Intelligence was such a turn on. “You’re a genius, do you know that?”
He laughed, putting his thumb and index finger together. He made a small space between them and said, “It’s a small chance.”
“A chance, nonetheless.”
He sighed. “If it doesn’t work, I’m out of ideas,” he said. “I’ll also need volunteers to take the drug. Maybe Eve can find some women here who’d be prepared to take it.”
I kissed his cheek. “I don’t think it’ll be a problem. I get the impression there are a few couples here who want a baby.”
“Yeh, I thought that was probably the case.”
My lips moved to his jawline, where I kissed him in soft intervals until I reached his lips.
“Halley,” he groaned, but pulled away. “You’ve been distant this past week—”
A ravenous kiss was enough to stop the rest of his sentence from leaving his mouth.
It wasn’t something I wanted to talk about. When he said distant, he meant that I’d been avoiding sex. Not any easy thing to do, given our connection.
It was killing me not to be intimate with him, but I was sure that if he saw me naked, he would figure out I was pregnant. He’d know it wasn’t just the chips. Chips didn’t increase bra cup sizes.
I’d hoped to be able to tell him in a few weeks’ time—to be on the safer side—but, realistically, it’d have to be sooner than that.
For the moment though, my kiss was enough to distract him completely. He stood and lifted me up onto the desk next to his, swatting a pile of notebooks onto the floor.
Positioning himself between my legs, he pushed my dress up around my waist and then moved his hands slowly over my thighs until he reached my underwear, which he promptly tore off. My head fell back with a gasp in response to the sound of ripping lace.
As we kissed, deeply and hungrily, he pushed me back onto my elbows, and moments later, with my legs wrapped around his hips, we made love.
I hoped to god no one found a good reason to visit the science lab right now.
The fluorescent tubes above us pulsed and dimmed, but there was no explosion. Not from the lights, anyway. As the heat built up inside me, my legs embraced him tighter, bringing him as close as possible before a stifled whimper escaped my throat. Seconds later, he gave a husky moan and slowed his pace, breathing heavily against my neck.
“Halley, can I ask you something?”
I slid down from the desk. “What?”
He straightened up and raised the zip on his jeans. “If it worked, would you take the drug?”
His question took me by surprise, and I simply stared blankly at him.
“Do you want to have children?” he asked, taking my hand.
“Why? Do you?”
He shrugged and smiled. “Yes.”
Anxiously, I wedged my bottom lip between my teeth. “Wouldn’t you be worried that something would happen? It might not survive like we did.”
Nate sighed, dropping my hand, and sat down on the stool in front of his desk. “I’ve thought about that a lot. I couldn’t, in good conscience, allow anyone here to conceive if the risk was too great.”
Too late. “And?”
“I found something in Strahovski’s notes. She’d also considered the use of ABVD to stimulate fertility, but she was also concerned about the effect of the virus on a developing embryo.”
My stomach lurched. “Oh?”
“She and her husband—Doctor Lawson—had discussed various scenarios given the information they’d gleaned from their study of the virus.”
As anxiety turned my legs to jelly, I pulled up a stool in front of him. “Go on.”
“If conception was successful, there were two possible outcomes,” he continued. “It’s a bit similar to how some women with rare blood types miscarry because their immune system attacks any fetus with a different blood type to that of the mother.”
“The virus, they believed, would do the same. A developing fetus, susceptible to the virus, wouldn’t survive. But a fetus formed from human cells, already integrated with the virus, wouldn’t be at risk from it.”
“Even if the mother hadn’t evolved?”
“I don’t see how it would make a difference. Especially since it’s only the brain cells that have yet to be cloned and integrated. The risk might be a little higher, perhaps.”
“How much higher? How would I—the mother, I mean—know if her baby wasn’t going to make it?”
He frowned. “The pregnancy would result in early miscarriage.”
“I see.” Using the desk for support, I stood abruptly and moved toward the door. “I need to think about this.”
