*****
Chapter 32
“Any break through?” Kent asked as soon as Ridec entered the sleeping area.
“No.”
“He’s doing the best he can,” Rea said.
“He doesn’t need you to speak for him,” Jessell pointed out.
“What? That’s your prerogative alone?” Rea countered.
“Don’t start this again,” Kent said.
“You don’t want to see the kid take another beating?” Linda questioned. “That was the most fun I’ve had in years.”
“Clearly you live a very unfulfilling life,” Kyle grunted under his breath. “Kent is right; we don’t need to be fighting among ourselves. We have enough opposition to worry about already.”
“You guys are clean and it’s my job to protect you and get you safely back to the authorities.”
“We’re not all cleans,” Mary muttered awkwardly. “But you said I could get a spot in your facility because I brought you the boy, remember?”
“We never said that,” Linda countered.
“Of course we can get you a spot,” Kent contradicted. “You just need to play it cool when we get there. Once we explain to the authorities that you helped us cap…influence a clean to come in you’re definitely going to be in.”
“You were going to say capture,” Ridec said.
Kent didn’t respond.
“Is that what we are? Captives?” Kyle questioned. “I knew there was something about this headquarters I didn’t like.”
“You’re captives for your own good. You guys don’t understand. The headquarters has security, fences, home grown food and a lake. It’s perfect,” Kent explained. “If someone could capture me and take me to a paradise like that I’d thank them.”
“I don’t plan on being anybody’s captive,” Kyle countered.
“That makes three of us old man,” Jessell put in.
“There’s a state of the art lab there. It has everything, I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere before. If you’re going to find a cure for this thing, trust me, you’ll need a lab like that,” Kent persisted.
“We’re not interested in finding a cure,” Jessell countered.
“Are you sure you’re speaking for Ridec?” Kent was looking directly at Ridec as he spoke. “It’s not only me that needs his help. Do you think they’ll accept Mary or Pete…” he paused for emphasis, “in the facility unless we have you and Ridec to put and argument in for them?”
“I can go with Jessell and Ridec,” Pete countered. “I don’t need to go to your stupid facility.”
Jessell’s mind was bombarding Ridec’s; she was making it clear that there was no way they could bring Pete with them. He couldn’t survive under water, several of the first scientist that took the drug had still drowned under water, some had mutated into the adicas that now attacked their homes on an annual basis and it had taken a few generations before the merpeople had eventually evolved to the point they were at today, able to live, breath and survive comfortably under water and above the water. If that was not enough, Pete was an unclean and it was probably only a matter of time before he changed, he could put all Merland in jeopardy as he could represent a new strain of zombies that could survive in the sea.
Ridec didn’t respond to the message, what Jessell was saying was true but how could he leave a kid like Pete to fend for himself? It was clear that unless he went with Kent there was every possibility that they wouldn’t allow Pete into their safe haven.
“He’s just a kid,” Ridec said.
“I don’t call the shots at headquarters,” Kent countered. “Maybe you can take him to your home at sea?”
“Home at sea?” Kyle asked. “I wouldn’t mind getting on board with that. How do you find food and water?”
“Can we come?” Mary put in.
“There is no home at sea,” Jessell said firmly.
“So why do you need to find a map that leads to the sea?” Kent demanded.
“You need to try minding your own business.”
“If you have a safe haven you should share it with us,” Rea said and Ridec glanced at Jessell thoughtfully. Rea was a clean, there was the risk associated with taking the medicine but at least she was a clean. Maybe she would be willing to take the risk to escape from her world of horror.
“There’s no safe haven and I’m tired,” Jessell said walking off to the corner of the room where she made her bed. The plan had never been to stay around the humans for so long; it was only a matter of time before they started to realize that there was something different about them. It wasn’t that she blamed them, she understood their fear. Life had taught them that there were only two types of people – the living and the monsters, if you weren’t among the regular living humans then you had to be some kind of monster and there was only one way to deal with monsters; kill them.
“You’re hiding something,” Mary insisted gripping Jessell by her arm and pulling her towards her.
“You have two seconds to release my arm; two.”
Before Jessell could say the number two Mary had dropped her arm and hustled away.
“Something’s not right with you two, you should have seen the way he looked when I first saw him,” Mary said. “I’d never seen anyone more…beautiful, clean, perfect…”
“He’s still all those things,” Rea put in.
