"Okay, okay. Runner Five, you're leading the team into that-mm, now how can I describe it?" Sam pauses, and I narrow my eyes at the hunk of metal that lies before us. "Uh, rusting hulk of an ocean-going science vessel in a dry dock with a bunch of other rusting hulks."
I don't say anything, instead focusing on the bits of sea moss and barnacles that cover the thing. I wonder if this has anything to do with what I dreamed last week. Coicindences don't exactly exist in my life.
"What is it you're supposed to say when you see a ship, Dr. Meyers?" Veronica asks. "Is it, 'Thar she blows'?"
"I think that's what when you see a whale or Moby Dick," Milo answers before she can. The dark haired girl hums.
"Oh. I know Moby Dick. You can't catch him. You'll die trying."
"Alright, alright, but no one's dying today, okay? Alright?" Sam says, his cheery tone forced. "There will be no portentous revelations. No one is going to say that they're Ahab and the cure is the whale."
Neither of us have completely come to terms with what happened to me. It's only been a week. I thought though, that after all the times I've come close to dying I could move on. This incidenct seemed to tip the scales. I'm still having nightmares, but not just about turning, about everything-the helicopter crash, being Van Ark's test subject, the mind control, being bitten. Sam's trying to get me to talk about them, but it's hard. I thought I was over all of this.
How can I tell him I'm going backwards instead of forwards when I know that will only upset him more?
"Roger that," Maxine says. "Veronica, if you identify with Captian Ahab, you are grounded."
Veronica shoots the tall woman a dark look, but then sighs as we continue on. "How much longer until we get onto the ship, Sam?"
"Well, the guards are doing their final sweep for this hour. Your window to get on board is in a minute."
"Um, I know I probably should have asked this beforehand, but what's so special about this specific ship?" Milo asks. He cringes as he looks at it. "Looks pretty worthless to me."
"The Minister used that ship to research Moonchild Syndrome," Veronica replies, and Milo frowns.
"How come I didn't know about it?"
"She didn't trust many people with this information. Ian made sure the Minister knew how much trouble you and your siblings caused, so she advised me not to tell you about it. It never became relevant until now." She turns to me, missing the hurt look on Milo's face. "Maybe we'll find some clues about how she triggered Moonchild in you, Five. Her research is more advanced than we thought."
Maxine glances away as we get into position, watching, waiting. "As in so many ways, the Minister was always one step ahead of us."
"Wait, so you got the results back on Five? So she's actually cured?" Sam asks hopefully. "It's real then? Not like one weird trick to cure your zombie infection?"
"Oh, it's real. I mean, Paula really wanted to do this mission because she's gotten nostalgic for... we are certain the Minister knows how to cure the zombie plague."
"You can say it," Veronica says bitterly. "She knows how to cure the zombie plague, and I don't."
"No one expected you to be able to do that," Milo says, and she glares at him.
"Everyone expected me to do that."
"Okay," Sam cuts in. "You're window's coming up. Be ready to run in seven, six, five..."
Veronica taps me on the shoulder, and I look at her with a raised brow. I don't like the intensity on her stare.
"I think you might be Captain Ahab, Runner Five."
I flinch, but I don't have time to ask her what she could possibly mean by that. I'm not sure I want to know either way. Veronica's mind is a web of scientific facts and hypothesis and dark knowledge that even I am too afraid to try to explore.
"...four, three, two, one. Time to go! Up the gangway onto that ship, before the gaurds spot you."
We do as told, our footsteps tapping along the rusting gangway in sync. For a split second, I swear the ship doesn't look as terrible as it is. For a split second, it looks nice, beautiful. There's no rust or barancles or sea kelp. It's feels... familiar.
Comforting.
Happy.
Then it's gone, slipping from my mind like smoke between my fingers. I blink and shake my head. My hand grips at my backpack strap, and Veronica gives me a sideways glance.
We reach the deck of the ship, quickly finding the first door we can, going down, down, down into the long hallways. I see flashes of the ship during its prime-long carperts and smooth floors where rotten wood and soiled fabric now sits, chandeliers where broken fixtures sway.
