Torn (7 page)

Bret looked oddly at him. Why was he repeating her name? Obviously, he knew it.

“Are you familiar with a Charles Eugene Wright?”

“Who?” she asked, then her eyes grew wide. “Chuck. Yeah, Chuck. You
threw me. What about him. Wait.
…” She snapped her finger. “He was following the story. He didn’t say much. I don’t think he knew much.”

“Hmm.” Dr. Jeffers nodded. “I just needed to check.”

“Check on what?”

“If you were the one and the same Bret.”

Bret gave a curious look. “Have you spoken to Chuck?”

“Yes, we have. Several times,” Jeffers replied. “He was working on a bug story.”

“Have you seen him lately?”

“Yes. Today.”

“Where is he now?” Bret asked.

“I believe.
…” Dr. Jeffers smiled. “He’s working on this story.”

The eight by eight roo
m wasn’t cold, nor was it dirty; it was
part of a
newly constructed county prison awaiting its opening. Alone in the room, Chuck was
left wearing only his underwear
and given a thick blanket
which he had wrapped around his shoulders
.
There was a pencil in there and a single sheet of paper. No light.

Chuck would write small. He’d make the best of that piece of paper. After all, he hadn’t a clue how long he’d be held prisoner. And that’s what he was—or at least felt
like
.

He heard
someone
walking outside his door
,
the
m
umble
of voices
; n
ot many, which led Chuck to believe there weren’t many in his section.

No one
else
said anything, argued, nothing
,
u
nlike Chuck who had done nothing but argue with anyone he could for ten hours. He’d shout out to anyone who walked down the hall.

Just as he planned to do when he heard the footsteps.

He jumped from his bunk to rush to the door.

“Food,” a male voice said as a tray was slid through the tiny ten
-
inch by four
-
inch opening.

“Wait.” Chuck hurried and grabbed the tray. He peered out the small opening only to catch glimpse of a soldier. “Great. Just great.” He sniffed the food. “Hey!” he aimed his voice through the hole. “How long am I supposed to be here? Answer me! I’m not under arrest! I didn’t do anything wrong! Hello!”

“Shut up!” someone shouted.

“Fuck off.” Chuck blasted back.

“No, you fuck off. I’m tired of hearing you shout at the guards! There’s nothing you can do. We’re stuck here!”

“Where is here?” Chuck asked. “I know I’m not arrested. I want clothes! I have my rights!”

There was a moment of silence, then the same male voice chuckled a laugh that rang with an eerie echo effect. “Rights? Hey, don’t you know we have no rights when it comes to the United States
g
overnment trying to keep a secret?”

Chuck was verbally humbled, and his unseen neighbor made a point. Holding his food, Chu
ck carried the tray to his bunk
where he just sat down in defeat. Momentarily
,
that was, until he could figure something out.

Two days. Sixty phone calls. Two hundred
miles on his car, and Jesse finally hit gold
. They kept missing each other because she was as busy as Jesse. He called her, and then gave up. Middle
of the night, she returned the
call and Jesse found some hope via Chu
ck’s mother who was out of town…
looking for her son.

“Do you think they are together?” Hazel Wright asked Jesse.

“Absolutely not. The military took Bret,” he replied.

“Don’t you think it’s odd that they’re both missing?”

“My wife is not missing. Just well hid.”

“Maybe it has something to do with the email she sent me to forward to Chuck.”

“What email?”

Again it was never claimed that Jesse was the brightest, neither
w
as Hazel, so when it dawned on them both that perhaps Chuck was working on a story connected to Bret, pieces started to fall bit by bit
into place. Perhaps it wasn’t
unlikely that they were together.

The two in the morning phone call brought Jesse to Johnstown
, Pennsylvania,
and he and Hazel began a search of Chuck’s apartment. They spoke to his editor at the paper who claimed Chuck was laundering his story for fear he
had
uncover
ed
something big. The editor passed Chuck of
f
as paranoid, but not before
he was able to pass on to Jesse and Hazel the
name of the person
that Chuck’s story and notes came through.

His name was Pierce Leonard. But he didn’t get his story from Chuck; he got the story via another man who got it from another and so on.

Seven people were in an email chain created six hours before Chuck’s disappearance. Though the story never changed, one name ke
pt popping up as Chuck’s target,
a
name Jesse found familiar.