My panicked brain struggled to make sense of everything Nate had said, and of everything I already knew. The risk of losing my baby was higher but at the same time, they were protecting her. Did it mean she was safe?
He followed me down the corridor and grabbed my hand, stopping me from going any further. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“It’s fine. I’m fine. It’s just all a bit overwhelming.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” he whispered, holding me so tightly I could barely breathe. I didn’t attempt to move out of his arms because he was the only thing keeping me from sinking to the floor. For the sake of my sanity, he needed to know about the baby. I was done trying to deal with this alone, despite my fears for his sanity should something go wrong.
“Nate, I really need to tell you—”
My confession, like a tense movie cliff-hanger, was interrupted by the sound of the double doors swinging open at the end of the corridor. It was Ben, and he was in a rush.
“Hey. Sorry to break up this tender moment, but you both need to go to Daniel’s office. Now.”
“Why?” I asked him, feeling like Nate and I had just been caught kissing behind the bike sheds and ordered to the headmaster’s office for a severe reprimand.
“Medical emergency,” was all Ben would say.
****
Gabriel was outside Daniel’s office when we got there. He flashed me a crooked smile as I went past him.
“Sit,” Daniel ordered. He was leaning back against the wall, arms crossed and looking decidedly tense. Nate and I sat obediently and exchanged apprehensive glances. I had no idea what we’d been summoned for or what constituted a medical emergency around here, in a group full of semi-immortals.
Eve was the last to turn up, in a dressing gown and slippers, her hair soaking wet with a towel around her shoulders,
“You couldn’t have given me ten minutes, Gary?” she sneered.
Gabriel closed the door and gave her a vengeful glare. “No, I couldn’t, Evelyn.”
I laughed much louder than I’d intended to. Gary? Gabriel’s real name was Gary?
Daniel huffed. “Eve, this is important.”
The grin disappeared from Eve’s face—clearly, she’d no idea why she was here either.
“We’ve had a radio transmission from a group of survivors,” Gabriel began.
“They’re close by I take it?” Eve asked, rubbing her sodden red curls on the towel.
“Folkestone,” Gabriel replied. “But it’s not good news. They’ve come through the tunnel from France, but it appears one of the southern nuclear power stations there wasn’t shut down properly after the outbreak and has now broken containment.”
As humanity dwindled, most of the governments worldwide had ordered the nuclear plants to be shut down and made as safe as possible. Given the short amount of time they’d had to complete such a massive task, it seemed inevitable that one or more of them would eventually cause a problem.
“They’re all suffering the effects of radiation sickness,” Daniel interjected. “We need to pick them up and bring them here as soon as possible.” He turned to Nate, “We need you to do as much as you can to make them comfortable until we can…make them well again.”
My blood boiled. “You’re going to drown them!”
Gabriel held his han
ds up. “No one said that. Well, no one apart from Daniel.”
Daniel’s nostrils flared. “Well, what else do you suggest we do?”
“I suggest,” Gabriel snapped, “That we pick them up and take it from there.”
“Fine,” Daniel responded in a flat tone.
“Nate, Halley, Eve, Ben, and I will go,” Gabriel added.
Daniel shook his head. “I never agreed to Halley going. She’s not evolved, won’t this be dangerous for her?”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “She’ll be fine. I asked Erik if we were in any danger from the leak, given that it’s relatively close to us. He said it was far enough away not to pose a threat to anyone—evolved or unevolved. For the time being, at least. However, he did suggest we decontaminate the survivors before bringing them back.”
Nate nodded. “So, we take clean water for them to wash in and give them fresh clothes.”
“Exactly,” Gabriel agreed.
Daniel shook his head again. “Halley stays.”
Eve put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. She whispered something into his ear, and he relaxed a little, giving me a half-smile.
“Fine,” he conceded, his voice turning to a low mumble. “Just look after her.”
