Murder Genes Read online

  The clearscreen stopped and the teacher spoke. "All right, go take your fifteen minute break. Be back on time this time." She said it mutely as if hoping the students wouldn't hear. Then her head rolled back and she was snoring. Kyle looked at the clock. It'd been fifteen minutes since they walked in and they got a fifteen minute break. He shrugged, it was reasonable.

  Someone threw a tightly wound ball of toilet paper at the teacher. She roused, shaking her head. "Oh right," she said. "Sorry." She went and unlocked the door with her key, then she was back in her chair.

  A boy much shorter than Kyle came to stand in front of Kyle. He wore a t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off. "Hey, new kid," he said, crossing his arms. His muscles bulged like Kyle had only seen in adults. It looked weird. "What's your name?" he asked.

  "Kyle," Kyle held a hand out to shake.

  The other boy grimaced at it. "I'm El."

  "Hi El."

  "Hey! Don't cuss!" El punched him in the arm and cackled. He slapped his knee. "I love that one."

  Kyle grinned back. "Funny."

  "Thanks. It never gets old. I mean, what were my folks thinking? Naming me some cuss word."

  "I think that's hell."

  "The city people say 'el, they all do it. 'El yeah!" El pumped his arm like he was excited for no apparent reason. "So Kyle, where you from?"

  "Not far. I've been home-schooled most my life." Most the other kids had left, a few were milling around, chatting in small groups. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

  "Shoots," El crossed his arms again.

  "Does a girl name Callie go here?"

  "Ha ha, already into the girls? Can't blame you, we've lookers in this class. You've caught a few star-eyes already."

  Kyle raised an eyebrow and waited.

  "Right, I'll tell you. But first, what do you think of my guns?" El flexed, and his muscle seemed to grow three times their normal size. It was even stranger since everyone else in the room was kinda fat.

  A hand touched Kyle's arm. "Oooh, I think his are better." A red-haired girl wearing too much makeup put her cheek on Kyle's shoulder. Then she hopped away and held out a hand, fingers down. "I'm Jillia, pleased to meet you."

  He grabbed her hand awkwardly and shook it. "Kyle," he said again.

  "She's just saying that because she wants me to be jealous," El said, cupping Jillia by the shoulders and holding her close.

  She pushed him away. "No. I'm saying it because it's true. He's got natural muscles. Not like your epi-gene-etically altered freak show muscles." She looked at him. "They are natural, right?"

  Kyle nodded.

  "See! I can always tell. Your parents must be really good looking."

  "My parents are..." Just say it, it's probably true anyway. "...dead."

  Jillia gasped and put a hand to her mouth. "Murdered?"

  Kyle didn't answer.

  "So you're adopted then?" El said. "Who took you in?"

  Kyle didn't answer again. He felt uncomfortable with all the questions. They seemed nice but he just didn't want to know anything but where Callie was right now. "Callie?" he asked again.

  El snapped his fingers. "You mean Callie Mollinda, right?"

  Kyle nodded because he didn't know.

  "Yeah. She goes here. She's in a different class though. And she's skipped grades so she's not where you'd expect."

  So Callie was the smart one. Kyle grinned at the thought. "Where's her class?"

  "Wait," Jillia chimed. "Didn't Jeff Mollinda just get murdered?"

  Kyle's smile fell.

  "Killed." El said. "It was an accident."

  "I heard Callie doesn't think so. She thinks he was murdered."

  "You and your 'hearing' things. You're always wrong, you know. I think you just make it all up."

  Kyle tried not to listen any more.

  "Murderers keep killing innocent people. I wish we could just get rid of them all." Jillia stomped her foot angrily.

  And he was listening again.

  "They're trying. My neighbor was just taken away. To think I could've been killed, you know?" El replied.

  "Oooh, close call." Jillia's eyes were big. "I really wish we'd get done with the testing and ship them all out to that Murderer City, where they could just kill each other instead of us."

  "Oh, be nice. I wonder why we didn't just lock them up or just kill all their kids instead of building Murderer City, though," El said.

