Hernandez leans down to look at the creature. Something...green. Hmm...large enough to be a human, the limbs are proportioned like a human's...
"Ya told me to call if I got anythin' strange," the farmer says. "I shot it wit the gun you gave me..."
"That's..." The words freeze on his lips.
"Yes," Harrison says, realizing what he was thinking. Not one of ours.
"Put up a hell of a struggle," the farmer continues. "Bet he woulda tried to chew 'is leg off, 'f he'd had the teeth..."
"He's got teeth?"
The farmer touches the creature with his toe, lifts up the head so they can see the mouth,
drooling slightly, a few small teeth visible in the jaw.
"Look at that, an eyepatch..."
"Dr. Harrison?"
"Yes?"
"What should we..."
"Get it out of the trap and into the lab. One of the isolation chambers. Don't forget to treat that leg wound."
"Right."
Harrison turns to the farmer. "Anyone else seen this?"
He shakes his head.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
She puts her hand into her wallet, peels off a couple of bills, shows him the amount. "You saw a really large 'gator. You understand?"
He nods.
They've got the beast strapped to the wall, which is good enough, kept it in the
darkness at her request. "It's more advanced than anything we've created," Anderson told
her. "By far. We're fairly sure it has the capacity for speech--"
"Hasn't said anything?"
"No, Dr. Harrison."
"What has it done?"
"Snarled, mostly."
"Brain size?"
"Comparable with a human's."
"Responses?"
"The reflexes are good, seems to be pretty strong. Stomach contents say'd it's been living
out there in the swamp for some time...the diet probably weakened it, a little."
"Surprised there's no malaria...test the blood. See if there's a resistance."
"Right."
"I'm assuming you're already checking..."
"Dr. Harrison," Anderson says with false shock. "You think I'm so absentminded..."
"No, Dr. Anderson," she says coldly. "That's why I assumed you were already checking.
I imagine we can put it to some sort of useful purpose...don't you?"
"Unconcious again," Anderson says. "Keeps drifting in and out...you'd better feed it
the next time it wakes up, it's losing nutrients..."
"All right. Do you have everything ready?"
"Ready as it'll get. But you're gonna have to come down here and wait."
"You know, it's not as if I have any other work to do..."
"Fine. You want me to train it?"
"I'll be right down."
Pain.
Hunger...
"Hello," a female voice says pleasantly. "Are you hungry?"
He lunges at the food; a shock, numbness...
"No, darling," she says with that false friendliness he's always hated. "You have to be
nice..."
He snarls at her; another, less painful shock.
"Nice," she says gently. "Be nice, and you'll get something to eat..."
"Dr. Harrison," Johnson says, sitting beside her, "I'm always in awe of your training
techniques."
"Yes," she says, feeding him a scrap of meat, "I think it's been quite effective."
The creature settles down on the floor, rests its head on its arms.
"Almost human-looking, isn't it?"
"Almost."
Johnson picks up the stethoscope on the counter, dangles it just within its vision. "Hey,
there, wanna play?"
It opens its eyes, stares at Johnson. He keeps bouncing the stethoscope, trying to get its
attention, touches the stethoscope lightly to its beak--
Everything goes crazy; there's Harrison, pulling on the chain, hard, trying to choke it
down...the stethoscope's smashing into Johnson's face, again and again, harder and harder
and harder...
"Jesus," someone says. "Is he still alive?"
"Don't know, somebody check for a pulse..."
"The tranquilizers, get 'em over here, where the hell have you guys been?"
"Lobotomy?"
"Think it's the only choice..."
"Turn him over, he's gonna choke on his own blood..."
"What about thorazine?"
"That's the best way to start, we don't know how a creature like this will react...we can
always do surgery later..."
"I still think you should just--"
"Works fine with humans, Hernandez, but it's not human...God forbid the surgery makes
him worse..."
"Shit, we can't lose him, what am I gonna tell his kids?"
"Shut up and help me start CPR--"
His head...the fog's clearer, just a little, maybe it's a new drug...
Drug?
Yes...he can feel the IV in his arm. The last months come back to him, a rush, the pain in
his leg-- hell, it's healed, healed already--
How long have I been here? I gotta get out...
Get out, back to the bayou, back to the life he's known, just him and the swamp...but not
the only life, there's something else, something older...
You weren't always alone.
Mike?
Memories he's tried to forget, had forgotten, Leo, Don, Mike...they appear in his vision,
smiling, a little sad but...
My brothers...how could I have forgotten you?
He tries to throw his arms around them all, but they shift, dissolve, ghosts.
Further back still, a woman, a rat, some wingnut with a hockey mask...
Splinter, Casey, April...what...oh, God...
The loss hits him, as hard as it did before, so much pain, so much suffering...
No, Splinter says. Raphael, listen to me. You cannot go back to
insanity...you are needed, Raph...
His mind cries out. Who the hell needs me? They're dead, you're all--
Think, my son, the voice says, calming, soothing, as it always was. Think of
what you have seen and heard in these past months...
