The infected

19. Answers

Jason

Jenna calls the phone number and the kids gather around it waiting for a response. It rings for a while before eventually going silent.

"Did we break it?" Jarred asks.

From across the room the TV turns on and their parents look at them from behind it.

"Shit" they all exclaim.

"You're all alright." Elena says.

The kids face the screen. Their parents are in a well lit room with the company logo behind them.

"Are you guys still in Africa?" Jarred asks.

"We can't leave the country yet." Jacob says. "Are you safe?"

"Yeah dad, we found your secret safe house." Jenna says.

Jason speaks up unable to handle the small talk anymore.

"I found the results, I know you experimented on me." He spits.

Elena and Jacob look at each other before they face him again.

"You discovered your abilities, is that what happened at the manor?" Elena asks.

"No, that was the psycho Maxwell. Your old friend who claims to be my father. " Jason says.

Tyler puts his hand on Jasons shoulder.

"We need answers and we need them now." Jenna says. "Starting with what the hell is wrong with Jason."

Elena sighs and sits up straighter.

"Years ago this unknown disease was spreading in seemingly random countries around the world. In fear if a global pandemic the UN and WHO decided to put togther a team of the worlds leading minds in medicine." Elena explains.

"How come we've never heard about this till now?" Jarred asks.

"The disease spread fast and was incredibly unpredictable. Some patients lived for days and others hours after contaminating. If the public knew it would spread panic so it was kept under the radar." Jacob says.

"You covered it up?" Jenna asks.

"We had to, this was like nothing anyone had ever seen before. The different units were dispatched to every infected country and tasked with studying the disease and reporting back everything we found." Jacob says.

"The results were all the same till a year had gone by. In our studies we had a particular patient who was different from the rest. She had been infected for almost an entire month and yet she showed no signs of sickness." Elena continues.

"At first we thought she was immune somehow but the more we studied her the more we saw that the thing that made her different from the other patients was her pregnancy. We gathered all the women who had conceived in the time since we got there and came to the same conclusion, they were all infected and yet somehow their pregnancy made it possible for them to survive." Jacob says.

"The woman, she was my mother?" Jason asks.

"Yes honey. Maxwell was an army commander, very well respected for his skill and discretion. He was sent with his men to us to help in our studies, but he loathed the task and began to abuse his power forcing himself on the women of the village where the disease broke out." Elena explains.

Jason looks away. She doesn't need to say it for him to know that's how he was conceived.

"After months of study we discovered that the disease had the characteristics of an infection but it acted like a disease. It looks for a strong host that it can spread into, but if the host cannot handle the infection it begins to break them down from the inside. Sometimes the process is long or immediate depending on the strength of the host." Jacob says.