Chapter 36
I awoke to nothing. Everything was black, was darkness. There was nothing there. Not even a single hint at light. I tried to move, only to find I couldn't. I tried to feel, but nothing was there. I strained to hear anything, but all was deathly quiet. I couldn't smell, taste or feel anything. I couldn't sense anything at all, it was like I had no body. Was I dead? Did Jackson inject me with some sort of lethal poison? I doubt it, he still wanted something from me.
"This looks familiar," A voice said beside me, making me jump, although I couldn't feel anything. "I believe this happened to me sometime in my life. Not sure when though, it's hard to tell when you're dead."
"Hey Max," I said, speaking to my dead mother, "How are things on your side? Nothing much here. You said this looks familiar, how so?"
"I remember sometime in my life," Max replied, "of being held in a tank of some sort. They called it a sensory deprivation tank. You can't use any of your senses. They forgot about your sixth sense in this case. You have a message by the way, it's sitting on your cell phone back at the apartment."
"Really?" I asked, "Who from and what's it about?"
"It's from Drake," Max replied, "Don't know what it's about, sorry. Ah, now I remember, I was kept in one of these things while some clone of me ran around trying to be me. She failed miserably. Can you believe she offered to cook them breakfast? I had never cooked properly in my life."
We both laughed at that. It was interesting to hear about the real events of her life. I spent the remainder of my time in the tank listening to what had happened to her. She told me of all that had happened since her escape, the betrayal of Jeb and about Ari's fascination with trying to make her like him. She went on to explain about the little voice she used to have in her head, about her faster-than-light travel. About how she was meant to save the world and about the fight between Max and her clone.
She explained why they were made to fight. How she had won, but left the clone alive. How there was an explosion and Max was unsure if her clone had survived. After we had talked, she returned to where she now existed, in the afterlife. I don't know what happens to us when we die, or where we go. Even if there is a place in heaven for us. But after Max went back I was left in silence until the door was opened on me and blinding light flooded my face. I discovered that I was suspended in some sort of liquid that prevented me from feeling my limbs until I was removed from it.
I had to close my eyes from the light as it pierced them like red hot pokers. The small breeze in the room was torture to my skin, as if someone had doused me in gasoline and lit it on fire. I could hear all too well and every sound sent shards of pain into my head. Every touch was like a white hot brand, every light was a piercing dagger. My mouth was dry, and my sense of smell was too sensitive. I refused, however, to shout out in pain. I refused to give them the satisfaction. Eventually my senses returned to normal and I saw I had been moved back into the interrogation room. They had placed me on the chair and I was once again sitting across from Agent Jackson.
Blaze, I heard Falcon's thoughts in my head, You there?
Yeah I'm here, I replied, You ready? Can you do it?
Yeah, Falcon replied, Just be ready.
Count to ten, I replied, then do it.
"You ready to talk now, Mr. Corway?" Jackson asked me. I slowly counted the seconds in my head, "Are you willing to give me the information I want?"
"No," I replied, "I won't be giving you the information you want. I'll be seeing you around though, Mr. Jackson. Got to go for now."
There was a loud crack in the room as Falcon appeared, grabbed me, and then we both disappeared. Just before we went I saw the look of pure hatred and disgust Jackson gave us, and I waved, making him go even redder in the face from his anger. Then we were gone, before the guards could even react.
Chapter 37
We appeared in the woods just outside the military base. Rei, Flame and Dark were there waiting for me and Falcon. It appeared they had been roughed up a little bit, but they hadn't been physically hit. We had gotten off light, but once again we were on the run, only this time from the military rather than the whitecoats and their Erasers. Well, at least we were used to living life like this.
"We need to return to the apartment," I said, "grab some food, clothing and other supplies. We can't stay there; the military will most likely find us. Grab what you need. Falcon can teleport us to safety."
