The Iron Quill (21 page)

“Dr. Carter, we have to go now.”

A second later Dr. Carter appeared, looking terrible, tired, and worn down.

“Dr. Carter, I have very good hearing, and I can hear a helicopter coming. I don’t need to remind you what happened the last time I heard one of those. I’m not staying, and given what you’ve already told me, I wouldn’t recommend you staying either.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Suit yourself.” Wes went to turn away and then stopped and leaned toward Dr. Carter. “If you believe anything that I’ve told you, please keep it to yourself. All you’ve ever wanted was to cure people and this secret would do more harm than good.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the front door hastily.

“Wait!” Dr. Carter called.

We both turned. “If that helicopter is coming here, it can’t be good. I haven’t told anyone where I am.”

“Looks like you have a choice to make then. Stay or come with us.”

Dr. Carter took too long to decide for Wes’ liking, and he turned us back toward the door. I still couldn’t hear the helicopter, but I could sense it was coming closer as Wes was wasting no time.

“Fine. I’ll come.”

Wes squeezed my hand at the blissful sound of Dr. Carter’s words, but then quickly reached for the door.

Dr. Carter pleaded, “Just let me get some things.”

“We don’t have time.”

“Okay, okay.” Like a maniac, he grabbed a duffle bag, threw some items in, including a journal, and hurried up behind us.

As soon as we hit the gravel driveway, the darkness ahead of us consumed the path. “Do you have a flashlight?” I asked.

“No. We can’t use one anyway. They’ll see it from the sky.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling unsettled. We started walking, but it seemed like we were missing something else. “Wait!” I grabbed his arm. “Your picture.” His eyes widened. “You can’t leave it,” I said panicking.

Wes only paused for a second before realizing I was right. We could not risk those guys getting a hold of a century-old picture of the three of us. Our secret would never be safe.

“I’ll go,” he said, stepping away.

“No, please−”

“I’ll be fine.”

Before I could even respond, Wes took off in a jog toward the house.

Instinctively, I took a step to follow and Dr. Carter took hold of my elbow. “No, stay out of sight. He’ll be fine.”

Seconds felt like minutes and although I couldn’t hear the approach, it felt like the helicopter was hovering right over me, shaking every nerve in my body. My eyes squinted trying to see movement in the house, but everything was too dark. A sudden cool breeze tickled my spine, and I shuddered. What’s taking him so long? Just then a dark shadow approached from the tree line, and Dr. Carter and I jumped.

“It’s me,” Wes whispered taking hold of my hand and pulling me down the drive.

“Geez, you scared the crap out of us.”

“Sorry, I wanted to stay out of sight.”

“What took you so long?”

“I thought it would be wise to close the windows and dispose of the open water. Now let’s get out of here.”

Even though the trees hovered over the driveway, nearly creating a tunnel, Wes instinctively moved us right next to the tree line. It occurred to me, then, just how close they were.

Wes pulled me by the hand too fast for my comfort and led me down the long driveway that brought us there. About ten yards into it, he took out his earpiece and radioed down to the guards that we were coming and to turn off all the car’s lights.

“Are you sure you hear something?” Dr. Carter asked, seconds after Wes put the earpiece back in his pocket.

“I’m sure,” he said.

Within moments, we could hear it, too. The sound of it brought memories flooding back and I wrapped my arms around Wes’ waist.
Oh, my goodness. Please don’t happen again. Oh, my goodness.
I kept repeating those words to myself hoping not to experience another separation, or worse.

“Maybe they just want to talk to me,” Dr. Carter said, breaking my thoughts.

“Maybe,” Wes replied, still hurrying us along.

“Somehow, I don’t think so,” Dr. Carter responded.

Neither do I
, I thought.

We reached the SUV in half the time it had taken us to reach the cabin, and Wes suggested we sit and wait.

“But the whole point was to get away from here right?” I complained.

“I just wanted to get away from the house. Luckily, Dr. Carter had the driveway blocked off, so we couldn’t park near the house. They won’t see us unless we turn on the headlights. I say we wait until they leave.”

He had to be kidding. “So we just sit here in the dark and hope no one notices?”

