Disclaimer: The Host belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I just like to mess around with her characters from time to time. I am not and will not be making any kind of profit from this.
A/N: Thank you to ChampionShoes, melissaturkey and FangedLeaf for your reviews! I really do appreciate them and I'm so glad that you like the story so far. :) Once again, most of the dialogue in this is coming straight out of The Host, this time from pages 177 to 186. And before anyone gets confused, I'd just like to say that there's a reason why Ian suddenly switches pronouns and I'm sure you'll all understand why too. :) So please read and review!
Two
It was extremely tense in the caves after we failed to kill the parasite. To say that people were pissed about Jeb's new rule would have been a massive understatement. No one understood why it should be Jared's decision when he was the only one who couldn't be objective. If Jeb had just wanted it to live, he could have made that decision himself. And it was obvious that he wanted it to live for some reason. It only got worse when he decided to take it to the river rooms in the middle of the day. Like it wasn't bad enough that he was letting it stay here, but he was letting it know the entire layout of the place. I guess so when it got its little Seeker buddies, it would know our hiding spots.
The worst part, though, was when Jamie snuck down to see it. Jared had been livid that one of us had even told him where it was. Frankly, I agreed with him. I had thought Kyle had been hitting below the belt when he happened to mention it right in front of him. Jamie definitely wasn't a kid; he had seen too much and lived through more than enough to be considered a man but he was still sensitive like a kid was, especially when it came to his sister. And letting him know that she had been taken and erased… well, no one should have to deal with that, especially not someone as young as Jamie. I hadn't stopped Jared when he decided to mess Kyle's nose up even further as a way to get back at him.
Kyle was convinced that Jared couldn't guard it all the time and he started going down to the hole in the middle of the night. I knew this was a waste of time, Jared would never let his guard down until he was ready to let it die but I didn't say anything to Kyle about it. Once he got something into his head, he simply wouldn't let it go. I refused to accompany him on these trips. Frankly, I didn't want to see if Jeb would follow through on his threat of asking questions second. And I still had that nagging feeling that killing it would be wrong. I had to get out of the caves and away from the tension because I was pretty sure it was messing with my mind. I even convinced Kyle to come with me. We had the perfect reason to go out into the desert now. The seekers had realized that Melanie's parasite was missing and they had formed a little search party. We had to go out there to make sure that they didn't find our home. We would have to trust that Jared would stop it if it tried to escape and meet up with them.
It was pretty strange watching the Seekers. We had been out in the world with the parasites enough times for it to be considered almost normal. It was hard to be nervous about being around them, especially when we were hiding out in the desert. Besides, we both had our magic little pills in our pockets and we weren't scared to use them. Everyone in the caves lived by the philosophy that it would be better to die than get erased and inadvertently betray all of our friends. We were able to see the Seekers completely, with the help of a few binoculars, from the top of one of the mountainous landmarks out in the desert without being seen.
Most of the Seekers were not that interested in the search. They stayed near the wash where the car had been dumped and it was clear that they thought it had simply died somewhere out in the desert. Only one was convinced that it was still alive. It was smaller than the others and dressed in all black, even though it must have been dying in the heat.
"Look at that," Kyle said, pointing to the smaller one. "It's carrying."
"So what?" I asked.
"So, it's got a Glock. None of the rest have anything like that," he said. "Don't you think that's a little weird?"
"I guess." Kyle was right, even though I didn't really want to admit it. Something like that would definitely only go to his head. But most Seekers had small revolvers, if they even carried at all. There were so few humans left now that they didn't really see the point in keeping any of our weapons around anymore.
"And look at how it's annoying the others," he said, pointing towards a Seeker that looked like it was a step away from wringing the smaller one's neck. It was a strange sight to see. Most of them acted like they were straight out of Pleasantville but the small one must have been incredibly obnoxious. All of the other Seekers avoided it, like they simply didn't want to deal with it or something. "It's pretty strange, don't you think?" I had to agree with him. It was one of the weirdest things about the creatures that had overtaken our planet, they were all so fucking nice. They had thrown out all of our weapons, gotten rid of our money and volunteered to do things like pick up trash. It was like they thought acting like the Cleavers would make up for the fact that they had wiped out an entire species of sentient beings.
