Eliza's P.O.V

We'd run for a long time, until we reached a high point. Aaron took off his coat, while I pulled out a metal plate in his bag, and held it above where the tracker was, and helped him tape it to him to cut off the signal. It would buy us some time to get to somewhere I could cut it out for him, and it would also attract the drone to our current location so we could blow it up.

"I'll set up the rifle, you put your coat back on." I told him, pulling out my sniper rifle, and attaching the scope to it. I laid down in the snow, lining up my shot, looking down the scope for my target. As soon as it was in my sights, I fired. And again.

"Nice shot." Aaron complimented me, as he watched the drone, now on fire and billowing smoke behind it, crash into a hill opposite us, as I detached the scope and took out the ammo cartridge and put the gun away again.

"They'll be sending a second drone once Byer is there. They'll trace the signal, know its you, and they'll send the second drone to finish up. We should go back. They didn't blow the second shed. I'll cut you open, pull out the chip, and we'll plant it in one of your wolf friends." I said, pulling my pack back onto my back.

Aaron nodded, and we were running once again.

We were in the shed. Aaron had taken off his coat, and lifted his shirt for me, and I looked at him.

"You're not going to be a pain in the arse, and flinch when I make the first incision, are you?" I joked, as I pressed the scalpel down, a red line being left in my path. His face winced, but then he just wordlessly handed me the tweezers.

I took them, handing him the scalpel in exchange, and then pushed the tiny wound apart with my index finger and thumb, making it a little wider, so I could see what I was doing. I pushed the tweezers in, and found the little caplet shaped tracker and pulled it out for him to see.

"Take this. Put it somewhere while I finish up." I ordered, grabbing a needle and thread to stitch him up.

"You're good at this. What did you do before the program?" Aaron asked, as I tied off the first stitch, before starting on the second.

"I was a doctor and a scientist. I had PhDs in biology, and doctorates in virology and chemistry. I wanted to help the world. Cure incurable diseases. So I joined Outcome, and helped them create the chems, but when I saw what they were being used for…to create soldiers, and not to save lives, like I thought, they used my work against me. I became Outcome's best agent, until they created a different program. They wanted to improve upon my scores. I don't see how there could be a better version of the best, but I digress," I smiled up at him, as I tied off the third and final stitch, and taped a bit of gauze on top of the closed wound. "We're done."

"I've been wondering how you're going to get this chip into the wolf." Aaron said, as he put his coat back on.

"Oh, I'm not. You are."

Aaron looked at me confused, as I just smiled at him.

I sat in my tree, armed and waited for the arrival of Aaron's wolves. He was sitting on the ground, up against a tree opposite me, drops of his blood strategically placed around him to attract them.

A wolf's howl fills the air, and a smile tugs on my lips. Aaron shoots me a dirty looks as though he can tell I'm fighting off a smile.

He looks around for the approaching pack, and we spot the first wolf at the same time. It stalks forward, moving up from my rear, and I heard a growl. The wolf bares its teeth at Aaron, and I watch as Aaron's hands moves towards the little piece of wood that will spring our trap. The wolf pounces, Aaron pulls hard on the trigger, and the wolf is suspended upside in the air. I shoot at the other wolves, scaring them off, before I hop down from my tree, and help Aaron hold the wolf down as he forces the tracker down its throat.

Then we shove the wolf away, but it bares its teeth at us.

"You should have left me alone." Aaron says to it, as we hear the drone closing in. We take off in the opposite direction to the wolf, and get a good distance away, before we're knocked on our arses again by the blast.

I groan at the heavy weight on me, and open my eyes to see Aaron's face.

"Get off me or I'll shoot you in the foot." I threatened, while we both knew it was just an empty threat. I needed him in top physical shape.

Aaron chuckled, but got up, then offered a hand to me. I took it and he hauled me to my feet.

"Where to now, Eliza?" He asked, a smirk on his face.

"I don't know about you, but I'm fucking tired of this cold."

