It was a week later now, Ephraim had still not heard from Mia; he was starting to grow impatient. As he sat there, staring down at the satellite phone on the table next various guns and spread out maps of the city, he felt a sudden impulse that propelled him to his feet. He decided he wouldn't wait any longer, and he would go to her apartment at that very instant.
Then just as he wrapped his warm woolen scarf around his neck, the phone on the table began to buzz. He leaped to grab it.
"Hello?"
"Hi. Eph? It's Mia." Her voice was quiet, and her tone was sombre.
Ephraim, on the other hand, spoke with excitement. "Hey! I was just wondering when I'd hear from you. Not to sound eager or anything…"
"Yeah, sorry, I haven't had a chance to speak to Doctor Price."
"Maybe I can talk to him directly… if you tell me how to get in contact with him."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. Ephraim almost thought the signal had dropped out, but then he heard her breathe a soft sigh. "I think we should just drop by at the lab…" she finally said. He was too excited to notice the hesitation in her voice.
"Great! Hey, I was wondering if I could bring a few samples. I've been meaning to run some tests, and it would be really handy if I could use some of the equipment at the lab… I mean, if that's alright? Besides it would be a good chance to show Doctor Pr…"
"Yeah, just bring whatever you need," she cut him off impatiently, though he hardly noticed.
"Ok then, I'll pick you up in an hour."
Again, there was a pause before she answered. "No… we have to wait until after dark."
"After dark?" Ephraim exclaimed.
"The lab… it's outside the safe zone," she replied somewhat reluctantly. She waited for some sort of reaction from Ephraim, but he was silent. She continued, "It'll be easier to sneak out at night, especially now that they've stopped the night patrols."
"Wait… outside the safe zone?" Ephraim finally said.
"Well, you can't get anywhere near the facilities around here; they're all guarded or occupied by the military."
Ephraim knew this was true, as he'd already tried… many times. He sighed, knowing that this was going to turn out to be a far more complicated and dangerous mission than he had originally thought. But there was no other choice. "Alright, I'll pick you after sundown."
As soon as Ephraim put down the phone, he reached for the radio transceiver across the table.
"Fet? Fet, are you there?"
As always, he had no idea where Vasiliy Fet had gone off to. Ephraim just hoped he was close enough to receive his transmission.
A moment later, a voice responded. "Hey, what's up Doc?"
"Change of plans for tonight. You think you're up for taking a drive outside the safe zone?"
A slight pause.
"Outside the safe zone?!" he laughed as if it were a joke. "You better have a good reason for wanting to go out there."
"Yeah, I'll explain later."
"Alright," Fet replied, easily convinced. The trouble-seeking ex-mercenary rarely turned down a mission. "Oh, and bring the Half Breed," he said, referring to Quinlan. "If things get ugly, we could use him."
"Good idea," Ephraim agreed, knowing that if there was ever any danger, having Quinlan around was better than any weapon a man could carry.
When night came, Mia was waiting impatiently by her window, overlooking the street outside. The radio on the table beside her was on quietly; she partly listened to the broadcast, partly lost in her own mind… plagued by her own troubles.
Again, the man on the radio was talking about the group Nemesis. The Authorities feared another attack. Everyone feared the violence, or worse, a repeat of Boston. Yet so many took to the group's cause that their numbers were multiplying across the country. The illusion of control was slipping, and the people could see it.
Mia heard a car pull up outside. She quickly turned off the radio, grabbed her coat and hurried out of her apartment. She made her way downstairs without her guide dog; it was easy enough, as she had walked these hallways many times. She stayed close to the walls, touching them with her hand every few paces just to reaffirm her position. Then as she walked out of the front door of the building, Ephraim greeted her and took her arm, leading her to the car.
"Not bringing your dog?" he asked.
"No, I figured you would do," she said with a smile.
The driver inside the car started the engine. Its rumble was loud against the silence of the night.
"We should move before we draw attention," another voice said.
This voice caught her attention. She immediately recognized it, and the familiar feelings that came with it. She let go of Ephraim's hand and walked towards the silhouette of a man standing in the headlights of the vehicle.