  "We TRIED that, dummy. They got violent, really violent, the GENE War? Don't you remember history class?" Jillian rolled her eyes.

  "If they're so dangerous, how'd we win then?"

  "Cause we're smarter and we tricked them of course. They're so dumb, it was easy."

  Be good. Del...Mom wanted me to be good. Kyle hid how much he hated them right now. "What room?" Kyle asked again.

  El shrugged. "Beats me. There's a roster in front of each door. Just look at it and it'll tell you. You'd better hurry though, class starts in a few minutes."

  "Thanks," Kyle said. He jogged for the door.

  Once he was out, he went looking for a good place to hide. There were still a lot of kids in the hallways, smushed up against each other so that most hardly moved. A lot of the students were high schoolers, and they clearly dominated the hallways.

  But Kyle needed a place where he could hide until the next class started. He wouldn't have time to search for Callie's room with only a few minutes left. Kyle doubted that with the hallways so crowded, even with the full fifteen minutes he'd probably never be able to see a roster much less search all of them. So he found a bathroom. And he chose the girl's bathroom. Between the two, he figured there would be less security around the girl's bathrooms since girls didn't get in as much trouble as boys did.

  He pushed through the door to the girl's bathroom and kept his head down as he rushed toward a stall. Kyle brushed by a few girls but they must've been taller than him or he must've been too fast for them because they didn't say anything or seem to notice him. He closed the stall door behind him, locked it, and looked around.

  Just a toilet and walls.

  Kyle took a step onto the toilet bowl. Immediately at the back of the toilet wall, in a black box, a red dot began flashing. He took his foot off and the toilet flushed. That wouldn't work. Kyle put his back to one wall and his feet on the other, stemming himself between the walls. It worked. No blinking light and his feet wouldn't show. He had to lean back a bit, but it was comfortable enough.

  The bell rang again and the girls in the bathroom left.

  Kyle didn't move.

  A few minutes later, the lights flickered off. Kyle could hear his heart beat in his ears. He didn't know how long he should wait. Another minute passed and he thought he heard something. It sounded like mewing or crying. Quiet sobs came from one of the other stalls. He didn't know what he should do, it felt like eavesdropping if he didn't say anything. But he wasn't supposed to be in here in the first place.

  Kyle took a risk. "Hey!" he whispered.

  The sobbing stopped.

  "Are you OK?" he kept his voice low.

  "Who's there?"

  "I'm Kyle."

  "W...what are you doing here? This is the girls bathroom." There was a softness to her voice that made Kyle feel really sorry for her, like she'd be someone who should never be hiding in the dark bathroom and crying because she was too nice to deserve it.

  "I'm hiding. What are you doing?"

  There was a pause. "I'm hiding too."

  "From who? I'm hiding from the teachers."

  "I..."

  The light flicked on and Kyle sucked in his breath. An electric motor sound entered the bathroom. Kyle tucked his head down, still pinned between the walls, and popped his eyes under the stall.

  And lifted them just in time for a laser beam to pass right beneath him.

  It was a really short, old-style bot--from when they used to try to make bots popular, square with four clunky wheels and lasers and other gadgets on its top with a sig
n draped by a knotted rope on its front said, 'Hall Monitor.' A man's voice, slightly mechanical emerged from the machine. "Return to your class immediately." A second later it repeated the phrase.

  Kyle didn't move, he didn't hear the other girl move either. He peeked through the crack in the stall door.

  "Return to your class immediately or an alarm will sound in ten...nine...eight..." The machine had a beam pointed at somewhere off to Kyle's right. He heard a latch pulled and the countdown continued. "...seven...six...five..."

  Kyle silently slid his own latch open really slowly and really quietly. "...four...three...two..." A slam and he glimpsed a black-haired girl running. The bot went after her and a high-pitched alarm that hurt his ears screamed from its top. It was faster than the girl and a square in its front was opening. Kyle charged the machine. He jump-kicked it with a foot and smashed his heel into the speaker looking part of the bot. When he did, the machine spun and a rope-net-thing lashed out from a compartment in its front and wrapped on a stall leg instead of its original target--the girl.