Images from the haze in his mind...Harrison holding him by a leash, her foot on his
neck...did that really happen? Cattle prod, he remembers getting stung...
He shakes his head, tries to get some clarity...shit. Not even worth the effort.
Like it matters what they did to him...and then he remembers.
"How long do you think it'll take?"
"Don't know. I wish we'd found some way to..."
"Yeah, but after a while-- I mean, we lost three females that way, we didn't even have
time to cut the eggs out before they died--"
"Yeah. I know. Maybe the injections will work--"
"They're our only hope. One of the infants never hatched, but we've still got three to
work with..."
Still got three to work with.
My son, Splinter's voice says, do you know what you must do?
Yes, Sensei. I know.
He closes his eyes, knowing he needs to rest for the battle to come.
"Look, he's calming down."
"Good," she says. "I wouldn't be surprised if this was the end of our troubles with
him..."
"Sleeping. That's good, he hasn't slept in a long time."
"When he wakes, we should take him to see the young ones."
"You think he'll be all right?"
"At this point. Turtle males aren't that violent towards the young ones, anyway...but I
don't want to take any chances. We'll keep some restraints on him."
"The harness, maybe?"
"That might work...keep the tranquilizers handy, of course."
Feels like he's putting himself back together with tweezers and Superglue.
Superglue...remember the time Mikey tried to glue his shell to the ceiling to see if the
glue was really that strong? Then he couldn't get back down 'cause he was stuck? And
they let him hang there for a while, so he wouldn't do anything stupid like that again?
They all laughed so hard tears ran down their faces...
Hurts, letting it come back. Hurts like hell...
We've still got three to work with...
C'mon, Raph. Pull it together. They need you...
They're in a wire cage, three of them like they'd said...oh, damn, they're
cute.
Were we this cute, Splinter?
All babies are cute...but yes, Raphael, you were. So sweet, so open to the
world...
He stretches himself up on the side of the cage, feels so good to stretch out his legs
again...
The man's speaking. "Look at that...wonder what it is?"
"Probably showing dominance." That one's always confident, sure she's right...
I'm showin' em they can stand up, you morons, Raph thinks. Shit, how long
have I let these bozos hold on to me? Don woulda thought his way around 'em...damn,
months ago...
The little guys-- wait, wait, not guys, two males and a female...a girl, man, that's
something new-- run to the side of the cage, copying him, stretching up-- if anything, they
look a little more human than he does. He wonders when they'll start talking, how much
time he has.
How the hell can I tell that one's a girl?
They reach to touch him through the bars of the cage, and he leans down, puts his fingers
through, smiles at them a little-- just enough so they know it's a smile but the humans'll
stay in doubt-- wonders if they'll let him in.
Oh, they're beautiful, God, they're so
sweet...
Damn harness is driving him crazy, he feels like a friggin' dog...
She opens the cage door and he's there, he's in...have they named them?
They've got numbers painted on their shells...is that the best they could do?
"Look at
the way Uno's reacting to him," one of the guys says.
Yep. Guess so...Sheesh, Raph thinks, we can do better than that... He
meets the girl's eyes, grabs her by the waist, embraces her. She curls her arms around his
neck, clings to him.
"Wow," someone says, "wasn't expecting that..."
"Suppose he thinks of her as a potential mate?"
Getcher minds outta the gutter, boneheads. She smiles at him; dammit, she's
learned how to smile...he thinks of April, not even consciously, and her name appears:
Hannah. One down, anyway...
Wakes up to Harrison, smiling, touching him...no, a dream, a memory...shit.
Such a fog...how the hell did they get that mutagen?
From him, somehow,
had to be...
The blood samples work, but if we want to try fertilizing a female...
Leave it to me.
You sure, Dr. Harrison?
No, no, got to be his mind working against him...right? A dream, half-real...
There were needles. He remembers needles, feels them brushing against his skin...pain.
More pain, too much pain...
Why do I have to be the one left? They were...God, they were so much better than I
was, smarter and stronger and...why? Why did I have to watch them die?
He feels himself sinking again, and he surrenders to it.
The next time he comes to, they're half-dragging him out, in the harness again, back
towards the cage...Dammit, something was important about the cage...
The kids. The kids are there, grinning at him, scrambling up the sides of the cage...he
holds out his arms to them again, and he's let in, they even unhitch the harness this time--
so stupid, do they really think he can't undo the straps?
But that's not what matters; they're what matters, and he grabs them all in one big hug,
Rizzo and Hannah and Michael.
They drag him to the side of the cage, where their blocks are, get him to help them in the
all-important job of stacking them up and knocking them down.
They're so smart-- too smart, pretty soon they'll realize, start trying to brainwash
them...
I gotta move soon.
How? How when I can't even keep my own shit together?
The smell...it's so familiar...Mike's at the stove, cooking...ah, man, that turkey he
used to do, what the hell was it? Turkey a L'Orange...God...
"C'mon, bro," Mike says. "Eat up. You'll need it..."
