by Dee, Maria
“Mama,” she cried. She looked down at her bloodied hands and blood streamed from her face. Confusion swept over her. The force dissipated from within and the streaming tears extinguished the light in her eyes. Maybe everything her mother had said was true—maybe she was truly evil. “Help me.”
The trickle of light faded and I could feel the warm air circulating to my dry eyes once again. I’d realized I hadn’t blinked the entire time she seared me. Blinking wasn’t an option.
“I’m sorry you went through that all. Must’ve been hard to have your own mother turn on you.”
“That’s another thing we share in common,” she said spitefully.
Yet another reminder of my bio-mom, except she didn’t attempt to have me killed—big difference. “Anyhow, thanks for sharing…I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We have more to be sorry for.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s what you’ve been waiting for, Xenia,” she whispered, “Our gift.”
I paused with mixed feelings. A part of me was dying to know and another part warned me against it.
“You’ve already triggered the first stage I’m afraid.”
“Huh? First stage of what?”
“The time whereby you killed yourself—attempted to—you disrupted the energy field and triggered the stage of transitioning. With your death comes the ascension. You’ve enlightened the prime ones.”
“What is the second stage?” I hastened to ask.
“Slaughter,” she mused, “And with the λ-vaccine, stage two isn’t too farfetched.”
I quivered at the image of a ravenous Betsy before she became a Diplo. The way she tore through the humans flesh in the dome and carried on in the merriest of ways. Without the antidote, slaughter was imminent in the offline world. Fortunately, the E-SOM were exclusive to that world and not online…the one I’d grown to know as the one and only for up to nineteen years of my life.
I wasn’t about to let the chips fall where they may. It was time to take action against the E-SOM and destroy the plants carrying the supply of λ-vaccine. To wage a war against the E-SOM without trying to reason with them first seemed extreme. Although the immorta of Endeca were divided on the subject, I decided to take the reins on the matter. Show them the way, if you would.
“Where are you going?” hollered Daisy.
“To do something that I should’ve done long ago.” I stormed off and Orion trailed from behind.
“Xenia, you’ve escaped them…don’t go back,” he cautioned solemnly. His warm eyes melted his icy expression.
“Don’t you see? I know what they’ve been looking for all this time. Why they even made this stupid vaccine in the first place.”
“What do you mean?”
The more time I dwelled on the E-SOM and the testing in the dome, Corlissa’s (actually the Creator’s) words became crystal clear. The shooter’s transformation…our special abilities…I’d be the end of them all…
“They want me. If I go there, maybe they’d stop circulating the vaccine.”
“They wouldn’t, trust me. After all, I’ve worked for them.”
“The vaccine is to prevent diplo’s of the future, is it not? Instead it’s backfired on them and prime diplos are becoming undead.”
“For them, it’s a minor side effect. They’ll take care of them before the public notices a thing.”
“Not if there are many undead. What would they do then? It would be pure chaos.”
“That could be their fall back plan. The public will be scared and they’d enforce the vaccine as a means to protect the public from becoming one of the undead. But still, you in exchange for the vaccine isn’t likely.”
Daisy joined us on the balcony. “You need to see this for yourself,” she whispered to Orion. “Come.”
We trailed Daisy through the streets at night, turning down an alleyway. A homeless, drunken man approached Corlissa.
“He’ll do,” she said, grabbing him by the hand. He screamed in pain as her little hand flickered red hot electricity, rendering him immobile. “Xenia, make him one.”
“Make him one what?” Orion sneered.
“A diplo, what else?” she scowled.
“No, I won’t.” I knew what was about to happen and it wouldn’t be pretty.
“Fine,” she said, pulling out a dagger and swiftly pointing it to his chest.
“Wait! Okay, I’ll try.” I stalled, buying time. It was one thing killing a killer but to harm an innocent, I couldn’t do it. Then a loud crashing sound radiated by the dumpster. A scathing cat pounced before us and the homeless man broke free of Daisy’s grasp.
“I’ll get him,” she sighed annoyed.
“Wait, I have an idea.” I looked over at the cat and in a swift second, Daisy brought the cat before me. It hissed in her grasp and once she handed him over, it purred on a different wavelength. It was calmer and quieter. It’s big eyes looked into mine, searching for something…just like the killers.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, before unleashing my fragment’s power into the eyes of the feline. Its eyes didn’t bleed; its pelt only darkened and the color of its eyes swirled magically into an aqua, yellow black. It licked my arm and jumped from my grasp.
Orion watched in awe. “The first and the last of Endeca will bring forth the new age.”
“Okay great. Now that Orion’s all caught up, I say we pay the E-SOM a visit,” she spoke abruptly, grinning widely.
~
A bright light shone into my room and birds chirped a soothing melody reminding me of the day ahead. Calliope would be by any minute. Of course she’d be because to her, it was like any ordinary day. I showered, dressed and ran down the stairwell in time to grab a cup of coffee before the honking commenced.
Marla leered as I hopped into the back seat. “Morning.”
