by David Tyne
Tomás looked hesitantly in my direction, his usually-cheerful face now providing a window to his inner-most concerns. He was an open book, but I understood all too well what it felt like, when you would do anything to protect those closest to you.
"I didn't mean to pry,” I shrugged, even though I totally did. “It's just that if you tell us, we can probably help whoever it is you're looking for."
He almost jumped back in shock, as though I had been reading his mind. "H-How did you—"
Tomás let out a soft laugh, even over his brother's dead body. It seemed as though he had a strong aversion to appearing distressed, like it was considered rude.
"You don't even know what it is yet! How can you say stuff like that? Stealing a hundred grand from mobsters and slaying giant bat people... Just who are you guys, anyway?"
Harry came up beside him, and patted the startled musician on the shoulder. "It's just like you said — we're ‘suicidal nutjobs’! You know that you want our help!"
Tomás looked down at his twin, as we both started piling the soil over his body. I placed the empty briefcase at the boy's side as well, having no further use for it. He kept his eyes trained on Jermaine as he voiced his thoughts aloud, for all of us to hear.
"...I haven’t seen my big bro for almost three years. The one week he does visit, he gets eaten by a crazy bird-lady.”
“I’m sorry,” was all I could say.
“Nah, I’m just bummed that it wasn’t me instead. He was always ‘the smart one’, I was ‘the funny one’. Never got around to telling him how much he meant to me, but he gave his life so that I could save her. There's two people I would do anything in this world for. Now, there's only one."
Moving his gaze to meet my eyes, he wiped his wet nose with a short giggle, stuck somewhere between laughing and crying.
"So, why the hell not — I'll be a suicidal nutjob, if it'll bring Belle back!"
23 | The Suicide Mission
Soon after Tomás said goodbye to Jermaine, we left to find the nearest vehicle which still had its keys in the ignition and sufficient fuel. Claiming a crashed-but-functional truck as our own, we left North Queensferry in our dust, moving onwards to wherever Tomás was taking us.
Serah insisted on driving, wanting to do something that would take her mind off of what she’d just been through. She wouldn't back down, so after much arguing I climbed into the back of the truck with the rest of the gang.
Thankfully we found a couple of spare blankets in the back, giving us somewhere comfortable to sit instead of sleeping on the metal floor. As we drove, Tomás filled us in on why he needed to take Banks' money.
"It was Jermaine, Belle and myself at first... She was my fiancée, we'd met in art school back home and decided to move here. Big bro came to visit us, but that was when everything went south. We tried to escape, but instead ran into another group of survivors up in Dundee. They were... kind of sick."
He didn't have to tell us twice. The O-Saints were more than enough proof that humanity’s worst streaks had already been unleashed. The musician was surprisingly talkative about his past, not heeding our tired atmosphere at all.
"It started real tame at first, all they did was drink booze and smoke weed all day. That was before Banks showed up at their door. Started offering trades, hosting underground fights with the... the Lost, you called them?”
Beth nodded, still rather proud that the name she’d made up for them had stuck around for so long. Tomás smiled back at her, before returning to a more solemn expression.
“They made us kill the Lost for bets, along with Jermaine. Almost made us fight each other, until we said that we’d had enough. They didn't like that one bit. Tried to keep us locked up, starved us like slaves... In the end, they sold Belle to one of Banks' mates."
I wasn't quite sure I'd heard that right, jutting up slightly in my hunched position. "They... sold her?"
Tomás ran his hand over his arm, clawing at his skin lightly. "She was the only woman there. Pretty obvious, why they wanted her." The musician suddenly looked up at Jamie and Beth, forgetting for a moment that there were children tuning into his dark story.
"Ah, sorry! They sold me and my brother too, but it was Banksie who held my contract. Said that if I ever double-crossed him, he'd make sure that Belle suffered. I'm sure she's still in Dundee somewhere, and now I have the money to buy her back."
Tomás fumbled with his guitar case, smiling sheepishly. I felt like I understood him a little better now, why he always wore such a high-spirited mask despite his tragic past. If he let any of those horrors affect him, it would be like admitting defeat, giving into them. It was better to take everything in this strange new life with a pinch of salt.
Harry made a casual attempt to cheer him up, but Tomás waved it off with a laugh. "Never mind about me... I know it’s a long shot. Let's talk about you guys — where are you all headed, anyway?"
We all exchanged a look of uncertainty. For a while now, there had really been no reason to stay here. We only came to Queensferry because Harry needed to be broken out of the O-Saints’ stronghold. Immediately after that, we had to deal with our separation on the bridge and Serah's capture, which kept us grounded for a while.
Millie glanced over to Harry curious look in her eyes. "That's right... Babe, you called us out here after hearing about Telos. What did you have in mind?"
He thought for a long moment before reaching into his pocket, presenting a slip of paper. "Every message between Burkley and Telos that I intercepted at the O-Saint's base... They all started with a series of coordinates. The first one that I've written down has to be the Forth bridge. The second one..."
Millie leaned in with a puzzled nod, as though he was laying out a treasure map. “You think that’s where the helicopters are coming from?"
