Wolf Asylum (30 page)

An hour later, the three men were seated in Doctor Gagnon's former office. Teddy was again clothed and in a stronger emotional state. Despite all that everyone knew about each other, the tension in the room was still rich enough to make everyone feel nauseous.

“The only way to close the gate and prevent Marta from bringing her anti-Christ into our world is to kill us all. We are causing the gate to open. Our numbers have an influence on it,” Darwin said as he paced the room.

“We can't stab everyone or even shoot them, they'd just run away. If they left the area wouldn't that be enough?” Steve asked.

Darwin stopped in front of the bar and poured three whiskies while he considered his position. “If we let them live they might start other colonies near other gates. No, we have to end this now.”

“Why is the gate opening so bad? They made you; wouldn't it be like having family around?” Teddy asked Steve.

“I was becoming one of them Teddy,” Steve said with piercing eyes. “They were inside me in the underworld and there wasn't a thing I wouldn't have done for them. The pull they have over you. Think the one thing in life you would never do, ever! With them around, you'd relish in it. I almost killed Darwin at the mere suggestion. That's the one thing I would never do, but I would have done it for them.”

“They used us,” Darwin said. “They could care less about us. Making the perfect town and cleansing the world, all they wanted was the gate opened. Once that happened, we were expendable.”

“How do we know killing everyone will stop this?” Teddy asked.

“We don't. If we remove the key, meaning us…then maybe the gate will shut. It's our only chance,” Darwin insisted.

“So, how do we kill everyone?” Teddy asked with reluctance under his tongue.

“Did you get those samples we asked for?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I want to try and make a biological weapon with it. The poison in the bio matter with some silver nitrate should be able to infect and kill everyone. We must find a way to deploy it though.” Darwin looked to his two friends, hoping they could offer some advice.

“Airborne would work best,” Steve put forward.

“I'm no bio chemist,” Teddy replied. “You know from what I've seen, we are really addicted to children, in particular the fetus. Why not get more, infect it with the stuff from that Cronin guy. If everyone is addicted to it as I am they won't be able to say no, especially if it's being offered for free.”

“
Teddy!
” Darwin shouted. For a moment Teddy slumped in his chair for suggesting the idea but then Darwin absolved him of the responsibility. “That's pure brilliance! You're damn fucking right that will work!”

Darwin ran over and picked Teddy up giving him a big hug. They both laughed like they were young and innocent again.

“Not to be Debbie downer, but what's going to stop us from eating it too?” Steve asked. It was a valid question. Had Steve come back to life just so he could die a few days later?

“I have an idea. It's risky, but it might work,” Darwin said as he calculated in his own mind.

“Where are we going to get more fetus, I don't think there's enough here to feed everyone,” Teddy admitted, being fully aware there were no more bottles in the hospital. Like a child without restrictions, the good doctor let Teddy return for more whenever he wanted. He was like a child in a candy store and with no will power he kept eating until it was all gone.

“Special Handling has many young women who are pregnant. We can abort those pregnancies. That should give us more than enough bio matter,” Darwin said.

“You want to forcibly terminate pregnancies?” Teddy asked in lust and disgust.

“There's no other way,” Darwin acknowledged. “We've done horrible atrocities. Well, I have…I've engaged in…in things I'm not proud of. You would both follow in my footsteps if enough time passed. Killing the young…yes it's a horrible thing to do. Even as monsters we know the difference between right and wrong. Ask yourself, could you really keep yourself from eating them? It's deep inside all of us and sooner or later we will all give in to that desire. That's why it has to end. With their lives we end this!”

“What do you propose?” Steve asked.

“First we get the samples, second we start the abortions and third we announce a town celebration, a Harvest Festival, tomorrow night! In twenty-four hours, the disease will be inside everyone and the war against the underworld will be won!” Darwin proclaimed as the leader.

“I hid the samples in the morgue…under your mother,” Teddy said abruptly.

Darwin hushed for a second. He hadn't been to the morgue since his last encounter with his dead mother. He was surprised he had forgotten about her. Darwin had taken such care in handling Steve's parents that he had overlooked his own mother. He convinced himself it had nothing to do with seeing his dead mother hop off the slab and then proceed to make out with him.

Any real psychologist would confirm that his experience was probably a very good reason why he had forgotten about his dear old mom.

Steve said in earnest, “Teddy and I will take care of the abortions. You go and take care of the samples and anything else you must do.”

Darwin froze, not wanting to return to the morgue but also not wanting to explain his reluctance. He shuddered. He wished Steve had volunteered, but he didn't.

He never agreed. His hand had been forced and Darwin now had an impromptu meeting scheduled with his deceased mother.

