March City: Rebellion of the Gifted [Book 2 | Complete | Fantasy/Sci-fi]

Chapter 31: Treason and Plot

"I have to go back," said Ari. "I'm grateful you saved my life. But I can't stay here, not when my friends are still living in that hell."

"I expected that," said Keirwin. "But what do you plan to do once you get there?"

"I don't know. I... you said there's no cure. They never planned on giving us a cure. If we had known that from the beginning, none of us would have agreed to help Candra. I just... I just want to get my sister out of there."

"She's infected?" Cillion said. Ari nodded, silent.

"Not like Candra can help her with anything anyway," said Neave.

"I wonder about that," said Keirwin. "They've survived for eleven years since the virus outbreak and downfall of their civilisation. Their genetic code doesn't include regeneration or resistance to pathogens. But they've survived all this time, have managed to procreate, and made their own little bubble."

"They sent runners out for supplies. Medicines and that."

"There's only so much you can raid outside. Trust me. We did that stuff for the past eleven years, and we can heal. Makes you wonder..."

"Oh," said Cillion, as if a light flickered on in his mind.

"Oh?" Ari stared.

"February City, you reckon?" Cillion said, frowning. "But I thought that place got destroyed."

"February City?!"

"Yeah, and we thought the same for March City."

"February City was created at the same time as January City," said Keirwin, for Ari's sake. "Whilst we specialised in transforming into weapons, February City was a sort of adjuvant for us, accelerating our rejuvenation rates, improving our performance, things like that, during a battle. They could create antidotes and secrete anti-pathogenic substances. Once we were extracted from January City, we would be put into teams in combination with February City people."

Ari's heart fluttered. New hope crept in. "You think there are February City users in Candra?"

"It's certainly a possibility. With how many infected there are outside and those inhabiting Candra were mostly civilians and hospital personnel, not the militia, they shouldn't have survived the first year, let alone eleven. The injuries and losses would have been severe. It does make you question if they had any extra help in surviving aside from March City."

"But wouldn't they have healed our infected students with February users? It makes no sense to let them die if Candra wanted to use us to survive."

"If they knew how to use February users," said Neave, crossing her arms. "Daniel Suarez died, didn't he? The big brains behind Project Lunation?"

"Michael — the Candra leader — mentioned it. He died three years ago."

"Along with the core knowledge of Project Lunation. At least that means no further biomes would have been created after that. My guess is the remaining people knew enough about February City to use it for typical injuries, but our genomes make our bodies a bit special. We're not that easy to make... or fix."

"So this is a win-win situation, Ari of March City," said Neave, a smile curling at her lips.

"You want me to break you into Candra."

"Not quite. We don't want Candra. We want Candra destroyed. If there are February City people there under their control, we want to rescue them. If there are generators from your city there, too, powering Candra, we want to put an end to it. You want to bust your friends out. Who knows? Maybe there'll be a February City plasma user who can create the antibodies you need."