Hybrid Zone Revelation, page 6
No, I guess they didn’t. The only people they were allowed to get up close and personal with were me and Miranda, and that had more to do with us than the government’s orders. The doctors treating their parents were mostly middle aged. But they were forced to maintain a formal distance. The presence of the guards ensured that. No telling how old the guards were. They were covered head to toe. Not that it mattered. They were there to maintain order, not buddy up with the hybrids.
Their parents should have been middle aged.
Sighing at the guilt I still carried over that, I felt like I should formerly apologize for whatever part my presence had played in it. I knew their premature deaths weren’t my doing, but I probably could have done more to save them. I was working on it, but not fast enough. There is nothing like hindsight to point out where you should have gone and the chances you should have taken.
“I’m not looking for an apology, Doc,” Kenny said quietly, correctly reading me yet again. “We all make choices that we don’t know the outcomes of.”
“I just wish that I would have done more. Regardless of what the government wanted. I was working on a cure for your parents. If I had known—”
“But you didn’t,” he interrupted. “There’s a lot I didn’t know either. I would have done a lot of things different if I knew then what I know now.”
“Me, too,” I whispered. I would have chunked being afraid of the government and worked harder on a remedy for his parent’s generation. I would have done…like he said…a lot of things.
“We can’t go back,” he said. Shuffling his feet uncomfortably, he pulled them underneath the swing and sighed heavily. “I know it’s not all your fault. You’re just an easy target.” He smiled softly, not an expression I’d seen often on him. “Well, not so easy anymore.”
“Forward then?” I offered.
“Onward and upward,” he nodded. “You do know how to operate a parachute, right?”
“Don’t even joke about that,” I warned him. That was really where I drew the line.
As we waited in the silence that descended, I noticed that all of the Colony hybrids were on one side and the cadets on the other. It dawned on me that they’d all sort of been thrown together in the chaos that happened after Adam went missing.
“Have you guys been introduced to one another?” I asked them as a group.
“I don’t think so,” Reynolds said as he climbed the steps to the porch. “I’m Elijah Reynolds or ER.” He pointed at Flash who stepped forward. “That’s Flash, for obvious reasons I’m sure you’ll see sooner or later.”
Flash gave a quick wave to the group.
Pointing at the last cadet, Reynolds said, “That there is Smiley.” He waited until a huge smile spread across Smiley’s lips, transforming his entire face. “Also, for obvious reasons,” he chuckled.
Kenny didn’t get up when he started his introductions. I had the feeling it was intentional, though I didn’t understand the meaning behind it.
“Kenny,” he tipped his head.
A loud crash sounded from inside, causing all of us to stare at the door. What was she doing in there that was causing so much racket? Better yet, why wasn’t she opening the dang door and letting me in?
“Should we check on her?” Wrangle asked.
“I don’t think so,” I answered. “Unless you want a good walloping with whatever she happens to be holding in her hand. Wait until you hear her cooking.”
“Shouldn’t it be taste her cooking?” Kenny asked.
“Yeah, that too,” I agreed.
Taking his cue from Kenny, Wrangle stood up. “I’m Wrangle. Mom sort of had a thing for cowboys.” He shrugged and sat back down.
She did, too. Her apartment was like entering a country western store.
The next to introduce himself was Linc. “I’m Lincoln Cabrera. My friends call me Linc. Especially my lady friends,” he said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Oh, brother. “Keep it PG, please,” I complained softly.
Van leaned over and high fived Linc. “Van,” he said and then walked to stand next to the guy seated on the steps with his back to us. Gripping him roughly by the shoulder, Van jostled him as he spoke. “This here is the thinker of the bunch. He does so much thinking that we don’t even know what he’s talking about most of the time.”
“Shut up, Van,” Charlie huffed. Shaking off Van’s hand, he stood and faced the group. “Charlie,” he said and waved awkwardly.
“We’re missing one,” I said as I recounted the group.
“Here,” called a voice from behind me. He jogged around to the front of the porch and up the first few steps. “Name’s Jake, but people call me Scout.” He looked at Kenny and nodded.
“What’s that about?” I whispered to Kenny.
Before he could answer, Granny swung the door open. She had on the familiar apron and had lost the rolling pin. The curlers, however, were still in her hair. I stood and approached her cautiously.
“They with you?” she asked, tossing her head in the general direction of the others.
“Yes, ma’am,” I nodded.
“Come on in,” she said and left me standing there holding the door.
Looking back at everyone, I rolled my shoulders uneasily. “Welcome to Granny’s, boys.”
Chapter 4
Granny had positioned herself at the fireplace with her back to me. The picture she presented was in stark contrast to the firebrand I remembered. Her whole frame seemed smaller, like the problem she was nursing had sucked all the life out of her.
Making sure to keep my steps light, I joined her by the fire.
“I know’d something was wrong,” she said so softly that I almost missed it. Raising one hand to grip the mantle, she buried her face against her arm. “I been having the worst dreams.”
