I AM THE RAGING ROAD

Chp 32

Louis Christopher Louis stared at the motionless body of his sister. Her arms connected to tubes, tubes connected to machines. She looked to be anything but alive, only her soft, hushed breathing indicating there was any life left behind her closed eyelids.
Louis sat beside her bed, holding a lock of her grey hair in his gloved hands. Even through his glove, he could feel her decay through the hair. Her hairs were thin and brittle, feeling more like thin straws rather than smooth locks.
Only with gloves can he stand to make contact with any part of her while she slept. He thought her too precious to be touched by his infected, sickly hands.
The only tool keeping him tethered to his true self, and not that of the rotting fingers in his pocket, was the silky texture of Rosaria's hair.

"... I may not get to see you again after this next stunt. I know I say cryptic stuff like that a lot-lot, but uh...
It's getting harder to stay in control. You know how this works. I've been exploiting my illness to the fullest lately, and though I'm more than impressed with how far I can push it, there's a problem."

Louis looked at Rosaria's fingers. Her index fingers had heartbeat sensors clasped over them. The small screens on their exterior showed her heart's pulses were irregular, and palpitative, and yet they kept on with their fumbling gait.

"Ironic I mention it. Seems like we both could use a doctor's attention. You see, I've been 'on the road', if you will, for a while now. About 6 months, to be precise. It's been a tough bout of fighting and coordination, but...
We're in the final stages. I finally cornered Wang. I got to em. Seriously! I was able to make it to Beijing, in China, and speak to their board. Big issue is, they weren't all that receptive, hmm?
I had to push with this illness again and again, and though they weren't too difficult to deal with, Pantera's hand... It's made me sick. The more I hold onto it, the worse the Rot gets. It's manageable on most days, but ever since I approached the second objective myself in Florida... I've been slipping away.
I can only rip off my own skin so many times until I start to feel it after the fact, hehe. And when I found the girl, with the machine we need, I found that she has a friend. A friend much like me.
Much like you."

Louis turned his hands over to look upon the back of their mutilated, deformed shape.

"I thought I only needed that ReCalibrator machine to fix you, and me, and the people of our world... But I'm being seduced. I have found it hard to justify myself in my actions, lately. It's become harder and harder to resist Pantera's urges, to let go of his personality.

The man was a zealot on the inside. This fact is coming out of me in ways I can't understand.
I know that Wang is going to betray me. I know that they're sending their chrome dome slaves to get the ReCalibrator."

Louis looked out into the hospital hallway. His servicemen were waiting outside the glass walls of the room.

"I might just let the girl have it.
If she knows how to use it, and is still more innocent than I... She will know to use it for the right reason when she gets to the Moon. I intend to let her do that, yknow. Get off the planet, I mean. One last flight.
This Raquel Geralds girl, she's Ronny's missing girl. What I know about her is that she thinks her parents may have been good people, and that she owes it to them to get a better life. She may not admit that, but it doesn't matter. I can hear it in her voice.

It sounds a lot like mine."