The Land of the Dead: Book Four of the Oz Chronicles (17 page)

“Maybe not the same guy, but it might be the same family.” I told her about Fish’s time at the mansion, the termination form, and the notes written by a man named Bashir.

“So, what do you think?” she asked. “This is all because Fish did something to a relative of Dr. Bashir?”

“I don’t know what to think. I’m just trying to talk it out.” I smiled. “It actually feels good to have someone to talk to that I don’t want to… you know, eat.”

She bowed her head. “I’m honored.”

“Not sure why you didn’t get infected by Fish, but I’m glad you didn’t.”

She nodded but her brow furrowed, and she tried to hide it from me.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said.

“No, come on. Something’s bothering you.”

She rolled her eyes as if to warn me she was about to say something really crazy. “Why wasn’t I infected?”

Not knowing what to say, I just blurted out, “Because you’re stronger than the rest of us.”

“Stronger?”

“Inside,” I said. “You’ve got will power or faith or conviction or something like that.”

She considered my theory and then said, “That explains why I don’t want to eat you guys, but how come you guys don’t want to eat me?”

“Who cares?” I asked. “Stop looking a gift horse in the mouth.”

She cleared her throat. “I just know nothing’s free around here.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

“You will?”

“Well, all of us,” I said nervously. “The others, too.”

There was a second of uncomfortable silence between us. She broke it by asking, “What next?”

“We still need to know more from Bobby. Tarek said the Flish consumed the Creyshaw, but we still don’t know anything about the Keeper. And, what does Fish’s package have to do with this?”

“Package?”

“His property. It’s a metal box wrapped in a canvas cloth.”

“What’s in it?”

I hesitated. “Knives, bone saw. Run of the mill tools of torture.”

“Nice,” she groaned and took a step back towards the Halloween room.

“Hey,” I said.

She stopped and looked at me. “Yeah?”

“If day nine comes around, and we’re no closer to solving this thing, you need to leave with Archie and Bobby. Take the gorillas and Kimball, too.”

She stared at me stone-faced.

“I need to hear you say you’ll leave.”

“It won’t come to that.”

“It might,” I said. “And Bobby is the priority. Tarek will put up a fight, but you can wear him down. He’ll take Bobby and stand in for his Keeper.”

She started to walk away again, but I grabbed her by the arm. “Say it.”

She hung her head. “I’ll take care of it.”

“You’ll leave?”

“Yes, I’ll leave. Happy?”

“No,” I said letting her go. “But I’m satisfied.”

***

Lou checked on Gordy one last time before she left the basement. I hated to see her go. Beyond being the only person I knew that I didn’t want to eat, I just felt better around her. I had been away from her for a long time living in the facility. Now I was under the same roof with her, but the Flish was keeping us apart. It was almost too much to take.

I was in a crazy, twisted world, full of all kinds of bad guys and monsters fighting for my life, but if it wasn’t for this world, I would never have met Lou. That made it hard to completely hate the way things had turned out. I suppose it’s bad for me to say, but if I hadn’t treated Stevie so badly, I wouldn’t know Lou at all. I never would have known how good she smells or how her nose twitches like a rabbit when she laughs. I wouldn’t have known that there was someone I could count on one hundred percent of the time.

“What are you thinking about, boss man?” Gordy asked from the other side of the room. He was propped up on one elbow, sipping from a bottle of water. With Ajax and Ariabod in close proximity, there was no danger of us trying to eat each other. Even if they weren’t around, there was no chance he was coming after me. He couldn’t move after what April did to him. His face was getting puffy. I had seen my aunt in the hospital after she had a car accident. Her face had the same kind of red and swollen look that Gordy’s face had. I remember a nurse saying something about antibodies and infection. Whatever that meant, it looked like Gordy had the same thing.

“I thought I told you not to call me that?”

“Did you?” His eyes rolled to the left as he tried to remember that conversation. “I’ll stop then. Don’t know why you don’t like it anyway?”

“Because I’m not your boss man.”

He nodded. “You’re right, you’re not my boss man.”

I half smiled to thank him for the confirmation.

“You’re THE boss man. The big cheese. The man with the plan.”

“Shut up or I’ll let April out of the closet.”

He chuckled. “Let her out. What do I care? Better yet, I’ll give you the first bite. Come on over here. I hear the rump is the best part.”

My stomach practically roared at the thought. I very much wanted to take him up on his offer. I envied April for getting to rip off a chunk of meat and eat it. “I’ll pass,” I struggled to say.

A few seconds passed before either one of us spoke again. The theme of the conversation had become too tempting, and both of us seemed to know not to push our luck.

“You never did tell me what you were thinking?”

“What?”

“You had what my dad used to call a Mars face. As in, you were on a different planet there for a second. What’s up?”

“What’s not up?” I asked with a yawn.

“True, but you looked like you had something specific on your mind.”

“No…”

“It’s Lou, ain’t it?”

I went slack jawed. How did he know?

“You’re wondering the same thing I am.”

“Which is?”

“Why isn’t she infected by the old man?”

“You’re wondering that?” I asked perplexed.

“Sure. You’re not?”

I shook my head. “She’s immune.”

“I got a theory,” he said. “You want to hear it?”

“I don’t know. Do I?”

“C’mon, I’m pretty proud of myself for coming up with it.”

I sighed. “Okay, go ahead.”

“Well,” he said “I figure she’s dead.”

The world slowed to a crawl. I could hear every breath I took. The vein in my neck began to throb. I felt the world dim like I was about to pass out, but I snapped myself back to the present. “You figured wrong,” I said just above a whisper.

