The Iso-Stasis Experiment (The Experiments) (42 page)

A midmorning nap was the thing Carl needed to put him in a good mood, especially after pulling a long night of monitoring the remaining participants. Not that the job wasn’t easy, it was, since they were gathered in just two rooms.
 
He pulled the night shift because he was more of a night owl and was grateful to Hawk for not minding when he snuck off for an hour or two.

Never did he leave for any longer than that.

So why did Carl sleep four hours?
 
Was Hawk angry with him over something? Never did Hawk fail to wake him. Perhaps nothing was going on, or maybe Hawk fell asleep at the monitoring table. The later was more of a possibility when Carl heard nothing but silence as he headed down the hall from where he slept.

“Hey, Hawk.” Carl, half out of it, scratched his head as he stumbled around the corner. “Wake up so I don’t . . .” He froze. “Holy shit.” The putrid stench of death pelted him at the same time the vision of a bloody lab room came into focus. Blood was smeared everywhere. He saw the single arm lying in the center of the floor. Before he could make a move or scream, there was a single, short, soft growl immediately followed by the heavy beastly arm pounding down on him.

^^^^

Shaking, John awoke from his dream. His neck throbbed and his head felt as if daggers were shooting through it. He opened his eyes and stared around the empty room. The last time he had opened his eyes, Rickie and Carlos were sitting on the floor playing cards. He didn’t see them now. Of course, seeing anything was difficult since his head ached so badly he could barely see at all.

Aspirin and water
, John thought, and slowly lifted the covers from his body. The air in the room was so cold it made him shake worse. His stomach knotted and felt as if it were going to turn inside out. As he placed his feet to the floor, the strength in his legs seemed to leave him. He collapsed a bit before managing to straighten up.

Somewhat disoriented, he shuffled his way to the door, opened it and walked into the icy hallway holding the wall for support. Where he was wandering to, he hadn’t a clue. John just knew he didn’t want to be alone. He wanted to find someone, anyone.

He felt the blast of cold air as he stepped into the gathering room. His blinded focus could not even make out that the door was wide open. Feeling his way down the wall he found the hall to the dining area. They had to be in there, he thought. Making his way slowly, he could smell something. His senses were off and he couldn’t quite place the smell but he knew it was bad. “Guys?” His voice cracked as he stepped in, his eyesight getting worse with every step. “Someone?” His body trembled in fear. The smell and then . . . the breathing. “I can’t see. Is someone there?” He wrapped his arms closely around his body. “Rickie is that . . .” A forceful tug to his hair whipped his head back. He heard the grunting, the heavy breathing and then felt the searing pain to the right side of his neck. The sharp burning pain caused him to scream. The last scream John would make.

Jake kissed Cal once before taking refuge into the bathroom to try to wake up. He was annoyed that Rickie and Carlos were in his room, gawking at the platform city, hanging out in there while he slept.

As soon as he made his first step from the bathroom, he heard John’s scream at the same time as everyone else. Rickie and Carlos jumped from the floor.

Cal, holding her protective shotgun, ran to Jake. “It sounded like it came from the other end of the building.”

“It did.” Jake snatched the shotgun from Cal’s hands. “Grab the rifle, come on.” He led the group into the hall. He knew as soon as he felt the temperature change that something had happened. “John!” He called out stepping with caution down the hall. “John!”

A loud chesty bellow was all they heard and John’s limp body was tossed into the hall. It slid down to them like a bowling ball and they were the pins.

“Fuck!” Jake jumped over the sailing body and charged forth. “Cal, back me up!” He heard the reassuring sound of her clicking back the chamber on the rifle.

Running down the hall, fearless, Jake pumped the chamber on the shotgun, readying himself for what lurked ahead. He knew what it was.

Turning the corner to the gathering room, he spotted the open door. “Rickie, Carlos, stay back!” On his last word they stampeded in, barking in anger like the pack of wild animals they were. “Cal!”

Immediately and together, they fired. They were the perfect team. They held the ten wolves at bay.
 
They took them out one by one just before they leaped to attack. Jake heard the final yelp and saw the last wolf Cal took out fly backwards from the force of the shot. He charged forward and closed the front door. He was fast about it, quickly closing out anything else before it could storm in. Seconds before he shut the door, he saw the large bloody footprints that trailed outward into the snow.

^^^^

“Shut up!” Jake shouted as loud. He was in his room with Rickie and Carlos who rattled and rambled in panic over John’s death. “Just shut up! Be men for Christ sake!” He paced frantically around the room, holding the back of his neck. “I have to think.”

Cal remained calm, cradling her shotgun like it was a baby. “Jake?”

“Fuck!” He was so angry and his face showed it. He grabbed his duffel bag and opened it, examining what was inside. He tossed it to the ground and rubbed his face. “OK.” He took a calming breath, letting it out through his nostrils. “Here’s the deal.” He leaned against the desk waiting for everyone’s attention. “All of us know what killed John. Whether it’s the same thing that just didn’t die, or a new one doesn’t matter. We have to take it out. But we have a problem. The last time Cal and I blasted it, it took about forty rounds of ammo and it still didn’t go down. We cannot defensively afford to do that again.”

 
“So what do we do?” Cal asked.

