by A. Giacomi
“You still want to be with him, don’t you?” Vincent asks bluntly.
“Yes, stupidly, yes I do. I know it makes no sense and I know it’s not fair, but I think once, just once before I go I would like him to look at me and not hate me. Maybe even tell me he loves me, that he’ll remember me. That he’ll cherish the memories we had, perhaps erase the last three years though. That would be wonderful, and it’s all I can hope for.”
Vincent looks at me sideways. “But don’t you realize it’s better this way? If he hates you, he won’t have to miss you, he won’t have to suffer. Perhaps losing his memory is the best thing that ever happened.”
“Maybe,” I say listlessly as I watch Cam stare into twilight. It was our favourite time of day, and the new Cam didn’t seem to disagree.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DR. AUGUST
We had been traveling so long that it felt like we would never reach Ottawa, but here we were, just minutes away from the Capital. It had been a difficult journey with this tiny life in tow. Staring down at her small features, I see Eve in almost every part of her face. Keeping her safe along the way had proven difficult; most of the time I had been a body shield, keeping the corpses away from her was all I could do. I was no young buck anymore, but luckily Special Agent Mina Murray was ready at all times. If she hadn’t been along for the ride, we might not have survived. Every time we had to stop and search for gas or food, we encountered another battle with undead soldiers. Since leaving the CSIS labs, the zombies seemed to be following us, they were at every turn, ready, lurking, hungry for us.
Along the way we search for signs of Eve or Cam, the only hope was that they escaped Agent Williams’ grasp. He was dangerous now, he followed the orders of the Dark King who lived inside his head, controlled him, to what end I did not know. This entire misadventure started with me, but still puzzled me. Perhaps I had never truly understood what Hierakonpolis meant. In all my research I could have never predicted this disaster, that legend could become life, but here it was perched in my arms. Some hybrid, the future had been born, and I couldn’t even be sure what purpose awaited her. I only knew that she was important.
Agent Murray must notice my intense staring at the sleeping babe for she jolts me back into the conversation.
“Doctor, are you thinking of a name for her? She does need one. I don’t think we should just call her ‘baby’ anymore and she’s been without a name for so long already.”
I agreed, but disagreed. “I’m not sure I could do that, Mina. That’s a job for parents…”
Mina thinks about interjecting, but refrains. She knew as well as I did that the likelihood of us finding Cam and Eve were slim to none. We were the closest thing this little one had to parents, but I refused to give up hope just yet. A small part of me felt it was my purpose to bring this child to them, failure to do so would result in an eternity of guilt, which I already felt more than enough of. One day I would have to tell this child that I was the reason her mother died, because I was a coward, because I was a fool. Of all the discoveries I had ever made, I wish I could have just left Hierakonpolis alone. Ego was a dangerous monster, I knew that now.
When we reach a sign saying, “Welcome to Ottawa” we are also greeted by soldiers blocking the road. That was to be expected, a safe zone must be protected, especially since it may be the only one left in North America. I cover the babe’s chest as best I can with her blanket, the glow of her heart shone through her clothing at times and I didn’t want to raise any questions.
A soldier with his rifle pointed walks toward us slowly. Once he reaches the vehicle he taps on Mina’s window and she rolls it down.
“Who are you? State your business here,” the soldier says without expression.
Mina flashes her CSIS badge at him. “I’m Special Agent Mina Murray. The Prime Minister is expecting us,” she says in an aggravated tone. “We’re really in a hurry here if you don’t mind,” she adds with a mocking grin.
The soldier does not smile back, instead, he takes the badge and walks back toward his truck to make a call to someone.
“Can you believe them?” Mina says rolling her eyes. “They don’t think it’s legit. It would be fairly impossible to make a fake badge without any of the means to do so.”
Mina didn’t like to be disrespected, she didn’t get to the role of Special Agent without a superior skill set and smarts, but these men didn’t know her, and with all communication down, they hadn’t received notice of our arrival.