Everyone nodded to show they understood. We all grabbed onto each other as Falcon teleported us away from the military base and back to the apartment. Once we were sure we were fully there, we moved off to our own separate rooms to pack our gear. I went into the room Dark gave me and started packing my clothes that were strewn all over the place. I hadn't had time to keep it clean, what with everything going on and all. I grabbed my toothbrush from the bathroom and was about to walk out into the kitchen and then remembered my cellphone. I grabbed it off the counter and almost put it in my pocket before I realized a light was flashing on it. I flicked it open and found I had missed a call and there was a message waiting for me.
I activated the message and let it play while I gathered food and drink from the kitchen. The message was from Drake, asking where I was, that I needed to come home as soon as I got this message. He said he was sorry about Falcon and Rei and that he hadn't meant to let them escape. I smiled at that, and then stopped smiling as he continued with the message. He sounded worried and that was a rare occurrence. When he told me Max and Skye were unwell, I stopped breathing. He said something about the Virus now being airborne, that it was starting to show up over the past two days all over the country. Then he told me the shocker. That it was the Virus Skye and Max had. I stood there stunned, not wanting to believe it. The cellphone dropped out of my hand and hit the floor. I slid to my knees and started to cry.
"Dang it!" I shouted, "I should have seen this coming. I should have protected her."
The others came rushing out when they heard me shout out. They looked at me, not sure what was going on. Flame moved over to the phone, but I stopped her, not wanting her to hear the message. I had managed to calm myself down, but only just.
"Drake left a message," I said after a while. "Max and Skye are infected. He doesn't know how long they have. God dang it," I lashed out and my fist struck the fridge door, leaving a dent, "I will not let them die. I will not let it take them away."
"Don't mean to put a dampener on anything," Dark said, "But how are you going to help them? I mean the humans, who created the virus, don't have a cure."
"I'll do anything I can," I replied, "Anything… Falcon, take me home, then come back here, grab the gear and the others and get home as well."
Falcon didn't hesitate; he just grabbed me by the arm and we were off, the colors rushing around us until the familiar living room came into view. Drake was upstairs tending to Max and Skye when he heard us arrive and came rushing down the stairs. I approached him.
"How are they?" I asked straight away, worried about what condition they were in.
"At the moment resting," Drake said, "But I don't know how long they can last. Max is putting up quite a fight, it appears she may be half immune to the disease because of you, but she's only half. She still got infected but she seems to have a chance."
"And Skye?" I asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"Not so good," Drake replied, "She's burning up. I think she has about a day, maybe two at the most, if she can hold out. I'm sorry Blaze, but that's all we can do."
Chapter 38
I sat by Skye's bed, watching her sleep, dabbing her forehead with a wet cloth. I wondered why she got infected. She can heal people, shouldn't she be able to heal herself?
"It's her healing powers that made her able to be infected," Max said, showing up from the afterlife to talk to me again; "Her body relies on the healing power to keep itself healthy, so her immune system isn't strong. It could beat things like the cold and the flu, but super viruses? That's a definite no."
"But what can I do?" I asked her softly, so as not to disturb Max or Skye, "I can't heal. The humans don't have a cure; soon they will start being infected. Max, Skye only has about a day or two. I don't want to lose her, I can't lose her. The only people who know enough about us to find a cure are the whitecoats…"
My voice trailed off upon saying that. I never would have made a deal with a whitecoat. That was something I never wanted to do, yet it was those same whitecoats who might be able to save Skye. I said I would do anything to save them, I think this comes under anything, darn. Max must have known what I was thinking.
"Blaze," She said, "I know you love her and Max, I know you would do anything to save them, but think about it. Are you willing to sell your soul, your life to the whitecoats to save Skye and Max? Do you think they would want that?"
"I can't let her die," I replied. "If she dies, a part of me will die with her. I couldn't bear the pain of losing her. I can't, Max. Have you ever felt that way before?"
Max looked away, but not before I saw the pain in her eyes. Even as a spirit, she looked pretty normal, except for the fact only I could see her. After a while she did reply.
"Yeah," she said, "I did. I loved him, still do. He jumped in the path of the first bullet to save me from the assassin, but once he died I lost all the fight in me. I didn't see the point in continuing. I got the rest of us killed, I could never forgive myself for that."
