I'm almost at the town. My heart pounds. Something is pulsing in my head, feeling as if it's going to crack open my skull.
There's red fungus growing under my nails.
"The fungus creates a hive mind for V-Types," Frances reports. "The more of it people have in their blood, the more it's linking them. Shona's piggybacking on that connection to control people, like poor Rory. Sam and Nicole are still in that shack. I've-I've lost them on coms!"
I sob. Every reminder that I've left them is torment. It feels like my heart is being ripped out of my chest.
Sam.
I told him I loved him, and I do. I love him so much, more than anything, but I should have said more. I'm unsure what, but I should have said more. My love for him overflows, and my words should have shown it, but all I could get out was a measly three words.
I didn't even get to say those words to Nicole, my sister, the sister I nearly lost on this damn island. I didn't even tell Songbird how much she means to me. And I left her. I left her alone with the task of holding back my turning husband after she shot the one man she's ever had any romantic interest in. I left her with the job of holding Sam back after he turns and holding Rory back when he comes back as a V-Type or ghoul.
I know she volunteered, but I should have had her go. I shouldn't have left her to see Rory's dead body, waiting for him to come back. I shouldn't have made her stay behind with him, not when I know how it feels to kill someone you care about so much.
I spot Janine and Jody up ahead. Janine looks sickly, and Jody's eyes are almost entirely red. I stop for a breather once I meet them, but being able to get in air only makes me want to break down and cry more.
I force back the sobs, and they ignore my tears. I'm grateful. I think I'd break if they pointed them out.
"There's the town square ahead," Jody points out, looking through binoculars. "We can't evacuate everyone. Fungus is covering buildings, streets, flowing out of pits in the ground. Shona's outside the museum with a line of V-types. She's half enveloped in fungus. It's rising around her like a cloak."
"The geyser is in the museum forecourt just behind the gates. We must get past Miss Reid," Janine states.
"Preferably with deadly force."
Janine shoots the blonde a look at that, but I completely agree. Because of her, Nicole had to kill Rory, and now she and Sam are going to die, if they're not already dead. She's lucky I don't rip her head off.
I want to. Oh, how I want to. I want it to be violent and painful and agonizing.
I hear the rumble of an engine, and I watch as Morag drives the tractor into town at full speed. They must have managed to fix it, probably with Janine's help. Paula is on the back, pouring a gas can over the side don't the fungus and any nearby V-Types. Morag's driving it straight towards the town square, towards Shona.
My breathing isn't even remotely controlled, but I start running again. If I can't take part in Shona's death, I at least want to be here to see it. I want to see that thing run her over and grind her to a pulp.
The only red I was to see right now is her blood staining the ground.
"Morag, don't roll the window down!" Frances warns although the older woman doesn't listen.
I hear her over my headset coughing. "Shona Reid! Your ma was the kindest woman I ever knew, and she'd be ashamed of you ten ways for this!"
Fungus around Shona's feet drags her out of the way of the tractor like a tide, the movement hauntingly fluid. V-Types charge for the tractor, snarling and growling. Paula lights a match and throws it where she'd poured the gasoline.
Flames erupt almost immediately.
"Burning fungus. That is our distraction," Janine states.
"Morag Brown, I have had enough of your prattling tongue," Shona hisses.
Janine takes the containers from me. "The fungus dislikes my blood. I will run ahead through the square and lay down a path of ice. You and Miss Marsh follow with explosives." She tenses when the V-Types swarm the tractor, pulling Morag and Paula out. They fight against them, trying hard to keep from being bitten. "We can only save them, Mr. Yao and Miss Edwards, through victory. Head for the museum. Run!"
Janine takes point, running into the town and towards the town square. Janine begins to pour the chemicals onto the fungus, and they instantly freeze over, blocked in the ice. The roaring fire keeps Shona distracted, and I cover my mouth and nose again as the smell of gasoline and smoke hits my nose.
The rain still pours, but it does little to stop the flames. While the burning fungus before posed no harm, I don't want to take any risk. It's hard to breathe through my soaked shirt.
I follow the ice path created by Janine, and Jody is only a step behind me. It's hard to stay balanced on the slippery pathway, but I make do since one slip will land me ankle-deep in fungus. One misstep and it's all over.
