Chapter 6
I ran inside to the hallway where all the shouting was coming from and Skye came down from upstairs. Miraculously Max hadn't been woken up by the shouting. Drake and Flame were standing in the hall looking embarrassed and Falcon was staring at them in disbelief. Terra was standing there, confusion on her face.
"Alright," I shouted, drawing everyone's attention to me, but a quiet shout so as not to wake Max, "What is going on?"
If it was even possible, Drake's and Flame's faces went even redder. Then I started to put things together.
"Oh no," I said, "Don't tell me you two were… oh come on!"
"I saw them," Falcon said, "It's just like back in the cave. They were kissing in the hallway; I walked in on them kissing."
I shot Drake one of those, we'll talk about this later looks, and turned back to Falcon. He was standing there with Terra by his side, I could tell by the look on his face he knew what was coming.
"Terra and I went to the movies after school," Falcon said, "Don't worry, we were careful not to reveal what we are."
"Go get some dinner," I said to Falcon and Terra, "I'll talk to Drake and Flame."
Falcon and Terra went into the kitchen to get their dinner. I turned to Drake and Flame with a questioning look on my face. I was surprised at this, slightly a bit angry as well, but didn't blow up about it. Drake was one of my most trusted friends and family members, but Flame is my sister.
"So how long have you two been sneaking around?" I asked them, keeping the emotion out of my voice.
"About a week," Drake replied.
A week? They had been seeing each other for a week? I had calmed down about the idea of Drake seeing Flame. She did deserve someone in her life apart from me to look after her. All of us deserved someone; after all, we never did have parents. But the secrecy was what got me. I don't know why they thought they had to hide it from me; I would have found out anyway, all of us would. I heaved a sigh.
"Look, I'm fine with you two seeing each other," I said, "but no more secrets. Flame I am your brother, you can trust me, so can you Drake. I don't know why you felt as if you needed to hide this from me."
"We weren't sure how you would react," Flame said, "after all, if I remember correctly, when you started seeing Skye, Terra wasn't exactly happy about it, and she is Skye's sister and you are my brother. You see the point?"
"I see your point," I said, "but like Terra, I didn't like the Idea at first, but I'm ok with it now. Oh, and speaking of Terra, make sure both her and Falcon don't walk in on you kissing again. You can sort out the mess next time."
Drake and Flame both nodded and walked into the kitchen to get their dinner. I couldn't help but laugh and Skye joined in. It was so much like the time when we had been caught by Falcon in the cave after I had first kissed Skye. After we had finally finished putting a straight face on I made a comment that had us smiling.
"If that's any indication of how their relationship starts off, let's just hope we don't end up with another baby in the household, because that scene looks very familiar."
We
had just calmed down when Rei walked out of the spare bedroom.
"Am
I missing something?" She asked.
"Dinners ready," I replied, "We were just telling the others."
Chapter 7
The crisp night air blew around me, ruffling my feathers, stinging my cheeks like small razors. The sky was cloudless and the stars shone down from the dark blanket of the night sky. The moon was out and in its full phase; an orb of light in the sky. There is nothing better than going for a midnight flight around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, I wasn't here to enjoy it. As I approached the park, I lined up and came in for a landing. I hit the ground running from my momentum and pulled myself to a stop. I pulled my wings in to my body, still warm from the flight to get there. I walked over to a willow tree that was near the edge of the park, and hid beneath the draping willow branches that hung from it, waiting for Shadow's arrival. Two forms suddenly arrived on the edge of my vision, neither of them were Shadow.
"Nathan," The first exclaimed, seeing me, "what are you doing out here so late?"
"Nothing much," I replied, stepping out of the shadows, "Just star-gazing. You know, it's so hard to see the stars properly with all the street lights shining. So what's been going on with you, Andrew?"
"You can cut it with the stories, Blaze," the second figure said, "We know you're here to meet Shadow. I advise you not to."
"Well if you don't want me to meet him, Scarlet," I replied, "Then tell me what the heck is going on. The council is refusing to see him and no-one is explaining what is going on."
Scarlet and Andrew went silent. Neither of them wanted to explain what was going on to me. They had their orders not to tell me, I could find out my own way.
"Nathan," Andrew said, "You do realize you are going against the wishes of the council. You will be seen as a traitor. You and your flock will be exiled."
"I know the rules of the council, Andrew," I replied sharply, "don't lecture me on them. I was one of the first to become an elected councilor. I know the rules better than most. As for the council, I don't take orders form them any more. I forfeit my title as a councilor."
Andrew and Scarlet were shocked, the expressions on their faces were priceless, and they were totally lost for words. They didn't know how to respond to my resignation from councilor.
"But why?" asked Scarlet, "Why are you leaving the council?"
