The X Pathogen

Chapter Seventeen

Nadil groaned then painfully forced his arms to move and unbuckle his restraints.
Saji rubbed her head and followed his lead, "you alive?" She groaned.
"Barely."
"Great, let's go then."
Nadil stood up and followed her out the door. The second they stepped foot outside he heard the cold click of a gun being cocked. Nadil reached for a nonexistent weapon, grasping at nothing.
The being standing in front of them was wearing a dark cloak, their face was covered by a mask, and when they spoke, their voice had the distinct sound of a vocal modifier.
"Who are you?" The figure's distorted voice asked.
Nadil looked at Saji, but she just shrugged.
The figure gasped then gripped their gun even tighter, "you're a murderer! What are you doing here?!"
Nadil flinched and shouted, "none of your business!"
Saji grabbed his arm, "calm down," she hissed, "listen, we're looking for a group of scientists researching the X-pathogen."
The figure pointed the gun at Nadil, their finger hovered over the trigger. "Why?"
"Our friend needs help," Saji tried to explain, but the figure interrupted.
"Yeah, like I'd buy that he would want to help anyone! You seem like a nice kid, do you even know who you're hanging around?"
Saji looked over at Nadil. He refused to meet her gaze.
The figure kept their gun aimed at Nadil and slowly walked forward, "he murdered his best friend."
Nadil grit his teeth, "no."
"She was the sweetest kid and this guy just killed her!"
"NO." Nadil shouted, his hands were trembling.
"You remember, right? That night on the bridge?" The figure kept moving towards Nadil. "What kind of person does that?"
Nadil fell to his knees, his whole body was shaking now. Saji stumbled back. He looked the same way he had when she'd been whistling, just a few days ago.
Another cloaked figure appeared behind Nadil and grabbed him. The boy immediately started trying to escape, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"No! I DIDN'T KILL HER! Dad! PLEASE! Please, DAD! You have to tell them!" Nadil's eyes were wide, like he was staring at someone who wasn't even there. His hands clawed the air, reaching out for help that wouldn't come. The person holding Nadil jerked back, dropping him on the ground. Nadil curled up, his wing wrapped around his body like a shield.
The first figure lowered their gun and removed their mask. Saji stared at them with wide eyes. They were a human woman, no older than thirty. The other figure dropped his mask revealing a human man who looked like he was in his late teens or early twenties.
    The man nudged Nadil with his foot. "Hey, knock it off would ya?"
    Nadil didn't move. Saji finally got over her initial shock and knelt next to Nadil. Even years later, she couldn't explain why she did it, but she started to whistle. As she softly whistled the song of saji sparrows, Nadil's shaking, stiff form started to relax. When his wing finally uncovered his body, she could see tears forming in his eyes. He sat up, and the woman raised her gun again.
Nadil's shoulders hunched up. He quietly said, "It was an accident. I'd never hurt Cere on purpose."
The woman kept her gun pointed at Nadil, but her finger left the trigger. "Fine. Talk."
"Thanks," Nadil's face twisted, "I don't know how much you guys already know."
"I don't know anything so maybe explain what the heck is happening?!" Saji demanded.
"Right, sorry." Nadil winced, "I- er, my friend- grick, I don't know how to explain this." He took a deep breath. "My best friend was a girl named Cere. She was amazing," Nadil's expression softened as he spoke, "it was like birds would just surround her. Especially saji sparrows, those were her favorite.
The human man glared at Nadil, "Yeah. So why'd you kill her?"
Nadil grit his teeth, "she asked me to go for a walk with her, said she wanted to tell me something. We were on a bridge when she told me..." he hesitated, "she came out as a lesbian. And I laughed and shoved her, but she lost her balance and..."
Saji pulled away from him, "why'd you do that?!"
Nadil buried his head in his hands, "I was going to tell her-" he took a shaky breath, "I wanted to tell her I was gay. I was gonna tell her that day but she beat me to it so I was joking around about that and- and then she fell. She'd told her sister she wanted to come out to me. Everybody thought I was into her or something and assumed got mad that she was gay."
The woman stared at him in shock, "are you serious?"
Nadil nodded, "I loved Cere, but not like that! I never wanted anything to happen to her, I swear, but even my own dad didn't believe me."
The woman finally lowered her gun, much to Saji's relief. "Okay," the woman said, "you mentioned your friend needed help? Why'd you come to us?"
Twenty minutes later, Saji and Nadil were standing in a room with six arguing humans.
"Why should we trust him?!"
"He left the syndicate and joined the GSA, that means something right?"
"He's still a murderer!"
"No he's not!"
"Either way, exposing any of us to the pathogen is too dangerous!"
Finally, the woman that had 'welcomed' them to the planet shouted, "Okay, knock it off!" Once everyone was staring at her she calmly said, "ever since we found out what the boss was helping those people do, we've been trying to stop them. For two years we've been working on this, and now someone needs our help. How well can you sleep at night knowing we could've saved this kid and chose not to help?" she folded her arms, "So I'm going. Even if it kills me."
Saji's eyes filled with tears, "thank you," she suddenly hugged the woman, "thank you so much.