My heart skipped a beat at the mention of dreams. “About Adam?”
“He’s the only male leopard I know,” she nodded into her arm. “I’m not sure they’s only dreams. They seem so real.” Her eyes closed, squeezing so tightly shut that the pain she felt radiated across the lines it drew in her face.
“Granny—” I breathed, my voice trembling at the unspoken images her pain conjured. I closed my eyes and took a moment to steady myself before speaking again. For both our sakes, I thought it best to skip any further discussion of dreams. “Adam told me to find you. Do you know why he would do that?”
“What happened?” she asked bluntly.
Her question triggered the replay in my mind of following Adam’s scent and then finding what was left of him at the clinic. This was the truth, not some scene featured in a dream. I did not want to paint that picture for her.
“Macy girl,” she huffed at me with a glimpse of her former strength returning.
I had to tell her. She deserved to know. But I didn’t have to tell her everything.
Taking a deep breath, I plowed over the knot in my stomach and told her what I knew without adding the grizzly details. “He’s alive.” That’s the first thing she needed to know. “But he’s been taken. He’s hurt. Angry. I don’t know much more than that, other than he said to find you.”
She remained utterly still, so long in fact that I started to worry. Gently, I touched the arm hanging loosely at her side. “Granny?”
Her chest rose sharply as she breathed in, then fell as she exhaled in slow motion. And just like that the hesitant, uncertain—unrecognizable—Granny was gone.
“Adam made provision for all sorts of things.” Grunting loudly, she slapped the mantle with the hand that had previously gripped it. “I don’t remember the particulars,” she said as she straightened. “But I know’d where to find’em.” In one motion, she pushed off the mantle, whirled around, and began marching towards the back door.
The strength permeating each step as she moved away from me was something to be admired, a testament to the power of purpose. While I didn’t feel like a bastion of strength currently, I did have the same reason to move. Using that, I could match her stride for stride.
My pursuit of Granny was halted when Scout stepped in front of me. “The house is being watched,” he whispered.
“It is?” I baulked in surprise, then immediately felt like an idiot. Hadn’t I already suspected as much?
“I counted five in all,” he nodded.
“We got bugs, too,” Flash whispered. Holding his tablet up, he indicated the areas flashing red.
My gut twisted with the information they supplied. Had my rush to get to Granny led all of us into another ambush? I brought my hands slowly to my hips as I mulled the situation. We should have done recon. We—I should have approached this like a real operation. Like a real team leader would have done.
The slam of the screen door stunned me back into the present. Granny had gone on without me.
“Granny!” I called as I plowed into the door. I wasn’t about to let anything happen to her. Adam would be furious with me. I would be furious with me. And Granny would probably become a member of the undead just so she could beat me with the rolling pin for letting something happen to her. “Can we get something to eat?” I shouted at her. It was the first thing that came to mind.
She stopped mid stride, her shoulders bunching up around her ears. Slowly, she swiveled to face me. “You want to eat?” she asked, incredulous at my sudden and utterly unimportant demand.
I was a little confused myself, but I went with it. “Absolutely, we do,” I said while shaking my head no.
She stared hard at me as she tried to decipher the meaning behind my behavior. The only clue I offered her was the raising of my eyebrows in supplication. It didn’t even come close to me yelling, “Get your butt back in here before you get killed!” like I wanted to.
Exasperated, Granny gave up her attempt to read me and stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest. “Your arms broke?” she barked at me.
My face fell flat. Couldn’t she tell this wasn’t about cooking? And seriously, I was here one time, and now I was responsible for fixing my own meals? “Obviously, my arms are not broke,” I snapped back while waving them wildly at her. I could only imagine how this weird exchange was being interpreted by our unwanted viewers. “Unbelievable,” I muttered under my breath. Even from this distance, I could clearly make out the single eyebrow raised in defiance. It reminded me of Adam so much it hurt.
Granny froze. Dropping her hands to her hips, she lifted her nose and sniffed. “About how many need to eat, would ya say?”
What difference did that make—Oh. “Five?” I said hesitantly.
She pursed her lips and scanned the surrounding woods. Frowning, she sniffed the air again.
“Granny?” I called nervously.
The huff she issued sounded more like a challenge than acquiescence, but at least she was moving this way. Throwing her hands down, she stomped towards the house. The porch steps rattled with each foot she hammered into it.
“I smelled more,” she grunted as she drew even with me. “More and soon to be dead,” she added with a slow blooming smile that looked downright wicked.
“Oh, boy,” I breathed while easing the screen door shut behind us. Grasping the door knob, I closed the back door too. I knew it wouldn’t make any real difference, but it felt safer that way.
Flash and Smiley had already set to work on the electronic surveillance. Using Flash’s tablet and the laser pointer thing that Smiley held, they were methodically scanning the cabin. I did wonder where they were getting all these devices from, but not enough to ask.
“Are you sure about the number?” I asked Scout.
“Yeah, I’s sure,” Granny hollered at me, wrongly assuming that I was talking to her. “What are they doing?” she demanded, jerking a thumb in Flash’s direction.