When the soldier returns he asks us to wait in our car until they cleared a path for us, and then once inside we would meet with Corporal Clark Campbell who would give us our next orders. The soldier returns Mina’s badge by throwing it at her, I could tell she was holding back the desire to snap his arm right then and there, but her face wore a grimace that said, “He’ll pay for that.”
As we drive into a small camp just outside of Ottawa, there are tents and houses crammed together and many people out and about. It looked like we had driven up to a festival, but that comparison soon leaves my mind when I glance at the people’s expressions as they pass. They are tired, weak, and on edge. This is what survival looks like. Many of them had probably arrived just as we had, and who knows what they had seen or lost along the way. Every single one of them scared.
Soon after our entrance, we are asked to leave the vehicle we had spent much time in. It felt like leaving our home behind, which was sad enough in itself. I embrace the small babe tightly as we follow another soldier toward a larger home, guarded by more men. A large Canadian flag flew high out in front of it, I suppose this was a temporary headquarters for the higher ups.
Upon entering the house we are greeted by Corporal Clark Campbell as promised. He eyes us suspiciously.
“So you folks want to meet with the Prime Minster?” he says eyeing me especially.
Mina answers for us, “Not just meet with him, Corporal, he’s expecting us. We have important information to discuss with him. So if you would just give him a call that would help immensely, especially since this information is time sensitive.”
The Corporal nods. “Of course, I will give him a call in just a moment, but what’s the story I’m telling him? Who are you? Who does that baby belong to?”
Mina speaks again, “I am Special Agent Mina Murray, this is Dr. Walther Hugo Augustus, and the small child is his niece. Our information comes from one of our CSIS labs closer to Toronto. The Prime Minister is already aware of some of the information and has asked us not to share it with others. I’m sure you understand and respect this protocol.”
The Corporal loses some of his friendly demeanor at Mina’s snarkiness. “Of course, of course,” he says in a tone that took offense. “Just wait here while I make the call.”
Just like that, he leaves us.
Guards continue to watch us in the hall as we await his return. I can feel the little one begin to squirm in my arms. I had hoped she would sleep until we were back on the road again. These men might not let us move on if they knew what she was, even if the Prime Minister was expecting us. It was their duty to protect what was left of our people, including our government officials. I understood that, I wasn’t senseless, but we needed to get out of here fast, every moment we spent here meant another moment the zombies grew nearer. They would reach here soon enough full force. The last of the living would draw their attention and what good would guns be if millions of them were ready to march toward the Capital?
Nearly half an hour passes before Corporal Campbell returns. The little one begins to bite at my shirt, she is hungry. Sweat begins to bead on my forehead. I didn’t want to draw attention to her, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted her biting me either. I’m not sure exactly what a hybrid’s bite would do. Nina notices my sweating and asks me to have a seat on a nearby bench.When I go to sit, two guards follow, one on each side of me. The watching made me more
nervous. I try to soothe her as Mina speaks to the Corporal, but the conversation is brief.
The Corporal begins, “I apologize, but I tried to contact him several times. When I couldn’t get him, I tried to reach the Deputy Prime Minister and after that I simply tried anyone at the Capital I had contact with. It seems they are elsewhere at the moment, I will try again, but for tonight you are to remain here. I will have a few guards show you to your sleeping quarters and where to retrieve some food.”
Mina shakes her head. “Unacceptable, Corporal. We need to speak with him immediately, please try again now, or if you can’t get a hold of him, at the very least have some soldiers take us into the Capital. I have a feeling you don’t trust us, but we are here to help.”
She stares into the Corporal’s eyes beseeching him, but it doesn’t do any good, so I decide it’s my turn to step in.
“Corporal, please. We’ve come such a long way! We need your help. The information we have could mean our survival or our dissolution. Don’t hold us here.”