The rain isn't pouring as hard, although the winds still howl and scream. Everything around me is a furor, with growls from the V-Types, odd sounds of chanting and cheering from those still human accepting the fungus, and cries from those inside their homes as their try to ward off the intruders while fighting to resist the fungus in their blood.
I can still hear Shona's laughter in my ears. She's enjoying what she's having the V-Types do to the tractor drill. She delights in seeing Morag and Paula try to fight back. I can feel them too. They're growing weaker, evading the V-Types' teeth but losing the battle that's already going on inside them. They don't have much longer before it takes them over completely.
The fungus under my nails spreads along my fingertips, going up my hands slowly. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to block out the noise getting louder in my head. I won't let her in. I won't let her in my mind.
"That's it, Five," Frances encourages, although her words hurt my head. Everything hurts my head. "Follow Janine. Stay on the ice path she's pouring on the fungus. You're halfway to the museum."
"O-Okay," I huff, groaning as voices echo inside my head—so many, too many.
She gasps. "Oh no. Shona's seen you!"
I feel it, her eyes on me. I feel her grinning in my mind.
"I am the red god's favorite, Five. It'll take the world, but my isle will be paradise first!" She proclaims. "My blood has the perfect balance of silver to delay our union. It can embrace, not subsume, so I can savor it."
"Shut up!" I yell, her words hurting as if they're knives on my skin.
Jody looks over her shoulder and gasps. "Five, there's a crowd comin' after us. V-Types, townspeople half-turned. Oh, God. There's Paula and Morag. Fungus is growin' all over them!"
"It's letting me steer them, Five," Shona taunts. I can't tell if her voice is in my headset or just in my head. "I'm better with people. My puppets find weapons tricky when they're turning, but they all have teeth."
As I'm looking at the swarming crowd behind us, I see Jody take her bow and arrow and then shrug off her backpack. She thrusts it into my arms.
"Take these. You go ahead. I'll keep them back."
I gawk at her. "V-Types are indestructible, and if you kill a townsperson, they'll just come back as a V-Type."
"I don't plan on killing any townspeople unless I have to. But an arrow to the leg will slow them, and maybe she'll feel it." She grabs an arrow, draws it back, and then releases it. It hits a man in the thigh, and he falls. "The half-turned townsfolk are up front. If I can slow them, it'll trip the rest. If I don't, they'll overtake us."
I look at her desperately. I can't leave anyone else behind. "Jody, please-"
"Callista, go!" She commands harshly. "Follow the ice path. I'll buy you as long as I can. Run!"
I can't disobey her, so I keep running, not looking back as more tears fill my eyes.
Please don't let her die, I pray. Tom needs her.
My feet skid on the ice. I can't see where Janine has gone, but I know where she went due to the ice track. Rain still pitters down, soaking me. It doesn't wash away the fungus on my hands, in my head.
Soon it will. Soon this will all be over.
The ice path ends just at the museum, but there's less fungus here, so I don't have to worry about getting caught in a fissure or a large patch attaching itself to me. I open Jody's backpack and race forward, towards the museum forecourt.
"The geyser is under the roped off gazebo up ahead," Frances says as the wind whirls. "Hurry, the eye of the storm is passing!"
Suddenly a hooded figure steps out from behind one of the large rocks leading down the gazebo path. I immediately draw my gun.
The figure removes his hood.
"Chief McCallen," I pant, "get out of the way. I don't want to shoot you, but I will."
The older man grins in a way that I haven't seen him do before. He's covered in red fungus.
"Hello, Five. It's Shona here," He says, still grinning like a madman. "You're a clever, stubborn mind. That's why I kept this body on reserve."
He charges me. I pull the trigger of my pistol, but he dodges, tackling me to the ground. I shout as pain erupts up my back, and I struggle to push him off as the fungus on him grows thicker.
"Five, get up! Get him off you!" Frances shouts. "Jody's too far to help. I can't see Janine on coms. Does anyone copy? The chief has tackled Five!"
"This one killed your friend by accident, Five," Shona says with the chief's voice as I struggle against him. "He cried over it. But he still served me. I was the only one bold enough to lead. He'd cry now, if I let him."
I scream as he forces my hands above my head with one hand, the other pressing down on my sternum. A growl rips from his throat. He's turning V-Type fast.
