Page 70 of Say You'll Stay

“Actually, you might be able to help,” Carlton replies, shoving his glasses further up his face and straightening his lab coat as his boss shoots him a glance across the room. “You see, what we’re missing here is the ability to produce antibodies that fight the virus.”

“Yeah, well, we don’t have those either.”

Grant rudely cuts in with even more confusing information. “In all our research, we’ve seen glimpses, moments here and there that might indicate the host isn’t entirely gone when they’re gone.”

Carlton winces. “Not exactly. Not for sure. There’s still more testing to be done.”

“But it’s possible.”

“It’s possible. We’re still trying.”

Olivia raises a brow at this disagreement, bouncing Lucy, who’s begun to fuss. “Still not sure what this has to do with us.”

She regrets asking as Carlton finally clarifies why they’ve been getting the royal treatment. Nothing comes without a price.

“The first generation exposed to the virus has developed no antibodies. There have been no survivors, but second-generation children born to parents who are carriers, and we all are, may have developed them in the womb. The world spiraled out of control before anyone was able to test that in acontrolled setting.”

There’s a beat of silence where they pause to process that information. What he’s implying can’t be true.

The next thing she knows Cole’s urging her toward the door. “No. We aren’t interested. We’re leaving. Pack our shit and be on our way.”

“We hoped you’d see the value of what we’re doing here. That you’d willingly participate. My own wife has been afflicted, and it’s my hope that the testing done here may save her life. We aren’t monsters. No harm will come to your child. It’s a simple blood draw and the benefits far outweigh any discomfort. There is so much we can provide in return. Safety. Food. A normal life again.”

It’s simple until it’s not, she thinks, as they block the exit and she holds Lucy closer. Until they need more and more and her baby turns into a lab rat. She isn’t willing to risk it, doesn’t care how many lives could be saved, and doesn’t even want to satisfy her own curiosity in regard to Lucy’s possible immunity. All she cares about her is daughter’s safety and this situation is absolutely not safe.

Maybe it’s selfish and she should jump at the chance to help humanity, but this baby, Cole, this little family they’ve made is all she has left and any threat is unacceptable.

“Afflicted?” Cole counters. “You mean gone? Dead?”

“You should watch your tone,” Grant replies, but Cole’s unbothered and already agitated enough to keep plowing ahead.

“Use one of the children in your own community for your projects,” he growls, already doing his best to herd her toward another part of the room as if that’ll keep them safe when there’s no exit except the one they can’t reach.

“That’s just it. We don’t have any children here born after the virus hit,” Carlton replies, far more regretful than his boss could hope to fake.

Cole curls a hand around his knife handle, unsheathing it. “You touch my daughter, and the last thing you’ll be worried about is this virus.”

In another reality, she’d be overcome with emotion hearing him call Lucy his daughter, but at the moment, she’s too preoccupied with how they’ll get out of this.

Carlton cowers easily, but Grant came to win, pointing a handgun at Cole’s forehead. Now she knows why they didn’t bother making them leave their knives in the room.

“We hoped you’d be on board, but we don’t need your cooperation.”

The gunshot rings in her ears, stunning her as the bullet shatters the cinder block beside her head and she watches Cole drop like a rock.

Although Lucy must be screaming, she can’t hear anything other than the dull throb inside her skull as she slides down the wall, holding her baby tight. She thinks him dead for a moment, feels herself screaming too, but the silence is all-encompassing and unwavering, as her eardrums struggle to recover from the shock.

There’s no blood. If he was shot in the head, there would be blood.

Frantically, she grabs Cole’s arm to keep him from being dragged away, but it’s no use. She’s not strong enough and he’s far too heavy.

Stunned momentarily by the close gunshot, he quickly recovers. Soon he’s fighting his captors, knocking someone’s kneecap sideways, before a needle is shoved into his thigh.

Slowly, sound begins to filter back in.

Lucy’s sobbing, shrill and panicked.

Cole’s desperate curses as he’s pulled out the door and around the corner, his nails digging into the frame before being ripped away.

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