The Corporal stares from me to the child, he notices something. When I look down I can see a slight glow myself. I cover the glowing chest quickly and hold her against me pretending to sooth her. The Corporal is unsure of what he saw, but it was enough to raise skepticism.
“I’m sorry, but until I have clearance, you must wait here. No one gets into the Capital and no one leaves without the proper permissions granted.” He stares at Agent Murry, “I’m sure you understand and respect this protocol,” he says mockingly.
Mina glares at him. “Fine! Have it your way, Corporal, but when he finds out we’ve been waiting here. It’s your head he’ll be after.”
The Corporal gives a brief chuckle before dismissing us.
As we exit the large house, guards take us to a nearby tent. We are the only one’s assigned to it and I am at least thankful for that. When the guards leave us after some brief instructions and directions, I decide to place the little one down on the cot that was to be my bed. She was nipping at the air. I had noticed one tooth before, but as I look into her mouth I notice three more.
“She’s teething, Mina. I guess we should get her something besides formula to drink soon. I hope she won’t be like her mother and have a very specific appetite,” I say as I stroke the little one’s face.
“Let’s not think about that right now, Doctor. Mostly, I fear she’ll give herself away before morning, perhaps it’s best if I get food and you two remain here. That was close back there. Babies don’t naturally glow like a glow worm.”
I have to laugh. “No they don’t, but it’s getting more difficult to keep her still.”
The small child was growing quickly. I couldn’t be sure how many months she was when we retrieved her from her frozen state in the lab, but one thing I was familiar with was that growth usually took months not weeks.
As Mina departs in search of food, I watch the small child closely. She opens her eyes to view me, and perhaps even gives me a brief smile, that or she had something in her diaper. Her eyes are her mother’s, but with flecks of red in them, the red is discreet from a distance, but there was no denying that the Azrael Virus was in there somewhere. To what extent I did not know. Perhaps with some testing I could find out more, but I didn’t want to subject her to any of the tests the government would want to perform. We would do this my way, I tell myself, from the perspective of a parent, not a scientist. I was done with detachment, this was my family now, and I would fight for her, die for her if necessary. The thought of dying overcomes me, I would have to leave her at some point, I wasn’t young, but still not terribly old and defective. My fear of leaving her kept me strong, who would protect her if I died? My mind races, if only I could find Cameron, at least if she had her father, then perhaps she stood a chance. Nearly sobbing I pull the child closer to me, trying to shield her from my worried eyes and soothe her rather than worry her. She would never meet her mother, by now Eve should have expired, any test I ran on her, any serum I created couldn’t fight the Virus forever. It would always win because it wasn’t just infecting the blood, it lived inside of it. How do you kill a demon? How do you exercise it from your body when it’s latched on to all that keeps you living? Death was inevitable.
The glow of the babe’s small heart fills me with agony, that thing lived inside of her, there was no removing it without destroying her. What an awful crime to inflict this upon someone so young. She would suffer with the truth of this for the rest of her life and I would need to prepare her for that.
CHAPTER TWELVE
EVE
Having a bed to lay on feels unnatural, I hadn’t really slept since the Azrael Virus decided to take over quite a bit more of me than I preferred. Sleeping meant being silent and silence meant giving into the voices in my head. That frightened me.
Across the hall I hear Vincent pacing. I knew he wouldn’t be sleeping either. The voices were louder in his head these days. I could see him twitching, trying to shake them free, only that didn’t exactly work. You couldn’t shake them; they were a part of you. Even now as I had my own thoughts I could hear the whispers. ‘Feed, feed. The living are asleep, feed on them now…taste their blood…you will feel powerful again.’ It continues on and on like that. I try to drown them out with my own thoughts, but sometimes I didn’t want to have to think anymore. I wanted silence so badly that I feared I would go mad. I didn’t want to think about everyone I had lost, including Cam who didn’t remember a damn thing about me, it felt like I didn’t exist anymore, I was hanging on by a thread to my own identity. No one could understand what that felt like, to be stripped of who you are little by little, and become something evil, something beyond your control, something you’re disgusted by. I was so far from the old me that she felt like a distant relative.
