Isaura (19 page)

I took a tentative step forward, held my breath and the
clatter of feet against the tiled floor knew she must have heard me. I held my
breath, but it didn't matter. Isaura spun around and was in front of me within
an instant.  I reached my hand forward to plunge the dagger into her chest but
she'd caught my wrist before I'd pushed it in. I'd barely scraped her. I felt
the blade at her chest but she had a tight hold and I was in trouble.

“Little girl!” She narrowed her eyes at me, the recognition
of who I was dawning on her. “Olivia,” Isaura snarled and hissed, her nails
digging further into my hand until they left unpredictable burn marks on my
skin. Forced to drop the blade it clattered to the floor, the sound echoing through
the entire room.

“Let me go!” I demanded, pushing away, my back pressed up
against the door. If I were a coward I'd have run. Maybe I could have gotten as
far as the hallway but no, I wasn't going anywhere. Janessa was on the bed and
Joshua was in the vent just above us. I was not alone and wasn't going to live
my life in fear of Isaura.

Isaura laughed and bent down to retrieve the blade sitting
at her feet. “Did you think I wouldn't notice?” She fingered the dagger from
one hand to the other, deciding to keep it in her right while she touched the
tip of the blade, piercing her index finger of her left hand. She gave a slight
grimace. Had she thought she was impenetrable? “You're a fool,” she warned me
shaking her head, her back to Janessa who slowly sat up, grabbing the wire and
reaching forward wrapping it around Isaura's throat, cutting off her air
supply.

Joshua leapt down from the ceiling, helping Janessa as
Isaura thrashed violently to get away, the blade cutting at Janessa's arms.

I wasted no time, finding a syringe and filling it with air.
Maybe I couldn't get her vein on the first try but I'd sure as hell try. With
her right arm thrashing the blade now at Joshua, I jammed the needle in the
crevice of her arm where Elsa had once taken blood from me. I forced the
syringe in and pushed the air into her body. Unsure if it would kill her or do
anything at all she screamed and ripped the needle out. Her hand now on me,
gripped my hair, pulling me closer, the dagger forgotten.

“I'll kill her!” Isaura shouted as her arm wrapped around my
throat, gripping me as a hostage.

“No, you won't,” I gagged. “Even if you do, they'll kill
you.” We had come to end this with Isaura. “You're not getting out of here
alive.” I caught sight of the bracelet on her left wrist and my hand reached
for it, pulling it off, tossing it to the floor. I wasn't taking any chances
that she'd try and send us back to 2225. I wouldn't go there with her, not
again.

“You stupid girl,” Isaura chided me, her eyes narrowed
seeing her only escape as that bracelet. She let go of me, just long enough to
dive to the floor. Joshua tossed me the dagger and I threw it at her before she
had time to get the bracelet on. Her hands quickly worked at the metal but the
dagger slammed into her back, the blood pooling as she lay in a heap at the
floor.

“Do you think she's dead?” Janessa asked. Isaura didn't
budge.

I shook my head. Things were never that simple. “Where's the
bracelet?” It wasn't on the floor.

“Olivia, no!” Joshua shouted as my hand touched Isaura's
shoulder and she shifted to 2225, injured with me in tow.

Everything around us changed and yet it stayed the same. The
building had been built long before 2225. Although the structure had since been
remodeled, the room now stretched out into a long corridor, the hallway had
once been bigger.

“Get away from me!” Isaura shouted as she stumbled towards
the elevator.

“No!” I ran after her, the blood at my feet as I used all my
force to rip the blade from her back. She staggered a few feet backwards, the
blood falling faster and her skin glistening white. “We need to get home,” I
demanded gripping her arm. “Send us back.” I was not going to be stuck in the
past.

Isaura laughed and shook her head. “You came with me. You'll
die here with me.” She gripped the burns knowing what would make me weak and
plied the blade from my palm.

“No!” I screamed. I could certainly outrun her but without
the bracelet or her help I'd never find my way home.

“Run little girl, run,” Isaura taunted me. She wiggled her
bloody fingers in my direction, cackling as she pretended to come after me.