He knew about the baby. It should’ve been obvious, given his reluctance to let me go and his sudden concern for my well-being. I couldn’t be angry; Eve had kept my secret for far longer than I’d expected her to.
“When do we leave?” Nate asked.
Gabriel stood, his expression stern. “In an hour.”
****
While Nate and Ben made a quick run back to the hospital for some medications and other supplies, I showered and found something warmer to wear—the nights were cold down by the coast this time of year. Nate suggested we clear out two of the classrooms adjacent to the science lab and set them up as a makeshift ward. Eve asked me to meet her there as soon as I’d finished dressing.
The smell of bleach was detectable from the stairwell and became even more pungent in the corridor by the lab. Tobias and Max barely noticed my arrival as they were busy assembling some metal bed frames. Claire gave me a nod as she unenthusiastically mopped the floor around them. Laura and Eve showed up a few minutes later, wheeling in the expensive-looking piece of equipment we’d looted from the hospital on the first pillaging trip.
“What is that for?” I asked.
“It’s an ultrasound machine,” Laura replied. “It’s the simplest way to look inside our bodies to see what changes the virus has made.”
Claire looked up. “And to look at babies. I saw Peter on one of those before he was born.”
She gave me a quick wink and then returned to her cleaning duties.
Laura scoffed, her hands going to her hips. “Thanks for that useless bit of trivia, Claire.”
“Not useless,” Claire muttered without taking her eyes off the mop.
“It is since no one here is pregnant nor ever likely to be,” Laura replied.
Eve chided in, her eyebrows rutting into a disapproving smirk. “Ye of little faith.”
“What can I say? I’m cynical. I’m supposed to believe that somehow, Nate can miraculously fix the infertility issue when the experts couldn’t. He must have some magic wand!”
Claire snorted with laughter while Eve firmly pressed her lips together. I retreated into the corridor, with hot cheeks and a smile hidden under my palm.
“Maybe he does have a magic wand, it might explain a few things,” Eve muttered under her breath as she followed me out.
“Do you need me for anything else?” Laura sniped. “If not, I’m going to find some adults to converse with!”
“You do that,” Eve replied, still smirking.
Unable to stomach the smell of chlorine a moment longer, I excused myself and headed down to the courtyard for some much-needed fresh air. The pick-up truck was ready and waiting, although Erik had his head under the bonnet, checking the oil from what I could see.
It wasn’t long before Nate and Ben returned—in a red Volvo estate I hadn’t seen before—and once all the designated travelers were present, we set off for Folkestone.
It wasn’t a long drive from London, but our progress was hindered several times by cars blocking our route. The motorway was mostly devoid of other vehicles until we were about three miles from a turn-off housing an army barricade. To pass by, we had to clear a space big enough for our cars to squeeze through, which took over two hours.
It involved the rather unpleasant job of removing the corpse-driver from behind the wheel of each car and then letting the handbrake off to steer them to the left or right, leaving a just-about-big-enough gap in the center of the road for us to drive down. All in all, a one-hour journey took almost four hours, though at least we knew it’d be quicker coming back.
The survivors had told Gabriel they’d be waiting in a hotel not far from the channel tunnel, but by the time we found the place, it was close to midnight and pitch black. Ben went to the boot of the Volvo and handed us each a torch—Eve and Gabriel also carried dart guns. To my surprise, Ben had brought Nate’s rifle along, which he slung over his shoulder with a grin.
Nate didn’t look at all impressed. Ben simply laughed and said, “Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”
A part of me couldn’t disagree with his statement, but before we even got inside the hotel, a man appeared in the entrance doorway, hands in the air, looking terrified.
“P—please, we have no weapons,” he stuttered. He spoke with a French accent.
Nate stepped forward. “I’m a doctor,” he said softly. “I can help you.”
The man slowly lowered his hands and beckoned for us all to follow him inside. He led us through the hotel lobby and into a dining area lit with dozens of candles.
“My name is Luc,” he said, his voice strained. “And this—” He gestured to a man slumped up against the wall, a blanket over his legs. “Is Phillipe.”
