by Leito, Chad
Asa could feel Ned and Michael’s suspicious eyes upon his back as he led the Multipliers over the cobblestone. Asa checked his Rolex; it was 10:45 PM, which meant that the students were probably thoroughly drunk by now at the dance. The wind pushed through the holes in the back of his shirt and chilled his torso.
After landing on the shore, Allen had leaned the canoe up against one of the buildings and ordered Asa to lead the way. Allen had a large, paper map in his pocket, but decided that following Asa, who was familiar with Town, would be more proficient.
The fog made the lanterns look larger than they were by diffusing the light. The first three minutes of the walk was entirely without incident, and with every step Asa became less and less sure that someone would intervene. By the time they were passing behind Town Hall, Asa had come to the realization that he had been delusional when hoping that Multiplier Hunters would come in, stop the Multipliers, and save him.
They passed behind Town Hall at a casual walk. Allen had ordered them not to move fast; that would attract too much attention. He had said, “I’ll waste someone if I have to—but I’d rather this just go smoothly.” Asa looked up and the fog was so thick that he couldn’t see the top of Town Hall’s dome. Yellow lights shone out from the Dungeon below, and Asa saw movement on the exercise mats.
He crouched down a bit, looking into the lower level, and could see Stridor Akardiavna pounding on a punching bag. He was shirtless. His port-wine stains were prominent and every inch of his skin glistened with sweat. He was hitting the bag with vicious intensity and the glass windows muted loud rock music that pumped from the Dungeon’s speakers.
Asa was shocked. While other students are enjoying the dance and getting drunk, he’s exercising. Asa looked around at the Multipliers and saw that no one else had noticed Stridor. Asa wondered if there was some way he could get Stridor’s attention, to convey that he needed help…
Asa’s thought process came to a halt as one of Town Hall’s backdoors opened up and Jules, a tall, blond, graduate female came outside carrying trash bags to the dumpsters. She was whistling, and Asa thought that she looked tipsy. She did not see the Multipliers until Allen spoke.
“Hello lovely,” he growled.
She looked up and just had enough time to go wide-eyed before her head snapped back as quick as a cobra strike as a bullet flew through her skull. Allen smiled and watched as she collapsed with a bloody face to the floor. She was dead.
“Wrong place at the wrong time,” Rose reflected.
Allen holstered his gun, which was now equipped with a silencing cylinder on the end. The silencer did not mute the gunshot completely, but did help in keeping the noise down. Asa guessed that Allen had been saving the silencer for when he was in Town. With the casualness of a man doing the dishes, Allen walked over to Jules body, picked her up, and flung her into the dumpster. Asa didn’t hear her hit the bottom. The trash receptacles in Town looked normal, but were actually chutes to an underground dump.
Allen dusted off his hands and clapped Asa on the back. “Let’s keep moving.”
Asa nodded and walked forward, leading them closer to the Shop. He was aware of his hands, his feet, how far his back was arched, the way that he was holding his head, and how much his hips moved as he walked. He was insanely nervous, but didn’t want to show it and was putting an immense amount of effort into walking normally.
He still didn’t have a plan, or see any possible way that he could stop the Multipliers from getting the vaccine under the Shop. Allen’s intelligence and motivation made stopping him seem impossible. Asa thought of the clinical nature with which he had tossed Jules’s corpse into the dumpster. Thinking of such an act chilled Asa.
He remembered Allen telling him that the longer you have been a Multiplier, the more devoid you are of human emotions. Asa believed this. He wondered if this was the reason why Allen trusted Asa, but Michael and Ned did not. Maybe Ned and Michael can understand my fear and motivation to lie because they are closer to human. Maybe such a fear is so foreign to Allen that he can’t understand why I would pretend to be a Multiplier when I am not.
There was no way of proving this, but Asa found the idea interesting.
They came to the Shop, and dread fell upon Asa like a thick curtain. We’re here. His eyes darted around, hoping to see someone emerging from the fog to help him. But he was on his own.
“This is it,” Asa said.
