The Zen Gene (12 page)

She pulled him non-stop for half a block and turned down a narrow lane pulling him into the rear parking lot of an abandoned machinery factory. Thank God it’s dark, she thought. When she stopped she fell to the ground exhausted. It was adrenaline that drove her forward but now that they had cover she collapsed to the ground beside Nichol. Her hearing was affected and she was in severe pain and stunned by the effects of the blast. She controlled her breathing and concentrated. She was trying to listen for the sound of approaching sirens. She knew the next few minutes would be critical to resolving their situation and she needed to start working on a plan.

She heard a siren but she could not estimate how far away it was or determine from which direction. Her hearing had been damaged from the compression of the air during the blast. Partly because there was no real alternative she decided it was best to hunker down and wait it out. She was rapidly recovering from the worst effects of the explosion but she had to consider her judgment might be impaired.

Her concern now was how long she could wait before she needed to seek medical care for Nichol. She could see he was beginning to come round because she could see his lips moving as if he was trying to say something but she could not hear him.

She needed to start planning a way to get them both out of the immediate area. She could explain the van later by reporting it stolen. She could not allow the local authorities to find her and Nichol wearing Government-issued biohazard suits outside a building where a body will eventually be discovered.

That damning combination of facts would be tough to explain to the local police. She tried to remember if she closed the fire door at the factory before the blast. If she did not maybe the explosion slammed it shut. She checked Nichol over for damage and through the shredded biohazard suit she saw lots of small cuts and pieces of debris embedded in the skin of his back but no big bleeders. He appeared to be relatively okay though groggy and disoriented and likely concussed.

She was fairly certain the materials in the cardboard box she was carrying from the lab would not mean much to the police and it was likely blown all over the place. She had no doubt at all the contents of the van were destroyed in the blast but she worried the kid’s computer hard drive might have survived.

The spot where it sat on the ground was way too hot for her to try to retrieve it. It was not much of a decision to leave it and run. She thought about having dragged Nichol away from the scene and was amazed by what the human body can do when adrenaline kicks in but now she was in a lot of pain as a result.

They were safe enough for the moment behind a small building that once was a supply shed of some kind. There were more sounds coming from the vicinity of where the van blew up. Either her hearing was clearer or there were a lot of Emergency vehicles arriving she could not tell which. She was beginning to relax a little when she heard the sound of a car engine approaching where they were hiding.

Not That Kind of Doctor

8:10 PM

Tyler came in through the back door and when it slammed they all jumped. Andi ran to him, “Where were you? I thought you were in your room.” she said. She looked him over and saw his torn clothes and the road rash on his arms and hands. He smelled of smoke and gasoline and she noticed his hair was singed at the back. “What happened to you?” she said.

He ignored her questions as he looked at each of them in turn his gaze stopping at Mann.

“Someone is hurt,” he said.

“Who’s hurt?” Andi said. “Was it the explosion we heard?”

“Someone is hurt,” he said to Mann, “bad.”

“I’ll call an ambulance,” Andi said.

Her voice rose in pitch and took on an edge of panic as she spoke. She was increasingly alarmed by what was happening but when she stepped to the phone Tyler grabbed it first and stopped her.

“No. Dr. Mann will help,” he said.

“What do you mean, no?” she said. “You said someone is hurt. Lee is not that kind of Doctor.”

“Dr. Mann will help,” he said turning away from her heading back to the door. She ran over to him and grabbed his arm and turned him to face her. They were about the same height but he was wider and heavier.

”You aren’t going anywhere until you tell me what is going on,” she said.

He ignored her protests and gently peeled her hand from his arm. He turned and faced her looking directly into her eyes and kept them locked on hers, something he rarely did and the directness of his gaze caught her off guard.

”Andrea will sit down,” he said pointing to the chair where she usually sat and she reacted like he slapped her face. He never spoke to her this way and she was shocked and a bit afraid of him. It took her some moments to recover and then she tried to reason with him but he simply stared at her and pointed his finger at the chair. His meaning was clear: sit down.

“I think I should go and see what this is about,” Mann said getting up and putting on his coat. “I won’t let anything happen to him. You and Zen wait here and don’t worry. We’ll be right back,” he said.

Before Andi had a chance to recover from the shock they were out the door and sitting in his rental car. “Where to?” he said.

Tyler said nothing, he pointed in the direction he wanted him to drive, and then he turned his attention to the car radio. He scanned up and down the frequencies and settled on a station that was playing a type of music he could not readily identify.

