Ashes (28 page)

37

 

BLACK SPIT SPLASHED INSIDE the foam cup Lamont held while he drove. He was operating a compact, onyx Mercedes. It was Hoven's ride, but Lamont had snatched the keys before they left Salvation. One of the
perks
of being a dog of war, he sarcastically mentioned to Krane, who put up a mild fit about the situation, only to eventually sink into the passenger seat without further comment.
 

Lamont moved the tobacco dip around in his teeth, letting the juice and the flavor of the poison soak in. “We're close, boys,” he radioed to the following brigade.

“I hate that god-awful habit, Jeb,” Krane said. “How do you enjoy the taste?”

Lamont looked over slowly. “How's the nose, Doc?” A moment passed. “Keep quiet.”

They were on the interstate toward Bethpage, New York, which lay just miles from where a new Eden was nearly constructed in Babylon. From the highway, a stretch of several different vehicles followed closely.
A silver Tundra first; then a black Cadillac.
Behind them were a rusty Firebird and several white vans. It was imperative to remain inconspicuous, and even while following, Lamont made certain that every now and then a car or two from the passing traffic found its way among them. Farther back, about half a mile, were two Suburbans—one red, one green—and a charcoal Nissan Z. The sports car was the lookout.

“Hey, Marcus.” Lamont spoke into the radio after spitting again. “What's the sense of having a lookout if he's half a mile behind me?”

A brief pause, and then, “Don't get your panties in a twist, I'm coming. Got a soccer mom in front of
me and a truck
on my side. Working my way up. Wouldn't miss this rodeo if it killed me.”

Lamont waited a moment to respond. “Move quicker. This isn't the time for you to get a piece. Quit checkin' her out. Stay focused.”

A laugh stifled the radio. “What can I say? I'm only human, boss.”

Lamont mused on that thought. “Yeah, well, no time to be human. Not today. Krane's little toy is gettin' excited. Means we got a signal. We're close. I need the lookout up ahead. So move your butt.”

Krane sighed and scratched at a few spots on his forehead. Lamont looked over, slightly perplexed by what he saw: a group of black spots at the top of Krane's scalp, most of which were tucked beneath a major receding hairline. Below those, on the back of his neck, Lamont noticed a sliver in the flesh, almost an opening near the spine. It was purple and looked to be layered with puss. Krane was relentlessly scratching at that as well.

“Something bothering you, Manny?”

“D-d-don't call me that, you vapid mongrel. Hoven does it, and I hate it with every fabric of my being.”

“Easy, tiger. I'm just having a little foreplay before the action starts,” Lamont answered with a chuckle.

“Cute. But if you haven't noticed by looking at my fa-f-face, we're dealing with something very strong.”

“That's why we brought the ammo and the extra bodies. We'll bring him back. Got enough venom in the trunk to make him squeal nice and good.” A moment passed. “Say, you want to tell me what them marks are on your skin?”

Krane dropped down his visor. A mirror flipped back, showing him a cruel reflection. His splintered nose and swollen eye, a jaw that kept slinging back and forth when he talked.
And the sores.
“It's nothing. Just a minor infec-tion-tion, that's all.”

“Don't look like any infection I ever saw.”

“And I suppose you'd be the expert, hmm?” Krane rolled down his window a bit, the cold from the frosted winter dawn invading the car space. “It's nothing serious, just my body o-overreacting to some allergy medicine. It ju-just itch-itches and stings.”

“Right.” Lamont stared and felt the cold on his neck. “You mind closing the window?”

“The cold feels good.” Krane stuck his neck out into the air. The sliver near his spine split a little more, opening. Just then, snow began to fall.

“You must be aching for frostbite. You know, you're acting mighty strange.”

“Focus on the road, Jeb,” the doctor returned, pulling his head back into the passenger side and rolling up his window.

The device in Krane's lap beeped. He stared down at a screen, smaller than a laptop display, with fixed points and a grid, colored yellow. As their vehicle drew nearer to the target, a green dial spiked.

“We're very close. Yes, we are,”
Krane
said with a smile.

“How did you ever get one of them tracking chips in him anyway?”

“I don't have o-o-one in Adam. There are three. The ribcage, the back of his neck, and behind o-o-one-one of his eyes.”

“Well, I'll be, Doc. You're just full of surprises, ain't you?”

“No intelligent father willfull-willfully submits his son unto the world without knowing how it will all play out. I couldn't release him without first taking a few precautions.”

Lamont roared with amusement, a splat of black ooze shooting out and tearing down the doctor's cheek. “Don't suppose this
son
took too kindly to it.”

“Adam didn't know, although by this point, I'd be surprised if he hasn't figured it out.”

