by Leito, Chad
Asa saw Ned standing above him with his arms crossed. There was a handgun holstered on Ned’s right hip and he was looking at Asa with an expression of uncertainty; his eyebrows were pulled together and his mouth hung open.
Asa felt groggy and confused. Why is Ned looking at me like that? Why am I even here? He shook his head, trying to remember what was going on. He looked at the broken television, and the lawn chairs that he and Allen had been sitting in some time ago, watching the ABL game. Something in the cave’s arrangement brought back the memories of what had happened before he went unconscious. In his mind, he saw Allen leaning over him, about to bite him…
Asa gasped and brought his hand up to the side of his neck. The area was painful, hot, and swollen. This is a Multiplier bite; I’ve been bitten by a Multiplier, Asa thought with horror as he gingerly touched the wound. It was hard to come to terms with the idea that it had actually happened. He realized that he was no longer a human. His wants, his desires, and his thought processes would all be different now. He breathed in the air and felt it expand his chest. Breathing feels the same, he told himself. He concentrated on his feet and wiggled his toes in his dress shoes. That feels the same, too.
Asa remembered how Allen had told him that he would feel different when he woke up. He took another breath; it still felt as it always had.
“Did I change?” Asa asked Ned. His voice sounded hoarse and distant to himself.
Ned kept the odd look of concern and didn’t answer the question.
Asa took in another breath, and now something did feel different. He was extremely nauseous. This feeling was so overpowering that for a moment he brushed away his concern as to whether he was a Multiplier or a human.
Asa stood and realized that he was no longer chained down to the stretcher. He felt terrible, and a disgusting taste like that of rotting meat filled his mouth. He began to walk forward. He was still attached to the medical monitor, and it toppled over behind him. He tore himself from the blood pressure cuff and the heart rate monitor, suddenly feeling very claustrophobic. “I’m going to throw up,” he said.
“Uhhhhh, boss,” Joney said. He sounded unsure, maybe even scared. “Palmer is awake. He don’t look so normal.”
“I’m going to vomit,” Asa said again, louder this time. The side of his neck where he had been bitten was throbbing.
Why did Joney say that I don’t look right? Why is Ned looking at me like that?
Joney came to Asa with a large mop bucket. Asa took it in his hands, got down on his knees and retched up something that tasted like hot, spoiled, liquid cheese. The taste made him want to vomit up even more. He retched until his abdomen was sore, and than he spat all of the nasty substance that he could out of his mouth.
“Allen, could you come over here?” it was Ned, and he was standing above Asa. “I think that you should see something.”
Asa heard Allen’s footsteps as he walked over toward them.
Asa opened his eyes. He felt better now, and he looked down into the bucket at his own emesis where he saw something that chilled him. Sitting there in the bottom of the blue bucket was half a liter of black, thick, pure Salvaserum.
Is that normal? He wondered. Do all Multipliers vomit up Salvaserum after they change? Based on Joney and Ned’s reactions, Asa thought that this wasn’t the norm. Could it be possible that I didn’t change—did my body somehow reject the Salvaserum? Even though Allen had told Asa he would feel different after waking up, Asa still didn’t notice anything unusual about the way he was experiencing the world. Asa wasn’t sure what was happening to him, but he did know one thing—if I didn’t change, they’ll kill me. He stared into the bucket. The Salvaserum gave off a horrible smell.
Allen was looking down at the bucket too.
“I think that something might have gone wrong, sir,” Ned said—he was talking fast. “I’ve never seen anyone vomit up that much Salvaserum after they’ve been bitten. To tell you the truth, I’ve never seen anyone vomit up Salvaserum at all. This looks strange. This looks very strange.”
Asa spat again into the bucket. He could feel his heart fluttering with fear as he thought, my anxiety feels normal too.
“I did put a lot of Salvaserum into him,” Allen said. “Maybe his body couldn’t process all of it, so he threw some up. Changing people into a Multiplier isn’t exactly an established science yet. Palmer, look at me.” Asa looked up at Allen and met his blue eyes, which ran from Asa’s face to the bite on his neck. “How do you feel?”
