The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Get that Leonard guy under control. I can’t just shoot him.”

  “Geez, Frank,. Why not?” Richie said sarcastically.

  “Oh no, Richie, I can’t. I’d like to, but I can’t. Too risky.”

  “And hitting him with this drug isn’t?”

  “Fuck no.” Frank shook his head. “They’ll think he had a stroke. That’s what it makes it look like. You get it and I hit him with it. Easy.”

  “For you to say. Do you realize what you’ve been doing? Shooting Society leaders. Officers. Freeing soldiers to make them walk seventeen hundred miles on foot.” Richie paused in amazement at Frank’s scoff. “A big scientist is supposed to be coming here and you have me drilling peep holes and making secret passages in his home. Now you have me sneaking into a lab to get a drug called Salicain.”

  “Yeah.” Frank nodded. “You got it.”

  “Oh, we are gonna be so busted one of these days. We’re gonna end up with a bullet hole in our heads like Lt. Merrick and everyone else that has fallen victim to the Frank rampage. Busted, Frank. We’re gonna get busted.”

  “Nah, Richie.” Frank stood up from the ground. “You’ll be busted. I’m too smart.”

  “That’s what you think.” Richie stood also, following a laughing Frank. “Then whose idea was it to come out here and cover up this mass grave thing you have happening?” He looked back at the mound of dirt that was covered with bushes and such.

  “Mine.”

  “No it wasn’t . . . Frank.”

  “Mine.”

  “Frank . . .” Richie huffed out and hurried to catch up to him, speaking softly under his breath as he followed Frank. “I wonder if Beginnings even wants him back. Frank!”

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  Robbie knew it as soon as he reached the area that Marv was supposed to be checking. The Jeep was still parked where he had left it. That was all the proof Robbie needed.

  Stopping his own Jeep, Robbie grabbed the shot gun from the back and held it braced between his hands. He ignored his father’s call, only once responding to it with a very soft ‘Shh’ as Robbie headed into the field.

  He wanted silence, both in his headset and around him. If something got Marv then Robbie didn’t want it to hear him. Trying his hardest not to make a sound, Robbie moved through the high grass toward the black cloud of files that he saw ahead. His heart prayed that it was the carcass of an animal and not what his gut was telling him the flies were feasting on.

  His soft tromping foots steps and the buzzing of flies were the only things heard. Robbie would take a step and stop. There was a slight echo to his walk as if someone or something was moving at the same rate as him. Step. Stop. Robbie heard it again, a slight rustling of the weeds. Hearing that and moving to the flies, Robbie pumped the chamber of the shot gun, holding it ready.

  Closer and closer he drew, his heart pounding the whole way. He could smell something, a rotten smell, the smell of iron predominant. Robbie let every sense he could kick in as he moved, causing a disturbance amongst the insects. His senses did kick in when he felt a slight change in the ground under his boot. Stopping cold, so close to where the flies were, he slowly lifted his boot to see what his foot had landed on. When he looked down, Robbie felt the throbbing in his throat. What appeared to be an eye, veins and muscles still attached, lay on the ground. His left hand reached out, fingers extended, and grabbed on to the high grass, separating it.

  Squawk. Flap. Nailed!

  Robbie was as startled as that vulture he frightened. It flew at him, pecking at his cheek in a offensive move before squawking once more and flying off.

  Shaking his head, Robbie brought the back of his hand to under his eye but before he could wipe away the blood that flowed, his hand stopped. Robbie stared cold, emotionless into the field to what he saw laying there . . . Marv.

  ^^^^

  Miles City, Montana

  There was no way, Hal thought, that the town of Miles City was going to look like what he had accomplished in Bowman. No way. He looked around at the broken store fronts and the concrete in the streets that nearly disappeared beneath the weeds that poked through it. A dead town with no life and Hal cringed in thinking that he was going to be living there.

  In the midst of serious thought, as he watched the Beginnings truck unload not only his men but supplies they would need as well, Hal smiled. He knew if he pondered long enough, the powers that be would send him a sign that this move was a good one, and they did.

