Back with another chapter, finally! Getting the details right in this story is a challenge, so bear with me and my unpredictable update schedule. As always, thank you so much for your feedback, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!
.:CHAPTER SEVEN:.
~Renesmee's POV~
Clues were a way of life these days, because there was always more. My family and I were endlessly chasing questions - the same question, really - and in our search down one trail we ended up at the start of another. The thing that made it worse, though, was that they were clues to answers we hadn't asked the question to yet. So none of our questions truly got answered; we just kept adding to our pile of mysteries.
It was infuriating.
And, you know, the thing about vampires was the less they moved, the more anxious they were. Better they fidget and tap their foot and pace in their trained, human ways than be still. And after Mom - Bella, I had to remember to call her - had blacked out, there were no human mannerisms to be seen from any of my family again. Everything was quiet; everybody was still. Their minds silently, behind closed doors, analyzed their surroundings and suffered there.
That was why I turned the radio on. I couldn't stand it anymore! The stillness. The silence.
When even Uncle Emmett had nothing to say, you knew times were bad.
And times were very, very bad.
Nobody would come outright and say it, not even Aunt Rose; but I knew. I just didn't know what to do about it.
I shuffled and flipped through the pictures Aunt Rose and Uncle Emmett took of the files about Dr. Marshall – the scientist who somehow experimented on a vampire. There was plenty of information on him, but not a lot to go on to actually find him, which I presumed would be the real problem here.
Tings of a ukulele swayed from the speakers by my ears. I rested my chin on the stand that held the radio, and leaned closer to the music, hoping to drown in it for a moment. Just one minute, one second. Just a little break, a little inspiration. Maybe I was too much like my father like everyone said, but music had a way of transforming me, for better or for worse. And right now I needed better. My thoughts entwined with the strings of the music, like flowers – bright and yellow – crystallizing in a dazzling bloom, illuminating the earth beneath their petals. Everything came to life behind my eyes; grew with music, and when they stopped, the silence empowered.
At first.
As the music shifted into a higher key, I sensed the pull of optimism. It was a weave of notes I loved best. More instrumentals joined in, combined with a powerful orchestral choir. They all began to fade, though, as one instrument made its way out of the pack. This type of music was a team sport; yet, this one key grew and grew and grew… And suddenly it was too shrill. Too high. Not normal. My eyes shot open, just to close again, tight and scrunched. I covered my ears, pressed against the opening canals with my palms, hoping to eliminate the vibrations. It was too much. It kept growing. I wanted to scream. Maybe I was.
It was too much!
Make it stop!
My head pounded. Throbbed in a hammering rhythm, and my mind couldn't keep up. I knew I screamed now, screamed for Uncle Emmett. I flipped around, trying to get away from the music; then swung back as my brain kicked in – I switched the radio off. Stumbled back once. Twice. Took a breath.
With my ears still covered, I calmed my breathing and looked over my shoulder. "What the hell just happened?" I wondered out loud. But then I noticed a familiar abnormality that sent my heart into a freefall to the pit of my stomach. Uncle Emmett was in front of the couch instead of on top of it, and he was face-down between it and the coffee table.
"Uncle Emmett?"
No response.
And of course, there wouldn't be, would there? I knew what had happened, didn't I? It was inevitable, right?
Then why was I suddenly crying?
OoOoOoO
~Rosalie's POV~
"Why would Alice break into a fallout shelter?"
The metal exterior was only the first layer. There were two walls of brick concrete following it. Inside, there was a shelf stocked with cans of unopened food, with logos I hadn't seen for decades, and on either side of it were three-story bunk beds. A wooden nightstand acted as dining table in the center of the small corridor-of-a-room, with the only other storage being two heavy chests at the foot of each ground-level bed. Everything was covered in dust. I supposed it was lucky of whoever built this that it remained unused. However, closer inspection of the nightstand painted another picture entirely. Someone had ran their finger through the thin layer of dirt, leaving a message.
Bring us here.
"Classy, Alice," I muttered, meeting eyes with Edward.
"She knew she was going to blackout," he noted.
It better have been worth it, I thought, observing the tiny, vintage space. "A nuclear bomb shelter, though? Because our isolated home isn't safe enough?"
"Maybe it isn't."
We were silent, then. Images played in my head as I tried to predict what Alice could have possibly seen in our future, but nothing made sense. Would these walls protect us from being infected?
