Chain Reaction

Chapter 30 – more fragments of a whole

What if, in the escape of '09, Max hadn't escaped with the others? What if Jondy had tried to save her when she fell in the ice, but in the end they both got caught?

…

'14

Charlotte

Syl woke slowly, her mind fuzzy. She remembered eating dinner with Krit, and talking about where they would head off to next. They'd been in Charlotte for almost a month now, and they rarely stayed in any place for longer than that. She didn't remember going to bed, however. Slowly, Syl opened her eyes, but her sight was blurry. When she tried to raise her arm to rub her eyes, she found she couldn't lift it at all.

That was funny. It felt like her arms were tied down. She tried to move her legs. It felt like they were tied down too. She wiggled her hips. Nothing was binding her midsection, that was good. And her head? She rolled it from side to side, dropped it forward. Good, no ties there either. Her sight was beginning to clear as well, though slowly.

A noise to her left forced Syl to remember that being tied down was never a good thing. She turned her head to the side, and saw the vague outline of someone. Someone who was pointing something at her. She blinked rapidly a few times, trying to clear her sight quickly. The outline grew sharper. It was…

"Krit? Why in hell are you pointing a gun at me?"

Krit didn't answer. Another few minutes passed, and Syl's sight cleared almost completely. Now that she could see clearly, she realised it wasn't a normal gun he was pointing at her, it was a tranquilliser dart gun. A tranq gun? Did that mean…

"You shot me with a f-cking tranq gun?! What on earth is going on Krit?"

Krit's eyes flickered over to the bedside table for the briefest moment. Syl looked over at it, and saw a length of cut rope and a pair of syringes. Syl thought she knew what those syringes had held.

"You shot me with a tranq gun, tied me up, and SEDATED me? Krit, you tell me what is going on or so help you god I will murder you with my bare hands."

Krit looked slightly embarrassed. "You, uh… Syl, you kinda went into heat."

Syl blinked. She went into heat? Suddenly, she looked down at herself, and blushed. No wonder Krit was embarrassed.

"You couldn't at least have covered me with something?"

"You wouldn't let me. Even when you were sedated, you moved so much that anything I put over you fell off in the end."

"Can I have something now? Or can you untie me?"

"I guess I can untie you. You've been out for about 24 hours. Star said it didn't usually last longer than that."

"Star said? You've been talking to Star about this?"

"Why do you think I have a tranquilliser gun, Syl? Star told me about a year ago what might happen. She gave me the tranquilliser and sedatives, and told me I should use them when it happened."

As Krit was speaking, he put the gun in the back pocket of his jeans, and came over to the bed. Carefully, he untied Syl's wrists and ankles. As she got up, he pointed to a pile of clothes on the chair next to the bed. Syl grabbed the jeans and shirt and hurriedly pulled them on.

"We didn't… I mean, I didn't do anything to you, did I?"

Krit blushed. "You kissed me. I didn't let you get much further than that."

Syl sighed. "Next time, try and sedate me before I'm down to just underwear, please?"

Krit nodded, and walked around to where she was standing. He threw an arm around her shoulder, and hugged her briefly. Syl turned toward him, placing a gentle hand on his face. He looked weary, like he'd been awake for too many hours. Leaning forward slightly, she pressed her lips against his, and pulled him toward her.

Krit pulled away. "Syl…"

"This is me, Krit. Just me. No wacky hormones, no heat, just me."

Krit gave a tiny smile, and pulled her against his body again. Tilting her head up with one hand, he kissed her hesitantly, as though afraid she'd be the one to pull away this time. Syl was having none of that though, deepening the kiss with a flicker of her tongue against his lips.

Minutes later, they pulled apart. Krit kept one arm around Syl's waist, and cupped her chin in his hand, thumb gently stroking her cheek. He gave her a broad grin.

"So, where to next?"

…

Manticore

Alec didn't sleep well anymore. Every time he closed his eyes, the nightmares plagued him. Hazy nightmares of pain and suffering and of losing something, but when he woke he could never remember just what he had lost. Whatever it was, it hurt to lose it. It hurt a lot.

And so Alec didn't sleep as much anymore. He lay on his bed, and stared at the ceiling night after night. But it was wearing him down. He wasn't like Max and Jondy, he couldn't stay awake for days on end. He needed some sleep. If he didn't get sleep soon, he'd start making a mess of things. Maybe tonight he wouldn't dream. Maybe when he closed his eyes he'd simply fall asleep and wake up the next morning without anything happening in between. Maybe.

She was standing in front of him, arms by her side, not moving at all. She didn't even so much as give him a smile or nod of hello. She just stood there, unmoving, staring at some point over his shoulder. When he turned to see what it was that she was looking at, a cry sounded behind him. Turning back sharply, he just caught the tip of a whip out of the corner of his eye before it disappeared. Pain shone in Max's eyes, but still she didn't move, didn't do anything. He started to reach out to her, and this time saw the whip snapping out and hitting Max squarely in the back. She didn't cry out this time.

Every time he moved, every time he so much as twitched, Max received another lashing with the whip. Alec tried hard not to move at all, tried to will himself into complete and utter stillness, but he didn't seem to have complete control of his body any longer. He found himself off balance from the tiniest puff of wind, and every few minutes he sneezed. And every time, the whip came back.

Alec couldn't tell where the whip came from. Sometimes it appeared from his right, other times from his left. Sometimes it was held high, other times low enough to catch Max across the back of her legs. Never did there seem to be anyone holding onto the end of the whip.

