Wolf Asylum (29 page)

Things around town were strange. The leadership had disappeared and information was at a stand still. The towns' people remained clear of the forest but with no one to guide them, they were unsure what to do next.

No one wanted to say it but everyone was beginning to feel it. Life as they had come to know it felt as though it was drawing to a close.

Special Handling was still functioning as Clint Littleford was continuing to oversee daily operations. With inhabitants on the decline, Clint had instituted immediate rationing. Families in New Haven were now only permitted to make one withdraw for the entire month. Individuals were forced to take limbs only, and that too, was only once a month. The breeding program was still a good month away from producing food which highlighted another problem. Clint was beginning to see that food was declining faster than they could replenish it and that meant drastic measures would have to be taken.

He had seventy-five males in the breeding program and he realized that he could reduce that number to zero if he milked the men and froze the sperm. The men were getting a free ride of nine months with little involvement in the breeding process. Freeing up the seventy-five, even with the new restrictions in place, would feed New Haven for less than a month.

The writing was on the wall. Their appetite was larger than their food stores and Clint was secretly preparing for his own well-being. He was solely responsible for records of the detainees which gave him an opportunity to forge the books from time to time.

One prisoner died of natural causes, meat spoiled.

Ten prisoners crushed in a rock fall, meat lost.

Two prisoners died from cannibalism, meat consumed.

In all Clint had shuffled more than a hundred specimens from Sector A of the mine into a special area in Sector C he had secretly reopened. It was his private stash that even his own security personnel weren't aware of.

Elsewhere in New Haven, unease was building in all areas of life. There were no rumors of a food shortage. Every man, woman and child knew that New Haven was actively working on replenishing sources of food. The dirty little secret of the town that most everyone shared in was every resident was eating more than their fair share.

The New Haven bowling league had taken a trip to the neighboring county to shop for new shoes and bowling balls. The trip was the first out of New Haven since being blessed and being surrounded by so many humans became a distraction for them. On the drive home, literally drenched in sweat, the team captain suggested they find some food. No one argued, and everyone gave in. A short time later they came across two young boys on bikes and the rest was left to history.

Terri Bailey—Bonner—had been volunteering at the homeless shelter and even she had a hard time being honest with her fellow citizens. For every three shelter seekers that arrived, only two would make it to Special Handling. Clint would then siphon off one more for his personal stock pile.

Down at the Pump and Save gas station Billy Davenport and Big Mac were marking travelers for their own use. Single drivers paying cash were tagged and bagged after they would leave. Either Ron or Billy would chase the food down in the tow truck and get the driver to stop on an isolated part of the road. Once they had them stopped, they would go to lunch. Making the vehicles disappear was no hardship for these two. They'd take the car back to the shop and have it chopped up by day's end.

The story was being repeated all over New Haven. Selfishness was spreading like a disease.

* * * *

“Tara, why aren't you in the mayor's seat?” Slade asked as he puffed a plume of smoke from his nose like a dragon.

“I am in the mayor's seat,” she said, reclining in her old chair with a big grin.

“You know what I mean,” Slade said deep and serious. “You just let him push you out of your rightful role—why?”

“This may be hard for you to understand. I wasn't selected to be blessed,” Tara informed. “I lived in the mine with the others. Darwin made me as a matter of convenience. He needed me to convince the others that the situation was over so they would let us pass to the emergency exit. I would never have complied if he hadn't forced this life into me. He killed my children, why would I help him? He was smart though; he forced me to eat my husband no less. I couldn't control it and I didn't want to,” she told without emotion.

“Don't you hold any ill will towards him?” Slade asked.

“He got me out of the mine and he gave me a new life. Do I miss my children?” she asked, embarrassed to admit the answer. “All I think about is my next meal and how that will make me feel. When I eat, I don't think about my old life and I feel good. What I was, doesn't matter, Darwin can have the job.”

Slade crushed his smoke in a crystal dish on the desk before he sparked up his next stick. The room was already hazy from the continuous emission of carcinogens over the previous hour. Tara wasn't a smoker, but it reminded her of her grandfather and she welcomed the smell.