No. She wanted us to keep the already unconscious here.
"She must have a reason for wanting us to use this place," Edward said. "I'm not going to start doubting Alice now."
Although the situation was strange, it was true Alice had never lead us astray before. My whimsical sister lived too far ahead of everyone, always taking matters into her own hands. She set up pathways for us to follow to a certain conclusion. But I wondered when the time would come that even Alice could not fathom the ending. The things that were happening... They were too odd and unpredictable, and she could only see - when she was awake - so far in advance what was going to happen. Otherwise, I doubted Jasper would have been the first to black out.
"Let's head back," Edward said. "We need something to clean this place with. Then we'll start bringing them in."
"Yes, Boss."
My brother glared at me. "Rosalie."
"Edward," I countered in a mimicking tone.
Before either one of us could start at it again, a shrill cry erupted from the woods.
"Daddy!"
Our heads shot simultaneously toward the open door.
Renesmee?
Edward beat me out the door, faster than a bolt of lightning across a midnight sky. When Renesmee's rich brown eyes met mine and translated her panic, my heart dropped. Edward caught her shoulders as she ran into him, grabbing the front of his shirt and breathing heavier than normal.
"Renesmee, what happened?" Edward demanded, alarmed. "What are you doing..." He trailed off as her thoughts became her story. Then, Edward's eyes flickered to me. There was a gleam of something in his quick gaze. A gleam of grief. A seed of sympathy. If Edward was sympathizing with me, of all people, then that could only mean...
My unbeating heart froze colder. Sent a chill across my body.
"Where is Emmett?" I asked them. Edward looked away, while his daughter peered at her feet. A teardrop shimmered down her soft cheek to the dirt. "Edward!" I demanded. Tell me what happened or so help me-
"You know what happened, Rosalie," my brother heavily replied.
No...
Leaving the father and daughter duo behind, I raced my anxious thoughts back to the house. I had to see him for myself. And when I did, I wished I hadn't. Were the others of my family not bad enough? Did it have to take him, too? His smile? His optimism? I knelt beside him; ran my fingers through his curls, pushing them out of his boyish, sleeping face. The shadows of the trees passed the windows in slow, deliberate movement, as if it was my own fears, reaching for Emmett's still body pressed into the carpet. Without having noticed before, I realized now that he was my hope. What other hope was there, if not him?
"Aunt Rose?" came a whisper from my left. Renesmee hovered in the doorway. Stray bronze curls sticking out in every direction, as crazed as the unforgiving suspense we now lived in.
Her, my mind answered its own question. There was always her. Even having witnessed her mother, her grandparents, and her aunt and uncles collapse by unknowable circumstances, there was a shimmer of faith, of determination to stay strong. Deeper still, in those chocolate eyes, was a product of Emmett's personal influence in her life.
Edward appeared behind his daughter, placing a comforting hand on her small shoulder. Peering at Emmett, his wiser and older eyes fell into dejection.
"He wasn't supposed to..." I bit my lip, unable to finish the sentence.
"I know," Edward murmured.
"I heard it," Renesmee said. Edward and I turned to her, confused. But then Edward's eyes widened. Before he could say anything, or I could demand for elaboration on a conversation I wasn't a part of, she added, "I heard something that sounded off, on the radio, and it hurt my head... And when it stopped- When I turned off the radio, I turned around and Uncle Emmett was laying there. It was on the radio, and I turned it on, and it's my faul-"
"No," Edward interrupted, fast and immediate. "No, love. It's not your fault."
My brain worked to comprehend what my guilt-ridden niece had said. "You heard it. And, yet, here you stand."
I instantly regretted my words when she looked back at me more panicked than before. I stood up and walked over to her. I took her shoulders and pulled her away from Edward, toward me, fierce.
"You listen to me, Ness. However frightening it may seem right now, that you could be the last Cullen standing-" Her tiny breath hitched, but I continued. "This is a blessing. Do you understand? Nothing can happen to you."
"I can't save everybody-"
"The hell you can't. Besides," I softened my tone, as I only did for her, "You still have me, and you still have your dad. We are not giving up."
"For once, your aunt and I agree on something," Edward joined in. I glowered at him, but he ignored me. "We have to keep searching. For our family."
Renesmee took a deep, calming breath. She put on a brave face and nodded. My niece was stronger than she gave herself credit for, but maybe she just needed the chance to find out for herself.
