"I didn't say I was jealous. Why would I be jealous? Was she older than me? Did she kiss better?"
Jacob sighed. "Iv, you’re missing the whole point of me taking you out here. Mia is in my past – you're my present. And hopefully my future."
The words stopped her short. Almost as if in acknowledgment, the rain gradually lightened as they stood there facing each other, quiet, unsure of what to say next.
"You shouldn't leave those you love behind." A voice said several feet away from them, making them both jump and look in its direction. Ivy recognized the form instantly: it was the strange green-skinned woman. And she was carrying someone over her shoulder. As the woman passed her, she could clearly make out the person over her shoulder – it was her grandmother.
"Grandma!" Ivy exclaimed without thinking, chasing after them. Jacob, saying something unintelligible under his breath, followed behind them to the barn.
"Close the doors." The woman said as it dropped Ivy's grandmother unceremoniously to the ground.
"Hey! Careful!" Ivy yelled.
"Why? She's asleep. Besides, the ground here is soft."
Ivy rushed to her grandmother’s side, checking for a pulse. The woman was right – her grandmother was definitely still alive. It was as if a small weight lifted off her shoulders.
"Don't go out on your own anymore. They're hunting for you. And this one – the boy – I don't like him. Stay away from him. Getting involved with a human will ultimately be your downfall."
Jacob’s mouth dropped open. Ivy defiantly took his hand in hers. "Thank you for bringing my grandmother back, and for helping us before, but you have absolutely no right to tell me how to live my life. Or who to love."
She felt Jacob turn and look at her, and it was everything she had not to look at him back. Instead she kept her eyes focused on the woman in front of her.
"Your powers are only going to get more deadly, you know. Until you learn how to use them. Or what triggers them. I can teach you."
The silence that followed filled the room like water.
"But only if you come with me and leave the human behind," the woman finished.
Ivy's hand tightened around Jacob’s. "I'm not doing that. He's coming with or no deal."
The woman took a step towards her. "Do you think you really have a choice, girl? Or time? Do you know they are scouring the planet looking for you? They are literally destroying everything and everyone they come across just to find you. And do you know what will happen once they find you? Do you? Well?"
"What? They'll capture me? Interrogate me? Challenge me to a dance-off? In case you haven't noticed, I don't have much to begin with. Literally just a few people I care about and the clothes on my back." Ivy suddenly became conscious of her outfit: she was still wearing her long nightshirt and panties. And nothing else. The woman tilted her head.
"Hey – I didn't exactly have time to change before everything happened! Besides, why are they hunting me? What did I do? And who the hell are you anyway? And who are they to begin with? And the Changed – what are they? Or, well, why are they? Do you know the answer to any of these questions?"
The woman shook her head. "I know the answer to all of those questions. You are so much like your sister it is scary sometimes..."
Ivy looked back at her mother, who seemed to be waking up. "My – oh, now you wake up, mom!"
Ivy's mother frowned and immediately felt her chest. “I don't understand. I was dead. How?”
"Ivy brought you back to life, ma'am. It was amazing. When we came here, she went over to you and kneeled over your body, and both of you started glowing. Then her eyes went from black to normal, and she fell over, coming to like five minutes after that. Since then, we've just been waiting for you to wake up."
"Who are, wait, I know you. But you're dead. I saw you die," her mother said to the woman.
Ivy looked back and forth between the two, bewildered. "Wait, what? You two know each other?!"
"Yeah, I know her," Ivy’s mother said, her voice sounding distant. "That's – that's the – that's the woman who gave birth to you."
"I'm your mother. Your true mother." The green-skinned woman said tersely. "And it's obvious that I can't leave my daughter in your care anymore. You are unable to defend her."
Ivy's mother got to her feet. "Bullshit! For the past 13-”
“14, mom.” Ivy interjected.
“-14 years I've been looking after her – and we've managed to survive so far! Where the fuck were you? And why are you just now coming back into her life? Why did you give her up to begin with?"
The woman frowned and held a finger up, signaling for everyone to be silent. "Dammit."
Ivy went to Jacob’s side and took his hand back in hers. "What? What now?" She asked anxiously.
"They are surrounding us. Not the Others – the – how do you call them – the Changed. They are closing in on us."
Ivy’s mother looked around the barn. "You've got to be fucking kidding me. Where is my shotgun? Hell, are there any weapons around here?"
Ivy went to the place her and Jacob had been sitting and retrieved her mother’s gun, tossed it to her, then pulled Jacob with her to the door and opened it, looking outside. The rain had stopped completely, revealing the Changed. They were everywhere, surrounding the barn in a solid circle. More there than she had ever seen before in her entire life.
"I don't think weapons will matter, Mom. There's too many. We need to get out of here."
"Can you do that thing to make us vanish again?" Jacob leaned in and asked her.
"No. I don't know how I did it the first time."
She turned and looked at her birth mother, who shook her head. "That has never been one of my gifts. I have no idea how you can do it. None of our people have that ability."
There were a million questions Ivy wanted to ask the woman who gave birth to her, but there was simply no time.
