by Lee Isserow
“I've heard you,” Ben said. “I've listened. That's what today was all about.”
“It's not the same.”
“It's giving them a choice. That's more than Steve ever gave them.” He sighed, the smile on his lips retreating. “I promised you we wouldn't cross that line, and we won't. The only manipulation is bringing them here, once we have them in front of us and have told them the score, shown them what their blood can do, we'll give them the option join us, or be free of the infection.”
“You still don't know if that will work...”
“That's an argument to have with my dad... if he reckons plasmapheresis is going to work, then we have to trust him. This is all his damn fault anyways.”
“But you're not going to test it... You want to offer a cure that you're not willing to test yourself.”
“I can't be cured, not yet. There's still so much that needs to be done... But I get what you're saying.” The smile returned to his lips. “We'll only encourage people from the UK to come, how about that?”
“It's still using the blood drive...”
“It's not. The 'blood drive' doesn't exist, it's a bullshit term Steve made up. What we're going to do is sow a seed, a notion, an idea, a whisper in the back of the mind that they need to come to London. The manipulation will be minimal at best.”
“It still doesn't sit right...”
“And it shouldn't.” He looked away, took a moment, then reclaimed eye contact. “This isn't something I want to do, it's something we have to do. None of them, none of us will be safe until the Squad is dead and buried. And I don't like that quite so much death is necessary, but we don't have any other option. Running and hiding can only go on for so long. We have to take a stand, we have to beat them to the punch, because they won't waste a second mulling on the morality of wiping us out if they had the option.”
Kat knew he was right. “I know,” she said, eyes falling to the floor. The unruly tide of anxiety that washed inside her gut was calmed by his words. They weren't embarking on some evil machination, it wasn't going to wrench the free will from the hosts. It was an idea, a memetic suggestion, and she could live with that. “Sow your seeds,” she said, with a muted smile as she left his room.
Ben expelled a slow, listless exhalation. His shoulders sunk, and he looked up to the ceiling with disdain and self-loathing. He had promised himself he wouldn't lie, promised himself he wouldn't fall down that most slippery and precarious of edges at the opening to the rabbit hole. And yet once again, out of necessity, he found himself betraying Kat's trust.
4
The four of them sat in a luminescent orange shipping container together, silence hanging on the air. Ben's father and Kat watched as Ben and Luke sat cross-legged on the floor, their eyes closed, as they put the message out to all those infected with the blood.
Ben was overconfident that he could do it by himself, but Kat insisted that Luke be with him whilst he sent the message. “Two of you sending it will guarantee it goes out,” she told him. That was one reason for Luke joining him. The other reason, that she held back was that she believed her son would act as a firewall, to prevent Ben from overstepping. He had assured her that he would not, but still, there was a nagging doubt, a whisper in the back of her mind, a whisper in her blood, that she couldn't quite shake.
Unbeknownst to her, Luke and Ben conversed through the blood before they formed their 'invitation'. He was well aware of the intention behind what they were about to do. It was not a notion, a polite request, it was activating the blood drive, but only temporarily. That was the caveat that Ben and Luke agreed upon silently, on top of Kat's request that they only contact carriers in the UK. The blood would take control of them for the journey and only the journey, force the infected to come to them, and then they would be given the option of fighting or a cure.
Ben and Luke pictured the infected they wanted to blacklist from their plan; Steve, Nick, Tess, the infected Tacks. Ben didn't know if any of them other than Steve were still alive, but he couldn't risk the Squad discovering that they were bringing all these vectors together. It would be the perfect opportunity to wipe them all out, which was yet another of Kat's fears.
The message went out. Blood speaking to blood. Ordering them to come to the location for the meet, that was three days from then. It was to be as far from their new base on the Thames as possible, all the way over in Ealing on the other side of Londomn. An abandoned building that Ben's father thought was perfect for a secluded and secretive recruiting drive. They may have been bringing these people together for a grand act of violence, but their safety – specifically the safety of Luke and Kat – was still the most important thing to Ben.
5
When Ben suggested he or Luke train Kat to take more control of her blood, she was hesitant. It surprised him that she hadn't taken advantage of her son's understanding of the condition, like so many others in their group had done. They had three days until the potential recruits for their army arrived, three days to prepare her, and he stressed how she needed to be prepared.
“If I hadn't been there in Sussex, what do you think would have happened?”
“I would have used the 'goblin I... accidentally stabbed you with, got the bastards, then got Luke, and he would have --”
“Luke was unconscious,” he reminded her. “You were both bundled into the back of vans... I'm not angling for a thank you, I'm trying to make a point; the blood saved you. I was its vessel, sure, but if it wasn't for the blood, we would all be long dead.”
She rolled her eyes, huffed. “Blood didn't save the others, Martin, Samuel, Shauna, none of them.”
“Because Steve's blood was stronger, had more volume, that's all. But he can't take on all of us together.”
“That's kinda making my point, if there's going to be an army, then I don't need to use the blood.”