"It was Fang," I replied, "Wasn't it?"
Max nodded, but didn't say anything. We just sat there in silence. Well I sat in silence, she haunted me in silence. After a moment I moved up to Skye and took her hand, placing it against my cheek, feeling her racing pulse in her wrist under my hand. I knew then what I was going to do. The flock would kill me for it. I was insane for even thinking it, but as long as the flock killed me before the insanity set in I would be fine.
"I'll go alone," I replied at last. "I won't involve the others. No need to risk them."
"No, Blaze," Max replied, "I won't let you go. I'll stop you anyway I can."
"Then try," I replied, "but I won't give up until I've exhausted every option."
"You're just as stubborn as your father," Max replied, "He always insisted on protecting me, looking after me, even though I told him not to. Fine, if you have to, then go, try the institute underneath New York. That place hasn't been found yet. You might still have a chance."
"Thanks mom," I replied, then without a word of goodbye, I grabbed my backpack, still with everything in and flew out the bedroom window, adjusted my course and flew towards New York… and the Institute.
Chapter 39
I arrived in New York to utter chaos and, well, almost total anarchy. News of the virus spreading to the human population had people running for their lives in fear, looters breaking into the shops and stealing anything they could get their hands on, as if they could stock up on it, wait for things to blow over and then sell it off to get rich. Sorry guys, I'll be surprised if you do survive.
I stayed to the rooftops of the city, remaining out of the way of the self-destruction going on down below. The homeless were left alone, no-one wanting to go near them in case they might catch the disease from them. The news had sent people into a downward spiral of desperation, and the government was trying as hard as they could to keep things under control, but eventually they had to bring in martial law. I had already spent about ten hours here, searching for The Institute. I had watched things happen so fast they were almost a blur. The Martial law didn't sink in until the Soldiers began to shoot people out of fear for themselves, but they didn't realize it was already too late for them.
A riot had broken out on the street below me as I had searched the city, looking for a way to find The Institute. Max wasn't around to help and so I was searching for a needle in a haystack. Then I heard gunfire down on the street. I looked down to see some of the citizens had guns and were fighting back against the Military. The military reacted back the way they had been trained… to eliminate all hostiles. It was a blood bath down on the streets below. I had enough of watching it and leapt off the building and landed in the street. Gunfire rang around me and bullets whizzed cst so close/ could feel the heat from the rounds.
"Stop it!" I shouted to the crowd, "There is no point in killing each other if you want to keep humanity alive."
The gunfire started to drop away, but not fast enough. I didn't have the time to wait for them to listen to me. The military was probably lining up a sniper to shoot me now. I focused on all the guns, picturing them in my mind, and then pulled. My telekinesis kicked into effect and all the weapons, guns, grenades, knives and all sorts of homemade weapons flew through the air and landed in a pile between the two parties, in no-man's-land.
"Now listen up!" I shouted out to the silence that had now fallen. A reporter and her cameraman appeared from out of hiding and began to film what was going on. "Shooting each other and killing one another won't help you survive, it'll kill you quicker. None of us here are to blame for what is going on. We weren't the ones who started this by making the virus, or by creating the Altered. This began as a mass genocide of the Altered, authorized by our government."
I looked straight at the camera as I said that, hearing the shock settle into the crowd. Some people were skeptical, wanting proof that what I said was true. I'd give them the proof. I reached into my bag, which somehow I had managed to take with me, and found the documents I had from the beginning of all this, as well as the ones I had collected from the base.
"As stated in this document," I said, reading the document, "'I, the president of the United States of America, hereby give permission to the Secretary of Defense to authorize the funding and execution of the population control method proposed by the Secretary himself.' And the next document is the control method proposed by the Secretary himself. It explains that they had designed a virus to attack the Altered population and reduce its size. This Virus was meant to not raise suspicion and to appear as a natural plague on the Altered. It's now killing us. They were fools to think they could control it, and now because of them, we are destroying ourselves."
