chapter 6

splintered

        “Jake!” I pushed through the gun-wielding GUARD soldiers and rushed forward.

        “Step away from him!" Eric shouted.

        “We have to help him!” I argued.

        “You'll only infect yourself!" 

        Before I could respond, Kyle snapped his head upward and backed away from me. His limbs were still twitching. His cries started to fluctuate back into grunts and groans.

        "Whoa, whoa, whoa." Eric turned his weapon on Kyle.

        "Don't!" I cried.

        “We won't shoot unless he attacks," Jules assured me. 

        “He’s just a kid!” I said.

        “He’s also one of them,” she said. "Look at him. He's turning. The infection in his system is live."

        "Jules." Eric got his sister's attention. "Él lo está protegiendo. Esta infectado."

        I grew up in a half-Spanish household and was familiar enough with the language to infer what he was saying. "I'm not infected," I repeated. 

        Eric shrugged, expression conveying that I'd caught him off guard. "We're not prone to taking chances," he said. 

        I was about to reply when I saw movement on the floor beneath us. Jake moaned, and his chest swelled with a deep breath of air. He began coughing.

        "Jake!" I knelt down, but I felt a powerful hand grab my shoulder and pull me away from him.

        "Hold it," Eric snapped. 

        "Stay right there," Jules ordered. She cocked her pistol. Kyle was now whimpering in the corner, clutching at his face.

        "Let me help him," I demanded.    

        “We already told you--he could be infected." said Jules. “Eric, check his body. If he's all right, we’ll take him with us.”

        Eric nodded, and strode past me. He knelt over Jake’s torso and placed his hands on his flat stomach. He pulled his narrow fingers down around Jake’s navel and then up to his ribs and underarms, checking for... something. That signature webbing, maybe?

        Jake coughed and snickered. “N-no Kyle, no more…”

        Eric said, "No sign of infection. At least nothing late-stage. We'll take them both in for a proper examination."

        "Take us in...where?" I asked.

        "We're with GUARD," said Jules. "We're stationed at the local outpost."

        A GUARD Outpost. Not the Los Angeles one, but still...maybe they could really help Jake, I thought. "Th that's good," I stammered. "Look, can you put your weapons down? Can we just talk for a sec--"

        "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Jules said.

        "Jesus Christ, I'm not a fucking gargalite! Isn't that obvious?"
       Eric suddenly approached me, pulled up my shirt and looked down at my torso. He pressed up against my soft stomach with his gloved hand and slid his fingers up to my chest. It was highly uncomfortable, and I could feel blood flowing into my cheeks. I was suddenly very self-conscious of my body. 

        “No visible sign of infection,” Eric said.

        Jules sighed. “So...let me try to understand.” She glanced from me to Kyle, who was still cowering in the corner of the dark room, to Jake, who was still coughing and stirring on the floor. "Who are you?" she asked me.

        “My name's Andrew."

        “And what is your relationship to these two?" She pointed to Jake and Kyle.

        “I met them both tonight. Jake...he saved me earlier from two gargs. I didn't know he was keeping his infected brother here with him when he invited me to stay."

        Jules raised her brow. "I see..." She still sounded skeptical.

        "Kyle?" Jake wheezed his brother's name again, and this prompted Kyle to react. Still wavering between human and monster, he clambered forward. Eric swiftly and decisively responded by rushing forward and striking the younger boy with some sort of small device that looked almost like a stun gun. With a loud CRACK! and a POP!, Kyle screeched and toppled over before going silent.

        "Whoa, what the hell?!" I shouted. Jake was still too out of it to realize what had happened.

        "It's okay," Jules said calmly. "He's okay. Just stunned." 

        "Why did you do that?"

        "It's for everyone's safety," she said. "Eric, vamanos. Bring Jake out to the front room. Secure the garg in here for now and we'll call for backup. Andrew." She looked pointedly at me. "Come with me, please."

        Eric acknowledged his sister's orders and I was, more or less, also forced to comply. I looked back over my shoulder as Eric knelt down and scooped up Jake from off the ground. I was a little surprised considering Jake was probably about the same height as Eric, but the GUARD soldier was much more solid, stronger. Within a few minutes, we were back out in the quiet of the living room; Jake was on the couch, I was seated in a large chair on the opposite side of the coffee table, and Kyle was left unconscious in the master bedroom with Eric stationed outside. After making a few calls on her radio, Jules returned and stood before me.

        "You said that this boy saved you from some gargs?" she asked.

        I nodded and recounted to her the events of the evening. It was now that I first took note of the time. It was black outside, and we were only illuminated by the glow of peripheral lights in the restroom and kitchen. When Shay had first arrived for dinner back at my place, it was nearly six. I saw now that it was almost midnight.

        "So, you're why we're here," Jules said with a strange smugness.

        "What?"

        "You placed the call earlier. To the emergency line?"

        "Oh. Yeah."

