by Amy Miles
“I don’t understand. If we can’t handle the heat now, why would they be attracted to it then?”
Cable smiles and rests his hand on my hip, curling his fingers around to hold me possessively. “Because they were still evolving at a much slower rate than we were. Heat is what I think drives us to evolve. That is why we suffer from the fever before the initial transformation. The additional heat creates energy and it fuels our bodies. Now that we are complete we shy away from the heat as a natural instinct to pull back from any further mutations.”
I frown and look up at him. “Do you think it is possible to continue to change after all that we have been through?”
“I don’t know.” There is a sadness to his tone that surprises me. “Perhaps one day if it is necessary for us to survive again. The food chain is fluid and shifts with Mother Nature’s demands. Who are we to say that nothing will ever been greater than we are now? Did the Dinosaurs not rule the earth as terrific tyrants at one time? There was no way that they could foresee a great rock falling from the sky that would inevitably wipe them out.”
Standing here surrounded by the army he has amassed, many of which he most likely turned himself, I can’t fathom there being a day when something could be stronger than him. It is a sobering thought and one that I am sure I will ponder over for some time to come. How do you defeat a man who has countless lives at his disposal and few capable of rivaling him?
As I stand there thinking of what the Dinosaurs must have felt in their final moments before fire and ash returned them to the ground from which they came, my thoughts linger on the fire. If Cable is right and excess heat can fuel a mutation, then could the application of cold hold the opposite effect?
When I look back over my shoulder, I see Iris staring at me with a keen intellect. Does she suspect that somehow an exact combination of heat and cold in alternating patterns could somehow reverse the effects permanently? Perhaps there is not a blood born cure that we should be looking for, but one involving basic biochemistry instead.
My reasoning for keeping Iris alive stands on shaky ground but if anyone has the resources to prove my theory, it is her. She has the contacts, she knows the locations of the testing sites. She alone could hold the information crucial to the human race’s survival.
But if she does suspect as I do then that means terrible things are planned for her test subjects as she attempts to manually manipulate the genetic code to create her superior race. It is a great risk to consider allowing her to lie but without her alive the deaths of innocents could be far more widespread.
“Cable, I was wondering if—”
The explosion that sends the ceiling crashing down around us leaves me momentarily deafened as I am thrown from Cable’s grasp. I hit the ground hard and roll several times before I slam to a stop against a wall. Sticky blood has splattered my face and glued my eyelashes shut. Wiping at my eyes to peer through the haze of smoke and debris hovering in the air, I hear howls and growls mingled with gunfire as the ringing in my ears dissipates.
Cable rises near the fire and begins yelling commands. His army immediately responds as they rise from the burning embers, unconcerned with their own damaged limbs. Many are unable to regain their footing but those that do attack with vicious intent.
I hear the static of a radio and look directly overhead to see a man in full military garb lying across the metal ceiling support beams, picking the Flesh Bags off sniper style. The nametag on his breast says Thompson but I barely have a chance to read it before a Flesh Bag leaps into the air, snatches his leg and yanks him to the floor. There is a sickening crunch of bones and I turn away.
Chaos reigns all around me as more Withered attempt to fit into the space, coming from the offshoot hallways and the ballroom. They crawl over each other like mice, eating their way through the soldiers they pick off the ceilings.
“Avery!” I turn to see Flynn dangling from the ceiling nearly twenty feet away with his hands lowered to me, beckoning for me to run to him. Cable turns at the same moment and darts straight toward him.
“Flynn, no!”
I’m still ten feet back when Cable snatches onto Flynn’s arm and yanks him down. The sound of the kid’s shoulder popping out of place makes my knees week as Flynn flops to the floor and his head bounces off the plush carpet. His body goes rigid with pain as Cable stomps down on his hand.
“Get off of him!” I scream and launch myself at Cable.
He takes the brunt of my attack, rolling with me end over end. The carpet eats through the flesh of my arms as I slide, hanging on to Cable’s shirt until we slam into the far wall and take out the legs of half a dozen Flesh bags.
“Flynn, run!” I scream and rise onto my knees to face off with Cable.
“I will not let you hurt him.”
Cable’s face is pale and twisted with rage as he rises to his knees. “You would defy me for a human?”
“No,” I shake my head. “I would defy you for a friend. He saved me when Brian and Iris set their abominations on us in the lab. Without his help I would have died down there. I owe him my life, Cable.”
A muscle beneath his eye twitches. “You owe the humans nothing!”
“This one I do and there are others here too that have helped me.” I raise one hand out to him, begging him to pause long enough to hear me out. “These soldiers saved me when I was hurt and dying. I had blood poisoning from a gunshot and would have died if they had not found me. These men that you are killing took care of me, brought me here and fixed me up. They are not all evil, Cable. Some of them are good.”
“Lies!” His eyes widen enough for me to see small red veins in the whites of his eyes. The muscles in his neck cord up as he leaps to his feet. “They kidnapped you. I felt your fear.”
