Authors: Laury Falter
“What about the military?” Doc asked.
“Gone,” Ms. Kremil replied flatly.
“The government?” Mei pressed.
“Disbanded, although I hear a small group made it to Mt. Weather, without the president or any cabinet members. The CDC…we did our best for as long as we could, but…we needed to understand its origin…which we didn’t; and we needed time to develop a vaccine, which we didn’t have. Nonetheless, some of my more…unyielding…colleagues stayed behind in hopes of-”
Beverly shifted in agitation from one foot to the other, drawing our attention. “Wait, how do you know all this?”
Ms. Kremil slid to the side and revealed the name plate I’d sought earlier. “Eve Kelly,” she declared, “was project lead.”
The desk behind her with its stacks of paperwork, which Ms. Kremil had been shuffling through, took on an entirely new meaning in that moment. That was where the idea was pushed along, through the channels, until it was released into the world. It was where late nights and early mornings had been spent inadvertently conjuring up something that would lead to the deaths of millions of innocent people, and very possibly the end of the human race.
“Tell me she didn’t know what she was creating,” Harrison implored, breaking the tense silence.
“She was developing a cure for Alzheimer’s,” Ms. Kremil replied gently before giving him a meager smile, as if trying to convey the futility of worrying about it.
“I don’t understand,” Mei pressed. “How does any of this explain why you need Harrison’s blood?”
She gave Harrison a wary look before answering. “Well,” she said hesitantly. “As I mentioned, we needed to understand the virus’s origin. We were able to track it here and, from Ms. Kelly’s notes, we learned that the virus…well it…”
When Ms. Kremil didn’t finish her sentence, Mei prompted, “Yes?”
And then she explained why she was so tentative about vocalizing what she knew. She was astute enough to know it would come as a shock to us.
“The virus,” she said carefully, “began with Harrison.”
“What?” I said, nearly shouting. Becoming immediately defensive of Harrison, I stepped forward. He placed a cautious hand on my arm to hold me back. In my mind, my reaction was justified.
Who was she to make accusations like that?
She gave me a look, telling me to hold on and she’d explain. “Eve Kelly, Harrison’s aunt and project lead, used Harrison’s blood to develop her cure for Alzheimer’s. It was mutated in the lab intentionally to preserve all positive properties – his strength, exceptional senses of smell, vision, and hearing, and his capacity to heal at an accelerated rate – and to bind with the bovine serum they manufactured. From there, it became what it is today, the T1L2 virus.”
Mei, Doc and Beverly looked with astonished expressions from Harrison to Ms. Kremil and back to Harrison. I stood firm, trying to understand everything this woman was telling us.
“So, what are you saying?” Mei asked, tipping her head forward to peer suspiciously at Ms. Kremil. “That he’s the cause?”
“No, no, no, no.” She waved her hands frantically in the air, as if to wipe away that notion. “No…,” she reemphasized before dropping the bomb on us. “Harrison isn’t the cause. He is the
cure
.”
~ 14 ~
T
HE SURREAL HAZE OF
M
S.
K
REMIL’S
stunning revelation hung over us as she retrieved a medical kit from one of the offices and took Harrison’s blood. It clung to us as Doc, Mei, and even Beverly studied Harrison, seeing him for the first time not as a threat but as the invaluable human being he turned out to be. And still it hovered as Harrison and I found a private office to spend the night together in, and as he sat against the wall and I stared up at him from where my head lay on his shoulder. My eyelids drifted closed far too often as sleep tried to take over, but I fought against it as Harrison’s handsome face drew me back.
I won’t fall asleep. I won’t fall asleep. I won’t fall asleep.
Despite my struggle, Harrison’s face faded from my sight but only momentarily. Then I was watching him again, enticed by the slope of his nose, the firm set of his jaw, and the depth of his concentration in thought.
“You look humbled,” I mentioned, moving my fingers to trace the muscles along his arm. They were taut, strong, and they flexed every now and then.
“I am. I’ve always thought of my condition as a curse, and it is,” he added emphatically, “but at least it comes with a silver lining.”
“I’m…I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Kennedy, the T1L2 virus would never have been developed if it hadn’t been for me, for my blood. But now that it has, I can do something about it.”
“Which is?”
“I can help manufacture a cure.”
“And that’s the silver lining?”
“As much of one as I can see in all this.”
“So…,” I said, shifting my head back to get a better view of his face, “…what’s your plan?”
The few candles lighting the room cast a dull yellow tint across everything, including Harrison’s handsome face, revealing enough of him to keep me warm inside.
“If Ms. Kremil can’t do it here, then I’ll be heading for the CDC,” he replied.
That warmth instantly turned cold with fear, yet I took my time reacting.
