Barge in or sneak in? I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I crept in anyway, making sure the door didn’t squeak as I focused my eyes into the darkness of the room.
“Are you going to kill me now?” Rick’s disembodied voice hit me like an arctic wind. I swallowed but focused on the body lying in the bottom bunk.
My eyes adjusted, and I could make out his back turned toward me and his face hidden as he stared at the wall. Vulnerable. He was a pompous man if he felt he was safe within my reach. I realized I had the upper hand and slipped in, turning the small bedside lamp on as I sat down on the opposite bunk. He shifted and turned to face me, his eyes shiny under the reading light.
“No. I’m not going to kill you… yet.” I didn’t mean to sound so ominous, but I was tired of games. “I know there’s a lot more about what’s going on out there in the world, about this virus and why everyone is infected. I want to know everything, and you’re going to tell me.”
His nose flared as he studied me across the narrow void between us. His eyes squinted just a bit. His glasses were sitting on the bedside table. Still, he took me in as if he’d just met me and had to memorize each detail of this potential specimen before he could splay it open or let it sit in a tank of overpowering formaldehyde, posed like a precious work of art.
“I know a lot of things, April.” My name on his tongue made me uncomfortable as I remembered how he’d used his telekinesis on me earlier. “Why should I tell you anything? And what specifically do you really want to know? Some of it matters, some of it doesn’t. Your mother wasn’t much for words, so I can’t tell you if she was so unhappy here that it drove her to such a tragic end. I’m sorry I can’t tell you much more about her in that way.”
Now he was just pushing me. “Well, with what you did with her blood… the antidote… can you cure everyone? The sick ones, the ferals and the ones with the green withering sickness?”
It wasn’t exactly the question I really wanted answered, but it would do for a starter.
He sighed, ruffling his hair and coming up to a sitting position. He leaned into his knees as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He reached over to clasp his glasses and perched them on his pointy nose before focusing on me once more.
“April, everything has a cure. There is a way to cure everyone, but I’m afraid the cure can be worse than the disease itself.”
“What do you mean?” My palms were sweating, the anticipation harrowing.
“I mean there are those who would do anything to destroy it, hide it, use it for their own purposes, for power. There are those who would deem it necessary to make it mandatory for all to take the medicine. There are those who would refuse such an option. Maybe if we’d had this at the time of the outbreak it would’ve been more salvageable. But now, heading into a year and half after the event, nothing is the same, and it’ll never be the same. There are hunters and prey, there are strong and weak, there are vampires and humans. Nothing will ever be the same as it was before. Do you understand that, April?” His voice was deathly serious, and his eyes were filled with a threat that made me flinch.
“You won’t give me the antidote recipe, will you?” It wasn’t a question. I stated it like a fact.
His lips curled up, showing off a perfect set of teeth. Tiny crow’s feet framed his eyes as the smile met them. He could’ve been charming, in another life, for an older guy. I could see why my mother had liked him, if she had. I didn’t believe every word coming from his mouth. But I only felt the burn of pure, unfiltered hatred toward a man who could withhold such things from humanity. It wasn’t his decision to make.
“No, April. I can’t give it to you.”
I stood up, glaring down at him and feeling my heart surge like fire, begging release from my ribcage. He flinched, but only just. “You will give it to me. You have no right to keep it to yourself.”
“And what will you do with it? Would you take the medicine? Would you turn into a plain human again when so many beasts and monsters still lurk across the world? Is that what you really want?”
“I don’t know, but there are those who want it.”
“And you are what? Their martyr?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s not your decision. You’re not God. You’re not the Devil. It isn’t yours.”
“It isn’t yours either, April.”
I watched him through the pool of fury tears about to spill down my cheeks. My face flushed in heat as I tamed the hurt, the frustration and anger down into a tiny flame flickering in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to hurt him, but doing so would squash any chance for a future for myself, for Jeremy.
“Why won’t you try to help others? You’ve done so much damage. Just give it to me, and I’ll find someone who is more willing to explore the options. You don’t want to, I get that. But you have no right to withhold it from the world. Why even make it in the first place? You’re no king here.”
Rick’s face had fallen into tight, serious mask, and his eyes stared back in a pregnant silence. I hated not being able to hear his thoughts as he heard mine. I hated him with every tiny morsel of my being, but I held my ground, knowing I would take what I wanted soon enough, even by force. This was but a formality, his chance to make it easier on me and himself. I was ready to take him to the pit of hell, kicking and screaming, for the antidote. He would burn for not handing it over, but that would come all in good time.
What surprised me was that the moments kept ticking by, as though he was actually contemplating my plight and considering doing as I asked. Nothing would have been better than to do this the easy way, with his help. With him, the cure would be but a shot away, and not just for the ones that needed it the most, the ferals, but for everyone. Humanity could begin again. That was all I wanted, all I dreamed about anymore.
He sighed, straightening up, still sitting as he bore his eyes into mine. The darkness within and the slight hum of his telekinetic power brushing against my brain made me twitch. Dammit, what was the bastard up to now? It was always no good.