“Morning,” I whispered back.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, concerned for her to return to college life so soon.
“As good as one could after being shot,” she said, continuing, “how are you doing…since…uh, nevermind.”
Calliope caught on. “Okay. Am I missing something here?”
“Aside from that stop sign you just ran, no,” I groaned startled.
“Yeah, okay…so anyhow, I had the loft redecorated and I put extra effort into the two guest bedrooms. Each has been decorated according to your likes. It was a challenge but I believe they turned out perfectly. I need to haul in the last two pieces,” she pointed her well-manicured finger at us.
“Exciting! But my parents want to keep an eye on me until I’m a hundred percent.”
“No rush. Just letting you know it’s in the woodworks and once the rest of the loft is done, then hello party time. What about you, Xeni?”
“I’ll move in at the same time, it’d only be fair to Marla. We can’t leave her out of party time, now can we?”
They giggled in unison.
Once on campus, the girls and I parted ways. I typically dreaded the lecture I was heading too because of Tree but lately, it wasn’t as awful. There was a silver lining after enduring Trees hostility—a pleasant mentor by the name of Reese. Sure it helped that he was easy on the eyes, but most of all, he seemed genuinely concerned. He was dead on about dealing with someone like Tree now vs. later in life; it was good prep. I was better at dodging her these days…for the most part.
“Xenia, take a look at this!” she squeaked excitedly. She handed over our project.
“I told you,’ I sighed, mostly relieved as I’d never ganked my off-source for homework.
“Ninety-five percent baby! Now that’s what I’m talking about. We should definitely partner up for next semester.”
“Easy there, you’re pre-med, I’m not. I
t was purely coincidental that we happened to take the same elective this time, so I highly doubt we’d have any more courses together being of different majors and all,” I hastened to say in a single breath.
“Don’t be so pessimistic, Xenia. I have friends in high places. We’ll be in another class or two. I’ll make sure of it,” she winked, taking the project along with her.
“Great…” I huffed disheartened. “Just great.”
“What’s great?” he asked.
“Oh, Reese. You startled me.”
“Pardon me, that wasn’t my intension,” he smirked, “Great job by the way. I was impressed.”
Why thank you. “Really? Thanks…I did what I could.”
“You have a very promising future, academically speaking. Just remember to immerse your entire self into it next time. Don’t wait until the last minute.”
“Yes sir,” I said playfully. We stood for a moment awkwardly staring at one another.
“I should go. I have a tutorial to get to,” he said, backing away.
“Same here, I can’t be late. This TA is a tight ass,” I whispered.
He smirked, “We’re really going to be late, Xenia.”
“I know, I know. But can you imagine the look on Tree’s face when she sees us both stroll in late?”
“Tight ass?” he asked.
“I didn’t mean that literally…not to say that your…it’s perfectly nice, I mean…never mind,” I mumbled expressively using my hands, gesturing throughout.
Reese seemed too good to be true and maybe he was. Once I had the time and energy, I’d look into his past. He wasn’t on Cyclopser so the snooping would take a little more effort. With the dome demolition and E-SOM vaccine launch, we had too much to deal with. I triaged as required although I wished I had more time to research Mr. Reese.
The day had passed and the afternoon awaited for me along with Kiran and Nicholas.
“We need to move fast. Have you travelled there lately? Things are bad,” Kiran’s verbose mirrored his anxious state.
“Let’s travel offline and meet with the E-SOM. I’m a worthwhile bargaining chip. I’m the answer to a lot of what they are looking for. The premise behind the vaccine.”
“They’ll kill you once they find out,” Nicholas cautioned.
“Well if it isn’t Mr. Take-a-body,” Kiran scorned.
“I was going to tell you eventually…I had no choice Kiran. I needed your source to enlighten Xenia’s fragment. You were the least threatening of my options,” he sighed after his long-winded answer.
“You owe me big time.”
“Agreed.”
“Then it’s settled. We’re going to war, and with Nicholas’ blessing, speaking on behalf of his ternio, the immorta of Endeca, and Xenia soon to be immorta, will take on the E-SOM.”
Nicholas nodded, furrowing his brow. He knew he had no choice but to jump in the bandwagon. It was either that or face Nyxta, queen of the middle world.
“Splendid,” he said, appearing out of thin air.
“What are you doing here?” I gasped taking a step back.
“Dear Xenia, no need for alarm. Nyxta has granted Castiel and I provisional release. We promise to be on our best behavior,” he smiled wide and nodded over to the others.
“The others will meet us offline,” Nicholas notified.
“Good. Now here are the coordinates of interest,” he said, mentally broadcasting the details. “The E-SOM has been there for some time since the dome demolished. It’s safe to say the E-SOM is guarding the antidote but my resources have given me details on the power plant of interest. Those bastards are using the antidote more frequently on their staff.”
“The antidote isn’t permanent?” Castiel asked, disturbed.
“It wears off…but the adjuvant is highly addictive, which reminds the undead to keep sticking themselves with it. Once it wears off, they become highly irritable and a hunger frenzy incapacitates them.”