I don't regret saving Aaron's life. Especially since he can fly a plane. I never really had time to, but I think I made a very attractive co-pilot. He flew us to the outskirts of a city, and then we had to get a bus to the inner city.

A bus! Two agents, who could kill almost all the people on this bus within about two minutes, on a bus. I had tried not to laugh. Aaron raised his eyebrow at me, as I tried to hide my amused grin by staring down at the jumper I was wearing.

"What's so funny?" He murmured.

"I can't believe we're on a bus!" I replied, quietly.

"Have you never ridden a bus?" Aaron asked.

"No. I used to own a car. Where are we going?" I questioned, almost whining at him.

"To get a car."

"Good. I'm driving. The whole passenger thing is fucking boring. I'm considering drawing on that guy's face for some entertainment." I said, pointing at the sleeping middle-aged builder, with a beer gut and pit stains.

Aaron smiled at me, while shaking his head.

"You spent however many months up in a log cabin, isolated from the rest of the world, and you're acting as if this was the most bored you've been in a long time. That's weird. You're weird."

"I had things to do up there! I had my computer, or the radio, or my guns. I wasn't lacking entertainment. Especially when nosy, bearded men who ask too many questions came to stay. Have I told you how much better you look without the beard?"

"No, but thanks, I think."

"You're lucky that we met post-Outcome. Before if we had met, I would have totally hit this by now." I said, gesturing to him.

"Seriously?" He asked, turning his body towards mine, as though I'd captured his full attention.

"Yeah. You would have been exactly my type. You still are. I just won't sleep with you." I replied, with a grin.

He narrowed his eyes at me, I assume playfully, and pulled my baseball cap down in front of my eyes. I scowled at him, pulling it back up, and nudging him with my shoulder as a tame sort of revenge. He rolled his eyes, but doesn't move back to how he was sitting before. We just look at each other.

"You two make a good looking couple." An old woman said, from the seat across from ours. We'd been speaking in mutters and whispers so no one would have heard what we'd been saying, but we still looked up at her and assessed whether or not she had heard snippets of our conversation.

I was about to protest, and say that there was no way that me and Action Man were a couple, but Aaron cut me off.

"Thank you." He said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I looked at him, my eyes hardening slightly, but I leaned into him to play along with the charade.

"How long have you two been dating?" She asked.

Why is she so nosy? Is she Aaron's grandmother? He's nosy as hell too.

"Two years. Tomorrow is our anniversary." Aaron lies coolly. I smile, and place my hand on his thigh, and dug my nails in, just a little bit, enough for him to know I was pissed, but not enough for him to show any signs of pain.

"A man who remembers his anniversary is a keeper. You hold on to him, young lady." She advises me, smiling at us.

"I wouldn't dream of letting him go." I replied, through a forced smile and gritted teeth.

She nods, and turns round to talk to her husband, and I take my hand off of Aaron's leg, but his arm doesn't remove itself from my shoulders.

I look at him expectantly.

"What? I'm comfortable, besides she could look over, and it would look suspicious if there was suddenly a lot of space between us again." Aaron reasoned.

I leaned into him again, resting my head on his shoulder as I rolled my eyes and placed a hand on his chest. From an outsider's perspective, we looked like an ordinary couple, very much in love and wrapped up in each other. No one would guess that we were agents, playing a role, and were very capable of killing someone.

"I think you just want me close to you. I wouldn't blame you if you did. I've been told that I'm quite cuddly. Or was. I used to be. I don't think I've let anyone this close for at least five or six years."

"Same here."

"It's not as bad as I thought it would be."

"You thought hugging me would be bad?" Aaron asked, incredulously.

"No. Just thought it would complicate things that shouldn't be complicated. But I've always loved complicated."

We eventually end up by in a car park somewhere in Chicago. Aaron moves like he's got a purpose, and finds the car he spoke about on the bus. We quickly jack it open, and Aaron takes off the skirting on the left hand side passenger door, revealing different license plates, wads of cash, different passports, wallets, purses, and a gun with extra ammo.