Luck was on our side that night. They stupidly left a bunch of trash out in the middle of their campsite, attracting at least a half dozen coyotes. One of them ended up getting dragged off a good ways into the desert before the rest were able to scare the animals off. Then it was like a light had gone off over their heads. They packed up all of their stuff quickly and left. They must have assumed that the same thing had happened to the alien we had back at the caves. The only one who didn't believe it was the small, annoying one. It actually looked like it was shouting at the others. I had never seen any of them even get into a disagreement and this one was full-out arguing with them. Or at least it was trying to, the rest didn't pay any attention to it. Once the others were gone, it got back in its car and drove back and forth on the highway. It was pretty bizarre but it simply refused to believe that Melanie – or whatever it was that was inside Melanie – was dead.
When we got back to the caves, everyone seemed to be convinced that that was it. No one seemed to think that the small, annoying Seeker was a threat except for Kyle and I. It was clear that this Seeker was different from the others. It kind of reminded me of a pit bull, it refused to let up now that it had its teeth in something. I was convinced that it would keep looking for Melanie until it either found us or died, and I really didn't want to know what our odds were.
I needed to talk to Jared about this new development. I knew he would see things from my perspective. He might even come up with some way to take the little bugger down. That night I lied to Kyle and told him I would try to kill Melanie's parasite so that he would stay in our room and away from the storage area. I made my way down to the caves silently, hoping that no one would catch me. Jared must have been sleeping, the mat was laid out in front of the hole and his hair was sticking up in all directions but he was already on his feet and pointing the gun at me the second I turned the corner. And this was why Kyle wouldn't get near Melanie's body unless Jared decided to let him. The man was like some kind of machine. He was always alert, even when he was sleeping, and he was clever as hell. I would gladly put my life at the mercy of his instincts. That wasn't something I could say about anyone else in the caves, even my brother.
"Easy," I said softly, stopping so I wouldn't startle him. I knew he would shoot me if he thought I was trying to threaten him or it. I held my hands up in a gesture of surrender to show that I didn't have any weapons on me. Not that it mattered, I had already tried to kill the little bugger with my own hands. "I come in peace."
"Whatever you're selling, I'm not buying," he said. His voice was hard with his anger.
"I just want to talk," I said as I started walking closer to him. "You're buried down here, missing the important discussions… We miss your take on things." Or I did anyways. Kyle was too angry with him right now to miss him all that much. But I knew that Jeb always liked to know what his opinion was before he made any kind of decision. Like I said, everyone here would trust Jared with their life.
"I'm sure," he said sarcastically.
"Oh, put the gun down. If I was planning to fight you, I would have come with four guys this time."
My joke fell flat but I guess I expected that. It wasn't even really that funny. He thought it over for a moment and then he sat down, halfway in front of the hole where he was keeping the parasite. He kept the gun pointed in my direction. "How's your brother?" he asked, sounding almost amused.
I sat down next to him slowly – he would shoot me if he thought I was going to kill it. There was no doubt in my mind about it. "He's still fuming about his nose. Oh well, it's not the first time it's been broken. I'll tell him you said you were sorry."
"I'm not," he said, his voice flat.
"I know. No one is ever sorry for hitting Kyle." We both laughed at that. It was the truth, Kyle almost always deserved it.
"So what do you want, Ian? Not just an apology for Kyle, I imagine." I could tell he didn't want me to stay down here for longer than necessary. He didn't trust me entirely around his new pet Martian.
I decided to get to the point because I didn't like having the rifle pointed at me. "Did Jeb tell you?" I wasn't sure how much Jared knew. He had been down here by himself for almost a week now. It was clear he didn't like having Jeb around because he was kind to the alien so I wasn't sure if Jeb was giving him any updates on life outside of this hallway.
"I don't even know what you're talking about."
