Children of the Plague

Chapter Twelve: Perspectives

Chapter Twelve: Perspectives

What game are you playing, Alex?

She half expected an answer. Although, if he ever found a way around her aura to hear her thoughts, their little dance would come stumbling to an end. These hidden doors changed things. What was back there that he couldn’t let her see? And why couldn’t he trust her to see it?

Had she let him go too long without balancing his Con? He’d needed it more often as time passed, only once a week at first. Now once per day wasn’t even enough.

There were still so many things she needed to do before sunrise, not the least of which was washing and changing into cleaner clothes. She had also put off her formal introduction to Diane for too long. She hoped these things would still matter after going home to see her brother. Would this be the last time?

You’re first, Alex.

They chose a storage room in the laundry for their secret lair. It was in its own safe zone, and Lanni extended the walls over the doorway. The only way in was through a hollowed out tumble dryer and a short crawl through a tunnel barely large enough for Lanni and her backpack.

There were no lights, of course, but Alex always lit the room when she came in. Her only concessions to comfort were a small sofa and the area rug beneath it. She kept her favorite comics in a milk crate by the sofa, where she could grab one to read before sleeping. This was home.

Alex was in his corner, standing perfectly still inside a ring of black electrical tape. He looked the same as always, but his appearance still made her cringe. His clothes hung on him like rags caught on a tree limb, and his gaunt face and head were completely hairless. Any human who looked like that would have been dead for a week.

“Hey, Al. How ya doing?” she whispered. “Are you here?” Asking that question didn’t feel strange anymore. Alex’s body was here, but his mind freely wandered the Con cloud, watching over and sometimes controlling everything inside the area he protected.

His eyelids twitched, but she couldn’t tell if it was a reaction to her presence. They often twitched when he was ‘out.’ Her vision blurred, and she blinked fat tears down her face. Would this be the day she’d been dreading? The one she hoped would never come, but always knew it would?

He could hold out a little longer. I could try harder. He would if our places were reversed.

She knew this line of thinking was dangerous. It would keep him alive until it was too late to stop him. If he lost control, all the lives he would end would be her fault. There weren’t enough lives left, to risk them on such a thin hope.

She knelt and peeled an arc of the deadly tape up from the floor. It was easier than neutralizing the effect she put on it, and then having to recreate it when she was done. She imbued it with nanites that duplicated her aura, or close enough. It would scatter any nanites that came too close.

What am I doing? Restoring? Killing? Has it finally come to this?

It had.

More than just a brother, Alex was her twin, her confidant, her best friend. He was her protector and the MPC’s guardian, all at great personal cost. He ignored his own suffering to do her small kindnesses, like cleaning her clothes and mending her myriad scrapes and bruises while she slept. Despite these things, the danger of keeping him alive had finally surpassed the benefits.

He’s not Alex, anymore. He’s more monster than my brother.

Adjusting to his absence would be difficult. There’d be no more planning, no one watching her back. Who would she worry about?