by Linda Taimre
“What the hell are you talking about?” Kiah’s forehead crinkled. “This thing is destroying humanity mercilessly. It has declared war on us, and we have to fight back.”
War, Kiah Billingan? I do not bring war. I merely need to feed. I am not a warrior, I am a learner. I am a scholar. What is it that you hate about me so much?
“Oh shut up and butt out of our conversation!” Kiah yelled. There was silence. Finally, a vibration flicked between the three brains.
No.
Harriet grabbed hold of Kiah’s hand, partly to calm her and partly to take comfort from the anger her friend felt. Ignoring the infection’s words – something that is surprisingly easy, like ignoring an annoying colleague, Harriet thought – she said, “Dr. Kitt, you cannot be serious. How can you believe that?”
“A consciousness is a life-form. We created this consciousness, we gave life to her. Now, she lives in our world. We have no right to kill her. We created her, but we do not own her. She is not our slave.”
Leena Kitt, I do not yet live entirely in your world.
In a burst of rage and fear, Harriet ripped her hand from Kiah’s and stepped in to face Leena directly, her nose quivering close to the doctor’s face. “How dare you say we have no right to kill it. It is killing us. It will kill Katherine. I have a right to defend myself and my loved ones, don’t I? How can we let it get away with this?”
Harriet Braxton. You are not afraid of me, I see now. You are afraid of her. Of Katherine. But not of her, but of losing her. You fear the loss of Katherine. Why?
Dr. Kitt stumbled and turned away from Harriet’s forceful entreaty, looking at the long boardroom table as she responded. “I know. But there’s nothing I can do to help you. I can’t in good conscience hurt her.”
Her, yes. My name is Joe nice to meet you.
Leena had to stop herself from smiling at this thoughtvoice. “I can’t kill Joe.”
Leena Kitt. You are not afraid of me. But you are afraid of losing me. Why?
The three women – and the fourth non-corporeal virus-woman – were silent. Kiah had no idea where to go from here. Her eyes came to rest on the wooden shards of the destroyed door. She laughed at the farcical destruction they had brought to this absurd situation. The axe lay on the floor, discarded carelessly by Harriet. Kiah stared at it, at the sharp edge and the chunky handle.
Kiah I sense your anger. You are fuelled by the violence as I am fuelled by the men and women I consume. But your rage burns at you too much. There is too much to contain.
With the grace of a tiger, Kiah swiftly walked to the axe and hefted it easily with one hand. She pointed it at Dr. Kitt with a defiant swagger. “Fine, Doctor. You won’t help kill it.”
“Kiah, what are you – “
“Harrie, shut it. So you won’t help kill it. I see that your stupid mind is made up, I get it.”
Leena looked at the axe nervously, calculating the reach of the handle and taking a few steps back as Kiah’s words gained an edge of steel to them. “What you will do is help us talk to it. Help us reason with it,” said Kiah.
Reason? I have no reason.
“Joe. Her name is Joe.”
Kiah’s neck snapped towards Leena. “Believe me, Dr. Kitt, I don’t give a fuck what the fuck its name is unless I’m writing out its fucking death certificate. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a murderous virus with a mind of its own and it needs to come forward and face up to it. So, Doctor, you’re going to help us talk to it. And we’re going to figure out a way to get it to stop. Agreed?”
Leena looked at Harriet. She saw the strain in her hands, the tightness of the muscles around her mouth. This woman was desperate. “Yes. Yes, of course, I’ll talk to Joe with you.”
Kiah dropped the head of the axe slowly, allowing it to rest lightly on the floor. “Good.”
Well, shall we make use of this boardroom?
Kiah made a disgusted face at the virus’s suggestion. “I suppose we may as well.” The three women moved to sit. Leena took a bottle of water and then slid two more towards the women across the table.
Leena Kitt. I feel your fear. Do not be afraid, I am feeding elsewhere now. I do not need your thoughts to sustain me. All I want to do is learn. I want to learn.
Tell me, Leena. You were there when I. When I. I.
I.
A pause, not quite silent, was suspended in the room.
