by Jill Cooper
Susan picked up her cup and sipped her coffee. “Before you go, please put your plate in the dishwasher.”
As she said that, Jake’s eyes snapped open. He was lounging in a recliner in the bedroom he was staying in. He rubbed his eyes and went over to his window. He propped it open and stuck his head outside.
It was twilight. Now would be the perfect time to fly off. There wasn’t time to say good-bye or have a long drawn out conversation on why leaving was a mistake. On how he would never be safe if he returned to his people.
No, time for discussions was over.
****
Awareness came back to Jenna before she woke up. She noticed her breathing first and that her head hurt like it was split in two. There was the smell of lavender and there was a light hum of a machine.
Her eyes fluttered open before she realized what was happening, but the lids were weighted and they slammed shut again. Jenna’s lips parted and she moaned able to feel her heart pounding in her temple. Almost, she could feel the blood rushing in her veins. Her hand edged along the mattress and found her abdomen.
It was exposed, her top pulled up high and she rubbed the skin. It felt bloated, no longer completely flat, but not swelled either. Just bloated like she had too big a meal. Her first thought was about the baby and if it was still in there or not.
Jenna’s eyes opened and she lifted her head to peer at her skin. Her middle was strapped with a heart monitor. Clearly someone else had been concerned. Her head turned and on the machine beside her bed, Jenna made out the heartbeat on the screen.
146,147,142.
The heartbeat of her baby. The one she swore she didn’t want.
Tears filled her eyes and a sense of relief washed over her. Jenna’s hand out stretched and she hit the button on the machine so the sweet sound of the pounding heart filled the room. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound. It was like music. A chorus of life, being sustained inside of her. She was Jenna Morgan, the destroyer of life and now here she was, making a life and keeping it alive.
Her hands caressed her abdomen, holding it tight as a crash of burning love washed over her. If emotion was a color, this one would be hued orange with highlights of gold. She could bask in its hot rays and it would keep her going, on even a cold night.
But where was everyone?
Jenna blinked her eyes and took in the room for the first time. It was familiar and Jenna recognized it as a similar room to one she stayed in as a kid whenever she was sick, which was often thanks to her special half-breed status. They were in Chicago.
Chicago.
But why? Why would they leave after the explosion? Why go that far?
If they were there, maybe Jane was there too—with Travis.
Jenna undid the straps of the monitor around her middle. Gripping the handrails of the bed she forced herself to sit up. A wave of pain crashed into her and she grunted, closing her eyes. She moved her legs over to the side of the bed and slowly allowed her feet to dangle down to the floor. At least they had the good sense to put her in pajama bottoms and not an awful hospital gown.
She stood up and held onto the bed until her legs felt stronger. Jenna pulled her top down and took a step, outstretching her hand until it caught the door frame. Her lips pursed and she let out a shaky breath before starting her way down the hall. It was surprisingly empty. She didn’t see a single scientist and there was no sign of anyone familiar.
But there were voices and she followed them. They led her down the hall outside of the sitting area that was used for coffee breaks and naps. The room had several sofas and the lights were dim as everyone’s eyes were directed at the television screen in the center of the room. No one spoke as their eyes trained forward and tension hung over the room like a mushroom cloud.
Jenna crept in slowly and caught the images on the screen. There was smoke and a blazing fire ravaged some open fields. At first she thought it was a forest fire but then she realized there were no trees. There was nothing except charred fields of grass.
A marque of words scrolled against the bottom of the screen. ‘Glistening terror attack against US food supplies in Saskatchewan. Food supply ravaged as US moves additional rations from stockpiles to meet demand.’
“What?” Jenna said out loud without meaning to and gripped the edge of the sofa.
Several heads swiveled toward them. Dirk raced to her side. “My God, you’re awake.” He gripped her arms and Jenna fought to see past him.
“What’s going on?” Jenna demanded. “Does Jake know? Where is he?”
