Before, my longing for Alice, Nin and Yuki had been strong, but it had been overshadowed by what I experienced out here.
Now, it was different. Now all I wanted was to get back to them.
I started to make plans how and when to get to the house, down to the sub-basement. And I decided to act on the evening of the twelfth day. After all, Josh had said that the pathogen wasn’t viable after ten days. I hadn’t felt any signs of sickness or weakening so far. And this was day ten. So, I was reasonably sure that I hadn’t gotten the pathogen. And to wait until day twelve would mean to be on the safe side.
Another two days then!
I decided to make my move when it would be dark and I’d have the advantage of the night-vision goggles.
I had run out of food, not water, on day ten. But it was okay, I didn’t feel the hunger too much. It felt even good, kind of an inner cleansing. I wouldn’t have been able to go on like that for more than two or three days, but two days were fine, I reckoned.
On the morning of the twelfth day, if I had counted the days correctly it was now April 18th,I woke up feeling exhilarated. Today I would see Alice again! And Nin and Yuki!
To live up to the momentous occasion, I tried to clean myself more thoroughly than before. But as I didn’t have any soap and the water was really still freezing cold, I probably smelt quite a bit.
Then I packed everything in my backpack and walked over to the fir tree for my last day of waiting and vigil.
It had started to rain in the night and it rained all day long. By nightfall I was wet, cold and very, very anxious to move.
My limbs were stiff from the long sitting in the cold and rain. And I was nervous as hell, as I put on my night-vision goggles and scanned the area.
Nothing and no-one to be seen, just houses and vegetation! Good!
I moved forward, through the bushes and out into the open. It felt so wrong to expose myself that much, but I had to cross that field between the grove with my fir tree and our house, there was no other way. I had chosen the narrowest stretch of the field, but I still had about thirty metres of open terrain to cross before I reached the cover of some bushes near our plot. As I ran across my heart was pounding. But nothing happened.
Quickly, I ran along the bushes toward our house. I had decided to enter the house down by the door to the studio as it was closest to the sub-basement and well hidden from view from the other side of the house.
What would I find?!
Chapter 12 – together again
Monday, 18th April 2072
I got to the studio door easily, no problem there. But inside there was just one big mess. From the little I could discern through the night-vision goggles, a lot of damage had been wreaked down here. But not by the explosion, no; this looked like a man-made mess. Cupboards and drawers had been opened and things thrown around, torn apart. As if someone had gone on a wild, destructive rampage.
The walls and door were still standing intact, though. So, whatever damage the explosion had caused, it hadn’t had any effect down here.
My hands were sweaty and my breathing hitched unevenly. I was so nervous. And anxious.
So far so good.
Quickly I headed for the door to the corridor and then into the cellar and to the bomb-shelter door. No substantial damage down here either, just a mess, as if some madmen had been let loose. I didn’t pause to take a close look or think about it but headed straight for the entrance to the bomb shelter.
The door was just as I had left it. There were some bullet holes but I could easily open the door, the mechanism still worked just fine. Probably, the fact that the door had been locked from outside had misled Steve into thinking that nothing and no one worth pursuing could still be found within. Just as I had hoped!
Inside, everything was just as I had left it fifteen days earlier; the washing machine, the door to the sub-basement hidden below it. Safely locked!
With trembling fingers, I reached out, hesitating just for the briefest moment, before quickly tapping the signal on the door. I repeated the cadence four times, just as I had told Yuki and Alice, every time tapping the signal a bit louder, more urgent.
And then I waited, my heart thudding so hard in my chest it almost hurt.
One, two, three, four – after just five seconds, I could hear the key being turned and the door was opened.
The light from within blinded me and I had to close my eyes momentarily.
“Lia! Lia!” All three of them were there, heading up the stairs toward me, embracing me, pulling me back down and inside with them!
It was wonderful!
I was speechless.
Alice hung on my neck and wouldn’t let go; she clung to me so hard, I was almost choking. I let her; it felt so good to hold her again.
