The Last World (12 page)

“Yeah, which makes me worried about what you’d do if you hated me.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that, but it never hurts to keep it in mind.” She took the signed paper. “Thank you, Doctor. Have yourself a good rest.”

He smiled at her and nodded. “You too, see you in the morning.”

Doug turned and walked down the corridor to the front doors. He was less than a hundred feet away from closing the book on a nightmare of a day. What bothered him the most wasn’t what happened in regards to his patient, Franklin Bowen, but in what happened afterwards. He’d made peace, as much as he could, with the obvious miracle he witnessed. It was the haunted look in the young man’s eyes that stuck with him. Just what happened to him during that seizure was a question Doug had been asking himself all day. Even the way Mr. Bowen left after seeing his son stuck out to him. Add to it the fact Franklin’s tests showed nothing wrong with him, and Doug was at his wit’s end. Something major was happening to his patient and he feared he’d never find out without cutting the young man open, and he didn’t want to do that. By the time Doug neared the cafeteria, he began to let the trepidation of the day pass over him as he wondered what would be planned for him tomorrow. That was when the cafeteria doors swung open, and he was greeted by his daughter and Horace.

“Ready for dinner
, Daddy?”

Janice was smiling at him when she spoke. Even Horace was smiling without fidgeting. Doug couldn’t think of what to say, he wasn’t even thinking at that point from the shock. He hadn’t been that surprised in years, if ever. It wasn’t until he felt a pair of hands on his shoulders and smelled Phyllis’ familiar perfume that
Doug reacted with a jerk.

“Sorry
, doll, I had to keep you busy while they set it up.”

“Set it up?” His mind was beginning to work again, but very slowly.

“Yep.” Janice stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his left arm. “Horace helped me set it up while Phyllis kept you busy.” She led him into the room.

When he saw the changes in décor
, he couldn’t help smiling. “You did this?” Janice nodded, and he felt the stress of the day melt from him in seconds. “Thank you. I don’t know what to say.” His eyes remained as wide as saucers. Somehow, they turned the cafeteria into a passable Italian restaurant. On the far table to the left, he noticed the pizza and other dishes were set up with the bags from the local restaurant,
Italiano’s Pizza
printed on the sides.

“You don’t have to
, Daddy, we wanted to give you something special and there’s enough for the night shift to indulge themselves.”

Horace was still feeling the cramping muscles from carrying in so much
, but it was worth it to see Doug so happy. As if on cue, Doug turned to face him with a tear in his eye.

“Thank you.”

Horace nodded with a smile. For the first time he felt he’d made an impression that he could be happy with and suddenly Doctor Doug didn’t seem so scary.

“Well, don’t everyone stand there. It’s my party and I say let’s eat.” Doug smiled broadly as he opened the lasagna and fettucini alfredo. All of his worries were quickly forgotten.

Chapter 15

“Here. It’s over here.” Steve pointed at the field and stretch of the road where he and Horace found Franklin the day before.

Zach nodded and pulled onto the shoulder of the road. He began to have second thoughts about this excursion with the failing light, but Steve’s excitement kept his enthusiasm high. He put the car into park and motioned to the trunk. “I have a couple of flashlights back there.” When Steve had said they could reach it before nightfall, he should’ve known better, considering it was already growing dark when they left work. He shook his head while they walked toward the back of the car. Eight o’clock, and he was out here looking for a meteor. Part of him couldn’t help but enjoy it, while another part raged against it. Being a closet geek definitely had its ups and downs.

Steve, on the other hand, was more excited than he’d been in… well, forever. He forgot about his accident the day before. Since then
, he’d been quiet and moody while pondering how much his life sucked. Okay, it wasn’t that bad, but his dad could sure make him feel like it was. After more than a day feeling lower than rained-on shit, his mood began to improve by leaps and bounds since he left work. Yeah, he was tired and hungry, but this was cool. Not seeing his dad for a while was a bonus he hadn’t given a conscious thought to until that moment.

This one’s for you
. Steve smiled at the thought of Fulton Drake wondering where his son was. He wouldn’t worry, Fulton Drake never worried about anyone but himself. It felt great to “stick it to the man” for leaving him stranded, but a part of Steve felt bad about it as well. He knew his dad meant well in his own way, and Steve did have to grow up at some point. He didn’t like it, but he understood it. He was just tired of being treated like a second class citizen by his own family.

When Zach opened the small trunk and handed him a flashlight
, Steve nodded to the pushed-down grass. Even in the deepening darkness of night, the impressions could be seen from where he and Horace traipsed through the field the day before. Another few hours, or a day at most, and the field would return to its previously untouched state. Most of the compression was already returning to normal. In the daylight, he doubted they’d notice the difference, because it was so subtle. But under the soft light from the moon details that would’ve escaped detection stood out like in a dream.

