Will. Time. Fate.

by Andrew Yake

  I consider my options. It is not likely that a police officer would want to help me or that they would even give me the time of day. I had only just recently discovered that my sense of smell was so strong that I could tell when people I knew were around me before I could see them. What’s more, I started being able to tell when people were happy, sad, angry, and even sick a few months earlier. This had come in handy after I got used to it. I tried to talk to my mother about it, but she told me that I was being ‘weird’ and waived me away from the TV show that she was trying to watch. I decided to try something new to me. I would attempt to track her.

  I stick my nose deep in her purse and breathe deeply. I know her scent, but I seek her most recent brand of perfume mixed with her scent. She changes her perfumes regularly. The odor is strong. It is almost like I can see a faint trail of her smell going down the road to my right. There is no visual trail, but that is the best way for me to describe how this works for me.

  I start running down the wet street. My feet splashing through puddles of water and the rain doing its best to blind me as I run. I continue the trail around three city blocks. The scent is stronger now. I follow the scent down an alley and I smell something new, fear. I cannot hear or see her yet, but I know that she is near. I come to an abandoned warehouse.

  I hear a slight scuffle inside and the muted whimper of a woman. There is a dim light coming from inside this place. I can smell her easily now. I can hear her crying and the voices of two men. The door that is slightly ajar is a double door that would allow for a car or truck to enter when it is totally open. Right now, it is only open enough for a single person to slip through. I walk toward the door and I am able to hear the voice of one of the men more clearly.

  “Shut up bitch! If you are good we may not have to cut you.” I can see inside the building now. The men have ripped off most of Hailey’s clothing. She is bruised and bleeding from her nose. There is a man holding a knife at her throat as he speaks to her. There is another man behind her. His pants are at his ankles.

  “Now hold still while we have our fun. It’ll be over soon enough.”

  I am enraged. I feel my vision starting to go red. I move with speed. I am on the man with the knife before I can think about what I am doing. I rip the knife from his hand and plunge it into his neck. I feel the warm spray of his blood. I can tell I have taken them all by surprise, but I do not care. I hear the gargled sounds of the soon to be dead man as he falls to his knees. He is of no importance to me now. The other man pulls himself out of Hailey. She scrambles out of the way. He shuffles backward and looks as though he is about to reach down to pick up his pants. I can smell that he has already been raping her. I can smell the fear from her, but now the terror I see in his eyes feels right.

  “Is this how you like to get off?” I point at Hailey as I speak to the soon to be dismembered rapist.

  “Look man. What do you care? She’s just a…” his tone is terrified, but he has already said too much for me. I offer him no more time to speak. I let my rage fuel me. I move forward and punch him in the throat. I don’t want to kill him just yet. I want him to suffer. I can still hear the gargling sounds from the other man, but now they are mixed with the coughing of this man. I reach down and squeeze hard. I make sure that his last moments he regrets having the biological equipment necessary to rape a woman. I relish his screams.

  I release his crotch and look down to see that there is an ever-widening blood stain where my hand had been. The man is crying. I am not yet satisfied, but I am ready to allow him to die. I grab his head. I feel strength I have never known and I know it will be easy for me to snap his neck like a twig.

  It is then that I hear Hailey crying, but not because of her fear of her attackers. She is calling out my name. “Zack, don’t! They aren’t worth it! Just leave them. I am safe now.” I turn to see her clutching her torn clothes to cover herself. She pulls her torn short skirt down over her exposed shaved pubic region. She is pleading with me. Begging me not to give into my inner monster. “Don’t be like them.” Her voice is softer. I feel more like myself and let go of the man. He continues to cry.

  My guess is that he would have rather I killed him at this point. This brings me a small amount of happiness, but I am also horrified by what I have just done. I cannot help looking at my blood covered hands and feeling fear well up inside me. Hailey puts her arm around me and leads me out of the building.