He bares his teeth, and my chest heaves as I realize he's going to bite me.
"Fight him off! Get up!" Frances screams just as he surges forward.
There's a crunch of bone and flesh just before the chief can sink his teeth into my shoulder. He goes limp on top of me, and I quickly push him off. Standing above me is Janine, breathing heavily with a bloody mace in her head.
"Apologizes for the delay, Five," She pants. "Had to borrow a weapon from the museum. Rather heavy for everyday use."
I scramble to my feet, gathering the explosives that spilled from Jody's backpack and pulling out my own.
"Five, I'm falling back your way!" Jody shouts. "The mob's inches behind me. Throw those explosives into the geyser!"
I press the detonation buttons of as many as I can and chuck them into the geyser, thankfully making it in. A loud, startling growl hits the air, and my eyes focus on the chief, who's slowly starting to get back up.
He's gone full V-Type.
"Everyone, get away from the museum before the explosives blow," I shout. "Run!"
•
"Five, get down! We're beyond the square. The explosives-" Janine shouts as an explosion hits the air, causing the ground to shake. She loses her balance and hits the ground hard. She doesn't get up.
I hear water rushing, and beyond I see silver spraying up into the air, but there aren't any whirlwinds over the museum.
"Five, Janine, Shona's mob is running from the geyser," Jody reports, rushing to meet us. "I don't see Paula or Morag."
When she reaches us, she nearly screams. "Janine!"
She drops to her knees and grabs Janine into her arms, placing her hand over the dark-skinned woman's nose. "Oh, God. She's not breathing! Janine, get up!"
I look up, soft water droplets hitting my face. Rising panic brings fresh tears to my eyes. "Frances, there's just drizzle. No silver rain! This can't be happening! Why isn't it-"
I'm cut off by rolling thunder, and suddenly the drizzle turns into a roaring silver downpour.
As soon as it hits me, the voices in my head go quiet, and the fungus on my hands sloughs off and wilts.
"Oh, it's beautiful!" Frances cheers. "The fungus is wilting wherever it touches, turning to ash. The V-Types are dropping dead."
I look at Jody, my lips parting when I see her eyes have returned to vibrant green. Janine gasps suddenly, chest rising and falling even though her eyes stay closed. Jody looks close to tears in joy.
"She's breathing!"
"It must be the rain!" Frances says. "It's soaking her in the material her nanites are made from there. If there's enough, they can use it to reproduce, repair her!"
"Jody, Five!" Paula calls, and I see the redhead rushing towards us, soaked to the bone. "It was in my head, the fungus, and then it just... faded. Morag's unconscious, but she'll be alright." She pales when she sees Janine. "What happened?!"
"You need to get as much silver in her system as possible," She answers. "I've spotted Shona. The fungus is all melted away from her. She's fleeing down towards the cliffs."
Paula looks at us with hard eyes. "Four, Five, go after her. It's okay. I've got Janine. Make sure Shona doesn't get away. Run!"
Jody and I look at each other, our expressions hard. I may not have my gun, but she's still got her bow and a few arrows left. So, without a second thought, we take off, racing through the pouring rain, past the V-Type bodies and the burning fungus.
I keep waiting, hoping to hear Nicole or Sam's voice. The thought of finding their bodies near that warehouse because they've turned V-Type and the silver rain killed them makes me burn with anger.
I push myself to run faster, faster, even as my shoulders shake and hot tears slip past my lashes. I'm angry. I'm hurting. Exhaustion beats against my bones with every uneven step, but I don't care. I'll chase Shona across this entire island, across this whole archipelago, if I have to. She won't get away with this. She won't get to just run away.
The rain isn't pouring as hard now, although silver is still gleaming with each tear-shaped drop of water that hits the earth. So much is in ruin. So many are in pain. Those who were only half turned are alive, most of them unconscious.
It hurts that Rory didn't get so lucky. It hurts that a lot of people didn't get so lucky.
Minutes of rain, harsh breaths and heavy footfalls pass, but we eventually reach the cliffs. Shona is standing near the edge, drenched in silver rain. Her back is turned to us as she looks out at the ocean as the rain continues to fall, getting lighter and lighter.