I try not to let out any noise as I squeeze my eyes shut, breathing through my nose, trying-desperately trying-to fight my way through the haze of a lost memory. No answer comes, the pieces of my shattered memory scattering to the edges of my mind, just out of reach.
I mutter a curse.
"Uh, wow, yeah," Sam says. "I've got a couple cams in there."
"Not a pretty sight, is it?" Milo asks, looking at the barnacle covered walls and rusted doors. "Be careful here, Ronnie. The floor's half eaten away with rust."
He hops over one of the holes in the floor, and the ship creaks in response.
"The Minister dredged the ocean floor for this ship," Veronica states. "She told me she thought it was important."
"Did she?" I ask, rubbing my temples.
I pause when I see new equipment here among the rusting stuff in one of the rooms. There's a brand new audio mixing desk in here. The sight of it makes me cringe. It's new, foreign. It pulls me out of the comfort, that happiness, that pulls at the edges of my being. I don't like it.
It shouldn't be here.
Veronica heads over it to examine it, and Milo isn't too far from behind. He's the one who points it out to Sam, telling him how odd it looks compared to the rest of the ship.
Sam hums in agreement. "Intel from the Laundry says that people are still being brought to this boat ocassionally. We've picked up a little bit of chatter via the transmitter Jody built. And Ellie's been helping us. In all the confusion, the Minister didn't guess a thing about her helping us escape.
"Anyways, yeah. We think this boat is one of the places she did experiments on people with Moonchild Syndrome. I suppose she would have done experiments on you too, Five, if she managed to find you, her Alpha. Kytan said she was looking for a special one amongst the Moonchild sufferers. She must have been trying to work out how to do what she did to get Moonchild to take you over."
"But she doesn't know I'm the Alpha," I reply, frowning. "She can't. Moonchild said after I passed out and she took over, no one could really tell. Plus, if she knew, why would she infect me with the zombie virus?"
"We're beginning to think she would have given the cure as soon as you started to turn. Moonchild may have thought she didn't notice, but is Moonchild always accurate? And like I said, we've heard a bit more chatter, and from the sounds of it, Sigrid knows."
I shake my head, his words hitting me like a punch to the gut. "No..."
Maxine places her hand on my shoulder. "Five, if Sigrid has a back door into you, we're going to slam it shut. Hey, Veronica, look at these labeled switches. 'Stable trigger 1,' 'Unstable trigger.' I feel pretty unstable myself. These floors are slippery."
None of us laugh at her attempt at a joke, and Veronica narrows her eyes at her before turning to me.
"Runner Five, I'm going to press a button. It will only last a second."
I tense, and Milo looks at her with wide eyes.
"Wait! We don't know what that might do to her."
"And we won't know until we try. I've been too timid with my research, Milo. That's the problem. Runner Five, we will help you if it becomes unmanageable."
"But don't I get a say-" I start, but she's already pressed the button. I hear a low buzzing sound, and then-
"Well, this is awkward," Moonchild laughs, looking at herself, then at me. "Here I am. No fanfare. No exciting adventures. What do you want?'
"Is she there?" Veronica asks, but the buzzing sound makes it nearly impossible to hear her. Moonchild hears her though. Her head snaps to her, lips curling back into a sneer.
"Are you letting this teenage witch experiment on your brain, Five?"
I nod, answering both Moonchild and Veronica's question.
"Good. I'm turning it off." She presses the button, and the buzzing sound fades into nothing but earsplitting silence. Moonchild remains, her nearly translucent figure gazing around.
"Uh, guys," Sam says, "I'm picking up something on the cams, something attracted by the noise."
Maxine leaves the room and looks down the hallway. "I see them. Six zoms, decayed. One of them has barnacles on its skull."
"It's okay," Veronica says. "We're seen everything we need to see here. Come on."
Milo grabs my hand, as if afraid I'll fall into the same stupor I fell into a while back when we saved Jaime. I don't look at Moonchild, my mind already feeling foggy from the clashing pictures of grace this place used to be in flashing before my eyes. I don't need her creepily reciting rhymns and fables to make me feel worse.
I can hear the zombies behind us, moaning, growling, their voices deeper and more ragged from the salt water that's been sitting in their lungs for years. I look back at them, faces decayed and gray, eyes souless with no emotion.