“No,” I say, stepping toward him with my hands raised. “These men were following order. They were blinded by Iris and Brian but that does not make them bad people. We can help them see the truth. We can guide them to a new way of living so that there can be peace.”
“Peace has never been an option.”
His chest rises and falls as he looks beyond me to where Flynn lies immobilized by the pain in his shoulder. None of the Withered have attacked him so I have to think that Cable has somehow silently called dibs on him.
“It can be an option if you allow it. This is important to me, Cable. Won’t you at least consider it?” I take a step back toward Flynn. “What I want and care about still matters to you, doesn’t it? You came for me because you love me. Now prove to me that you do. Let Flynn live and call back your army. Show the survivors that there is a better path for us all.”
His eyes darken and his fingers curl into fists at his sides. He begins to march toward me but with each step that he takes, the faster I retreat to Flynn’s side. Tripping over his legs, I slam hard to the floor beside him.
I can smell Flynn’s fear and instantly have to battle with the hunger that rises up inside of me. I can see Cable’s need to feed in the dilation of his eyes as he stares only at the prostrate boy.
“Get out of my way, Avery.”
Pushing Flynn behind me, I throw my body across his and Cable comes up short. “If you hurt him you will have to hurt me first.”
Cable swears and plants his feet. “Do not force my hand.”
“It is you who is doing the forcing. Walk away, Cable. This isn’t a fight that you have to win.”
“You would choose him over me?”
“Why can’t I choose both of you?”
Cable’s growl makes the hair on my arms and neck rise and I feel Flynn shrink with fear behind me.
“I asked you earlier if you would pause to think before you killed someone that you love. Well, Flynn is someone that I love, Cable. He is like a brother to me. Are you willing to take the only decent family I’ve ever known away from me?”
“Dammit, A
very I am your family. I am all that you will ever need!” He paces back and forth, seething with anger. “Move aside and I promise it will be over quickly.”
“No.” I pat Flynn’s leg and rise, standing my ground in front of a man who could end me with hardly a thought. I may be strong, but he is stronger. I may be fast, but he will always be faster. He has a full grasp on his abilities while I am still struggling to even begin to comprehend mine.
“I don’t want to fight you, Cable but I will if you force me to.”
Cable turns and spits to the side.
“Avery.”
Cable jerks around and the bulk of his large frame blocks my view of the soldier that has dropped down from the ceiling behind him, but I know his voice. “Nox, run! Get out of here!”
“No.” He shifts to the side and I watch him remove his gas mask. It is only when I see him take a hesitant breath that I taste the bitterness on the air. Near the back of the room, several gas canisters spew forth their tear gas but this time I am unaffected by its effects.
Nox tosses his mask toward Flynn and the boy rushes to put it on as his eyes swell with redness and tears stream down his cheeks. Cable is deadly still as Nox slowly shifts around to the side, drawing closer to me. Cable matches his every movement, never blinking or taking his eyes off of Nox.
“How are you doing over there, dumbass?”
I blink. “This isn’t a joke, Nox. I can’t let you die for me just because you’ve got some wild hair up your ass to be a hero.”
Nox surprises me by smiling but he isn’t looking at me. His gaze is focused only on Cable. “I guess saving the damsel from distress runs in the family, doesn’t it?.”
“Dude.” I barely hear Flynn’s whisper through the mask. “I did not see that one coming.”
I look between the two men, confused by the mounting tension between them.
Nox never looks away from Cable as he stops halfway to my side. “Hello, Cable. Long time no see.”
Cable nods in his direction. “It’s good to see you again, Lenny.”
TWENTY
The instant I hear Cable acknowledge his brother, I’m pretty sure that I’m going to faint. It might not be the worst idea that I’ve had. Sure, I might wake up maimed and covered in zombie shit but it would save me from the massive brain aneurysm that I’m suffering from at the moment.
“You’re shitting me. You’re Lenny?” I screech.
Nox nods but doesn’t look my way. “Lennox is my full name but the guys all know me here as Nox. I let them use it since I wasn’t too eager to give away who I really am since I technically went MIA once things starting falling apart to try to get to my mom and I was worried that it would come back to bite me. Nicknames seem safer these days but Cable always loved to call me Lenny just to tick me off.”
“And it always worked.” I am dumbfounded when a hint of a smile touches Cable’s lips and for the first time I see a bit of a resemblance in coloring of the hair, the strength of their cheek bones and even color of their eyes.
“My mind is officially blown,” Flynn mutters but I wave my hand behind my back at him. The last thing I need is giving Cable a reason to shut him up.
“How could you...why didn’t you... Ah, hell.” I hold my head in my hands. It hurts far too much to think.
“I don’t know if this is what you’re asking,” Nox says. “But I swear I didn’t know. At least not until you pulled me aside earlier. I put the pieces together in the stairwell but with Armageddon biting at our asses I thought it might be better to wait on that conversation until we were less distracted.”
Cable breaks his gaze with Nox and turns to look at me. I see the question in his eyes followed swiftly by anger when I refuse to hold his gaze.
I raise my hand in defense. “It’s not what you think, Cable. You were dead and Nox was the one who saved my life. Twice actually. Or is it three times? I’m really starting to lose count.”
