The Donors (25 page)

“Power Up,” he said.

 

*  *  *

 

“Excuse me—can I help you?”

Jason wondered how it had not occurred to him that it might look strange for them to arrive on the Pediatric Ward in the middle of the night. He wore street clothes and Jenny sported her ICU scrubs and jacket, but with floppy, oversized rubber clogs stolen from the OR locker room. She looked like she had bright blue clown feet. They both looked worse for wear, Jenny's hair dirty and plastered to the side of her head and Jason's standing at impossible angles. Jason guessed they looked like they woke up under a bridge and then put on clothes they had stolen from a clothesline somewhere. He struggled for a response when Jenny saved them.

“Hey, Janice, it's me—Jenny from ICU?”

“Jenny?” the nurse clearly found it hard to believe this hobo was someone she knew. Then her eyes widened. “Jenny! My God, are you alright?”

Jenny forced a smile and took Jason's hand. “It's been a tough day,” she said without elaborating. “Dr. Gelman just wanted to check real quick on one of his patients before we head out of here.”

“Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Gelman. I didn't recognize you in street clothes.” Janice the nurse looked him up and down. It was clear to him that she had no idea who Dr. Gelman was, but wanted to cover the bases in case she should know.

“No problem, Janice,” he said with a smile. “I'm sure I've looked better.” He pulled Jenny along to end the conversation before the nurse could ask anything else. When he reached out for the door to Nathan's room, he heard a sigh of recognition.

“Oh, you're seeing the Doren boy. That's great. I just saw him and he's up. Is there anything I can tell you or help you with?”

“No, we're good,” Jason answered.

“Well, he'll be glad to see you. He woke up and his mother had stepped out and I think he got a little nervous.”

“Thanks, Janice,” he called back and they pushed into the room and closed the door behind them. Where the hell had Sherry gone in the middle of the night? It was probably a good thing that she felt comfortable leaving him for a while and it certainly helped them out tonight. Still, getting her to head home for a shower had been like pulling teeth.

Strange.

“Nathan?”

Hand in hand he and Jenny went to the bedside. Nathan lay on his side with the sheet pulled up to his neck and his face half buried in the pillow. Poor guy had to be exhausted.

Yeah. Must take a lot of energy to light up like a firecracker and float to the ceiling, huh?

For a moment he thought about letting him sleep, but knew if Nathan woke up and hadn't seen them he would be scared. Best to let him know everything was okay before getting him back to sleep.

Then we can go take care of Jazz, if he's still alive.

Jason sat on the edge of the bed and Jenny put her hand on his shoulder. He smoothed the boy's hair and lightly touched his forehead, which felt cool to his fingers. Something felt wrong and Jason tensed up.

“Nathan?” he said, a little louder than he meant to. No sense startling him awake. God knows what he might do by accident. Nathan didn't even stir.

“What's the matter?” Jenny asked with a quiver in her voice.

Jason took Nathan by both shoulders and rolled him on his back. “Nathan come on—wake up.” He could hear the panic in his own voice. Nathan's lifeless body rolled over, face pale, mouth slack and eyes open and unseeing. He stood up and fumbled for a pulse in the boy's neck, unconsciously feeling along his breastbone with his other hand for his xiphoid, ready to begin CPR.

But the pulse was there, strong and fast.

He pulled one of Nathan's eyelids up farther and the eye continued to look without seeing. He looked like a comatose patient—in fact he looked like Jenny had looked only a couple of hours ago in the waiting room.

“What's wrong with him?” Jenny asked. One hand dug into Jason's arm and the other went to her mouth.

“I don't know,” Jason said shortly. “Give me a minute here.”

He must not have made it back from the cave—but why? Everything had seemed fine. In fact he had seen Nathan shimmer and disappear moments before he and Jenny had left. Jason waited for the other-him to answer some of the questions, but now that he needed to hear something, the voice remained silent so only the questions echoed in his head. He turned to Jenny, who had become very pale. He took her arms and gently eased her into the big chair with Sherry's covers still in a ball beside her.

And just where the hell is Sherry? Hell of a coincidence that she's not here the one time something is terribly wrong.

