Mermaid Spring (Mermaid Series Book 2)

by Dan Glover

  "Lucy was your daughter, Kirk."

  Mindy spoke the words at her daughter's funeral. He remembered going with Nate and a few of the others to retrieve her bones along with the others. Kirk liked to think they all died in their sleep but he knew the feeling of Lake Syndrome well enough to know better. They all died in agony.

  "Why are you telling me this now?"

  He remembered how he stuttered and stammered in rage; the other attendees at the burial ceremony kept hurtling glance his way as if he was a volcano ready to spew hot ash and rocks upon them all.

  "Drummond told me how he would do sick things to me if I ever told you who the real father of Lucy was. He had some sort of ego trip going... he honestly thought he would sire a whole new generation of human beings."

  "So you lied to me all these years? And now you're telling me what I knew all along, as if it somehow helps make me feel better?"

  Those were the last words he ever spoke to Mindy.

  He watched—a wraith wrapped in the blackest shadows of hell—as Nate walked deep into those catacombs. Kirk knew where the bones of Lucy were stacked; he put them there himself. Nate went to them, fondled them in the same tender way one might caress a lover, taking care to replace each bone in its proper place.

  A second later, Kirk watched as Nate pulled a small ball-peen hammer from a deep pocket. He began to systematically smash the clean white skull that once adorned Drummond's sloped shoulders. He was an artist at work but instead of creating, Nate was destroying the evil that once permeated Orchardton Hall.

  Once the skull was dust, Nate scattered it onto the dirty clay that acted as flooring in that pit of death. He trod upon it until the white dust mixed with the filth disappearing back into the miasma from which it emerged.

  Kirk grew to love the boy in that moment of fury and hate.

  His regrets were many and his joys were few, finally culminating in near disaster on that night he spent alone in his old village where tigers stalked and wild dogs howled in the moonlight. Trapped atop a rickety shack Kirk was prepared to die.

  Now, face to face with the horror that climbed aboard the Nautilus, he recalled that feeling of peace falling over him like a cloak. Despite the dread of death staring him in the face he held his ground.

  Chapter 63—Equinox

  Wandering up the western coast of old Scotland Alpin came across ruined villages loaded with encroaching forests and a plethora of animals taking little notice of his passage.

  His motorcycle ran out of gas just outside of Scourie. A faded and battered sign told him he was five kilometers from town. Making camp on a hill overlooking the sea he trekked down the path that once served as a road looking for the nearest vehicle from which he might be able to siphon fuel.

  A pride of lions lounged in the midday sun, their golden coats blending into the tall prairie grasses making them nearly invisible until he nearly stumbled over them. They showed no fear. It was clear to Alpin these creatures had no conception of human beings nor did they recognize him as a food source.

  An old male rose up and shook his maned head as if to inform Alpin of his many battle scars. Nearly two dozen mothers slept a satiated slumber with cubs ranging in size from a few weeks to a couple years scattered about.

  A tandem of young males scented Alpin, opening their mouths while huffing the air, and then rising to encircle him either out of curiosity or a feeble sense of hunger. He fervently hoped it was the former rather than the latter.

  He carried a high-power rifle fully capable of knocking down the big cats with a single shot each yet their majesty would not allow him to unshoulder it. Standing still without looking directly at the cats he waited motionlessly in the tall waving grass.

  They continued circling him moving ever closer with each revolution. They looked like brothers fine and proud and well-muscled, their coats gleaming in the sun as if greased with butter. Out of the corner of his eye he noted the freshly killed half-eaten carcass of a wildebeest buzzing with flies lying by the creek where it must have no doubt came to drink that morning.

  This surfeit of wildlife did not surprise Alpin as it might the Ladies or the original members of the People. He grew up knowing the forests surrounding Orchardton Hall brimmed with both predators and prey. He went to sleep at night listening to the startled cries of small mammals meeting their fate out there in the dark, their tiny shrieks fading into the gullets of the gargantuan.

