One (Alone Book 3) Page 2

  Kian shrugged, “The good people in that system would have been murdered and cast out a long time ago when all this crap went down. All that’s left is the bastards who think they own the world…Those creatures out there have more rights than humans do now a days”.

  “Where is this place? This Town? Where are they based now?” I asked.

  “Svalbard, just past Norway but don’t be fooled into thinking it’s in Norway itself it’s actually an island in the Arctic Ocean. Hard to get to and in the winter almost impenetrable due to the location and the harshness of the bitter cold”.

  “How can they survive there?” The doctor asked piping up from beside Kian.

  Kian turned to look at him, “There’s an old mining town called Pyramiden which at one point had been brought out by the Russian’s, the place is filled with coal and the mines go deep into the Earth. The E.L secretly made a deal with Russia and brought Pyramiden and over many years they dug deep underground and have built a large town underground, underneath the facial town above it which is now just a ghost town making people who may accidentally wonder through it think that it’s just that, a ghost town”.

  “How the hell are we meant to get all the way up to the Arctic Ocean?” Ollie asked looking at me.

  “I…I…Don’t know”.

  “You guys truly want to go there?” Kian asked.

  “We have to”.

  “Why?”

  I looked over at Kaley who was standing behind Ollie, her young eyes wide with fear.

  “You’re the girl…The one who contacted me and Candice but…How?” Kian’s eyes widened as he now remembered her features.

  Kaley’s face flushed a beetroot colour and she tried to shy away. “Kaley has a gift”, I answered for her.

  “A gift?” Kian laughed, “What for the assholes in Svalbard? Sorry guys but I don’t think a box of chocolates or flowers is going to fix your problem”.

  “Not that kind of gift”, I said calmly, “She has a power, a telekinetic power”.

  “You mean like telekinesis?” he laughed.

  I nodded, “Yes but also…Telepathic, she can communicate with people through their mind”.

  “Yes, yes I know what it means”, he snapped looking over at her, “Why us? Why did you contact me and Candice?”

  Kaley stepped forward, “Because you were at the place of the never ending snow, the place with the Cure. The place this all ends at”.

  “What do you know about the cure?” he asked.

  She shrugged, “Not a lot, I only get glimpses”.

  “Do they have one?” Lara asked hopeful, “A real cure?” Her eyes flicked at me momentarily before back to Kian. I felt a small rise of hope flutter in my chest. Could it be true? Could I be turned back to human?

  Kian looked haunted in his eyes, “Not a cure no”.

  “Then why do I see it and know it?” Kaley asked, “I have seen the words cure written there”.

  “They are working on something called the C.U.R.E”, he told us, “But it isn’t a cure for what has happened, it’s a code name for the next wave of the virus”.

  “No…No that can’t be”, Kaley stammered, “There is a cure I know it”, she sounded scared and exasperated.

  “No there isn’t”.

  “But I saw…” she stopped her eyes glossing over as she searched in her own mind for something, “Then the cure isn’t the reason we must go…There is another reason”.

  “Kaley?” I asked stretching out my hand to stroke her shoulder but she pulled away.

  “I need to go and think”, she said and she opened the door and walked out.

  “Look I don’t know what that girl thinks she can do there”, Kian said, “But I’m telling the truth there is no cure”.

  “Then what is it we must do? Why must we go there?” I turned to look at Ollie.

  “To fight…To fight them”, he looked me dead in the eye, “For revenge for all the people we lost, we must stop them before it’s too late. A new virus, a new wave…Stacie we have already lost so much”.

  “Hey guys I know you think that you need to go there and stop them but it isn’t that easy”, Kian told us, “Number one its hundreds of miles away and we have no way of getting there as I suspect the chopper is gone after the crash and number two there is no way a normal bunch of people can fight these guys. They have a fully loaded security team and…”

  “And what?” I asked.