“Hear me out,” he said. “The old guy, he ain’t got much use for the dead. You should hear the way he talks about your dead friend and the other little buggers running around here. He hates them. Doesn’t want anything to do with them. Lou must be dead. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Dead people don’t…” I stopped myself before I said something I knew wasn’t true, but he knew exactly what I was going to say.

“Dead people don’t walk around, talk to you like nothing’s wrong? You forget where we are, my friend. This is the end of the friggin’ world. There’s dead people all around us.”

“Not Lou,” my voice was louder. I could feel the ice moving through my veins. The Délon in me wanted out, but Gordy was clueless. He pushed the issue.

“Ten bucks says she’s in one of them rooms upstairs, half the meat stripped from her bones. I can even guess who caught her and is eating her. Want to know who?”

“Stop,” I growled.

Ajax hooted at me while he knuckle-walked in our direction. If he could talk, he would be telling me to settle down and get a hold of myself.

“Wes. That fat redneck is having him a regular Lou picnic right now. I know it as sure as I know you want to kill me right now.”

I looked at my hands. They were covered with purple blotches. It was happening. “I am going to kill you.”

“Good,” he yelled. “Do it!”

I pounded the floor with my fist and wasn’t surprised when the solid surface crumbled from the blow. If I wanted to eat him, why didn’t I? What was holding me back? Why did I value human life so much? It seemed ridiculous. I stood with every intention of ripping the flesh from his bones, but I was knocked to the ground before I could take a step.

“Let him go,” Gordy cried. “Let him do it!”

I stared into the grimacing face of Ajax. He was huffing and howling and doing everything in his power without actually touching me to keep me from charging Gordy. He didn’t want to physically restrain me because he understood that would just frustrate me more and drive me even further into a Délon frenzy. The others didn’t know how lucky they were. They only had to deal with being possessed by the old man. I was dealing with two demons inside of me.

“Get out of his way, you big dumb ape. I want this!”

I paced in half circles in front of Ajax and fought to suppress all the evil that was trying to take hold of me. I started repeating my name over and over again. I just had to remind myself who I was.

“I can’t take this any more,” he shouted. “Don’t you understand? I’m begging you to put me out of my misery.”

Ariabod sauntered over to Gordy and sat on his haunches next to him. His massive head turned from me and back to Gordy three or four times. He flashed a gnarled grin. Gordy wouldn’t shut up, and I was growing more and more agitated by the minute. Ariabod scooted around and put his butt to Gordy’s face. He nodded his massive head several times. Ajax grinned and nodded back. Ariabod leaned forward and passed gas… loudly.

I was startled. My mouth fell open as I stared in disbelief at what he had just done.

Gordy screamed as if he’d been lit on fire. “He farted! He farted!”

I burst out laughing. It was completely absurd. I had been on the verge of tearing Gordy limb from limb. Gordy was begging me to kill him. I was going mad with frustration. In an instant, the frustration was gone. I was laughing like I had not laughed in years. My belly started to ache I was laughing so hard.

“Oh my God!” Gordy said, crawling away backwards. “A huge friggin’ gorilla just farted on me.”

I held on to my sides and bent over. “That is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Funny? I smell like gorilla fart now!”

“You should have seen your face,” I said.

Gordy looked surprised that I was enjoying myself so much. He frowned, but I could see him fighting a smile.

“It’s not funny.”

“It is totally funny,” I said between waves of snorting laughter.

He couldn’t hold it back any longer. He slapped the floor and started laughing along with me. “That was so sick,” he screamed.

Ariabod and Ajax hoot-laughed along with us. Throwaway Stevie and June looked on confused but pleased that we were so thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Just like that, Ariabod had defused the situation. I went from wanting to kill Gordy to laughing my guts out. Gordy went from wanting to die and antagonizing me to joining me in a good solid laugh.

I fell to the floor and started to get myself under control. I dabbed at my eyes as tears of laughter fell. “Man,” I said. “I needed that.”

Gordy sighed. “You weren’t on my end.”

I breathed in deeply and blew out a long stream of air. “You can’t do that again, Gordy.”

“It wasn’t me. It was the big ugly gorilla.”

“I don’t mean that. I mean you can’t provoke me like you did. I was this close, man…”

He thought about what I said. “I’m sorry, Oz.”

I looked at him puzzled. He rarely apologized, and when he did, he usually followed it up with something that completely invalidated his apology.

“I’m not a very good friend.”

I gave him a look of sympathy. “Stop it.”

“It’s true, and I’m not just talking about now. I haven’t been a good friend for a long time. I kind of feel like you were the way you were with Stevie because of me.”

I waved him off. “Let’s not get into it.”

“My dad called me an instigator. I just love starting trouble. I was the one who always pushed you to be a rat to Stevie, and look where it’s gotten us.”

I wish I could have blamed him, but I couldn’t. I was responsible. He played a part, but I’m the one who made this happen. I was the reason we were here. Not because Stevie was mad at me, but because he wanted me to find the magic in me.

***

Evening came and I went to the pool with Ajax, Throwaway Stevie, and Throwaway June. Gordy was looking worse by the hour so I left Ariabod behind to watch over him. April was still locked in the closet, and I didn’t think she could get out, but I no longer trusted the others to keep the pact. I wasn’t sure how I was able to keep it. I couldn’t eat my power bars any more. I had taken one bite earlier in the day and immediately spit it out because it made me want to vomit. That was the old man’s plan now. He was going to make it impossible for us to eat anything except each other. By my count, we had four more days to go until our nine days were up. I didn’t think there was any way we could make it. I had to find the answer soon.