ALIVE: The Aftermath Chronicles (Book 1)

Chapter 5 - Immunity

Pulling down on the long sleeve of her thermal, Sophie waits.

This hospital, though small and lacking in the same rank stench of antiseptic and eerie cold she grew up with, it still held danger for her. Before all this, what dwelled inside of her kept her at risk. Now, with the outbreak and end of the world, she's El Dorado, The Fountain of Youth, a God damn unicorn. Sophie knew she'd never be safe. Doyle and Elisa shared her secret without her consent and it killed her to be outed, to be seen as something other than human....again.
Though she trusted Doyle to the grave, Elisa's tangled web with the districts kept her at arms length.

Elisa came with them. Escaped, with herself, Doyle, the child Abby, and the other soldier who died on their way here, named Williams. Surprising them all, Elisa left her blossoming career and followed Sophie wherever she'd go, proclaiming just as much, telling her what she'd been told since the morning she opened her eyes. That she was remarkable, unlike anything else. In other words, "inhuman".

They ended up in Richmond Hill after District 1 fell, since where else was there to go? As long as they kept her blood work and who she truly was from their hosting District in 4, Elisa promised her she'd be safe. Through Doyle's encouragement and his own promise to keep her safe, she'd settled into that promise, but it didn't come without the constant fidgeting accompanying the imaginary scenarios she couldn't control.

The door opens and Sophie's breathing eases, as the medical centers from her past no longer take centerstage in her mind.

Sophie says over the misplaced look on Elisa's face, "You have me here when the sun is up. I don't think Russell or the Sheriff saw me, but this is pretty risky..."

Elisa pulls down her square glasses that match her equally square jawline. Her fingers tremble at the thick black frames and her eyes heavy as they land on Sophie. With this look, Sophie's heart swims within every other place than where it calls home.

"Dr. Martin?" Sophie asks, taking a careful step toward her, as the woman with a brilliant mind and diverting stare hesitates to speak. Sophie asks with her first name this time, "Elisa, what is it?"

With trepidation tangible in every inch of the room, the doctor voices out, "I have something to show you. It's really quite remarkable. You may not believe it."

Together, they walk down the short hall of the first floor. Sophie had seen every other face in this colony, other than the man sitting soundly on the edge of the hospital's bed after Elisa opens the door and lets her inside.

Closing the door behind them, Elisa treats the cheap wood as if she's lowering the gates to a King's castle in such ease. In all her busying around the room and in her hushed ramblings, it's all drowned out to Sophie. Why was this man staring at her like that? Steady, challenging, as if to intimidate her to speak first. The man barely blinked, yet seemed entirely too relaxed at the same time to hold such an intense expression in his eyes alone.

Sophie is honed in, trying to see what Elisa sees, since she hears none of it in all of her random commentary and long, drawn out story about too much noise coming from the classified third floor.

The break of their own silent exchange comes when Elisa passes between them, giving Sophie the opportunity to look away first, if just for a moment. Yet, even in her brief release he stares as if no one else existed in the room.

The sleeve of his red flannel shirt is rolled up by Elisa and the man finally makes a movement. He lifts his arm just slightly enough to aid Elisa in whatever she's trying to show Sophie.

On his forearm, Sophie finally sees what haunts in Elisa's eyes, what possibly had been haunting in his. It may have been what her own face looked like whenever she feared someone got too close to a single truth. In her disbelief, Sophie expels the softest breath.