I pulled back, afraid of her. She'd done this to me. Scared
me. I wasn't scared of much, but Isaura had the power to terrify me. No. I was
not going to accept defeat. “You'll give me back the dagger,” I demanded taking
a step forward. What did I have to lose? Joshua was gone, stuck in the future,
in the world I came from and might never go back to. If I could kill Isaura she
wouldn't hurt anyone else. If I trapped her here, she'd find a way to come
back. She had to die. It was my mission and I would not accept defeat.

“I won't.” Isaura smiled. She stumbled down the dark
corridor and I choked on the smell of rotting flesh. At first I thought it was
Isaura until I glanced towards my far right seeing the bodies stacked up.
They'd died from the Red Plague and this was one of the buildings they'd sent
their sick to for help. It had been an experimentation facility. One that had
administered the vaccine that had made all those women infertile. It shouldn't
have surprised me Isaura had chosen the same building to conduct her tests. The
perfect place in time and space, moving between them to get the information she
needed during the plague.

I couldn't quite remember how it was spread. Was it
airborne? Had I been vaccinated? I assumed my great-great-great grandparents
had, but did that protect me from the disease that ravished the city?

“Don't look so pale,” Isaura laughed, swinging the blade at
me. I stepped back, moving away and just out of her reach. She stumbled and
cackled inching towards me, pushing me towards the right, back into the room
with the rotting flesh.

“I'm not afraid to die.” I fought back, my foot sweeping her
on the floor and my hands fighting for the blade. I ignored the searing pain as
I gripped it. She'd done something, cursed it or made it impossible for me to
touch without it burning through my skin. I didn't care. With the blade in my
hands I plunged it into her chest. I had no choice. Her body twitched and
convulsed. I pulled the bracelet from her wrist and secured it on myself. “How
do I get home?” I asked her. I wasn't expecting an answer, honest or otherwise.

She didn't respond. Her eyes stayed open but she was gone. I
pulled the dagger out, wiping it clean before taking it with me. Standing, I
glanced around the room moving further away from the decaying bodies.

The elevator dinged and I saw men in white protective gear
stepping out, carrying more corpses. “You can't be down here!” One of them
shouted at me.

“I'm sorry. I got lost.” It wasn't entirely a lie. I was
lost, beyond anything they'd ever imagined.

“Have you been vaccinated yet? Please tell me you have.”
Perhaps the vaccination quarantine was in order. All families were required to
become vaccinated during 2225. Slowly, they dished the doses out. First to the
young and elderly. Then to people like me.

“I don't, I don't know. I'm not from around here.” It was
the truth. I'd been exposed though. There was no way the Red Plague had passed
me without leaving its wrath unless I was still protected from a vaccine
through many generations: I doubted it. That was what Isaura had meant when
she'd told me I'd die here. She brought me here to kill me, to let the Red
Plague do it.

“Come with us.” The man wasn't much older than me. He wore
an oversized suit in a blinding white that covered his entire body, and gripped
my arm. His voice was muffled as he spoke. “Quickly. It won't take long for it
to ravage you inside and then out if we don't act now.”

I didn't fight him. I knew what it meant. I would be like
everyone else. Unable to conceive. The choice taken from me like it had been
taken from the entire population. Was that how I had been able to be born? Had
my mother's family not been inoculated? I may never know.

Reluctantly, I followed the stranger to the elevator and
down to the basement. I shuddered as we headed down, the cool air causing
goosebumps to rise on my flesh. I'd been there once before and had been held
against my will. I didn't know what if anything they intended of me after the
inoculation but I would have to go home. I would never stop trying.

“How'd you get here?” he asked through the mask. The
elevator sounded and we stepped off, walking the length of the basement. It
hadn't changed.

“It's a long story. I was taken hostage,” I breathed
wondering if he believed me. I was covered in blood.

“We'll have to give you a decontamination shower and new
clothes after your injection.”

“Thank you.” I glanced down at the jewelry, the bracelet
that would send me home. “I need to keep this on,” I told him showing him the
cuff on my arm.

“Sorry, ma'am.” he shook his head. “All of it has to be
burned. Sent to the incinerator. It's all filled with the contagion.”

