FULL OBLITERATION (Book #3)

𝕺𝖓𝖊

It never really ends. I mean, you'd like to think it will, but it never really does. It only begs the question what happens after 'the end'? The 'beginning of the end', right? Then, what comes after the 'beginning of the end'? Because when we made it to the checkpoint, I really thought the beginning of the end would be the end. So stupid of me to think like that. To have hope in a hopeless world.

Carmen's scream forces me to screw my eyes shut and hold my palms to my ears. She's a banshee and she's screaming in my head. All for Bray. He is turning. The darkening of his veins has reached his face now and he's having an uncontrollable seizure. The same one Samuel and Ms Mills had. And if I knew any better, this means we have about 13 seconds before he becomes a lurker. In the mess, we all grab a headset each to hear eachother.

"Restrain him!" Emmett hollers from the front of the pilot's seat. "Kyle, th' bag to yer left!"

1 second, 2 seconds, 3.

And it's like my dad knew exactly what he was talking about. Dad empties the contents of a black duffle bag, in search of something specific. He holds it up in the air like bingo when he locates it. Jace and Amber have an arm each of Bray's, pinning him down. Me and Carmen are holding his legs down. A white foam oozes out of Bray's mouth while he keeps convulsing violently.

4 seconds, 5 seconds, 6.

This is all my fault! I've put everyone in danger when I should've just... Should've just... I can't even bring myself to say it.

"Dad... Dad, h-he's turning," I choke on my words. "What do we do? I don't know what to do..."

"Zinedine!" my dad snaps me out of it. "Hold him still!"

7 seconds, 8 seconds, 9.

He rushes to us with a syringe with a button on top. Its vial is filled with some kind of purple liquid. Dad pulls up Bray's shirt and stabs the syringe into his chest, pressing the button down with his thumb. Bray frees his arm from Amber, growling as he tries to claw at Jace's face.

10 seconds, 11 seconds, 12.

He keeps growling and clawing and-

Pause.

Bray relaxes and drops his free arm down. The darkening of his veins fades a little lighter to a sickening mauveine colour but it doesn't go back to normal.

"What'd you give him?" Jace falls back, running a hand through his hair.

"A sedative," Dad breathes out, taking off his tactical fingerless gloves. "Specially engineered to slow down the virus but not eradicate it. They call it the 'Purple Haze'. He will be in a comatose state for several hours before turning again."

It never really ends.

"If it can slow the virus down," Carmen inputs, "why can't it eradicate it?"

"Because, sweetheart," Dad wipes the sweat off his forehead. "Your friend was still a human for those 13 seconds, which is why the sedative worked. It doesn't work to cure the virus but to slow it down, like chemotherapy in leukemia patients."

"So we can just keep giving him the, what's it called, the 'Purple Haze', right?" Jace speculates. "Just keep doping him up with that shit?"

"Like I said, it won't cure him," Dad tells them blatantly. "It'll only prolong the inevitable and it's a limited supply. Excuse me," and he makes his way to the cockpit to sit with Uncle Emmett.

"You can let go now, Dean," Amber says in a hushed voice.

"What?" I face her.

"You can let go," she nods at Bray's leg, putting a hand on my shoulder. "It's okay."

I look at my hands and realise I'm still pinning his leg down. I'm trembling a little and my grip is tense. Some part of me tells me if I let go, that one second will be up, and he'll turn. Sweat drips off my face, I can't let go, I can't let him turn.

"Dean," Amber squeezes my shoulder, "it's okay."

I lift my fingertips, testing the waters, then my fingers, and eventually both of my hands. Bray's as still as he can get, his chest rising up and down gently. I lean back on the aircraft, rubbing one of my wrists together. I think I might've sprained it.

Amber leans her head on my shoulder, telling me to, "get some sleep, Dean."

I can feel her drifting to slumber as if she meant those words for herself rather than to me. Through my somnolence and the steady route of the aircraft, I overhear Dad and Uncle Emmett chatting about how all this did was drag the situation on further, that Bray shouldn't be here with us.

"But it'll give us enough time," I mutter.

"'Enough time' for what, Dean?" Dad looks over his shoulder at me.

"To find a cure," I tell him blatantly. "What else?"

"There's no cure, Dean," he sighs like I'm just a child asking dumb questions.

"Maybe I should've just left him out there, Dad," I utter concisely. "But what if that was Mum? There has to be a cure," ...because if I can jump to another dimension... "anything is possible."

"Look, Son, once your friend gets out of that state," he points at Bray, "you know what we have to do. We didn't give you time to find a magical cure. We gave you time to say your last goodbyes to him. Something I should've had with your mother," and he glances away, holding back on the dread.

"Hey, mucker, we'll find a way," Uncle Emmett beams. "Dornt worry, laddie."

I'll try not to.

I put my head in my hands, pulling my knees up. Hope is nothing but placebos. Dad knows it, Uncle Emmett knows it, and the look on Jace's and Carmen's faces, they also know it. Amber, she's... She's snoring away. We need to find out how this whole thing started. And for that to happen, me and Carmen need to jump again. It's the only way to save Bray.

To save everyone.

To really end it.