Hunger: The Complete Trilogy, page 63
The Apex was quick, but it was too large to maneuver the tunnels like Feesa. She scrambled from wall to wall, lunging closer with each step. But the beast knew the tunnel network better. When she leapt for its neck, arching up over its spines, the creature took a sudden right turn.
Feesa missed her mark and crashed into a wall, which buckled from her weight. She grunted, got back to her feet, and continued the chase.
“Let go,” she howled. “Of my nephew!”
She doubled her efforts, closing the distance again. This time, the creature slid, dragging Jakob behind it, and it slipped through a hole already torn out of the wall. She dove after it, emerged on the far side in a bedroom, and spun as she sprang upward, searching for a target that any one of her limbs could claw at.
What she found was a large femur, crashing into her face with enough force to flip her backward twice before she struck the floor.
Through blurry vision, she could only watch as Jakob was tossed to the side. Was he unconscious? Was he dead?
Rage demanded she get up and fight, but vertigo kept her rooted to the ground. She swiped at the creature twice but missed. It didn’t even have to dodge.
It stood over her, rotating around her, over and over, licking its lips, two bulbous eyes looking her up and down. Then, with a gravelly voice, it said, “Big bones,” and the creature sucked in a deep breath.
It’s going to explode me, she thought. And then Jakob.
She cinched her eyes shut, tried to center herself, imagined where the Apex really was standing, and swiped her claws in as broad an arc as she could.
She missed and toppled onto her back.
Eyes open again, she watched, helpless now as the monster stood over her, its body expanding with pressurized air, its needle-like snout lowering toward her gut.
“No,” she said, reaching up, trying to grasp hold of the needle—and missing.
The monster chuckled and stabbed downward.
Feesa closed her eyes, expecting her last moment to be a blaze of pain as her flesh burst away from her bones.
But it was just…warm, wet, and painless.
She opened her eyes to find the Apex above her, frozen in place, its needle nose just inches from her belly. It had grown a second appendage, this one white and extending from its mouth.
She blinked, focusing her vision, and she finally understood what had happened. A jagged bone protruded out of the creature’s mouth. A small fountain of blood rolled over the bone, drizzling onto her waist. She leaned to the side and found Jakob standing over the beast, holding the bone piercing the Apex’s neck and spine. He was covered in scrapes and blood, teeth grinding in anger, arms shaking.
Then he said, “Little help?”
Feesa put her hands on the Apex’s shoulders and shoved it away. When she sat up, she found they were in a room filled with a variety of bones, human and not, all of them clean and hollow.
“Thank you,” Jakob said.
She rolled backward, onto her feet. “You no tell about saving Feesa, Feesa no tell about excited penis.”
Jakob let his shoulders sag and then shake as he laughed. “Don’t use that word, please.”
“Anne uses all the time.”
“Just…” Jakob extended his hand. “Deal.”
Feesa shook his hand and asked. “I hear Ella use other words for penis when talking to Peter late at night. They whisper, but I can hear.”
“No. Please, God. No. Just… private parts. How about that? Now let’s get back to our gear and cover ours—” Jakob paused, looking down at the ExoGenetic corpse. Everything about it was a nightmare, but there was one small part that stood out.
A chain. Around its neck. Jakob crouched down and pulled at the chain. At the end, was a card. He plucked it from the monster’s neck, turned it over, and looked at the face on the other side. “This is an ExoGen keycard… This guy worked for them. And this…” He waggled the card. “…could let us access the lab.”
Feesa thought she understood but was still curious about one thing. “Who was he? What his name?”
Jakob looked at the card again and read the name aloud. “Doctor Jeffery Sexton.”
20
Peter paced, radio in hand, waiting for his son’s voice to come back over the radio. It had been twenty minutes since he delivered the warning about the approaching Apex. Twenty minutes. It was too long.
Something must have gone wrong.
“C’mon, Jake,” Peter said.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Lyn said. “He and Feesa are a formidable pair.”
She wasn’t wrong. Jakob knew how to handle himself, and Feesa...well, she was practically an Apex herself. But the creature was intelligent. Knew the building’s layout. And the way it killed? Peter squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself to stop seeing visions of Jakob’s body bursting. Of the monster sucking the marrow from his son’s bones.
“Have some elderberries,” Lyn said. “They’ll distract you.”
“She’s right,” Ella said, seated across the kitchen table from Lyn. They both had small plates of foraged food. “You need to eat. Need your strength…no matter what has happened.”
“Jake’s fine,” Anne said. She was in the living room, seated on the back of a couch, munching on a thick corn cob—her favorite ExoGenetic crop. She was mesmerized by a large painting of a naked woman. “If he’d died, I would have felt it. Because we’re siblings. That’s a thing right, feeling when a brother or sister has died?”
“You’re thinking of twins,” Lyn said.
Anne shrugged. “Still think I’d feel it.”
“Dad?”
Peter nearly dropped the radio at the sound of Jakob’s voice.
“Here. You okay?”
“A little scratched up, but we’re both fine…”
In the background, he heard Feesa say, “Feesa better than fine.”
He didn’t know what that meant, but they both sounded relaxed, which meant the danger had passed.