Then they're no longer zombies.
I see people-the people they used to be. I hear their laughter. I hear myself laughing with them. I see flashes of the girl in the front, her hands in mine, spinning me round, laughing as my hair smacks her in the face.
I let out a pained cry, tearing my eyes away from them, clucthing my head.
"You're remembering them, aren't you? Your blood, my people."
"Veronica, what did you do?" Milo asks in terror.
"Keep pulling her along. She'll be fine," She replies, and I let out another cry as more memories hit me with the force of a train.
I see the people behind me, the blonde boy offering me fruit; the dark skinned, older man showing me plans too complex for me to understand. All of our steps are in unison. I taste honey on my tongue. I feel whole with them. I feel-
Happy.
My eyes go wide, bits and pieces coming into place.
I spent a month of my life on this ship.
"This way," Veronica says. "Left down this passage."
"Those zoms are right behind us," Maxine pants. "The barnacles are giving their feet extra grip."
"It's alright." We stop in front of a door. "We're here."
Milo grabs the doorknob, but it doesn't turn. "It's a dead end! The door's locked."
Maxine grabs a piece of pipe and hands it to me. I barely have time to catch it. "Doesn't matter. I think we can kill them if we have to."
"You always think so little of me, Dr. Meyers!" Veronica fumes. She grabs my hand, and I drop the pipe. It clatters to the ground, echoing throughout the halls. She places my thumb on the scanner. The security system beeps.
"Access granted. Doors opening."
The door clicks open, and we immediately all dash inside, slamming the doors closed behind us. I stare at my hand numbly.
A month of memories I never thought I would recover. A month of memories I never wanted to recover out of fear that I wouldn't like what all I did. They're coming back to me now, slowly. I know this isn't the worst of it.
"Wow," Sam says in awe. "I don't-Ronnie, how did you know Five's thumbprint would open the door?"
Veronica grits her teeth, her first clenching up so hard her knuckles turn white. "Even after all this time you've known me, you still treat me like a little girl. I have to be protected. You need to hide the truth from me. You can't trust me. Didn't you think to ask yourselves why the Minister dredged this ship up from the ocean floor?"
"I mean, she does a lot of weird stuff for no reason. She just fired one of her aids for looking at her weird."
"It's Moonchild's ship," I answer, my voice hollow. Veronica sighs, as if glad to have someone finally say something of worth.
"Correct. It was one of her fleet. We don't have much time to investigate, and this door can only be locked from the outside, so we have to hurry. Come on!"
•
"Sam, Five, do you see that jacket hanging up on the corridor wall there?" Maxine whispers.
"Nah," Sam replies. "Ugh. Lights are too dim. All I get on my cams are just like, well, there are metal corrirdors, and maybe the air is made of soup?"
"It has Five's name on it," She whispers, keeping her voice just low enough that Veronica and Milo won't hear her.
Sam turned his frequency to another channel so they wouldn't hear him through their headsets, since Veronica seems pretty upset with them and how they treat her. I don't really see how this makes it any better, though.
I reach up and grab the jacket as we pass by it. It's ripped, much of the threading unravled to the point that my name is barely visible, but it's still there. In my hands, I remember wearing it as I went down these corridors. Moonchild gave it to me. I remember her presenting it to me. I remember how happy I felt when she first helped me put it on.
"I think you've been here before, Five," Sam says, and my stomach turns.
"I know I have."
"What is that?" Milo asks, staring at a glass paneled room. He recoils when he sees three corpses, but then focuses on the writing on the walls.
She talks to me. I will do her bidding, child of the moon.
It's written in neat cursive letters, flowing and majestic and never ending. I don't look at it for longer than a few seconds.
"I don't understand," Milo says. "Those bodies... They don't look... old, not decayed like the zombies were."
"No, they don't," Veronica agrees. "I wonder how they died. I suspect they've only been dead for five to six weeks. Do you agree, Dr. Meyers, in your medical opinion?"
Maxine nods, looking uneased. "Yes... What are we doing here, Veronica? I thought you were here to to find out what experiments Sigrid had done to learn how to trigger Moonchild in Runner Five's mind so we can stop her."
