The Ascent

Chapter 49

"Are you sure that you are okay?" Asher asked mere moments later, shifting constantly from side to side, more jittery than Jasmine had seen him since she met him.

"I'm sure," Jasmine said confidently, putting her hand on his and squeezing gently, the simple contact helping her warm up after the cold ordeal she had been through. "I'm not trying to downplay anything, I promise. I'm really feeling healthier than ever."

"And your wound?" Asher asked, his eyes lingering on the injured leg, his face twisted with too many emotions fighting to break through.

"I don't feel anything at all," Jasmine realized, her eyes going wide once the full force of the realization hit her. "It's like I was never even shot in the first place."

It was the strangest feeling ever. Jasmine felt like she was still dreaming, but this time, it was a far more pleasant dream than the nightmare she had been through.

Her words got Melissa's attention, and she turned back to Jasmine from the equipment she was cleaning and throwing away single-use items. Her eyes scanned the healthy glow of Jasmine's face carefully.

"May I?" she asked, approaching the leg they seemed to be talking about.

"Sure," Jasmine said, looking sadly at the empty space where once was the awesome pantleg.

The bandage on the leg was a bit dirty from all the trekking through the forest, but it still looked almost the same as when the soldier guy put it on. There were no visible traces of blood one would expect with such a wound, especially after the physical exertion Jasmine had been through.

Melissa carefully removed the bandage, and they stared at the leg without blinking. It was as if even Melissa's scientist mind couldn't cope with what stood before them. Not even after months of dealing with alien parasites could her mind comprehend the impossibility of it all.

"How..." Asher started to say but stopped, rubbing his eyes, and then tried again. "What... How is that even possible?"

Jasmine shared his disbelief even though she did wonder about the fact that she didn't feel nearly enough pain for someone who got shot, and during their laborious walk, her pain was decreasing instead of the opposite even though she did feel some stiffness and had to rely on Isaac's help.

"Just as I thought," Melissa said enigmatically, tapping her forehead while her eyes stared into the distance.

"What is it?" Asher asked, looking like a lost little puppy, utterly confused.

"My research suggests that this parasite is a symbiotic organism," Melissa said, her features relaxing when she reached the familiar field of science talk. "It seems that it needs its host to be in just the perfect physical condition to survive."

"So, the parasite healed my wound to ensure its optimal life or something?" Jasmine asked, feeling a weird mixture of emotions she couldn't even begin to sort out.

It was like a bunch of nodes knitted closely together, and she couldn't really figure out how to untie them. How to allow herself to feel whatever she needed to feel to heal.

"Precisely," Melissa said, her eyes lightening up in excitement. "It's really fascinating. We've had some similar cases before, but we have never had anything as impressive as this. I wonder what its regenerative capabilities are. This is such an amazing breakthrough! I wonder if they can also cure diseases or if it's limited to physical injuries only. Wouldn't it be just fantastic if they could cure all the incurable diseases like cancer or get rid of a patient's dementia? The possibilities are endless!"

The excitement radiating from Melissa was somehow unnerving. Maybe it was because the way Jasmine and her felt about that thing was completely opposite. But then again, Melissa didn't have that thing in her head trying to take over. Melissa didn't know how it was to feel terrified and helpless. More importantly, she didn't know what kind of world those aliens left behind them and how terrifying the Earth's future could be.

One part of Jasmine's mind, the angry one, wanted nothing more than to show the smiling woman what her precious parasite did to her and how it made her feel. To know how it was to almost lose oneself to a being rudely invading your body and finding you disposable. Still, Jasmine managed to control her instincts. She did so because she hoped real life was like a movie and Melissa's karma would catch up with her when the time was right.

"Not to be the buzzkill, but when did you first learn about the aliens? How long did you know? Has the government been lying to us for years or something?" Asher asked, looking around suspiciously, noting how Plague's body stiffened upon hearing the questions. It was clear they wouldn't like the answers, but having more information about their situation sounded like a good idea. You had to know your enemy very well to beat it.

"As I told your friend, we didn't know about the alien part. I'm not even sure if the government knew that or at least the employees I had contact with. Maybe the those in charge knew something or at least suspected it. I'm not sure," Melissa said in a hurry, her voice cracking. "The parasite was first discovered a few years back in marine life. It was causing odd changes in their behavioral patterns, so the government called in marine life experts, one of them being my friend Catelyn."

"Wait a minute. What kind of changes are we talking about?" Asher asked upon noticing Melissa was trying to gloss over that part, his voice breaking slightly.

"One example I remember her telling me about was the orcas performed an organized attack on a human vessel until they sank it," Melissa said with a sigh of resignation. "Shark attacks also became more common, which was highly unusual. And even dolphins started acting abnormally."

"Doesn't that happen occasionally?" Jasmine asked, wanting to check she understood things clearly. "Marine animals sometimes attack humans, and there are some unusual animal behaviors due to hormonal imbalance or something like that."

"Yes, but those attacks are mostly misunderstandings, accidents. These types of planned attacks had never happened before. And hormonal imbalances can be easily identified. As for the attacks, they had the government taking wild guesses about illegal experiments by other governments, hypnosis, and whatnot. There were even talks of the animals being sent by our enemies to carry out an assult on us or something," Melissa said, shaking her head at the general paranoia she had had to deal with.

"What happened next?" Asher asked, looking at Melissa carefully, seeing there was more to the story than she was willing to share.

"After a while, we started finding the parasites in land animals and finally humans," Melissa admitted hesitantly. "The government hired a panel of scientists, myself included, but in the beginning, all we could tell them was how unfamiliar it all was, that it didn't have any of the regular components one would expect, and some of them we couldn't even identify."

"How did people react to the parasite?" Jasmine asked, remembering how she had wanted to follow that sound as if it were a home beacon, and it occurred to her that could have been what it was.

Maybe it was a signal that led them to their home or hive or whatever they had in the first place. It was an intriguing theory bouncing around Jasmine's head, but still, the theory was all it was. Still, she filed it as meaningful in her mind, as something to ponder later on, something that could potentially be useful.

"Strange behavior, talking gibberish, the sudden urge to go into a particular place near the ocean and just stare at the ocean when there was nothing there," Melissa started numbering all the different symptoms she had encountered. "Some became violent after some time while headaches, nose bleeds, disorientation and disbalance were common in all of them."

Of all the symptoms she pointed out, staring at the ocean was the strangest. Why the ocean?

Did they really go there to stare into the nothingness, or was something there?

Something calling out to them.

Their hive?