Indestructible

by Linwood, Alycia

  “Adrian…” I placed my hand on his cheek. “We couldn’t have known someone would come here, especially not a person with an element. I don’t even know what he was doing here. Did you ask him anything?”

  Adrian licked his lips. “Not exactly. I knocked him out after I knocked you out. It seemed easier than explaining anything.”

  “Great. Now the news will speak of a psycho couple in the woods.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. At least the guy should be fine. Maybe no one would believe him if he told them. They’d think he’d simply hit his head on something and hallucinated the whole thing.

  “I wanted to ask you something,” he said, his voice serious.

  “Umm, okay.”

  “Did you know the girl who died at the lab?” Adrian’s question slammed into me with more force than any element could have done. “I don’t want to upset you, but I find it strange that you knew her.”

  “Sara,” I said quietly. “Her name was Sara.”

  “Did they bring her to you? Because they usually don’t do that at labs. They keep their subjects separate all the time, unless they have something special in mind, like Sebastian had when he brought you to me.”

  I almost wanted to let go of Adrian and let the disease block any pain and guilt that I felt over Sara’s death. “She came to me while I was unconscious.”

  His eyebrows shot upward. “That’s impossible.”

  “Apparently, it’s not. Whatever they did to her, she could somehow reach into the consciousness of people whose mind was in a weak enough state to accept her intrusion. I saw her in front of me like I can see you now.” I licked my lips. “The last time I spoke to her, I wanted her to get into the mind of one of the doctors and find the code for the door.”

  “Did she do it?” Adrian’s face looked both alarmed and curious.

  I shook my head. “I don’t think she had time to do it. Or maybe it wasn’t possible. I don’t know. All I know is that she said she was reaching out for me with her element and I guess with the disease too. She was an element preserver.”

  “I thought we could only reach out with our elements, not with the disease itself.” A frown line popped up on his forehead. “How would someone do that? Would it work only on carriers or on normal elementals too? Imagine what could happen if carriers could transmit the disease just by reaching out with it.”

  I rubbed the painful lump at the back of my head. Did I even want to ask Adrian with what he’d hit me? “Well, elements reach out for each other if they’re very close and there are a lot of strong emotions involved. That’s how healthy people can contract the disease during sex, because either the disease or the diseased element touches their healthy element. What Sara could do isn’t so different, I guess. I don’t know what she had to do to reach me, but she could do it.”

  “But she wasn’t anywhere near you and you weren’t reaching out to her. Don’t you get it how dangerous this would be if someone else could do it? It’s one thing when elements reach out for each other, but what if some carriers could infect random people on the street with the disease?”

  I hadn’t thought about that, but when he put it like that, it sounded pretty worrying. People would freak out even more and then the world wouldn’t see the extermination of carriers as a bad thing. “I’m glad the lab is gone. Who knows what else they’d been researching there?”

  “If their subjects were so dangerous, it was no wonder they decided to kill them off at the first signs of trouble, even if it took them months to get new ones.” A shadow crossed Adrian’s face. “I hope no one does similar experiments in one of the government’s labs.”

  “Yeah. Private labs are different. They don’t share information with anyone.” Or at least that was what I hoped. “We need to find out whether someone else was working with the lab or whether some of the scientists survived. If they didn’t come to work that day, they could continue their work somewhere else.”

  Adrian grabbed his phone and started typing something. “I’ll tell Lily about this. She needs to know and monitor any suspicious action.”

  “You do that.” I kept my hand on his leg. “Why did you ask me about Sara anyway?”

  “You didn’t talk much about what happened to you at the lab. I thought they did some experiment on you and Sara that made your disease worse.”

  “No, they didn’t. I don’t know if what Sara was doing was part of the experiment, but I don’t think she could have done something to me.”

  Adrian set down his phone and handed me a bottle of water. “Are you sure? You didn’t have all the symptoms of the disease when she got into your mind.”

  I took the bottle, my eyes widening. “I’m not sure if that means Sara could reach anyone, even people like me who seem to have no disease and no elements, or if my disease has never been gone. Sara couldn’t have touched nothing. There has to be something inside of me. I couldn’t feel any elements or their presence, but that doesn’t mean my disease wasn’t there. I knew it wouldn’t be gone. We just didn’t know how to verify that.”

  “But you didn’t feel any elements,” Adrian pointed out.

  “I guess my disease was too weak to show. You know, like a weak element. People still have it, but can’t use it. Besides, my case is completely different from any other case. I don’t remember any regular carriers mentioning they felt empty inside when their element disappeared. It could as well be possible that every carrier has an element, but that it’s too weak and small, so carriers crave other people’s elements and don’t even know the remains of an element are in there somewhere.” And I’d thought my disease couldn’t get any more confusing.

  “If someone could feel what elements a carrier has, then we might know. All the tests that can be done don’t work on very weak elements. The scientists only discovered weak elements when carriers pointed out that they could feel them.”

  “I know. I wasn’t fully aware of my element either until I lost it.” I put my hand on Adrian’s shoulder and slowly got to my feet, grateful that the world wasn’t spinning around me. “I’ve always carried the gene for the disease in me. Just because the symptoms didn’t show all the time doesn’t mean the disease was gone.”

