The Snake's Embrace - Part 4

As I blinked a few times, the barren road blurred to the black sky of plants and cement walls. I stood up from the bed. I felt it was morning.

I stripped naked and stepped into the shower. I turned the crank and let the groundwater spill over me. I used the soap which the lady from storage bunker T-23 made for me as a birthday gift. The drain flowed into a purifier. When I was done drying with the towel, I stuffed it in the moisture reclaimer.

I did a few more pull-ups with each arm before getting dressed. I dressed in a light shirt and a pair of jeans. I looked in the mirror. It had been thirty years since then. I was an old man now. I kept my body well but I was a different person than at the beginning.

I flicked off the generator and sealed the door tightly before I left.

Outside traffic was lighter but the way was still full of pleading refugees. I heard someone scream. I saw a little refugee girl tug at a woman’s sleeve. She had long, bright hair and a pretty face. My gut reaction was to run.
Half in the tunnel ran, clawing at each other. I pressed against the wall and shielded my face.

When I looked again, those who were left had surrounded the two refugees. They had crude weapons. The woman wailed and shielded the girl. She touched the girl over and over to show she wasn’t one of them. The little girl cried. The crowd lashed out for no reason. The woman lay over the girl to protect her from the blows. I clenched my hands and stared at them.

The woman groaned in pain and bled from her mouth before they stopped. The mob wandered apart. Some cried and dropped their weapons. Others rushed away. No one looked another in the eye as they left. I took a step towards the woman. The little girl was still crying. Her mother brushed her blood and her daughter’s tears away and softly said, “Shhhh…it’s okay.”

I turned and walked on as the security officers arrived.

Alcan was in the central complex, so I made a left. A lean man urinated against the wall. I passed a dozen energetic vendors and made my way into a quiet section. An armed guard nodded to me and looked away. I walked up a set of metal stairs and through a narrow hallway into another series of hallways. Each door had a name on it, except for one.

I knocked on that door once. A firm voice responded, “Come in, Mr. Gekido.”

A sharp tug on the latch slid the door open and into the wall. I closed it behind me and faced Alcan.

She watched me as I walked over to the chair facing her desk and sat down. We regarded one another till I finally said, “I’m here to talk to you.”

She responded only, “I know.”

I leaned forward. “I was using the simulator program yesterday which you asked me to run.”

She had on her good uniform. This one wasn’t patched and the color was even throughout. I figured it had to be a special occasion today.

She didn’t give any motion of face or body but I could read amusement in her dark, brown eyes. Alcan gave one blink. “The lab told me.”

I offered my hands out. “And?”

Her eyes flicked down to my hands then up to my eyes. “It was good.”

“Except for the end.”

She widened her eyes slightly. “The end of two hours.”

“Yeah, I know. The technician gushed about it.”

Her hand reached out to the table and picked up a single paper. She held it firmly out to me. I took it from her hand and read it over.

It looked like the genetics test that I took a month ago on Alcan’s advisement. The report at the bottom didn’t seem to tell me anything significant.

I shrugged and looked to her. “Does this mean anything?”

She nodded. “It does.”

I lowered my head and glared at her long, crinkly dark hair and just-as-dark features. I asked her, “What does it mean?”

She answered, her pitch-black lips barely moved as she spoke, “Everything, for both of us.”

I leaned back. “And?”

“We need your services again.”

I watched her. She sat there like a statue, as always.

It was my turn to answer. I folded my arms and said, “I’ve been coming here for about…oh…a year-and-a-half. Almost as long as I’ve resided in this complex. Haven’t I earned a little courtesy in our dealings?”

I thought I saw her head turn a little as she asked, “’Courtesy’?”

I coughed. “By which I figure…we talk like human beings to each other.”

She stood. “Okay. Hello.”

I stood too and put out my hand. “Uh…hello.”

She shook it once. “How are you?”

We both sat and I said, “Not so great. I’ve been having vivid dreams of the time when the creatures first arrived.”

She gave the lightest of nods. “I see. I dream about my father screaming every night. Will that be enough for ‘courtesy’ today?”

I nodded at her. “It’s…fine.”

Her eyes looked to the paper in my hands. “You have immunity.”

I rubbed my head and looked down at the paper for where it said that. I couldn’t find it in those words.
“In what way?”

“To their venom. You have a genetic resistance to some of the effects of contact with the life-forms.”

I put my hands on my head. “How much of a resistance do you mean?” I recalled all the close-calls I’d had.

She leaned back in a precise, almost elegant way. “Enough for me to offer you a unique proposal.”

I shut my eyes and asked, “Can I assume from the type of simulation you gave me that you want me to go outside again?”

I wondered what it was this time. Last time it was medical hardware and she gave me two officers as an escort. Neither came back. She was probably still sore about that.

I couldn’t tell though from the look on her face. I folded my arms. She stood and said, “It would be a fair assumption.”

“What do you need? Is it vital?”

I rubbed the back of my neck.

“You’ll be saving all mankind.”

I let myself have a little smile. “Isn’t it a little late for that?”

I looked at her and she only stared and said, “No.”

With a shrug, I sighed and asked, “Do you have the details for me?”

“It’ll be different. You’ll be a spy.”

I frowned at her. “Spy? Where?”

“Amongst them.”

My eyes widened. “WAIT…now just a second. Okay, I’ve had good luck in the past. You say I’m immune…somehow…to them. So, because of that, you want to send me right into their nest?”

Alcan nodded once.

I stood. “Declined. I’m not having any of that.”

She folded her arms behind her and stood as well. “That’s your choice.”

I looked at her. “I don’t have any obligation to say ‘yes’ to anything like that.”

“Understandably.”

Her gaze kept on me as I reached over for the door. I turned back. “So is our business done here?”

“It would appear so. Please pack your belongings and leave.”

I paused. “You’re kicking me out?”

She leveled her head. “Your usefulness to this sanctuary lies in your cooperation. That’s why you were allowed in and why you have a prized residence.”

I watched her. I was sure she was bluffing but I couldn’t tell. “Well…I suppose I could at least listen to the details.”

“Understood. Come with me.”

“Where?”

“To see our guest.”