“How did she die?” I asked and bit my tongue, immediately regretting it. He didn’t respond. So I decided to say the nicest thing I could conjure up about him.
“That is really kind of you to have the house there for your friends.” He gave a hint of a smile, but quickly returned to his reserved demeanor.
He was silent, and I looked out the car to the world around me. I felt my breath take.
“Jared, slow down.”
“Lena, please, this car is meant to go fast. You can’t tell me you don’t love speed,” he said and laughed, but I felt no humor.
“Where are we?”
“We can’t be too far from Texas. Why?” Finally he slowed the car. That was when it all came together.
“Stop the car.” When he didn’t I shouted louder. “Please.”
He stopped, and I stepped out. The smell was disgusting. It smelled as if a fire burned its way through a million bodies. I covered my face with my arm. Jared stepped out, and I looked back to him. “What happened here?” He looked around frantically, and I took a deep breath.
“Lena.” He shook his head. “Texas has been deserted for a week now.” I looked to the road we were just on and saw many abandoned cars there. We were the only people around for miles. I looked back to the destruction I saw. In the open field, there were bricks from where houses once stood. In the center of the field, a black hole that was strangely similar to the one from my town.
I dropped to my knees. “Why wasn’t this shown on the news?” I asked softly.
“This is what happens when the cure is introduced to each town or city.”
“The cure did this to people,” I said in disbelief. I looked back to him. He still had half his body in the car.
“No, Lena.” He got back into the car and shut the door behind him. I sat looking at the destruction around me in horror.
A voice came behind me and I looked up once more to the car. Jared rolled down the window. “Let’s go get some rest. We’re out in the open, and we might look like this small town soon.”
I got up slowly. I saw pictures of Texas, but had never seen it first hand. It was a beautiful place, and now it was gone. Wiped out for miles. I couldn’t help but wonder if my town would be the next to look like this.
Chapter Six: The Confusion
WE ARRIVED AT a small hotel on the side of the road. Jared told me we weren’t too far from the safe house. It was about six hours away. I wanted to clean up a little. I wanted to wash away what I saw. I had money with me at all times because I kept it in my sock, which was something my dad had told me to always do. I paid for the room. The hotel we stopped at had a small breakfast diner across the street, so we could have breakfast in the morning.
We got our room key from the desk downstairs by two suspicious hotel owners, who didn’t speak a word to us but whispered to each other softly. Which was no surprise since I was still covered in blood. We headed back outside and made our way to the steps that took us to the room 206. The wind outside made my eyes water. We walked in silence, and I didn’t mind because I was tired as well. I didn’t realize just how tired until we climbed the steps. The room has peeling yellow paint with a small bathroom beside the bedroom. The queen-sized bed sat in the middle of the room with a TV facing it. He laughed, and I looked up his tall body to see his face completely unfazed by the bed.
“You take the bed, I take the floor.” I was surprised he didn’t say the opposite.
Before I could stop myself, I said, “I can’t let you sleep on the floor. That’s terrible. I’ll take the floor.”
“Don’t be silly.” He walked away to the TV while laying down bandages he must have taken from the hospital room. I was struck that he thought to get them for me. He turned the TV set on, and the most peculiar sound erupted from it. The TV focused in and the news channel blared on full blast.
“Just in, a young man by the name of Keaton Rivers has been missing for two days. It appears that he was last seen in a gray sweatshirt with black Nikes. Here is a picture if anyone comes across him.” A picture of a redheaded boy holding a soccer trophy appeared on the screen. “Over to you, Elizabeth.”
“Hey, John, I have been in charge of the accounts of kidnappings for the past year, and it has came to 6,908 of them. In just one year.” She raised an eyebrow before continuing. “It is so odd that there have been such crimes during this time, but people are panicking around the world due to Dermadecatis. But I bear good news. Ever since the cure has come out, there has been an even lower death toll than normal. I’m proud to say that there have been 105 cases of the cure today. There have been so many people saved. It is so won—”
The TV shut off abruptly, and I was so lost in the newscast that I didn’t even realize Jared was shaking uncontrollably in the corner.
