by Tristan Vick
Josh rubbed his fingers through his hair and thought about it for a minute. What did he have to lose? “Sure,” he said timidly. “Why not?”
Lindsey leaned in and gave him a peck on the lips. Then she waited for him to do something. Suddenly he pounced on her and they fell down onto the bed together.
As he peeled off her panties, she rolled on top of him, and continued kissing him passionately. As her fingers found their way down to his pants, she unzipped him and took his dick in her hands. Fishing out his red hard protrusion, she slid him inside her and let out a lascivious moan as her pelvis slammed down onto his. It was exactly what she needed right now.
Unable to muster up an appetite, which was strange considering she hadn’t eaten in days, Rachael dismissed herself from the mess hall and left the others, who were continuing to become acquainted. Strolling past a few metal tables, she noticed Barnes and Noble were busy catching up with their fellow Marines about all that they had been through. Zanato was busy hitting on the single mother, who was totally giving him the cold shoulder. Alyssa was sharing funny animal stories with a group of children gathered around her. And Jennifer Hurley was, well, she wasn’t anywhere to be found.
What Rachael really wanted was to find the general and have a word, but he had left early and she didn’t know where to find him. So she decided to head back to her assigned room instead of hanging around on the off chance he might return.
Rachael took the keycard out and stared at it for a while, contemplating whether she should turn in early for the evening, but she wasn’t sleepy either. Both hunger and sleep evaded her. Ever since she lost Hector she had become numb to the world. Sighing, she put the keycard in and swiped it.
Rachael stood in the open doorway looking at Levi Hurley hump his ex-wife. Fitting, she mused, that she would be paired with her client and not so subtle nymphomaniac.
“Oh, I’m sorry…” Rachael blurted out. “I, um…”
Startled, the two lovers looked up as if they had been caught having sex on their parents’ bed. Levi’s face was priceless. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic. The funny part was that he didn’t know what to do. Instead he just kept doing what came naturally, the whole while with that god-awful look of stupid panic frozen onto his face.
Amid the throes of passion, Jennifer politely asked, “Can we have ten more minutes?”
“Yeah, of course,” Rachael said, quickly diverting her gaze. She had already seen way more than she wanted to. “Don’t mind me.” Then slowly, she backed out of the room.
Pulling the door shut behind her, Rachael let out a pent up sigh. She contemplated going back to the mess hall, but there was nothing to do there but listen to the soldiers entertaining one another with gruesome stories of near death and bloody victory. Not exactly her cup of tea, all things considered.
Alyssa returned to her quarters and set her purple diary on top of the dresser, then went into the bathroom to draw a hot bath. Turning on the hot water, she cupped her palms under the faucet, and splashed water onto her face. It was so refreshing to have warm water again. The showers in the hospital had be icy cold.
Slipping out of her clothes, she stepped into the steamy hot water and sank down. Just as she started to relax she heard a knock at the door.
“Hell no,” she said, slipping down under the water as if it would somehow hide her. She decided to ignore it. If it was important they’d knock again.
Listening intently, she waited for a second rapping at the door. But to her pleasant surprise, they had given up and gone away. She sat back up, stretched out her legs, and then soaked it all in.
Rachael shrugged. It didn’t appear that Alyssa was back yet from dinner, so she decided to take a stroll instead and headed down toward the end of the long corridor. Coming around a bend, she saw a large room that looked like an observation deck. There were no locks on the glass doors, so she entered the room. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could find a vending machine and get herself a Coke to drink.
She entered the lounge and the glass doors swooshed shut behind her. She walked over to the glass windows, which overlooked a cavern. Down below was a turquoise lake fed by a natural underground aquifer. Blue hues rippled and danced along the cavern walls, giving it a peaceful and serene quality. It was soothing. The small cavern reminded Rachael of the Lechuguilla cave she saw once when visiting New Mexico.
“Mesmerizing, isn’t it?” a voice said.
Startled, Rachael spun around to see Linda Sheridan, the buxom administrator with dark eyes, sitting in the back corner of the room. She fiddled with a crucifix necklace in her hand, spinning it like a tiny pinwheel between her fingers.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know anybody else was in here.”
“It’s no problem. I come here all the time. Mainly to clear my mind. Sometimes to pray. It’s my one quantum of solace. You couldn’t sleep?” She tucked the necklace back into her shirt, letting it slide down into her prominent cleavage, and smiled at Rachael.
“Actually, I haven’t had the chance. It would appear a couple of horny primates have overtaken my quarters.”
“Damn dirty apes,” Linda said in her best Charlton Heston imitation.
Rachael laughed, then turned back toward the dancing blue and green hues of the glistening pool.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Linda asked, breaking the lingering silence.
“Sorry. I just have a lot weighing on my mind.”
“I know the feeling.”
Briefly pausing, Rachael continued, “It seems…”
“Go on,” urged Linda.
“It seems as though I am cursed. Everyone I’ve ever loved has been taken from me.”
“These are trying times, but we must never give up hope,” Linda said in a consoling voice. “Just know that you’re never alone. We have each other. As long as there is still a beating heart in our bodies we shall possess what they cannot—the capacity to love.”