Anne hopped off the couch and approached Peter. “You see? They’re fine.” Then she pushed the radio’s call button. “How did she do it?”
“Do what?” Jakob asked.
“Kill the Apex? How did Feesa kill it?” Seeing Peter’s incredulous glance, she added, “What? You don’t want to know? That thing was gnarly.”
“Actually,” Jakob said. “I killed it. With a sharp bone. In the back of the neck, out the head.”
“Nice!” Anne said. “Our little man is growing up.”
“Also,” Jakob said, “I think he worked for ExoGen.”
Peter noticed how quickly Jakob changed the subject from the story of the Apex’s death. Anne and Jakob normally took their time detailing their exploits. They were both natural storytellers and were prone to big-fishing their retellings. Jakob brushing over the fact that he’d killed the Exo was out of character. There were details he wasn’t sharing, but that could wait. He was alive. And safe. That was what mattered.
Ella perked up. “What did he just say?”
“The Apex was a man who might have worked for ExoGen.” Anne said.
“How does he know that?”
Anne took the radio from Peter’s hand and asked. “How do you know that?”
“It had a keycard around its neck,” Jakob said.
Ella snapped her fingers at Anne, which was her way of asking for the radio. She held out her hand until Anne delivered the device.
“Jakob, is it a photo ID card, or just a keycard?”
“Photo ID.”
“What was his name?” she asked.
“Doctor Jeffery Sexton.”
Anne chuckled. “Sex Ton. Good name for a pervy guy.”
Ella’s brow furrowed, shaking her head. Anne plucked the radio from her mother’s hand and walked away with it. “All right, Jakey-boy, spill. I want all the deets.”
Peter focused on Ella. “That name mean something to you?”
She didn’t hear him.
“Ella. You know who this Sexton guy is?”
“He was part of my original team,” she said. “I lost track of him during the change. Assumed he was dead. But if he was here…”
“The Boston lab has been active all this time,” Lyn said.
“We won’t be entering an empty facility,” Ella said. “They’ll have security.”
“If they haven’t been overrun,” Peter said. “For all we know, the bones in this building could be his coworkers.”
Ella’s expression soured. As did Lyn’s. Most people working for ExoGen didn’t know the company’s true intentions. Not many people fully understood their endgame. Not even Ella. Sexton, on the other hand, clearly had a nefarious private life before the end of the world.
Peter had heard enough. He didn’t need to know any more about Sexton or the Boston lab. It would all be memory and speculation. What he needed were facts, and the only people who could provide those were Feesa and Jakob. He looked for Anne, but she was gone.
He listened for a moment.
Her voice was hushed, but her half volume matched most people’s full volume. She was in one of the bedrooms. Door closed.
Peter approached the door and slowed. Jakob had been cagey with the details. He’d obviously done something foolish and didn’t want Peter to be upset with him. But he might tell his sister.
Mistake or not, Jakob had really proved himself today. Killed an Apex by hand that he and Anne had failed to kill with guns. That was what Peter would focus on. Victories mattered more than mistakes. And Jakob clearly knew what he’d done wrong. Life in the wild taught poignant lessons.
“Yeah,” Anne said, her voice muffled. “I’m telling you, she’s sick.”
Peter paused by the door, listening.
“No, not like a cold or anything. Those aren’t really a thing anymore. Not enough people. I mean like sick, sick. Cancer sick. All the signs are there.”
There was a pause and then she said, “I know I’m not a doctor, dummy. But I just know these things. Just like Mom. I bet she knows, too.”
Peter’s stomach twisted. Was she talking about Ella?
Did Ella have cancer?
“How long?” Anne said. “Well, even a real doctor wouldn’t know that without running tests. But she’ll probably die in a few months. At the most. And there’s no way she doesn’t know it. She’s tired all the time. Her skin is turning yellow. She’s not stupid, you know. The question is…would she rather die or become an Apex. Because, you know, ExoGenetic-modified cells don’t just adapt to external factors, they also adapt to internal factors.”
A pause, and then, “Yes, factors is a real term. I don’t just make things up. Anyway, that’s what’s on my mind. Now dish, what really happened up there?”
Peter leaned closer to the door, but Jakob’s voice was impossible to hear.
All he could make out was Anne’s responses to Jakob’s story.
“A shower? Oh, you lucky asshole. Wait. Hold on. You were in the shower before this? Were you—” She laughed. “Were you naked? You were, weren’t you?” Another laugh. “Oh, my god. You killed it…with no clothes on? Are you serious? Okay, that is impressive. Bonus points.
“What’s Feesa talking about? Her hair or something?
“No, not later. I want to know now.
“Oh, come on.” She sighed. “Fine.”
Peter knocked on the door.
“Hold on,” Anne said, disappointed in how the conversation was ending. “Dad found me. Shocker.”
A moment later, the door opened, and Anne held the radio out to him. “Here. I’m lying down.” She closed the door in his face.
“Jakob?” Peter said into the radio.
“Here.”
“You still on task?”
“Starting back up the elevator the moment we’re done talking. Should be topside in ten minutes. Then we’ll spend a few hours checking things out and be back inside before dark. This place is great, though, right? Okay if we stay in up here tonight? These apartments are nice.”