"That is what we're here for."
"Uh, look," Sam says, switching frequencies so the other two can hear him, "I think what Maxie is trying to say is that-is that you seem to know a lot more about what might have happened on this ship than you've let on. And we're a bit concerned about that."
"I was working with the Minister last year. She told me some of the things she was working on. I didn't think this sounded interesting, so I didn't pay much attention to it. I wanted to find the cure. That would have been important," She explains, before huffing through her nose. "But I didn't find the cure, so all that time and effort was wasted."
Maxine gives her a sympathetic look. "You shouldn't blame yourself for not finding the cure. It's not your fault. It was a huge amount to ask."
"I don't blame myself. I blame you." She ignores the way the taller woman flinches back, eyes wide. "You destroyed Pro. Van Ark's notes. They are clearly what she used to find the cure so quickly. He must have been onto something I hadn't thought of."
She striaghtens, her face neutral as she fixes her glasses. "It's too late to worry about that now, though. I want to get ahead where I can. I don't think the Minister realized she told me enough details to work out where this place was and what she was doing here. She mentioned individual details in eight different conversations, but I put it together."
She grabs a crowbar from the ground and uses it to pry open the door ahead. It opens with a squeal of metal scraping against metal. A wide smile breaks out on her face.
"Yes! She left it here!"
"Uh, Veronica, would you like to share your working with the rest of the class?" Sam asks, but Milo gasps.
"Oh, I see." He heads inside, looking at the small piece of equipment in the room. It's new. "This is a booster to help stregthen certain signals. I saw some in that pub-turned-prison where Sigrid was doing experiments on people."
Veronica nods, smiling at him. She pulls a neural headset from her pack. "I took this from the Manor House. You remember it? Kytan used it to monitor Moonchild's activity in your brain, Five."
She beckons me over to her, and Milo helps put the neural headset on my head while Veronica connects them.
"Oh, and if you do that, you should be able to see exactly what Sigrid was doing in the chamber," Maxine says, impressed. "That's smart. Grisly, but smart..."
She trails off as Veronica turns on the booster, and a low, constant sound emits.
Moonchild's back again. The look on her face is unrecognizable.
"I'll tell you one thing, Five. That child will get you killed one day. Didn't she think to check whether any for the equipment in this room was still live?" Her voice is firm, with a hint of smugness that runs up my spine like a cold, lifeless hand. "That sound you hear is a transmitter broadcasting to sufferers of Moonchild Syndrome. It's telling me to paralyze you... to stop the signals flashing in your synapses.
"I don't know if I can do that. I don't know why I seem to have a choice about doing it or not. I do know one thing: we need to get out of here right now. Run!"
"But-" I start, and I see from the corner of my eye the corncerned and curious looks from the others.
"Run!"
She doesn't force me, but the compelling feeling I have makes me feel like I have no other choice. In a split second, I grab Milo's hand, ignoring his confusion as he says my name, and I run. The connection to the booster is broken as the cord connecting the net to it is pulled out, but I don't care. I just keep running.
"Mum, what are you doing?" He asks, and I shake my head, not answering.
"Runner Five!" Maxine calls out, but I keep my eyes ahead, running, letting my feet decide where I go.
Flashes of before come to mind. Planning, training, Moonchild-the real Moonchild-telling me what I'd need to do on those Comansys ships. I see it all.
I don't want to. I don't want this.
I hear zombies from somewhere, behind me, I think. It's coming from the hallway connected to this one. I don't pause to turn back around. I don't want more memories of when I was happy to hurt people, when I felt whole planning to destroy everything I valued.
Thankfully Milo is smart enough to not fight or try to pull away. I don't want to leave him behind. Moonchild doesn't care. She'll make me leave him if he falls behind. She has less control over me than when she first appeared, but with that booster I don't know what she could make me do.
I can hear Sam's muffled voice in my headset, and I wonder if Moonchild is trying to block him out because he's someone I would listen to, even if it meant fighting her.
"Here we are again, Five. You and the voice in your head." Moonchild gives a sneer in Milo's direction. "And your child which you just had to drag along with us."
