“Easier for what?” I asked uneasily.
“When they turn them into robots,” she said in a matter-of-fact way. “Especially Lena’s case. They want to turn her into one quickly when they receive her so the chip is already located there.”
Gabe slammed his hand down and looked at Holland with a look of intensity before speaking. “I swear to all that is holy, if you tell Lena about the chip, I will kill you. Don’t you doubt it?”
“Oh, shut up. I’m not a dumbass like you.” She wasn’t afraid of Gabe, which I really admired. Gabe wasn’t someone I wanted to mess with. She hopped back up onto the table. “Look, Jared, I know you don’t want to hear it, but Gabe isn’t always right. They are robots or they are given the qualities of robots because, what ‘mind controlled’ human is going to fly through shit and break things with their hands and glow? None.” She emphasized the mind controlled to show that Gabe wasn’t right. “They are using mind control by making them superhuman. AKA robots. I’m right, and you know it, Jared.”
She was right. There was no other explanation that I could see. I knew one thing for sure, and that was I wasn’t going to let Lena become a robot. Not when she was of vital importance and maybe a little for my own good. I hated to admit it, but she was already someone I cared for, but I couldn’t tell either of them that.
“When do we start with Lena?” I asked with a frustrated groan.
“Excellent.” Holland clapped her hands together.
“Holland, you need to shut it.” Holland pouted as Gabe revolved back to stare at me. “Jared, we’ll start whenever I figure out what I need to do,” Gabe told me.
Holland scowled at him and twisted to me. “He thinks he is too good for this, but I will do it myself if he doesn’t want to help. I have a few ideas of my own. First, I think we need to look in there.”
“Look in where?” I asked in ambiguity.
“Well, her arm or her brain. I think the most beneficial place would be the brain, but Lena has to agree,” Holland told me in confidence.
“No. I won’t let you,” I told her angrily.
She shrugged softly, and said, “Then she is as good as dead.” She looked past me and then to the floor.
Gabe stepped forward to cover Holland from my view, and I was thankful because I probably would have said something terrible. “Would you feel better if I performed the procedure? Holland can cut her where she felt the lump and that’ll be it.”
Holland looked at Gabe with an, Are you serious? look that I could see as I peeked past his shoulder. I talked directly to her. “I don’t care who does it, but maybe Holland wouldn’t try to kill her if she’s useless.” Gabe winced, but I knew he didn’t mind hearing the truth. “Gabe, you can do it, but promise me you won’t kill her under any circumstances, no matter how you feel.”
Gabe nodded his agreement. Holland chattered on, breaking the hostile silence. “I wasn’t going to do it, but if he refused, I would have, but probably sloppy.” She smiled. “Let’s go eat. I made chicken pie for dinner, and Lena’s making our dessert. Come on.”
I followed her. Gabe actually followed us, which was amazing, because he probably never left the lab. He shut the lights off, and I walked in front of him. Just before he shut the door, I watched him whisper a command to the door to lock it.
Chapter Thirteen: The Bad Guys Are Always the Good Guys First
I FOLLOWED THE smell into the kitchen. I walked in and saw Lena smiling widely. “I love cooking. I’m so glad I can be useful right now,” she said softly.
“It smells wonderful,” Holland told Lena as she put her arm around Lena’s arm. Lena’s eyes widened and a smile danced on her lips. Her gaze grazed over mine and I felt as if she purposely avoided eye contact, which bothered me. I didn’t know why.
Lena was different than any girl I had ever met. She yelled back, and she didn’t take things off anyone. She had darkness all through her face, but when her eyes shined through, she was stunning. I didn’t see this before she was sick and that bothered me. I had gotten to know Lena in the past few days, and it was weird to see how much she meant to me already.