  “Monsters…They created monsters. Normally they are locked deep down in the labs but if they know trouble is coming they will set them all lose to protect their dirty little secret”.

  “Monsters huh”, I smiled weakly.

  “And mad scientists”, He added, “Not all of them are sane”.

  “We’ve met our fair share of mad scientists, right Ollie”, I half smiled but I felt it fade as it came to me the memory… ‘I reached for my rifle which I knew was next to me but all I felt was air, turning round I came face to face with the infamous Doctor Death. His eyes were wild with anger as if high on some drug, they flickered all over the place looking me up and down, his hair was still swept back out of his face with an oily grease that was on his hair due to not washing . The crazed man looked to be in his early forties, his shaved jaw line showed signs of some battle scars, a knife wound maybe or had he been bottled by someone in the past? I noticed his arms shaking with the anger as he held tightly onto my rifle, the rifle I so desperately wanted back and should have picked up and kept in my hand when I walked in, instead I had been engulfed in his stupid ramblings.’

  Ollie agreed, “We sure did and we killed them…Didn’t we Stacie? Stacie?”

  I shook myself mentally, “We did”.

  “I don’t care what it is you think you have done or whom you have killed. It won’t work, not with them, not unless you have a super weapon hidden up one of your sleeves”.

  Instinctively I rubbed my arms, I did have weapons hidden up mine but I didn’t want him to know that just yet but Kaley, he already knew something was up with Kaley, “Why do you think Kaley is the way she is Kian? Why she contacted you?”

  “You just told me, she has telekinesis and is telepathic”.

  “Would that have happened back in the normal world, before all this?” I motioned around me to represent the whole world.

  He shrugged, “After what I’ve seen back at the facility I’d believe anything could happen”.

  “But that’s all to do with the infection right, all that you have seen?”

  He nodded, “Yes why?”

  “Why do you think Kaley is the way she is?”

  He shook his head, “No, don’t tell me…She’s infected and you kept her alive?”

  “The infection done something to her Kian, changed her in ways we could never have imagined. It made her stronger, powerful…A weapon”.

  “You think she would be strong enough to fight them?” he asked.

  I nodded, “Before you showed up we had a fight with some infected half breeds, we took them down…She took them down”.

  He took this moment to analyse all what I had told him, “Does she, need to feed?”

  I shook my head, “No…Other than the gift she has, she is normal, human”.

  “Just out of curiosity why did you keep her alive?”

  “She didn’t show any signs of infection when we met her, she looked and acted human. It wasn’t until after a while that she revealed it to us”.

  “I have a question”, Dwayne said clenching his fist, “So you worked for the guys who destroyed our world? How do we not know you aren’t working for them still? That you ain’t just here to kill off any threats”.

  Kian looked towards the window, “I was head hunted to work for them before this all happened. I had no idea what it was I was protecting from the outside world and I didn’t ask, it was a job, I got paid. But when the world went to shit and we all had to live underground a group of people rose up who wanted to take them down, a rebellion group. There’
s not many of us left but we planned to take them down. When I saw Kaley I knew I had to do something, it was like something in my brain clicked and told me I had to come here. That you people could help…But I still struggle to see how fully. Then again I have no one else to help me take them down”.

  “If we go, will you show us the way?” I asked.

  “I want revenge on them for Candice … They …Killed her before we even crashed”, he said bitterly. “I just wanted to see her one last time”.

  I didn’t know what he meant and I didn’t push either.

  “I think that’s enough for now Stacie”, the doctor said piping up, “He still needs his rest”.

  I nodded, “When you feel well enough come and find me in the camp”.

  Kian nodded, “Any chance I can lose the bracelet? It’s really bugging me”.

  I nodded and signalled for Dwayne to unlock his cuffs. “You sure that’s wise?” He asked me.

  “He won’t be no trouble, if he is I will kill him,” I smiled and Dwayne nodded muttering to himself as he unlocked the cuffs.

