“Do you sleep?” I asked.
He nodded. I rubbed my neck.
“Do you know where Quasi is?”
He nodded. Not much for small talk, that one.
“Then let’s get the hell out of here and go find him.”
An image of Caroline flashed in my head. It shifted to us walking in the cave and her following behind us. I imagined Caroline lying on the cave floor while I squatted over her with my pants down. I heard him panting as he laughed.
* * *
Getting out of the cage was easy with a bigfoot who could teleport. He stepped behind me and put his arms around me, making sure not to touch my skin. I could smell his musk, which was something like a dog’s but stronger. I wondered if they bathed or if they used their own spit like some animals or what. But then everything glowed and became bright and we were outside the cage. My head throbbed like a rude neighbor’s stereo at night.
I didn’t see any sign we were being watched, which made me pretty sure we were. I had a thought, but I wasn’t sure how to communicate it with Slips in Shit through images. I nudged him and closed my eyes. Then I pictured Caroline and the other two Council members I’d seen with Slips in Shit. He was laid out on a table, and they injected him with something. I opened my eyes; he shook his head. I imagined them giving him a glass of water to drink. In the water, something was glowing, but I envisioned him drinking it without seeing it. The glowing thing entered his body, and when he walked through the cave, they could see him through the darkness. He shook his head.
“They haven’t given you any water?” I asked.
He shook his head again. An image entered my mind of him urinating into his own mouth.
I shuddered. “That’s horrible.” He shrugged.
I made him stand still and started to search him. He flinched away, but I held my hands up so he could see I wasn’t going to touch him. I leaned in close and looked him over. I didn’t see any sign of a tracking device of any kind, though it was hard to tell with all that fur. And I’ll admit I didn’t spend a lot of time on his genital region or his butt.
“I guess you’re clean.”
We made our way through the cave, passing through several rooms. The place was huge.
“I wonder if they made it or found it,” I said.
The only way I had of navigating was to go up whenever I could. Every so often, Slips in Shit would smell something and stop me, and we’d wait for whoever or whatever he smelled to pass. Sometimes, we had to take a different route. I noticed that the glowing moss was weakening. I pointed it out to Slips in Shit, and he nodded and pointed in the direction we were going, so I assume it was a good sign.
Eventually we got to an opening that led down and was very narrow. There was another opening that led up and was more open. I started to go that way, but Slips in Shit stopped me. He tapped the side of his nose and pointed to the narrower way. I could barely see him since the moss was very thin at that point. But he smelled something, so I let him choose our path.
* * *
We crept through the tunnel, which grew increasingly darker. I had visions of myself falling through some hole I couldn’t see. The vision shifted and Slips in Shit was there, catching me from behind. That made me feel better.
Eventually I saw light ahead. We came out into a larger room lit with torches.
“This is a good sign,” I said.
It was bothering me that the Council wasn’t even making an effort to appear as if they were trying to stop us. Just as we left the tunnel and stepped into the next cavern, though, Slips in Shit held up a hand. I tried to pass him, but he chuffed and moved in my way. I realized he was trying to stop me, so I retreated into the tunnel with him behind me. I heard voices and he gave me an I told you so look. We waited until the voices receded, then sneaked back into the larger cave.
There was an entranceway in the direction we’d heard the Council members come from. I moved toward it, but Slips in Shit chuffed at me. He had his nose in the air sniffing. He bared his teeth.
“What?” I whispered.
He ignored me and jogged toward the other opening, where the voices had gone.
“Where are you going?” He didn’t answer, so I followed him.
* * *
There were maybe half a dozen tables in a row along the wall, all with bigfoots laid out on them, unconscious. They had been strapped down to the tables. There were tubes leading from their mouths and arms to machines. Some had cuts and bandages that looked like they’d come from surgeries.
“Dude,” I said.
Slips in Shit ran up to the first one and started ripping tubes out of it. I caught up to him and put my hand on his shoulder to stop him. Images flooded my brain again.
“Ugh!” I fell back. “You might hurt them. The machines might be helping them.”
When the images stopped, he was standing, panting, staring at me with bared teeth.
“At least let me help.” I went to the one he’d started freeing. He seemed to be on just an IV drip. Maybe it had the sedative that was keeping him unconscious. Slips in Shit had already torn the tube out, so I undid his restraints. Slips in Shit grabbed him and they both disappeared. I looked around and saw them at the mouth of the hallway cave. They disappeared again. Maybe he could only teleport as far as he could see.
I went to the next bigfoot and was starting to remove the IV from his arm when a hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back. It was one of the Council members who’d kidnapped me before. He didn’t speak, just stood between me and the bigfoot. Another appeared from the hallway, followed by Caroline, who was flushed red and shaking with rage.
“You look pissed,” I said.
“You were supposed to follow it back to its nest.” She hissed the words like a frizzy-haired snake.
“You didn’t tell me you were experimenting on them. What did you expect him to do?”
