The Green Vial

Release

I'm waiting for Di to point the gun at me and pull the trigger again, but she doesn't. Instead, she tucks it into her waistband at the small of her back. I don't want to look to my right, afraid of what I know I'll see.

"You see now, don't you?" Di says. She offers a hand to help me to my feet. "It won't ever stop. They will keep coming after you, no matter what you do."

I feel numb inside. I'm trying to find the words to say, but nothing comes to mind. I just stand, staring wide-eyed at Di.

"She was really one of them?"

Di nods slowly. I didn't need her confirmation to know. I could feel it, could feel her, in my head. She knew where I was because she was connected to me, just like everyone else. Which makes me think...

"How did you know I was here?"

Di taps a finger to her temple with a sly smirk. "It's all connected, remember?"

Something's not right though. There's something about her response that doesn't fit with this whole situation.

"Why couldn't I sense you then?"

She nods as if she was expecting the question. Of course she was expecting the question. She heard it before I asked it.

"I've been released," she says. "There's an antiserum to the hive mind, a yin to every yang. John had to make one. It was the only way he could be in control of the hive without succumbing to it himself. The antiserum allows one to break bonds with the hive at will. It allows the person to influence the hive, but it takes a strong presence of mind to influence and not succumb."

"So you can control the hive?" I say.

Di shakes her head. The look on her face tells me that she's tried before but failed.

"John is in control, the queen you might say. There can only be one queen bee. For another to take over, the original must be killed. I can influence individuals who are near me, but not the whole hive, like John."

Something's still not adding up. Something about Di. It suddenly comes to me.

"What about you?" I say. "Why can't I sense you? Right now, I don't feel you at all. Sometimes I can, but sometimes I can't."

"John made a serum," Di says, "something like a... a master serum. He couldn't just control the hive as he was, but ingesting the normal serum would have made him just like the rest. He needed a more potent formula that enhanced his mental capabilities. So he developed the master serum.

"Before I left, I took one of them. I knew too much, and he was going to make me just like the rest, so I took one. There was only one vial left. I don't know what happened to it. I snuck back into the lab a few days ago, and it wasn't there anymore. If only we had that vial."

She's staring off into space, looking for answers to all the questions she isn't asking. My mind is working through all the information she's just told me. I feel a tingle at the back of my neck. I can't put words to the feeling, but something about all of this feels familiar.

I walk over to the kitchen counter where my jacket is hanging on the back of a tall stool. I reach into the pocket and feel the familiar cool smoothness that I know is in there.

Walking back over to Di, my eyes shift momentarily to Ruby's body. It's strange, but it already seems like a distant memory. I'm a little troubled by the fact that I don't really miss her. I see things now that I didn't before. How manipulative she was. How she coerced me without me realizing it. It's amazing how one small truth can change your whole perception of someone.

I hold out my hand to Di, a small glass vial reflecting in the late afternoon sun. Her eyes grow as big as tennis balls.

"Where did you get this?" she asks, a wild craziness in her eyes.

"I..." I begin but freeze. "I don't know. It was just there."

A few moments later, though, the pieces somewhere connect.

"It wasn't a dream, was it?" I say aloud.

I look down at Ruby's body again. She knew. She knew at least some of it, whatever John wanted her to know. That's why she was in the apartment.

"Is this the serum?" I ask Di.

She nods her head. "That's it. It looks like you took some of it. Probably why you're having trouble. It isn't fully working, but it's working just enough to mess with your mind."

"So if I drink the rest of it, I'll be immune to John's control?"

She nods again.

I unstop the vial but then pause.

"What if we could replicate it?"

Di looks at me, head tilted.

"If we could find a way to make a bunch more, couldn't we just distribute it all over the city and fix everyone?"

Di shrugs. "We could, but think of how long that would take us to do, all the while being hunted by the entire hive mind."

I look at the vial. Suddenly, a memory floods into my head. It's hazy, like watching a TV through a fogged-up window. I'm in a room that looks like some kind of lab that I don't recognize. I see the vial in my hand, but it's full. I tip it up to my mouth, but before I can finish it, two men burst through the door. Then the memory fades.

I look at Di, and I already know what's going to happen. We have an instant conversation in our minds. I know there isn't enough time.

I put the vial to my lips and throw my head back. The green liquid comes out slowly, like honey. It doesn't taste like honey though. More like chemicals and road tar. I nearly gag as the stuff slides down my throat.

Then I wait.

Minutes pass by without anything happened. Then, it happened. If the headaches from before were like lightning strikes, this is a full-on thunderstorm. I fall to the floor, clenching my head in my hands. My vision goes completely white. I don't hear the screams coming out of my mouth, but I can feel my vocal cords shredding from the force.

Slowly, gradually, the pain fades, and the world returns to a new normal.