It doesn't matter now. The fungus is gone. No one will be saving the seedpods after this, meaning it will never get to grow here again.
"Don't you dare move, Shona," Jody growls, drawing an arrow back. "I've got an arrow aimed right at your back."
The brunette sighs. "Look at that sunset. It's peeking through the clouds. Gorgeous." She turns and looks at Jody curiously. "Are you going to shoot me?"
Her lips press into a thin line. "I should. You deserve it."
"Go on then." She scowls when Jody doesn't move. "Go on then! It was mine! Do you understand? I was going to be powerful. I was going to rise with the island. I was going to last forever. It chose me! It was mine. I was going to see my mum. It promised me."
"Oh, save it," I snarl. "No one cares about your sob story. You killed people. You want us to sympathize with you about your mom when you killed your own father? You want us to feel sorry for you when you turned innocent people into puppets for your use? We've all lost someone! Everyone has! That doesn't give you the right to murder innocents."
"You're no innocent," She snarls.
"You're right. I'm not. But many people on this island are and were. Ellie was. You aren't, though."
"So kill me then."
Jody grits her teeth. "I want to. But we don't kill the powerless at Abel. It's not what Ellie would have wanted or what Tom would want for me. Five, grab her. She's under arrest."
Shona grins, all teeth. "You can't arrest me. I'm part of the land."
She darts around, ready to throw herself off the cliff. I'm diving after her, grabbing her before she gets the chance.
"Oh no, you don't!" I shout, tightening my grip on her as she screams and tries to fight me off. "You aren't getting off that easily."
"Callista!" Jody and Frances both shout, but I ignore them.
Shona claws and scratches at me, grabbing at my arms as we struggle, as I try to pull her away from the cliff. She digs her feet in, refusing to move.
"You hurt Tom! My sister had to kill her first boyfriend because of you!" I growl. "You hurt my Sam! You aren't getting a quick death! You don't deserve an easy way out!"
"Five, I can't shoot with you struggling like this! I might hit you!" Jody yells, and Shona gives me a rough shove, pushing me back towards the cliffs.
"You aren't taking me away from these islands. That would be worse than death," Shona snarls. "I wanted to simply die, but I'll gladly take you with me."
My grip on one of her arms slips, her skin wet from the rain. She uses it to turn and push me back so my back is facing the cliffs. My heels teeter off the edge, and my breath catches in my throat.
I've seen this before.
Her grip on my neck tightens as I try to push her back, but she's strong even without the red fungus.
"This is the end for me and you, Hero of Abel T-"
She gasps as a gun goes off, and then her grip on me slackens, the light leaving her eyes. She slumps, and while I try, I can't grab her in time. Her body falls off the cliffside.
I stumble forward, eyes on Jody, who looks just as shocked. Her eyes snap to the hill where the bullet came from, and my eyes follow.
A top of the hill stands a woman with dark brown hair like mine, pale skin like mine, and a face exactly like mine except for the eyes.
She said she would be there when I needed her.
"Catherine," I whisper in awe at seeing her in the flesh after so long. Then I flinch in alarm when I realize she has a gun while I'm weaponless.
As if reading my mind, she shouts, "Trêve!"
And then she walks away for now. She'll be back.
"That was the clone Frances talked about. What did she say?" Jody asks.
"Truce," I answer, my eyes on the spot where she once was.
She kept her word.
"Callista? Jody?"
I inhale so sharply it hurts. That voice. That beautiful, unforgettable voice. "Sam!"
He laughs. "Yeah, it's me. I'm okay. We-we're okay. Nicole and me. The fungus in me just died. I felt it die. I uh... I think I know where the Edda is. While the fungus was in me, I could feel all these memories, feel some of Shona's thoughts. There's something major hidden in a cave near Gaisgeach. Amelia felt it too. She's heading there with her marines. She's made one of them get a wheelchair for Tom, so he'll be there too. I think we're all heading that way, so you'd better join us, make sure this is for real."
I'm sprinting that way before he can even tell me to run.
•
"Sam!" I practically throw myself into my husband's arms, tears flowing freely as he wraps his arms around my waist and picks my feet off the ground. "I thought I'd lost you!"
Whatever reply he might have given me is cut off when I crash my lips against his, tightening my grip around him. I never want to let him go.