"I'm not leaving him," I say, swallowing, trying to get some moisture in my suddenly dry mouth.
"What are you talking about?" Milo yells, but I don't answer. He sounds so far away, but I feel his hand in mine, keeping me grounded in reality.
"Are you okay?" Sam asks, his voice just barely managing to break through the barriers. "Where are you going? Veronica and Maxine are following, but they got cut off by those zoms. Milo, do you have any idea what she's doing?"
"I don't know! Mum, please talk to us!"
I stay silent.
"It's okay. Both of you are going to be fine. The others will be with you soon. You're safe. Nothing bad's going to happen," Sam assures.
"But so many bad things already have. We're not in danger right now. The signal's stopped telling me to paralyze you." Her brows furrow in thought. "I wonder if I could. I wonder if we're different, you and me. Are we the same as other Moonchild Syndrome patients? Am I just a reproduction of a reproduction of a reproduction? Am I just a cog on the machine?"
My jaw clenches, my shoulders scrunching up to my ears. She's so loud. Why is her voice so loud?
I hear machinery coming to life, printers whirring.
"Sam, do you hear that?" Maxine asks. "There are Telex printers printing."
"Five of them along this corridor, all printing the same thing," Veronica adds.
"What are they printing?"
"It says, 'Am I just a reproduction of a reproduction of a reproduction? Am I just a cog in the machine?'" Maxine replies, and Moonchild's eyesbrows go up in surprise. My free hand goes up to touch the neural headset still on me.
Maybe it didn't loose all connection.
"Well, that's interesting!"
"Now it says, 'Well, that's interesting'," Veronica says, and recognition flashes over Moonchild's face. I don't like it.
"Five, I think I remember something! Something happened here between you and me," She says. Sam tries to speak, but her voice drowns him out. "We need to head to the lower deck now."
I obey, again dragging Milo along. He's starting to fight me, grabbing my arm and trying to stop, but I'm stronger. My super human strength chose the perfect time to kick in, with adrenaline high and me needing to not stop. He's also not fighting very hard. I think he's too afraid I'll let go and just keep running. Then he'll be alone and so will I.
I can hear Sam, asking me what's wrong, if I would please just say something as I reach the stairway and start my descent. My parched lips open, but no words leave them. I don't even know what I'm doing. How on earth would I be able to explain it to him?
We reach the lower deck fairly quickly, and I let my feet guide me to a sealed door, rust eating at the walls that surround it.
"Five, I'm in charge now. Just for a minute, I promise. Put your thumb on that pad."
I do, again ignoring Milo as he questions my actions. The security system beeps.
"Access granted. Doors opening."
"We're very close to finding out what I am, Five. What we are. I don't remember, but I remember that I left something there for myself."
I let go of Milo's hand and head inside, and a second later I hear the door slam shut.
"Five... you're gone into a place where I have no cams," Sam says. His voice shakes. "Please, tell us if you need help!"
"It's okay, Sam," Milo says. "I managed to get in before the door closed. Mum, can you hear me?"
Moonchild sighs in annoyance. "I wanted us to do this alone. Alone together. Just ignore him."
"The Telex has stopped," Maxine says. "The last thing it said was, 'I left something there for myself.'"
"Milo, tell me what you see," Sam commands and he takes a look around the room.
"Uh, it's nice, for a rusting ship. There's a table, and two chairs. One's green and is leather, with arms. The other's... pretty much just a bare wooden one."
"Sit in the one with the arms. I think... I think you used to sit in it when we were together. Sit in it again, just for a moment."
I obey, sitting down. Milo tells Sam what I'm doing, but his voice fades away when I close my eyes.
Then I open them, and Milo's gone.
"Can I try it with you, Five?" Moonchild-the real Moonchild-asks. "I wouldn't want to try it with anyone else. Roll up your sleeve."
I smile, happiness practically dripping from my voice as I laugh, rolling up the sleeve of my jacket that she gave me.
"Good. It's just a transdermal patch." She places the large, white patch on my upper arm. "You'll need to wear it while you're with me. For a few days, eight or ten or twelve, I don't really know. I think it should make you more susceptible. Permanently susceptible.