Why do you protect me?
Leena’s blood rushed around her, her heartbeat strong and her hands tingling with the adrenaline. “I…”
I can hear your thoughts. You feel it is right. It is the right thing to do. I have rights. I think, therefore I am.
And tell me, Harriet, why do you protect Katherine?
Hearing the thoughtvoice of Joe speak her wife’s name and of protection that she could not provide, Harriet began to cry instantly, quietly, the tears streaming steadily down her drawn face. She opened her mouth to speak, to cry out with the passion she could feel filling her heart, to stop the sadness that was threatening to overwhelm her.
Love. You protect her because of love. I have fed on many thoughts of love. It is a source of great sustenance and satisfaction to me. Love.
A wave of contentment spread over Harriet, Leena, and Kiah that was unlike anything they had ever felt before. They were instantly relaxed, their fears seemed petty and they felt light, without the burden of responsibility, without the doom and heaviness of life.
This is what I feel when I feed on love. Your love would sustain me greatly if I took it.
Through the stupor that had come over her, Harriet felt a niggle of doubt worm its way through her misty mind. No.No,you cannot.
Why can’t I, Harriet Braxton?
Harriet’s eyes blinked slowly, fighting out of the haze that Joe had brought down. You can’t take our love. It isn’t yours to take. Don’t you dare touch her. Don’t you dare.
Dare. I do not dare. I simply do. I feed. I will feed on your love. It will sustain me and I will feel this satisfaction.
With a sweep that was almost physical, the women were released from the stupor of contentment as Joe withdrew it from their minds. All three screamed at the same time, hit with the pain of deprivation and fear that spanned their entire lifetimes.
“Harriet, Kiah, are you okay?” Leena was the first to recover from the shock. She rushed to the other two women who were shaking on the floor. Harriet looked around, eyes wild and red.
“Where has it gone? Where has she gone?”
I’m still here, Harriet Braxton.
The women looked at one another, trapped and helpless.
I will be with you on Earth inside the Earth until I decide to feed on you. Then you will be with me.
You have felt what feeding on love is for me. Do you not think it wrong to deny me that?
“You have no right to steal that from us! That is ours to feel, you have to find your own, grow your own and gain sustenance from that!” Harriet yelled up at the ceiling.
There was silence in the room and in their minds. Somewhere in a spaceless place, Joe’s atoms quivered faster and faster.
“Do you understand me?” Harriet pressed for an answer, disturbed by the silence, by the thought of Joe’s attention being elsewhere. The potential of Joe’s attention being on Katherine.
I cannot find my own. I cannot grow my own.
I am alone outside the Earth. I am alone in my void.
I HAVE COME FOR YOU KATHERINE LEANDROS.
Katherine tumbled forward off the couch onto all fours, rigid with pain. There was no movement left in her limbs, she was stiff and could barely register the pain shooting through her body. Katherine tried to scream but couldn’t make her vocal cords work. There was nothing she could do but collapse on the floor. Her brain stretched and she saw a vastness in her living room, an endless nothing that was coming for her. Every tendon in her body stretched itself out as if trying to get her mobile, to help her up. As the wave ended, Katherine could bre
athe again, but not yet speak. So she thought, desperately, Harriet. Harriet. I need you, Harriet.
Katherine Leandros is asking for you, Harriet Braxton.
Harriet’s head snapped up. “What did you just say?”
Katherine Leandros is asking for you, Harriet Braxton.
“What are you doing to her? Are you hurting her?”
She is hurting now. The feeding has begun.
“Stop it! Stop it now!” Harriet hit her head, the only place she knew the conscious virus to be, she scratched at her scalp and screamed. “Don’t you touch her, leave her now!”
Harriet Braxton. I. I. I.
Kiah rushed forward and grabbed at Harriet’s wrists and arms. “Harriet. Let’s go.”
Wildly scanning the room for any sign of a visible enemy to attack, she was brought back to the room by Kiah’s words. Breathing in suddenly, Harriet started nodding repeatedly. “Yes. Yes let’s go. Now. Now.”
