Toxic (50 page)

He took the vial out of his pocket and turned the blue label towards the human.

“This can save you,” he announced in Spanish.

The Nairobi experiment hadn’t been conclusive. It hadn’t allowed him to formally establish that the antidote didn’t work, either. The woman had succumbed to the virus, but the case of the infected creature that he had tried to cure had raised questions. Jave couldn’t explain his last moments, like a sudden, interrupted remission. Maybe it was a dosage problem.

“This cure will stop you from becoming one of them.”

His hand outstretched, he pointed to the infected, which were walking towards the overturned vehicle. The Lynian guessed that he had enough time to exert pressure on Miguel, who in a moment of lucidity, pointed out the evidence. “It’s empty.”

“The contents have been transferred to this instrument.”

Jave held out the laser injector that provoked panic on the part of the human, who would have preferred to move back until becoming one with the metal carcass, like an animal hiding in a hole.

“What do you want?” he spat out.

“Answers. And I think you have them. You have very little time to choose one of the two options. The antidote or them.”

The gangling creatures were approaching dangerously. Brought by the cold wind, the smell of rotten eggs reached Jave’s nasal vents, which contracted. The human put his hands to his mouth and leaned to the side. Maybe that would make him decide.

“
¡Está bien!
” he repeated several times.

Jave moved towards him.

“I only want information. Nothing more. I won’t do you any harm.”

“
¡Está bien!
”

The Lynian put the laser syringe to the marbled flesh of his leg. Miguel looked away, but didn’t feel any pain. Next, Jave brought him with him across the clear sky to the top of an administrative building. The human took refuge in the corner of the flat, shingled roof. Studying the information on the scanners, the Lynian saw that the infection was spreading quickly around his body. He nonetheless maintained his lie, but Miguel didn’t look stupid.

“There is no cure.”

“Your scientists were working on one. They even obtained results.”

His eyes, which were already red and surrounded by dark rings, rose towards him. “Who are you? I want to know what our worst nightmare is before... leaving.”

He could accord him this privilege. Rare were the people who had been able to observe their conquerors without armor. All of them had ended up packaged in cryo-coffins. Jave removed his helmet. The human’s features revealed a stunning array of reactions. His scowl revealed disgust, he recognized. The dilated pupils revealed both fascination and surprise. The movement of recoil indisputably revealed his fear of the unknown.

“
Me llamo Jave
. I am a hybrid being: I am both a plant and animal organism. Do you understand the principle of symbiosis?”

Miguel nodded.

“I take advantage of a slow, plant metabolism to live for a very, very long time as well as the benefits of the animal world to move around, fight and think. Energy-consuming activities. I breathe high-dose carbon dioxide and oxygen is poisonous to me. I am a Lynian and we come from a tiny satellite galaxy that yours hasn’t quite finished absorbing. We are the result of a cosmic meal that started millions of octans ago.”

“Why us?”

The questions obviously led to answers that were too complex to develop here. Jave gave him the essential part. “Because you were unlucky.”

Miguel coughed and wiped himself with his hands. He looked at the blood stains on his hands and fingers with a look of doom.

“By the looks of things, your cure doesn’t work.”

“The cure is experimental. I need information and to find the people who made it to improve it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Why did the soldier want to kill you? I saw the whole thing.”

Exhausted from his fear of death, the man took refuge in silence. His metabolism started to change, Jave observed, which confirmed the uselessness of the antidote. Once again.

“He wanted to kill you because you’re a radio operator,” he started again.

The subtle contraction of Miguel’s facial muscles didn’t escape the Lynian, who was attuned to any evidence that would put him on the right path.

“You destroyed it to preserve the communication chain. All the coordinates that the machines hold in their silicone memory are intentionally off by a few degrees, am I right?”

This time, Miguel raised his head. “If there is a cure, it’s safe. You’ll never lay your dirty hands on it.”

A violent coughing fit punctuated the words spat out at the indifferent alien. Only information counted. He needed to obtain it, to get it out of this human before he became one of those creatures. Using force wouldn’t get results from a being on the verge of death. Jave crouched down. His long, chrome legs bent in front of Miguel’s surprised face.

“Searching numerous laboratories across the globe led us to a large military vessel, Site B, where we discovered facilities designed to create a cure. I am sure that Site A exists and is even more secret, and that this rudimentary communication network exists to alert them in the event that we get too close to the solution.”

“I don’t know anything about that.”

A shiver ran down Miguel’s thigh. He tried to control it by putting his hands on it. Once again, fear seized him as he thought about the terrible life of wandering and pain to come. The virus was spreading quickly. His defenses were fighting, but they wouldn’t be long in giving up under the combined action of millions of voracious cells. The progress was similar to that of the female in Nairobi. He didn’t have much time.

“You are ignorant of the majority of the elements of this situation, but you are surely withholding one detail that may lead me to the next stage.”

“
¡Maldito seas tú y tu raza!
”

“This information,” Jave continued without losing hope, “could save your race.”

The human regurgitated blood. His breathing became hoarse and forced. His state was getting worse by the minute. He tried to get back up on his feet but failed on his first try. His temperature was climbing quickly. Jave didn’t intervene. Miguel’s dirty hands grabbed at his metal leg. He fought against himself to balance and rose up to face the alien with dignity. The Lynian maintained his stance, curious and fascinated at the same time by the challenge of this being.