  She was older than him, high school-ish. Her hair was actually red but with black dye going through it and she was staring at him with a hand over her mouth. The bot began making garbled noises and dragged at the stall with surprising strength. The stall rocked.

  "C'mon!" Kyle yelled and grabbed the girl by her hand. They ran out and down the hallways.

  "Where are we going?" she said, resisting.

  "I don't know!" There was a loud crash and more alarms screamed behind them. A whole bunch of bots, five, were rolling after them down the hallway. The school must've bought them in bulk years ago. There were double doors ahead and Kyle threw himself at them. He bounced right off. He threw himself at them a second time, with similar success.

  "They lock the doors outside of class." The girl knelt down and rubbed at the top of his head. She had makeup that had smeared around her eyes and a really sad-sweet smile. "You're very gallant, though."

  The bots surrounded them and a bunch of classroom doors opened, students flooded curiously around them. Right in front of everyone watching, the girl leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. Then she stood up and walked into the crowd where a guy teacher took her arm and walked her away. There was another loud crash and a few yelps as Kyle saw water pooling at the crowds feet. It was coming from the girl's bathroom. Kyle saw his teacher staring at him. She began a slow shake of her head that got bigger and madder as she waddled forward, a scowl on her face. She took him by his hand and began dragging him down the hallway, mindless of the water pooling.

  Kyle searched the watching students as he passed them. At least this way, if Callie was in the school, she'd know Kyle was here. Maybe she'd come to him. Kyle spotted his classmates. El winked at him in approval and pointed fingers at him like guns while Jillia and a few other girls fluttered their eyelids like butterfly wings as he passed.

  Kyle sighed.

  Dinner was quiet. Really quiet. Really reaally quiet. Tim was glaring at Kyle. Del was poking at her food and looking at Kyle out of the side of her eye with a "I'm trying to smile to look nice," smile. He'd disappointed her again, he knew, and he was sorry.

  Tim cleared his throat. "Del, we should consider disciplining him. He needs to learn."

  Del nodded.

  Tim gave Kyle a gruff and serious expression. "What do you think, son?" Tim had started to use that word, even though Kyle was pretty sure that if Tim knew he had The Code, he would've never said it. Especially now.

  Kyle nodded his agreement.

  A moment. "All right then," Tim said, "what do you believe is a fair punishment for your behavior at school today?"

  Kyle and Del both raised an eyebrow at Tim. Was he giving Kyle the choice to choose his own punishment? Pa had never done that before. He always told Kyle what his punishment was. "If you're asking, Dad..." Kyle swallowed. "I think it would be fair for me to be banned from school for a week to think about what I've done." That way, he wouldn't be allowed to search for Callie and cause anymore trouble.

  This time it was Tim and Del. They both broke out laughing as if Kyle had made a big joke. "All right Mr. Smartypants," Del said, "let me give it a go. You're going to school whether you like it or not, and from now on after school you have to come to the clinic and help clean up and do chores for three weeks."

  That didn't sound like much of a punishment. "Yes, Ma'a...Mom," Kyle said. He liked spending time with Del.

  "And." Del continued.

  And?

  "Tim gets to decide what you have to do in the clinic." Now, Kyle groaned. That, was punishment.

  Tim gave him an evil grin. "Don't think I'll be nice to you because you're my son."

  Kyle shook his head. "I'd never think that. You're really good at being mean."

  It got quiet again. He probably shouldn't have said that. Whoops.

  Chapter 12

  In the 2019 case of Jong Kim, the Supreme Court of Louisiana found persuasive the argument that the defendant's genetics rendered the homicide a product of disease. Thus dissociating it from will.

  -Plicard, Alan. "Criminal Cases and Genetics: Where is the Future Leading?" Genomics. pp. 39-42, 2020.