  Hal grinned.

  Looking absolutely miserable as he carried gear was Craig. If nothing else, Hal and Bowman would now be Craig-free, at least for a couple months.

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  There were too many questions surrounding Robbie’s hurried return back to Beginnings and race into town. Robbie spoke no words and no emotion graced his face. He had a look of determination and that was the report that Joe got from everyone that tried to stop him. He didn’t respond to radio calls. He said nothing.

  Joe was not going to be one of the numbers waiting for Robbie to speak. His gut told him something when he got word Robbie was leaving town again and Joe, following his instinct, headed up to the perimeter exit by the underdeveloped section. And Joe was right. Robbie pulled up in a Jeep. e stopped it and stepped out.

  “Down the U.D,” Robbie stated into his headset.

  Joe didn’t see it at first and then he did. “Robbie.” He approached his son. “What is going on?”

  “Dad, get Henry and meet me right here in ten minutes.”

  “Marv?” Joe questioned. “How bad is it?”

  Robbie held up the black plastic. “I have a body bag, Dad. I probably would be better off with about twenty lunch sacks. I’ll be right back.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Joe called out as Robbie moved through the final perimeter.

  “No!” Robbie held his hand to his father. “Just get Henry and stay . . . stay right here.”

  “Be careful.”

  Robbie gave a single nod to Joe and walked at a quick pace, rifle in one hand, body bag in the other, through the final perimeter.

  ^^^^

  Hillside, Nebraska

  It was a late afternoon nap and one well deserved for Kyle, Link, and Ted. Not much was left of their shoes or their bodies as they found a soft place to lay and break for longer than they usually did.

  Link had some trouble sleeping. Fear of what could get them kept him awake, Ted’s snoring didn’t help either. And just as he slipped into that in between world, he heard the confusing sound of it and he sprang up. Was it real? Or was the sound like one of those voices that slip into your brain and say your name just as you fall asleep.

  He rolled on to his knees and scurried himself up listening. “Shit. It is.” Half out of it and exhausted, he mustered every bit of his strength to race after the horse sound. It had to be one of two things, Wildcats or . . .Link dropped to his knees. It was the later, UWA scouts.

  “Hey!” Link called out waving out his hands. “Hey!”

  The four horses stopped and turned around. When Link saw that he was recognized, his head and arms dropped to the ground in complete and utter gratefulness.

  ^^^^

  Beginnings, Montana

  The body bag made a weird sound as Robbie laid it in the back of the Jeep with Joe’s help. It didn’t plop like a dead body. It sounded more as if it were a half -filled sack of potatoes.

  Joe watched as the bag conformed to the small back area of the Jeep. “Jesus Christ.” He looked at a horrified Henry.

  Robbie reached for the zipper, his hands still stained with blood. “You can say that again, Dad. Have a peek.” He unzipped the bag some, not much.

  Joe’s jaws clenched and twitched. His eyes widened and his face lost all expression.

  Henry stumbled back covering his mouth. He spun frantically and faced the other way in his vomit frenzy.

  Robbie closed the bag. “Get Dr
. And Dr. Hayes out of their Ozzie and Harriet World, Dad, and get them to the morgue. Those two are handling this. I have a feeling they’re gonna know exactly what did this and if not, they’re the only two in this entire community sick enough to not let it faze them.”

  Joe raised his eyes to Robbie. He didn’t say anything. He only reached for his radio to call of Dean and Ellen. Not much ever shocked Joe, but this certainly did.

  ^^^^

  Their pace was fast and there was also something upbeat about Dean and Ellen’s walk from their home to the clinic as well.

  “El, you have to stop looking so excited.”

  “I know.” Ellen kept her arms close to her. “But you have room to talk.”

  “You’re right. I can’t help it.”

  “Me either. This is the first real autopsy on a person in so long that you and I get to perform together.”

  “It must be good if Joe is calling us in. He sounded . . . weird.”

