My nails were probably not going to recover from this day. I had chewed all the way down to the nail bed. The Major…Doc… didn’t seem much better off with his foot tapping aggressively on the floor and his head in his hands. The tense silence crawled over my skin until the door slammed open with the arrival of Luce.

I waited a moment for Claude Henry to follow, but she closed the door behind her with a push of her hip.

“Okay, what is so important that…” she paused when she noticed Doc, who had regained his feet at the disturbance. “What’s all this? I didn’t expect to see Major Handsome here.”

The arch of her brow suggested something that made my face flush and her grin widen.

“Where is Claude Henry? Doc has something to tell us.”

The major’s defensive posture softened just a bit, and something like surprise flashed across his face before he returned his glance to Luce. She, too, seemed to shift. She narrowed her eyes in my direction.

“Seems like Doc will only have the pleasure of our company. I haven’t seen Claude Henry since we left the Thomas place this morning. He worked third last night before the count this morning, though. He’s probably sleeping.” She shrugged.

Doc gave a hard smile that was more of a carved line with his tightly pressed lips, but when he spoke, it was light and level.

“Alright. We can fill him in later. Please sit.”

I bristled at him offering a seat in my home, ignoring that I was standing right there, but I just nodded. Luce still watched, shifting between him and me, slowly sitting down in the place she usually just plopped. Thankfully, this time there was no awkward silence. Doc glanced wearily at Luce for a brief moment and then dove in.

“I know when I start this story, it’s going to sound unbelievable,” He began, but Luce cut across.

“Probably because it’s being told by a Plant Lackey.”

“Is interrupting people an incurable genetic trait, or is there a chance I’ll get this information conveyed sometime in the next seven to ten business days?”

Luce opened her mouth to retort, but seemed to think better of it. She leaned back on the couch and crossed her arms and legs. She wasn’t the picture of open-minded, but at least she was quiet. We shared a “can you believe this guy” look that loosened her a bit.

“Thank you. Now. I know you are more than aware of the explosions at the Plant that shut it down and led to Charon being a locked-down enclave. It killed your mother,” he said.

“And half the damn town,” muttered Luce. He pretended not to hear her.

“When the dust settled, the EPA sent in a team to see what the damage was. From the explosion, from the pollution— from everything we’d denied was ever a problem.

Of course, there was a problem. There had been for years. You only needed to look at the sky, at that silver haze that never cleared off, to see that. So the people in town kicked up a fuss. The Red Rock plant was all over the local news for years. But here’s the thing… to get rid of the haze, they’d have to clean up their process, and that would have cut hundreds of millions in profit. They’d have to concede there was something wrong, and that could lead to lawsuits. So instead, Red Rock bought the whole damn town. No one can complain, if no one is around, you know?”

“Wait,” I said, trying to wrap my head around this “wait, they just…bought Charon? Like, the whole place?”

He nodded.

“Yup. They bought themselves immunity to the tune of 20 million dollars. The people in town were so poor and so scared of the pollution that when Red Rock offered them 25% over what their ancestral homes were worth, most took the money and bolted.

The problem was that while all eyes were fixed on Red Rock, no one was watching the sister plant across the road. In fact, most people didn’t realize they were actually two totally different operations. Addison Electric Power operated in the shadows and was free to do more when the town fell to Red Rock.

The people who refused to leave noticed more than the plant employees that began to live on the land Red Rock had bought. Three-headed fish started popping up, red pools of water, and cows that became emaciated and died for no clear reason.

But it was all shut down and hushed up and pushed as crazy superstitious locals until people just laughed about it. “Don’t swim in the river. You’re liable to come up with three heads!”. It was a solid campaign of silence.

But then, all the terrible conditions reached a peak, and the explosions happened. You know this part of the story.”

“People die, people go to help, they die too. A plant bastard gets shot. The guard comes in. Poof. Welcome to the town that time forgot,”  said Luce. Her body was rigid, and she picked at an oil stain on her jeans.

He gave a small smile and granted her a summary of events.

“Pretty much. But it wasn’t the plant guy getting shot that brought in the guard. That was just the excuse. The EPA was concluding its study and realizing the biome of bad that Charon had become. They were catching deformed, aggressive animals. Like rabies, but so much worse. The three-headed fish were like the first cockroach. Seeing one meant there were probably many, many more. And there were.

But money swept in again, and the narrative became out-of-control country folk who wanted their independence. The government couldn’t be seen to be taking over, but the land under the houses belonged to Red Rock, so it was settled that they could sign the Last Deal, and operate kind of like a reservation, but they could never leave, and they would be watched by military personnel. They even sweetened the deal by offering thousands in settlement money to come along peacefully.  

