Ryan did not dream.
There was a gap, large and completely dark. A void which was terrifying; with the ghosts who all judged him, reminded him of who and what he was. He hated them. Because every word that rang in his ears was right - the cold blackness that repeated the same words. The same memories. The same crimes.
Was this to be his new world? He saw shadows and shapes that were lined with bright white light. Demons who whispered to him in his ear. Mumbles of illiterate words that echoed through his mind like distant whispers from a faraway shore. He didn't know whether to follow them or not. He didn't know where he was. He could barely remember anything.
But he knew Leah was there.
It wasn't something he could entirely explain, because there was nothing to say. He just had her smell, the odour that lingered with him throughout the daze. He could hear her words, her sweet voice blessing him like a golden angel in the darkness.
Sometimes he tried to reach for it - but his arms would not obey him; even if they did, he wouldn't know where to hold out his hand. But it was a comfort. Someone as a guide in the new world he'd trapped himself within.
****
One of the doctors paused by the bed, looking at the boy who now slept. It had been hours since the strange occurrences of his resurrection, and still she couldn't understand what had happened.
The injection was doomed to fail. She had been told that many times even before the procedure - it was never supposed to work on humans. It was just a test. One that nobody expected to succeed, especially her.
And yet there she stood - looking at the impossible.
Her name was Yvonne. Although that name had rarely been spoken in years, only ever by her sister now. Her sister who spent most of her time with her own family, caring and nurturing them elsewhere in the city. She didn't know where anymore. It was safer that she didn't know for everybody, safer for her research.
Her sister was, after all, a wanted criminal. One that, sooner or later, was bound to be found by Boss' private police. In some ways, she thought it would be better for her little sister to spend some time in the dungeons.
Learning how to obey. Just like she did.
Their relationship had never been that simple. It was a fact that Yvonne had always accepted as inevitable; they had differing opinions, and although sometimes it brought them closer, it was more often that it tore them apart.
She was always attracted to science - qualifying as an advanced biologist before she was twenty, now more or less entirely in charge of her own facility and helping to design half the machines that kept the entire city going.
Then there was her sister, attracted to the younger generation. Training to become a teacher, succeeding and being shoved in some god-awful school. Falling in love with a foolish boy and running away with him in equal foolishness to get married. For the first time in a very long while, Yvonne actually agreed with her parents. The marriage was never going to work.
In a way she was correct - the apocalypse came. They lost their parents. They lost their entire lives in the 30 Day Blaze, their home gone in minutes, yet they still lived. The world under ruins, every continent bathed in the blood of millions - billions, even. Yet she had found Boss and his resources of plenty, she found a new life to live, she had a new purpose to live for.
And where was her baby sister? Where was she after ten years of scrounging? After losing that pathetic man of hers? Running an illegal orphanage somewhere in the city. Still looking after snot-nosed brats who don't pay their own way in this world. Never to see the light of day, never to even sleep for comfort.
Heather always was a naïve woman.
The door of the single hospital room opened, and there she was. The one that they were all talking about, just standing outside, as if waiting for some miraculous news that had occurred after the first day.
Her hair was long, thick and brown; she had some muscle that built her a little, but she was skinnier than Yvonne expected. Her eyes bright but also dark brown, intelligent and aware. She was a pretty girl, Yvonne concluded; but her nose wasn't at all to her liking, neither were her eyes - far too close together. Her face could be considered nice, but the others were signs of distrust, in her opinion.
"Is he awake?"
And eager too. She didn't like that. "No. You'll have to come back another time, he's not waking up tonight. Maybe never-"
"He will."
"How would you know?"
She smiled a little. "I just do."
The woman huffed. Finding the memory of her sister - that old, stupid woman - flare up her annoyance. The child walked over in an exquisite gown, with a style that she hadn't seen in quite some time, at least, not since before the apocalypse.
It was probably copied from any magazines that just about survived for some of the factory workers. When she passed her, going immediately to his side, the woman couldn't help but feel sorry for her and her foolish hopes. So she threw down a little more to keep her spirits high.