“Just take a breath, sweetheart.” Jane hurried to her, Travis on her hip. As soon as he saw her, his face lit up and his chubby arms outstretched to her.
“Momma! Momma!”
“Travis,” Jenna whispered and suddenly was desperate to hold him. Her heart seized at the sight of him and all of her longing for him she felt over the past days, nearly crushed her.
She took the outstretched baby as Dirk watched on. “Careful, Jenn, you really shouldn’t be up yet.”
But she didn’t care. She didn’t listen. Cradling the baby to her chest, Jenna wrapped her arms around her son and thought she might never let him go. Ever again.
She kissed his head and then the news report caught her attention again. The news anchor Melissa Chang said, “The search is still on to identify the glistening responsible for the bombing outside of DC today and for the whereabouts of Jenna Morgan the New Haven officer who transformed into a glistening in front of national cameras. She’s wanted in questioning of the bombing as everyone wants to know if she had previous knowledge of the planned attack. Was she a co-conspirator? Check back for our full news report at eleven.”
Dirk whipped his head around. “Turn it off!” He hissed.
But it was too late. Jenna had already side stepped and caught the image on the screen. Of herself curled up on the ground, half turned into a glistening winged monster as Dirk rushed to her side.
Tears stung her eyes and Jenna’s chin warbled. “I changed…in front of everyone?”
Everyone knew. Her secret was out.
Her legs could no longer sustain weight. Jenna fell forward and her waist was seized by Jane to stabilize her. “Easy, baby,” Jane whispered and Dirk took Travis as her mother helped her over to the sofa to sit down.
Jenna didn’t want to sit down, but she had no choice as the room began to spin. On the screen they replayed her image over again. And again. And…
She squeezed her eyes shut, but that didn’t stop the tears from falling. It was her worst nightmare come to life, playing in front of her on the national stage. So much for going off into the sunset, so much for retiring with dignity. Now she’d never be safe. Now she’d be in hiding forever just like the glistening she was.
Jenna ran her hands through her hair and sobbed, her body heaving like it may never stop. Someone took her hands in his and Jenna saw through her streaked vision, Dirk on his knees in front of her.
“I didn’t want you to find out this way.” The sadness in his eyes made Jenna feel even worse. He married a glistening. A damn glistening and now the world knew. The world would brand him a traitor; a lover of monsters.
Jenna shook her head. She didn’t know what she was feeling. She didn’t know what she would do next. “You never should have married me.” She hushed out and hated the words. Hated that they were true.
“Hey,” Dirk said sternly. His hand caressed her cheek. “Don’t you talk like that. Don’t. I have never regretted it and I never will. It’s you and I ‘till the end. You get me?”
She had never been more thankful. Jenna nodded and closed her eyes, tried to get her emotions under control, but it was like the dam was breaking. She was overcome as the report continued.
“Jenna Morgan is rumored to be the daughter of Jane Morgan, a former Glistening freedom fighter back from her days as a student at BU where she uncovered illegal glistening experiments. Then she disappeared. If these reports about Officer Mo
rgan are true it means Jane Morgan had an outlawed relationship with a glistening and bore his child. The repercussions of a half human glistening child on today’s political climate are still unknown, but they both are still being sought by police for questioning.
“The most horrifying question posed, if there is one half glistening human out there, there may be others. What do we do with these people? Is the New Haven project a place for these humans? Or is it at as senator Rebecca Seers says? Is it time to address glistenings being reintroduced into society?”
Dirk grabbed the remote and turned the television off.
Jenna faced Jane. “Mom,” her lip quivered, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry this is all my fault.” She shook her head and when Jane took Jenna into her arms, Jenna felt like a small child.
Jane rocked her back and forth, squeezing her in a bear hug. Her hands clung to Jenna’s head like a mother would do to block out a loud noise. “It’s not your fault. If anything, I’m the one who should apologize. I’m the one who brought this on you, baby. Not the other way around. You’re my baby and now…they’re going to make you pay for my choices.”