“If there is any sign of immediate danger, you—”
“I know,” he said. “We’ll come right back. Obviously. How about you guys stop the next Apex from coming up?”
Peter smiled. Jakob didn’t rib him often. That he was, meant that the victory over the Apex had boosted his self-esteem, which was good. Believing you’re capable is usually the first step to being capable. Same with anything else. Glass half full people usually achieved more than glass half empty, simply because they believed challenges were surmountable, rather than doom. “Will do. Once you get topside, check in every thirty minutes.”
“Copy that,” Jakob said. “And Dad, thanks…for teaching me how to fight. Would have been dead without you, even if you weren’t here.”
“You got it,” Peter said, feeling both proud of his son, and guilty for not training him more. He’d been putting most of his effort into Anne because she was a natural. But Jakob had proven himself a warrior.
“Out,” Jakob said, and static followed.
Peter lowered the radio and joined the others at the table. He sat down for a meal of fungi and weeds while his son was carried up an elevator shaft, risking his life for the rest of them. Peter had never felt so proud, and he hoped he wouldn’t have the chance to again for a very long time.
21
“This work?” Jakob asked, holding up a dark red T-shirt with a yellow Nirvana logo on the front.
Feesa took the shirt, scowling. “I do not wear clothes.”
“You do now,” Jakob said, opening another drawer, looking for something that would fit a shapely woman. The apartment had women’s clothing, but it was all far too small. The man’s clothing was larger, but—
“How this?” Feesa asked.
Jakob glanced back. Feesa had put the shirt on despite her protest. It was skintight and left little to the imagination. “Better.”
He looked away quickly and was glad he’d already put his clothes back on. Last thing he needed was to broadcast how the tight shirt made him feel. It was actually a little more distracting than when she’d been wearing nothing. And…she had no clothing on from the waist down.
“But I no like clothes,” Feesa said. “Clothes are stupid.”
“Clothes keep you warm when you don’t have fur.”
“It already hot outside,” she said.
She wasn’t wrong. It was late in the summer, but the heat wasn’t giving up the fight. If not for the skyscraper’s windows being both tinted and mirrored on one side, they’d be roasting inside the building.
“Look, you just…you need to cover up.” He waved his hand at her body. “Because, you know. It’s distracting to see people with no clothes on.”
“It’s normal for Riders.”
“It’s not normal for people.”
Feesa frowned. “That why Feesa wears clothes now? Is Feesa…people?”
Jakob didn’t know how to respond. Feesa had been a monster. For a time, she’d been all monster. A tribal creature. Savage and raw. Then she became family. A monster still, but an ally. And now…she was more than that. But had she ever been less? Had he been wrong to ever think of her as a monster?
“Yes,” Jakob said, holding up a pair of black cargo shorts. “You are people. And people, wear clothing.”
“Because boobs are distracting?” she asked, pressing her chest together with her arms.
Jakob’s teenage mind took a mental snapshot in the fraction of a second it took him to look away. “God. Yes.” The T-shirt wasn’t going to be enough. He moved to the closet, ignoring Feesa while she fought with shorts. She might not remember clothing, but her muscle memory knew how to get dressed. He rifled through hung pants and shirts, landing on a light orange, red, and yellow plaid shirt that looked unworn. He checked the size. Triple extra-large. That was why it hadn’t been worn. It was far too big for the man that once lived here. He plucked it off the hanger and tossed it back to Feesa. “Here. Put that on, too.”
“Two shirts?” she grumbled.
“Please,” he said.
Jakob pretended to keep looking through the closet while she finished dressing. For a moment, life felt normal, like it had never changed. It was just him, in a closet, looking through clothing that could have been his father’s once upon a time.
“Am ready,” Feesa said. “How look?”
Jakob turned around and grinned. Feesa looked good. And not an in overwhelmingly sexual way. Anne would say it was a good ‘ensem.’ A little 90’s grunge, but it worked on Feesa. The shorts and shirt were snug, and the plaid shirt hung loose and open.
Jakob smiled and motioned to the mirror mounted on the inside of the closet door. “See for yourself.”
Feesa’s face lit up. She turned side-to-side. “Feesa looks like…not Feesa.”
Jakob was confused. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
Her smile faded. “I not sure. I…confused.”
“By what?” he asked. “I think you look great.”
She sat on the bed. “Feesa looks like Valerie.”
“Who is Valerie?”
“I is Valerie. Ella told me no worry about who was. Only worry about who am. She say I can be who I want to be. But I not know now.” She pointed to the mirror. “That not Feesa.”
Jakob looked at her reflection in the mirror. She still towered over him and was built like a wrestling champion, but she was right. Feesa was an Exo. The woman in the mirror was different, but…a woman. And very pretty, with prominent cheek bones and big brown eyes.
He wasn’t sure when Ella and Feesa had talked about this, but it was definitely before all Feesa’s hair fell out. “I think Ella was right. You can be who you want to be. But…do you remember who Valerie was?”
“Some… Valerie was singer.” She closed her eyes. “I love sing but is hard now. Because voice. Because thoughts, and words, are hard.”