  When he was a boy herds of gnu began to migrate from the southlands of old England to the northlands of old Scotland. Each spring—around the time of the vernal equinox—the strange-looking beasts infiltrated the fields and forests gorging on new short grasses and drinking from the swiftly moving creek waters.

  At night he slumbered to the sounds of low moans as the gnus seemed to lull each other to sleep by humming lullabies. In the mornings he often awoke to the noise of battles being fought between the males. He loved rushing into the pastures to watch them kneeling and pawing the ground before butting heads with one another. It always amazed him how they hit each other so hard and yet never seemed to inflict any damage.

  About the time he grew used to the herd and the noise it made, they vanished. In their wake they left fertilized fields which quickly re-grew the denuded grasses decimated by their continual feeding.

  When the autumnal equinox rolled around they were back with new calves and ever-swelling numbers. He once spotted an ambush of tigers lying in wait for the stragglers. Tall reeds growing beside the creek concealed and camouflaged their orange and black striped coats. Seeing the tigers lurking in the shadows sent a shiver up his spine, tickling the hairs growing on the back of his neck with fear.

  "We can't let them eat the gnus, father."

  "Well, Alpin... the tigers have to eat too. We always shoot a few wildebeests for our own needs. If no one ate them, the herds would soon grow so large that they would run out of food. If the tigers didn’t eat them, they would starve to death. This is nature's way of keeping a balance between too few and too many."

  Now, that same tickle on the back of his neck was back.

  The pair of lions approached close enough that their fur coats brushed against his hands as their mouths hung open catching his scent; Alpin was scarcely breathing now. None of the other lions seemed bothered by his presence. The old male lowered his head, closed his eyes, and went back to sleep. The females did not stir other than occasionally rippling the muscles on their flanks to shoo off flies.

  Apparently he passed inspection. The twins snorted and cavorted as they trotted back to the pride where they turned in circles until the grass under them was flattened. They did not lie down so much as they fell over. In a moment they too were asleep and the buzz of flies was all Alpin could hear.

  Tip-toeing away he walked onward with his eyes slightly crossed the way he had learned to do in order to bring his entire field of vision into play rather than only the center. The old path he was on led him past several old farmhouses that had tumble-down roofs and collapsed barns hunkering in the background.

  He hardly recognized the village until he saw the old petrol station sign lying upon its side in a copse of maple trees where high winds must have toppled it. Onward he noticed the skeletons of red brick buildings with walls covered in ivy and morning glories.

  A Ford pickup truck that might have once been red stood rusty and alone and apart from everything as if aloof from the worries of the dying village. Sticking the thin hose he carried down the gas tank and blowing into it he could hear bubbles forming. One quick pull on the hose with his thumb over end brought forth a coppery flow of gasoline.

  A murder of crows sat cawing in unison while watching him from the aspen trees growing straight and thick with leaves as he trudged along the nearly indiscernible road on his way back to his motorcycle. The noise unnerved him though he couldn’t quite understand why.

  It was their eyes... they looked oddly red in the noontime sun and larger than they had a right to be. They wer
e huge birds probably fattened on the carcasses of gnus left behind by the lions and the tigers that roamed the area.

  It was as if they were shouting at him. Their voices were shrill and angry sounding. At first he wondered if they had nests close by and were attempting to warn him away but they never moved from their perches to strike at the top of his head like the blue jays would sometimes do back at Orchardton Hall.

  He was glad to get past them but as soon as they were out of sight he spotted the bear. It was a magnificent beast golden brown in the sunshine and pretentiously playful looking and he knew right away that the bear was the reason for the shouting of the crows. They weren’t warning him so much as others of their kind... telling them to get up off the ground for danger was about.

  He had seen pictures of grizzly bears in books and in the Archives but never in the wild. Running was useless... it would only attract the beast's attention. From the little he knew of bears, it was best to stand perfectly still but he felt better after unshouldering the rifle and chambering a bullet.

