The Immortality Virus

by Christine Amsden

  She turned, and Alex was there, accepting her in his strong, bloodied arms.

  “It’s time to get out of here.” Alex lifted Sam in his arms. “You and Meg will have to provide cover.”

  Chapter 33

  They didn’t give Jordan a weapon. Grace didn’t trust him enough, and he didn’t always come across as entirely stable. Most of the time he was lucid, but then he would randomly fall into a conversation with his dead wife.

  “Good-bye, Margaret,” Jordan said as they prepared to leave the mausoleum.

  “Is he okay?” Meg whispered to Grace.

  “Hard to say,” Grace admitted. “He’s a little obsessed with his dead wife.”

  “Sam, I mean,” Meg said.

  “Oh.” Grace’s face turned scarlet, and she glanced at Sam, barely conscious in Alex’s arms. For the first time ever, he looked disgusting to her.

  “Listen,” Meg said. “I was thinking. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad not to be on the farm. I was only there for a few weeks anyway and they took care of me but...” Meg took a deep breath. “I just don’t really know what to do out here.”

  “Neither do I half the time.” Grace gave her a tiny smile, the first time she’d felt like smiling in a long time. “But you’ve got me.” She held her breath, thinking of her mom and her sister and how they chose to be there for her sometimes and not at other times. When was the last time she had spoken to Charity? Before her most recent boyfriend, probably. She had a sense Meg wouldn’t be like that, though. Maybe that was why she had so completely disregarded the girl’s feelings and taken her out of the farm.

  “You may have to leave the city,” Meg said. “If you don’t turn over Jordan, will that guy who hired you kill you?”

  “Only if he finds out I found Jordan.” Which he would, as soon as Sam regained consciousness and told him.

  “He’ll bring us all down,” Meg said, glancing at Sam. “That’s why Jane would have turned him out.”

  “What about you?” Grace asked. “What would you do?”

  “I wasn’t in Jane’s clan.”

  “Neither was I.” Grace readied her weapon and took a deep breath. “I think it’s time to make a run for it now.”

  “I’m ready when you are,” Alex said. He glanced back at Jordan. “Granddad?”

  Jordan wiped a tear from his eye that Grace hadn’t noticed before. “Yeah.”

  Grace didn’t count to three; she just launched herself out of the mausoleum and into the deadly twilight. She couldn’t see much in the darkening graveyard, but they wouldn’t be able to see her, either, unless they had night vision gear. If she got out of this alive, she might have to invest in some. Meanwhile, her brilliant strategy was to run.

  A wild shot barely missed Meg’s head, and they took off around the mausoleum. The stone wall stood not twenty feet behind it, and they fired at it without stopping. Three blasts from each of their disruptors managed to clear a large enough hole for them to climb over fallen rubble to the other side.

  In the distance, flashes of light illuminated the northern and eastern skies. Disruptor charges still rang out in the cemetery, but most of the nearby streets were relatively quiet, punctuated with only the occasional sound of weapons fire.

  “They got the shield down faster than I expected,” Grace said, off-hand.

  “I don’t think they got them down at all,” Alex told her. “I think they had inside help.”

  “Oh.”

  Alex shifted his weight and his hold on Sam. “We need to get Sam to a doctor and the rest of us out of the city. I’m guessing transportation will be hard to find, though.”

  Grace looked around and considered the problem for a minute. Then she spotted some abandoned ground vehicles up the road. They were military vehicles, mainly troop and supply transports. Several of them lay on their sides, but it was possible at least one of them still worked. “There.” She pointed.

  They followed her gaze, but before they could move or make a sound, someone from that direction started shooting. They ducked for cover behind a nearby bush, but a second later it burst into flames, and they sprinted for the apartments on the other side of the street. They ducked behind a flight of stairs and paused to catch their breaths.

  Grace did a quick head count to make sure everyone was still there and in the same number of pieces they had been a minute ago. Sam didn’t look good. The bandage was red, and he was mumbling something incoherently.

