Another furry bastard entered, wearing a red angled sash, and both the torturing alien and the robot momentarily bowed their heads. Must be someone in charge, Kyle thought, and tried to say something—to tell the one in charge there’d been a terrible mistake. That he wasn’t supposed to be there. But like the Gumby man, he was voiceless.
Kyle felt sick as he watched the alien in charge move from one upside-down prisoner to the next. Red sash hesitated then began to openly defecate, his excrement plopping down below onto a widely spaced metal grate. Disgusting. Kyle closed his eyes, the only aspect of his present life he had some control of, and trembled as the footsteps approached.
Deep in thought, Holg moseyed between the savages’ hanging carcasses. As disgusting as the Pashier were, these humanoids were worse. Their lack of intelligence… their pink, now exposed, flesh… so revolting. He symbolically looked upward and silently asked Thonna, the god of all gods, what he should do next. Above and beyond finding the Pashier’s ship—destroying the wretched heritage pod—and exterminating the one called Tow, what about this world? At some point, like the others, would it too require extinction? To be cleansed of these vile creatures—these ungodly life forms? Not lost on Holg was their similarity to Mahli. Yes, dangerous to let the humans evolve much further. He contemplated what another cleansing would entail—weeks, if not months, of eradications. Relentless plasma strikes into primary population centers. Dispersion of Dirth, of which only so much remained within their storage canisters. He needed to decide if this foul planet warranted using that limited supply up.
Chapter 21
As they sped through the town of Woodbury and passed in front of the firehouse—the noise coming from the wailing air raid siren made Cuddy want to cover his ears with his hands. He was folded into the bug’s cramped back seat, while Jackie drove and Momma occupied the passenger seat. Every so often, Momma glanced back at him, looking concerned. And every so often, Jackie’s eyes found him in the rearview mirror. Before the three of them had rushed out to the car, he had dropped the bombshell about the alien… and the spaceships. Cuddy couldn’t worry about their concerns and doubts about his sanity—not now, anyway. He had his own issues to deal with at present. For one thing, his mind had continued to transform over the hours since he’d sat within the confines of the Evermore’s wellness chamber. Cuddy thought about Tow and his decision. One that fundamentally changed Cuddy’s life. Perhaps Tow hadn’t considered the ramifications of bringing a human into the chamber—the adverse effects that would ensue. Tow had told him that Pashier and human brains were so very different. Tow had contemplated on that—on the fact that, from a technological evolutionary standpoint, the Pashier were obviously far more advanced. Tow had said the human brain was much larger—with their hundreds of trillions of firing synapses and exponentially greater capacity for learning.
At the moment, Cuddy’s cognitive processes were overwhelming him. The rapid transition—going from being an imbecilic child-like individual to… whatever he was now—had adverse effects. It was one thing to be smarter. But that hadn’t compensated for the simple fact his emotional state was constantly in flux. He was spending so much time with self-talk—reining in the wild spikes of feelings—one moment joyful the next sorrowful. One moment angry the next something else. He wished Tow was here. He’d tell him how to cope… what he needed to do.
“What is it, exactly, the nurse told you on the phone?” Momma asked Jackie.
“Only that there had been a change in Dad’s condition and I should get myself to the hospital as soon as possible. I don’t think the nurse wanted to tell me over the phone. I’m worried sick that it’s something bad… I just want to get there.”
Cuddy felt the little car accelerate. He watched as Jackie took the next turn faster than she should have.
“Well, don’t kill us all in the process,” Momma said. “I’m sure he’s fine, dear.”
“You doing okay back there?” Jackie asked.
“I’m good,” Cuddy said, giving her a more confident smile than he was feeling.
“For goodness’ sake!” Momma said. The hospital was a madhouse of activity. An ambulance was dropping someone off as another was just pulling in. Dodging a stream of pedestrians, Jackie impatiently urged an old lady to move it along. It was quickly apparent the lot was full, and Jackie was forced to park on a nearby side street. Getting out of the car, Momma told Jackie to run ahead, she and Cuddy would catch up. He watched her sprint for the double doors beneath the big red Emergency sign. He felt for her, while mentally checking his emotions—one more time.
Momma took Cuddy’s arm in hers—something she had always done. He had a tendency to wander off at the slightest provocation. Something he knew would no longer be an issue. He smiled at her—and he found the human contact was comforting—grounding.
“Let’s hurry it up, Cuddy,” she said, quickening her stride.
Up ahead he saw Officer Plumkin’s SUV pull up to a red curb. He flung the driver-side door open and quickly got out. He repositioned his gun belt as he half ran half walked toward the hospital. He yelled, “Out of the way… come on… get out of the way!” opening a path for himself between the people moving too slow for him.
“Maybe it’s the radiation,” Momma said. “People getting sick from that damn power plant.”
Cuddy didn’t think that was it. Before Momma had turned it off, they had listened to the radio on the drive over, and the announcer had relayed the latest scientific information coming out of the NRC, the Nuclear Radiation Commission. The levels were significantly higher than normal, but not lethal. At least not for the short term. The news caster had made it clear, this was no Chernobyl or Three Mile Island situation. Cuddy wasn’t really sure what those two references meant—but it did seem that things weren’t as bad as they seemed.
So why all the activity here? he wondered.
Momma and Cuddy entered into the frenzy—all the emergency room seats were taken and hordes of people were standing around the periphery. Momma approached a middle-aged couple Cuddy recognized as two school teachers from the high school. He thought one or both of them may have been Kyle’s teacher at one time or another.
“Catherine?… Don?… what in God’s name is going on here?” Momma said, almost sounding angry.
The two, both looking distressed, glanced to each other. Catherine said, “Dotty… you must have heard… it’s unbelievable.”
“What is? What’s unbelievable… the power plant?”
Don shook his head. “No… well not entirely that… Dotty… there’s been sightings… hundreds of them all over the state.”