  “Yeah,” Ellen agreed as they approached the clinic. She stopped as Dean held the door open for her. “He said it wasn’t pretty.”

  Dean grinned. “Yeah.”

  “Dean, the smile.”

  Dean bit his bottom lip, thought horrid thoughts, and walked into the clinic with Ellen. Joe, Robbie, and Henry waited. “What’s going on?” Dean asked.

  Joe was about to speak when his eyes shifted to Ellen. “Why do you look so happy Missy Jane?”

  Ellen quickly folded her arms and widened her eyes. “Who me? Not me. I’m not happy.”

  “Yeah-yeah. Robbie, tell them.”

  “I took the body down to the morgue and got him on the table,” Robbie said. “It’s all is set up for you, Dean.”

  “I want a complete report or . . . a complete report is needed.” Joe pointed. “As conclusive as you can get.”

  “What happened to him?” Dean asked.

  Joe lifted his shoulders and let them drop. “That’s what you’re gonna tell me.”

  Ellen leaned into Dean. “Look how pale Henry is. It’s bad.”

  Dean cleared his throat. “We’ll uh . . . get on it right away. El?” He took her arm and led her away.

  Joe watched them. He saw their enthusiasm. They were terrible at hiding it. “Morons.” He shook his head. “Henry, you have to see what you can do about setting up another fence somewhere to cover the open perimeter. My God, we can’t take a chance of whatever got him getting in here.”

  “Joe, we would have done that years ago, but you know how hard that is,” Henry explained,. “The perimeter is attached to the top of the cliff on both sides. The only area not covered is that cliff. They’d have to rope down or roll. Whatever animal it is would die if it rolled down.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Joe said.

  “And we have to be careful putting fences in the U.D. The kids play out there. The only time we could safely run a perimeter beam in that area would be at night.”

  Joe let out a slow breath. “I guess we should just wait and see what Dean and Ellen say then we can inform everyone the details of Marv’s death. We also will know what kind of animal we’re dealing with and what we have to hunt down.” Joe looked down at his watch. “And . . .” He clapped his hands together. “I have one more thing to say. Henry . . .” Joe laid his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “It is officially your problem now. I’m retired. Later gentlemen.”

  “Joe!” Henry called as Joe walked away. “Joe, you can’t just . . .” Henry looked at Robbie. “He left. There has to be a rule or something stating you have to deal with problems arising while you’re leader. I don’t want to deal with this.”

  “Tough Henry.” Robbie raised his eyebrows. “It’s your, Mister . . . . Community Leader.” Repeating his father’s actions, Robbie laid his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “Good to have you aboard, Chief.” Like his father again, Robbie turned and left.

  ^^^^

  “So official like.” Ellen fixed the headset that was attached to a recorder onto Dean’s head. “Look at you.”

  “You too.” Dean nodded to Ellen, both of them in hospital scrubs.

  Ellen stepped closer to the table and peered at the blue sheet. “Want the honors?”

  “You can have them.” Dean motioned his hands out.

  “Thanks.” Ellen moved closer. “Something looks odd about this.” She reached for the blue sheet, hesitating when she noticed at the bottom of the table there was a small bin covered as well. “This doesn’t look right. Does it?”

  “Let’s just take a look.”

  “O.K.” Ellen pulled away the sheet. “Oh wow!”

  “Oh shit!”

  Their shocked and excited ‘ohs’ went back in forth in an overly dramatic call in repeat manner as they both stepped away from the long table. What Ellen exposed was not the body of Marv as they remembered. What looked more like a side of beef butchered one too many times lay on that table. It was wide and stretched. The only recognizable remains that linked the body to a human, were the left side of Marv’s face, his right forearm and hand, and both feet. Bones were exposed and flesh was shredded and hanging out. The torso cavity looked as if something had exploded from within it.

  Ellen let out a weak sounding whistle. “Well.”

  “Well.” Dean walked to the table with her.

  “This doesn’t look like your usual animal attack now does it?”,

  “Could be a lion.”

  “Or tiger.”

