take on me, e.williams

twenty one

—what would you do
for the people you love?—

———odessa was scared. she never usually admitted it, but right now, as she was strapped to a bed, she was scared. no one else was in the room. she was in a hospital gown, her hair taken out and brushed.

                 "hello? what the fuck is going on?" odessa called out, hopefully loud enough that someone would hear her. "seriously, what the fuck!" she yelled. a man in a white coat entered the room with a clipboard.

                   "hey there," the man said upon entering. "you're odessa, right?" he asked, wearing a friendly smile. odessa narrowed her eyes at him, then nodded.

"why am i here? what's going on? where's joel and ellie?" odessa asked the man.

"lots of questions." he chuckled to himself. "i'm jerry anderson, a doctor. your friends are perfectly safe."

                   "are you a fuckin' moron, too? you didn't answer any of my questions, doctor." odessa spoke bitterly, eyebrows furrowed at the man.

                    "you brought ellie here, so that we could make a cure to save us. we're going to perform a surgery on her to remove the cordyceps that was born in her and make a vaccine with it." jerry told her slowly.

                 "but cordyceps attacks the brain... so—"

                 "so that means we'd have to operate on her brain, and that would kill her." the anderson doctor told odessa sadly. "and quite unfortunately, we need someone to test the vaccine on..."

                   "and that's... that's me." odessa's voice came out small and thin. this was it. when she told ellie that she'd follow her anywhere, odessa never imagined she'd follow her to the grave. no goodbye to joel, or ellie. this was it.

                     "our plan would be to inject the vaccine into you, then inject the fungus into you and hope it prevents it." jerry explained the plan to odessa, she stared in shock.

                     "i-i didn't ask for this. does ellie even know that you're going to kill her? kill me?" odessa began to yell, tears welling in her eyes. "that's what's fucked up about all of this. you're risking so much to make a vaccine or-or a cure that you can't even promise will work! you will just keep finding more people like ellie and i and killing them!" odessa thrashed in her restraints. "and soon, you'll have no left. no one will want to help, no one will trust the fireflies. that name will taste bitter in the mouths of the people that fight for you. you will turn to nothing." odessa's breath came out in heaving puffs.

                   "my, you have a lot to say. you remind me of my own little girl, abby. though, she's not so little now." doctor anderson told her with a smile. odessa looked at him with rage in her eyes. "if you survive the vaccine, maybe you can meet her." jerry stood and went to a small table, picking a syringe up and filling it with a clear liquid.

                     "what is that?" odessa asked, panic seeping into her voice. "what the fuck is that?" she asked again.

                     "it's going to put you asleep, dear child. you'll feel just a prick." jerry told her with pure positivity.