  “Can we go for a walk?” I asked, wishing I could go closer to the stream and wash my face.

  “Sure.” Adrian got up and we made our way toward the stream. “Now I’m curious about something.”

  “About what?” I crouched in front of the stream and Adrian did the same.

  “You can’t feel elements when I touch you and we’ve exchanged elements and maybe the disease.” He held onto me as I bent forward.

  “So?” I pressed my wet hand against my forehead.

  “Do you think I could somehow reach out to you with my element or my disease? Or maybe both? Then you’d be able to walk around without touching me.”

  “Sounds complicated.” I started washing my face. “How would that even work?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose I could use my element and try to envelop you in it.”

  “I’d freeze to death.” I flashed him a smile. “No, thanks. I’d rather just hold your hand.”

  “No, I didn’t mean it like that.” He bit down on his lip and I suspected he didn’t know how to explain his idea to me. “I’d do what Sara did with you, only I wouldn’t try to contact you. I’d only be connected to you so that you feel me and not the elements around you.”

  I raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. “We don’t even know what Sara did.”

  “Well, we rarely know what we’re doing anyway. We could at least give it a try.” The hopeful look in his eyes made it impossible for me to refuse.

  “I guess it can’t hurt to try.” I shrugged. We were running out of options anyway. Sooner or later, I was going to end up at some lab.

  Chapter 28

  Adrian and I stood in the middle of the clearing, facing each other. “Are you ready?” he asked, and I nodded. When he let go, I was glad I couldn’t feel any
elements nearby. Our little experiment would be terminated immediately if a regular person with an element came here. I didn’t want to risk losing my mind again.

  A cloud of cold air enveloped me, leaving me breathless. “Too cold.”

  The coldness pulled back. “Sorry,” Adrian said. “I’m trying to figure this out.”

  “Can you sense anything else beside your element? Maybe you can find the disease,” I said just to humor him. There was no way in hell this would ever work. Sara must have gone through God knew what tests and experiments. They might have altered her genetic code or injected her with some kind of a special serum.

  “Not really, but I can try to touch you with my element without making you cold. If it worked while we were touching, it could work now.”

  “Yeah, but when we did that, I had my elements. In fact, we exchanged them. Now I don’t have what to exchange.” I crossed my arms.

  “You still have the disease. If we can find a way to exchange that instead of the elements…”

  “Disease exchange sounds like so much fun.” I smiled for a fraction of a second. “Not.”

  “Maybe it would work if you weren’t so pessimistic.”

  Another wave of coldness surrounded me, but weaker than before. Yet, somewhere far, far from here, elements wanted me to come and play with them.

  An hour or so later, Adrian was sitting on the ground, running his hands through his hair. “I don’t know how to do it.”

  “Maybe that’s because you’re trying to do something impossible.” I took a bite of my sandwich. All the experimenting had made me hungry.

  “Why would it be impossible? There were many things that I considered impossible and they worked out just fine in the end.” He took another sandwich from one of our bags.

  “Then they weren’t impossible.”

  “I don’t…” Adrian’s phone rang and he immediately answered it. “Lily, hey.” He set the phone in between us so I could hear too.

  “There’s something I wanted to tell you before, but it wasn’t the right time. I suppose you didn’t hear it on the news,” Lily said.

  “Oh, yeah, the birds let us borrow their TV,” I said.

  Lily sighed. “The new government decided that more should be done to protect the rights of all carriers and people with weak elements, so they created a new organization. It’s more like a political party, really, but better something than nothing. Now that carriers are truly coming out and not merely gathering in anonymous protests, we’ll need this. The MDCA was of no use because it was led mostly by people who weren’t carriers at all, so they decided to close it.”

  “Does this new organization have a dumb name?” I said.

  “Not yet, but we’re thinking about it. It has to be something that won’t discriminate against anyone. Anyway, they chose me to be the leader of the organization.”

  “Oh, wow. Congratulations.” This must be a big thing for Lily.

  “Thanks.” There was an excited undertone in her voice. “I can’t believe we will no longer have to hide or try to infiltrate other big organizations just to be able to express our opinions. There’s one drawback, though.”

  “Sounds like everything you ever wanted,” Adrian said. “What’s the drawback?”

  “We are carriers, so the government doesn’t really trust us. They might give us more rights and let us voice our opinions, but we will be under supervision. That means all of our… umm, secret missions, illegal activities and such need to stop. Everything we do has to be for the good of the organization. Every cost, every action needs to be explained to the government.”

  “That makes sense,” I said. “But I’m sure they’ll cut you some slack later if the organization works without problems for a year or two.”

  “I know. That’s what I said to everyone,” Lily said. “Most of our illegal activities won’t be necessary anymore anyway. I mean, all we wanted was to have a voice and make sure no one tries to exterminate carriers.”

  “What about all those groups you were trying to stop? Did my brother find a solution?” I highly doubted Oliver was good at negotiating with people who didn’t agree with him.

  “I’ll have to stop pursuing those groups. Their existence is illegal anyway and I don’t want our new organization to be in any way associated with them. Oli was merely observing them and he concluded they aren’t a serious threat at the moment.”

