“And the green dots?”
“There are drones patrolling even further out than that, but the green dots are turrets. Another mile from the watchtowers are the automatic turrets. They’re programed to notify and engage any movement toward the base. They are operated by a team of technicians day and night. If one of the infected somehow manages to find us and brave the cold, they’ll be blown to bits by our sentries before they even reach the watchtowers. Pretty cool stuff, right?”
Taylor whistled under her breath. “It looks like you guys thought of it all. How is the outside world doing?”
Frank lowered his gaze. “We don’t know. A few days after we arrived we lost all communication. Even the other Lazarus facilities are down.”
Taylor immediately regretted asking the question. Apparently Frank was not dealing with the cataclysmic event as well as she was.
“I’m sorry, Frank.”
Frank shuddered as if he had been awoken from a dream. “Oh, what? No, it’s not your fault. I should probably deal with the fact that we may be the only humans left in this world. I’ve been ignoring it but I’ll have to accept that possibility sooner or later.”
“We’re not out of this fight yet,” Taylor said resolutely. “If the serum is able to counteract the disease, then we might be able to save those already infected.”
They reached a large room with two armed security guards and rows of thick, fur lined jackets. Frank motioned to Taylor to grab a jacket and did so himself.
“If the serum will work on other people,” he said, “I’m not sure it’s strong enough to bring those who are already infected by the darkness back.”
Taylor reached for a coat. The jackets were heavy, meant to combat the Alaskan chill. “You think it will only work on someone recently infected?”
Frank zipped up the front of his jacket. The layers of material covering his body along with the deep hood and his nonexistent eyebrows made him look like some kind of alien. “Maybe. There’s so much more we need to learn about this disease. We can’t be sure of anything.”
Taylor placed the hood over her own head. The smell of old fabric and damp clothing was a welcomed odor compared to the sterile room where she had spent the last few days as a prisoner.
When the pair stepped outside, Taylor was hit by two things. First was the cold, beautiful landscape. The building they exited was set against the mountain wall behind the complex and stood a few stories off the ground. A steel frame provided stairs to the ground below. The lifted vantage point gave Taylor a good look at her new home. Modern gray buildings flowed out beneath her until they met a four-story wall. It reminded Taylor of a castle. Beyond the wall, a thick canopy of frosted trees marked the end of man’s rule and the beginning of nature’s domain.
Second, Taylor noticed the two security guards falling in step to their rear as they left the building. Taylor raised an eyebrow behind her first, then toward Frank. The teenager gave her a sheepish grimace. “Yeah, well, Wade thought it would be best, only for a short time…you know, just in case.”
“In case I turn into one of them, you mean?”
Frank lowered his eyes and nodded.
Taylor’s mind raced with the possibilities. If they were concerned enough about her to put her under an armed escort, then there was a chance she could give in to the darkness. A shiver that had nothing to do with the temperature ran down her spine and sent goosebumps across her body. The brief memories of the monster she had almost become stole any comfort she had at being outside.
Frank, Taylor, and the two guards walked across the compound to a long one-story building. Taylor’s breath made faint steam clouds in the crisp air. Hard dirt crunched underneath her heavy boots as they entered the building.
“This is the female living quarters. You’ll have your own room but there’s a shared bathroom.”
Taylor followed Frank inside. Her eyes were taking in the shabby decorating job and dull colors of the paint when running footsteps met her ears. Frank told the guards they could wait outside. All Taylor’s focus was on the little figure rounding the corner.
Cidney sprinted forward. Taylor dropped to the floor on her knees, her arms widening as if on command. Cidney hit Taylor with an embrace that was part tackle, part hug.
“I knew you’d make it! You promised me you would and you did!”
Words didn’t seem right for the moment and even if Taylor had them, she wasn’t even sure she could speak.
CHAPTER 39
That night after Cidney said her goodbyes and Frank left Taylor to get some sleep, any remaining hint of ever having a normal life was taken from Taylor. Her room was the definition of average. There was enough room for a bed, nightstand, and desk with a chair. The real estate left was needed to walk from one piece of furniture to the next.
She had a change of clothes and toiletries that had been provided for her. Given the circumstances they were a welcome sight and more than enough for her present needs. Exhausted, she threw herself on top of the clean sheets. Sleep came for her much too fast and with it a dream she would never forget.
A woman was screaming somewhere in the dark. Not simply yelling, rather ranting. At first it was impossible to make out the words. Even so, there was something eerily familiar about the voice. Recollection teased at the corners of her mind yet refused to come into the light.
The darkness was total, however, Taylor got the sense she was in a massive open room. The voice drifted closer with every second until the words from the screaming woman could be heard.
“Kill, kill them until they are beautiful like us. Why didn’t you give in? You could have been one of us, but the light has taken you for its own.”
Although the words didn’t make any sense to Taylor, she knew there was meaning behind them. Again she was struck by the familiarity of the voice. Fear gripped her heart and squeezed until its beating reached an angry pace.
“You know who I am.”
The voice was so close now, Taylor had the feeling that the person was standing right in front of her. “I—I don’t. What do you want?”