I hold the flashlight, keeping it pointed at the car door, as he pulls all of this out and chucks most of it onto the back seat. I sit down in the driver's seat, and open the sun visor, hand out waiting to catch the keys. I start the car, as Aaron gets in. He looks at me, his looking up under his baseball cap. I smile at him, as I reverse out of the spot, and start driving towards the exit. Aaron takes one of his blue chems, before he speaks again.

"So where are we going now?"

"Maryland. We need to find Dr Marta Shearing. She's been my contact at the lab. I set her up with another untraceable laptop, so we could communicate. She'll help us find some answers." I answer his question.

Me and Marta had become friends while we'd worked together on Outcome, though when I was removed, we became allies too. She'd help me gather information to shut Outcome down. While she appreciated the science, and had no real objections to treating these men and women as test subjects, things changed when it became me that she was testing on. She became disillusioned with Outcome, so offered me her help.

"Can we trust her?"

"I've trusted her with my life before. I see no problem with doing it again." I answered, as I peeled out, wanting badly to just speed down the street, but not wanting to attract attention, so I just stuck to the boring speed limit.

Aaron nodded, and then asked me a question I'd been waiting to hear again.

"Why am I not taking greens?"

"You were viralled off them eight months ago." I replied, as I turned at a junction.

"Viralled off?" Aaron questioned.

"Do you remember having a really bad fever, that practically crippled your body, until you fought your way out of it?"

"Yeah. That was because of them? They did that?"

"Yes. The physical changes to our bodies are permanent. They locked it in. You're not supposed to be taking greens. For eight months, you've been taking them. That was Their hook. Keeping us dependent."

Aaron stayed silent, probably because he was digesting this piece of information, or because he had nothing to say.

"Don't sweat it, Cross. You've got enough blue's to keep your mental faculties as sharp as a tack until we make a solid decision as to what we're going to do."

Aaron nodded again, and smiled at her, slightly. She smiled back, keeping her eyes on the roads in front of her.

It took us nine hours to drive to Maryland. The sole purpose of coming here was to find Marta, to get information from her, and maybe to tell her to take some vacation time or something; I wanted to protect her, to keep her safe.

But when we pit stopped at a petrol station, to fill up the tank, and grab some snacks, I saw a newspaper that had Marta's face on it.

Seven Dead in Lab Shooting

That was the title. I skimmed the words until it told me who'd died. Marta's name was on there. Dr Marta Shearing, deceased. I closed my eyes, and counted to ten in my head, trying not to cry. I placed the paper on the counter, along with two BLT sandwiches, two coffees, two bags of crisps, and a pack of gum. I handed the money over for the gas, let the man behind the counter keep the change, and then carried it all back to the car. Aaron was sat in his seat again, waiting for me. I wordlessly handed him his sandwich, and his coffee, before climbing into the driver's seat again, chucking my own food onto the back seat, my hunger forgotten.

I put the coffee in a cup holder, and handed him the newspaper, before I started up the ignition.

"She had information in her house. If we're lucky, They'll be too busy cleaning up their mess to have gone by her place to do a sweep of the place. We'll find out what we can and then we move on." I said, pulling away, my eyes not daring to move away from the road in front of me.

"I'm sorry." Aaron said.

"Why?"

"You were obviously close. I'd only met her 13 times for examinations, but you were friends."

"You and I, we don't have the luxury of having friends, Aaron." I snapped.

"But if we did, she would have been yours. And you lost her."

I didn't reply to him. I couldn't think of anything to say anyway. Marta Shearing shouldn't be dead. I should have been able to save her. I was this super human for a reason, right? I had enhanced physical and mental capabilities for a reason. I wanted to save people, They made me this way to 'protect' this country, and yet, I failed the last person I was close to. Marta was dead.