Alice, my little Alice, my darling!!! She looked pale, put otherwise healthy.
Nin had closed the door by now and was bounding down the few steps. He grabbed me by the shoulders, turning me around to face him.
“Damn it! Lia! I am so glad to see you!” He didn’t attempt to embrace me but fixed me with his eyes. Love, relief and also anger clearly discernible.
Alice was still clinging on to me and showed no sign of releasing her hold. She was crying a little now, out of joy and anxiety and all. I stroke her back whispering nonsensical words of love. She just held on to me even tighter and sighed.
Yuki stood next to me and had put her arm around me and Alice.
“Oh Lia, I am so glad you are back! You don’t know how worried we were! I am so happy that you are here, safe and sound!”
She sniffed at me a bit and grinned. “Wow, you certainly do smell a bit! Sorry. It’s wonderful to have you back! Just wonderful!
With this she kissed me on my smelly cheek.
By now, Alice had lifted her head to plant a kiss on my cheeks too. She too sniffed and wrinkled her nose. “Ugh, you really do smell, Lia!” she uttered almost accusingly.
“I know, I know.” I answered, a bit embarrassed. “One of the first things I would like to do now is to soak in hot water and wash the dirt away. It’s been a long, long wait out there in the forest, you know.”
“Let her sit down and unload her backpack!”
This was Nin; he had moved over to the sofas and now sat there, patting the seats beside him to make us follow suit.
I glanced around; everything looked as I had remembered. And the air didn’t smell stale, so the ventilation system must work perfectly. What a relief.
And the three of them all looked healthy, pale, but healthy. Yuki sat down next to Nin and he put his arm around her tenderly. Alice sat on my lap, despite the bad smell.
“So, how did you fare while I was gone? Did you notice the commotion some days ago?”
“Commotion!” The anger in Nin’s voice flared up in no time. Apparently he wasn’t in too peaceful a mood. “Commotion you call this! Hell, we thought we’d be killed. That the house would collapse. It was the most frightening experience ever! Then we heard shooting, too, but the worst was the silence afterwards; not knowing what had happened. It was torture!”
He leaned forward, face tense and angry.
“We had no idea what was happening and where you were, Lia! Alice thought that you been killed! It was hell for her! Do you understand? Do you?”
Alice buried her head into my chest and whimpered a bit. I caressed her reassuringly.
“Do you have any idea, any idea at all what you’ve put us through!?” Nin was almost shouting at me now. Yuki winced and looked apologetically at me.
“Yes, Nin, in fact I do.”
This statement brought him up short. Like a deflated balloon, he slunk back onto the sofa and suddenly looked very tired.
“Yes, Nin, I know how difficult it was for you, and mostly for Alice. And I am very, very sorry about it. But I didn’t have a choice; something had to be done about Steve, and well you know. I am very sorry that you were worried and that I had no means to let you know whe
re I was and how I was doing. But it was necessary.”
I paused and looked at Yuki questioningly; she nodded in response to my unspoken question.
“And, it was just as hard for me, you know! It was agony, not to know what had happened to you after witnessing Steve’s rampage from far. But I had to wait, because I wasn’t sure that I hadn’t caught the pathogen outside there.”
At this, Nin and Yuki tensed up, suddenly hyper alert with concern.
“But I don’t reckon that I got it. I waited more than ten days and never felt anything. Had I caught it on the way here, I’d be dead by now. So, today, after twelve days of waiting I felt I might come back to you. After all, it was quite cold and wet outside, you know, and I am all dirty. Will you let me clean myself now, please? We can talk afterwards. Okay?”
Nin and Yuki looked amused at that, but Alice clearly didn’t like the idea of letting me go anywhere, even if it was just to the bathroom next door.
I kissed her. “Little tiger, please let go of me. I’ll be back in a short time and then we can cuddle!“
I kissed her and glanced over at the other two. “By the way, and in case you don’t know: I love you all very, very much!”
Then I set Alice down and walked over toward the bathroom door.
