Chapter Six

Chapter Six

"Stay back," Sheva warned.

He remained seated though his face swirled, blended and reflected a kaleidoscope of colors. "Just one sip," his voice echoed though it hadn't a mouth to come from.

Sheva and Jill backed into an aisle. Spying an exit sign she motioned toward it and they darted in its direction. Jill pressed its long bar. She leaned her weight against it as Sheva fired. The rising thing at the counter stepped down from its stool with the glass in one hand and extended it to them.

"My ammo," Sheva gasped in shock, "it is going right through him!"

Jill watched as Sheva squeezed off another shell. Nothing sounded as strange as those words. At first she believed her ears misinterpreted them but then she saw a blast pass through him and strike the bottles of booze on the shelf behind him. They shattered and splashed their liquids everywhere as wood spit large chunks over the floor.

"Let's just go," Jill said, her tone a strangle cry.

They bolted out the door into a dark alley. They turned right in a crumbling Y section of avenue and took to a brief set of stairs before reaching a corroded metallic door at which Sheva yanked opened and peeked through with her shotgun. Forgetting to reload, she leaned against the broad side of a dumpster and popped two shells into the round hollows. Then she snapped it together and motioned for Jill to follow.

She began to wonder where it was they hobbled out onto as the earth under their feet turned uneven, rocky and sloped toward a maze of human bodies.

"Is this real," Jill dared to ask as they stared across a valley of flesh trees swinging intestines.  She stumbled.  A swift haze clouded her vision followed by an outbreak of sweat and heat throughout her body.  “It’s….”

"I don't know," Sheva stammered. Her eyes were wide saucers.  Using herself as a crutch she kept Jill sturdy and said, “We have to get that vaccine.  You’re going to be okay.”

Finding her balance and strength Jill shrugged her off and muttered, “It might be too late.”

Carefully they climbed down.

"There," Sheva pointed to a corridor that resembled something half to her liking. It was a collapsing pathway winding around a two story yellow house. Its brown trim chipped and peeled away, its windows were cracked, stained with specks of blood and chunks of flesh hooked on its jagged edges. It would have been nothing new in their line of experiences except as they moved around to view its entry way, they saw the man with his tall glass of beer standing in the doorway.

"Just one sip," he rasped.

"Run," Jill screamed and they set off toward the intersection of highway. As they crossed onto Riverfront Drive the long electric advertising strip of the Star bank scrolled the words: Just one sip.

"What the hell is that thing," Jill asked.

"I don't know," Sheva trembled as they collapsed together behind another oversized green dumpster.

Jill stared at her in disbelief. "How can you not know?"

"Take a look around?" She said, “Does any of this seem like the same s**t we have been fighting for years? Something new has risen. They must have reinvented the Virus or something much worse."

"How is that possible?"

Sheva closed her eyes and panted. "With The Asylum, anything is possible."

Jill's eyes fixed on the metal heart as Sheva withdrew it from her backpack. As her fingers worked to unfasten the clasp, she glanced up. They didn't want any unexpected visitors. She doubted their makeshift security system would keep out anything for long. She consulted the bags of sawdust stacked against the door and grimaced.

Sheva unfolded the sheet of cloth. Under the glimmer of the kerosene lamp the key sparkled. Its emerald clover end especially held their attention.

"I didn't believe it at first," Sheva said after a moment of silence. "But after seeing that man in the bar I am starting to wonder if all the rumors were true." She stared at the twinkle of the key as she held it up between two fingers. She laid it in her palm, curled her fingers around it. "If it is true, this is more than just a key, Jill."

Jill tightened her grip on the straps of her own backpack and asked, "What are you talking about?"

She turned. In the flicker of lamplight her words came in short gulps. It colored her cheeks pink.

"Well, you heard the stories. We have had all heard stories about how The Asylum was working beneath another organization. The Asylum was a mere patsy. They served the purpose they were meant to serve and then this other…thing threw them away like trash," she explained and then her voice broke.

Jill sank down. She felt a hard surface under her fanny and saw an overturned washtub beneath her. It made for an uncomfortable seat, but at the moment it was the only thing she could find before her legs gave out. She had heard of such rumors. It was the last thing Chris had ever said to her before he disappeared.

"They," Sheva began again, her voice unsteady as she stared at the key, "say those in charge aren't from this world, like they are some sort of Aliens or gods. They have the abilities to shift shape and become whatever they want, whoever they want." She looked at Jill. "Isn't that some crazy s**t?"

Jill nodded. Her gaze shifted to her Magnum. According to Chris those beings Sheva mentioned also could not be killed. They were immune to disease and sickness. If any weaknesses existed no one knew about it. They were invincible.

"Do you believe any of it?" Jill asked.

Sheva laughed softly as she wiped a tear from her cheek. "I am not sure what to believe anymore." She returned the key to its cloth and folded it up. She gently set it back in the metal box and fastened the clasp. "If it is true I can say with all certainty we are screwed."

Jill bit her tongue, winced as pain flared and ignited memory within her. She didn't know why she remembered it now. It just seemed to flow like silk into her mind as if to flush out the horror. It was roughly eight years ago. She believed she could anticipate his every thought, emotion and move. Her mind moved to that blissful night. Her lips curled in a smile. It had been the only time she considered herself beautiful. When his lips touched hers she was his, but a kiss was all it was. She wasn't the sort of girl who went further. She had been taught respectable girls never let a man do anything that would ruin them. She laughed at the thought. It was silly now as she looked back, but at the time it was more than a crush and a kiss for her was a sacred thing.

Jill's face flushed with heat at the memory. She had gone by her middle name then, embarrassed by "Jill", thought it sounded plain, but now she looked back and could have kicked herself for turning him away later, for believing he was a poor excuse for a man, but in those days her brains served her little in the way of rational thought.

Sheva shrugged into her backpack and laid the shotgun against her shoulder. "Are you okay?  The vaccine-“

Jill looked up and said, "I will be fine. It is just hard to believe this is actually happening."

"You wouldn't want to do that," called a third voice.

They all angled their heads to watch a figure emerge from a far shadow. Had he always been there? Jill wondered. Her stomach did a somersault into her throat as he eyed her.

Jill retreated to Sheva. His face was different now, but his voice had stayed the same. As she tried to warn Sheva it was him, the man from the bar, he opened his arms and she was lost in scenery of something she had no business knowing or seeing.

"What was that?" Sheva said as the image alleviated. Fragments of reality pieced together. When the shed filled their senses with sawdust, she raised her shotgun to the man and said, "It is you!"

"Now, now, now," he said, his bright eyes gleaming like glass. "You know that won't do any good, officer."