Marie Foster looked the same as the last time he had set eyes on her. Her face had been frozen to the moment Steve had snuffed her out. It was then Darwin realized it was not him who was afraid to see his mother, but it was Steve who avoided her.

Steve had a good relationship with Darwin's mother. To have murdered her for his own purposes left a deep scar. Darwin had killed many nameless people and that's what made it easy for him. In reality, Darwin had never taken the life of anyone he felt any kind of connection with. Steve had, and that revelation was huge.

Darwin wasted no time lifting his mother up looking for the blood work. He immediately found the three syringes and placed her back down on the slab. For a moment he looked at her as he held the frozen samples thinking he should feel something, but there was nothing there. It was the nothing that he felt that made him feel guilty.

“Mom,” he said. “I'm sorry I let you down. You raised me to be better than I am…at least for the first few years of my life. I know you wouldn't be proud of me. I've done horrible things Mom.” He laughed nervously, hearing his own words. “On top of that, your son is a faggot. How does that make you feel?”

Marie lay in stone silence, absorbing his words but keeping her opinion to herself. Frustrated, Darwin slid her back into her tomb and slammed the door.

He held on to the handle for a long while, more than five minutes, with his eyes closed. He was now convinced more than ever that it wasn't what his mother thought about him that bothered him, it was what he thought of himself that bothered him. Darwin hated himself. He loathed the person he was and no matter what changes he made to himself, the old and tainted version still existed.

“I hate me. I can't stand who I am Mom! No matter how many people I hurt the pain just goes on. I kill one, two, three then a hundred, but I keep feeling wrong. It's no wonder I can't make a friend. I'm awkward, cold—isolated. I can't hide behind my past forever and yet I can't stop! I'm fucking useless!” he cried.

“Not responsible?” he shouted with a slight slip. “
You're
goddamn responsible! Not being there makes you responsible! Where the
fuck
were you when I was getting beaten every day? Where were you when Zack was having his way with me, when Cornell taught me how to kill? Where were you when Steve and I were planning our suicide? Where were you when we siphoned your liquor and drank ourselves unconscious? Where! You weren't even there for the simple shit!”

Still the steel remained frigid and silent.

“I just want to die, Mom. That's all I want. I want to call a do-over. This life is done, let me start over,” he implored.

After a few more minutes to mull in the silence, he lifted his head and began the walk back to the upper floor. He turned from his mother's tomb not saying good bye or promising anything in the way of closure. He was making a break for it holding on tightly to what he had come for.

He began his march away from his past learning nothing more about who he was or what he should do. Like his childhood, he continued to feel neglected and he realized that was unlikely to change.

“So, why did you come at me last time?” he asked, turning around, expecting to see his zombie mother waiting for him. He half-heartedly hoped she would be there to end his suffering. “Last time you…”

Darwin gagged at the memory of what he had experienced in December; his last visit. Had it been real? Was it just imagined? The vaginal fluids on his lips and the taste they left all seemed incredibly real. At that very moment he could still visualize the taste and smell. It was sticky and off-color, like shrimp that had gone bad.

“Mom! Why?” he snapped. “Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy. I know I'm not right in the head. I'm so disconnected from my emotions that I can't function! I'm afraid to let people in! I don't trust anyone! Even when I'm with Steve there's a part of me that locks down. Can't you see what you've created?”

He turned to leave but before departing he asked one final thing without looking to the freezer. “Tell me you hate me, tell me you love me—but at least tell me that I existed, please.”

With no answer, he lowered his head and made his way to the exit. For the first time he felt confirmed in his solitude, abandoned by his family. It was hard to feel worth when no one in his family was around to care for him.

His path was now a fork in the road. He could continue on alone shielding his feelings from others. He could terminate his own life and report to the void where he would one day end up, anyway. The less likely option—so it seemed—would be to create a new family of his own.

Death was preferable. Even with Steve back, Darwin was prepared to throw in the towel. Darwin was damaged goods.

Darwin found himself part-way down the hallway when he remembered he had one more thing he had to get off his chest before turning his back on his mother forever.

Running back into the morgue he found the freezer and slab open and his mother was now missing. Without a moment to even turn around to run Darwin felt a strong hand on his shoulder that forcibly pushed him into the stainless steel table in the center of the room. As much as he resisted, the frozen hand pushed down harder until his chest lay flat on the bench.

Darwin heard some fabric tearing but he knew he wasn't changing; he was too frightened to change. The harder he struggled, the more pressure his body experienced. He wished he could change but his power was completely absent. There was nothing he could do except allow the punishment to carry out.

He couldn't see his mother, but he knew it was her. Worse than a visit to the doctor, Darwin felt fingers pushing into his rectum through the new tear in his pants and they were ice-cold. He cringed and begged for forgiveness, clenching his ass cheeks and curling his toes at the same time.