“I will not give it to you. You don’t know what to do with it, and it will only bring chaos and more destruction than you’ve ever dreamed of. I won’t let you do that. I may not have been the most righteous man here, doing what I do, but I will not be responsible for your careless deconstruction of what little remains of the world. That’s what you’ll be doing. There will be war between those who want the cure and those who wouldn’t dream of taking it. You’ll do nothing to bring peace or salvation to anyone. It will only bring more death, more pain. My answer is no.”
Before he could blink, his glasses skidded to the floor, and my hand stung with a million tiny pricks of pain that burst across my skin as surely they did across his cheek where I’d slapped him with every bit of my inner hate.
“You’ll do what I say, when I say.” I grabbed his arm and shoved him against the door, pulling out my gun from my pack. “Or you die. Choose.”
“Then you’ll have to kill me.”
“Dammit, Rick. You owe me this.” My voice quivered. I was so angered by his stubbornness, I would have been okay jabbing the damned gun against the back of his head and blowing his brains out. I had to think, calm myself before it did end that way. “You owe Helen this.”
At the mention of her name, his head dropped. I eased him back a bit. Obviously, the mention of my mother had an effect on this guy, for whatever it was worth. I had to use it for all the power it could give me.
“I’m truly sorry about your mother. Really, I am,” he said, his voice cracking.
Seriously? The guy was about to cry. Great. He was nuttier than a squirrel’s hoard in winter. Did he really think I was going to feel sorry for him? Unbelievable.
“Look, I don’t know who you think you are, but what you did to her, you need to make up for it. You can’t do anything for her now, but she’d want you to help me. I knew her better than you ever could have.”
He looked up at me, sniffling like a little weasel. ?
??What do you mean?”
“What do I mean?” I restrained myself because I was about to strangle him. “I mean, if she really meant something to you, you have to understand that this cure… it’s our salvation. And she would’ve wanted it and given everyone a choice to be cured or not. She would’ve never wanted it to be just your choice, Rick.”
His tears remained wet across his cheeks, but I could see I was affecting him in some way. Maybe he could listen after all. Maybe he wasn’t as lost as I thought he was. I was far from trusting him, that would be a battle for another day, but if I had his cooperation, it was going to be a whole lot easier.
After what felt like an eternity, his head began to bob, softly nodding. He waited for me to continue, but I found myself at a loss for any meaningful words.
“Come on,” I said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.” I stood up and headed out the doorway into the darkened hallway where nothing met us but the humming of distant machines and the slight buzz from the lights. I heard him shuffling behind me hesitantly, but with each step, his stride turned more confident. I just hoped that he wouldn’t stab me in the back like Christian had. His betrayal was still fresh in my mind, and even though he wasn’t my boyfriend, our blood bond still messed with my head so much, it was enough to make me want to stake the bastard the next time I saw him. It hurt me, the thought of his love turning against me. After all we’d gone through, I had become soft, trusting and naïve to believe he’d never put me in danger. He had, and he would do it again.
Blood bonds suck.
~~~~~
The lab was quiet, like a lonesome, eager pet waiting for its master. The master was Rick, who trudged along through the freak show of tanks, specimens, limbs, and whatnot, like it was another day on the job. I still couldn’t understand how he felt so at home there with death surrounding him. I guess it wasn’t much unlike the way it was above ground, outside in the city where all the buildings were infested with evil and teeth that just wanted to rip your flesh. Except he had it a lot better. These things weren’t trying to kill him at every turn. They just sat there and stared at us as we moved through the lab with their unwavering frozen stares, like they knew something we didn’t.
“Where do you keep it?” I asked.
“Where do I keep the antidote, you mean?” He fiddled with a drawer and yanked out a ring strung with more keys I’ve ever seen. They jingled as he moved, and I winced at how loud they echoed across the counters and walls of the empty lab. I hoped no one heard us, it would ruin everything. I wished I didn’t have to do this alone, but if Rye, Elijah or Sarah knew what I was doing, everything would be over in a millisecond.
“So, April,” Rick said, “what do you think you can do with this antidote?” He flipped through the key ring, letting them jingle like a tiny song tinkling in my ears. It occurred to me that he might be stalling, but I wasn’t going to assume it. I didn’t know this man standing before me. Heck, he’d known my mother, in our past life, when time was abundant and death but an afterthought. He could know things about me that I’d never told anyone but my mother. Would she have even known she’d be giving up such secrets without a second thought? Back then, when a conversation over a cup of coffee in the teacher’s lounge was as innocent as waking up for the day, she could have told him anything.
The thought was unsettling, and I found myself twiddling my thumbs as I thought about it. What guarantee did I have that he would help me? I wondered how well he had known my mother before this all happened, before the world fell to pieces and he became a mad scientist. I almost laughed at the thought. It was sort of funny to think that Rick was a normal science teacher once upon a time.
“What’s taking so long?” I asked. “Don’t you know where you keep it?” I stepped forward toward him, but he sensed me and backed away until his back hit the cabinets.
“Don’t touch me!” His harsh whisper stunned me, leaving me to stare at him.