When the last blow sent Max stumbling forward, Alec found himself springing forward to grab the whip. He succeeded, for a moment. He managed to grasp hold of the tip and pull it back toward him. But a shot rang out, and Max screamed, and she was falling, so he let go of the whip and ran to her. But no matter how fast he moved, he couldn't get close to her, couldn't reach her. She was bleeding severely, crying out in pain, and he couldn't help her.

Alec woke with a start. He threw off the sheet covering his now sweat soaked body, and sat on the edge of the bed. The pain was horrifying, and yet even now, just seconds after waking up, he couldn't remember a single solid thing about the dream. He could only remember the pain, and the helplessness. And a sense of immense loss. It made no logical sense.

With a sigh, Alec lay back down on the bed, leaving the covers tangled at the bottom for the moment. One of these days, he would remember just what the nightmares were about. Maybe that would also be the day that he stopped having them.

…

Sacramento

Star and Micah arrived in Sacramento a day later than Star had planned. Her bike, the least powerful machine ever built, had decided to fall apart roughly half way through the trip. Micah was able to fix it, having tinkered with the bike to get it running better in the first place, but it had taken the better part of a day to do so. Star knew she was lucky to have any bike at all, and really she only had it because Micah looked like he was about 16, but that didn't stop her cursing at it when it broke down. Or cursing at the fact that they hadn't been able to afford two bikes.

And so they arrived at Zane's door almost four days after Cass's call for help had come through. Star knocked on the door, and when no one answered quickly enough, she knocked again. She was just about to knock for a third time when a voice called out and told her to just hold on a minute. Five minutes later, the door opened and Tinga motioned for them to come inside and follow her. She led them through the apartment to the bedroom, the only room in the house with any kind of lighting in it.

Star heard Micah gasp from somewhere behind her. The sight in front of her almost made Star gasp as well. Zane was sprawled across the double bed in the middle of the room, skin red and covered in sweat, scratches running up both arms and across his bare chest. On the floor to the right lay a thin mattress, Cass lying half on and half off it, cradling one arm to his chest.

And Tinga, standing at the end of Zane's bed, looked terrible. There were bruises on her jaw and around one eye, cuts across one shoulder and her upper arm, and what looked like scratch marks around both her wrists. The tank top she wore didn't quite cover the edges of a painful looking bruise on her back and uncut shoulder. Tinga looked like she'd not only been dragged through hell, but not been allowed to sleep for weeks on end.

"What happened?" Micah demanded, looking over the three carefully.

"Zane got sick about five or six days ago, we're not exactly sure when. The fever and hallucinations started three or so days ago. Cass and I took it in turns to look after him, hold him down when he started getting really bad. Not quite two days ago, Cass started not feeling well, though, and then during one of Zane's really bad hallucinations, he managed to throw Cass off him and into the doorway. It broke his arm. Cass collapsed last night, and the fever started some time this morning. No hallucinations from him, though."

"What about you? How'd you get hurt?"

"Zane… is pretty forceful. He tends to throw his arms around a lot when he's hallucinating. And somehow he managed to get hold of the knife I'd been using during one of them. Thought I'd been sent to take him back to Manticore."

"The scratches?"

"They both have long nails. And neither likes to be pinned down. Only needed to do that to Cass once, thankfully, when he was having a nightmare. He managed to throw me across the room before I was able to wake him up." Tinga paused for a moment, rubbing at her bruised shoulder. "Zane's scratches, though… I don't know if it's part of the hallucinations or if he really does have the itches. Do you guys know what it is? Did Cass tell you all the symptoms Zane had first? Can we treat it?"

Micah placed a gentle hand on Tinga's shoulder. "Star thought it might be something called tonsillitis. It fit the symptoms Cass told us, mostly, but it doesn't usually get as bad as this. We think… well, we heard some news when we stopped last. Seems there's some new genetically tampered with version of this bug going around. Could be that's what Zane got."

"I thought Manticore made us immune to these kind of things?"

"Only kind of," Star replied. "Mostly, they made us immune to bio warfare, radiation poisoning, that kind of thing. They gave us hyped up immune systems, thinking that would make us immune to all the bugs out in the world. But it doesn't always work. And with genetically modified bugs, our immune systems aren't that much better than the average humans. It doesn't matter, anyway. We bought antibiotics. They should help."

"And if they don't?"

"We'll figure that out later. For now, we need to get these two started on the meds. And you need to sleep, Tinga. Micah and I can look after them."

Tinga nodded, relief visible in her face. "There's a couch in the living room. Just let me show you where some things are, first, and then I'll go sleep there."

"Show Micah where everything is. I'm going to try and get Zane and Cass to take the medication."

As Micah and Tinga left the room, Star moved over to the double bed, and sat down next to Zane. She managed to pull him into the sitting position without any worries, and reached over to pick up the glass of water from the bedside table. As she did so, Zane's head jerked upward, and he tried to pull himself out of Star's grip. Star turned back to him just as his arm swung out, catching her across the jaw. Star ignored the pain, grabbed hold of both of Zane's arms, and pushed him back down onto the bed. She pressed one knee into his thighs, the other pushed into the side of his chest to keep her balance. She held him down until his body was still and his head fell back onto the pillow.

Releasing her hold on Zane, Star got off the bed turned toward the door, where Micah had just entered.

"This could take awhile, Micah."

…