"You…" she said, unable to hide the smile on her face. "I didn't think we'd meet again."
"Yes, an unexpected turn of events," Quinlan replied evenly. She had almost forgotten the deep sound of his voice.
She walked slowly towards him… until the dark shadow of his silhouette veiled her eyes, looming over her as he stood before her.
"You disappeared into the night before I could ask for your name…" she said.
"Quinlan," he replied matter-of-factly.
"I'm Mia," she smiled, as her eyes lowered slightly, with seemingly submissive yet charming timidity.
"Mia…" he repeated softly.
The quiet moment was interrupted when the man in the driver's seat leaned out the window and tapped his hand impatiently on the side of the vehicle. "C'mon, let's go."
Quinlan's eyes lingered on her for a moment, before he turned and climbed into the van. Mia and Ephraim followed.
"Mia, this is Fet. Fet, Mia," Ephraim introduced.
The two greeted each other briefly.
"Alright, where are we goin'?" Fet asked, getting straight to the point. From his voice, Mia could tell he was a tough kind of man; the masculine type who did not care for formalities. He had a slight European accent - Russian, she thought. Although his background was actually Ukrainian.
"Manhassett," Mia replied. "There's a medical facility up there, just off the expressway."
"I don't know how we're gonna get past the guard posts," Fet sighed, shaking his head as he started driving off.
"Just stay off the main roads," Ephraim suggested.
"Yeah, thanks Doctor Obvious."
As they drove through the city, there was a tense and uncomfortable silence in the car, though Mia wondered if it was just her own anxiety – being in a car full of strange men, and embarking on a strange journey, with an outcome that she feared the most. But it was her own request to go out there, and so she took a deep breath and kept her nerves at bay.
As expected, there were no patrol vehicles. The streets were completely empty, with the exception of four men they saw at one point, huddle together under a railway bridge, discussing something that appeared to be very secretive. All four men looked up as the van approached, with suspicious and unfriendly eyes, and their glares followed the vehicle all the way until it was out of sight.
Moments later, they were outside the residential zone, and the streets were more desolate than ever, littered with rubble and broken objects that were remnants of a once civilized world. In this area, there were no lights, and the night was suddenly much darker. The tall buildings around them stood like hollow skeletons, towering over the pavement. And the silence in this dead part of the city most unnerving.
"This place gives me the creeps," Ephraim remarked. "Hard to imagine the risk Doctor Price is taking every time he goes out to the lab."
"Well he mostly stays at the facility," said Mia. "He comes back once a week for his rations."
"Which roads does he take?" Fet quickly realised the more important question to ask. "If he's gettin' in and out without any trouble, maybe we should take the same roads."
"I don't know," she replied, biting her lip. "I've never been out here with him."
"So you've never actually been there? Well that's just great…" he muttered.
Then suddenly, something caught Fet's attention. "Shit…" He quickly turned off the car's headlights and slowed the vehicle to a halt. "Guard post up ahead," he said, nodding towards the bright searchlights in the distance. "Looks like we can't get through this way."
"Do you think they saw us?" Ephraim asked.
"Nah… don't think so…"
Mia appeared agitated now, as she sat forward in her seat, brows furrowed and hands anxiously clutching the back of the seat in front of her. As Quinlan observed her reaction, he noticed that her stern expression revealed eagerness rather than fear, and he wondered what exactly she was so eager about.
"What do we do now?" Ephraim asked.
"We're gonna have to go back."
"No! Keep going," Mia instructed with a sudden firmness in her voice. "We have to get to the lab!" She offered no further explanation, but her face was stern and resolute… and her order was final. Her unexpected authority made the others turn and look at her, and then at each other, not knowing what to make of it.
Then finally, Fet shook his head in resignation and started up the car again. "Alright, I'm gonna try headin' around down south. If this don't work, I'm goin' back, alright?"
Mia agreed in silence.
"Should we be expecting any surprises?" Quinlan studied her inquisitively.
Again, she didn't respond.
With luck, the next road they tried was unguarded, and they slipped right through the border. There was no wall, no line on the ground, or any sign or indication that marked this invisible border; it was as if the safe zone was just some arbitrary place named by men just to make themselves feel safe. But in reality, the only thing that kept Death from crossing over into the city… was time.