Allen walked up to the front door and peered inside. The front door was covered in thick glass windows, and the doorjamb was inlaid with swirling gold designs. “All this glass is a trap,” Allen explained. “It’s to make it look like the Shop is easy to break into. If you try to break one of these windows, the panes of glass will spontaneously explode back out at you, and an alarm will sound. Your daddy was a smart man, Asa. Too bad he offed himself.” He spat Salvaserum down onto the doorway.
“So how are we going to get in?” Michael asked.
Allen reached into his pocket and grinned widely. “I’ve got keys. Volkner sent us the dimensions.” He pulled out a string of yarn with a key attached to each end. “You’ve got to unlock the door handle and the deadbolt at the same time,” he said. “Everyone put your gas masks on. Make them snug over your faces. When we get inside, don’t touch anything unless I tell you. We’ve got to move fast.” Asa tightened his gas mask onto his face. Allen inserted both keys, simultaneously turned them, and then pushed the door open.
Asa had heard that polar bears guard the Shop when no one is there, but Allen hadn’t mentioned anything about polar bears. Asa wished that Allen hadn’t thought of those creatures, and would be happy dying if only the Multipliers wouldn’t be given access to the vaccines. He reasoned that he was going to probably die no matter what happened, so it would be a good investment to lose his life and also stop the Multipliers from attaining a tool that would make it almost certain that they would take over the world.
As soon as Allen stepped in the door, he rolled a metal canister over the ground, which began to hiss and emit gasses from both ends. Out the right end came a canary yellow gas, and electric blue gas spewed out of the left side. The two fumes mixed together to make the room a clouded green.
Allen turned and looked at the others through the goggles of his gas mask. “Come in. Shut the door. Don’t touch anything.”
Everyone obeyed and Rose shut the door. The room was dark, and Asa looked over the counter where he had first met Mama. The floor was white marble, and decorative bookcases were full of thick volumes all along the walls.
The blue, green, and yellow gasses swirled around the room. Asa stared at the canister, wondering what the gas was for. He wondered who created it, and what other technologies the Hive’s Multipliers had available to them.
A low series of growls began to come from the back room, and then Asa saw a long snout push open the swinging doors to the back room. Allen activated an additional canister and tossed it, gasses spewing, into the back room. A large, dirty, white polar bear padded into the front room. The animal’s black eyes narrowed as he saw the intruders, and its growl grew more menacing. The animal showed its enormous, white teeth and its snout wrinkled; the bear let out a hideous, threatening growl.
The room was now thick with the green gas, and Allen shouted, “Stay still.”
Again, everyone obeyed Allen.
Asa’s eyes were locked on the polar bear, wondering if it would strike. As he watched, though, something peculiar happened. The animal’s snout began to relax. The black beady eyes looked around quickly, as though it were paranoid.
Allen giggled. “I love this stuff,” he said. Suddenly, Allen jumped at the thousand-pound polar bear, slapping his feet on the marble floor. The polar bear yelped and retreated into the back room, tail tucked. Allen turned, smiling. “That gas scares the hell out of you. Those polar bears are seeing the stuff of nightmares. It’s a hallucinogenic gas. NO ROSE! STOP!”
Rose’s hand froze where it was, just inches from the
light switch.
“That’ll sound the alarm, I told you not to touch anything.” Allen reached up, and manually spun the ceiling fan around three rotations. Instantly, the light switch flicked to the ‘ON’ position and the lights clicked on. “I meant it when I said ‘don’t touch anything.’ The only safe way to turn the lights on is with the fan, which is actually just a big switch. I bet that old blind lady who works here does it with a cane.” Allen turned and walked through the swinging doors to the back room. “Follow me.”
Asa was the first to follow.
He had never been in the back room of the Shop before, and the sudden change in scenery took him by surprise. It was unlike any indoor facility he had ever been in before.
The floor was pebbled with dark blue and green loose stones. Five feet in, the room began to decline with the gradualness of a staircase for three stories before sprawling out into an expansive room. There was an automated wheelchair lift on the left side of the room that ran down the decline; Asa supposed that this was for Mama, as such a sharp plane could be hazardous for her, considering her blindness.