Dr. Andrew Jeffers.

Jeffers, if Jesse remembered correctly, was the one who c
ame with the military. He was
the one who phoned Jesse to simply state: ‘Your wife is fine. We’ll be in contact.’

That wasn’t good enough for Jesse, hence his plight. Where was his wife? He came to the determination that if he found Jeffers, he would find Bret
and
,
hopefully
,
Chuck
. Though Jesse was teetering on
believing
the Hollywood
-ish plot
that Chuck was dead—he knew too much.

George, the editor from the Johnstown Press, tried his hand at
contacting
Jeffers. The Centers for Disease Control stated he was out of town working, but wouldn’t give his whereabouts. Classified.

His home number wasn’t unlisted,
but
Jesse had an idea. After thinking about what it would take to give up his wife’s classified whereabouts, he made the call.

“He is out of town working,” Mrs. Jeffers stated.

“Do you know where?” Jesse asked.

“Well, yes, but I can’t say.”

“Uh huh
. Well, if you decide to say can you give me a call back. I just found a stack of pictures. All of them your husband Andrew having sex with my wife and I’d like to find him and kill him.”

Obvious
ly this was not something
new to Mrs. Jeffers because she had no problem believing Jesse. She
gave up
her husband’s location in an instant. It may have
wrenched
a
bit
of guilt from Jesse because he was messing with someone’
s marriage, but he justified it:
Jeffers was messing with his.

He hoped. He could have been wrong. His gut said he wasn’t.

On the outskirts of Morgantown
,
West Virginia was a small village quarantined for ants. The CDC mobile set up was just on the town limits, and Jesse found Dr. Jeffers with ease. He was amazed that it wasn’t more difficult. A simple request for the doctor along with his name brought out Dr. Jeffers.

No hello
. No greeting. Jesse just spat
out, “You came to my house. You took my wife. Where is she?”

Irritated, Jeffers huffed out. “We called you and told you that she is fine. She’ll be home in a few days.”

“Not good enough. Where is she?”

“I can’t tell you. She’ll be home in a few days. I assure you
,
Mr. Long
,
this is for her own benefit.”

“Not good enough.” Jesse repeated

Jeffers huffed again. “Fine. Those roaches that attacked your wife are carrying a deadly virus. Fortunately, your wife was not infected. She was
,
however
,
nested. Meaning
the roaches implanted eggs within her. We are hopeful that we got the nests, but
time
will reveal if that is the case. End of story. She is resting, well, and waiting.”

“Not.
…”

“Don’t.” Jeffers held up his hand. “Don’t say, ‘not good enough’. It’s the best I can do.”

“No, the best you can do
is let me know for sure
that my wife is fine.”

“Follow me.” He turned. “I’ll get her on the phone.”

“No.
…” Jesse smiled when Jeffers stopped. “I want to see her.”

“Impossible. Now, since you’ve turned down
my offer to speak to your wife, g
ood day.”

“Jeffers,” Jesse called out. “I’m tired. I haven’t slept in two days.”

“Get some sleep then. Perhaps you’ll be more reasonable.”

“I don’t think you quite understand.” Jesse stepped to
ward
him. “Wh
en I get tired, I get irritable;
wh
en I get irritable, I get angry. W
hen I get angry, I get unreasonable and I act before I think.” Another step. “Now don’t doubt for one second, I won’t pick you up and throw you through a fucking wall way before one of these soldiers can do a thing about it. I want to see my wife.”

“Don’t threaten me.”

“I’m not.” Jesse said reason
ably
. “
I’ll ask one more time. If I get turned down, I cannot guarantee what I will do. Ready?” Jesse smiled. “Will you take me to see my wife?”

“Fine, you can…see…
your wife.”

Jesse should have been more specific. Of course, that was to Jeffers
’
misfortune
. When he brought Jes
se to an observation window, stated, “S
ee, s
he’s fine. That’s all. Let’s go,
” Jesse grew angrier. However, when Jeffers claimed
that he held
up his end of the bar
gain, and he allowed Jesse to “see”
his wife, Jesse lost it.

He had
Jeffers by the throat and chest
lifted two feet
from the ground and
proceeded to bang Jeffers into the glass window repeatedly as
a way to break
the glass.