Rachael turned toward Linda, who had walked up beside her. Linda grew silent and looked out of the window down at the iridescent green pool. She reached down, found the cross around her neck, and began to twiddle it between her fingers again.
“Do you think there is a cure?”
“I pray to God there is.” Linda smiled warmly and put her hand on Rachael’s shoulder.
Rachael wanted to smile back, but for some reason she just couldn’t manage it.
“Do you mind if I ask what it is you guys do down here, exactly?” Rachael inquired. She felt it best to shift the topic of conversation. Maybe she could pry some answers out of Linda.
“Well, most of what we do is classified. Science stuff mostly.”
Rachael looked at Linda with an expression of amusement. She hated it when people were deliberately vague with her. Not satisfied with the fuzzy answer, Rachael cocked her head and gave Linda an exacting look. “What kind of science stuff?”
“You won’t be satisfied until you pry something out of me, will you? Well, to be honest, most of the research going on down here was the work Dr. Hemingway. She was searching for a clue as to what began this whole epidemic. You’ll understand that I can’t really go into any details seeing as it’s all classified. But I’ll tell you this much, she was close, damn close, to finding the cause.”
Rachael had the sneaking suspicions that whatever Dr. Hemingway had going on down here, it was more than likely there were still a few skeletons left rattling around in her closet.
43
The White Room
Bored halfway out of his mind, Jesse Zanato thought it would be funny to swipe Reinhart’s security pass. After being cock-blocked by every male he had come into contact with, he’d given up trying to get back into Hurley’s pants. She had written him off for good. The other women seemed to actively despise him too. So instead of being trapped, bored to death in a room with the scary tattooed—albeit horribly weepy—biker dude, he was now using the key to enter secured locations and snoop aroun
d.
Zanato had been snooping around for over an hour now, but everywhere he went it was just more white walls with doors to labs. All of them empty. The equipment was there, but nobody was working on anything. It was creepy.
Security was surprisingly minimal within the base, but he supposed that was because it was a top-secret facility. Since nobody even knew of its existence, until today that was, there wouldn’t be any need for additional layers of security. But if there was one thing Zanato knew, it was that he was lost.
Flashes of déjà vu raced through Zanato’s mind as he recalled walking down that exact same corridor moments earlier. Or was it that hall over there? He turned and inspected the other passageways that branched off from a T-junction. It all looked the same to him.
“Fuck it,” he said to himself, and picked one. Coming to the end of the hall he found something he hadn’t seen before—a single door. This was new.
Zanato walked up to the door, but there was no handle. In only had a digital touch panel interface with a slot for a keycard. He swiped Mitch’s card and the light on keypad flicked to orange. Then an electronic voice, which sounded like Apple’s Siri, came on. “*Please enter verification code.*”
Zanato thought for a moment, then jokingly said, “Open sesame.”
“*Inputted. Input accepted. Welcome Mr. Mitchell Reinhart,*” chirped the feminine computer voice.
“What the hell?” Zanato said to himself, in complete disbelief. What were the odds of guessing a random password like that? he wondered.
A red dome light flashed on the wall in the hall until he was securely inside. Then the door automatically clamped shut behind him, and he heard the air pressure change as air was sucked out of the room from the pressurization.
Zanato shrugged and tried to continue on, but his shoelace had gotten caught in the door. He tugged his foot, but it was securely snagged, so he yanked hard and his shoelace snapped.
Continuing down to the end of the hall, he came to another door with three yellow caution stripes painted on it, which automatically opened for him. He entered a large white room lit by massive ceiling lights. The glare bounced off the white walls and practically blinded him.
Giving his eyes time to adjust to the brightness, he looked over at the back wall, which had a series of suspicious-looking doors lining it. Six in all. They looked a lot like the heavy steel doors to a meat locker. Each door had a little rectangular window in the center of it. Presumably for checking on whatever it was that was being stored inside. The question was what was in there? What was this place?
Walking up to one of the small window of one of the doors, Zanato peered inside. It looked like a regular old prison cell, except there was no place to sit. It was completely bare. Empty.
He moved onto the next one. He peeked into the white room. Still nothing. Just an empty room. What on earth could they be storing in here? he wondered. As he stared into the small window, a face suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and teeth snapped at him like a snapping turtle.
“Holy shit!” Zanato screamed as he reeled back from the window. Slowly he heard the other cells stir with the sound of moans. Tugging at his hair, Zanato talked nervously to himself. “Who the hell keeps zombies in their basement? I mean, seriously, this is some fucked-up crazy shit.”
Soon all the windows were filled with creepy white eyes staring at him. Hungry teeth pressed up against the small plate glass windows and clacked viciously. Panic flooded Zanato’s mind, and all he could think about was getting the hell out of this godforsaken place.
Running back to the entrance, which had sealed shut behind him, he slammed into the door and banged on it to open, but it would not budge. So he slid Reinhart’s keycard back through the slot on this side.
“*Enter voice command code,*” the computer chirped with a cheery disposition.
“Supercalifragi-fuck you!” Zanato screamed. “Just open the fuck up and let me the fuck out of here, you fucking computer cunt.”
