Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten (59 page)

“
You gotta be kidding me!” exclaimed Katie, rubbing at her temples trying to massage comprehension into her brain.

T
he final pieces were falling into place.  We finally understood why there’d been such a dramatic escalation in violence from those who were supposed to be taking care of us.

“That’s why they busted into your house,” he was talking to Tirza once again, “and killed your parents in cold blood.”

“So, all of these, so called, arrests are all bullshit?” asked Leda, her hard veneer and dark expression so intense, she looked like a bird of prey.

“Simón.”

“What the fuck are we going to do?” asked Sandy.  She looked drawn, frightened out of her mind.

“Nothing for now,” was my uncle’s immediate response.  The way he said it
, spoke of finality.  He didn’t want to be questioned in the matter, period.  “You guys just wait, stick together and wait.  My brother and I are in the process of moving to a new chante, something secure and hidden.  It is almost finished, once it’s done, we’ll send for you.

“Until then, you pendejos need to get your shit organized.  You need to some supplies together, practical shit, so if you have too, you can go on the run in minutes.  Do you understand me?”  His eyes were twin shards of frozen steel.  “And you’re gonna have to get acquainted with the cuetes and I mean like real fucking acquainted.  All of you, including you little chavala,” he said pointing at Tirza, who grimaced as if she were about to sick up.

She hated guns.  She always had and always will.  It doesn’t matter, that now, she’s an expert marksman in nearly a hundred different kinds of firearms.  She just hates having to use them.

“Get them to know the guns, Estefan, so they can protect themselves.  If the fuckers from the government find out about this little love
cocoon you got here, they’re gonna smash it like a spider’s nest.”  He rounded on me squarely.  “Don’t get caught with you dick stuck in one of these mamasitas, while one of them putos puts his submachine gun up your ass.  You get me?”

I nodded.

“Good!”  Then he reached into the duffle bag and began pulling out piles of cash.

I felt my mouth drop to the floor.  He brought out no less than fifty stacks of twenty dollars bills, stacking the
m one atop another, ten high, side by side.

Every one of us stood up at the sight of so much cash.  Even Tirza stopped crying
, standing along with me.  Her arm draped loosely around my waist, a lot of her earlier unwillingness to touch me had vanished.

“That’s fifty large,” said my uncle when he was done, pointing at the huge block of cash, “which might seem like a lot right now, but when you are the run, you burn through feria like you do toilet paper wh
en the early morning, tequila chorro’s got a grip on you.  So, take care of it, but use it to get what you need.  It should be more than enough to outfit you all nicely.”  Then he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a rumpled piece of paper.  “This is the address to the safehouse.  I suggest you guys scope out the fastest way to get there, and then come up with two or three alternate routes just in case.  Don’t fuck up on this part.  It is almost as important as getting to know the guns.  Times have changed, and so must you.  The days of chiquido no longer exist for you.”  He handed the strip of paper to me.

I looked down at it.  It was on a dilapidated portion of yellow-lined paper and it read: 5302 Monterey Road, Los Angeles, CA 90042.  There was nothing more written on it.  I raised my brow and with a nonchalant shrug, I put it in my front left pocket.

“If the shit hits the fan, you guys get your asses to the chante.  Do not go anywhere else, comprendes mendes?  Estefan, do you understand?  You get these pretty, young girls and your familia there as quick as possible.  Don’t fuck around, just go.”

I nodded I would do exactly as he had outlined, and then realized there were nods all around.  The girls and my siblings were glad to know that
,
finally,
we had a plan
and
we had a way to defend ourselves should the NIA come knocking.  It wasn’t much, but it was something.

“Good,” he bounced his head emphatically, gazing at me when another thought crossed his mind.  “The guns in there are all handguns, Estefan, but they’re not pussy-shit guns either.  They all can drop a man if
put the bullet in the right place.  The smallest in there is a 9mm Glock 23 and largest a Desert Eagle .50cal.”  He paused to point at me.  “Don’t be stupid and let little Miss Chavala fire the Eagle, it’ll knock her on her ass… might even dislocate her shoulder or break a wrist, so be smart when you are deciding who should get what, ok?”

Again, I nodded.

“How many guns are in the bag, Mr. Marquez?” asked Katie.

The fact she had knew his last name made me stop short for a second.  It came to me a few heartbeats later.  She had undoubtedly met him over the course of those years when my mother was still with my father.  Back then the Agave and the Marquez families had been much closer.  That was before my parents’ ugly, violent divorce.  Before my dad and threatened my mom, and she had bought a gun set on killing him if he ever came close to touching her in anger again.