        She chuckled. "Ay, Dios. Just when we thought things were calming down. There hadn't been an emergency call in days. We were actually just about to head up to L.A. when our unit was con--"

        "Andrew?" Jake muttered, interrupting Jules, who eyed him wearily. I looked over at the blond boy on the sofa. He looked so weak, so small now. "W-what's going on?" he asked.

        I introduced him to Jules, whose full name I learned was actually Juliana--Agent Juliana Ramirez--and I explained to him what had happened, how we'd found him in the bedroom.

        "God, I don't know why Kyle was s-so... It's never been that bad before," said Jake weakly. "He just kept t tickling me, and I then, suddenly I c-couldn't breathe, and I... I guess..."

        "You were letting him tickle you?" asked Juliana, finally confirming what I'd told her earlier.

        Jake flashed her a guilty look and tried to explain himself as he had done with me. "I-it helps him," he said. "I've been studying the gargs. I'm starting to understand how they--"

        "You don't understand anything," she snapped, cutting him off. "You're not helping him or yourself. You're only helping the infection. Do you know what this thing is?" she asked, gesturing to the dark city beyond the windows as if it truly signified the rest of the world. 

        Jake shook his head, his eyes wide.

        "Stevens Pathogen is not a virus. It's not your average run-of-the-mill contagion. It's something we don't fully understand." She let out a heavy breath. "It doesn't just learn. It thinks. It coordinates."

        Stevens Pathogen? The name rung a bell. The infection had garnered many labels over the last several months--"T.I.," "tickle virus," "tickle bug"...even "the laughing plague"--but I recalled seeing 'Stevens Pathogen Infection,' or 'SPI' only once or twice before. 

        Juliana's radio suddenly let out a whine from her utility belt. She stepped away to answer it and Jake took the opportunity to address me. "Andrew," he said. "Wh-what's going to happen to Kyle?"

        "He's okay," I said. "Eric's watching him." I told him about Juliana's plan to take us to the nearest GUARD outpost.

        "In L.A.?"

        "Anaheim," I said.

        He closed his eyes, his expression overcome with defeat. "No," he muttered. "No, it has to be L.A."

        "Jake." I leaned forward in the chair and rested my elbows on my knees. "Jules and Eric seem to know a lot about the gargs. I think you might get the help--and answers--you've been looking for here. Anaheim's a massive facility, from what I've heard. It can't be a bad option."

        Jake seemed to consider this. "I just-- I dunno, Andrew. What if..." His voice trailed away. "I know it's what I've been wanting, but now that it's here--now that it's real--I..." He was struggling to formulate his thoughts. "What if they can't help Kyle? What if they can't do anything? Then what happens?"

        I stood from the chair and crossed the space to sit next to him again. We'd assumed our original positions on the couch, the same ones we'd taken when he'd first invited me in. "Isn't it worth taking a shot?" I said. "This might be the Universe's way of helping you out."

        Jake sighed heavily. "I'm just-- I'm scared to let go. Once Kyle's with GUARD, I won't have any control over what happens to him anymore..."

        "Jake, think about it--you barely have control now. You know Kyle's getting worse. You said so yourself. GUARD will be his best option at this point." GUARD might be the best option for me too, I thought. Maybe they could somehow help me locate my sister...

        Jake looked up at me. "I just wish I knew how."

        I wasn't sure what he meant. "How what?"

        “How this happened. All of this. The infection. Th-the tickling...”

        “Well, maybe with GUARD, we can find out."

        Jake studied me a moment. Through his exhaustion, he managed a very weak smile. "I hope so. I just want Kyle to be okay," he muttered. "I want all of us to...be okay."

        "Me too, man." I placed a hand on his knee just as he had done with me earlier. "Me too."

        "Backup should be here soon," Juliana said when she returned. "Maybe twenty minutes. Apparently there was another incident Downtown. A couple of rogue gargs."

        Rogue gargs. I immediately thought of the college-aged man whom I'd stumbled into when fleeing my apartment. Then, I thought of Shay.

        "You're welcome to grab a few minutes' rest, if you'd like," Jules said to us before directing me back to the armchair as a precaution. "Under my watch, of course. I need to ensure that neither of you show any signs of Stage One infection before my unit arrives. Jake, I understand that you've had prolonged exposure to that garg--"

        "Kyle." Jake corrected her.

        "Right. Kyle." She eyed him. "Well, if either of you start to feel any strange impulses, or muscle spasms, you'll need to notify me right away. And don't even think about trying anything."

        I was suddenly very aware of my body. My pulse. Every movement. I turned away from Juliana's intense gaze--noting the insistence of her right hand to stay on her weapon--and I slouched back into the chair. I watched Jake curl up on the couch, folding into himself. He crossed his arms and kept his head low. The apartment grew quiet once more. Every once in a while, there came a chirp or whine from the GUARD soldiers' radios. Eric patrolled the hall. Up and down. Up and down. Juliana paced the room, circling us slowly as if we were exhibits on display.

        I didn't remember drifting off, but sleep had, apparently, seized me as if out of nowhere, undoubtedly the result of my exhaustion finally catching up with me. The next thing I knew, I found myself entangled in a dream--a memory, a much needed respite.