Chapter Twenty-Four

After…

What felt like hours, lasted only minutes. I awoke to find myself slumped over Ben’s shoulder as he carried me down the corridor, toward the stairwell. As I dangled limply down his back, the blood rushing to my head filled my ears with a throbbing, thunderous roar, prompting me to slide awkwardly from Ben’s grasp.

“Luc will be awake in a few hours,” I muttered. “You should get him somewhere comfortable.”

“It usually takes longer than that,” Ben answered.

“Not this time.”

“How would you know that?”

I shrugged. “I just do.”

Ben snickered, although there was a shadow of uneasiness in his eyes.

“I have to see Nate. Now”

I ran, my wet shoes squeaking and slipping on the smooth floor tiles as my feet hit the stairs, taking two at a time.

“I know how to help Sebastian,” I panted, bursting in through the door of the treatment room.

Eve and Daniel were sat together on the far side of Sebastian’s bed, arms around each other as Eve cried onto Daniel’s shoulder. Nate stood next to the intravenous drip trolley, about to inject a syringe of something into the clear tube attached to Sebastian’s hand. He spun to look at me as I stood shivering in the doorway, a puddle forming at my feet.

“What happened to you?” Nate asked, aghast. He grabbed a blanket from one of the other beds and threw it around my shoulders.

“Long story. Not much time,” I breathed. “You have to give Sebastian our blood.”

He stared at me for a moment and then turned back to the little sleeping boy. “Like a transfusion, you mean?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. They said it would make him like us—a survivor. The virus won’t kill him. They said you’d know what to do.”

He started rummaging through one of the boxes of supplies he and Ben had brought back from the hospital yesterday.

Daniel stood. “What good will giving him a blood transfusion do?”

Nate tipped the box upside down onto one of the empty beds. “It will bombard his body with the virus. It might just be enough to stop his immune system from resisting it. Especially in his weakened condition.”

Daniel regarded Sebastian, a pensive frown wrinkling his forehead. “We infect him, and then we evolve him so that his body can heal?”

Eve suddenly came-to from her distracted grief state, a horrified look on her face. “We can’t do that to a child, can we?”

I went to tell her that we didn’t have to drown people anymore, but Nate spoke first.

“We might not have to evolve him, not straight away at least,” he said. “Think about how the virus works. Every cell in his body will be replaced and thus no longer affected by the radiation exposure. Apart from his brain cells, anyway. They will still be irradiated, but I may be able to treat him with potassium iodide in the short term. In any case, if it works, it’ll buy us some time.”

“If it works,” Daniel added.

My eyes drifted to Eve who’s reddened, tear strewn eyes began to look hopeful.

“It will work,” I said, mostly to her.

“Do it,” she replied.

Nate gathered together everything he needed and then radioed for Laura to come back to the treatment room. As soon as she stepped through the door, he ordered her to set everything up.

“Eve, what’s your blood type?” Nate asked.

Eve hunched her shoulders. “I don’t know!”

He directed the same question to Daniel.

“O positive,” he replied.

“Perfect,” Nate said. “Roll up your sleeve.”

To get out of the way, I went and sat on the spare bed. Eve came and sat beside me after being asked by Laura, somewhat brusquely, to move. I put my arm around her, not knowing what else to do.

“How did you know how to help him? Did Claire speak with them?” she asked, after ten minutes of silently observing everything that was happening.

“No,” I said. “They told me.”

Both Laura and Nate glanced over to me briefly then. Nate smiled in a supportive kind of way, but Laura was obviously unsettled. The look she gave me was the same look people gave to Claire when she came out with her nonsensical utterings.

“How?”

“In my dreams.”

If my revelation surprised Eve, she certainly didn’t show it. In fact, she gave me a slow nod and a knowing smile, like she’d seen it coming. “You sound like Claire.”

“I know.”

“They tell you anything else?” Daniel asked, wincing as Laura jabbed a needle into a vein in his arm.

I wanted to be honest about my communication. “The virus did exactly as it was supposed to. It meant to wipe us out. There was no mistake.”

Nate snapped his head up, anger flashing in his eyes. “They purposefully committed mass genocide?”

Was this the appropriate time to be making such revelations? Somehow I doubted there would ever be a good time to explain it.

“They don’t see it that way.” I went on to describe my encounter with Lizzie and what she’d told me about how every soul they killed with their virus was now with them, wherever that was.