“Could be,” he stroked his chin. “They called it a ‘branch’, so there’s probably more out there. Only one way to find out.”
I knew exactly where he was going with this, but I still managed to lose my temper at the very notion. "...There’s no way that you’re serious right now. No. No, no, no way. We are not going there!"
Harry frowned, clearly expecting me to be on his side with this. "Dan, we have information that no one else in the country has right now! We know who caused the outbreak, we have their exact position... Why shouldn't we take advantage of this? We owe it to, well, everyone!"
I wanted to tell him how ridiculous he sounded, but instead I looked to Millie for support. She simply shook her head at me.
"...I'm with Harry on this one. We can't stand by and do nothing while this 'Telos' group destroys what little crap we have left. The least we can do is throw a spanner in their works."
I sighed with maximum exasperation, falling to my last line of defence: Serah. The clever girl would see how insane this plan was, surely. As I peered through the truck’s rear-view mirror, her eyes barely aligned with mine, about to let me down.
"Sorry, Daniel. Just think about it for a moment. If we go there and actually speak to them, we might be able to put a stop to all of this. Who knows, maybe we can even figure out some kind of cure. They clearly know more about this virus than any other surviving institute."
I slumped against the truck’s wall, defeated. This was a suicide mission, one that everyone but me seemed eager to jump on-board with.
The only question left, was whether I wanted to be left behind.
----
Serah pulled over after a couple of hours; apparently her fatigue had finally settled in. Hopping in the back alongside the rest of us, our group gradually fell sound asleep. In the end, it was just Millie and I that struggled to find any rest, staring blankly towards each other from inches away.
I tried to determine what the best path would be for our group, whether everyone was right about confronting Telos or not. The only attachment we had left was between Serah and me, both of our relatives back at the community centre.
My mum still had no
idea where I was... A disturbingly-calm piece of my mind was glad that we'd left on good terms. At least she knew that I had survived the outbreak. Most people hadn't received that luxury.
“Are you going back home?” Millie mouthed the words at me. Instinctively, I glanced over at the sleeping Serah, knowing that she’d come to a similar conclusion even though she would never admit it. Our reality was too dark, too grim for words.
If we returned to the community centre, the only certainty was that we would be forced to watch the inevitable deaths of our loved ones. At least living like this, on the open road, I’d be able to pretend that my mum was still alive. She would be doing the same for me as well, somewhere out there... it was a cruel kindness, more than anything.
Staring through the darkness, I could see my childhood friend's troubled face leering back at me. If I was going to cut my ties, I wanted to at least keep her around. We still hadn't talked for real, ever since she hooked up with my only male friend.
I wanted to connect with her again, but the only way to do it was to just come out and say it. Before she could manage a word, I shuffled over towards her so that the rest couldn't hear our discussion.
"Mils. Why Harry?"
She paused like she was half-expecting the question, thinking of an answer that would hurt me the least. "It’s not like we’re dating. Christ, we both felt like shit, so I did what I had to. Just to get us moving again.”
“But you’re here now. Why are you still—”
“I didn’t think that far ahead, okay? To tell the truth, I only did it because he's..."
I was desperate to know what Harry had that I didn't, although the irony didn't seem to phase me. I'd already rejected Millie's advances several times in the past. "He's what?"
My childhood friend's heavy eyes glistened in the dark light. "...Available."
“Seriously?”
"Look, he actually wanted to be with me. I've never had that before. I see the way you look, at her..."
She cast a spiteful look towards Serah's resting shadow, and regretted it almost instantly.
"I don’t really mean that. She's a good person, and I see why you like her. It's just, when everyone got separated back there... It drove me crazy, thinking about the two of you, together. I guess I just wanted that for myself."
For once, I couldn't tell whether she was lying or not. We used to know everything about each other, but now the person in front of me was just a bitter, sadder version of my friend. Millie rested her head against the edge of the blanket, apparently thinking the same thing.
"I miss you, Daniel. We don't talk, like we used to. Can't we just forget about all of this, and go back to the way things used to be?"
I lay down beside the blanket as well, staring into her closed eyes. "Yeah... We can. Let's get some sleep though, okay? It'll be just like the good old days, starting tomorrow."
I wasn't sure how we were going to pull it off, but if Millie said she wanted to be friends, I had to make my peace with that. A part of me couldn't help but feel guilty, after sharing that tender moment with Serah.
We had been partying and drinking all night, while Millie and Harry were worried sick about us... I ejected the thought before it took hold. I had spent so much of my energy being jealous of their coping mechanism, that I'd forgotten about my own disaster of a love life.
An unbelievable course of events had occurred since we'd left the community centre. The only way to make an informed decision was to break it all down.
Telos had all but eliminated the O-Saints. Harry knew the location of where Telos was hiding, as they continued to bombard the world with genetically-engineered monsters.
If we went there, what would we even say to them? What would we do about Beth and Jamie?
There was only a slim chance that we'd find anything worthwhile — that is, if we could somehow manage to get past their military-grade defences. However, before any of that could happen, I'd already promised Tomás that we’d help him rescue his captured fiancée in Dundee.