“Unless we fail, or unless Steve tricks us somehow, attacks us, surprises us. He's not dumb... Well, he's not super smart either, but he's not dumb. What if it comes down to him, you and Luke?” He was laying it on thick, emotional blackmail that was all too transparent, but she hated how true it was.
“Up until now, you've had others to help protect Luke, you've had Luke to protect the two of you... but it's about time you learned how to speak to the blood.”
Silently, she nodded. Giving in, and agreeing to let him teach her everything he had learned from her son, everything she had been averse to knowing.
Ben took the lead with the lessons, starting first with speaking to the blood. When Luke talked to him about it, it was almost second nature to him, because he had been all too aware of the pressure under his skull all his life. For Kat, she had barely noticed it. Dismissing the pulsing as a recurring, burgeoning headache. It was only when they discussed it out loud that she felt it, and could remember feeling it at times of fear or worry.
When she could feel the blood's whispers, it then came time to cut. Even though she had been infected all that time, and had been on the run for years, she had rarely had a reason to shed blood. Certainly not as often as Ben had since he discovered his condition. However, she took to it all too quickly, which reminded Ben of just how worried he was at his own swift acceptance of the proclivity for cutting at will. That time, back in the Squad, seemed like a lifetime ago, a completely different person to who he was then and there.
On the second day, they moved on to shaping the blood, speaking to the silent whispers, asking the pressure in their heads to manipulate the fluids, control the way they clotted, to form whatever their imaginations could conjure. Kat's first instinct was to create thick, thorny vines that threaded through one another, knotting, weaving back and forth through the air. A smile made its way across her lips as she stared up as a three metre tall wall of foliage her blood formed, but she wasn't done yet. The stems of the vine grew darker, became harder, scabrous. Then in an instant, bright red flowers burst forth from the bottom, rippling up the wall to the top, a Mexican wave
of blooming roses. A lush crimson garden that hung in the air ahead of her.
She felt arms wrap around her waist, glanced down to Luke, his bright eyes staring up at her, wide grin still missing that front tooth. “I'm so proud of you, mummy.”
The vines whipped apart, untangling themselves, flowers disappearing into swashing tentacles that receded back into her veins. Tears wound their way down her cheeks as she kneeled down and held him close. He was right, she thought, blood knows blood.
6
As dawn broke, Ben forced himself out of bed. They only had one day until their army was to arrive, and he wanted to scout out the location again, insure that it was still safe. As he stepped out of his shipping container, he was graced by a crimson gazelle cantering across the cobbled bank that ran along the river.
For a second, he thought he had imagined it, remnants from a dream slipping through into real life. A gargled roar sounded out, and he knew it was no dream. The gazelle whipped back past him at speed, but it was not fast enough. A giant ruby lioness pounced into the air, with mighty jaws that clipped the gazelle's rear. The wounded creature fell to the ground, the lion stalking around it in a half-circle before launching its teeth deep into the panicked thing's neck.
“Sorry!” Kat said, running towards him from where the gazelle and lion had come from. The animals started shrinking, their mass siphoned back into her veins by thin threads he hadn't even noticed across the ground beneath them. “I was just thinking about an old Animal Planet doc, and wanted to see if I could, y'know, make the blood re-run it... did I wake you?”
“No,” he said, smiling. He was proud of her, just as her son was. But there was one question that hung in the air, one that she wouldn't be able to answer until the situation came up. Whether she could actually kill someone, if it came to it.
“You going to check out the abbey again?” she asked.
“Yeah, how did you know?”
She shrugged. “The blood, I guess?”
“Going to head out in a bit. You want to come along?”
“No thanks, I'm going to spend the day with Luke... Have a little adventure checking out the old houseboat moored up round the back of the containers. We have a lot to talk about, I have a lot to explain to him.”
“He doesn't care,” Ben said. “You're his mother, you love him, he loves you, that's all that matters to him.”
“He should know why... what happened...”
Ben knew it wasn't worth disagreeing. She had made up her mind and nothing he could say would change that. He made his way to the doors, the free bloods already clambering over themselves to wrench the thick, heavy gates open, when he stopped mid stride. He could feel something in the back of his mind, something that had been hidden from him until that moment.
“Thanks,” he said to the free bloods. “But... I need, I'll be back.” The bloods watched him walk away, and made shrugging motions to one another before pushing the gates back into place.
“You were going to volunteer,” he said, coming round the corner to where he last saw Kat. “You were going to give up the blood, opt for the cure.”
“I was.” A steely reserve laced the words.
“While I was gone, you were going to --”
“-- I was going to. Before I learned how to control it. Now, now I'm not sure. Not while we're still at risk.”
“But afterwards...”
“After this is all done, after this 'war' is over, why wouldn't I want to be free of it?”
“It's alive,” Ben said, shocked at the very prospect.
“It acts like it's all one big organism, it won't miss one person's worth of itself.”
“You don't know that.”
“You don't know otherwise! And what happens if we win? The infection is across the world, and there are agencies hunting us down across the world! What happens when they discover that the one in England – Britain – whatever, has fallen?”
“We deal with it. We protect ourselves.”