Holland started laughing and talking with Lena. I sat in the chair by the table and stared between them. Gabe sat beside me with his iPad propped up. Holland was great at making people feel welcome. She was like the sister that I needed and was always there for me. I remembered when I introduced Gabe to Holland. Holland hated Gabe. He told her that he liked her hair, and she felt offended because everything he said sounded sarcastic. That was just how he was. Everything came off as rude whenever Gabe said it. Eventually you get used to Gabe and his ways. Even I hated Gabe when I first met him.
“So. Tell me about yourselves,” Lena said, breaking the silence to Gabe.
He peered up through his glasses and pushed them on his nose. Just like the dork he was.
“You first,” she said, pointing to him. Holland clasped her hands together at full attention. I bit down a laugh and smiled at him. I batted my eyes to show I was listening. He frowned.
“There isn’t much to know about me,” he said and looked back down to his iPad.
“Tell me anyway,” Lena said with a smile.
Gabe looked up once more and sighed. He closed the iPad. “Fine. I was born and raised in a small town in California by my mother. My dad quit my mom and me when I was not even two months old. I was an only child, like yourself.” Lena smiled and nodded for him to go on. “I met Jared at the age of five. We were really best buds. We managed to get to fourth grade together when they decided my brain was too advanced for the fourth grade. I was thrown into eleventh grade at age eleven. Imagine my surprise when I saw girls didn’t look like the other fourth graders anymore.” He rolled his eyes, and Lena let out a giggle. He was really getting into this.
“I graduated high school when I was twelve. I wasn’t really someone who fit in, which sucked. I kind of felt like my childhood was taken from me. But lucky me, I had Jared.” He paused and looked to Holland who was beaming at him. I felt as if I was disturbing something personal. Something I didn’t miss seeing. “And I had Holland.” He said her name as if he were reading a scripture. He quickly continued. “Went to college until I was seventeen. I was going to get a PhD, but look where we are now.” He sighed.
“I was outside one afternoon. I was tending to the vegetable garden I had outside my house. It was summertime. My mother had the screen door open. She was telling me how proud she was of me for almost being a doctorate. I was proud, too. I wanted it more than I wanted anything else. I still want those things.” He looked dazed for a second, then continued. “The TV came on. You know how that goes. When there is a bad alert, every TV in the world turns on. Every single one, and you better be glad you’re listening. Isaac.” He said it and I felt sadness. His eyes closed momentarily. Lena missed it, though, because she was looking down. She was probably remembering her own memories. “Isaac was dying. I like to call it the first case ever of this disgusting, bullshit disease and the one that stopped me from being a doctor. The one that stopped me from everything, but that doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t be here with you all.”
He stopped and took a deep breath. “I rushed inside to my mom. I told her we had to get out of there. We had to find some place safe. It was too late for her. Lena,” he said softly, and I knew he knew she understood loss like this. “My mother was dying already. Surprisingly not from the disease, like you probably assumed. She was a slow woman. She had multiple disorders. She told me that she would slow us down. She wasn’t worth the time or space. She told me to find safety without her. She told me to leave her. And I did.” He shook his head.
“I will never know if she could have survived if I wouldn’t have left that day to find Jared. Jared told me he always had a safe house waiting for loved ones.” He looked down at the table. “I still don’t know what became of her. I still don’t know if she died from the disease or from her disorders. I don’t know anything about her now.” He hung
his head low. “This is why I didn’t really want to talk.” Lena reached a hand across the table to touch his. It wasn’t a romantic gesture. It was more like to say, “I am here for you. I understand you.” He peered up and gave a sad smile.
“Holland’s turn,” he said with a sniffle. Lena smiled and gently patted his hand before pulling away. She turned to Holland and nudged her with her arm.
“Okay. Where to start.” She paused and made a face as if she remembered something sour. “I guess I can start by saying I have no idea who my parents were. I had fifty brothers and sisters and I loved them deeply.” Lena looked at her with a confused look. She laughed. “My foster mom was named Mrs. Juliet.”
Lena nodded, and said, “Ohhh.”
