Virus

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

174 Days

21st January 2022

Someone stirring awoke me from my brief sleep. I kept me eyes closed and allowed the surprisingly hot sun warm my bareback. A soft hand touched my face lightly, sweeping my mess of curls away from my face.

“Nat, we have to go. We have to meet Xavier’s friend in an hour.” Alex whispered. I lazily opened my eyes to look up his newly sun kissed skin; I glanced past him at the magnificent view of the ocean and sighed.

“Can’t we just stay here? It’s a perfect place to die, instead of growing old together, we can just die young together. It’ll be romantic like Romeo and Juliet or something.” I moaned. Alex grabbed my face roughly in his hand and jerked it up so my eyes met his furious green orbs.

“Don’t. You. Dare. We will find the cure, and we will die together but not until we are old and grey. Do you understand me?” I nodded vigorously and staggered out of bed, frightened by his sudden roughness; it was moments like this that I could see little pieces of his brother in him, the way the anger seemed to consume him like I did his brother made my heart clench in fear. Alex’s face automatically softened when he saw my expression and embraced me tightly, “I’m sorry.” He whispered as he held me. “Please don’t give up on this.” We both felt the pressure as the days flew by, more than half our time had disappeared and so few days stood between us and death.

* * *

Frustrated, I sat on a bench outside the tall office block in downtown San Diego waiting for Alex to return from the meeting which I wasn’t allowed to go to. The insomnia only started five days ago but I already feel like the walking dead; the lack of sleep doesn’t affect Alex as much, he's use to the long sleepless hours but, like me his tired eyes made the contact lenses dry up and fall out of our eyes. I lifted my sunglasses to rub my bruised eyes, thinking about the nice comfortable apartment we had just left, staying in one of Xavier’s many apartment has been nothing short of paradise.

We had been staying there ever since we left San Francisco because we can’t risk crossing state borders for a while, and I wish we could just stay here, forget our problems and stop chasing this second source that may not even exist. Most of the days had been filled with waiting, leads that just lead to dead ends and more waiting, luckily we found ways to fill the long days. We did normal things that normal people did like going to the beach and sight seeing, Alex even took me to the pier for a second date, I almost felt like a regular person again.

I was so caught up in my thoughts; it took a while to notice someone’s gaze on my face. I looked up to see a man in a plain black suit with a peculiar expression and his gaze fixed on my face. Even when my eyes met his, he didn’t avert his wide eyes, I stared back at him scrutinizing his expression. At the first I thought it was recognition but I was wrong. It was triumph.  I stood up to confront him but as I took a step towards the man he hurried down the road away from me, and darted into an alley. I stood there shocked at what had just happened, why did he run away? Did he know who I was?

The sight of Alex jogging out the building with a massive smile on his face pulled me out of my panic.

“Does he know where it is?” I asked feeling hope bubbling up inside of me.

“No.” Alex replied, I exhaled as the hope slowly deflated at the news, “But Xavier did him a favor a while back so he set up a meeting with this other chap. He will know where it is.”

“How can you know for sure?” I asked, not feeling reassured. “You’ve said that about the last five guys.”

“He is one the most powerful and resourceful people in the US. If it exists, he’ll know about it.” I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, he found the first source of cure, he could be right again. “Put your sunglasses back on before someone recognizes us.” He said. I perched my sunglasses on my nose to cover my exhausted eyes and forgot all about my encounter with the strange man.