Phillipe’s breathing was labored, and he barely managed to raise a hand in acknowledgment as we approached.
Phillipe was not a survivor. As my torchlight found his face, I noticed instantly that his eyes were not ringed with red. I turned back to Luc, but he’d moved away to the bar area. He waved his hand to someone who was hiding behind the long, black, glass counter.
“Tout va bien, sortez.”
Ben impulsively went for his rifle, but Eve quickly slapped a hand across his chest and stood in front of him. “Down boy.”
Two figures crawled out from behind the bar. The first was a young girl with long, mahogany-brown hair, no older than ten years old.
“Isabelle,” Luc said.
When he motioned for her to go toward us, she got to her feet and walked forward, although it clearly took effort. The other figure was smaller and younger than Isabelle. He had a head of blonde, curly hair and a round, dimpled face.
“Sebastian,” Luc mumbled, helping him stand.
As they all moved closer toward us, I identified the red ring in both Luc and Isabelle, but Sebastian’s bright blue eyes were untouched by the mark of the virus.
Not good news.
My eyes flickered to Nate. By the stricken look on his face as he observed the little boy, it was obvious he’d come to the same conclusion that I had. Not everyone here was going to make it.
Our fears soon came to pass. Less than half an hour later, Phillipe was dead.
****
Before…
One morning, I awoke to discover it was my birthday. For once, the weather was about right to be March, so I reluctantly accepted being another year older, despite my disinclination to celebrate.
Rebecca had risen early to decorate the living room with streamers and a home-made banner that had ‘Twenty-four’ painted across it in big, pink writing. Looking at those two numbers was a jarring reminder of how much time had passed since the outbreak—more than four years.
She came in from the garden and beamed me
a broad smile. “Happy birthday,” she said and then threw her arms tightly around my neck.
I returned the hug but couldn’t force a smile onto my face.
“I got you a present,” she said, rushing into her room.
After a moment, she hurried back with a neatly wrapped, rectangular parcel in her hands. It would be a book because Rebecca always bought me books.
I unwrapped it carefully, crunching the wrapping paper up in my hand, making a fist.
“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”
“I know that you left your mother’s copy back at the flat, and I finally found the same edition in a charity shop last year!” she smiled, entwining her fingers together in glee.
My fingers trailed over the faded red cover, tracing around the gold image of Alice in the center. I lifted the book to my nose and sniffed it. This one smelled slightly of mold and furniture polish, not like my copy, which carried the scent of my mother’s favorite perfume.
“Thank you.”
She nodded and told me to sit down while she cooked breakfast. I went into my room and slid the book onto the bottom shelf of my bookcase.
I’d read ‘Alice’ so many times, I knew the story off by heart. I didn’t need the book in front of me to immerse myself in Wonderland.
She meant well with her gift, but she didn’t understand. She would never understand.
Sitting on my bed and gazing around my room, the four walls seemed to be closing in on me little by little as each day passed. I’d stared at them for so long over the past few years that I knew every tiny smudge on the lilac paintwork and noticed each new crack that appeared.
I couldn’t do this anymore.
I couldn’t let another year go by without knowing if there was anyone else out there.
She wouldn’t stop me this time.
Back in the kitchen, the smell of onions and eggs filled the air as she fried an omelet in a pan over the camping stove. She scooped it out onto a plate and handed it to me.
“I’m leaving, Rebecca,” I said, my hands shaking as I gripped the edges of the floral dish.
She gave me a sad nod. “I know.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
After…
Eve helped Luc wash the children down with fresh water and gave them new clothes to wear, although nothing we’d brought with us fit them. No one had been told there were children here. In the end, Isabelle and Sebastian just ended up in t-shirts, and after Luc had been adequately decontaminated, all three of them sat in the back of the Volvo estate with blankets and pillows. Isabelle cried softly from time to time, muttering in French about Phillipe and burying her head into Luc’s chest.
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