Once far enough outside, Fet turned the car's headlights back on. The light revealed a road that was overgrown and cracked. Dead winter branches weaved around man-made structures as if they had merged into one. Everything around them was grey and lifeless, and the further they drove, the more they saw the spread of Death's wings over the land.
When they reached the highway, the spectacle that emerged in front of them was a graveyard of abandoned cars, stretching as far as the eye could see; a field of mechanical corpses laying silently in the night.
"Woah, would you look at that," Fet exclaimed in awe.
Every car they drove past had been left with its doors, bonnet and fuel hatch wide open. They lay completely ravaged, and everything that can be looted had been taken.
Ephraim leaned over from the back of the van, looking out the front window. "You think any of these people made it out?"
"All those people are out there, that's for sure," Fet muttered, still gazing with bewilderment. "I just don't know if they're still… people."
"You think they all turned?"
The air suddenly seemed to grow colder, and the night darker, as the presence of an invisible threat lingered over each person. As they neared the research facility, the landscape around them began to grow into a natural wilderness.
Turning off the highway, the small road in front of them was engulfed by tall trees on both sides, with their leafless branches stretching out like claws over the road. The area around them, which had once been a large golf course, was now almost a forest.
The van pulled up in front of a large security gate at the entrance of the institute.
"North Shore Medical Research…" Fet read from a sign. "This is it?" he asked, as if unconvinced.
"Yeah, that's it," Mia replied, handing Fet a security pass for the front gate.
"Nah, I don't think that's gonna work," he said. "The power's out." He looked at the large, looming building behind the gate; there was not a single light, or any sign of activity. "Are you sure your doc's here?"
"Yeah, it doesn't look like anybody's here," Ephraim agreed.
They looked to Mia, but she didn't answer. She didn't appear to be surprised at this outcome, almost as if she had expected it. However, it did not ease her tension. A flash of fear fled from her eyes before anyone could catch a glimpse of it… all except Quinlan.
"There's a switchboard around the back," she said, masking a tremble in her voice. "We can try getting the power back up; that'll open the gate."
Fet looked again at the dark building ahead, haunting and imposing, surrounded by rustling forestland that concealed whatever threats that might've lurked in the night. "You want me to go out there?!" he asked, raising his brow.
"No, no," Ephraim quickly interjected, "Quinlan should go." He looked at Quinlan, who gave him a look in return. "I mean, we don't know what's out there."
Fet now also looked at Quinlan. He didn't mind going himself, but if Quinlan were to offer, he would not object.
Quinlan stared back at the two staring at him, his face full of indifference, and perhaps a slight hint of annoyance. "Alright, I'll go," he said.
Without hesitation, he stepped out of the van. And just as he was about to close the door behind him, Mia followed him out.
"What are you doing?" he asked, confused.
"I'm going with you."
Ephraim laughed. "You're not serious…"
"You won't find the switchboard without me. Besides, when the power's back up, you're gonna need me to reset the security program." There was that tone of confidence in her voice again. Quinlan found it rather intriguing, perhaps because at first it seemed out of character for her demure nature. But really, it was the most telling sign of her character.
Fet and Ephraim were still staring questioningly at Mia when Quinlan slammed shut the door of the van.
"Alright, lead the way," he said with a slight grin.
She turned to face him. She could feel him standing close in front of her. She reached out her hand and smiled at the familiarity of this scene. But this time, as he stood unmoving, she reached forth and found his hand, and took hold of it. She felt the warmth of his skin on her cold, frost-bitten hands. And for the first time in a very long time, he felt a gentle human touch. He paused in the moment, staring down at her hand in his, confused, as if it was the strangest thing he'd ever seen. He was suddenly met with a feeling that was slightly uncomfortable, but not completely unpleasant.
He shook away the feeling. There were more important tasks at hand.
They began to walk away from the lights of the van, and towards the darkness of the wilderness that lay beside the road, circling around the side of the medical facility.
"Your friends didn't hesitate to throw you out here," she said to him quietly.
"And you were foolish enough to follow."