  A moment later he saw a cub bumble out of the undergrowth ambling along after its mother, a miniature beast in its own right but cute as a teddy bear. The rifle was useless now... he knew he could never shoot the mother now that he realized she had a baby. His only hope was that momma bear did not notice him as she snuffled along the ground in search of whatever momma bears ate.

  A moment later, she raised her head and looked right at him.

  Chapter 64—Chester

  The whole ship groaned and tilted under the weight of some unseen beast threatening to capsize under the load.

  Just minutes before the nine of them sat talking together like old friends. Natalia was feeding everyone fresh fruit they took aboard in the Bahamas... the bananas were purple and delicious and the mangoes so succulent they melted when she bit into one and listened to the conversation.

  "My name is Lady Lily. What are your names?"

  While Nate and Kirk talked to one of the strangers from Cornell at a different table, Lily spoke to the other two as Natalia, Karen, and Delilah sat close by.

  "I'm Ronald. This is Freddi."

  "Are you doctors?"

  "We aren’t medical doctors. We are—I should say we were—clinical medical researchers working in the same building as Micah."

  "What happened to you, Ronald?"

  "I don’t remember much, Lady Lily. I thought I was dying. Well, in fact, I was dying. Everyone in the city was sick. In our naiveté we thought we could come up with a vaccine. We had no time. Even if we did, that disease was unlike anything we ever saw.

  "We were unable to isolate the parasite much less find the antidote. I remember Freddi thought it depended upon electrical stimulation to co-exist with the human body but we were unable to discover the frequency. Everything happened so fast. If we had five or ten years perhaps we might have made some headway. We only had hours.

  "The room went dark around me. When I awoke Micah was standing over me. He asked me if I wished to live. Of course I wanted to live. I didn’t realize the consequences of his offer and all I could do by then was blink my eyes one time to signify yes and then I passed out.

  "By the time I woke up I had lost my sight. Freddi lost his hearing and Pete could no longer speak. Micah called us See, Hear, and Speak... you know... see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. It was his asinine little joke I guess. I don’t remember much from the day I awoke in his laboratory until the day Miss Karen and the others showed up.

  "Suddenly we began changing back into our former shapes. I could see again. The others regained the use of their senses too. I overheard Miss Karen talking to Micah about why we changed. I knew if we didn’t come with you, we'd turn back into those horrid monsters that we lived as for so long.

  "To tell you the truth, I would have rather died a hundred years ago than to have lived like we did. I never believed in god or purgatory but if there was ever such a thing and a place, that's what it would be like.

  "We tried to get Micah to come with us. He refused. He was too concerned about his nanobots to just up and leave. I don’t understand why but he still seems to believe they're the answer to all the problems human beings ever faced."

  A commotion arose among Nate and the others as everything seemed to happen at once. Nate shouted to weigh anchor. Kirk started to run aft. Lily stood to see what was happening as did Natalia and Karen. The boat suddenly rocked hard to port. If not for Lily's quick reflexes in grabbing hold of them Natalia and Karen would have been thrown into the ocean.

  "Watch out, Kirk. There's something coming aboard the ship: something big."

  There was a fear in Nate's voice that Natalia never heard before. Kirk shined the spotlight toward the port bow. A creature out of a nightmare was standing there dripping wet... it looked as if it once was a tiger but now it was misshapen and grotesque with what look to be steel fangs protruding from its upper jaw. Natalia remembered seeing pictures of extinct saber-tooth tigers in the Archives but this thing was enormously larger.

  Its stripes weren’t orange and black like a regular tiger... instead, they were silver and gold. The spotlight made a curious sparkling when it lighted up the thing as if diamonds had been encrusted into its fur.

  "Oh... thank god... it's only Chester."

  Natalia couldn't believe her eyes as Ronald walked toward the beast with a scrap of food in his hand. The monstrosity took the proffered bit of meat in its maw as it lowered its head for Ronald to caress the space between its eyes.

