When I couldn’t answer any of his questions, the man confronted me in an honest and straightforward way.
“Look Ms. Matthews. I know that it has been a long week so far for both of us, but if you don’t trust me there is a big change that your friend, Jay, will die. I’m sure there’s a way for us to save him, but you have to work with me. I took an oath to protect and care for all living species, but you never did. However, if you don’t start talking soon, I’m sure both of will be burdened with this man’s death for the rest of our lives.”
Right then, I would have told him even my father’s bank account password if he asked me to. From that moment on, I started talking to him, telling him everything I could, treading in thin ropes, not entirely sure if was doing the right thing.
But, while I was telling him our story, the man kept searching for a clue on how to help him. He found it in our first intimate moment together, that time when Jay dived into the small lake back on Primordial Earth and later seemed restored and reinvigorated.
“If that’s true, then...then we’ve been treating him the wrong way this whole time.”
That night, and for the next three days, the doctor made sure that Jay survived by moving him to a special room they used for hydro-recovery organisms, like the Detir and the Pots. As a student, I remember taking a class on the history of outer-space organisms that mentioned the hydro-recovery system. In that class we learned that these types of organisms spend a great deal of their evolution path living close or inside the water, eventually leading up to their partial dependency of aquatic environments.
Humans are not hydro-recovery organisms even though life on Primordial Earth started from the oceans. But Detir and Pots, mostly populating planets covered by over 90% with water, had a different kind of coping mechanism that allowed them to recover a great deal of their strength after getting in contact with the aquatic element.
From that day on, Jay started getting better fast, and the new rounds of medicines started working on him. During the last week, even though he had his ups and downs, spending half an hour every two days awake and screaming in agony, he started recovering. The difficult part came when he stopped shouting and started making a ruckus trying to leave the hospital every time he was awake. That’s why the doctor had to come up with a serum that deprived him of his use of hands and feet for a while, just enough to calm him.
I feel guilty for letting him do that, but I’m certain it’s in his best interest. Yeah, lying to him to protect him was for his best interest as well, but I can’t help wanting to protect him from the agony of having to face a difficult truth.
He’s not alone inside that body.
Doctor Dale suddenly appears in the door. He once again signals me to follow him outside; I quickly do so.
“Sorry to bother you again, but I wanted to ask you something before I totally forgot it. Would it be too much if you let me keep Jay here for a couple more weeks to run some tests on him and--”
“No,” I say in a totalitarian tone. That was out of the question.
“Okay,” he says to me promptly and rushes to his next task.
I smile at his back and somehow feel better with his goofy behavior. It’s like he sensed I was worrying about Jay and decided to pass by and lighten the mood. That’s Doctor Cross for you.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Jay
I open my eyes and look at the ceiling. It is too dark in here to make out the details, but it seems like it’s a plain white, common part of a regular room. The endless lights of Mosa cast their dim presence in the furniture, making the shadows inside the room dance impatiently.
My eyes are cloudy, and my limbs feel heavy, but I’ve regained some control of my senses. For a moment, it feels like I’m dreaming, but soon I realize I’m not. I feel like I’ve been here before or that I had spent many hours in this room, although this is the first time that I realize it. The pain I feel in the lower part of my body makes this whole scene feel too real.
I can smell people everywhere around me, people that I kinda expected they’d be here. A gentle sigh comes from my left side. I turn and see Eladia’s face. Her dark hair is still caught up in that hideous ponytail, but for some reason, she looks more beautiful than ever.
She smells of shampoo and exhaustion, the heady smell that comes from a person that hasn’t showered for many days. But, it kinda suits her. Eladia is born to live outside in the open, to have her adventures away from the close quarters of a room.
But, her smooth skin and pressing chest intimidate me. I want to kiss her and get as far away from her as possible at the same time. I can feel we were close before. I even remember that something started between us up on that roof, but a long shadow covers that memory. Maybe the lights of Mosa are dancing with me as well.
Trust was the thread that tied everything together between us, and that thread had snapped after finding out she knew that something was wrong with me all along and didn’t say a thing.
I try to change to my other side and get to a more comfortable position on the bed when I notice the sound of a pair of feet walking into the room. Out of instinct, I decide to stand still and play dead. No, not dead...sleeping. Dead would be bad after all.
A new scent fills in the air, a potent aroma that dominates with its presence. I want to turn and watch who emits that scent, but it’s impossible. My hands and feet are still numb from whatever the hell they did to me here. Fortunately, the presence decides to come closer. It stops for a moment under the frame of the door, sighs, and then moves forward.
“It’s a lovely night, Doctor Cross. I thought your rounds would have been over by now,” I hear Silver suddenly spurt from a corner of the room.