“What about you, Mister Slade?” she asked her smoking man who was sizing her up. “How do you see yourself fitting into New Haven?”

He sniggered with the smoke in his trademark spot. Feeling comfortable, he kicked off his shoes and placed his feet on the desk and leaned into the chair. “Tara, just call me D, would you please?”

“D, how mysterious!” she toyed.

“I don't see myself staying in New Haven for long. Long enough to see what happens at the gate and
Se Venire,
but that's about all. There's nothing for me here,” he concluded.

“You could have family here; you could have me, if you want me, that is?” Tara said coming on to Slade as obvious as she could.

“Tara, I would love to have you. I can't be with anyone. My touch, my blood, my seed, all of it's poisonous. I'd kill you without even trying to. I'll leave New Haven and keep looking for a new way to die. I've had enough of this world.”

“Dying should be easy, you don't want to die; can't we at least try to be together?” Tara entreated.

“My affliction is also my strength. Nothing that would kill you can kill me. Fire, that just hurts and silver just feels like any other metal. I've looked for more than a hundred years and I can't find a way to die. Believe me when I say, my life has been nothing but hell,” Slade averred, finishing his smoke and moving on to the next one.

“I wonder if we could find a way to cure you, make you human again?” Tara suggested.

With his new cigarette ablaze Slade smiled, “My little pup, if it were only that easy. Thank you for caring though, it's nice to have that even if it's only for a little while.”

“Could we fuck if you wrapped?” Tara tossed her innocent school girl routine and went into full-on seductress mode.

Slade's two hundred year confidence finally rattled. “I haven't been with a woman in more than a century,” he mused.

Tara bolted from her chair and came around to the other side of the desk and sat herself on Slade's lap, who seemed nervous but happy to have her. She quickly wiggled her butt with a grind, bringing the big Slade to life. Even through her clothes, she could feel he was hung and in need of attention.

“Tara,” he moaned, closing his eyes, unable to verbalize anything else.

Like a vampire starved for neck, Tara moved in and began licking his artery which made him purr. He was speechless and falling to her advances.

“I need you in me D. Give it to me!” Quickly she hopped off her man, grabbing his package firmly and pulling him in the direction of Darwin's private room. “Cum with me, I know where he keeps his stash of condoms. We can double wrap if you're worried.”

Slade smiled with a bit of drool running down his chin. He was primed and ready with a century of sexual tension brewing in his balls. He knew what a condom was but he'd never tried one. Being old meant a person had seen and done everything in life and new adventures were rare. For Slade, the idea of a condom was exciting. He had stayed away from them over the years because no matter how safe they were there was a chance of breakage. One too many exploding girlfriends during the 1800's made him shy away from sex entirely.

“Why does a werewolf have condoms?” Slade asked like a nervous teenager.

“Darwin's a prissy little fag, butt sex is dirty I guess,” Tara balked, now feeling moist and ready for action.

The two disappeared into the office bedroom and began to rewrite history by shaking Slade's foundation. The earth moved so heavily that the Power of One fell from the wall breaking the protective glass.

Doctor Gagnon and Teddy walked down to the padded rooms where she wanted to show him something that would help him grow as a person. When they arrived in the secluded part of the hospital, Teddy found a small, dirty man in a suit curled up in the corner of the cell.

“You've made such tremendous progress. Teddy I thought we start the day out on a lighter note,” she promised.

“Thank you Evita, I couldn't have done it without you. I owe everything to you.” Teddy partially believed this, now standing more or less upright with his limbs looking almost completely like his own. His musculature was still improving and the scars were still visible, but his mobility was almost pre-amputation days.

“I'm glad I cancelled the starvation tests with you. That would have been a waste, I think,” she said, now standing at the window to the padding room.

“Why did you change your mind?” Teddy asked.

“Because you changed yours,” she said simply. “You're Darwin's pet and I really didn't want to hurt you for long. I think you actually mean something to him. Anyway, I know what happens when we don't eat, so doing it to you really would have been a waste.”

“What happens?”