“What is it?” I asked evenly. He stared off into space. I walked to him, feeling my anger build. “Jared, you have to be honest with me and tell me what you know. You obviously know something I don’t. Just talk to me.” I swallowed my anger down. “If you talk to me, maybe I can remember things, too.” I knew more than I let on. I wanted to open up to him.
“I need some time alone. Just give me some time,” he muttered before he got up and walked for the door.
“Wait. Please don’t leave me alone. I can’t be alone.” Tears spilled from my eyes, and I wanted to pinch myself for showing any emotion. I already told myself I wouldn’t cry in front of him again.
“You’re fine.” I felt tears welling up, and he reached for my face. I leaned into it and watched him as the tension faded from his expression. “I won’t be far.” His touch made my heart pound, and I tried to ignore it. “Bolt the door, and let no one in.” He shut the door behind him, and I stared at it. I buried my head in my knees before getting up after him. I opened the window curtain and stared outside. I didn’t see him, and I was not sure where he went.
I took a shower while I had some privacy. I closed the door and locked it behind me. I looked in the mirror and saw myself for the second time since the hospital. I let out a loud gasp, because I appeared to be like something from a horror movie. My brunette hair was red with blood in the front. I started laughing alone, which made me feel even crazier. Maybe I was crazy after all I had seen.
I stripped down and got into the shower. The dried up blood had me believe that my skin would be stained red for a while. I really wished I had brought more clothes. I scrubbed my legs with soap as the blood and grime went down the drain. When I got up to my right arm to scrub, I stopped in place and remembered that it wasn’t looking right in the car. I didn’t want to think of why. I didn’t want to believe something like that.
I gently scrubbed and felt a pinch of pain as my skin began peeling from my arm. I jumped back and realized the pink skin around the lumps began to bleed quickly as skin flaked off. I frantically grabbed the bottle to see if the soap was dangerous to use. There was nothing out of the ordinary. I began to tremble because what I saw was not ordinary.
My arm had turned into a bloody mess. The tub turned completely red. I started to scream and held my arm up to my face to look more closely. Black was all around it. I felt a lump in my throat as a shiver ran down my spine. This wasn’t happening. Not to me. Not to the one my dad promised would never ever get it. Tears flooded my eyes and flowed down my cheeks. I dropped to my knees in the bloody water as the sea of red spirals went down the drain. I screamed at the top of my lungs, but no one came. I punched uselessly against the tub with my left hand as my right arm lay limply beside my knee. It still bled, and I didn’t know what to do about it.
I sobbed as I covered my face with my left arm. I gingerly peeked at my arm again and blinked into focus. I rubbed my eyes for good measure and was astonished. The blood around me had disappeared and I was left with the clear water from the showerhead above, splashing onto the back of my neck. The pale pink color had returned to my arm, and instead of being multiple lumps, there was a large lump in its place. There was no
trace of black. I must have hallucinated the whole thing. I looked around the tiny bathroom, crazed. Was it all in my head then?
I shut off the water and stepped out of the bathtub. I grabbed a towel and began to retch as I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror. I leaned forward to look more closely. The bandage around my head was blood red.
I ripped the bandage from my head, and my forehead was a black color just like my arm previously was. I had to be going crazy, and I moved closer to the mirror. I grabbed a washcloth and dampened it with water. I began to dab at it, but the black did not disappear, and so I ran to the bedroom where Jared had laid bandages out before he left in his haste. He still wasn’t back from his walk.
I returned back to the bathroom in a hurry and unraveled the bandage from the package. I glanced up to place it on my head and stopped in my tracks. The black was completely gone and my stitches were not bloody. I picked up the old bandage where the blood was just at, but instead it was pale pink from just a little discharge. The blood I just saw was gone. I felt my hands slipping from the edge of the sink and the last thing I remembered was the pain against the back of my head as I fell to the floor.