The man doesn’t lose his cool although I’m sure I discern a tint of surprise on his step. He wasn’t expecting anyone to be up, not even the robot.
“It’s a lovely night indeed, Silver. I’ve told you times and times again, you don’t have to stay up all night and take care of him. The staff of this hospital is one of the best in the Known Galaxy.”
His words are rushed and forced; he’s improvising, trying to hide something from her.
“I have no doubt about the skills of your staff, doctor. Those that have nothing to do with the staff worry me.”
What? What does she mean?
Doctor Cross wonders the same thing.
“For something to worry you, a Chronicler’s assistant, it must be really serious. Can you share the details with me?”
He was baiting her to answer his questions. He’s a smart human, that much I’ll give him. But, an Android can’t be fooled that easily.
Without a sign of doubt, she replies: “We’ve talked about this again Doctor. I’m not allowed to say anything to you, and you shouldn’t ask me the same question every time. There’s a reason why you humans invented that saying, that funny, little expression.”
“The curiosity killed the cat, right?”
She must have nodded because their conversation ended promptly.
I don’t know about the doctor, but I would’ve killed to know what she’s talking about. Either the victim was she or her cat, or whatever she thought I had to kill, I would have done it. But the human doctor—I guess he’s human after all—doesn’t. He has given up into finding the answer to this question way before tonight.
“Okay, okay. You’re right. It’s just that you’re a pretty unusual bunch, that’s all. Well, you and Eladia are somehow normal, but your friends, aren’t.”
He’s closer to me now. He raises the thin sheet covering my body and touches my left foot with a cold, metal thing. After hearing a beep, the doctor takes a step back, he nods and then turns his back to me. I hear his steps get weaker while drawing away from me.
So now, the only thing obstructing my escape is that stupid, morphing android. I never quite liked her, not the same way I like Zan or Eladia.
You don't like Eladia either.
For a moment, my mind feels crowded. I k
now that I was the one that made that thought just now, but at the same time, I’m not sure. I feel puzzled and certain at the same time. I don’t know if this is a dream or reality anymore.
There is a thumping coming from deep inside my head that it’s strong enough to make me feel dizzy. I stop and try to open my eyes to ease the pressure, but it doesn’t help. The thumping gets louder and more intense, and it soon shakes my whole body.
It’s when I hear a scream coming from the hallway that I know that the thumping isn’t only in my head. Zan seems to have noticed it too.
“What was that?” the young boy says.
“What was what Zan? Did you have a bad dream?” Silver asks him.
Maybe if I stay silent a little bit longer, they’ll leave the room and let me escape silently. But the thumping is now louder than before and soon I figure that this isn’t a simple thump; this is a march.
“Wake up! Eladia, Zan, wake up!!!”
The familiar voice of Doctor Cross echoes inside the room. He’s just barely heard above the cacophony of steps marching down the hallway. Eladia is the last one to wake up.
“What’s wrong? What’s that sound?”
I keep acting that I’m still asleep, hoping they leave without me, but I’m not off the hook so easily.
“I...I don’t know what’s going on. I heard someone say that the lower floors are filled with reanimated corpses swarming the hallways,” the doctor says.
He sounds panicked although he doesn’t feel panicked. I’m confused.
“What? That can’t be possible. Zombies? Is that what you’re saying?” Eladia suddenly replies.
“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way, but yes. Zombies can be a pretty inclusive term.”
What are they talking about? Zom...bees? Are those some kind of bees? I don’t understand.
And then it happens. The shriek of an otherworldly monster comes from just outside our room. I open my eyes and rise to see dead bodies walking. What in the world?
Chapter Thirty-Three
Eladia
When I was younger, I used to meet all those actors and musicians, and they used to sign my shirt or mug to give me an autograph. Anyway, growing up at a politically involved house had its perks. Even some of the most famous actors were my buddies back then. So, when I was at the proper age to start visiting the setting to their movies and the backstage to their concerts, I quickly got disappointed.
All those monsters in the films and the special effects in the concerts were products of computers and extras. Nothing was even the tiniest bit real.
It wasn’t the same as watching the finished movie and believing that everything is possible. Visiting the setting and seeing that everything was a lie was a hard pill of truth I had to swallow back then. Now, though, seeing that zombies do exist and walk straight into our room, the first thing that crosses my mind is that I kinda wish that these things were fake.
Silver was the one standing closer to the door so she tosses herself in front of the horde to stop them from hurting Dale. The doctor, being dumbstruck by the impossible sight, takes a step back but does nothing else to escape. He just looks at the monsters with a mixed expression of disgust and fear. The man that has pledged his life to protect and mend people is just standing still, motionless.
Zan, the savage boy, snarls at the monsters, but Silver stops him. In what must have been a second, Silver morphed into a large, bulky object, fitting the door and pushing the corpses out. It was her fencing form, best used to stop wild animals from approaching the camp.
