Dismay turned to horror as Kim watched the figure lurch toward her with a slow, dragging gait, still sniffing the air as if following a scent. Kim held her breath and prayed the cat would be still. When the figure was a mere ten feet away, Kim shrank back into the dark recess of the shed, pushing against tools and bicycles.
She could now hear his footfalls in the gravel. They came closer, then stopped. There was an agonizing pause. Kim held her breath.
Suddenly the door was rudely yanked open. Losing control, Kim screamed. Sheba answered with her own scream and leaped from Kim’s arms. The man screamed as well.
Kim grasped the flashlight in both hands and turned it on, flashing the beam directly into the man’s face. He shielded himself from the unexpected blast of light with his hands and forearms.
Kim’s mouth clamped shut in surprised relief. She recognized it was Edward!
“Thank God,” she said, lowering the flashlight.
Scrambling from her position wedged among bikes, lawnmower, and old trash containers, Kim burst from the shed and threw her arms around Edward. The beam of her flashlight played haphazardly in the trees.
For a moment Edward did not move. He looked down on her with a blank expression.
“I can’t tell you how glad I am to see your face,” Kim said, leaning back so she could look into his dark eye sockets. “I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
Edward did not respond.
“Edward?” Kim asked, moving her head to try to see him better. “Are you all right?”
Edward exhaled noisily. “I’m fine,” he said at last. He was angry. “No thanks to you. What in the hell are you doing out here in the shed in the middle of the night, dressed in your robe, scaring me half out of my wits?”
Kim apologized effusively, stumbling over her words as she realized how much she must have frightened him. She explained what had happened. By the time she was finished, she could see that Edward was smiling.
“It’s not funny,” she added. But now that she was safe, she smiled too.
“I can’t believe you’d risk life and limb for that lazy old cat,” he said. “Come on! Let’s get in out of this rain.”
Kim went back into the shed and with the aid of the flashlight located Sheba. The cat was hiding in the far corner behind a row of yard tools. Kim enticed her into the open and picked her up. Then she and Edward went into the house.
“I’m freezing,” she said. “I need something hot like herbal tea. Would you like some?”
“I’ll sit with you for a moment,” Edward said.
While Kim put the water on to boil, Edward explained his side of the story. “I had intended to work all night,” he said. “But by one-thirty I had to admit it was impossible: My body is so accustomed to going to sleep around one, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. It was all I could do to walk from the lab to the cottage without lying down in the grass. When I got to the house I opened the door and then remembered I was carrying a bag full of the remains of our pizza dinner which I was supposed to put in the Dumpster at the lab. So I went around back to put it into our trash. I guess I left the door open, which I shouldn’t have done if only because of mosquitoes. Anyway, I couldn’t get the goddamn covers off the trash containers, and the harder I tried the more frustrated I became. I even hit them a couple of times.”
“They’re new,” Kim explained.
“Well, I hope they came with directions,” Edward said.
“It’s easy in the light,” Kim said.
“I finally gave up,” Edward said. “When I came back around the house, the door was closed. I also thought I smelled your cologne. Since I’ve been taking Ultra, my sense of smell has improved remarkably. I followed the scent around the house and eventually to the shed.”
Kim poured herself a mug of the hot tea. “Are you sure you don’t want any?” she asked.
“I couldn’t,” Edward said. “Just sitting here is a strain. I’ve got to go to sleep. It’s as if my body weighs five tons, including my eyelids.” Edward slipped off the stool and staggered. Kim reached out and steadied him.
“I’m okay,” he said. “When I’m this tired it takes me a second to get my bearings.”
Kim listened to him struggle up the stairs while she put away the tea and the honey. Picking up her mug, she followed him. At the head of the stairs she looked into his room. He was on his bed asleep with his clothes half off.
Kim went into the room, and with a great deal of difficulty got his pants and shirt all the way off and put him under the covers. She turned out his light. She felt jealous how easily he could fall asleep. It was such a contrast with herself.
18
Sunday, October 2, 1994
In the misty predawn light Edward and the researchers met halfway between the cottage and the castle and trooped silently through the wet grass to the lab. They were all in a somber mood. Inside, they poured themselves cups of morning coffee.
Edward was considerably more dour than the others, and he had improved from a half hour earlier when he’d first awakened. As he’d gotten out of bed he’d been shocked to find a carcass of a chicken on the floor that looked as if it had come from someone’s garbage. It was encrusted with coffee grounds. Then he’d noticed his fingernails were filthy, as if he’d been digging dirt. In the bathroom he’d looked in the mirror and saw that his face and undershirt were both smeared with filth.
Everyone carried their coffee to the area of the lab they used for their meetings. François was the first to speak. “Even though my dose of Ultra was more than halved, I was still out last night,” he said gloomily. “When I woke up this morning I was as dirty as I’d ever been. I must have been crawling in the mud. I had to wash my sheets! And look at my hands.” He extended his hands, palms up, to show a myriad of shallow cuts and scratches. “My pajamas were so dirty I had to dispose of them.”
“I was out too,” Curt admitted.
“I’m afraid I was as well,” David said.
“What do you think the chances are we wander off the property?” François asked.
“There’s no way to know,” David said. “But it’s one hell of a disturbing thought. What if we had something to do with that vagrant?”
“Don’t even bring up the possibility,” Gloria snapped. “It’s beyond contemplation.”
“The immediate problem could be the police or some local inhabitant,” François said. “If everyone in the town is as worked up as Kim says they are, one of us might be confronted if we go beyond the fence.”
“It’s certainly a concern,” David said. “I suppose there’s no way to know how we’d react.”
“If we’re functioning on our reptilian brains, I think we can imagine,” Curt said. “It would be a survival instinct. We’d undoubtedly fight back. I don’t think we should delude ourselves. We’d be violent.”
“This has got to stop,” François said.
“Well, I certainly wasn’t out,” Eleanor said. “So it’s got to be dose-related.”
“I agree,” Edward said. “Let’s halve our doses again. That will take the maximum to one fourth of Eleanor’s original dose.”
“I’m afraid that might not be enough,” Gloria said. Everyone swung around to look at her. “I didn’t take any Ultra yesterday, and I’m afraid I still went out. I’d intended to stay awake to make sure no one else did, but I found it virtually impossible to keep from falling asleep no matter what I did.”
“Falling asleep quickly is something I’ve been doing since I began taking Ultra,” Curt said. “I thought it was due to the level of activity it caused during the day. Maybe it has something to do with the drug itself.”