Amber Skies: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (Book 2 of the 2136 Trilogy)

CHAPTER 1 - PART 2

I looked away and stared at the floor. My mind was racing with so many questions and every one of them had to do with my death. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was dangerously wrong within me. As if to prove my gestational right, my left side cramped as something moved across my stomach. I held my breath and waited for the discomfort to subside. A few seconds later, and the crawling stopped.

Without looking from the dark crack in the side of the wall where I had thrown the tray of food on the first day, I said, "What's going to happen to me?"

"That's why I'm here," she said.

It was hard not to glare at her in that moment, but I focused on the piece of stone on the ground to distract myself from the vertigo swelling up within me. I grabbed my thighs with my hands to keep them from shaking. They were burning up.

"We need your help," she said, with a soft dip in her voice.

I couldn't resist the curiosity. Anything was better than whatever was happening inside of me, even if it were all lies.

"How's that?" I said.

"We were close to solving the puzzle in Skylar's genetic code before he—"

"Died?" I said.

Again my stomach shifted, only causing my words to sound more imminent.

"Yes," she said calmly. "And that was an unfortunate tragedy. Skylar was special a boy. Because of him, we were able to develop cures for a multitude of diseases. Diabetes, influenza, cancer, polio—all gone because of Skylar. We never could have done it without him. And thanks to him, millions of people will be able to see another day, and hopefully one day soon, we'll be able to go back to the surface."

"I still don't see how I can help," I said. "Whatever it is that Skylar had, I now have. It's only a matter of time before I end up like him."

The Doctor took a few steps toward me excited.

"I don't think so," she said earnestly. "Your blood...it's—unique."

"Unique?" I copied.

"Yes," she repeated. "You should have ended up like Skylar and the others, but the mutation didn't affect you the same way."

You're right about that. It's just eating me from the inside out. Nothing too serious.

"Others?" I said, ignoring everything else she had said and the uncomfortable movement from inside my belly. "Is that what those things were? Other people you had infected? What is SIND doing up here, anyway!"

"The others were people—volunteers—just like Skylar was. We did not force them. They all came willingly. They had to for it to work."

"You call all of them turning into cannibals working? What kind of a sick experiment are you running here?"

"Let me explain," she said forcefully. "The breakthroughs Science achieves always comes at a cost. It's never pretty, or convenient, but it's necessary for the continued survival of our species. These volunteers were a necessary sacrifice for the greater good. Would I have rather they all survived? Of course! But the reality is, they didn't, and that's something I have to live with every day."

I averted my eyes. She was right, but it didn't mean I agreed with their methods.

"There are a lot of people counting on us to solve their problems, Willow. Most of the world was destroyed in the war and we're just barely surviving here."

"Don't speak to me about surviving. You know nothing of the sacrifices and hardships we have to deal with every day on the ground. People die every day and no one even blinks an eye. Where was SIND when they died? Where was SIND when my parents died? Oh, right! They were right here, hiding in the mountains, under the ocean, and in their soaring fortresses high above the dangers of the world below. So don't tell me it's for the greater good. What greater good! You probably don't even know what it's like to wonder if you'll find food, or have a drop of clean water to satisfy the ravishing thirst that never lets up, or if you'll wake up the next day. You don't know what it's like to be full of fear each day, wondering if the solar radiation filtering through the sky will kill you this time before you find shelter. Don't speak to me as though you know anything about life out there."

Somewhere in my ranting I had stood up and was pacing back and forth, my hands balled in fists, pounding against my legs.

Doctor A briskly walked towards me and grabbed my arm. She shoved me to the cot and rolled back her sleeve violently and held out her wrist.

I saw the numbers 3-1038 burned into her skin. I couldn't pry my eyes away. How was that possible? All of the Divines were hauled off after the war. Anyone else who was born a Divine was born onboard one of the Procs, except me. That's what my parents had told me...

The anxiety receded within me the longer I looked at her scar. Without looking, the mark on my own wrist where they had burned my numbers upon birth, started to itch.

She yanked her sleeve back down and crossed her arms.

"Don't ever say I don't understand," she said sharply, but with a tone of sympathy in her voice. "I know full well the horrors the poor souls go through every day out there. I was one of them."

"I don't understand," I said. "How are you—"

"Never mind the how, or the why—we don't have time for that now. We need your help, Willow. I need your help."

"What good can I do?" I said. "I'm probably going to die in a few days, anyway."

Because of you.

And at that very thought, I keeled over onto both knees clenching my abdomen.

Instead of checking on me, the Doctor smiled. For the first time since I met her, no less.

"You're not going to die," she said. "You're a fighter. It's in your blood. And fighter's never give up."

I could feel the tear ducts swelling up, getting ready to flood my cheeks. I stared into her eyes for strength to resist the pain running wild in my organs. I'm not sure what I was looking for, but what I saw there was enough. I clenched my teeth, bit back the pain, and stood to face her head on.

"What do you need me to do?" I said, trying not to tumble down from my wobbly legs.

Her face returned to its emotionless draw.

"Save the world," she said.

I watched her shadow disappear into the bright light. I stood there hobbled over in a crooked stance, trying to resist the urge to lie down and embrace this agony once and for all, but I couldn't. Not if there was still a chance to survive.

Again I heard my father speak, "You're going to do something great one day."

The first step was the hardest as I followed after her.