“He is but you should have seen him, not a mark, not a stain, not a scratch just perfect.”
“Ridec, it’s time to get to bed before one of those women maul you,” Jessell shouted. She had a hint of laughter in her voice but Ridec could tell she was not amused.
“Ridec, I understand…” Rea started to say.
“I need to get some rest,” Ridec said hurrying over to where Jessell was laying on the ground and lowering himself to the floor beside her.
“Good night,” Jessell muttered. “We leave here at first light tomorrow.”
Ridec nodded and then muttered, “of course.”
Jessell didn’t utter another word, it seemed like within seconds he could hear the soft rhythm of her breathing which said to him she had fallen asleep. Ridec sighed, she was tired, the past few weeks had taken their toll and he had played his part in making them difficult for her. He couldn’t help that he felt responsible to these humans for what his ancestors had done. They had made the drug that had caused all this chaos and had slipped away from it all and rescued themselves without ever looking back, it wasn’t fair and now innocent kids like Pete and Rea had to suffer the consequences of their action. Ridec inhaled a deep breath and released it slowly, who knew how many other kids had suffered before and how many more would suffer? His ancestors had thought that the plague would have died out by itself after a few years but they had been wrong, these things didn’t die, they just lived on forever it seemed and with the human population continuing to enter into relationships and have children it seemed as if this struggle between the living and the creatures was destined to continue for many, many more years.
Ridec stretched his body and tried to make himself comfortable, he hadn’t realized just how tired he was as well. It was worth it nevertheless, he had learnt a lot about the illness. The answer was in the brain of the babies, the clean babies.
He had always known that babies’ brains were different; babies had the greatest potential to learn and that made them very different. The numbers of neurotransmitters in a baby’s brain was somehow reducing the possibility of the baby being able to contract the illness, but how could one replicate the transmitters to help adults fight the illness?
“Grrrrrr….”
Ridec jumped to his feet, a slow dirty looking man was sauntering towards him, his hair was long and clumped together with dirt; Ridec couldn’t decipher what color it had originally been and half of his lip was missing.
“Wake up!” Ridec screamed, somehow this zombie had managed to enter their sleeping quarters without anyone knowing. Who had been on lookout?
There was a crazy scramble, screams, shouts as everyone hustled to their feet; this creature was not alone there were ten more with him.
“They must have gotten in the same way the woman did,” Linda yelled drawing a blade and pressing it into the skull of a little girl reaching a hand out towards her.
“More are coming, we have to get out of here, it’s too dark to fight them,” Kent instructed.
“We can’t go outside,” Mary protested.
“Upstairs, upstairs to the lab and we seal ourselves in until morning,” Kent responded.
“Our food,” Linda grunted gripping a pregnant zombie by the hair, the hair came out in her hands and the zombie pressed forward towards her.
“Kent is right, there are over thirty of them now. Ridec, follow me,” Jessell instructed.
“Pete, where’s Pete and Rea?” Ridec asked falling obediently in line behind Jessell.
“We’ll get them on the way out,” Jessell said hurrying forward and decapitating zombies as she moved. “There, grab Pete.”
Pete was curled up under a desk his small body crushed against a wall and the knife in his hand swinging wildly at the zombie that was trying to reach under the desk to grab him.
“Ridec!” Rea came racing towards them.
“Fall in behind us,” Jessell instructed taking her daggers and putting an end to the persistent creature that was still trying to grab Pete.
“Kyle…” Rea started to say as she too fell in obediently behind Jessell.
“Oh my gosh, I think they got him,” Ridec said slapping at the mechanism on his hand and pointing it again towards the creature. “It’s not working.”
“Just stay down,” Jessell screamed racing across the room towards Kyle, Ridec was right, they had gotten him, he was still lashing out at the creature but there was a large bite on his arm and blood was flowing everywhere.
“Ahhhh!” Jessell yelled again as she slashed the throat of one but another came up behind and grabbed her shoulders. She tried to turn but another on the ground had gripped her ankle and another had managed to get hold of her shirt. “Run Ridec, get out of here, run!”
She was screaming at the top of her lungs, she wasn’t going to be able to escape, there were too many of them and they were closing in on her and more of them were coming. She saw another one take a bite out of Kyle’s shoulder and he yelled dropping the knife he had been using to protect himself with to the ground. He was succumbing to his injuries and pretty soon he would be one of those things and she would have to try to kill him too.
