“And he did, didn’t he?” I said. I couldn’t believe this was happening. That lady popped into my head again—the one that was on the monitor at Site 37. Her name had been Mrs. Bijur. What did the pretty eggheads say? ‘Infestation in just over a minute, Diana. We’ve improved on the change rate’.
“He turned,” said Jimmy, his voice shaking just a little. “He turned as Randy held him, trying to snap him out of it.”
“In just over a minute,” I murmured.
“Yeah,” said Jimmy. “Just about a minute. Then he bit Randy—maybe even more than once. So we started running back this way. Well I did. I think Randy was behind me.”
“As one of them or one of us?” I said nervously.
Jimmy didn’t have a chance to answer. Randy Stephens burst through a clothing rack about fifty feet away from us. He fell to the ground then got up. I could see in the gloom that he was covered in blood.
“I’m bit,” he screamed. “I’m bit.”
I looked from Freaky Big Bird to Randy to Freaky Big Bird. She hadn’t changed. Maybe he was going to be like her. I liked Randy. He seemed like a good guy. I didn’t want to have to burn him. I really didn’t.
My mother and Trudy Aiken came out of one of the aisles, too, right near where Randy was. No, I thought. Not after everything. What if he changes right in front of her? What if he bites her? No, please. Not my mother. My feet felt like they were stuck to the ground—like I would never be able to lift them again. Please not my mother—anything but my mother.
It turns out I didn’t have to. Randy didn’t change. My mother and Trudy grabbed him around the waist and helped him to where we were standing. My father sat him down and instructed him to pull off his shirt.
“Where are the other poxers?” I said to Randy. “Where’s Eddie?”
Randy looked up at me with tears in his eyes. “He got me three times before I managed to get him back inside the break room and shut the door,” he said. “Three times. I’m a goner for sure.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. I lifted my hand and looked at Uncle Don’s watch. The seconds had already turned into minutes. He wasn’t changing. I didn’t think he was going to at all.
My father set to washing his wounds with peroxide, and trying to clean him up. I’d love to say I stayed and watched, fascinated as Dad sewed the torn skin back together, but honestly, the whole blood and guts thing grossed me out.
Call me a wussy. I don’t care.
If we were in a movie, and we had to chop off the poxers heads in order to kill them, I don’t think I would have been able to do it. Blood skeeves me out. I could add that to the list of things I hated, along with the woods and snakes. Damn, I really was soft, wasn’t I? Trina definitely got the stones in our family. I’m just the smartass. Hey, we all have our strengths.
In any case, it was sad that Eddie with the fake hair was gone. I didn’t really know him all that well, but Randy seemed to like him well enough, and he hadn’t had a major meltdown like Freaky Big Bird or eaten three times worth of rations like Trudy Aiken.
He seemed like an all right guy. Now he was just a dead guy—another one to torch into a black smear on the floor.
Prianka and Trina were by the front door with Jimmy. Bullseye and Sanjay were with them, too. I went over and joined them.
“Well, there’s your control group,” I said to Prianka. “The way I see it, Diana’s people had experimented with at least three different concoctions while my mom and everyone were still locked up—probably even more. Maybe Tattoo Guy and some of the others that we saved were given nothing. Eddie and at least that woman that Diana had put in with the poxer at Site 37 were part of another group. They didn’t change as fast, but they still ended up poxers. Then Randy and Freaky Big Bird were part of a third group.”
Prianka stared at me hard. “And they got it right with them,” she said. “They’re super immune, aren’t they?”
“I think so.” I turned and looked at my mother and Trudy. I wondered which group they fell into. I hoped we would never have to find out. Immune or super immune, it really didn’t matter. The name of the game for everyone was not to get bit. Not ever.
“You know what?” said Jimmy. “We totaled that place, that Site 37, before they even had a chance to finish their experiments.”
He was right. I think we stumbled across their little science project and kicked their petri dishes in their faces, somehow screwing up what they were trying to do.
They got it right. They actually got it right.
“But if Diana knows she already has what she’s looking for—a way to make immune people super immune—then why is she still hunting me and Trina?”
Everyone was quiet. Andrew ruffled his feathers. What Bullseye finally murmured was one of the smartest things I’ve ever heard him say.
“She doesn’t know it works.”
Prianka put her hand to her mouth. Trina’s eyes widened like she was going to say something but though better of it. I think some of her synapses weren’t quite firing right. It took her a second before it clicked. “It all makes sense now,” she said. “The experiments, everyone getting sick—it was because whatever they were given made them that way, but instead of turning them into poxers, it gave them super immunity.”