I bang my head softly against the wall before I realize I am banging on the wall that separates Cam’s room from mine. I apologize to the wall in a whisper. Cam would surely be sleeping and I didn’t want to disrupt that, or did I? Part of me wanted to disturb him, to talk to him. He brought me such comfort, just seeing him made things a little better, a little easier to let it all end soon. I guess I just wanted a decent goodbye, whatever came after this was up to the heavens, but I could control now.
Tiptoeing out of my room, I walk toward Cam’s which was the last room, backing onto the end of the house. He had a view of the gardens and had insisted on having that particular room. I guess it reminded him of his stay in Fenelon Falls, after all, that was the only place he remembered as home. Cam’s room is close enough to my room, but not nearly close enough to remain extremely silent. A few creaks in the floorboards concern me. I didn’t want to wake the guards. They wanted us to remain separate for now. I guess they feared Vincent and I would be tempted to have a midnight snack if we stayed around humans in the night. We weren’t wolves for god’s sakes! But I suppose not trusting us was a smart move on their part.
Reaching the door of Cam’s room I knock softly. No answer. Holding my ear to the door I whisper, “Cam, can I come in a moment?” I wait, pressing my ear to the door once more, but there is still no answer. Figuring he was either sleeping too soundly, or not at all interested in my company, I am about to turn around and head back to my room, but then I hear footsteps creeping up the stairs. There would be no time to retreat without being caught, and they would most likely watch me at gun point for the rest of the night. My only option was to quietly sneak into Cam’s room. I open the door ever so slowly and then throw myself inside and press the door closed behind me as gently as I could so that they wouldn’t hear a sound.
With my back pressed against the door, I am concealed from the footsteps in the hallway. The steps go from the end of the hall and back a few times before being satisfied and heading back down the stairs. Now that that little blip had been avoided, I decide it’s time to check on Cam. A lump lies in the middle of the king size bed and the window o
verlooking the garden is wide open. I had guessed it; he had most likely gazed out at it for comfort before nodding off to sleep. The breeze of the cool night air blows the curtains around gently. Everything feels oddly at peace. Cam wasn’t one to lay in one spot for long; the nights we shared together I got kicked every five seconds. He was a restless sleeper, but a deep one. The new Cam had less on his mind, literally, and perhaps that would reflect in his sleeping patterns, but I had to be sure. I wanted to see his face as he slept. Even if it did seem a bit stalkerish.
The sheets cover him from tip to toe and I can’t get a good look at him. Gently grabbing the edge of the sheet I pull it back slowly. No head. I pull the rest of the sheet back all at once. Nobody. In my rush to hide, I hadn’t noticed something was missing, his scent. It was nearly gone, fading, he hadn’t left long ago, but he was definitely gone. Frantically I run to the window, no longer caring about the weight of my steps, or if people found me. My head spins as I fear I might find his body sprawled out on the ground outside the window. He wouldn’t? He couldn’t!
Launching myself toward the window’s ledge and peering out I don’t see a body lying dead beneath, but I do catch a glimpse of glowing red eyes with a hint of satisfaction fleeing the garden. Something slung over his shoulder like a large sack. “Cam!” I scream out into the cold night air. The figure dashes off, I can no longer see the glow of the red eyes. As I am about to dive out of the window in pursuit of it, I feel metal push up against the back of my head.
“Cam’s been captured, I have to go now or he’ll be too far off to save! Please don’t do this! Let me go after him! I can save him.”
The guard does not lower his gun. “Orders are orders. You were to stay in your room. You failed to listen and now one of you is missing, and it’s the human one. A zombie in a human’s room? I think I know exactly what happened,” the guard says, seeming awfully proud of himself.
