ANSWERS

Nora was lost in thought. Sitting on that uncomfortable chair, she had lost track of time. In front of her was a sliding door leading to the laboratories, with an armed soldier on watch by its side. That door would open anytime, and with a bit of luck, it wouldn't bring bad news. The wait felt like an eternity.

She had already memorized all of the room's features. A row of chairs lining the wall, some abstract paintings, a still working coffee machine, a water dispenser… Everything was clean, immaculate. The flooring tiles reflected the ceiling lights as if they were mirrors. The Army had obviously protected and taken good care of that place.

She heard it was an old research center. Active during most of the pandemic, it was heavily guarded by the military, who took time and effort to build numerous defenses and fortifications in the area. It had an independent power supply based on solar energy, its own rainwater purification system, and the soldiers were in charge of providing food and safety to the research teams. Everything to find a solution to the disease.

A solution for which Lilian was key, something they didn't take long to make clear.

As soon as they entered the underground parking lot, Nora and Lilian were the first ones to be led into the facilities. They weren't granted a single moment of rest.

They started with a physical examination and a blood test. Then, it quickly diverged from anything that could be considered an ordinary medical checkup. They placed a strange device on Lilian's head, and they began questioning her. She was exposed to both light and sound stimuli, she was pinched, she was selectively deprived of her senses… All of it while their machines beeped and gathered data without rest.

During the process, Nora could sense Lilian's anxiety growing. However, she wasn't allowed to comfort her.

An entire day had passed. Nora was permitted exit, and assigned a place to stay the night. Lilian remained at the laboratory.

She could hear her whispers. Restless, nervous whispers. She didn't seem scared, but she wasn't comfortable either. ¿Was she okay? They wouldn't hurt her, ¿right? Nora's initial hesitation in placing Lilian in the Army's hands revolved around that one fear: harming her.

'Come on, Nora, calm down… Breathe. Trust. It'll be okay. She'll be okay.'

Eager to drive her mind away from those bad omens, she looked to her left.

William's eyes were also lost, even more than her own. Nora had arrived at the waiting room an hour ago, but he had been there for longer. She greeted him upon seeing him, but received no answer. He didn't seem to be in good spirits.

…

The lab's sliding door vibrated and opened with a soft humming, revealing a blonde woman with glasses and a white coat. With inquiring eyes, she studied everyone present before walking through the door. On her left hand, she carried a folder full of documents.

The woman stared at William for several seconds. She looked puzzled, as if she didn't expect his presence.

"Can I do something for you, sir?" she asked.

William reciprocated her stare. "You have the girl now. ¿Can you cure this thing or not?"

"Oh, my… That's a peculiar question. Not exactly something you hear every day."

William didn't say anything. He didn't seem interested in chit-chat.

"Is that what Dr. Marcus told you? He lied to you. The Sting is incurable. During the infection process, the organism is irreversibly transformed. This process is especially destructive for the brain, since some of its regions are left in an unusable state. I don't know why you seek this information, but a stinger can't be reversed back to a human being."

Without uttering another word, William got up from his seat and headed for the exit.

"Are you alright…?" asked Nora.

A stupid question. She shouldn't have even thought about pronouncing those words.

"I want to be alone." he said, moments before disappearing behind a door.

Nora had no time to be sad for him. The woman in the white coat approached her and took a seat by her side.

"Dr. Elizabeth." she introduced herself. "I've personally requested you to come here, Miss Nora. Given your relationship with the girl and your importance for this project, I've considered it appropriate to inform you about what we were able to discover."

'My… importance?'

"How's Lilian…?"

"She's fine, don't worry. You'll be able to see her soon." Elizabeth leafed through her documents and reports, on which Nora could glimpse countless numbers and strange diagrams. "Let's see… The girl possesses the necessary organs to produce and receive pheromones, her skin is capable of partially absorbing sunlight, she shows evidence of bioluminescent communication, mostly manifested through her eyes… Perhaps the most important piece of information is the fact that the pheromones she produces are queen pheromones, which confirms the theory of her being, indeed, a stinger queen."

Nora swallowed. She hadn't yet fully assimilated the fact that Lilian was, in those monsters' eyes, a queen.

"Honestly, we already had empirical evidence for nearly all of these statements. However, what we didn't know was that she can produce two different types of pheromones. The Sting's infection wasn't capable of taking complete control over her brain, which caused… a double identity, so to speak. And that's where you come into play, Miss Nora."