"Alright, let's concentrate," Edward said. "Did you and Emmett find anything yet in those files, Ness?"
"Um, Dr. Dylan Marshall. Scientist who discovered the existence of vampires. Experimented on one. Just a reaffirmation of what we already knew... Oh! He has a wife - Merida Marshall - and daughter - Miranda. I don't think that helps much, though, does it?"
I sighed, grimacing. All our efforts and no rewards? Perfect.
"He has a laboratory," Edward suddenly said. He'd moved and was now flipping through the printed files Emmett had been sifting through. "He has three, spread across two continents- Wait a second." His face tensed; grip tightened around the papers in his hands. "'Paranormal scientist under strict protection by The United States...and funded on behalf of international warfare.'?"
"What does any of this have to do with international warfare?" I wondered, incredulous. Out of everything I thought would be under this guy's reputation, that was not what I was expecting.
Edward's head slowly moved back and forth, just as uncomprehending as I was, as he finished scanning the file "Specifics are left as 'confidential' and 'restricted', even for the FBI," he said. "Something bigger is going on here than we originally thought. I just don't know what it means."
This troublesome scholar had found a way to hinder an immortal race, but little good that would do in war. Unless something had gone wrong in his experiments. A laboratory mishap. Or, if he could get into our minds, our brains, perhaps he had the solution for it; maybe he planned to wake us, simply to threaten us to do his and the government's bidding with the threat of unconsciousness hanging over our heads.
"We'd move faster on him than he had time to press whatever mechanism he needed to activate it," Edward said, responding to my inner speculations.
"Unless there is no stopping the cause of the blackout once it is out there. If we could blackout at any moment-"
"Then we would be useless in war anyway," Edward impeded. "What good are indestructible soldiers if a..." His eyes went to the radio. "If a simple radio wave neutralized us anyway?"
I traced his line of sight from the radio back to him. "Radio waves?"
"That's it," he whispered. Then louder, "Think about it - Renesmee heard it in the music. It stopped the moment she turned it off."
"Esme and Alice were on the phone when it happened to them..." Ness added, catching on.
"And Carlisle was listening to the radio when he crashed the car," Edward pointed out.
I nodded. "And Bella... She was using the microwave, which has frequencies that fall into the same Hertz levels to be recognized as radio waves."
"Uncle Jasper was by a road," Ness said, excited now, jumping onto the radio wave train. "A car could have been passing by. Or the telephone wires!"
The room was silent for a moment, the three of us contemplating the dangers this discovery created. This was the 21st Century - radio waves were not exactly easily avoidable.
"Well," Edward said, breaking the silence, "it's a far cry from solving the problem, but at least we have a probable cause. We know what to avoid, difficult or not."
"Difficult is a bit of an understatement, don't you think?" I said. What was the point of sugar-coating it?
As always, the bastard ignored me, went on as if I hadn't said a thing. "I hate to say it, but the best bet we have, as of now, is to figure out who is trying to contact Carlisle."
"You mean they weren't at the library?" I rolled my eyes. "So, what, you managed to find another clue? How is that any clearer than the information we have on this Dr. Irritating?"
"It's leading us someplace," Edward replied, a harder tone than usual. A tone of authority that pricked at my skin like flies.
"Leading us to more illusive mysteries, you mean," I said.
"They can't go on forever."
"Can't they?"
His eyes narrowed, turned to mine, dark gold and provoked. He was never one who appreciated the truth.
"Neither one of us knows the truth," he all but growled.
"Please..." Both of us turned at Renesmee's breath of a plea. "Don't argue. Not now."
Edward's jaw flexed as he held whatever retort he wanted to end on, and we glared at each other for a moment longer, before he, of course, broke it with a defeated sigh.
"Okay," he said. "Ness is right - we don't have time to idle. Like I said before, the timing and context of the e-mail sent to Carlisle was not a coincidence. If they are keeping under the radar, it has to be for a reason. We need to get to the end of it. Do you agree with that, Rosalie?"
I could tell it irked him to ask for my approval. Lifting my shoulders, I nodded. "How are we going to do that without collapsing onto our faces?"
Edward frowned at my phrasing, but answered calmly enough. "You will, unfortunately, come with me. We'll be distanced apart in case one of us blacks out."
"What?" Renesmee was suddenly in front of her father, hands on hips she should be proud of. "I'm not going? I'm the one who isn't affected, remember? Wouldn't it make more sense to have me go?"
