“Who is this investor? I have hard time believing he exists.”
“Murabai.”
My jaw drops, my heart pounds. I cannot believe it. “Alistair… He’s a madman.”
“Madman… Pfft.” My brother laughs and rolls his eyes. “Oh please. Do you truly believe in the American propaganda? They hate him because he’ll not be bullied like our own country. He’s a visionary.”
With a shake of my head, I get up from the chair. “You are out of your mind. Utterly out of your mind. I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of vision of yours aligns with Murabai’s goals. I hope to God it involves only your studies on that cat parasite….”
“It’s actually a parasite that commandeers a rat’s brain and leads the animal to be eaten by cats… It might come in to play, although, that’s only one of my projects Murabai is interested in.”
I throw my hands in the air, frustrated. “I do not care, Alistair. This is madness.”
“All geniuses appear mad to the common man. Will you work with me or not?”
“Of course not. And you should not do it either! He’s threatening violence and revolution if his demands are not met.”
“He’s in prison for his beliefs as his people suffer repression of a Western-imposed government.”
It is my turn to laugh. “I consider you many things, brother. Mad, stubborn, and inconvenient. I never imagined you would be so gullible. What happened to power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely?”
Alistair paces around the office, expression serious. “I have not come here to discuss politics with you. I do not care about it. Neither should you. These matters affect other people, not us. Not with the money Murabai is offering. We could be above any petty political differences and focus only on the science, only on advancing the human race into a new era. A better era.”
“He will be the end of your career. You will never be able to work here ever again.”
“What career? What work? This country only rewards the silly and the mundane. I’m more than happy to leave all of this behind.”
“He is dangerous, brother.”
“Maybe, but I’ll be invaluable to him. And you will be too. No harm will come to us.”
I take the money on the desk and place it back into my brother’s hands. “No, brother. I will not involve myself in this. I have a good life here. You should leave.”
And he does.
The next time I see my brother’s face is on the news. He’s receiving the Nobel Prize for his HIV’s vaccine. Everywhere he goes, Murabai follows. They are side-by-side in interviews, pictures and every article about their achievements together. The Spencer name will be forever associated with the president of The Free Republic of Africa.
The same man that years later decides to start a war to conquer the whole African continent. With the help of my brother’s bio engineered weapons, he succeeds.
Lauren Tanaka
January 8th, Friday, 10 pm
“If you stop, you die.”
I raise my head, eyes stinging with tears. Every muscle in my body is aching from staying in the same position for hours. The nails on my fingers are dark blue.
The man kneeling in front of me wears a hunter jacket with camouflage pattern. On his shoulder he carries a rifle, a knife and gun hang from his belt. He has a thick beard and bushy eyebrows. I recognize him as the same man from the cabin.
He’s offering a hand to me. I don’t take it. Instead I raise the gun in my hands, shaking badly.
“If you don’t move, your body will shut down,” he says with a low voice, not worried about the weapon. “So move.”
“Who are you?”
“Does it matter? I’m older and smarter. You should listen to me.”
“Leave me alone.”
“If I do that, you are going to die.”
I frown, staring at my blue nails. I lost my gloves for good. Peter’s gloves.
The man keeps talking, “You’re holding your gun all wrong. If I wanted, I could’ve taken it from you a second ago. You are going to end up dead. Unless you let me help you.”
I almost want to believe him, but I can’t. Not so easily. “Why do you care?”
He adjusts his rifle. “Maybe you remind me of someone.”
“Who?”
After sometime he answers, “My daughter.”
“What happened to her?”
“She ran away from me.”
“That sounds creepy.”
The man smiles. “I suppose it sounds bad without context.”
“What’s the context?”
He doesn’t answer for a long time, then sighs. “The context isn’t any better. Let’s just say I trained her, and she’s still alive because of that. I’ll do the same thing for you and if you want to leave too, I won’t stop you.”
I don’t know why exactly, but I trust him. He sounds like someone who has nothing to lose, nothing to gain. Just like me. He’s a hunter and the same man I saw carrying a deer. If anyone can help me be stronger and smarter, it’s him.
I give him the gun and take his hand.
He lifts me up easily, then stares at the gun for a second. “Nice gun. SIG Sauer, 9mm. Solid, light. Where did you get it?”
Heart accelerating, I shrug and try to sound calm. “I found it. Someone just left it behind. I didn’t steal it.”
He plays it with, feeling its weight and aiming it. For a moment, I think he’s going to betray me and shoot me, but then he smiles. “What’s your name?”
“Laurie. What yours?”
“Call me Jacob.”
PREVIEW FOR ACT III
The Doctor XI
Weeks later.
His footsteps are uneven, slow and uncoordinated. I tried my best to fix his broken left foot, but the infection that saved his life now impedes his tendons to mend. His teeth are black now. Lumps cover his once youthful face and not a single hair remains on his head.
I’m Doctor Frankenstein and he’s my monster.
We need to do frequent stops in order to avoid further injuries on his fragile body. Lily’s fast pace had him missing his footing numerous times, culminating his now broken left foot. Now we move slowly, aware of him and his companion. Herded together by strong ropes, Danny and the other infected walk in line with hands tied and mouths covered by duct tape.
During the night, I can hear his gnarls and snarls, struggling to get himself free. During the day, I’m in charge of feeding him and taking care of his injuries.
I do this not because I’m a doctor. I do this because his friends can’t look at him anymore—with his disfigured features and black nails and fingers. I do this because I let the girl free, and suggested infecting him. He’s my responsibility now and I won’t let him die.
Lily’s narrowed gaze follows me everywhere. She can’t look at him, but freely stares at me with a mixture of resentment and pain. They are all afraid of me being wrong. This is no longer about a hope for a cure. This is about their friend’s life, and if I’m wrong….
If I can’t cure him, everything will crumble away.
The Rotting Zombie I
I want to eat. Feed me. I want to bite. I want to eat. They are walking around me, laughing. I’m so hungry. I want to kill them all.
Stop. Stop. Stop!
Let me eat. Let me sink my teeth into meat. I want it. I want it!
They poke me. They blind me. I want out. I want to run. I want to eat.
Meat. I want meat. Its smell is everything. I can see it. They dangle it in front of me. Raw and red. Juicy and bloody. It’s mine. Give it to me. Let me sink my teeth into it.
Why? Stop it. Stop it!
I sleep with my eyes open. I dream of an old lady with a hole in her face.
A face comes closer. I want to rip it open, destroy it into pieces. Dark lumps deform it. In the place of a nose, a mass of tumors. Small eyes barely appear below the swollen forehead. There’s no lips, only black teeth. A bald, disfigured monster stares bac
k at me. He disappears.
Instead, a masked man greets me with a muffled voice. “Hello, Danny. How are you feeling?”
OTHER BOOKS BY PRISCILA SANTA ROSA
Those Who Remain - Book 1
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Those Who Remain (Book 2) Page 20