Amoeba (The Experiments) (64 page)

Jake, on top of Billy’s bungalow roof with Cal and Billy, peered across to the next bungalow where Rickie, Lou, and Judge were. Jake signaled to Rickie, and Rickie nodded back. He looked over to Cal who was readying her M-16. “Cal, watch your aim.”

“Jake, please
,” Cal scoffed.

Jake shook his head and caught Lou’s attention. “Watch your aim
,” he whispered loudly.

Lou gave a thumbs up.

“Jake?” Billy softly called out to him. “What do you need me to do?”

“Watch
that Cal doesn’t do anything stupid. Watch her. That’s your job.” Jake started to look over the roof again, but stopped and turned back to Billy. “Oh, and Bamboozle, it’s not an arousal task I gave you, so don’t let me find out you made it one.” Jake shifted his eyes down to the lower part of Billy’s anatomy, then returned to peering over the roof.

Billy shielded his face.

Jake waited then saw Reed walking nervously into the unity circle. “Come on Reed.” Jake beckoned nearly unheard. “Do your thing.”

With his hands behind his back, Reed stood there. “Ear eh-ee, eh-ee, eh-ee. Um aw ow. Ear eh-ee, eh-ee, eh-ee.”

On Reed’s final call, a loud, thundering, wet snort blasted forth and the ground vibrated with the heavy stomps. Through the two bungalows came the head of the large mutated boar. He spotted Reed and moved towards the circle.

“Now!” Jake charged out
, grabbed onto a rope, and at the same time, he and Rickie leaped down at the boar, carrying with them what looked like a homemade net. The too-small net dropped over the boar’s head holding it down, and the boar went nuts thrashing its body. It took all the strength Jake and Rickie had to hold the head still. “Cal! Lou! Now!”

Gun fire, not rapid, but steady
, rang out. Carefully aimed shots coming from both roofs of the bungalows seared into the leather skin of the boar causing it to squeal, but it still fought hard. Rickie flew up with every twitch of the wild boar’s head. Even Jake’s feet lifted off the ground.

“Give it more!” Jake ordered out.

Cal had to take a second to replace the clip. She returned to her firing mode over the roof’s edge. She aimed at the rear, trying just to slow it down enough for Jake to do his thing.

Gunshots continued. Three
, four, five at a time. With a clank of the dropped empty chamber and a click of a new one, Lou reloaded and shot at the bolting animal.

Reed screamed loudly.

“Sorry,” Lou shouted down watching Reed grab his leg and hop around. Lou shrugged and continued to fire.

“I think that was me!” Cal yelled to Lou in her firing.

“No it was me.” Lou shot out.

“Are you sure?” Cal asked.

“Positive.”

“O
kay, I didn’t want you to take the . . .” She fired a rapid sequence of shots. “Blame.”

“Thanks!”

“You’re welcome.”

I
n the midst of their fire power and chattering, the boar suddenly began to weaken. It was not flinging Jake and Rickie about as much, and with a few more shots and a few more squeals, the boar dropped down to the ground.

Jake dropped his end of the net, ran
, and jumped on the back of the downed boar positioning himself like a bull rider just behind his neck. Pulling out the Stasis knife that looked too small to do anything, Jake lifted it high and jammed it in the back of the boar’s neck. The boar screamed out, and Jake released the guillotine blade into it. Knowing it wasn’t enough, Jake repeated his actions over and over, steady and with determination, until he created a near perforated edge in the boar’s head. Finally, the tension of the gashes Jake made gave way, and the head of the boar dropped forward, severing from the body.

“Yes!” Jake returned his blade to his waist and slid from the
back of the boar. He saw Lou, Cal, and the others fast approaching. “And no, Lou!” Jake pointed. “You cannot cook this boar.” Jake grinned and looked back at the animal.

“Sarge!” Rickie called out
with excitement to his voice. “Sarge! It’s snowing!”

Confused
, everyone looked up to the white thick drops that fell upon them.

Jake turned his head to see Rickie, arms out and moving about in a circle happy dance singing. “Rickie!”

“Look, Sarge!” Rickie held his head to the sky where the white stuff fell fast. He opened his mouth. “I’m catching it.”

“Rickie
, put your goddamn tongue back in your mouth and don’t eat that. It’s fuckin volcanic ash, you asshole!” Jake yelled at him.