“Why?”

“Because once the devices are engaged, he can feel them. My God, he went right to B-B-Bethpage. Home. As I imagined he would.”

Lamont folded his lips and scowled. “What's the endgame, Doc? What, we
mass produce
this crap. Then we sell it to companies, and pharmacies buy it up like it's the new Jesus Christ.
The formula that'll take away the sins of the world.
Change 'em into somethin' else.”

Krane scoffed. “The agents in Adam's blood, they are…perfect.
Acute and flaw-f-f-flawless.
In addition, he employs more of his brain than all of the genius men who have walked this earth. He is unlike anything this world has ever seen.”

 
Lamont's inquiry went unanswered. “Blows my mind how you let this one go. You spend years looking for freaks like them and when you got 'em, you let 'em go.”

 
“The girl wa-wasn't part of the strategy.”

“But still, it's a bogus plan, don't ya think? Why not play it safe and keep what you got? Men like you can't keep it together. Always gotta push the limits.”

Krane sighed. “We were abus-ab-abus-abusing him, and he couldn't take it any longer. I had to see that there was purpose left to our keeping him. Adam was tired. He ceased response to the experimentation, to the t-t-t-tests, all of it. His body was wearing. After years of these trials, his blood stopped producing in its purest form. His blood, his brain fluid, they are the keys to our future.”

“You're putting a lot of faith in one stupid runt.”

“Need I remind you that this
runt
is a grown man? Regardless what you think of him, he is the Source. The arson is merely a replica.
Beautiful in his own way.
But not pure.
His bl-b-blood may be more complex, more of an anomaly, but Adam's is without spot or blemish. He is the true origin of their kind in modern times. Before Doc-Doc-Doctor Parker located him, there was no other.” Krane picked at the infection on his neck.

“You gotta wonder, is this it? Was there more of them before? And if so, why didn't they survive?” Lamont spit again into the foam cup, and switched lanes.

Krane was mute.

“If you ask me, you're all a bunch of greedy little rats, trying to control the world like she's your personal whore.”

“No, not all of us. Some of us are sim-s-sim-simply underestimated,” Krane replied. And then, under his breath, he said, “But it won't be that way forever. When the change comes, it will be quick. It will be a quiet dawn like this one. When it happens, the ones who are left will begin again. We will be new and perfected.”

A heavy silence crawled between them and their words. The doctor's stoic and moonlit eyes drifted off into the winter dawn. Another beep climbed into the air, and two thirsty grins split their mouths. They were very close. Lamont pulled off the exit and headed south.

38

 

“EMERY!” ADAM'S VOICE SHOOK the hall. “We have to go now!” He nearly broke the door handle to the bathroom off when he opened it, his slick body snaking back and forth toward her.

Emery was still in shock that he had darted out the door naked. “What happened?”

“I felt it. Something's not right. They're coming!” Adam spoke with interrupted breath, his eyes drifting like fog over her. She followed him to the bedroom, but innocently looked away until he threw on a pair of boxers and jeans. When she turned toward him again, she saw a red sliver near his ribs.
 

“I should've known. I walked right into it. This is where they wanted me. This was so stupid. I didn't think.” He paced back and forth, his face, arms, and
forehead dripping with sweat
or water from the shower. It was all probably mixing together now. His chest didn't stop moving. “This was a trap. And I played into their little game.”

Suddenly, Adam stopped speaking, nearly frozen in place. His jaw hung like a tortured Slinky, and his knuckles were bent unusually. Torment was written across his eyes.

“Adam, don't do this. Please, what's wrong?” A panic quickened Emery. She ran to his side.

“No. Ahh! It stings so much. There's something there. Something inside. Feels like it's moving.” He grabbed his side, not wanting to let it go. “I think I know what it is.”

“Spill it, buddy, 'cause I'm on the verge of having a serious panic attack here.”

“I overheard them talking once, about a tracking device they started to use on animals.
Some African thing that didn't make sense to me then.
I think they put one in me.” Again, he felt it, this time stronger. And this time, it wasn't only in his ribcage; he felt it in his neck and face, and it grew every time he moved.

“Adam!” Emery watched him fall to the floor. The veins on his face bubbled the way a child's do when he holds his breath. Would he turn blue, black? Spit slipped down through his teeth, and the carpet drank it up. A coldness bled in him, knew him by name, like it was calling to him. His lips peeled the more he toiled in pain.

“That son of a—”

The window to their right instantly shattered. And a small metal ball smacked hard against the floor. In seconds, the ball made an explosive hissing sound and a thick gas clouded the bedroom. The stench and fog was nearly blinding.

“They're here.”