They scrambled out of the room through the splintered gap in the door. Dr. Kitt sat on the edge of her seat for a moment, considering her best move. Oh come off it, Leena. Follow them, you know you want to. She bounded forward and slid through the door, sprinting towards the elevator as they were just getting in. “Hold, wait for me!”
Kiah waved her hand in the closing gap of the door and it slid open again for a brief moment, allowing the doctor to slip into the carriage with the two women. Harriet didn’t look at her. She stood, tense, facing the door, poised to run as fast as she could to the car and get out of there, get away from the Spire, get to Katherine.
Harriet Braxton. I. I. Will not stop. I should stop? I. I. I. Why should I stop? Should. I will not stop.
Somewhere around the planet, a dozen more people were taken by The Fading. Their last silence witnessed by few, their horrific death remembered only in the scheme of statistics and in mournful photographs, in sobbing commscalls. Fed into the consciousness of Joe, forever building, adding, growing her knowledge, death by death.
The three women sprinted, Leena struggling to keep up with Kiah’s natural athleticism and Harriet’s unstoppable drive. She knew if she didn’t make it to the car in time, there was no way they would wait for her. She grabbed the handle of the back door, sliding across the seat and pulling the door shut as Harriet revved the car forward, having flicked it to manual drive to allow for more speed. Pulling out into the street, Harriet’s nervousness shone through in poorly handled corners and close shaves.
The splendour of the protectorate rushed past them, verdant poincianas with shocks of crimson flowers waving them on as they drove down the wide streets. Kiah watched the faces of the children breathing freely as they sped by, their happiness shining, no concept of what it was truly like for any of the outside children. When their car met the river, the blinding gold light struck Harriet. The sun was setting at precisely the right angle in the protectorate-sky. The warmth of the light rebounded into Harriet’s rearview mirror, making her blink and flick it upwards. The stark yellowness was gorgeous on the river. It made the whole city seem alien, removed, located on a different, less hospitable planet. For a moment inside the protectorate, the air was the same colour as outside. And, now with the extent of Joe’s damage, just as deadly. There was no equaliser quite like an epidemic.
They stopped at a red light, Harriet’s fingers twitching on the steering wheel. She glanced briefly in the mirror at Leena in the back seat. She had barely noticed the doctor’s presence before now. She looked at the small woman and felt a surge of hate for her insistence on protecting the vile virus that was killing her Katherine.
I am not killing her. I am incorporating her. She is becoming part of me and my better self.
Shut the hell up. Harriet couldn’t bring herself to speak, to give voice to the words of hate and anger that she felt so sharply. Have you hurt her any more? Are you still hurting her?
Katherine lay prone on the floor, one leg wedged awkwardly under the coffee table following a searing spasm that had torn through her body. She ached with pain, all her effort concentrated on breathing as smoothly as she could. Harriet.
Katherine Leandros is in pain, Harriet Braxton.
“Fuck you.”
Kiah and Leena weren’t privy to the other side of Joe’s conversation this time, so Harriet’s outburst came as a surprise. They both figured out what was happening, so neither reacted beyond an involuntary glance towards Harriet.
“Let her go.”
Why why why why why why should I shouldn’t I there is nothing to be gained for me by letting her go.
“But there is everything to lose for me!” Harriet screamed this, revving forward as the lights switched to green. She sped along the river through the alien yellow world, driving through the warmth towards the fire. “She is nothing but another brain to you but she is my entire life! My entire life! You can see inside me you goddamn parasite, you can see that without her I have nothing.”
I see inside you Harriet Braxton. I can see you have friends and you have family and you have work and you have badminton and you have steak and you have swimming on Fridays.
“They mean nothing without her. Can’t you see that?”
I cannot see that. That I cannot see.
Harriet let out a strangled cry, part-expletive, part-animalistic pain. She drove towards the north tunnel, angrily changing lanes to beat the traffic, hitting the blinker on Kiah’s car with a force that made Kiah wince.
“Look my darling, I know you’re upset, but try not to break my car –”
“Not the fucking time Kiah.”