“You are so thin, Lia! You look like you haven’t eaten in days!” This was Yuki; she’d left Nin’s side on the sofa and was walking toward the kitchen. “I’ll make something for us all while you wash. Anything special you’d prefer, Lia?”
I paused and smiled. “Anything warm would be wonderful.”
At that, they looked somewhat taken aback and distressed.
“Hey, it’s okay folks. Don’t look so concerned. It’s just that it was cold out there. But now I am here and I feel wonderful, so don’t worry. Just let me wash.”
With this I turned and went to enjoy scrubbing myself clean again. To pour water, and warm water at that, on my skin felt so pleasant I had to force myself to get out of the bath. I would have liked to stay a long while in the steaming hot shower.
But it wouldn’t be fair. They were waiting for me, for answers just as I was waiting to talk to them. Yuki had sneaked in quickly to bring me some clean clothes to wear. So nice of her! It was wonderful to wear something clean and cosy. A towel wrapped around my still wet hair, I finally emerged from my cleansing session and found them waiting on the sofas, ready to grill me, and to eat.
Yuki had prepared a soup, some bread, some tinned fruit and hot tea, wonderful and mouth-watering after my diet of granola bars and apples of late. Especially the hot soup and the tea!
I sat down opposite Nin and Yuki; and they both bent forward, eager to give me soup and tea, how sweet of them! Meanwhile, Alice climbed onto my lap again, like a little kitten and forced me to lean back on the sofa to accommodate her.
“Let her get something to eat and drink, Alice,” Nin gently scolded her.
But I let her, it was just too wonderful. “It’s okay, leave her be, it feels so good to be back here, to see you all, to hold and kiss Alice. I am really happy!”
Yuki had come over to our side, sat down next to me and handed me a cup with some soup. As I took it, I bent over to her to kiss her on her cheek. “Thanks, Yuki, thank you so much!”
I took a better look at her. “Is everything alright with you? Are you feeling okay?”
She blushed, shot a quick look at Nin who just smiled at her. “Yes, I am doing just fine. I told Nin. First, he reacted like you had foreseen, but by now he’s reconciled and happy, aren’t you?”
He nodded, beaming his love at her, and relaxed.
The soup was delicious! As was the bread, made just today Alice informed me, as well as everything else. While I munched away, the others mostly just looked at me, smiling. I could see very well that Nin would pounce on me later; he must have tons of questions and comments. But for now he was willing to let me eat in peace and enjoy being back.
Alice poked me several times in the side, pointing out that I had become very bony and that she could feel my ribs and my hip bones, that it was all too bad, had I been terribly hungry?
I reassured her that I had been okay, that I hadn’t felt the hunger because I had been so preoccupied with worrying about them.
It didn’t take long for me to feel full. I kept the cup of tea cradled in my hand, though, but leaned back into the sofa, finally ready for their questions.
“Shall I go first?”
They all nodded.
And so I told them. Not everything, but the main points.
I also mentioned the killings by the river, because by then Nin showed signs of getting angry again. As if he thought I had gone overboard with my anxiety over their fate. The report about those senseless and brutal killings, and bout the extent and size of the Nemesis organization effectively silenced him.
It shocked Alice, though, and clearly frightened her deeply, but I couldn’t spare her, it was necessary, even vital to tell them everything. She had to learn that these people were absolutely dangerous.
What with being cooped up in the relative safety of the sub-basement for all this time, Nin, Yuki and Alice had no clear idea about the dangers lurking outside, in that new, terrifying world. Now they at least knew about some.
And after they’d heard of Steve’s doings, Nin relaxed and sat back in his chair very pensively. He glanced at me several times, almost apologetically. When I was done talking, he looked at me and just said “Thanks, Lia!”
I must have looked pretty surprised because he grinned. “Where you expecting to have your head bitten off? The way you look you didn’t expect me to be civil. Give me some credit, Lia, will you! It’s true, I freaked out when I learned what you had done.”