Jenna bit her lip and glanced at Travis. She extended her hand to him and he grabbed her pinky finger and put it in his mouth. He slobbered all over it and tried to gum it to death. It made Jenna smile and she knew, wherever he was, she was home.
But it wasn’t in her to hide. It wasn’t in her to lie down.
All that was in her was a fight.
But fight what? What was she going to do? Beg for forgiveness? Amnesty? No one would ever believe her. She might as well have been dropped into Central Park with a giant target painted on her back because that’s exactly how the world was going to feel about her. A target. An enemy that needed to be taken out.
“Listen,” Dirk said gently, rubbing her knees, “I say we cut your hair and dye it brown. Then we get some fake IDs and we go live in Europe. Somewhere no one wants to live anymore. I hear Germany is pretty much a survivalist wasteland. We get a few knives and a tent…”
Jenna sadly smiled at him and sat up. She stretched out her arms to touch him. Their fingers interlaced and Dirk gave her a giant squeeze. “We’ll figure this out.”
“For now,” Jane’s eyes swept over them, “no one is going anywhere. No one is rushing out to save the day. We take time. We heal. And we see you through this pregnancy.”
The pregnancy. Jenna nearly forgot.
“And maybe when your head clears,” Dirk started, “you can tell us why you changed in the first place.”
“It’s been happening,” Jenna cleared her throat, “when I’m under extreme stress. The pills can stop it if I can get them in time.”
“The pregnancy?” Dirk asked.
Jenna shook her head. “It didn’t happen the last time. It’s something else. Something inside me…is changing. I had never changed before. Not before…”
“Jameson.” Dirk gritted his teeth and his eyes turned into a darkened pool of anger.
Jane pursed her lips. “He may have awoken something in you that laid dormant. Like a glistening child can’t transform either. Not until puberty. Maybe, with time, we can come up with a treatment to pull you back.”
“That may be the least of our problems.” Jenna said. “Everyone already knows. I don’t see that it matters much.”
Jane tucked Jenna’s hair behind her ear, like she always did when Jenna was little. “What can it hurt to try?”
****
Jenna watched stood by little Travis as he slept in the roll away crib. She stroked his head with one hand and held onto the crib with the other. Her legs still weren’t in the best condition. Breathing still ached her ribs. And she was a wanted glistening by New Haven, an organization she had devoted her life to.
So much for her life’s work.
But at least she was alive, which was something a lot of people outside of the capitol building couldn’t say.
Jenna turned her head when she heard Dirk step out from the bathroom. There was a magazine in his hand and she gave him a soft smile. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck, resting his chin on her shoulder. She closed her eyes and felt so much bliss, happiness, it shouldn’t have been possible given everything they were going through. But she had her family, for now, and that was enough.
His hands rested on her abdomen, right above the waistline of her unbuttoned jeans. She could have forced them closed, but they weren’t comfortable any more.
“Jake really just left?” Jenna asked.
“Yeah,” Dirk’s voice was husky in her ear. “The television was still on in his room. I’m guessing he saw what the glistenings were up to in his absence and decided he needed to go.”
Jenna couldn’t blame him. It was a dangerous, calculated move against the country, against all of the people who relied on that food. If the glistenings cut them off, the military would hit them hard. Glistenings might have been fanged monsters, but Jenna couldn’t see how they would survive a military assault. Maybe that was good. Maybe that’s what was supposed to happen.
So why did it make her feel so sad?
Jake gave her his baby boy and for that, Jenna felt responsible for him. She hoped he’d survive. That somehow he’d make it out.
“Already I’m itching to get out of here. I don’t know how I’m going to make another eight months.”
“We’ll figure it out. If the food runs out, we might be forced to move before that.”
Jenna spun to face him and her eyes widened. “Well, thanks for that. As if I don’t have enough to worry about.”