“Oh.” Rickie spit
it out. “No wonder it wasn’t cold.” Rickie shrugged, stuck his arms back out, opened his mouth and peered up at the sky, laughing. “It’s snowing.”

Jake gave up. He didn’t find Rickie as humorous as Cal did. “Cal.”

“Sorry.” Cal stopped laughing and held out her hand. “How long will this fall?”

“Hours, days. Who knows
,” Jake said. “It could happen until the volcano finally blows.”

“It looks like snow.” Cal blew it off her hand.

“So I’ve heard.” Jake left Cal staring in awe at the falling ash. He had other things to do, like get everyone together and drag the monstrous boar out of camp before it started to smell any worse. So after securing Judge to handle a shot Reed, Jake moved onward in his task. He wouldn’t let himself mind the cleaning up phase at all, promising himself that he would not bitch about cleaning up the mess when he had so much fun creating it.

Did Greg know? Aldo wondered. Did he realize that his voice carried in the empty midnight hour halls of the center as if over a speaker system? Aldo did. Perhaps that was why he sat in the vending area, sipping his vending machine coffee and shuddering at the bitterness. Aldo listened, and maybe he shouldn’t have, but he did. It was informative entertainment.

“Gray
,” Greg stated. “Pretty much a nuclear winter until the air flow picks up and moves that ash cloud along.”

“It
hasn’t stopped bellowing out yet,” Dr. Jefferson added. “I wouldn’t look for them to escape this cold spell until the volcano stops spitting out ash. And speaking of cold spells, did you give any thought to what I told you about whatever was doing the killings?”

“I have since this cold spell hit the island. Two whole days,
and not a body spotted. I’m beginning to think your heat theory is right.”

“I am also
,” Dr. Jefferson said. “So, it looks like tomorrow should be an interesting day.”

“Should be. I don’t know how much longer the three Stasis will wait it out
, but they have spotted the bungalows, and they’ll move in soon.”

“Stalking them perhaps?” Dr. Jefferson asked.

“It wouldn’t be a Stasis if it didn’t.”

Aldo left his coffee on the table unfinished. Not like he would miss it.
He hurried quietly down the corridors back to his room, grateful he was wearing slippers. If the next day was going to bring stasis excitement, Aldo had some phone calls to make, especially since Gregory Haynes was failing to release that information, and Aldo felt compelled that it was his duty to inform the other investors.

Jake felt like he had just hit the warm bed, settled into the hypnotic effect of the crackling fire, and started to doze. He needed to get a couple hours sleep. Seeing how he no longer used his nights for slumber, Jake tried to take advantage of his days for resting. Splitting the roof watch with Lou. One taking the night, one taking the day. Night time was especially important because the last thing Jake wanted was for one of those huge animals to pounce into camp while they all were tucked away unprepared. Jake was rarely unprepared, but he was when he heard the zipper fly up loudly by his ear. Laying on his side he opened his eyes. “Cal?”

“Hey.” She kissed him on the cheek. “I’m slipping out.”

“What time is it?”

“Quarter till eleven.”

Jake sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked at Cal. “I’ve been sleeping nearly three hours?”

“Sweetie you passed right out.” She kissed him again. “You’re beat.”

“Where are you going Cal?”

“Out.” She pointed to the door wearing hiking bo
ots, tan pants, and a black leather jacket. She picked up an M-16 and tossed it over her shoulder. “Go back to sleep for a while. We’re shoveling out.”

“Shoveling out?” Jake was groggy.

“Yeah, it stopped ashing.”

“Cal, it’ll rain in a day or two,
and that’ll wash it away.”

“Yeah I know.” She shrugged. “But we’re bored. Go back to sleep.”

“Get me in an hour?”

“Yeah.” She moved to the door when she saw Jake lay back down. The cold air that was so inconsistent with a tropical island’s weather pelted her when she stepped outside. How eer
ie and gloomy everything looked. So gray. She stepped off her porch into the ash that lay as thick as two feet of snow. She saw Lou, gun in one hand, food in the other, walking across the unity circle. He must have taken a break from the roof to get his food. “Hey, Lou,” she called to him.

Lou chuckled, lifted his hand in a wave as he spoke. “Look at you ready for winter. Is there anything you and Jake didn’t prepare for?” Shaking his head
, he walked to his bungalow.

At that moment Cal wanted to tell him, ‘yeah, a pregnancy’ but she didn’t. After seeing Reed and Judge getting a good laugh from Rickie who
was lying on the ground making ash angels, she walked to Billy who was staring at the ground.

