Human Trial

Posted By timothy on April 7, 2010

HUMAN TRIAL 2: ADAM’S WAR

For reviews of Human Trial, a SORMag “Fiction Book of the Year” nominee, go to http://www.amazon.com/Human-Trial-Timothy-Stelly-Sr/product-reviews/0982272200/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Excerpt

Daron couldn’t recall whether the walk back to the hospital took five minutes or an hour. All he could recall the walk home was Regina’s grip on him, that left the imprint of her fingers imbedded around the musculature of his upper arm. Swirling through his mind were the events that had taken place in the woods. His fear had ebbed, but adrenaline still fueled him. The what if still lingered…what if his kidnapped child had been spirited away to another world? What if his friends accused him of letting them down? Would they have turned on him? The frightening image returned; Adam held by the spindly, alabaster arms of a being not of this world. He considered himself blessed.

No one uttered a word as they headed toward the hospital, and did so with the robotic mannerism of beings who were hypnotized. Their expressions were a collection of relief and weariness. The only sounds were the rustling of dry leaves and grass beneath their boots, and the rattling of their weaponry as they trudged homeward. The silence seemed to imply that no one knew what to say, or perhaps were buried deep in thought.

Upon entering the lobby of the hospital, Regina sat with Adam. Bobby and Sara clung to her, as the others plopped down on the various pieces of furniture; all but Daron, who stood in the center of the room with his hands on his hips. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and quietly thanked God for the return of his son. His eyes then searched the faces of the other adults present: the Reverend Horace Carson, whose eyes were closed in quiet meditation; Dr. Kevin Conner, who was knelt in front of Regina and was searching Baby Adam’s body for pin pricks and indicators that he had been used in an alien experiment; Gordon Peters, who looked weary, yet at the same time, relieved; Josephine Bertolero, whose placid expression masked the fear coursing through her frame.

On the other hand were Imani Carson, the Reverend’s daughter, and Pete Jefferson, who found peace brought on by their belief in a higher authority. Finally there was Melvin Hicks and his new bride, Cheryl, who found a shared strength by holding onto one another. The anxiety left Daron, as if his feet and fingertips opened and allowed the tension to leak from his body.

Daron cleared his throat. “Does anyone remember what happened last night?”

His question was followed by a long silence, as if everyone had been afflicted with amnesia. Daron sensed that most of them had been put under after they’d fallen asleep. Furthermore, those capable of remembering might have been repressing frightening memories.

Daron turned to the ones who’d stood guard that night. “Can any of you recall anything?”

Pete’s hands twitched as he spoke. “I was doing push-ups,” he began. His speech was deliberate, as if the events still troubled him. “Josephine had radioed to us that everything was fine. Kevin suggested we wait twenty minutes and gather at the front of the hospital for a coffee break.”

Pete swallowed audibly, then continued. “As I went to push myself up, I found that I couldn’t. At first, I thought I was having a stroke, until I looked up and saw an alien standing over me.” Pete shook his head, as if he still didn’t believe it. “The alien said something to the effect of, ‘Don’t be afraid. You will remain unable to move until we complete our mission.’ It was the damndest thing.” His voice dropped several octaves. “The voice was soothing as anything I’ve ever heard.”

Josephine spoke next, all the while grimacing. “Yeah, that voice…As soon as I heard it, I was sure that no harm would come to me. It was strange, because when I first saw one of them approaching, I tried to reach for my rifle, but couldn’t move my muscles. Then I…” Her eyes widened. “The alien before me had on some sort of metallic belt. All the while he spoke, he had his hand on it.”

She looked at Daron. “What about you? What did you find when you woke up this morning?”

“As always, I turned to face Regina.” Daron looked at his wife, who was listening intently. “I noticed that she felt cold, and I feared the worst. I tried to wake her, to no avail. I checked to see if she was still breathing, then I did the same with Bobby and Sara. When I tried to wake them, they too, were unresponsive. That’s when I noticed Adam was missing.”

“Did you try waking any of us?” Melvin asked. No sooner had the words left his lips when he felt foolish for asking. No matter how dire the consequences, Daron could think clearly and would have known better than to make a blind foray into the woods, whether he was armed or not.

“Yes, but all of you were out cold. That’s when I grabbed my gun and went to find Adam.” Daron began to pace. “All the while I prayed that those creatures hadn’t taken him away for good.”

“Who’s to say they won’t be back?” Pete asked.

“For what? They accomplished their mission,” Daron said. “After what we’ve seen and heard, there’s no need for us to remain here.”

“So we just head off to the Midwest?” Pete almost felt like laughing, but the subject was far too serious. “That’s a pretty big region. It’s going to be kinda hard to find friendly faces if we don’t know where to look.”

“I’m sure there will be some tell-tale signs along the way,” Daron said, at a loss for something more substantive. He wasn’t sure if he believed his own words.

“You’re both missing the larger point,” Reverend Carson said. “How are we going to get from point A to point B?”