Before she could answer, Slips in Shit appeared beside me with a flash of light. The Council members jerked away instinctively and then lunged for us. Slips in Shit wrapped his arms around me and we disappeared. We reappeared at the mouth of the hallway cave and then flashed to the end of that. He fell to his knees on the cave floor. He was glassy-eyed and breathing heavily.
Caroline screamed not far behind us. Footsteps echoed, coming closer.
I put my arm around Slips in Shit, nearly gagging at the pain as images filled my head, and did my best to lift him up and support him without passing out. He leaned on me, chuffing and stumbling. We scuffled to the edge of the room and through to the next, which was much larger.
Behind us, I could hear the Council members enter the room we just left. We entered another room past the big one. This one was darker. At the far end we found a narrow tunnel we had to crawl through. I was dragging Slips in Shit at that point, my mind flashing from image to image so that I could barely focus on the cave ahead of me. The Council members yelled. It sounded like they were right behind us.
“We’ve got to go faster,” I said. Slips in Shit didn’t respond. I thought he was unconscious, and I didn’t know how I was going to get him through the narrow opening ahead of us. I dragged him to it. I could see light through it.
“Stop!” Caroline said. I turned to see her bearing down on us. She lifted the amulet I’d seen her wave at Slips in Shit earlier. It started to glow. I shook Slips in Shit. This time, he jerked and threw his arms around me and we disappeared.
* * *
We reappeared about three feet up in the air outside the cave and immediately fell. The other bigfoot Slips in Shit had rescued was there, lying on the ground. A fireball rocketed above us from the cave mouth.
“Shit!” I said.
I rolled away from Slips in Shit and threw up. When I finished, I got to my feet and ran to him. Blood crusted the fur on his face. I shook him, and more images flooded into my head and almost made me throw up again. He growled and snuffed a few times.
“Get up! We’ve got to go!” I went to th
e other bigfoot and kicked him, but he was still out. “They’re coming!”
Slips in Shit opened his eyes.
“We need to go. Can you walk?” He nodded and struggled to his feet.
Slips in Shit grabbed the other bigfoot and slapped him in the face, which woke him up a little. I saw Caroline emerge from the cave and look around for us. We grabbed the other bigfoot between us and stumble-ran into the trees before she could attack.
“Can you teleport again?” I asked Slips in Shit. He shook his head.
We were banging around, running into trees and trying to go as fast as possible. Somehow we ended up on a little trail, though it was really just a track through the trees. We ran along the track for what seemed like a couple miles but could’ve easily been a few hundred feet. It widened and became more of a path.
The bigfoots were both exhausted. I was essentially dragging them both, and I wasn’t in much better shape. I twitched whenever I brushed against one or the other of them and memories and images flooded my brain, though I was doing my best to roll with it. I couldn’t even think at that point; I was on fumes.
“You’re stealing my property,” Caroline screamed. “Even out here there are laws.”
She sounded like she was right behind us. I imagined the fire hitting my back, blistering my skin off, my last sensation the smell of my own burning flesh. Which would suck. I made one last effort, and we crashed through another set of trees, and found ourselves at the edge of the water.
It took my eyes a moment to register what I was seeing, but there was a boat, and Nathan Venator, the Hero of Baltimore, was sitting in it.
“Need a lift?” he said with that smartass smile of his.
CHAPTER SIX
It was one of those little aluminum boats you see on fishing shows you watch on Sundays when you have nothing to do and no life. So I’d seen a couple before. Slips in Shit hesitated.
“He’s a friend,” I said. Slips in Shit turned dazed eyes toward me. I nodded. “Help me get him in,” I said, referring to the other bigfoot. Slips in Shit waded out into the water and we dragged the unconscious bigfoot into the boat. Then I helped Slips in Shit in.
Behind us, I heard Caroline screaming as she emerged from the woods. “You’re fucked now, girl.”
I turned, but Nathan was already out of the boat and on the shore between the Council members and us.
“Caroline,” he said. “You’re in violation.”
“Violation?” She scoffed. “You’re out of your jurisdiction.”
“These creatures are under my protection.” He raised his shirt and revealed a handgun tucked into his pants.
Caroline looked at the gun and then up at his face. The three other Council members behind her scowled. “You wouldn’t dare oppose me.”
“My father opposed you. I figure it’s in the family.”
“Yes, and we see how well that worked out for him.”
Nathan drew the gun. The other Council members shifted away from Caroline. “And you think that’s going to make me not kill you, leave your rotting corpse in a fucking ditch, and bury your buddies alive?”
They shifted farther.
“You forget your place, boy. I—“
Nathan aimed and fired above her head, murdering some leaves. The three stooges stepped back as one. Caroline simply smiled.
“Get in the boat,” Nathan said.
I wasn’t about to disobey.
* * *
We pushed away from the shore, and Nathan handed me a paddle.
“I need my hands free,” he said.
“I’ve never used one of these before,” I said.
“Put it in the water and push.”
So that’s what I did. It took me a few tries to get the hang of it. I pushed us in a circle until I realized I needed to alternate paddling from either side. I was so brain dead, it took me a lot longer than it should’ve to figure that out.