"It might help to talk to him."
"And say what?"
"I don't know. Something that'll make him want to wake up."
And with that, Leah was left alone. She had been able to choose what she wore this time, but all that was in her wardrobe were dresses of such insane value and beauty. It would be enough to only sell one dress to feed all the kids in the shack for months on end.
Even thinking about each one of those upturned, bright, young faces made her heart ache. She would give anything to go back - but there was no way Viceroy would allow it. She barely got out of her tower without being seen, let alone the whole palace.
"Hi." She didn't know how else to begin. The patient's face was still a little pale, his breathing regular but his eyes closed. It made her hurt in ways she didn't want to think were possible anymore. "I guess you're not waking up yet, huh?"
There was no reply. She didn't expect one she was just... hoping for one.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything, Ryan. I guess that was obvious, but I just..." she shrugged. "I didn't know what else to do. You were... well you were... dying. Dead, really. But they somehow brought you back. They bought you back.
"I should really sound happier about that... shouldn't I?"
She held her hands in front of her - trying to think of what to say next. If there was anything to say next. Seeing the pale blue material that covered her thin skeleton. The guy who was full of life moments ago, with light hair, white paper skin. The eyes that she saw were blue. Not anything special, but they had changed - it took so little time. But when it happened she already knew what had happened and still couldn't say it out loud.
"I didn't really want to wear this, y'know. It's so stupid and I feel stupid wearing stuff like this all the time. Like I'm some sort of fucking princess. I never have. Like that necklace thing... I guess that sorta set me off that one time, I mean something like that could feed them all for months. Just one thing, isn't that crazy?" She paused. Again there was no reply. "I guess you'd just agree with me. I think you would, anyway. 'Cos it is insanity to have to wear this around. Can you imagine Heather? God her face'd be a picture, wearing this weird posh crap, she wouldn't know what to think."
She stopped again. Feeling more stupid than ever, but also a little... better. She felt better that there was someone that she could talk to. Even if he wasn't really talking back. No. No she couldn't think that. He was just sleeping - he'd wake up. He just would.
"You're lucky, Ryan. You... you had a chance with a family. They might be gone now, but at least you had someone. At least you felt loved for a moment - just a moment - in your life. 'Cause you might not believe me, but my life's been... good recently.
"My mum wasn't bad. At least I don't think she was. I don't remember anything about her, Ryan, just that she tried to protect me. I always remember the look on her face when that door bashed down, I think I was five - six years old. Getting out of the house, then the wall, we were inches from getting out, but we had to go across the river. The one right under us, right now. I couldn't do it. Six years old and afraid of a bit of water. After all that's happened since, it's stupid. She cried to me but... She couldn't wait. She left me on the bank. Ran for the distant farms and fields. She should've made me go!
"But..." She sighed. In her dreams she saw her mother, her face and intriguing strength. Her faith in God and life after death clear in the blue necklace that she always wore. The one she hid somewhere for Leah to one day find, to only appear in Ryan's hand years after she left her completely alone. "I guess I can't blame her.
"I spent the next seven years in Boss' mines. Nobody knew who my mother was and none of them cared. I was just put in there like every other kid in the city, to work and work until we bled. D'you know what that's like? To bleed to death? Because I've seen it a hell of a lot of times and it... it's..." There was no such word, it was so terrifying for Leah to even comprehend, especially to a ten year old. Others she knew would try to even stop it - but nothing would ever be able to stop it. A few would just let it happen, say goodbye, mourn them while they struggled for breath.
"The only person who'd listen to me... was Heather. She was a maid once, y'know. Another servant in Boss' palace, but she was happy. I never understood it but she always found a way to make me smile, make me feel wanted. And I wasn't the only one - she'd do it to other kids. Kids whose family abandoned them so they could eat another few weeks. She's my hero. Someone who was brave enough to stand up to Boss, to stand up for what's right.