With pointed directions and a few grunts Tyler led them to an industrial area of the city. He motioned for him to slow down and then he pointed to a narrow lane and directed him to drive around to the back of the building. It was a short concrete lane with grass growing up through the slab joints which led to the employee parking lot at the rear of a large factory that was no longer in business.

The rear parking lot appeared empty but he told him to stop the car and turn off the motor. They were beside a weathered wooden storage shed up against the railway tracks at the back of the lot. Tyler jumped out before the car completely stopped and he watched the boy run across a single set of railway tracks to the rear of an adjacent building which faced onto a different street.

It took Tyler less than a minute to locate them. He knew they could not have gone far. He found them lying low amongst the broom behind a low concrete wall.

Hurt and Hiding

8:20 PM

Hunter was holding her breath partly from the pain but mostly to hear what was happening around them. She hoped Nichol would not pick this moment to start moaning. She did not want to clamp her hand over his mouth but she would if necessary. They did not have great cover but she could not move him again. There was no way she could drag Nichol another centimeters. Listening hard she tried to figure out which direction the vehicle was coming from. She knew it was nearby but that was all. Her heart rate spiked when she heard the engine shut off and a door slam.

She was already in damage-control mode trying to anticipate what would happen next and she was about to toss her unregistered and illegal weapon into the weeds. She was reaching to unclip her gun when the kid stuck his head over the top of the wall and scared the shit out of her. When she saw him she reflexively jerked backwards and the sudden movement sent a searing jolt of pain through her rib cage and her vision grew ugly black spots and she came close to passing out.

When her vision cleared and the pain subsided she looked up and he was standing there looking at her. He wore an expression on his face which was impossible to read. She did not know what to make of this weird kid showing up again. She didn’t know if he now had a weapon and came back to seek revenge for them taking down his lab or if he was going to help them. Whatever else he was the kid was hard to read and definitely way out there.

She didn’t take out her weapon because, in spite of everything that happened, the kid did not feel like he posed a threat to them. She could see by his face he was thinking about something and then he thrust his open hand out and said. “Come wiss me if you vant to live.”

She could not stop herself from laughing and it hurt like hell. Her eyes did not leave his face and she noticed when he said the line from Terminator he never cracked a smile. It was like he believed the words he said. The pain, the situation, and the weird kid all combined to make her feel disconnected from reality and slightly giddy.

She could smell the creosote from the railway ties and the acrid smell of urine on Nichol’s clothing and the colours around her seemed to intensify as the unreality of the day kept unfolding. It was like being in a weird non-plot surrealist movie. Her head was pounding from the blast pressure and she briefly wondered if she sustained a head injury and was imagining this whole thing.

She figured she had a broken rib from the fall and judging by the pain there could be more damage. Pain, she realized, was a handy way to gauge the truth or substance of reality. She was trying to think of something to say to the kid when Dr. Mann stuck his head over the top of the wall and said, ”Patricia, what a nice surprise.”

Mann examined Nichol and he did not like what he saw. Tyler was right he was badly hurt and fading in and out of consciousness. It took a lot of effort but he and Tyler managed to drag Nichol over the tracks to the car and lift him onto the back seat. He could not imagine how Hunter dragged a man this size as far as she did. When they tucked Nichol’s legs in and let go of his torso the orientation of his head shifted and his eyes popped open and swiveled around alarmingly before he vomited all over the rear seat of the car. Tyler thought it was funny and laughed loudly and he shushed him to be quiet.

The area was overrun with police and fire fighters and he did not want to attract any attention. He went back over the wall and gently helped Hunter to her feet. He let her stand unaided and watched her for a moment but she looked like she was going to pass out and he supported her as they walked to the car.

“I’m okay,” she said.

Her words were grunted through clenched teeth which adequately portrayed to him the amount of pain she was experiencing and the fact she was definitely not okay. There was no room in the back and he asked Tyler to get into the car first and put Hunter on his lap but he flatly refused to do it.

Mann had to let go of her to adjust the car seat back as far as it would go. While he tried to talk Tyler into holding her she fainted and Tyler instinctively caught her before she fell to the ground.

From there it was easier to convince him since he was already holding her he should drag her in on top of him in the front seat. He helped him pull her dead weight onto his lap and he could see having her on him made him uncomfortable. While they were driving Hunter regained consciousness and began to move around and Tyler squirmed beneath her trying to limit contact. For a while he was worried the boy would open the car door and toss her out. When she regained full consciousness she hugged her chest trying to minimize the amount of movement she had to endure from the road they were traveling on.