“We found him over there.” Steve turned and pointed at the spot in the field with the depressions
, then out toward the rest of the field. “It must’ve landed around here.”

Zach paused
. “Old man Rickers isn’t going to like us trespassing.”

Steve gave him a sheepish smile
. “I know, but he only comes out here when it’s time to harvest or to plant his crops. He never showed yesterday, and I’m willing to bet he doesn’t even know what happened.”

That’s a bet you’ll be paying with your ass
. Despite his reservations, it made sense, too much sense, but Zach nodded anyway, determined to keep an eye and ear out for the old man. “Alright, but let’s make it quick. I don’t want to be caught out here with my dick in my hand.”

“Better yours than mine, homie.” Steve chuckled as he turned toward the field.

Zach shook his head.
That’s it, I’m an idiot
. Damn kid reminded him so much of himself that he felt sorry for him and
let
him get comfortable.
And now I‘m traipsing through a field trying to find a meteor. Fucking fantastic
. Despite his natural cynicism, Zach was enjoying himself.

Once they crossed the road
, Zach played his flashlight over the top of the field of grain. He could see the paths made the day before, but there wasn’t any sign of an impact. “Where’d you say it was?”

“Right here’s where we found Franklin.”

“I know that, I meant where’s the meteor?”

Steve pointed toward the field with his flashlight and played it across as far as it would go. “Out there
; it’s the only place it could’ve landed without being noticed.”

Could’ve? No wonder there’s no debris anywhere!
“You haven’t seen it yet?” Zach’s voice rose in pitch.

Steve shook his head, oblivious to his friend’s agitated state. “We didn’t have a chance to, I had an accident. Remember?” He looked at Zach smiling that “gotcha” smile kids are so good at.

As much as he wanted to curse and leave Steve there, Zach had to admit he was right. He only assumed the kid already found the meteor. He was beginning to feel more like an idiot with each passing second, but the acclaim he’d get for helping discover a fallen object drove him on until they were ten feet into the field and an old phobia set in.

“You think there are snakes around here?” The sudden thought of those slimy, disgusting creatures slithering around caused him to stop and look around wide-eyed.

“Wha?” Steve paused and looked back at him. After a second or two, understanding dawned on him. He almost said there were; they were near the mountains and in the country so snakes were all over. Instead, he shook his head, more worried about being stranded there than his friend’s fears. “There won’t be any around here, at least not now.”
How could he live here for most of his life and be afraid of snakes
?

“They come out at night to hunt. I saw it on
TV.”

Steve wanted to laugh
, but restrained himself. He never met anyone that was scared of snakes before. “It’s getting colder; they’ll be in their burrows by now.” Truth was, in another few weeks they would be underground, but Steve figured that little tidbit was better left unsaid. It had the desired effect, as Zach’s eyes narrowed until they looked normal and he nodded. Without anymore delays, Steve turned around and headed deeper into the field.

Each step was more difficult than the last and Zach’s foot began to bother him more than usual. Having a clubfoot was bad enough, but having one while trying to move through the thick and tangle
d wave of grain was proving to be a killer. It wasn’t so much the walking, at least in Zach’s mind, mainly because he usually didn’t have a pronounced limp. But with the grain stalks wrapping around and snaring his feet, he managed to twist it more than a couple of times. Now, the throbbing was as steady as his breathing with each step.

While his enthusiasm had waned, Zach was pleased that it wouldn’t take them long to get back to the car. Just a minute earlier
, he turned to look back and was surprised they only walked a couple hundred yards. At first, he thought his eyes were deceiving him and that there was no way they could’ve only walked that far. After shaking his head, Zach turned back and thought about calling out to Steve, but he decided against that. He began to think this was Steve’s way of getting even for what he put him through at work and being a stupid jack off. He fell for it hook, line, and sinker. With each pain-filled step, Zach began planning his own revenge on the kid the following morning. This was why he didn’t trust people. This was why he didn’t like people. And this was why he was the meanest son of a bitch in—. His foot caught on something with a muffled clang of metal on metal, and he fell face-first with a startled cry.

Steve heard the surprised squeak
, but not the clang. Still, he spun around in an instant. His flashlight beam highlighted the grain in an eerie, ethereal light. Despite the cursing and rustling he heard, Steve’s mind filled with images from the horror movies where some demonic beast preyed on the unsuspecting fools by pulling them below the other’s line of sight and into the grass. Swallowing hard, Steve fought against those childish fears.