Jason felt his tenuous grip on control slip a little more. He smiled at Jenny and tried to look reassuring. “Everything is going to be fine,” he said. “Just give me a minute. I need you to be real quiet for a minute or two.”

Jenny nodded and he closed his eyes tightly. He listened as hard as he could, but heard nothing from Nathan. He hollered out in his mind.

Nathan? Nathan, it's Jason. Where are you, buddy?

Jason kept his eyes closed through the pause that felt like forever. He was just about to tell Jenny he had to go back to the cave when he heard the voice from far off. At first he thought it might be a trick of his imagination, like a subject pushing the little button in the hearing test and finding out they stopped putting the little tones in your headset ten minutes ago.

Jason?

Nathan! Where are you, buddy?

I have to save my mom.

The words cut Jason deeply and he fought off the flood of memories—images of his own mom, thin and wild eyed in the hospital bed. Darker images of the Lizard Men tearing apart Steve. He saw a flash of his mother's dull eyes when he left her in the cave to run and hide. He felt his throat tighten and stifled a sob. It was way too late to undo his failure—but he could help Nathan save his mommy.

Where are you, Nathan? I'm coming to help you.

No!

The boy's voice held panic that Jason didn't understand.

You can't. Please find my mommy on that side—like you did for Jenny. My voice said I have to do this part alone.

 Why did the little boy have to be all alone in that shitty place? He had to help somehow.

I'll be right back, Nathan.

Jason opened his eyes and saw that Jenny stared at him in confusion and fright. “What's wrong?”

“He's okay for now,” he told her. He didn't have time to explain how that worked—even if he could. “We have to find Sherry, his mom.”

Jason searched his pocket for his cell phone to see if he had programmed the number in, but his pockets were empty. He needed the number so he could call the house. Maybe she would answer and be fine and he could bring Nathan back.

You know a lot better than that, Jedi.

He ignored the voice and searched again in the pockets of his jeans. Nothing.

“Can you go and get me his chart?” he asked Jenny. It would probably help her to have something to do in any case. Jenny headed out the door to the nurse's station.

Jason looked at Nathan's small shape beneath the covers. He smoothed his hair and pulled the covers back up over the cool body. The skin felt waxy.

Jenny returned a moment later with the chart.

“They wanted to know if you would be writing any orders,” she said. That gave him an idea. He
would
write an order.

Jason looked at the face sheet in the front of the chart and found the Doren's home phone number. He dialed nine on the bedside phone to get an outside line and then punched the number in. He might have waited longer if he really believed she might answer. Still, he listened to at least ten ring tones before he hung up.

You know where she is, Jedi. If you want to help Nathan, then help him here. Find his mom.

Jason wrote a quick order to cancel all of the vital sign checks and that Nathan should be undisturbed until Dr. Gelman checked back. The order would only be followed until shift change, but that gave them a few hours. If they couldn't have Nathan back by then, they would have much bigger problems than the nurses not being able to wake him. He closed his eyes.

Nathan, it's me. We're going to find your mommy okay? I'll find her and make her safe and then I'm coming to help you.

He didn't care if Nathan's other him voice told him he had to do this alone. Ridiculous. He had been alone in the cave before when he was little like Nathan, and look how that turned out. That asshole voice had told him that Nathan needed him—needed something that was buried inside him—and he sure as shit was going to be there for him.

Okay.

Nathan's voice sounded quite far away. Jason waited for more but heard only his own breathing and the pounding pulse in his temples. He opened his eyes and exchanged a quiet look with Jenny.

Jason took a blank sheet of progress note paper from the chart and flipped it over. With the pen Jenny had brought him, he wrote, “Do not disturb. Please see Nurse,” on the back. He clipped it to the door and then returned the chart to Nurse Janice. She smiled at him with saccharin sweetness.

“The little guy is completely exhausted,” he told her. “Let's just let him sleep the rest of the night. I wrote an order to hold all checks on him and put a note on the door. I also spoke with his mother who will be back soon, so can you help me out and keep everyone out of his room?”

“Sure, Doctor,” Janice told him.

“You too, okay? Let's let him get a little sleep.”

“No problem, Dr. Gelman,” she said.