As I struggled, Nathan stood and straddled the center of the boat, still holding the gun. He was wearing this strange harness with a jewel in the center. I didn’t want to say, but it kind of looked like bondage gear to me.
The Council members lined up on the shore with Caroline.
“What are they doing?” I asked.
“Probably waiting until we’re too far out for me to hit them,” Nathan said.
We were maybe thirty feet from shore. Every time I looked at them, I ended up turning the boat the wrong way, so all I saw of them was glimpses. They were standing, Caroline in the center, their mouths moving as they sang or chanted. Nathan tensed and started to sing something, himself. He held his handgun out with both hands clasped together, the barrel pointing up.
“Paddle!” Nathan bellowed.
Slips in Shit had lapsed into unconsciousness and was sprawled in the boat with the other bigfoot. I paddled hard until I heard a sizzling noise and looked just in time to see an arc of energy gather from the Council members, focus on Caroline, and shoot toward us. I shifted the boat, inadvertently, as I turned to look, and that’s what saved us. The ball of electricity hit the water where we’d just been. Nathan was still singing. Another fireball was gathering—it was as if they had to charge it—and I paddled hard, shifting the boat again. This time they hit us, though, or rather they hit Nathan. The fire whoomped into him—right into the jewel in the center of his harness. Instead of knocking him into the lake, the force of the attack pushed him back, and the boat surged forward. Whatever singing he was doing must’ve secured him in the boat. He grunted but didn’t fall down.
“Do that again!” I said.
“I may die if I try it,” he said.
“Well don’t die.”
Another ball sizzled toward us. The boat rocked and I shifted it hard. Nathan stepped forward to intercept the fireball and screamed as it engulfed him. The jewel glowed red. He collapsed, and the fire sputtered out.
“Nathan!” I mustered the breath to call. “Are you OK!”
All this paddling was doing a number on me. I was doing my best imitation of Yossarian, shifting the boat left and left again and right and back left, dripping with sweat, still sore and achy from the experience of having my head exploded, and on the verge of unconsciousness, but I spurred the boat on. Luckily I couldn’t hear any more sizzling, so maybe we were getting out of range. I chanced a look back just as a ball of fire slammed into me and knocked me into the air.
White heat seared me, and I smelled my hair sizzling. I slammed into the water, which knocked the breath from me, and sank below the surface. The thought crossed my mind that I was screwed because everyone else on the boat was unconscious.
I tried to move my limbs but I couldn’t gather the strength. I gasped for breath and swallowed water. The sky sloshed in waves over the top of me just like water.
I didn’t hear the splash, but I felt something grabbed me. It folded itself over me, and in an instant I was in the air above the boat, and my head flooded with images and memories that weren’t my own.
We fell. The force of hitting the aluminum seats knocked me aware, and I sucked in air. I sat up, and the formerly unconscious bigfoot, whose name I still didn’t know, fell back away from me. Nathan and Slips in Shit were still out. I cast around but couldn’t find the paddle. The Council members were still on the shore, though we were far enough away that I could only see them as distant figures.
I spotted something floating a couple feet away and batted at the water until I reached it. This time, I didn’t mess around. Somehow I found the strength to move my arms again and paddled straight ahead as hard as I could without looking back. I had no idea what kind of range the Council members had, but I worked up quite a bit of speed as I headed for the far shore.
It must’ve been enough because we didn’t explode. We hit the shore and I scrambled as well as I could over the side, into the water, and dragged the boat up enough to make it stable. The shore we’d left was a dim line, and I could barely make out the shapes of the Council members.
My whole body—my mind, my shoes, probably—were telling me to lie down and die, but by God the fucking Council wasn’t going to beat me.
I dragged Nathan out of the boat and onto the shore. He was breathing, so I cupped my hands and dipped them in the water and splashed it on his face. He shuddered and coughed. I looked back to the far shore and saw the tiny figures disappearing back into the woods.
Nathan sat up and winced. “That sucked.”
* * *
The bigfoots woke soon after Nathan did. Slips in Shit and the other bigfoot, who introduced himself with an image of him humping a deer, spent a long time down by the water, washing themselves. There was a religious quality to it. They washed their faces and rubbed water on their arms and then began to wash each other off. While I watched them, Nathan slipped the harness off and folded it up, then gave me a small, roundish, pouch from his backpack, which he’d taken from the boat.
“Drink it,” he said.
I was too tired to argue. Something resembling vitality returned to my limbs. “What is it?” I asked.
“Family brew.”
Nathan and I wandered deeper into the woods on this shore to let them have their moment. I told him what had happened, about Caroline asking me to spy on Slips in Shit, and about the other bigfoots being experimented on.
“We’ve got to get back there and save them,” I said.
“Agreed, but we need to gather our resources first. We don’t know how many of them there are and what kind of defenses they have, and they know we’re coming.”
“Maybe we could get the other bigfoots to help.”
He shook his head. “They’re pacifists.”
“Even when they know their friends are being experimented on?”
He shrugged. “Hard to understand the thought processes of an entirely different genus, but yeah.”
Tall, Dark and Hairy (The Necro-Files Book 3) Page 8
