July 27, 2010.
A/N: Look, if you read this, please review. I'm having the worst week, so please, if you actually do read and enjoy this story, please leave some feedback. Otherwise I think I might just discontinue.
Peace out.
Searching for Solace
- FOURTEEN -
March 17 - 11:48
"What the fuck is a gene scan?" Emma said, ever the charming lady.
"Fucked if I know," Morgan replied, swearing pointedly. It seemed that every single sentence uttered from the blonde girl's mouth couldn't be said unless it contained a cuss, and Morgan was already growing tired of it. She sat back on the bench and stretched her arms behind her head. "Possibly what it sounds like?"
"What?" Amy asked. "A scan of someone's genes?"
"Well, you'd think so, wouldn't you?" Daniel grumbled smartly, scuffing the toe of his runner against the pavement. Morgan shot him a warning look. Between him and Emma, the cohesion of the two small groups was being made considerably difficult.
"How do they even do that?" Amy asked, impressed.
Morgan shrugged. "That's irrelevant. They've managed to work it out somehow, so they're doing it. And I'm almost one hundred per cent sure Max was having one today."
"They were checking her genes?" Daniel confirmed.
Morgan glanced at him. "I think so. They definitely checked the other guy's for something. You'd assume they'd have the same procedure for everyone."
"And the scan produced results they wanted," Brody commented, hands jammed in his pockets. He was gazing thoughtfully up at the Alfred. The bench they were sitting on or around was just outside. "So why take the kid's blood?"
"She said it was for confirmation," Morgan recounted. "But the intern didn't need to confirm… They kept the vial, too."
"And the results said the kid's genes were mutant," Emma said, rejoining the conversation. She took a slow drag on her cigarette and exhaled artfully. "Something about all this is seriously fucked up."
There was a long pause. A bird twittered placidly in a nearby tree. Morgan gazed unseeingly at the ever-present glowing Chimera. It was astonishing how used she was to seeing them now. She hardly even noticed them anymore.
"Well," Amy said eventually, "when you think about it, all our genes are mutant, aren't they?"
"What the fuck, Marshall?" Emma snapped. For once, Amy glared back at her.
"Use your head," she replied shortly. "Dr. Shirogane has mutated all our genes. He did it when he made us all Mews."
The light-bulb flew on in Morgan's head. "Oh my God. That's so obviously correct I can't believe none of us thought of it earlier."
Amy beamed with pride.
But that wasn't all that was piecing together inside Morgan's head. She was re-seeing now, in her memory, the kid being scanned, Max being wheeled away for a scan, and the three kids waiting to be scanned.
"All of them had similarities," she said aloud, but speaking more to herself.
"What?" Emma demanded flatly. "What the fuck are you ranting about?"
"Max, the kid getting the scan, and the kids in the ward," Morgan explained. "They were all attacked by Chimera Anima. They all showed the same symptoms. Maybe that's what they were checking for."
Daniel and Amy sent identical, confused looks her way.
"They were checking for cells mutated by Chimera poison," Morgan elaborated. "When the results came back positive, the radiologist definitely seemed to think it was a bad thing."
"Why?" Emma asked immediately. "What's the point? According to you lot, they're all gonna die from it anyway. Why bother scanning their genes for traces of fucking alien goo?"
Morgan sighed. Emma had a point, and she didn't have an answer in rebuttal.
"What was with the 'shot', by the way?" Brody interjected, crossing his muscular arms over his chest. "How does that tie into your theory?"
To be honest, Morgan hadn't included it. Now that she tried, the whole thing made even less sense. Her shoulders sagged with defeat as her idea crumbled to pieces.
"I dunno," she admitted. "But something is absolutely up with that scan. It's not normal. I think what's wrong with the hospital has something to do with that, and the shot, whatever the hell that is."
Another frustrating silence fell.
"So… now what?" Amy asked eventually. "Visiting hours are almost over. If we go back in, we'll just get kicked out again."
Morgan thought for a moment, trying to find a way out of the corner they were backed into. "Ah, fuck. Let's just go back to the apartment for now. There's nothing we can do at the moment."
Emma shot her an angry glare. "Who gave you permission to make decisions for all of us? Learn your fucking place. Come on," she said, turning to Brody and Nick. "Let's go."
"Where are you going?" Amy called irritably after them. Emma didn't reply. It seemed she was turning against the skinny redhead, now that she was associating herself with Morgan, Daniel and Matt.
Amy growled in frustration, pressing her hands down on the peak of her Richmond cap. When she looked up again, her eyes were fiery. "Fine. They're bloody idiots anyway. Let's go home."
Morgan glanced nervously at Daniel, who shrugged. It didn't seem like they had much choice, since they had nowhere else to go. And right now, Amy was not a person one wanted as an enemy.
March 17 - 12:15
"Who's computer?"
Amy glanced around as Morgan sat down tentatively beside her. The desk was cluttered with papers – scrawled notes – and pens. She pushed some of it aside so she had room to prop her elbows. The laptop sitting among the mess was a chunky Dell. Whoever owned it hadn't been taking very good care of it; the screen was smudged with fingerprints, the keys littered with what looked like biscuit crumbs, and there were dents and scratches everywhere.
"Nick's," Amy replied, flicking off a flake of half-melted chocolate. "It's his prized possession."