I parked the car about a mile down the road from Marta's house, at a little car park that I knew was off the grid. There were no cameras so there was no need for the baseball caps anymore. Aaron and I changed clothes, not really bothering to hide from each other. I stripped off the tank top I was wearing, exchanging it for a clean black one, swapping my dark jeans for a pair of blue jeans, but just replacing my black military style boots for another pair just like it. I shrugged a black leather jacket on, and tucked my guns into the back of my jeans.

"You ready?" Aaron asked me.

"Yeah. Let's go pilfer and raid through a dead woman's house." I grinned sarcastically at him, starting to walk in the direction of the trees, but his arm pulled me back.

"You don't have to go in there, you know. I'll go in alone." Aaron said, as I stared at him. I smiled at him, and placed a hand on his cheek, feeling a warmth in my stomach that hasn't been there for years. His eyes softened at the gesture, but made no move to move away from it.

"You're a good man, Aaron Cross, but Marta was my friend. And I'm an agent. I can't let things like this bother me. I've had to do it before. Break into someone's home, kill everyone inside, and then rummage through their possessions for what I want," I replied, stroking my thumb across his cheek bone. "I'm a killer and a scientist. Cold indifference is in my genetic coding. Let's go, get this done with, and then plan our next move."

Aaron nodded, and I let my hand drop from his cheek, before I started walking away. Aaron didn't follow me at first, so I turned and looked back at him, catching him doing something I didn't think I'd ever see.

"Aaron Cross, were you just checking out my arse?"

"In America, we say ass." Aaron replied, a smirk on his face. I laughed, and continued walking, exaggerating the sway in my walk.

"Mr Cross, if you don't hurry up, I'll put a bullet in your nice ass." I called back.

"You've been checking out my ass?" He said, as I heard him start jogging to catch up with me. When he made it to my side, I turned to him a flashed him a smirk.

"You're not the only one with eyes, Cross."

He chuckled.

We started running through the trees, our light moment forgotten as we put our agent heads back on and proceeded with our mission. Aaron had a more powerful stride than me, but I was lighter on my feet and quicker, so we were more evenly matched.

We reached the house in no time, and when we saw no cars on the drive, and saw no sign of life, we cautiously ventured into the house. I pulled out one of my guns, having it ready in case someone arrived, while Aaron tested the backdoor. To my surprise, it was unlocked.

"If she wasn't dead, I'd fucking kill her for not listening to me about security. This has to be the easiest place to break into. That woman is infuriating even from beyond the grave!" I hiss, as we step in. Aaron rolls his eyes at me.

"Where'd she keep the data?" Aaron asks, his own gun raised and ready to kill.

"Safe. It's in her room. You stay down here, find what you can, I'll go get it." I said, walking away from him to the staircase, gun still in hand, as I slowly made my way up them. The first thing in each room I walked into was my gun. A warning to anyone who could be lurking in there that I was armed, and would shoot.

Marta's bedroom was on the first floor, and I found it quickly. The safe wasn't behind a cliché painting, but was hidden in her wardrobe. It didn't have a pin lock, just a general lock. I pulled two hair grips from the pocket of my jeans, and quickly unlocked it.

Inside was a bunch of papers, that I quickly folded and tucked into the back of my jeans with my spare gun, some cash that I pocketed, Marta's spare I.D card which I took (it could come in handy), Marta's gun which I left, but then there was an envelope…with my name on it. I hesitated before reaching out and taking it.

I didn't open it, just stared at it, before I closed the safe, locked it back up, and went to find Aaron. He was in Marta's kitchen, looking in a cupboard. He turned and pointed his gun at me, before he lowered it, realising who it was.

"What's in the envelope?" He asked.

"A letter from Marta. I got the info-" I was cut off by the sound of a car. My eyes widened slightly, before I quickly moved into the cupboard with Aaron, and closed the doors behind us.

It was cramped, and I was pretty much squished right up against Aaron. There was so little space between us our foreheads were pretty much touching. We listened very closely as the door opened. A man and a woman were speaking, but there four sets of footsteps. Two pairs of footsteps were slightly heavier, so I assumed they were the hired muscle, just in case something went wrong.

