Endosymbiosis

25. Cells

Fifth circle of the Empire
Earth

I remembered it very well.

One day when I got home on the remains of my feet, my mother was in such a frenzy that she didn't even stop to start talking about how dangerous the universe was because of the disease and those who hated her for seeking the cure; and how much I should hide there with her.

The room was a mess, littered with scattered papers, bottles filled with liquids I didn't know, and the hum of machines processing substances. I was used to finding signs of research, but this time, the environment smelled of discovery.

"Good news?" I asked, throwing my shoes away.

I expected her to send me a grimace like she always did, but my mom was smiling. Her fingers trembled with euphoria around a vial, shaking a liquid that, if not for her excitement, I would have sworn was water. Maybe it was... And she was just really thirsty...

"I found... I found the cure!" She whispered so the walls wouldn't hear her and then pointed with her eyes to that tiny dose in the bottle.

"And is that enough to cure at least one person?"

"It's enough to cure all Itopis, Doxy." And, in her words, I felt the power of the woman I wanted to be, calling me by that name... Half Donecea, half Gaxy, because a part of me was her; and the other was something she wanted to be even better. "If it's in the blood of the right person."

Which wouldn't be me, if it were her choice.

I plopped down on the couch and glared at her out of the corner of my eye, putting the dose into a needle and preparing her arm to receive it.

"This is a recipe for the body to produce a new cell... The first one capable of destroying this disease." I took one of her studies scattered around the room and looked at the sketches I couldn't understand. "I'm not sure what this will do, but a single drop of blood with these cells can heal countless beings..."

"Are you going to inject yourself without knowing it?" I got up. "Aren't you going to do any tests first?"

"I don't have time anymore, Doxy..." She growled, bringing the tip of the needle closer to her skin. "If I don't do this now, we'll be dead before I can try again."

I was about to leave her when a glare in the window caught our attention and she suddenly stopped, panic burning in her eyes.

"RUN!"

And I didn't even look back.

I went as fast as I could down the stairs to the underground shelter and closed the door behind my back after my mother came in, carrying a briefcase. When she had that shelter built I said she worried too much; and she told me that too much worry was never enough. Now that we were hiding underground in fear of the skies and everything beyond, I understood her... Even though I didn't know what was happening.

I curled up on the floor between the shelves and waited for what could only be the end of the world.

She opened the briefcase and then grabbed my arm.

"What is happening?!"

"They found me..." She picked up the needle. "And they won't rest until I'm dead." When her eyes landed on me, I knew she was already dead. "It has to be you."

What?!

For an instant, I swore the atmosphere had lost all air. My eyes fell to the silvery glow of the needle tip and I squirmed away from as it was about to cross the border of my skin.