When the rains may come (Science Fiction)

29. The Last Trimester (part 1)

Week seven.

Erik noticed the bird cranium hanging by the chain around Cathy's neck. It was the first time he was seeing it.

"Is that the latest fashion?" he asked.

Cathy scoffed. "Barely," she said. She blushed a bit. "It's a...memento."

Erik raised an eyebrow. "Of what, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Something that happened a long time ago," she said quietly. "I used to call him Milo. He was this cute little blue breasted weaver my mom bought me from a pet shop when I was three years old. He died when I was seven. Dad and I buried him in our backyard." She gently touched the skull pendant as they kept jogging. "I found the skull in my backpack and I didn't even know I had it. For some reason out of all my memories, Milo's funeral is the only one I remember so clearly."

Erik listened carefully and patiently before asking, "Cathy, does Milo talk to you?"

Cathy perked up. "How do you know? D-Do you have a memento too?"

Erik sighed. "Not exactly. But, the recurring hallucinations are a side effect of the EpiFreeze." He said. "It can be dreams, nightmares, voices or brief visions of something."

"Is the EpiFreeze turning me crazy?" She said with a worried frown.

"I know it may seem like it, but no." He said. "It's just protecting you. The virus is a neuro-parasite. Which means it gets into your nervous system to attack your brain. To battle it, the EpiFreeze also has to affect the brain. From what I know, certain parts of your brain get sensitive when the vaccine is fighting off the epicytes."

"That causes hallucinations?"

"Pretty much." He shrugged. "Since you are hearing a voice, there's a chance that your auditory cortex was affected by the vaccine in some way that is causing you to hear Milo talk."

"But why Milo specifically?" she said.

Erik shrugged. "Unfortunately, there's no way for me to tell," she said.

Cathy went quiet.

Erik frowned in concern. "You're not going crazy, Cathy." He gently nudged her shoulder. "I know that's what it feels like. But think of what you've been through. You are bound to come away with a few scars, don't you think?"

She nodded.

They arrived in the industrial zone after another twenty minutes of jog. Cathy hadn't spoken the entire way after their conversation. There was a distant look in her eyes. And her jaw was clenched.

When the two of them came to a halt in their usual warehouse. Cathy said, "We're done today aren't we?" she said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" he said.

"You were gonna teach me hand-to-hand combat from week seven." she said.

He nodded. "Right."

Cathy unzipped her jacket, revealing an oversized t-shirt that she wore underneath. She looked like a middle grader. Then she knotted the hem of her shirt tightly around her waist. That's when Erik noticed the muscles that were popping out from under her clothes. The lean, wiry strength in her biceps. The veins on her forearms. And the cuts on her lower waist.

Erik was amused. "It's day one of your combat training, you know?" he said. "You wanna spar on your day one?"

She shrugged. "I wanna see how strong I've gotten."

"So you don't even want me to teach you any basics?" he asked.

"I just wanna see how well I perform with what I know so far."