Asa didn’t answer, but instead he turned and retched some more into the bucket. He didn’t have anything left in his stomach, and was just dry heaving.
“His wound doesn’t look right,” Ned said.
“How many people have you seen changed?” Allen asked him; he sounded angry.
Ned started to stammer and then Allen interrupted him.
“That’s what I thought! Look, we’ve got things to do tonight, and we can’t sit around debating over whether or not Asa’s acting normal. I put the Salvaserum into him, so he’s a Multiplier now. It’s that simple.”
Ned answered back, sounding a bit braver this time. “But Teddy said…”
Allen raised his voice: “I don’t give a damn what Teddy said! Teddy was caught by Asa and is currently in a jail cell right now. We’re the ones who are supposed to go break him out; he needs our help. He’s not that smart. And besides, there’s no right way for a Multiplier bite to look. They all change differently.”
Ned paused for a moment. “If you say so.”
Allen sighed. “I do say so. I don’t mean to rush this, but it’s just that we need to get going. The Hive is counting on us, and we only have a small time window to get to Town before all the students leave the dance, okay? But don’t think that I’m not taking this seriously. If Palmer didn’t change, I’d be able to tell. I’ve been around a lot of Multipliers. The question is, does the wound hurt? Palmer look at me.”
Asa did. His heart was beating fast, but he had pulled the heart rate monitor off his finger, so no one could tell. Allen’s eyes ran over Asa. Asa wondered what Teddy had said on the radio to them. Based on the conversation between Ned and Allen, Asa guessed that Teddy had predicted Asa wouldn’t change. But why? Why would he guess that? Those were questions that could be addressed later. Right now, he had to look at the facts and weigh his options.
At that time, Asa believed in his gut that for some reason the Salvaserum hadn’t worked properly. First, there was the vomit—it appeared as though his body had rejected the Salvaserum. Then, there was the indefinable sameness that he felt; he couldn’t explain the exact reason, but he still believed that he was a human.
But then there is the dream, he reminded himself, thinking of the lucid hallucination he had had that he was biting Jen. That wasn’t normal, he thought. He had never had a dream in which he was a Multiplier before. But perhaps he dreamed of that subject matter because he was scared of becoming a Multiplier. And, even in the dream, his intentions to bite Jen had frightened him.
As Asa thought over the dream, he let a morbid thought come to his mind—one that he thought would settle the issue; do I want to kill anyone? Does that sound like fun? Asa thought about the students at the dance, running them through in his head and having images of their faces flash up into his mind—Roxanne, Shashowt, Charlotte, Boom Boom. The answer to this question was very clear: No. He was sure of this. He was not a violent person and the thought of harming humans disturbed him rather than excited him.
Asa exhaled, and felt relief. He did not want to change. Like his father, he would rather be dead than a Multiplier.
Asa looked at Allen’s face, thinking, this person will kill me if he knows that I didn’t turn into a Multiplier. Asa realized that he would have to play the part. He would have to at least convince Allen that he had changed. If he couldn’t do that, he would be as dead as Bruce.
“How does the wound feel?” Allen asked, and he moved his long fingers over to Asa�
�s neck. He began to poke at the wound, putting pressure on different areas. It hurt immensely, but Asa tried not to show it. He remembered Teddy’s Multiplier bite on his face after he had been bitten; it didn’t seem to hurt, and even though the Multiplier wound was vast and deep, Teddy manipulated his mouth without demonstrating pain. Asa tried to copy what he had seen Teddy do, hoping that Allen wouldn’t detect the deceit.
“It feels numb,” Asa said. He looked straight into Allen’s eyes as Allen pinched the exposed, tender flesh on Asa’s neck. Asa wanted to cry out and back away due to the pain, but he resisted this urge.