"They've given up the search. Even the Seekers." He didn't say anything but I could see all the muscles in his body tensing, as if he were getting right to fight. "We've been keeping a close watch for some change, but they never seemed overly anxious. The search never strayed from the area where we abandoned the car, and for the past few days they were clearly looking for a body rather than a survivor. Then two nights ago we caught a lucky break – the search party left some trash in the open and a pack of coyotes raided their base camp. One of them was coming back late and surprised the animals. The coyotes attacked and dragged the Seeker a good hundred yards into the desert before the rest of them heard its screams and came to the rescue. The other Seekers were armed, of course. They scared the coyotes off easily, and the victim wasn't seriously hurt, but the event seems to have answered any questions they might have had about what happened to our guest here. So they packed up and left. The Seekers gave up the search. All the volunteers went home. No one is looking for it." I turned my head slightly and looked into the hole but all I could see was a dark shape huddled near the far wall. "I imagine it's been declared officially dead, if they keep track of those things the way we used to. Jeb's been saying 'I told you so' to anyone who'll stand still long enough to hear it."
"Of course Jeb would assume the best," Jared grumbled under his breath. I had to agree with him. It was strange how Jeb was suddenly all optimistic when it came to this parasite. If it wasn't entirely impossible, I would have thought that he was one of them. Jared sighed and said, "All right, then. I guess that's the end of it."
"That's what it looks like. Except… Well, it's probably nothing at all." I knew this would pique his interest. I had to tell him about the other Seeker, the one who didn't want to give up.
"Go on."
"No one but Kyle thinks much of it, and you know how Kyle is." Jared grunted his agreement to that statement. "You've got the best instincts for this kind of thing; I wanted your opinion. That's why I'm here, taking my life into my hands to infiltrate the restricted area. You see, there's this one… a Seeker, no doubt about that – it packs a Glock. Kyle was the first to notice how this one stood out. It didn't seem important to the rest – certainly not part of the decision-making process. Oh, it had suggestions enough, from what we could see, but no one seemed to listen to it. Wish we could've heard what it was saying… Anyway, when they called off the search, this one wasn't happy with the decision. You know how the parasites are always so… very pleasant? This was weird – it's the closest I've ever seen them come to an argument. Not a real argument, because none of the others argued back, but the unhappy one sure looked like it was arguing with them. The core group of Seekers disregarded it – they're all gone."
"But the unhappy one?" he asked.
"It got in a car and drove halfway Phoenix. Then it drove back to Tucson. Then it drove west again."
"Still searching," he said, agreeing with my opinion of the thing.
"Or very confused. It stopped at that convenience store by the peak. Talked to the parasite that worked there, though that one had already been questioned."
"Huh." He sounded like he was trying to figure it out.
"Then it went for a hike up the peak – stupid little thing. Had to be burning alive, wearing black from head to toe." A loud hiss came from the hole, like the parasite inside it knew who we were talking about. "What was that?" I said, a little shocked by its reaction. We both turned and looked into the cave but we couldn't see much of anything – or at least I couldn't. Jared grabbed the lamp beside him and held it up to the hole. I couldn't help but wince at what I saw. It was huddled up against the back wall with its hands covering its face. But I could see the bruises now, the clear outline of my hands on its neck made me feel sick to my stomach. It was clearly afraid because it was trembling and its eyes were wide in absolute terror … but why would it be scared of the Seeker? I figured it would be upset that they had stopped searching for it. Or was it scared of us? Guilt almost overwhelmed me then. But I shouldn't feel guilty about this – it was one of them, for Christ's sakes! But even still, I couldn't shake the feeling that it didn't deserve what I had almost done to it. "Look at its eyes," I said. "It's frightened."
Jared was as interested in the why as I was. All he could see was that it knew who we were talking about. "Who is the Seeker in black?" he half-shouted at her. Her lips trembled but she didn't answer. "I know you can talk," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "You talk to Jeb and Jamie. And now you're going to talk to me." He climbed in the hole then, kneeling over her. "Tell me what you know. Who is the Seeker in black? Why is it still searching?"
I couldn't let him interrogate her like this. She was already scared out of her mind and he was not helping. Maybe if he stopped shouting at her, and showed her that she had no reason to be afraid, she would tell us what she knew. "Ah – Jared?" I said softly, trying not to frighten her anymore. "Maybe you should let me –"
He cut me off. "Stay out of it!"
I tried to climb in after him but the hole was just so small. I could barely fit in there with the two of them. "Can't you see that it's too scared to talk? Leave it alone for a sec –"
Jared turned around quickly and, before I even had a chance to defend myself, he punched me in the mouth. Again. I fell out of the hole onto my back. I spit out the blood and growled, "That's twice."
