Lunar Virus ✔️

Chapter Thirty-five: Elie

I stare hard at the object in front of me, as if the harder I stare, the more it will come to make sense to me.

It doesn't help.

The ground looks as if it's been peeled back haphazardly around a hulking black mass in the center. It exudes a kind of aura that makes me want to go numb yet pulls me in, all at the same time. I slide my hands into the pockets of my jeans, feeling the warmth of my legs through the fabric, and will myself not to do anything rash.

Elodie waves Jayne, Dev, and Sheila over without looking back, half paralyzed with fascination. I would be lying if I said that I'm not just as fascinated. Leaving Elodie where she stands, I take a step forward and feel a rewarding boost of adrenaline course through my system.

I take another step and feel my heart begin to thump in my chest. The force of my heartbeat pushes erratically in my fingertips and drums into my head like a racehorse tailing another just a few feet before the finish line.

It doesn't occur to me that the exhilaration I'm feeling might not be mine.

It doesn't occur to me until I'm right in front of the Hyst, and I feel the overwhelming urge to, in the words of Quentin, let go.

His last words to me, if I can remember correctly, were, "You can let go when you find it."

Well, I found it.

But what did he mean?

"Don't touch it!"

My hand is suddenly yanked backward with the force of two gorillas on steroids. I hiss in complaint, "I wasn't going to touch it!" I carefully try to massage some life back into my wrist.

"Well," Elodie narrows her eyes slightly, "Your finger was two centimeters away from it."

I shrug and turn back to face the object, which in some way seems to be alive. The black, boulder-like lump in the center is perforated with hundreds of tiny holes. Big chunks of the rock are evidently missing, and yet, the boulder is almost twice my size, reaching almost to the ceiling of the tunnel. A white streak runs down the belly and sides of the rock, looking partially like melted wax.

Elodie interrupts my thoughts, muttering, "It's a hard water stain."

Most of the surface area of the rock is engulfed in the sediment that water had left behind when it dried. Water still drips steadily downwards on the rock, following the grain of the water stains.

Sheila hums contemplatively, inspecting the rock with laser sharp eyes. "Where do you think this water feeds into?" she gestures to the stream of water flowing around our feet, "Is it drinking water?"

Moby raises his eyebrows and quirks his mouth sideways, as if impressed. "Are you saying that the virus was spread through the water?"

With an uncertain grunt, she lifts her shoulders, "Even if it does have a hand in spreading the virus, this water can't go too far. It would cover just this area. How would it have spread to other regions? Are there more of these Hyst things?" She tugs at her hair agitatedly as question after question spills out. "Are there any factors, other than stress, that can activate this virus that's been dormant in half our population?"

The downpour of questions continue, and I tune myself out, instead focusing on the boulder. I have no doubt that it's what carried the virus into Earth safely, which means that the material was built to withstand the heat of the collision of Earth into the planet Theia. The more I speculate, the more I begin to wonder--what does it feel like?

What are you waiting for? Let go! Touch it already!

Quentin's presence pushes its way back into my mind, but I find it more disconcerting than relieving. He'd been absent for so long, so why is he here now?