“It never ends, is what happens. It just goes round and round, the uninfected are always going to be terrified of the infected, and the infected are always going to have to massacre those that come to hunt them down. A never ending cycle of violence.”
“It doesn't have to be.”
“It does, because either way, whatever side you're on we're still human, even with the blood.”
Ben opened his mouth, but said nothing. There was a thought brewing, an awful thought, one that he knew he should never say aloud. There was a great equaliser, a simple solution to break down the wall between infected and uninfected. But he didn't need to speak the words out loud.
“You wouldn't!” Kat spat, her eyes wide, the colour rushing from her cheeks. “That's... That's monstrous.”
“It is, and I would never...”
“But that thought was there, and I felt the same thing you did when it came out, the blood got warm at even the vaguest notion of it.”
“It doesn't want that, not like that at least.”
“But it doesn't not-want that either. Any organism lives to breed, to propagate, to expand its dominion, and thoughts like that, the great equaliser? Infecting everyone in the world is not a solution, not by a long shot. Humans can barely be trusted as it is with guns and what have you, you want to give them control over the very fluids in their bodies?”
Ben had no words. He knew she was right. He had seen Steve maim and murder and slurp the fluids out of people that had no reason to die. All his former mentor wanted was to get stronger, more powerful, there was nothing to stop others doing that. The blood had its own personality at times, but overall it was under the control of whoever's skin it inhabited. And people, no matter their intentions, were flawed. He was flawed, to think of doing such a thing, to infect others. From the nightmares through to discovering the truth it had been a horror show. Nobody deserved that. And then he let another memory slip out, tried to grasp hold of it it before the blood whisked it away on its nebulous network, transmitting his secret to Kat.
She said nothing. Stared at him with disdain. He had deceived her once again, and this time, it was the greatest lie of all, one that he had pulled her son into as an accomplice.
“I was going to tell you...” he stammered.
She walked straight past him in search of Luke, who was already coming down the stairs from their container. He had heard his mother's call through the blood. They were going to leave right that instant.
Ben followed after them, tried to apologise, explain that it was necessary to use the blood drive, that they would cure those that wanted it, that it was all in a good cause. But Kat had no interest in his words, she was done with him, done with all of it.
The free blood pulled the gates open with haste, fearful of her heavy, swift stride towards them, and pushed the door back into place before Ben could follow. It had been her request – her order - as she got into the car he had left on the other side of the gates.
Ben heard the engine cough to life, grumbling as it made its way round the corner and down the thin road, getting quieter and farther with every passing moment. He hated himself, for having to lie, for arguing, for all of it. Then a thought came through, not his, not Kat's, but Luke's.
Don't blame yourself, it said, just give her time.
7
The next day, Ben and his father arrived at the Abbey four hours before the new recruits. He wanted to be certain that his father had the plasmapheresis machine set up and operational, the blood on ice, and would be ready to cure whoever spoke up and wanted out. That hadn't been a lie, and he was going to try and project the images of that through to Kat, prove to her that he was true to his word about helping those that wanted to be free of the blood. The only deceit lay in how he brought them there, and in the grand scheme of manipulations, after he had fallen for the Squad's Machiavellian lies, it truly didn't seem so bad. If was for their own benefit, whether the newcomers knew it or not.
He tried to take his mind o
ff their departure, focus on the days ahead. They were to be regimented as best he could, and all group sessions, there was no time for individual focus as he had with Luke, as Kat had with him, He already had the lesson plan etched out; learning to speak to the blood, moving on to drawing blood forth, shaping the blood, and finally he would pit them against one another, one on one at first, and then groups. No, not groups, he thought, teams.
Teamwork was the one thing they never taught at the Squad. It was always about the individual, about devouring the blood of your single opponent. That was why it took three of them to take down the couple in the spider's web, they worked together, slit their throats in unison and combined blood. It was something the Squad had never even considered. Teamwork was how they would be guaranteed victory.
He watched from the roof of the Abbey out on to the land around it. Lush wild green grass, a canopy of trees older and taller than the building, a thicket of contorted vines and bushes around the rusting railings and decrepit gates. It was beautiful, and yet desolate, forgotten to time, abandoned long ago and looked hazardous to anyone passing the Royal Waterside development opposite. This was yet another reason why he was glad to be using the blood drive to bring people to them.
From beyond the gates, the building looked magnificent at first, like a miniature castle. It had a fairy tale quality to it, made up of rectangular sections jutting out with archways for doors. Two stories of brown brickwork with turrets at the very top, cylindrical towers breaking up the cubes. At the centre, the design deviated from the castle cliche, two balconies with awnings, like footbridges linking one castle to another. It was grand, at first glance, but when one looked closer, the entirety of it was very obviously in a state of disrepair. The doors were wide open, wood warped and unable to close. The awnings had been ravaged by strong winds, sections flapping about in the light breeze, getting caught on crooked shards of glass that remained stuck in the frames along the balcony. It was inhospitable to say the least, which is why Ben approved of this suggested location. The abbey had sat forlorn and deserted for so long, nobody would expect anyone, let alone an army to be gathering there.