“They’re not gone?” Eve asked me, the hope in her eyes growing exponentially. She took great comfort in my statement, and the others would too.

“It’s a kind of afterlife, I think,” I mused.

Everyone fell silent then, in quiet contemplation. The word afterlife had ramifications. Perhaps I should’ve chosen a different term to explain it, but something told me I’d described it perfectly.

“And who are they, exactly?” Nate asked, finally.

There was no way to respond to that question. Were they Gods? Angels? Aliens? None of those appellations seemed correct. Whatever they were, it was a term we didn’t have in our human vocabulary. Yet.

Giving a shrug and a palms-up gesture, I stood. “I need to get out these wet clothes.”

Nate moved close to me and whispered in my ear. “You okay?”

I nodded. “Yeh, we’ll talk more later.”

Back in our bedroom, I hurriedly shed my wet clothing and got into the shower. The water was hotter than usual, the blissful heat quickly taking the chill off. After spending so long under the shower that my fingertips puckered, I got out and dried myself off, before deciding to rest a little before heading back to see how Sebastian was doing.

Of course, once my body was warm and cozy under the soft duvet, not even an earthquake could have stopped me from falling asleep. The dreams that entered my mind were the nonsensical variety, not a red desert in sight.

The sound of the shower running finally roused me again, whether it was minutes or hours later, I couldn’t tell. Nate appeared, naked and wet, toweling himself down, as I stretched and yawned.

“How long was I asleep?”

He smiled and then climbed in under the covers with me. “About six hours.”

Obviously not the brief cat nap I’d intended it to be. “How’s Sebastian?”

“Stable. I took the opportunity to check in on you and take a shower.”

“Will he make it?”

“Yes. Thanks to you.”

He slid his hand up my thigh and around to my back, pulling me into him for a long, hungry kiss. I swung my leg over his pelvis and then pushed myself up on top of him, kissing his lips forcefully while my hand guided him into the space between my legs. He groaned as my body met his, my hips finding a leisurely rhythm that rapidly generated a pleasant tingle within me.

When my pace increased, and my breathing quickened, he swore and grabbed hold of my waist, controlling my movements in such a way that, seconds later, I trembled from the sweet release, feeling him pulse with gratification at the same moment.

“Nate,” I whispered, after collapsing down onto his chest. “I need to tell you something.”

He stroked my hair and kissed the top of my head. “What is it?”

The butterflies of anxiety instantly began to dart about in my chest. I rolled back onto the bed and sat upright, wrapping myself up in the duvet.

He sighed. “I know something isn’t right with you,” he said, sitting up and swinging his legs out of bed. He got up and walked over to our dresser, pulling out some jeans and a fresh pair of boxers. He dressed and then stood nervously in the center of the room with his arms crossed.

His expression became serious. “Whatever it is, just tell me.”

Sliding off the bed, I shuffled over to the dresser and dropped the duvet once I’d pulled on a long, baggy t-shirt dress.

“There are a few things I need to tell you,” I said, moving in front of him and putting my arms around his waist. “But I’ve been too scared to say anything. I thought if something bad happened, it would be better if you never found out.”

“What?”

“You told me once that you couldn’t lose anyone else that you cared about,” I said. “I thought by not telling you, I could protect you.”

He shook his head, flustered. “From what? Halley, you’re scaring me!”

I breathed deeply and cast my glance toward the window, watching the dribbles of rain meander down the glass against the backdrop of a dark night. “My head is messed up.”

“I already knew that.”

“My mum didn’t die of a heart attack, Nate.” The words almost choked me. “She killed herself.”

He exhaled and rubbed his face. “Oh, Halley. I’m so sorry.”

I kept my eyes fixed on the winding raindrops. “I loved her, but it wasn’t enough.”

Nate drew in a sharp breath and stood beside me. His fingers gently nudged against my chin, slowly bringing my head around to face him. “No matter how bad things might get, I swear that all the while you live and breathe, you’re stuck with me.”

I laughed but took another deep, shaky breath before continuing. “I needed you to know how I felt because it’s the reason I’ve been keeping things from you. I wanted to make sure everything was going to be okay before I told you. But, the truth is, I don’t know if it’s going to be okay. I mean, I think it is—”

The worried frown reappeared on his brow as he cut me off. He’d clearly had enough of my ambiguous rambling. “Just tell me!”

“I’m—you’re—” I stammered. “You’re going to be a father, Nate.”

He stared at me and then laughed. “What?”

“I’m pregnant, Nate.”