At that the other two just glared at him wordlessly.
“Okay, okay, freaking out is maybe not strong enough to describe my reaction.”
“He swore he’d kill you! Lia! You know. I begged him to listen to Yuki and not to scare me so much!” Alice mumbled.
“Yeah, it’s true, I was absolutely livid!” Nin paused before going on in a grave tone. “But now I see that you have been right, dead on. And I apologize for whatever raving and ranting I may have gone about these last few days. I can see now that you were not only right about Steve, but that you were right not to tell me or us, I may not like it, but I couldn’t have done what you did! And I thank you for that! We all owe you huge!”
He bowed his head my direction; as if to bow to my superior reasoning.
Was he mocking me? No, he looked dead serious. And I just felt so embarrassed. I hadn’t been prepared for such a reaction by Nin. He was to shout at me, to be angry with me, not to be so coy, so spiritless, so grateful!
Fight back! I wanted to scream at him. This wasn’t about besting you; it was about protecting all of you!
“You idiot!” That was Yuki. “You make it sound as if Lia had been trying to pull off a special stint here to get one over you!”
She was angry; boy, was she angry now.
“She risked her life trying to protect us all! And well you know. As well as why she didn’t tell us before. And rightly so, if you ask me! So, don’t be a supercilious idiot, Nin!”
She must have seen my embarrassment at this quarrelling over me, for she relaxed, bent over to give Nin a quick peck on his lips, all the while grinning wickedly.
“Besides, just wait to hear what Josh will tell her!”
Turning to me she explained.
“He’s been bugging us daily about news from you, you know.”
Josh! They had been in contact with him! He was alive then, and safe!
Relief, so intense it was almost painful, washed over me.
Nin hadn’t noticed anything. He was ready to go on the offensive now.
“Maybe you are right Yuki! Maybe! But do you know how it feels, Lia. To be neutralized. Yes neutralized! By your own sister because she thinks she couldn’t trust you! Do you know how I felt!! Do you have any idea of
how you’ve hurt me!!”
He was shouting at me now.
Good. Finally. Get it out of your system! And then let’s be over and done with it.
I just raised an eyebrow in his direction, knowing full well that that would really set him off.
It was as if I had pressed a kind of pressure-release-button. He ranted at me for a good ten minutes. It felt almost good. He kept repeating how worried he’d been, how unfair and patronizing I had acted, how offended he was. And then he sort of derailed his entire and up to that point quite valid arguments by bringing up just about any and every injury he had or imagined himself to have ever suffered at my hands. It really was getting rather silly now, and Yuki’s twitching made it clear that she thought so, too. Finally he came to a halt and looked at me angrily but also a bit helplessly.
How I loved them all!
“Nin, I love you! All of you. More than words can say. And it was this love for you, my dearest of all brothers, as well as for Yuki, who I value as my closest friend, and for Alice of course, for whose safety I would do anything, absolutely anything, that made me do what I did. I am sorry if my actions offended you, but I couldn’t act otherwise. And I hope that one day, you’ll see it that way too.”
I felt like bursting into tears, it was all too much. The fear of finding them hurt or dead, the relief at seeing that they were okay, the guilt of what my leaving had done to Nin, Josh. Everything was getting too much. I gulped down the tears and held on tight to Alice, trying hard to get a grip on myself.
Only now was Nin able to make a move. He came over to me, sat beside me and took me in his arms. Silently; but that he’d done it showed me that the worst was over.
He’d still be angry with me, he probably wouldn’t understand everything until he went above-ground himself and saw what the world had become. But he’d be able to deal with my betrayal as he saw it, this much had been more than clear after his speech, and eventually he’d be able to move on.
Yuki joined us, sitting down next to me and lifting Alice unto her lap. Then she leaned closer to me and said, her voice tender and affectionate. “Thank you Lia, thank you for all you’ve done! I am so happy that you’ve come back safe and sound. But you really are way too thin. Alice was right, you look awful, as if you’d been starving.”
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