Fanning the Flames of Rebellion [A Lunar Chronicles Fanfic]

Chapter 43

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After everyone fell soundly asleep in their small beds, Cinder stepped outside the cottage.

It seemed the entire country had fallen into a deep slumber. The air was cool, fake, but cool, and quiet. Cinder took a seat on a large rock that sat outside the cottage. It was covered in moss, dirt, and some kind of weed. Oddly, the rock reminded her of the Buddha statues outside the Imperial palace back in New Beijing.

Cinder felt a deep pang in her stomach. She hadn't realized how much she missed New Beijing. Her small, cramped bedroom with the constant smell of grease, metal, and lilacs. Even her booth at the market. Where she and Iko walked to everyday just to be teased, humiliated, and cheated. But she realized that wasn't the real reason why she missed that place.

It was Peony.

Cinder would've given anything to have her back. She would've given anything for her to still be alive--even if that meant taking her own life. Just one more day. One more hour. One more minute. One more second, so Cinder could tell her she loved her.

Cinder sighed, clearing her head. Peony was dead, gone, just another number on the Letumosis casualty list. There was nothing she could do about it.

Cinder instinctively reached down to scratch her left wrist, between flesh and metal. She looked down, and her heart stopped.

The spots were all too familiar. The ones on Peony's neck and arms. On Chang Sacha's.

Deep, indigo spots crept up the lower half of her arm. Cinder checked her other arm. The same thing.

It was impossible. Dr. Erland told her that she was immune to the virus. Cinder looked at her arms again, making sure she wasn't just imagining things. But they were still there.

Panic washed over Cinder and she shot up from the rock.

"No, no, please, no." she whispered, pleading to no one in particular. "Oh, stars, please, no."

Cinder began to think that she was just dreaming. Imagining this sick, twisted nightmare.

But, no.

It was all too real. That's what scared her. Instantly, Cinder remembered the news she'd received hours before. About the mutated plague. The outbreak.

She wanted to scream, cry, break someone's neck. Cinder could have infected everyone she'd come in contact with. Kai, Thorne, Cress, Wolf, Winter.

Something clicked in Cinder's brain.

Before being "fixed up" in the Tunnels, she remembered being injected with a deep purple liquid.

"Oh, my stars. They gave it to me." Cinder whispered, "Those sons of bitches gave me the plague."

She felt a cough come on. As she coughed into her arm, she saw a dark red substance wet her arm.

Blood.

The stages seemed to be coming one after another, faster than ever. Cinder knew she didn't have much time.

Without saying goodbye, Cinder ran, leaving behind her crew. Though she didn't know where to go.

But the forest reeled her in, whispering words of security. The trees parted for her, pulling her in. She cried out as Cinder thought she saw faces of violent, malevolent people on the bark, but maybe she was just imagining that. Cinder also thought she heard the voices of several men behind her, but maybe she was just imagining that, too.