I turned to the camera and spoke one last time.
"Mr. President," I said, "If you are listening, you have destroyed this world with your carelessness, and already we have begun to pay for your actions. The Altered will survive. We have immunity to the disease, but only some of us. As for humanity, some may survive, others may not. Your chance for survival is slim, but still there."
I spread my wings and leapt into the air, not sure if I had made things better or worse, but at least I had stopped them from killing themselves. It was a start; now all I had to do was find the institute. An image flashed through my mind of a subway tunnel, sewers and a grating leading down to a metal door. I let the images flow through me as the dead whispered to me, until I found the station I needed to go down. I followed the images in my head, finding the station and walking down, following the tunnels until I found the grate. I lifted it and entered the dank dark sewers, the stench hitting me and making me gag in disgust.
The tunnel led on and on, seeming like it would never end, but eventually it did… at a big grey steel door embedded in the wall. I pulled on the door and found it opened at my touch. I walked in and the door closed behind me. I walked up some stairs, moving quietly so I didn't make any noise. Soon I was out of the stairs and in a smallish chamber. I took a step forward and realized my mistake too late. I heard the door close behind me and I was trapped in the room…
Chapter 40
A hum started up and small red beams shot out of the wall, connecting to the other wall. They began to move up and down the walls, scanning the room. I heard voices over the hum, through the one way glass window they had somewhere in this room.
"The scanners are picking up the figure as an avian human," A voice said, barely audible over the hum. "One of the avian experiments has managed to find the entrance."
"We can't open it," Another voice replied back, barely audible as well, "We can't risk ourselves to contamination. Do you want to die?"
The beams stopped moving and disappeared into the walls. Small sections of the wall moved and a gas began to fill the chamber. I took a deep breath before the gas reached me and held it, not wanting to breathe in the gas in case it was harmful to me. The gas hissed into the room, filling every square nanometer of the room. I was close to drawing breath again when the gas was filtered out of the room. When I was sure it was clean pure air that filled the room I let my breath out and began to breathe again as the door opened and four Erasers moved in and flanked the door. I know, Erasers now called themselves Werewolves, but they still considered those that worked for the whitecoats Erasers, mutts to the werewolf packs. A figure walked in through the door, wearing one of those full body haz-mat suits. They weren't risking anything. I looked into the faceplate of the suit and saw pale green eyes staring back at me. Their hair was tied back and kept under the hood of the suit and it was hard to tell whether they were a guy or a girl.
"Who are you?" The suited person said, a woman by the sound of her voice, "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same questions," I replied, "But I'm not here to fight or to argue. I came here to talk. So let me talk."
I looked at the Erasers and nodded my head in their direction. The woman must have figured it out because she waved a hand and the Erasers filed out until we were alone in the room. I couldn't hear anyone eavesdropping from the side room and assumed it was safe.
"I am known as Nathan Corway, or Blaze," I said, answering her question, "But your people originally called me Alpha. I was the firstborn of the Second Generation. Now who are you?"
"I am Dr. Samantha Reilly," She said, "Sister of the Dr. Jack Reilly, whom I know you have met. It's such a shame he gave away his life protecting your kind."
"I have a proposition for you," I replied, hating myself for even being here. "My life partner and daughter are sick with the super virus. I need a cure for them; you can help me because you created us. In exchange, I can give you a blood sample of my daughter Max, to study the third generation of our species. What do you say to that?"
"It's not enough to have only a blood sample," Samantha replied. "I know you were the one who hacked into the database at Blue Moon, the base now overrun with Military. There was a file stored on their database I want. It was encrypted. I know you downloaded it. If you can crack the encryption, within twenty-four hours, and give me the translated file as well as the vial of blood, we have a deal. Agreed?"
I hesitated for a moment, then sighed. "Agreed," I said through gritted teeth, wishing I wasn't so weak as to make deals with whitecoats. But I didn't want to lose them. I couldn't lose them. I was doing this for them.