Prianka nodded. “And Diana doesn’t even know it yet,” she said. “We have her experiment.” She tilted her head toward my dad and the other adults. He continued to patch up Randy, while Aunt Ella and Trudy and Nedra Stein consoled Freaky Big Bird. Krystal sat on the floor next to Aunt Ella playing with a knockoff Barbie that she found for her in the toy aisle.
“We have her experiment,” I repeated, my mind reeling. “And she doesn’t even know it works.”
54
THERE WEREN’T ANY other poxers in Walmart besides the ones left in the break room. We walked up and down the aisles, making sure the place was secure.
When we were finally ready, we left Sanjay with Aunt Ella, and us kids went back to the break room armed with paper, matches, and fire extinguishers, and we snuffed everyone out.
Somehow, we all kept avoiding Eddie until the end. Finally, Trina, her lips buttoned tight, torched him, and Prianka sprayed the blazing pieces that were left with white foam.
It was a miracle we didn’t burn the place down.
The whole time, my mind kept racing with the same two words over and over again. Super immune, super immune, super immune.
The adults hadn’t caught on to the whole super immunity idea yet. They were just thankful to all be alive and be in a place that seemed to have a pretty big supply of everything we needed. I wasn’t ready to have the conversation with them, anyway, but Trina and I kept looking at each other. I knew she was thinking what I was thinking, and I knew she knew I knew.
You know?
With a little bit of elbow grease, we cleaned up the mess in the break room and all decided to set up base in there. Behind the break room was a locker room where employees kept all of their stuff. We were even lucky enough to find a bathroom and two stall showers that actually worked.
Randy said as long as we had propane, we’d have power. We all took showers, found clean clothes fresh off the racks, and set up a bank of toaster ovens we found in the appliance section. In honor of Trudy, though she didn’t know it, we cooked frozen pizza from the freezers. She was thrilled. Frankly, we were all pretty tickled pink.
After dinner, we ate ice cream, which I thought I would never have again, and Jimmy made himself a fruit smoothie with a really expensive blender and some bananas, blueberries, and strawberries that hadn’t gone bad yet.
Aunt Ella washed the dishes in the bathroom when we were through. Then we all checked out the camping supplies area, found sleeping bags and fold-out cots, and brought them into the break room to set up for the night. We even set up a fort for Sanjay.
It was all so orderly. Everyone pitched in—even Nedra Stein, who was probably used to much finer things than what we could get in a Walmart. B
efore we knew it, it was dark outside.
I stood at the front door with Prianka, her head on my shoulder. Jimmy and Trina were with us, too. We had looped bicycle chains around the doors and locked them so no one could get in. As we stared out the dark windows, we saw the sky glowing in the distance. It was the forest fire run amok. The woods were still pretty dry, so at some point, the fire was going to make its way to Apple. Even if it did—even if it burned down the whole town—we were surrounded by a huge parking lot and behind the building was that hill. I’m sure there would be a lot of smoke, but fire? Nah. Still, the safety this place offered wasn’t safety at all. It was only a pit stop—a chance to catch our breath.
Trina sat on Jimmy’s lap, her arms around his neck. Finally, she sniffed and sighed.
“What?” he asked her. “Everything okay?”
She didn’t answer him right away. She just looked at me. I sighed, too. “Are you going to say it or am I?”
“Say what?” asked Prianka. She lifted her head from my shoulder and looked from me to Trina and back at me again. “What do you have to say?”
“Aren’t you guys tired?” asked Trina.
“Well it’s been quite the day,” said Jimmy. “Quite a freaking day.”
“That’s not what I mean,” she said. “Aren’t you tired of running?”
Jimmy smiled. “I don’t run,” he said. “I’m all cool with the rolling thing.”
I pulled away from Prianka. “What Trina’s saying is, aren’t you guys tired of running from Diana and soldiers and helicopter people? I mean, weirdly enough, we can handle ourselves with the poxers. We just have to find a place where they can’t get to us, you know? Like an island or a place out in the middle of the woods.”
“Like the McDuffy Estate,” said Trina in a quiet voice, not daring to look at Jimmy.
“Like the McDuffy Estate?” repeated Prianka, her voice rising up a couple of decibels. Her eyes widened. “No way,” she said. “No way in hell.”
Trina pulled herself away from Jimmy and came to stand beside me. Prianka folded her arms over her chest as the anger started to boil up from the soles of her feet.
