I know that this chapter is much shorter than I would like, but the ending seemed logical where I placed it. I'll just have to make up for it in the next chapter! Please Review!

Chapter 9

Commander Taylor strode into the infirmary with Wash and Guzman close behind. They walked up to Elizabeth and Malcolm, who were pouring over some readings lit up on a med screen. As Taylor stopped in front of the pair, they looked up and started informing the Commander of their unfortunate news. Elizabeth started by describing the virus that has been infecting the colony. She covered every piece of basic knowledge on the virus. Only one Terra Novian was in danger of dying from the virus, and he was believed to be patient 0. Elizabeth and Malcolm settled on the theory that the worker, who was on agricultural detail, picked the virus up OTG from a bite he had received during the possible infection window. Elizabeth continued to explain that once the virus got inside of him it became able to spread through the air via sneezing or similar methods. Also, Elizabeth sighed,

"But once the virus reaches a certain threshold, it goes berserk and magnifies its range of infection very substantially. After someone has been infected for as little as two days, they can become incapacitated almost instantly."

Taylor just looked at them.

"Is there a cure?" He asked calmly.

Elizabeth and Malcolm glanced at each other wearily as Malcolm continued to explain,

"This cure would require the perfect interaction of several specific plant properties. We have a chemical record of the exact plant that we need for this cure. It's a rare type of thistle that we refer to only by its scientific name . . . Unfortunately, whenever it is cultivated from its only known growing site, it withers and dies within two days so we don't have any usable samples here. There is something in the soil, that we still have yet to isolate, that keeps it alive. Its properties are so unique that it would take far too long to synthesize an equivalent compound in enough quantities for a vaccine."

Taylor rubbed his brow and said,

"Where does this plant grow Malcolm?"

"A little over11 klicks to the North, on the edge of a swamp near the Badlands."

"It's getting dark Malcolm, we'd better get moving."

Taylor turned and walked out of the infirmary and towards the gate. He started ordering his men around as Malcolm caught up to him and said wearily,

"We?"

"Someone has to identify the plant Malcolm. Come on, you'll ride with Guzman and Wash." Taylor turned to his other men as he reached the gate, "Miles, you'll drive Shannon and myself."

Taylor gave his soldiers a quick briefing on the situation. In response, every soldier was ordered to run in high gear, either by rounding up the infected citizens, or prepping the two rovers about to head out to obtain the samples of thistle. Night was creeping over the colony, but there was no time to waste. Taylor quickly assigned another man to each rover for backup and they sped out of Terra Nova and into the darkness.

About six klicks into the drive, they entered a more hostile part of the forest. Rebecca had to constantly pace herself in order to keep the headlights of the rover behind her in sight. Suddenly a noise erupted from behind Rebecca's rover and the radio began to transmit frantically,

"This is Guzman, we hit something back here! Requesting backup, we're immobile."

Rebecca didn't wait for Taylor's command, she turned the rover on a dime and doubled back to find the other rover. They found them with a slashed tire only a short distance away from a very large and rather sharp-looking rock. Wash, Guzman, and the third soldier were setting up a few lights to surround the rover. Malcolm had started to climb out, but Taylor jumped out of Rebecca's rover first and shouted,

"Malcolm, stay inside!"

He stopped and grudgingly moved back into the rover. Rebecca and Guzman had started working on replacing the tire. Minutes seemed to crawl by as the remaining soldiers patrolled their makeshift perimeter with guns at the ready. The hairs on the back of Rebecca's neck bristled and she froze. Guzman looked at her and called her name softly. After a few seconds she came back to reality and looked at him in silence. He seemed to understand that she was upset and they both stood up and backed away from the tire reaching for their guns. Taylor was instantly by their side,

"What is it?"

Rebecca whispered,

"Something is wrong."

Taylor was surprised at how scared she was. He wanted to comfort her in some way, but embracing her was out of the question. Instead he said one of the safest things he could think of,

"Go back to work, I'll cover you."

Rebecca looked at him wearily but started back to the tire. Just as she reached it a branch snapped behind them from a nearby bush. Rebecca flinched towards it with her gun back at the ready. On the other side of the rover Wash yelled out and shots were fired. Her back appeared from around the rover and she joined the others. She turned and looked right at Rebecca and said calmly,

"Slashers."

Taylor snapped his head over to Rebecca and his glance was filled with obvious concern. By now Malcolm was even out of the rover with a gun in his hands, and clearly ignoring Taylor's order. He looked at Rebecca too, and suddenly she snapped.

"I'll be fine," she said harshly, and quickly she tried to push the nagging concern to the back of her mind. By some crazy circumstances, she had managed to avoid encountering any Slasher in the years since she earned her scar. Rebecca didn't know what to expect. Before she could stop herself, she glanced back over to Taylor not even knowing why. All she got from him was a stern look that seemed rather forced so she quickly looked away, understanding his unspoken message.

Two Slashers appeared from the brush. They stood their ground as sonic blasts crashed into them. One tilted its head upward and started to screech over and over. When Rebecca heard the call, her blood turned to ice. For the first time in her life she felt absolute fear. The scar on her face carried more weight emotionally than she had ever imagined. Rebecca started to stagger backwards and away from the sound. Her newfound panic was shutting down all of her years of training and fighters instinct. Shannon was the first to notice Rebecca's reaction. He yelled out her name, drawing Taylor's attention as well. The world around Rebecca moved in slow motion as Taylor shouted something over to her, but she heard nothing more than the Slasher's screeches. Her breathing became reminiscent of her asthma attacks as Taylor continued his soundless shouting and the other soldiers opened fire around them. Suddenly, something made her jerk forward, and that was when Taylor stopped shouting and started running towards her.

Taylor didn't notice the Slasher come up from behind Rebecca. He only saw the tip of the Slasher's barb sticking out from the front of Rebecca's armor when it was too late. He ran to her as fast as he could, switching his gun out of sonic blast mode and started firing rounds into the Slasher before he reached Rebecca's collapsed form.

"No!" He cried out, for the first time in years not caring if anyone saw his emotionless façade crashing down. He cared for Rebecca and he was tired of pretending.

He fell to his knees and picked Rebecca partially up off of the ground with one arm, still letting loose a constant stream of bullets into the Slasher. Jim watched the scene unfold in shock as his wife's words echoed in his head, 'do you think Commander Taylor is involved with one of his soldiers?' And he had just laughed when she suggested he was involved with Rebecca. Jim rushed over to them and helped Taylor drive the Slasher away. When it was finally gone, Taylor dropped his gun and put his other arm around Rebecca. He seemed oblivious to the fact that there were still more Slasher's attacking the other men. Shannon quickly surveyed the fight and saw Wash steal a glance over to his side of the battlefield just as Taylor yelled out. She staggered, astonished at the sight of her sister on the ground and in Taylor's arms, but she quickly turned to fend off the attacking Slasher in front of her.

Rebecca felt numb, and she didn't feel any pain or emotion. She was just fading in and out of consciousness. She saw flashes of what was going on above her with unseeing eyes, but mostly she blankly remembered Taylor's face looking down upon her. That was the last thing that she saw as she finally blacked out.

As Rebecca relaxed in his arms, Taylor noticed a small smile cross her face. Then, he whispered something so softly that Jim wasn't even sure if Taylor had said anything. Taylor leaned down even closer towards her lifeless face and whispered,

"Don't you dare leave me."