The man and the woman speaking made their way into the kitchen, opening cabinets and cupboards. I looked at Aaron and he nodded. We waited until the man and woman were close. The man was so close his shadow appeared under the door. I nodded. Aaron raised his gun at the same time as me, and we burst out.

Aaron dealt with the man, while I slid across the floor, taking the woman's legs out from under her, before putting a bullet in her back. Aaron shot the guy twice, once in the leg and once in the neck. He was dead. But before, I could finish off the woman, the two goons who'd come with them, began shooting us from outside. I grabbed Aaron's hand, and we ran for cover, out of the kitchen, along Marta's conservatory, and then sliding back into the foyer.

We had cover for all of five seconds, before the woman started shooting at us. I fired once in her direction, before Aaron yanked me forward once more through Marta's empty living room, where we got shot at again by one of the goons, before we slid and flipped ourselves into a crawl space that looked like a storage basement.

We moved out of the way of the continued fire, and Aaron grabbed a fire extinguisher.

"What are you doing?" I mouthed to him, not wanting to even whisper, just in case I gave our position away.

"Conserving ammo." He mouthed back.

"Gene!" I heard a man yell.

"Runners in the basement." Was the reply Guy 1 received.

"Go."

I heard the thud as the guy dropped in, and crawled into a better cover position. Aaron was right beside me, fiddling around with the fire extinguisher and nails. Every tiny sound that Aaron made caused the guy to jump and twitch. He was nervous. I could hear his ragged, shallow breathing, and jerking movements. It made a smile spread on my face.

"Connie!" Guy 1 yelled.

"To your right."

The other two would wait upstairs, waiting to see if he would need assistance, or they'd continue their search of the house, figuring their guy would be able to handle it. It was most likely the latter.

The guy moved in range of Aaron's make-shift weapon, and Aaron fired. The nail whizzed through the air, and embedded itself into the guy's leg, making him cry out, and as quick as an angered cobra, Aaron struck. A struggle started, that led to a series of shots being aimed at the ceiling, before Aaron managed to get the guy on his back, and incapacitated him.

"Impressive." I whispered, standing up. Aaron put a machine on, to get their attention. Hopefully it would separate them. Divide and conquer. Then we made our way towards a hatch that let outside. Aaron, somehow managing to be perverted even in a tense moment like this, let me climb up first so he could stare at my butt.

When Aaron appeared, I was already scaling the side of the house. He spotted me and followed suit, watching which window I climbed through. I stepped out into the hallway, gun raised and headed to the staircase. Surely enough, there was just the woman left on this level. She twisted and spotted me, but I fired first. Two shots. She was down, leaving one guy left.

Aaron grabbed my hand, and we ghosted down the stairs, and into Marta's bedroom.

"Take my watch, and when you hear the guy reach the top of the stairs, wait for five seconds, and fire twice. I'll take him out." Aaron instructed me, handing me his watch, then holding his hand over mine.

"No fair. That means you've taken out three, to my one! And mine was a girl." I protested quietly.

"Deal with it. This plan will work." Aaron replied.

I sighed, and slid down the wall to wait. Aaron quickly ran across the hall and hid inside a cupboard. The house was too quiet now. My ears had gotten used to the gunfire, and the shouting, not to this eerie, graveyard-like silence.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and as soon as his foot hit the top stair, I consulted Aaron's watch, watching the second hand tick by slowly, counting five seconds. I pulled the trigger once, then twice. And then four more shots fired off, before a small burst of gunfire was heard, and then a thud as the guy dropped dead.

"Hey, Liza? I need my watch." I heard Aaron call, as I climbed to my feet.

I walked out of Marta's room, and Aaron was down the hall, making sure my kill was dead. I scowled at that. Of course she was dead. I don't tend to miss.