"Oh, I love you," He murmurs against my lips. "I love you so much."
"I love you," I say back, my words choked with emotion. "I don't think I could live without you."
He sets me down, still staring at me with so much love and adoration I feel I may explode from it. I look around, seeing Tom in his wheelchair. Jody is leaning over him, crying as she presses kisses to his hand. Despite the exhaustion that clings to his features, there's a smile on Tom's face.
I pull myself away from Sam, albeit very reluctantly, and then turn to the second person who caught my eye.
Nicole stands off from everyone else, her eyes holding a glazed over look to them. I walk over to her cautiously, like you would with a wild animal.
"Songbird?" I call, and her eyes snap to me.
"I had to," She says. "I-I had to do it. I had to kill him. I had no other choice. He was attacking Sam, and he had accelerant, and he was covered in fungus. I had to!"
She keeps repeating those words as I get closer to her, her voice cracking as tears leak past glassy eyes. As her voice grows hoarser and more desperate, I realize that she isn't telling me that to convince me. No. Frances said that the silver rain is sweeping over the entire archipelago and that the fungus is dying everywhere. She stated everyone who hadn't turned full V-Type is recovering.
Rory hadn't turned full V-Type when Nicole shot him.
She isn't trying to convince me. She's trying to convince herself. She's asking me, in her own way, to assure she did the right thing, that she didn't kill the first person she ever had romantic feelings for unnecessarily.
"You did the right thing, Songbird," I tell her. "If you hadn't, then maybe that accelerant would have gotten in Sam's mouth, or more would've gotten in his eyes, and he would have turned full V-Type before we stopped the fungus. You saved him. You had to do it. You did the right thing."
Nicole throws herself at me, weeping into my shoulder in a way I've never seen her do before, not once since she's come to Abel.
"Why does it hurts so badly?" She hiccups. "I know I didn't love him. I couldn't have. I only knew him for seven weeks. So how-"
"Because it was real," I tell her, stroking her back. "It might not have been love, but you deeply cared for him, and he cared for you."
A strangled noise leaves her mouth. "I now know I still have a heart," She says, "because I believe I can feel it breaking."
Sympathy stabs me, and I realize that while my feelings for my first crush were much stronger because I knew him better, Nicole and Rory seem to heavily parallel myself and Wesley.
I hate that for her.
Nicole rips herself away from me, wiping her face. "I'm sorry. I-I need to be alone."
She turns to walk away. I let her.
"Runner Five," Janine calls, walking towards me with Paula beside her, "Mr. Yao alerted us of the Edda situation."
"Are you okay?" I ask, and Paula answers for her.
"Janine's vitals are stable. The nanites are healing her fast now that they're in good numbers."
Janine smiles gratefully at me, then at the others. "I owe you all my life. Thank you. Our losses here were not in vain. We have wiped out the fungus in the Far Hebrides, and we have the Edda."
Morag nods. "Aye, it was in that cave over younger. Bloody well hidden too."
"We will remember the fallen. Ellie and Rory will not be forgotten, nor will the laird."
Sam walks up to me and wraps an arm around my shoulder. "It's kind of wonderful, isn't it? The silver rain, the sunset poking through the clouds. I think... I think they'd have liked this."
"The people here are safe," Jody says, her hand clasped in Tom's. "We're safe. That's what would have made them happy."
"Yes, yes, et cetera. The important thing is we have the Edda," Amelia huffs, effectively ruining the moment. She steps under a shaded area from the rain to start flipping through it. "And about time too. Now we can get back to the mainland, work out who to wipe out all the V-Types and assorted zoms forever, and have a nice comfortable..." She freezes. "Oh."
Sam's grip on my shoulder tightens. "Oh? Oh, what? Amelia, what's written in there?"
She clears her throat awkwardly. "Ah. Well, obviously, I now have more familiarity with Old Norse than I ever desire to have, and if I'm reading this correctly... I think we may have a problem."
Thunder rolls, and I taste metal in my mouth as it dawns on me.
This isn't over.
The End
A/N: I think we all say this coming since I've talked about a season 9 in the game, meaning there will be a book 9 in the future. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and book, and stay tuned because I plan to post a "chapter" after this talking about some of the canon changes I've made, and give a little info about the next book that will come out.
Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you all and have a blessed day!