“There are twenty-three guns in that bag,” he answered pointing at it, “and there are about a hundred rounds for each of them.  There are multiple clips for each gun as well, but they are empty, so you guys will have to load them up.  We didn’t have the time to get that shit, too much going on and all.”

“Damn, that’s a lot of guns!” remarked my cousin loudly.

“Hey, Katie Chaz, we might not all get along, but we’re still familia, even if we are only related through a marriage that has been annulled by the State of California,” countered my uncle, pointing at her now.

“You remember who I am?” asked Katie in astonishment.

“Mija, the bad boys always remember who the bad girls are…,” he retorted.  It sounded like idle banter, but his eyes held something more behind them, something maybe I didn’t quite like to see directly at Katie.

S
he astounded me, though, when she actually smiled back at him.  It was the cute I’m-innocent-but-not-that-innocent grin she had given me time and time again! 
God damn, Uncle Roberto was a sly motherfucker, indeed!
  As I watched him flirt with Katie and saw her respond in kind, I couldn’t help but think, my uncle was probably pushing into young pussy each and every night!  He was fucking smooth - a fucking asshole no doubt, but a smooth, fucking asshole to boot.

“Well, we are grateful for your help,” announced Ramona like a Katana through day old shit.

“And I am glad that you have acknowledged our assistance, chica, and are showing the proper respect,” he said, his face unreadable.  He was all business once again as he reached down and placed the duffle bag on the table next to the cash.  “Ok then, guys, remember what we talked about, remember what you have to do.  Don’t fuck up, because if you do… well, you’ll be dead, so… don’t fuck up!”

With that he spun on his heel and left.  He never so much as glanced back.  He just made his way to the gate at the side of the house, opened it, kicking the rock I had left in order to keep it propped it open, and shut it behind him noiselessly.

Seconds later, my uncle Roberto was gone, as if he had never been there in the first place.

Although, the fifty thousand dollars, the twenty-three hand guns, and the over two thousand round of ammunition he left in his wake was a pretty good indicator that he had, indeed, been
in my backyard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Summer – 2018)

Virginal Concerns

S
he walked through the sliding glass doors and onto the covered patio with an overnight bag slung over her shoulder.  She was clad in a brown and white checkered blouse, short sleeved shirt, collared and buttoned up the front.  She had on tight fitting, white short-shorts cinched about the waist with a brown leather belt and a pair of matching sandals whose straps wound about her ankles and calves.  Her pair of cinnamon-colored shades was pulled back onto her head, so that her chocolate eyes darted from one of us the next.  She was clearly nervous.

“Hey, Jolene,” I began as I stood and held out a welcoming hand to her.

She took it, our hands bouncing up and down twice.  Her palm was dry despite her uneasiness.  She had very delicate bones.  I felt like a clumsy clodhopper afraid I was going to break them.  I was born with large hands for my size, one of the few traits I had inherited from my father, and had to careful with them.  More than one girl had mentioned my hands were heavy, typically after they’d yipped in surprise when I’d swatted their butt cheeks harder than I had intended.

“Hi,” was all she said, gazing up at me as our hands came apart.  She was pretty, I could see why Johan fancied her.

She had her hair down, but it was short enough that it really didn’t require a ponytail.  Her bangs and the natural bob of her hair framed her perfectly sculpted eyebrows, narrow face and prominent facial bones in a somewhat squarish manner.  She wasn’t wearing make-up.  I could see the remnants of shadow under the sockets of her eyes, evidence of her sickness earlier that morning.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, my observation prompting the question.

She sighed through a chuckle.  “Better, though my stomach still feels a like weird.”

“It was like that for all of us,” I consoled her.  “Violent up-chucking wreaks havoc on your insides.”  It was a light-hearted jape.  I hoped to ease some of her anxiety.  It must’ve been hell for her to go through the sickness with no one around to explain what was happening, or at least help.  I couldn’t imagine having gone through what I went through without Katie.  My cousin had been a life-saver.  What would I have done without her?

She grinned thankfully, but didn’t laugh.  Her gaze shifted to Ramona as she came up beside us.  Already, I could tell my girlfriend was using her Mutation to divine what had occurred within Jolene’s body a few hours earlier.

“What do you see?” asked Katie, definitely on the same page
me.

