“You find something?” asked Floyd.
“Yeah,” Ada shouted. “Get on the radio, get that hot cop fill-in chief up here with those two Harvard brains. I need them here now.”
After seeing he understood her instructions, Ada went back into the woods.
Kit Modine could be an obnoxious asshole and Ada realized that when she heard the blip-blip of the siren when they pulled up.
There was no reason for it other than to be annoying.
She went out to the road and saw the three of them, Kit, Art, and Niles walking toward her.
“What’s going on, Ada?” Kit asked. “How come you’re up here?”
“If your man Floyd had any sense of hunting I wouldn’t be here,” Ada said. “He let a deer slip through to my property. I shot it.”
Art asked. “Was it ill?”
“No, thank God, it was fine. No signs at all of the fungus. You can check if you want.”
“When was this?” Kit asked.
“About three hours ago,” Ada answered.
“What took you so long to come up here?” asked Kit.
“I had to field dress the thing,” Ada told him. “Didn’t want to waste good meat.”
“So what’s up? Why the urgent call?” questioned Kit.
“This way.” Ada waved her hand and led them off the road into the woods. “Whole area looks off. Lively. But not sure that’s the best word. Until I saw those. There are more. But those three are the closest.” She pointed to the mounds. “Go take a look.”
Kit led the way, with Ada staying close to Art and Niles.
“I’ve seen a lot in my years,” Ada said. “I have never seen anything like it.”
They stopped before the first mound. From a distance, that was what it looked like, a mound of greenery, until a closer look exposed a hoofed leg.
It was a carcass of a deer.
Part of the animal had decomposed, but instead of insects and maggots devouring the flesh, it was covered with a green and golden grassy and leafy substance. Almost like a new fur, it blanketed the deer, covering it nearly completely with the exception of one leg, and part of the head.
Niles bent down closer to the face of the animal. A portion of the head remained along with the nose. The strangest part of it all was the eye. It was an oxymoron. Dead but alive. From the blank, lifeless, brown eye grew some sort of foliage. A single green wiry stem with a clover-looking end grew straight from the open pupil.
Niles crouched close to the animal in his examination, then looked over his shoulder to Art. “My God, what have you done?”
19.
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW
May 9
When Eb was going to be a first-time father, because of one small fainting episode when they broke Cass’ water, he was wasn’t permitted in the labor and delivery room. That was more Cass than the hospital. He remembered that day well, pacing outside the door, waiting for updates.
He had the same feeling standing outside the motel, waiting on Art and Niles.
Bill had come out of the hotel office with updates they had phoned to him, but nothing concrete.
He had been outside the room all night, catching a nap here and there on the bench located in the smoking area.
No one told him to wait, but when Eb had found out they discovered something with a deer up by Miller Run Road, he merely was asking about it.
Art told him, “Listen, I know you talked about taking Lena to California. Not really sure how feasible that can be. You may want to hold off until we know something.”
Know something? Know what? Eb wondered.
What had piqued his curiosity even more was in Ada’s kitchen. Niles was there, and Lena’s friend Trixie as well.
“So you’re going with them?” asked Eb. “To experiment on this deer.”
“I found it,” Ada answered.
“But what do you know about this sort of thing?”
“Nothing. But I want to see and hear firsthand.” Ada looked at Trixie. “You’ll watch her, right?
“Absolutely,” Trixie answered.
“Doctor Craig will be by two more times. There is soup in the fridge to heat, please try to get her to eat,” Ada said. “I’ll let you in on what we find out.”
Eb wanted to scream. What did they find on that deer? Was it sick? Was the fungus still alive and well?
“Trixie,” Niles said, “what did you see on your way here? Anything peculiar?”
“Not really. I wasn’t looking for anything except driving,” Trixie replied. “But”—she reached for her phone—“I did see something strange when I went to my friend Anita’s house to check on her. I saw the same at Lena’s house. I didn’t know if this was the norm. I knew from Lena doctors were here in town.” She handed him the phone. “I took pictures of Anita.”
“Wait,” Eb said. “You took pictures of your dead friend?”
Eb could hear the hard breath seeping through Niles’ nostrils as he stared at the phone. “This is new. Show this to no one. Not yet. Not until we have answers.” He handed the phone back.
“I won’t.”
The last straw come when Eb asked Trixie if he could see and she told him no. It was then he decided to tail Niles and Ada and had been at the motel ever since.
“Anything?” Cass asked as soon as she approached Eb.
“Nothing,” Eb replied. “Like nothing I have ever seen. They have been in there all night long. Cass, they said something about me maybe not taking Lena to Los Angeles.”
“For her health?”
“No, I think it has something to do with what they found with that deer. And whatever it was Lena’s friend saw something like it in LA.”
“How do you know?” Cass asked.
“She showed Art a picture of her dead friend.”
“Oh, that’s so wrong. Did you see it?”
“She wouldn’t show me.”
“That’s even more fucked up. But you know those Hollywood types. So, we don’t know?”
Eb shook his head.
“Do we know what was found with that deer?” Cass asked.
“Kit didn’t tell you? He was there.”
“That fucker. No, he didn’t.” She placed her hand on her hips and shook her head. She stopped cold when she saw Kit. “Let’s ask him.” She led Eb, marching to Kit before he got close to them.
“Six more people,” Kit said. “Are you gonna open up your house to let someone live there until we figure out things?”
“No,” Cass replied.
“What?”
“No, that would mean I would have to clean. Anyhow…”
“Anything yet?” Kit asked.
“Kit.”
“What?”
“What is up with that deer Ada found?” Cass asked.
“You didn’t see it?”
Eb and Cass shook their heads.
“Oh, man.” Kit pulled out his phone. “Take a look.”
Cass took the phone. “What is it with people taking pictures of… oh my God!”
“Yeah.”
Cass handed the phone to Eb. “What is that? It looks like the ground grew over it.”
“I know, right, and that thing wasn’t dead that long. Two days. In my opinion, our two science guys know what’s up.”
“How do you know?” Cass asked.
“Niles said to Art, ‘what did you do?’”
Eb’s eyes widened. “This is crazy. So the people that started the end of the world are here, alive and well.” He gave the phone back to Kit.
“According to them, the world was ending any…” His speech slowed down when Art, Niles, and Ada emerged from the hotel room. “How.”
Art walked over to them, leading Niles and Ada. “We need to talk.”