“I was left on the doorstep when I was a day old. Or so Mrs. Juliet told me. Skip forward, I was never adopted. I always dreamed of going to school, so Mrs. Juliet decided to take me and a few other kids to school. Guess where I ended up.” She laughed and looked between the two boys.
“I entered the kindergarten class and there comes Jared. His hair was a mess. I honestly think the first word I said was, ‘Your hair looks like crap.’” She laughed hard, and Lena began to laugh with her.
“Honestly, I am sure that is what happened,” I said with a chuckle.
She smiled before turning back to Lena. “Jared and I were instant friends. Gabe was out sick that day, and oh boy, the next day, he was so angry with Jared. He said, ‘What is wrong with you? You picked a girlfriend?’” she said as she impersonated Gabe. Gabe rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her as if he were a child.
“They bickered like two girls. I hated Gabe for a long time. He told me he hated my hair, and I told him I hated his sarcastic attitude. Still true story.” She smiled at him longingly. “My story about the day of Isaac is a little different. I was with Jared.”
I felt a tinge of fear. I knew the story well. I hoped they wouldn’t tell Lena more than she needed to know. “Jared and I were studying at the local library. We were seventeen, but unlike Gabe we still were in high school.” She sighed. “I wanted to be a nurse like I told you before. I was going to go all the way, here actually, in North Carolina, to a nursing school. Jared and I were whispering, and the librarian was telling us to hush. That’s when the only TV in the place started blaring. The sound was awful.” It was like she was being transported in time. “I saw his face on the screen, so Jared and I rushed over. We both,” she stopped herself, “knew Isaac. He was from our classes.” She stopped talking, but Lena still looked to her oblivious. “Anyway, the disease was born the moment Isaac died. Jared and I stood frozen in the library while chaos erupted. Next thing I knew, we were bolting from town. We came to see Gabe and we got him to come with us. He told us he was leaving to find us, too. We were gone.”
“I know it sounds silly that everyone freaked out. The thing is, it started in our town. It was our outbreak. You were in town. What did you go through?” Holland asked softly.
Lena leaned forward to begin talking, but instead clutched her stomach as her other hand grabbed a hold of the side of the counter. She ran toward the hallway, and I ran after her before I could stop myself. Holland tagged behind Lena, following as close as she could to her. Holland and I both stopped at the door as we heard Lena gag and vomit. I walked in, and she put a hand up. In between her heaves, she got out the word “Holland.” I felt a knot in my stomach, but I knew I didn’t have a right to comfort her. I wished I didn’t want to comfort her.
Holland walked in behind me and had an unopened toothbrush. She smiled to me gloomily as she closed the door. I stood there, trying to listen to their conversation, but then I remembered the rooms were soundproof.
I walked back to Gabe and put my hands on the counter sides. He didn’t meet my eyes, and I knew why. He took his glasses off and wiped his forehead.
“Jared,” he said just audible for me to hear.
“I know, I know. What can we do?”
“We need to start now. She’s very sick. She’s going to die if we don’t do something now. This is serious.” His eyes were full of contempt.
I didn’t say anything. I had come to like her over the past few days. I didn’t want to lose her.
“Jared, she is not strong enough to withstand the disease. They must have given her an extra dose or they really did put a chip in to enhance it like Holland suggested, because this is the sign of the people that are about to die. She is very sick. If it’s bad enough, there will be blood in that. Holland will know what to look for. It’s better that Holland went in there because she knows exactly what to look for. I mean we’ve been locked up in here for so long, all we do is look for what causes the disease and what it is.”
I didn’t meet his eyes and said all I could manage. “Yeah.”
“Look, Holland and I have been trying to figure out how they get the disease in them. We thought it was in the food. Then we thought maybe it was airborne or in the water, but I know it isn’t because only a few people have gotten it in a population. So I want you to tell me everything you did before she got sick. There has to be answers in what you did.”
“Well, before she got sick, we were chased by Joseph and his clan.”
“Ah, Joseph, the first cure right?” He laughed, and I felt myself getting flustered.
“Why are you laughing?” I asked, bewildered.
