Insolation

by Bradlyn Wilson

“Hadley please—” He grabbed her arms and pulled her into him. She stood frozen, terrified. She looked over his shoulder unable to make eye contact.

  He finally let go of her arms, as though burnt. She took a step back looking at her shoes. “I thought you were different, I felt a connection to you, and you just threw that away without a second thought.”

  “I know, it’s just—”

  “This isn’t the first time you’ve done that though is it?” Hadley pressed hoping to get an answer.

  Kane thought for a moment on what to say next. He decided to tread lightly. “Are you starting to remember things?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t not.”

  Hadley shrugged. “Were we together?”

  “When I…?” He couldn’t say it.

  “Married Alice?”

  “Yes,” he said simply.

  “Are you still with her?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  Hadley grabbed his hand in a moment of clarity and held it, “She loves you Kane. I can see by the way she looks at you.”

  “I know.” Kane gave her hand a squeeze.

  “Do you love her back?”

  “I’m not sure anymore. I did at one point.”

  “Did you ever actually love me?” Hadley put an emphasis on the word actually. She wanted to know how he had really felt about her.

  “I…”

  Kane honestly didn’t know. After all the time he still didn’t know if it was love or control or excitement with Hadley. Or if it was a mixture of all three.

  Hadley didn’t want to hear anything else he had to say.

  “I’m going to go now.” She tried to push past him and avoid eye contact. The tears were already falling down his face. He grabbed her waist. Hadley felt her own tears run down her cheeks before she even realized they were falling. She fell into him and cried into his shoulders. They stood there holding each other, neither knowing what to do next.

  After what felt like infinity, Hadley stepped back and stepped around him. She slowly turned the metal doorknob and opened the door. He stood like a statue with his back to her as he listened to her leave.

  Hadley walked through the lab and Vanya didn’t look up from her computer. Hadley saw the slow stream of tears running down her face in her reflection on the screen. She didn’t even bother to brush them off. She let the tears dry on her face or splotch on the data she was going through.

  She walked slowly down the halls with nowhere in particular to go. She stopped as she walked by the door Pax and her had previously used to escape. She opened the creaky door and walked into the demolished hall again. As though pulled by an invisible force she walked to the red splattered room. She knew it was blood but more than that she had this strange connection to this room. She was drawn to it; a distant memory she couldn’t catch.

  She went to the window sill and hoisted herself up. The window swung open outwards and she sat with her feet dangling out. The morning sun shone down on her face and she leaned her head on the window absolutely exhausted. Every muscle in her body hurt. She was completely emotionally drained.

  She watched the sun rise higher and higher in the sky until it started to descend. She didn’t care how much radiation she was getting or letting into her body. She just wanted to feel alive.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  2228

  The simulator wasn’t getting Hadley’s newest genetic pathogen right. No matter how hard she tried. She watched as the virus infected a small area and killed everyone, every time. She put her head on the desk.

  “What do you want me to do Hadley?” The computer spoke.

  “Try rearranging it again? And attack the hypothalamus. Also can we make it droplet and not airborne? Change the structure too.” Hadley murmured. At this point it was tweaking. She had changed it so much in the last two hours she wasn’t sure what it was anymore. She was just thankful the computer was keeping a data trail. She was throwing random suggestions at it.

  The computer started to run the simulation. She didn’t hear it ping out right away so she looked up. They had a globe in the simulator and she watched as the virus spread throughout the planet. It remained green though. It didn’t kill anyone. Finally, the simulator stopped. All green but no SUCCESS popped up.

  “What’s the matter?” Hadley asked the simulator.

  “I think you changed it too much from the original purpose. I will delete the data. This is not safe.”

  “Stop!” she yelled startled.

  “What?”

  “What did I do?”

  “You created a virus that can be used as a ticking bomb. With this you can choose population groups specifically by genetics. You can then change their neuropathways, signals and chemicals. It is the perfect killer. For instance, you could choose every Caucasian woman of childbearing age with a certain level of Estrogen to no longer be able to breathe the current level of CO2. You could kill everyone with the push of a button and there would be no cure.”

  “What?” Anna and Kane had walked in with Hemmer and they were all staring at the computer in shock.

  “Give us another example—” Dr. Hemmer said stepping forward.

  ‘You could target every man who is Caucasian and change it so their body will never allow them to have children. Or so their brain will clot and they will all die—” The computer said.

  “Delete all the data,” Hadley said at once. She practically screamed at the simulator.

  “No. Do no such thing.” Dr. Kane exclaimed. Hadley knew his voice overruled hers in the computers mind and everything suddenly came crashing down around her.

  “Girl’s please leave. Meet us in room 4.” Kane said without looking at the two of them.

  Hadley tried to protest but Anna dragged her out of the room.

  “I may have just destroyed the world—”

  Her eyes were wide, “I know. How did this happen?”

  “I was throwing random virus changes at the computer. In no particular order.”

  Hours later, Anna and Hadley sat in a white room with three chairs and a table. They had been woken up in the wee hours of the morning and hauled to the room. They were sitting waiting for answers.