  “We can’t go up this street,” Grace said, thinking as she spoke. “We can go behind the apartments and around.”

  “Whatever we do, we need to hurry,” Alex said, his eyes on Sam’s bandage.

  “All right, then. One...two...three...”

  They stayed low as they rounded the apartment building, keeping to the walls and looking around the corners as they did so. There wasn’t a lot of light back here, and Grace nearly fell twice, but she managed to keep pushing forward until they reached the back of the apartment near the pile of vehicles.

  “Leave Sam here,” Grace said. “He’ll be safer for the moment.”

  Wordlessly, Alex lowered Sam to the ground. “Granddad, stay with him until we get back.”

  Jordan glanced at him, then down at Sam. “I should have called you, but I knew Ethan would understand why I did what I did.”

  Alex took his grandfather’s hand, squeezed it, and then led the way down the narrow gap between apartment buildings that led to the dangerous street.

  “Do you know how to operate one of those things?” Meg asked Grace.

  “I do,” Alex said. “They’re military, so they probably don’t have locks, but I don’t know what the startup mechanism will be. Could be a key, a code, or a fingerprint.”

  Oh great, they needed a hostage. Just what Grace needed.

  “I didn’t see more than one person shooting,” Alex said. “I think everyone else has either fallen prey to the graveyard or left to join the rest of the forces elsewhere in the city.”

  “We don’t know for sure there’s only one, though.” Grace considered their options for a moment. “I’m going out there. You two cover me.”

  “Wait, that’s your plan?” Meg said. “Didn’t I tell you I needed you out here?”

  Grace hesitated. “All right, then. Give me a two-minute head start. Then start giving me cover fire.”

  She turned and ran in the opposite direction, behind the next apartment building so she would be coming out from a different location. Alex and Meg started shooting just as she reached the gap between buildings, and she didn’t hesitate in moving forward, low to the ground.

  There were at least thirty vehicles here, some military ground vehicles, others hover cars. She wove between them quickly but cautiously. Only one answering disruptor seemed to be coming from between these cars, and she positioned herself behind the shooter.

  For a few seconds, she watched him, sandwiched between a gray troop transport and a green heavy artillery vehicle. Then she crept behind him and shoved her disruptor into his back.

  “Don’t move!”

  He froze and dropped his gun.

  “Are you alone?” Grace asked.

  “Yeah. You gonna kill me?”

  “Only if I have to. Turn around.”

  He did. He wore a familiar black uniform that nearly sent Grace’s mind reeling back to the farm. He also wore night vision goggles. “You’re one of Ethan’s men, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Where are the rest?”

  “Dead or gone. I waited here in case more came out of the bloodbath. Got two friends inside, looking for injured men.”

  “Only three of you stayed behind to take care of the rest?” Grace asked, temporarily forgetting her mission.

  “That’s the trouble with mercenaries. We’re in it for the money.”

  “So why are you here?” Grace asked.

  He didn’t answer.

  “Fine. I need a car.”

  “Help yourself. We don’t nee
d all of them anyway.”

  “That’s it?” Grace asked.

  “You’re trying to get an injured man off the field, aren’t you? I saw you up the way and shot at you before I saw the man down.”

  “How do I start the vehicles?” Grace asked.

  “Code–52491.”

  Grace stood in indecision for a few seconds. Why was this man being so reasonable? Then she had another idea. “You know who I am, don’t you?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “And when I leave, you’ll report me to your supervisor, who has override control of all the hover vehicles.”

  His lip twitched, but again he didn’t answer.

  Grace switched her gun to stun. “Sorry about this.” She fired and he went down.

  Chapter 34

  Their escape would have gone smoothly had it not been for one overwhelming problem–when they returned to get Sam and Jordan, Jordan was gone.

  “Granddad!” Alex yelled. “We have to find him!”

  He started to move, but Grace did not follow.