"I'm ready to go for three," he muttered. He turned back towards the girl, taking the lamp with him and I was suddenly laying out in complete darkness. Once I was sure that he hadn't knocked any of my teeth out, I looked back into the hole and watched him ask her more questions. "Who. Is. The. Seeker." His voice promised more violence, directed at her this time, if she still refused to answer. She dropped her hands then and stared up at him. He seemed to read something in her eyes because his voice wasn't as hard and angry when he spoke again. "I don't have to hurt you but I do have to know the answer to my question. Tell me."
"The Seeker," she said. Her voice was soft and rough, like she hadn't used it in a long time.
"We already know it's a Seeker," he said impatiently.
"No, not just any Seeker," she whispered. "My Seeker."
"What do you mean, your Seeker?"
"Assigned to me, following me. She's the reason –" She stopped talking suddenly, like she had given too much away.
"The reason?" he prompted, anxious to get the whole story.
"The reason I ran away. The reason I came here."
Jared's mouth hung open in shock and I knew I had a similar expression on my face. So it was the Seeker she was scared of after all… It still didn't make any sense.
"You ran away from a Seeker? But you're one of them!" He quickly regained his composure and asked, "Why would it follow you? What did it want?"
She swallowed nervously. The sound was loud in the small cave. "She wanted you. You and Jamie."
Jared's muscles tensed up again. "And you were trying to lead it here?" I knew that her answer to this question would dictate whether she would live or die once this interrogation was finished.
"I didn't… I…" She was shaking her head but her response was suspicious.
"What?"
"I… didn't want to tell her. I don't like her."
"Don't you have to like everyone?" he asked. But I didn't find her response strange. It didn't seem like any of the other Seekers liked it much either.
"We're supposed to," she said, her cheeks darkening in embarrassment.
"Who did you tell about this place?" I asked. I had to know if there was anyone else that knew about the caves. If they did… well, we would all be screwed then.
"I couldn't tell – I didn't know… I just saw the lines. The lines on the album. I drew them for the Seeker… but we didn't know what they were. She still thinks they're a road map." So she had told someone, although it had been done inadvertently. But the Seeker only had the clues, she didn't know about the caves. She didn't even know that anyone was out here. All she knew were squiggles left on a photo album… that was definitely a small relief.
Jared didn't seem to share my opinion. He raised his hand, like he was going to hit her or worse, but then he dropped it. "What do you mean you didn't know what they were? You're here."
"I… I was having trouble with my… with the… with her memory. I didn't understand… I couldn't access everything. There were walls. That's why the Seeker was assigned to me, waiting for me to unlock the rest."
We were both shocked at that information. I had never heard any stories about the bodies resisting their new hosts. It was too much to hope for. I didn't want to think about it because I wanted so desperately for it to be true. And I couldn't be sure if she was lying or not, trying to distract us from the fact that she had told the Seeker just enough about our home.
"Were you able to access my cabin?" he asked, his voice acidic.
"Not for a long time."
"And then you told the Seeker?"
"No."
"No? Why not?"
"Because… by the time I could remember it… I didn't want to tell her."
I felt like my entire body was frozen in shock. This wasn't what I was expecting. It didn't make sense for her to not tell the Seeker about the cabin. From what I had gathered about these worms, they liked to help their version of the law enforcement as best as they could. And they enjoyed keeping their human ties; they would often stay with their human body's spouses even after they were both infected. So, logically, this one would want Jared found so that she could be with him again and yet she had actively kept things from the Seekers so that he wouldn't be found. It wasn't logical.
"Why didn't you want to tell her?" Jared asked. Her jaw locked and it was quite obvious that she wasn't going to answer that question so he moved on to another one. "Why weren't you able to access everything? Is that… normal?"
"She fell a long way. The body was damanged." Her lie was obvious, it was practically written all over her face. She wasn't used to lying, much like the rest of the other "souls." Although I have no idea why she would lie about this. If anything, this would be the thing that would save her. And the fact that her lie was so obvious now made me believe that she hadn't been lying before, when she had mentioned Melanie's body resisting her.
But I had another question that was almost as important. "Why isn't this Seeker giving up like the rest?"