“*Invalid command…*”
“Open sesame,” Zanato blurted. It had worked the first time, so it should work again. But instead of granting him access the computer said, “*Inputted. Please enter secondary voice command.*”
“Secondary command?” he echoed. Of course they’d make it impossible to escape such a room. Why wouldn’t they make a death room you couldn’t possibly get out from?
“*Please enter secondary voice command,*” the female voice repeated.
Zanato’s mind went blank. He had absolutely nothing.
“Invalid command,” the voice relayed.
Zanato had run out of words. Slowly turning back around, he looked at the six doors full of white creepy eyes glued to him as if he was their next meal.
Leaning with his back up against the door, Zanato grabbed his head, slid down, and sat on the floor to sulk. Wrapping his arms around his knees, he kept his eyes locked onto the cell doors, fearing they might hiss open at any given moment. In a quiet voice, devoid of any remaining optimism, he bitterly said, “Fuck me.”
44
Fractured
Jagged white veins spread out across the fractured glass, giving the broken mirror the appearance of a crooked spider’s web. Jennifer stood looking at her distorted image in each serrated pane of glass. Every slice contained a version of herself gazing back at her, as if each individual shard represented a different persona of her shattered psyche. He shouldn’t have used those words. He shouldn’t have called her a slut. Her mind flashed back to moments earlier.
Levi had stared into Jen’s ice-blue eyes as she bounced up and down on top of him. Her breasts rebounded with each thrust of his hips. She ran her fingers through her hair and down her body, squeezing her own breasts, she let out a sultry sigh. For the life of her, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually had sex with her own husband. It had been that long and that many affairs ago. But being with him here, now, somehow felt right.
Levi reached up, grabbed her hair, and gazing up at her with a stupid looking grin, as if he’d had some brilliant idea, the words, “Slut, you look just like your mother,” slithered out of his mouth. Then he kissed her. But something wasn’t right. She didn’t feel right. And she stopped kissing him back even though his lips were still firmly mashed against hers.
After a moment he let go and looked at her with a completely oblivious look. She scowled at him with eyes like daggers. All trace of emotion had vanished from her face. “What did you just say?”
Her words were as cold and sharp as icicles. The confused look on his face revealed that Levi had most definitely felt their sting but was oblivious as to what he’d said or done wrong. She climbed off of him and walked heatedly over to the bathroom.
Levi sat up in bed feeling rejected and said, “Ah, come on. Don’t be like that. I was only kidding.”
Jennifer didn’t say anything. She simply slammed the bathroom door shut and twisted the lock. Turning around, she looked at her sweaty naked body in the mirror. Her reflection stared back at her with eyes of blue flame. Her intense gaze flickered in the mirror before her, full of rage, full of hate for the wickedness of man.
Looking over at the shower, she jumped in fright when she suddenly saw a little girl standing there. She was no more than eight or nine years old. The child wore a dirty white dress and held a shabby old stuffed rabbit in her tiny hands. Her blonde hair was done up in pigtails, with blue hair ties that matched her crystal clear blue eyes.
Jennifer felt as though she recognized the girl. Someone from her past, perhaps. “Who are you?” Jennifer asked.
The girl flickered like a digital visitant and, miraculously transporting across the room, she was suddenly standing before Hurley, gazing up at her with those piercing blue eyes. “The bad man is back. Where’s mommy? I want my mommy. Please don’t let the bad man hurt me. You have to stop him. Please.”
Suddenly the girl spun around and looked at the shower as if someone, or something, was chasing her through
the walls.
Hurley gazed up at the same spot, and asked, “What is it?”
“It’s coming.”
“What is?”
“I have to go,” the girl said, her voice full of fear. Then she flickered again, like a digital specter, and before Hurley could even blink the girl was gone.
Slowly, Jennifer felt the walls of her psyche crumbling away, and what was behind them was too hideous for words. It was pure rage and hate personified. It was a fire-eyed golem with eyes of blue flame that matched hers. Let him out, and he would make her impregnable, but first she had to free it from its glass cage.
Jennifer screamed and punched her fist into the mirror. It fractured where her knuckles had impacted it. She hit it again, and again, and screamed some more. Her knuckles dripped with blood but she didn’t care.
Looking into the cracked mirror, Jen gazed beyond the hairline fractures and watched the golem’s monstrous form climb up from the other side. It was as if she were peering through a looking glass and beholding another dimension. With arms wide open she said, “Yes, my pet. Come to me.”
The golem was finally free.
“The bad man used to say, ‘You look just like your mother, slut. You’re just a no-good whore like she is.’”
“Yes.”
“Then what did he do?”
“He’d beat me until I passed out. Sometimes I’d wake up. Sometimes he was inside of me. Doing terrible things. Despicable things.”
“And that’s why you summoned me.”
“Yes,” Jen answered, tears rolling down her cheeks. “The bad man is back.”
“Don’t cry, my precious child. I’m here now. I’ll protect you. Just like old times.”
“Just like old times,” Jen echoed.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Jen jumped.
“Is everything alright in there?” Levi asked. “Please, just come out of there, Jen.”
“No,” she whispered. But he didn’t hear her.