“What you wanted. What you almost had. I want you to be free.”
“Free from what?”
“Free to act as you were meant to. Free to revel in anarchy in its purest form,” the voice dripped.
Taylor knew it was a dream. Though she tried to wake up, the act was futile. She ordered her body to move but her legs felt like they weighed a hundred pounds, and her arms were even heavier.
Taylor whispered past her fear, “I won’t join you.”
The voice chuckled. “As if you have a choice. What you call darkness is only the true instincts of human nature. Mankind in his most honest form.”
“No, I don’t accept that.”
Faint gray transformed the complete blackness into a fogged vision. It was a woman standing in front of Taylor. One so bloodied and broken Taylor didn’t recognize her at first. When realization did hit, nausea overcame Taylor. She was looking at herself.
A version of herself infected by the darkness stood feet in front of her. Her throat was ripped open, damaging the vocal cords underneath, which was why the voice sounded so familiar. Half of her doppelganger’s jaw hung off its hinge. Her eyes were dry and caked with dust. Ebony liquid oozed from her mirror image’s eyes and mouth. “This is what you should have been and what you will be,” the creature in front of her prophesied. The nightmare reached out with a twisted hand, “Come back to the darkness.”
Although fear was definitely present, Taylor understood she was in a dream. While terror sought to betray her sanity, she hung on to the theory Cidney’s father had spent his life’s work creating. His words echoed in her ears now, “The light will always fight the darkness.”
Taylor wasn’t sure exactly how much “light” she had in her; however, coupled with the serum created by Dr. Spear it had been enough to save her before. She focused on that now, on the person she could be. The tender side of her Cidney brought
out, the friendship Jason and the captain promised. Taylor channeled all of this now with closed eyes. Warmth spread in her, from some deep chasm within.
She felt the room spinning. The mirror image of her broken self was trying to say something but all noise was gone. Taylor grabbed her temples as a deep pulsing pain raged deep in her skull. Spinning in the darkness of her nightmare and the throbbing like a hot iron against her skull finally woke her.
Taylor sat bolt upright in her room. Unlike in her dream, the darkness was not total in the waking world. Moonlight from her window fought against the edges of the night. Skull pounding, she felt sweat snaking its way down her brow and back. What she saw swirling around her caused her to wonder if she had only woken to experience another nightmare. Her room was a picture of pandemonium.
All the small objects in her quarters swirled and spun in the empty space of her room. Everything from her digital clock to her toothbrush twisted and moved in the air, as if the objects where tied to invisible strings and a puppeteer was manipulating the items from above.
Taylor’s mind was forced to accept the unbelievable. Every reasonable fiber in her shaking body told her what she was seeing couldn’t be possible. But it was. Though unsure as to the chaos she was witnessing, Taylor sensed by some means it connected to her dream. She took a deep, cleansing breath, pushing fear’s crippling fingers from her thoughts.
If she was going to deal with this enigma, she needed to be calm. Panic would get her nowhere. As the oxygen entered her lungs through her nose and escaped through her mouth, the items spinning in the room lowered gently to the floor. Taylor’s heartbeat reduced in speed as she looked around for anything that could explain what she had witnessed. There was no demon in a corner of her room or someone to step from the shadows to admit an elaborate prank.
Taylor sat in her bed for a long time. Her dream was too fresh in her mind to not correlate the events of her nightmare to the happenings when she woke. Had she one way or another unknowingly moved these objects? Had the serum given her more than just sanctuary from the disease?
Taylor spent the rest of the night awake on her bed. As much as she fought, fear of the unknown, of what she may be, poked at her with a relentless finger.
CHAPTER 40
“And you said you’re feeling fine? No side effects whatsoever?”
Lying to the doctor was easy. “I’m fine,” Taylor said.
Dr. Spear nodded. She set the vial of blood drained from Taylor’s right arm on a shiny steel tray.
“Appetite and sleeping patterns are both back and normal?” Frank asked from his seat behind his laptop.
Taylor knew any hesitation or likewise being too eager to answer the question would give her away. More than anything, she wanted answers. She wanted someone to relate the events of the previous night. However, she was still under armed guard wherever she went. She could only imagine what they would do to her if she told them she thought she was moving things with her mind.
“Yep, I feel great. I’m ready to get back in the field. I’m sure Captain Martin could use an extra hand guarding the perimeter.”
Frank nodded and clicked buttons on his keyboard. “If it were up to me, you’d be free to go. Everything is checking out fine.”
“You’ll be back soon, Taylor,” Dr. Spear said, pressing a cotton ball with a strip of surgical tape to the spot where the needle had broken Taylor’s skin. “Give us a few more days of tests and observation.”
Taylor couldn’t help the frustrated gust of air that escaped her lips. “More tests?”
The doctor collected the blood samples and walked toward the door. “A few more, Taylor. Be patient with us. I’ll be right back. I’m going to run these down to the lab.”
Taylor nodded along, thoughts swimming through her mind.
The last thing she wanted to do was wait, but what other option was there? Demand that she be let out? Out where?