Jason hustled back to the room where he kissed Nathan on his cool and pasty forehead, then smoothed his hair one last time. He positioned him back on his side facing away from the door just in case. Then he grabbed Jenny's hand.

“Let's go,” he said softly.

“Where?” She looked like she had very little left to give.

Jason kissed her cheek. “We gotta save Sherry and I guess Jazz, too, while we're at it.”

She followed him out the door and together they hurried off the ward and toward the stairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nathan felt better knowing that Jason would find his mom. Images of Steve with his guts all torn out and the other man with his brains bashed in made him shudder uncontrollably. He had to stop the Lizard Men before they could hurt Mommy.

I have to kill them.

Nathan slid down the dirty path to the large room, intent on not being afraid when he had to go down the smaller tunnel with the scary glowing lights. He had no doubt that this would be the time he would need to go there. He was half way down the slope, watching Jazz who now stirred and mumbled, a long cut down the center of his belly oozing dark blood, before he noticed the other figure near the wall. She lay perfectly still, curled up on her side and facing away from him, but he knew immediately who it was.

“Mommy!” His voice sounded shrill and scared as it echoed off the walls. He ran to his mother's side, nearly tripping over Jazz's thrashing legs. “Mommy, Mommy,” he cried as he collapsed beside her in the dirt.

His mom didn't move, but she seemed unhurt. Nathan couldn't bring himself to look at her eyes, just in case they looked all white and dead like Jenny's had, but he smoothed her hair from her cheek. Her face felt hot and wet and he leaned over to kiss her.

You have to get to work, Ranger. Time to Power Up.

I can't leave her here. They'll get her and hurt her.

They already have her. If you want to save her you have to defeat them. It's the only way. She is too big for you to move by yourself.

Then Jason can come and help me.

The thought of leaving his mom naked and unprotected on the dirt floor was more than he could bear. He wanted to move her to the little cave they had hidden in before.

She's no safer there, Nathan. Safety is an illusion here. You know what you have to do.

Nathan stood up, his small fists balled up at his sides.

“Power Up,” he mumbled. He made no attempt to mimic the movements of the characters from the TV show. He looked back at his mommy and tears streamed down his face. “I'll be back in a minute, Mom,” he said.

Nathan took a few steps and then stopped for a minute and stared at Jazz, who now writhed in agony on the floor, his mouth open in a scream, his voice little more than a gurgle. Loops of intestines had spilled out of his open belly that now danced around in the dirt. Nathan stepped over him, his small jaw set firmly and his usually blue eyes turning deep crimson.

He headed for the passageway with its strange yellow glow.

 

*  *  *

 

The burning itch of the thick red wounds on his face did little to dampen the near sexual pleasure of feeding from the boy on the table. The surgeons had torn several large pieces of skin from James's hip and side and worked now at stretching the skin taunt over the lower part of his chest—a tricky place to harvest skin because of the ribs that made the area all uneven, especially in a thin person like James. The dull light that poured out of his victim tasted like warm water at a holiday feast compared to the bright and pulsating light that he swallowed greedily earlier.

Mr. Clark caressed the still-wet wounds on his face, neck and shoulder gently and without awareness. His focus stayed completely on absorbing the power of his meal. The deep acid-like burns had become little more than background noise and he suppressed his own fear at the power of the boy who had wounded him. He needed the energy from this meal—needed it to be able to finish their work here and move on, but sensed the power he ingested now may prove less important than having the woman in their possession.

The older boy had been defeated years ago when his fear had been turned against him using his mother—and her death. That loss had been unfortunate. The older boy's mother had been an unbelievably rich fuel source, her guilt and fear powerful and always close to the surface. He pushed the thoughts from his mind and sucked deeply in of the light that poured from James's bleeding body. He knew, to the others in the room, he looked to be simply standing in the back and watching as they stripped the body of bleeding skin—the light would not be visible to them. He felt his skin tingle with the energy that filled him and his partner and closed his eyes in pleasure.

Soon they would go back in the abdomen and take the other kidney and then they would split open the chest to take lungs and heart. He needed to remember to interrupt his feed long enough to let James know that was coming—to bring his tapering terror back to a crescendo. For now he gulped greedily in his rapture. He failed to notice the door behind him open.

