko’s hand to her side.
Kaneko tried to pinch, but there was no extra fat noticeable on KimberlyAnn’s ribs.
The bus’s horn interrupted the girls’ conversation. Ashley leaned out of the door. “Come on, KimberlyAnn!”
“Okay, gotta go, girl, but I’ll call you. You must tell me how you did this!” KimberlyAnn called as she ran for the bus.
As Kaneko watched the girl run for the bus, a sharp pain around her neck ripped a gasp from her lips. Her right hand wrapped itself around the front of her neck, as if comforting it. She shook her head to clear the pain and placed the book into her backpack, her hands jerking like a robot’s. She pushed herself up from the step, grunting a little from the effort and slipped on her sunglasses.
She grabbed the handrail to walk back down the steps as if she were 90-years old instead of being only 19. Sometimes her feet had spasms and she didn’t want to fall like she did last time, which was embarrassing.
Of course, she wouldn’t complain about her pain or nightmares. She had millions of friends now that she was a graduate of the fat farm, as well as a cute boyfriend, soon to be fiancé.
Wasn’t that the most important thing?
Epilogue
Sharp Saw Makes a Comeback - A Jungle Village Somewhere
The young doctor’s sweat stains were growing, the back of his shirt drenched. It was a humid 105 degrees in the shade. The young boy behind him had fallen asleep again and had stopped fanning them with the giant banana leaf. The local resident doctor had reprimanded him in his native language, and kicked at the boy. The young doctor intervened.
“It’s all right doctor. He’s been standing for hours. He’s only seven. Please, let him sleep.”
Some villagers had brought in three bodies to the hospital last night. One was a young woman in her twenties who was hanging on to life. She was trampled by a wild boar and her body was a mess. The other two had been ruthlessly stabbed, familiar turf war casualties. There were a lot of bandits in this part of the jungle, as well as wild animals, and bodies were found daily.
The young doctor’s instant fame had come almost eight months before. It was pure luck and great timing the day he had brought the chief’s daughter back to life. He had transplanted her head onto a healthy body, a young girl who had fallen into a well, hit her head, and died. There was nothing wrong with the body other than a few bruised ribs and a broken leg, which he had promptly fixed.
The chief’s daughter had walked out of the privacy hut three months later, fully recovered. It’s true she now walks with jerky movements and had to learn how to coordinate the foreign body. But because of the quick action on his part, her mind and personality were still the same, so the Chief forgave him for this one unpleasant side-affect.
Later, her father reported she often stared off into space as if in another world. She had to take time to register what was going on around her, and experienced night terrors. Other than that, her family was puzzled, yet stayed ecstatic about her return from the dead.
Now, when he saw the young woman’s body, he felt elation. He’d previously prepped a thirteen-year-old girl’s body a few days ago after a leopard had attacked, breaking open her skull. The villagers had chased the leopard away, but the girl was already dead. All the doctor saw was the body was untouched, and thought how perfect it would be if he could come across a head to place on it.
There was no one else here to do the prep work since the resident was busy elsewhere and the young boy was still asleep. So he retrieved the bottle of antiseptic himself from under the colorful cloth-covered bamboo table.
He twisted the cap and poured half of the bottle onto the neck area of the body. He admired the body’s smooth brown skin and budding breasts. Yes, he thought, this is a perfect body. One who deserves to stay alive. He nodded to the other man as he rolled the bed with the other girl towards them.
When the resident was ready to shadow his movements so they’d be in perfect sync, the doctor turned on the generator and fired up the sharp precision saw. The saw was the only real equipment out here worth any money.
“Thank you, Dr. Farkis,” Nikko whispered to himself, as was his custom before every surgery. Successful or not.
He could almost hear Dr. Farkis’s response. Of course, he’d use Nikko’s nickname, the endearment the doctor had created for him. The name had only been uttered in private.
&nbs
p; “A job well done, Headbanger, a job well done.”
THE END
***
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Fact or Fiction? Real-Life Doctor to Perform Head Transplant Surgery
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