“Well,” Raphael said, “he refers to himself as the Schist Ex Machina.”
Gabriel almost snorted. If the situation weren’t so eerie and repulsive, it would be funny. But as he saw the lip of the whirlpool quickly approaching, his sense of humor died very quickly.
“Hey, Gabriel,” Michael said. “You still have that empty vial, right?”
“Of course he does,” Raphael said. “He’s been carrying it this whole time. It’s next to the poison that he was touching some moments ago.”
Gabriel raised his eyebrows then gently patted the empty vial in his pocket. “I’m never going to get used to this whole telepathy thing.”
Michael chuckled. “You call it telepathy. We call it communication.”
Both slugs laughed, although the sarcastic albino slug several paces behind them laughed louder.
“My apologies, Gabriel,” Raphael said. “But yes, when we reach the edge of the maelstrom, it would be wise to use that vial to collect a sample of the Schist Ex Machina’s consciousness. However, be careful. They will try to do the same to you.”
“What do mean?”
“They’ll try to collect you, man,” Michael said. “And trust me, that’s not a party you wanna join.”
Gabriel reached into his pocket and took out the plastic bag. He quickly inventoried its contents again: the empty plastic vial, the photo of Yvonne on the beach, a photo of Melanie, the Schist vaccine needle, and the antidote. Oh yes, the antidote. The poison.
Anger rumbling in the pit of his stomach, Gabriel gazed out at the mass of Schistlings surrounding him. He had the poison right there in his hands. It would take less than two seconds to uncap it, dump the contents into the Schistlings’ breeding ground, and murder their entire toxic species, all before the slugs could stop him. He could finish them off right there and not have to waste his time with any of the Sky Amoeba business. Sure, he’d be betraying all of his slug buddies. Sure, all of those poor, innocent people infected with the Black Virus would die, but it was for the greater good. Wasn’t it?
No, he wouldn’t do it. He didn’t believe in fate, but there was a reason that his first escape attempt had gone so badly. Murder wasn’t the solution. Victor had said to trust him, and because of that trust, Gabriel had finally made it to the ocean. He had come so far; it was too late to revert back to his old ways.
Gabriel retrieved the empty vial then resealed the bag. The slugs stopped at the edge of the colossal hole at the center of the maelstrom. They were just close enough for Gabriel to see down into it but far enough away to avoid being sucked into its heartless center. A blast of humid air escaped from the hole.
Deep inside the whirlpool’s center, a hole that looked as deep as the Grand Canyon, the mass of blackness was forming into an enormous face then un-forming and then forming again. The face had distorted features and a mouthful of serrated teeth, each one at least double the size of Michael’s entire body. A throaty gasping sound erupted from the face’s mouth.
Gabriel shivered, holding the vial with both hands so as not to drop it. “This is it?”
“Yes,” Michael replied.
“I thought you wanted me to negotiate with it or something like that? Why not do that here?”
“Time breeds stubbornness,” Raphael said, “and it’s been a long time since the maelstrom began. That negotiation will still happen, but the Schist Ex Machina will never agree to it here. A sample must be collected.”
Gabriel looked down into the face’s bulging, house-sized eyes, and a tingle crawled up his neck. The eyes were watching him, waiting for him to make the first move. “Okay,” Gabriel said as he opened the vial. The stopper made a subtle popping noise.
Now or never, Gabriel. He held the vial firmly and leaned to the side. He dipped the container into the water.
The Schistlings immediately swarmed. Excited squalls filled the air as the tiny creatures clung to his hand like leeches. Though they didn’t hurt him or penetrate his skin, Gabriel felt violated. He shifted his body on Michael’s back, struggling not to drop the vial.
Suddenly, teeth punctured his hand and wrist, and the Schistlings started to pull with the combined weight of their wriggling bodies. Gabriel felt himself sliding off the side of Michael’s body. The giant slug adjusted his back and lowered his head so that Gabriel could get a better grip on his antenna.
The Schistlings pulled again, squealing with delight. Gabriel’s hands slipped, and he was dragged underwater and submerged within the maelstrom. The water was slimy and cold. Some of it got into his nose and mouth, and he almost choked. The barest traces of moonlight were his only source of illumination, and he could barely see through the snake pit of oily creatures that had overtaken the ocean he loved. He looked up and saw the brightly colored underbellies of the slug army were terrifyingly high above him.
The Schistlings pulled him down deeper. As the light of the moon disappeared and the slugs were obscured by the crawling mass, Gabriel’s hope was snuffed out like a candle.
I still have the poison. I can kill them all. All I have to do is uncap it. But he couldn’t do that, as it would mean killing Edna and everyone else who was infected. He had to find another way.