"Boss keeps telling me that it was a mistake me even being there. He came to me one day, a year ago, and told me that my mother was... selfish. That she tried to make me something that I wasn't, that she was steering me away from my destiny. My heritage. I've never believed him. Even now I think that there's some sort of mistake and he thinks I'm someone I'm not. And what I am is more important than it really is. He started to train me - putting me in with loads of other trainees, mostly guys. Some of them were the worst of guys, but others were good. Nice, y'know?
"What he told me... It didn't shake me much. I never believed a word of it, Heather being the only one who helped me grow. She told me about so many things, taught me what life was like before this. Where there were thousands of people, millions of them who were as rich as Boss. Who could use the cars, use the shops, use those weird flat broken screens - TVs. She taught me that Boss was more than just a corrupt monster, he was a mob gang-ster, a guy who would kill people. Just for money.
"I guess we're all mob gang-sters now, aren't we?"
Leah leaned back, still looking at Ryan like he might say something back to her at any minute. But nothing was happening or changing, so she continued.
"She also told me how to pick locks. Oh the many hidden talents of Heather, ha ha." The laugh seemed empty. Hollow without him to laugh with her. "How to get the lever down in a padlock and springing the other joints to make a metal lock spring open. Getting everything in the right place at the right time so getting it open would be a synch. And that's how I got out the mines - trust me after years of darkness, getting shoved into daylight isn't fun the first few seconds. But once they're gone, oh, it's gorgeous. It's like standing in heaven.
"I didn't leave without Heather and the kids. There were about twenty of us and we managed to knock out the guards, get some weapons and ammo. It was going well... but then... they got shot. More than just one, four. They were down in an instant, but they weren't dead, I never got to see that. I only could run. I should've gone back but they were bleeding so badly... there wasn't anything we could do. Even Heather admitted that. And she never does anything like that. Never.
"We managed to get out. Heather picked her way into the shack and we've been there ever since. But she... she can never forgive herself. Not after letting those kids die, that was the final blow. She drinks. She drinks to forget like we all try to. And I helped her as much as I could but now... Now I don't know what they'll do.
"That's why I saved you, Ryan. Because you could look after yourself out there, in the wilderness. You could cope with the deadmen, the city streets, everything. You would be able to carry on helping them when I came back... 'Cause he wanted to bring me back here. Boss never has people unless he can use them. But I'm much more than that. I'm a trophy of something that he had a long time ago, the last remaining fragment. The last bit of my mother that he can have. Maybe I should've said something before but... I don't think any time came up when I could say it out loud.
"And I never will." Her gaze became iron and cold; she growled it. "I'm not his."
****
Yvonne witnessed some of the speech from behind the one way glass. It wasn't her intention, but the research that she was conducting seemed minor - pathetic - to the breakthrough she'd made yesterday.
Her sleep was full of visions of what she saw, his body squirming, the muscles impossibly forming at an incredible rate, his heart stopping and restarting all on its own. Impossible things that had occurred before her eyes.
And the girl... The girl was attempting to wake him with her words. She cared, about him she saw her fire, like her sister, in the face of danger as she recalled the events. It explained much of what had been happening around the palace, the tension between Viceroy and master when even speaking of her name.
Now their arguments made a little more sense and she smiled at the thought that even they had weaknesses. Even they had their petty disagreements.
She wasn't stupid. She had ears, she had eyes and she heard and saw much within Boss' walls. It was something she used to her advantage, not to announce her knowledge to the wrong people, of course. Not for the mere servants or orphans that sometimes appeared in her street - nobody was worthy of the secrets she kept. She was trusted; the trusted head scientist now with the magical cure.
And Yvonne liked that. As well as the little perks that came with it.
She didn't even mean to come this way again, not until developments had been made, at least. But she was... worried... about the boy. He was her specimen, after all, the only human in known existence to have been cured by the infection. If he'd died, if there was any change, she had ordered to be informed immediately.
She'd even had a pager that told her if there was any change in the machines that were keeping track of every inch of his internal and external systems. There hadn't even been a blip despite how much the girl spoke to him.
Yet she came anyway. Out of some distant concern out of the serum that ran through his veins.