A moment of reprieve came when he felt the icy intruders leave his anal cavity. Sobbing, he relaxed for a second and he found himself in prayer, even though he wasn't praying to any god in particular.

His amnesty ended as quickly as it had begun as Darwin felt a large fleshy object enter him, hard like an icicle but much larger than fingers. In seconds it was clear he was being fucked as he could feel the body slapping against his. Every time he tried to move, the force of the hand pushed a little harder.

He was pinned. He had hoped for death, but instead he was getting the physical example of his life.

“Mom, please,” he whimpered.

The cold, hard object continued to assault him, pounding harder with each thrust. Darwin could feel no pain, only a growing ache and numbness. Finally, Darwin managed to move his head slightly, giving him a view of the mirror over the sink.

He didn't want to know and yet at the same time he did. How was it possible? Seeing it would only confirm what he was feeling, possible or not, it was happening.

In the mirror, he found exactly the opposite of what he had expected. He found nothing at all. The mirror was empty and the feeling in his backside was now gone even though his insides were bitterly cold. At the realization his rape was over, he raised himself off the table and saw that his mother had once again returned to her home.

Darwin reached around and found the hole in his pants. Pushing in further with his own fingers he could feel the trauma surrounding his anus. A cold, gelatinous fluid covered the area. Not wanting to know more than he did already he ran from the morgue.

When Teddy and Steve rolled up the driveway to Special handling they both had mixed emotions.

Teddy had spent much of the last six months on the property and had been re-born into his new life here. For all the horrible things that had occurred, it was also this place where he had finally broke through his own emotional barriers. Even though he had only come to absolution though torture, he was there all the same.

Steve, on the other hand, hadn't been to the old nursery since before dying and before becoming a werewolf. He hadn't seen Clint in as long as he could remember. He wasn't quite sure how an abrupt meeting would go. He was supposed to be dead, and everyone knew that. It would make the meeting unusually tense.

It was Steve's job to kill Clint. Darwin had handed over a knife, the same kind he had used to kill Evita Gagnon with. It was a simple steak knife from his mother's dinnerware which had been stored in a wooden box under the china cabinet. Darwin had all the silver in town removed and sold off early on, but he had forgotten about these.

Swiping the security card Darwin had given them, the city vehicle drove right up to the main house. Like a matter of routine, Clint ran outside to greet the visitor whom he expected would be Darwin.

“Darwin!” he hollered as he made his way down to the driveway. On the landing he saw it wasn't Darwin but another recognizable face. The vehicle stopped and two men exited. Clint said nothing.

“Hey Clint,” was all Steve could muster to break the ice. “Where is everybody?”

“Business is slow; had to let go most of the guards.” Clint hadn't even noticed Teddy standing closer. His eyes were transfixed on the person he knew was dead. “This is wild.”

“What can I say…I'm back from the dead!” Steve smiled. “The place looks different; you've really cleaned it up, looks good.”

“We had an accident last December. A lot of this has been rebuilt,” he said in shock. “You died?”

Steve laughed, “yes I did, but I'm back!”

“Well, fuck me blind! Steve is back! Does Darwin know?” Clint asked, growing excited.

Steve walked over and put out his arms to Clint, which was accepted as a hug right away. The knife slid down Steve's cuff and he put himself in position to end his friend.

“Darwin knows. He brought me back,” he whispered. “I started this whole thing—and now I have to end it.” Steve shoved the knife into Clint's back and gave it a quarter twist.

Clint pulled back, briefly reaching for the knife but quickly surrendering. He looked at Steve in disbelief and collapsed.

“Pretty heartless, man,” Teddy said in disbelief. “Is killing that easy for you?”

“I'll take him inside,” Steve said, avoiding the question. “If there's any blood, can you clean it up?”

Teddy watched Steve hoist the body over his shoulder and marched up the stairs to the house. He kicked the door open and a second later they were gone. The reluctant participant looked around but found no evidence of the crime that had just occurred. He waited for Steve to return, unsure of what to do next.

Teddy looked around, finding nothing familiar. He had been brought to this place in the dark of night and never saw much of the facility. He was under ground only for a short while before he was requested by name. When he came out of the mine, he was escorted directly to the building numbered Ten. It was there he spent the rest of his time sequestered from the rest.

Standing as one of them, the place seemed harmless.

“Okay, Teddy; let's roll!” Steve jabbed as he flew down the stairs. “The women are in sector B, we enter the mine through the main entrance and a few hundred feet down we hang a right.”

“I thought you weren't involved in this place?” Teddy questioned now, wondering how he could know the layout of the mine.