  I am in shock. She leads me back to her apartment. It is here that she gives me a towel. I am shivering. She strips as she goes to her bathroom and starts running a shower. She comes back into the room naked. I am stunned by her beauty. This is the first time I have seen a woman naked in real life. While her female figure is stunning and pleasing to my eyes I am struck more by her facial features. Her eyes are kind. Her makeup shows that she had been crying and that the rain had smeared the rest. I smell sadness and relief. She comes over to where I am sitting on her couch.

  “Take these off and come with me. We have to get you cleaned up.” She leads me to the bathroom. I find that I am self-conscious as she strips off my clothing and helps me into the shower. I no longer feel like the fearless avenger that I had been just 40 minutes prior. I feel helpless and scared. I am also comforted by Hailey’s body next to mine in the small shower space. She smiles at me weakly and we bathe in the warm water.

  We exit the shower and dry off. She leads me to her bed and we lay together naked for a while. I feel her hand on my chest and I am trying to keep my mind here with her instead of replaying the horror of murdering a man and nearly murdering another. She runs her hand along my jaw and shifts my focus onto her. “I changed my mind.” She moves in and kisses me on the mouth. I feel bliss. I am overcome with joy and peace and lose myself in her embrace. I have never felt anything like it before. Movies and books cannot capture what it means to be in love and share in the act of love making, first time or no, with one whom you have given your heart over so completely.

  The memory of Hailey and my desire to have her back wins out over any possible hang-up I have over trusting Benny. I still do not trust him, but I need Hailey back in my life. “Fine. I will do it.” I eat the last bit of eggs and pancake. I start draining my coffee cup. Benny pulls out his wallet.

  “Well, hot damn! Dat’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout.”

  “On one condition.” Benny looks up. I have caught him off guard.

  “What?” He seems a bit uneasy as he waits for my answer.

  “You leave my mother out of this and after we are done you leave Hailey and I alone.” I pause for effect. “Forever.” The seriousness in my voice is offset by Benny starting to laugh.

  “No problem, pup.” He slaps his knee as he laughs as if he is relieved with my request. He then picks up his hat off of the table and places it on his head.

  “And stop calling me ‘pup’!” I find that I am annoyed, but pleased with my negotiation skills.

  “Well, I would, ya see, but dat weren’t part of the deal, were it?” He smiles and gets up. He puts a twenty-dollar bill on the table and we leave.

  We walk a short distance and he points to a black motorcycle outside of a bar. It looks like the iconic easy-rider Harley and even I have to admit that it is a beautiful bike. “Dat’s our pony.” He smiles at me. He gets on and I get on the back of the bike. It is surprisingly comfortable. It has a high back and pegs for me to easily put my feet up. He starts the bike and it rumbles to life.

  A man comes racing out of the bar. “Hey!” He is yelling at us. Benny revs the engine. “HEY! GET OFF MY…”

  Benny twists the accelerator and we take off down the street. Benny lets out a “yeeha” as we shift through the gears at an accelerated rate. It occurs to me that I should have known that the bike did not actually belong to Benny, but I realize it is too late now to reconsider as we are moving a very high rate of speed. The wind now blows cold on my face, but I smell something that I did not expect. Benny, does not smell like the other li
ving creatures. He smells, old and almost stale. I put this off to the side in my mind and hold onto him as he accelerates again through traffic.

  We head out of the city weaving through traffic. It is not long before we are in what seems to be a more country setting north of the city. Trees line the road. The cold air is harsh on my face as we cruise. He slows down and turns onto a dirt road that I had not noticed until we were right up on it. The road becomes bumpy, but we do not slow down. I see a sign that says “KEEP OUT” and under it the lettering says “official personnel only”.

  We enter what appears to be a decommissioned military base. Benny continues driving down overgrown roads. The roads are smoother than before. There are buildings that come into view, but they seem warn down and abandoned. We are now in a more built up part of this abandoned base. He pulls up to a building that has a large old truck. It looks like one of those trucks you see on World War 2 documentaries.