He was like his people, on the edge of the abyss, balancing so precariously that one misstep would throw him into nothingness for eternity. The emissary lowered his forearm so that he could stabilize himself. The thin muscles contracted with effort and his gaunt eyes and emaciated cheeks showed the suffering that was taking control of his flesh bit by bit, making it rot. Then, Miguel faced him. The stare-off lasted an octain of seconds. Maybe a bit longer. The human’s dark eyes shone feverishly as life left his body, throwing his body into a battle that was already over.

“Never, understand well...”

Bloody phlegm blocked the words spat in the face of the metal invader.

“You will never find Site A. That’s our only chance against you.”

With an intense gaze, he told Jave his final wish. “
Cuando me convierta en  zombi, mátame
.”

Jave considered the words of the condemned man, who lay on the ground. He was wrong about who the real enemy was, he thought. His vibroblade slid between his thick fingers. With a light pressure, he activated the weapon and then brandished it. Miguel’s body started to tremble violently.

Jave stopped half-way.

His talent suddenly took over his mind: the scene was superimposed onto that of the infected creature in Nairobi with a surprising likeness. Sometimes, he associated events that were very far away in space and time to reveal correlations, relationships that at first sight would be impossible to establish. And this one here appeared clearly to him: the sequence of shudders followed by a surprisingly fluid walk and then collapse. Everything was happening in the same way.

He put on his helmet and displayed the scanner information. The Lynian approached the body, which was lying on its side. Miguel had just died of a cerebral hemorrhage, a real death. Jave remembered that he injected the product into the female in Nairobi before infection. Miguel had received it afterwards, just like the other subject in his experiment. Was the order important? But it wasn’t just that. His talent went back in time once again. The emissary recognized the grid of streets in Cocoa Beach. He saw the human in the middle of the horde once again. The vision would last until he could make sense of it.

“What linked these three units?”

Jave pondered this question for the whole return trip to Dubai.  

T
he fight broke out as the group reunited around the Asian to demand an explanation for his behavior the previous night. While everyone recognized his courage, Bruce – forced to be the interrogator for lack of volunteers for the unappealing task – bombarded him with questions. Masters avoided taking responsibility, preferring to step aside. The terrified young boy didn’t stop looking at the soldier for support. He kept his knees to his chin. He had scribbled down in his notebook that he didn’t remember, adding that Elaine, the only person with medical experience, didn’t know the reason for his memory loss either, nor the reason for the temporary black holes during which he accomplished miracles unknown to him. Dewei didn’t realize that in hiding behind this argument, he was committing a mistake whose consequences were unknown to him.

His revelation put wood on the fire. Elaine knew about Dewei. Alva looked from the stunned look on Hector’s face to Masters’ eyes, which were facing the ground. Her intuition put together the pieces of the puzzle.

“Fuck, I should have seen this coming,” she declared. “The colonel and the nurse...”

“Yeah, like the junkie and the dealer,” Bruce spat out, full of bitterness and resentment towards the singer.

She approached the biologist. “So, what’s your problem?”

Confronting the young man’s annoyed attitude, she hit the nail on the head. “What did you think would happen? That you would sleep with me? You don’t have what it takes.”

Behind her back, Hector went stiff.

“I didn’t think anything,” Bruce replied.

Before the situation could get out of control, Masters got the debate back on track, to the great relief of the Colombian, who risked being put into a difficult decision by the revelations.

“You deal with your private business later. The most urgent thing is to understand what has happened. People visited the island last night. There’s no other explanation for Elaine’s disappearance, and the disappearance of the cigarettes and medical supplies. We all agree that she wouldn’t have left us alone and abandoned Alison and Dewei.”

Annoyed and with a stiff face, Bruce kept from commenting. Hector and Alva agreed. With the pressure taken off of him, the Asian raised his head.

“This wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Your... ex-wife. She was chained, which wouldn’t have been possible after her transformation.”

The colonel grimaced. “If they had already come...”

“Then, they will come back,” Hector finished.

“We still haven’t explained the sudden appearance of the L-Ds.”

“It doesn’t make sense. Why would they go to all the trouble to bring them here just to kill them?”

“We’ll have to ask them,” Masters declared. “Because the next time they come, we’ll be prepared to welcome them.”

Hospitals represented the archetype of the microcosm of devoted professionals – some of them even considered slaves – who assured continuous service, even for three days straight at times. Time expanded inevitably with her progressive loss of points of reference, despite the omnipresence of the clocks which hung on the walls of the hallways and waiting rooms.

Just like when she was on watch, Elaine woke up with no other alarm than her deregulated biological clock. Her body was starving. Whether it was noon or midnight wouldn’t change a thing: she needed to regain her strength. She left her cell and ran across the gallery until reaching the main room. There, several women welcomed her with big smiles. Dressed in their cream-colored togas, they looked like angels locked away inside a cavern that served as a sort of antechamber to death. However, discovering the table that ran along the back wall, Elaine told herself that it also somewhat resembled Ali Baba’s treasure trove. She noted the full coffee maker, bread, and like a miracle, jam! The “sisters” invited her to take a plate. That was enough for the nurse. Elaine sat down in front of Annie.

“Hello, Elaine. Did you sleep well?”

“What time is it?”

“It’s the early afternoon. It seems like you needed the extra sleep.”

After a sip of the black drink, which was quite good, to her great surprise, she spread jam across a slice of bread.

“How did you get all this?”

“There are still coffee stocks in town. The orchards still give fruits even though the presence of the living dead and aliens makes the harvests quite challenging.”