Radiation Point

Nine

My mouth hung agape.
"Oh, just a minor detail?" I asked incredulously. "You could have gotten us killed! If anyone finds out what you are, they'll kill us by association!"
"You promised to hear me out," Ellen said, cutting me off with surprising force behind her words. "It's not what you think. I'm here to rescue you."
"Excuse me?"
Ellen put up her hand to stop me.
"Let me explain. I wasn't lying about losing my girls, but I didn't lose them to the contaminated. I lost them to a monster-a very human one."
Mia looked up with wide eyes, but she didn't respond.
"When the outbreak happened, my family did what everyone did. We went to our assigned camp and waited for the outbreak to end. We thought the government would take control and save us. That's what they promised. But strange things started happening around the camp. Children started going missing. I was terrified for my girls."
Ellen looked sick just telling the tale. The prowess I had witnessed earlier was replaced with the misty eyes of remorse.
"I was strict and obsessive. I wouldn't let them outta of my sight."
I sat enraptured with her tale. I had heard of tales of the missing children, but we were told the children hadn't been in camps. That they were taken from their homes. Now, I realized how foolish that sounded.
Ellen played with her napkin, not looking up.
"My girls hated the camp. They hated how strict I was. But most of all, they hated that their Daddy wasn't with us. It was me they resented for it."
"What happened to him?" Mia asked, speaking for the first time since Ellen sat down.
"He turned. It breaks my heart that my girls saw him like that. But by the time I knew he was contaminated, it was too late."
"So you killed him?" I asked. Those stories were far too common.
Ellen nodded.
Mia reached across the table and squeezed Ellen's arm, "You didn't have a choice."
Ellen looked at Mia in surprise. Through the course of Ellen's tale, Mia had softened considerably. All hints of her anger were gone. Instead, her face held a gentle concern that looked strange on her baby face.
"Go on," I prompted.
"Right," Ellen said, shaking her head and sitting up straight. "Well, my girls rebelled; ran away one night. I dunno if they were leaving for good or just to teach me a lesson. But when I woke up, they were gone."
"So what did you do?"
"I went after them. What if they were taken by the renegades? I had to know they were okay. So I grabbed my gun and searched the camp. The hardest part was not being able to call out to them. I knew we'd have hell to pay if we were caught wandering the camp."
"Why is that? Couldn't you explain that your daughters were missing?"
"No," Ellen said softly. "That should have been the first hint something was amiss. We were told no one was allowed to walk around the camp. That it put everyone in danger. We agreed because we were terrified. I did find my girls though. They were in the medical building."
"What happened to them?" Mia whispered, still holding Ellen's arm.
Ellen didn't look at us for a long moment, but when she did, her eyes held such rage that I had to look away. She was unflinching in her anger.
"My girls were strapped down to a cold metal table-like animals. A doctor went to my older daughter, Savannah, and plunged a needle into her neck."
"I lost it. I threw open the doors and screamed for them to get away from my girls. I was prepared to kill anyone who got in my way."
"So did you? Did you kill them and take your daughters?"
"No," Ellen said, the rage in her eyes softening to sadness once more. "When I opened the door, I saw my younger daughter. She was strapped to a table, but she was different. Her eyes were wild and she was foaming at the mouth-biting at the air and growling. She turned."
"The doctor ordered that I be taken care of. 'Get her out of here,' he yelled. I tried to fight them off, but it was a losing battle. I ended up passing out after a guard gave me a shiner."
"So the guards took you?"
Ellen shook her head, "No. The sound of gunshots roused me. I was still on the medical building floor, but the guards were gone. It was like everyone just forgot about me in the chaos that followed. Doctors and nurses were rolling patients into a back room."
"The sight of them taking my daughters broke me. I went after the doctors screaming that I wanted my girls. I'll never forget what that doctor said to me. He pushed me away like I was trash, and said,'Take them wench. They're as good as dead anyway.' I couldn't handle that. I shot him."
Ellen was staring resolutely forward, as if daring us to speak. We didn't; we remained quiet and waited for her to continue.
"That was the first non-contaminated I killed. But it didn't matter. All that mattered were my girls and they were gone."
"But what about your older daughter? Perhaps, he hadn't killed her?"
"I checked. She was dead. I don't know what he injected her with, but it seemed to take her instantly. That's one thing that I was grateful for. She didn't suffer."
I stared down at my cold oatmeal, no longer hungry. I pushed the tray away from me.
"I'm sorry about your daughters, but I still don't understand what this has to do with the renegades-let alone us," I said.
"I just wanted you to understand what we're up against. And I needed you girls to know that I'm not the enemy."
"Enemy?" a familiar voice said.
The commissioner stood at the end of our table. A guard stood on either side of him. Each held a gun upright, gleaming before us. The commissioner smiled when he saw my eyes on the weapons. Then motioned to our table, "Do you mind if I join you?"