Bite Me

hacky-sac rot from someone like him.”
    “Gentle down, biscuit, Kona has him feelings, too.”
    She reached into her messenger and came out with a retractable pen. She unscrewed it, squeezed Tommy’s blood into the cap, then handed it to Kona. “There.”
    The Rasta man sucked at the pen so hard he nearly aspirated it, then sat back on the dock and dazzled a wide, white grin. “Ya mon, takin’ the ship home to Zion.”
    Abby’s cell trilled. She checked the screen, said, “It’s Foo,” then answered and turned away.
    Tommy could hear Foo Dog on the phone, begging Abby to come back to the loft right away. He shifted his focus to Kona. “Why?” he asked.
    “Shoots, brah, a mon love his blood ganga, so jumpin’ ship be powerful hard, but when I sign on the Raven ship she have a crew of twenny. Dey say dem boys leave, but they ain’t jumpin’ ship when we out to sea five days. Dat Makeda deadie, full on African biscuit, too, she eatin’ me shipmats, Jah’s mercy. Only Kona left now.”
    “You? You’re the only crew on a ship this size?”
    “Ya mon. That Raven, she sail herself.”
    Abby turned around. “We have to go.”
    “What?” Tommy asked.
    “Foo said all the rats are dead. All of them.”
    Tommy didn’t understand. He looked at the sky, which was starting to lighten. “We can’t get over there now.”
    Abby checked her watch. “Fucksocks! Sunup in thirty.”
    RIVERA
    The sky was lightening behind the Oakland hills and the pink light reflected in the glass front of the Marina Safeway made it appear to be on fire. The Animals stood around their cars, unslinging the tanks and Super Soakers of Grandma Lee’s tea. Clint had Barry’s spear gun, and was holding it as if it were a holy relic.
    “We’re out,” said Lash Jefferson. “What are we going to tell Barry’s mom? We don’t even have a body.”
    Rivera didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t thought of the Animals as people, really. It was wrong in so many ways he didn’t have time to count them up. Not just endangering the public, but actively drawing citizens into a secret operation that got them killed. Amid all the unreal things that had happened, having Barry plucked out of their ranks was too real. Too wrong.
    “I’m sorry,” Rivera said. “I thought we were prepared for them. They’re just cats.”
    “The Emperor told you that it wasn’t just a cat,” said Jeff, the big ex-power forward. He was scratching Marvin’s ears and the cadaver dog was smiling.
    Rivera shook his head. It was the Emperor. He was a loon. How could you know that that part of the story was true?
    “Did he have a wife, girlfriend?” asked Rivera. “We could put together some money for her.”
    “No, he didn’t have a girlfriend,” said Troy Lee. “He worked graveyard shift like the rest of us. Got high in the morning, slept until time to go to work at eleven. Girls won’t put up with that shit.”
    The other Animals nodded, sadly, for Barry and for themselves.
    “You can’t quit now,” said Cavuto. “You don’t even know if your spray works. Don’t you want to see? Get revenge?”
    “What’s the up side?” asked Lash.
    “You save the City.”
    Lash slammed the car door. “We have two hours to get our whole night’s work done. You guys need to roll out of here.”
    Rivera said, “Can we have a couple of those sprayers, then? And you guys should keep them with you. We know that Chet retraces his territory. You might be territory now.”
    Clint reached into the back of his Volkswagen, grabbed a Super Soaker, and threw it to Cavuto.
    “Great,” said the big cop, “I’m going to save the friggin’ world with an orange squirt gun.”
    “Okay, in the car, Marvin,” said Rivera. He opened the rear door of the Ford and Marvin leapt in. “Call us if you need us.”
    The two cops drove off. On the roof of the Safeway, the vampire Makeda checked her watch and squinted at the eastern sky, which was threatening sunrise.
    OKATA
    Okata had never been to the Levi’s store on Union Square, yet that’s what the burned-up girl had drawn on the map, so that is where he went. It appeared to be a good place to find blue jeans. He handed a young girl the list the burned-up girl had given him. He paid in cash and left fifteen minutes later with a pair of black jeans, a cotton chambray shirt, and black denim jacket. The next mark on his map was the Nike store, and he left there with a pair of women’s running shoes and a pair of socks.