  “Wait…Stacie”, I turned to Kian’s voice, “Can we talk alone, in private?”

  “Sure”.

  Ollie glanced at me pausing at the door giving me a questioning look.

  “Really I’ll be fine”, I said and he left leading the others out so it was just me and Kian.

  I sat back down just as Kian rolled his legs off the bed to sit opposite me, “I’m sorry there isn’t a cure, for the girl”.

  I looked up at him, “We will fix this all another way”

  “I’m sorry about freaking out and asking why you kept her alive, it’s just…She could infect the others in your camp”.

  “We keep a close eye on her”, I replied feeling guilty as she wasn’t the only infected one but I was making out she was.

  “The trip to Svalbard isn’t going to be easy, people will die”, he said, “There are more horrors over the pond then there are here, different horrors”.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Germany was hit hard recently by the virus, it will have fresh carriers and it can mutate…Not just on humans but animals too”.

  “Animals are infected too?” I stammered, “Not like here, where only humans are affected by it?”

  He nodded, “I’ve seen the experiments on the animals Stacie, its not good”.

  “Why are you telling me? Why didn’t you tell us all?”

  “It might be better coming from you, your people trust you. If I say it no one will want to go but you say it and people might want to join the fight. You need numbers Stacie to fight these people. Without numbers you will fail”.

  “We have Kaley she is strong…”

  He cut me off, “But there is only one of her…There are hundreds of monsters out there”.

  I stood from the chair and took my rifle, “I have to speak to my people Kian”.

  “Do you think anyone will go with you?” he asked.

  “I hope not”, I replied and closed the door.

  My mind raced as I walked out into the sunlight, Animals and mutated humans? The human’s part sounded just like a normal day in the park we were used to that threat but animals? How bad could the virus affect them? I had no time to think and no answers anyway as the doctors voice called out from his kitchen window, “Stacie can I have a word?”

  Man, I was popular today, “Now’s not a good time doc”.

  “Now’s the perfect time, I have a pot of tea on the stove”.

  I licked my lips at the mention of tea and wondered over to his door and opened it. The inside of the doctor’s house was more like a library, it was filled wall to wall with book shelves and books. Mostly medical reference books as he was now teaching some of the younger people in our camp things that would needed to be known in case he ever died.

  He patted the sofa for me to sit on just as his wife brought out the cups of tea. She handed me a cup with a shaking hand which she instantly snatched back away, I hadn’t noticed my hands too were shaking violently and I couldn’t stop them. I looked down at them, my claws had pierced my skin a little bit causing small droplets of blood to dribble out onto my jeans. My mind raced as I tried to summon my claws back in but I couldn’t, I had no control. I felt my pulse quicken inside me, What was happening? Was I turning? Was it just stress due to what Kian had just told me?

  “Stacie calm down love”, the Doctor cooed in a gentle voice.

  “I don’t think I can”, I told him, panic rising in my throat as my claws began to protrude out of my flesh further.

  “Love, can you pass me my bag”, he said calmly as his wife handed him a small satchel. He took out a small plastic bag with tubs of pills inside, grabbing a couple he passed them to me, “Take, quickly, go on take them”.

  I popped them in my mouth my hands still shaking so harshly that I nearly ripped my own mouth apart, “What are they?”

  “A little something to calm your body down”.

  I snatched the bag from him and looked inside, the pills rattling around like maracas. Fluoxetine, an antidepressant and Valium, a calming medicine. “Doc I’m not depressed”.

  He shrugged at me, “I’ve been watching you and how you handle certain situations. You detach yourself from the world, you try not to communicate with people unless absolutely necessary. I have also noticed the shakes and so has Ollie…He came to me concerned for you…It may be a form of depression and or anxiety. We live in troubled times Stacie and you out of most have been through some big changes. I think you should take them, for a while at least to see if they help”.

  “I’m not a crazy person Doc”, I laughed trying to dismiss this all.