 I bit my lower lip, thinking a way out. I'd have to act
fast. The biggest problem was knowing how to use the bracelet, how to activate
it to go home.

“This way,” he informed me, leading me into the room where I'd
been held captive, sedated and drugged. I took a tentative step inside. The
room was laid out differently. Two cots sat just above the floor and a chair
was against the wall. The room was painted a light shade of blue. It was almost
calming. “Have a seat.” He gestured to the chair. “She'll be right in with you.”

I sat down. The man didn't budge, making sure I couldn't run
off. He was right about one thing. I needed the vaccine before there was more
cause for concern.

The injection wasn't pleasant, but I'd suffered far worse
things back home. The nurse who had administered it had been surprisingly
pleasant. She didn't ask where I came from, only wanting to know that I was
okay now. I assured her I was fine.

The man who had watched over the door left and she showed me
towards the showers at the end of the hall. “Just down that way. They'll
dispose of your clothes and give you something new to wear.” I walked inside
the women's shower area. I put my clothes in the hazard waste as I stripped
down, leaving the metal bracelet on my wrist. I would keep it until they told
me otherwise. For now I'd pretend it was forgotten.

I stepped forward and the water turned on. The sensors
triggered by movement weren’t equipped with temperature or pressure controls.
The system had the water hot and forceful, washing away any trace of blood on
my skin and contamination. I closed my eyes, the burns on my hands and arms
were scalding under the fire. Grateful for my privacy I imagined the pain away,
wished it away and watched my body begin to heal. There were slight marks,
evidence of the burns but the boils and intense searing pain diminished.

I found a bottle of soap against the wall and reached for
it, washing my hair and body clean. The soap burned worse than the boils or the
hot shower. I stepped out and further into the next attached area where towels
were lined up. I grabbed two. One for my hair and the other around my torso. I
tried to stay warm and dry off quickly. I found clean clothes lined up and
slipped on the gray scrubs thankful for the drawstring to accommodate my
smaller waist.

Stepping further through the bathroom, several women guards stood
on patrol. I headed out, prepared to go past them as they held out an arm
stopping me. “Back in there!” They pointed to the showers. “The bracelet can't
go with you. You could risk contaminating other people.”

My eyes widened in horror and I ran back the direction I
came, seeing their guns, knowing I'd have little chance of leaving the other
direction. I ran through the showers, the automatic setting turning on as I
scrambled by, barely getting wet. I plunged past the guard and towards the
elevator, hitting the button repeatedly.

“Miss! You can't go in there!” I heard another voice as I
glanced behind me seeing two armed guards following after me.

The elevator door shut before they had time to stop me. I
hit the button for the seventh floor. It was dangerous but I didn't have
another choice. The elevator ascended and I shut my eyes, my right hand
touching the bracelet as it was secured to my left. I thought of home, of
Joshua and of the life I wanted with him. I thought of Isaura gone, of the
future, the world I was from, and of the one thing I couldn't explain but could
feel, love. The elevator dinged and I stepped off seeing guards pointing their
guns at me on the seventh floor. Behind them, Joshua and Janessa were being
held, their hands behind their back handcuffed. They were hostages. At least
I'd made it home.

“Where is she?” Fabian demanded keeping Joshua and Janessa
held at gunpoint. He was running the three-ring circus. I felt my stomach
somersault and I turned my head, vomiting on his shiny black shoes.

“Dead,” I answered. “Hence the shower,” I gestured to my new
attire. “She's also dead in 2225 if you must know. Now let Joshua and Janessa
go!” I demanded. “I did your dirty work, I killed her for you.”

“Olivia, no,” Joshua shook his head and frowned. Was I not
supposed to confess to what we'd done? I'd done it. I wasn't afraid of a jail
cell or the consequences. Some people deserved to die. Maybe it wasn't my
choice to make, but it had become my choice when Isaura had taken me, drugged
me, and then tried to kill me again.

“I'm not afraid of Fabian or any of them,” I retorted. I was
back home. Right now that was all I cared about.

“Take her away!” Fabian demanded and I felt a guard gripping
my arm, pulling me back to the elevator as they led me down and outside into
the streets of Torv.