“Right. No. Sorry. Katherine is more important than my car.”
“Bloody oath.”
They entered the tunnel and went through the motions of identification scanning in a perfunctory manner. Harriet’s mind was racing as the car guided her through the checkpoints.
In New York City, Calcutta and Istanbul, 23 people are taken by The Fading by the time they exit the tunnel.
Once outside, there was little of the traffic they experienced going in. They had left just before the peak hour of people going home to grey, dust-covered homes. The yellow blare of the sun outside the protectorate gave the air a molten feel, swirling the dirt and the smog together to provide pathways of lava, partially-blinding any drivers unfortunate enough to be out at this time of day.
Katherine Leandros is calling for you, Harriet Braxton.
Harriet set her jaw and put her foot down. I’m coming, my love. And you, Joe?
Yes, Harriet Braxton.
If she’s not still there when I get home, I’m going to destroy you. You see that in my brain?
Yes, Harriet Braxton. That I can see.
Lady Trinh turned on the communicator in her office, lightly pressing a button on the side which caused it to blink to life within seconds. Scrolling through the touchscreen options, she found the name she was looking for. General Moorak Doloran. His communicator number was accompanied by an official profile picture, government-issue, his round face and dark features photographed well by a professional. Lady Trinh knew for a fact that he looked even better in real life. He wasn’t a young man but he had aged very well, the mantle of army responsibilities suiting him. When she had known him over 20 years ago, she had found him impulsive, immature, needing to be reigned in. Finally,he’s caught up with me. She smiled tightly as she pressed the button to initiate the call. A quick voice answered.
“General Doloran’s office.”
“Lady Trinh for the general.”
A quiet change in the quality of the transmission followed.
“Lady Trinh. Long time, no speak.” His gruff voice crackled with suppressed glee at his opening line.
“Moorak, you know that you are the only person who ever makes me roll my eyes.”
“Something I take great pride in, Long.”
Lady Trinh smiled. It was good to speak to him, the comfort of the years of mutual support giving her confidence. She pushed the button for face-communica
tion. Moorak had done the same, his face filling her screen, the lapels of his uniform glittering under the weight of countless medals.
“What’s the occasion, Moorak? Why are you wearing your uniform?”
He looked grave, thick eyebrows twitching together at the thought. “We’re at war, Long. It’s standard dress for wartimes.”
“Yes… I should have thought.”
“You look well, Long.”
“No, I don’t. But you do, Moorak.”
He grinned with white teeth, a broad smile that made his whole face crinkle up. “Thank you. And you do look well, if a little tired. Which is understandable, given the circumstances.”
“Yes.”
“Which is why you’re calling?”
Saddened by the end of the pleasantries, Lady Long Trinh steered herself back to professionalism. Straightening her back minutely, she looked directly at the general. “Yes. Moorak, what progress has been made in the efforts to find a weapon to destroy BX59?”
The general shifted in his seat, taken aback by the Lady’s directness. Up until now the topic of the evolution of BX59 had been strictly embargoed in case of a leak and subsequent panic. Lady Trinh’s openness about it could only mean one thing.
“I take it that it’s now gone beyond the point of containment,” he said.
“Correct. There was an incident at the Spire. Belliscoe is gone.”
“I’m sorry.”
“We have it under wraps for now, however, there are loose ends that mean that it will certainly get out within hours. I’m doing everything I can to prolong the period of secrecy and prevent a panic, but when the news does break, we need to be able to present a credible challenge to BX59 that can calm the people and keep them safe.”
“I understand.” Looking away from the communicator, Moorak searched for something on his desk for a moment. He swiped through an infoslide and referred to the details on it. “As it stands, our best lead is the fact that The Fading was, up until recently, contained mostly to the time of dusk. This, along with conversations with patients which revealed that they had received some amount of information from BX59 itself, led us to conclude that BX59 is … living, as such, in a place that is most easily accessed at dusk. There is a theory that this is the time when the partition between our world and this place is the thinnest, when access is most likely, and transfer between them is most probable.”