“I think that’s a good idea,” said Dr. Carter. “And that way, if they leave, I may be able to return to get some things.”

Wes didn’t respond and I took that to mean Wes thought that was a bad idea. The air around us was completely still until the helicopter descended and then the ground seemed to vibrate. Luckily, the helicopter approached the house from the east and didn’t pass over us, so we were safely hidden.

We couldn’t tell what kind of helicopter it was, but given the way it hovered right above the cabin, we could only assume it was military. “These people get around, don’t they?” I tried to joke.

No one laughed, but Wes said, “Yeah. Looks like it.”

We sat in silence for a while after that. And then the air around us tensed.

“Shit. Do you see that?” the driver shouted, getting out of the car and pulling his gun from his holster. Wes jerked up and leaned out the window searching the darkness.

“Son of a—”

“What?” I cut him off.

“Oh, my God.” Dr. Carter croaked.

“What?” I leaned over to look out of Wes’ window.

Through the trees was a glow of yellow, orange, and red, growing taller by the second.

“His house is on fire!” I shouted.

Wes opened his door and stood. “Get in the car, Stephen.”

Stephen, with his gun still by his side, must’ve realized shooting a burning cabin wouldn’t get us anywhere, so he complied with Wes’ order.

Once we were all back inside, Dr. Carter started reeling off how completely out of line this was. All I could think of to say was, “I’m sorry.”

“Well, it looks like I won’t be going back there. Such bastards,” he hissed.

Wes piggy-backed on my apology and Dr. Carter was about to say something when Wes shouted, “They’re coming. We need to get over more. Right now. No lights!”

All the guys jumped out of the car and started pushing it further off the road. They didn’t want to use the brakes, so they eased it over into the tree line as much as possible before letting it stop on its own. We were so far into the ditch that I wasn’t sure how we would get out, but it didn’t matter. Not with the helicopter approaching.

“What are they doing?” I asked.

“They’re just circling the property to see if they missed anything.” Dr. Carter’s voice was hard and angry. “It’s standard procedure on a mission like this.”

The louder the hum got, the more the ground vibrated. I ducked my head into Wes’ shoulder unable to look.

“Just stay calm. They can’t see us,” Wes assured.

I hoped to goodness he was right, because our situation was getting too intense for me. The two guards sitting in the front cocked their weapons and I thought it seemed pointless until I heard Dr. Carter cock a gun of his own. Then I froze completely. I was surrounded by loaded weapons and a hovering aircraft with a dirty mission and I was unable to do anything except breathe.

Somewhere inside I have always wondered, what if people knew about Wes? Would they actually go nuts if they knew it was possible to live forever?

A few times I’d questioned why Dr. Thomas and Wes had covered up the discovery. Questioned how they lacked trust in the human race. But not anymore. If these people were willing to kidnap Wes, possibly even kill him, commit arson, and attempt to kill one of their own, all because they wanted to create a performance-boosting drug for soldiers, then there is no telling what people would do for a chance at immortality.

I shuddered.

After what seemed like the longest fifteen minutes of my life, the helicopter circled one more time, closer to the cabin, then disappeared. All of us seemed to exhale at the same time. Once we were sure they were gone, we made our way down the mountain, leaving behind Dr. Carter’s refuge burning on the mountaintop.

It wasn’t until we reached the highway that we saw an emergency vehicle headed to a lost cause. By then, the blaze could be seen by anyone glancing up the mountainside.

W
e didn’t land until one o’clock in the morning, and I was ridiculously sleepy. We’d hardly spoken during the flight. Even Dr. Carter had holed himself up in a window seat and remained quiet.

Wes dropped me off and took Dr. Carter back to his house. I wondered what they would talk about, but was too tired to come up with any theories, so I just went straight to bed.

I slept until eleven on Sunday and Wes still hadn’t called, so I assumed he was busy with Dr. Carter. Not wanting to fret, I got myself dressed and went downstairs to start my day with something to eat. My mother was in the kitchen hovering over papers on the table.

“Hey Sophie, come here. I thought you might like these.”

“Aren’t you going to ask how the trip was?”