"Okay, we have less than eight minutes to clear out of here, okay? Because the next thing to come through that door is going to wipe us out." Aaron said, as I approached him.

"I need to go back to the kitchen. I dropped my letter. Start dousing the bodies and walls and everything. I'll light it up. I've got the info. I'll put it into a bag from Marta's room," I replied, already running down the stairs. "Move like you've got a purpose, Cross!"

I could hear Aaron's bark of laughter, as I headed into the kitchen to the cupboard we had hid in before. My envelope was right there on the ground. I picked it up, and quickly stuffed it into a pocket on the inside of my jacket, before grabbing the radio of the guy, and pushing into my jeans pocket.

I grabbed a tank of kerosene and doused the bottom floor with it, joining Aaron, when the radio crackled into life.

"Can I get a sit-rep, here?" I looked at Aaron, and tossed the radio to him. "If you can hear me, pick up, Larry."

I gestured to him furiously, and he nodded, clicking the talk button, and took a breath before speaking.

"Hey, sorry about the tran." Aaron said, speaking in a voice, almost freakishly similar to 'Larry's'.

"What's our frame-rate, here?"

"Connie says about 10. Just wrapping up."

"Tell her we need a heads-up, okay?"

"Copy that." Aaron replied, wiping the speaker on his jacket to remove his trace, before dropping the radio onto the floor.

We walked to the back door again, and Aaron wordlessly handed me the lighter.

"She always said this place was a life suck," I said, sliding my thumb down the gear, the lighter's flame flickering into existence. I looked at Aaron, who nodded at me, so I turned and chucked it across the room, before turning away.
"Guess she was right, huh?"

Aaron smiled at me, a comforting smile, and took my hand. I smiled gratefully at him, before I started to run.

We ran through the trees, ignoring the loud explosions behind us, the sounds of windows shattering, or the roof caving in, and just kept running.

As soon as we got to the car, I jumped into the passenger seat, tossing the keys to Aaron, letting him drive. The second the car had started, he pressed down hard on the gas, speeding away. I pulled the documents and my spare gun out of the waistband of my jeans, and placed the gun in the glove compartment. I started skimming through each sheet, digesting the information, trying to pick out the most important pieces.

Then I heard a siren wailing. I looked up at Aaron, and lowered the pages, running my hand through my hair as the fire engine zoomed past us, putting my arm in front of my face as an attempt to shield my identity. Aaron glanced at me after it had gone past.

"Where are we going?" I asked, dryly.

"June. June Monroe. Your name is June Monroe. Got it?" Aaron said, ignoring my question, as I continued looking through the documents that Marta had managed to steal or write or copy from the lab. I found a file on me.
Six. No name. I was called Number Six.

"Got it. June Monroe. From Bethesda. June Monroe from Bethesda." I replied.

"If anyone asks, you lost your wallet, I'm driving you home. I'm James. James and June. Got it?" Aaron questions.

"Yes, Number Five, I've got it." I reply, skimming through Aaron's file.

"What?"

"Five. That's what Marta put down on your blood work. I was Six. A fucking number! The numbers Five and Six!" I exclaimed, a little bit pissed at my deceased friend. Seriously, Marta, a fucking number?

"Do you know how many times I met her? Thirteen. Thirteen exams over the past four years. And that's what I get, a number? Number Five. Okay," I let Aaron moan like a little girl. I was friends with her, and I still got a bloody number. "Five of what? How many were there? Is there any info on that?"

"There were nine. Then six. And now two." I said, reading the figures off of a document.

"Where do they keep the chems?" Aaron asked.

I skim through all the information, every page, and find nothing.

"I don't know. There's nothing here."

"You worked there. Where did they keep the meds?" Aaron barked at me.

"I don't know! If I knew I would have told you!" I snapped back.

"Bullshit. You just want to keep me hooked like they do! You've got the knowledge, and I have nothing, except your word! Where'd they keep the meds, Eliza?" Aaron yelled at me. I blinked in surprise, which quickly turned into fury.