And apparently rambling on has become a thing for me too.
“The point is that he listened. I had no one after I left you.”
“So you left me behind, alive and trapped in a fucking cave, and while I was scouring the countryside to find you, you were shaking up with my brother?”
“Listen to her, Cable. Nothing happened between us.” Nox steps forward with his hands raised. “She is innocent.”
“But you aren’t.” Cable practically spits at his brother. “I should have smell you on her sooner. You always did have a way of getting what you wanted, no matter the cost.”
Nox takes a step back, looking as if he’s just been slapped. “That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” Cable clenches and releases his fists. “How many girls did you bring home before I left for boot camp? How many one night stands and broken hearts did you leave behind? More than I can count.”
Nox swallows hard and refuses to look in my direction. “I’ve changed.”
Cable laughs and begins to pace. “Yeah, well so have I.”
“I can tell.”
I glance over at Nox, wishing that I could warn him not to provoke Cable but he still doesn’t look my way. “What happened to you, Cable? You used to be the good guy. Now you’re just an asshole with serious abandonment issues.”
My breath becomes trapped in my lungs as I wait to see what Cable will do. Like a dog with raised hackles, Cable sinks lower and prepares to fight.
“Listen to me,” I plead, holding my hands out as I step away from Flynn and move closer to Cable. “Nox hasn’t done anything wrong. He hasn’t touched me or hurt me. You know me better than that. Do you really think I would just jump in bed with him so fast?”
Cable’s jaw clenches. “I know what he is like.”
“Maybe you did, but trust in me. I was crushed when I lost you. Walking away from that cave nearly destroyed me but I didn’t pull that trigger because I still had hope of finding a cure and someday being able to come back for you. Does that sound like a person who is ready to accept a one night stand?”
Nox glances at me from the corner of his eye but I refuse to show any emotion. Cable is a time bomb ready to explode and I have to diffuse the situation, no matter what it costs me.
“I love you, Cable. Do you hear me? I love you.”
His posture eases slightly and he turns to look down his shoulder at me. “Prove it.”
“How?”
A slow smile stretches along his once handsome face, but now all I see is ugliness so black I wonder if there was ever truly any light in him. “Kill my brother.”
“No!” Nox holds out his hand to stop me as I step forward. “Do not put that on her, brother. This is between you and me.”
“Do not tell me what to do, Lenny.” A low growl rises in Cable’s throat as he bends his knees and enters a pose that I know will send him speeding like a bullet straight into Nox’s chest a split second after he leaps.
“Cable,” I call softly and wait for him to look at me again. “What is it that you truly want?”
“You. It’s always been about you.”
I move closer to him, stepping between the two of them. I feel Nox reach out and place a warning hand on my arm but I ignore him. “Let Nox, Flynn and the rest of the survivors live and I will go with you.”
Cable arches an eyebrow. “Willingly?”
“Avery, don’t!”
“Stay out of this, Nox,” I hiss and pull out of his grasp. The instant I step away from him I hear the safety switch off and know that he’s got his gun raised with his finger firmly seated on the trigger.
“This is intense,” Flynn mutters behind me and I realize that if he says one more one-liner I’m going to throttle him myself. The kid just doesn’t know when to cover his own ass.
Hell continues to rain down around us. Men and Withered alike are wounded, fall and bleed out amongst d
ebris and ash but somehow Cable keeps us cocooned in an invisible bubble of safety. The Withered glance at us from time to time but none seem capable of penetrating our space.
I take another step forward and Cable tenses. Nox shifts toward me at the same time Cable does and I know that he will stay that way until forced to move. “Would you really kill Nox now that you’ve got what you want? You are brothers and you’ve found each other after all this time. Isn’t that enough?”
“No.” They both say at the same time.
“So that’s it? You are going to fight it out to the death and make me watch?”
Nox flinches as he moves around to my right side to get a clear shot but Cable shows no sign of regret. Of course, he wouldn’t because his goal is to eliminate all ties to my human side. By killing his brother, Cable would accomplish that for both of us.
“I won’t let this happen.”
Cable glances over at me. “You can’t stop it.”
“Can’t I?” I move closer to Cable. “If you harm the people that I have grown to care about I will never forgive you.”
Cable frowns. “I will have you either way.”
“Perhaps.” I stretch out my hand and place it on his arm. “But wouldn’t it be better if I didn’t fight you? If I could be grateful to you for your mercy instead of bitter over what you stole from me?”
From off to the side, I see Nox grow agitated but I force myself to ignore him and the whacked out emotional roller coaster that I’m trapped on right now. Cable should be dead and Nox shouldn’t be a complication. But neither one of them seem content to be what they should.
Cable looks down at my hand on his arm. The muscles in his forearm flex as he releases one fist. “All I want is you.”
“You will concede and call your army off?”
“I will.”
I nod in agreement. “Then you have me.”
“No!” Nox steps forward and a red laser light appears on Cable’s forehead. “I’m not going to let you turn her into a monster.”