Playlist for the Apocalypse

Chapter 28: Dream On

EVELYN

Evelyn woke drenched in sweat. The blanket tangled around her legs was suddenly suffocating and she tore the sheets off the bed in a wild panic. She could still feel the cold metal of the gun in her hands as her trembling fingers pulled the trigger and Adam's body hit the floor. The disturbing sound of the bullet entering his chest cavity seemed to reverberate around her skull even now, splitting her ear drums. No matter how she covered her ears, she couldn't seem to block it out. The pain of it was as if the bullet was burying itself into her own body. This was not the first time she'd had this dream, and she knew it wouldn't be the last. This guilt would haunt her for as long as she lived.

Knowing she wouldn't be able to fall back to sleep, she swung her legs off the bed and sat up. Closing her eyes, she focused on taming her breath. This was the only time she was grateful for the walls around her because they protected her from the predatory gazes of the soulless.

It had been two days since they'd trapped her here. With the itchy fabric of the bag they'd placed over her head, she hadn't gotten a clear view of where she'd been taken. All she knew was that when she'd been roughly shoved out of the truck, she'd been marched down enough long corridors and flights of stairs that she'd lost count. The room she was kept in was comfortably furnished but it still reminded Evelyn too much of the grey cell she'd been locked in by the Serenity Society; another thing she tried not to think about. She wondered if Jonathan was being held in a similar room, but even if she could break out of her own cell and find him, she didn't know what she could do for him. At the thought of him, emotions threatened to wash over her, and she rubbed at her stubborn eyes, refusing to let tears fall. She knew she had been through more in the last few weeks than she had even begun to process. She wasn't sure she was ready to try.

With her breathing calmed, Evelyn stood and padded over to the small window. It overlooked a slumbering rose garden and a sprawling collection of buildings. The garden was beautiful in a haunting, abandoned sort of way. It's trellises and planter boxes were filled with overgrown moss and patches of browning plant matter that spilled out onto the sidewalk. She was sure the gardens had once been stunningly manicured, but two years of no maintenance had allowed the foliage to grow wild. As she took in the sight of it, her thoughts wandered back to Jonathan and that little scar above his knuckle. She'd asked about it, that night back in the Skytrain station. She'd assumed it was from a blackberry bush, while he'd been out gathering food. He'd laughed in that shy way he did that made her chest ache, saying that he wasn't that practical, and he'd been planting some roses he'd salvaged from a suburban home. He'd dodged the question when she asked him why he'd planted them at all, joking that he regretted it wholly because getting nicked by the thorn hurt more than when they'd given him the tattoo. She'd decided that night that it was one of her favourite parts of him. Her heart felt heavy at that thought and she glanced up at the large anatomical heart drawn on the wall in red spray paint and buried the feelings with anger. It was the same one that had adorned Liz's jeep, but that design had been missing one crucial detail; at the center of the heart, the words "NeuroGen Corp." appeared in block lettering.

These were the people who had killed her parents. These were the people who had taken her sister from her and turned her into someone she barely recognized. These were the people who had set her and Jonathan up. These were the people who now had Jonathan off somewhere, doing God knows what to him. Evelyn could feel the anger bubbling within her. She needed a plan.

Evelyn was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she almost didn't hear the knock at the door. The last Evelyn had seen of her sister was that half hidden look of alarm on her face as she appeared on the scene in her hazmat suit. Now, through the tiny rectangle of glass embedded in the door, Liz looked miserable. Her dark hair was stringy and there were deep creases under her eyes like she hadn't slept since they'd arrived at the lab. She'd changed out of her hazmat suit into a lab coat emblazoned with the name "NeuroGen Corp." on the left side; the sight of it stoked the flames of Evelyn's rage.