"I'm already inside your mind, Five, but what if I were always there? Then we'd never be alone."
My smile broadens as she sits her in her chair.
"There are a few other little things we'll need to do-certain sounds, but mostly it's just conversations. Long conversations into the night, just like we normally do." She leans foward and brushes my cheek with the back of her hand. "I want you to be special and carry me with you whereever you go."
I jump out of my chair, gasping as I'm brought back to the present. Milo rushes towards me, grabbing my arm as I sway on my feet. I look at my mind's version of Moonchild. Her face is blank, revealing nothing.
"What did you do to me?!" I scream.
"We can't just leave them!" Sam shouts, pulling my attention away from her.
"The guards are coming, Sam," Maxine replies. "If they find us, they'll search this whole ship and find Five and Milo anyway. We can come back with a rescue party. You know this is what Sigrid wants! She wants us to feel like we can never trust Runner Five!"
"Sounds like it's time for us to get out of here," Moonchild says. I don't look at her. "We've found what we needed. Open the door."
I grab Milo's hand again. "We have to move."
I open the door, hearing Sam let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God. Five, you and Milo have to get out of there. Run!"
•
"Maxine and Veronica are the other side of that wall," Sam says. "Duck down now, before the guard sees you."
We do as told, and I hear footsteps as the guard walks past. He speaks into a communicator.
"Orders from the Minister: we're to torch this ship at the end of the week. Outlived its usefulness now Marine Bay Colony have come to us."
"Oh, God!" He gasps. "They've got Marine Bay Colony? A year ago, they all got 'Abel Forever' tattoos. Guys, if you keep low, you should be fine. Head down that walkway."
We do as told, keeping our steps as quiet as possible. We only stand upright when we reach Maxine and Veronica, out of the guard's eyesight and earshot.
"Are you okay? Did you find what you were looking for?" Maxine asks, studying my face. "You look kind of weird."
"No, no, no, no," Sam cuts in, his voice gentle. "You don't have to talk yet, Callista, not if you don't want to."
"But you should tell me what happened," Veronica says. "Whatever it was, it'll help us protect you from the Minister."
"I-"
Maxine cuts me off. "Veronica, don't push her. There is no need to hurry."
"But there is a need! Whatever she learned is the only thing that can help! You can't just be gentle with everyone all the time, Dr. Meyers! That's not what the Minister does. She keeps pushing until she gets results. That's what we have to do too!"
"Look, we've all been under a lot of pressure, Veronica," Sam says, and her face contorts in anger.
"Do you think I don't know that you got an extra vial of the cure after saving Five? Do you think I don't know you gave it to Dr. Cohen?"
"You did what?" Milo asks, looking at Maxine, then me.
Maxine chokes. "I, um... what? What? That..."
"See? Gentleness. You mean lying. You mean not telling the truth. I know! I've known for days," She exclaims. "You tried to keep it from me to stop my feelings from being hurt because Janine doesn't trust me anymore, does she?"
Sam sighs. "She um... well, she decided it'd be best to monitor the way the cure works on her, yeah."
"That's what I mean! You have to tell me the truth, or I won't be able to work anything out." She looks at me pleadingly. "Runner Five, please. Tell me what happened to you on this ship. I think I can help you get better."
Moonchild grins wickedly at me. "Well, will you tell her, or will I?"
My voice feels stuck in my throat as I try to speak. Tears sting the back of my eyes.
"I-I don't-I can't-" Suddenly I'm cut off by laughter slipping past my lips. Horror spikes through my chest, my blood turning to ice.
It's my voice, not my laugh.
"Five and I aren't like other Moonchild Syndrome suffers," I say-no, not I, not her-we. My voice, her words, her accent. Veronica takes a step back. I try to scream, but no sound leaves my mouth.
"What? Five, why are you-" Sam starts, but we cut him off.
"I put myself inside Five on purpose. I'm what's left of that other Moonchild, the living one. Like a zombie," We laugh, "I've risen again."
A/N: Here you go, guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please be sure to vote and comment! I love hearing from you, plus quarantine is kind of getting to me, haha... So also please tell me what you're doing to keep yourself sane so I can have some ideas.
Anyway, thank you and have a blessed day!