Emery's voice shook with fear. “They're gonna take us back.” Each stuttered breath slipped out quivering lips.

Adam read the terror coming out of her, the fear these monsters below thirsted on. He couldn't let them have it.

“Let them try! Hold your breath, Emery, as long as you can. This gas can knock you out.” Adam felt the pain, the stinging, vibrating, relentless misery coursing through him, and stood anyway. Clenched teeth. Stiff knuckles. His eyes were shifting colors. He lifted himself and stared down at the bodies surrounding the house. The vehicles sandwiched between one another. The earth their meaty tires destroyed. His focus was Krane, broken and bruised up.

“Come-c-come down, Adam,” came the doctor's request. “We know you're in there. And we'll come for you.”

Adam was very quiet. He listened for the sound of the wind, the sound of the world. He listened for bullets or grenades. He counted all of their heartbeats in his head because he could hear them ticking like bombs ready to go off. Exit the fear. Exit the horror. Exit the quiet.

Adam raised his open palm, and in an instant his veins became electric, hot, burning the tips of his fingers. Each knuckle pulsed and gave way to a fiery reckoning. Beams of energy and flame showered down over the vultures, with their weapons and their metallic security. Again, he released it, the power draining him more and more.

“Enough!” he screamed, lowering his hand.

He didn't need to look down to see that human beings were burning. Their whimpers and cries floated toward the sky and died there.

“Adam. We w-wo-won't hurt her if you come quietly. I promise.”

“Liar!”

“No more
lies
, son. I'm telling the truth.”

Another voice shattered through. “Sooner or later that smoke's gonna fill your lungs. Real nasty. You won't be able to breathe and ask God to stop me from finishing her nice and good.”

“
Lamont,
shut your trap. I won't have you ruining this. Now sh-shut-shut up!”

Lamont backed down as black spit crept out his mouth.

“Adam, come home,” Krane pleaded, “where you belong.”

“I don't belong wi…you,” Adam struggled, the violent mist crawling into his bloodstream.

“Yes, you do. Come with me, and you will become what you were bo-b-born to be.” With a nod, Krane ordered several men to sweep into the house. With his two-way radio, Lamont commanded a second group to swarm toward the back and break in.

Adam grabbed Emery's hand and raced across the upstairs hallway, where a man in a SWAT outfit waited. Around the corner, Adam saw three more bodies, hidden before by the darkness, sweeping into the rooms. He let go of Emery's hand and slid down the hardwood floor, beneath one of the attackers. With the heel of his hand, he struck him in the groin and brought him to his knees. In less than a second, Adam was standing over him, snapping his neck. But before finishing, a hand swallowed his shoulder. With one fluid motion, he clutched tightly to the hand and swung the almost weightless body into another enemy at the end of the hallway.
 

Emery went back to the bedroom and searched the bed and underneath the mattress, the corners of the room, and the closet for the gun Adam had brought out of Salvation. But she couldn't find it.

Adam continued to war.
He held a uniformed soldier with a tight grip until the man stopped squirming, stopped breathing altogether. The thought of controlling weak flesh felt so enlivening, so enveloping. They were weak, easy.
A nuisance, really, that he had to be rid of.

Grinding his teeth, he held on, not letting go. He could feel the heat transcend his bones, the pain in his ribs and all over seeming like nothing more than a bee sting when compared to the rage pumping into his blood. His fingernails burned into the man's neck, singeing flesh and throat, long after the man was gone. Adam finally released his victim. The floor absorbed a loud thud.
 

His eyes dropped briefly, and he listened for the feet of more soldiers coming to take him back to their cold prison. The footsteps rising from below began to mix with the footsteps on his level, confusing sounds he thought were certain. Was that Emery or another body trying to hurt her? More glass shattered.
 
“Eme…” he tried. Was she all right?

A sound like hammers clamored in his eardrum. The doom edged closer. He shifted his weight toward the
noise
as black mist seemed to hover near him. As it moved closer, he realized it wasn't hovering at all. In fact, the mist was a series of bodies, and those bodies had weapons. Red lights sought him out in the fog and confusion.

With a scream, Adam let loose a wave of energy, a paralyzing force that knocked many back into walls, unconscious.

“I'll end you all!”

Darts hissed past him, so close to his face he could almost taste the poison dripping from the tips. One sting from the venom might knock him out. If he could stay strong enough for a little longer, then he could beat this swarm. He had to get to Emery quickly.

Before his brain could calculate another strike, Adam was falling, crashing down against the floor. Someone held him by the ankle. The smack of his bones against the hard surface sought to shatter his mind. But he couldn't let that happen.
Stay strong
, he thought, cursing at the thought that this might be the finisher.

