Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus

mumbled, sounding like he was weeping. “I am not a hamburger. I am Bodo!”
    I stepped over and rubbed his back. “That’s right, babe. You’re not a hamburger. You’re my boyfriend, and I love you.” It slipped out, but he was unconscious, so it didn’t matter that it had been done in front of a megalomaniac and while he was tied up.
    Bodo’s head snapped up. “You luff me!” He was grinning again, his chapped lips looking pitiful.
    I leaned in and kissed him gently on the mouth. “Yes. I do. Now just relax and let the mushrooms wear off. We’ll get you home soon.”
    “Okay,” he said, lazily. Then he looked at Kiersten, his expression turning to one of hate. “I told you. I am Mr. Bryn , not Mr. Kiersten.”
    She laughed. “He’s nuts, you know that?”
    I smiled. “Yeah. I know. Friggin Germans.”
    We stood quietly for a minute, both enjoying the moment of girl-connection that was unexpected for me and from the looks on her face, for her too.
    “Where are you going when you leave here?” she asked. “You with those indians out in the swamp?”
    “Native Americans. And no, not anymore. But, you know, if you could not advertise them being out there, that’d be good. They don’t mean anyone any harm or anything. They want to do what you’re doing.”
    “Yeah. I know. But hey, if you’re trying to keep a lid on the whole secret society out in the swamp, that’s too bad.”
    “Why?”
    “Because everyone knows about them already. The fucknuts down the street were already planning their invasion.”
    I huffed out a heavy breath. “Well, I’m glad we put a stop to that, then.”
    She laughed bitterly. “That’s what you think. They aren’t the only ones out there.”
    “I know. I saw some up north.”
    She shook her head. “No, you’re not getting it. They have a network, that goes from the Keys all the way up to Georgia … maybe farther. Word’s out on you, girl.”
    “What?” I said, whispering, unable to use my regular voice because my throat had closed up in fear.
    She lifted her eyebrows. “You didn’t know?”
    I shook my head silently.
    “You’re the girl that bit that guy’s balls off, right?”
    My mouth dropped open. “How … how …” I shook my head, trying to wrap my brain around the concept. “How could you possibly know that?”
    “I told you. Those assholes have friends everywhere. Or at least people who don’t want to cross them. You bit the nuts off one of their fucking kingpins. Or one of his nuts anyway. You left enough of him intact to generate an awful lot of hate. That guy’s coming for you, and trust me, they know you’re here.”
    I felt sick to my stomach. “We need to get out of here,” I said thickly. I waved for Winky to come over.
    Kiersten shook her head. “Not gonna happen. He’s not going anywhere for about …” She lifted his chin again, prying one of his eyes open, “… three hours. At least.”
    “How do you know?” I asked, my head drowning in possibilities and probabilities. I couldn’t sort it all out. Winky and Rob came up the stairs in time to hear her answer.
    “I’m good with chemistry.” She could probably see from our expressions that it wasn’t a good enough explanation, so she kept talking. “Doesn’t matter. What you really want to know is that I was working on a project at school that was being funded by the government. I was low girl on the totem pole, but I was privy to everything they were doing. I cleaned the rat cages and sterilized the equipment. They were close to cracking the code to the virus that killed everyone off, but they just didn’t get there in time.”
    “It wasn’t just them working on it,” said Rob.
    “No. It was the entire world - the first time a virus had been turned into a priority by every scientific body on the planet. Even the hacks were in on it. And they came damn close, too” she said, shaking her head in memory. “But then we lost some of the key players, and eventually it was just us -the rat cage kids-left. And we didn’t know what to do with what they’d found, so it all just disappeared. Samples were destroyed, the virus didn’t survive long outside of live hosts.”
    “So it was a virus, then,” said Winky. “I mean, I heard it was genetic engineering in the tomatoes or something.” She half-laughed.
    “There were several theories floating around. But that was the one that came out on top. Something they’d done, altering something or messing