"Yeah, you can really tell," Morgan commented sarcastically. Amy grinned; Morgan relaxed. So far, so good. It didn't seem as though she was about to get her head bitten off.
"What're you doing?" she asked.
Amy sighed and scratched under her cap. "Checking the memorial list."
"What's that?"
"It's a Facebook page," Amy replied, loading the Facebook main site. Morgan had heard of it – before the invasion, of course. Some of her friends had raved about how good it was, but she hadn't had the opportunity to take a look for herself. Apparently it was the next big thing in online communication. Amy signed in to an account with an odd name – simply 'Mr. X' – and no personal details.
"It's so no-one knows who or where we are," Amy explained. "This is a joint account for all of us, just so we can keep up with what's going on whilst remaining anonymous." She clicked a link and a new page loaded. 'In Memoriam', it was called. From there, she hit yet another link, and they were taken away from Facebook to a completely new site. Morgan narrowed her eyes and read: inmemorium. com/links/census/001.
"They call it a census," Amy said, "because it's basically like a census. These pages contain an A-Z listing of every family name in Victoria. Someone in the government set it up – probably without official consent. It's like a phone book."
"But what's it for?" Morgan asked, confused. It seemed like a hell of a lot of work for such a pointless existence. Amy shifted uncomfortably.
"Well, the idea is that you find your family by surname and address," she said. "Each family has its own page. You open it up… and the details of your family members are listed there."
"So this site tells you all the personal details of everyone in your family, like where they are and stuff?" Morgan asked incredulously. Holy shit, that was dangerous. Talk about stalking!
"No," Amy said. "You're not getting it… Let me show you."
Her mouth set into a grim line, she scrolled up to the site search bar and typed in 'Marshall'. Over a hundred different entries popped up. Beside each one was a residential address. She scrolled slowly through them until she found what she was looking for; an address in Vermont South. When she opened the page a list of names appeared:
Marshall, David
Marshall, Janine
Marshall, Jackson
Marshall, Amy
Marshall, Hannah
Beside the last name was a short sentence: Died hostage at Vermont Secondary College, March 8, 2007. Morgan stared at the horrible little sentence for a moment, then slowly glanced at Amy, who was still grim-faced.
"Yeah," she said, an odd tone in her voice. "My sister died. A Chimera Anima killed her, I'm sure. I wasn't there; I don't know who updated our page."
She clicked back out of her family, returning to the A-Z listing. "Anyone can add entries or details to any of the pages. It's how everyone keeps in touch with what's happening to their families. So many people have been separated since the invasion."
Morgan didn't know what to say. She wanted to ask about the rest of Amy's family, but at the same time, she didn't want to mention it ever again. She wanted to comfort Amy, but barely knew the right things to say or do. She wanted to look up her own family, but at the same time, she didn't really care about where her parents were, and she doubted they were concerned about her. She wanted to know if her brother was okay, but they hardly spoke and had never gotten along, so what was the point?
In the end, she decided against her own family and reached, instead, to type, slowly and with shaking fingers: 'Richards'.
There they were.
Richards, John
Richards, Sally
Richards, Mackenzie
Richards, Sarah
Morgan sighed with relief. At least it seemed everyone in Max's family was still okay. No-one had been confirmed dead. The site didn't provide information on their whereabouts, or when they'd last been seen or contacted, but it did provide comfort in the knowledge that they were still alive. At least she could visit Max now with some good news.
A melodical jingle rang out loudly, interrupting the silence. Amy dug in her pocket and pulled out an old Nokia 3210. The screen was flashing the name 'EMMA'. With an irritated frown, Amy hit answer and held the phone to her ear. "What?"
"Marshall, get your fucking ass down to Albert Park Lake right now!" Emma bellowed. In the background were the alarming sounds of thunderous crashes and shouts.
"What the hell is going on?" Amy demanded, half-angry, half-worried.
"There's fucking Chimeras everywhere, what the fuck do you think?" Emma yelled. "Do you want us to die? Hurry the fuck up!"
The line disconnected as she hung up. Amy stared at the phone, then at Morgan with wide eyes. Morgan's heart was pounding in her chest.
"Guess we'd better get going, then," she said. That seemed to kick-start the bewildered redhead into gear. She jumped up from the desk and dashed away.
"Make sure you've got your pendant," she called over her shoulder. Morgan checked it was safely in her pocket, glancing back at the laptop once before quickly getting up.
"Daniel!" she called, yanking her jacket on as she strode into the hall. "We're going!"
"What?" his irritated voice replied from behind a door to her right; the boy's room. Morgan shoved the door open. Daniel and Matt were both lying on mattresses, apparently taking a nap.
"Get up," Morgan snapped, kicking Daniel's mattress and ignoring his annoyed protests. "Matt, guard the apartment. Daniel, move!"
He rolled over and glared up at her. "What the fuck, Morgan?"
"Get your pendant. We've got a bitch to save."
CULTURE NOTE
Bloody idiot: a very Australian insult. In the drink-driving campaigns on TV, the slogan is: 'If you drink and drive, you're a bloody idiot'.
Albert Park Lake: a huge lake right in the middle of Melbourne. There's an annual grand prix held there :)
NOTES
Nokia3210: Anyone remember those ancient phones? Everyone in Australia had one at some point XD
A/N: Yeah, not the best chapter. But still.
I'll update soon, if there are a couple of reviews. Also, the prologue is now up. So read that, too.
Ciao.
Cherrie x