  Dean snickered. “Or bear.”

  “Oh my.” Ellen held in her laugh. “We should do this.”

  “We should. Let’s get serious.”

  “O.K.” Ellen looked at Marv. “Dean, should we be feeling really bad at this moment?”

  “Um . . .” Dean cleared his throat. “As citizens of Beginnings, we should be in mourning. But as scientists, there isn’t any room for emotions.”

  “You are so right. And I have to tell you, as a citizen of Beginnings, I’m gonna have a hard time mourning. I never liked him much.”

  “Me either. Weird guy.”

  “Bad hair.” Ellen touched with the tip of her fingers the section of hair right above the exposed brain. “He reminded me of that guy. You know . . . bad singer slash mayor.”

  “Sonny Bono.” Dean peered closer to Marv. “Yeah, he did.”

  “Look at his face, Dean.” Ellen folded her hands behind her back. “Kind of smashed. I wonder if Sonny had that look after his tragic accident.” She snapped her finger. “Oh! How coincidental. Sonny died in the woods and so did Marv.”

  With a thinking ‘hmm’, Dean stopped looking at Marv’s face. He shook his head and snapped back to medical thoughts. “We should be getting to work.”

  “Yes we should. Let’s be professionals now.” She handed Dean a pair of gloves then placed a pair on herself. “Your recorder set?”

  “Hold on.” Dean pressed in the button. “Ready. What’s in the bin, El?”

  “Let’s see, shall we?” She walked to it, reaching for the cloth and lifting it. “Oh. Body parts.”

  Dean peeked. “Yep.”

  “Who am I, Dean?”

  “Ellen.” Dean looked at the body.

  “No Dean, look at me . . . Dean who . . . Dean look at me, Dean. Look . . . . Dean. Dean.”

  “El. All right. Go on.”

  Ellen cleared her throat and lifted the cloth from the bin again. Drastically she gasped and swallowed, twitching her head to the right and closing her eyes. “The uh . . . “ She cleared her throat again. “The victim appears . . . who am I, Dean?”

  “I give up.”

  “Geez, Dean.” She dropped the cloth. “I’m Richard Dreyfus in the movie JAWS.” She giggled. “I feel just like him. Watch. Or how about this scene?” She grabbed Marv’s right arm and bent it up. “Remember that scene? The beach?”

  “Ellen, cut it out.”

  Ellen made her voice high -pitched. “Hi, Dean.” She waved the hand.

  “Ellen, we have to be serious. O.K.?”

&
nbsp; “O.K.. Let’s do this . . . Dean?”

  Dean slowed in his exam. He looked at Ellen. “What?”

  “This is the exact spot where you laid when you died. I can still see how pale and blue you . . .”

  “El.”

  “Yes?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I really don’t want to discuss my death right now.”

  “O.K., just flashing back in this creepy place. Go on.”

  “Thank you.” Slowly Dean let out a breath as he began to examine Marv, speaking into his recorder. “September 23rd autopsy on Marv Davidson. We have a thirty-two year old male, height five foot nine, weight, approximately 150 . . .”

  “Probably close to ninety now.”

  “El,” Dean silenced her. “Victim appears to be . . .”

  “Richard.”

  “El.” Dean reached for a pair of tweezers as his eyes zoomed in.

  “What do you see?”

  “Get me some specimen trays. Saliva is found predominantly across the thoracic region . . . .” Dean reached down his other hand and shut off his tape recorder. “El, look at this.”

  “It’s not something I need to be the bionic woman for does it?”

  “No, come here. Hit that light.”

  Ellen set down the specimen trays and turned the spotlight on. “What am I looking for.”

  “Look at these bite marks.” Dean pointed to the sternum.

  “Straight through the bone.”

  “Yeah. Jagged too.”

  “Definitely an animal.”

  “Looks that way. From what I’m seeing, and I’m not really giving it my all, it looks like several bite marks, several different bite marks. We should really get some shots of this,” Dean commented. “That way we can actually work for a while on it.”