 

*  *  *

 

Jason squeezed Jenny's hand in disbelief as he peered into the large operating room. After his recent trips to the other-world cave with its resident Lizard Men, it seemed odd that it would be the secret room in the hospital basement that his mind had the most trouble accepting. The taller Lizard Man in his long overcoat and low-riding top hat stood only a few feet in front of him, head tilted back as he sucked in pulsating light gushing out of the motionless body on the table.

Still, he found the sight of the operating team as they peeled another strip of skin from Jazz's chest more astounding than the Lizard Man who fed on the boy's raw terror. These were physicians, likely physicians he knew at least casually, who tortured this boy to death.

Jason scanned the room quickly and caught sight of the other one, the shorter one, farther to his left, also facing away from them. Like the taller creature, his head tilted back and his mouth gaped open as pulsating swirls of light poured into him. How could the operating team see such a thing and not be terrified by it?

He slipped the rest of the way into the room and moved quietly to the right. Another gurney had been pushed against the wall and on it he saw Sherry, a sheet pulled up to her shoulders. Plastic IV tubing snaked under the sheet from a bag that hung from the bed's pole. On the bag someone had plastered a red sticker on which “SUX” had been written in black marker.

Succinylcholine? Holy shit.

The drug, a powerful paralytic used in anesthesia, was supposed to be combined with an anesthetic during surgery. By itself it would paralyze a patient, but they would remain completely awake and aware and would feel everything. Jason couldn't imagine the horror that Jazz must be experiencing—that Steve had experienced—as the surgical team tore them apart. The IV bag that hung on Sherry's bed pole didn't seem to be running, at least not yet, which explained why she wasn't on a ventilator.

The creatures seemed completely absorbed by their feeding, and the two surgeons remained intent on their work, so Jason pulled Jenny behind him and quietly approached Sherry's gurney. Gently, he turned her face toward him and raised her eyelids. The eyes stared back at him, unseeing, and he wondered whether she had been given a sedative or if she had been knocked down by the powerful images that the creatures somehow forced into people's minds. Either way, she looked to be down for the count.

Jason stared now at the back of the taller creature only a few yards away from him.

Keep them from Nathan, Jedi. He needs more time to prepare.

Jason pulled Jenny beside him closely and whispered softly in her ear. “Stay behind me.” Her eyes were wide, her mouth slack and open, but to his relief she nodded weakly and moved behind him. With some difficulty he pried his hand out of hers and felt her hand move to his belt.

Use the force, Jedi.

Jason rushed forward, surprised at his own speed and balance, and slammed into the trench-coated back of the tall lizard man in front of him. Just before impact, as he passed through the pulsating light that swirled around the creature and then poured into his huge open mouth, he felt a strange tingle throughout his body and his mind filled with images of being torn apart alive, of a weak and sobbing voice.

Jazz.

Then his shoulder crunched painfully into the Lizard Man and the swirling light became disorganized and tumbled off into the room. His enemy screeched, not with pain, but anger and frustration, like a still-hungry infant when its bottle was pulled away.

Jason wrapped both arms around the creature. The trench coat fluttered in his face and blinded him as his momentum propelled them both deeper into the room. His right knee crashed painfully into the tile floor and he grimaced as the pain shot up his leg all the way to his hip, no doubt conducted by the steel rod that he still carried in his thigh bone. The breath hissed out of his chest as Jenny tumbled on top of him from behind.

Jason rolled quickly to his left and pulled Jenny with him, more worried about her than what the creatures might do. He turned his head back toward the Lizard Man, expecting to see the long, razor teeth heading directly at him.

Instead, the creature squirmed away with remarkable speed, the body twisting across the floor in impossible gyrations that reminded Jason of a frightened snake. As he struggled to his knees, he watched in fascination as the creature made it to the far wall—and then continued up the wall with the same reptilian gyrations of his body, apparently not subject to gravity at all.

When the motionless feet got just above floor level, the creature twisted around, floated a moment in space, and then—arms out and face turned up—he stopped hovering and dropped the few inches onto the floor. The head tilted back down and glowing red eyes narrowed in on Jason.

