Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (49 page)

Seth knew the exact moment in time he’d
returned to.

His younger brother’s high pitched laugh
made Seth turned to gaze at his face. It would be twenty or more
years before the horrible purple sarcoma would literally choke the
breath out of Silas. Silas would be one of the first casualties of
the AIDS virus that would go on to decimate entire neighborhoods in
Denver. Unable to stop himself, Seth touched Silas’s fresh, clear
eight year old face. In Silas’s bright eyes, he saw only younger
brother adoration for Seth.

“
Hey look!” Saul
said.

Seth’s attention turned to his older
brother. Twelve years old, Saul was ready for any adventure. As a
young child, Seth had watched Saul’s wild streak lead to broken
bones, skinned knees, and outrageous adventure. Sitting on the side
of the lake, he couldn’t conceive that his brave brother would die
on a peak in Laos only eight short years later. Saul hooted at his
triumph over the catching a fish in City Park’s Big Lake. He gave a
theatrical bow to Seth and Silas’s applause.

The boys laughed and enjoyed the day. They
couldn’t know that this would be the last time they would fish at
the Big Lake. In an hour or so, they would return home to find
their father waiting for them. Seth’s bags, and future, were packed
for Eastman College. While his brothers’ wailed and his mother
argued, his father dragged Seth to the bus station and put him on a
bus bound for New York. By the time he’d returned, Saul was a
sixteen year old jock with no time for his beatnik brother and
Silas had retreated into despair over his sexuality. In this
moment, the boys had no idea their lives would change so radically,
so quickly.

At this moment, everything was perfect. Seth
wiped a furtive tear from his eye.

“
Don’t be sad, Seth,”
Silas said. “We’ve waited for you for a long time.”

“
There’s nowhere we have
to go this time,” Saul said.

“
Let’s fish,” Silas
said.

Seth threw his line into the water and
leaned back.

This moment was perfect.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday night — 9:15 P.M.

“
Captain Ferguson please.”
Talking on Nelson’s phone, Ava turned to look out into the
lab.

“
This is Captain
Ferguson,” Ferg said. “Who might I be speaking to?’

“
Technician Alvin,” Ava
said.

“
Ava! How are you holding
up?” Ferg asked. “You know, I’ve know Magic O’Malley a long time
and there’s no doubt in my mind he’s going to pull
through.”

“
My lab is hoping to speed
up that journey,” Ava said.

“
God, you do have a great
voice. Seth said it was deep and sexy but it’s gorgeous,” Ferg
said.

Ava laughed.

“
You know I didn’t mean
anything inappropriate by that,” Ferg said.

“
I know,” Ava
said.

“
What can I do for
you?”

“
We’ve been going over the
diagrams of the apparatus used in the other First Responder Toxin
Incidents,” Ava said. “Have you been able to collect the one Saint
Jude used?”

“
Not really,” Ferg said.
“SWAT destroyed it. Why?”

“
The diagrams for the
other apparatus show a container with the toxin in it,” Ava said.
“Did you find anything like that?”

“
Lemme check,” Ferg
said.

The line went quiet. Ava turned around to at
Nelson. He mouthed ‘Worth a try.’

“
Ok,” Ferg said. “They
found a tub filled with the wood stakes. Looks like the bastard was
ready to kill the entire city of Denver. You want
these?”

“
I’ll take them,” Ava
said. “But we were hoping for some of the toxin without the wood.
The wood seems to be pressure treated with creosote. It dominates
our samples, even with the spect.”

“
Can’t make the
anti-toxin?”

“
We’d have a better chance
if we had a clean sample,” Ava said. “We have one coming from
Geneva, but they won’t be here until morning. I was
hoping…”

“
Yeah, yeah,” Ferg said.
“Hang on.”

The line went dead.

“
They don’t have it,” Ava
said to Nelson. “I ordered nuclear imaging on what we have. We
might be able to see the creosote separate from the toxin. We’ll
have that in an hour or so. But…”

“
Got it,” Ferg said. “They
just found a tub of the stuff or they think it’s the stuff. But get
this, they also found the chemicals he used to make that junk
with.”