I thought long and hard about what it was we were really doing... ‘surviving’. Was that enough? As much as I hated to admit it, the more I scrutinized the situation, the more I thought that we deserved better than all of this.
One day, we would all inevitably die because of what Telos had done to the world. That cold-hard fact only fuelled my furious state of mind, to the point where I knew I couldn't waste time sleeping.
Ejecting myself out of the truck and jumping into the driver's seat, I started the engine and decided to cover some more miles as the rest of the gang slept.
I was frustrated that I had been enslaved by my own emotions, and yet I was still motivated to do something. Anything to hinder that giant of an institute, by even the smallest of margins.
Telos was always going to be the reason why I died, there was no getting around it.
I might as well make them tell me why, face-to-face.
24 | Running Errands
The midday sun hoisted itself high over yet another river, blaring down at us with an unnatural heat. I slammed the door of our broken-down truck, parking as far away as I could from anything vaguely human-shaped. On the other side of yet another car-clogged bridge, the city of Dundee waited for us in the promising-white sunlight that came with Spring.
It was a welcome sight, to see tall buildings reaching towards the sky — a backdrop which had been missing since my trip to Edinburgh. It all suggested some kind of population living between those spires, but we already knew better than to be fooled by appearances.
I hadn't slept a wink all night, my sleep schedule still messed up after our nap until sunset at the Aquarium. I rubbed my tired eyes, hoping that I wouldn't sound irritable as I opened the back of the truck to let my friends out.
Tomás had been up for a few hours now, attempting to tune his guitar while Harry filled him in on all of the threats our group had faced together. You could swear from the look on his face that he thought it was all stolen from one ridiculously-eventful movie plot.
Packing what little gear we had left, Millie chimed in with the idea that we should use this opportunity to scavenge some more supplies. The suggestion made me realise that I hadn't eaten anything in the longest time.
My stomach growled wearily, loud enough to draw some curious looks. It genuinely scared me, how I could still be standing on my own two feet after committing to such a long fast.
"Y-Yeah... You're right,” I coughed in covering. “We need other stuff too, don't we? Harry, you should look for a library or a bookstore, somewhere with maps. We'll need them, if we're going to find those Telos branch coordinates."
His eyes lit up, and he gave a sly grin. "...Eh? Warming up to the idea now, Dan?" I shrugged, not wanting to admit that his pipe-dream was certainly appealing. It couldn't hurt to take a look, at least.
As we travelled across the bridge on-foot, a gathering of Lost came into view just ahead of the third car pile-up. They seemed to be distracted, possibly eating something off of the ground.
"...I'll take care of those clowns." Tomás prepped his guitar case with both hands, ready to attack before charging ahead. I was impressed at how effectively its outer rim worked against the human skull, especially since Tomás didn't appear especially strong himself.
The final corpse hit the concrete, and the musician swung the unscathed case above himself as a victory pose. "Yes!! Ten points for Señora Alegría!"
Serah sighed, almost feeling embarrassed herself for witnessing such a shameless proclamation. "...And Señora Alegría is...?"
Tomás chuckled, and let his guitar case flick itself open to reveal a sleek-black acoustic guitar. "Alegría! She's my baby, my love, my life!" He almost hugged Alegría, his guitar, declaring his undying attachment to the instrument.
"My big bro traded his own bicycle and half his baseball cards for this when we were ten, just so I'd have something to open on our birthday. All I got him was a lousy card and a yo-yo. I had no idea h
ow to play her at first, but she was gentle. She taught me all of the right chords, and it was because I started performing gigs... That's how I met mi musa, Belle."
He kissed the neck of Alegría, sending vibrations down her strings. With extreme care, he placed her back into her secure metallic home.
"...She's worth more to me now than anything in this world, so I'd say a rusty old bike and a dozen crappy cards was one hell of a bargain."
We hadn't continued much further, while Tomás chattered excitedly to a bored-stiff Serah about his guitar, until Jamie halted our group’s advance. "Wait... I thought I saw—"
I also noticed what he was referring to, and we both took a couple of steps closer to confirm. "Umm... No mate, I doubt it. Just a coincidence."
I knelt down beside the corpse that the executed cluster of Lost had been chewing on; his stomach was ripped wide open and the intestines were strewn all around the scene. Although covered in dirt and blood, his red hoodie and bandana were unmistakable.
Serah joined my side, analysing the scene before giving her verdict. "Whoever it was, they didn't come back to life after being bitten. This man was an O-Negative... It has to be them, Daniel."
The thought of Burkley and his remaining crew in the same place as us, their proximity sent shivers up my spine. "Oh, man... We can’t run into them out here. They’re going to be seriously pissed, after Harry grassed on them to Telos."
Everyone turned to the large thug, who could only scratch the side of his face. "Well, err... It's not like any of them know that we called in the choppers. There’s always been side gangs, weapon sponsors. Plenty of other players besides us." I wanted to correct him, but it was Millie who stepped in to say what we were all thinking.
"Harry, babe, that’s not the problem. Mitchell’s dead, Burkley’s plan clearly backfired… So why is he still building an army of O-Negatives? If he’s not going to hand them over to Telos, then maybe he really is trying to do it. To wipe out the other blood types."