Adam let his imagination rule the moment. In the dark quiet, his subconscious drifted. The grip on his ankle in seconds got weaker, and he knew the reason.

It was because of his thoughts. He created what he wanted to occur. What he thought in his mind was pain, unimaginable pain, and that pain was visiting his attacker now. She was no match, no matter how tough she seemed, how loud she grunted. Each new imagination came to life when he wished it. Adam pictured the agony beginning in the woman's ribs, where his own anguish now dwelled. From there, it leapt to her bones and fiercely spread, crawling throughout her weak, empty flesh, hollowing her, punching a hole right through. No, tearing her in half.

Before Adam's next breath, the pulse he'd felt seconds earlier deadened, and as he moved, the entirety of the woman's upper torso disconnected from the rest of her body and moved with Adam. He'd ripped her in half with a few thoughts. Shaking the dead flesh off, Adam opened his eyes. It still wasn't over.

His hearing was growing. He could hear Krane's words. “Come home, son. Do not f-f-fight it. Come back where you belong.” He couldn't see him, but Adam knew that though Krane whispered those words from nearly fifty feet away, somehow they got misplaced in the pandemonium and the violence, and he could hear them.
 
“No. Noooo!” Adam felt a burning in his chest, his hands. He controlled it. It wasn't the pathetic ball of fire he had toyed with in the shower. This was fiercer, deadlier. He flung himself back to hug the wall, and with a scream, released his fury upon the bodies climbing to take him away. Upon his next blink, he heard the gasps, the empty promises some made with their Creator to welcome them into paradise in spite of the lives they'd lived.
The curdling of blood, the stopping of heartbeats.

He emptied his breath and filled his lungs again.

“Adam!” he heard Emery scream. She was terrified by what he'd done. Standing there, in the smoky hallway, their bodies ready to collapse, their hearts like lost ships in search of a harbor, a sea of horror set to overcome them.

Running to meet her, another jolt shocked his ribcage, and he could hear the whispers of the doctor inside him. “Don't fight it, Adam. I am stronger than you know.” Adam didn't know how it was possible. But the whispers didn't stop, and the unfathomable vibrations didn't either.

Tilting his head, he lay on his back, hoping Emery would come to him. He needed her warmth, her hope, if any still remained. With the edge of his fingernails, Adam dug into his side and created an open wound. Blood dripped out onto his hands and slipped into the floor. Deeper it went, the hole in his side growing wider. His fingers drifted, cold and slimy. His body nearly convulsed. Emery stared, bound.

“I have…to get…it out of me.” It hurt so much he cried. Tears hot with hate bled down to his chin as the tips of his teeth crunched into dust. His entire hand was inside, up to the wrist. Another red puddle spilled out of him, washing over her hands now too.

“Adam, stop. Please stop,” she begged.

“There, there it is,” he said, his body jittering then shaking. He choked on what seemed like vomit, but there was no way to be sure. It was hot trying to come up. He looked into her eyes and pulled his hand out. In his palm was a piece of metal measuring just a centimeter in length with teeth on the edges and an unreadable symbol at the center.

Emery swore in shock when she saw it.
 

Adam prayed she wouldn't faint. He needed her strength, especially now. He shivered.

Emery bit her lip, and sweat drenched her cheeks. The smoke nearly choked them both.

“Adam…it isn't over.” Krane's whisper haunted as more powerful shocks pulsated within him.

“Make it stop!”

“C'mon, Adam, they're outside. What do we do?
 
What are we going to do? We can't stay.” Her tears multiplied. “They'll take us back, and we'll never get out.”

“He wanted us to get out,” Adam said, almost choking again. “He wanted to test me. I get it…now. Make sure I still…had my abilities. Dam—”

“Save your strength, Adam,” Emery said, limping with his hand swung over her shoulder. They walked down the stairs, over torched bodies and abandoned weapons. Emery stopped to get one.

The horrifying scene unfolded.
The bodies so real and yet lifeless now.
Some torn, others burnt black. Certain bones jutted out and were snapped. But the terrible carnage was necessary. This was war, and these deviant enforcers brought it.

“I'm going to be sick, Adam,” Emery coughed. “I think I'm going to be sick.”
 
She vomited. “They're still out there,” she said, wiping her mouth with her arm, the gun shaky in her grip as she noticed the wound on his side widening. “What are we gonna do?”

“Walk out the front door.”

“Are you insane? They'll kill us.”

“No they won't.”

“If they bring us back, I might as well be dead,” Emery spat.

“Adam!” Krane called, his puny voice reaching a height Adam had never before heard. “Adam!” A chainsaw was cutting through him, he swore. “It will only increase if you refuse me.”