Quietly, Addison Electric Power partnered with the EPA. The Last Deal said both plants could not continue manufacturing. Red Rock was beyond repair, but Addison became the holding spot for all the mutated animals. There is a lab that is dedicated to researching them. Researching the blood donations from the town people every month.”

“Even if we believed this wild shit, what would they want with a bunch of probably dying animals?” Luce shot at him.

I didn’t need his answer. It was falling into place.

“Weapons,” I whispered.

Doc turned his head, and I felt him watching me, but I had my head between my knees, fighting to keep it together once more.  I heard him reach for the bag he carried with him, and the snap of plastic.

He handed me the waterbottle and I drank it all.

“Yes,” He resumed, much quieter than before, “That’s my theory.”

“What is your theory? What is she talking about?” She demanded.

“They are studying the mutations so they can do it on purpose next time. Weaponize them.” I said.

“How the hell do you jump to THAT?” I could hear the fear in her voice.

“I don’t know how Eva got there, but I was convinced today at the square. You see, my job is to investigate weird shit. When you get to my rank, they get a little more truthful about what is going on. But you never get the whole story. I never know what I am looking for when I am sent in.

But when someone dies around here or gets seriously injured, they send me in. Most of the time its an elderly person or a clear accident. I figured out a long time ago that they were only interested if there was something that didn’t line up. One of the cases was a woman who had broken her leg in three places and was in a coma from a fall…”

“Elizabeth Barnette,” I said. Luce nodded. Doc raised a brow.

“I forget how small this place is. Yes. Elizabeth. Liz. I reported her condition and that I couldn’t understand how a fall from two steps had done all that damage. She was a beautiful woman, even in the hospital light. I sat with her mom for hours. They transferred her to the base medical facility, or at least that’s what they told me.

Her mom called me in hysterics a week later because she couldn’t find her. No one had information. She’d vanished. I got the same runaround. Finally, I decided I would just go see Liz in the infirmary, but she wasn’t there. After two days of digging, all I found was an intake form that said “Transfer-SciMed”. Every time a person changes hands, they get a stamp for where they are going. She only had the one.

So I dug into my other cases. Three of the five that had transferred in had the same stamp. One had died in the infirmary. One had died en route to the base.”

“Okay, that’s weird, but you said you figured it out in the square?” I said.

“I did. Operating procedures are brutal here. Both those boys should be dead for what they did. On sight. But they detained Bud, and when they put him in the car, they signed the transfer card. The guy who filled me in was still holding the clipboard, and it was blank except for “Transfer- SciMed””

“So they are doing god knows what to sick animals and now some kind of Frankenstein shit to people they take in? Is that what you are saying?” Luce asked.

“I’m saying there are whole people who go missing and are never seen again, and a lab that runs day and night but never seems to publish a study or report its work.  I know they experiment on animals, I know they have studied Charon blood for years… so yeah. I think something bad is happening. And I think whatever it is, is loose and feeding.”

“This is so absurd,” Luce said. “You aren’t actually buying this, are you, Evie?”

I was. It fit perfectly. And it was very, very bad.

“We need to go wake up Claude Henry and make a plan,” I said.

I was on my feet and at the door, Doc close at my heels. Luce, however, was sitting on the couch with her jaw set.

“I am not going out at night with some wild animal on the loose so we can humor this fucking plant patsy.” Her eyes brimmed with tears.

All I could see was holding her hand all those years ago. She was scared, she hated the plant and all it stood for, and Doc was the living embodiment of what took our mother from us. I retreated back to where she sat.

“I know you are scared. It’s okay. We are going to figure out what is going on.” I said as I wrapped an arm around her.

“Let him go! If he is so sure, let him go clean up their mess. If he is right, that’s even worse. There’s some kind of thing out there killing people. Stay here with me.” She begged.

“Luce, I can’t stay here. I have to go help the town.” I said softly.

“We are going to need to get into the plant, and I can’t. They know who I am.” Doc said, now kneeling on the other side of her. He spoke with kindness, but she cringed into me. “The animals they gathered, they seemed fine for a while, and then they’d just… snap. I can’t imagine what that would do to a human. We have to go get the Thomas boy. I need your help.”

She stared at him, tears still slipping down her blotchy face.

“I’d rather die than help you people.”

And she left the room. I took a breath.

“Thats fine. Claude Henry will help. Shes scared. The last time someone she loved ran to the plant to help, they exploded.”

We decided to walk to Claude Henry’s house. It was only two streets over, and the night was mild. The crunch of gravel under my boots and the smell of cut grass let me imagine this was just a normal nighttime stroll, and finally let my guard down an inch.

Doc seemed content to be lost to his senses as well, and he followed my lead, turning the corner and continuing on.

The final turn put me straight across from Claude Henry’s door. It stood ajar, and every ounce of tension returned to my body.