After
four hits into the window, three soldiers showed up. Their weapons and force didn’t stop Jesse
;
he was a husband enraged and determined. His
big body shucked off a soldier
while he tossed Jeffers int
o the second soldier. The third one
barreled into Jesse, and during the struggle, Jesse grabbed hold of the M-4, crashing it backwards into the window and smashing the protective glass.

Bret screamed. But she got to se
e her husband through the glass…
briefly. There he stood, and there he wasn’t. He sailed sideways to the ground when tackled by more soldiers.

Mission accomplished. Jesse sat in a small room with his wife.
As a
precaution, he couldn’t touch her.
Bret made him keep true to that;
after all the kids needed him back at
home
.

The door opened and Dr. Jeffers walked
in. “You nearly broke my collar
bone, you big ape. Thank you very much.”

Jesse stood.

Bret closed her eyes “Jesse, sit.”

Jesse did.

“You know
,
this surprises me.” Jeffers said with attitude as he tossed a tablet down to the small table that separated Jesse and Bret. “You spent eight years in the United States Marine Corp
s
,
so
you of all people should know and respect the importance of all this. We have a highly volatile situation that we must keep tight. This behavior doesn’t help. Of course you left the se
rvice, so you may have lost
respect a
nd importance.
…”

“Hey!” Jesse stood up again.

“Jesse!” Bret yelled. “Sit!”

Jesse roughly plopped down to the chair.

Smug, Bret said, “Jesse didn’t leave the service. He would have stayed. He had an asthma attack and was discharged.”

Jesse groaned. “Thank you, Bret, for telling him our business.”

“I can care less,” Jeffers said. “I’ll leave you with your wife for a few minutes. That’s it. Then she must leave.
We’re taking her somewhere else…that
…I will tell you. Enjoy your few minutes.” Jeffers opened the door. “And for God’s sake don’t touch her. All we need is you in quarantine.” He left.

Bret, seeing Jesse reach her way, inched her chair back. “Don’t.”

“Fine.”

“How are the kids?”

“They’re good. They miss you.”

“I miss them,” Bret said. “How are things i
n the neighborhood?
”

“What neighborhood.”

“What do you mean?” Bret asked.

Jesse shook his head. “The whole place is barren. There’s not a soul in town.”

“The whole city?”

“No, just our neighborhood.”

“They really evacuated you all.”

“Everyone. Ten thousand people. Where in the hell do you put ten thousand people?”

“Since you were there and I’m here, y
ou tell me.”

“They have our neighbors spread out all over the place. Gymnasiums. Hotels. You name it. We’re staying with your mom. I had to go buy new clothes for us all.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Stores were offering refugee discounts. Then you have the places that are giving away clothes for the kids. Can you believe this?”

Bret snickered. “Refugee? I’m gonna take it the news broke.”

Silence.

“Jesse?”

“Bret, sweetie, if the news broke would I be breaking in here to find you
,
and would Chuck be missing in action?”

Bret’s eyes widened. “Chuck is missing?”

Jesse rolled his eyes. “Jeffers knows where he is. He assured me Chuck was fine.”

“Jeffers asked me about him.” Bret shook her head. “So if the news didn’t break, how do the stores know to offer refugee discounts?”

“They saying there
was
a chemical leak. We were asked not to say anything until tomorrow. It’s al
most clear. We can go back. But…
they took all the furniture out of every house. Every stitch of clothing, anything that contains fabric. They burned it, Bret. It was an amazing
si
ght
. You could see it for miles.”

“What are we gonna do?”

He grumbled. “We can buy what we want or take what they give. Honestly, I’m taking what they gi
ve us until you come home, whenever that will be. Hey…the station called;
they need to know if they should get a sub for your show.”

“It’s Friday. I have until Sunday. I wanna come home.”

“I know.” Jesse said. “We miss you.”

“I miss you guys, too.”

Jesse paused, then: “How’s the food?”

Bret laughed. “Actually,
it’s not bad. Hey.
…” She softened her voice
. “Any word on Sally and Buster?
”

Jesse paused.

“Jesse? What’s wrong?”

“You…
you didn’t mention them because I mentioned food, did you?”

“
What? God, no. Why would I.
…” It hit her. “No. Jesse, tell me the ants didn’t eat them. Did they?”