Jason scurried to his feet and forced Jenny backward. He had no doubt that the creature would charge him in a moment and felt just as certain that he would not survive the attack. He hoped only to buy Jenny enough time to get away.

“Take Sherry with you,” he shouted as he braced his body. Jenny squeezed his hand and then let go and moved away.

The red eyes pulsated. Instead of charging forward, the creature began to shimmer. As Jason watched, even the air around him seemed to waver; as the coat and hat disappeared slowly at the same time, that eerie face stretched and changed. For a brief moment he looked at the image of the Lizard Man he knew from the cave—long snout with dark skin and pointed teeth, caressed by a blood-red tongue—and then a blue light flashed in the room and the creature disappeared.

Jason's nose wrinkled at the terrible, wet-shit smell. His peripheral vision caught another flash of blue and he turned to see the shorter creature disappear as well. The room fell silent and Jason became aware of the eyes of the two surgeons at the table that stared at him in silence. He looked back, unsure what to say. Then a sharp sound made him jump as one of them dropped a stainless steel instrument to the floor. The surgeon's head fell back and he collapsed beside the OR table. The other man's shoulders sagged and he leaned forward and steadied himself on the table.

“What the hell just happened?” Jenny choked out from beside him.

“It doesn't matter,” Jason answered, unsure that he knew anyway. “We've gotta get these people out of here.”

And then I'm going after Nathan.

You can't help him, Jedi. The force is weak in you now. Your time is past.

“Bullshit,” he mumbled.

He went to the OR table and grabbed the still-standing surgeon by the shoulders. The eyes that looked back at him were those of a junkie on a binge and Jason shook him hard.

“Come on. Wake up,” he said in frustration.

The eyes cleared a little but filled with confusion. Jason pulled the surgical mask off and recognized the man as one of the more junior staff transplant surgeons.

“You need to get the hell out of here—now!” he commanded. “Go home. This was just a horrible dream, but I promise it's over now.”

“Dream?' the dazed man asked.

“Yeah,” Jason answered. “A terrible, fucked-up dream.”

The man seemed to understand and went to the other side of the table to collect his partner. He helped him from the floor and they headed across the room.

“It's over?” he asked as he hesitated at the door.

“Yes,” Jason answered.

The man nodded again and tears spilled out onto his cheeks. “Thank God,” he mumbled, and the two of them left the room.

Jason looked down at the boy on the OR table. His eyes stared at the ceiling without moving, but Jason knew they could see. The ventilator hissed, but otherwise the room remained silent.

The wound in Jazz's abdomen gaped up at Jason from his breastbone to his pubic bone. The thin, shallow pool of blood mixed in with the shiny rolls of intestines. Jason saw that the liver and spleen were intact, but there stood a bloody ragged hole stuffed with stained laparotomy sponges where the left kidney should have been. Jason hoped that the other kidney had not been harvested already—he could live with one.

He grabbed a pair of gloves off the back table, snapped them on, and then packed more of the sterile gauze into the gaping abdomen to keep dust and air out and to maybe stop the slow bleeding. Then he wet several more strips of the dressing material in the blue basin on the table and lay them across the stark white tissue that remained in the long strips where the skin had been stripped off. He wished he had some morphine to give, but he saw none.

Jason walked over to Jenny who stared at him.

“What just happened?” she asked again.

“Listen to me,” he said shortly. “I have to go help Nathan, but we have to get this kid to the ER and Sherry out of this room. I have to hurry, because I think Nathan may be in real trouble. Can you help me?”

Jenny nodded and wiped tears from her cheeks. “What do you need me to do?”

Jason hugged tightly against him. “I love you,” he said,

“I love you, too,” she answered.

“Here's what we need to do,” he began.

 

*  *  *

 

Nathan hesitated. He had moved deep into the passageway with the weird glow and strange smell, well past where he'd ventured the first time when the other-him voice had asked him to check it out. He worried a lot about what caused the glow and the smell, both of which grew stronger as he moved deeper into the cavern, but that wasn't what slowed him down. He looked at his bare and dirty feet.