What We Become | Book Two

24. Extinction

I hadn't realised I was crying until total silence filled the room. Mike placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder and I shrugged it off.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

I took a final look at the black screen before spinning the chair to face him.

"You knew," my voice cracked.

He raised his palms, suddenly defensive. "Now, there are a few things you won't understand-"

"You fucking knew this whole time!" I shouted. "You all fucking created it on purpose and then sat waiting for me to come back and fix it!"

"Jackie didn't tell us about you, Ben," he said. "We didn't know this is what would happen... We were expecting more symptoms but nothing like this. Nothing to this scale."

"I always thought the Infected were an accident..."

"They were an accident."

I shook my head. "You knew the risks of an untested drug and you still went ahead with it."

"We had no other choice... 95% of the population would've died before a vaccine for Naxor could be produced. That's how quickly it was spreading. We gave humanity a chance."

"So, you all got together and decided to play God. Why did you get to decide that was the solution?"

His brows furrowed. "Extinction, Ben, that's what-"

"Yeah, I heard what she said," I cut him off. "Why didn't she tell anyone else about me?"

He seemed speechless for a moment. "To protect you, I assume. To give you a choice... You knew what you had, didn't you?"

"She told me what it was, not what to do with it."

"The stocks of JCR-23 were so limited... I can't imagine how much trouble she would've been in if anyone had found out she'd given it to you..."

I remained silent, my chest heaving with anger.

"By doing what she did, she's saved us, Ben," he almost pleaded. "We have everything we need now."

"Would you do it again?" I asked.

"What?"

"If the situation came again, would you do anything differently?"

He thought for a moment, his stare unmoving from mine. "No," he said finally, shaking his head. "I can't say I would. The Infected are sick but they're not dead. There's still a chance. Both you and Jackie have given us a chance to save them."

I felt the air spill from my lungs like a weight had just been thrown at my chest.

"You never saw mum when she was sick, did you?"

His eyes narrowed, filled with curiosity and confusion.

I dropped my dazed stare to the ground. "I didn't even know..." I began. "I knew something wasn't right but she didn't tell me what was happening. I just thought she was tired from all the late nights. She was adamant she was onto a breakthrough... Looking back, I guess she was."

"How did Jackie die, Ben?" he asked in a low voice.

I felt my bottom lip begin to tremble and my breathing become more erratic.

"She looked so ill that morning... I knew something had gone wrong..."

There was a steady silence before Mike spoke again. "Did you kill her?"

The question sparked a bigger fury within me. I launched up from my seat and pushed Mike across the room, pinning him against the wall with my forearm at his neck.