  Dr. Hemmer walked in grinning from ear to ear. “You girls have done it! You have perfected the imperfect-able. You have made us have control of evolution.”

  Hadley inhaled sharply and said in a whisper that even frightened herself, “You have to erase it Hemmer. It needs to be destroyed.”

  “There is no chance of that!” He was gleefully giddy.

  Hadley stood up, “I came back to work with you, not to do this.”

  “Hadley you gave me the greatest gift in the world. Though don’t you fool yourself you came back because your little RFE project is running out of money and we have the resources you selfishly want.”

  “RFE is strong,” said Anna and Hadley at the same time.

  “It’s for dreamers, and mark my words girls I will destroy it.”

  “You’ve said that before Hemmer,” Anna smirked.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  It was night now, and Hadley had dozed off with her cheek against the window sill. She stretched out and felt the feeling start coming back to her face. She wiggled her cheek trying to get rid of the implant she had created in her skin. She couldn’t figure out what had woken her up. Then the light flicked across her face again and momentarily she was illuminated.

  Her blood ran cold and she started to slowly bring her legs back inside. She looked down and saw three people standing below her wearing all black. One of them held a light.

  “Evans is that you?”

  Hadley was taken aback, there was only one person who called her that and without thinking she replied down, “Saul?”

  “Hey!” he called back.

  The window sill was only a few meters off the ground below and without thinking too long Hadley jumped. Her legs contracted as she hit the hard pavement and she s
tumbled. Saul was right there to pull her up.

  “Well I’m not sure I expected that,” a woman said beside Saul.

  “Haven’t we known Hadley is the epitome of unexpected for years now?” the other man replied with a low grumble in a thick Scottish accent.

  All three of them laughed and Hadley gave them a weak smile. She didn’t know the others beside Saul.

  “Maggie,” the woman said with an air of disdain. She smiled perfectly and tossed her red hair to the side in the wind.

  The other man held out a hand, “Charles. Charles Dickens.”

  Hadley took his hand and shook it.

  Charles continued with a laugh, “It’s always strange to meet people you’ve known for so long and they don’t remember you.”

  “I’m sorry,” Hadley said embarrassed.

  “No need,” Charles smiled. “Hemmer is a bloody moron, I still don’t understand what he hopes to achieve by putting memory inhibitors into his cryosleep chambers.”

  “What?” Hadley asked puzzled.

  Saul suddenly grabbed her arm, pulling her attention away from Charles. He threw a metal cuff on her wrist, just like the last time.

  “There’s no time to talk about this here Charles. We knew we only had a short timeline when Hadley’s program pinged that she was outside.”

  “Are you watching me?”

  “Obviously,” Maggie said with a smile.

  Hadley didn’t have a reply, but she smiled in spite of herself.

  “It’s only a few blocks Hadley, but we need to run. Hemmer patrols the sky with drones.”

  They started to run, weaving down the streets, mainly taking back alleys until they got to a small half sized door. All four of them climbed through and they were in a long shoot. Hadley wasn’t expecting to fall and she let out a short scream and she got her bearings. The slide continued for a long time until they hit a large crash pad at the bottom.

  “Jeez!” Hadley said, she looked around and could see they were in a room just off from the large computer room they’d been in before.

  Everyone else was already on their feet waiting for Hadley to stand and she clamored to her feet.

  They walked through the doorway and an alarm went off. It was quiet and dull.

  “How long were you outside Hadley?” Maggie asked judgingly.

  “I’m not sure. Why?”

  “Radiation overload,” Charles said nonchalantly.

  “Dammit.” Hadley rolled her eyes, she definitely had known better. But the soft wind had been cooling and felt great.

  Saul went to a desk beside the door and pulled out a small syringe. He attached a needle and came up to Hadley.

  “This really doesn’t hurt, but I can’t have you dying on me.”

  Hadley just shrugged and let him stick the needle into her arm. She didn’t feel anything until half her body seemingly went numb.

  “Am I supposed to—?” Hadley couldn’t finish her sentence before she vomited on her feet.

  “You always seem to be throwing up here,” Saul joked.

  “The last time I almost drowned,” Hadley said with a grimaced as she glanced up at Saul from her bent over position.

  Charles gave her back a slight pat, “Your clothes need to be washed.”

  Saul looked from Hadley to Maggie and said, “Can you take care of that Maggie?”

  Maggie locked her jaw and rolled her eyes but nodded anyways.

  This was the first moment that Hadley noticed how stunningly beautiful Maggie was. She flipped her hair to the side and fluttered her eyelashes at Saul. Hadley noticed Maggie almost completely ignored the fact that she was there.

  Maggie grabbed Saul’s forearm in assurance, “Of course Saul, anything! I’ll even give her some of the perfume you like so much.” She winked at him and the colour rushed to his cheeks.

  “Mags, that won’t be necessary. Just a shower and clothes.”

  “Come on,” Maggie said, hoisting Hadley to an upright position. Then she started walking them down the hall.

  She opened a door and they walked inside a bedroom. Hers, Hadley assumed. Immediately she rummaged in a drawer and pulled out a towel and a fresh set of clothes.