“I think they’re getting rid of the bugs you’ve acquired,” I whispered.
“That what that buzzing is?” she barked at Flash.
“Yes, ma’am?” he replied timidly.
Granny rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. “For a while, I thought my nanos were going bad.” For emphasis, she stuck both fingers in her ears and wiggled them roughly.
Her behavior drew strange looks from the guys. At least she wasn’t making that hacking noise to scratch the back of her throat—oh wait, there it is.
“Flash, are we good in here?” I laughed.
“Living room’s clear,” he nodded. “Just don’t holler.”
“I’ll try to contain myself,” I smirked at him. “Granny, how long have your…uh…ears been buzzing?”
She made a show of wiping her hands on her apron, then screwed her face up as she thought about it. “A week ago Sunday. And, I’ll tell ya, Macy girl, I don’t like it none. Between the buzzing and the dreams last night, I was beginning to think I done gone plum crazy.” Suddenly, she fisted both hands in her apron and skewered me with her emerald gaze. “You mean to tell me, that someone’s been spying on me this whole time?”
“Probably,” I nodded.
The fabric caught in her grasp twisted as she wrung her hands on the apron. “Ain’t nobody got the right to invade my privacy.”
No argument from me. The violation I felt due to the Organization’s spying was still fresh.
“I ain’t smelled’em til now.”
They moved into position today. I guessed it had something to do with our presence or Adam’s capture.
“Now that y’all are here, I expect we’ll take care of’em?”
She had phrased it as a question, but her finishing glare daring me to contradict her left no room for argument. “Yes, ma’am,” I answered.
Satisfied with my response, she adjusted her apron, smoothing out the wrinkles her fists had caused. “Gonna take some fueling up to get ready.” Eyeing Flash and Smiley as they worked, she said, “Reckon cooking will disturb’em?”
From their position near the kitchen and without interrupting their work, they gave a simultaneous thumbs up.
“Yeah, I know’d I’d remembered those two,” she muttered. Then she clomped towards the kitchen, uttering, “Ain’t never full,” and, “Bottomless pits,” and other such comments regaling the eating habits of young men. Almost immediately, her unique symphony of banging pots and swearing began to fill the house. I suppose it shouldn’t have been comforting, but it was.
With Granny fully occupied, I approached Scout again. “Didn’t you tell me there were five?”
He nodded. “Two in a deer blind about ninety yards behind the house. Two hidden in a gulley ninety degrees from the deer blind, and one in a vehicle opposite him. We passed it as we came in.”
“You mean the camo painted van without a hint of dirt?” Reynolds asked.
“That’d be the one,” Scout snickered.
“Granny said there were more,” I told them.
“When I checked, there was only five,” Scout said. “Unless they’ve found a way to camouflage their smell…” He shook his head uncertainly.
Maybe Granny had miscounted. Either way, there were at least five people that shouldn’t be here. “Is there any reason to think these aren’t bad guys?”
“They smell funny,” Scout said and then shrugged. “Like at the Colony.”
Reynolds was already moving towards the front door when he said, “I’ll verify.”
“What are you thinking?” Kenny asked.
“How would the Consortium know about this place?” I didn’t think Granny’s existence was common knowledge, even at the Organization.
“What is the Consortium?” Kenny asked.
“The Consortium is responsible for what happened at the Colony. Or, most of it, anyway.”
“Why?” Kenny demanded. “What reason did they have for butchering us?”
“If I’m correct, they were after the nanobots. They want to introduce hybridom to the whole world in a forced participation sort of way.”
“What they did was not necessary for that,” he snarled in anger. “They didn’t have…” his words cut off abruptly. Swinging around, he laced his fingers behind his head and paced away from me as he struggled to gain control over his anger.
“I know,” I answered quietly. “I cannot account for the savagery.”
“Wait,” Wrangle said. “They want everyone to become hybrids?” The disbelief was evident on his face and in his voice.
“They might have succeeded,” I confessed.
Startled faces spun my direction, but before I could explain, Reynolds returned. “I think it’s them,” he said.
“You think?”
“It smells like them, and it doesn’t. But, mostly like them.”
A mutation maybe? Or some newly concocted breed. I could smell for myself, but it didn’t really matter. Anything that remotely smelled like the Consortium, I was designating as an enemy.
“What are we talking about?” Smiley asked as he rejoined the group.
“Furries,” Reynolds said.
“Furries,” Smiley repeated loudly. “Couldn’t have a party without them, could we?”
Looking from one cadet to the other, none of them seemed rattled by the identification. But the Colony hybrids were visibly nervous, excluding Kenny, of course. He looked ready to tear into someone. But that was nothing unusual.
“Furries?” Wrangle asked.
How much Adam had told the cadets before the start of this mission or what they were allowed to know by virtue of being part of the Organization, I didn’t know. It was clear the Colony hybrids knew nothing. As I was now the leader of this group, that was about to change.
