Cold Ashes

Chapter 19 - Catalyst

But you are. And it's alright - this is scary. Life is scary, which is why you have to go back to it, why you need to find a place where you can be free of us.

I don't want to forget you.

I didn't say you needed to. We just want you to stop blaming yourself

Dad?

Yeah?

I love you. Can you tell mum that? And Alan?

Yeah, Ryan. We love you too. We always will.

****

"I wish that I could bring you back, Ryan. That you didn't get bit at all." Leah held his hand, hoping for something to happen, as she always did. But it was all a foolish hope. She knew that, but continued talking anyway. "That we'd both be at that little shack with Heather and the kids... That things could just be normal. Were you ever normal, Ryan? Did you ever feel it? 'Cos I don't know what it is anymore. I've never been that, even as a kid, before the world fell apart-"

Something then beeped. Impossibly loud over the silent room where she sat, she didn't understand and she didn't expect to. For seconds she was frozen in place, waiting for some miracle but heard and found none. Tentatively she leaned forward, looking for some difference of him, but she saw none. Just a flashing light that wasn't there before and a quiet alert that kept going. Leah then looked back to Ryan. At his face that regained a little colour. She wished, she felt butterflies buzz in her chest, a dumb smile that widened as she saw him stir.

"Ryan? Ryan, come back to me. Follow my voice, Ryan. Come on, come back, please!"

His voice opened, a strange squeak trying to escape from his lips. Thirsty. Of course he was thirsty, he hadn't had a drink in a week! Leah reached for the glass of water that stayed in the same place since the first day, bringing a small bit to his lips, enough for his mouth to be wet enough to form words. His eyes squirmed in the light, first opening was the worst, burning out the inside of his head, but then he blinked again and again and again. The light darkened and he saw her face fill up his sight.

"L..Leah?"

"Ryan!" She couldn't help but reach over and hug him tightly. Too happy for words to ever describe, those butterflies flying higher than the sun, than the moon. He, as well, smiled as he thought of the vision of his father. Telling him those words that had, at last, brought him peace: We love you too. We always will.

"I thought I was a goner..."

"So did I. You scared me shitless!"

"My bad."

"It's fine! Oh God, Ryan, I can't believe you're back."

"I-"

The room was then invaded, people rushed through the doors with masks obscuring their face and white medical coats flying behind them. They all came to Ryan's side, taking blood pressure, looking at the many monitors that he was hooked up to, taking down measurements of these. Then somebody had Leah by the arm, dragging her away just when he was waking. Of course she struggled, reaching for Ryan's hand that she'd been warming with her own, but it was futile. It took an extra doctor to drag her out the room, but it was done, and the scientists could pursue their own interests with the specimen.

And overlooking it all, like an eagle watching her prey, stood Yvonne. Smiling at the prospect of her previous research being conducted once more. Hoping that - for the first time in a decade - she'd be able to unlock the many mysteries of the deadmen. And what their significance was on this world.

****

Throughout the day and night, all the scientists and doctors of their particular professions came together and began their work. Again and again they dragged the weak boy from his bed, taking samples of his blood and tissue. Forcing him to do nothing but comply without the need of threats or torture. He could not fight them and he could barely try. He was taken under the veil of consciousness over the course of the day, one moment he would see the sun start to rise, in what appeared to be seconds it was hot and bright, then suddenly dark. Twilight quickly approaching at a rate he'd never thought possible before.

Throughout this first day, Yvonne was witness to every test. She, along with her minions of research, was able to have results when the moon was beginning to rise. In one of the many underground labs she sat staring at his cells, calculating the formula that ran in his blood, even follicles of hair had been plucked from him in some determination of change.

And even though this was only one day, even though the results were only the estimate of what was to come. Even Yvonne could not believe her eyes.

"I suppose you want some explanation." The door closed behind the Viceroy, the only one who would possibly be up at this hour as she. The microscope consuming all her optical attention.

"Of how he lived? Yes. That would be appropriate."

"I'm sure you'd like that. A huge amazing answer to all your questions in less than a few seconds."

"It would be nice, of course. However I'm aware even you cannot work that quickly."

"Don't even try to insult my intelligence, Viceroy." She spat angrily, still not looking away from the work that consumed her. "I know he wants results as fast as possible and I can give them. Estimations of them, at least."

"And what are these said estimations?"

"That the serum we gave him worked. And not only to fix the infection, but the rest of him as well."

The Viceroy's eyebrow rose, intrigued by her meaning but not fully understanding it.

"Today we performed a multitude of tests, right? Each one being the normal practice of any practicing scientist with its specimen; blood, muscle tissue and hair. But what we found was... impossible."

"You told me the procedure of curing the infection was impossible as well."

"I did. Because in my professional experience the serum was never, ever supposed to actually work. All the tests we did on it made it doomed to fail - even you knew that, but you insisted we gave it to the boy anyway. Another lesson on Leah's obedience, I suppose?"

His silence and menacing stare was enough to convince Yvonne.

"Not even I expected him to live, and I created the damn thing!"

"So what did it do?"

"I don't know. But there's another agent inside him. Working with his current biological system to do something."

"Excuse me?"

"Look at his cells."

The Viceroy leaned into the microscope, peering into the glass and seeing the strange round circle of ooze magnified many times into his eye. He recognised the shape from his time as an infant, the large circle encapsulating a smaller one with an even smaller one in that. But he was no scientist, so when he looked at this, he saw no change. He was not at all surprised or even amused by what he saw in the dish.

"Now if you look, this is the usual animal cell shape - it has one nucleus, a membrane, ribosomes, vacuole, etcetera. But there's something else in his cells. Something which is mutating them. I don't know what it is, but it's nesting right in the nucleus - the slightly smaller circle - and that's... that just doesn't happen!"

"What do you think it is, Head?"

"I already said, I don't know! But it's... incredible. Impossible and I want to do more tests."

"Will they be painful?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Will they hurt him?"

She took a second. In her annoyance realising that he didn't care about her findings and really came here to find out whether she'd be able to inflict torture in the name of science. A cause that she would never betray, but always despised shedding blood for the sake of doing so. Yvonne nodded.

The Viceroy was less excited and much less interested with the tiny, insignificant thing in his hands. So what if his cells were changing? So what if all he one nucleus? Or two? Or seven? She was speaking such ridiculous nonsensical scientific language that he didn't care to translate or think about anything other than the task at hand. All he cared about was whether Boss could use it as an advantage - and after a moment of consideration, he announced his answer. "Do what you need to."

"I suppose you don't care what I do to him, do you?"

"I trust your judgement, Head."

"And if he dies during the process?"

He smiled as only a serpent would. "All the better."