“The hunger you feel, it just never stops. It keeps growing until finally you give in,” she informed in an anticlimactic way.

“You starved yourself didn't, you?” Teddy asked, being perceptive enough to note the mood change in the doctor.

“I have…restrained myself from eating on a regular basis. The periods between feasts grow shorter and shorter. I tried to hold out, but I eventually wasn't able to concentrate on anything. All I could think about was the blood.”

“So, the only salvation is to never eat, once you do you're screwed?” he concluded.

“I don't think so, Teddy. I infected a boy and left him to see what would happen. He's been under camera and observation the whole time. He's changed from anger many times but just like the rest of us, all the traits and signs of withdrawal are present even in him. Although mild, I see a steady decline in him.” The doctor pulled out the Folger Adam key readying to open up the cell.

“He doesn't look like a boy?” Teddy commented.

“What?” she asked, momentarily confused. “No, not him. The kid is elsewhere. This is a gift for you!”

“Mine,” Teddy repeated with a pulse of nerves racing through his body.

“Yes. I thought you might like to change into something more comfortable and have a bite to eat,” she suggested.

“I've never killed anyone before,” Teddy said.

“Yes, it's unfortunate your donor died before you got to eat him. Now is your chance to chew on a beating heart, wouldn't you like that?”

Just the suggestion of it was making him grow warm as he looked at the small man through the window. It didn't matter who it was, there was only one underlying thought within him and that was murder and consumption. He marveled how quickly the power had polluted him. He said no inside but knew he would do it, not because the good doctor wanted him to, but because he wanted to.

With the lock snapped, the two entered the cell. Teddy was already beginning to grow fangs which he half-heartedly resisted growing. His nails were tingling with a slight itch and he knew his knives were soon to show their edges.

“Mister Kimbel this is my protégé, Teddy…”

“You're here to kill me, aren't you?” Kimbel demanded with his eyes trained on Teddy's growing claws and lengthening hands.

“I don't care for rude people Mister Kimbel!” The good doctor lectured. “It's entirely up to him whether you die. He may turn you, but I think he'll probably eat you.”

“Don't you think I'll be missed?” he asked in an attempt to give her a reason to spare his life.

Teddy inflated his chest and the buttons began to break away, bringing forward his thickening mat of hair. Growing more animal, Teddy hissed and snarled at his dinner, knowing he was ready to bust open the rib cage and begin gnawing on his life pump.

“Mister Kimbel, no one is ever missed. Your car was found days ago burnt to a crisp. Looked like you and Giddon were victims of foul play but the police are still investigating. All New Haven officials can say is, after a nice dinner with city staff the two Riverview officials left for home around ten o'clock. No one heard from them again. You see Mister Kimbel, when an entire town is keeping the secret because they have to…little problems like you tend to just go away; and if they don't, we infect the person investigating, and you can be sure that does make our problems go away.”

“So, turn me. I want to be like you!” Kimbel said in one last ditch effort as Teddy grew taller, shredding the last of his clothing with the exception of his underwear.”

“I told you, that is up to Teddy.”

“What do you say, Teddy? Have a nibble but let me turn?” Kimbel asked, with an anxious tremor.

Teddy's snout began to stretch outwards eliminating the possibility of a verbal answer to Kimbel's plea. In the coming minute he would be dead or he would forever be a werewolf. He found himself laughing at his situation. His laugh was enough to confuse both Evita Gagnon and wolf man Teddy.

“What's so funny?”

“Have you ever thought about how you might die?” Kimbel asked, not really wanting an answer. “Well, I just realized I never would have conceived this as a possibility—it's ridiculous. Pinch me, I must be dreaming! A man just changed into a werewolf in front of me! I've gone round the freaking bend!” He laughed hysterically and forcibly.

Teddy moved in and picked up the little man by the head and looked him in the eye. For a moment, Teddy exhaled mist onto the frenzied man who was lost in psychosis. Raising the body higher, the heart was now at eye level and inside his animal, Teddy knew he wouldn't be able to pull back.

With a quick flick of his free claw Teddy ripped open the shirt so he could watch the beating skin. His aggression had slashed Kimbel in three cuts that now bled across his chest.