“Zach?” His first attempt came out as not even a whisper. He swallowed again and managed a somewhat normal sound. “Zach?”

A series of curses preceded the response. “Yeah, I fucking tripped.”

Steve let out a relaxing breath and hurried to where his friend was. When he reached the spot
, he found Zach sitting there with a softball-sized piece of metal sticking out of the ground. “What the hell is that?”

“
What the hell is that?”
Zach mocked in a nasally voice. “How the fuck should I know?” He kicked at the piece of metal with the bottom of his good foot. The thud sound was similar to striking a piece of metal, but it was just enough of a difference to cause Zach to forget his plans to torment the kid and focus on what they just found. Pulling his legs under him, he pulled himself forward to rest on his knees. After a pause, Zach reached out to touch their find but pulled back when Steve’s light rested on it.

“Holy fuckin’ A!” Zach pushed away from the ground and stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over the grain again
as the piece of metal disappeared when the light touched it.

“Wow.” Steve moved the light away and the metal appeared, when he put the light back on it the metal disappeared. “That’s awesome
,” Steve whispered, in awe of what it was doing.

Zach took a moment to get over his own
surprise, then knelt next to it and watched it disappear. “Some sort of cloak, I think.” He shook his head as all of those episodes of
Star Trek
floated through his mind. “I never heard of anything like this.”
In reality
, he didn’t add. He reached out to where the metal was when Steve had the light on it and, after taking a deep breath to restore his courage, he touched it. There was no strange tingle, odd spark, or peculiar feeling. It felt like metal was supposed to feel like. Cold, smooth, and hard but there was something more. It felt smoother than anything Zach had ever felt before. “I’ll be damned.”

“What? What is it?” Steve could barely contain his excitement.

Zach shook his head. “Not sure how to describe it.” He paused, staring at the metal until the best analogy came to mind. “It’s like… holding water.” Steve looked at him, causing him to shrug. “It’s the only way I can describe it. It’s so smooth…”

Both of them remained silent for a moment as their
minds worked to find a solution to their dilemma. Finally, Steve came over and knelt next to Zach and continued staring at the oddity. “What should we do?”

Do
? Zach’s eyebrows raised and he blew out a breath causing his lips to flutter. “Damned if I know. We can’t report it. Some asshole will take all of the credit for this and leave us holding our dicks.”

After a few seconds
, the simplest of answers came to Steve. “Why don’t we dig it up?”

Zach watched him for the briefest of moments before smiling. “I have a trenching tool in my trunk
; we can have this beauty out of here in no time.” He tossed his keys to Steve before the other had a chance to object. “I’ll stay here so we don’t lose it in the field again.” The real reason was his clubfoot still ached and he wanted to rest it for a couple of minutes more.

Steve nodded after catching the keys and started for the car
, but paused. “What’s a trenching tool?”

Zach wanted to burst into laughter right then and there. Despite everything they’d been through that day
, he really and truly liked the kid. Steve hadn’t been lying about the meteor. Zach had been wrong, but it was a far cry from his earlier accusations of the kid. It took a minute or two for him to ensure he wouldn’t start laughing. Once he was finished and the pain of holding his laughter in passed, he wiped the tears from his eyes and made a couple of hand gestures in an effort to describe it. When that failed, he blurted out the simplest description he could think of.

“It’s a green shovel about two feet long and with a swiveling head.” Not the most poetic way of describing it, but it was sufficient
, as Steve returned a few minutes later with the trenching tool in his hands. Without waiting for Zach to say anything, Steve began the process of removing the hunk of metal.

The dig took no more than five minutes and the piece fell over onto its side. Curious
, and with the right amount of caution, Steve reached out and picked it up.

“Jesus. It’s that light?” Though the question was a valid one, Zach coul
dn’t believe the ease Steve lifted it from its hiding place. Going from his own personal experience over the last few minutes he found he wasn’t really surprised.

Steve nodded. “It’s so… different. I never saw anything like it. Where do you think it came from?”

It was a question Zach had been pondering over the last several minutes. In answer, he shrugged. “It’s your meteor.” Steve’s eyes widened at hearing that and it brought a smile to Zach’s face. “I’m guessing it’s all that’s left of a test of some sort.”

Steve’s face s
crunched up in thought. “A test? What do you mean?”

The answer was so obvious Zach thought about smacking his friend upside his head to see if anything rattled. “Our government. They’re always testing something like this. That’s what all those Unidentified Flying Objects are
—just secret planes and all.”

Steve knew
Zach would know more about those things than he did. After all, he worked for the government far longer than Steve ever would. Still, it was disheartening to think the metal was man-made.