  He stops the bike. “Right, you ready to earn yer keep, pup?”

  I get off the bike and stretch my legs. The moonlight is bright and I notice, as my eyes adjust, that I can see well out here even without extra light. “Sure, what are we looking for?”

  “Na, there ain’t nothin’ to see here that ain’t been seen already. I need yer puppy nose.” He winks at me and walks to the door of the building. I notice now that it is labeled with the medical cross.

  I walk in behind Benny. There is blood on the floor and the pungent aroma of blood becomes more overwhelming as we enter a double door area. I also smell the scent of a dog, but cannot place it and figure that it was probably just a wild dog. The room that we have come upon looks like an operating room. There is blood on the table and there is a silver gun sitting in a pool of blood. I walk over to the gun. I pick it up being careful not to put my fingers in the pool of blood or on the bloody part of the handle. I feel a slight tingling sensation from holding the gun.

  “Give it a sniff.” Benny says to me.

  To this day, I do not know why my sense of smell is so powerful, nor do I understand why I am able to tell the things that I am able to with it, but I know that I am special in this way. It makes sense to me that Benny would want me for this task. However, it does not make sense to me why or how he would know that I possess this ability. Mental note, find out how he knows this about me. I look at the gun. I am disgusted with the thought of purposely sticking my nose anywhere near this, but I do it anyway.

  I am filled with the pheromones of a person. “Female.” I say. I recognize the smell. It smells like someone that I ran into or past from the hospital. The smell also suggests that this person had an infection of some sort. I look at the table next to me and see that whoever this was had used antibiotics and morphine prior to leaving this place. I can only assume that she was successful. If she wasn’t, she probably would not have lasted very long. I pick up a role of gauze and use it to wipe the gun clean. I then put the blood-soaked gauze into my pocket for later reference.

  “Hey Benny, you said that she fought back or something right?” I look over at Benny.

  “Well, she became a bit agitated with my presence and shot at me.” He says this and looks at the ground and squats. He is studying the blood on the floor.

  “Any chance you shot back?”

  “Nope.” He does not even look up.

  “How did you lose her? It looks like she was bleeding out. She couldn’t have been hard to catch if that was the case.” I motion to the blood evidence all around the room.

  “Weren’t that simple, pup.” He dips a finger into the blood on the floor. I look away in disgust.

  “Well, I don’t see how you could have lost her when she obviously could not have gotten that far.” I decide to tuck the gun into the belt of my pants next to my left hip where my jacket will cover up the fact that I have it.

  “I done told ya,” Benny stands as he speaks, “weren’t that simple. Someone took her. I think it was the guys that originally kidnapped ‘er.”

  This was an interesting turn of events. Benny had not mentioned that she was a kidnap victim before. I am not sure if I trust what he is saying. “If she was kidnapped, then why was she armed and why aren’t the police involved?”

  Benny looks up at me. “She were kidnapped a year ago. The po-lice stopped lookin’ a long time ago.” He turns to leave. “Now come on pup. We can use that nose of yers to find our missin’ girly.”

  I consider shooting Benny for his continued use of the term ‘pup’ as my name. I decide against it, for now. Instead I make a mental note to add ‘kidnapping victim’ and ‘private investigator’ to the possible motivations that this person has for finding this woman. I concentrate on the smell and attempt to put a face to the smell. I remember short red hair and beautiful features. I then piece together the memory of the nurse I had seen from afar and then again in a car outside of the hospital… yes, with the mystery woman. I walk out the way I came in and start heading outside. I can smell the same scent along with the dog’s scent as we pass the big old truck. I stop and look at the truck. Benny hops back onto the motorcycle and then looks back to watch me.

  I then walk over to the truck and open the door. There is a mixture of more blood and more dog smell in the cab of the truck. The smells are old, but not that old. There is also the smell of gunpowder near the driver side door. She must have shot at Benny while she was driving. Huh, no wonder she missed. The dog that I keep smelling must be her pet. I wonder if that is why he couldn’t get close to her. I consider what the different smells are telling me and put together a scenario in my head of what may have happened.

