Chapter 13

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Songs: My Blood by Twenty-Øne Piløts
Nightcrawling by Saint Raymond

Also, I want to apologize for the wait and apologize for this whole chapter in general. But I hope you enjoy. -walk

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Waves.

Everything came in soft crashes of ivory and seafoam.

One moment his life would be laid out before him like the ocean water spreading across the shore, soaking into the sand, memories etching their way into the earth.

Then the next moment it was gone, pulled away by the same sea of waves back into the ocean of his mind that refused to remember.

You're Tyler.

"I'm Tyler." He said to himself as he sat on the edge of a rooftop overlooking the sea. The name still didn't feel right on his tongue, but the man's voice was nagging at his memory. Like an old classmate you saw in the grocery store fifteen years later and you know that you knew them at one point in time but you just can't seem to place their face. Not until two in the morning and by then it doesn't even matter because then you can't recall their name.

"Tyler." Would the name ever feel right? Was it really his?

He squinted against the sun in the distance as it crawled it's way upward over the horizon. Perhaps in the end his name didn't really matter. Who he was didn't change the fact that Patterson would probably have them killed if they didn't find a cure.

An antidote, one that was impossible to obtain now with no doctor. There were other methods of course. Kidnapping, threats, warfare. These were all things he'd already contemplated thoroughly. Two of which they'd already tried, so the third option was all that was left. Neither his group or the other had much time left, but he wasn't going to sit there and let them find a cure and keep it for themselves.

"Hey, Boss."

He turned his head at the sound to find Max waiting at the ladder of the roof, gun draped over his shoulder.

"What is it?"

Max rubbed at the back of his neck nervously, "They uh, they spotted the other group dragging a live corpse inside last night. We think they're close to making the cure. Everyone's waiting on your orders."

He gave Max a firm nod and watched the sun rise a bit longer before he let his mind go blank once again. The cold crept into his skin and he gave the white tiger tattoo on his inner wrist one last glance before he pulled his sleeve down and pushed himself to his feet.

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Lui was playing with a strand of Murphy's hair as they sat in the otherwise empty waiting area just down the hall from the doctors' experiments that were echoing steadily off the walls as they worked.

It was all they'd done for days after Anthony came out of their office looking particularly giddy. They had a base for the antidote, but needed to test it on a subject to work out the finer details and reversion. If it could be done at all.

Langley was a pacer. She'd walked an entire circle around the halls, stopping only when Arlan would catch her hand and pull her down to rub his thumbs into her tense shoulders. Then he'd let her go to do it all over again.

Patience was hard to find, but they did their best when time after time Brock would come out with a small shake of his head.

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