The doctor left the room, vials in hand. Taylor watched her go through weary eyes. The truth was, she felt exhausted. Sleep had escaped her after the fiasco in her room. Her head was pounding. Though nothing like the previous night, a hint of pain pulsed through her brain every few seconds.
Taylor decided to take a chance. From everything she knew about Frank, he could be trusted. “Frank?”
The teenager looked over the top of his screen, “Yep? What’s up?”
Taylor cleared her throat and chose her next words with caution. “Is there anything you guys are looking for? I mean, you’re asking me a million questions about how I feel. Are there signs I should be looking for too?”
If Frank was on to her, he wasn’t showing it. He cracked his knuckles and looked to the checkered gray and white tiled ceiling as he spoke. “To be honest, we’re in completely uncharted territory here. Nothing like this has ever been experimented. We’re still going through Dr. Jenkins’ work.”
Taylor bit her lip. If she was going to push for answers, this would be the time. Her gut told her she could trust Frank. “Could the serum in any way alter someone’s genetic makeup? I don’t know much about any of this, but could whatever you gave me allow me to do certain…unnatural things?”
Frank gave Taylor a questioning look. “Like what kind of ‘unnatural things’?”
“Say, nightmares and moving things with my mind?”
Taylor and Frank looked at one another in shock. Frank at the question and Taylor surprised she had asked it. When she had opened her mouth, she didn’t anticipate what she’d say. Apparently, her need for answers outweighed her trust issues at the moment.
A long pause fell over the room as the Cleaner and teenager stared at one another.
Frank licked his lips. “The nightmares could be explained a number of different ways. You’ve been through a lot the last few days. Did you say you could move things with your mind?”
Taylor bit back her response when the door to the room opened and Dr. Spear entered the room again. “Sorry, you two. I didn’t meant to keep you waiting. They had a few questions in the lab. Shall we continue?”
Taylor, unused to putting herself in a position to trust another person, found the feeling nauseating. Frank continued to stare at her open-mouthed.
Dr. Spear must have felt the awkward moment. “I’m sorry, did I miss something?”
Taylor narrowed her eyes and fixed Frank with a stare, clearly communicating everything she couldn’t say.
“No, no. I asked Taylor about her bowel movements so it got a bit weird for a second,” Frank said.
The answer seemed to placate the doctor because she turned to Taylor with a grin. “Yes, sorry. The questions can be a bit personal. Still, it’s imperative we do a thorough job. Now let’s take a look at that bite mark, shall we?”
Taylor extended her leg, allowing the doctor to roll up the end of her pant cuff.
When the doctor leaned in to examine the wound, Taylor took the opportunity to find Frank’s attention and mouth the words, “Thank you.”
Frank gave her a slight tilt of his chin.
“Well, that’s strange.”
Seeing anything past the doctor’s spotless white coat and long black hair was impossible. As the seconds ticked by, she tried to remember if the bite had bothered her since she woke up from her drug-induced coma. It hadn’t. To be honest, she had forgotten about the pain of the injury altogether.
“What’s wrong?” Frank asked, craning his neck for a better vantage point.
Valery leaned back from her close examination of Taylor’s calf to give the two a better view. “It’s completely healed. The skin even looks better and healthier than before.”
CHAPTER 41
It was midday by the time all the tests were done. Dr. Spear had insisted on another full panel of assessments when she found the section on Taylor’s calf that had been completely destroyed a few days previous now completely healed.
Frank had not said a word to the doctor about his conversation with Taylor regarding her new abilities.
Taylor had been correct in her decision to confide in Frank.
Worry compounded in her mind. Accompanied by the ever-vigilant guards, whom she was becoming to think of more as shadows than people, Taylor made a mental checklist of the unknowns in her life as she walked back to the barracks. Not only was she suspicious of the fallout from the serum, now she had to think about how other people would react if they found out. On top of that was the condition of the world beyond the walls of the facility.
“Hey, you.”
Jason was standing a few yards to her right. He was wearing a thick jacket, his hands stuffed deep in its pockets. His nose was red from the Alaskan cold.
“Hey,” Taylor said. She was happy to see him.
“Aren’t you cold?” Jason asked, “It’s freezing out here.”
Taylor looked at the bundled guards behind her then back to her own modest apparel of jeans, boots, and a long-sleeve shirt. “No, I’m fine, kind of warm actually.”
Jason shrugged. “Well, come on. I’ve only got a few hours. I have to get back to work soon. I wanted to see you. Hungry?”
Taylor’s stomach rumbled on hearing the invitation to food. “Yeah, food sounds great.”
Jason fell in step beside. “I’ll show you the cafeteria. Frank said you were released yesterday. I tried seeing you while you were in there but Wade stonewalled me. How do you feel?”
Taylor bit back the truth again. Telling Frank was a trust exercise in and of itself. She wanted to share with Jason what she was going through but it was too soon. “I’m good.”
“You’re ‘good’? You got bit by a raving lunatic while suspended hundreds of yards in the air. I was there, remember? There’s no way anyone is ‘good’ after that.”
Taylor hated how right Jason was. What was she supposed to say? That she was confused? Scared? That she might be turning into something this world had never seen?
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