Kevin stopped strumming his fingers on the table to add, “More important, how are we going to travel roads that are sure to be blocked with abandoned cars, human and animal remains, and God knows what else?”

The others began to fire off their concerns.

Sara: “What about wild animals?”

Regina: “Will the children be able to handle such a strenuous trip?”

Melvin: “How are we going to get vehicles to run, when there are no available batteries?”

Pete: “What if we don’t reach the Midwest before Winter?”

Bobby: “What about food?”

Cheryl: “How will we deal with illness?”

It was Horace who provided the necessary calm. He stood and said, in his resonant preacher’s voice: “I don’t know if all of you believe or not, but I don’t think that the Lord would carry us this far only to let us fail.” After a brief silence fell over the room, he continued. “We have to believe that we can do this. True, it isn’t going to be a Sunday drive down a country road, but all these questions sound like ready-made excuses, like we’re trying to convince ourselves that we shouldn’t take on this challenge.”

“Okay, so let’s take this one question at a time,” Daron said. “No doubt we’ll have to leave immediately. The question is, how?”

“Cars and trucks are not part of the equation,” Cheryl said. “The wagons, go-karts and bicycles are our only options.”

“Can’t use the go-karts” Melvin countered. “There’s no telling if we’d be able to keep them gassed up, and doing so might require us going out of the way.”

“What do you suggest?” Horace asked.

“We bike it.” The murmur that followed indicated their agreement. “We’ll need a rotation between every available adult to operate the tandems on the McDowellmobiles, but we can also have a couple of folks ride ahead to serve as scouts. I volunteer for that,” Melvin said. Cheryl also volunteered to serve as a scout.

“We’ll have to stick to the back roads,” Gordon said. “And we’ll need to find places to rest.”

“But what if we’re in the desert?” Sara asked.

“We’ll pitch tents,” Melvin suggested.

“A lot of good that will do in the event of a serious storm,” Josephine said. “I’m originally from the Midwest. Kansas, to be exact; and I can tell you that tornadoes ain’t nothing nice. Neither are flash floods.”

“Like I said, let’s trust in the Lord and in our own toughness,” Horace reiterated.

“So the majority of the group will have to be moved by the McDowellmobiles,” Daron said. “The fewer, the better.”

“The desert sun will be something else, so we’ll have to cover them,” Gordon said. “I’ll get a couple of folks to go out with me and see if we can find some heat-reflective material.”

Regina stood and with tremors in her voice, broached a subject no one else had considered. “I think we might be getting ahead of ourselves.”

Josephine looked up, puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“What if the aliens simply want to get us in the middle of nowhere and try something?”

“Like what?” Kevin asked. “They had us all last night, and had another opportunity to eliminate us this morning.”

“Maybe they’ll use us to find other humans and once there’s a large number of us…” She looked around at the others. “Ask yourselves, why would they put us through all of this, and then leave?”

Kevin held onto Adam as Regina began to pace the floor.

“They could have reduced the population significantly, told us what they wanted us to know and departed. Why did they annihilate so many people?” She let her words linger. “No there has to be more to this, and—”

“Stop it, Regina,” Daron said sharply. His snapping caught everyone off guard. He walked up to Regina and slipped his arms around her. To Regina, his embrace was more than a symbol of his affection, but a reflection of his confidence in his ability to protect their family. “Kevin’s right; if they wanted us dead, they could have killed us several times over.”

Regina sat back down, this time, with Daron at her side.

“We’d better remain armed, just in case,” Pete intoned. “No telling who or what we may encounter in the desert.”

The meeting continued a few more minutes, and from that point it was agreed that Kevin and Pete would man a wagon used to haul food, blankets and tents. A second wagon would be captained by Horace and Gordon, and would be used for transporting water and additional weapons (mainly their stash of grenades). The final wagon would belong to Daron and his family and Josephine. Gordon agreed to build an attachment to two of the wagons to haul four bicycles, in the event there were breakdowns, or as Melvin and Cheryl grew weary from scouting. It was further agreed that throughout their travels, they would search, whenever feasible, for a battery to operate some sort of gas-powered, high-passenger vehicle. Though none of them stated so, no one believed that such luck would come their way.

The MMDs (they were still fond of their moniker), immediately went to work. They broke into groups, with Regina, Josephine and the children loading one cart with blankets, towels, food and the tents they had used their first night in Lake Consuela. Melvin, Cheryl, Pete and Gordon looked over the bikes, then made a trip to a local shop for spare parts. Afterward, they loaded the water, weapons and ammunition into one of the wagons, along with lanterns, propane gas and radios. The food supply was made up of the remaining hospital MREs, all the beef jerky found in local markets (praying all along it was still good), and an assortment of canned items.

Dr. Conner tossed his medical bag and a rudimentary first-aid kit into the back of one of the wagons. Gordon threw in a couple of hacksaws, pliers, wrenches, hammers, nails, screws,  bolts and other tools they might need in the event of repairs. The last thing loaded was grenades, but only a couple dozen.

