The door opened and Rodriguez walked out. "We've
reached a decision," he said.
Em and I steadied ourselves as we walked through the
door of the meeting hall. It was amazing, but somehow Em and I had developed a
type of telepathy between the two of us. It was like our minds "danced." Her
thought, my thought, her thought, my thought was how our mental two-step
progressed.
Eli had observed us earlier sharing knowing glances
without saying a word and pieced it together. He deduced that we were somehow
communicating without speaking.
"So, you two can read each other's minds now?" asked
Eli. "This is unbelievable!"
We walked in the hall and it was full of disappointed
and frustrated faces. This family, MY FAMILY, was being torn apart by me. And
there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop it. I never meant to hurt anyone.
And I certainly never intended to end the world.
"Doc, I'm speaking on behalf of this group to let you
know that we did not come to this decision lightly," said Andre. "All we have
to this point about this "serum" is your word and right now "your word" doesn't
carry much weight with some of us. We decided that you should be banished from
the three settlements. Further, we will leave it up to each person individually
as to whether or not they want this "serum."
"What you propose is illogical and unattainable if he
does not wish it," said Em. "How do you propose to force an immortal to do
anything? Marvin allows an obsequious, tenuous belief that you have a decision
in what transpires and what he decides."
They all looked around the room confusedly.
"She said, 'As an immortal, Doc doesn't have to abide
by anything you decide, and he definitely doesn't have to give you the serum.'"
said Eli.
"What?! That was one of the largest concerns. Doc was
already a larger than life figure around here. Hell, he rescued most of the
people in this room. But he also FUCKED THE WORLD UP! Add immortality to the
mix and how long would it be before he begins to behave as if he were a god?"
asked Diane. "No one should have that kind of power."
"Di, I am the same person, but with an elevated mental
acumen and denser muscularity and bone structure. My mitochondria fire at an
accelerated rate and my antibodies are self-sustaining. But I am still me," I
said. "I am me but more. Much, much more!"
"We also decided that anyone who wishes to go with you
is free to do so, but once they leave, they will not be allowed back at any of
the settlements" said Gerald. "It has to be a clean break. You will be allowed
a few vehicles and some supplies."
"Wow that is very generous of you to give my dad some
of his own stuff," quipped Joshua. "If it wasn't for him, you would all be
dead!"
"If it wasn't for him, none of this would have
happened," said Tim. "I'm just being honest. I have mad respect for Doc, but he
screwed the pooch on this one."
"I don't think you all understand. There are only 30
doses of the serum. I think only those who leave with me should have access to
it," I stated. "There is still no certainty as to WHAT type of, if any,
mutation will occur. We will need a mind advanced enough to deal with that type
of evolution."
"Sqwk! I repeat something is not right!" said
Brian over the radio. "There is a herd following a bear. Not chasing it to eat
it, but actually following it and it is coming this way!
I looked at Em and Eli, "I was afraid this would
happen!" I thought. Em nodded in agreement as she knew exactly what I was
thinking, but Eli looked stunned and puzzled.
"I'm not following," said Eli. "You two seemed to have
developed some sort of telepathy that allows you to communicate without
speaking. But I need to hear the words come out of someone's mouth!"
"Listen everyone," I said as I addressed the assembly.
"There is an 84.63544% certainty that an evolved homeostasis mutate is at the
core of this situation. Our antagonists are certainly most likely the culprits.
But without additional input, a thesis or theorem is nearly impossible to
calculate." Again, everyone looked at Eli.
"Hey, don't look at me," he said. "That shit went over
my head this time too. Can you simplify it for us Marv?"
That WAS simplified. What Em and I do to communicate
would fry their brains. I took a deep breath and spoke as plainly as possible.
"What Brian is looking at, is most likely not a bear,
but the mutated form of either Cyrus or Cisco," I said. "Without more data, it
is virtually impossible to pinpoint exactly what mutations they may have
contracted. Whatever the case, I doubt our guard detail will be able to handle
it."
"So, what are we supposed to do?" asked Rodriguez. "I'll
follow your lead Doc."
"Well with the council's permission, there are two of
us—" I began.
"Three!" interrupted Em.
"No Em, there are two!" I said firmly.
"Do you really want to argue with me right now?" she
shot into my brain even more firmly.
"I stand corrected. There are three of us immune to
bites, but Tank is the only one of which they are aware," I said. "We can use
this to our advantage."
"But Marv, one look at you and Em and he'll know
instantly that you are like Tank," said Eli.
I walked over to the white board as I began to
explain, "That's because you are looking at the benevolent mutations as a given
quantity when they aren't. Tank is a mutate unto himself, but Cisco and Cyrus
are in the same group. I am a subset of both as I received samples of both
serums. Em and the baby are a subset of me and the serum we pulled from our
child is a subset of that. Each will most likely cause a different level and
quite possible aspect of a given mutation, benevolent or otherwise."
"So, anyone of us may or may not derive any, all or
none of the mutations that you received?" asked Joshua.
"Or you may receive them all, but to a lesser degree,"
I retorted. "Now, as I was saying, we know that both Tank and I are immune to
bites and can extrapolate that Em is as well. Let us address this herd."
"This won't change our decision," snapped Diane.
"I wouldn't suppose that it would," I responded. "But
if Cyrus or Cisco is heading this way and has received the benevolent mutation
of an advanced brainpan capacity, they may know that this site is HERE. I'm
leaning towards it being Cyrus as he has been here before. Even though he was
blindfolded, he might be able to determine the location from three-dimensional
spatial memory."
The three of us exit from the hatch that let us out a short
distance away from the ARC as we did before when Jacob approached. Tank
approached him straight ahead. It was Cyrus and he had mutated, but not as "cleanly"
as Tank, Em or I had. He was covered in moss and his skin was a pale, chalky
white. He looked to be a little heavier than Tank but more hunched. But what
happened next, had I not witnessed it myself, I might not have believed it.
"You can't come any closer! Turn around now, Cyrus!"
yelled Tank.
"You're not the only one that can yell, you bastard,"
yelled Cyrus. "And the name is Grundy. Solomon Grundy, cause I rose on a
Monday!" he yelled.
The DCs seemed to ignore Cyrus or Grundy or whatever
the hell he called himself and began to advance on Tank. Tank began to employ
the self-defense techniques that he had learned since arriving at the
compounds. He kept the DCs grouped, in front of him and used their numbers
against them. They crowded against one another as "Grundy" looked on screaming
at them.
It was evident that he didn't control them as much as
got them to follow him. But without noise, they treated him like any other DC.
Tank, at first was able to hold his own, but the bites
were slowly taking their toll on him. I stepped forward after convincing Em to
be our Ace in the hole if needed. She fell back under cover of the foliage and
waited to assist Tank with his wounds as he healed at a much slower pace than
we did.
"Haven't you heard Cyrus or Grundy, with great power
comes a spanking new ass kicking!?" I yelled to motivate a fading Tank. I mowed
down the DCs near him as he disappeared in the leaves of the forest to make his
way back to Em.
"Look at you, Doc! You went and got better too! But
you can't beat me," he sneered. "Not when I can create DCs!"