Project Lazarus (31 page)

“I did tell you. It’s Natalie Winston.  I posed as Calista Grandy to get in here.  She wanted out.”

“You got a story Miss Winston?”

“Sure, doesn’t everybody?”

“No, I think some of us are casualties of other stories.”

Natalie agreed, “I would have to agree,” she said reflecting upon her own difficult life.

“Tell me something I need to know about you before I tell you everything.”

“Convince you I’m worthy?”

“Something like that,” Millicent offered as a challenge.

“I’m not worthy.  Just a reject like everybody else.  Not a great family background. Left with a lot of messes to clean up.  This is my one chance to make something out of my life or put myself out of my own misery.  You need to know I understand having life spit in your face and spin out of your control to the point you feel there is nothing but a predestined world and you’re on the losing end.”

“Life can be a path few want to travel.  I’d rather fly myself than walk through it but here we are.  I guess, you tell truths.”

“It’s been the only thing I have to offer.  People trust me as a reporter because I never sell out.  The twisted truth is if you don’t sell out you never get any recognition.  I promise I’ll leave Dylan out of it.  I think you’ve already revealed he’s the key.  So let me be the one to tell the story.”

“I like you.  I want to believe you.  I do believe you.  We’ve both saved each other’s lives sitting here and we’ve both risked out lives to be here.”

“I know it’s a lot to ask Millicent but I have a friend and a damn good hiding place.  The truth isn’t going to linger out there.  It will be told.”

“Okay, so we’re at this God forsaken military compound and its sole purpose was to raise a dead person back to the living.  Enter my husband Charlie.  He’s a mad scientist, he’s genius and magic all rolled into one and he happens to be my everything.  He was recruited to go on that trip into the Amazon.”

“Wow,” was all Natalie could muster, scribbling wildly.

“They picked him because of his vast research.  Although, I am aware Dr. Neville Woods was their first choice.  He had written a thesis about people in the Congo living to the age of 200 years old.  His explanation was they died and lived and continued the cycle from death until rebirth around again because they could be raised from the dead.  Hence, the old age.  Kind of like vampires, they never died.  They never had to.” 

“Woods didn’t want to go?”

“No,” she said a small tear streaming down her eyes, “I don’t want to get emotional.”

Natalie took her hand, “You don’t have to.  Stick to the facts.”

“Charlie was the worst person they could have ever picked.  He was thrilled of course.  But his intentions weren’t good.  He was emotionally invested.”

“The boy.  Dylan?”

“Yes, he was dying of cancer and it was imminent.  The second worst choice they made was taking along Commander Henrid.  He was in charge of the mission.  He clashed terribly with Charlie.  He was a highly intuitive man and he knew Charlie had an agenda.  Charlie made a fool of him out there and disgraced his career, not for the sake of finding the Amazon man but for saving Dylan’s life.  Henrid is his nemesis.   They hate each other.  Charlie is at his mercy.  I fear the hate.  I can smell it.”

“What happened out there in the Amazon?”

“They brought him back.  That cursed Amazon man.  He actually came back willingly. He’s evil.  He’s got to be.   Who but God in Heaven should have such powers?  I never heard of such a thing.  But Charlie he was so desperate.”

“And desperate people do desperate things,” Natalie deduced.

“Indeed, enter the third mistake, letting this man roam from his indigenous tribe filled with rules and amongst people with free will.  Destiny and fate”, she shook her head, “the lines got very skewed in the mind of my husband.  He made a most fatal error.  He fooled the Amazon man.  He brought Dylan in when he passed away and told the Amazon man this was the boy to be resurrected.  The Amazon man complied on the condition he be freed.  Charlie lied knowing he would never be let go until Project Lazarus was complete.”

“The Amazon man raised Dylan from the dead?”

“I wasn’t there.  Or I might have stopped him.  Stopped them both.  It wasn’t Dylan’s fate.  That was for God to decide.  Both men played God that day and I’ve hated them both since,” she paused, her inner fury unleashed, “don’t get me wrong.  I love my husband.  I love my son.  But I’m afraid it will destroy us all.”

“Charlie didn’t let him go?”

“No,” she softened in her voice, “and you know I believe for whatever  voodoo he had that Amazon man was sincere.  He wanted to be freed.  That’s all. Instead, Charlie kept him day after day as a prisoner here in the compound. The Amazon man swore he would never raise another from the dead.  He told Charlie the only reason he allowed himself to be captured in the Amazon was because he knew it was his mission to save Dylan and only Dylan.  When he learned of Charlie’s deceitful ways, he waited for him to change his mind.  He kept that promise for years.  Charlie put Dylan in hiding so no one would ever know about him.  He was so determined to save his son there were days I thought he didn’t even see me.  I mean I was there but how could he see me?  He was so blinded.”