“
Why would he leave that?”
Ava said. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“
He set explosives,” Ferg
said. “He was planning to blow up the place.”

“
What?”

“
O’Malley’s magic, my
dear,” Ferg said. “Jude wired the explosives into the damn grid.
When the SWAT team blew the apparatus, they blew out the electrical
lines. No power, no bomb.”

“
Wow,” Ava
said.

“
I’m going to send this
straight to your team. But you’ve got to be meticulous about chain
of custody,” Ferg said. “If you don’t, we’ll be screwed at
trial.”

“
Got it,” Ava said.
“Thanks.”

“
Hey, your Dad’s been
here,” Ferg said. “He says he’s looking for you. We don’t know what
he’s doing but he’s sniffing around. The Chief says he’s going to
hold a press conference. State Attorney Alvin believes Seth screwed
the pooch and let Saint Jude go. He’s going to fry him.”

“
I’ll call my father,” Ava
said.

“
I don’t want to put more
pressure on you and your team, Amelie,” Ferg said. “But it’s not
just these guys’ lives on the line now. If Saint Jude’s really
gone, it’s going to rain shit on all of us.”

“
Guess we better get to
work,” Ava said.

“
Good girl,” Ferg said.
“Better send someone to the door ‘cuz your toxin and the chemicals
are going to be there in three minutes.”

“
Go,” Ava said to
Nelson.

Nelson jogged out of the lab and up the
stairs to the street entrance.

“
Thanks Ferg,” Ava
said.

“
Any time,” Ferg hung up
the phone.

One step closer to saving Seth and the other
men. Ava smiled and went to greet the uniformed officers.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday night — 9:15 P.M.

Jill stopped on the stairwell to assess the
situation. The children were scattered around the basement. Cam
went to check on Honey and help Tanesha get her into her
wheelchair. Sandy was hugging Charlie for saving Nash and Noelle.
She hugged Nash and Noelle and turned to hug Sissy. Pete and
Molly’s children were hugging each other in fear. The creature
landed in front of Valerie. Valerie had expanded her baton and was
ready to fight the beast. The dogs were milling around their
families. Valerie struck at the entity and it took flight.

“
Where’s Rachel?” Sandy
asked Charlie.

Charlie pointed to the hidden space. Buster
gave a bark and Sandy ran to get Rachel from her hiding space.

“
Sarah! Buster! Scooter!”
Jill yelled. “Surround!”

The dogs rushed at the slate-grey creature.
Landing, the monster pulled her wings back and screeched with rage
at the dogs. Undeterred, the dogs surrounded the brute. Working as
a pack, one dog nipped the creature while the others barked and
snarled. They moved the fiend away from Valerie.

The creature swiped at Scooter and he fell
onto his side. Scooter yelped with pain. Leaning its head forward,
the creature’s opened her mouth exposing her razor sharp teeth.
Before it could swallow Scooter whole, Sarah bit the winged beast’s
leg. The miscreation raised its face to the sky and screamed with
rage.

When Katy ran to her dog, Jill raced down
the stairs until she was between the creature and her child and
dog. She had psychic dreams. Delphie had warned her that she might
be able to move objects. She’d just never tried. Desperate to
protect her child and dog, Jill had to try psychokinesis.

The creature leaned forward and screamed at
Katy and Scooter. Jill had to try.

Jill focused her attention to her hands. As
she’d seen Jacob do, she flicked her hand and the creature hurled
away from them. Recoiling from the energy, Jill flew in the
opposite direction from the creature. She hit the wall hard and
fell to the ground.

“
MOMMY!” Katy
screamed.

“
I’m okay,” Jill
said.

The evil being smashed against the exposed
floor joists and fell down in front of Honey, Tanesha and Cam.

“
Jill!” Tanesha
screamed.

Jill hopped to her feet and braced herself
against the wall. She tossed the monster away from her friends. The
creature landed in the middle of the room. The serpent’s sinewy
thin tail whipped Jill across the face. Staggering, Jill fell to
her knees. Heather dragged Scooter and Katy away from the
action.

“
Join hands!” Jill said.
“We have to join hands!”