Every inch of him was covered by the Schistlings’ slithering forms. Their teeth nibbled at him. His lungs burned, and his heart pounded. He desperately exhaled through his nostrils.
Then, he saw the face floating before him. The Schistlings scuttled inside the folds of Gabriel’s trench coat. The face opened its mouth, baring its teeth like an enormous shark. Fear squeezed Gabriel’s heart and threatened to pop it.
The more effort Gabriel exerted in trying to swim away, the harder the Schistling collective worked to push him to the face. Soon, he was within inches of one of the horrific eyes, close enough to touch it. Gabriel did the only thing he could think to do: he swung the vial out and swooped it through the side of the gigantic, liquefied eye. Then he popped the lid on to make certain he didn’t lose any of the sample.
His brain became foggy, and his vision blurred. He was running out of oxygen. Something pushed him up from beneath his armpits. Gabriel raised his arms, expecting to see more Schistlings, but it was the slugs, working together to get him back to the surface.
“Real nice, Schist. Way to go,” Albino said telepathically. “I thought we said not to join the party.”
Gabriel smiled wanly. His lungs were burning, and his skin felt raw. As over a hundred slugs pushed him upward, others held back the hungry Schistlings. When the moon’s white glow shimmered through the dark water, he pumped his legs and arms in an attempt to help.
Gabriel’s face broke the surface. The air was cold and clear, and he sucked it in like a starving man finding water in the desert. A massive grey blob of flesh appeared before him. Michael. Thank God. He grabbed hold of the giant slug’s neck. Michael ducked down so Gabriel could climb aboard. Perched on Michael’s back, Gabriel swiped the remaining Schistlings off of him, and they splashed back into the water. The slugs that had saved his life popped their little heads above the surface, one by one.
His trench coat was wet and sticky. He pulled the plastic bag from his pocket and saw that some water had gotten through the zipper. But as Gabriel inhaled deeply, his chest warmed with joy. He embraced the air that flowed through his crusty old lungs, and the creaky old heart that still beat in his chest.
“I got it,” Gabriel said, proudly displaying the vial that contained a sample of the maelstrom. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
“You got yourself a deal, brother,” Michael said.
The giant slug lurched backward, away from the maelstrom. He swam harder than before, and the other slugs followed his lead. All of them seemed as anxious to get away as Gabriel was.
Gabriel watched the maelstrom slowly disappear behind them. After a few minutes, the squalling cries of the Schistlings were finally out of earshot.
The slugs sailed across the ocean and into the night. The moon glowed a solid white, illuminating their path like a lighthouse. The star-filled sky draped over a reflective ocean, with no land for miles, reminded him so much of his old life on the sailboat. He imagined fireworks in that sky, cracking it open with splashes of color and light, just like on his first date with Yvonne when they’d stood together on that beach and she’d kissed him.
Gabriel reached into his coat and pulled the photo of Yvonne from the soggy plastic bag. He held the picture up to the moonlight, staring at it wistfully. Some of the colors had run down the sides, leaving purplish streaks, but it had survived mostly intact. Yvonne’s beauty had rarely been captured well in photographs, but that picture was a work of art. The pose, with her arms raised up to the sky as if she could somehow wrap them around the entire world, perfectly captured Yvonne’s fiery inner self.
He remembered Melanie’s words from earlier that night. Gosh, I used to hear millions of stories about you from Mom. She never stopped bragging about how cool you are.
Beautiful, otherworldly Yvonne had been dead for years, but she was still alive within him, her daughter, and everyone she’d ever met. Gabriel ran his fingers down the photo’s surface. “I never stopped loving you,” he whispered.
He hadn’t just loved her, though. He’d loved what she stood for, and he loved the idealistic goals she’d always aspired to. She’d strived to experience life to its utmost, to totally absorb every moment, and to share her joy with every person she knew. In Yvonne’s eyes, everything and everyone were beautiful, and even in her painful last days, she never stopped being full of happiness. Just like in the photograph, she embraced the world with open arms. She had been a spirit in human form.
I’ll wait for you.
Don’t.
The slugs silently swam onward, and if they were poking around in his head, they made no mention of it.
Gabriel pressed the photograph to his chest. “Thank you.”
He held up the picture, letting it flap in the wind, then released it. The air current carried her image over the Atlantic. Yvonne was a free spirit, a woman who would never have allowed herself to be boxed in, and for the first time since their divorce, Gabriel finally let her go.
Impossible as it was, Gabriel felt for a moment as if Yvonne were looking down upon him, smiling her usual bright-eyed smile. He smiled back at her.
Gabriel closed his eyes. Exhaustion was overtaking him. “Michael, how much farther do we have to go? I know we’re going to this Sky Amoeba of yours, but where is he?”