“Well, the cure is turning them into mindless freaks, so I don’t think it was Joseph chasing you, but the ‘other kind.’” He added his signature air quotes, and I smiled. It was good to see some things never changed.
“All right, the ‘other kind,’” I mocked Gabe, “chased us down the highway and into the gas station. They chased us out of her house. We slept in her dad’s lab, but I don’t think there was anything harmful there because he wouldn’t have left harmful things there with Lena. I told you I looked for things there, but I came up short. But anyway, we got in a wreck, and she had to get stitches. We escaped the hospital because they found her there, too. Then we stayed in a hotel, and she was sick after she ate pancakes. She showed me her arm that day. Her forehead started to rot after that. It might have been sooner, because she had a bandage over it. I have no idea what happened for her to get this.”
Gabe stood to his feet slowly and began pacing; this was something he did when he was on to something. “When did they start chasing and finding you?”
I told him that they always knew where we were. I even told him about the dead hotel managers, and I told him how Lena was fine until the girl from the gas station pointed it out.
“Where did Lena get stitches?” He leaned down to the table and stared at me with piercing eyes.
“Her forehead.” I stopped in place and got up slowly. I covered my mouth and almost howled. My vision blurred as the realization washed over me.
Gabe just stood shaking his head. “Yes, they led her right in. They hurt her and then they put the disease in her.” He wobbled his head fiercely for a long time. “On the bright side, we know how they contract the disease now. I wonder if we can stop them. I could send out a warning to the world to not trust doctors. Who would believe us, though?” He ranted on, but I was unfocused. I couldn’t believe it. I put my head in my hands. The hospital, the doctors were killing innocent people.
Gabe spoke softly. “What should we do? If the good guys of the world are the bad guys, we’ll have no one to help us find the real cure.” He watched me. “I’ll have to find the cure alone. They are injecting them with the disease; maybe I can take it out or something. I just don’t know how to do that, Jared.” He seemed lost, but I knew he could figure this out. If anyone could, it would be Gabe.
“Do whatever you can. I want her to live. I don’t want her to get controlled.” He turned to me with suspicious eyes, and I knew what he was really thinking and it was “why should you care?”
The bathroom opened, and Holland stepped out with Lena leaning against her. “Lena said to take out the dessert. It�
��s done. She is both silly and considerate. We’re going to change her clothes. She said she feels better, and she’s hungry.” She smiled to us, but the smile froze on her lips and went no farther on her face. She appeared frightened, which made me worry.
I heard the door to Lena’s room close and Holland’s high heels hitting the floor as she rushed to us. “Gabe, I couldn’t see anything, but I know this. The blood is black. There was black all over her lips.” She cringed. “She is rotting big time and fast,” she frantically whispered. “What are we going to do? This is worse than I thought. I know she’s dying very fast. She’s not holding food and you can see her ribs. It’s really scary, and the smell.” She wrinkled her nose. “I sprayed in there, don’t worry,” she said before Gabe could protest. “She is really trying to make Jared not see how bad it is. That’s why she asked me in. She told me why she didn’t want you in there. If you were wondering.” She held her arms out. I hugged her, and she whispered into my ear. “I know you must really care for her. Maybe she doesn’t know, but I do.” I pulled away and looked at her in shock. She just nodded in encouragement. I didn’t care for her like that. Or did I? I wished I could make sense of this.
“We need to start tonight.” Gabe spoke up, and I death glared him.
“Ask her. Don’t decide for her. Her fate is decided already so let her decide one thing,” I told him heatedly.
The door creaked open, and I heard her feet softly hit the floor. We all tried to act normal. Holland even flattened her hair down.
“I’m sorry everyone. Holland, do you want to wait and eat later? I’m so sorry. Thank you for being in there with me.” She started blushing, and it was a nice change to not see her frustrated. The color on her cheeks seemed to awaken her soul, and she looked more beautiful in that moment.
Antidote Trilogy: The Complete Box Set Page 11