  “Grace?”

  “It’s over, Alex,” Grace said. “Jordan is a free man. We’d already decided to help him escape. Obviously, he didn’t want our help.”

  “But people still want to find him. Some want to kill him.”

  “Yeah, and they’ll have a harder time knowing where to look if they don’t have us to follow.”

  Alex didn’t move right away. He turned his head in a slow circle from left to right, as if he could somehow find Jordan in the dark. “He’s old. He can’t have much of a head start...”

  “Alex,” Grace said. He turned to look at her. “Let him go.”

  Wordlessly, Alex picked up Sam and followed her to the car. Sam lifted his head, apparently experiencing a brief moment of consciousness. “Matt won’t be happy he’s gone.”

  No, he wouldn’t be. She’d either have to kill Sam or leave the city. It wasn’t a choice, really.

  They touched down on the roof of a hospital about half a mile from Grace’s apartment. The overwhelmed staff tried to turn him away, but Grace made them scan his ID chip, where she knew they’d find a substantial sum for emergency healthcare.

  “Will he be all right?” Grace asked a nurse as she wheeled him away.

  “I think so. Call tomorrow.”

  But she wouldn’t call. By tomorrow she’d be gone and if she called, they might be able to trace it.

  Alex, Meg, and Grace walked back to her apartment in silence. They all knew they would be packing to leave the city and they would have to lie low for a while. For Grace, it felt a little like dying. It was the end of something, and what would come next was almost as unknowable as what would come when she closed her eyes for good. In both cases, she could make guesses, but that was all.

  She’d never felt this way before. Even when she had left the force, there had been Sam and her family. This time, Sam might as well be dead and she might never see her family again.

  “Things didn’t work out like you thought, huh?” Meg said, finally breaking the silence.

  “I really didn’t think I’d survive this one.” Grace suddenly remembered the desperate prayer she’d made while Ethan held her captive, challenging God to save her if he really existed. She wasn’t sure what to think about that at the moment, bruised and battered as she was, so she let it go, a problem for another time.

  “But I thought I’d die a hero,” Grace said. “Instead, I have to run and I even took you two down with me.”

  “I came willingly,” Alex said.

  “Me too,” Meg said.

  “No, you didn’t!” Grace stopped and faced Meg. “You didn’t want to leave the farm.”

  “I don’t know what I wanted. It was safe and comfortable up there, but by getting involved with you in the first place, I think a part of me wanted more.”

  They climbed the steps to Grace’s apartment. She felt a little better knowing she would be taking family–of a sort–with her. Meg would be like...well, not like a sister. Grace had a sister, and they weren’t very close. No, more like a best friend. As for Alex, she wasn’t sure what she wanted him to be or what he’d want her to be. Somehow, she didn’t think friendship would feel right.

  “We’ve got to figure out what to do with Lissy,” Grace said as she unlocked her apartment. “We can’t leave her alone and–”

  She never got to finish that sentence. They heard the baby crying before Grace opened the door, but it wasn’t until after that they saw the bloody corpse that had been a woman at one time.

  Meg turned away. Grace held her nose and coughed, but could not tear her eyes from the sight. Someone had slit Lissy’s throat to the point they had nearly severed her neck. Her eyes stared at the ceiling, some remnant of shock still echoing there.

  Finally, Grace tore her eyes away. It was hard to imagine anything else could affect her like this, but the howling baby lying in a bloody pool between his dead mother’s legs was too much. She felt like she was choking and when she rubbed her eyes, she felt moisture there.

  “I’ll kill him,” Alex said. It came out like a croak. He turned and left the apartment.

  “We don’t know for sure it was Roy,” Grace offered, weakly. It had to have been, though.

  Alex didn’t answer. A few seconds later, she heard a pounding on the neighbor’s door. Then, a disruptor fired and Alex kicked the door in.

  “The baby,” Meg rushed forward to pick it up, bloodying herself in the process.