“Millicent, I’m so sorry.  You have suffered the most.  It is always difficult to choose our love between two people. Your son and your husband.”

“With Charlie, his two loves were his son and his science.  He kept the Amazon man for science.  He didn’t honor his promise.  Charlie became increasingly paranoid.  I used to tell him to let the Amazon man go.  But he wouldn’t hear of it.  He wanted it all.  It was wrong.  He had Dylan.  Why couldn’t he leave him alone?  Then one day that guy went full force.  From what Charlie told me he raised a man from the dead.  I think that’s what the Chuttle boys witnessed.  They must have.  I hear their names whispered a lot in this place.  I think things went very bad for them because there was a panic in here the other day.”

“What do you think happened?”

“I think they disappeared.”

“He raised everyone from the dead in the town of Cotter.  Those boys must have seen the Lazarus man, the first one but not the last.  How terrifying.  I’ve heard the panic about the living dead.  You have to understand the minute the man was raised, Charlie and I were taken prisoners.  Charlie came home ready to go.  You see we had prepared for that day for years.  We had an escape plan and route.  That was rudely interrupted.  They captured us.  Now, I’m completely in the dark except for what I see and hear.”

“They kidnapped you both?”

She nodded, “I haven’t seen Charlie since.  I don’t even know if he’s still alive.”

“I have it on good authority he’s alive.”

She sighed, “For how long?  Henrid will kill him.”

“What about your son Dylan?”

“He should be safe but as a mother, I know he’s not.”

“I haven’t heard anything about Dylan until you,” Natalie assured her.

“Perhaps, if there is a God he’ll be spared,” Millicent pleaded, yet another tear rolling from her eye, down a path tears had traveled many times, you could almost see the crevice of a river flow on her face.

“The Amazon man?”

She shook her head, “He’s still here.  Calling all the shots.  He won’t stop until he gets what he wants.”

“There’s a few hundred dead people running around out there.  Some of them want to go back to hell and they’re killing people Millicent.  What do you think he wants?”

“If not revenge, order I guess.”

Natalie agreed silently.

“That’s the story Miss Winston.  I’ve tried all this time to understand my husband’s actions.  I know why he saved Dylan but I never understood why he worshipped science.”

Heavy footsteps were clapping against the halls now and bounding off the walls.

The two women stared at each other terrified.

“What are we going to do?’  Millicent asked, trying to wrestle out of her handcuffs.

Natalie pulled and tugged at the shackles on her legs, “It’s useless.”

“What are we going to do?”  Millicent repeated frantically, “They’re gonna kill you girl.  They know you’re an outsider.”

“Calm down Millicent.  I’m going to get us out of here,” she put the pictures of Charlie and Dylan back inside the distraught woman’s pocket.  She glanced back at the photo of Charlie so she might recognize him if she was lucky enough to get out alive.

“How?  How are you going to get us out of here?’

“Are you a religious woman Millicent?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

“Well I do and I think the only thing we can do is pray for a miracle.  Pray with me now,” She clasped her own hands.  The desperate woman nodded, there was nothing left they could do.  The door creaked open.

“Our Father Who Art In Heaven,” Natalie started in a slow whisper.  She was deeply religious.  Her faith had carried her through many difficult minutes.

She heard the door swing open wide and turned to meet her fate.

Grady Freshman’s beautiful green eyes and wavy black hair greeted her.

She smiled and stared up at the heavens.  Surely, there is a God, she thought.

“Heard you ran into a bit of trouble,” he scolded running to her.

Within seconds, the shackles were off her feet.  She threw her scribbled notes in her military jacket and threw her arms around Grady, “In another lifetime,” she whispered hugging him tightly, “I promise to save your life two times.”

“Three and it’s a charm,” he joked, “come on, let’s go,” he said taking her hand.

“Wait,” she stopped him forcefully, “we’ve got to let Millicent come with us.”

“No way.”

“I promised.”

“Look at this place reporter girl.  Promises don’t work here.  They don’t count.”

“You came back for me.  That was a promise to Calista.”

“She’s a problem.  One we can’t deal with. She dug her own grave.”

“Please,” Millicent begged him, raising her bloody handcuffed arms.

He stared at Natalie again with a black eye.

“Look at what she did?  She could have gotten you killed.”

“No, she saved me,” Natalie implored.