Lions And Lifelines: Collapse

Chapter Four

'You want to what?' Erin thinks to me after I've finished explaining to the group what a Lion is doing alive in our camp.  Everyone has various expressions of outrage and confusion.

'He might be able to help with the Ashanti situation,' I explain.  Not a great reason; Ashanti might not even exist.

'What if Ashanti isn't real?' Lana asks.

'We kill him,' I reply icily. 

'Good; I thought you were going soft on us, Blaire,' Chelsea thinks with mock relief.  I smirk.

'The only thing soft about me is the bed I sleep on,' I think back.

'I thought you slept in the barracks most nights,' Chelsea responds.  The barracks are home to the guards on watch; they have the hardest beds in the facility to discourage sleeping on the job.

'Exactly.' I turn to the Lion and open my mind to him. 'We're ready to go when you are.' The Lion stretches and shakes out his pelt.

'About time.' I roll my eyes and we begin walking back to the facility. Once we exit the jungle, the weather becomes oppressively hot. The Lion seems happy enough, but the rest of us are burning up under the Sun's intense and relentless rays.

'Is Ashanti the only Lion with a name?' I think to the Lion, taking a sip of water. The Lion slows his pace slightly to match mine.

'No,' he replies, shaking out his mane.

'Do you have a name?' I ask.

'Rashidi; it means rightly guided.' I grin slightly.

'Your names mean something?'

'Yes.'

'What does Ashanti mean?' There's a long pause as he considers his answer.

'Warlike.'

'I take it that's not a coincidence,' I reply.

'Sadly, no.'  The rest of the walk goes by in silence, no thoughts pass between us.  Upon our approaching the gate, the watchmen raise their weapons to fire, but I quickly calm them.  They allow us access to the facility and escort Rashidi to the titanium holding pens, originally created for aggressive livestock.  I guess this isn't all that different.

I immediately go to the infirmary, carrying with me the ingredients found on our escapade. I hand them off to a technician with the instructions to create the cure and distribute it before trying to find Daniel and his family.

They're confined inside some of the sterilized plexiglass quarantine rooms. The quarantine rooms have their own separate ventilation units to prevent the spreading of airborne pathogens. I lightly tap on the glass of his cell to catch his attention. He grins when he sees me and walks from his cot to the speaker on the wall.

"The lab techs have the ingredients and are currently working on the treatment," I inform him.

"Thank you."

"Have you started showing symptoms?" I follow up. He nods.

"Slight fever, easily acquiring bruises, and eye discoloration," he reports. Good, the disease is still in its early stages.

"How's your sister?" I ask.

"Not great. Suva's lungs are developing legions and she's had some seizures within the last four hours. Three minor tremors and one major attack that left her unconscious until fifteen minutes ago."

"She doesn't have much longer," I say quietly. I turn around as a lab tech comes into the room with a needle full of gold fluid. She has a sterile mask covering her face and gloves covering her hands.

"Miss Blaire, I must ask you to vacate the premises. We don't want to risk the spread of the disease." I nod.

"Has the girl been treated yet?" I ask before leaving.

"We're doing all we can for her. She has received the treatment, but her chances of surviving are...unlikely. Her immune system isn't strong enough to hold off a disease like this; it's a miracle she's made it this long. That being said, it doesn't hurt to hope." Her words preach hope, but her eyes say otherwise. I nod, mostly for Daniel's sake (he can't see that her face betrays her words) and leave, closing the steel door behind me.

I walk across the base to the holding pens where Rashidi is. His massive body is sprawled out, taking up almost three fourths of the cell's capacity. He lifts his head when he hears me approach. 'I wondered when you would come,' he thinks to me. I grin slightly.

'Not if I would come at all?' He exhales.

'No. You are too meticulous; you wouldn't allow me to be unattended by you for long.'

'How do you know what I would and wouldn't allow?' I think back.

'Educated inference.' I smirk and run my eyes across the pen. Straw covers the dirt floor, there is a metal water trough on one wall and a separate food trough next to it. The titanium walls of the pen reach to the ceiling; light enters through the bars of the gate.

'Are you finding your accommodations hospitable enough?' I ask.

'Indeed. I do have one question.'

'And that is?'

'How will I be getting my meals?'

'Either I or someone I ask will bring you fresh meat once a day.'

'I take it the one you ask will be a Protector?' I nod. Rashidi stands and arches his back, stretching his powerful body, before approaching the gate. 'You humans are so tiny,' he thinks to me.

'Excuse me?'

'Most of you, anyway. I find it hard to believe that humans once ruled the earth.'

'We still rule the earth.' His mind emits a hearty laugh and he shakes out his mane.

'That is no longer the case.'

'As far as you're concerned.'

'Look around you, Blaire. If humans still ruled the earth, would you be living like this? Lions have taken over.'

'Isn't that what you want?'

'It's what I should want.'

'Then why are you here helping us as you have claimed?' I ask, disdain tainting my thoughts.

'If Ashanti succeeds in exterminating the humans, she will attempt to dictate the entire Lion species. And she will succeed.'

'Then why don't you kill her?'

'That is out of the question. If I did that, I would be hunted for the rest of my life. And it wouldn't help you; she has the majority of the Lions on her side. Once they found and killed me, they would continue her mission to destroy you. The only way to combat her is to devise a plan and hold her off as long as we can. When we destroy her, we must destroy everything, like an infection. To properly eliminate the threat, you must remove everything.'

'What do you know about war?' I ask. 'It isn't always as simple as that.'

'But it is,' he retorts. 'You devise a plan and carry it out. You do everything possible to succeed, but sometimes you lose. If you are motivated enough, you will not lose. You cannot lose this.' I dig my nails, which have sharpened into claws, into my palms. This action draws blood, which I wipe onto the bandana in my back pocket. 'I have come to help you--'

"Then help us," I growl aloud, the only audible portion of our conversation so far. I inhale deeply and exhale slowly. 'You have one week to be of some use,' I think to Rashidi.

'And if I'm not?'

'I'll kill you.' I turn on my heel and walk away.