“Hi.” She tapped him on the shoulder.

Billy looked over his shoulder at her. “Just the girl I wanted to see.”

“Uh oh.”

“Funny.”

“What’s up? Oh
, wait, bad question to ask you.”

“Ha, ha, ha. Look at this foot print I found.” Billy pointed to the ground. “Do you think it’s possible that bigfoot lives . . . Cal? What’s wrong?” He saw her waving her hand in front of her face.

“Whew. Warn me next time. . .” Cal’s eyes widened and her eyes shifted to the ground. “Shit.”

“Cal!” Lou called out.

Cal looked up to see Lou standing on his roof aiming toward her bungalow. As soon as Cal spun her head pulling her M-16 in front of her, she saw what she hadn’t saw in four years. A Stasis. On the roof of her bungalow. Thin gray hair covered its grotesque and distorted muscular seven-foot frame. Large fangs protruded from the mouth that seemed to smile a slobbering smile at Cal before it stepped back out of her sight. “Jake!” she screamed out. “Jake, get out of the bungalow! Jake!” She ran, unable to see the Stasis anymore, fearing it had jumped inside. “Jake!” She pumped the chamber.

Jake opened the door and came flying out. “Cal
, what’s wrong?”

“Jake
, get out of the . . .”

The familiar and shrill beastly growl rang out as its warning cry. Jake
had only taken a step and had barely looked behind him when the Stasis charged from out of their bungalow, lunging for Jake, picking him up by his throat, and tossing him out off the porch into the unity circle. The second Jake crashed with a lifeless roll and a bellow of ash, gunfire rang out from Cal and Lou, searing into the Stasis, but it didn’t faze him. He stepped from the porch after Jake.

Jake slowly tried to pick himself up from the ground, raising his head and catching
sight of the stasis at the same time he heard another one cry out. His head shifted, and he saw one coming over the grade. “Cal!”

Cal spun
, and it was right behind Billy. “Billy, run!”

Billy saw it, heard
it, and smelled it, and he charged out of the way, nearly bumping into Rickie who had raced forward toward the newest Stasis, growling at it as it growled at him.

Then Cal saw it. It moved with speed toward Jake who had just stood up. Firing out once, then giving up, Cal charged
towards the Stasis, pulling her Stasis knife from her belt and leaping on its back seconds before it swept its clawed hand down at Jake. She held on to the beast with her legs and one arm. It shrugged its body violently trying to get her off, but like a warrior, Cal raised her arm high, and plunged the knife into the neck of the Stasis. It cried out painfully, tossing its arms out and arching its back. Then Cal released the guillotine blade sending the head of the beast flying forward and causing its huge body to jolt and spin in its last headless neurological moment before it dropped lifeless and still to the ground.

Jake stumbled through the blood covered ash toward Cal, reaching his hand to her face and kissing her. “Thank you.”

Cal smiled and shoved her M-16 at him. “I’ll go get another. Behind you, Jake.”

The moment Jake took the weapon and Cal backed up was the moment he heard yet another cry
. Spinning around and pumping the chamber, Jake fired at close range directly into the third charging Stasis. It backed up from the oncoming bullets that not only hit him from the front but from the back.

Somehow knowing it was nearing defeat, the
Stasis cried out, swung out its arm, knocked Jake’s weapon to the side, and turned and took off running into the woods.

Cal leaped from the porch with her weapon seeing the one
Stasis running into the trees. Hearing what sounded like two wild dogs fighting, she looked to her right to see small Rickie and a Stasis in a battling roll on the ground.

She met up with Jake and charged Rickie’s way. They stopped at the same time, stood side by side, raised their weapons high
, and waited for an opportunity, an opportunity that never came. Blasting out its beastly cry, the Stasis tossed Rickie and jumped to his feet. Rickie rolled into the feet of Cal and Jake. Then the Stasis, like the other, bolted, shielded its head from the gunfire, and ran into the woods.

Jake stopped firing and reached down to Rickie. “You
okay?”

“Yeah
, Sarge.” Rickie swayed as he stood up. “Guy, like, I amaze myself for how strong I am.”

“Me
, too.” Jake grinned. “Rickie, feel like chasing them with me? We have a bloody trail to follow.”

“
Sarge, like, I’d love it,” Rickie said with excitement.