  The umbilical cord was still attached. Simply because it gave her something to do, Grace went to the kitchen to grab a knife, then she grabbed some clean towels. She and Meg worked together to clean the infant and to permanently separate him from his mother.

  “You’re crying,” Meg said.

  Grace blinked back the tears, but they wouldn’t stay back. She let Meg take charge of the infant while she sat in the floor, balled up like the newborn.

  “He’s not there,” Alex’s voice came from somewhere above her. “I searched, but his apartment is bare. I think he moved out.”

  Somehow, Grace wasn’t surprised. “It’s not right. I just wanted to put an end to this kind of thing. No one will even care. The police will sweep this under the rug, and Roy will get away with it. I mean, why? Because she’s a blip? Are we really so afraid of aging and death?”

  Alex sat down and put an arm around her. She leaned into him and let it all out–the pent up tears and emotions of the last few days, culminating in one final unstoppable tragedy. He didn’t say anything, even though his shirt was sopping wet. He just held her close and stroked her hair.

  The baby stopped crying. The sudden silence made Grace jerk her head up, afraid the lack of crying meant he had died, but to her surprise, he was eating. Meg, with her shirt lifted, was cradling the baby at her breast. When she saw Grace’s look, she turned slightly pink. “I didn’t know what else to do. And I haven’t dried up yet...” She trailed off and fought back tears of her own. Grace did not interfere with her mourning, or with her decision to care for this baby.

  “That’s what my grandfather never could understand,” Alex said. “He focused so much on the dying, that he forgot we don’t really die as long as we welcome new life.” He sounded like he had been uncertain for a while, but Grace didn’t question him while he spoke his thoughts aloud. “It’s not that we run out of hope when we die. There is hope so long as there is new life. That baby doesn’t have to turn into his father.”

  The buzz of the doorbell nearly caused Grace to jump out of her skin. There’s no way anyone could have come after her already. She looked out the peephole to see, once again, Captain Flint. She opened the door to let him in.

  “What happened here?” Flint asked as soon as he stepped in and saw Lissy. He wrinkled his nose.

  “We think her husband killed her,” Grace said. “I don’t suppose it’s something you’d be willing to investigate?”

  He stared at the body, then at the baby, seeming to p
ut it all together in a matter of seconds. “If I can. We’re at war right now, and it’s not safe here for you.”

  “I know that,” Grace said. “Did you come to arrest me or kill me?”

  “Neither. I came to warn you to get out of town. Edgers made a deal with Stanton, and both men suspect you betrayed your contract.”

  “Wait–Matt is wanted for murder and I last left him in the middle of a war zone. When did this happen?”

  “Tonight,” Captain Flint said. “My team got him out of that cemetery and took him to Edgers.”

  “Took him to...”

  “I helped Edgers get into the city.”

  “You what?” Grace couldn’t believe it.

  “I’ve been on the force for two hundred years and I’m frankly sick of the way this city is run. I think Edgers can do it better, but either way it doesn’t look good for you here.”

  “I’ll leave by morning,” Grace promised. “But please, try to do something about Lissy.”

  Captain Flint nodded. “What about the baby? Does Lissy have next of kin? I can try to find someone...”

  “No!” Meg half screamed from her place on the couch. “No, please! Not another one.”

  “I don’t think she had very nice next of kin, to be honest,” Grace said. “And they might not even want the baby.”

  “No problem. One less thing for me to deal with.” He paused and then looked Grace straight in the eyes. “If things had ever gone differently, I would have loved to get to know you better.”

  His underlying meaning was clear, and Grace blushed.

  “I just wanted you to know you do have a friend in this city.”

  “Thank you,” Grace said.

  He left without another word; Grace closed the door behind him, and then turned to run straight into Alex.

  “It’ll be hard being on the run with an infant,” Alex pointed out.

  “I know,” Grace said. “Do you have a problem with it? You can go your own way.” Please say no.