"I originally joined the council," I explained, "to help our kind get some stability in the world, help them settle in. It has been five months since the council was formed, four of those I have been part of the council. Yet each and every day, the council becomes more and more like the human government we despise the most. The humans wish to control our lives, every little thing we do, and now the council is becoming that way. They tell us what we are and aren't allowed to do. They control our lives just as much as the human government does. I will not let these people control my life."
"He's right," a voice whispered from the shadows, "the council is beginning to sound like a human government."
Chapter 8
I turned around to look at the person who had spoken. Shadow stood under the tree. The moon's light reflecting on his pale skin. Sweat was on his forehead, even in this cold temperature. Shadow coughed violently and bent over from the pain. His wings had lost their sheen and seemed to droop slightly.
"He's sick," I heard Andrew whisper behind me to Scarlet, "he's been infected."
"Yeah," Shadow said, coughing slightly, "I have been infected. Nathan, or should I say Blaze, you want to know what is going on, have a look at the files in my bag."
I began to approach Shadow to retrieve his bag, but he backed away from me, keeping a distance between us.
"Don't come close to me, Blaze," Shadow exclaimed, "I don't want to make you sick as well. I'll throw you the file. It's clean, don't worry."
Shadow threw me the bag with the documents in it and I caught it. I opened it up and retrieved some papers from it. Looking through the files, I slowly had a sense of dread. The file contained the profiles of different experiments. Twelve were from Shadows region. All of them were dead, all from the same cause. I flipped further through the file, looking through the list of all those that had disappeared until I reached a red file. It was marked as top secret. If something was top secret, people weren't supposed to find out about it. It was Coroner's reports about the experiments that had died. The symptoms were all the same, they had all died from a viral infection. Their entire genetic structures had unraveled; their bodies slowly dying on them. The longest person to have the infection before dying was a girl by the name of Sarah, who had lasted three weeks before she died. Three long agonizing weeks of pain as her DNA was forced to unravel, her body to slowly die on her.
"It only targets us Altered," Shadow said, "Those that aren't human. Angelan, Changed, Werewolves and the others. It doesn't attack humans. They seem unaffected by it."
"My guess," I replied, "is that this virus is a biological weapon being used against us. It attacks our DNA and forces it to unravel, making our bodies slowly die on us. According to the information, the virus can be killed before it enters the cells. People will still be affected by the virus, some cells will still be damaged, but the damage can be reversed. It spreads by blood or spit and can also be infected by injection of the virus. The first people in this file, the first twelve, were most likely test subjects for the virus. The location where they were found was remote, isolated so the virus didn't spread."
As I finished saying this, Shadow collapsed and I began to see how severely he had been affected by the virus already. Without thinking, I raced up to Shadow and caught him before he hit the ground, ignoring the protests from Andrew and Scarlet. Shadow looked up at me from the ground with a sad expression on his pale face.
"I'm sorry I dragged you into this mess, Blaze," He apologized while coughing, "and now I'm sorry I've infected you. If you can, please find out what is happening. Find a cure before you become another victim of this disease."
Shadow's body became limp in my arms, his eyes slowly closing as the light of life slowly left him. His entire body heaved one more breath and relaxed. Shadow was dead and I was going to make sure someone was going to pay for his death, as well as all the others that had died to build this weapon. They didn't know what they were doing; they were going to kill the world…
Chapter 9
I grabbed the file off the ground where I left it. I flipped through the data until I found the section on the virus itself. Someone had been able to analyze it and had made a list of the symptoms from the first to show up until death. I looked at the list. The first symptom was headaches, light headedness and nausea, followed closely by coughing, usually leading to the coughing of blood as the lungs began to fail. The first symptoms showed within the first twenty minutes. Scarlet and Andrew looked at me like I was a monster, keeping their distance from me.
"Time how long it has been since Shadows death," I ordered, "since my infection and tell me when it's been twenty minutes. I will find out if I've been infected by then or not. Afterwards, tell the council what had happened here, tell them what is going on."
Scarlet and Andrew nodded, to show they understood. Then the wait began. Do you know how fun it is to wait for twenty minutes unsure if you have been infected by a deadly virus or not? Let me tell you it's not fun. The time ticked by slowly and still I felt nothing wrong. No symptoms were showing and I still felt fine.
"Twenty minutes is up," Scarlet said, "Feeling anything yet?"
"Nope," I said, shaking my head, "I feel perfectly fine. It's like the virus didn't infect me, or if it did, didn't manage to be successful. Now go, tell the council what has happened, I'll cremate Shadow."