  "I've never actually seen him... I know his scent, though, and he knows mine. We got to be buddies when Micah brought him into the compound as a cub. I played with him even when he grew into what he is now. When Micah discovered our friendship he put Chester out. It was my punishment for interfering with his experiment.

  "The nanobots made him grow into what he is now but they also increased his mental capacity. I never told Micah about that. I had a feeling he would have killed Chester just to dissect his brain."

  "Is it going to attack us?"

  Kirk didn’t stammer but it seemed as if he had to concentrate upon each syllable to keep from doing so. Watching Pete walk up to the beast like they were old friends put her at ease. Natalia nearly burst out laughing at Kirk. She noted, however, that he put himself between the enormous cat and the rest of the party as if protecting them; though he could have easily fled over the gunwales. In fact, he seemed ready to sacrifice his own life to give them all a chance at escape.

  Natalia didn’t have a sense of prescience like Lady Lauren seemed to have at times but she recalled the day she first met Kirk. Smoke was rising in the distance from a half dozen fires obviously burning out of control. The local television station had been spewing news of a flu epidemic raging out of control in the bigger cities and then the station went dead.

  She had walked up the nearest hill with Lily and Lauren to get a better view of the countryside worried that a forest fire might be approaching. When she saw the smoke she thought that they might have to abandon Orchardton Hall to save themselves from the flames.

  It wasn’t a forest fire, however. It was an automobile driving down the gravel road at unreasonable speeds as if being chased by the devil himself. Now, she knew they were. When the car pulled to a stop in front of the castle's main entrance, Lauren had gone to meet the people inside... obstinately to tell them they weren’t welcome.

  She had stayed behind with Lily watching from an open doorway and ready to act if it seemed that Lauren might be in danger. Two women emerged from the vehicle and she heard Lily gasp. Without asking her, she knew that her lover recognized the women. A second later, Lily had hurried to Lauren's side.

  Natalia had followed like a little girl traipsing after her mother. As she came nearer the car, four children stepped out of the back seat, two boys and two girls. They were all sick, as were the two adults.

  She had never been good around children but something inside of her caused her to go to them
and hold out her arms. Lauren sounded perturbed that Lily hadn’t allowed her to send them all away. At the time, Natalia did not yet understand the sheer and utter depth of Lauren's hatred for human beings.

  The two little girls rushed into her outstretched arms immediately. They were hot with fever and shaking violently but within minutes the tremors subsided and she could feel the heat leaving their tiny bodies in waves.

  Moments later the two boys approached her for an embrace too. She remembered how she disliked the one right away, as if there was something unwholesome inside of him. She learned later his name was Drummond and that her first impression was correct. The other boy, the smaller of the two, seemed timid, used to being kicked like a cur, and as likeable as anyone she had ever met.

  Something inside her heart spoke to her. It wasn’t in words or indeed in any way she could make rational sense of, but she suddenly knew this boy would one day be the salvation of not only her but of the new society that they would build together.

  Now, here he was, ready to sacrifice himself that the others might live. Kirk obviously didn’t know that the monstrosity climbing aboard the Nautilus was actually tame, otherwise the situation wouldn’t have struck her so.

  "No, sir, Mr. Kirk... you don’t have to worry about that. Chester won't hurt anyone."

  "Ronald... do you mean to say he is your pet?"

  "Why... yes, I suppose he is, Lady Lily. Can he come with us?"

  Chapter 65—Edinburgh

  Enraptured by the setting sun Edinburgh Castle's sandstone walls were twinkling green to gold as if bedecked with emeralds and rubies.

  During the two weeks they spent away at Orchardton Hall this castle seemed to have grown even larger. As she drove along long winding roads passing through decrepit villages, Ginger's gaze darted from the road to Kāne—who sat in the passenger seat of the Jeep Grand Cherokee—to little Joshua—who cooed in his car seat which was set between them—and then back to the road.