"W-What…? I think I'm not following…"

"Part of the girl is human, but she's influenced by the insect-like instincts induced by the Sting. This grants her organism the ability to produce and receive a special type of pheromones: human pheromones. Have you felt anything strange lately? Sensations you wouldn't know how to describe? Voices, perhaps?" Nora shuddered. Was that it? Was that the nature of the voices in her head? Was that how Lilian communicated with her? "We still don't understand how she's doing this, but we believe most of the human pheromones she produces to be targeting you in particular."

"W-Well, it's true that I can… hear her voice? I wouldn't know how to put it into words, they aren't even voices… They're feelings, kinda."

"I see. Are you feeling something right now?"

"…she's… nervous. Sad. I think my presence calms her down, and she does the same for me.

Dr. Elizabeth pondered for a moment and wrote a long paragraph on the report she was holding.

"Miss Nora, we suspect that as a stinger, the girl emits queen pheromones; but as a human, she emits something more representative of a drone. Within her subconscious perception, she isn't the queen. You are." she adjusted her glasses and continued glancing through the documents. "Your influence over the girl is much stronger than you think. It's like a switch, your proximity selectively turns her instincts on and off."

"I-I see, but… What happens now? Where is all of this taking us?"

"We need to get the two of you out of this place. You could be as important as the girl, perhaps even more important. The body of the girl is naturally resistant to the Sting, her immune system has antibodies capable of standing up to the virus. This brings us a weapon we can use against the disease. However, if we take you into consideration, what we have isn't a weapon, but an interpreter. It's long and difficult to explain, but… think about it like this: we could be able to communicate with the stingers. This is why we're going to need your cooperation until the very end. Do you understand?"

Nora nodded. She didn't know what to think. The situation was beyond her. She went from dipping her feet to being dragged by a turbulent stream. Why was everything so complicated?

Dr. Elizabeth got up and headed back towards the lab door, but she stopped before going in.

"I should also let you know that we could be able to treat her infection once we manage to get out. We don't have the means or the time to synthesize the necessary medicines here."

"How's her condition!?"

"Without intervention, her body will lose that fight, sooner or later. The mutagenic and unstable nature of the Sting makes recovery extremely unlikely. Her instincts will intensify, and her humanity will fade more and more. You must have surely observed these changes in real time over the last months, am I wrong?"

Nora's expression darkened.

"Do not worry. We'll soon arrange for an air evacuation. She'll be okay."

"Thank you…"

The doctor took a keycard to an electronic pad beside the sliding door. The device beeped, opening the door. Elizabeth abandoned the room, leaving Nora alone with her thoughts.

'Did you hear, Lilian? You'll get better! You'll get better… You'll get better…'

The restlessness in Lilian's presence disappeared.

******

"Mind if I join you?" asked Marcus.

William didn't answer. He didn't bother looking at him either. He didn't care.

He sighed, and his eyes continued getting lost in the overgrown gardens visible from the balcony, in the empty streets surrounding the research center, in the rows of buildings delimiting them.

Marcus walked up to him and leaned on the handrail beside him, imitating his posture. He took out a packet of cigarettes and offered him one. William accepted it.

"It has been a long time since I last smoked… Oh well, nothing wrong with doing it one last time. Tobacco won't be the thing that kills me."

He lit the cigarette with a lighter and offered fire to William as well. Over a long, silent minute, none of them did anything but take occasional puffs.

"I talked with one of those scientists." said William.

"I see…"

"I was a fool. I knew exactly what I was going to hear. I guess that's why I kept my cool." he took another puff. "I wanted to bring my wife back, you know? I kept clinging to that possibility, even though I knew it was an absurd goal…"

"…I understand. Should I have told you the truth back then?"

"No. I would've shot you if you did."

Another minute of silence passed.

"I've done nothing but wander around aimlessly. What for? With what purpose? Save myself? Help Nora and the others? What's the point of all that, if the one thing that matters the most to me is lost? I'm not even sure I want to keep on living. I jumped headfirst into this mess hoping to find an answer, but all I find are questions. Questions and more fucking questions."

"In a way, I share your grief, William. I've also lost something very precious since all of this started…" said Marcus, with a dull tone. "Her name was Evelyn. She was the sweetest, most loving girl I've ever known. And she admired me. A lot. Sometimes I told her things about my job. It was a complicated subject, all about pathology and microbiology; but in her eyes, I was like a hero, creating special potions to defeat the monsters." a slight chuckle slipped out of him. "Back then, I was already involved in shady businesses… But her smile was everything I needed to forget it all and move forward."

"What happened…?" asked William.

"A direct sting from the insect, the original vector of the disease. After several months investigating the Sting, my own daughter fell into its clutches…"

"…I understand. I don't need any more details."

