Anthology of Ichor III: Gears of Damnation (19 page)

“
Hey, dad, can we go back into town today?” Alex asked, vaulting into bed beside the seductive blueberry pancakes. His eyes were wide with curiosity, and a crooked grin pulled at his lips. “Albert says there’s a book store with comics and everything!”

“
Is that a fact?” Adam tore his eyes from the tray just long enough to see the towering man nod.

“
If you like, I could take your son back into town while you go house hunting,” Albert offered. His voice was even, but a kind of wild excitement glistened behind his eyes.

“
That’s a kind idea, but I really couldn’t ask you to do that,” Adam said. “We’ve taken up enough of your time already.”

“
Oh, it’s really no problem,” Albert urged. “I was going to head back anyway, and if your son came along it would make the drive much less monotonous.”

Adam shook his head. “No, no. You needn’t do that. I—”

“
Please, dad?” Alex interrupted, crawling forward on his hands and knees. “I’ll be good, I promise. I don’t want to go and look at dumb old houses anyway.”

Adam took a long breath. “Alex, I don’t think—”

“
Please? With caramel apples and sugar on top?”

Adam frowned, and was about to resume his sentence, effectively crushing any hopes of going back into town, when he stopped.

Alex had been through a lot over the past few months, and he deserved to have a little fun. God knows it had been a while since he’d done that. With a deep breath, Adam sat up and conceded to his son’s wishes.

“
Okay, you can go with Mr. Albert,” he said. “Be sure to stay close, though. I don’t want you getting lost in one of those shops.”

“
Thanks, dad.” Alex smiled, hopping off the bed with the dexterity of a large toad. “You’re the best. I’ll be good. I promise.”

“
You better,” Adam murmured, greedily digging into the stack of blueberry pancakes. “If you’re not, I’ll have Mr. Albert tie you up and leave you in the basement.”

“
I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” Albert grinned. “Your son and I get along quite well.”

I know, Adam thought. But he didn’t say it. Partly because the words felt awkward in his mind, and partly because his mouth was stuffed with pancakes
. You’re the first person I’ve trusted since Saundra left.

“
Oh, and Adam?”

“
Yes?”

“
I know of a house outside of town that just became available. It’s not much. Three bedrooms and a small attic, but it would suit your needs.”

Adam nodded. He scooped up another chunk of blueberry with the tines of his fork, and then met the motel owner’s gaze. “Sounds good,” he said. “Where can I find it?”

“
1219 Willow Springs Drive. Trust me. It’s to die for.”

Chapter 13

“
What a bizarre little town,” Adam breathed as he drove down the empty stretch called Main Street. They might as well have called it
as Main As You’re Going To Get In Such A Little Ass Town Street
, but that was pretty long, so the town had probably decided to go with Main Street instead.

Clouds of black smoke billowed over the horizon, interrupted here and there by patches of crimson sky. Whatever that factory was expelling was sure doing a number on the environment. There were dead plants and insects all over the place. Once, he saw a mosquito the size of a dog. It was dead, of course, but he hated to think how much blood a creature like that would require. Most likely it had gorged itself on cows and local wildlife. Not humans. Humans were too intelligent to be caught by such a beast. Weren’t they?

Hanging a left on Willow Spring Drive, Adam maneuvered past several decrepit looking houses. All the windows were broken, and the front yards untrimmed. Either everyone was extremely lazy, or they’d all died in their sleep. Adam tried to laugh, but the second thought was far too morbid. He was beginning to regret not bringing Alex along with him. At least his son was someone to talk to. The utter silence was almost too much to bear. So he switched on the radio.

For a moment all he heard was static, then nothing at all. How was that possible?

Adam tried adjusting the radio dial. He remembered Albert saying the radio worked. Unless that had been an outright lie. And why would he lie to them? He had no reason. They were paying customers. Unless he had something far more sinister in mind.

Adam laughed. What was he thinking? All this solitude was starting to get to him. But at least he had an incredible view. That was something severely lacking in downtown Chicago.

Suddenly the radio belched to life, and Adam had to swerve to keep control of the vehicle.

“
Jesus Christ,” he shouted, fumbling to turn the damned thing off. Was it possible that all the pollution in the atmosphere was interfering with the radio waves? He didn’t know enough about that sort of thing to make an informed decision.

Luckily, he was nearing the end of his journey. The house he’d come to see was just up ahead, through a pall of smoke. He learned about it from Albert, who up until this point seemed to be the town’s only living inhabitant. It had sounded like a nice house: one story, three bedroom, two bath. Your archetypal farmhouse on ten acres of land.

Adam slowed when he reached the address. Smoke wafted back and forth over the road, lingering in his field of vision. The factory was closer than ever now. He could see its cone-shaped snout rising over a field of dead corn. It was eerie how the giant concrete menace seemed to loom over the town, spouting gout of toxic smog. He imagined that this must have been how Pompeii looked just before it erupted.

Adam pulled into the driveway, easing his puke-colored minivan to a stop before an archaic garage. He’d never liked the color of the minivan.
She
was the one who’d insisted on purple.
She
had said that gold was too soccer-mom-ish. Now
she
was driving around in a silver sports car. The thought made Adam hot with rage. But she was over nine hundred miles away. It was time to put the past in its place and move on.

Climbing onto the front porch, Adam was able to see the house in its entirety for the first time. It was older than he’d expected. Reams of moss hung from the gutters and wild vines clambered up the wooden siding, twisting around the support beams like tapeworms from hell. They were oddly colored and sported mean-looking thorns. Thorns that could pierce straight through a man’s hand.