“Figure out another way,” Jake continued. “We have two problems, the wolves and the . . . I hate sounding like a bad moving from the fifties . . . the thing. We can take out the wolves one shot each. But this . . .” Jake hated to say it, “
Thing
,” he took a ‘disgusted at himself’ breath before continuing, “has to go down, and we can’t take it down as easily as the wolves. We have to destroy it. Anyone have any suggestions?”

Carlos looked up. “Burn it. Burn it until there’s nothing left.”

Jake’s thought and then asked, “Yeah, that’s a good idea, but where? We can burn it out there, but we stand a chance of it tossing itself in the snow to put out the flames. Plus we would have to get it far enough away from the building and that would mean dealing with the wolves.”

Carlos came up with another suggestion. “What about the storage building?”

Jake shook his head. “No. We need that as secondary shelter, just in case.” After getting a disgusted grunt of defeat from Carlos, Jake looked to Cal. “Anything, Cal?”

Cal shook her head. “If it’s the same thing, we have to ensure it can’t stay alive. Take it apart maybe?”

Jake lifted his hand to Carlos who moaned. “Easy. She’s just suggesting.” He turned his gaze to Cal. “Unfortunately . . .” he shrugged, “we can’t take it apart.”

“Sarge?” Rickie slowly stood to his feet. “The wolves can.” All eyes turned to Rickie. “They could tear it to shreds.”

The brilliancy of Rickie’s plan lasted a moment in Jake’s mind. “No.” He shook it off. “If they were going to do it, they would have. Good thought Rickie, but it won’t work.”

“No, Sarge, it will work. They don’t attack Bigfoot because Bigfoot smells like them.” Rickie nodded. “If we can make him smell like us, man, those werewolves will be on him like you on Cal.” Rickie’s enthusiasm came across.

The brightness returned to Jake’s smile.

^^^^

Carlos’ suspicions about Rickie were confirmed. There was something entirely too demented about the ‘always stoned’ boy. Jake pounding extra security to the front door wasn’t enough to block it out. Neither was the total concentration Carlos put into mopping up the blood in the gathering room.

Rickie’s singing was loud, and Rickie didn’t even sing good songs. He sang songs out of his era and out of character for him, not to mention at really bad times. Swishing the blood and ringing out his mop, Carlos found himself mentally joining in with Rickie’s own rendition of the song
‘Warrior.’
Actually it was the first tune Rickie had sung anything all afternoon that sort of went along with all that had occurred.

“We’re back.” Rickie announced as he stepped into the gathering room with Cal.

Jake stepped away from the door. “How did you guys do?”

“Excellent-a-
mundo
.” Rickie set the box on the table and speaking nonchalantly began to remove items. “Cal-Babe and I went on a little perfume and cologne scavenger hunt. Found a gay magazine in Carlos’ room.”

Jake’s eyes went to Carlos as quickly as he dropped the mop.

Rickie started laughing. “Anyhow . . . Cal-Babe and I went through everybody’s smelly stuff.”

Cal reiterated. “We took anything we thought of that caused a scent.”

“True.” Rickie nodded. “We had this
bitchin
’ time. Whoa . . .” he looked at Cal. “If we had fun under the extreme pressures of sci-fi death, imagine the cool times we’re going to have when we’re roommates.”

After getting a glance from Carlos, Jake stepped to the table. “I don’t think we are going to extend the invitation to live with us so quickly.”

“We?” Cal looked at Jake. “We, as in you and me?”

“Well . . .” Jake stammered. “I meant . . .”

“Awfully presumptuous, don’t you think?” Cal asked.

Rickie intervened, “It’s completely understandable, Cal-Babe. He’s making assumptions because he’s latched on.” He took a whiff of cologne, then dabbed himself with it. “Should have seen it coming, dudes always latch on to the babe they lose their virginity to.”

Cal started to laugh.

Carlos had enough. “Rickie,” he snapped. “I’m gay. Jake’s a virgin. You want to bust on anyone else during this really inappropriate time?”

With his mouth swishing from side to side, Rickie looked up to the ceiling for a moment in thought. “Um . . .” He shook his head. “Nope, I’m done thanks.”

Carlos gave up and went back to mopping.

Sadly Stan’s raised his eyes as he placed the receiver down on the phone and looked up at Dr. Jefferson. “Nothing.”

Dr. Jefferson swallowed. “How long has it been now?”

Coughing, Stan flipped a page in his folder. “Nine forty-five this morning was the last hourly check in we had. We gave them till eleven and have been trying ever since.”

“There are no cameras down there. Do you think perhaps there’s a problem with the satellite hookup?”

“I thought of that,” Stan said. “But that would be impossible. We can still watch the remaining participants. Dr. Jefferson, has this ever happened before?”

“What? Lost contact? No.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. I have a bad feeling. Do you think something has happened to them?”

“If it has,
then
it wouldn’t be the first time.” Clicking the pen he held, Dr. Jefferson placed it in his pocket. “Keep me posted.”

“How can you do that?” Stan stood up following him. “How can you have a such-is-life attitude? These four people are part of our team. They’re part of us.”

“That they are,” Dr. Jefferson told him firmly. “But they, like the rest of the participants, agreed to go. They knew the risks. They took them.” Without any more words, Dr. Jefferson walked out.