Teddy helped Noelle to her feet. The
children and women took each other’s hands to form a circle. One
foot at a time, Scooter made a wobbly attempt to stand. Once on his
feet, he shook himself and ran to Sarah and Buster’s side. The
children and women surrounded the creature. The dogs formed a tight
circle around the winged beast.

“
We have to kill this
thing. We’re the only ones who can,” Jill yelled.

The creature screamed and rushed at the
circle of women and children. Using their combined strength, the
dogs, children and women managed to keep the creature hemmed in.
The fiend attempted to take to the air again. Sarah and Buster
grabbed a foot and a wing. The dogs yanked the monster to the
ground.

“
She’s weakening,” Jill
yelled over the snapping and snarling dogs.

The creature stumbled and fell.

“
She has to find another
host to survive!” Jill yelled.

The creature rushed at the children and was
held back by the dogs.

“
She’s looking for a male
who doesn’t have the mitochondrial DNA,” Jill yelled.

“
Protect Charlie and
Teddy,” Sandy yelled.

“
If she finds a host we
are all dead,” Jill yelled.

Sniffing, the monster loomed over Noelle and
Teddy. Baring her teeth, Sarah rushed at the monster. It fell back.
The brute ran toward Nash and sniffed. Buster threw his bulk at the
winged brute. It fell back. The creature raced toward Pete and
Molly’s children. To protect them, Valerie broke the circle to jump
in front of the children. She battered the monster with her baton.
Even distracted by Valerie, the fiend took a whiff of Pete’s
children and moved away.

“
Auntie Valerie!” Katy
screamed and held her hand out.

Valerie ran to Katy. Taking her hand, the
circle was complete again. The creature staggered.

“
Hold tight,” Jill said.
“We can do this.”

The creature jerked to attention. Spinning
in place, the slate grey creature barreled toward Sandy. She
screamed and let go of Teddy and Charlie’s hands. Jerking, she
wrapped her arms around Rachel and turned her back.

“
Teddy!” Noelle covered
him with her body.

The long sinewy tail of the winged beast
whipped around Charlie’s in the shoulders. Charlie fell into the
circle. The creature hopped into the air then dove toward Charlie.
Paralyzed with terror, Charlie screamed.

“
Charlie!” Sissy
screamed.

Sandy rushed to his side. Heather and
Tanesha ran to Sandy. Jill tried to throw the creature away from
Charlie but it was moving too fast. Knowing that she and Rachel had
the DNA, Sandy threw herself in front of Charlie. The creature was
an inch away when it caught wind of Rachel. Rachel let out an angry
scream.

The creature screeched with pain.

“
Sarah, Buster, Scooter,
attack.” The dogs herded the creature away from Charlie. Heather
and Tanesha grabbed Charlie and pulled him back to the
circle.

Valerie ran to the middle of the room.

“
Nash! Noelle! Come over
by me,” Valerie said. “Sandy! Heather! Bring Mack!
Honey!”

With a flick of her hand, Honey zoomed to
Valerie. The others ran to catch up.

“
It’s our babies,” Valerie
yelled. “With our babies, we will kill it.”

“
Our babies?” Sandy said.
“No, we can’t….”

“
She will kill us all if
we don’t,” Jill said.

“
But give her our babies?”
Sandy asked. “I’d rather die!”

“
Not give her our babies,”
Valerie said. “That’s crazy. Hold our babies and each other. You
saw how that thing reacted to just seeing Rachel.”

“
Is that right?” Sandy
asked Jill.

“
The sight, smell and
sounds of babies with mitochondrial DNA will kill her,” Jill
said.

Sandy looked at Heather. Facing their worst
fears, the mothers moved to Valerie.

“
You need Cam and Tanesha
too,” Jill said.

Cam held his arm out and Tanesha joined him.
They ran toward Valerie.

“
The rest of us will form
a circle around you!” Jill yelled.

The children took each other’s hands. Jill
set Katy down and they joined the children. They formed a circle
around the creature. Valerie, Honey, Heather, Tanesha, Cam, and the
young children stood in the center of the circle.