Ramona was quiet for half a minute, but ever so slowly a smile crept across her lips.  It was the sort that reached her eyes and made her whole face glow with beauty.  “Oh man, you guys are gonna love Jolene.”

Johan’s Squeeze frowned, confused by the byplay around her, concerning his girl.  My brother came up to her side and deftly took one her hands in both of his.  She chanced a bewildered glance at him.  “Getting sick brings is the signal declaring the onset of your Mutation,” he said nodding.  “Remember what we what we talked about at the front door just now?”

She dipped her head “yes”.

“Well, Ramona’s Mutation gives her the ability to detect the Mutations in others and now… well, now she has apparently figured out ours.”  Johan smiled, then turned back toward my girlfriend.  “So, what can she do?” he asked like a kid in a candy store.

Ramona had never stopped smiling.  “She has the command of thought,” she replied.  Her orbs twinkled around the heavy eye shadow and mascara that gave her eyes more color, depth.

“What the hell does that mean?” asked Leda, still seated in the same chair she’d sat in when my uncle had talked to the lot of us.  Although now, she had her milky white legs sort of sidesaddle beneath her butt, so she sat higher.  This somehow made her look queenly.  It was the set of her slender neck and the turn of her chin, the rigidity with which she held herself – combined, she appeared – regal.

“Pssh, I don’t know how else to put it, girl.  I am barely beginning to understand this crap myself,” attempted Ramona, though I couldn’t actually come out and say it was an explanation.  “All I can tell you, when I look at her, her entire brain is writhing with electricity and every time one of us speaks it flares like the corona of the sun.  I get a touch of comprehension at what I am looking at.  It has something to do with thought or maybe controlling thought, though I
’m not certain.”  She shrugged and reached out to pat Jolene on the shoulder.  “It doesn’t matter really, girl.  In a few days, you’ll be
showing
us what you can do.  You won’t need me to tell you.”

Jolene gave her an uncertain look.  It was evident that she wasn’t quite ready to believe what the older teen was telling her.  Being a Muto was scary as shit.

“Do you understand why we asked you to come and stay with us?” I asked her after an awkward moment.  I glanced at my brother.  “You did explain everything to her when she got here, right?”

“Yeah.”

Jolene blinked at me, then followed my gaze to Johan.  “Johan told me, because I got sick, the government will now see me as a danger to everyone, including my family.  He said they believe that my sickness will cause me to hurt people, though he doesn’t believe it himself.”  Her voice was shaky and quivered around each syllable as she spoke.  She was peering into my eyes by the time she had finished.  I could tell she didn’t trust a word she had just said.  It was in her eyes.  They were still searching for answers that wouldn’t come.

I decided it was time to give her some.  “From what we’ve been told, this sickness isn’t actually a disease or ‘being sick’ as you are accustomed to being ill.  It is a mutation, a change in your DNA cause
d by the comet the NIA exploded over the earth back in 2014.”

“The comet did this?” she asked. 
There was an inkling of confidence in her tone, a sprinkle of hope.

“There was something more than just ice and rock in the comet.  There was something in it that changes certain people when they come in contact with it,” I clarified, glad she was loosening up a little.

Her immaculate eyebrows came together.  “So why did it take so long before it started to come out?”

I shrugged my shoulders.  “I have no idea.  Maybe it takes a while to settle into our bodies before it is strong enough to manifest itself.  But, hey, that’ll be a question for scientists to answer in the years to come, right?”  I grinned widely.

“Yeah, probably…”  She chortled through a huff, flaring her nostrils.

“And your parents, what did you tell them?”  I knew I was asking a lot of questions, but after our encounter with my uncle Roberto, I had to make certain all of our bases were covered.

The younger teen shook her head to either side.  “Not much, I just told them you guys were having sleepovers and Flavia had invited me.  Was that okay?”

“That’s perfect.”

She sighed.

“Come one, let’s go get you settled in then,” urged my brother taking her bag from her, pulling her back inside, since they hadn’t let go of one another.  His face was bright, almost flushed with excitement.  From a few steps to the side, I saw Flavia’s worried expression cross her face for the second time that day.  She was still weirded out by the possibility of Johan taking her friend’s virginity.

I saw Katie staring at her as well with a smirk on her face.  I know she thought Flavia was on the prudish side when it came to sex, but then again, my step-sister wasn’t a cock-gobbling freakazoid like Katie was either. 
Don’t get me wrong, it suited me just fine the way Katie was.  You would agree to if she’d ever deep throated you the way she had me.  So, enough said!