“Let’s get out of here,” Rea yelled gripping Ridec’s arm and trying to pull him towards the door, Jessell had allowed them a small space for escape and it was pointless wasting it. Ridec shrugged her off roughly.
“Take Pete and go, I’m going to get Jessell,” Ridec instructed racing away from the two and throwing himself into the thick of the zombies that surrounded Kyle and Jessell.
“She’s probably been bitten already, it’s probably too late,” Rea shouted but she was racing towards the exit with Pete in tow.
Ridec didn’t answer, he knew only one thing, if Jessell was dead he would rather be dead too than hiding upstairs trying to save his own life.
Ridec gripped a nearby chair and slammed it hard against the closest zombie; crushing its head in the process. He didn’t stop, he was a crazed man on a mission and all he could think about was getting to Jessell before it was too late. He was slamming the chair wildly in the group until he finally could see a space between the creatures and see Jessell in the centre, her body crouched and her blades twirling in her hands, he almost smiled, he should have known that even when the odds seemed to be against her that Jessell would never give up, she would never stop fighting.
He reached through the space and gripped her shirt and tugged as hard as he could. The action seemed to take her by surprise, for a moment she stopped, dropped one of her blades and then came flying through the space with one hand gripped about Kyle’s wrist.
“You should have left me,” Kyle muttered as the three collapsed on the ground on top of each other and the bewildered creatures turned slowly about trying to figure out what had happened to their prey.
“You haven’t turned, maybe you’re immune,” Jessell said. “Besides, we don’t have time to argue we have to get out of here, looks like we’re the last three meals in the room.”
“And I don’t much like the idea of being a meal,” Ridec said.
“You and me both, let’s get out of here,” Kyle responded.
It was a battle and again Ridec couldn’t help admiring Jessel, she knew how to get the job done as she cleared a path to the door.
“They’re coming from that way and they’ve got the stairs to the lab blocked.”
“If we can get outside we can head towards the well, it has water we can use that to protect ourselves,” Ridec muttered.
“Good thinking,” Jessell agreed. “At least we’ll have the advantage.”
“The advantage in a well?” Kyle muttered.
It seemed Rea hadn’t made it too far, she came racing out of a closet towards Ridec.
“The stairs are blocked,” she was breathing hard, fear evident in every sinew of her body. “I got separated from Pete – I think he made it upstairs before the others came.”
“We’re going to try to make it to the well outside,” Ridec explained gripping Rea’s hand and pulling her forward as a zombie took a swipe at them with half cut fingers.
“That’s suicide, it was pure luck you survived last time,” Rea yelled pressing a knife into the skull of a zombie that tried to race ahead of the group.
“Not luck,” Ridec muttered. “But I guess you two are about to find that out in a few minutes.”
“This window,” Jessell shouted slamming her fist through the wood that protected it and then pushing the window open. “You first Ridec, doesn’t seem like many of them are over here.”
“Rea and Kyle next,” Jessell continued her body arched now ready for battle in case she didn’t make it out in time. “And this time no heroics Ridec.”
They were just feet away from her when Kyle managed to get through the window, Jessell made a jump for it and felt one of the creatures grip at her foot but evaded it.
“Look, some are over there,” Rea pointed out as soon as Jessell got to her feet.
“Run to the well,” Ridec said.
“We’ll die,” Kyle said.
“I’ll go first,” Ridec responded hurrying off with the others racing behind him.
“Maybe we can run into the trees and try to lose them,” Kyle suggested.
“You can hardly walk and you’re losing a lot of blood,” Jessell said.
“She’s right,” Ridec knew this was no time to argue.
Kyle nodded staring down at the small orange lines that had appeared around the bite.
“I could be dangerous.”
“You seem to have some immunity, let’s just hope it lasts,” Jessell said putting Kyle to lean against the well and holding her weapons in preparation for another battle.
“I’ll see you down there,” Ridec muttered and then grabbing Rea by the waist jumped into the well foot first.
“Aaahhhh!” Rea screamed her eyes closed as they landed with a splash in the water. “Are we dead?”
“No,” Ridec responded nervously as Rea opened her eyes. He was glowing, his hair was glittering with the most beautiful colors she had ever seen and his body had completely changed, instead of legs Ridec had a fish’ tail.
“Oh my gosh,” Rea muttered trying to pull away from him. “What are you?”