Chapter Seven: The Blackness
HALLUCINATIONS. Step one, I thought through my slumber. With a gasp, I woke up to the coldness of the floor against my back, and I searched around the room. The bottom of the sink was all I could see. I didn’t move because my head was thumping hard. Then it all came rushing back. I didn’t really know what I had seen or what I thought I’d seen. I slowly lifted myself from the ground and used what little strength I had to push my body up. I curled my legs to stand. With each breath, I tried pulling myself to my feet, but I felt too uneasy. It felt like I was spinning. After I gave up trying to stand, I reached for the towel and wrapped it tightly around myself. I crawled slowly to the edge of the bathroom leading into the main room. I peered in the bedroom and saw that Jared still wasn’t back. I pressed my hand against the back of my head to check for blood. Thankfully, all I felt was a bump forming.
I finally got the strength to stand and walked to the window, but I didn’t see Jared. To my surprise, the car was still parked, and the sky was still dark. The stitches in my head were itchy and tight as I bandaged it back up.
Finding the remote on the edge of the bed, I clicked the television on and sat. “Dr. Alec Ravana is a revolutionary figure. He has found the cure to the Black Sickness, and we can’t be more grateful to him. My son, Ronnie, was dying just yesterday, and today he is able to speak again. We owe all our lives to him, and I think he knows how much his cure means to us.”
I heard a click as the door opened. I jumped off the bed and ran to the corner, but was relieved to see it was just Jared. He stopped in the doorway and stared at me.
“I just needed time to think. I didn’t leave. I walked the parking lot and then I was sitting outside the door.” He hesitated as he came closer, and I saw he was holding bits of cloth. “I bear clothes.” He put down a pair of jeans and a white long-sleeve shirt with red vans.
I looked in amazement. “Where did you find these?” I started to ask, but he laughed.
“I stole this from the lost and found. It was downstairs, and I’m sure that it is clean, but if you’re scared to wear it, I can drive to the Laundromat.”
“No, that’s okay. Thank you for the clothes,” I said indifferently.
He looked uncomfortable, looking me up and down while I stood in a towel. I was relieved that I was completely covered, but I couldn’t help but feel the air in the room shift. I grabbed the clothes off the bed and then walked slowly back to the bathroom. I shut the door hastily behind me. I felt relieved for the moment, alone again. I changed into the clothes and was psyched. They fit perfectly, although the shoes were a little big. I put my old pair of socks on from my boots with money still stuffed in them and was pleased to find out that they fit closer to my size.
I walked back out into the room and found Jared sitting on the bed. He gave me a sweeping glance before looking down at his hands.
“There’s something I want to talk about.” He seemed nervous. “I want to tell you one thing before we go on.” He hesitated and sat on the edge of bed. I sat to the side, tucking my legs beneath me, so I could face him. “People are after me, too. I should have told you, but they’re after me because I won’t join them.”
“Join them in what?” I asked.
“In controlling the world,” he said in all seriousness, but I couldn’t help myself. I began to giggle because of the absurdity, but stopped quickly when his face turned sinister. “I’m being serious. They are trying to control the world, and they will succeed. They have already won. They’ve won because I don’t know how to stop them.”
I looked into his eyes and saw that he was telling the truth. He didn’t even flinch away from my face like most do when they were lying. “How do you know they’re going to try to control the world? And who is even trying to do this?”
“Dr. Ravana is trying to control the world, and I know this from your father.” He stared at me intently.
“Dr. Ravana? But he is trying to help people.” He worked with my father, and my father wasn’t bad.
“Lena, you can’t trust everyone you met.” He seemed to regret the way he put it, because he hesitated, but he continued. “Do you really think this cure is good? It was untested and was just ‘discovered’ through Joseph. Seems a little weird, right?” he told me, and I nodded. I had to agree, but my father didn’t make this cure for bad.
