Seneca Rebel
47

“HELLO, SWEETHEART. YOU are safe.”

My vision made a slow dissolve in with fisheye distortion. I felt like I’d been riding a rowboat in the ocean. “Ughhh...” I squinted my eyes to make out a petite woman in her seventies kneeling next to me. She had long hair the color of soap suds and wore an oversized, beige Egyptian shirt with a pair of supremely worn-in jeans. It nauseated me beyond belief to look around, but I had to figure out where I was. Oh god– the room spun. I dry heaved, nothing in me to vomit but foam. The woman held a bucket up to catch it and rubbed my shoulder, “You’re okay, you’re okay. It’s almost passed.”

I felt like death. How did this happen? Why couldn’t I see properly and how did I end up on this floor? The last thing I remembered was riding a horse with Dom. I mustered up just enough energy to mutter, “Dom?”

“He’s just getting tea in the other room with Josie.” We must have made it to Anika’s ranch.

“I’m Anika.” Yesss– my blessings were too great to count.

Anika was good people, I knew it immediately. Normally it would take me some time to come to such a verdict, but this inherent goodness just emanated from her pores like raw garlic. She held a washcloth to my forehead. “Thank you,” I mouthed, with barely any sound.

“Don’t speak, Doro. Save your energy.”

I rolled from the fetal position onto my back, which felt stiff as a board. I let out an agony-drenched sigh. My vision cleared to see beyond what was directly in front of me. This was the exact scene I had daydreamed about on our ride through the storm. Underneath an exposed beam ceiling, a fire crackled between two picture windows that framed a sweet little secluded farm. I was wedged into a comfy, worn brown corduroy beanbag.

“Doro, you’re awake!” The sound of Dom’s voice made me feel safe even though I was thoroughly incapacitated. He pulled another beanbag up next to me, sat down in it and reached toward me with a cup of tea. “Drink this.”

I weakly lifted my arm. It was heavy and limp as a pile of wet laundry. I moaned in discomfort.

“I got it.” Dom put the red ceramic mug to my lips and tilted it as he warned, “It’s hot.”

I blew into it and sipped the most glorious peppermint rooibos that ever was. It streamed down the back of my throat, warming me up and washing out the sour taste in my mouth. The fog behind my eyes started to burn off.

“You were poisoned, sweetheart.” Anika said lightly. “I’ve

given you an antidote that should move through your system and have you back on your feet shortly.”

“We made it, Doro.” Dom’s face lit up with the assurance that we were still on our path, just overcoming some heavy set-backs. “This is Anika, and Josie.”

Anika got up and took a seat on the sofa next to her partner, Josie. I hadn’t even seen Josie come in. I tried to smile to show my gratitude. It seemed to send a wave of good grace down my spine. I managed to take the tea from Dom. “I don’t understand.”

“Remember the mosquitos?”

Did I ever. I scrunched my lip and quivered in disgust with a little nod.

“S.O.I.L. They’re fighting dirty.”

“How? I thought I’d made us untraceable.”

“I’m almost positive we were hunted down by a swarm programmed to find our blood. Seneca has our blood samples and the mosquitos were only attacking us but not the horse. It’s a trick ripped right from the pages of the swarm warfare field manual.”

Biological warfare. On me. Once again, I wasn’t surprised, but I was upset to be the brunt of such a disgusting attack.

“What sickness?”

“Your saliva tested positive for synthetic Novuleria.” Anika didn’t try to pad the truth for even a second. I hadn’t heard of Novuleria before, but it didn’t sound good.

“It’s a man-made disease with a specific purpose. Disorient and kill.” I was repulsed, but man, so fortunate that it hadn’t killed me. I’ve never been the vengeful type, but someone definitely just had claimed exclusive billing on my hit list.

“Gregory Zaffron. He’s a demon.”

“Truth.”

I could almost feel the cleansing process working its way through my bloodstream, and replenishing cells with the fire to burn down the malevolent Gregory.

“You, Doro Campbell, just conquered a battle of biological warfare.”

Thanks to Anika, I had. But things still didn’t make complete sense. I mean, Dom was fine and I was a bloody mess. “How did you slide by?”

“Dumb luck. My blood deterrents to mosquitos were established when I was a little kid and my parents took us to Africa for six months. If I hadn’t been immune we would have been left in the woods for the raptors to feast on.”

“On that note, let’s eat.” Josie chimed in. Josie was a uniquelooking woman with mesmerizing features. Her sparkling lime eyes and caramel complexion glistened by the flames. I’m sure she looked younger than she actually was, which, if I had to guess, was about sixty. She had the same buzz cut as Dom, something we all joked about. She wore a white linen house dress, tan handmade moccasins and gold stud earrings. She told us about her interesting melting pot of genetic heritage: Native American, Irish, Korean, Russian, French, South African and East Indian. And those were just the ones she was aware of. Her vast culinary repertoire reflected just that. While we’d been talking we could smell something tremendous being “whipped up,” as she put it, for dinner. I picked up notes of turmeric and cinnamon waltzing with the cozy scent of crackling wood. We didn’t have fireplaces in LA since they’d been outlawed before I was even born, but good home cooking was something I’d had almost every night. My mom is a spice master and that was just another thing about her that I missed in my Senecan life. To have this heartwarming treat of a dinner after the unmerciful treachery we’d just experienced was almost more than I could stand. I decided to offload all the negativity and anger I’d accumulated, and soak up new energy from this beautiful home where we were being surrounded with nothing but love. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the FɪndNøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Dom helped me to the dining table on the other side of the room, made from a fallen tree on their land. It had been handcarved and sanded, and I ran the tips of my fingers along its smooth but imperfect surface. Anika and Josie brought us curried sweet potato and black bean chili, slow cooked southern greens with roasted citrus beets, corn bread, honey butter and sweetened minty rose water. Everything Josie made came from the land they lived on. The glorious smell made me sit up straight and I almost felt like myself again.

“This is officially the hungriest I’ve ever been.”

“It’s not surprising that you’re hungry. Your body just purged everything it had in it,” Anika said.

As we reveled in the meal, my body began to align with my mind. Anika and Josie listened, their friendly faces sympathetic as Dom explained everything we had been through, and where we were headed. Anika became visibly concerned with our beyond-precarious objective. “You had me right up until the point where you said you want me to perform a potentially fatal procedure on you. You two are so young, you have so much life ahead of you to take such a huge risk.”

I left the lobbying to Dom because he knew them better. “You’re right, we are young. But the only chance we have ever to become old is if we go through with this. Otherwise we’ll just live in hiding up here and they’ll eventually find us.”

“I just don’t know, Dommy.” Anika was wavering. She wanted to help but feared the very real risk that what we wanted from her might end our lives.

“I understand it’s asking a lot of you, but believe me, we’ve really thought this through. You’re our only hope.”

“And I understand that you think this is the way forward, but you two can’t even begin to comprehend the magnitude of this.”

“We can–”

“Dommy, it’s not that simple. I promise you, it’s not. I know it seems like it gives you superpowers, but you can’t have a one track mind when it comes to this. A flexer implant is the ultimate of double-edged swords.”

“We know. Don’t we, Doro?”

“Absolutely. We are only in this for all the right reasons and none of the wrong ones.”

“I promise, Anika. We’ll be responsible.” Dom pleaded.

Anika closed her eyes and lowered her chin to her chest. The fire’s hypnotic crackle carried us through the next few moments. Dom got up and went to Anika. He crouched down to his knees and faced her. “If we don’t go through with this, it will all be over. Doro and I won’t have any chance at all. Please, Anika.”

Anika took a deep breath. “Okay, but only after you two get a good night’s sleep.”

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