She slumped against the wall, like she was exhausted by our questions. "I don't know," she whispered. "She's not like other souls. She's… annoying." I couldn't stop myself from laughing at this. I had never heard one of them speak badly about anyone. It was quite the thing to hear. But it must have been the truth, it seemed like the other Seekers would agree with her on that.
"And you – are you like the other… souls?" Jared asked. She looked up at him for a long moment, her exasperation written all over her face. Then she buried her face in her knees. She was done answering questions… for now.
Jared had a little bit of difficulty climbing back out of the hole and stretched his body out. It must have been really uncomfortable in there. And I felt a small bit of indignation for her because even though he knew exactly how uncomfortable it was in there, he still made her sleep on the uneven rocky floor. I doubted she could even stretch her whole body out in there. But there was no other place to hide her, and I wasn't going to say anything to Jared about it. He'd probably punch me in the mouth again. I doubt I'd be lucky enough to keep all my teeth after a third punch.
"That was unexpected," I whispered once he sat back down next to me.
"Lies, of course," he whispered back. "Only… I can't quite figure out what it wants us to believe – where it's trying to lead us."
"I don't think it's lying. Well, except the one time. Did you notice?"
"Part of the act."
I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. I really doubted it was that good of an actress. "Jared, when have you ever met a parasite who could lie about anything? Except a Seeker, of course."
"Which it must be."
I couldn't believe him. "Are you serious?"
"It's the best explanation."
"She – it is the furthest thing from a Seeker I've ever seen. If a Seeker had any idea how to find us, it would bring a whole army."
"And they wouldn't have found anything. But she – it got in, didn't it?" What he was saying made sense but I couldn't believe it for some reason.
"It's almost been killed half a dozen –"
"Yet it's still breathing, isn't it?"
I shook my head. He was almost always right when it came to the parasites but he was so far off the mark this time. There was no way this girl could be a Seeker. Seekers had always been more violent than the rest of them and this one had yet to raise a hand to any of us, even in self-defense. Even when we were all ready to kill her, she had simply stood there and let us. I knew that Jeb had his own theories about this. I'd have to talk to him about it… and I'm sure he'd like to hear what she had told Jared. "I think I'm going to go talk to Jeb," I whispered.
"Oh, that's a great idea," he said sarcastically.
"Do you remember that first night? When it jumped between you and Kyle? That was bizarre."
"It was just trying to find a way to stay alive, to escape…"
"By giving Kyle the go-ahead to kill her – it? Good plan." I had to try to get him to see it from my perspective. This parasite was not a Seeker. Something was definitely up with her but I really didn't think that she was a danger to us anymore.
"It worked." He seemed to have an excuse for everything.
"Jeb's gun worked. Did she know he was on his way?"
"You're overthinking this, Ian. That's what it wants."
I did roll my eyes at him then. "I don't think you're right. I don't know why… but I don't think she wants us to think about her at all." I got to my feet and sighed. "Do you know what's really twisted?"
"What's that?" he asked curiously.
"I felt guilty – guilty as hell – watching her flinch away from us. Seeing the black marks on her neck."
Jared looked horrified at my revelation. "You can't let it get to you like that. It's not human. Don't forget that."
"Just because she isn't human, do you think that means she doesn't feel pain? That she doesn't feel just like a girl who's been beaten – beaten by us?" I asked as I walked away. I wasn't about to say this within striking distance. It's not that I'm scared of getting hit, I would gladly take a beating for my beliefs, but Jared's hatred was so obvious that I didn't even know what he would do if I really pushed it. Plus, he still had Jeb's gun within arm's reach.
Instead of checking in with Jeb, I went right to the room I shared with my brother. I couldn't escape the truth in the words I'd spoken. It was true, we had stepped over the line a long time ago when it came to her. We didn't know if she had been responsible for the invasion of our Earth and yet we punished her for it. Hell, I didn't even think she had asked to be put into Melanie's body and yet we held her responsible for it. It wasn't right. I didn't want to feel this way. I would be glad for my brother's blind hatred or Jared's anger because at least that would make sense. But I had this strange need to almost… protect her from them. I could not allow her to be treated the way they were treating her and still be a decent human being. That night I dreamt about dark, hand-shaped bruises on tan skin and hazel eyes widened with the fear of the monster I'd let myself become. When I woke up the next morning, I decided to give the alien a chance.