We all watched as my enthusiastic sibling lead his girlfriend back into the house to presumably would either be his or Flavia’s bedroom.

At the last second, my step-sister sprang into action and followed them, scampering on the tips of her toes.

“You think the two of them are gonna fuck, Eff?”

Well, at least she had waited until the double-paned glass doors slid back shut before she spoke.

I let my vision skip toward my cousin, not quite sure I wanted to have that particular visual in my head at the moment.  “Anything is possible, Katie.  I mean they’re young, they’re both in that half-curious, half-scared stage.  They seem to like each other a whole lot.”  I glanced over at my girlfriend, a little curious myself as to what she had unearthed from Johan and Jolene.  She had always been extremely intuitive, and now
, she was even stronger in that regard.

All it took was that one peep.  She was nodding “yes” within seconds.

“They are?” I asked, flummoxed, my voice cracking.

“Yup, I can see it, Effy.  They’ve both made up their minds, if the opportunity presents itself, they’d go for it,”
elucidated Ramona with a resigned tone.

“Can you tell when?” I asked, sounding a little desperate.

“It doesn’t work that way, you dork.  I can tell when people make important decisions based on their intentions, but I can’t tell the future!”  She walked up to me and pinched my cheek.  “You’re so cute!”

I wriggled free of her clasp.  I fucking hate being pinched on the cheek.

“Besides,” went on my girlfriend, “what’s the big deal, you’ve been fucking since you were thirteen or some wacked out shit like that.  Johan’s fourteen, almost going on fifteen, why act so different with him?”

At the end of the table, still sitting, Tirza let out a disgusted burst of air.

“I don’t know,” I squawked, fully aware I was acting hypocritical.  I had been chasing pussy since I could walk.  I’d been pushing into it just about every day since my former babysitter took me into that dark room and showed me how wondrous it felt to have my dick deep in vagina.  Ever since then, I was hooked.

So, why act so jumpy when it came to Johan doing the same?  Tirza and I had just started dating when I was his age, and within months we were rolling around on sheets, on carpets, in the grass, exploring one another’s bodies.  By the time she had turned fifteen, she was already on birth control.  Condoms irritated the walls of her vagina for some reason, so yes,
bonus!
for me.

Yet, why did I feel so different when it came to my younger brother?  Why did it make my skin crawl like I had a bad case of the heebie-jeebies?  It wasn’t like the topic of sex bothered me in any way.  I wasn’t a strictly missionary sort of guy.  I liked it all – doggy, cowgirl, reverse cowgirl, Froggy, lying down from behind.  You get the picture, right?  Plus, I even had a foot fetish, so what the fuck was wrong with me?

“You’re parents have talked to him, right?” inquired Leda, fingering her toes which immediately distracted me.

“Huh?” I replied
, baffled.

“Your mom and dad, have they talked with Johan about girls and such?” she reiterated talking slower like I was a four year old or something.

“I assume so, yes.”  I was finally able to reply.

“Have you talked with him yet?” asked my cousin, walking around the first chair she passed, but sitting in the next.

I felt my face twist.  “No.”

“So, you haven’t filled him in on all the do’s and don’ts?”  She sounded surprised that I hadn’t filled in my brother on the secrets of the trade I had garnered over the years.

I shook my head in the negative.

“Jeez, Effy, just think about how many things you had to consider when you and - .”  Katie was about to say “I”, but other than Ramona and Tirza, no one knew me and my cousin were of the kissing sort.  She had caught her potential mistake at the very last, possible moment.

“I mean,” she went one, clearing her throat and soldiered on, “think about what it was like when you didn’t know shit about girls in a sexual setting.  Think about how much he has to know, or at least, be told.  Otherwise, he could ruin Jolene’s First Time!

“How could you have not told him anything?”  She was borderline mad at me, which made me think I had royally fucked things up for Johan.

“I never thought about it,” was the only thing I could think of saying.  “You think I should talk to him now?”

The question hung out like a drying piece of laundry in the wind, fluttering and whipping about us, reverberating, echoing until at last, it finally faded and was no more.

When I glanced around all of them were nodding, even Tirza.

I breathed deeply, put my hands in my pockets and strode from the backyard and into the house.

Behind me, as I walked through the sliding glass doors, I heard Katie say, “If he’s anything like Estefan, he’s probably already fucking the shit out of her as we speak.”

Nothing but laughter followed as I shut the door.

Fucken tit-bags, did she really have to put me on blast like that?!?

~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~