"Stop the fucking car, Cross! I want to get out. Stop the car!" I shouted repeatedly, until he skidded to a halt on the hard shoulder just on the other side of a bridge.

"Get out. Go on. Get out. You don't have any more chems. You don't know where they are. You don't know anything. That's fine. Just get out," Aaron rambled, as I stared hard out of the window. "But you got a plan, right?"

I looked at him, pure anger on my face plain enough for him to see.

"All my plans involved you as my back-up. And you know that. I've been nothing but honest with you. You've asked me questions, and I've given you answers. That's more than anyone has done for either of us ever since we joined the fucking program," I hissed at him. "Now, you have to understand. All the work at Outcome, all those tests, the burn rates, dosage panels, tissue stress. That was us tuning chemistry. We didn't fabricate anything. That happened downstream."

"Wait. What's that mean, 'downstream'?" Aaron asked, looking at me, giving me his whole attention.

"It means you need live virus to seed adhesion. Cultures are highly reactive. You need to process on-site, and we never did it at the lab." I answered him.

"Okay. On-site, where? Where?"

"Where do we hold the virus?" I questioned, making sure my thoughts were in line with his.

"Yes!" Aaron snapped.

I glare at him again, but answer him anyway, despite him acting like an arse.

"Well, we can't drive there." I said, looking away from him.

"Where is it?" Aaron hisses.

"Manila. The Philippines." I snapped at him, until I see his face. He looks crest-fallen, like I've just told him some life-shattering news, which I had really. Aaron was running out of blues. I didn't need them. I'd already been viralled out on those. Did it myself.

Aaron climbed out of the car, and after his door had slammed shut, I took a deep breath to calm myself down, before following him out.

He was bent over the boot of the car, both of his hands gripping the edge, his head faced downwards. I slowly walked towards the back of the car, before leaning against the boot next to him, my hands in the pockets of my jeans.

"How much have you got left of your dosage?" I asked, my voice a million times softer than before.

"I have 300 milligrams of blues. It's not even enough for a full day," Aaron replied, straightening up, and moving to stand in front of me. He looked pissed. "You said they infected me. To lock in the physical enhancements? Who told you this was okay? You used to do this, right? Used to mess with our bodies, changing whatever you want?"

"I didn't-I designed, I surveyed. I didn't administer meds, or injections. You think I liked messing around with people? I only did the research. Did the math. Corrected mistakes. Until I saw what they were doing to you people, and then I blew up a fucking shit storm, okay? And they used my own research on me. Wanted to see what effect the blues and greens would have on someone already considered a genius and in a good physical shape," I replied, my voice shaking in places, but I managed to keep it steady and loud for the most part. "I never made policy!"

"No, you just helped load the gun." Aaron said.

"Oh, God," I whispered, walking away from him, back towards the front of the car. "Look. I was there for the science. Marta was there for science. We were all there for science. And I know you don't care, but at the time I thought I had made a huge sacrifice. I couldn't publish, I couldn't conference. I couldn't tell a single person what it was I did. I thought I was helping my country, trying to cure diseases that had been considered incurable, but I was lied to, okay?"

Aaron had obviously had enough of me trying to justify myself, and pushed me up against the car, trapping my body with his, and stared at me. I felt like we were back in that cupboard at Marta's again, as he'd left no space between us. I could feel every line of his body, just like he could probably feel every contour of mine.

"Tell me you can viral off blues. Can you viral off blues?"

"Yes. Why do you think I've not been taking them? That I let you have my rations too? Pills allow for temporary adhesion. To lock it in, you need live culture. Live virus!"

"You know how to do that? Do you know how to do that, Eliza?" Aaron demanded.

"Yes." I sighed, as he stepped back, and opened my car door.

"Okay." Aaron said, as he pushed me towards the door.

"I'm guessing that we're going to Manila, then." I said, letting him guide me.

"Of course, Doc. Of course that's where we're going."