  “I didn’t say you were and taking anti-depressants doesn’t mean you’re crazy it just means your body and mind has had enough and doesn’t know how to cope. These just help a little. Plus you’d be amazed how many of our camp are taking things for depression, it’s so common now”.

  “You can’t have an endless supply of these though? Keep them, for someone else”, I said trying to pass them back to him.

  “I have medicated the others in ways I can, not everyone needs the pills, some come to me for counselling and talk things through”.

  “You don’t think counselling would work for me?”

  “I don’t think you would turn up for our sessions. You keep things inside bottled up. So for you, I think the pills are the right way”, he stated pulling out his blood pressure device and checking it and my pulse rate, pumping it up around my arm.

  “What about you Doc? What do you do when your depressed?” I asked him.

  “I have my wife and she has me, we talk things through together”, he half smiled before his face changed, his old features wrinkled and a bead of sweat dripped from his pepper grey hair, “Your blood pressure is very high Stacie, you need to calm yourself down before you…” he looked at me.

  “Flip out?” I answered for him, “Doc I’m fine I’m not feeling like that…” I looked away from him because it wasn’t true, I was feeling rather unsteady lately but I didn’t think any amount of drugs would fix that, “I’m just worried about what lays ahead”.

  “Aren’t we all love?” He pulled out some tissues and began to clean the blood on my hands before packing away his things, “And my worry is to worry about everyone, that includes you”.

  “You don’t need to worry about me”, I replied rubbing my arm where the monitor had been.

  “Ollie seems to think so”.

  “Ollie…Ollie is wrong…I’m fine”.

  “Then tell him that. He looks up to you Stacie, a big sister figure and I think he’s afraid of losing you, again. They both are”.

  I looked up at him.

  “Cain thinks you will leave him again”, Doc said taking a sip of tea.

  “I don’t want to, he knows that”, I replied, “But…I might have to. We will have to leave to take Kaley to Svalbard and I can’t risk his life by having him with me
”.

  “Could he not come with you?”

  “No”, I snapped.

  “Why not? I know the world is a dangerous place Stacie but so it is at home too”.

  “Kian, told me that the virus over there is different it doesn’t just effect humans but animals too. How could I willingly take him along for the ride knowing a mutated animal might tear him apart?”

  “Is it really any different from an infected human ripping him apart over here? With you gone you won’t be able to protect him and I’m scared that those of us left here won’t be able to either”.

  “Why? You all did fine before I came”.

  “You were watching in the shadows, keeping the camp safe for him. Without you things will be different, harder…Not as safe”.

  “The walls are strong, you have weapons… and there aren’t as many creatures now a days”.

  “But we won’t have you”.

  “I’m not taking him”.

  “That decision is yours love, but remember it might be the last time you see him”.

  “Are you threatening me?” I snapped rising out of my seat.

  The doctor flinched away, “No of course not, I’m simply stating that you might not come back, or if you do there might be nothing to come back to”.

  “Has Kaley said something to you that I should know about?”

  He shook his head, “No but I feel something in my bones”.

  I sighed, “I’m not taking him, end of”. I went to walk out of the room.

  “Stacie your tea?”

  I looked down at the cooling cup of tea but didn’t feel thirsty all of a sudden but I took it anyway, my hands no longer shaking as violently as they had been before.

  “Seems the pills worked”, he mused.

  “For now”, I breathed under my breath as I walked out with the cup of tea and shut the door behind me.

  Chapter Two…

  Kaley sat in the children’s playpark like she so often did when she was troubled, she knew the younger children would be at the school house with the adults who taught them, she knew she could be alone.

  Her mind raced with fear and anger. She had been so sure that this place would have a cure, she had seen the words over and over in her mind. She had rested well knowing that one day she could be cured and be able to be with Ollie like a normal human could be with the one they love, to kiss him, to hold him and to love him properly. But now that hope was shattered, the cure was just a word to hide the real horror it was going to represent.