Knowing that at some point, they would encounter a stretch of monotonous sand and mountain vistas,  Bobby and Sara also threw in several board games and sets of trivia cards. Regina also made sure to include Daron’s written and pictorial history of the group. While the others loaded the carts, Daron and Imani spent three hours staring at a map of the United States and charting the trip and alternative routes.

***

Imani ran her hand over her face, then with her index finger, tapped the spot on the map where Stonecutter was located. “We’ll have to take the state highways,” she said, looking at Daron a long time before adding, “If possible, once we hit western Nebraska, we could travel the Oregon trail. Hell, it worked a hundred odd years ago.”

Daron laughed, unsure as to whether or not Imani was serious. “More than likely, we’ll wind up taking a circuitous route along some out of the back roads,” Daron opined.

“People trying to escape the heat were thinking the way we are now, meaning the state highways will be as congested as the interstates.” Imani shook her head. “This is going to be a rough trip.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Okay,” Imani said with a wide grin. “Back in the day, and I’m talking way, way back, it took the pioneers six months to cover two thousand miles. They traveled between ten to fifteen miles daily.”

Daron countered, “With modern roads, no fear of Indian attacks, not having to gather livestock or having to cross various rivers, I’d say we have a window of three months before the weather gets bad. That’s even if we cover but twenty miles a day.”

“God forbid we should encounter a freak snow storm, or as Josephine hinted, a tornado.” Imani added, “We’ll also have to factor in the time it takes to set up camp, break it, and time spent preparing the meals.” She knew by  Daron’s expression that he did not see that as particularly difficult. “Also, the desert gets cold at night, so we’ll have to be able to make fires along the way.”

“That shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“Carrying wood with us might prove problematic, so we’ll probably have to use sagebrush and whatnot.”

“We can torch abandoned vehicles,” Daron said. “Then again, if things get hectic, we can always find a place to hole up for a few days or weeks. The main problems will be finding enough food and fending off vermin.”

Imani chewed on her bottom lip. “The stores will be of no use, as most things are probably spoiled by now. What will we do then?”

“Good question,” Daron said, rubbing his chin. “We don’t want to have to pull a Donner.” After Imani flashed a look of shock, Daron smiled and added, “I was only kidding.”

Imani smiled wanly. “Okay, but we still have to consider the possibility that finding food will be very difficult, if not impossible.”

“Since the trip will take months, and our intergalactic friends decided to restore our climate, perhaps we’ll find some vegetation along the way. If so, we’ll harvest it as we go along.”

“And if not?”

Daron shrugged. “Maybe we eat grass or wild weeds.”

“We’d better get a book to make sure we know what we’re picking.”

Gordon arrived, just in time to catch the tail end of their conversation. “We’re going to have to do some serious rationing of food,” he said, as he ran his hand over his chin, which had been stripped of its thick red mane. “As for the other supplies, everything’s up and ready to go. Also, we’re going to need a couple of days to add covers to the McDowellmobiles.”

“Fine by me,” Daron replied.

“We’ll have to get outta here at nightfall,” Imani said. “Around noon it was ninety, degrees. At least, that’s what I overheard Pete telling Cheryl.”

Regina came over. She rubbed her arms as if a sudden chill had come over her.

“The sooner we depart this mausoleum of bad memories, the better,” she said.

“Right now, all I want to do is take a nap,” Gordon said. He looked at Daron. “Wake me in time for dinner, will ya?”

“Sure,” Daron said.

“You look like you could use a few winks as well,” Gordon said before departing.

“Let’s you, me and the kids go lie down,” Regina said.

She was exhausted, but also felt relieved by the fact that her family was intact. Daron put one arm around her waist and toted Adam in the other. The Turners retired to their room for what turned out to be a fitful afternoon of sleep.

***

It took two days to modify the McDowellmobiles. The covering was constructed from heat reflective tent material and shock cords. The materials were then tied down to the frames of the carts using bungee cords. The front and back of the wagons were protected from the sun by white sheets.

Their last day at the hospital ended with a half-day of rest and a final hearty dinner. Horace issued a prayer and Josephine, for reasons she kept to herself, cried. Once the sun kissed the mountain tops on its westward descent, Daron took his seat at the helm of the first wagon.

Regina took one last look at the hospital and felt a sense of relief. No more worrying about alien abductions, wolves, or drug addicts living amongst us, she thought.

Kevin and Pete pulled out behind them. Neither held a sense of nostalgia for the facility. As their wagon crept forward, neither of the men bothered to look back. Horace and Gordon took up the rear, with Imani content to lie in the back of the wagon. All three kept their eyes riveted on the road before them.

The MMDs began their eastward trek with trepidation and steep mountains as their most formidable barriers. Melvin and Cheryl pedaled bicycles. The pale lamps on the front of their Schwinns illuminated the stretch of asphalt that would take them from Pleasant Valley, California, toward an uncertain future.

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