Ease out the IV, slow, careful, they can't notice...if they notice...ah, out.
He feels better already, though he knows it's all in his head.
All in your head anyway.
He can feel the drug dripping against his skin, a little blood coming out of the
wound.
Don't worry about it, Don says calmly. It'll heal in a couple seconds. Get
some more sleep.
Another nightmare; her again, the leash, the shocks--
He fights this time, pulls against her, gotta get away--
He wakes up, pain in his wrist...
He's pulled one of the restraints free.
Crap; they'll find out I'm awake, I'm not ready...
You've done it, Leo says, too late to worry about it. Now move, before they
can get to you...
He hears Don saying Wait, wait, you can use this...
The turtle whimpers. Hernandez frowns, looks over. Pulled a restraint loose; he's
holding his right hand out, funny angle, looks like it might be broken.
"All right," Hernandez says, unlocking the cage. "Let's take a look at it..."
"Maybe ya oughta look at this one," Raph says, grabbing Hernandez's face with his left.
He slams the back of the guy's head into the cage. Damn, dislocating that wrist
hurts...easy enough to pop it back in, but still...
Leo's voice again: Ya gotta move fast, you won't have much time...
He takes the key from Hernandez, gets himself out of the straps, unlocks the waist
restraint, takes a microscope from the table and smashes the surveillance camera.
The blades...where the hell are my sai?
Harrison goes to see what the disturbance is. She's got the tranquilizer gun ready, but
she doesn't think she'll need it...he's pretty well trained at this point.
She opens the door, looks around. No one.
Suddenly, a noise-- dammit, who turned that clock-radio on?
It was a stupid idea to keep one in this room anyway, though she did like hearing the
oldies station sometimes.
Devil and the deep blue sea behind me, Sting sings, vanish in the air, you'll
never find me. She walks over to the radio, finds the off switch.
I will turn your face to alablaster--
An arm around her neck; she kicks at nothing, falls forward--
When you find your servant is your master....
It's still holding her neck, a knee in the small of her back.
"Now," a male voice says.
"Tell me what you did with the sai."
You'll be wrapped around my finger...
"What?"
"The sai, the big forks, what did you do with them?"
"Wha--who are you?"
"Who do you think I am?"
"But-- but he's still in the cage--"
He jerks her up. "Look."
Hernandez's body is tied in the restraints, his neck at an odd angle, his face bloodied...she
starts to scream and he pulls his arm tighter.
"If you really want to die like this, I can arrange for it..."
"What do you want?"
"I want to know where my shit is. And where the circuit breakers are. Now. How many
people are here?"
"Tonight? Only five or six of us..."
"When do they start coming in?"
"'Bout an hour from now..."
"Good."
Takes some thinking, but it's not as hard as you'd think; page 'em, one by one, nail
'em with the darts, tie 'em down. He's got the harness on Harrison. Seemed only fair.
The last one goes down, and he grabs her, drags her to the kids' cage.
He's gotta ask...never be able to live with... "How'd you get...you tried impregnating--
"
"We played ya soft music," she says angrily. "We took a sample, what did ya
think?"
"How?"
"Stuck a needle in the testes..."
That's one thing, he thinks. "The cattle prod?"
"It's not a cattle prod," she says, "it's--"
"Never mind," he says. "Let 'em out."
"It's an electronic lock," she says, "the breakers--"
"You're a scientist," he says firmly. "Think of something."
"What the hell difference does it make? You're just gonna kill me anyway."
"Then I'll do ya a favor. I'll kill ya quick."
Her jaw drops. "What kind of offer is that?"
"The best one you're gonna get. Now get them out."
He takes their hands, one by one, lifts them to their feet, helps them out of the cage,
calling them: "Michael." "Hannah." "Rizzo."
And he leads them to the door, opens it up, says, "go ahead. Go on out there."
They're amazed by the night, by the stars above their heads: Michael points out a bat,
swooping in the faint light. Hannah becomes fascinated by the ground under her feet, the
dampness, its strange texture...Rizzo finds a flower, touches it gently, amazed at its
tenderness...he lets them play for a while, hating to stop them, knowing there is one last
thing to do.
He can see the cars pulling in, more and more now, can tell they've found the bodies,
should all be just about in one place..."C'mon, guys," he tells them, "hurry up..."
You gonna leave me now?
We'll never leave you, Raphael, Splinter says sadly. We never left. You
just...turned away.
I'm so sorry...
There is nothing to be sorry for, my son...take good care of them. That's all...
The kids start scampering back.
"Let me see your hands-- you didn't get any on you, didja?"
They shake their heads. "C'mon, give me yer hands...all right. Looks like we're
ready."
I love you guys.
We love you, Raph. Take it easy...
Raph lights the match, drops it into the tiny stream of fluid-- it lights, spreads to the
building. He leads the kids further out, into the swamp, trying to ignore the heat, the
screaming...If he remembers it right, the highway's only a couple of miles out...
"C'mon, guys," he says, smiling down at their little faces. "We're goin' home."
###