He stiffened and let his hands drop to his sides. “No, you can’t be.”

“I took a test.”

“Tests can be wrong,” he said, matter-of-factly.

A nervous laugh left my lips. He didn’t believe me. “It wasn’t wrong.”

“It’s also not possible for you to be pregnant.”

His reaction had me at a loss. Aside from asking him to confirm it with a blood test, I didn’t know how else to convince him.

I grabbed his hand and placed it on my stomach. “I know it’s probably too early for you to be able to feel anything, but she’s moving around.”

He snatched his hand back. “This is madness! You are not pregnant!”

A growl of exasperation rattled in my throat as I forced his hand back on my lower abdomen.

Then, from somewhere in my poor, addled brain, I heard a whisper.

“Show him.”

I put my hand over his and moved his palm down to where I felt the bubbling sensation.

“Close your eyes.”

“Halley—”

“Shut up and close them,” I snapped.

“Fine.”

In the same way as I’d done with Luc, I concentrated on forming the static in between our touched hands.

Claire was right when she told me the static could be used to send a message—just as the electrical impulses in our brains formed thoughts and memories—and, as I focused on trying to make him feel what I felt, the static warmed and prickled under my palm.

He suddenly gasped. “How are you doing that? I—I can feel it. She’s moving—wait, she?” His eyes flew open, and he looked at me. “It’s a girl?”

“I think so.” Keeping the static going was making me lightheaded. I let go of his hand and put my arms around his neck.

“It’s not…I don’t understand how…” he stammered.

“Me either, but since you’re the doctor, you’ll have to figure it out.”

He put his forehead against mine. “How far along do you think you are? If you can feel her moving, then you must be at least—”

“Fifteen weeks, almost. I think.” I let out a long, weary sigh. “I should’ve told you sooner. I totally understand if you’re pissed at me.”

He shook his head. “I’m not pissed at you. Well, maybe a little, but I’ll get over it. Once the shock wears off.”

Then he kissed me with one of his urgent, dizzying kisses.

“I take it that you’re okay with this?” I asked.

“What do you think?” he responded, with a grin. “Although there is one thing that kinda worries me.”

“Only one thing? Lucky you.” About a billion worries were circulating in my mind right now. “What is it?”

“What will Rebecca say?”

I laughed. “Oh, she’s going to kick your arse, for sure. But she’ll get over it.” I parroted his previous words back to him. “Once the shock wears off.”

****

Isabelle was up and walking around when we returned to the treatment room. She stood by the window, closely holding onto Eve as they both peered up at a bright, orange-tinted moon.

“We were just coming to find you,” Eve said, smiling as she turned. She gestured to Sebastian, who was sat up in bed, eyes open with a wide, toothy grin as Laura spooned jelly into his mouth. He still looked a little pale and washed out. It’d be a while until he was back to a normal, precocious seven-year-old.

I walked over to him and looked into his eyes. His sky-blue irises were now ringed with red, and I never thought I’d be so happy to see the mark of the virus on someone. Nate did a quick check on Sebastian’s vitals and then gave the boy a broad smile as he ruffled his blonde curls playfully. “He’s a fighter. We’ll see how he responds to the iodine before making a decision about further options.”

Laura’s mouth twitched into a labored smile. “Hasn’t Halley told you, Nate? Evolution just evolved.”

“We’ll discuss that later,” Eve said to Laura, throwing a disapproving glance her way. Laura must’ve reported back to her already on the incident with Luc in the courtyard earlier. With everything else going on, I’d forgotten to tell Nate about it. Frankly, he’d already had his fair share of surprises today and didn’t need another one.

He looked at me. “You have something else you need to tell me?”

“Not right now,” I sighed. “Later, okay?”

He nodded and smiled, turning his attention to Isabelle. Now she’d evolved, there was probably no need to fuss over her, but he still made a point of looking into her ears with an otoscope and getting her to stick her tongue out and say ‘ah.’

“Perfect! All better.”

She giggled shyly, seeming to understand him, a reassured grin on her face.

Our brief moment of harmony was abruptly broken by the sound of a gunshot resounding in the corridor outside. We all recoiled instinctively, although Nate rushed swiftly to the doorway, glancing tentatively from left to right. When his face blanched and his hands went up beside his head, panic gripped my diaphragm, forcing the air from my lungs.

Without a second thought, I ran to Nate, positioning myself in front of him like a shield.