Allen let go, apparently satisfied. He wiped the blood on his fingers off onto his shirt. Asa noticed that there was no Salvaserum on Allen’s fingers, meaning that the bite must not have any in it. “The wound doesn’t seem to bother him,” Allen told Ned. He scratched his chin with bloody fingers, never taking his eyes off of Asa. He addressed Ned again: “You’re correct; I would expect to see more Salvaserum spotted along the exposed tissue. It almost looks just like a normal cut, doesn’t it? But remember, everyone changes differently. How do you feel, Palmer?”
Asa felt a new wave of panic come over him as Allen’s eyes scanned his face. Asa tried to remember everything that he had learned from Multipliers so far and to apply it here in his answer. He talked slowly, making his voice as close to a growl as was possible. “I never understood why you guys wanted to kill people, or bite them,” he said. “But now, I can’t wait to rip out someone’s throat.” He hated saying such a violent, untrue thing, but judging by Allen’s face, it seemed to be working. “Are you going to let me come with you guys tonight? We’re attacking all the students in the dance, right?”
Allen’s expression changed. The happiness left his blue eyes and they suddenly looked cold and unforgiving. Straining not to break Allen’s intimidating gaze, Asa couldn’t help but think about how Allen had shot Bruce’s foot off while interrogating him. “Do you really feel that way, Palmer?”
Asa’s anxiety shot up inside of him. He thought that he had said the right thing—but then why is Allen looking at me like that? Is he trying to trick me? Not wanting to take too long to respond, Asa committed to an answer: “Yes. I want to kill someone tonight; I want to kill very badly!” He smiled as menacingly as he could; he tried to look brave despite how thoroughly scared and unsure of himself he was.
For a moment, Allen just stood there, staring at Asa. Then, he picked up his right hand and slapped Asa on the shoulder. “See, Ned? He’s alright!” Allen began to bark out sharp chops of laughter. “You want to kill someone tonight, do you?”
“Yes.”
Allen grabbed Asa’s hair and his face grew serious—evil. “That’s ‘Yes, sir.’ Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.”
Allen continued to hold Asa by the back of his hair. Asa looked over at Ned, whose eyebrows were still pulled together in skepticism. It didn’t seem like Ned believed Asa was now a Multiplier. That’s fine, Asa thought. I just need Allen to believe me. No one will attack me without Allen’s approval.
Allen growled: “I’m only going to say this once, Palmer. So listen.”
Asa nodded. He looked behind Allen and saw that the rest of the Multipliers, including Edna, who was now conscious, were standing near the waterfall as though waiting on something. Edna and Rose were sharing a cigarette; both of them had terribly red eyes.
Allen continued: “There’s a lot you don’t know. You’ve only just been turned, and I know that you feel a little weird. You probably feel aggressive, and angry, and out of control.”
Asa nodded and took on an expression of slight amazement as though Allen were reading his thoughts.
Allen smiled, showing teeth that were still tinged red with Asa’s blood. “It’s a lot of fun being a Multiplier, but it’s also hard work. And, it’s a lot of taking orders. The Hive is a huge organization, and most everyone is taking orders from someone. A good Multiplier is an obedient Multiplier. Take Volkner, for example. He put his life on the line to give the Hive information about the Academy. He’s very useful. He’s very obedient. He’s a good Multiplier.”
Asa nodded again.
Allen let go of Asa’s hair and rubbed his hands together. “Tonight is going to be an exercise in obedience. You’re not going to understand everything that’s going on, and you’re not going to get to make any decisions. But your role in our mission tonight is going to be crucial in helping the Hive to achieve its goal, which is to turn every human on earth into a Multiplier.” A thin line of Salvaserum ran out the corner of Allen’s mouth at the thought of changing so many humans.
Asa nodded obediently. His mind was buzzing with questions. If we’re not attacking the dance, what are we doing? How long can I keep this up? Should I try to escape out into the jungle? If I go through this mission with them, will they take me to the Hive after we’re done? Surely if they take me to the Hive they’ll figure out that I’m a human. There are a quarter million Multipliers in the Hive, wherever it is. How would we get there—using a helicopter, a car, on foot?