“Oh, my, you might be one of us! If he stops, that is. What do you think will happen?” she tormented.

“I…” Was all he could get out from the throat that Teddy now firmly constricted.

Teddy opened his mouth and stretched his jaw as wide as it would go readying himself for the plunge to the ever beating heart. First he swept his tongue across the trio of cuts, picking up the blood that leaked from the wound. The infusion of blood amplified what he already felt.

“What will it be Teddy, life as one of us, or food? You must decide!” she demanded.

The sharp object burst through Doctor Gagnon's chest but she didn't seem all that surprised to see it. Blood steamed from the silver blade that now leaked thick wads of blood from its tip. It had pierced her heart and for a moment she felt normal again, the hunger was absent.

“I thought I heard someone,” she said almost comically as she collapsed to the floor and died.

Darwin removed his mother's good flatware from Doctor Gagnon's back and immediately turned his attention to Teddy. “Don't do it! You don't want this, Teddy! You saved me, now let me save you,” Darwin pleaded.

Teddy kept looking at Darwin who continued to hold the dagger in his hand. Remaining cool, Teddy loosened his grip on Kimbel's neck and lowered him, allowing his feet to scrape the floor. Teddy wasn't convinced. In his primitive mind, he saw Darwin holding a knife that he knew was danger and on the ground he saw a person he had been connecting with who was now dead. It was hard for him to fight the feelings but the words Darwin spoke made sense.

“Teddy, you helped me find change! Did you know that?” Darwin cried. “Watching you change from the big high school jock to the humbled and apologetic sympathizer…you have no idea how that affected me. I never in a million years would have thought you were capable of anything other than hatred and demonizing those with differences. I was wrong! You showed me that we can all change. You're a beautiful person, and it pains me to know you wanted to die. The world is a better place with you in it.”

Teddy's brow softened and he dropped Kimbel to the floor who began sucking in as much air as he could while pushing with his feet to move away from the unpredictable Teddy Holmes.

Sobbing openly Darwin continued his plea, “I'm sorry I did this to you. I turned you back into the bully. You had changed and I put you back the way you were. I made you like me! I'm the fucking bully now! I became everything I ever hated in you!”

“Darwin!” Steve shouted as he rounded the corner and came face to face with Teddy.

Teddy took one look at Steve and sauntered over slowly to the person he had long hoped he could finally see again. Teddy leaned in and rubbed his snout along Steve's soft cheek. A minute later, Steve was holding on to the steaming body of his former bully who was now bawling. Steve held him, caressing his head but saying nothing.

Years of guilt came rushing out in a torrent of pain that could only be expelled through his eyes. Teddy choked and gasped but refused to let go of Steve until he was able to finally say the words that he had thought he would never be able to say. “I…I…I'mmm…soor…sorry,” he said.

“I know,” Steve replied. “I forgive you.”

“I don't…des…des…deserve it!” Teddy spat out.

“You have to forgive yourself, because until you do, you'll never be free.” Steve continued to run his fingers through Teddy's hair, trying to sooth him.

“Mister Kimbel, I'm sorry you had to see this,” Darwin said, attempting to resume his role as leader.

“I'm like you now! See, my wounds are healing!” Kimbel pointed to the faint scars left on his skin.

“How does it feel?” Darwin asked, moving closer to Kimbel.

“I think I can feel it already!”

“Can you feel this?” Darwin asked as he rammed the dagger into Kimbel's chest, bringing an end to his transformation. Kimbel looked at Darwin's hand which clutched the dagger. He let out a small sigh and closed his eyes before Darwin lowered him to the cell floor.

“Too many werewolves already.”

“Lieutenant Dan, you got new legs!” Darwin said in his best
Forrest Gump
accent possible, trying to make light of the moment.

He chuckled and wiped his eyes. “Yeah,” he said. “She allowed me to walk again. Despite all the horrible things she did, I think I will miss her. Why did you kill her?”

“We have to kill everyone,” Darwin replied with a look on his face that would re-define the meaning of serious.