"I've decided to live the rest of my life honoring her memory. I was her hero. However, until very recently, my actions haven't been exactly heroic… The least I can do is redeem myself. Help whoever I can, fight so that this madness can end; be the hero Evelyn always imagined."

Marcus took another puff and turned his back on the handrail, looking sideways at William.

"Haven't you been following a similar philosophy? I heard you saved a child at the hospital. When I met you, you didn't look like the kind of guy who'd risk their life for something like that."

"I suppose you're right…" William sighed. "Amanda loved children. She was so excited to create a family, and I was absolutely willing to walk that same path by her side. She was sterile, and we had decided to go for adoption, although we never got the chance to actually go and do it…"

As he talked, William asked himself why was he telling him all that. It was uncharacteristic of him to confide in anyone regarding his personal life. Amanda was the only exception to that rule. But Amanda wasn't there anymore. That memory had been definitively torn apart, leaving a bottomless void in his heart. There was nothing to cling to anymore. His emotions flowed without restraint, but they no longer revolved around anything. Maybe they just needed a purpose. Maybe they just wanted to get out.

"I'll be honest with you: I don't think I'll survive this shit. You've seen everything that happened so far, right? To still be alive is a fucking miracle. We'll get in trouble again, and we'll be face-to-face with death again. I might not be so lucky next time. As a matter of fact, I'm already expecting it to happen. I could die right now, I wouldn't give a crap. But, on a second thought…"

William needed a good deal of time to make sense of his thoughts. Marcus didn't interrupt him.

"If I'm going to die, I don't wanna do it as an asshole. If I'm going to die… I'd like to do it as someone Amanda would be proud of. I'd like to die as the same man she fell in love with. I've never been able to lie to her. If I'm going to reunite with her up there, the last thing I'd want would be to disappoint her."

Marcus finished his cigarette and took some steps away from the handrail, towards the balcony door.

"You're a good man. Loss brings change, it twists your views. It brings questions indeed…. I hope you can find your answers, William. I believe you deserve them."

"Right…" William turned towards the door before Marcus could leave. "Why did you come talk to me?"

"Who knows? I wouldn't know myself. I guess I was just looking for some company. We might not get another chance to talk like this."

"You know…? I still don't like you, asshole."

Marcus snickered. "I know."

William saw him entering the building, closing the glass door behind him, and disappearing into a hallway. In solitude, he finished his cigarette. He couldn't help but think about that encounter as some kind of premonition.

'Answers, huh…?'

******

"What's the matter, Dr. Elizabeth?" asked Colonel Rowan as soon as he saw her entering the meeting room.

He had a bad feeling, and Captain Isaac seemed to do so as well. They both watched the doctor as she took a seat. Rowan had no memory of Elizabeth having such a worried expression on her face. Behind her laid-back appearance and her bad manners, she was a pragmatic and methodical person, facing her duties with excellent discipline. Very rarely had she dealt with something she couldn't keep under control. What could have happened that caused her to request an emergency meeting? What had she discovered?

"Captain Isaac, if I remember correctly, during the operation at Saint Marie, you considered the possibility of injecting the queen with a new dose of inhibitor serum." said Elizabeth.

"That's correct." replied Isaac.

"The pseudo-queen, her own sister, ended up suppressing her instincts and discarding the need for the injection. We're very lucky for that outcome. A new dose would've killed her."

"Explain yourself, doctor… I thought the inhibitor serum wasn't dangerous…" said Rowan.

"It's not dangerous for a pure stinger. But the girl isn't pure. A big part of her physiology is human. Although the serum can also suppress pheromone production in humans, it quickly becomes a toxin that the immune system can't purge. In summary, the queen's body can't survive prolonged exposure to the serum. We can't administer her with any more doses. And once the effect of her last dose dissipates, she'll become a magnet for all the stingers in this cell… and also for those in the frontiers with other cells."

"You said the pseudo-queen can suppress her instincts, right?"

"I'm afraid she can't anymore. I've tried to put the pseudo-queen in a stable emotional state to strengthen her bond with the girl, but… that bond exists on borrowed time. The queen's condition is critical. The Sting progresses in gigantic steps within her organism. Once the effect of the serum goes away, it's very likely her sister's influence won't be enough to appease her."

"Good god…" Isaac had begun grumbling.

"What do you suggest? I'll believe in your judgment, doctor."

"We need to leave the cell. Now. We have no other choice."

"How long do we have?"

"At most… two days. If we're not in the air by then, we'll be buried under a stinger ocean."