"So what do we do? Anyone have an idea?" Ivy asked, watching the Changed get even closer.
Her birth mother’s words sent a chill down her spine: "We fight. And most likely, we will die."
The Changed, in unison, suddenly broke out in a dead run, making a strange screaming sound as they neared.
Jacob tightened his grip on Ivy's hand.
- ME -
Yeah, so needless to say, we all knew we were going to die, but watching Ivy and Jacob holding hands so hard that both of their fingers were beginning to change colors was... heartbreaking for me. They would never get a chance to do so much. But then, I thought acidly, neither had I. The Change had robbed that from me. I had only had a few boyfriends, had never done… carnal things with any of them. But then, I thought again, this was Ivy's first boyfriend, so she was even worse off than I was.
It’s things like this that made me not believe in any form of God. I don't see how my mother, of all people, could keep her faith. It seemed so fruitless to me.
I slowly lifted my gun up and made sure it was loaded, then checked my pocket’s ammunition. Which wasn't there, of course, because I was still in my bed clothes. Swearing colorfully, I raised my gun and waited. I watched as Ivy gripped her machete tightly with her free hand, and Jacob as his robotic arm gauntlet (whatever the hell it was) took on small varying shapes in his. Almost as if he was idly practicing with it, trying to find just the right configuration to fight with.
Like it really mattered.
I kept hoping that Ivy's ability would kick in, that we would be whisked away from this place, that something would flip inside her and the oncoming onslaught would be obliterated.
But that never happened.
I looked at my mother, who was just starting to wake up. She looked up at me with what almost looked like lost, hopeless eyes. Ivy's birth mother, from what I could see of her at least, just stood there calmly, almost as if she were waiting for her turn in line at the supermarket. I hated her for her calmness.
Briefly I
flashed back to when I first met her, when I was a little girl and I was investigating (OK, looting) a mall for hygiene items. She had me beyond terrified then, especially when she pointed my own shotgun at my face and calmly pulled the trigger.
But it was empty. And she knew it. She had used all of the bullets saving my life, though I doubted she needed the gun to do that. It was done, most likely, to not only eliminate the Changed that were attacking me but to also make sure I had no more ammunition left to use on her after the fact. Smart, in retrospect. I wondered if she had anything planned for this.
I didn't have long to wonder.
They busted in the barn, swarming Ivy and Jacob, and hitting us like a wave from the ocean.
The fight was immediate and chaotic. I quickly lost sight of everyone, only seeing brief flashes of Ivy's birth mother as she acrobatically and methodically killed Changed after Changed, decapitating one here, ripping the limb of another there, using said limb to smash in the head of another. It was unreal, and almost hypnotic, like watching one of those old kung-fu flicks, but live.
I forced myself to focus on my own situation and began carefully blowing head upon head off of Changed shoulders, dodging them when they got too close the best that I could – definitely nowhere near as gracefully or athletically as Ivy’s mother. More like a paraplegic, drugged five-year-old. But I managed to not get too damaged, so there is that.
I heard a loud boom to my right and saw a dozen or so Changed fly through the air, the green skinned-woman’s arms outstretched. I shook my head.
Some bitches...
It seemed like only a few seconds and I was out of bullets, so I did what any rational girl would do when they were surrounded by murderous mindless former humans - I used my shotgun as a club.
It was surprisingly effective.
Although I had to admit, I began to see the wisdom of Ivy's weapon choice more and more with each swing of that heavy ass gun.
My arms began to hurt and grow tired, and eventually I just – I just gave up. Quit. It's not something I'm proud of, but there was simply no end to them, and I knew I couldn't go on forever. There were simply too many of them, and they were so hell-bent on getting to us that they were practically tearing each other apart. It was at once fascinating and terrifying.
And then it all stopped.
All the Changed simply stopped fighting.
Seconds later the large armored figure strolled in.
As if things weren't already dismal.
He slowly looked over the carnage in the barn and nodded. Large stick-man looking robots came in behind him, with a few robotic dog-like creatures. I just shook my head. Things were beyond hopeless now. There as absolutely nothing that could save us at this point.
My mother, apparently, felt differently, because she strolled right up to the armored figure and hit him square in the chest with her bare hand – to the absolute surprise of everyone in the barn. Even some of the Changed seemed to exchange looks.
"Mom! Get away from him!"
"Grandma! Get back!"
"Ma'am!"
His hand was a blur as he grabbed her by her neck and raised her off the ground.
"Put her down!" I screamed, making my way to him through the now motionless Changed.
I didn't get to her in time. I heard a sharp crack as he twitched his hand and broke her neck, then opened his hand and let her drop to the floor.
I screamed in horror and rushed him, only to be grabbed and held back by – of all people – Ivy's birth mother. "Let me the fuck go you fu-"
"Let me." Was all she said, and something in her voice, in her eyes, stopped me cold. She was beaten up, cut, bleeding, barely able to stand on her feet, but something told me she was deadlier now than she had ever been.
I backed away.