“What am I missing?” asked Jimmy.
“Don’t you get it?” Prianka snapped. “They want to leave.”
She was right. Trina and I hadn’t even discussed it, but we both knew what had to be done. Diana, witch that she was, had to know her experiment was successful. If she did, she would leave us alone. No more helicopter people, no more running in the night. She would have a cure to super immunity and we would be off the hook. We would all be free to go north or south, or anywhere far away and start over. We could give Krystal a life, and Sanjay, and Bullseye. The adults could learn how to adapt. Maybe Trudy would even lose some weight. After all, there wouldn’t always be pizza, if you know what I mean.
“No way,” said Jimmy, but even as the words slipped out of his mouth, he knew that Trina and I had already made our decision.
“We have to,” Trina said. “It’s not like we can just call her up. We have to make sure she knows. It’s the only way we’ll all be safe.”
Jimmy balled up his fists. “Safe with that woman? That Diana? What part of safe do you possibly think goes hand in hand with turning yourself over to her?”
“Don’t you get it?” Trina said. “We’re not turning ourselves over to her. We’re going to tell her the experiment was successful. She’s not a complete idiot, you know. All we need to do is explain that whatever she did to Randy and Felice worked. Whatever combination of voodoo they tried actually did the trick. They’ll have the key to super immunity. They won’t need us.”
“Your parents will never let us go,” said Prianka. “They just got you back.”
“Wait a second,” I said. “Who said anything about us?”
“And me,” said Bullseye. He had been lurking around the candy racks nearby. None of us had seen him there.
“That’s means Sanjay, too,” said Prianka. “If you’re going, we’re all going.”
My shoulders slumped. All I needed was for one of them to get hurt. I would never be able to let it go. It would eat at me and eat at me until there was nothing left.
“Listen,” said Prianka. “You bailed on me already when we were back at your Aunt Ella’s and I didn’t know if you were ever coming back.”
“You bailed on me, too,” said Bullseye. “You doing that again?”
We were all quiet. It was like playing chess, and any second now either Jimmy, Prianka, or Bullseye was going to call out checkmate.
“You all suck,” I finally said.
“Completely suck,” said Trina. “This isn’t fair.”
“So does this mean I get to shoot somebody?” asked Bullseye.
“No,” we all snapped at once. Then I thought better of it.
“Well, maybe,” I said. “Just a little.” Bullseye grinned from ear to ear.
“So I guess there’s just one thing left to do,” said Trina. “We need some straws.”
“For what?” said Jimmy.
I answered for her, a grim smile on my face. “Whoever pulls the short one has to tell the adults.”
“Oh,” he said, “Crap.”
Jimmy was right. Crap just about summed it up. Still, one way or another, we were looking at a possible end to this messed up Necropoxy madness. A little more bad to end up with a whole lot of good couldn’t be all wrong.
Could it?
Well, could it?
I guess we’d find out soon enough.
The End
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Acknowledgements
As always, I would like to give special thanks to David Gilfor for reading over my shoulder, making sure my writing remains compelling, creepy, and humorous. In addition, I would like to thank my readers Shira Block McCormick, Tamara Fricke, and Joline Odentz for venturing into the world of Tripp Light once again.
I would also like to thank Lois Winston, Ashley Grayson, Debra Dixon, and the team at Bell Bridge Books for their tireless support.
Finally, I would like to once again thank my brilliant nephew, Nick Gilfor, for wading into a literary universe inflicted with Necropoxy and pointing out where I might have gone astray.
I haven’t decided if Nick is immune to poxers yet. Only time will tell.
About the Author
Author and playwright Howard Odentz is a lifelong resident of the gray area between Western Massachusetts and North Central Connecticut. His love of the region is evident in his writing as he often incorporates the foothills of the Berkshires and the small towns of the Bay and Nutmeg states into his work.
The mysterious has always played a major role in Howard’s writing. He is endlessly fascinated by the psychological aspects of those who are thrown into thrilling or otherworldly circumstances.
“I like writing about my dark little corner of the world,” he says. “After all, this is New England. There’s more than enough creepiness here to keep me inspired for years to come.”
Table of Contents
Wicked Dead
Wicked Dead
Book Two of the Dead (A Lot) Trilogy
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
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9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
39
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
Please visit these websites for more information about Howard Odentz
Acknowledgements
About the Author
The Dead (a Lot) Trilogy (Book 2): Wicked Dead Page 23