Scarlet and Andrew left, flying back to warn the council and I remained to cremate Shadow. I grabbed branches off the trees and created a pyre. Carefully I placed Shadow on the pyre and cremated him, the fire a bright beacon in the dark sea of night. The cool, crisp wind blew at the flames, making them dance and seem alive. I sat there, without crying, and watched as one of my friends, a former councilor, was cremated. This wasn't the first death that had gotten to me, but it was the first to help me realize that we're always in danger, that some people didn't want us around.
After the flames and died down and the wind had scattered the ashes, I began to walk home. I didn't want to fly because I had a million thoughts in my head that needed to be pondered. Then a thought hit me that struck horror into my heart. What if I'm not infected, but I'm carrying the virus? I could go home and infect my entire family. I could have infected Max! She was only a baby, I didn't know if she would survive or not.
"Relax, Blaze," A voice whispered, "don't worry so much."
I turned my head in the direction the whispers were coming from and nearly fell over in shock. Before me was the ghost of someone I had never expected to be able to see.
"Max?!" I asked, slightly bewildered, "I have to be seeing and hearing things. I can't talk to the dead; I can only summon and fuse with them."
"You aren't delusional, Blaze," Max said, "I am here, just slightly see through. Now listen to me. Stop worrying so much, just be you. During my time on earth, all I did was worry… worry about the safety of my flock, about when the next pack of Eraser would show up, worrying each time if someone got sick, if it was because their DNA might be unraveling. My entire life I worried, never given the chance to be myself. Don't make the same mistake I did."
"But…" I began.
"You aren't infected," Max said, "And you aren't carrying the virus either. So stop worrying. Your affinity to the dead gives you immunity to most diseases. The only things you can become sick from are illnesses that get passed down from parents, genetic defects, which I doubt you have, or if your DNA starts to unravel, but that won't be likely, it's stronger than mine and mine didn't unravel. I came here to give my son some advice, so take it."
"But I'm not…" I tried to say.
"Hey," Max said, "I might not have given birth to you, but you are my son by genetics, your sister, Flame, is my daughter as well. We spirits do keep an eye on things from the other side. I was just glad I met my son."
With that, Max disappeared and left me standing alone standing in front of my house. The entire time we had been talking, we had been walking back to my place, and I hadn't even realized it. I sighed, at least I could stop worrying about making my family sick, but what if the virus spreads and reached them.
Stop worrying, Max's voice echoed in my head.
Chapter 10
That was much easier said than done, considering there was a fanatic group out there that had just finished designing and producing a virus that could wipe out most of The Altered's population. I walked up to the front door and pulled out my key to unlock it. Opening the door, I walked inside and closed it gently, making sure not to wake anyone. I really needed sleep and now was not the time to explain about a killer virus that was on the loose. However, I didn't get that opportunity. Max started crying as soon as I had closed the door. I dropped the bag with the data in it and climbed the stairs to see what Max was crying about. I approached the bedroom as Skye was coming out, holding a still crying Max.
"Where have you been?" She asked, "You look like you've seen a ghost."
I moved closer to Skye and hugged her. Max stopped crying as soon as I got close. She looked up at me with sparkling blue eyes, like her mother. She reached out a tiny little hand and grabbed one of my fingers, holding it.
"It appears," Skye said, "That Max was missing her dad."
"It appears so," I replied.
I gently took hold of her and walked back down stairs, Max falling asleep in my arms on the way down.
I don't get to spend enough time with her, I thought, that had better change. I want to be there for her.
"How did the meeting with Shadow go?" Skye asked as we walked into the lounge.
"Badly," I replied, "Skye, Shadow is dead."
"What!?" Skye exclaimed, "How?"
"He died from a viral infection," I explained, "he died shortly after arriving, but not before he gave me some information."
"What's all the noise about?" A sleepy Falcon asked, walking into the living room closely followed by everyone else living in the house, "I had just managed to get back to sleep after Max woke me up and now Skye woke me up with her shouting."
I sighed. I was totally exhausted and just wanted some sleep, but wouldn't be getting any for a while yet, not with the entire house aware that something was going on.
"I just came from a meeting with Shadow," I explained to the others, "Unfortunately, Scarlet and Andrew showed up before Shadow and tried to get me to leave. They told me I was becoming a traitor to the council by disobeying orders. That's when I told them that we withdraw from the council."
"Withdraw from the council?" Flame said, "But that is our government system. We will be marked as exiles."
"I did it," I explained, "Because the council is becoming, every day, more and more like the human government we hate so much. The humans want to keep us under control or kill us. The council is now telling us what we can and can't do. I don't see a difference."
Everyone was silent, understanding how I felt, but they weren't sure how we were going to get along without the council and the protection they gave.
"Look," I said, pulling the file out of the backpack, "I'm tired and don't feel like telling you everything. Take a look at this file. It will explain everything. Skye fill them in on what I told you about Shadows death."