“What the… are you insane? I’m not going to hurt you.” That’s when I heard it, one tiny step where the rubber of the sole of the shoe squeaked on the shiny tiles, and I knew he hadn’t directed the comment toward me. I flicked my eyes behind me and saw a sword swing into the air just in time for me to duck under it, swipe my leg back toward the intruder and hit their ankle full force as I dropped to the floor.
The sword went flying across the tiles, but I didn’t wait to see where it went. I was already up on my feet, catapulting onto the stranger before he or she was able to get up. I straddled them, yanking out a knife from my hip holster. I dug my knees into their shoulders and upper arms while my feet pressed into the sensitive area of their inner thighs. They yelped, obviously in pain.
The attacker was wearing all black, with dark jeans, a long-sleeve shirt and even a dark mask covering their face. From the feel of their body, it was a man, but he was small and I was able to hold him down even though he kept bucking his weight up at his hips to try to shake me off.
Grunting with the effort, I managed to pull off the mask. I gasped. “Mercer?” He stopped bucking and dared to throw me a smirk. “What the fuck?”
“Quite impressive, April. You’re as fascinating as Rick said you would be.”
I made the mistake to look back toward Rick, who was holding that same fucking syringe. Mercer took that distraction to buck me off and encircle his arms around me, squeezing hard enough to make me drop my knife.
Shit!
“Don’t worry, April.” Rick wasn’t smiling, which was surprising, considering he was about to shoot me up with something. “It’s not the antidote. We set you up for capture, and you walked right into it. Thank you, April. You played your part so well, you made it all too easy.”
“What the hell do you mean? What is that if it isn’t the antidote?” I struggled against Mercer, who now had me pinned to the floor, and his hot breath on my ear made me cringe. I swore to God if that was a hard on I could feel bulging down there, I was going to lose my mind. Or he was going to lose something.
It wasn’t my imagination. The psycho was getting off on this. Perfect.
“Sorry, April. This might sting a little bit. It’s just something to make you for sleep just for a while.”
I managed to pull away some, and Mercer struggled to keep me in one spot, tightening his grip with his arms encircling me like a straitjacket.
“Rick… please… don’t do this! You have to help me! Don’t let him have me. Please….” I felt the pinprick stab in my arm, a tiny spark of pain. I always hated needles. The medicine worked fast, and the room began to sway while my struggling body went lax. Mercer led me down to the floor.
“I’ve got the girl. Come quietly, everyone’s still asleep. Over.”
I could hear them speaking to someone in the crackle of a radio. My body no longer responded, but I could still hear him, and I could still hear Rick shuffle around with keys as he probably went to remove the real antidote. Damn you, Rick. Why would he do this to me? Where was everyone? Rye was probably still sleeping, and the others, too. I was such a fool to do this alone. Now what would become of me?
“Is she out?”
“She might still hear us, but she’s pretty out of it. She won’t give us any trouble for a while.”
“Good. We can have a lot of fun with this one.”
“You’ll do no such thing.” This voice was cold with a hint of anger in it. Was it Christian? Was he actually there? Why didn’t anyone know they had gotten out of the quarantine? How could they all sleep through this? What was going on? “We have to leave the area and close it down like before so they’ll think she broke in on her own accord. Just keep to the sections with no cameras.” It was Christian. That traitorous bastard!
“I’m still your second in command,” Mercer snapped back. “I’ll be in charge of her. Your blood bond will cloud up your thoughts and risk our mission.” Mercer’s snarl did nothing to faze Christian as he muttered a rebuttal that Mercer didn’t immediately oppose. I could feel his heart b
eating through his relentless grip on my arm. I wasn’t sure who was carrying the bulk of me, but Christian was making sure he wasn’t touching me. Now I knew just how much the bond was affecting him. I had always had more control over it than he.
“Mmmm….”
“Rick!” Mercer hissed. “She’s waking up, dammit! Hit her up with another dose now.” He shifted, still digging his fingers into my skin. Another sharp prick in my arm burned the muscle like liquid fire, but I couldn’t scream. I could do nothing but let the darkness overtake me.
“I added some sedative this time. That should knock her out.” Rick’s dry tone told me he wasn’t happy with the situation at all. Well, that made three of us then.
Their voices faded as the medicine flowed through my veins. I hoped that when I woke up, I would still be whole and untouched. Mercer scared me, but I had faith that my bond with Christian would keep that vulture away as I lay dead to the world.
Chapter Nine
Memory is Cruel
I heard birds chirping, but it wasn’t real. No, it was more like the flapping of their wings had brought me back to the beaches my parents would drag me to when I was small, before my brother had been born. Days spent digging into the fine grains of sand and dragging buckets of seawater to my piles of dirt to make it easier to sculpt it into a masterpiece were precious memories. I could feel the same powdery sand under my skin as I shifted and the scent of ocean permeated the air.
I had to be dreaming. This wasn’t something from the present, and my mind shuddered as it fought to regain control of the dream, throwing darkness around me like an inky black smoke. But the fog was too rich, too thick to brush away, and I slipped back to the beach of my ten-year-old self.