“Your friend needs immediate medical attention and so do you,” he said, “how do you want to play this?”

“We can’t go back to the base because of the van and we can’t show up at the Emergency room in this bio-gear,” she said. Her words were puffed out of her mouth through tight jaw muscles in short sharp breaths.

“I have a change of clothes at the motel. They should fit him.” he said gesturing over his shoulder at Nichol who was out cold in the back seat. “What are you wearing underneath?” he asked.

“Underwear,” she said.

He drove them out of the area being careful to avoid the street with the burned out van. There were firefighters working at putting out the grass fires from the explosion. He took out his cellphone and called Andi. He assured her over and over again they were both fine.

When she slowed down on the questions he asked her to bring a pair of her jeans and a top to his motel room and a first aid kit. This prompted more questions but he lied and told her there was a police car up ahead and he needed to hang up. His room at the Thunder Bird Inn was at the back of the motel well away from the road. He was glad they had some cover from prying eyes as he and Tyler awkwardly dragged Nichol out of the car and into the motel room. He was surprised when Tyler went back out to the car and picked up Hunter and carried her in.

The motel room was adequate for one person but it quickly got small with four people. Tyler helped Hunter to sit on a chair at the table and he held her shoulders until he was sure she was stable and not going to fall over. Then he grabbed the remote control and lay down on the bed beside Nichol and began to channel surf.

Mann pulled the privacy curtains closed and sat down in the chair across from Hunter.

He saw her swaying as she sat trying to maintain her balance as she faded in and out. They did not talk much and Andi and Zen showed up ten minutes later. They were both shocked by what they saw when they entered the room and he expected a few tense moments when Andi arrived. He was worried she would react badly because these were the people who threatened her son. It was obvious they were no longer a threat to anyone and he was relieved when he saw her smile at Hunter, it meant she decided to help them.

Andi helped him walk Hunter into the small bathroom and sit her on the toilet. When they were all crowded into the bathroom Andi said to the woman “I’m Tyler’s mom Andrea.” It seemed oddly formal given she was undressing her at the time.

“Patricia Hunter,” she said. She shook Andi’s hand and winced painfully from the effort. He helped Andi gently peel the bio-gear off her and then he left the tiny bathroom while Andi taped her ribs.

He started checking Nichol over, first removing the mask and breathing gear still hung around his neck. By the time Hunter walked out of the bathroom unassisted he’d helped Nichol to sit upright on the edge of the bed and he steadied him as the injured man slowly gathered his wits. Andi came out and she began to carefully peel off his bio-suit as Nichol more or less regained consciousness. He was able to help them by following simple instructions like lifting his arms. Andi needed to cut some of the suit away to get it off and when she examined his wounds she decided there would be better light in the bathroom with which to dig out the pieces of shrapnel and debris from his back. He helped her get Nichol to stand and they guided him unsteadily into the bathroom.

They got him seated on the toilet leaning forward with his arms on the tank and one shoulder against the wall for support. Andi opened her first aid kit and took out bandage scissors and efficiently cut off the remains of his T-shirt which had been shredded by the blast. When he saw that Andi had things under control and no longer needed his help he went out to help Hunter get dressed. He opened the paper bag of clothing Andi brought for her to wear.

She could not move her arms very much because of the pain from her ribs. She was shivering in her underwear sitting on a chair with her chest half wrapped with a tensor bandage. He took the clothes out and helped her to slip into the jeans and T-shirt Andi provided for her. The clothing was too big for her but that was good because tight clothes would have been painful to put on. When he was finished dressing her he helped her sit down again in the chair.

Zen was lying on the bed beside Tyler and they were watching television. He noted that Tyler did not look at Hunter when she was in her underwear; she is an attractive young woman and he could not believe a teenage boy would miss that opportunity. He noticed that Zen took a look but not Tyler.

“Tyler, could you turn to a news channel for a minute,” Hunter said. Her whispered words were panted in short sharp breaths. “I want to see what they are saying about the explosion.”

Tyler did not acknowledge her request but he did grab the remote and flip channels until he found a local news channel. They were not talking about the van explosion; he waited only thirty seconds before he turned back to the show he and Zen were watching.

She was about to make the request again when Andi came out of the washroom. Zen moved her legs so she could sit on the side of the bed. She faced Mann and Hunter and spoke in a low voice.

”He’s changing,” she said by way of explanation. “He’s in bad shape. I don’t know why he’s able to talk let alone move around.” She continued to speak low so Nichol would not overhear but she could see Hunter was having trouble hearing her and she spoke up.