Jake looked at Cal. “Cal
, you have to . . .”

“Here.” She handed her weapon to Rickie and smiled at him. “Lou and I will keep guard here. Go get them.”

Jake kissed her on the cheek and moved backwards. “Stay inside, stay armed, and stay with Billy. Not like he’ll be any help, but I don’t want him dying.” Jake ran to the path looking up to Lou. “Reload and stay on guard!” He ordered, then charged into the woods with Rickie following the well patterned bloody trail.

Cal folded her arms close to her body watching Jake and Rickie disappear.

“Cal.” Billy walked up behind her. “You all right?”

“Fine. You?”

“Fine. You were amazing.” Billy laid his arm around her shoulders., and the second he did so, Cal turned into him, leaning against him. At first Billy hesitated, then he put his arm around her. “What’s wrong?”

Cal shook her head. “Nothing.” She let out a deep breath of relief. “I just needed to stop for a second.” She lifted her head and stepped back.

“Feeling better?”

“Yeah. Let’s go inside.” Cal turned her body and moved toward her bungalow
. The whole time she kept looking to the woods, knowing that Jake would be fine, but unable to stop worrying so much for him.

^^^^

Ollie was perturbed as he shut off Stan’s loud music. “Do you mind?” He asked with a snap.

“Yeah.” Stan walked back over
to the player and turned it back on. He bobbed his head all the way back to the center counter.

Ollie huffed from the counter back over to the boom box. “This is so ridicul
ous. This either stays low or shuts off . . .” He turned it off.

Stan turned it on. “Stop it.”

“Or we compromise. You hear me young man. I cannot work or concentrate with this racket.” Ollie noticed the struggle with Stan over the music had stopped, and Stan stared down to the phone. “What’s wrong?”

Stan looked at the steady blinking red light. “Why isn’t Curtis answering down in monitoring
?”

“Maybe he went to the bathroom.”

“Still?”

“What do you mean still?”

“When I changed the tape fifteen minutes ago, Caldwell was calling him.”

Ollie looked at the phone. “Should we pick it up
?”

“No. We’re busy. Maybe he has the ringer off.”

“Maybe.”

“Now . . . music.” Stan reached for the switch.

“No.” Ollie smacked his hand.

“Music.”

“No.”

The adult male game of hand slapping patty cake was interrupted when what sounded like a bang against the cabinet door came from the room. Both Ollie and Stan turned at the same time to see what the noise was
, and both Ollie and Stan jumped back when they saw why Curtis hadn’t answered the phone. Curtis stared up at them, wide-eyed, mouth open, only something was missing from Curtis. The rest of his body. Only his head lay, a blood smear by it, was on the floor. Before either one of them could say anything, an arm came flying in.

Stan flew across the room. “I’ll get the gun
! Shut that door!”

Ollie raced as fast as he could, his trembling hand reach
ing to the side, gripping the door, but before he could slam it shut, the snarling growl blasted him and then so did the claw of the Stasis.

The Sta
sis ripped straight through Ollie’s large gut, lifting a heavy Ollie up from the ground. Ollie’s body jolted and shook, and blood sprayed on the face of the Stasis. A loud ripping sound rang out as the Stasis tossed Ollie away, gutting him as he did.

Stan trembled
, pulling at the desk drawer in a hurry. He could barely pick up the revolver when the Stasis charged his way. He got one shot out, and then the Stasis swung out his arm sending Stan’s gun flying. Stan moved to the right, and the Stasis followed. As the beastly arms reached for Stan with an attacking claw, Jake’s voice rang in the room.

“Blast him
, Rickie!” Both Rickie and Jake opened fire on the Stasis. The force of the bullets turned the Stasis to face them, and Jake and Rickie blasted it some more in the center of its chest and head. “He’s going down!” Jake told Rickie, then dropped his M-16, raced forward, and using the center counter as a single step, Jake leaped up and out, sailing his body into the Stasis. Not only did the weight of Jake’s body slam the Stasis back a few feet, but the Stasis grabbed on to Jake, and both of them crashed with a mighty force out of the window directly behind them. The body of the Stasis broke Jake’s fall as they landed hard to the ash filled ground two stories down. Finding himself on top of the Stasis, staring at the large teeth that spread wide in a reaching bite towards him, Jake grabbed his knife, and with all his strength careened it through the front of the Stasis’ throat, unlatched the guillotine, and severed the Stasis’ head.