“Get back!” he muttered, using his body to try and maneuver me out the way.

I turned to see Luc at the far end of the corridor, Nate’s rifle rested on his shoulder as he moved slowly toward us.

How the hell had he gotten hold of the gun?

“Where are my children?” Luc demanded.

At that moment, Ben and Daniel came thundering up the stairwell, crashing through the double doors and into the corridor, shock registering on their faces as Luc swung around and pointed the gun in their direction instead.

“Put it down, Luc,” Daniel said to him in a stern and composed voice. “Put it down, and you can see your children.”

Luc screwed up his nose as tears streaked his reddened cheeks. “My children are dead!”

“That’s not true. They’re alive and well.”

He tensed. “Liar!”

Behind us, Eve slowly edged out of the treatment room, holding onto Isabelle’s hand, keeping her firmly pressed to her hip, away from Luc’s line of sight.

“Papa!” Isabelle called out to him.

Luc wheeled around, the rifle leveled at us again, although it sank a little upon hearing his daughter’s voice. “Isabelle?”

She emerged from behind Eve and smiled sadly at him.

“You’re alive?” Luc stuttered, an expression of astonishment on his face. He let the rifle slip from his shoulder as he charged readily toward us.

Ben, in his wisdom, used the distraction to lunge forward, hooking an arm around Luc’s waist with the intent to tackle him down. Instead, Luc stumbled forward and fell to his knees, the rifle butt slamming hard onto the floor, triggering it to fire. The bang resounded throughout the corridor.

Daniel and Ben immediately piled onto Luc, pinning him flat to the floor with his arms forced behind his back. Isabelle screamed and ran toward her papa, Eve sprinting after her.

“Halley, are you—” Nate didn’t finish his sentence.

When I looked up at him, his fraught expression became one of despair.

An intense, searing agony hit me then, radiating from the left, upper side of my chest. My vision blurred as I raised my right hand to my wound, feeling warm liquid flow like running water through the gaps in my fingers.

Nate caught me as I fell backward, lowering me down onto the cold floor while yelling for help.

“No. No. No.” He pushed down tightly on my wound to stop the bleeding as Laura fell to her knees and covered his hand with hers to add more pressure.

The pain grew more and more intense until it became a white-hot burning heat, sending me into a state of half-consciousness. Before the darkness covered me like a blanket, I felt Nate’s breath against my cheek.

“Stay with me, Halley,” was the last thing I heard him say.

****

Before…

The days became warmer and the nights became shorter, so I knew it was time to go.

Rebecca insisted on cooking a three-course meal for dinner the night before I left, promising an all-the-trimmings breakfast the next morning too. She was a little sad but supportive nonetheless, smiling whenever tears welled in her eyes and reminding me of anything I might have forgotten to pack. Her mood had lifted significantly since she’d gone back on her anti-depressants.

“You can still come with me,” I said as she served up a spicy carrot and coriander soup—she’d managed to follow one of my recipes but had added a little too much chili powder. It was tasty, despite the fire burning in my mouth.

She poured herself a glass of red wine and then filled my glass to the brim. “No. I’ll wait here and keep everything going, like you always did for me when I went away.”

I wouldn’t ask again. She’d made her decision and, like it or not, this was to be a solitary quest.

By the time we finished eating, my stomach was full to bursting, and my head swam a little from the wine. Still, I offered to help clean up, but she said she’d do it in the morning.

“Get an early night,” she said, not realizing it was gone ten o’clock already.

I nodded and stood up. “Thank you, Rebecca.”

She got up and rounded the table to wrap me in a tight hug. “I love you, Halley. I wish you didn’t have to go.”

Was she about to beg me not to go?

She quickly kissed my cheek. “I’ll wake you at nine for breakfast.”

Smiling, I went to my bedroom and sat down on my bed, setting my battery-powered alarm clock for seven-thirty A.M. I had no intention of staying for breakfast and planned to sneak out early, leaving a note for her saying goodbye. I’d already written the letter and tucked it away in the drawer in my bedside cabinet. I’d written it so many times now, I could recite it from memory.

Rebecca,

I’m sorry that I left without saying goodbye. I’ll miss you every day, but I promise not to be gone long. I’ll find someone out there, I know it.

Love always,

Halley.

A cowardly way to leave, but if I’d said goodbye to her in person, there was a good chance my guilt would’ve forced me to stay.

Hoping the night would pass swiftly, I pulled the quilt up over me and laid back on my pillow.