The other Multipliers came in behind Asa and Allen and stood at the top of the pebbled hill, wearing their gas masks, looking at the room below. Judging by their expressions, Asa concluded that the Multipliers were also not expecting to see such an area.
A full-grown oak tree, with long, stretching branches was planted in the center of the room. The ceiling glowed with HID lights as bright as a clear day. Surrounding the tree were odd assortments of dark, wooden tables, each long enough to comfortably sit thirty people. Each of these tables was topped with heavy metal safe boxes. Asa realized that the mutations that students could buy with points were stored in those safes. A grand piano made of polished white wood sat off to the side. Giant, mangled bones were scattered over the floor for the polar bears to gnaw on, along with plush beds and troughs of water. Moss and vines grew up the stone walls and wrapped around the giant oak in the middle of the room.
Near the back of the area, there was a large, circular cave leading down into darkness. Asa saw a line of four polar bears huddled together, tails down, squeezing timidly into the opening and walking out of sight. The green gas from the canister hung in the air.
“They’ll be scared for a couple of hours, then the gas will wear off,” Allen explained. “I guess they sleep down in that cave.”
Asa noticed that he was breathing more often and harder than the Multipliers around him. With the gas masks on, inhalations and exhalations hissed noticeably, and Multipliers require less oxygen to live than humans. Even though he was nervous, Asa invested effort into quieting his breaths and monitoring his volume.
Rose’s red eyes widened behind her goggles. “So is this where the vaccines are kept? We’ve already made it?”
Allen rapped her roughly on the back of the head with his knuckles. “NO! I told you, they are far below ground. We have further to travel.”
They stood there for a moment longer, looking down at the room and Rose rubbed the back of her head. Out of his peripherals, Asa could see Ned staring at the left side of his neck, still unconvinced that Asa had changed. Asa wondered if Ned was contemplating some way to prove to Allen that Asa was still human.
If they hadn’t been standing still, they wouldn’t have heard it.
There was the soft thump of the front door closing into the threshold. Someone had followed them into The Shop. Asa turned, and saw that everyone but Allen appeared somewhere between anxious and scared. Allen’s face remained calm and he set off to work immediately.
Allen un-holstered his gun and strode over to the doorway that led to the front of The Shop. He peaked through the crack on the side of the door, and then turned and pointed at Asa, before motioning for him to come over. Asa obeyed, and walked over the pebbled floor towards the Multiplier.
Allen grabbed Asa by the back of the neck and firmly forced the handle of the firearm into Asa’s palm. “You still want to kill someone, Palmer?”
Asa nodded, still trying to keep up his lethal persona, even though he wanted to cry. He kept his eyes steady, not wanting to reveal that he was frantically wondering who had just entered. Mama? Jen? Conway?
Allen whispered in his gas mask; “A graduate just walked in. I want you to kill him.”
Asa met Allen’s eyes and nodded again.
Ned was suddenly at his side, “But sir…” he began
Allen hushed Ned’s objection and then stepped backwards, standing beside the door.
Asa could feel blood pulsing through his head and his eyes as he lifted the firearm and pointed the barrel at the still-closed door. He still couldn’t believe the extent to which Allen trusted him. Not only had Allen handed Asa a weapon, but he had entrusted the partial success of their mission to him.
Asa wondered if the hallucinogenic gas was having any effect on the newcomer. The seconds ticked by at a maddeningly slow rate, and Asa could feel a drop of sweat trickling down the back of his neck.
With the gun in his hands, Asa considered his options. Earlier on the boat he had thought about shooting Allen, but had decided against it due to the inevitability that he would be gunned down himself. Now, he wasn’t so sure. There was a graduate about to come through the door, who could help in a fight. Asa decided that this could be his best chance. He could shoot Allen in the head just as soon as the graduate entered, and then turn the gun on Ned. Asa knew that the odds of taking down all of the Multipliers weren’t good, but he doubted that he would get another chance like this. He tightened his grip on the handgun and glanced up at the center of Allen’s face for a moment. I’m going to aim right in between his blue eyes.