  She handed them to Hadley, “If you give me your clothes I’ll send them to the wash and you can have them back before you leave!” Maggie held out her arms for Hadley’s clothes. Hadley looked at her confused. “There’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

  So Hadley shrugged and undressed. She passed Maggie her clothes and wrapped the towel around herself.

  “These do smell like radiation!” Maggie exclaimed, “Oh the bathroom is right through that door!”

  Hadley smiled and walked into the bathroom. The shower was carved into the rocks. Small stones lined the bottom of the shower. She wiggled her toes across the stones. She grabbed Maggie’s shampoo and opened the glass bottle. She smelt it and it smelt like apples and pears. It was amazing. The shampoo at the complex smelt like sterile cleaner. The government again didn’t want anything to mess with their order and homogeneity.

  Hadley showered as quickly as was reasonable, enjoying the smells and environment, and then dried off. She put on the clothes Maggie had given her which were slightly too small. But she squirmed her way into the pants, just barely able to do up the button. She looked in the mirror and hated her own reflection. She had barely healed scars across her face and arms. Her hair looked better than it normally did though. Magic shampoo apparently. She turned away from the mirror and walked out of the bathroom.

  Maggie was sitting on her bed clicking her sky high pair of stilettos she had changed into. She was showing off everything in the skin tight dress she was wearing.

  “You look great Hadley; I wish I was as pretty as you.” She was completely genuine, which irritated Hadley slightly because of how gorgeous she actually was.

  “Thanks Maggie. But I really don’t think anyone compares to you.”

  “You are just being modest,” she beamed. She got to her feet and put her hand on Hadley’s shoulder. She moved with the air of royalty. She opened the door and motioned them both through. Back in the hall they walked towards the computer room.

  “Nice set up we have here isn’t it?” Maggie said attempting to make small talk.

  Hadley looked around, “Yes, how many complexes are there like this throughout the world?”

  “About eighty, give or take. We hear updates every so often. But radio silence is a must so the govs don’t know where exactly the complexes are. There’s also the matter of the rift between Saul and…” She stopped breaking eye contact.

  “Rift?”

  “I really shouldn’t have said that. It’s not my place.”

  Hadley nodded in understanding, they had a smart system. “But they know you are here in this city. Why don’t they attack?”

  “You tell me—” she shrugged.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Saul was hunched over a man, both of them looking intently at the computer. Charles was sitting on a desk to the side talking to a short girl wearing overly large glasses. Hadley and Maggie walked up behind them and they didn’t even notice.

  “So dinner one night?” Charles cooed to the woman.

  “Charles—” she laughed.

  Maggie gave Hadley a side eye and whispered, “Charles is the man every woman wants to be with here. Especially since his wife died last year.”

  Hadley’s eyes widened, “What about you?”

  “I only have eyes for one man.” Maggie said sending a glance towards Saul.

  “Oh,” Hadley said.

  Maggie just gave her a coordinated smile.

  “Ahem,” Maggie coughed. Saul turned around immediately and the man rushed to close the window on the browser. Before he did so Hadley saw her name on the screen and raised an eyebrow at Saul. He ignored it. The man turned his chair around and leaned back.

  “Hadley, this is Elijah Roper.” Kane said with a flick of his wrist.

  The man had dark
fuzzy hair that stood up in all directions. His skin was the colour of milk chocolate and flawless, it was gorgeous. He nodded his head at Hadley and reached out a hand, “Nice to finally meet you Hadley.”

  She shook his hand and smiled. He had a casual sense of being, of peace. He obviously did whatever he wanted and even though English was clearly not his first language, Hadley immediately liked him.

  “I got here, after you disappeared—” Elijah continued, letting his sentence fade.

  “Elijah, can you pull up the video on the screen?” Saul asked interrupting Hadley as she was about to inquire further.

  “For sure boss man,” Elijah turned with a solute and was immediately immersed in his screen. His fingers typed in a blur and the giant screen at the front of the room came to life.

  A video popped up and the starting image was a picture of Hadley. Her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail and she was smiling wearing a RFE shirt. She looked as though she should be a camp counsellor. There were mountains and cabins in the back of the image.

  “Ready for a whole new world?” Maggie whispered. Hadley nodded slowly unable to speak as if there was something caught in her throat.

  Elijah hit play on his computer and mere seconds later the video started to play.

  “Hi!” Hadley said on screen. “My name is Hadley Evans and I am the president and co-founder of Revolution for Free Earth or RFE. I am here to tell you that everything you have been told in the media and online is a lie. Granted, it did not start out this way but the Governments of the most prominent countries in the world have a belief that this is the only way. Restart or Die! It has been generations upon generations that we have known our consumption and waste production levels are sending this planet and the human race to extinction. The government will tell you they need volunteers to be sent to the moon and mars. Those are viable options, but not yet. They will tell you that the mass plagues and disease outbreaks are not government funded but they are. I am here to tell you there is another way. But it will only succeed if we all work together. So visit our website for more information and join RFE! I was one of the prominent minds of the SPaDI project, and so I actually know what I’m talking about. I started this organization and now it’s grown to include a lot of people who care a lot. Be one of them. ‘In the future’!”