  “And you trust his judgment?” I wouldn’t be surprised if Oliver found a way to undermine Lily’s organization. He wasn’t really interested in peaceful solutions.

  “Yes, I do,” she said. “Actually, one of my men decided to leave and take care of those groups. He’ll form his own group, but he won’t be associated with our organization.”

  “What about Oliver? Will he stay with you?” I couldn’t imagine that happening.

  “Yes. Oliver will be my second in command,” she announced, her voice filled with pride. My mouth hung open.

  “Since Ria isn’t able to pick up her jaw off the floor, I’m going to ask,” Adrian said. “Isn’t it risky to give Oliver such a high position?”

  “You should have more faith in him.” Lily actually chuckled. “Oliver and I came to an agreement. I assure you he’s going to be on his best behavior.”

  “If you say so,” I said when I could speak again.

  “You really don’t have to worry. Your brother likes the idea of not having to hide. I know he’s done some… unpleasant things and wanted revenge against everyone, but this is his chance to start over.”

  I’d spent most of my life judging my brother and thinking he didn’t care about me, but even if we had our differences, I couldn’t judge him. Not after what I’d done and experienced. He’d been forced to kill to survive just like I’d been. “Tell him that I’m happy for him.”

  “Will do,” she said. “So how is your trip? Everything okay with your disease, Ria?”

  “We’re trying something new.” Adrian went on to explain what we’d been doing for the last hour.

  “I don’t think I understand what you’re trying to do,” Lily finally said. “Adrian, even if you managed to protect Ria from elements without touching her, I doubt you’d be able to do it for a long time.”

  “I didn’t think that far,” Adrian admitted. “But it would be great if we could act like normal people without her losing control. Even if it’s just for a short while. Maybe with time her disease will stabilize.”

  “I will talk about this to my scientists,” she said. “They might know more.”

  “And we’ll keep trying,” Adrian said and I narrowed my eyes at him. I hoped we were done with the experiments.

  “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you,” Lily said. “We’re planning to build a place for carriers who can’t control themselves or don’t want to feel elements anymore.”

  “Don’t you have enough labs already?” I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to live in such a place.

  “It wouldn’t be a lab,” she said. “It would be a whole town just for carriers. No unprotected elementals allowed.”

  “Sounds interesting,” Adrian said. “Do you think you could really find such a place? Wouldn’t carriers still be able to feel people from the surrounding towns and villages?”

  “We’re trying to find a place where most carriers wouldn’t be able to feel elements. If we want everyone to feel safe, we need to do something about those of us who don’t want to hurt anyone, but can’t help themselves.”

  It was a place for someone like me. “Do you really think anyone would want to live in a town that is cut off from the world? Isn’t that even worse? Normal people would have to avoid the town, so wouldn’t that make anyone who lived there feel ostracized from the society?”

  Lily was quiet for a moment. “Like I said, elementals could still visit them if they wore the element-blocking jewelry. In an ideal world, we would find the cure for the disease or a way to live together in peace, but we have to work with what we’ve got
. It’s better to live normally with other people like you without fear that you’ll kill someone one day. Or you’d rather we put those people in labs?”

  I chewed on my lip. “I guess it is better, but while a couple of carriers live in separation, the rest of the carriers who can control themselves will do whatever the hell they want and visit whatever places they want.”

  “I’m sorry, Ria. Our disease is a danger for people around us. I wish I could change that, but I can’t,” Lily said.

  “I know.” I sighed in defeat.

  “I have to get back to work,” she said, her tone cheerful again. “Good luck with your experiment.”

  “Thanks,” Adrian said and ended the call.

  I looked at him under my eyelashes. “Do we really have to stay here and keep trying to do the impossible?”

  “Yes.” He smirked. “Actually, I have another idea.”

  Aw, crap. Here we go again.

  Chapter 29

  Adrian kicked at the ground, sending dust and pebbles flying into the stream. “There must be something else we can try.”

  “No, there isn’t.” I munched on a chocolate cupcake. It was a little bit stale, but I’d go crazy without chocolate. Watching Adrian getting frustrated was not fun at all.

  He paced up and down like a madman. I was licking the last bits of the cupcake off its wrapper when Adrian stopped and looked at me, his eyes wide.

  “What?” I said, startled, and dropped the wrapper.

  “I think I know what we have to do.” He crouched in front of me and took my hands. “We’ve been doing it wrong the whole time. You shouldn’t be standing away from me when I’m trying to reach out to you. You should be touching me.”

  “Touching you?” My eyebrows went up. “I like to touch you, but I don’t see how that could help.”

  “It will. Trust me.” He cupped my face and pulled me in for a kiss. I relaxed, focusing on the softness of his lips against mine. His hand ended up low on my back, pushing me closer to him.

  An image of a frozen lake appeared in my mind, but it was flickering in and out of existence. Adrian and I were doing something similar to the element exchange, but since I didn’t have an element, I couldn’t just take his element as my own. I hadn’t been conscious when Sara got into my mind, and I wasn’t sure whether Adrian had really been in my mind when I was in a coma or I had imagined it all.