The girl's head was now resting on the bed as she quietly breathed in and out in a deep sleep. Her throat was hoarse and it was late. She'd spoken to him for an hour or two, sometimes holding his hand and insisting it was all okay, other times just reminding him of those times when they saved each other's arses.
It was strange for Yvonne to understand fully, as she had followed her advice. It wouldn't work, so why was she trying? The many memories that she obviously cherished for one reason or another were repeated through her lips as some useless gesture to him. She didn't get it - but then again, human emotions were always overcomplicated and foolish for her.
"How long has she stayed in there?"
Yvonne jumped at the sound, spinning around to face the Viceroy. Silent as a viper. "Jesus. How d'you-?"
"How long, Head?"
Of course he didn't know her name. She'd been working there since the first raids over a decade ago and he never even asked; just called her Head like the rest of the damn world. "Couple of hours. I don't know really."
"You haven't been watching her?"
"Do I look like a damn guard?"
"She's important." He muttered. "Who knows what she's told the boy...?"
"He's unconscious, Viceroy." Yvonne sighed. "Hasn't even woken up since the injection."
"Comatose?"
"Perhaps."
"And can you get him out of it?"
"Of course not. We could barely do that before."
The Viceroy kept his gaze on Leah. More than intimidating, but just as intense, watching her as she slept.
"What does she mean to you?"
"Excuse me?"
"You've kept her alive. You keep getting the chances to kill her, to get her out of your hair but you haven't. Why?"
"Because Boss wishes to keep her alive. Our interests allow her."
"But why her? Why not some other bitch off the street?"
"She shares his blood."
To this Yvonne had to look into him, see that he was telling the truth. He didn't waver or even look away from where she still sat. "What're you suggesting?"
"The child lived."
"Ah." She concluded. "That would explain it."
"Explain what?"
"Why you kept her alive rather than hunter her down like a dog."
"She isn't any normal pedigree. His blood runs through her veins. One day she shall lead in his footsteps."
"I suppose she didn't agree with you."
"No. She didn't."
"And she ran away."
The Viceroy paused, hearing words from his master echo in his ear. "In a manner of speaking - she needed a timeout."
"Is that what you call it? Running away like that with five dead and seven floggings constitutes a timeout?"
"Of course. She needs to understand."
"Understand what?"
"What's at stake if she doesn't do what she's told."
Yvonne smiled to herself. "I doubt that she'll do that."
"Excuse me?"
"You've shown her the truth about what you're doing to the people, Viceroy. You might not realise, but now she's compelled to stop you more fiercely than ever. Because he's given her the strength to stand against you."
"You speak of treason."
"I speak of rebellion, yes. But a single teenage rebel is nothing - a pathetic spark in a damp wood. However, she is no ordinary girl. She will lead one day. She'll have the power to stop this system that you've spent - what - ten years to create?"
"What d'you propose then, Head?"
"I don't propose anything. It's not my business what you do with your little prodigy. But I warn you, it's gonna get messy if she keeps talking to that outsider."
"Outsider? And who is he in all this?"
"The catalyst. I doubt even he knows that, but he's showing her a different path that she can take."
"Just as your sister did."
Her gaze hardened in suppressed anger at being associated with that woman. "She is no sister of mine."
The Viceroy's eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement as his eyes stayed trained entirely on the girl before him. "I need your professional opinion on her."
"Professional?"
"Yes. I need to know what and who she's become, if you say she's changed."
"Do I look like a psychiatrist?" She demanded.
"You're a scientist, that's qualification enough."
"If you truly believe that, then you're more stupid than you look-"
"Watch your tongue."
"Only if you watch yours."
Yvonne attempted to pass him, to find another way down the corridor and continue to overlook the research of the many who were analysing the boy's initial reaction. But the Viceroy grabbed her arm, determined to have the final word, bringing her so close that she could swear that she could hear the Boss' words echo from his ear.
"Remember what side your on, Head. Remember who gave you this life and the allegiance you owe us; she shall need that. Leah will want that in time - allies such as you who can show her the truth."
"The truth?" Yvonne smiled a little as she released her arm from his. "Or yours?"