The Changed in front of her made a path, much to my astonishment, and she walked through it, straight to the armored figure.
"This has gone on long enough. Do you even remember who you are anymore?"
My eyes widened. She knew who he was?!
"Have they completely taken your humanity? How does it feel to be their puppet? To be robbed of your free will? Do you even recognize your family anymore?"
My eyes widened even further. Was this – was that figure – my father? It would explain so much! Suddenly everything began to make sense...
"Dad?" I said softly, taking a shaky step forward.
Ivy's mother placed an open hand in my direction, telling me silently and without looking to stay back.
"This is going to end one way or the other. You are undoing everything I worked so hard for..."
Silence. I waited for the armored figure to respond, to say anything that would give me any kind of clue as to who he really was. But he said nothing.
He simply put his hand through her stomach.
*
Or at least I thought he did. From my angle, that's how it looked – but Ivy's birth mother must have moved just the right amount so that his hand would only scratch her, not go through her. I didn't even have time to be amazed by this, because the fight that ensued between the two was like watching two very healthy and athletic wet cats in a death match. The movements were so poetic, so graceful, so deadly, that they were mesmerizing. She had more speed, but he had more brute strength. She was already badly wounded and exhausted... where she pulled the energy and determination from to fight like that just baffled me. And to think only seconds ago I had completely given up.
I felt a light tug on my arm, and turned to find Ivy and Jacob at my side. I hugged them both to me, then returned my attention to the battle, knowing that our very lives depended on its outcome.
The two paused as the area rumbled and a loud roar was heard in the distance. Ivy’s mother recovered first, however, taking advantage of the armored man’s flat-footedness and hitting him hard in his armored face, causing the headpiece he was wearing to fly off his head.
My heart froze in my chest. I was dreading seeing the monster that my father had become, but at the same time I had to see. I watched the head armor fly off his head in frustrating slowness, until it fully revealed his face.
He was definitely a monster.
But he was not my father.
"What?" I whispered to myself, feeling suddenly as if my entire world were collapsing around me. If this was not him, then where was my father? What had happened to him?
Ivy's mother froze. "Gabriel..."
"Wait, what?!" Ivy exclaimed beside me, her hand finding mine and tightening.
I started to look down at her in confusion but a sudden blur of movement caught my attention – the armored figure had grabbed Ivy’s mother by the neck and lifted her off the floor, and began quickly choking the life out of her.
"No!" Ivy screamed as she started to run towards them, but I yanked her back – this was a battle we simply could not win.
As my doppelganger’s body became limp, the tall stick-man-looking robots that entered with the armored figur – Gabriel – walked towards us.
It was the end.
Game over.
- IVY -
Ivy did not fight as her hands were bound. She put up no resistance as a thin veil was placed over her eyes, blocking her vision. She didn't even struggle sometime later as she was bound, standing up, to something flat and hard, completely immobilizing her. Her mind was numb, replaying over and over the events that had transpired over the past hour.
Her grandmother, struggling and yelling as her neck was broken.
Her birth mother strangled to death before her very eyes.
No, not her mother; the woman that had given birth to her. She felt almost nothing when she thought of her, and she battled with herself internally as she tried to decide if that made her a bad person or not.
After all, that woman had saved their lives on more than one occasion.
She winced as whatever was covering her eyes was removed and bright, he
ad searing light flooded her. When her vision finally returned, she looked around as best as she could, considering her head was also bound, and saw Jacob, her mother, and her birth mother bound to what looked like metal tables with no legs standing up but slanted at a slight angle. Her birth mother was to her left, while Jacob was to her right. Her real mother was beside Jacob.
She looked at Jacob intently. He was sleeping, but looked largely unharmed. She smiled to herself. He was handsome when he slept.
"You better be alive over there, motherfucker. Or I'll find a way to bring you back and kill you myself." She whispered over to him.
His eyes fluttered open and he groggily looked over at her. "Yeah... nothing like a death threat to wake you up..."
"No cursing," her mother slurred from across the room.
Ivy jumped and looked at her. "Sorry, I didn't know you were awake."
She chuckled. "So what, it’s OK to cuss while I'm sleeping? Bitch."
They all quietly laughed.
Except for her birth mother. Who was looking right at her.
"I-I thought you were dead," Ivy said to her, confused. Although the woman’s neck was badly bruised, she seemed very much alive.
It was a long moment before the woman spoke. "He's not going to kill me. He still loves me."
Ivy frowned. "What? Wait, you said his name was-"
"He's your father, Ivy."
Before Ivy had a chance to respond the door to the room opened and the man they were talking about strolled in, still wearing his mechanical armor. The right gauntlet was back on his body, and it somehow looked out of place on him and not Jacob.
"How the fuck are you my father?!" Ivy practically spat at him as soon as the door closed behind him. He looked towards Ivy's birth mother for a very long, uncomfortable set of moments.
He walked toward her.
Though he was large, his movements barely made a sound. He stopped when he was only an inch away from where Ivy was bound. "I... do not... know you... not my... child..."
The Change: Life Page 7