"It would," Edward surprisingly agreed. "However, this mysterious e-mailer believes he or she is contacting Carlisle. Since we're the only ones left..." Renesmee opened her mouth for an obvious counterattack, but Edward was quicker. "I also need you somewhere where I know you're safe."
"But, Daddy-"
"You need to watch over our family, Renesmee. I'm not going to lead you into some unknown danger. You are not convincing me otherwise."
My niece's lips curved into a stubborn pout, but she didn't say anything. Edward had left no room for argument. I had learned early on to not interfere with Edward's and Bella's parenting - it was their job, after all, and Esme had warned me to keep my adoration for this sweet child in check. It had been hard to accept, but Esme had been right, and I knew it. For all intents and purposes, Edward and Bella were wonderful parents. Was Edward's choice right this time? I had no idea. And I doubted he had any idea what he was doing, either.
With a sigh, Edward pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes, a gesture he responded to stress with. I tapped my foot.
"Let's get the shelter decent, and then move... move their bodies," Edward finally decided. "Then we'll discuss the details of our next move afterward."
Emmett's smile ran through my mind, parallel to his sleeping state, and I inwardly cringed. First Jasper, then Bella, then Esme and Carlisle, then Alice, and then my Emmett, until Edward, Renesmee, and I were the only Cullens left functional and moving and alive. Alice's plan or not, storing their quiescent bodies ten feet underground as if it was our family grave was not on my list of dream-come-trues.
OoOoOoO
With six Cullens tucked in a bunker, safe and sound and sleeping, I was ready to set out to a train station with Edward, following his crazy leads. Contrary to what came out of my mouth, I knew Edward wasn't stupid. So, this scavenger hunt had better be worth it.
"Aunt Rose?" Renesmee met me in the living room as I set my backpack on the couch. "Promise me you'll get along with my dad. That the two of you will work together. I know you guys can - I've heard stories. So, you have to do it again, okay?"
I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, where I knew, just beyond it, Edward was listening in like the spying bastard he was. There was only so much I could stand about him, and so much less that I liked about him. But the truth was, Edward was my brother, my family, someone who had helped me through some difficult times in my head, even when I had done nothing to deserve his kindness. And I supposed that was what family was, wasn't it? Despite everything else, we were in it together.
"Don't you worry, honey," I said. "There is too much at stake here for either of us to waste our time arguing about why I'm always right."
There was a quiet huff from upstairs, and I smirked. Renesmee reached forward and pulled me into an embrace that might've hurt had I been human. I squeezed back with equal intensity. To be honest, I was worried about my niece here alone with nothing but six still and useless bodies.
"She'll be fine," Edward said, coming down from the stairs with his backpack strapped across his shoulders.
Renesmee realized he was referring to my thoughts about her, rather than her thoughts about me, and the young girl gave me a hard, determined look that I had seen one too many times on her mother's face. Stubborn.
"Don't you – either of you – worry about me, alright? I have the easy part in all this nonsense."
She spat out 'nonsense' as if it had burned her tongue. Edward and I shared a knowing look, and Ness sighed, sad, and obviously unsure of Edward's and my future. There was no point in trying to assure her everything would be fine, because I didn't know the answer to that myself, and I sure as hell was not going to lie. It would be worse to get Ness's hopes up for nothing, when the chances of our success were absolutely unknown and, if anything, quite low. I wondered if we even had a chance at all.
"Let's go," Edward said gruffly.
"We'll go when I'm ready," I snapped, pulling my own backpack onto my shoulders.
"Which you are," Edward said, smug as ever. "So we're leaving."
Reluctant as I was, I followed my darling brother out the door, glaring at him the entire time. "You better understand that you are not bossing me around the entirety of this trip or you will finally see what happens to you once Ness is no longer around to protect you."
"I am sure we'll see who will need the protection should anything come up," Edward countered.
I ignored him as I turned to wave once more at Renesmee. She watched us go, silent and still, a sadness in her round eyes, for she had more likely than not was listening to our hateful banter and knew, just as I did, that our feelings toward each other would either help us achieve our goal or hinder us completely. Edward knew it, too. It almost seemed cruel to leave it up to us. The fate of the family linked by the two Cullens with the least amount of chemistry. And, yes, I supposed if I had learned anything in my too-long life it was that Fate was a bit of a sadist.