  “I don’t think I can follow her from here.” I look over at Benny still sitting on the bike. “We need to go back into the city.” I walk over and take my place on the back of the bike.

  “Well, alright. Now we’re cookin’ with gas.” I ignore his odd comment as he starts up the bike and we head back into the city.

  13

  Alex’s story

  Alex sits across from me. I am nervous and excited that I may finally get some answers about who I am and what has led me here. I am reasonably comfortable at this moment. My bullet wound sends a constant throb reminding me of my recent physical exertion. I am rather certain that I may have even popped a stitch, but I am able to ignore the pain for the moment. Alex is studying me as I shift in my seat to try to get more comfortable.

  “You alright JJ?” He says my name so familiarly.

  “I’ll be fine. How do you know me?”

  “There is no easy answer to that question. I am not sure you ever really let anyone know you.” Alex leans back in his chair. His massive figure seems to sink into it. His face seems tired from thinking. He runs his human hand through his hair and places the bandana on the desk beside him. Strands of hair fall in front of his eyes as he sits up again to study me.

  I exhale in frustration with his existential answer. I am not in the mood for cagy answers. “Would you please stop with the vague answers.” I wave my hands in the air as I speak. This seems to accent my growing frustration.

  “I am not trying to be vague.” Alex says in earnest. “I am telling you the truth.” He sits back again places both of his hands on his lap. His human fingers interlacing with his metal ones.

  “I’m waiting.” I say as calmly as I can. I can see that he is trying to figure out what to say and how to say it.

  “I suppose the story starts about a year ago when I got a call from my buddy John.”

  I awake to my special phone ringing. I stretch and flex my arms and legs while I lay on my bed. It is early. I look over and grab the phone with my right hand. I still remember what it is like to have both hands and be able to feel objects like the coolness of a phone. There are only four people who have this phone number and the number that I see flashing on the screen of the cell I know is John’s. At least it is this week. He is a bit paranoid and tends to change his phone like other people change their underwear. “What’s up?”

&nbs
p; “Hey, we have a job and a newcomer.” This strikes my interest.

  “What do you mean a newcomer? How did he find us?”

  “She.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “She found us...” He takes a moment before continuing. I can almost hear him puffing on one of his cigars for dramatic effect. The way he pauses keeps me from speaking just yet. “And it was actually Max that brought her to us. I guess you could say that she found us through Max. She said her name is JJ.”

  “Right, good old Mad Max brought us a stray and we trust her because…” I let the question trail off. John is not known to be the trusting type and I doubt he would have even spoken to anyone who was not a lead on a job unless he had an extremely good reason.

  “She knows things. She says she knows where I might be able to find Val.”

  I suddenly understand why he has been willing to talk with this person. I don’t know how she would have found out information on Valery, but if she knew Max she could have easily manipulated the situation if she thought there was something to gain from an association with the likes of us. It would not have been the first time that our team had been taken in by someone offering information, but, fortunately, it did not happen often. ‘She must have found out about John’s daughter from internet articles.’ I decide mentally. “Valery? Are you sure? I mean she could be lying to you or using public records to scam...”

  John cuts me off. “No, she’s for real. She has connections to some big-shot in the city. She says that she is hiding from him, but that she knows where I can find Val. Hell Alex, she was able to give me a description of her, tell me her favorite music, where she was last seen, and most importantly the details of my last conversation with her. I am telling you she knows Val!”

  I am still not totally convinced that the majority of this information was not gathered from the internet, but the bit about knowing details of a private conversation had me interested in meeting this new girl. “I’ll be there in an hour.” I hang up the phone and get dressed. I am still not sure the angle this girl is playing, but I know John and I know that he will go into the depths of hell if he thinks he will get a glimpse of his long-lost daughter. I also know Max has had many strange connections through the many lives he has saved during his time as a medic with our unit and working in various urgent care clinics.