  It was a week later before Kyle saw the girl again. Not Callie, he hadn't seen her and he was beginning to wonder if he ever would. She wasn't in her classes and no one seemed to know anything except that her brother had died. The rest were rumors. What was strange was that no one in her class seemed to be friends with her, she'd been a loner.

  This other girl, the one he'd tried to save in the bathroom, he ran into as he was throwing away trash for Tim and Del. Her and a bunch a bullies. He walked into them completely unexpectedly. There were three guys around her who also looked like they were in high school. One of them held a needle and the other two pinned the girl by either arm.

  "Hey! What're you guys doing!" Kyle dropped the trash bags. The girl had tears all over her face again.

  The one with the needle turned and held the needle behind his back as if Kyle hadn't seen it. "Ignore him, just do it," one of the boys muttered. The one with the needle turned back to the girl.

  "Leave her alone!" Kyle yelled.

  The one who had spoken at first spoke again--still muttering. "Hear that Jess? The kid wants us to leave you alone."

  Jess looked at him and gave him that same sad-sweet smile she had before. "You should just leave, Kyle." She suddenly gasped as the boy with the needle put it in her. She began shivering and fell her knees buckled in.

  "What did you do to her?" Kyle demanded.

  They began walking toward him, clearly intent on walking past him and ignoring him entirely. Kyle put his arms out in their path. "Stop! I'm not letting you get away with this."

  "Get away with what?" the muttering boy muttered. "You don't even know what we did."

  Kyle didn't have an answer to that. The three guys were so big. He needed to scare them somehow. "My mom's a doctor, she's be able to figure out what you did to her. When she does, I'll find you and the cops will throw you in jail."

  That stopped them. But not because they were afraid of what he'd said. Instead, they passed glances at each other and the muttering one gave Kyle the slimiest smile Kyle had ever seen. "Your mom? Is she the hot new nurse at school?"

  "She's a doctor."

  "Del, right?" he drawled. "Doctor Del. It's got a sexy ring to it. She's your mom?"

  Sexy? Kyle tightened his lips closed, he didn't like what was happening. He felt like he'd unknowingly put Del in danger.

  "Lucky bastard," the other one who hadn't talked yet said. He had a ring through his lip. "Bet he doesn't even know what to do with that pecker between his legs. If she were my mom...My God!" he gasped and shivered.

  "I'd never lose my ups with her," the one that had been holding the needle said. Kyle couldn't see where he'd put the needle, but it was gone. "Have you seen down her shirt yet? It's all over the school. Some of the kids put the pictures on their tablet wallpap
ers. If we could get her onboard..."

  "Fuck up, you two." The mutterer must've been their leader because when he snapped at them, they shut up quick. He knelt down and stared at Kyle with hard eyes. "We'll be seeing you soon, little buddy." He slapped Kyle across the chest hard enough to throw Kyle into the brick wall besides them. Not a single one of them showed any sign of being worried as they walked away.

  Kyle balled his fists, hating how small he was more than ever. He got up and ran to Jess and got under her arm, trying to lift her. She moaned. "You have to get up. You have to go see Mom and Tim."

  She rolled her head back. "One second." She breathed in and out like it was the hardest thing she'd ever done.

  Kyle squatted helplessly beside her.

  "You have to quit trying to save me. You might make me like you." She rolled her head at him and raised a hand to his head, rubbing slowly like she had the first day he'd met her.

  "You're named Jess, right? You have to stand up, I can't carry you without help." He could've gone running for Del and got her to come here, but he didn't want to leave her alone in case the guys came again.

  "It's no use. Doctors can't help."

  "You don't know Mom, she's really smart. I promise."

  "No. Just, give me a second and maybe you can help me to my car?"

  Kyle didn't move. "You don't look like you could drive very good."

  She let out a soft giggle. "Are you this sugary to every girl you meet, Kyle? I'll bet you're quite the class sexy." Her eyes rolled back and she closed her eyes like she was sleeping.

  "Jess! What's going on?"

  No response.

  He had no choice. "I'll be right back, I promise," Kyle said. Kyle reluctantly got up to get Del. When he did, he saw Tim and...Callie?