He couldn’t tell if he was imagining it or not, but he thought he heard soft footsteps on the other side of the door.
Maybe Robert King is going to send in a whole army of graduates to take these Multipliers down, he thought. He tried to not get too excited about this idea and to focus on the task at hand—shooting Allen. He stole another glance at his face before staring at the door again.
He knew that once he fired a shot at Allen there was no turning back; his identity would be revealed, and he would no longer be able to continue down to get the vaccines with them.
There was a faint tap, and Asa believed that the sound was the graduate’s fingernails lightly touching the door. Whoever was on the other side hesitated. Asa wasn’t breathing.
The door shot open and Asa didn’t wait to see who it was. He turned hastily and fired at Allen. The bullet shot out of the end of the silenced barrel; smoke issued from the side of the gun and Asa felt the weapon recoil in his hands. There was a quickly closing gap of four inches between Allen’s face and the intruder’s when Asa fired. The graduate was running straight at Allen.
Asa’s bullet somehow went right in between Allen’s face and the attacker. It ricocheted off the stone and was propelled harmlessly into the room below.
Now, Asa took the time to look at the graduate; it was Thom, who had been the chaperone of the male Fishie dormitory last year. His eyes were expanded and wild—his neck was strained, displaying bone and muscle beneath tight flesh.
He grabbed for Allen, but Allen was too quick. Allen sidestepped and then punched Thom in the face. Thom stumbled backwards, fell on his buttocks, and began to shiver. The smell of alcohol came to Asa’s nose: Thom is drunk. That explains why he was confident enough to attack a group of Multipliers on his own. Now, Asa saw that Thom was the furthest thing from confident; he was terrified, and what courage he had before entering was now gone. He rocked back and forth, holding his knees to his chest. His eyes flicked around the room like it was full of flying demons.
Thinking fast, Asa realized that he had made a terrible decision in taking aim at Allen. Thom was drunk, hallucinating, and would offer no help to Asa. Asa’s bullet had harmlessly missed Allen, hurting nothing but the Multipliers’ trust in Asa. Panicked, Asa realized that it was over. He was done. He was going to be killed.
/> Everything was happening in slow motion. To Asa’s right, he saw Rose, Michael, Edna, and Joney standing by the decline, all frozen and not moving. Allen was standing above Thom, glaring at him, making sure he didn’t get up. Asa was most concerned with Ned. Ned’s thick, muscular right hand was reaching for the holstered pistol on his hip. He’s going to end me before I get off another shot.
Asa still perceived things at happening at about quarter-speed. He began to raise the firearm, thinking that he would defend himself and shoot Ned. When he had raised the weapon to halfway up, however, he had a better, but more cynical idea.
I’ll shoot Thom.
Asa didn’t want to kill anyone. He was not a violent person. But, given the circumstances, he thought it was the best option. If he fought, he would lose, and both he and Thom would be killed. But, if he shot Thom before Ned could draw his own weapon, he may be able to gain back some trust, and continue on with the Multipliers, looking for another opportunity to sabotage their plan to get the vaccine.
Without further thought, he took aim right between Thom’s eyes and pulled the trigger. This time he did not miss. Thom’s head snapped backwards and red splashed down on the pebbles. Asa gasped. Instantly, he wanted to take back what he had done. I’ve killed him. A rotting guilt filled his stomach and seemed to leech all of his warmth from him.
“DROP THE GUN!” Ned was yelling at Asa; he was three feet away and pointing the revolver at the side of his head. Time resumed its normal progression. “DROP IT, PALMER!”
Asa obeyed, and the gun clattered to the floor.
“HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD!”
Again, Asa obeyed.
“What the hell, Ned?” Rose cried.
“HE TRIED TO KILL ALLEN!” Ned was breathing hard through his nose and his face was red. He looked like he was about to lose his temper again. A large vein was pulsing on his forehead.
“Ned,” Allen said calmly. “Lower your firearm.”
Ned continued to point it at Asa. When he spoke next, he sounded like he was on the verge of tears. “But… But… Boss! C’mon! He tried to shoot you!”