“Oh, I already know. Tom talked to Wes this morning. That’s great news, now look.”

Wes must’ve given Tom the abbreviated, no-fire version. I walked over, still a little groggy-eyed. Spread all over the table were bridal magazines.

Wow.
Ask me if I’d thought that in a million years my mother would be like this after I told her I wanted to get married so young, and I would have said not . . . a . . . chance.

“Sit,” she ordered.

I plopped down, feeling oddly heavy. It did feel good to see her so excited and supportive, but there was no way I could think about that now. It wasn’t worth it to hide my test results anymore. I’d rather see her freak than to pretend everything was bliss at this point, so I just came right out with it.

“Mom, my results came back positive.”

Her mouth opened to say something and then she shut it quickly, instead deciding to jump up and come over to my seat.

She grabbed my face, “I’m so sorry, honey.” Then she hugged me. “You shouldn’t have to go through this. It’s so not fair. You’ve never done anything to hurt anyone, and it’s just not fair.”

I couldn’t imagine any kind of sickness being fair to anyone, but I understood where she was coming from.

“I’ll be okay.”

My mom hugged me for a long time and then pulled back. “It makes me feel good you guys got Dr. Carter. Tom’s confident there will be a cure.” I smiled and she refocused. “Well, it looks like you need to get your mind off of things, so how about we look at the magazines together?”

I shook my head. “Mom, I can’t even think about a wedding now.”

“Why not?”

“What do you mean why not? Didn’t you hear me? I don’t want it to be tainted by thoughts of dying.”

“You’re not dying,” she said.

“Doesn’t matter, Mom. When I marry Wes, I don’t want any fearful thoughts going through my mind at all.”

“Sophie, Dr. Carter is back now, and you can rest assured that they are all going to work around the clock for a cure. And what are you going to do while they work on it? Nothing. So why not try to focus on something positive?”

I thought about it for a moment. She had a point. What was I going to do? The last thing I wanted to do was hang out at the lab and watch horseshoe crab thingys be drained of their blood. Still.

“Mom, I don’t even want a wedding. I just want to be married. No production. You know I don’t like you spending money on me. It’s completely unnecessary.”

“I’ve already thought of that. I know you’re anti-production, so we can plan a very small one. I don’t care. Anything, as long as you can experience a wonderful day.”

Her eyes started tearing up, which automatically caused me to sniff.

“You don’t have to do this, Mom.”

“Yes I do. I’d be the worst mother in the whole world if I didn’t support you in this.” A few silent tears began to fall and she quickly wiped them away. “I mean hell, it’s the most ridiculously romantic story I’ve ever heard and I’ll be damned if you don’t end up happy in the end.”

I grunted, wiping away my own tears. I was mad at her for making me yearn for the happy ending so badly, but at the same time I loved her for believing in it.

I let out a submissive laugh. “Alright, you win. What do you want me to look at?”

She smiled happily, considering the fate we were up against, and then pushed a magazine in front of me.

“I was thinking you would want to do it at an intimate place, but you’ll still want a dress. Look through here and see if you like any. Then maybe we can go to some boutiques this week and look around.”

Watching her flip through the magazine made me realize that she needed something to focus on, too. And not only that, she needed to plan this because, as a mother, she deserved the opportunity. If something were to happen to me, it wouldn’t be fair that she was robbed of this moment.

A soft smile touched my face and I shifted my gaze from her to the pages. I had never once thought about a dress. Wanting to marry Wes and actually marrying him were two different things. I just wanted to be attached to him forever. To blink my eyes and officially call him mine. And if that didn’t work, then sign a paper or something. The process wasn’t ever what mattered to me.

Now, I was looking at dresses, considering the production. I knew right away that I wouldn’t be able to completely avoid a ceremony, thanks to my mom, but I could at least make it as simple as possible while still giving her the moment she deserved.

It took thirty seconds or less for me to decide on a location. I wanted to do it at the Overlook. It was the place I’d met Wes to demand how he’d fixed my car after
I
hit
him
, and it was there that I knew I
wanted
him more than sanely possible. It was a beautiful place in the daytime and it would be simple, but meaningful.