“Did my father make this cure? My father worked with Dr. Ravana, right?” I asked curiously, bracing myself onto the comforter for the right answer.
“I don’t know.” He looked away quickly.
“Well, how will we stop him?” I asked confidently, but he gazed at me as if I was a silly child, which was true. I was a ridiculously bashful girl, who was afraid to venture out into the world, at least in his eyes.
“Lena, we won’t stop him until we find out what he is doing. And you won’t be doing anything but staying out of sight. Do you understand?”
“I want to help. So how can I help? You can’t stop me.”
“Obviously, you can’t be stopped. You climb and scale windows instead,” he said laughing. He smacked my leg. I smiled with him, but quickly recovered by getting up slowly. His hand fell to his side. I tried to walk away, but he grabbed my arm. I winced, but he didn’t seem to notice. “You can’t help unless you know what everyone is dying to know.”
“And what is that? I can rack my brain for it,” I retorted coarsely.
“The true cure.” I took a deep breath, but he continued. “We are going to my safe house. When we get there, we are going to research and find out what is going on.”
I sat silently for a while, and he let me take my time. I was grateful for that.
“About this safe house, did you know this was coming?”
“Your dad told me so yes, I knew.”
“Then why didn’t you warn anyone?” I asked judgmentally.
He didn’t answer, but instead he looked at me in surprise. “Why didn’t you?”
I froze in place. “What are you talking about?”
“Your father was the leading man of research. Don’t you remember anything?”
“If you’d talk to me, maybe I would be able to remember things,” I said softly. “First off, my father was never around me. He was too busy finding the cure for cancer to tell me anything.” He smiled at me, and I found myself smiling back.
“What?” I asked and felt my cheeks turning red.
“You just sound like any typical teenager girl who hated her parents.”
“I didn’t hate them. I loved them,” I said defensively.
“I know that,” he said softly.
A yawn escaped my lips before I could stop it. I tried to hide it with my hand, but Jared chuckled to my surprise.
“Okay, I guess we should get some rest.” He began to move off the bed,
but I grabbed hold of his shirt before I could stop myself. I jerked my hand away, but he stared at me, clearly confused because he mouth hung open in surprise. “Sorry, “I muttered. “It’s just I don’t want to sleep alone tonight.”
What scared me was how true it was whenever I said it. “Stay on your side, and I’ll stay on mine. I’d feel better knowing you’re beside me and that you’re not killing your back on the floor.” I hesitated, thinking I had crossed some line, but he just nodded.
“Thank god. I wouldn’t have gotten much sleep down there.”
He didn’t put up much of a fight. He threw himself into the bed as he got under the covers and sprawled out.
“Will you tell me about my father?” I asked softly in the night.
He was silent for a long time. I turned to face him and saw him gaping up at the ceiling. He cleared his throat, and I held my breath as he spoke. “Your father really loved you. He mentioned you all the time.”
“What did you and he do all the time?”
“Mainly we discussed ways to save the world.” He was silent, and I waited for more.
“Jared?” I asked silently, but I was met with soft snores. I smiled slightly and reached over to pull the cover more over his chest. I admired his face. The only light coming in was from the moon. I rolled over to face the wall, because I couldn’t continue to stare at Jared. I felt safe beside him and I smiled. I closed my eyes and slipped into a deep slumber.
***
The cold wind pushed against my face, and my eyes burned. In the distance, I saw two figures walking toward me. I looked down and heard the delicate crunch underneath my feet. I had always loved the snow, even as I got older. Some people grew out of their love for the cold, wet weather, but I never would.
Two pairs of feet stopped me in my tracks; I looked up and saw that one of them was attractive. He held the girl he was with protectively against his shoulder. I couldn’t see her face, but I knew that she must be hurt. I tried to speak to them, to ask what was wrong with the girl, but no words came out.
Antidote Trilogy: The Complete Box Set Page 6