As he tilted his head against the wall and heaved a sigh thick with wariness, I saw the guilt that had been eating at him when he thought of himself as a risk. It had returned, only now it ate at him because his worst fears had come true. He thought of himself as the reason for the recent demise.
I sat up, which pulled his attention back to me.
“What Ms. Kremil said is true, Harrison. You aren’t the cause. Someone else took your blood. Someone else concocted the T1L2 virus. Not you.” When he didn’t respond, I added, “This isn’t your fault. You’re beating yourself up over something that you have no ability to control.” His reaction was to pinch his seductive lips closed until they disappeared into a thin line, so I wrapped my hands through his and told him, “You’re not alone in this, Harrison.”
Finally, he responded, his eyes softening while he stared down at me.
His voice was deep with emotion when he said, “I’m so incredibly in love with you.” Leaning forward, he tenderly brushed his lips across mine and sat back up. “When I was leading the Infected away and I saw you through the doors downstairs…” His head dipped and shook back and forth as he recalled the feelings that image summoned. “I thought it would be the last time I’d ever see you. When I got to that roof and sat there waiting for the dark to come, all I could think of was you. Getting back to you was the single most important thing on my mind, and as much as you don’t want to hear this, I was prepared to die trying.” While listening to him, I became torn between concern for him and being flattered by his confession, but he gave me no time to respond. “When you said you couldn’t live without me…” He laughed to himself. “My God, I feel the same way, Kennedy. I can’t…I
won’t
live without you.” He brought his eyes down to meet mine, and the intensity in them took my breath away. “All those weeks on the rooftop, walking the grounds at school, I felt like it was imperative that I stay clear of you, for your own good. Just like I’d been doing before the outbreak, I was a threat and I wouldn’t put you in harm’s way, no matter how the world had changed. And so much of it had, but that one hazard remained exactly the same. All that time…I avoided you and all I wanted, Kennedy, was to be with you.”
Listening to his words made my stomach flutter. I had been wanting and waiting for that confession and when it came it left my head spinning.
He bent to kiss me again, this time though he lingered there, caressing me with his lips. Then his hands spread wide across my back and he pulled me into him, exhaling the emotion pent up in him for so long. I clung to him, wanting more, feeling we’d deserved it after all we’d been through. And then a woman’s voice called out from down the hall, the blatant worry in it causing Harrison and me to stop and turn our heads toward the office door.
“Manuel is gone!”
“Gone?” someone said in confusion.
I remembered the large Hispanic man who wanted to leave earlier in the day. He’d been named Manuel, I thought. I didn’t understand the importance of it, even as Ms. Kremil flew past the office where Harrison and I were laying. And then she explained it with far more urgency than the woman before.
“The door!” she cried out. “It locks from the inside!”
I recalled that too, having stood on the opposite side until Ms. Kremil had let us in. But it was unclear to me why this was a concern until she continued her outburst. “If he left this floor, then he left it unlocked!”
Harrison immediately stood, pulling me up with him. There was now a sense of concern in him too, a strong one.
We had just entered the hallway when Ms. Kremil skidded to a stop. The stairwell door we’d come in from, the one that lead out into the lobby and eventually the street, was already opened. In it stood a man, hunched in the darkness, swaying as he sensed what was before him. Growls and hisses echoed up from behind him.
The last thing I saw before I woke up was the man lunging for Ms. Kremil, and her body buckling beneath his weight.
THE END
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. If you were to find a haven inside your school during an epidemic outbreak, who would you want to have with you?
2. Why is Beverly so firmly set against accepting the reality of her situation? Does she represent those who live in denial despite the serious consequences of it? Do you know of anyone who repeatedly refuses to face the truth of their situation?
3. When Kennedy attempts to drag Mei to safety as the outbreak reaches their school, do you feel this was foolish or brave? Would you do the same?
4. Mrs. MacIntyre, the school’s head cook, was prepared for an emergency. She had bought and stored a solar oven and various dried goods. Are you or your family prepared for a disaster? If so, how?
5. Kennedy and Harrison are strong, both physically and mentally, but they have one weakness: each other. Do you have someone or something you can’t live without in your life?
6. On the morning of the outbreak, Kennedy encounters various warnings that her personal safety was at risk. What were these signs? Have you ever experienced signs in your life? How did those situations turn out?
7. Which character do you identify with the most, and why?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laury Falter is a bestselling author of young adult romantic suspense and urban fantasy, including the
Guardian Trilogy,
the
Residue Series,
and the
Apocalypse Chronicles.
Find out more news and information about Laury and her novels at:
Website:
lauryfalter.com
Twitter:
twitter.com/LauryFalter
Facebook:
facebook.com/pages/Laury-Falter/196033543803745
Goodreads:
goodreads.com/author/show/4061922.Laury_Falter
THE END
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