“I use to work here, long before the lycanthropy. I know the underground; it's where Clint had his marijuana growing,” Steve said, surprised Teddy didn't know. “After you and I had…after the incident Darwin and I turned to alcohol. Clint found us trying to lift some at the store. He stopped us and made a deal we couldn't refuse. He bought us liquor and we worked the nursery. Eventually, he brought us in to the drug operation and soon we were getting weed as well as booze.”

“Was it really that bad?” Teddy asked with genuine concern plastered across his face.

Steve stopped short of the mine entrance and looked Teddy in the eye. “It wasn't what you did Teddy; it only started with you. Yes, you did and said awful things, but when you walked away it didn't end. Someone else would pick up where you left off. Texting, social media, it came at us from every direction, usually faceless and anonymous, but it never ended. We turned to substances because we needed to escape it, if only for awhile.”

“I'll make things right, one way or another,” he said.

“We have our whole lives to say we're sorry. If you want to put things right, then we have to do one more dark crime. I'm not sure how this will work or if we can even we control ourselves. If you feel like you're starting to lose your cool, just leave the room. If it comes to it we might have to eat to tie us over. This is gonna suck balls, Teddy.”

“Which part? The killing of unborn children or working at an all you can eat buffet and be starving while you're doing it?”

“Honestly, the buffet part,” was all Steve could say as his own stomach began to rumble.

The breeding program was too kind a term to describe what existed in sector B. In the cool dark coal shaft was a hundred or more woman who all appeared to be in one stage of pregnancy or another. The eyes were sunken along with their cheeks but that was barely noticeable compared to the rib cages where every bone was obvious.

Subjects of the inhumane program stumbled to their feet like a pack of dogs that heard the can opener, only they moved like the walking dead. The occasional woman was clothed, but most paraded around in the nude.

“Who wants to go?” Steve asked, attempting to remain civil, new to the traditions of Special Handling.

A young girl staggered her way forward volunteering. She looked no older than fourteen and through the magic of malnourishment she may have been much older. Steve put his arm around the frail frame and brought her in close, rushing her down the tunnel away from prying eyes.

“We'll get you some place warm, something to eat and maybe a hot bath? Does that sound like a good start?” Steve asked softly as he stroked the child's face.

Like a vicious dog the girl clamped down on Steve's hand and tussled, tearing away his skin. She growled and snapped more animal than either Teddy or Steve had; her actions catching them both off-guard. The searing pain from her bite finally forced Steve into action and allowing gravity to pull her off, as he swung his arm.

The girl landed a few feet away and grinned with blood trickling down her lips. She smirked and gulped with satisfaction.

“I'm like you now,” she said in delight.

“Fuck!” Steve yelled. “Teddy kill her!” he demanded, passing him the knife.

“What about the babies?” he asked, holding the dagger with a quake.

“Gotta be sure, gut her and terminate whatever she carries,” Steve instructed as he watched his hand heal.

Teddy poised himself with the knife in hand ready to kill. He could already see the girl was looking healthier than before but she still had a crazed look in her eye. He jostled to the left and then back to the right hoping to keep her distracted. She watched as the novice hesitated and with each second he waited her body became more lycan and her ability to resist increased.

“Do it Teddy!”

“I'm sorry,” he said as he lunged underhand sliding the silver blade into her bulbous belly. Teddy found the girl clawing at his face, struggling against the assault; yet, even she seemed surprised. Teddy kept his eyes on her the entire time as he watched her life spark out of existence. Instinctively, he had forced the knife through her womb underneath her rib cage into her heart. He did it as a natural move with perfection.

“Okay, this might be harder than I thought. They're no good to us if they infect themselves! We must come up with a plan so they can't keep doing that.” Steve looked down at the three chunks of material falling out from the girl.

“Are you going to eat that?” Teddy asked with some slobber leaking from the crux of his mouth.

“We probably shouldn't, the babies could be lycan and at the very least she may be toxic from the silver. We might have to try that magic now. They're frail enough I think we can handle it,” Steve said as a bead of sweat traversed his face.

A half hour later, Steve and Teddy returned to the women, this time dressed up in military wares with proper padding and shielding. The duo looked like members of an elite emergency response team wearing all black with helmets, slick leather boots with the pants tucked into the top. On their arms and legs were shields of hard plastic that could have easily been intended for a lacrosse player. Ready for battle, they re-entered the arena without their blood lust.

The change in approach was noticed immediately when the killers returned. No one could be certain what had happened to the last girl but they were smart enough to know the pleasantries were over.

“Stick to the plan…slash 'em and move on to the next. When it's done…we'll get what need. Ready?” Steve whispered.

Teddy shook his head. “Is this right?”

Steve looked at him with the most callus look and chose not to respond. Steve ran up to the first woman and began his decent into Hell. For a moment Teddy hesitated then eventually sided with the plan, no matter how barbaric it was.