The Mutatio Disease

Sector Sixteen

- - - - Sector Sixteen - - - -
- - - - Part One - - - -
Don't Remind Me

  "Still nothing?"

    "Nothing," I groaned, rubbing my foot and thigh. It tingled faintly in response, but my body still refused to believe it wasn't stuck in a wall anymore.

   Penelope shook her head, looking like she was fighting a laugh. Her hair was pulled back, the silver strands glowing in the evening light. She was driving with me in the passenger seat. Felix, Logan, and Silvester were in the other car. Logan was practically a noodle, his body having lost feeling entirely. Felix wasn't much better, staggering around. Only Silvester and Penelope were unscathed.

   The people of Casper had been relieved, but they had all been leaning on the side of ARMMS and hustled us out of their town as quickly as possible. I hardly blamed them. A bloodthirsty, Mortem chimpanzee had been holding them all hostage for nearly two months.

    Our next stop was Denver. I sat on my phone, and after a minute of thinking, dialed Lyra. She could help us figure out what we were dealing with. She picked up on the second ring.

    "Yap?"

    "Hey, Amaya," I began carefully. Penelope's eye twitched, but she only turned up the radio slightly. "We just got out of Casper and are on the way to Denver."

    "Yeah, I know," sniggered Lyra. "The news coming from that place is insane. What even was it, anyway? Everyone is saying that a monster was holding them hostage."

   "It was a chimpanzee."

    She snorted. "Sadly, that actually makes sense. The news reports obviously didn't want to say what was causing the problem, so I figured it was either really stupid or really embarrassing."

   I grinned, glancing out the window at the dark scenery. "What's the news on Denver?"

   She began clicking away on a laptop. "It says here that there seems to be no Mortems. They are just running low on food and are too scared to go outside in case there is one."

   "Wait, no Mortems?"

    "Apparently not. They're just scared."

    "So they just need a morale boost."

    "Mhmm."

    "Well, Felix is going to be happy about that, huh?"

~

     Logan face-planted on the hotel's bed. "That's it. I'm done with people. They all suck!"

    "Hey!"

    "Fine. Except you, Felix."

    I groaned, sinking onto the bed and tugging on my hair. "I'm with Logan on this one. That was awful."

    We had just spent the day moving through the city, convincing people that they were safe. Felix was shining, as he always was, being kind and charismatic. Logan had been his sarcastic self, Penelope a happy influence, and Silvester a silent presence. I'd tried my best, but the seventh time that someone screamed at me that I was a monster, I lost it and snapped at her.

    After risking my neck to help these people and having them scream that I was a monster was the last thing I wanted. It was tiring and I was sick of it.

    Felix patted my back. "We're going to be dealing with it a lot, fledgling."

    "Next time, I'm hitting them with the crowbar."