Monster Nation(83)

The girl wasn't crying but she wiped at her face anyway. Maybe it was hot in the interrogation room and she was sweating. 'I wish I didn't make Nilla get out of the car,' the girl said. 'She could of helped me, maybe.'

'Nilla?' The interviewer asked. 'Who's Nilla?'

The girl's face hardened into concrete and she stared at the interviewer with blazing eyes.

For some reason'a hunch, perhaps, a stab of intuition'Clark leaned closer to the glass.





Monster Nation





Chapter Two


Chemo isn't helping. Laetrile, interferon, gene therapy, mega-antioxidants: nothing. Soon I'll be down to dried tiger pizzles and psychic surgery. [Lab Notes, 10/30/02]

She never actually lost consciousness. She couldn't even faint.

The pain squeezed her down to a narrow field of view, like peering through the slats of a set of Venetian blinds. Solid black filled the rest of her vision. When she closed her eyes energy buzzed and crackled and spat all around her.

Mael, she thought. Mael, I didn't betray you. I tried to do what you asked.

nilla,he replied, but she could barely hear him.nilla, what's happened to you?

Her body felt like a torn-up rag. Ridges and threads of pain dug through her midsection, flesh and bone torn away from each other, organs punctured and deflated. Her stomach muscles hung slack and useless. She could not have stood up even with assistance.

Under her head the constant burr and rattle of the Space Van's wheels on pavement hurt her teeth, turned her eyes to bruised jelly. Even her brain hurt. She couldn't breathe'not that she needed to, but it would have felt infinitesimally better to be able to exhale a long and lugubrious moan.

'You cut her to pieces. There's no pulse, Rick. No breathing. She's dead!'

'If she was one of them she would be up and at our throats. Just keep her alive long enough that we can get her out of Nevada. I'm not taking the heat if it turns out she really was from the Chamber.' Mellowman stepped into her field of view. Looking down at her his face turned bunched-up and porcine. 'Listen, my little Muffin. If you die in my van I will shoot your corpse,' he said.

'Get back, alright? It's hard enough doing this while we're moving. Jesus'could we slow down a little?' Something sharp slid into the flesh of Nilla's bicep. A hypodermic needle. Of all the pointless things' She tried smiling a little and found to her surprise that she still had a little control over her facial muscles.

'Dead my ass, look at that.' Mellowman stared deep into her eyes. 'She likes it, she likes whatever you just put in her arm.'

'Just a reflex, Rick. Don't get excited.'

Mellowman shook his head. 'Who are you working for, lady? Who sent you? Playing dead isn't going to save you from a beating. Talk to me, f*cker!' He leaned very close until she could smell the stink of garlic and sausages on his breath. 'I know you can hear me, you stupid cow!' When she failed to respond he pursed his lips and let a dollop of drool dangle out of his mouth. It wobbled back and forth, yellowish and full of bubbles. It filled up her vision and instinctively she tossed her head to the side to avoid it.

He sucked it hurriedly back into his mouth. 'I got you!' he screamed, and then he started kicking her.

She went limp, as best her savaged muscles would let her.

Eventually he stopped.

Nilla'it's hard for me to find you, where are you, lass?

She could hear Mael calling her but through the pain his voice was a little light floating far out on an ocean of darkness. She lacked the resources to answer.

Nilla! I can barely sense you out there, talk to me!

Later, but still long before the dawn. Darkness outside of the window in the van's rear door. Occasional arpeggios of light as they passed under streetlamps, pizzicato flashes of red as they passed a car going the other way, few and far between. Mike, the one with the needles, had his arms around her, moving her back and forth. Maybe trying to wake her up. He pulled a blanket around her as the van slowed, pulled away from the lights. The back door fell open and she was pushed and dragged out, onto loose dirt. She could feel the van's exhaust farting against her leg, hot and dry.

The desert at night: close and comforting, the very opposite of the expansive emptiness of day time. The darkness, near total, pushed in close looking to share your warmth. The few sounds were mournful and polite.

'Welcome to Arizona, Muffin. Home of f*ck-all and plenty of it,' Mellowman bellowed at her, his face very close to her ear. She couldn't stand on her own. If Mike let go of her she knew she would fall. 'I'm going to shoot you again. In the head this time. If that still doesn't kill you we're going to bury you in a shallow grave. If you dig yourself out of the grave then I will come back and shoot you again, until it works.'