“That explains why they lunge at anything insight,” I said, continuing, “After eating dead for so long, live game must rock their boats.”
“We need to move fast. Let’s go,” Kiran ordered and one by one, we travelled along his side. The sparks and bright lights that I’d become adjusted to while traveling magnified exponentially with more immorta along for the ride.
The offline world was pure mayhem. Undead lurked about eerily and the uninfected humans fled, while some hid indoors, peeping through the blinds.
“Do you still want to talk with the E-SOM?” Sebastian asked contemptuously.
“I wasn’t expecting this…I thought we’d have more time.”
“Then it’s settled. We wage war!” he shouted, raising his arm in the air. The others closely followed in command—Kiran’s command. He’d used magic to locate the E-SOM and once all eleven of us were within close proximity of the destination of interest, we divided in pursuit of the supply of vaccine and antidote.
Orion and I partnered off while Nicholas leered in our direction with disappointment riddled all over his face. “Let’s go,” I barked at Orion.
We cased the plant on the lower west level. “Do you even know what any of the E-SOM members look like?”
“It’s why I brought you along. That’s the only reason I picked you,” I muttered annoyed.
“Orion the spy comes in handy. Who’d have thought it, huh?” he said playfully.
“I knew there was a reason for keeping you around.”
“Maybe that was Nyxta’s reason.”
“Her and me both, cowboy,” I knocked his ego.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night. I know the truth.”
I shot him a contemptuous look, while pulling out a flash light after bumping into a chair in the dark. Orion reached from behind me trying to take the flashlight. “What are you doing? We can’t draw any attention here.”
“Okay, sorry. But I think we’re clear down here.” I spoke too soon. The flashlight shone on boxes stacked to the ceiling. We looked at one another and he nodded. I flashed the light on the label and it read λ-vaccine.
“We’ve found the supply…or part of it. Who knows if this is the only plant in stock.”
Orion swiped the flashlight from my hand. “Give me that,” he said, looking at other labels.
“What bed did they have you in?” I asked. The timing wasn’t the best but I figured I’d never be in this position of seclusion with Orion ever again.
“Five,” he whispered, caught off guard. “The numbers are insignificant. Those elite morons have no clue which of us is from what ternio. They know of Endeca but that is all.”
“I was in nine. I know that you know…anyhow, were you still in lock down when I was captured?”
“I’d escaped long before…never turned back, unlike Nicholas.”
Interesting, but something curbed my attention elsewhere. I came across reports on a desk. “Check this out. They must have been in a hurry to have left confidential files lying around.” I skimmed through the document, “Some humans failed the trial, dying from the λ-vaccine and the surviving humans in the first trial became carriers and immune to…evolving into the next era of being. They’d be hindered from becoming diplozoes. Prime humans died weeks after vaccination but only to rise again.”
“Those sons of bitches will do anything to hinder our awakening, even kill their own kind in the process.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I continued searching through what was left behind. The computers were wiped and all they’d left were a few boxes of file folders. It was eerily quiet again.
“Nicholas had too. I was destined to be his Charon,” I revisited the subject.
‘You’re right. Still right, actually.”
“What do you mean?” I d
eliberated his words.
“You think he’s in love with you, but it’s the bond of a Charon that draws the fragments. Typically, a restored source leaves indefinitely to break that connection.”
“You’re lying as always.”
“I’ll show you…it’s in the ancient archives I have,” he rebuked, continuing, “Xenia, what I feel for you, well that’s pure.” He turned the light off so that only his glistening green eyes lite our snug, warm quarters. Orion’s presence was alluring and his stupid face was too gorgeous for words. I’d never felt so conflicted before. I hated and liked him just the same. He edged his way closer, mere inches from me. I could feel his cool breath against my moist skin and he moved in slowly so that his breath fell harder against my neck.
I parted my lips and reached for his mouth merely grazing his lips, falling short. My eyes caught someone, something in the periphery. “BEHIND YOU!” I shouted in the nick of time. The undead workers of the E-SOM came through the doors. Two of them upon seeing Orion, charged him. He knocked one down with a swift strike to the head. The other one steered past me growling.
“Looks like the antidote wore off…wait a minute. That doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t they attack me?”
“I’m immorta…I’m technically dead. Looks like the antidote only protects the living.”
“We have to get out of here and fast. We need to warn the others.”
“I’m sure they can fend for themselves just the same.”
Orion’s cyclopod vibrated loudly, “It’s Kiran. He said to evacuate and fast. He’s…” his eyes beamed and he grabbed me, flashing us out of the building much quicker than had I ran along his side. Once outside he released me by the others, at a distance from the plant. Orion pressed his palms over my ears.
“Let go! What are you doing?” I squirmed and just then it happened. A surmountable explosion of the plant. We all watched in silence for a while as it burned to the ground.
Kiran was the first to break the silence, “The ESOM wasn’t in there. We need to find them and the antidote.”
“We will, brother,” whispered Corlissa. She looked a little older, and a little taller than the last time I’d seen her.