“Oh, you worry?” Dirk snorted. “It could be kind of fun. Just us, no worries about the world.”
“Except for the fleet of doctors. And oh yeah, the impending starvation.”
Dirk’s hands slid down her body and rested just below her breasts. That was a first. Generally they rested on her breasts.
“What are you doing?”
He smiled. “Picturing what you’ll look like eight months from now.”
Jenna smirked. “Fat.”
“Not fat,” Dirk scolded. “Beautiful. With our child. But not fat.”
Fear set in when she least expected it. Her face fell. “What if it doesn’t make it?”
“We can’t think like that.” Dirk nuzzled her cheek. “If it doesn’t, I’m here with you. You won’t go through it alone.”
“We’re in this together, huh?” Jenna blinked back her tears as Dirk wrapped his arms around her. She laid against his chest, listened to his heartbeat and counted all of the perfect things there were about him that she didn’t deserve. Wrapping her arms around his waist, Jenna let all her worries go and was just thankful he was there.
And that he was hers.
Chapter Twenty Jenna
Up at 2AM wasn’t Jenna’s idea of a good time. Especially when it involved vomiting into the toilet.
She groaned and flushed the toilet. Her stomach felt tight, still not right, but she straightened up and turned on the faucet. Washing her face, Jenna faced the mirror. Her eyes were still exhausted, sunken. What she wouldn’t give for a little concealer in the morning.
The mirror faced the window behind her. It was so dark out, she could barely make out the wafting tree branches. But then, she saw a pin point of light catch on the reflected glass. And then a red ball of light.
Sniper.
Jenna squatted down low, using her hands to hold onto the sink. “Dirk,” she hissed as she stayed down low and reached for the bathroom door and yanked it open.
He said something. She heard his groggy voice as the window glass shattered and the bullet collided into the mirror. Jenna crawled to the bedroom just as Dirk rolled onto his knees on the carpet beside her. His face was still laced with sleep, but the sniper wasn’t going to give him time to wake up.
“Stay with Travis.” Jenna said and reached inside the nightstand, grabbing her gun.
“I’m not going to let you go out there alone.” Dirk
grabbed her arm.
“Someone has to stay. They want me. So let me draw them away from the baby. We don’t have time to fight about this.”
“If you don’t come back…”
“Then you come rescue my ass.” Jenna smirked at him. “But I always come back. You know I always find a way.”
Dirk’s lips pressed thin and he sighed. “If there was a way to change your mind, well, I wish I knew what it was.”
There wasn’t time to hug or say good-bye. There wasn’t time to say the million things that Jenna wanted say. So instead she caressed his cheek, did her best to memorize his face and in her mind blew baby Travis a kiss.
She crept out into the hall, holding the gun close to her body. Above on the roof she heard a crunch. It was the sound of crushing footsteps and something metal grating against the shingles. Damn it, they found her and the compound, but how? They had been hidden for so long, how was it that someone was able to find them now, when Jenna desperately needed to stay hidden.
But maybe that was the point. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to hide. Maybe now was just the right time for her to be forced out into public view.
Outside the window, Jenna saw a series of black ropes thrown down the side of the building. Men in black uniforms began repelling down the brick. Soon they’d break in through the windows, block off all the exits, and everyone inside of the compound would be arrested. Siezed.
Dirk, Travis, and her mother would never make it out.
Everyone needed to be warned. They needed to move fast through the bunker to the escape routes if they were going to get out and regroup. Jenna ran over to the wall and broke the protective glass over the alarm system. Once sounded, everyone would wake up and they would make their way to the bunker.
She just needed to buy them some time.
Jenna yanked down the alarm. The hall lit up with lights and the blaring sound echoed through all the rooms. Gun fire ricocheted off the wall. Jenna rolled to the other side of the hall, squatting down low to take cover behind an antique heater. Peering up she saw a man in black racing toward the stairwell.