“
Beautiful,” he muttered. It was a definite fixer-upper. However, it would pay itself off in a couple years, since land was so valuable and all. The only question was, did he really want to stay in this town for a couple years? There were plenty of perfectly normal towns in the surrounding vicinity that did not have a cloud of smog hanging overhead twenty-four hours a day.

Adam slipped inside the house. The front door stuck a bit when he entered, but it was nothing a new doorjamb couldn’t fix.

On the upside, the living room was fairly spacious. On the downside, it needed to be completely refinished. That meant new floorboards, new drywall, new insulation and new paint. First it needed to be covered in pesticides. There were roaches and spiders all over the place, plus some kind of large green insect he’d never seen before. One even appeared to have sixteen legs. How such a creature came to live in Stone Creek, Colorado, he’d never know.

“
Hello? My name is Adam Pritchard and I’ve come to look at the house,” he called. There was no response. His voice echoed into silence. “Is there anyone home? Hello?”

Adam shuffled down the hallway, peering through the murky half-light. He opened a heavy wooden door and stopped. Albert hadn’t said anything about a basement. Maybe that meant he was in the wrong house. But then no one seemed to be home, so it didn’t matter if he poked around a little bit.

Climbing down the slimy cement steps, Adam could have sworn he felt dust settling on his skin. There was dust everywhere. It was on the walls, on the ceiling, and floating in the air. Even the cobwebs were covered with dust.

Adam reached the bottom step and looked around for a light switch. There wasn’t one, but there was an old oil lamp sitting on a pile of boxes. He lit a match and applied it to the old wick. At first he didn’t think it would work, but then it caught on and flared to life, casting a dull orange glow across the basement walls.

“
Wow,” he muttered. There were stacks of shit all over the place. It looked like a pack-rat’s dream house. There were old writing desks here, broken windows there, and boxes of books everywhere between.

He bent over and picked up a particularly dusty tome. It was called
The Town That Forgot How to Breathe
. Creepy. But that wasn’t what made him jump with surprise. That wasn’t what made his hair stand on end and his knees quiver.

Over in the corner was a figure with wispy silver hair and duct tape over his mouth.

Adam scrambled across the basement, dodging little odds and ends along the way. The man appeared to be dead, but when Adam touched his shoulder, his eyes pulled open. They were huge and round, saturated with fear.

“
It’s okay, it’s okay,” Adam urged. “I’m here to help you. Are you hurt?”

The man didn’t respond. He was probably in shock. Dried blood covered his neck and arms, congealing over his bare chest. A broken camera sat in his lap.

God, he was completely naked.

Adam tore the duct tape off his lips as gently as possible. Who would do such a thing? Who would tie up an old man in a frigid basement, without so much as a coat to keep him warm? Even serial killers had more sympathy than that.

The man gasped, drawing a series of deep breaths between his blue lips. He was surprisingly thin. He probably hadn’t eaten for days, maybe even weeks. The ribs on his side bulged through his ashen skin, and his heart trembled against his chest. Suddenly Adam could see where the blood was coming from. There was a hole bored into the man’s side, held open by two strands of electrical tape, and several cockroaches crawled in and out of his exposed stomach. The sight made Adam gag with disgust. He could feel vomit lurch into his throat.

“
Oh my God,” he breathed. “You need a doctor. Can you walk?”

The man looked at him with uncomprehending eyes.

“
I have a car out front. If you can walk, I can drive you to the nearest hospital.”

“
No,” the man grimaced. “It’s too late. My time has come. You must… you must…”

“
Must what?”

“
You must leave without me. Quick. Before it’s too late.”

Adam shook his head. “No. I don’t understand. What will happen if I stay here?”

“
They’ll
find you,” the old man murmured. “They’ll find you… and they’ll do exactly what they did to the mayor.”

“
What? What did they do to the mayor?”

Adam was talking faster now. He didn’t know how much time the man had left. Already his eyes were fluttering shut, and his heart beat sporadically beneath his pale flesh.

“
They’ll… they’ll turn you into one of
them
. One of their experiments. They took the mayor because he knew too much… and they’ll take you, too, if you don’t leave.”

“
No. I’m not leaving you.”

“
You must, if you want to survive. Leave. Quickly.”

“
But my son… he’s still at the motel…”

“
What?” The man’s eyes suddenly became very large. “What did you just say?”

“
I left my son at the motel with a man named Albert.”

“
A man with no tie?”

“
Yes.”

“
Get back there as fast as you can. Before they take him to the factory. Before it’s too late…”

Adam’s mouth went dry. He didn’t know what to do. If the old man was right, and his son was in imminent danger, then he should leave right now. But he didn’t want to leave him all alone to die in this dingy basement. He had to do something, but before he could make up his mind the man’s lips fluttered open again and he screamed:

“
Go! Now! Save your son!”

Then his eyes grew glassy and distant. His heart stopped palpitating against his chest.

He was dead.

Chapter 14

Adam didn’t waste any time leaving the house. He vaulted up the stairs and tore out through the front door, jamming the keys into the ignition as fast as he could. He cut himself during his exit, but he couldn’t remember exactly how. His heart was beating so fast it sounded like a Gatling gun in his ears.

Suddenly he wished he’d never heard of Stone Creek, Colorado. He wished that he was back in his cozy Chicago flat, drinking cocoa and watching Alex do his homework. If anything happened to his son, he could never forgive himself. He would rather die in a putrid old basement than face the reality of his son’s demise.

Adam felt like a man with one foot in the grave. It was pulling him down slowly and painfully; first his legs, then his chest, and then his arms, even though they were scrambling to free him. Then his neck, until his whole body was submerged in cold, wet soil.