“I’ll give you a brief explanation of what it is we are doing. I find that if my teammates are well informed, they can make better decisions.” Allen checked his watch. “We need to leave here in two minutes. But I think I can give you a brief summary
“Your father, Edmund Palmer, created us. You know that much already, I’m sure. Teddy’s told me some things.
“Your daddy grew to be scared of us; he was afraid that we might try to take over the world,” Allen’s mouth spread into a vicious smile at this sentence. “So, he devised a little hiccup in our DNA that he thought would make it harder for us to reproduce until we had a good chunk of the world’s population. As you might have heard, we can only Multiply once a month. So, for instance, I just bit you. Now, if I tried to bite a student at the dance, I could inject my Salvaserum into them, but it wouldn’t do anything. There’s a special solute that is only released through the Salvaserum whenever we are actually biting someone, and this special solute is what turns the victim into a Multiplier. This strange solute is what we can only produce once a month.”
Allen waved his hands. “Now, again, we only have two minutes, so I’m being brief. The story is a lot longer than this. Teddy says that Conway told you some, but I don’t know how much. A while ago, your daddy made a riddle, and no one knew what it meant. It goes like this:”
Allen began to say the riddle as though he had recited it a millions times:
“Solutions and weapons that are known
Can be used, or worse, destroyed
Best keep them in the void
There are two spaces that these secrets are maintained
One is metal, it’s locked away
The other, though, isn’t so easily disposed
You can’t see it, it doesn’t say hello
It doesn’t make a difference
It’s never seen
It doesn’t affect any pedigree
Where two come and give half each
This is where it will be
You’ll find that I’ve only stolen from me”
Allen smiled. “What concerns us tonight is the first part of the riddle. We believe that your daddy made some kind of vaccine, a ‘weapon’ that is hidden in the middle of Town. Martin Chandler and Volkner have helped us in investigating this, and we now know that there is a secret passage underneath the Shop that has some very peculiar security devices attached to it; it’s as though someone specifically didn’t want Multipliers to be able to get in. When you see, you’ll understand. We have reason to believe that your daddy hid a serum under the Shop that will allow us Multipliers to reproduce more than once a month—we could reproduce every day if we needed to with this new mutation!”
“Wow,” Asa said. Now, he almost wished that they were simply going to Town Hall to kill Academy students. What was happening was much worse. Asa was going to have to help them receive a vaccine that, if t
hey obtained it, would help them take over the world.
Allen shook his head—he couldn’t stop smiling. “If we get this vaccine, Asa, it would be over for the humans. We would be able to quadruple our already staggering forces in two days!”
“That’s incredible,” Asa said. He felt sick again.
Allen’s watch began to beep, and he pressed a button on the side of the face and turned it off. “We’ve got to go, now. Is anyone not ready?” he called. No one responded. Allen walked over and dug into a chest on one of the side walls. He tossed Asa something and he caught it. At first, he thought that it looked like a giant mosquito head.
“It’s a gas mask,” Allen said. “You’ll see when you get there. We’ve got to go now. We’ll be running through the woods. Try to keep up.”
Asa felt as though things were happening too fast. “We’re leaving right now?”
Allen nodded; “Right this second.”
“Wait! Where are we going?”
Allen looked back at Asa: “Just follow us. We’re going to the Moat. We have a small canoe that we’re going to float over the water in.”
Asa saw that the other Multipliers also had gas masks. Allen walked over to the waterfall, stepped around it, and then the others began to follow. Asa walked over to the mouth of the cave. His knees felt wobbly underneath him, but he willed them to move.
40
Back to Town
As Asa stepped around the waterfall, he was surprised to see that the fog was even thicker than before. He was the last one out of the cave; the Multipliers were already running through the foliage towards the Moat.
Asa hesitated, thinking, I shouldn’t follow them. I need to get out of here. Asa felt lucky to have convinced Allen that he was a Multiplier up until this point, but wondered how long he could keep up the act. Many of the Multipliers violent and crude tendencies disgusted Asa; he felt that he couldn’t conceal his true beliefs forever. He looked around. He could hear the waterfall crashing into the river below him; he could feel the cold mist kissing his face.