Silver can buy us five to ten minutes before she runs out of power and the room is overrun with all those undead bodies. Dale is standing before her, shaking like a leaf, mumbling to himself.
“Doctor, please, calm down. You’re the only one in this room that can find a way out of here,” Silver says, her voice distorted.
The man doesn’t move an inch.
“Doctor...Doct...Doc…” Silver keeps saying until she can’t speak anymore. She’s now using her whole power into keeping the fence functional and the zombies out.
I turn my head and try to make a quick assessment of the situation. We’re trapped in a hospital room with a small army of dead bodies outside ready to infiltrate any moment now. Jay is still asleep and unable to move, while Zan can’t do much without his primitive spear. And we’re running out of time fast waiting for the Doctor to snap out of his shock.
At that time, out of nowhere, I see Jay getting up on his feet and stand in front of the frozen doctor. He’s taller than Doctor Cross, but they’re similar in every other way. They’re both athletic, both strikingly handsome, and both fit to lead. Only that Jay has more experience in overcoming impossible situations.
“Listen to me, human doctor. You have to find us a way out. I can’t die in here,” Jay says to him.
The doctor suddenly looks like he reached the surface of a cold lake. He snaps off his shock and starts breathing hungrily.
“Why...why are you awake? You shouldn’t be awake,” Dale says, mumbling.
“It doesn’t matter now. Tell me, is there a way out of this mess? Can you find us a way out of here?”
Dale looks around him and sees Zan snarling at the door, the morphed Silver into her fence form and me, still seated on the armchair in the back. To be honest, I don’t even dare move a muscle. Maybe this is all a dream, and if I move, the spell will break, and it will end up turning into reality.
Oh, who am I kidding? The zombies are real!
“I...well, there is a way out. But we have to get to the stairway down the hall. It’s the only way.”
His voice sounds shaken but optimistic. His survival instincts start to kick in.
“It might be possible, but we have to work together. What do you need, doctor?” Jay says.
“Wait! Wait a minute. I’m still processing the thought. Maybe, after all, the stairway isn’t such a good idea. It might be better to use the elevator.”
I’m confused. I still don’t know what he has in his mind, but I’m afraid that it won’t be enough. Us, five random people, one of them recently recovered from a serious injury and the other a Chronicler’s assistant, are we going to be able to make our way through all those dead bodies alive?
I’m ready to express my concerns about this plan when I suddenly stop. Seeing them work together, Jay trusting another human except me, suddenly gives me hope. There is still a chance for us to get back together if we manage to get out of here alive, but that won’t happen if I don’t help them.
Damn. Look at me, daydreaming. It’s impossible to get him out of my head even amidst a crisis.
I stand up; I quickly realize that my feet are trembling. I don’t want to get closer to the door. I’m afraid. Right at that time, something wakes up inside me; I’m in shock as well.
After seeing all these people dying two weeks ago, I’ve started being afraid of everything. I’ve spent a lot of time in the hospital trying to cope up with my feelings of guilt towards those that died in our stead in the Great Embassy, but it seems that it was all for naught. Now, facing a true crisis, I’m useless.
Two Originators, both of them my friends; one of the guards of the Great Embassy being at the wrong place, the wrong time; many people that we don’t know anything about them. All of them died because of my research. In a sense, it’s my work that brought all this death and destruction; I brought chaos everywhere I went. Jay was just my luckiest victim to date, that’s all.
“Okay. So, here is the plan. Jay and I will be your vanguard. We’ll stay in front of you and push the zombies away creating a path to the elevator. We’re going to have to use the elevator to get three floors down and then the stairway to get to the parking lot of the hospital,” Doctor Dale suddenly says.
“Why don’t we use the elevator all the way to the parking lot? It would be faster and safer,” I hear myself saying.
“The elevator of the hospital is programmed to stop at every floor and open the automated
doors so that no one will get trapped inside by accident. It’s a safety thing, but if we don’t get off on the first floor, we’ll get attacked by over a hundred corpses in the morgue. Yes, you guessed it right. We have to pass through the morgue to get to the parking area. And no, I don’t know who designed this building.”
Dale is babbling, trying to make sense of an improbable situation. He seems kinda cute amidst this crisis.
Damn. Stop doing this Eladia. You sound like a horny teenager.
“Okay. There’s no time for second guesses. On the count of three. One--” Jay says.
But it’s too late.
Silver suddenly runs out of power. Slowly, she transforms into a tiny ball the size of a marble. It’s a black, metal ball on that falls on the floor, letting us stare straight into our deaths. In the moments it takes us to get in line and start pushing the zombies, I manage to get a better look at them.
Alien Romance Box Set: Alien Former: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Books 1-5) Page 56
